agere make the soule go faster that is on its way as the winde carries the tide with more swiftnesse but he cannot turn the stream of the heart contrary to its own course and tendency Secondly Satans power is so limited that he shall not do what he can God lets out so much of his wrath as shall praise him and be as a stream to set his purpose of love to his Saints on work and then lets down the flood-gate by restraining the residue thereof God ever takes him off before he can finish his work on a Saint He can if God suffers him rob the Christian of much of his joy and disturb his peace by his cunning insinuations but he is under command he stands like a dog by the Table while the Saints siâ— at this sweet feâ—st of comfort but dares not stir to roam off their cheer his Masters eye is on him The want of this consideration loseth God his praise and us our comfort God having lock't up our comfort in the performance of our duty Did the Christian consider what Satans power is and who damms it up This would alwayes be a Song of praise in his mouth Hath Satan power to rob and burn kill and slay torment the body distresse the minde whom may I thank that I am in any of these out of his hands doth Satan love one better then Job or am I out of fight or beside his walk is his courage cool'd or his wrath appeas'd that I scape so well no none of these his wrath is not against one but all the Saints his eye is on thee and his arme can reach thee his spirit is not cow'd nor his stomack stay'd with those millions he hath devoured but keen as ever yea sharper because now he sees God ready to take away and the end of the world drawing on so fast 'T is thy God alone whom thou art beholden to for all this his eye keepeth thee when Satan finds the good man asleep then he finds our good God awake therefore thou art not consumed because he changeth not Did his eye slumber or wander one moment there would need no other flood to drown thee yea the whole world then what would come out of this dragons mouth Thirdly Satans power is ministerial appointed by God for the service and benefit of the Saints 'T is true as it s said of the proud Assyrian be weaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is in his heart to destroy those he tempts but no matter what he thinks as Luther comforted himself when told what had passed at the diet at Noremburg against the Protestants that it was decreed one way there but otherwise in heaven so for the Saints comfort the thoughts which God thinks to them are peace while Satans are ruine to their graces and destruction to their soules and his counsel shall stand in spite of the devil The very mittimus which God makes when he commits any of his Saints to the devils prison runs thus Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5.5 so that tempted Saints may say we had perished if we had not perished to our own thinking This Leviathan while he thinks to swallow them up is but sent of God as the whale to Jonah to waft them safe to land Some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge them and to make them white Dan. 11.35 This God intends when he lets his children fall into temptation as we do with our linnen the spots they get at our feasts are taken out by washing rubbing and laying them out to bleech The Saints spots are most got in peace plenty and prosperity and they never recover their whitenesse to such a degree as when they come from under Satans scouring We do too little not to feare Satan we should comfort our selves with the usefulnesse and subserviency of his temptations to our good All things are yours who are Christs He that hath given life to be yours hath given death also He that hath given heaven for your inheritance Paul and Cephas his Ministers and Ordinances to help you thither hath given the world with all the afflictions of it yea the Prince of it too with all his wrath and power in order to the same end This indeed is love and wisdom in a riddle but you who have the Spirit of Christ can unfold it CHAP V. Of the time when the place where and the subjects whom Satan rules Against the Rulers of the darknesse of this world THese words contain the third Branch in the Description of our great enemy the devil and they hold forth the proper seat of his Empire with a threefold boundary he is not Lord over all that is the incommunicable title of God but a Ruler of the darknesse of this world where the time place and subjects of his Empire are stinted 1. The time when this Prince hath his rule In this world that is now not hereafter 2. The place where he rules In this world that is here below not in heaven 3. The subjects or persons whom he rules not all in this lower world neither and they are wrap't up in these words The darknesse of this world First of the first boundary SECT The time when he rules so this word world may be taken in the text for that little spot of time which like an inconsiderable parenthesis is clasp't in on either side with vast eternity call'd sometimes the present world On this stage of time this mock-King acts the part of a Prince but when Christ comes to take down this scaffold at the end of this world then he shall be degraded his crown taken off his sword broke over his head and he hist off with scorne and shame yea of a Prince become a close prisoner in hell no more then shall he infest the Saints no nor rule the wicked but he with them and they with him shall lie under the immediate execution of Gods wrath for this very end Christ hath his Pattent and Commission which he will not give up till he shall have put down all rule then and not till then will he deliver up his Oeconomical Kingdom to his Father when he shall have put down all rule for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet Satan is cast already his doom is past upon him as Adams was upon his first sin but full execution is stayed till the end of the world The devil knows it it is an Article in his Creed which made him trembling ask Christ why he came to torment him before his time Vse 1 First this brings ill newes to the wicked Your Prince cannot long sit in his throne sinners at present have a merry time of it if it would hold they rejoyce while Christs disciples weep and mourne they ruffle in their silkes
hast had against them some of them thou wilt finde poor and persecuted yet Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren neither must thou If thou findest thy heart now in such a disposition as suits these Interrogatories I dare not deny the banes yea I dare not but pronounce Christ and thee Husband and Wife Go poor soul if I may call so glorious a Bride poor Go and comfort thy self with the expectation of thy Bridegrooms coming for thee and when the evil day approaches and death it self draws nigh look not now with terrour upon it but rather revive with old Jacob to see the chariot which shall carry thee over unto the embraces of thy husband whom thou hearest to be in so great Honour and Majesty in Heaven as may assure thee he is able to make thee welcome when thou comest there Amongst the all things which are ours by being Christs the Apostle forgets not to name this to be one Death is ours And well he did so or else we should never have look't upon it as a gift but rather as a judgement Now soul thou art out of any danger of hurt that the evil day can do thee Yet there remains something for thee to do that thou mayest walk in the comfortable expectation of the evil day We see that gracious persons may for want of a holy care fall into such distempers as may put a sting into their thoughts of the evil day David that at one time would not feare to walk in the valley of the shadow of death is so affrighted at another time when he is led towards it that he cries Spare me O Lord that I may recover my strength before I go hence Psal 39. The childe though he loves his father may do that which may make him afraid to go home Now Christian if thou wouldest live in a comfortable expectation of the evil day First labour to die to this life and the enjoyments of it every day more and more Death is not so strong to him whose natural strength has been wasted by long pining sicknesse as it is to him that lies but a few dayes and has strength of nature to make great resistance Truly thus it is here that Christian whose love to this life and the contents of it hath been for many years consuming and dying will with more facility part with them then he whose love is stronger to them All Christians are not mortified in the same degree to the world Paul tells us he died daily He was ever sending more and more of his heart out of the world so that by that time he came to die all his affections were pack't up and gone which made him the more ready to follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am ready to be offered up 2 Tim. 4.6 If it be but a tooth to pull out the faster it stands the more pain we have to draw it O loosen the roots of thy affections from the world and the tree will fall more easily Secondly be careful to approve thy self with diligence and faithfulnesse to God in thy place and calling The clearer thou standest in thy own thoughts concerning the uprightnesse of thy heart in the tenure of thy Christian course the more composure thou wilt have when the evil day comes I beseech thee O Lord saith good Hezekiah at the point of death as he thought remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight This cannot be our confidence but it will be a better companion then a scoulding conscience if the blood be bad the spirits will be tainted also the more our life has been corrupted with hypocrisie and unfaithfulnesse the weaker our faith will be in a dying houre There is great difference between two children that come home at night one from the field where he hath been diligent and faithful about his fathers work and another that hath played the Truant a great part of the day the former comes inconfidently to stand before his father the other sneaks to bed is afraid his father should see him or ask where he hath been O Sirs look to your walking These have been trying times as ever came to England It has required more care and courage to keep sincerity then formerly And that is the reason why it is so rare to finde Christians especially those whose place and calling hath been more in the winde of temptation go off the stage at death with such a Plaudite of inward peace