Saint that is fond of God bring him meat he sees the love of God in Christ in it bring him cloathes or any thing his eye is fastened more upon the love of God in Christ then upon the thing As the spouse in the Canticles for the Canticles is a book of fondnesse between Christ and his people she hears one talk I warrant you saith she this is the voice of my beloved she is so fond of him that she could not hear one talk but she saith It is my beloved when she looks on the gallery and the lattice I warrant you saith she my beloved looks thorow that grate and when she sleeps her heart waketh It is a blessed thing when we do not eye things in themselves but so as we are able to see God in them And you shall know it by the various tempers of your souls for sometimes you are more spirituall and sometimes more carnall when you are carnall you use more of the creature and never see God at all but when you are spirituall you see God and his love in Christ in every thing I shall now shew you how God brings his children This fondness wrought four wayes to this holy fondnesse and I would leave you longing for it and I trust in God to leave some souls sick till God work and bring up their souls to that I will name but onely four The first thing is that God utterly convinceth a Saint 1. By disabling all the Creation to this end of the vanity of every creature and of every condition he will never be fond till then God lets him suck one creature after another and then he sees the vanity of them God puts him into one condition after another O saith a Saint when he is sick if I were well I should rejoyce and glorifie God God gives him health and then he is in a worse temper When he is poor saith he If I had to pay my debts and to set up handsomly then I should serve God God sets him up and lets his heart go after covetousnesse and saith to him Dost thou not see that thou art worse then thou wert before So God chaseth him from one creature to another and from one condition to another If he would be in the Country God convinceth him that he will be worse then in the Town At last he saith Lord I have tried and hunted all and I see they are a company of vanities And sometime when he is sick in body and shaken in soul God appears gloriously and makes the worst condition better then the best so God follows and traseth and chaseth him from one to another till he bring him to see every creature vanity and every condition and saith a Saint I do not much care what condition whether he put me in prison or at liberty whether I be rich or poor well or sick so he reveal himself to my soul You will never be fond till you come to that till God convince you of all conditions and of the use of all creatures and tire thee that thy soul may say God is all in all I am indifferent what creatures I have or want or what condition I am in for I have seen God to be all in all I have seen nothing in riches and in liberty but as God comes into a condition or is absent so it is sweet or bitter good or bad People that are professors in these sad times they would not be so reaching and griping and undermining for offices and places and preferments and I know not what if they did see this Another way it this that the Lord sheds his love into their hearts Rom 5. he poures it out as you would 2 By Gods pouring forth his love in their heart pour out a Paile or a Bucket of water God so over-powers the heart with his love that there is no guilt no hardness no fear no spirit of bondage at all left in the soul Beloved why are not we more fond of God why is not he more deare to us The reason is because we have many hard thoughts of him that he may be an enemy as well as a friend and I know not what he means I look upon him at a catch as with a staffe in his hand to strike me There are abundance of those thoughts in the soul especially in affliction some professors are ready to say God hath found me out as an hypocrite and plagueth me In afflictions ordinary professors loose more though they talk of getting But the Lord comes to some of his children and so over-powers their hearts with his love that there is not one thought nor imagination in their hearts but onely of love to him and then they will be fond for when they see pure love in God and nothing but a principle of pure love in them to God what should hinder but they should be fond one of another There is a homely comparison a woman that hath butter in a dish she melts some of the butter but if she take it too soon from the fire there will be a core a knob in the dish left and being taken from the fire it grows bigger till all be hard So a weak Saint by studying the promises of God and the love of God it dissolves much of the knobbinesse yet there are some hard thoughts and Iealousies and suspitions but God comes at last and melts all the butter together all the knobbiness that is in the heart every thought and imagination of terrour and guilt and fear that there is a clear and pure principle of love to God and then the soul is fond of him The Lord takes a great deal of delight to train and bring up his childe to be more in love with him God will so traine and bring him up that if he throw him into the worst condition that can be for body or soul and shall say what thinkest thou of me now hast thou any hard thoughts of me saith God No saith the soul all is Love As for instance I will tell you a thing the worst on this side hell I speake not of imprisonment or shame but God may take him and leave him to sin and then the soul awakes and thinks good Lord where am I O what a hell have I in me for there is a hell in the heart if God take off the vail of grace if he draw the Curtain there is nothing but hell in the soul There are many sins that thou hast committed that there is not a soul in the world that hath committed worse This is true saith a Saint and dost thou not think saith God that thou art an hypocrite and that I shall damn thee for this No saith the soul I know I have nothing in me but of thy Grace and if thou draw the Curtain all is hell but there is nothing but love even then after sin there is not one hard thought it makes the soul more fond
well as hearers There is one thing more which is here laid down in this Scripture that we must indeavor to do though when I speak of doing when we teach you any spiritual Gospel duty you must understand it in a Gospel way not as though I say we can do this or that but we through the grace of Christ may do any thing that is commanded in the Gospel Therefore go not home and say we are dead and can do nothing c. To what end are all these precepts laid on us but that we by the power of the holy Ghost may do them Therefore I say there is one thing more for us to do before we can come rightly to love the brethren truly there are many things but that that I am now upon is the foundation what is for the building of us up I meddle not with now for till we come to do this we cannot love at all we cannot go one step in this blessed work and that is it I shall indeavor to tell you now saith the Apostle Fulfil my joy and be like minded If there be any consolation in Christ or any comfort of love if there be any fellowship of the Spirit if there be any bowels and mercies The meaning is the Apostle exhorts them to these duties upon these motives to the following duties upon the foregoing motives As if he should say for the consolation sake that you feel in Christ Jesus that is sweet and dear for the comforts sake that you feel when you love how ful your souls are of comfort for the sake of that sweetness and pleasure that you have in the fellowship of the Spirit If there be any bowels of mercy in you any sweetness of the mercy of God in your souls or any workings of mercy or pity or affections in you grant me one desire at which I shall exceedingly rejoyce that is be like minded and have the same love c. The Apostle doth here as it is usually his manner when he exhorts to any thing he tells them not Do this or you shall be damned do this or else you are hypocrites or else the curse of God will fall on you for he carries that clearly in all his Epistles that there is no damnation to them that are in Christ and you are are not appointed unto wrath saith he but he presseth them unto it out of the sweetness and dearness of spiritual things that they apprehended Indeed to press them from arguments of hell or the curse that would have fastned a spirit of bondage on them To press them from worldly things those vanities would never have moved them therefore he