spoke for by the least Child it hath 12. The Twelfth is Valuation of one's self by the Execution Repetition and Propugnation of the Suggestions All Men do glory in somewhat or other There is some one thing or other by which they do rate and value themselves Determining they are more or less blessed in themselves and to be esteemed by others as they have more or less of the same Unregenerate Men's estimate of themselves is by their Executed and Repeated and Propugnated Sin and what that Sin has gained them Even the Profits Pleasures or Honours of this World which they have compassed by those their Sins The Regenerate do try themselves by another Touchstone and weigh themselves in another Scale They count the Idols of this world very Nothings And do believe in their hearts and confess with their mouths that in them dwelleth no other good and they are at no further distance from Misery than the Grace of God in them and the Grace of God toward them doth set them They are Happy and Honourable more or less as they Glorifie and Enjoy God more or less Enjoy him according to the Promises and Glorifie him according to the Demands of the Covenant of Grace Brethren It shall not repent you if seriously and frequently you do Examine your selves in reference unto these twelve Particulars If these Acts are passed in your Souls on the right side Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven whatever be your Scar-crows and Disquietments on Earth Indeed as long as you live you may be one while in tears of grief crying God be merciful unto me a Sinner But you will be otherwhiles in tears of joy exclaiming I know that my Redeemer liveth One while combating with fears asking Will the Lord be favourable unto me But by and by triumphing over your fears saying I am perswaded that nothing shall be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus One while falling down on your Knees praying I believe Lord help my Unbelief But another time clapping your hands and thankfully proclaiming it Christ hath loved me and gave himself for me One while as Hester If I perish I perish But another as Mary My Soul rejoyceth in God my Saviour He that doth not willingly grieve the Children of Men will not let his own Children have nothing but grief for any long time together if they use the diligence he requireth for his sweet Consolations However I charge that you do not overvalue Comfort that you do not forget that a little Grace is more worth than much Comfort And that Comfort is desirable only for the sake of Holiness I am wholly of his Mind who hath said Happier a great deal is that man's case whose Soul by inward desolation is HUMBLED than he whose heart is through abundance of spiritual delight LIFTED up and exalted ABOVE MEASURE Better is it sometimes to go down into the Pit with him who beholding darkness and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation cryeth from the bottom of the lowest Hell My God my God why hast thou forsaken me then continually to walk arm in arm with Angels to sit as it were in Abraham 's bosom and to have no thought no cogitation but I thank God I am not as other men it is not with me as with others Ri. Hooker pag. 546. as quoted by Mr. H. Hickman in his very excellent Discourse on Eph. 4.30 I do remember and still adhere unto what I have written in my Call to Sinners Marks than which I cannot find better But variety and store is no sore It repents me not that I have here proposed these And I will farther commend unto your use Six excellent Questions of blessed Mr. Henry Scudder as they are contracted by our worthy Mr. Samuel Lee who with him well saith these words You are in God's favour and in a state of grace if you can answer yea unto ALL or unto ANY of them Q. 1. How stand you affected to Sin are you afraid to offend God and dare not sin wittingly Is it your Grief and Burden that you cannot abstain from it nor get out of it as soon as you would Q. 2. How are you affected to Holiness and the Power of Godliness to know God's Will and do it to fear and please him Is it your Grief when you fail and your Joy when you do well Q. 3. How to the Church of God are you glad when it goes well and grieved when it goes ill and sit trembling with Eli to hear how it goes with the Ark of God however it be with your own Particular Q. 4. How towards Men Do you dislike wicked Men and love those that fear the Lord because they are good Q. 5. Can you endure your Soul to be ript and your beloved Sin to be smitten by a searching Minister and like him the Rather and can yield an obedient Ear to such a wise Reproof Q. 6. Though you have not Evidence always or can scarce tell whether you ever had it yet resolve and desire and will as you are able to cleave to God in Christ for Salvation by Faith and in no other Person nor by no other means to be saved But that my Epistle is already