in their bosomes Thirdly familiarize the thoughts of the evil day to thy soul Handle this serpent often walk daily in the serious meditations of if do not run from them because they are unpleasing to flesh that is the way to increase the terrour of it Do with your souls when shy of and scared with the thoughts of affliction or death as you use to do with your beast that is given to bogle and start as you ride on him When he flies back and starts at a thing you do not yield to his fear and go back that will make him worse another time but you ride him up close to that which he is afraid of and in time you break him of that quality The evil day is not such a scareful thing to thee that art a Christian as thou shouldest start for it Bring up thy heart close to it Shew thy soul what Christ hath done to take the sting out of it what the sweet promises are that are given on purpose to overcome the feare of it and what thy hopes are thou shalt get by it These will satisfie and compose thy Spirit whereas the shunning the thoughts of it will but increase thy feare and bring thee more into bondage to it CHAP. VIII The second Argument with which the Exhortation is pressed drawn from the assured victory which shall crown the soules conflict if in this Armour where several Points couched in the Argument are briefly handled WE come now to the second Argument the Apostle useth further to presse the exhortation and that is taken from the glorious victory which hovers over the heads of believers while in the fight and shall surely crown them in the end this is held forth in these words And having done all to stand The phrase is short but full SECT I. First observe Heaven is not won with good words and a fair Profession Having done all The doing Christian is the man that shall stand when the empty boaster of his faith shall fall The great talkers of Religion are oft the least doers His Religion is in vaine whose Profession brings not letters testimonial from a holy life Sacrifice without obedience is Sacriledge Such rob God of that which he makes most account of A great Captain once smote one of his souldiers for railing at his enemy saying that he called him not to raile on him but to fight against him and kill him 'T is
a spiritual war you shall reade of and that not a history of what was fought many ages past and is now over but of what now is doing the Tragedy is at present acting and that not at the furthest end of the world but what concernes thee and every one that reades it The stage whereon this war is fought is every mans own soul Here is no Neuter in this war the whole world is engaged in the quarrel either for God against Satan or for Satan against God It was a great question some yeares past Who are you for The not giving a good account to which hath cost many a life O my dear friends think solemnly what answer you meane to give to God and conscience when they in a dying houre shall ask every one of you Who art thou for 'T is an incomparable mercy that you are yet where you may choose your side It will not be ever so may be not a day to an end If once in another world you must then stand to your colours yet you may run from the Devils quarters and be taken into Christs pay The Drum beats in the Gospel for Voluntiers O the Lord make you willing in the day of his power I know you all would be on the surest side O what can you be sure of while under the devils Ensigne but damnation The curse of God cleavs to him and all that takes part with him O let not the little plunder spoil of sinful pleasures and pelf bewitch you still to follow his Camp What is that souldier better for his booty he gets in a fight who before he can get off with it is himself slain upon the place so many have been served in these wars if reports be true 'T is that thou must certainly look for The piece is charg'd and aime taken at thy breast which will be thy eternal death if thou persistest Gods threatenings will go off at last and then where art thou where but in hell where thy wedge of gold and Babylonish garment thy wages of unrighteousnesse will do thee little stead O Neighbours I am loath to leave you in the way where Gods bullets flie but I must have a word for you my Christian friends who have espoused Christs quarrel and are in the field against Satan My heart is towards you who have thus willingly offered your selves among the Lords people to his help against the mighty He can destroy him without you but he takes your love as kindly as if he could not God hath sent me as Jesse did David with this little present to you and the rest of my Brethren that are in his Camp May it be but to the strengthening of your hearts and hands in fighting the Lords battels and I shall blesse God that put it into my heart thus to visit you O hold on dear friends in your Christian warfare let none take the crown from you Whet your courage at the throne of grace from whence all your recruits of soule-strength come Send faith oft up the hill of the Promise to see and bring you the certain newes of Christs coming to you yea for you and assured victory with him Reade the exploits which Christs Worthies by faith have done and in their Conquests reade your own for in them he spake with us as the Prophet of Jacob. Be thankful for every victory you get and let not the houling wildernesse yet before you put the song of your praises for temptations past out of tune yet rejoyce with trembling as those who are still in your enemies countrey and must keep by the sword what you get by the sword Be sure you stand in close order amongst your selves These times give us too many sad examples of such who first fell from communion with their Brethren and then into the devourers hand straglers are soon snap't you will finde you are safest in a body Take heed of a private spirit let not only your particular safety but of the whole Army of Saints be in your eye and care especially that company in which you march Congregation I mean that souldier which can see an enemy in fight with his brethren and not help them he makes â—t but the more easie for the enemy to slay himself at last Say not therefore Am I my brothers Keeper God would not keep him that cared not to keep his brother Watch over one another not to play the Criticks on your brothers failings and triumph when he halts but to help him up if he falls or if possible to keep him from falling by a timely rescue as Abishai came to Davids succour Keep your rank and file We see what advantage Satan hath got in these loose times since we have learnt to fight him out of order and the private souldier Christian I mean hath taken the officers work out of his hands Harden your selves against the scandals which the cowardize and treachery of false brethren hath given you He is the right souldier that is not discouraged by those that run from or that are slain in the battel but still presseth on to victory though he goes to it over the backs of others that are killed upon the place In a word Disintangle your hearts what you can from the love of and distracting cares for this present world No man that warreth intangleth himself with the affaires of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a souldier 2 Tim. 2.4 If it behoves any to have their Will ready made and their worldly interests set at some stay then surely the souldier if any souldier then the Christian Get but once your hearts mortified to the world and care rolled upon God for name estate and relations here and then you are fit to march whereever Christ will lead you The want of this hath made many run home to save their own private stake there when they should have been in the field for Christ And now my Christian friends march on not in the confidence of your Armour but in the power of his might who hath promised shortly to subdue Satan under your feet I have done only I must crave pardon of you for rending this part of the Treatise from the other which neither my little strength or leisure would suffer me to grasp at once But this having first put forth its hand in preaching can make no great breach upon that though it get the start a little in printing Let me therefore dear friends if God shall make this imperfect birth any way serviceable to your faith humbly desire that you would as continue to strive at the throne of grace for a blessing on my poor Ministery among you so also lift up a prayer that strength may be given to bring forth what of this yet is undeliver'd I do not send you thither where I intend not to meet you but shall desire grace to be found faithful in striving with you and for you that amongst
Fowler because she sees him not Thou art a faire mark for Gods vengeance he sees thee and is taking his aime at thee when thou seest not him yea thou puttest thy self under an inevitable necessity of perishihg by not thinking of this day The first step to our safety is consideration of our danger Vse 2 It reproves these who if they think of the evil day yet it is so far off that it is to little purpose They will be sure to set it at such a distance from them as shall take away the force of the meditation that it shall not strike them down in the deep sense and fear of it That cannon which if we stood at the mouth of it would shatter limb from limb will not so much as scare them that get out of its reach The further we put the evil day the weaker impression it makes on us 'T is true say sinners it cannot be help't we owe a debt to nature it must be paid sickness will come and death follow on that and judgement brings up the reare of both But alas they look not for these guests yet they prophesy of these things a great while hence to come Many a faire day they hope will intervene Thus men are very kind to themselves First they wish it may be long before it comes and then because they would have it so they are bold to promise themselves it shall be so and when once they have made this promise no wonder if they then live after the rate of their vain hopes putting off the stating of their accounts till the winter-evening of old age when they shall not have such allurements to gad abroad from the pleasures of this life O then they will do great matters to fit them for the evil day Bold man who gave thee leave to cut out such large thongs of that time which is not thine but Gods Who makes the Lease the Tenant or the Landlord or doest thou forget thou farmest thy life and art not an Owner This is the device of Satan to make you delay whereas a present expectation of the evil day would not let you sit still unprepared O why do you let your soules from their work make them idle and rest from their burdens by telling them of long life while death chop in upon you unawares O what shame will your whorish hearts be put to that now say your husband is gone afar off you may fill your selves with loves if he should come before he is look't for and finde you in bed with lusts And let me tell you sudden destruction is threatened especially to such secure ones Reade Matth. 