then his desire Luke 17.5 are most for faith you shall then find him with the Disciples crying out Lord increase our faith But now though a wicked mans heart rise against every grace yet it rises most strongly against those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts which are a wicked mans bosom lusts Mat. 26.8 9. his darling sins c. Hence the covetous heart rises and swells most against liberality as you see in Judas Rev. 3.15 16 17. Luke 19. What need this waste Flesh and bloud looks upon all as lost that is laid out upon Christ his servants and services And the luke-warm Christians heart rises and swells most against zeal and fervency and the griping Userers heart rises and swells most against restitution Job 21.14 15. and the adulterers heart rises and swells most against purity chastity continency and the ignorant mans heart rises and swells most against light and knowledge Eccles 7.10 the ignorant man is willing to go to hell in the dark and ready and bold enough to conclude that we never had such sad and bad times as we have had since there hath been so much preaching and so much hearing and so much fasting and so much praying and so much light and knowledge in the world But now it is quite otherwise with a true child of God Rom. 7.22 23. for his heart rises and swells most against the Toad or Toads that are in his own bosom and the daily and earnest desires of his soul are that God would make him eminent in every grace yea that God would make him most eminent in those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts and corruptions which more peculiarly more especially he hath cause to call his iniquity Psal 49.5 or the iniquities of his heart and of his heels Look as we have some dirt more or less that will still cleave to our heels whilst we are in a dirty world so there is some defilements and pollutions that will still be cleaving to all our duties services wayes and walkings in this world which we may well call the iniquity of our heels Now a gracious heart rises most against these c. Thirteenthly No man can truly love grace in another but he that has true grace in his own soul 1 John 3.10 No man can love a Saint as a Saint but he that is a real Saint no man can love holiness in another but he that has holiness in his own soul no man can love a good man for goodness sake but he that is really good We know that we have passed from death to life 1 John 3.14 This Text you have opened in the first Maxim of this Book because we love the brethren Sincere love to the brethren is a most evident sign of a Christians being already passed or translated from death to life that is from a state of nature into a state of grace such a poor soul that dares not say that he has grace in his own heart yet dares say before the Lord that he loves delights and takes pleasure to see the holy graces of the Spirit sparkling and shining in the hearts lives and lips of other Saints secretly wishing in himself that his soul were but in their case and that dares say before the Lord Psal 15.1 4. Psal 16.3 He that loves his brother saith Augustine better knows his love wherewith he loves than his brother whom he loves that there are no men in all the world that are so precious so lovely so comely so excellent and so honourable in his account in his eye as those that have the Image of God of Christ of grace of holiness most clearly most fairly and most fully stampt upon them When a poor Christian can rejoyce in every light in every Sun that out-shines his own when he sees wisdom and knowledge shining in one Saint and faith and love shining in another Saint and humility and lowliness shining in another Saint and meekness and uprightness shining in another Saint and zeal and courage shining in another Saint and patience and constancy shining in another and then can make his retreat to his closet admiring blessing of the Lord for the various graces of his Spirit shining in his children and be frequent and earnest with God that those very graces might shine as so many Suns in his soul doubtless such a poor soul has true grace and is happy and will be happy to all eternity In Tertullian's time the Heathen would point out the Christians by this mark See how they love one another Now to prevent mistakes I shall shew you the several properties of sincere love to the Saints First True love to the Saints is spiritual it is a love for the Image of God that is stampt upon the soul 1 John 5.1 Every one that loveth him that begat 1 John 4.7 loveth him also that is begotten of him A soul that truly loves loves the father for his own sake and the children for the fathers sake If the Image of God be the load-stone that drawes out our love to the Saints then our love is real to them he that does not love the Saints as Saints he that does not love them under a spiritual notion he hath no true affection to them Naturally we hate God Gen. 3.15 1 John 3.12 because he is a holy God and his Law because it is an holy Law and his people because they are a holy people 'T is