swollen beyond my purpose I would here have shewn you more largely these Particulars 1. Strongest Grace and weakest do agree in many things e. gr 1 Both have the same Original Giver God the Father Both are from his Electing Love Unto which are owing the smallest sparks as well as the brightest flames of spiritual-life 2 Both have the same meritorious Purchaser Jesus Christ Both are from his Redeeming Grace Thereto are we beholden for our very Entrance into the State of Holiness as well as for our Proficience and final Perfection 3 Both have the same Efficient Worker the Holy Ghost Both are from his regenerating Work Thereof it is that the Babe in Christ is what he is as well as that the grown Man in Christ is what he is 4 Both are wrought by the same Instrument also the New Covenant Word of God And in short 5 Both have the self-same Nature They have the same Nature and Being though so different sizes of Strength and Power of working A drop of water is as truly water as the vast Collection of water in the Sea is so And the Soul in whom Christ is formed but this hour is as truly an holy one as any of those who are with him in Paradise 2. Strong Grace and Weak do differ in their Measures their Strength and their Comforts and Troubles As grown Men do differ from Sucklings Having no more Limbs than they but every one larger and stronger and more capacious of Pain and Pleasure Weakest Converts have Knowledge of the Gospel-Covenant but not so Extensive or so Intensive and clear as stronger ones have They have predominant and practical Consent to it's Demands but not so free from Hesitations nor so
own Righteousness was very Sand and by no means to be built on He Convinced me of Righteousness and that of another make than my own yea or than the Angels Being beat off from trust in my own Righteousness and coming to some knowledge of Christ's I was like to stick in the place of the breaking of Children I was very near to Miscarry in the pangs of the new Birth And he the self-same Spirit brought me forth He brought Christ to my heart and my heart unto Christ he was to me a Spirit of Faith of uniting Faith joyning Christ and my Soul as Head and Members be joyned Of Justifying Faith and such as through the Law of Grace makes Christ's Satisfaction for Sin as beneficial to us as if we our selves had payed our Debts unto God Such a Faith as put me into the City of Refuge and secured me from the pursuit of the Avenger I humbly hope so at least When this was done and I was born of Water and of the Spirit then was I all in haste for a heart much more clean and more after God's heart And he the same Spirit was unto me a Spirit of Burning as Fire mollifies Iron he softned my heart more than ever in former times and melted my will into God's Will and united it to fear his Name After this it self still was I a short-sighted Creature and in pain to know more of God and Christ of Sin and Grace of my Hearts deceits and Satans wiles of Heaven and Hell And he it was that in and by his Ordinances anointed my Eyes and made me from that time to this to make some Progress in Knowledge To grow in it both Extensively and Intensively Several times have I been in danger of being deceived by false Teachers by the craft of men lying in wait to deceive And he the only unerring Guide kept my foot his word it was that I heard behind me saying This is the way walk in it Many is the sad time that I have back-slidden and foully fallen And by him hath it been shewn me whence I was fallen he it was that came and said Return thou backslider He it was that let me not to rest till I had gone forth and wept bitterly and laid hold on him that healeth backslidings Full often I have had fightings without and fears within sorrow upon sorrow And he hath been a Comforter indeed he hath taken of Jesus and shewn me that which hath made my state presently tolerable and by and by comfortable It is never very long together but I am at a loss what to do for both Life Motion and Direction And he alone it is who makes me feel any spark of life in me makes me stir and move in Willing and Doing and guideth me in Judgment teaching me his way When I am most afflicted and need most of all to Pray even then oftentimes do I least of all know what to pray for And he it is this holy Spirit himself that maketh Intercessions in me as it is Rom. 8.26 and maketh me to Pray in him as it is Jud. v. 20. More plainly he enlightneth and he fortifieth my puzled and dejected Soul He Directeth my requests so that I ask Bread and not a Stone Fish and not a Serpent He Enflameth my Desires so that by the Fervence I discern God's Acceptance as of old Sacrifices were manifested to be acceptable by the firing of them He emboldens also my Suits unto God so that while I adore him as my Soveraign I trust him as my Father by Adoption While I am prostrate before him as a