you as your eyes have done â—ew that J know in our Country for their estate had fairer meanes nor suffered a greater decay Yet God hath ingrafted your Honour into another stocke and therein turned the streame of former prosperity upon your selfe againe the onely remnant of that family you have seene upon how weake shoulders the faire necke of all outward welfare stands of which the Lord may speake with more reason then that bloudy Emperour to his wife O pulcra cervix sed cum ego voluero Nero ex Suet. abscindetur Oh faire necke but when I please it shall be cut off And why doe you survive such as are gone save to be an instrument of happinesse to your posterity that from that holy oile of the Spirit which runs downe your head the skirts of your cloathing might bee wetted and your hopefull off-spring consecrated to God The great respect which your Grandfather Father and Mother of worthy memory shewed to that reverend servant of Christ my Predecessor the remembrance also of your first childhood and education being so neare to my dwelling Your Honors frequent salutes and invitations by sundry who have travelled this way that I would visit you But above all that blessed report of your Grace which as the Panthars breath to all the beasts of the Forrest hath made your name sweet and savoury in the Church of God all these have emboldned me by so good an occasion as this is ere I leave the world to soder up my errors and incivilities by prefixing your name to this my Dedication Plin. Nat. hist Aelian There is a creature which the Historians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one dayes life dead as soone as bred Well may many bookes claime this name now a dayes whose breeding costs longer time then their life amounts to For why Each humor fancies what hee likes some books of Poetry some of story and delight which humors while they last bookes sorting with them are catcht up but when they are downe bookes lie by Novelty takes up and laies downe as shee pleaseth Books of practice above all other find least entertainment From all such my appeale is to your protection under God It hath pleased him to exercise my pen in sundry kindes of Treatises which have not escaped the hands of the better and more solid sort of readers and that with some fruit I have now thought fit to make the like triall in publishing some of those my last Lectures which I preached at my last farewell to publicke The perusall whereof with your loving acceptance of them I leave to your Christian diligence and Gods blessing Not doubting Right Honourable but that God having made you a reall patterne of those things which here I write he will also make you a willing Protector of the Book it selfe and no small encouragement to many both to peruse and practise what they reade if God shall make them as fruitfull in the reading as they were in the preaching I shall have double cause of rejoycing In which hope I humbly take my leave remaining Your Honors by due desert much obliged DANIEL ROGERS From my Study Wethersf this 16. of May. 1641. TO THE RELIGIOVS AND IVDICIOVS READER Christian Reader IT s with Books as with Trees These Section 1 although they have many under-branches and water-bowes Yet they have some Master and chiefe ones into which the maine sap of the root is carried Those have sundry points and parcells contained in them of lesse consequence but some mainer and more principal Doctrines into the which their whole strength and stream runs So is it with this Book As many occasionall and lesser matters offer themselves herein so there are others of great importance purposely handled as in the list of particulars thou hast them presented unto thee But above all the rest that which was the first motive to induce me to chuse this Text and to spend my whole years pains about it was That it seemed to contain in it very pregnant and plentifull overtures and occasions of discovering Self and carnall Reason to the hearts of my Auditors How dangerous a rocke it was to all who sailing in the sea of this world towards heaven be not very skilfull and wary marriners to espie and shun it to wit that when they seem to have escaped all other occurrents which might stop their course yet falling upon this unhappily split their hopes and make shipwracke of all In this argument therefore thou shalt perceive that a great peece of my travell in these Lectures is improved It shall not be amisse therefore a little to prepare thee for the coneiving of this notion of Selfe and her opposite Self-deniall that it may the better appeare to thee in what sense it s especially handled in the Treatise following Section 2 Selfe and Self-deniall are tearmes not easily understood except wisely discerned and distinguished into their severall Branch 1 meanings and exceptions And first Self is taken in a good construction for that appetite of the soule Pure Selfe considered in her pure naturals and in this sense it s nothings else save the desire of the whole man in her severall faculties naturall sensible and reasonable to maintaine and preserve it selfe in the integrity of her estate And thus each creature not man alone hath an instinct planted in it by God to affect and ensue the meanes of it owne safety and support as that Orator speakes in which respect it s stiled by this name of Selfe not because its the whole being of the creature but a faculty neerly touching the sustaining of her particular being Plants Beasts have this disposition to savour what is for them to shunne what is against them much more man It was a peece of Adams wisdome and perfection and still would be in us as it was in him blamelesse if somewhat had not come betweene It s the same whereof Paul speakes No man ever hated his owne flesh but nourished and cherished it Now the contrary to this Selfe is Self-deniall which although it is of all other the eminentest grace in other respects yet in this is the most eminent vice for what is so hideous as for a man to throw off nature and deny it the due meanes of life health and prosperity Even an unaturall cruelty and worse then to maligne or hurt another yea this self-Selfe-love is so good that its the standard of all offices of love concerning our neighbour Doe as you would be done to Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe And were not this sinlesse the holy Ghost should teach us to be mercenaries by perswading us to obedience by so many arguments taken from our selves cloathing grace in the colours of gaine safety health to our navill marrow to our bones good name long life and the like Branch 2 But this is not the Selfe we meane Selfe therefore in a second difference is that which is called corrupt Selfe Corrupt Selfe
obeying with them Prov. 30.34 Christians so they walke as wisely as they may should straine no bloud out of the nose of wisdome nor seeke to goe too farre in their carnall circumventions but leave all to God let him see to them Psal 119.93 and say I am thine Lord save me I desire to walke in thy way Stand betweene me and my harmes so that I need not for any straits bee put to an ill conscience Psal 37.5 I commit and roll my waies and ends all upon thee doe thou all my workes for me Carnall pollicy causes breaches among professors I see brethren an apparent difference among you in this point That the simple and well meaning dare scarce trust many of you who yet would seeme as forward professors because they see such shrewdnesse such tricks and pollicies in bargaines and performings of promises such hard dealing savouring too much of worldly wit and every man laying in for himselfe to save one Others have smooth tongues of their owne to defend their ill qualities even by lying and shifting defences others can keepe their owne councell and make the world beleeve that they are forward men in Religion but all is to bite in their owne mindes and conceale that deepe ignorance which they know is in them or else worse evills which they count deepe skill to hide from such as might teach or admonish them whereas others are naked and glad to be open hearted in confessing themselves each to others that they might shame themselves And so the one aimes at avoiding shame the other at getting grace Gen. 49.21 Others have an excellent gift at giving good words with Napthali but they will be sure to spare their owne purses their charge and travell to avoid expences yea such as by their owne consent are laid out for their behoofe others will be as little as they can in good conference or in extraordinary duties for feare loath to let theit neighbours see them forwarder for the Gospel or in loving the ministery then they are lest they should be censured others are very zealous for the Gospel with a squint eye to their shops their trades custome good marriage and takings Others will in no sort displease their Landlords or superiours very Nicodemites doing that they doe by night and by stealth for shame or feare wanting faith and courage to carry them out Joh. 3.3 Others covet to be thought well of by all sorts and so carry a very eaven and smooth course rather void of vices then truly vertuous in Gods sight and fulsomely salute all sorts with equall love and curtesie good and bad so that a man cannot see conscience to sway them Others have such a darke and doubtfull behaviour that no man can tell what to make of them like those Scepticks who were ever considering so these walke as staggerers neuters nonresolved ones as if their Religion were still to chuse and these affect the name of very wise ones because they will utter themselves no further then if need be they may keep their retreat safe and have the winde on their backs Others are very carnall in seeking their owne praises and advance their owne gifts merits and good deeds not so much for Gods ends as to blaze their owne worth and to be counted benefactors Others will smooth and side with the bad and corrupt in a Towne lest they should displease and so betray good government to their owne selfe love cannot endure to see any of their own kindred to be punished much lesse their children for open crimes eager to maintaine their owne greatnesse sway and elbowroom in their places Others will alway goe with the stronger side be their cause never so bad Others are so dangerously worldly snigging and biting usurers hard and oppressing or defrauding the simpler in their bargaines cannot abide any should go out of their fingers without a nip Others affect good Preachers for some carnall ends and professors for their naturall parts love the richer sort Jam. 3.3 cleave to Gentlemen and great ones such as weare velvet and sattin and rings but bid the meaner sort sit at their footstoole Others fall to compare Ministers and who shall go for their mony Againe to end how many are there who will be all in all to them whom they are beholding to for their gifts favours lendings and gratifications despising others Infinite it were to mention all I have I doubt wearied you already For some are yet worse and will sit at table and heare godly Ministers and others depraved by vile tongues and scarce give them their breath to latch the blow lest themselves should bee thought too forward Not to speake of those large breadths which they take to themselves in their profession for their attires pleasures haire companies and the like Shall I praise you in these I praise you not I fear rather that this carnall reason and corrupt heart of yours Carnall reason eates up grace hath betraied you to him who is the father of cunning and subtilty truly since this new found Religion of worldly pollicy and shifting came in the simplicity of godlinesse hath been thrust up in a narrow roome And I tell ye plainly brethren I fear that these time serving qualities do but lie in many of your bosomes to betray ye when times of triall for the truth sake shall come then as thick as now ye stand up to our very mouthes pulpits crowding for roome when ye shall see some of us suffer for the truth we preach or practise we shall see you come as behinde hand and scanty Professors unsound in peace wiâ—l be so much more in persecution Tell not me I will never beleeve it he that cannot walke sincerely toward the Gospel in peace he will never abide one brunt for it by persecution I looke to see this place thinne enough one day by many of you who I doubt thinke full little of it and say Am I a dogge that you presage such things of yee 1 King 8.13 No I judge you not as dogges but God give you and me the properties of children to be more ingenuous cordiall and plainehearted These Eagles feathers mixt with others devoure and marre all One Barbara Rogers Start at such mixtures of carnality as once an holy woman of this assembly did who being inclined to the dropsie and consulting with the Physitian who bad her to bestirre herselfe and be angry with her servants and fly about their eares lustily answered Oh! this will breed a worse sicknesse in me your remedy is worse then my disease As she durst not offend God by carnall wisdome for health so neither grate you or goe against the edge with simplicity of conscience and conversation either for feare favour flattery liberty gaine or ends of your owne but joyne with a comely and lawfull prudence in your waies the simplicity of Doves Proverb and you shall finde that he who
Reproofe in divers respects I have toucht some particulars by occasion before Practice of carnall reason reproved in all sorts I will adde a few more here I say it should convince the consciences of us all that are before the Lord this day for our arrerages of carnall reason We should say as Pharaohs butler Lord this day comes much of my sinne in this kind to my remembrance O Lord the branches of this stocke are infinite How oft hath my base heart stumbled at the purenesse the closenesse of thy waies desiring the doore were opener for my carnall ease liberty and breadth to goe in at How oft have I thought my fine wits and China-mettall'd understanding too dainty for thy matters to meddle with My parts too good to honour thee How little have I laboured to submit my wit to thy will with gladnesse How often have I stumbled at the simplicity of thy Ministers servants as too meanly gifted for my reach How much ado have I with my cursed heart to profit by them as not complying enough with my carnall expectation How oft have I measured good things by their successe Being ready rather to chuse sin with happinesse then vertue with defeat and ill consequence How weakely have I beene carried with partiality of heart towards the godly Affecting them who have beene close faithfull friendly usefull beneficiall welconceited of me tender and indulgent mercifull and bountifull rather then others who hath beene more estranged in affection more ready to reprove my faults How much adoe have I from restraining indignation from such as are aloofe from me and little esteeme me How seldome have I gone to heare publiquely or to take counsell but I have rather sodered my faults then desired that the righteous might smite me How prone am I to looke at the greatnesse of some religious ones and to make use of them in that kinde rather then their good examples and the savour of their grace How weake have I O Lord discovered my selfe to be both in doing and suffering In the one being carried more with outward incouragements hireling-wise then upon a promise If I have found my labours my services accepted with men credit countenance and maintenance following how trim have my wheeles gone If not how heavy In the sufferings I have had how doe I seeke rather to licke my self whole by outward helpes and remedies then by that hundred fold which thou hast promised to requite my losses withall And though I have not runne to good witches yet how have I clave to mine owne carnall reason And seeming to have shot a gulfe how have I beene drowned in a shallow Oh! when I have found unkinde unthankefull and base usage at the hands of them whom I have served in Ministry counsell or helpfulnesse how hardly yea bitterly have I taken it As if I had done it to bee thought well of and not as one who had learned to undergoe good and bad report How hath my arme shrunke it selfe in toward such As if I had served an ill master who will conceale the labour of my love Oh! yee Headburrowes and Officers of Townes let this truth of God convince yee how doe you looke at pleasing men shunning ill will aiming at serving your owne turnes and base ends rather then at discharging duty in punishing offenders both spirituall upon the Sabbath and morall at other times despisers of the ordinances swearers and drunkards Is not this carnall wisedome else know not I what is Alas where is Davids spirituall reason that blessed God for giving him an heart to build a Temple and prepare stuffe for it although it were the lot of Salomon to have the name of it So God had it how little cared he by whom So Christ were preached how little did Paul envie or care by whom And so againe what is the common speech of men If I had ever hurt him it would not have grieved me to bee ill spoken of or dealt with by him But alas thou hast more cause to blesse God for thy breast-plate of innocencie to shrowd thee from God his revenge Thou shouldst see God rather against thee for thy little respect to his Majesty in the sincerity of thy spirit then at man whom thou hast not offended So againe how oft have our carnall hearts intruded themselves upon Gods administrations to censure him for the long suffering of the bad and the crossing of his owne in their zeale and good cause Ah poore worme canst thou comprehend Gods ends in thy fist How doe wee Ministers murmure and complaine if wee doe no good Why are we above election or servants to it Is it well not that wee are a sweete savour in all And so I might bee endlesse Therefore I beseech you in Gods feare let this be a speciall meane to humble us all for this our base enterfeering with God in his holy wayes Application of it by our carnall reason Oh! you who have been so ready to be led from God by feare of parents displeasure losse of favour of betters repent and breake your hearts Ministers who have betraid the cause of God by base time-serving and pleasing men loathnesse to suffer Oh! repent of your carnall reason recover Gods losses ere ye dye Oh! you that have chosen to save your livings or lives rather then Gods honour consider how small your gaines have been in losing your soules for a mole-hill of earth Repent O carnall wretch who wouldest never bee brought to more religion then lay in the lap of thy carnall reason not cut off a locke for God not forgoe a petty oath for him not lose so much love of an husband a Landlord as is worth two strawes for him Repent and be humbled O thou that hast fleerd and laught in thy sleeve at the sincere Thou who hast made Gods worship and profession to serve thy turne and sold thy selfe by it to credit to custome in shop to good marriage by it thy selfe being bad Come out O thou hypocrite who like Absalon hast openly spread thy Tent for the attaining of thine owne ends Yee politicke projectors and cunning plotters for your owne gaines enhansing above others though with an ill conscience and oppressing of the silly humble your selves and be ashamed Take God and his people to witnesse this day by your teares and mourning that it is so You that have come and are still comming to the Sacrament with carnall hearts for custome and to prevent the Court or reproach rather then conscience who have your hearts on the left hand saying I see nothing there to be had it is no likely thing Abana can heale me and Jordan can cure my leprosie Me thinkes I feare I shall goe home as I come and lose my journey Oh! above all others repent yee of this carnall dispute Naman repented repent you yee have sinned with him repent with him on Gods name The Lord from heaven beloved showre downe blessing and convince your