takes the choisest things always as Iob saith I spake to my servants and to my wife and she answered not though I besought her for the children of my body that is the dearest thing between man and wife so the Apostle desires them by such things as these by the coming of the Lord Jesus that is the sweetest thing to a Saint saith he by these sweet and dear things I talk not of hell and it is in vain to talk of worldly motives but for the sweetness that is in spiritual things and for that price sake and the dearness that is of them and in them I beseech you grant me this request that is that ye Be like minded and have the same love That is mutual love each to other and be of one accord and of one minde This is the Motive that I Mutual love enjoyned shall open But how shall we come to love one another or to love mutually O saith he Let nothing be done through The means to attain it strife or vain glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves I told you a man is to lay this as the foundation of his love to love because God loves him not because he is beloved of men Now that he may do so he must lay this also as a general rule in his soul by the grace of Christ that he account himself and lookt on himself as less then any other of the Saints every man must account another better then himself A man must look upon himself nay I say more he must be content that others look upon him as the least Saint or else he will never love his brethren aright Beloved this above all things I finde it may be you finde more to be the greatest enemy to love high-mindedness that you look upon your selves either as the greatest of Saints you think you are some body or else you look upon your selves as of the second form near to the greatest Therefore you shall observe by experience that when you come to love any Saint if you finde that though he love you yet if he love another better and account more of the Image of God in â—â—other then in you you alway account that love no better then hatred you say such a man hates you why so because he loves three or four better then you This is pride of heart in a man he had as lieve a man should hate him as love one Saint in the world better or before him it is a sign of a devillish heart If there be a Saint or two in the Family or a woman or a servant in the Congregation that is more respected then he he thinks such a one doth not love him he concludes I am not beloved There is such a desperate pride as pride is a desperate thing alway in spiritual and in earthly things in the heart of man that makes him so desperate that if he be not loved to the height above all others that he accounts all love hatred You will not be right till you come to this that Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. I am the least of all Saints saith he and 1 Tim. 1. 7. I am the greatest of all sinners you will never be in a right frame in a Gospel frame to love your brethren till when you look on sinners you account your selves the greatest and when you look on Saints you reckon your selves the least Therefore this is a plain short Lesson I mean not to speak much of it but truly it needs a large comment on your hearts it needs a great deal of setting home upon your spirits Therefore let us every one look to our selves in this let us consider our condition my condition that I stand in and yours where you are Is not this the frame of my soul and the disposition of your souls that you never love another nor never esteem anothers love for both go together in a proud heart unless he look principally upon you â—â—â—ve all others Beloved it is much for thee and me if we understand our selves what we are and rightly judge of our selves and our course and how things are really in us and before the eyes of him that searcheth the hearts it is much for me if the poorest Saint give me but a smile or
of hell Mat. 24. they shall have their portion with hypocrites as if hell were their inheritance Yet for thy comfort know that an hypocrite is but a sinner though he be as far from heaven as any For there is that that magnifies Christs love he came to die for sinners and thy conscience tells thee I am the man that the minister meant my trading is so I know what accompts I keep and what wares I sell though thou be yet I trust God means thee so well as to bring thee to Christ and when thou art as bad as thou canst be think yet thou art but a sinner the Lord doth but rank thee among sinners learn this short word to see how hatefull hypocrisy is Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 66. 12 c. For thus saith the Lord behold I will extend peace to her like a river and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream then shall ye suck ye shall he born upon her sides and dandled upon her knees c. THe prophet in this Chapter speaks of the calling of the Gentiles by the Iews what glorious times the last times should be when the Iews that were the eldest sister as the Gentiles are called the little sister in Scripture we have a little sister and she hath no breasts when this eldest sister should go and carry the youngest when they should go and call in the Gentiles and feed them and cherish them as the eldest children use to do the youngest They shall bear them upon their sides and dandle them upon their knees as we see children nourish one another especially the elder do the younger So they should be tendered they should bring all their brethren as an offering to the Lord they should bring them upon Mules and upon swift beasts and when they could not go on foot they should put them on hors-back and if they could not ride they should put them in charets and if that were too harsh they should put them in litters that is they should do any thing to nourish them and to bring them up We may well reason if the children be so fond one of another as that they should carry them and let them hang on their sides and dandle them on their knees much more fond will the Lord be to those children Therefore in the next verse he saith As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you God shews the dearness God and the Saints fond of each other of his love by those little sparks of love in the children of God one towards another But his love is very high a kinde of fondnesse he will dandle them on the knee Why Cannot he do them good but he must dandle them in the lap There is a holy spirituall fondness between God and his people He is fond of them and they are fond of him It is not every Saint that is so thou mayest be a Saint and yet be a stranger to all that I am to speak of from this text But there is such a thing Because a Saint if he be a right Saint you cannot put before him any pitch of grace and holinesse but he seeks to attaine it As when Christs Disciples came into the companie of the Disciples of John and Johns disciples knew how to pray and they did not say they Lord teach us to pray So you need but put a higher degree of grace before a right-hearted Saint and he will be sick and never be well till he hath it Therefore I will present you with such a temper that is in some Saints that they are fond of God with a holy not with a sinfull fondnesse as your children they are fond of you sometimes with a great deal of sin but this is a holy fondnesse First I will shew you that it is so Secondly I will shew you which way God makes his children fond of himself The first thing is this that a fond childe will never Proved in five particulars suffer his father to go out of his sight Beloved one may be a Saint and yet may see his father but as a childe at nurse once a quarter or so It is ordinary with the Saints they see their father it may be at such a Sermon or at such an ordinance or in such a private chamber where they have examined their soules and it may be they do not see him in a fortnight after and they make shift with grace received with the impression of Gods love when they saw it and with a little help of the creature and the comforts of the world to hold up till they see him again this is the life of most Saints But there is such a temper of a Saint he is so fond of God that he will never let God go a moment out of his sight but he will cry after him My meaning in a word is this that there is such a temper if thou and I had attained it that God can never go out of ken but I alwayes behold him and see him alwayes beholding me in the face of Jesus Christ I am alwayes with him See it in the Saints David was a fond Child Thou scest my thoughts saith he and my speech