rebellious Subject with a Rope about my Neck I have the humble confidence of a Child of his in my heart and I do rejoyce fiducially while I tremble most Self-condemningly Briefly until such time as I got acquainted with him never could I heartily call God the Father my Father nor call Jesus Christ my Lord. I am sure I could do neither according to the Will of God Well might my dear Redeemer call this Holy Spirit God's good gift Luk. 11.13 Well might the Man after God's own Heart exclaim Take not thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51. And well might the great Apostle pray for his Ephesian Children that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory might give unto them the SPIRIT of WISDOM and REVELATION in the knowledge of him Eph. 1.17 18. And well will it be for me and all my dearest ones if as above all things I Pray we shall holily walk after this good Spirit Not GRIEVING his Divine PERSON dwelling in us not QUENCHING his gracious MOTIONS made in us not RESISTING him in any of his ORDINANCES instituted for us For by his blessed Operation it is that we have our Communion with the FATHER in his Love with the SON in his Grace and with Himself the Coessential SPIRIT in his Consolation Look as the Son of God is Mediator for us unto the Father unto himself as he is God and unto the Holy Spirit unto the whole Trinity in like manner is the Holy Spirit the one common Operator or Worker for us and Comforter of us from the Father from the Son and from Himself from God in Unity He is named the COMFORTER and as I conceive comparatively greater than Christ was in the days of his Flesh on Earth But how doth he comparatively so much more comfort the Children of God This he doth by acquainting them much more with the Love of the Father By giving them to see more fully that the Father himself loveth them as our Lord speaks Joh. 16.27 And by discovering unto them much more the grace of the Son the super-excellency of his Person and of his Purchases By glorifying of him in their hearts so as he never was before Joh. 14.15 that is the very word which Christ useth He shall GLORIFIE me And lastly by setting before their Eyes much more his own like infinite Love Grace and Condescention Admirable condescention to be made less in Office than the Father and Son with whom he is Equal in eternal Essence And this most freely and of choice for our good and so great good as hath been foreshewn And that although he well foreknew what we were and what cross pieces we should prove and how we should GRIEVE him PROVOKE him and QUENOH many Millions of his most holy Motions in our hearts defile his Dwelling-place and provoke him for ever to abhor US so infinitely needing his Wisdom Power and Grace to help us in all Concernments Us who without his infallible Counsel and his invincible Strength are sure by every Sin to be frightned into Despair of Mercy or hardned unto a very disregard of Vindictive Justice Who are sure by Prosperity to be slain and to be made forgetful of God by Adversity to be brought to horrible Distrust of God's goodness or as leud Disdain of his Government and Discipline by our very Duties themselves to be puffed up with
victorious over Jealousies as stronger ones have They have Reliance upon it's Promises but not so Quiet and so little Interrupted as stronger ones have They have their Comforts and their Troubles but not ordinarily at least so great as stronger Converts have The Loads of strong ones would break their backs and the sweet Wines that they do drink would be too strong for their heads True it is least Children in Nature and in Grace be more in crying than when more grown Though God can he very rarely doth make little Grace so evident unto us or so comforting of us as he maketh greater But what is said above is true 3. The huge diversity of Grace hath various Causes of it e. gr Converts are of various 1 Ages and standings in Grace 2 Their outward Helps are various some have Parents Ministers and Company an hundred fold more helpful than others 3 Their inward Aids of the Holy Spirit are various He helpeth all but not all alike 4 Their Prayers and Pains to improve their Helps are various 5 Their Services and Employments and so their Occasions for Grace are various One needs more than another therefore 6 Their Sins and Provocations of God to withdraw from them are various Some fall into foul and gross Sins which others keep far from and some do more indulge carnal Affections than others do 4. Special marks of Weakness in true Grace are these Namely 1 Wavering and Desultoriness in our Promises unto God He that staggers hath weak feet he that is Up and Down one while will be the Lord's and by and by fears to Vow it he hath weak Grace 2 Suspiciousness of God's Promises unto us He hath a weak knowledge of fallible Men whoever much trusts them and he hath as weak