way and strike into the way of selfe-deniall and faith strip herselfe naked and become as an orphan that hath none to betake himselfe unto none to shrowd under Now as shee is too proud as yet to take any shame so to take any new course she is too resty and lazy To dig she cannot and to beg she is ashamed Therefore as that Steward Luke 16.3 she will fall to an easier course she will resolve to shift and be still unjust as before returning to her trade with more boldnesse Vse 1 I must be briefe in this as being but an entrance into the next branch First Col. 2. end Gods people must beware of the fâ—lse boasting of ungrounded hypocrites let it be instruction to teach us wisdome that wee be not gulled with the glory of Hypocrites and Pharisees whose Religion stands in shew of humblenesse of minde and not sparing the flesh causing all men to gaze at them and wonder at their humility and devotion Oh! If such and such be not in the right way that be so lowly and so full of prayers and Religion God helpe us But Oh poore wretches They domineer in their kingdome and have none to controll them outwardly they are painted tombs and seeme to crouch and buckle But discover them never so little and put them out of their way they are as proud and disdainfull on the other side and no man can stand before their envy What wonder There is nothing more humble low base double diligent then Selfe in her owne way But put her out and nothing so proud bloud they say out of her vessell presently putrifieth Hold with a Papist in his owne course as alas ignorance must doe so and what shall ye not draw them unto What may you not have at their hands They will pull out their very eies to doe you good they will licke the dust of your feet But why Alas that by your consent and allowance they may stiffen themselves in their error and draw you into the fellowship thereof all is their selfe-way selfe-religion of the flesh which is proud of Gods colours Selfe in her owne way jâ—lly but if put out of it mad and raging and that she can pricke up herselfe with her own feathers But let truth once convince a Papist give him no hope either of countenancing him any more or of comming to his Religion and behold he will persecute you to the death Then will his spirit break out Thus those in Mica 6. would give God thousands of Rams tenne thousand rivers of oile in their owne way so that God would let them alone in their way they would fine for their Religion and undoe themselves yea offer up their children in sacrifice All this was to make God beholding to them to make all wonder at their bounty still Selfe lay quiet and gat warmth in her nest But when the Lord comes in with his way Oh then when he requires the soule to be lowly when he cries heare O man what he hath said and what his way is Then begins the sorrow will she then be so zealous to embrace Gods way No Mica 6. then she is sad and out of all sorts she will doe nothing See whence all that excesse of cost and bounty of impopery hath proceeded even from mens pleasing themselves in their owne way But crosse them never so little their almes and good workes perish in sullennesse of spirit and then all amort Oh trust not outsides There be many professors of the Gospel like to these Hold with them in their way of hearing of duties of compassion c. Oh! you shall have them as tame as lambes they will doe any thing for you But let the Minister deale sadly with them and say These moralities of yours you ought to retaine but the other and greater things of the Law you ought not to have neglected and then suddenly they become your enemies for telling them the truth Take an example or two In the 14. of the Acts those men of Lystra were so low and base as to set up Paul For Jupiter and Barnabas for Mercury to make Gods of men Thus they could be humble in their owne way to rob God of worship But when the Apostles perswaded them to turne from Idolls to the true God Oh then they were soone turned from adoring them to stoning of them So these falshearted Jewes who could outwardly magnifie Christ for his miracles hoping that he would become some great man could set him on the Asse and proclaime him a King who yet when they perceived his Kingdome not to be of this world gave him over and cryed crucifie him Beware I say lest we be deceived by such See Matth. 21.9 27.22 and let us know no pride is like to the pride of a crouching Pharisee A Monkish and Fryer-like votary hath more pride in his bare necke without a band and in his shirt collar beggars habit and seeming self-deniall then all the gallants and swaggerers in the world Oh! try mens spirits ere ye trust them If their humility lye in Gods way then esteem them but if it lye in their own way abhorre it For Selfe as the Prophet speakes of those Idolaters will abase herselfe to hell and cares not what she doe Esay 57.9 to make her seeme that she is not and to play her parts under a canopy and the more that she multiplies humilities and abasements one upon another the more she seeks to establish herselfe and to eke out her own short garments A dram of humblenesse in a truly broken heart and in Gods way will goe beyond all such patchery Secondly this should be Terror to all such Hypocrites as turn away Vse 2 their eies from reflecting upon their owne horrible pride The truly proud alway most ready to tax pride in the innocent and inveigh against others for their pride and singularity Note it there is not an hypocrite or wil-worshipper if he be convinced by the Ministery to bee upon a bad bottome but he will condemne that convincer to be proud censorious uncharitable factious none are good enough for them But Oh! thou wofull man whether of the two is the more proud he that reproves an ungrounded worshipper of God and convinces him of his ignorance and self-selfe-love or he that scornes a reproofe He who never thinkes himselfe sufficiently settled upon the bare truth and love of the promiser being himselfe destitute of all good or he who boasts himselfe of his owne goodnesse Matth. 7.5 Therefore with our Saviour I say Hypocrite first cast out the beame that is in thine owne eye and then thou shalt cleerly see to cast out the mote that is in thy brothers He may have a mote but thou hast a beame and that doth so stoppe and put out thine eye that the more selfe-love thou hast the lesse thou seest in thy selfe If ever the Lord truly cast downe thy soule thou shalt tremble with
serve for a taste by the paw you may judge of the Lion Oh! that this Reproofe might so pierce them that they might fall upon themselves and reprove themselves bitterly for their more then heathenish unnaturall unthankefulnesse Papists may condâ—mne us for our disregard of our Ministers This blinde generation of Papists shall rise up in judgement and condemne us Protestants yea many of us noted for our zeale For what cost doe they refuse to be at to maintaine their Priests and Jesuits in their bravery nay what fines would they not be willing to pay for the liberty of their Religion But alas We who professe a better and seeme zealous for it have no such principle of love in us Our Religion must stand alone and defend her selfe or else she may sinke or swim for us It s the mercy of God to our Kingdome to keepe the hearts of our Qâ—een and Kings of blessed memory and noblenesse of heart in the defence of the truth of God without toleration and imbezeling and long may the Lord so rule and dispose of their spirits For it s to be feared if they we were but brought to the triall who would give most for their Religion they for their Priests or we for our Ministers they would out-bid and outdrop us many of us even wealthy Gentlemen and others I will not tax all as much as Crownes or Royalls outbid brasse farthings The Lord shew us our disease and to what issue it would come if God prevented it not Vse 3 Thirdly this point is Exhortation to all who are convinced of this Truth People exhorted to honour and support the Minister That they practise this duty of love to the Minister of God If you would truly be free from all these aspersions as what good heart would not shake her lap of such dung Do not only abhor the treachery inconstancy basenesse and unthankfulnesse of hollow lovers Doe not onely abhorre the love of your selves lusts and appetites more then God or his Minister But especially learne this mystery of loving a Prophet for himselfe and in the name of a Prophet for his message sake Get an heart knit to him in a close band of amity which no sword can cut in two no time occasion or danger interrupt Let it not bee a love of teeth outward or outward signification but a child-like loyall reverend and sacred love without dissimulation Let the very joy of his message goe as dâ—epe into thy soule How that may be effected as these bad properties goe into the spirit of the contrary Lin not till the Minister of God have as well kindled a fire in thy heart of sound love and affection as set up a flashing light in thy mind of knowledge and understanding which may vanish though for a time thou seeme to rejoice in it Brethren if we desire your love pardon us this wrong for you shall fare the better If once this Epistle be written or engraven in thy heart with the pen of a Diamond the characters thereof will be indeleble It s no letter of inke and paper but written by an Adamant claw of the Spirit which knits you faster then Ionathan was knit to David This will make you close and faithfull and you will goe under a woods side into a wildernesse to renue your covenant No message can so pierce into your spirit as this If your Lawyer should by his skill and pleading win the day at Law for you if the Physitian should recover you of a deadly disease if your spokesman should prevaile in a great marriage of many thousands None would sticke so deepe nor deserve such love as the message of reconciliation and the cure of spirituall leprosie causing the flesh of thy soule to returne againe as the flesh of a little child This will make thee doe great things for the Prophet this will ingratiate and make him as one of a thousand unto thee Shall any thing now part him and me Act. 8. Thinke we that the Eunuch as speedily as Philip was snatcht from him carried him not away with him in his heart Should mony travell feare or danger ever have separated them Oh brthren let this example here of Naaman soke as oile into our spirits And before you depart hence beg it of God that he would teach you the obligation of a soule to his Minister And then we will give up our selves as Paul speakes first to the Lord and then to him in a league of faithfull amity Make but this sure that we have received his message Rom. 18. and then there needs no more That will be a principle within to dictate and direct the rest be the fruits greater or smaller so that love be the guide all shall be well The odds which Paul to Philemon speakes of Thou owest me thine owne soule And that which our Saviour speakes of To give a cup of cold water we know is very large and different yet where love is the roote both are accepted with God and all the steps which passe betweene Love may be trusted for the measure for shee hath an instinct which teacheth her what to doe shee can purge the heart of scantnesse and straitnesse and enlarge it with opennesse and freedome If Popish and ungrounded love be so full and free shall love truly rooted be barren Shall error bee more powerfull then truth No no The favour of love that comes from a soule redeemed with the pretious bloud of Christ excells all other respects whatsoever and carryes more demonstration with it And if love beare the sway a true Minister of Chrst will be as free to impart himselfe to the poorest and meanest of his congregation who can make him little requitall as to the richest and best yea although he be at some cost with them also as in some cases of distresse and visiting of the sicke it may be expected from him The loadstone which drawes his heart in pitty and compassion being the grace and necessity of the parties rather then his own advantage But to returne to the people in a word The duty urged give your hearts openly and freely next to God to his Minister for his worke sake Lately I read a story of the afflicted state of Belgia thralled under Philip of Spaine and Don Iohn of Austria his brother of whose tyranny the poore Province being weary they chose by common consent the Prince of Orange for their defendor and protector and meeting him in a solemne assembly at the Towne of Gaunt presented him with a golden heart opened with this Motto engâ—aven about it SINCERITY And truly brethren to apply this I say the true present of a soul won to God by the peace of reconciliation is an heart though not of gold yet more pretious even made of love and opennesse with sincerity of affection without this we cannot receive the Minister of Christ aright we may blear his eyes with false colours but God is not