when I sit down and when I rise up thou knowest all and whether shall I go from thy presence It was not in a hypocriticall way that he might flee from God but when I awake I am alway with thee When I walk abroad I have set God on my right hand that I might not sin when a man is alwayes in view when Gods eye is alwayes on him and his eye alwayes on God what a blessed thing is it Such a Saint let God but hide his face and he is troubled let God go but one hour from such a soul and he is ready to cry out his heart as we see in a fond childe That is the reason there is so much carnalnesse in the Saints that they have so many unsaint-like tricks like the men of the world Why They go behind Gods back they think God is a sleep a while and they may dispatch their businesse whereas Joseph said how shall I do this thing and sin against God God was in the view of him when he was with that wretched woman so a man would say how shall I pretend my office is for the good of the publike and for the glory of God when it is to in rich my family God may be out of sight and ken and yet you may be Saints but there is a more glorious life when a man always walks in Gods sight God seeing him and he seeing God These things are not for the head but the heart Now talk with thy heart a little and see what is thy temper and thy way and if thou finde it not thus tell God the minister said that there be Saints that live gloriously that are fond of God that are alway with him sleeping and waking at bed and board
they are never out of his sight Lord make me such Another thing is that a Saint that is grown fond of God he will never be still or satisfied with any creature A childe that is not fond you may give him twenty baubles whiles his mother goes to market or doth other things but if he be grown fond a thousand of those will not satisfie him So a true Saint hath much of God and little of the creature a man may be a true Saint and be much upon the creature but when the soul grows fond of God no creatures or rattles will serve if God put the creature into his hand he is glad but if God be away nothing wil serve him As a childe that is fond of his mother give him a Rattle or a Cake while he is in her hand he is glad but nothing will still him without her A third thing is this there is an exceeding boldness in a fond childe to ask any thing of his father truly such a boldness as were rude in a stranger a childe will sit in the lap of his mother and snatch a thing out of her hand So people may talk of forms how people should pray and stand half an hour confessing of sins and so come on by degrees but one that is fond of God with an holy fondness he knows he may leap into his fathers lap at any time and fall into his arms and ask any thing without courting and complement There are some Saints that cannot at any time get to God and ask any thing but they have much ado to set their hearts and to get off the guilt that is between them and God as a cloud they have much ado to get a little adoption to call God Father and to lay hold on the promises but there is such a temper of holy fondness that there needs not all or any of this God and the soul are so well acquainted and always together that as soon as ever he comes he can ask any thing and in a holy boldness snatch it for the Kingdom of heaven is taken by violence therefore saith God concerning my sons and daughters Command ye me A childe can command his father and say I must have a new coat I must have a new book or I must have a ball to play with so a Saint can say Father there is a covenant thou art my Father and I am thy childe it cannot stand with thy Truth thou wert not just if thou shouldest deny me any thing that is good O this is a holy boldness As a childe can creep into his mothers breast and pull it out with his hand yet because there is an inward love she bears with it and smiles in his face It argues a great deal of neerness to God when one is always in a readiness to ask any thing I have observed that souls that are far from God they must always go upon their knees but a soul that is neer can pray standing or walking or talking as that good man that you read of in the Book of Ezra he can pray with his hat on he can pray in his bed or where you will when he is is communion with God It is a most glorious thing and a grace that I have seen in some Saints and it hath made my soul sick to have it to have a soul alway in such a temper they can speak a spiritual word at any time as it is said of Bradford to have a heart so familiar with God that it can speak in a moment A weak Professor prays and he is put to it to the utmost for his duty in the morning and he gos behind Gods back all the day till night and unless he set aside all his work and go upon his knees he cannot pray as he buys and sells and trades Fourthly there is in a fond childe a holie carelesness of casting himself bodie and soul and familie and busines and affairs and all upon God Be carefull for nothing It is not to make careless Christians but it is true in one sense when in a holie carelesnes a man casts himself upon God It is your weakness much of your dispute concerning grace and salvation and justification a fond Childe of God smiles at it he can come near his father and catch him and hold him and say I know whom I have trusted on whom I have layd my soul As a man that puts his estate in another hands can say I know whom I have trusted A weak saint thinks little of and cares little for the service of God but he cares much for his owne safetie and security and salvation a strong fond saint takes less care for his owne salvation but he cares much for the service of Iesus Christ For thinks he let the Lord Iesus look to that he hath taken on him to die for my soul and he hath promised to receive it and he hath sayd he will not cast away them that come to him I have cast my soul on him sink or swim I will not trouble my head with that but all my thought and care shall be how I may please Iesus Christ and love and glorifie him It is a blessed pitch of grace when a saint can come to that carelessnes that a man is not thoughtfull for his soul when he hath brought it to Christ leave it there and think not of it but think of the work and will of Christ and how to honour him As suppose you meet in the way as you travell an enemy a man that it may be stands there to destroy you though you meet him you know not his purpose if you did you would go another way now when you meet the man there is one of these two things to be done either concerning your safetie or your carriage to Christ Now a saint is apt to take Christs work and lay aside his own another man doth not care in that case how he is pleasing to Christ and carries himself to him but his care is how he may get off from his enemy that he may not kill him and take away his life that is our errour we should leave that to Christ he hath put an enemy before me and he cannot kill me without Christ give him power but my care should be how to be pleasing to God and so to speak and think and do As for outward things and for the body so for the soul my care should not be so much whether I shall be damned or saved I know into whose hands I have put it but my care should be how to walk more holily and pleasing to Christ and for the edification of his Church and kingdome this a childe that is fond of God will do Fiftly a Saint that is fond of God in Iesus Christ he seeth something of God in every thing As they say of love one that is in love sees nothing with her eyes nor hears nothing with her ears but love so a