only the Spirit of God that can inable a man to love a Saint for the image of God that is in him many there are which love Christians for their goods not for their good they love them for the money that is in their purses but not for the grace that is in their hearts many like the Bohemian Cur fawn upon a good suit Love to the Saints for the Image of God stampt upon them is a flower that does not grow in natures garden No man can love grace in another mans heart but he that hath grace in his own men do not more naturally love their parents Prov. 29.10 Ezek. 25.15 and love their children and love themselves than they do naturally hate the image of God upon his people and wayes I have read of one who was so lusty and quarrelsom that he was ready to fight with his own image so often as he saw it in a glass O! how many are there in these dayes that are still a quarrelling and fighting with the image of God wherever they see it True love is for what of the divine nature for what of Christ and grace shines in a man it is one thing to love a godly man and anther thing to love him for godliness Many love godly men as they are Politicians or Potent or Learned or of a sweet nature or affable or related or as they have been kind to them
in a way of sin but the gracious soul sayes with Job Job 34.32 If I have done iniquity I will do it no more He laments over sin and leaves it he confesses it and forsakes it and he is as willing to forgo it as he is willing that God should forgive it Seventhly All and if you please I shall give you many things in one godly sorrow is the fruit and effect of Evangelical faith it flows from faith as the stream from the fountain the branch from the root and the effect from the cause Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born Look as all legal sorrow flows from a legal faith as you may see in Ahab's and the Ninevites so all Evangelical sorrow flows from an Evangelical faith They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn All gracious mourning flows from looking from believing nothing breaks the heart of a sinner like a look of faith all tears of godly sorrow drop from the eye of faith godly sorrow rises and falls as faith rises and falls faith and godly sorrow are like the fountain and the floud which rise and fall together The more a man is able by faith to look upon a pierced Christ the more his heart will mourn over all the dishonours that he has done to Christ the more deep and wide the wounds are that faith shews me in the heart and sides of Christ the more my heart will be wounded for sining against Christ Again godly sorrow is not an enemy but a friend to holy joy I have read of a holy man who lying upon his sick bed and being askt which were his joyfullest dayes that ever he had cryed out O give me my mourning dayes give me my mourning dayes again for they were the joyfullest dayes that ever I had The higher the springs of godly sorrow rise the higher the tydes of holy joy rise his graces will flourish most who Evangelically mourns most Grace alwayes thrives best in that garden that heart that is watered most with the tears of godly sorrow He that grieves most for sin will rejoyce most in God and he that rejoyces most in God will grieve most for sin Again the more a man apprehends of the love of God and of the love of Christ and the more a man tastes and is assured of the love of the Father and of the love of the Son the more that person will grieve and mourn that he has offended provoked and grieved such a Father and such a Son Remember this as a man's assurance of peace and reconciliation with God rises so his grief for sin rises the more clear and certain evidences a man has of the love and favour of God to his soul the more that man will grieve and mourn for sinning against such a God There is nothing that thaws and melts the heart that softens and breaks the heart like the warm beams of divine love as you may see in the case of Mary Magdalen Luk. 7. she loved much and she wept much for much was forgiven her a sight of the free grace and love of Christ towards her in an act of forgiveness broke her heart all in pieces A man can't stand under the shinings of divine love with a frozen heart nor yet with dry eyes the more a man sees of the love of Christ and the more a man tastes and enjoys of the love of Christ the more that man will grieve and mourn for all the dishonours that he has done to Christ The more an ingenious child sees and tastes and enjoys of his fathers love the more he grieves and mourns that ever he should offend such a father or provoke such a father who has been so loving and indulgent towards him Injuries done to a friend cut deep and the more near and dear and beloved a man's friend is to him the more a man is afflicted and troubled for any wrongs or injuries that are done to him and just so 't is between God and a gracious soul The free love and favour of God and his unspeakable goodness and mercy manifested in Jesus Christ to poor sinners is the very spring and fountain