and his labour is with God if then for conscience he seekes their welfare and counts it his crowne if they obey Esay 49.4 its equall and righteous that they requite love for love duty for duty That they set his crowne upon his head by their faithfull obedience The businesse concernes themselves very sadly for the Minister preaches not comforts not exhorts not for his owne ends but for theirs If then he be for them and not himselfe shall they be able to answer it if they be not for their owne soules Alas what shall the discouragement they afford to the Minister hurt him Shall it not redound to them See Heb. 13.17 That were smally to their comfort He is from God and as in the stead of Christ doing his Embassage As Ieremy speakes to those rebells Chap. 44. Lo I am before you you may answer me as you will But know that he who sent me will not be so easily answered 2 Pet. 1.16 he will pay ye home for your rebellion If the Minister be bound to follow God and not cunning devises and fables of his own head and must give a strict account thereof to his Master Woe be to them that perceive not nor lay to heart What a solemne account will lye upon them if they dispise that message which he delivers upon such tearmes He hath saved his soule but thy bloud shall be upon thine owne head True love then is judicious see 2 Cor. 5.14 and as in all other things so in this she is loath to offer any measure to the Minister which she is loath God should offer herselfe Reason 3 Thirdly love is marveilous tender He then that loves his Minister is very sensible of that griefe and discontent which must needs smites his heart when he sees his labours slighted 1 Cor. 13. especially if he be a man wholly set to seek Gods ends in preaching A good heart will say I warrant you it stings the heart of him who teaches us soundly to behold in us slight acceptance Oh this will breed bad bloud This will load him with sorrow and he hath no whither to goe for ease but to him who set him on worke And the Lord will take his wrongs to heart and count them his owne and that will prove sad for us Oh! let us not provide so ill let us not cut downe the onely prop we stand on let us condole him in his heavinesse and remove the cause of it that so his heart being joyed may procure a good errand to heaven in our behalfe and bring downe a blessed answer from God unto us Reason 4 Fourthly love is given to esteem highly of that which it loves unites it and strengthens it selfe in the object delighted in she sets it up in her heart exceedingly and good cause why for love proceeds from some convinced amiablenesse and worth in the thing loved and that reflects backe honour and esteeme Now if it be so then love of a Minister will breed honour to him under God neither under his worth nor above it but sutable to it contrariwise if there be small or no love what will the answer be Tush what is he He is but a man as others yea and perhaps a weake one a man of passions and frailties So then marke A lovelesse heart despiseth a Minister shames him is as rottennesse to his bones thwarts the doctrine makes all that behold him in the mirror of such people to thinke they have a Minister of like disposition to themselves else for shame they would not be so base I conclude then true love will devise with her selfe what will grace and magnifie the Minister and his labours and finding that nothing will do it so much as the obeying of his voice they will force and compell themselves out of the meer nature of their love to obey him to the uttermost cost it them never so much the setting on as face answers face in water Proverb so doth the life of an hearer who loves his Minister answer his labours Love must needs destroy it selfe if it should disesteem her object therefore she honoureth that as she would support herselfe So much for Reasons This point first affords Terror to all basely minded men who live Vse 1 in the utter hatred and scorne of their Ministers thwarting Terror Two or three Branches vexing and crossing them to the uttermost in stead of obeying Such as Jer. 44.16 openly tell him The word of God which thou spakest unto us we will not heare it Such as live at open defiance with the Minister asking Shall this fellow reigne over us No Shall we be tyed to his girdle We scorne it Let us cast his cords from us Psal 2.12 What Lord shall controll us Our tongues our spirits and wayes are our owne Shall he teach us to marry to buy sell keep company use our liberties Shall he come among us to forestall our pleasures our wills and lusts They that live at open defiance with their Ministers are odious Cannot wee tell as well as he what is good for us He serves us and lives upon us and shall we maintaine our servant to be in our tops Oh base wretch He is thy servant for thy good but made so by God not a slave but a free honourable Minister of reconciliation not to serve thy humours but to controll them And as I said before then they will runne and ride and lay their purses together nay set on all the mastives of the Country against them to worry them out But oh wofull creatures Reproach of Ministers shame and spots of assemblies you need not to hunt them out Read but that in Mica 2.6.7 and there you shall finde God himself will doe it for you You say prophesie not But I say Ezek. 3.26 they shall not prophesie unto such lest they take shame I will not suffer their faces to be covered with such confusion as to be plagued with such I will rid them from among such and carry them to a people that love them As for these haters of them when as once their shepheards are gone I will come in among them and worry them that worried these And I will let in a flood upon them of woe when my Noa's are taken into mine Arke That which they sought for revenge of my Minister I will inflict as a revenge upon them and when they see themselves left to be consumed by those lusts of theirs which they scorned to be rooted out by him then they shall roare for very anguish some here under penury rags shame diseases and impenitency some in hell but then one houre of a faithfull Minister shall not be given them if they had the world to give for it Beware lest seeing the fearefull examples of vengeance in Scripture for contempt of the Minister besides daily experience of the sudden end of scorners and persecutors will not draw you from your trade God make you examples for
others to take warning by See and tremble at the examples of Ahabs ruine upon contempt of Micaja Those Jewes in Egypt for despising of Ieremy 1 King 22.32 Jer. 44. the whole Nation of them both then and after for rejecting the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and rather make use of such to prevent destruction Briefly peruse these Texts Jer 26.18 Josh 22.17 c. A second branch of Terror may reach to such 2. Branch as will first qualifie their Minister in his charges counsells and then they will obey him but not till then It is irkesome unto them to obey him in the Lord in matters of conscience For why Their hearts are licentious carnall and prophane There be other Ministers which will do the like to their people till they have made them like to themselves And yet they thinke it a disgrace to live otherwise then lovingly and curteously with their Minister What course then take they Surely this they will first try whether they can by policy by kind offices feasting and entertaining of him pull him into their company and draw him into the fellowship of their pleasures games and merriments These they thinke will be least suspected and having snared him by these then they seeke by degrees to fetch him into the Ale-house People that will seem to love their Minister that they may luâ—ke in their sins odious to drinke and be a good fellow Then they inject a suspition and jealousie into his minde against such as feare God and oppose them in their base evills Then to whet his tongue in the pulpit against them to flesh and encourage themselves in their liberties and lusts And so by these meanes having baned him and made him for their turne they will obey him good reason For they have first made him sure enough and for their tooth they have taught him to be a meet Cooke for their appetite and to dresse their meat their owne way with the sawce that likes them best therefore they may well venture to eat of it Oh base creatures Doe ye first crooke the rule by which you are to write and doe ye then write after it Thus it was with him 1 King 21. who being sent for Micaja to Ahab would needs teach him his lesson by the way Let I pray thee thy words be sutable to the words of the foure hundred Prophets and then my Master will surely doe as thou biddest him Doe thou flatter and claw him and then he will obey thee So doe many to their Ministers Note They will prescribe him what truths hee shall teach them and what he shall balke they will tell him what method he shall use be much in discourse and little in application preach smooth and pleasing things and then they will heare him But oh wofull people Is this to heare him or to obey your lusts When Iehoiada was dead the Text tells us that his Princes came to Ioash 2 Chron. 24.17 and finding him a facile and flexible man they ingratiated themselves with him by gifts and rewards by praises and flatteries till they had drawne his spirit away from God to Idolls and to serve their own base turne Oh say they We are all thy loyall subjects and friends willing to be thy servants But we see that except thou hearken in the point of Religion to thy people they will scarce continue in their loyall obedience Wherefore it is much for thy safety and honour to yeeld to them and else it will create much trouble in thy Kingdome And even thus fares it with people of this ranke towards their Minister For the love of their lusts what will they not doe Oh Sir say they we see you are a man of worth and learning and you make us good Sermons we should be glad to live and love together and we hope you will be faire and curteous to us We love to keepe our Church and live honestly Indeed we are shy of them that are so zealous and precise in their preachings as to scare their good people we would be loath the hearts of your Parish should be alienated from you which we see will be if you be against our liberties pleasures and good fellowships Hitherto we have lived well and like kinde neighbours and we hope you will further rather then hinder it and so doing we shall live in peace and good will with you Oh how such smooth persons fret like a canker How easily doe they prevaile with such as are not armed with prevention Alas they are taken and snared by such baites and that little sparkle of good which seemed to be in them is soone quenched But to finish this Use beware O Minister of God lest thou be deceived with such cunning of men and as for them that do so entice them that they might the more securely live in their lusts Woe be unto them they may seeme to make a league with hell to provide a safety and immunity to their lusts But the Lord will breake their league and put a spirit of division betweene them so that they shall be as bitter enemies as ever they were friends and all because their union was cursed and tyed by the band of their lusts As Sampsons Foxes were tyed by their tailes with firebrands to doe mischiefe but not with the band of grace and love which would have held for continuance So much for this point of Terror Now a second Use may be Reproofe of sundry sorts And first Vse 2 of all such hearers as professe to love the Minister of God Reproofe 1. Branch Lovers of the Minister in generall yet conâ—ealing their doubts and cases from them reproved and comply with him in generall but still hold off aloofe in point of counsell and advice concerning their particular actions Doubts they have many touching their estates to Godward also many difficulties they meete with in their course in matters of weight but they will never acquaint their Minister with any of them he shall bee one of the first of them that shall bee last acquainted wiâ—h them Partly through folly strangenesse and darkenesse of their spirit partly through base feare lest their wants should be discovered and especially because in truth they are not willing to bee eâ—sed thereof but still to stagger and are resolved to consult with flesh and bloud rather then to be ruled by knowledge Such as these the Minister shall never heare of till sorrow and repentance compell them to utter their folly when they see they have overshot themselves in their bargaines or marriages till conscience beginne to sting them for their unjust and unwarranted courses or God crosse them with losses shame enemies then too late they come for counsell which if they had sought for in season all this had beene prevented Others when they have taken their owne course and bound sure 2. Branch such as first vow and then enquire doe badly then for fashion they will
is one Heb. 4.13 to whom all things are open and manifest his word is quicke and as a two edged spirit dividing betweene the soule and spirit the joints and marrow the thoughts and intents of the heart Dally not therfore with him It s fearfull to fall into his hands He will not spare us but will punish our sins And Heb. 10.31 if we call him father who judgeth without respect of persons 1. Pet. 1.17 passe we the whole time of our dwelling here in feare For our God is a consuming fire This in generall In speciall The command of the Gospell to beleeve in Christ is most solemnly to be â—beyed make conscience of the most solemne command of the Gospel to beleeve in the Lord Jesus close with this command It is the most soveraigne and indispensable of all other Obey this and obey all for in this stands the obedience to all the rest The Lord hath ingaged all his glory and honour upon this one That the most vile miserable sinner living who is willing to come in with his load pinching him to hell shall finde ease Whether it seeme so or no this is the truth he hath purposed to magnifie all his Attributes in shewing mercy to such an one He will have it knowne that he can doe that which flesh cannot even love the most hatefull enemy in the world that is weary of his enmity This he hath set down with himselfe from eternity in time hath declared it to his Church by giving his justice a full discharge in the blood of his Sonne Hee is the upshot of promises and therfore looks that he be beleeved yea for a recompence hereof that he hath made all Yea and Amen in him 2 Cor. 1.20 Joh. 3.33 he desires but to be beleeved counting them that doe so to seale that he is true and calling the rest lyers Consult not now with flesh and reason Say not that this word is farre from thee Rom. 10.8 it is neere thee it is offered and pin'd to thy sleeve Esay 1. Luke 5.7 that thou mightst beleeve it consent and obey this and the worst is past As Peter sayd to Christ At thy command I will cast in though I have cast all night and catcht nothing So say thou I have long traded with mine owne inventions devotions and duties but now at thy command I will try what thy promise is worth and cast my selfe wholly upon it for pardon grace and life If I perish I perish Venture so and prosper Secondly proceed to other commands The same Lord of commands bids us love one another for love fulfilleth the Law Joh. 14. Jam. 3. 1 Tim. 1. All other commands issue from faith the end thereof being love out of a pure and good conscience and love unfained Feare this command also The person of man who is thy immediate object of love may perhaps seeme contemptible to thee for what can he doe unto thee whether thou love or love not But he that made thee and him too and hath planted you both in the body of his Church under Christ the head he it is who bids thee love thy neighbour love him by reproofe and murther him not love him by counsell example admonition compassion lowre not upon him curb selfe-love passion indignation wrath envie revenge slighting of him disdaining him Thinke with thy selfe it is not for nought that all the commands are said to bee done in this one of Love Thinke not that all shall be well if thou canst but beleeve in Christ Matth. 25. know that the Lord Jesus himselfe who will call for faith at his comming Luke 18.8 will call for love also The want of love and the due carriage of thy heart toward others is a spirituall solemne command of the Gospel as well as faith and one day will appeare to be so when God shall call thee to the Barre and convince thee how little fruit of love hath ever proceeded from thee Therefore close with this charge also look not upon man but upon that God who hath bound thee to him by this chain of love and who will hold himselfe wronged in the violation of it lay a more solemne charge upon thy spirit in this kinde then ever and feele thy soule to lye under the authority of this command as well as the former And what more should I say From these two well-springs proceed all the streames of Commands concerning God Man and thy selfe Hence issueth a Command of a close keeping the Sabbath ordering thy conversation aright Eph. 5.15 Jam. 1. ult hence comes that charge of walking circumspectly as wise keeping thy selfe unspotted of the world Hence it is that thou art forbidden to have thy course in covetousnesse to have any fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse Hence also it is that thou art bidden Redeeme the season Heb. 13.5 Eph. 5.11.16 Mat. 16.26 1 Pet. 3.9 Walke wisely toward them who are without To take up thy crosse daily to deny thy selfe to live by faith to sanctifie God in thine heart and make him thy feare And the like I might say of the rest for it were endlesse to speake of all Conceive of them all as comming from one rule of righteousnesse And know it hee that requires one urges all Perhaps thou wouldst thinke it equall to obey the Magistrate obey thy Parents keep the Sabbath but know it the same God commands thee to preach in season and our to execute the righteous judgements of God to be subject to thy husband to teach thy children the feare of God These are speciall ones and lesse welcome but if thou obey not them thou doest but play fast and loose with God in the generals For all sound obedience to God is equall and uniforme I know what flesh will say T is tedious to be so tied and tasked to be held to it from day to day never out say not I could be content to fast and pray one day to redeeme liberty for many I could walk close for a Sabbath so I might be mine owne man all the weeke But know that the law of love takes no thought for continuance it is no violent compulsion as a slave to ply his worke but as naturall as for the fire to burne or the sparkes to flye upward Let the Law bee once written in thy heart Jer. 31.31 and it will teach thee holy wisedome love and delight to accommodate and apt thy selfe to each one in speciall equally and constantly Simile The Law and Art of musick in the minde acts the fingers ends to such a nimblenesse and presentnesse of service as is admirable And if the writing of letters and characters upon Fringes and Frontlets were so powerfull as to prompt a man to the obedience of each occasion what then is the law of grace written in each faculty of the minde and will in the reines and the spirit of the Soule But here I cease