can get himself in those three things Saints under the Law in three respects out from it then he is wholy clear The Saints are under it partly either In respect of their Persons Actions Afflictions For their persons that is we do conceive that we do 1. As to their persons deal with God in some measure according to his law we think that God doth deal with us according to his law and that we deal with God in some measure according to his law Whereas we should conceive that God doth not look on me or speak to me or deal with me at all according to the law Christ having fulfilled it and I being dead to it but only in reference to grace so I deal with God as he is my Father as he is revealed to me in grace in the Doctrine of the Gospel so that if we could conceive that our persons are fully justified that all my weaknesses thoughout the day or week or year do not make me according to his Law one jot more unjust nor all my good doth not make me more just for Christ Jesus his Death and Resurrection doth that wholly therefore my person for ever is freed from the power of the Law and if I sin grace may call me to account for it and whip and scourge me with his Ferula but for the Law what have I to do with that what have I to do with a husband that is dead and buried what have I to do with the Covenant of works that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled and cancelled Therefore get your persons clear of the Law for that is it that evidenceth many times that you are not because when you sin against God then there ariseth storms within you that were once without you on Mount Sinai that blackness and darkness then you fear you are hypocrites then you finde wrath in your consciences as oft as you finde wrath that is the work of the Law for the Law worketh wrath it shews clearly that your persons are not quite freed from the Law for though there should be sorrow and more kindly and abundant sorrow then ever you felt before and care and other things yet even that wrath and horror and hardness of heart and risings of spirit against God will testifie that in some measure your persons are under the Law Ye are not under the Law Secondly Your actions I say should not be under 2 In respect of their actions the Law for as one saith as our persons are justified fully by Christ so are our actions that is whatsoever action I do or commit however that action may not be pleasing to God according to Grace or the Gospel it may not be an acceptable sacrifice as all our actions should be yet notwithstanding we should not conceive that our actions are to be squared and measured according to the rule and life of the Law which is the Covenant of works As for Instance when a man is under the Law whose actions are under the Law he labors all the day long to please God to serve and obey him but if he fail but once or twice that day in his duty there is some confusion whispered in his soul that all is lost there is more trouble for that one failing then he hath comfort for all that he hath done that day that is just the Law for the Law saith if he fail in one he is guilty of all Now if a man be under grace he rejoyceth in his sincere indeavor to honor God and he rejoyceth in the passages of that day that he hath had communion with God and where there is weakness there would be a sweet clear mourning for it in reference to God as a Father and not to have the heart estranged from God and straitned Our actions in a great measure are under the Law Our actions are freed from the Law in this life but we know not our freedom They are freed thus all arise either from flesh or spirit for those are the two beginnings the two first beeings of all Now those of the flesh for a Christian may do an action that is purely flesh that hath no good in it then that is a sin Christ Jesus hath done it away Now if it be an action that ariseth from his holy Spirit that flows from the principle of Iesus Christ that is in him the Lord accepts of it that is done already if he were able to do it yet it comes too late but onely he doth it as the honest upright indeavor of a loving childe to a dear father So could we measure our actions according to that rule our lives would be more holy and more sweet and comfortable Thirdly our afflictions or sufferings it were well 3 Relating to their afflictions if we could get out from under the lash of the Law in all these there we are deeply under it as soon as ever we are whipped then we say God hath found me out and it is true God may whip me for it because I will not take notice of it though God will not hide his countenance and his smiles from his childe one jot further then he must needs do it for fear of cockering him therefore I know if God frown and hide his face that God loves me and he would shew it but I have a base heart that at such times as that would like some sin and be wanton otherwise God hath no delight to hide his face a moment Now all my afflictions and sufferings I am not to look on them under the Law that is as though God in reference to these had a purpose to satisfie himself and his vengeance and to let his wrath fall upon me that is clearly to frustrate the death of Christ but I am to look on that as fully satisfied and done by Christ and God is more faithful then to be paid twice but I am to look upon all my afflictions as proceeding from the love of a dear father and I can take notice of many sins that displease him and he hath many Gospel-ends to do me good therefore in afflictions I admit not one hard thought of God but love him more for his favor in the Gospel If we see afflictions under grace aright then afflictions do exceedingly kindle love to God and increase our communion with him and whereas they make us run from God they would make us run to him and delight in him but we are under the Law and that makes our persons and actions and afflictions to be a burthen O that the Lord would help us to get clear of it that every one would labour to get his spirit his person his actions and his corrections and all clear of that and dead to that But ye are under grace Grace in this place as I conceive hath a very large extent and is not taken onely for that favor of God as it is usually in Scripture but there is something meant by it that shall
glorifies himself many times and a man knows not how in the world he comes to do it or why he did it or how he came about it so God doth many glorioous things by us and we are not aware This is the Lord this is the greatness of his power God in some actions he either carries a man and doth his work by a man without a man as it were or else he doth it above him There is no good almost that thou doest but thou shalt clearly see that it is above thee that it is God thou wert never able to speak or to do or to go through any such thing but the Lord went through with it It may be some of you understand not what it is to do a thing without you it is too spiritual but there are Christians that may and can say God did it without me I was as a block I know not how I was scarce active with God God did all O great and glorious is that power look which way you will what that power is in changing thy nature in destroying old Adam what that power is in resisting temptations what that power is in wrestling and prevailing with God what that power is to uphold thee in the wicked world and to preserve thee to the last day Consider it every way it is great wondrous glorious and mighty and exceeding mighty is that power that works in them that believe even the power of the Spirit of God The Spirit is called power Power it self as it were not that I deny the person of the Spirit thereby as if the Spirit were nothing but the energy or working of God that is not the meaning but he is called power because as it were he is nothing but power whatsoever he doth he doth powerfully and gloriously and effectually Angels work in little common outward things marke the difference between the assistance of the Spirit and of Angels The Angels are ministring spirits sent out to wait upon the Saints How do Angels work for us Angels make not prayers in us Angels never subdue one sin in me they can never bring peace to my conscience and soul Angels converse not in spiritual things but in outward things Angels keep thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone they keep thee from breaking thy neck they keep fire from thine house but spiritual things are done by the Spirit of God the exceeding greatness of power is by the Spirit Therefore consider of this word be not such poor low-hearted creatures to be afraid of every ill and to be discouraged from going about any good thing I say consider the power that dwels in you and indeavor to give glory to God to magnify the blessed Spirit that works in you to admire it for the more you admire the Spirit the more vile you will be in your selves and the viler you are in your selves that you attribute all to the Spirit the more glory God shall have and then things will be as they should be in the best order for God and man Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 5. 1 2. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love c. THe Apostle in this Chapter and especially in that going before exhorts the Saints to walk worthy of their calling that is to walk humbly and meekly c. towards God and men and there he shews sometimes the good they should follow and the evil they should leave promiscuously which is meant by walking worthy of their calling And here in this first verse saith he I beseech you be followers of God as dear children He puts in this motive to all the holiness he speaks of before and after that as dear children of a blessed father they would hearken to him that they would hate all the evil and cleave to all the good he had proposed to them so that the Lesson is this That The Do ∣ ctrine Our spiritual priviledges should as much ingage us to holiness as they should help on our comfort My meaning is this you know in this wicked world wherein we are this is one Gospel way that we use and practise and have been taught that whensoever we came near the Lord especially then we should indeavor to raise up our souls by the consideration of our Gospel-priviledges and the relations between us and God When you and I come to pray we study as much as we can to look on him as a father and we do well and to look on our selves as sons and daughters as those that are in Christ as those that have their sins pardoned and covered in him to look on our selves as the Spouse and Wife of Christ And all the relations we can make out and all the priviledges that are laid down in Scripture we seek to own them whereby to get up our souls to some joy and comfort before the Lord and this is a good and blessed thing when we do so for the Lord would have his children as to live holily so he delights to see them live comfortably The Lord takes delight in the prosperity of his people But here now you and I miss we do this out of a kinde of self-Self-love because we would have comfort we make use of our priviledges and plead our relations but we should also make use of them to move us to holiness and to resist sin and evil as well as to raise us to comfort and consolation And thence it is that we are so oft foyled with sin because we walk as men as the children of men as the Scripture saith we forget in what a station God hath put us in what grace and glory we stand through Jesus Christ Therefore when we are walking and conversing in the world we look on our selves as men we think of our neighbours what they would have done in such a case and it may be we thinke of natural reason it may be of corrupt reason but we do not state our selves all the day as sons and daughters of God Man naturally doth not love to reflect upon himself which saith Dr. Preston is the difference between a man and a beast take two or three children it may be one is a Lords son and another the son of a Begger they reflect upon themselves you shall see by their carriage the poor childe carries himself respectively to the other the other carries himself disdainfully to him So all people every one hath a kinde of conclusion upon himself from natural considerations Such a one carries himself high he reflects so upon himself Why he thinks he is a man of such parts of such fortunes and breeding and feature and the like and he carries himself accordingly It is so with all mankinde Now if we would have the Spirit of God shine upon our souls and draw such conclusions alway that lie in our breasts that I am a son a daughter of God one in Christ married to Christ bone of his bone and
flesh of his flesh that I may walk all the day thus cloathed with these reflexions then when we come to sin when temptation is offered it may be the devil will say such a one did it that is wiser then thou and such a one that is a fellow of the same calling then this positive actual reflexion upon the soul that thou art in Christ this would make thee say O but how shall I do it Jesus Christ died for me Jesus Christ hath washed me in his blood I am one with him What if the children of darkness do so is it fit for a childe of light what if sinners do so is it fit for a man that God hath called out of sin and out of the world is it fit for him to do so We seldome carry those reflexions about us when The Saints should reflect upon their high condition we go abroad among the snares of the world therefore we fall into sin for the older we are in grace the more full of snares the world is I could shew that you can name no place in the new Testament where our priviledges and relations are mentioned but as the holy Ghost mentions them to raise up the soul for comfort so expresly to stir us up to holiness 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love God hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! I am perswaded that the Primitive Saints in the new Testament did generally look upon themselves distinct as a Common wealth and a people redeemed out of the world and in the light of that they did so walk they did alway speak so of themselves We are the first fruits of the spirit we are the sons of God we are redeemed and bought with a price We are the sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be but when he shall come we shall be like him O this gives comfort but what then what follows He that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure This hope is somewhat like that reflexion I am speaking of when there is an actual hope in the soul of being with the Lord and an actuall positive perswasion that I am the Lords then a man will purify himself as God is pure I might mention a hundred places in the new Testament 2 Cor. 6. Come out from among them seperate your selves and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be your father and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty This is very comfortable that we shall be his sons and daughters and that he will be our Father What then In the beginning of the next Chapter Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God If we be the sons and daughters of God and he be our Father therefore we should be holy in soul and body and spirit I remember a little Story of a great Monarch though I do not much trouble you with them but it doth a little illustrate what we speak of walking with his son a Prince the great Emperor seeing little poor children to play and tumble in the dirt he said to his son Why dost not thou go and play with them Saith he I would if I did see any Kings and Princes children play with them he reflected upon himself that he was a Prince a Kings son and it was not fit for them to tumble in the dirt So you may say when you see Drunkards and Whoremongers and Extortioners if the devil tempt you in your hearts and say Why dost not thou do so why dost not thou get money as yonder man doth or labor to be great in the world O say do the sons of God use to do so to cozen and cheat and be drunk and lie If the Saints did so then it were another thing but shall I that am a Prince that am a son of God shall I be a Scullion and wallow in the dirt Therefore I say it is enough to an honest heart to propose a pitch that is above him that he never attained and what will he do he will seek and not give over till God have wrought it God wrought it in most of the Saints of old therefore let us labor with the Lord that we may have such considerations alway about us O how gloriously should we walk if we had still actuall considerations I am a son I am a daughter of God! How humbly should we walk towards our brethren how weaned from this world what Pilgrims would we be here upon earth doubtless we run and lanch into the world by forgetting of our relations and stations so that as in Gen. 6. The sons of God married the daughters of men We walk as the sons of men and miscarry as the sons and daughters of mem If we did alway walk and look upon our selves as the sons and daughters of God we should in some poor measure express something of the sons and daughters of God in every word and carriage and action towards God and men c. Expositions and Observations on PHILIPPIANS 2. 1 2 3. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves THe Lesson that the Lord gave you and me lately to consider of and to do was rightly to love the Saints to love Saints ought to love though they be not beloved our brethren and the way you remember was that we should not make that the ground of our love to our brethren because they love us but because we are beloved of God we should love though we be not beloved of men He that will not love his brethren till he be loved of them nor no further nor no longer then he is beloved he shall never love them much nor love them rightly at all because all goes upon a wrong ground and by a false rule And therefore we should set upon the practice of that duty in these times of division that whatsoever man I look on as a Saint or see the Image of God in him I should indeavor to bring my heart to love him If he love not me let him look to that I shall not answer for that that shall be laid on his score but if I love not my brother that shall be laid on my score and as my account so my comfort I mean true spiritual comfort both here and hereafter it is not in this that I am much beloved but that I love much I spake to you of that more at large then and I hope you will indeavor to bring your souls to be doers of this blessed truth as