of all Evangelical sorrow nothing breaks the heart of a poor sinner like the sight of God's free love in a Redeemer A man can't seriously look upon the firstness the freeness the greatness the unchangeableness the everlastingness and the matchlessness of God's free favour and love in Christ with a hard heart or with dry eyes Ezek. 36.31 compared with vers 25 26. O! who is there that has but one spark of ingenuity that can read over that heart-breaking Scripture with dry eyes Isa 43.22 23 24. See Isa 57.17 18 19. But thou hast not called upon me O Jacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel thou hast not brought me the small cattel of thy burnt offerings neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with incense thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Now a man would think after all this horrid abuse put upon God this would certainly follow Therefore I will plague and punish thee therefore my wrath shall smoak against thee therefore my soul shall abhor thee therefore I will shut up my loving kindness in displeasure against thee therefore I will shew no more mercy towards thee therefore I will hide my face for ever from thee therefore I will take vengeance on thee therefore I will rain hell out of heaven upon thee c. O! but read and wonder read and admire read and stand amazed and astonished read and refrain from tears if thou canst ver 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins The Prophets expression in that Zech. 12.10 is very observable They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son Now 't is observable in a fathers mourning for an only son there is nothing but pure love sincere love hearty love but in a sons mourning for his father there may be and often is a great deal of self-self-love self-respect because the child may run and read in his father's death his own loss his own ruin his own undoing but in the father's mourning for an only son a man may run and read the integrity purity and ingenuity of the father's love and 't is only such a love as this as sets the soul a mourning and a lamenting over a crucified Christ The thoughts and fears of wrath of hell and of
that are in the soul faith is as the spring in the watch that moves the wheels not a grace stirs till faith sets it at work What is said of Solomons vertuous woman viz. Prov. 31.15 27 Heb. 11. Rom. 4.3 8.24 Zech. 12.10 That she sets all her Maidens to work is most true of faith faith sets all the graces in the soul at work We love as we believe and we obey as we believe and we hope as we believe and we joy as we believe and we mourn as we believe and we repent as we believe all graces keep time and pace with faith c. Now when your graces are most shining and your evidences for heaven are most sparkling O then give faith elbow-room give faith full scope to exercise it self upon the Lord Jesus Adams obedience to innocency was not more pleasing and delightful to God than the exercise of your faith on the Lord Jesus will be at such a time pleasing and delightful to him you are to look upon all your graces and gracious evidences as your highest encouragement to a lively cheerful 1 Joh. 5.13 Rom. 1.17 and resolute acting of faith upon the person of Christ the righteousness of Christ c. All a Christians graces and all his gracious evidences should be but as a golden bridge Gen. 45.19 21 27. or as Josephs wagons a means to pass his soul over to Christ afresh by a renewed exercise of faith When your graces and gracious evidences are most splendent then be sure that Christ be found lying as a bundle of myrrhe between your breasts and all is well and will be well Dear Christians Cant. 1.12 when your eyes are fixt upon inherent righteousness Plutarch in the life of Phocion tells us of a certain gentle-woman of Ionia who shewed the wife of Phocion all the rich jewels and precious stones she had She answered her again all my riches and jewels is my Husbands This is more applicable to Christ c. The precious stone Opalum is said to have the vertue of all stones the brightness of the Carbuncle the purple colour of the Amethist the amiable greenness of the Emerald but what are all these to Christ and upon your gracious evidences then let your hearts be firmly fixt upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his imputed righteousness Pauls eye was fixt upon his grace upon his better part Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Ver. 25. And with my mind I serve the Law of God And yet at the very same time his heart was set upon Christ and taken up with Christ Ver. 25. I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ Though Paul had an eye to his noble part his better part his regenerate part yet at the same time his heart was taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ as freeing of him from the curse of the Law the dominion of sin the damnatory power of sin and as translating of him into the glorious liberty of the sons of God I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ So in Col. 