24.48 50 51. where 't is denounced against that sort of sinners who please themselves with their Lords delaying his coming that the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an houre that he is not aware of Indeed God must go out of his ordinary road of dealing with sinners if such scape a sudden ruine One is bold to challenge any to shew a President in Scripture of any that are branded for security that some remarkable yea sudden judgement did not surprise Sodom how soon after a Sun-shine morning did the heavens thicken and bury them in a few houres by a storme of fire in their own ashes Carelesse Laish cut off before they almost think of it Agag when he saw the clouds of his fears break and faire weather was in his countenance they return immediately upon him and shut him up in death he is presently hewen in pieces Amalek slaughtered by David before the triumph of their late victory was cold Nebuchadnezzar strutting himself in his Palace with this bravado in his mouth Is not this great Babylon that I have built and before he can get the words out of his throat there is another voice falling from heaven saying O King to thee be it spoken thy Kingdome is departed from thee and the same houre it was fulfill'd and he sent to graze with the beasts Dives blessing himself for many years and within a few houres the pillow is pluck't from under his head and you heare no more of him till out of hell he roare yea a whole world few persons excepted drowned and they not know till the day the flood came Mat. 24.29 and swept them all away And who art thou O man that promisest thy self an exemption when Kings Cities a whole world have been ruined after this sort Vse 3 This reproves those who indeed think oft of this evil day much against their will by reason of an awakened conscience that is ever pinching of them and preaching on Pauls text before Felix to them till it makes them tremble as he did yet such is the power of lust in their hearts that it makes them spur on notwithstanding all the rebukes conscience gives them and affrighting thoughts they have of the evil day yet they continue in their old trade of sin desperately These wretches are the objects of our saddest pity The secure sinner that has broke prison from his conscience is like a strong-brain'd drunkard he swallows down his sin as the other doth his drink with pleasure and is not stirr'd at all but here is a man that is stomack sick as I may so say his conscience is oft disgorging his sweet draughts and yet he will sinne though with pain and anguish O consider poor wretches what you do instead of arming your selves against the evil day you arme the evil day against your selves you are sticking the bed with pins and needles on which you must ere long be laid you are throwing billets into that fiery furnace wherein at last you shall be cast and all this in spight of your consciences which yet God mercifully sets in your way that the prickings of them may be as a hedge of thornes to keep thee from the pursuit of thy lusts Know therefore if thou wilt go on that as thy conscience takes from the pleasure of thy sin at present so it will adde to the horrour of thy torment hereafter Vsue 4 It reproves those who though they are not so violent and outragious in sin to make them stink above ground in the nostrils of others yet rest in an unarm'd condition they do not flie to Christ for covering and shelter against this day of storme and tempest and the reason is they have a lie in their right hand they feed on a shell and a deceived heart carries them aside from seeking after Christ It would make one tremble to see how confident many are with their false hopes and self-confidences daring to come up as Corah with his Censer as undauntedly as Moses himself even to the mouth of the grave till on a sudden they are swallowed up with destruction and sent to be undeceiv'd in hell who would not be beaten from their refuges of lies here whoever thou art O man and whatever thou hast to glory in were it
THE CHRISTIAN IN Compleat Armour Or a TREATISE OF THE Saints War against the Devil wherein a Discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his People in his Policies Power Seat of his Empire Wickednesse and chief design he hath against the Saints A Magazin open'd FROM Whence the Christian is furnished with Spiritual Armes for the battel help't on with his Armour and taught the use of his Weapon together with the happy issue of the whole Warre The First Part. By William Gurnall Minister of the Gospel at Lavenham Imprimatur EDMUND CALAMY LONDON Printed for Ralph Smith at the Bible in Cornhill near the Royall Exchange 1655. Gurnalls CHRISTIAN ARMOVR I. P. To my Dearly Beloved Friends and Neighbours the Inhabitants of LAVENHAM My Dear Friends SOlomon saith The desire of a man is his kindenesse and a poor man is better then a liar Prov. 19.22 If you be of his minde I dare promise these Notes which I here devote to your service a kinde acceptance at your hands You will finde me to be the poor man by the mite I present you with but the hearty desire of your eternal happinesse from which it comes will I hope clear me from being the liar I never could be so serviceable to you as many Ministers are to their people having been with you in much weaknesse and still it is the good pleasure of God I should be staked down to a short tedder of strength and other abilities I have reason therefore that I may though not recompence that want yet expresse my deep sense thereof to croud the more love into the little I can do for you And truly my heart is enlarged to you and to God for you If any thing makes me loath to be gone into another world which my dropping house bids me above many prepare for it is not the least to think I shall leave no more of you walking in the way to eternal life and you who are on your way thither in no closer Gospel-order for your mutual help and comfort in your journey yea while I am among you little do you think how much of your poor Ministers life lies at your mercy If I should measure my life by the joy of it as indeed who doth not Then in some uprightnesse I can say with Paul I live as I see any of you stand fast in the Lord and die as I see others stand fast in their sins not to be moved with all the entreaties of the Gospel which have wooed you And why my dear friends should not the life of your soules be much more precious in your own sight then mine But I forbear I would not willingly be thought as some husbands are to be kinder to you abroad before strangers then I am at home What I present you with in this Treatise is a dish from your own table and so I hope will go down the better You cannot despise it though the fare be mean except you will blame your selves who chose the Cook I cannot be earnest with others to bestow so much time as to read over these plain Sermons lest it should be to their losse it were but to call them from gathering sheaves in the more fruitful labours of others to glean a few eares and those but thin also in mine yet with you my people I may be a little bold Physicians say the mothers milk though not so weighty as anothers if no noxious humour be tasted in it because natural is more proper for the childe then a strangers And I think it would not be an errour if I should say it held in the milk which the Minister gives to his flock A people conscienciously lying at the breasts of their own Minister if the milk he gives be wholesome may expect the blessing of God for their nourishment though it has not so much lusciousnesse to please the curious taster as some others Well whatever these Sermons were some of those few spirits which you found in hearing will be missing in the reading of them It is as easie to paint fire with the heat as with pen and ink to commit that to paper which occurres in preaching There is as much difference between a Sermon in the Pulpit and printed in a book as between milk in the warme breast and in a sucking bottle yet what it loseth in the lively taste is recompenced by the convenience of it The book may be at hand when the Preacher cannot and truly that 's the chief end of printing that as the bottle and spoon is used when the mother is sick or out of the way so the book to quiet the Christian and stay his stomack in the absence of the Ordinance He that readeth Sermons and good bookes at home to save his paines of going to hear is a thief to his soul in a religious habit he consults for his ease but not for his profit he eats cold meat when he may have hot He hazards the losing the benefit of both by contemning of one If the Spouse could have had her beloved at home she needed not to have coursed the streets and waited on the publick O what need we offer sacriledge for sacrifice rob God of one duty to pay him another He hath laid our work in better order one wheele would not interfere with another if we did more regularly A chief part of Davids Arithmetick of numbring our dayes lies in that which we call division as to cast the account of this our short life so as to divide the little whole summe thereof into the several portions of time due for the performing of every duty in An Instrument is not in tune except it have all the strings and those will not make good musick if the Musician hath not wisdome to cause every string to speak in its due time The Christian is not in tune except he takes in all the duties of his place and calling neither will the performance of them be harmonious in Gods eare if every one be not done in its proper season O my friends labour not only to do the duty of your place but that duty in its own place also Heare when you should hear Know your rime for closet and time for shop and when your retiring houre comes a few minutes now and then spent in taking a repetition of what formerly you heard shall not I hope another day be reckoned with your lost time The Subject of the Treatise is solemn A War between the Saint and Satan and that so bloody a one that the cruellest which ever was fought by men will be found but sport and childes play to this Alas what is the killing of bodies to destroying of soules 'T is a sad meditation indeed to think how many thousands have been sent to the grave in a few late yeares among us by the sword of man But far more astonishing to consider how many of those may be sent to hell by the sword of Gods wrath 'T is