a good look yet this is our disposition if the Saints do not observe us if one go by and do not observe us in the street and put not off his hat and speak and give us idle visitations when he knows not what to do he loves us not It is a great deal if a Saint do but come over the threshold or look upon me in the street This is that that breeds endless quarrels for they are here put together Strife and Vain glory and the like for thou wilt be alway like the Salamander feeding upon some quarrel for every man naturally hath some one thing that he feeds on principally children feed on one cate more then another and so do men some upon Husbandry some upon Navigation some upon Policy every one upon one thing or other All men have some one thing that carries the stream of their hearts some Professors the very stream of their spirits goes in quarrelling with others they no sooner end a quarrel with one Saint but they begin another they can no more live without jangling and quarrelling and strife then the Salamander can live without fire This is the reason a proud heart therefore can never close with the Saints it cannot be content with a little measure of love from the Saints A Saint if he be as he should be can love though he be not loved and can rejoyce wonderfully if he have the least measure of love from others The Lord make this short word spiritual and powerful to thee and me If this lesson were rightly learned a world of division among the Saints would cease Expositions and Observations on HEBREWES 12. 18 19 20 c. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest And the sound of a trumpet and the voyce of words which voyce they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountaine it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and the spirits of just men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven THe Apostle in these words doth compare The old and new Testament compared the old Testament the old Covenant with the new or if you will the estate of the Saints under the old Covenant of Sinai with the glorious estate of the Saints under the new Covenant Therefore he tells them Ye are not come to that mountaine that burned with fire that mountain that might be touched you are not set under the old Covenant that was terrible in which there was nothing but that that was terrible that brought horror upon all that feared God in it but ye are Come to mount Sion to the glorious state in the new Testament and there is nothing but what is amiable and what is beautiful for that is it that I mean to pitch on you shall observe in the description of the Saints in the old Testament under the old Covenant I mean not the Books of the old Testament I suppose you know what I mean in that Proposition I say there was nothing in all Gods administration with them but it was full of terror it was terrible it begat horror in them and there is nothing in the state of a Saint that is rightly setled in the Gospel but what is throughly amiable and beautiful and therefore you shall see how the Apostle reckons them First for the old he saith they were come but to a Mount that might be touched that is an earthly mountain a mountain or hill as one of our hills And that burned with fire that was terrible And there was blackness and darkness and storm and tempest covering the heavens and the hill this was terrible And there was the sound of a Trumpet you know that signifies war And there was a terrible voyce of words also and so terrible that they that heard it intreated that they might hear it no more And the Lord was so strict that if but a beast touch but the hill that was black and dark he was to be stoned or thrust through with a dart he was to be killed nay Moses himself that was to be the Mediator of the people in that Testament he did exceedingly fear and quake So that there is nothing in that old Covenant of works that God saith is done away Heb. 8. there was nothing in the old Testament but what was terrible and full of horror To come a little more particular there is nothing in the state of a Professor who is yet on Mount Sinai as many Professors are who are not yet dead but alive to the Law they are not free-men they are not sons and daughters they have not the principles of the Gospel clearly wrought in them I say those people take them in the bulk and frame of their profession there is nothing in their whole life in all the course of their profession but what is ful of horror and terror If they look upon God they see him more or less as an angry Iudg ready to stand at the catch to consume them If they look on grace in them that is so little that they continually conclude that they are hypocrites If they look on sin they look every moment when God will be avenged on them because of it If they look on affliction they say Now God hath found me out I knew it would be so that the wrath of God would be on me If they look on Christ saith he He doth not belong to me and the Promises are not mine A man that is a Professor on Mount Sinai as far as he walks in the Covenant of works or as it were by the Covenant of works so far of necessity his soul within is as Mount Sinai was without that is full of blackness and darkness and storms and tempest inevitably and unavoidably it will be so Therefore clearly this is the reason of all the troubles and horrors and terrors and uncomfortableness of your spirits because you have one foot on Mount Sinai you are not come up to Pauls pitch I through the Law am dead to the Law you are not dead to the Law you are not delivered from it I mean the Law as it is a Covenant of
own mercies as Ionah saith to imbrace some lust or other either to imbrace the world or to fall to wantonness or drunkenness or any thing else and so to bargain as Esau that sold all his blessed title in the new Testament and in Jesus Christ for a mess of pottage Beware of that prophaneness for prophaneness is not onely when men commit gross evils as we say but this is a prophane man though he be a Professor and walk civilly that though but in his heart is willing to exchange the blessed estate that God hath called him to for the best happiness in the world There are many prophane men that are not whoremongers and drunkards but are ready every day if the devil come to cheapen to give up their birthright for a mess of pottage Take heed you sell it not if you did understand it rightly you would not sell it for ten thousand worlds that condition and happiness that God hath called you to All the things in the world that can be presented to you are nothing to the peace of the Kingdom of heaven be they what they will in themselves and yet you hanâ—er after ambition or lusts or somewhat and go sell your birthright for a root of bitterness for a mess of pottage for base things I say and I am sure there is no Saint here that knows what the happiness of a Christian in the new Testament is but will say so that all the glory and riches and happiness in the world is no more in comparison of the riches and happiness of a man estated in Christ in the new Testament then a mess of pottage is compared with an inheritance Therefore beware of it desire the Lord to deliver you from a prophane heart Thirdly here is another Use that the Apostle 3. To encourage weaklings makes of it therefore this should encourage poor weak Professors that are every day ready to faint Wherefore saith he lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make strait steps to your pathes least that which is lame go out of the way The meaning is poor souls that are beaten out as it were as a ship in the sea all the week with temptations and afflictions and injuries and reproaches and threatnings and persecutions that their hands almost fall that they are ready to say as David I have washed my hands in innocencie in vain This is the way to keep up thy spirit Labor as Paul prays Phil. 1. to know the riches of thy calling to understand the glorious condition that God hath called thee to here I speak not of that in heaven hereafter but the glorious estate here if thou hadst eyes to