questions Prayers confessions and the like who doth not wish himselfe in their case except it be some errant blocke who discovers his brutishnesse all are ravisht to see such early beginnings The Lord knowes the fittest way to worke upon men Sooner will a young novice by his active spirit of the cure stir up others then some solid and grave Disciples because the spirit of the one is more stirring active and drawing than the other Fourthly there is in the cure of the soule converted to God Reas 4 such an irresistible power and impotencie From that irresistible power of Grace in the soule especially in the first turning home of it that there is no choaking quenching or damping of it It resembles her originall Seed leaven mustard-seed are things of an active and encreasing nature Leaven in a little while will sowre all the lump Hence are those expressions of the Saints Thy Word was in mee as coales of fire in my bosome Can a man carry them there and not be burnt I would have kept in thy words saith David but such was the nature of them that they would not be concealed I had no rest nor peace till I had uttered them to Congregations Peter could not hold Christ in his bosome till he had uttered himselfe to Nathaniel That woman of Samaria had fire in her bosome when she went to tell her kindred citizens the news of Christs discourse The love of God workes in the breasts of his Saints as it first wrought in his owne he having conceived it once could not cease till it had discovered it selfe to poore sunken Adam and hee would rather chuse to make his onely Sonne a Masse shame then he would not expresse it Even such is the same love having once wrought in them it is as the new wine in the caske which must have vent or else it will breake It is like Josephs affection to Benjamin all must be had out from him Gen. 45.14 and he must utter himselfe to him and fall upon his neck with a kisse and teares The newer any thing is the more forcible So is it with love The Apostle hath a sweet word to expresse it The love of Christ constraines us 2 Cor. 5. The word signifies 2 Cor. 5.14 gathers us up together as a beast hemmed in a Pinfold hath an appetite after liberty so the spirit of love finds it selfe straitned till it breake out And 1 Cor. 13. love is bountifull and working 1 Cor. 5. full of affection hopeth all things endureth all things and the like The fifth God is the God of order and loves sutablenesse of Reas 5 Age and Temper youth naturally is hot and full of expressions God is the God of order it is comely for young ones to be so their lusts were so before grace therefore grace must be so also I restraine not this heat to meere youth for if God do convert elder ones as Naaman there is a spirituall youth or first age even in them also grace at the first is most operative be the yeares what they may be but especially when grace falls upon tender yeares as for the most part that is the season ere the soule be sapped in lewd customes then it quickens those hot spirits which it meets with to singular expressions Reas 6 Lastly by this spirit the Lord provides matter and argument of convincement For the due convincement of such as after may wax luke-warme and loose and inward checke for time to come if at any time his people shall revolt from this grace of first conversion The Lord knowes our mold and fashion just Psal 103. We seem at our first setting forth to the journey so trimme and so prepared that no troubles nor difficulties shall daunt our resolution But by that time wee have travelled a while what with the ill way what with ill weather bad successe and what with our owne weary and crazie spirits within we waxe unto ward and stagger whether we should goe forward or no. The Lord knowes how many waies this first spirit of the cure flagges and wanzes in us sometimes the abundance of iniquity causes the love of many to waxe cold this degenerate formall world is ready to quench our spirit the presidents of many zealous and painfull professors who are turned drunkards uncleane worldlings Epicures and sinfull wretches 2 Pet. 3. ult do shake us The errour of the wicked puls us from our stedfastnesse feare of some men flattery of others but especially a cursed heart on the one side giddie presuming venturous on the otherside slavish fearfull and distrustfull distempers us so that although we keep from grosse evils yet we are far from that frame of zeale closenesse and watching which we have found onely peace from Now when it falls out thus and that crosses debts ill marriage care of children and other disguisements come upon the necke of the other then is the Lord faine to step in and take us to taske to upbraid us and cast us in teeth with our first spirit of cure our early first love sweet affections covenants humble feare watchfull care diligent paines zealous spirit Luk. 23.31 What was this done in the greene tree and shall it not be done in the dry What shall first beginnings shame thee Didst thou begin in the spirit if yet thou didst so and wilt thou now end in the flesh Oh! is there not enough in that never dying spirit of an immortall hope of salvation to carry thee on in thy poore course with equalnesse of affection Say the edge be a little blunted what is metall gone too is the steele worne out of the backe That first spirit of sound joy in God should by this day have bred in thy belly a welspring of water flowing to eternall life Oh! for shame strengthen the weary hands Heb. 12.13 and feeble knees and correct the crooked that it turne not out of the way Thus the Lord charmes a declining spirit by an experiment of her owne and brings her backe with sorrow and shame to her former temper So much for Reasons Use 1 Now for Use first is the spirit of a true Convert thus zealous for God This then teacheth us a difference of cures and that all are not alike for there are many to be sure farre from this temper and frame of spirit Instruction with an item Not every cure hath such a stroake in the soule of a man thus to change qualifie and act his spirit to and for the Lord. And all to teach us to try our spirits and to be afraid to rest in any base counterfeit cures which afford none of this life and operation Who doth not now a dayes boast himselfe to have gotten this through cure Counterfeit cures very common in the world true cures rare If once baptized and professe the Gospell it is treason in these dayes to put a difference betweene men Alas yee poore wretches
yea to runne into some morall evills which yet were damnable then thus to play the hangbies upon Religion Prayer for healing of our times of this numbe palsie of spirit necessary Ier. 2.2 and to eate out the very heart and entralls of her by our wofull unsavorinesse and declension Oh that God would heale our back-slidings cancell our Bill of devorce and make new love to us as in old times As those Martyrs so pray we Once againe Lord the power and life of thy Gospell give unto us the skinne and bones of an empty profession to be fill'd up and beautified with flesh and colour with countenance and savour of grace Oh Lord thou who madest the spirit of man breath a second spirit of thy Word to inspire our dead Carcasses with a second and better life Thou who causedst that Sunne of the Heavens to go backe ten degrees Esay 38. cause this Sunne of Grace to goe forward tenne degrees for it is gone backward too many already Thou who by that happie wind of thine scattered upon the surface of the earth didst hazle and drie up the forlorne dregges and slime of Noahs deluge Gen. 8.13 cause a new face of zeale and grace to appeare upon our age drunken and soaked in ease and sensuality Lord help us to cast our Eagles bill Psal 103.5 pluck off our Snake skin and renue us as the flesh of Naaman after Jordan Oh command an heart spirit of first love courage thanks joy and esteem of thy pretious Truth and Christ to return into us let it be as new blood in our veines and marrow to our bones count those daies of our decay declinings death distemper as if they had never bin Impute not unto us our unfruitfull Ministry unprofitable hearings returning to our vomit lingring after Popery and her defilements contempt and disdaine of powerfull ordinances which have deserved that we should be stript and wasted of all meanes Malach. 4.2 and left to utter woe and ruine Come and bring healing in thy wings at last and pardon the sins of all sorts that might hasten further wrath for what can be such a marke and symptome of misery comming spuing out of thy mouth Revel 3.18 as this decay of our temper So many of us as cleave to God let us not give him over for this mercy for surely many of us here especially of the richer sort whose gaines come in merrily and live at ease in Sion do shrewdly leane to this disease of luke-warmenesse Amos 6.1 begge it I say of the Lord that he leave us not quite here in this corner and make us not an hissing to all our neighbours for our barrennesse and desolation of the meanes who have hitherto abounded and caused the borders of our Towne to be wetted with those streames which have overflowed among us So much for this Branch 3 Thirdly so many of us as hitherto have lurked in our dens of ease and unprofitablenesse looke up at last and endeavour after this spirit of Naamans clensing and cure Exhort Gen. 18.12 Exhortation to get the spirit of true conversion Alas perhaps we laugh as Sara did when she heard she could give suck to heare of this that such dead blockes and lowring louts as many of us have beene to this day surviving our owne hopes and outbidding all threats and feares of the Word by a carnall stupor of our owne savouring nothing save our lusts and humours I say we thinke it impossible that ever wee should become any other Should such as wee ever be healed of our ignorance hard hearts and senselesnesse Should we ever come to be quickned by the hope of the Gospell to be forgiven and saved Should we ever become savory humble tender and zealous ones Truly I must tell you considering how some of us in this place have snorted out seven times seven yeares of Sermons or well nigh and fatted our selves under the Gospell with nothing but sottishnesse and security me thinkes I am halfe afraid of it Now am I leaving of you but how many shall I leave as I found them if not farre worse and what is like to be their end if they should live under no meanes or unfruitfull who knowes if a good day have not mended them must not a bad needs paire them The Lord flaite many of you this day out of your holes and corners me thinkes I behold your face with horrour and feare of any good Esay 55.8 but seeing the long sufferings of God are bottomlesse and his love as farre above our thoughts as the heavens above earth therefore I leave Gods secrets unto himselfe and spread before you still even at this last farewell the cords of the Lord and beseech you to come in and be converted and get this spirit of grace into you ere you goe hence and be seene no more Psal 39.3 Gal. 1. ult Oh it would make the Angels rejoyce and the world to wonder as Paul saith Gal. 1. Those that having knowne mee a persecutor heard that I was become a Preacher of the Gospell they magnified God for mee so should praises be offered up by many for you if it should be thus Who can tell brethren long hath the Gospell been laid in three pecks of meale in some of you Mat. 13.33 if now it might at last breake out as leaven and season you throughout what a blessed parting should it be to you and mee As you are I grant most of you no other is to be looked for then hath beene earth at first earth still and earth hereafter But if earth earth earth will heare the Word of the Lord it shall be otherwise Naaman was as far off as you till hee washed in Jordan but afterward what a spirit of healing and conversion came he forth withall How doth he come backe to Elisha Who can stay him How is his lowring heart enlarged to the Prophet What is too deare for him hee loves the ground hee stands upon and would carry it away upon mules his heart is ravisht with God and his worship and much water cannot quench love Such might you bee if the Lord would send Elisha to you Elisha is gone and the comming and going death and departure of many both Elija's and Elishaes you have seene and now of mee a poore Minister of Christ What shall no fruit come of all I am now going to tell my Master what fruit of all these sixe yeares worke here and many more in other places and by other my Predecessours hath beene reaped What shall I be able to say nothing to comfort the heart of God and his people Oh sad thing Well I leave it to your thoughts it is as much as I can say That if God perswade you nothing was done upon Naaman but might be done upon you Many of your own number out of the stools wherin you sit some of your wives in your bosomes children and servants under your
for the deed 2. Looke upon thine owne grace and hide my defects 3. Betrust me with the principles of sincerity and faith working by love which will make a little goe a great way 4. Make my lusts to be my clogs as Sauls armour to David 5. Make the yoke of hard dangerous disgraced solemne duties and crosses to be tollerable pag. 374 People exhorted to love honour and support their Ministers How that may bee pag. 392 People that will seeme to love their Minister that so they may snort in their sinnes odious pag. 400 Popish Martyrs against the Scriptures not to be regarded notwithstanding their pretended selfe-deniall 415. Popish falshood in all their wayes pag. 415 People must be sincere and open to receive good counsell pag. 425 Poore men have a priviledge above the rich in this That they may bee reproved pag. 425 Proud harts terrified by Gods resisting pag. 468 Plead hard for faith if once wee bee under the condition pag. 481 Promise must be pleaded for sanctification as well as pardon pag. 511 Perseverance in beleeving breeds assurance pag. 513 Promises must bee beleeved according to their nature and kinde 567. Reasons of it Popish abusers of promises terrified pag. 579 Preposterous appliers of promises reproved pag. 582 Promises must be beleeved according to the utmost extent of them wherin it stands in three things 1. A promise must bee sounded to the bottome 2. Wee must draw out of the wells of salvation 3. The promise must not bee given over though wee be long held off pag. 583. 584 Physitians must know themselves to be only instruments of providence for such as God will have to recover pag. 588 People are very fond in magnifying the outward instrument neglecting God ibid. Popish Miracles and Cures what they are to be thought of pag. 590 Pelagian spirits which cavill at the freedome of the grace of God far from the true spirit of cure and conversion 869. So are Popish spirits likewise pag. 870 Prayer for healing the numb palsie of the spirit of our times necessary pag. 886 Q. Quarrellers against the Minister for not comforting the distressed sinfull pag. 456 R. Rebellion in all whom God meanes to save shall worke greater humiliation in them pag. 60 Repentance goes not before faith pag. 103 Religious Selfe how dangerous Vide Selfe Rationall carriage not simply to bee condemned pag. 209 Religion stands more in wanting somewhat then in having pag. 237 Religion is like an harmony pag. 250 Religion grounded upon most sound foundations pag. 253 Religious servants yet failing in faithfulnesse are to bee blamed 306. Their trickes and qualities ibid. Resigning up of the soule to God is one chiefe work of faith pag. 500 Revolters from their first zeale and grace of conversion are in a sad case pag. 871 S. Scriptures filled by the holy Ghost with rarities and wonders and why Two causes pag. 2. 3 Sensible and outward objects the meanes by which God workes upon us ibid. Scriptures bark and outside not to be rested in but the scope and sense pag. 6 Soveraignty of Gods will and pleasure must cause us first to confesse it 14. 2. To lye humbly and quietly under the conviction of it 15. in sundry particulars 1. By considering the root of this soveraignty ib. 2. Bee content that God dspence his grace according to his owne measures 16. 3. Iudge not God in the effects of soveraignty as in the sinnes penalties or snares of the wicked ibid. 6. Nor for punishing the sinnes of parents upon their posterity 17. 7. Doe the uttermost that lies in thee to obey ibid. 8 Be charitable to others a farre off ibid. 9. Break thy hard hart hereby lay down thy pride and rebellion 18. Then the â—â—use soveraignty is free to save as well as destroy 19. Look not at election but at the tree offer ibid. Assay to beleeve and that upon sound warrant by venturing upon the promise 20. 21. Lastly know this is the greatest honour which thou canst doe to God pag. 22 Straits and extremities are Gods season to pull downe a proud heart 29. In how many respects See the reasons ibid. Straits both publick and personall do but little humble men in these times pag. 36. 37 Straits doe make hypocrites onely to counterfeit 33. Not to be trusted ibid. Straits are very unpleasing to flesh we are lâ—â—th to heare of them lest wee shouâ—d humble our selves and profit bâ— them pag. 38 Shun not straâ—ts for first it is bootlesse and then they câ—nnot bee mâ—ssed 39. Pray for â—n holy use of them not to awe thee violently but change thy heart pag. 40 Signes and Sacraments why used by the Lord in effecting spirituall things pag. 85 Sacraments differ from common signes ibid. And why 1. To stop mans bold inventions 2. To assure weake faith of his sincerity ibid. Suspect trials bee comming upon us when our state is calmest pag. 96 The manifold snares in the way of Gods people should make them watch and bee armed ibid. Selfe the main enemy to rob the soule of grace when all is done 98. and why because most inward and immediate pag. 101 Selfe in the root of it is nothing but the instinct of old Adam and the frame or vent of a corrupt heart ibid. Selfe of two sorts either opposite Selfe to Christ or mixing Selfe with Christ ibid. Selfe opposite what ibid. Of how many sorts it is ibid. Five named Prophane selfe Naturall selfe Carnall selfe Creature selfe Religious selfe ibid. Selfe prophanenesse described ibid. Self natural or civill described pag. 164 Carnall selfe or savour of the flesh what The sorts of it many ibid. Selfe sensuality or in the Creature what pag. 111 Selfe-religion what The branches of it three pag. 115 Mixt selfe in what particulars it discovers her selfe 121. Ten or twelve mentioned Nature of mixt selfe discerned in foure things 1. Familiarnesse 2. Generalnesse 3. Violence 4. Tenaciousnesse pag. 127 Selfe supports her selfe by false comparisons pag. 128 Satan imbarkes himselfe more deeply in Selfe then in other corruption pag. 129 Self deludes by Gods just giving her over to her selfe pag. 129 Selfe may be discerned by three degrees or properties ibid. Passages of Selfe may bee conceived three wayes 1. By the ground 2. The carriage 3. The scope pag. 131 Selfe is but flesh in all the worke of Law and Gospel and how pag. 132 Carriage of Selfe is sutable to her ground which appeares in foure things 1. Her instinct 2. Her eagernesse 3. Her endeavour 4. Her disappointment ibid. The ends of Selfe and her scope is sutable to the ground and carriage pag. 138 All seekers of salvation must abhorre Selfe and how 1. In discerning her trickes divers of them mentioned 139. Shee will deny herselfe in somewhat to satisfie herselfe in other things 2. To mask sin under holinesse 3. To defile it selfe in that it knoweth 4. Pretence to seeke God but intending it selfe 5. To offer God more service then he