a knowledge of God that cannot lye whoever much doubts him 3 Easiness to be scandalized or turned out of God's way by any thing we meet with By God's darker Providences as Asaph was Or by good Men's failings as Job's Friends were Or by wicked Men's instigations as poor Spira was He stands but weakly who falls easily 5. Special Marks of Truth in weak Grace be these e. gr 1 Giving glory unto God when we cannot take Comfort from him We must needs sincerely love him with whom we had rather Mourn than Rejoyce with the World And whom we Praise while he hides his face from us or frowns upon us 2 Combating on against sin even while we think at least we cannot conquer it Doing all we can against it even while all we do seems to do no good Blessed be Gospel grace it is certain we Conquer as long as we verily Fight Sin is never our Master till we do Consent to have it so But happy is the Soul that even then holds on the Conflict when he imagines that Sin hath got the Mastery 3 Making up in Root what we want in Fruit. Growing downward when we can't grow upward I mean being exceedingly Humble when we can't be so useful to God's Name in the World Abasing our selves when we cannot Exalt God otherwise 4 Lying at the Pool as weak Cripples as long as we are so Willing to have strength and waiting on God for strength and staying his time at his Gates if he makes us wait long for it Resolving to Justifie him if he never give it and to Admire and Bless him if he give it at all The poor Canaanite was sincere and came off with honour she whose first Prayer was answered with Silence and for her second Prayer was called a Dog but undaunted by both prayed on that she might have some of Christ's Kindness though it were but the share of a Dog Though it were but a Crumb and not Plenty 6. Innumerable are our Motives to seek strength of Grace Will the weakest Grace carry to Heaven what then Bread and Water will keep you alive on Earth but you do desire more a great deal Life is Life and very sweet and precious But you desire Health Strength and Beauty do you not Most do think that their Glory in Heaven will be more or less as their Grace on Earth is more or less Whether that be so or no I thus argue If you love not God you have no true Grace If you do love him how can you but crave more Vnderstanding and more Power to serve him This remember Though you do what he Accepts of you do not what he is much honoured by while you are weak His infinite Grace accepts and rewards your little one but your little one doth but sorrily Praise and Serve the Glory of his infinite one Add hereto tho' weak Saints are equally Elected Redeemed Called Justified and Adopted with the strongest yea and have equally all the Promises of the Covenant that concern the Essentials of Salvation so that the least Stars be as firmly fixed in the Firmament of Bliss as the greatest Luminaries be yet this is true God's love of Delight is greater to strong Saints than to weak and It is then greater to them when they are strong than when they are weak Natural Parents love all their Children but although they have most Pity of the Weak they have most Pleasure in the Strong And in the Strong they then have most Pleasure when they are Strongest It is no otherwise with our Heavenly Father Abraham was God's Friend by way of eminency and then when without staggering his Gigantick grace bore parting with his Isaac then above ordinary God looked on him complacentially Zanchi speaks broader than I do God's love of good-will is not Equal to all his Saints He wills more good to some Saints than unto others Which you cannot deny unless you will say that his holy Spirit 's Graces be lumber unworthy to be put in the Inventory of his Goods In a word every Believer doth wear the Garland of the Supream King's Favour but in that Garland there are special Flowers which are vouchsafed only unto strong Believers Again If you love not your selves you have not true Grace If you do love your selves your true selves and not only your earthen Shells you cannot but desire to be Men. You cannot be willing to keep in your Infancy to live all your days in the Cradle and in Swadling clothes unable to go upon your feet stumbling at every straw even when you are most carefully led by your spiritual Nurses and filling the house with your Cryes while they carry you in their Arms. Plainly you cannot but be sick of desire to have it better with you than it can be until Grace is stronger To have it better than now it is now that you conceit if you apply a Promise it is horrid Presumption and if you do not it is fatal Unbelief That if you Hope it is but Self-delusion and if you do but Doubt it is straightway Desperation That if you Repent it is a sorrow but legal and if you fall into any Sin it is no less than that which is