of God except thou canst prove thy pedigree by this heroick spirit to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils The Eagle tries her young ones by the Sun Christ tries his children by their courage that dare look on the face of death and danger for his sake Mark 8.34 35. O how uncomly a sight is it a bold sinner and a fearful Saint one resolved to be wicked and a Christian wavering in his holy course to see guilt put innocency to flight and hell keep the field impudently braving it with displayed banners of open profanenesse and Saints to hide their colours for shame or run from them for feare who should rather wrap themselves in them and die upon the place then thus betray the glorious Name of God which is called upon by them to the scorne of the uncircumcised Take heart therefore O ye Saints and be strong your cause is good God himself espouseth your quarrel who hath appointed you his own Son General of the field called The Captain of our salvation He shall lead you on with courage and bring you off with honour He lived and died for you he will live and die with you for mercy and tendernesse to his souldiers none like him Trajan 't is said rent his clothes to binde up his souldiers wounds Christ poured out his blood as balm to heal his Saints wounds teares of his flesh to binde them up For prowesse none to compare with him he never turn'd his head from danger no not when hells malice and heavens justice appeared in field against him Knowing all that should come upon him went forth and said Whom seek ye John 18.4 For successe insuperable he never lost battel even when he lost his life he wan the field carrying the spoiles thereof in the triumphant chariot of his Ascension to heaven with him where he makes an open shew of them to the unspeakable joy of Saints and Angels You march in the midst of gallant spirits your fellow-souldiers every one the Son of a Prince Behold some enduring with you here below a great fight of afflictions and temptations take heaven by storme and force Others you may see after many assaults repulses and rallyings of their faith and patience got upon the walls of heaven Conquerours from whence they do as it were look down and call you their fellow-brethren on earth to march up the hill after them crying aloud Fall on and the city is your own as now it is ours who for a few dayes conflict are now crowned with heavens glory one moments enjoyment of which hath dried up all our teares healed all our wounds and made us forget the sharpnesse of the fight with the joy of our present victory In a word Christians God and Angels are Spectatours observing how you quit your selves like children of the most High every exploit your faith doth against sin and Satan causeth a shout in heaven while you valiantly prostrate this temptation scale that difficulty regain the other ground you even now lost out of your enemies hands Your deare Saviour who stands by with a reserve for your relief at a pinch his very heart leaps within him for joy to see the proof of your love to him and zeal for him in all your combates and will not forget all the faithful service you have done in his wars on earth but when thou comest out of the field will receive thee with the like joy as he was entertained himself at his return to heaven of his Father Now Christian if thou meanest thus couragiously to bear up against all opposition in thy march to heaven as thou shouldest do well to raise thy spirit with such generous and soul-ennobling thoughts so in an especial manner look thy principles be well fixt or else thy heart will be unstable and an unstable heart is weak as water it cannot excel in courage Two things are required to fix our principles First an established judgement in the truth of God He that knows not well what or whom he fights for may soon be perswaded to change his side or at least stand Neuter such may be found that go for Professours that can hardly give an account what they hope for or whom they hope in yet Christians they must be thought though they run before they know their errand or if they have some principles they go upon they are so unsetled that every winde blowes them down like loose tyles from the house top Blinde zeale is soon put to a shameful retreat while holy resolution built on fast principles lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of the waves Those that know their God shall be strong and do exploits Dan. 11.32 The Angel told Daniel who were the men that would stand to their tackling and bear up for God in that houre both of temptation and persecution which should be brought upon them by Antiochus not all the Jewes some of them should be corrupt barely by flatteries others scared by threats out of their Profession only a few of fixed principles who knew their God whom they served and were grounded in their Religion these should be strong and do exploits that is to flatteries they should be incorruptible and to power and force unconquerable Secondly a sincere aime at the right end in our Profession Let a man be never so knowing in the things of Christ if his aime be not right in his Profession that mans principles will hang loose he 'll not venture much or far for Christ no more no further then he can save his own stake A hypocrite may shew some mettal at hand some courage for a spurt in conquering some difficulties but he 'll shew himself a jade at length He that hath a false end in his Profession will soon come to an end of his Profession when he is pinch't on that toe where his corn is I meane called to deny that his naughty heart aimed at all this while now his heart sailes him he can go no further O take heed of this squint eye to our profit pleasure honour or any thing beneath Christ and heaven for they will take away your heart as the Prophet saith of wine and women that is our love and if our love be taken away there will be little courage left for Christ How couragious was Jehu at first and he tells the world it is zeale for God but why doth his heart faile him then before half his work be done his heart was never right set that very thing that stirr'd up hâ—s zeal at first at last quench't and cow'd it and that was his ambition his desire of a Kingdom made him zealous against Ahabs house to cut off them who might in time justle him besides the throne which done and he quietly setled he dare not go through-stitch with Gods work lest he should lose what he got by provoking the people with a thorough information Like some souldiers when once they meet with a rich
this Point will fall in under the next which is CHAP. IV. Of acting our faith on the Almighty Power of God as engaged for our help THat it is the Saints duty and should be their care not only to believe God Almighty but also strongly to believe that this Almighty Power of God is theirs that is engaged for their defence and help so as to make use of it in all straits and temptations SECT I. First I shall prove that the Almighty Power of God is engaged for the Christians defence with the grounds of it Secondly why the Christian should strongly act his faith on this First the Almighty Power of God is engaged for the Saints defence God brought Israel out of Egypt with an high hand but did he set them down on the other side the Red-sea to finde and force their way to Canaan by their own policie or power When he had opened the iron gate of their house of bondage and brought them into the open fields did he vanish as the Angel from Peter when out of prison No as a man carries his son so the Lord bare them in all the way they went Deut. 1.31 This doth lively set forth the Saints march to heaven God brings a soule out of spiritual Egypt by his converting grace that is the day of his power wherein he makes the soule willing to come out of Satans clutches Now when the Saint is upon his march all the countrey riseth upon him How shall this poore creature passe the pikes and get safely by all his enemies borders God himself infolds him in the arme of his everlasting strength We are kept by the Power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 The Power of God is that shoulder on which Christ carries his sheep home rejoycing all the way he goes Luke 15.5 These everlasting armes of his strength are those Eagles wings upon which the Saints are both tenderly and securely conveyed to glory Exod. 19.4 There is a five fold tie or engagement that lies upon Gods power to be the Saints life-guard First the near relation he hath to his Saints they are his own dear children every one takes care of his own the silly Hen how doth she bussle and bestir her self to gather her brood under her wing when the Kite appears No care like that which Nature teacheth How much more will God who is the Father of such dispositions in his creature stir up his whole strength to defend his children He said They are my people so be became their Saviour Isa 33.8 As if God had said Shall I sit still with my hand in my bosome while my own people are thus misused before my face I cannot beare it The Mother as she sits in her house heares one shreek and knowes the voice cries out O 't is my childe away she throws all and runs to him Thus God takes the alarm of his childrens cry I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself saith the Lord his cry pierced his eare and his eare affected his bowels and his bowels call'd up his power to the rescue of him Secondly the dear love he beareth to his Saints engageth his power He that hath Gods heart cannot want his arme Love in the creature commands all the other affections sets all the powers of the whole man on work thus in God love sets all his other attributes on work when God once pitch't his thoughts of doing good to lost man then wisdom fell on projecting the way Almighty power that undertook to raise the fabrick according to wisdomes modell All are