to deny thy selfe or else thou art foiled For Selfe is as the wife in the bosome It is hard to deny a friend a neighbour especially if importunate as him in the Gospel who came by night for loaves how much lesse a wife Nay Selfe is yet neerer unto us then a wife It comes alway with a bribe a gift in the hand sweetnesse of lust is as butter in a Lordly dish This bribe unhappily prospers wheresoever it goes except thou deale harshly with it as hee with Iehorams messenger it will prevaile Stoppe thine eares as the Adder In vaine is the net laid for that which hath wing Dally not with her as Eve with the serpent Sampson with Delila If she fell in innocency how wilt thou stand in corruption Peremptory folke are best in a good cause and she is the most chaste wife who hath the most denying behaviour Seventhly There is enough in God to make amends for denying Selfe That which Selfe falsly promiseth God both justly and duly promiseth and peformeth To joyne any thing with God is to joyne a candle to the Sunne or water to the Ocean And as hath beene said it is the way to make us hated of God and men of God for lacke of integrity of men for lacke of wickednesse In things confused no man knows his owne To expect reward from two Masters is to lose our labour from both So much be said for motives To adde some meanes of getting selfe-deniall First then labour to make somewhat else thy selfe beside thy selfe else thou wilt never deny thy selfe For Selfe cannot oppose Selfe in the particular of opposition no more then Satan can Satan If once grace come in place and stead of Selfe then all old Selfe life and the comforts of it shall go for new Selfe else God and all shall goe for house and land favour of men and liberties lusts and will of the flesh So Paul calleth grace himselfe It is not I but sinne in mee q. d. a stranger an excrement No matter what become of flesh if spirit once bee Selfe Get this sound judgement what deserveth to bee Selfe and all is well the old house shall downe that a new may bee set up Secondly be armed with sound resolution against the strong error of the world which maintaines godlinesse to be meere losse True it is that persecutions follow Christianity howbeit even with such persecutions afflictions Maâ—k 10. a Christian shall have an hundred fold As God can fill the soul with bitternesse in abundance so can he fill with joy and comfort an heart which wants 1 Cor 1. When my afflictions abounded then did my consolations abound also As a man may be in Paradise accursed so in prison an happy man Ruben what got hee in defiling of Bilha Surely shame he lost both birthright to Ioseph Kingdome to Iuda and Priesthood to Levi Hee was strength and excelleny but lost all And what got Salomon by denying himselfe in his petition Both that he asked and that which he asked not Thirdly consider what ever it be which thou seekest without God cannot doe thee any good When God bids honour wealth any creature do thee good it shall else not They are instruments and workes only by the agent as the saw by the hand of the mover They comfort us onely by a borrowed comfort And so on the other side nothing can hurt no not Shemei except God bid him and when the curse is gone forth yet it shall be both causelesse and fruitlesse except God send it Those that do so Idolize the creature yet finde it oft their snare yea the favour of Princes proves their snare and so they are forced to say If God had beene chiefe this or that had not been Fourthly stirre up sundry graces of God in thy soule First knowledge secondly faith thirdly the love of God For the first consider God in his worth We use to say Let such a friend speed he is worthy only knowing of God and his gift will make him prized and Selfe despised See Psal 73.20 They that know thee shall love thee 1 Cor. 1.12.13 See the place Secondly faith see that catalogue of selfe-denying Saints who refused to enjoy pleasures in Pharaoh's Court endured the spoyling of goods c. How came they by this By faith they did it Faith Conquers Selfe by the same power whereby shee overcomes the world for the world within is the chiefe world See 1 Tim. 4.10 Thirdly love When Paul was so disswaded from Suffering hee answers What doe you rending my heart thus I am ready to goe and to suffer losse of all for Christ all is dung and drosse to him The love of Christ compells us the Greek word is hemmes us in as in a pinfold that we can goe no way out of it 1 Cor. 13. Love is bountifull she seeks not her owne but Christs she suffers all things endures all things And to these adde Stirre up wisedome and be able to conclude that in denying thy selfe is true safety peace gaine in the contrary is nothing but sorrow repentance if not here yet in a season unwelcome See Matth. 16. end viz. when Christ shall come with his Angels Selfe shall prove thy plague thy bane if thou yeeld to it as Amnon to Tamar there will be no end of yeelding 2. Branch of Exhortation Get the Spirit of grace The second branch of exhortation is this Labour to get that Spirit of grace which God hath annexed to his covenant and promise that it may not bee naked and empty but accompanied and mixed with efficacie and power in the hearts of the hearers This Spirit opposeth Selfe in all the elect and suffereth it not to make the word to goe without effect and to defeat them of their hope It is such a spirit in the soul as taketh them off from their owne spirit of Selfe presents so really the good things which God hath given us 1 Cor. 2. that it causes the soule willingly to relinquish all home contents and with Caleb Numb 14. to turne the greatest yron charets Anakims and difficulties of beleeving into encouragements and perswasions I might save for envie compare it with the spirit of New England not that all who goe that voyage deny themselves for among many that doe some seek themselves but I say to the spirit of such as goe thither For as many of them are discontent with the conditions of Old England thinking it a burthen to live here where they cannot hire one acre of ground but it must cost them money but there they imagine they may bee rich the first day and occupy as much ground as they please and live contentfully In a word here they finde abundance of sad affronts and discouragements which there they hope to bee rid of Now having in their intentions knockt off themselves so resolved from the Old Englands their native soile and apprehended strongly the new Simil. as their Paradise who should
discovery of Grace in the effects of that discovery and the end of it For the first of these The Spirit of Grace is all for Grace in the discovery of the mystery of it the amplenesse largenesse height depth and length of it to the poore soule that it may appeare in all the excellency and fulnesse freedome bounty unchangeablenesse and wel be teamingnesse thereof that no corner of it may lie hidden from the heart of a sinner so farre as may further him in the bottoming of the soule in mercy This is a singular and peculiar act of the Spirit tending to this end that the soule may not stagger about the sufficiency of Grace which God offers unto her but may behold the power of the Priesthood of Christ once offering up himselfe as a compleat and spotlesse sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the elect needing no more to be offered able to procure from the Father endlesse wel pleasednesse and acceptance also a free offer of reconciliation and to create in the soule alone and of it selfe without any antecedent free will liking and cooperating of Selfe a most sufficient clearing of conscience from guilt and feare yesterday Heb. 10.3 Heb. 13.8 to day and for ever This cannot sinke into the heart of an hypocrite he cannot bee perswaded that there is enough in the Lord Jesus alone to discharge him in the Court of heaven the offer and promise are empty notions with him to sway all his strength upon neither dare hee rest thereupon with peace without a further addition of his owne feelings But the Spirit of Grace grounds the poore soule in this as the maine worke of all that so all the building may subsist thereon and makes sure retreat and refuge for her in the midst of her distresse that her foundation may not be shaken I wish that the method of that Epistle to the Hebrewes especially in the 7.8.9.10 Chap. might well be observed to the understanding of this act of the Spirit Secondly the Spirit of Grace doth not onely offer such a light to the soule but lets it in by her owne working into her setting the soule on worke to concurre with his revealing light and shewing it both that the Lord will conferre no lesse then all this Sufficiency upon a needing soule and therefore shee may without presumption take and partake them from his hand It sheweth her that it is the endlesse matchlesse Grace of God that he can find in his heart to pardon her yea to cast love upon her not only when she seems zealous and affectionate for Self can make her beleeve that but even when she is basest in her owne eies and under the conscience of her guilt when she is in her bloud when her originall loathsomenesse her actuall wickednes of thoughts of words of wrath hypocrisie and the like doe lye as a burthen upon her yet then even then marke what I say he hath love in a corner of his heart for such an one such as he will have herselfe confesse to be causlesse on her part yea such as if he had no more aime at being knowne to be loving then to love for any amiable thing in the object he would never shew to any Nay more lest the Spirit of Grace should leave any thing behinde him he doth offer to create the gift of faith in the soule Esay 5â— 19 to claspe upon this gift of mercy and includes this gift in the offer as knowing that it were in vaine to offer the one without working the other And hereby he causeth the soule to lay hold upon his strength and ablity to save as having received a ransome sufficient which is no other saving the writing of his covenant in the fleshy tables of her heart Esay 27 4.5 prepared by himselfe for the nonce And moreover that all this hee hath done of his owne free will and motion without any former principle acting him to intend it or concurring with him to create it I say he hath done it of himselfe as judging it meet for himselfe to doe whatsoever we bee and for the glory of his Name No entreaty of men or Angels no difficult tearmes of perswasion caused it but it flowed naturally from him as most honourable to his Majestie to doe Fifthly the Spirit of Grace stayes not here but proceedes to accommodate the soule to embrace this power of God for to what end should the Lord be willing to do it in her for her except she also felt sutable inclinations wrought in her soul towards it And therefore he moves her sadly to digest this grace offered to count it no light nor strange thing no nor yet beyond the soules apprehension but as on the one side hee causeth it to be most weighty pretious and to be highly valued so on the other side he makes it familiar sweet clear and evident not a thing above the clouds nor under the earth farre fetcht but neere the soule put into her bosome Rom. 10. belonging to her not to bee rejected or thrust away from her except she will perish These together with the infinite benefite of receiving it and the endlesse losse in forgoing it as being the onely remedy doe marvellously stablish the thoughts upon it and ravish the affections with it so that layes a most sad charge upon the poore soule upon paine of forfeiting her peace for ever not to passe it by slightly deadly and formally but to view and meditate of it savourly deep y unwâ—ariedly with admiration till by this mirrour of beholding the Lord with open face she be transformed to the gloriousnes of this gracâ— and carried 2 Cor. 3. end yea left in the streame thereof by the Spirit of the Lord. This for the first of the three particulars The second is the effect of this presenting worke of the Spirit And that is union The second worke the effect hereof viz. Union Whereby the Spirit of Grace shewes the soule into what a condition she is translated by faith in the promise That is she is made one with the Lord Jesus thereby and really partaker of all his good things true peace contentment in blessings crosses all conditions freedome from all former garboiles feares enemies joy in God and his salvation never to be divorced from him any more This causes the soule to shake off that wearisomenesse of Selfe never settled that bottomelessenesse never grounded that inconstancy and vanity never at rest and why Because it had no reall good to fasten upon and to determine those restlesse desires of hearts But now the Lord Jesus himselfe both in his present grace and hope of glory to come runues in her streame or rather turnes hers into his so that looke what Selfe was to her before emptily and barrenly now Christ is in her stead Christ is the Selfe of the soule he is all in all to her acts her comforts her staies her quickens her guides upholds
without satisfaction made which Divinity passes my skill and I thinke savours more of Socinianisme and Humanity then Divinity I returne In respect either of the Fathers cutting off his plea and finding out a mercy in the bottome of his brest exceeding justice and revenge or the consent of the Sonne to admit of those conditions of obeying and suffering for the purchase of peace and abolishing enmity Col. 1. it is most strange unlikely and difficult But considering that he to whom all things are easie would apply and bend himselfe with all his power wisdome and truth to bring his good pleasure of free saving to passe and would devoure all difficulties therefore nothing could be hard but all easie to such love so armed and attended God so loved the world saith Saint Joh. 3.12 that he gave his onely Sonne But otherwise in it selfe it was a great thing Iacobs toile in heat and frost was great though love made it sweet And so to end though it cost Christ an infinite price yet being freely offered to us it cost us nothing its easie Reason 4 Fourthly the dispensation is easie In respect whereof the Lord doth not restraine nor limit his grace In respect of the dispensation of it and the efficacy of this price I speake now of his revealed will not secret but offers it by the Ministry of the Gospel to all sorts without let or barre That whosoever will submit himselfe to his way and dispensation with humblenesse the Lord will be found ordinarily by such without putting difference He doth not sh oll out or discourage any as if hee did not intend it to them he doth not reject any who reject nor him nor forsake any conceive me rightly who forsake not him And their rejecting or forsaking proceeds not from his decree working it but from their malice and unbeleefe procuring it But as for the Lord 2 Cron. 16.4 hee doth not forestall or prejudicate the spirit of any man to his dispensation but freely generally and fully offers to all sorts of sinners the benefit of his grace and pardon who doe not basely and treacherously withdraw themselves and cavill against his simplicity The Lord doth not put difference in his offer saying to such or such an one I offer it to such and such I doe not he offers alike to all and although some conditions go before the actuall application of the promise yet those conditions are wrought in the soule by the offer in all who doe walke with God in the wâ—y of his Ordinances except they fight and resist the same So then whosoever doth not despise the counsell of God Luke 4. and thinke himself unworthy of salvation but shew himself of the number of them who are drawne and perswaded to accept it he shall assuredly partake it So much for the fourth Fifthly to come a little nearer that is to the reall efficacy of working Reason 5 grace and the obedience of faith that 's easie also For why The condition of faith is easie to such as belong to election When as the Lord hath brought the soule under the condition of faith partly by loading the same under her misery partly by the presenting to her the sweetnesse gainfulnesse and faithfulnesse of the promise and partly by removing all such barres and lets as might disswade the soul from it then hereby to such a one it becomes easie to beleeve And to say the truth to these its onely easie in the true kinde and proper sense of easinesse