and acceptably unto God you are void of Grace Young Joseph hath ability to repel Temptations and Older David hath ability to comply with Temptations Satan cannot force us unto Evil and the Holy Ghost doth not ever force us unto Good it is voluntarily that we do all the Evil and the Good done by us Grace doth find us sinful Men and free unto Evil and it makes us sincere Christians and free unto Good It doth not as Glory doth take away our possibility of sinning in Mind Will or Work Our state on Earth is one and that in Heaven is another 3 Your Duty of Duties it is therefore to make the best use of your Liberty To side with the Spiritual Principle against the Carnal To take the part of Purity against Impurity And strain hard to live according to the Spirit in every Walk not allowing the Flesh one step To keep the Candle of the Lord your internal Light shining And the fire on the Altar of your hearts your holy Zeal burning To see that your Minds be blinded by no Objections and your Wills blunted by no Oppositions and your Lives blackned by no avoidable Abominations For why God rewards Grace with Grace and your Obeying the new Nature in you strengthens it And the strengthning thereof is the weakning of Sin its opposite It doth make and shew it to be weak But on the other hand let it be awefully considered It is a frightful Sin to receive in vain the offer of Grace in the Gospel and far worse it is to make vain and not improve the very Work of Grace in one's Soul This is no less than going about to destroy that which is Conceived in us of the Holy Ghost For the new Nature in us like a new-born Child quickly languisheth if it be not tenderly cherished And besides the Holy Ghost who is the Parent of it will be more than a little incensed if it be but little made of and not by all possible means nourished wherefore blessed are they who set not themselves to gratifie but to crucifie their Senses Appetites and Passions And content not themselves to Possess unless they do also exercise and Increase their spiritual Gifts Graces and Comforts Going forward in them and going apace so and that sensibly and visibly Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle I have thus endeavoured that ye may be able after my Decease to have these things always in remembrance For if these be in you and abound they make you that ye shall not be Barren nor Unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ And an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into his everlasting Kingdom Amen and Amen Bishop Wilkins his Character of the best Christians is here added for your Profit and for the shame of such as traduce us for New-fangled Opinionists and contrary to all the Learned of the Church of England THey are Persons of a Moderate and healing Temper of Catholick and Comprehensive Charity They do not Baptize their Religion with the Name of a Sect nor Espouse the Interest of a Party but love all Good men that Fear God and work Righteousness They are not guilty of the Corinthian Vanity in crying up a Paul an Apollos or a Cephas but look upon it as the great Design of Christianity to make men good and where it hath not that Effect they know it matters not what Church such a Man is of because a Bad Man can be saved in none They shun the dangerous Extreams and keep the Regular mean and in Divine Worship prefer a reverend Decency before pompous Superstition or popular Confusion neither bowing down to the Altar of Baal nor Admiring the Calves of Bethel They are true Primitive Christians and think it lawful to hold Communion with any true Church of Christ that is sound in the Substantials of Religion notwithstanding some Circumstantial Differences in the External Modes of Administration And they suspect it sinful and Schismatical to separate from any true Christians who Agree in Apostolical Doctrine and maintain the Discipline of the purest Ages They prove all Things and hold fast only that which is Good and are perswaded those Christians are most in the Right who choose out of all Parties whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just c. and not they that think every thing to be so that 's maintained by their own party They place Religion more in the serious practice of Piety than in the Observance of Ceremonious Forms they are neither fond of needless Rituals nor yet molested with groundless Scruples but long for the Philadelphian State of the Church wishing that all the World might with one mouth glorifie the Eternal God They pay a great Deference to Antiquity yet they are not so fond of Error as to fall in love with it meerly for its gray Hairs but make use of their own Reason to judge of the Reasonings of other men Though they apply themselves to spiritual Guides yet they love to enquire the Way to Sion and not follow them in the Dark except they carry a Lanthorn in their hands They refer the Decision of all the Differences amongst good