ready to effect what God saith he likes Now the believing soule is an object of Gods choicest love even the same with which he loves his Son John 17.26 First God loves the believer as the birth of his everlasting counsel when a soul believes then Gods eternal purpose and counsel concerning him whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world and with whom his thoughts went so long big brings forth And how must God needs love that creature whom he carried so long in the wombe of his eternal purpose This goodly Fabrick of heaven and earth had not been built but as a stage whereon he would in time act what he decreed in heaven of old concerning the saving of thee and a few more his Elect and therefore according to the same rate of delight with which God pleased and entertained himself in the thoughts of this before the world was must he needs rejoyce over the soule now believing with love and complacency unconceivable and God having brought his counsel thus far towards its issue surely will raise all the power he hath rather then be disappointed of his glory within a few steps of home I mean his whole design in the believers salvation The Lord who hath chosen his Saints as Christ prayes for Joshua their representative will rebuke Satan and all their enemies Secondly God loves his Saints as the purchase of his Sons blood they cost him dear and that which is so hardly got shall not be easily lost He that was willing to expend his Sons blood to gain them will not deny his power to keep them Thirdly God loves the Saints for their likenesse to himselfe so that if he loves himself he cannot but love himself appearing in them and as he loves himself in them so he defends himself in defending them What is it in a Saint that enrageth hell but the image of God without which the war would soon be at an end It is the hatred the Panther hath to man that makes him flie at his picture For thy sake we are slain all the day long and if the quarrel be Gods surely the Saint shall not go forth to war at his own cost Thirdly the Covenant engageth Gods Almighty power Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God walk before me There is a League offensive and defensive between God and his Saints he gives it under his hand that he will put forth the whole power of his Godhead for them 1 Chron. 17.24 The Lord of Hostes is the God of Israel even a God to Israel God doth not parcel himself out by retaile but gives his Saints leave to challenge whatever a God hath as theirs and let him whoever he is sit in Gods throne and take away his crown that can fasten any untruth on the Holy One as his Name is so is his Nature a God keeping Covenant for ever The Promises stand as the mountains about Jerusalem never to be removed the weak as wel as the strong Christian is within this line of Communication Were Saints to fight it out in open field by the strength of their own grace then the strong were more likely to stand and the weak to fall in battel but both castled in the Covenant are alike safe Fourthly the Saints dependance on God and expectation from God in all their straits oblige his power for their succour whither doth a gracious soule
prisoner I cannot shake off my fetters and set my self at liberty to come unto Christ Well poor soul canst thou groan heartily under thy bondage then for thy comfort know thy deliverance is at the door he that heard the cry of Israel in Egypt will hear thine also yea come and save thee out of the hands of thy lusts He will not as some who entangle thy affections by making love to thee and then give over the suit and come at thee no more If Christ has won thy heart he 'll be true to thee and be at all the cost to bring thee out of thy prison-house also yea take the paines to come for thee himselfe and bring with him these wedding-garments in which he will carry thee from thy prison to his Fathers house with joy where thou shalt live not only as a subject under his Law but as a Bride in the bosome of his love and what can be added to thy happinesse more when thy Prince is thy husband and that such a Prince to whom all other are vassals even the Prince of the world himself and yet so gracious that his Majesty hinders not his familiar converse with thee a poor creature but addes to the condescent thereof therefore God chooseth to mixe names of greatnesse and relation together the one to sweeten the other Thy Maker is thy husband thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel The God of the whole earth shall he be called Isa 54.5 And to usher in those promises with titles of greatest dread and terrour to the creature that hold forth the greatest condescensions of love How can God stoop lower then to come and dwell with a poor humble soule which is more then if he had said such a one should dwell with him for a beggar to live at Court is not so much as the King to dwell with him in this cottage Yet this promise is usher'd in with the most magnificent titles Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit Isa 57.15 and why such titles but to take away the feares which his Saints are prone to take up from them Will the high and lofty One saith the humble soule look on me a poor worme will the Holy God come near such an unclean creature saith the contrite one Isaiah himself cried he was undone at the sight of God and this attribute proclaim'd before him Isa 6. Now God prefixeth these that the creature may know his Majesty and holinesse which seems so terrible to us are no prejudice to his love yea so gracious a Prince is thy husband that he delights rather his Saints should call him by names of love then state Thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt no more call me Baali Hos 2.16 that is my Husband not my Lord. SECT IV. The second point follows Ignorance above other sins enslaves a soule to Satan a knowing man may be his slave but an ignorant one can be no other Knowledge doth not make the heart good but it is impossible that without knowledge it should be good There are some sins which an ignorant person cannot commit there are more which he cannot but commit Knowledge is the Key Luke 11.52 Christ the door John 15. Christ opens Heaven Knowledge opens Christ In three particulars the Point will appear more fully First ignorance opens a doore for sinne to enter Secondly as ignorance lets sin in so it locks it up in the soule and the soule in it Thirdly as it locks it up so it shuts all meanes of help out First Ignorance opens the door for Satan to enter in with his troops of lusts where the watch is blinde the City is soon taken an ignorant man sins and like drunken Lot he knowes not when the tempter comes nor when he goes he is like a man that walks in his sleep knowes not where he is nor what he does Father forgive them said Christ they know not what they do The Apostle 1 Cor. 15. having reproved the sensuality of some verse 32. who made the consideration of death by which others are awed from sinne a provocative to sinne Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die he gives an account of this absurd reasoning All have not the knowledge of God An ignorant person is a man in shape and a beast in heart There is no knowledge in the land saith the Prophet Hosea 4.2 and see what a regiment followes this blinde Captain swearing lying killing stealing and what not We reade 2 Tim. 3.5 of some laden with sins here are trees full of bitter fruit and what dung shall we finde at the root that makes them so fruitfull but ignorance silly women and such who never come to the knowledge of the truth Secondly ignorance as it lets sin in so it locks it up and the soule in it such a one lies in Satans inner dungeon where no light of conviction comes darknesse inclines to sleep a blinde minde and a drowsie conscience go together When the storme arose the mariners who were awake fell a praying to their God but the sleeper feares nothing Ignorance layes the soule asleep under the hatches of stupidity God hath planted in the beast a natural feare of that which threatens hurt to it Go to thrust a beast into a pit and it hangs back nature shewes its abhorrency Man being of a nobler nature and subject to more dangers God hath set a double guard on him as a natural feare of danger so a natural shame that covers the face at the doing of any unworthy action Now an ignorant man hath slipt from both these his Keepers he sins and blusheth not because he knowes not his guilt he wants that Magistrate within which should put him to shame neither is he afraid because he knowes not his danger and therefore he playes with his sin as the childe with the waves that by and by will swallow him up Conscience is Gods alarm to call the sinner up It doth not alwayes ring in his eare that hath knowledge being usually set by God to go off at some special houre when God is speaking in an Ordinance or striking in a Providence but in an ignorant soule this is silent The Clock cannot go when the weights are taken off Conscience is only a witnesse to what it knows Thirdly ignorance shuts out the means of recovery Friends and Ministers yea Christ himself stands without and cannot help the creature as such threatenings and promises all of no use he feares not the one he desires not the other because he knows neither Heaven-way cannot be found in the dark and therefore the first thing God doth is to spring in with a light and let the creature know where he is and what the way is to get out of his prison-house without which all attempts to escape are in vain There is some shimmering