For why These are exempted from the common sort of hearers to whose thoughts the very conceit of faith is a difficult thing much more the enterprise For alas Naturally what in all the world is so harsh and unwelcome to our carnall disposition as to obey the Gospel Not to preach to heare to give away our wealth to sacrifice our children to keepe the Law are so hard as this But to such as the Lord hath brought under the authority love and conduct of the word and the Spirit of grace working thereby he makes it sweet and easie Others plod and take on make a bungling worke of it Esay 63.12 Psal 23.3 as we see untidy servants goe awkely about their businesse which neate and skilfull ones dispatch at once but the Lord conducts these as a shepheard leads his sheep into the greene pastures and as those Israelites were led by the pillar of fire and cloud through the wildernesse If a traveller be set right on his journey his ease is in his guide As Isaac seeing Iacob bring venison so soone asked him how he came so quickly by it Hee told him because the Lord thy God brought it to his hand So hee had no need of Esau his hunting Now briefly it shall not bee amisse to shew by what steps the Lord makes this worke easie and familiar to his people First Cernaine particulars of this holy ease The first as he giveth them a sweet view of this worke of obeying the Gospel that is a cleer familiar conceiving thereof so that it is not an intricate and wearisome object As Salomon describes the way of the fluggard to be an hedge of thornes which no man is willing to medle with So also the Lord brings the soule unto the doore of hope shewing it an entrance and a possiblenesse of escape working a knowledge of it and withall an hearty and close aime and sympathy to it Hosea 2. It so plants the soule under the promise that the droppings of Gods myrrhe oile and balme do not light beside it but right into it When a man hath got the promise of a lease he is sure of the next vacancy So men that lay in for an advouzon waite for the next avoidance It is a good ease for a poore Scholar in the University to be made a Probationer of the next Fellowship as in some Colledges they use for then hee waites in hope and is eased of the hazard of missing Such Probationers and Candidates of heaven doth the Lord first make his poore people that so having an inckling of his meaning they goe on with sweetnesse because heaven is theirs in the grant and reversion As once an holy man told mee that the Lord intimated his heart with this thought that if he would seeke him faithfully in the meanes he would save him A marveilous priviledge So that looke when any grace falls from God they are the parties whom it will light upon this takes off an exceeding deale of bondage and makes meanes sweet So it was to them of Ninivee Jona 3.7.8.9 Judg. 14. Jer. 4.3 who upon this hint from God applyed themselves to the meanes very carefully This causes the heart to plow with Gods heifer to finde out his riddle and to see into the mystery of the promise and therefore to plow indeed and fall to worke to rend up the fallow grounds of her proud rebellious nature selfe and scurffe to hunger after
mocked It behooves us to hope the best of all whom we cannot convince of the contrary But except this principle be ingrafted first all other shewes will vanish and a false heart must one way or other bewray her selfe This open sincere heart is the best present for a Preacher and that which will doe great things if need be as Naaman was here ready to do It saith to the Minister there is mine heart take that in pawn and the rest will follow But an iron close hollow heart is poison to a Minister The Jesuits begged of King Henry the fourth of France that he would bequeath them his heart in token of his esteeme which they keep in a golden cup in one of their Chappell 's Let us doe so to the Minister of Christ and as I said let not Fryers and Jesuits prevaile more with their votaries for their hearts then faithfull messengers from heaven with their people That which is well for the present among us brethren I commend If the Gospel had not some friends it could not be so well as it is onely take heed that bad times eclipse it not But I speake as I doe because daies of peace are not as daies of trouble among some good hearts of sincerity many are hollow and the best may amend and learne to bee confirmed to doe that they doe upon grounds of conscience And I desire the Lord that without prejudice wee might heare this truth and receive it Aske thine heart whence is it that my affections are so blunt and dead towards Gods Minister The more I am loved the lesse I love 2 Cor. 12.15 What Did his message never pierce my soule Did it never convince me to be a ranke enemy of God by nature That the wrath or favour of the Almighty was my life or death Did it never convince me of this that the Lord Jehovah hath in the bloud of his owne sonne devised offered sealed up a reconciliation and that for me Alas what wonder if the hearth of that Altar be cold whereon Gods fire was never kindled O Lord work the sense of the message of immortality and life in me by the Spirit of grace and then I shall behold the honour and worth of thy Minister with a spirituall eye and that common base judgement of the world shall vanish Then shall his feet be beautifull his face and voice pretious and his love above the love of any earthly object Job 33. Then shall I call him with Elihu one of a thousand For where one Minister cares for reconciliation himselfe or teacheth it to others some others doe not so they have the fleece what care they whether men sinke or swim Oh! Now I see it s a rare grace for a Minister to prise a soule to tremble at the losse of it to value it at the price of the bloud of the eternall God and the losse thereof as the spilling of the heart bloud of Christ Oh Lord Didst thou meane a poore soule so well as to give him a part in this bloud And to send me tidings thereof by the messenger of peace thy Minister sealing up that unto me on earth which in heaven thou hast granted me My goodnesse my thanks cannot reach thee but it shall fall upon thy Minister whose blessed voice thou hast caused to sound in mine eares and to convey thy love into my soule I hope I shall not forget such a Levite all my dayes So much for this Use Fourthly and lastly this point is for Instruction to teach us what duty Vse 4 we owe to God himselfe Instruction If we owe the Minister great things what owe we to God himselfe If to the Minister a poore mortall worm we owe such honour and reverence what then owe wee to God himselfe If we should doe great things for the instrument of our peace who is the messenger onely of glad tidings What then owe we to him that is the fountaine of it and him that sends it from heaven to us What should seeme great unto us for such kindnesse How should wee carry our lives liberties soules and selves in our bosomes ready to lay downe for him What cost what price is so great which should part the Lord and us Gen. 23.15 As Ephron said to Abraham touching the price of Machpelah its worth so many shekels of silver but what is that betweene me and thee So should we say Oh what is my best treasure worth Lord in respect of losing thy love and communion God will have his servants do some singular thing for him Some shreds I doubt not we should beteame him what great thing would we doe for him What vertue goes out of us What streames of our love and affection goe to him from whose springs all proceed unto us What singular thing doe we for him who gave his Sonne to save enemies and his Minister to bring us newes of it Servants who attend royall Benefactors love to seale their loyall love by some undeniable exploit and marke of extraordinary service As those worthies of David would breake through an hoast of enemies to fetch him water 2 Sam. 23.15 so great an hazard that David thought it a present meet for God And all to teach us that he whom great things do become to give deserves the greatest from us even the very neglect of life it self if he aske it When I read of the strange adventures of men for the pleasing of their Lords and Commanders methinks it shames us Christians It s recorded of the souldiers of Charles the fifth who hearing that he desired a way to be made for his army over a certaine broad River then beset with the ships of the enemy They put their swords in their mouthes and drew those ships surprised to the shore and conveied over the army in them What was this but for the pleasing of a mortall man But when as one day the soule shall be summoned before God and demanded by the Judge what singular thing hast thou done to put it out of question what love thou bearest to me What a wofull regret will it be when it can bethink it selfe of nothing save shreds and parings We could beteame that God should straine himselfe to a demonstration of some great thing for us If it were to make the Sunne stand still or goe backe ten degrees to worke some miracle or shew some signe from heaven of love to us that it might appeare how great we are in his bookes And we make small account of small blessings which others share in with us who are lesser then the least But what doe we picke out to resalute him withall How doe we curtall him of his ordinary dues rather Gen. 22.2 as thinking much of that The Lord bad Abraham do a great thing for him even kill his son and he was ready to do it and the Lord said Now I know that thou lovest me indeed But if he should put us to
such selfe-deniall or try us with hard duties we rather would hang downe the head with that young man and goe away sorrowfull So that he might say of us I have tried thee now and found that thy wealth thy liberty wife children are dearer to thee then my selfe I will trust thee no more Oh how should we tremble at this How should our base penurious scanty hearts even stinke in our nostrills and shame us Act. 3.3 when that creeple looked stedfastly upon Peter and Iohn all he gaped after was a penny or two of almes but they bestowed more then he desired and healed his lamenesse How thinke wee was hee astonished 1 King 3.15 And how was Salomon ravished when he had Gods answer Even so which of us brethren that belong to God can deny but that he hath given us more then ever we could aske or thinke But what have we done for him Have we found out singular things for him Deniall of our selves forgoing of our wills lusts pleasures for him Nay have we not taken our uttermost liberty in them A good wife husband child recovery out of sicknesse have deserved more from us then ever we rendred But what can we say when his Christ is yet unpaid for 1631. Now this deare yeare which of us makes it our season to doe great things for God We know that we doe for his members wee doe for him Where is the man who fellow-feeles this hard pinching yeare and these prises of corne and victualls If you of the poorer sort would doe great things for God even live by faith and set up the promise and alsufficiency of God above your hungry bellies and empty purses hee would doe great things for you But brethren let the sinnes of the poore goe looke we to our owne and amend them Be wee really pinched in the feare of God with their present miseries Say not with that churle shall I take my flesh and bread and give it these beggars 1 Sam. 25. No give a portion to six and to seven the necessity of the time craves some singular thing Common service stinkes in Gods nostrills in a season of speciall duty If now we come in with our common stuffe our sinne shall be as great as our denying them altogether at another time Oh! it were a great thing if we would even feele a pinch in our owne selves while this pinch lasts and abridge our diet our apparrell much more our feasts and excesse in an holy sympathy of their pinch and let our pinching and sparing from our selves become a reliefe of theirs and a bound to their refreshing Else wee shall pay full dearly for our basenes Sell a groat a test on yea two if need be cheaper then every churle Pinch your selves in your prises sell your corne eat your meat and put up gaines with lesse sweetnesse more pinching of sorrow then at other times If it were not Lord thou knowest for this pinching time I would not be so scanty to my selfe as I am but seeing I cannot abound my selfe Satan who seeks thy bloud can prevaile for more then Christ who shed his bloud for thee but I am prone to be scanty to others therefore I will chuse to scant my selfe that I may bee enlarged to others Let his good brethren be that singular thing wherein we declare our selves to God And if we do this in love and be sutable in other the like we shall have the reward of such as doe great things for God when as others doe little or nothing at all Remember Satan himselfe requires it and obtaines it at the hands of his servants So much for the ground of this second Argument Now I come to the inference upon it The which is The second branch of this Argument the application and urging of this truth upon their Master If thou wilt do such great things out of thy love to the Prophet then shew it by reall obeying his counsell q. d. else all thy shews are naught worth The point is True love and honour to a Prophet Doctrine True love and honour of Gods Prophets appears in our obeying them stands in obeying his voice We see in common experience if a man have a friend whom he seems to thinke highly of yet if that friend perceive that in any case of importance and weight his friend will sooner hearken to any stranger then to him and that he shall be of his court but others of his counsell What will he doe thinke himselfe regarded No he will conclude surely this man slights my counsell and followes his owne wayes whatsoever I say therefore for my part I leave him to them who can sway him more with their counsell then I can How much more then is it thus with the Minister If he see his people court him in their carriage complement with him in speech and curtesies but still abide the old men reforme nothing amisse goe on still in their course what shall he conclude Surely this I see this people loves me not for I can prevaile with them in nothing their owne waies they will take though I teare my tongue to the stumps therefore surely they love me little or not at all But let us see first some Reasons then some Scriptures to prove the point and so come to some use First they who love from the heart will obey from the heart because Reason 1 there is a reciprocall affection of people to Minister as well as of Minister to God and Christ Now the Minister out of a loyall heart of love to God and Christ doth as he is bidden God saith If thou love me feed my lambes and my sheep else pretend no love to colour thy sloth and negligence Even so should the Minister of God say to the people If you love me obey my counsell and do as I teach else colour not over your falshood with pretences As the Minister is to carry himselfe to God so are they under God to carry themselves to him It will bee smally to their comfort if all the obedience lye upon his shouldiers for although he hath saved his owne soule yet no thanke to them Ezek. 18. But when there is a reciprocation of affection with the fruit of obedience then shall neither grudge at other Both stand in equall obligation to obey if both performe it there is mutuall cause of joy and love but if one be faithfull to God and the other unfaithfull to him there will be unequall drawing in the yoake and great cause of complaint Secondly there is an holy judiciousnesse and wisdome in love compelling Reason 2 the people to consider that the Minister presseth that he doth upon them not as from himselfe but as from God it s nothing to him what they doe or doe not he is but a servant he is set over them for good and to give an account to God for them hee shall have his recompence for his worke