2.2 3. You have their eyes fixt upon grace and at the same time their hearts fixt upon Christ That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Their eyes were upon grace but their hearts were taken up with Christ So in Phil. 3.8 The Apostle had his eye upon the excellent knowledge of Christ But Ver. 9. his heart is taken up with the righteousness of Christ That I might be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Though Paul had his eye upon grace upon inherent righteousness yet in the very presence of his grace his heart was taken up with Christ and with his imputed righteousness as is evident in the Text. This is your glory Christians in the presence and sight of all your graces and gracious evidences to see the free grace of Christ and his infinite spotless matchless and glorious righteousness to be your surest sweetest highest and choicest comfort and refuge Look as Rebkekah was more taken with the person of Isaac than she was with his ear-rings Gen. 24.30 53 64 65 66 67. bracelets jewels of silver and jewels of gold So it becomes a Christian in the presence of his graces and gracious evidences which are Christs ear-rings bracelets and jewels to be more taken up with Christ than with them He that holds not wholly with Christ doth very shamefully neglect Christ Aut totum mecum tene aut totum omitte Grego Nazien Christ and his Mediatory righteousness should be more in a Christians eye and always lye nearer to a Christians heart than inherent righteousness Grace is a ring of gold and Christ is the sparkling diamond in that ring Now what 's the ring to the sparkling diamond 'T is not safe to pore more upon inherent righteousness than upon imputed righteousness 'T is not wisdom to have our thoughts and hearts more taken up with our gracious dispositions and gracious actings than with the person of Christ the righteousness of Christ the life of Christ the death of Christ the satisfaction of Christ c. Dear Christians was it Christ or was it your graces or your gracious evidences or your gracious dispositions or your gracious actings that trod the wine-press of your Fathers wrath that satisfied divine justice that pacified divine anger that did bear the curse that fulfill'd the Law that brought in an everlasting righteousness that discharged your debts that procured you pardon that made your peace and that brought you into a state of favour and friendship with God If you answer as you must none but Christ none but Christ O then let your thoughts and hearts be firstly mostly chiefly and lastly taken up with the Lord Jesus Though inherent grace be a glorious creature yet 't is but a creature Now when your thoughts and hearts are more taken up with inherent grace than they are with Christ the spring and fountain of all grace you make an idol of inherent grace John 1.16 Col. 2.2 3. and reflect dishonour upon the Lord Jesus A Christian may lawfully look upon his graces and his gracious evidences and a Christian ought to be much in blessing and praising of God for his graces and gracious evidences and a Christian may safely take comfort in his graces and gracious evidences as they are the fruits of God's eternal and unchangable love Isa 38.3 2 Cor. 1.12 but still his work should be to live upon Christ and to lift up Christ above all 'T is Christ 't is his Mediatory righteousness 't is free-grace that a Christian ought to make the
chief and only ground and bottom of his hope and comforts Though good old Jacob did really rejoyce in the chariots and wagons that Joseph had sent to bring him down to Egypt Gen. 45.26 27 28. yet he did more abundantly rejoyce in this that Joseph was alive and that shortly he should see and enjoy Joseph himself Though a Christian may really rejoyce in his graces and gracious evidences yet above all he ought to rejoyce in Christ Jesus to triumph in Christ Jesus Gal. 6.14 Phil. 3.3 2 Cor. 2.14 Col. 3.11 and to take up in Christ Jesus as in his great all There is a great aptness and proness in many may I not say in most gracious Christians to gaze so much and so long upon their graces upon their gracious dispositions upon their gracious evidences and upon their gracious actings that too often they neglect the exercise of faith upon Christ upon the promises they gaze so much and so long upon what is wrought in them and done by them that they forget their grand work which is immediate closing with Christ immediate embracing of Christ immediate relying upon Christ immediate staying rowling and resting upon Christ for justification and salvation Now from these frequent miscarriages of Christians some have taken the liberty and boldness very hotly and peremptorily to cry down the total use of all characters signs and marks the evil of which I have formerly pointed at and therefore let this touch suffice here Grace is excellent yea very excellent but Christ is infinitely more excellent than all your graces and therefore above all let Christ still have the preheminence Col. 1.18 Now though it must be granted that a Christian