light in all Non dantur purae tenebrae I think is good Divinity as well as Philosophy and this night-light may discover many sins produce inward prickings of conscience for them yea stir up the creature to step aside rather then drown in such broad waters There are some sins so cruel and costly that the most prostrate soul may in time be weary of their service for low ends but what will all this come to if the creature be not acquainted with Christ the true way to God faith and repentance the only way to Christ such a one after all this busle in stead of making an escape from Satan will run full into his mouth another way There are some wayes which at first seem right to the traveller yet winde about so insensibly that when a man hath gone far and thinks himself near home he is carried back to the place from whence he set forth This will befall every soule ignorant of Christ and the way of life through him after many yeares travel as they think towards heaven by their good meanings blinde devotions and reformation when they shall expect to be within sight of heaven they shall finde themselves even where they were at first as very slaves to Satan as ever Vse 1 This speaks to you that are Parents see what need you have of instructing your children and training them up betimes in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Till these chaines of darknesse be knockt off their mindes there is no possibility of getting them out of the devils prison he hath no such tame slave as the ignorant soul such a one goes before Satan as the silly sheep before the butcher and knows not who he is nor whither he carries him and can you see the devil driving your children to the shambles and not labour to rescue them out of his hands Bloody parents you are that can thus harden your bowells against your own flesh Now the more to provoke you to your duty take these considerations 1. Your relation obligeth you to take care of their precious soules 'T is the soul is the child rather then the body and therefore in Scripture put for the whole man Abraham and Lot went forth with all the souls they had gotton in Haran Gen. 12. so All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt that is all the persons The body is but the sheath and if one should leave his sword with you to be kept safely for him would you throw away the blade and onely preserve the scabbard And yet parents do commonly judge of their care and love to their children by their providing for the outward man by their breeding that teaching them how to live like men as they say when they are dead and gone and comport themselves to their civil place and rank in the world These things indeed are commendable but is not the most weighty businesse of all forgotten in the meane time while no endeavour is used that they may live as Christians and know how to carry themselves in duty to God and man as such and can they do this without the knowledge of the holy rule they are to walk by I am sure David knew no means effectual without this and therefore propounds the question Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way and he resolves it in the next words By taking heed thereto according to thy word Psal 119.9 And how shall they compare their way and the Word together if not instructed our children are not borne with Bibles in their heads or hearts And who ought to be the instructer if not the parent yea who will do it with such natural affection As I have heard sometimes a mother say in other respects Who can take such pains with my childe and be so careful as my self that am its Mother Bloody parents then they are who acquaint not their children with God or his Word what do they but put them under a necessity of perishing if God stirre not up some to shew more mercy then themselves to them Is it any wonder to hear that ship to be sunk or dasht upon the rock which was put to sea without card or compasse no more is it they should ingulph themselves in sin and perdition that are thrust forth into the world which is a sea of temptation without the knowledge of God or their duty to him In the fear of God think of it parents your children have souls and these God set you to watch over It will be a poor account at the last day if you can only say Lord here are my children I bred them compleat Gentlemen left them rich and wealthy The rust of that silver you left them will witnesse your folly and sinne that you would do so much for that which rusts and nothing for the enriching their mindes with the knowledge of God which would have endured for ever happy if you had left them lesse money and more knowledge 2. Consider it hath ever been the Saints practice to instruct and teach their children the way of God David we finde dropping instruction into his sonne Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 Know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde Though a King he did not put it off to his Chaplins but whetted it on him with his own lips Neither was his Queen Bathsheba forgetful of her duty her gracious counsel is upon record Prov. 31. and that she may do it with the more seriousnesse and solemnity we finde her stirring up her motherly bowels to let her sonne see that she fetcht her words deep even from her heart What my son and what the sonne of my womb and what the sonne of my vows Ver. 2. Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence Parents know not what impression such melting expressions of their love mingled with their instructions leave on their children God bids draw forth our souls to the hungry that is more then draw our purse which may be done and the heart hard and churlish Thus we should draw forth our souls with our instructions What need I tell of Timothy's Mother and Grandmother who acquainted him with the Scripture from his youth And truly I think that man calls in question his own Saintship that takes no care to acquaint his childe with God and the way that leads to him I have known some that though prophane themselves have been very solicitous their children should have good education but never knew I a Saint that was regardlesse whether his childe knew God or not 3. It is an act of great unrighteousnesse not to instruct our children We read of some that hold the truth in unrighteousnesse among others those Parents do it that lock up the knowledge of these saving truths from their children which God hath imparted to themselves There is a double unrighteousnesse in it First they are unrighteous to their children
thee then he will come though these doors be shut and say Peace be to thee my dear childe feare not death or devils I stay to receive thy last breath and have here my Angels waiting that assoon as thy soule is breathed out of thy body they may carry and lay it in my bosome of love where I will nourish thee with those eternal joyes that my blood hath purchased and my love prepared for thee Fourthly earthly things are empty and unsatisfying We may have too much but never enough of them they oft breed loathing but never content and indeed how should they being so disproportionate to the vast desires of these immortal spirits that dwell in our bosomes A spirit hath not flesh and bones neither can it be fed with such and what hath the world but a few bones covered over with some fleshly delights to give it The lesse is blessed of the greater not the greater of the lesse These things therefore being so far inferiour to the nature of man he must look higher if he will be blessed even to God himself who is the Father of spirits God intended these things for our use not enjoyment and what folly is it to think we can squeaze that from them which God never put in them They are breasts that moderately drawn yield good milk sweet refreshing but wring them too hard and you will suck nothing but winde or blood from them We lose what they have by expecting to finde what they have not none find lesse sweetnesse and more dissatisfaction in these things then those who strive most to please themselves with them The cream of the creature floats a top and he that is not content to fleet it but thinks by drinking a deeper draught to finde yet more goes further to speed worse being sure by the disappointment he shall meet to pierce himself through with many sorrows But all these feares might happily be escaped if thou wouldest turn thy back on the creature and face about for heaven labour to get Christ and through him hopes of heaven and thou takest the right road to content thou shalt see it before thee and enjoy the prospect of it as thou goest yea finde that every step thou drawest nearer and nearer to it O what a sweet change wouldest thou finde As a sick man coming out of an impure unwholesome climate where he never was well when he gets into fresh aire or his native soile so wilt thou finde a cheering of thy spirits and reviving thy soule with unspeakable content and peace Having once closed with Christ first the guilt of all thy sinnes is gone and this spoil'd all thy mirth before all your dancing of a childe when some pin pricks it will not make it quiet or merry well now that pin is taken out which robbed thee of the joy of thy life Secondly thy nature is renewed and sanctified and when is a man at ease if not when he is in health and what is holinesse but the creature restored to his right temper in which God created him Thirdly thou becomest a childe of God and that cannot but please thee well I hope to be son or daughter to so great a King Fourthly thou hast a right to heavens glory whither thou shalt ere long be conducted to take and hold possession of that thy inheritance for ever and who can tell what that is Nicephorus tells us of one Agbarus a great man that hearing so much of Christs fame by reason of the miracles he wrought sent a Painter to take his picture and that the Painter when he came was not able to do it because of that radiancy and divine splendor which sate on Christs face Whether this be true or no I leave it but to be sure there is such a brightnesse on the face of Christ glorified and that happinesse which in heaven Saints shall have with him as forbids us that dwell in mortal flesh to conceive of it aright much more to expresse 't is best going thither to be informed and then we shall confesse we on earth heard not halfe of what we there finde yea that our present conceptions are no more like to that vision of glory we shall there have then the Sunne in the Painters table is to the Sunne it self in the Heavens And if all this be so why then do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not yea for that which keeps you from that which can satisfie Earthly things are like some trash which doth not only not nourish but take away the appetite from that which would Heaven and heavenly things are not relished by a soule vitiated with these Manna though for deliciousnesse called Angels food yet but light bread to an Egyptian palate But these spiritual things depend not on thy opinion O man whoever thou art as earthly things in a great measure do that the value of them should rise or fall as the worlds exchange doth and as vain man is pleased to rate them think gold dirt and it is so for all the royal stamp on it Count the swelling titles of worldly honour that