see it and a heart to judg of it then you would not be so tormented all the week long with a few temptations and afflictions and so be ready to give up as David said I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul so I shall one of these short days prove an hypocrite a prophane man I am so haunted with temptations and so followed with sins and lusts No beloved study that blessed estate what Mount Sion what the heavenly Ierusalem is that City of the living God that God hath called you to and that will support thee Then that I may conclude Lastly this is the use 4. To study peaceableness the Apostle would have us make of it to follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see see God That is if you do understand aright your spiritual condition the happiness of it which is unspeakable then surely you will be peaceable people you will be at peace with all men for this is a general truth to me that our frowardness doth generally arise from some distemper of our own souls within I mean when a man sees that God is angry with him he is angry with others that is certain alway if God look strangely upon him he will look strangely upon others if God quarrel with him he will quarrel with others but if God smile upon the soul and shed his love into the heart and set his love upon him he will not be angry with any that are without I mean with a carnal anger that is the reason that when a mans ways please God the stones of the street shall be at peace with him Did you ever see the stones of the street angry with you but the meaning is when a mans ways are cross with God and he hath a guilty conscience a guilty soul hath no true peace he is ready almost to fall out with the stones in the street he quarrels with his servant with his horse with every thing because he hath an unquiet spirit within when a man pleaseth God the stones shall be at peace with him that is he shall be at peace with every thing Why so because there is an infinite unspeakable quiet in his own soul That is the reason we have so many Professors among us that are so bitter and cruel to others some they call Presbyters and some Independents and divers other Professors you may pick them out in every Congregation that are so sharp and terrible to others if they cross them or dissent from them never so little What is the reason because there are abundance of Professors that have one foot on Mount Sinai they walk by the Covenant of Works they have patched a feined rotten peace in them with God in Christ and so many times there is blackness and darkness within therefore they are ready to wrangle and quarrel with others without But God hath called us to Mount Sion where is that where the swords are turned into Pruning hooks and the speares into Ploughshares sighing and sorrow is gone away and there is no ravenous beast there meaning the glorious estate of the Saints in the purity of the light of the Gospel all our ravenous spirits shall be taken away for it is impossible that soul that hath the love of God shed into it and the peace of God rightly planted in it it is impossible but that soul should be milde and calm and meek and merciful and loving and courteous to all and be at peace with all and peaceable to all And for holiness Follow holiness saith the Apostle this would make you holy if you did understand your condition rightly O if you were perswaded that God did love you from eteruity and that his Son did die for you and that you and he are as really one as he is one with his Father and that all the treasures that are in Christ are yours c. this would inevitably work in us a holy frame of heart and disposition Therefore the Apostle usually calls on us to be holy from such motives I beseech you by the mercies of God and by the consolations of the Spirit do this and that and leave that and the other evil That is the reason we are lame in holiness because our principles are so
towards it the heart lyes gaping and is dead Let any lust or sin come any temptation though it be never so poor and feeble there is no resistance there is an inrode into the soul without any opposition let pride or frowardness or filthiness or covetousness and worldliness come there is nothing to resist it because the life of the soul is away which is the spirit of God And is not this an excellent thing then for a man to have the spirit of God dwelling in him that when good is proposed to him the spirit may as it were switch him It is a homely expression but I have found it by experience As a jade with a good switch is set on to the journey or to his businesse so when the soul of a man hath somewhat within to switch him to cause him to close with good things to lay hold on them to attempt them at least Whereas when the spirit is away there is no stirring the soul is as flat and as dead as water in a stinking ditch This is the excellency of the spirit Therefore you that have it prize it There are some that if they had it again as once they had they would prize it and praise God for it and would now give a world for it Therefore you that have these stirrings of the spirit in you to make you close with good and to resist evil in some measure bless God and praise his name for it That is the thing I drive at that you may see the use and worth and excellency of the Spirit of God in your souls When the Spirit of God is away from the soul all the seals of Gods Love and the signs of his Favor they are cut off at one dash as it were I mean thus when the Spirit of God dwels in the soul you could read the love of God in every Ordinance you could see it in every Grace and in every Promise in the Word of God in every thing and you could see one while your election with joy and another while Gods everlasting love with joy and another while the death of Christ and another while your union with him another while your Redemption and Reconciliation and Gods Love sealed in all these Nay in every creature you could taste the Love of God in your cloathes and your meat and every thing But let the Spirit of God be gone and all these are gone Take all Promises and Mercies and Sacraments they seal not one spark of the Love of God but they are all dead speechless things that signifie and speak no comfort at the best and it may be horror that a man may read I had almost said his Reprobation in that which a few hours before he could have read his election in and those Scriptures all along that he could sweetly have seen the Will of God in and could say that which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor hath entred into the hart of man that I have seen he can shut his Bible and say and almost swear that he understands not one tittle in it That soul that when he had the Spirit could spring with joy unspeakable and full of glory when he came before the Lord to call upon him either in publick or in private and could pour his soul into his fathers bosom that could have prayed a whole year if he had had time and strength to continue he is not able now to speak one word to the Lord. And more then so he is not now deprived only of all light of all Knowledg of all assurance of all comfort of all strength either to do good or to resist evil but there is positive horror in the heart positive fear and terror and darkness a bondage to unbelief seizing upon him That as our Lord saith The Spirit is like winde that no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes So he feels a misery in his soul that he knows not whence it comes or where it will end As it was said of the Powder plot the Powder Treason that there should be a blow given that none should know whence it was so he sees a blow given to his soul and the life of it and all that is good and excellent in it and he knows not whence it is he can say that his soul is no other then a plain hell for there is no positive evil in hell but it is there and there is no privative evil no evil of deprivation of any thing that is good but he feels it there so that in all our Religion our Graces and Duties and Assurances and Evidences the Spirit of Iesus Christ is the life of all Therefore no wonder that David who was a Type of a Gospel Christian should say Create in me O Lord a new heart andrenew and restore thy holy Spirit as if he had said since thy holy Spirit went away there is an annihilation all that is in me is annihilated He doth not say mend and repair but create I see not so much as a stump of Grace a root or a habit or any thing but all is pulled up and thou must create in me a right spirit Therefore learn