their owne soules and therefore must be renounced But to proceed Exhortation Obedience to the Minister urged This point in the third place affords exhortation to Vse 3 all who desire to approve their love to the Minister of God that they do as entirely obey his voice in all things that God by him convinces them of as they would be loth to forfeit the repute of their love It s almost counted as treason now to strive with the Priest he is thought halfe a Publican who lives in any contest with the Minister or is ill affected to him and yet he or she are as rare to be found almost as black swans who obey their Minister for Gods cause Therefore as we would love him or God rather in him so be we sure we obey him Wherein you will say I answer since the holy Ghost hath traced out the way himselfe I will insist in his owne steps Esay 50.10.11 2 Cor. 5.20 6.1 One solemne proofe of obeying the voice of the Minister is to beleeve Gods promise Receive not the grace of God in vaine Be reconciled to God Who is among you saith Esay that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkenesse and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himselfe upon his God Let him not compasse himselfe about with sparkes nor walke in the light of his own fire which he hath kindled Marke This is a sound triall of obeying the Minister Some Instances of the obedience of love if we shall deny our owne wills and carnall reason reject all our false colours and exceptions and embrace the promise of the Gospel to beleeve and be saved This is the weightest charge that God hath given him to urge and it is the greatest seal which we can set to his Ministery if we beleeve it In this one obedience we lay the foundation of obeying all the rest It s like Naamans obeying Elisha to wash and be cleane if Naaman had obeyed twenty other charges besides what had it booted him But in this he obeyed all Doe not then sullenly abide in thy darkenesse and unbeleefe still because thou art darke but the rather abhorre that rebellious proud heart of thine which would keep thee in bondage or staggering and come to Gods promise his light and heat and that shall comfort thee quicken thee humble and enlarge thee As Naamans heart grew enlarged to God and the Prophet by his obeying that one charge so that he thought nothing too deare for them so shall thine It will make thee free to obey not as he being crossed to goe away sorrowfull but to lye downe at his feet saying Speake Lord for thy servant heareth So also be exhorted not to rest here but proceed to other obedience Doth he desire thee to seal to his Ministery by living amiably and subjectly in thy marriage husband and wife each to other Doth hee charge thee to acquaint thy selfe with God in secret To set up his worship in thy family To keepe bounds in the use of thy lawfull liberties and not to take thy uttermost To fellow-feele the miseries of the distressed To serve God in thy time Mourne for the abominations of all states and the miseries which they have justly procured Oh then obey him Hee hath warrant to enjoine thee this taske hee himselfe obeyes with thee and suffers as thou dost Wilt thou leave him as an owle in the wildernesse and not beare him company So againe put case that he entreats thee from God to lay aside thy peevishnesse thy wrath thy worldlinesse Doth he tell thee they are the ey-sores of his Ministery It vexes his righteous heart to behold them It joyes him to see them subdued in thee Oh comfort him in renouncing them 2 Cor. 6.11.12.13 Thou knowest how to sting him and how to cheere his heart His honour and content rests in thy hand it is in thee to sadden or to solace him Be not so cruell as to destroy thine owne chiefe prop under God If he shall say O deare friend as you love me obey me in reforming and purging your family and children of their abuses their running out to drunken companies and unseasonable meetings their garish attires and proud fashions I tell you its your and my dishonour that in other things you seeme Religious but in these as loose as others Perhaps ye will not openly set up Mâ—y-poles and Morris-dauncings to fret me but you will suffer your servants to breake the Sabbath which your selves would seem to keep What shall we thinke of this Surely to say no more you shall give mee leave to know my friends from my foes in these your doings How can you say you love me Judg. 15.16 when your heart is not with me Urging of the Exhortation Brethren shew what kindnesse you please in other regards to your Minister pay him his dues send him what gratuities you will but know if he be a Minister of Christ the maine scope of his heart and pitch of his ambition is to sit neer your hearts in the power of his commands and Ministery Tokens of our love to the Minister in other kinds are no markes of sound love except obedience follow all other things are but the killing him with kindnesse and breaking of his head to give him a plaister if you obey not from the heart love is alway content to be taught and to obey not to teach or prescribe be content then to love him as he from God shall appoint thee and not as thou thy self wouldest and put case thou shouldest perswade thy Minister thou lovest him by some other marks it were his folly to thinke so but it is neverthelesse thy sinne When thy Minister comes first to thee he findes thee a man of a double heart to God he strives to draw thee to sincerity and plainnesse he findes thee very ignorant and seekes to breed knowledge of God and thy selfe in thee he findes thee a man of an inconstant frame and not to be trusted or proud ambitious and vaine-glorious or perhaps contentious covetous stout wilfull and rebellious and labours to change thee thou saist thou lovest him Jerem. Doth his love then prevaile with thee to reforme these vices or art thou still the same man so that he may hope as soon to alter the skin of a Black-more as to alter them Then I say thou liest for thou lovest him not As that young man comming to Christ told him many things that he did and had done from his youth But our Saviour answers him yet one thing remaines Sell all and all is well so say I to thee in thy paying of tithes in thy friendly assistance and countenance thou dost well but one thing still remaines obey him and then it will appeare that the other are not done to blanch and daub over thine hypocrisie but from an heart of love and obedience I have
known some loose professors who have sought to exceed all other their neighbours in the love of a godly Preacher and who but they in their running riding assisting of him They have been as his right hand of trust and service But lo in a short time these fellows bewray that which lay secret to wit an uncleane covetous voluptuous heart and what then Surely all men see evidently that these clave to the Minister for their owne base ends and to conceale their vices A speciall watchword to all Ministers of God to beware how farre they engage themselves in the love of any professors A caveat to Ministers See Joh. 2.24.25 Ministers reproach themselves in ascribing too much and trusting too far such as they know not who make toward them in speciall relation Try them throughly in their obedience as well as their pretended love or else the time may come when as their basenesse shall discredit your persons and Ministery farre more then all their love could prevaile If when all is done they are so subtill that we cannot espy them the sinne shall be theirs wee have saved our owne soules and may wash our hands in innocency because we have done our duties When all is done therefore this will hold water if we obey Heb. 13. So saith the Apostle Obey them that are set over you And Paul I beare you witnesse you obeyed the forme of doctrine delivered unto you And againe you received our doctrine not as the word of man but as the word of God Every good hearer should say to his Minister as Elisha did to Gehazi 2 King 5. end Went not thy spirit with me when I ranne after the man So did not the spirit of my faithfull Pastor goe with me when I was in such a company recreation or worldly businesse Me thought it curbed me from lightnesse and vanity from deceit from sinning in my tongue or in any disguisement of intemperancy or cousenage or covetousnes to think if he now saw me how should I be ashamed to do thus Oh! he loves me tenderly my souls welfare and should I grieve him thus 2 Cor. 3.2 This is indeed to be the Epistle of the Minister written in our hearts approving our love unto him to purpose Not that there is not a stronger motive then this to awe and draw people from good to evill for there is an holy Spirit of annointing which is given to all good ones which hath shed the love of Christ into their hearts and filled them with the length and bredth of it this should hem in the soules of beleevers for so the word is 2 Cor. 5.7 and compell them to watch over themselves This must bee the chiefe Monitor in the Schoole of Christ If the voice of this great Prophet be not obeyed for it selfe the voice of the servant as he is called Esay 50. will be little worth For what wonder if they disobeyed the voice of Moses the messenger of God Heb. 2.2.3 who rebelled against that holy Spirit which set him on worke and vexed it all those forty yeares as it is Esay 63.11 No it must be the spirit of the Master which must make his Steward esteemed The love of the Lord Jesus must make the love of the Minister compulsive else it will prove nothing but slavish feare or to avoid base shame as we see in many a drunkard or swearer who for the presence sake of a sinfull man will for an houre or two bite in their qualities which yet they tremble not to commit in the presence of God all the yeare long Conclude this point then and say I pretend love to my Minister how shall I demonstrate it really As Cornelius did Act. 10. It s said he fell downe and tooke Peter by the feet in token of excessive love and respect But what was this all No surely But this that he tells him They were all ready to hearken to whatsoever the Lord said unto them by him This was a sure marke love and feare make reverence and thence comes obedience When love is solid it workes by feare and causes a loathnesse to doe any thing which might grieve the Minister it sits like Mary at the feet of the Minister ready to obey And that not onely in slight matters to remove some sinne which may be spared 1 Sam. 15. as Saul that killed the leane cattell and the baser sort of Amalek but even the belovedst lust and most pretious vice even the fat cattell and the King himselfe True love abhorres common evidence its painfull it will be singular and aske Matth. 5.47 Joh. 21. what singular thing doe I to approve my love When our Saviour would try Peters love he askes him Lovest thou me more then these As some think he meant of his nets occupation as others of his fellow Apostles Both will do well Love thy Minister by obeying more then others yea love him more then thy nets thy beloved trade thy lusts which bring thee in the greatest gaine thy sweet usury thy gaming thy deceit which others who love him not would as soone lose their lives as forgoe The forfeit of these will import strongly that thou lovest not him for any by respect but as he is a Minister of God I remember a story of Pope Pius the fifth one that was reputed as humble as a proud Pope might be who being told of a base fellow that had much abused him in a Pasquill answered I sustaine two persons one of a poore Monk another of Christs Vicar if thou hast railed upon me as a Monk I pardon thee if as Pope I must punish thee So there is no true Minister of Christ who lookes at himselfe as a man but at the honour of him whose servant he is and to whom he desires all the peoples obedience should be derived Try therefore whether thy lusts can draw thee stronglier then he if two loadstones draw both together the iron will goe to the strongest So let thy love goe to him from thy lust Fleire not in his face nor beare him faire in hand when as yet thine heart goes another way Doe nothing behinde his backe which thou wouldest not doe before him In all thy doubtfull matters consult with him let him come within thy bosome know thy secrets and hide nothing from him wherein he can informe thee for he is for God and Christ 1 Cor. 5.20 as a faithfull Embassadour for thy good Doth he tell thee O my friend I perceive your zeale quales shrewdly in this Laodicean age you heare oft but sleep much at Sermons you jangle so much of earthly businesse upon the Sabbath that I feare you meditate little Or you are zealous but you grow not in knowledge wisdome tendernesse to manage your zeal aright from rashnesse and censoriousnes Or you are noted to be full of words or a busie body Or you are given to flout and jeere when you are in company Or you are bold to
dally with women Or you are too idle in your calling and runne up and downe needlesly Or you faile in compassion to the poore or doe small good with that you have you are hard and sore in dealings or make no conscience of keeping promise in all which respects the Gospel suffers and the Lord with your own credit and Ministery lye at the stake I beseech you if you love me as you professe to doe amend these I say obey him in all and be earnest with God and him to make thy love effectuall herein that thou maiest appeare not to love in word but in deed and truth And so much for this Exhortation And for the Minister one word let me adde Vse ult Ministers must love only for procuring obedience to the truth That which in the greene tree is not to be suffered how much lesse in the dry If people must not equivocate with their Minister much lesse may he with them Doe not seeke favour with the people and seeme to love them to any other ends save to draw them to obey thy Doctrine If thou wilt needs seem great with them improve al thine interest for God and their good Seeke not to idolize thy selfe in any mans heart and affections for thine own ends that thou mightst either magnifie thy person above other Ministers or get the reputation of some great person as Magus did or enlarge thine estate and preferments But in all let it appeare 2 Cor. 12.14 that thou seekest them not theirs and as a servant of Christ thou seekest to set up him though with thine owne abasement As thou usest thy selfe so will it appeare in thy course what thou aimest at and if once people smell what thou seekest thou shalt both draw flatterers enough as being meet covers for thy cup and deterre all that make conscience from honouring thee from the heart For why Under colour of serving thy Master thou tradest for thy selfe and discoverest thy self to bee a meer Sycophant not caring which end goes forward so thou canst worke thine owne ends Not much unlike those timeservers the Princes of Ioash who came and did him great homage but why To draw his heart from God to Idolls and their owne purposes and those leaguers in France in King Henry the fourth his time for the aliening of his heart from the Protestant Religion which proved the ruine of them both But of this in the next Argument Lastly here is Consolation to all such as second their affection to the Vse 4 Minister of God with entire and sincere obeying his voice Comfort Thou canst doe little for thy Minister perhaps but this thou doest thou obeyest him It s a signe unto thee that thy love is sincere unto him and which is better to the Lord himselfe to the message he brings nay it s a signe thy heart is in love with the truths of God his commands threats and promises It argues thou lovest all the Ministers of God without dissimulation or partiality a rate gift and hardly found for each man will have his owne Paul Cephas or Apollo Nay to conclude 1 Cor. 3.4 it s a signe that there are many graces in thee saith purging thy conscience humility and selfe-deniall all saving gaces This obeying is above all sacrifices and fat of lambes yea more to be rejoyced in then so many Jewells Could but I prove this in you my beloved who throng to heare and looke me in the face to pull out my words out of my mouth I should not need to comfort you or praise you Matth. 11.19 Wisdome is justified by her children your selves should praise you in the gates though I were silent Luke 1. And as the babe sprang in the wombe of Elizabeth when Mary came neare her so should your hearts leap in your bosomes while you heare me speake and as those two Disciples going to Emmeus Luke 22. so should you beare me witnesse this day and say Did not our hearts burne within us while he applied his doctrine But well may this use come in the last place for they are fewest whom it may truly concerne And so much for this second Argument of the Servants drawne from his love to the Prophet Now I come to the Third And that is couched closely but effectually in these words How much more when he saith unto thee 3. Argument The sincerity of the Prophet Wash and be cleane As if they should say Alas What seekes the Prophet in all this his charging thee to wash in Jorden What doth he expect a reward of thee Doubtlesse then he would not so effectedly have kept in and refused to talke with thee he would then have sought thy face as a Prince bringing great gifts flattered and fawned on thee for his owne vantage But now behold Explication of the ground he simply and sincerely tells thee Gods message looking at nothing else That which he urges is nakedly this that for thine owne good thou mightst wash and be cleane If he had sought from thee some great matter for himselfe though no doubt thou wouldest easily have yeelded to that also yet then he might with more colour have beene suspected But now since he hath no further reach then thy cure and welfare entirely desiring thy good and loath to see thee returne home with thy disease why shouldest thou not yeeld to him and wash Shall he seeme more heartily to wish thy happinesse then thou thine owne That were to be doubly blindefolded with passion neither to see his love nor to wish thine owne good This being their argument it affords us this observation Sincerity in a counsellor claimes acceptance That its a strong motive to all who are not perversly led by their own self-love to hearken to counsell when it shall appeare that he who gives it is sincerely affected to the party counselled without any respect to his owne advantage And in very deed it is that argument by which throughout the Scriptures the holy Ghost pleads audience 1 Sam. 12.3 Samuel being to urge the Israelites to repent and return againe into covenant with God and to contest with them for their Rebellion beginnes with this argument Behold here I am witnesse against me before the Lord Whose Oxe or Asse have I taken Whom have I defrauded or oppressed Of whose hands have I taken bribes to blinde mine eies q. d. If it were thus my mouth might be stopt in my conviction The Apostle Paul Act. 20.31.23.34 being to presse those Elders of Ephesus to tread in his steps and to conceale nothing of Gods truth from his Church urges his owne patterne I have coveted no mans silver gold nor apparell yea your selves know that these hands have ministred unto my necessities and to yours who have been with me and by this rule he bids them proceed pleading that golden speech of Christ It s a more blessed thing to give then receive The same Apostle 2 Cor.