proud dust brags so in vanity and they are such but have base thoughts of Christ and he is not the worse slight heaven as much as you will it will be heaven still and when thou comest so far to thy wits with the Prodigal as to know which is best fare husks or bread where best living among hogs in the field or in thy Fathers house then thou wilt know how to iudge of these heavenly things better till then go and make the best market thou canst of the world but look not to finde this pearle of price true satisfaction to thy soul in any of the creatures shops and were it not better to take it when thou mayest have it then after thou hast wearied thy self in vaine in following the creature to come back with shame and may be misse of it here also because thou wouldest not have it when it was offered VERSE 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand THe Apostle in these words re-assumes his former Exhortation mentioned verse 11. and presseth it with a new force from that more particular discovery which he gives of the enemy verse 12. where like a faithful Scout he makes a full report of Satans great power and malice and also discloseth what a dangerous design he hath upon the Saints no lesse then to despoil them of all that is heavenly from all which he gives them a second Alarm and bids them Arme arme Wherefore take unto you c. In the words consider First the exhortation with the inference Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God Secondly the argument with which he urgeth the exhortation and that ss double First That ye may be able to withstand in the evil
own Thus do thou consider what thou standest engaged to thy worldly credit profit slavish feare of God and selfish desire of happinesse and when thou hast allowed for all these see then what remaines of thy feare of God love to God c. if nothing thou art nought if any the lesse there be the weaker Christian thou art and when thou comest to be tried in Gods fire thou wilt suffer losse of all the other which as hay and stubble will be burnt up SECT V. Every soule clad with this Armour of God shall stand and persevere Or thus true grace can never be vanquish't The Christian is borne a Conquerour the gates of hell shall nor prevail against him He that is borne of God overcometh the world 1 John 5.4 Mark from whence the victory is dated even from his birth There is victory sowen in his new nature even that seed of God which will keep him from being swallowed up by sin or Satan As Christ rose never to die more so doth he raise soules from the grave of sin never to come under the power of spiritual death more These holy ones of God cannot see corruption Hence he that believes is said in the present tense to have eternal life At the Law that came foure hundred years after could not make void the promise made to Abraham so nothing that intervenes can hinder the accomplishing of that promise of eternal life which was given and passed to Christ in their behalf before the foundation of the world If a Saint could any way miscarry and fall short of this eternal life it must be from one of these three causes 1. Because God may forsake the Christian and withdraw his grace and help from him Or 2. Because the believer may forsake God Or lastly because Satan may pluck him out of the hands of God A fourth I know not Now none of these can be First God can never forsake the Christian Some unadvised speeches have drop't from tempted soules discovering some fears of Gods casting them off but they have been confuted and have eaten their words with shame as we see in Job and David O what admirable security hath the great God given his children in this particular First in Promises He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Five negatives in that promise as so many seals to ratifie it to our faith he assures us there never did or can so much as arise a repenting thought in his heart concerning the purposes of his love and special grace towards his children Rom. 11.29 The gifts and calling of God are without repentance even the believers sin against him their froward carriage stirs not up thoughts of casting them off but of reducing them For the iniquity of this covetousnesse I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal them Isa 57.27 28. The water of the Saints failings cast on the fire of Gods love cannot quench it Whom he loves he loves to the end Secondly God to give further weight and credit to our unbelieving and mis-giving hearts seals his promise with an oath See Isa 54.9 10. With everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer this is as the waters of Noah unto me for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should not return over the earth so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee Yea he goes on and tells them The monntaines shall depart meaning at the end of the world when the whole frame of the heavens and earth shall be dissolv'd but his kindnesse shall not depart neither shall his Covenant of peace be removed Now lest any should think this was some charter belonging to the Jewes alone we finde it v. 17. setled on every servant of God as his portion This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord. And surely God that is so careful to make his childrens inheritance sure to them will con them little thanks who busie their wits to invalid and weaken his conveyances yea disprove his will if they had taken a bribe they could not plead Satans cause better Thirdly in the actual fulfilling these promises which he hath made to beleevers to Christ their Attourney As God before the world began gave a promise of eternal life to Christ for them so now hath he given actual possession of that glorious place to Christ as their Advocate and Attourney where that eternal life shall be enjoyed by them for as he came upon our errand from heaven so thither he returned again to take and hold possession of that inheritance which God had of old promised and he in one summe at his death had paid for And now what ground of feare can there be in the believers heart concerning Gods love standiog firme to him when he sees the whole Covenant performed already to Christ for him whom God hath not only called to sanctified for and upheld in the great work he was to finish for us but also justified in his Resurrection and Jayle-delivery and received him into heaven there to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high by which he hath not only possession for us but full power to give it unto all believers A second occasion of feare to the believer that he shall not persevere may be taken from himself He has many sad feares and tremblings of heart that he shall at last forsake God The journey is long to heaven and his grace weak O saith he is it not possible that this little grace should faile and I fall short at last of glory Now here there is such provision made in the Covenant as scatters this cloud also First the Spirit of God is given on purpose to prevent this Christ left his mother with John but his Saints with his Spirit to tutour and keep them that they should not lose themselves in their journey to heaven O how sweet is that place Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them He doth not say they shall have his Spirit if they will walk in his statutes no his Spirit shall cause them to do it But may be thou art afraid thou mayest grieve him and so he in anger leave thee and thou perish for want of his help and counsel Answ The Spirit of God is indeed sensible of unkindnesse and upon a Saints sin may withdraw in regard of present assistance but never in regard of his care as a mother may let her froward childe go alone till it get a knock that may make it cry to be taken up again into her armes but still her eye is on it that it shall not fall into mischief The Spirit withdrew from Samson and he fell into the
God be more frequently conversant with it David tells us where he renewed his spiritual life and got his soul so oft into a heavenly heate when grace in him began to chill The Word he tells us quickened him This was the Sunny bank he fate under The Word draws forth the Christians grace by presenting every one with an object suitable to act upon this is of great power to rouse them up as the coming in of a friend makes us though sleepy before shake off all drowsinesse to enjoy his company Affections they are actuated when their object is before them if we love a person this is excited by sight of him or anything that mindes us of him if we hate one our blood riseth much more against him when before us Now the Word bring the Christian graces and their object together Here love may delight her self with the beholding Christ who is set out to life there in all his love and lovelinesse here the Christian may see his sins in a glasse that will not flatter him and can there any godly sorrow be in the heart any hatred of sin and not come forth while the man is reading what they cost Christ for him Secondly from the Word go to meditation this is as bellowes to the fire that grace which lies chosk't and eaten up for want of exercise will by this be cleared and break forth while thou art musing this fire will burne and thy heart grow hot within thee according to the nature of the subject thy thoughts dwell upon resolve therefore Christian to enclose some time from all worldly Suitours wherein thou mayest every day if possible at least take a view of the most remarkable occurrences that have past between God and thee First ask thy soul what takings it hath had that day what mercies heaven hath sent into thee and do not when thou hast askt the question like Pilate go out but stay till thy soul has made report of Gods gracious dealings to thee and if thou beest wise to observe and faithful to relate them thy conscience must tell thee that the cock was never turn'd the breast of mercy never put up all the day yea while thou art viewing these fresh mercies telling over this new coine hot out of the mint of Gods bounty ancient mercies they will come crowding in upon thee and call for a place in thy thoughts and tell thee what God hath done for thee moneths and years ago and indeed old debts should not be paid last give them Christian all a hearing one time or another and thou shalt see how they will work upon thy ingenious spirit It is with the Christian in this case as with some Merchants servant that keeps his