may lawfully make use of his graces and gracious evidences in order to his support comfort and encouragement yet it cannot be denyed but that the noblest purest highest and most excellent acts and exercises of faith Cant. 8.5 Job 13.15 Psal 42.5 11. Isa 50.10 Mic. 7.7 8 9 10 John 20.27 28 29. are when a Christian closes with Christ embraces Christ hangs upon Christ and stayes himself upon Christ and upon free and precious promises when sense and feeling fails when joy and comfort fails and when his gracious evidences for heaven fails O now to turn to Christ and to turn to the breasts of a promise and to live upon Christ and to hang upon a promise is the way of wayes to exalt Christ and to glorifie Christ there is nothing that pleases Christ or that delights Christ or that is such an honour to Christ as these pure actings of faith are Signs and evidences are most sweet comfortable and pleasing to us but the pure actings of faith are most eyed and valued by Christ Cant. 3.1 2 3 4 5. 5.3 4 5 6. and therefore many times Christ draws a curtain between him and the soul and causes a Christians Sun to set at noon and damps his joy and marrs his peace and clouds his evidences for heaven on purpose to train up his children in the pure actings of faith 'T is sad when Christians make such immoderate use of their signs marks evidences as damps and hinders those direct and immediate acts of faith whereby they should receive Christ and apply Christ and rest upon Christ alone for pardon peace reconciliation justification and salvation he that pores so long and so much upon his graces or gracious evidences as shall hinder him from the fresh and frequent actings of faith upon Christ he casts contempt upon Christ Christ is an incomparable cordial he is worthily called the consolation of Israel Luke 2.25 Though the sight of a Christians graces and gracious evidences be very comfortable and delightful to him yet the sight of Christ should be ten thousand times more comfortable and delightful to him O Sirs what are the favourites to the King himself What are the servants to the Lord they wait on what are the friends of the Bridegroom to the Bridegroom himself what are all the bracelets and jewels to the Husband that gives them no more are all a Christians graces or gracious evidences to the Lord Jesus himself A Christian should say to all his gifts graces evidences and services Stand by make room for Christ make room for Christ Oh! none but Christ Oh! none to Christ Living by signs is most natural pleasing and comfortable to us but living by faith is most honourable to Christ It is said the just shall live by his faith not by his evidences Hab. 2.4 Heb. 10.38 When men pride themselves in their evidences and when men secretly lean upon their evidences instead of leaning upon Christ and when men bottom their hopes and comforts upon their signs and evidences when they should be bottoming of all their hopes and comforts upon Christ on a sudden Christ withdraws and the soul is immediately filled with clouds fears doubts darkness and all a mans graces and gracious evidences are eclipsed and he can see nothing nor feel nothing but deadness hardness barrenness hypocrisie unbelief self-love guilt c. which makes him a Magor-Missabib a terror to himself Now the design of Christ in all this is to train up his people in a life of faith and to teach them in the want of their signs and evidences Col. 3.3 4. Col. 1.27 how to live above their signs and evidences upon himself who is their life their hope their heaven their happiness their all Now Christians the best way to prevent these sore soul-distresses is in the moderate use of your signs and evidences to live much in the fresh and frequent actings of faith upon the Lord Jesus and in so doing you will neither grieve Christ nor provoke Christ nor wrong your own precious and immortal souls But The sixteenth and last Proposition that I shall lay down is this When ever any fresh doubts or fears rise in your hearts upon the stirrings of corruptions or debility of graces or failing in duties c. then keep closs to these two Rules First have recourse to any of the former characters that are laid down in this Book and while you find any of them shining in your souls nay though it were but one never pass any judgment against the happiness and blessedness of your spiritual or eternal estates Secondly turn your selves to such particular promises and plead such particular promises and rest and stay your trembling souls upon such particular promises Sirtorius paid what he promised with fair words Plutarch But so does not God men may eat their words but God won't eat his and cling fast to such particular promises that have been comforts cordials and supports to many weak doubting trembling Christians who have been alwayes afraid to say they had grace or to say that God was their Father or Christ their Redeemer or the Spirit their Sanctifier or Heaven their Inheritance c. I have read of a woman that was much disquieted in conscience even to