Christians primarily to the Sence and Meaning of the Holy Scriptures And they know every man must Judge for himself therefore where they see men do all they can to find out the Truth to please God and to save their own Souls they give them a Liberty of Interpreting as knowing themselves not to be Infallible They know there are many Controversies amongst Christians of that Intricacy that the Day of Judgment must determin who are most in the right therefore they dare not judge of mens final Estates or of the Sincerity of their Hearts by their speculative Opinions or different Relishes of things because every man must believe what he can and not what he will They admire to see some Christians so egregiously mistake in the Notion of true Catholicism as to confine Salvation to their particular Communion and they think it strange to hear men contend for an Infallible Guide when Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles do with one consent declare that the way to the Blessedness of the Righteous is by observing the Rule and Exercise of Holy Living from a Principle of Divine Life They never charge other mens Doctrines with such odious Consequences as they never intended nor Asperse their Persons with such invidious Names as they never deserved but make charitable Allowances for their different Educations Constitutions and Apprehension of things supposing that other men may differ from them with the same Sincerity that they differ from others and sometimes from themselves They are for a Religious Loyalty and prefer the Wisdom of Publick Authority before their own private Judgments in all such Matters as are not Determined by the Soveraign pleasure of their Maker And if in any thing they differ from the Wisdom of their Superiours they do it with great Modesty and Reservation and are always ready to change their Minds when better Information leads them to it not thinking they undervalue their Judgments by so doing They are afraid of being infected with the Heresie of Bigottism and have great cause to fear that if the merciful God should damn us all for such things for which strait-laced Christians condemn one another none could be saved They think there is no particular human Form of Ecclesiastical Polity so acceptable to the great God as the Exercise of Mutual Charity under our different Forms They neither make their Opinions Articles of Faith nor their Modes Terms of Communion but believe those Principles and practise those Precepts which wise and good men are all agreed in well Knowing if they should happen to be mistaken in those things wherein they differ they could not lose the Way to Heaven whilest they sincerely love God believe in Christ and obey the Motions of the Holy Spirit They are of peaceable and Reconciling Dispositions and neither call for Fire from Heaven nor Kindle Fires upon Earth to destroy all those that follow not them as well knowing that Truth cannot be engraven in the Minds of Men with the Points of Swords nor can their Understandings be illuminated with flaming Faggots They neither make the Way to Heaven Broader nor Narrower than the Head and Pillars of the Universal Church have made it And they walk on soberly righteously and godly in that Path which upon great Consideration they take to be the Right without rudely Justling those whom they fear to be in the Wrong They think the best way to find out to what Mother the Child of Truth belongs is to make use of Solomon's Test viz. To give up the Cause to them that first lay down the Sword of Division When one Party saith Lo here is Christ in this Church and another saith Lo he is there they Believe what Christ himself hath told them That where Two or Three are met together in his Name there is He in the midst of them They do not think their Zeal Luke-warm except it burn up their Discretion but can joyn the Prudence of the Serpent with the Innocency of the Dove and are grieved to observe men contend so Eagerly about the Pinnacles of the Temple as that they threaten to overturn the Foundations of the Church They take more pains to make good their Baptismal Covenant than to dispute about the Manner of its Administration as if they were Baptized with the Waters of Strife and they are more frequent in a Devout Participation of the Lord's Supper than in Metaphysical Contests about the Real Presence They Know there 's nothing required of Man as Necessary to Salvation but what is clearly Revealed and beyond all Dispute They choose rather to take up the Cross of Christ than wrangle about it and more sollicitously observe the Complexion of their own Souls than the Colour of Ministers Garments Nor do they so contend about the Number of the Elect as to Reprobate themselves for want of Charity but endeavour to perform the Whole Duty of Man in so doing they know they are in the Way to the Saints Everlasting Rest FINIS