Masters cash he tells his Master he hath a great summe of his by him and desires he would discharge him of it and see how his accounts stand but he can never finde him at leisure There is a great treasure of mercy alwayes in the Christians hands and conscience is oft calling the Christian to take the account and see what God has done for him but seldom it is he can finde time to tell his mercies over and is it any wonder that such should go behinde-hand in their spiritual estate who take no more notice what the gracious dealings of God are with them how can he be thankful that seldome thinks what he receives or patient when God afflicts that wants one of the most powerful arguments to pacifie a mutinous spirit in trouble and that is taken from the abundant good we receive at the hands of the Lord as well as a little evil how can such a soules love flame to God that is kept at such a distance from the mercies of God which are fuel to it and the like might be said of all the other graces Secondly reflect upon thy self and bestow a few serious thoughts upon thy own behaviour what it hath been towards God and man all along the day Ask thy soul as Elisha his servant Whence comest thou O my soul where hast thou been what hast thou done for God this day and how and when thou goest about this look that thou neither beest taken off from a through search as Jacob was by Rachels specious excuse nor be found to cocker thy self as Eli his sons when thou shalt upon enquiry take thy heart tardy in any part of thy duty take heed what thou doest for thou judgest for God who receives the wrong by thy sin and therefore will do himself justice if thou wilt not Thirdly from meditation go to prayer indeed a soul in meditation is on his way to prayer that duty leads the Christian has to this and this brings help to that when the Christian has done his utmost by meditation to excite his graces and chase his spirit into some divine heat he knows all this is but to lay the wood in order The fire must come from above to kindle and this must be fetch 't by prayer They say stars have greatest influences when they are in conjunction with the Sunne then sure the graces of a Saint should never work more powerfully then in prayer for then he is in the nearest conjunction and communion with God That Ordinance which hath such power with God must needs have a mighty influence on our selves It will not let God rest but raiseth him up to his peoples succour and is it any wonder if it be a means to rouse up and excite the Christians grace how oft do we see a dark cloud upon Davids spirit at the beginning of his prayer which by that time he is a little warme in his work begins to clear up and before he ends breaks forth into high actings of faith and acclamations of praise Only here Christian take heed of formal praying this is as baneful to grace as not praying A plaister though proper and of soveraign vertue yet if it be laid on cold may do more hurt then good Fourthly to all the former joyne fellowship and communion with the Saints thou lived amongst No wonder to hear a house is robb'd that stands far from neighbours he that walks in communion of Saints he travels in company he dwells in a City where one house keeps up another to which Jerusalem is compared 'T is observable concerning the house in whose ruines Jobs children were entombed that a winde came from the wildernesse and smote the foure corners of it it seems it stood alone the devil knowes what he does in hindering this great Ordinance of communion of Saints in doing this he hinders the progresse of grace yea brings that which Christians have into a declining wasting state The Apostle couples those two duties close together to hold fast our Profession and to consider one another and provoke unto love and to good works Heb. 10.23 24. Indeed it is a dangerous step to Apostasy to forsake the communion of Saints hence 't is said of Demas he hath left us and
embraced the present world O what mischief has Satan done us in these few late years in this one particular what is become of this communion of Saints where are there two or three to be found that can agree to walk together those that could formerly suffer together cannot sit together at their Fathers table can hardly pray one with or one for another the breath of one Christian is strange to another that once lay in his bosome This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation CHAP. V. The words opened and what is meant by the evill day That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done c. WE come to the argument with which the Apostle urgeth the exhortation and that is double The first hath respect to the houre of battel that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day The second to the happy issue of the war which will crown the Christian thus arm'd and that is certain victory and having done all stand First of the first That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day But what is this evil day Some take this evil day to comprehend the whole life of a Christian here below in this vale of tears and then the argument runs thus Take to your selves the whole Armour of God that you may be able to persevere to the end of your life which you will finde as it were one continued day of trouble and trial Thus Jacob drawes a black line over his whole life Few and evil have the days of my life been Gen. 47. What day shines so faire that over casts not before night yea in which the Christian meets not with some shower or other enough to deserve the name of an evil day Every day hath its portion yea proportion Sufficient is the evil of the day We need not borrow and take up sorrows upon use of the morrow to make up our present load as we read of daily bread so of a daily crosse Luke 9.23 which we are bid to take not to make we need not make crosses for our selves as we are prone to do God in his Providence will provide one for us and we are bid to take it up but we hear nothing of laying it down till crosse and we lie down together our troubles and our lives are coetaneous live and die together here when joy comes sorrow is at its heel staffe and rod go together Job himself whose prosperity the devil so grudg'd and set forth in all his bravery and pomp Job 1.10 as if his Sun had no shadow heare what account this good man gives of this his most flourishing time chap. 3. 26. I was not in safety neither had I rest neither was I quiet There were some troubles that broke his rest when his bed was to thinking as sort as heart could wish even now this good man tosses and tumbles from one side to the other and is not quiet If one should have come to Job and blessed him with his happy condition and said Surely Job thou couldest be content with what thou hast for thy portion if thou mightest have all this setled on thee and thy heires after thee he would have said as once Luther that God should not put him off with these Such is the Saints state in this bottome that their very life here and all the pompous entertainments of it they are their crosse because they detain them from their crown We need nothing to make our life an evil day more then our absence from our chief good which cannot be recompenced by the world nor enjoyed with it Only this goodnesse there is in this evil that it is short our life is but an evil day it will not last long and sure it was mercy that God hath abridged so much of the terme of mans life in these last dayes wherein so much of Christ and Heaven are discovered that it would have put the Saints patience hard to it to have known so much of the upper worlds glory and then be kept so long from it as the Fathers in the first age were O comfort one another Christians with this though your life be evil with troubles yet 't is short a few steps and you are out of the raine There is great difference between a Saint in regard of the evils he meets with and the wicked as two travellers riding contrary wayes both taken in the rain and wet but one rides from the raine and so is soon out of the showre but the other rides into the rainy corner the further he goes the worse he is The Saint he meets with troubles as well as the wicked but he is soon out of the showre when death comes he has faire weather but the wicked the further he goes the worse what he meets with here is but a few drops the great storme is the last The pouring out of Gods wrath shall be in hell where all the deeps of horrour are opened both from above of Gods righteous fury and from beneath of their own accusing and tormenting consciences Secondly others take the phrase in a more restrained sense to denote those particular seasons of our life wherein more especially we meet with afflictions and sufferings Beza reads it tempore adverso in the time of our adversity Though our whole life be evil if compared with Heavens blisseful state our clearest day night to that glorious morning yet one part of our life compared with another may be called good and the other evil we have our vicissitudes here The Providences of God to his Saints here while on this low bottome of earth are mixt and particoloured as was signified by the speckled horses in Zechariahs vision Red and white peace and war joy and sorrow checker our days Earth is a middle place betwixt heaven and hell and so is our state here it partakes of both we go up hill and down till we get to our journeys end yea we finde the deepest slough nearest our fathers house Death I mean into which all the other troubles of out life fall as streames into some great river and with which they all end and are swallowed up This being the comprehensive evil I conceive to be meant here being made remarkable by a double article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that day that evil day not excluding those other dayes of tribulation which intervene These are but so many petty deaths every one snatching away a piece of our lives with them or like Pages sent before to usher in this King of terrours that comes behinde The phrase being opened let us consider the strength of this first argument with which the Apostle reinforceth his exhortation of taking to our selves the whole Armour of God and that consists in three weighty circumstances First the nature and quality of this day of affliction it is an evil day Secondly the unavoidablenesse of this evil day of affliction implied in the forme of speech that