that the life of all your Comfort and Assurance and Profession and Graces and Duties and all is the Spirit of God It is but the turning of Gods hand to say Come back my holy Spirit from such a soul leave him but one three hours and then he will be according as I have told you therefore saith the Apostle we are not debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit If ever you finde comfort in an Ordinance you owe thanks to the Spirit if ever you have a little assurance of Gods love whom will ye thank for it Ye are no debtors to the flesh he doth not mean you are not debtors to sin there is no man but he knows that he owes nothing to sin but saith he not to the flesh that is principally to any thing that is not the Spirit to fleshly wisdom to natural parts to our best abilities and endeavours If ever you have gotten any thing by Sabbaths or Sermons or the company of the Saints it was not from your own wisdom or pains but you are debtors to the Spirit of God it is the Spirit that wrought it therefore prize the Spirit of God you that have it O if you could but borrow the eyes of poor souls that had it once and have it not O how happy creatures would you think you are notwithstanding all outward miseries because Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit dwels in your hearts but we know not the worth of it till we want it and then we can prize it and would give a world for it And then labor to please the blessed Spirit take heed of provoking and grieving of him the Spirit is a more dainty Spirit then you are aware of you may easily vex and grieve and fret it do not dally with sin Christians
more and more for we are setling like the Jews in an outward formal Reformation without heart Now it would be terrible if the Lord should chuse our own administration and give us according to our own heart I hope he will not But this lay heavy upon my spirit to tell you of therefore the Lord direct you to make the best use you can that if it be his blessed will this place that is the honor and glory of the Kingdom and the refuge of the Saints that the Lord would not come against it FINIS THE TABLE  Page A  Abiding  ABiding with God in evil times 72 Actions  Saints not under the Law in their actions 157 Afflictions  Afflictions of godly and wicked how different 31 Afflictions turn to the good of Saints 119 The life of Faith in afflictions 130 Saints not under the Law in regard of afflictions 150 Afflictions not to be fainted in 194 Amend  All should amend when the wicked are punished 104 Angels  Angels pry into Gospel mysterie 201 Angels good and bad do it ibid. Apostacy  Apostacy a provoking sin 11 Assurance  Life of Faith in Assurance 130 Awake  Christians duty to awake God 86 B.  Betray  Not to betray Gods cause 88 Blasphemy  Blasphemy a provoking sin 9 Blessing see latter  Bristol  Gods mercy in recovering Bristol 107 C  Christ See cleaving  Christ makes all things amiable 192 Cleaving  Blessedness of cleaving to the Lord 70 Honor of cleaving to Christ in ill times 73 Special times of cleaving to God 77 Comfort  What should help Christians comfort 175 Conceits  Vain conceits of wicked men 33 Confidence  Ground of a Christians confidence 27 Consolation  Consolation a duty 40 Four things that hinder consolation ibid. Covenant  Spiritual understanding of the New Covenant effects of it 66 Covetousness  Covetousness a provoking sin 237 Creature  The vanity of the Creature why discovered 61 Conjunction  Conjunction of those that cleave to God 70 D.  Difference  Difference of Gods dealing with Saints 36 Difference between Saints and sinners 208 Discouraged  Weak Saints not to be discouraged 143 Distrust  Distrust in times of danger to be avoided 87 Division  Division among Saints a provoking sin 9 Duty See Consolation  Four grounds of Duty 149 E.  Enemies  Assurance of victory over enemies the effects of it 64 How God destroyes his enemies 85 Equality  Equality that should be between Saints 144 Evil see good  Example  Example of Saints a ground of prayer 150 F.  Faith  Faith the want of it what it doth 40 Faith the life of it 44 Faith how God tries it 83 Faith how the just live by it 128 See Affliction Assurance Sanctification  False  False dealing 237 Fondness  Holy fondness between God and the Saints 54 Holy fondness in five things 55 Fondness wrought four ways 61 Formality  Formality in duties a provoking sin 4 See Reformation  G.  Garison see Minde  God see Hypocrisie Persecutors  Good  To call evil good a provoking sin 11 See Afflictions Work  Gospel  Gospel precepts highest 162 Gospel Mysteries to be attended 202 Gospel riches to be admired 204 Gospels simplicity 225 Government  Government how to be affected 204 Greater  How to argue from less mercies to greater 120 Grace  Grace weak how to comfort it 45 Grace what meant by it 160 Of those that are under Grace 162 Power in Grace more then the Law 164 H.  Heart  Heart hardened 8 Hidden  Saints Gods hidden ones 90 Holiness  Holiness desired on wrong grounds 41 Right laboring for holiness 198 See Comfort  Hypocrisie  Hypocrisie hateful to God 48 Hipocrites honor creatures above God 50 Hypocrisie dishonors God ibid. I.  Judg.  Saints not to judg one another 143 Judgments  Maner of Gods proceeding to judgment 2 Cause of judgments what 3 Judgments why sent 103 Ingenuity  Ingenuity of right Saints 163 Justification  How to live by Faith in Justification 128 133 K.  Kiss  Holy Kiss what 145 L.  Latter Last  Blessing of the latter times 122 First shall be last how 138 Law  Saints under the Law how 156 See Persons Actions Afflictions Gospel  Learning  Learning humane wherein useful 211 Life see Faith Sanctification  Lord see cleaving  Love  Love of God what it works 62 To love though we be not loved 181 Mutual love how attained 184 M.  Minde  Garison of the minde what 16 Mingled  The life of a Christian mingled 133 Ministers  Ministers sins provoke God 149 N.  Nature  Duties grounded in nature 6 O.  Officers  Officers sins provoke God 8 Oppression  Sin of oppression 236 Ordinance  Prayer an Ordinance of God 149 Ordinances not to be neglected 152 Ordinances needful 153 P.  Patience see waiting  Peace  Peace to be studied by Saints 196 Perpetual see Prayer Persecutors Persecution  To cleave to God in persecution 78 Persecutors design 91 God persecuted in the Saints 93 Children of the godly may prove fierce persecutors 99 Persons  Persons of Saints how under the Law 156 Power  Power that Saints have 166 The Spirit called power how 173 See Grace  Prayer  Prayer a perpetual duty 151 Prayer whence it proceeds 169 Wants of prayer how supplied 170 See Ordinance Nature Precept Example Promise  Precept  Precepts ground of prayer 150 See Gospel  Promises  Promises ground of prayer 151 Protection  Protection of God who have right to it 21 Pride  Pride how discovered 185 R.  Reflect  Reflect acts hard to man 177 Saints to reflect on their estate 178 Reformation  Formal Reformation a provoking sin 5 Refuge  God a refuge 14 To repair to God as a refuge 17 Religion  Religion wherein it consists 211 Riches see Gospel  Revolting  Revolting a provoking sin 239 S.  Saints see Weak Sanctification  Life of Faith in Sanctification 129 131 Saintship to be prized 194 Satan  Grounds of Caution against Satan 202 Security  Security why to avoyd it 140 Self-love  Self-love a provoking sin 10 Shame  Iudgments sent to shame men 103 Simplicity  Simplicity of Religion 212 Simplicity of the Gospel 223 Sin  What sins provoke judgments 3 Carriage of Saints faln into sin 43 Saints carriage in a deluge of sin 77 Aggravations of sin 240 Silent  God silent in danger why 83 Soul  The soul of God departs from incorrigible sinners 244 Spirit  Spirit powerful in Saints 166 Spirit undervalued how 167 Spirit wherein powerful 169 Spirit differs Saints and Sinners 208 Spirit how known 210 Spirit to be labored for 213 Spirits excellency 215 Spirits grieving dangerous 220 Spirit to be prized 221 See Word Teaching Work Power  T.  Teaching  Teaching of the Spirit 170 Testament  Testaments compared 188 Trouble  Trouble in Saints whence 190 V.  Vengeance  Vengeance of God against the wicked 27 Union  Union between Christ and Christians 229 Upright  Uprightness ground of it 22 Uprightness how tried 84 W.  Waiting  Ground of waiting on God 112 Weak  Weak Saints not to be contemned 141 Weak Saints their carriage to stronger 142 Weak Saints to be encouraged 196 Word  Spirit to be advanced as speaking in the Word 168 Work  Who works in and for us 172 To be ready to every good work 206 FINIS