our pleasure If they see that we are all for gold and gaine little caring for a flocke save for the fleece raking all from them to fill our purses and coffers and letting their soules goe to hell I pray tell me will they care for our preachings or counsells If wee shall now and then come in with a quaint Sermon or two and speake like Angels shall our counsell prevaile When they see our lives will they heare our words Shall not some poore simple Preacher far inferiour to us in learning or parts sway more with the conscience then a thousand such as we Cease therefore our owne base ends doe not fret against them who are above us in honesty but equall them in sincerity and then wee our gifts and counsells shall beginne to perswade and as a needle draw the thred of conviction after them Feed we the flocke of Christ not of constraint for base lucre or our owne ends but of a ready minde and then the worke will succeed and prosper 1 Pet. 5.4 Parliament men 〈◊〉 Patriots The like I may say to such as when occasion serves are employed in weighty matters of Church Common-wealth I am perswaded there be many good Patriots in this Land who wish well to the publicke good but what is that which hath hitherto hindred Simil. They say there is a fish called therefore Echeneis which will take hold of a ship and stop the passage of it And there is a weed whins I thinke which will cause the plow which rends up most weeds to stand still and I thinke no lesse but that this selfe-love is the fish and weed which hath thus long in secret prejudiced the effect of our Parliaments where Sages sit to consult but they have not cast out this Davus as I may call it which disturbs all such and such abuses I could reforme thinkes one and seeke to reduce improptiations to the right of the Church but then I must restore many my self and that will pinch Such Lawes I could wish but then perhaps I should be the first that should suffer If such a Minister were in my Parish as made conscience he would spy out my base wayes and reprove them and then I should be noted and so it were better to live under a worse that I may still sleepe in a whole skin The truth is this selfe-love is the canker which ruines States and Common-wealths whiles each man lookes at the consequence of good Lawes not at their goodnesse what hurt will redound to my name and state not what good may accrew to the publicke And hence it is that although for their owne liberties and the outward welfare of the subject each one is ready to strike in yet for those things which concerne the honour of God the welfare of his Gospell and purging out abuses they are fearefull to medle Oh they feare they shall hereby bring their names in question and thus private ends crosse the publicke Oh if men in authority had sincerity sutable the North winde doth not so drive away raine as they might suppresse sin And when inferiours perceive the honest bent of governours to make and execute Lawes neither turning to the right hand nor the left neither looking at flattery feare or foolish pitty Oh how would they quaile and tremble If in our Townes and families it were thus that Headborrowes would consult and governe according to this rule not looking at their owne ends a squint but with a single eye what might not be done Whereas the most like well a good order and punishing of the unruly in generall till it come to my sonne daughter servant tenant or kinsman and then they have the disease in the nose called touch me not then their wine is water and their silver tin and their zeale turnes to ashes Others love and like order but they will not stir themselves they love to spare their travell their purses or the note of others they love ease and thereby sinne goes unpunished or foolish pitty marres the City and sinne growes so rife by custome that its past remedy To conclude if husbands would sincerely counsell their wives Husbands and Parents without selfe respects and parents their children and Masters their servants what housholds should we have But when husbands are affraid to distaste their wives and chuse rather to endure ill fashions the losse of the worship of God in family then displeasure of their wives parents chuse rather to lay the bridle on their childrens neckes then to crosse them seeking their owne ease with their ruine as Ely and David did and Masters care not how servants spend the Sabbath or carry themselves so their worke goe forward how should it be chosen but God and Religion must be cast out of the family So much shall serve for Admonition Vse 4 Next whereto as I conceive Exhortation may be added That as I have warn'd them against base respects Exhortation to sincerity in Counsell so I might perswade all sorts and especially such as whose counsell amounts to the greatest good or deepest evill to sincerity and faithfulnesse And once againe my brethren Ministers consider you shall never be able to convince by the sincerity of truth and the word till you adde sincerity of conscience and intention of the peoples good Evidence of truth from God and evidence of sincerity for God must as Aaron and Hur alway prop up your Ministery on both sides as Moses arme from flagging Ministers doe not alway prevaile when they doe thus but never when they doe otherwise Act. 26.27 Excellent was that speech of Paul to Agrippa Oh I desire that thou wert not almost but altogether as I am excepting my bands He wishes him well with integrity of love So thou were a through Christian let the chaine rest upon me I seek thy soul no ease to my self I know there be many of us who have shot those gulfes which I spake of in the Use before And I know that we would many of us abhor to crooke the rule of Truth to flatter others in their lewdnesse and sinne for our owne bellies hopes or purposes and to hold correspondence with our betters by corrupt consciences I know we dare not to curry favour and shunne the opinion of singularity sow pillowes under mens elbows cry peace peace in their ears against the word which were to put out theirs and their owne eyes both Matth. 23. ◠Jam. ult that both leader and led might fall into the pit But yet there is even in us another dreg of Selfe to bee purged out We are men of passion as Elia was and when the Divell sees that we will close with our calling be painfull or that we will not easily be seduced to open ambition epicurisme company pleasures and covetousnesse all which nourish false ends then he hath another bait for us That we may couch Selfe under our best reproofes and sometime pitch upon them with
a mercifull and skilfull Physitian Tell me now what man or woman is there living who having such a cure of such a Physitian would or could or hath the heart to turne away from him like a blocke insensible and â—naffected wâ—th such a favour There is no such man breathing I thinke But this is common if any get such a rare cure all is too little to make recompense though he should sell himselfe to his shirt he hath no power to do other he thinkes the same evill would take him then If he see that no reward will fasten upon the Physitian but he will needs bestow it freely the more his purse is discharged the closer his heart is knit his affections are up in armes his tongue is loosed Oh! what love is this what moved his heart thus to me what a man of men is he what admiration have I him in O how I love him what is there which I would not do for him run ride spend for him suffer for him expose my selfe to any hazard maintaine his quarrell by any weapon O how he commends him in all companies and blazeth his name farre and wide till he have raised up as great fame abroad as reputation at home Aske him why he doth so he will answer That I am I am under God by him I was a dead man worse I could not be he hath restored mee to health and I am better I thinke then ever I was and therefore I must alway count him my preserver I remember in the Roman story I have read of a certaine spectacle upon the Circk or Theatre of Rome where among other sports condemned persons were to fight for their lives with wild beasts it fell out so that a man before time passing through the wildernesse met with a lyon And looking for no other then death fell downe for feare An illustration of the point But the poore Lion approached to him with much moane and held out his foote to the man which foot of his by reason of a thorn or some such like thing sticking deep therein had so rankled and swell'd that it was like to hazard the lyons life The man with all his Art and skill fell to his Surgery and so wrought that he pull'd out the thorne out of the Lyons foote by the rootes The poore beast feeling her aile and danger gone fawnes upon the poore man and makes all the love that a dumbe creature could possibly to him leads him out of the forrest and there leaves him and sets him at liberty It was the lot of this lyon after to be taken and to be sent to Rome for a present and it was the worse lot of the man to commit a great Robbery and being condemned to the Theatre to fight what lyon must be brought forth to fight with this man but this lyon The man all amort and despairing of life this preserved lyon knowes his Surgeon comes to him fawnes upon him again and by no meanes could be pull'd from the mans side and embraces but to bring the man to mind of the cause he puts forth his foot heal'd of the thorne The people defeated of their expectation turn'd their sporting humour into admiration asking the caytiffe the reason of so marvellous an accident The man publiquely opens the history as it were wrought whereupon cruelty being turn'd into astonishment pity they decreed a statue to be set up in the Market place for eternall memory of the fact of a Lyon embracing a man over the Lyons head with this title Behold a Lyon the saviour of a man over the mans head Behold a man the Physitian of a Lyon I have beene too long but the workes of God are not to be neglected I would but shew you the spirit of a cure even in a dumbe creature what then is it in a reasonable But what comparison is there betweene either and the spirit of cure in the spirituall soule and conscience converted Oh! no tongue can utter it onely we may admire it Proofes of the Doctrine 1 In examples Examples in our Saviours story we have many of the spirit of bodily cures How many did our Saviour cure of whom it is said he was faine to charme them from telling it abroad yet they could not but so much the more blazed it to make him famous Others were no sooner healed but arose and ministred unto him others could not so part with him but followed him But one of all others will best serve our turne and that is the blind man Joh. 9. Ioh. 9. who though he had but poore seede sowne in him of any faith as appeares after yet from this spirit of the cure of his blindnesse did strange things magnifyed Christ call'd him a Prophet wondred that those who had their eyes should not know him when the enemies of Christ like hornets came about his eares to deface the miracle and the doer of it yet strong was the spirit of this cure in the man that he could not endure their malice though he knew their spite and rage and the danger of it as well as his parents yet he would not spare them an inch What saith hee 12 13 14 15 16. verses Will ye be his Disciples That were fitter for you then to smother such a miracle From the beginning of the world to this day was it never heard of that any opened the eies of the blind Oh! how it affected him Surely it might have become one of his strongest Apostles thus to have defended him But the spirit of a cure and the love of such is stronger then death at least then Excommunication And when the Lord Jesus met him he added the spirit of a better cure and of conversion These hints I have given you for familiar explication of the nature of that I speake of But to leave these let mee come to the Doctrine it selfe to ground it out of the Word to give you a few Reasons and so come we to Use 2. Grounds of the Scripture Ier. 2.2 3 4. For the first of these read Jerem. 2.2 I remember thee and the kindnesse of thy youth and of thine espousals when thou wentest after mee in the wildernesse c. He speakes of that first marriage love which passed betweene himselfe and his people who tooke it kindly that God had brought them out of Egypt bondage and the red Sea and made a song of his mercies and were found of him so many at least as knew him aright Noting that this first love is as precious to God as early fruits of the spring apples peares plums pease or the like are to the taste of man as being the most pure and dainty of all Zach. 12.10 And that which Zachary in Ch. 12.10 calls the spirit of grace compassions and mourning is sutable hereto by which the grace of God uttered it selfe in those who were converted as we see it fulfilled in the Church Act. 2. who