this Service for us with no less price than his precious blood the smalness of our desert to procure this together with the high priviledges it signifies us heirs unto Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on as that we should be called or accounted the Sons of God who was before without Christ c. But now made nigh through the blood of Christ How should this provoke our fervent love to him to be crying out with the Spouse in the Canticles My beloved is fair and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand Certainly my friends were our hearts truly spiritual we could not chuse but see singular desert in Jesus Christ calling for the greatest of our love in a holy affection to the in joying of him and making us prefer our communion with him in this service before all things that in this world may challenge our dearest respect It must needs therefore follow that want of love makes way for small offences to keep us from Christs Table I shall leave this to consideration and pass to the Seventh Sign of a dying Christian CHAP. VII Shewing the great decay to Christianity when mindless to Prayer with a plain discovery of the Necessity Excellency Le ts and Helps to Prayer in sixteen particulars SIGN VII VVHen you have no great mind to Prayer When a Christian is mindless of this bosome blessed intimate service of Prayer which is a drawing nigh to and talking with the great Lord God Almighty here is then ground enough to conclude his state and his decay very great Now in Prayer there is considerable First The Necessity of Prayer Secondly The Excellency of Prayer Thirdly Le ts to Prayer Fourthly Helps to Prayer First The necessity of Prayer appears from the command of God 1 Thes 5. 7. Pray without ceasing Col. 4. 21. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving 1 Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Secondly It appears from example 1 Sam. 12. 23. God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you Psal 55. 27. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray Dan. 6. 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was sign'd he went into his house and kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did at other times Thirdly The Necessity appears from the importunity that goeth along with prayer Luke 22. 44. And being in an Agony he prayed more earnestly Luke 6. 12. And it came to pass in those dayes that he went into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God Acts 12. 5. Peter therefore was kept in Prison but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church to God for him Luke 11. 8 9. I say to you though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth Secondly The Excellency of Prayer appears in this First It ingageth Gods strength Secondly It holds with holy reverence Gods hands Thirdly In no condition we can be barred from it For the first Exod. 17. 11. And it came to pass when Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed and when he let down his hands the Amalekites prevailed Josh 10. 12 13 14. Then spake Joshua or prayed to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the Children of Israel and he said in the sight of Israel Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon upon the Valley of Jaalon and the Sun stood still and the Moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies and there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkned to the prayer of a man for the Lord fought for Israel Secondly Prayers Excellency appears in this it holds with holy reverence Gods hands Exod. 32. 9 10 11 12. And the Lord said to Moses I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people Now therefore let me alone that I may destroy them and I will make of thee a great Nation And Moses besought the Lord saying Lord why doth thy wrath wax hot turn I pray thee and repent of this evil against them Numb 14. 11 22. And the Lord said to Moses how long will this people provoke me and how long will it be ere they believe me now therefore let me alone that I may destroy them Thirdly Prayers Excellency appears in that in no condition we can be barred from it Daniel in the Lyons Den Chap. 6. Jonah in the Whales Belly Chap. 1. 2. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the Fishes Belly and said I cryed by reason of my affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of Hell cryed I and thou heardest my voyce so Paul and Silas in prison prayed and sang praises to God and the prisoners heard them Now we come to Le ts to prayer i. e. what hinders Prayer from prevailing with God First presumption in an unreverent adventuring before the Lord 2 Chron. 14. and 20. 33. c. For as yet the people had not prepared their heart unto the God of their Fathers therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel Amos 4. 12. A second Let or hinderence to Prayer is wandering thoughts Jer. 4. 14. O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou maist be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be cloathed but seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Mat. 6. 32 33. The third Let to Prayer is bosome sin or pleasant delight in some secret lust Psal 66. 8. If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear me Josh 7. 8 9 10 11. The Lord saith to Joshua get thee up wherefore lyest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned they have also transgressed my covenant which I have commanded them for they have taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled and they have put it also among their own stuff therefore they could not stand before their Enemies but turned their backs This good man Joshua in Chap. 10. 12. at another time is so prevalent at Prayer that the Sun and Moon stands still yet now in his seventh Chapter because there is some bosome sin in the Camp he cannot prevail till this is removed A fourth Let is want of reconciliation to brethren Mat. 23. 23 24. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and first go and be
come not in company with them yet if you must then rebuke them for any among their great friends kindred or any other by whom perhaps they have great gain to bear with swearing blaspheming deriding at religion or other vain communications plainly argues a great slavish fear to have possessed them Secondly another Cause of this may be an impotent love that is your love to God proves weak or lame There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear hath torment Thirdly Unskilfulness in the Doctrine of self-denyal may prove a great Cause of this decay Whosoever doth not take up his Cross and follow me cannot be my Disciple behold I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befal me there save that the holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things move me neither count I my life dear to my self so I may finish my course with joy Fourthly A doubtful mind of Gods All-sufficiency and certainty to make up what damage may come through our care to his name and credit both in this life and that to come Gods All sufficiency is never so seen as in the time of greatest scarcity or under the highest straits Then stand still and see the salvation of the Lord and as Gods sufficiency is never so seen as then in like manner he is never so obliged as then When persons are suffering through his grace for his name-sake They shall lay their hands on you and persecute you and bring you before Rulers for my names-sake but I will give you a mouth and wisdome which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain-say Luke 21. 12. 13. CHAP. XVII Shewing that sinning through impatience under Offences is a certain mark of deep decay with Objections and Answers proving the degrees of anger and three Causes why Christians are impatient unto sin SIGN XVII VVHen at a small offence you are so impatient that you commit great sin It is not possible to live without offences giving or taking real or seeming and such is mans frailty in common that even under small provocations they are apt to yield to too deep an impression But for better understanding it may be necessary to make some Observation upon this Sign First As to the meaning of small Offences Secondly As to the kind of impatience here intended First By small Offences is meant either small with respect to the little occasion that is given perhaps but seemingly or if real yet so slender as it would be wisdome to wink at it and but folly to be moved by it Secondly Small as coming from the smallest occasions viz. earthly an error of life as to the things of heaven though small being that that is greater by many degrees than some error that may arise from the things of this life which by God are called the smallest matters A Christian may be easily read more or less strong or spiritual as he is more or less affected with the offences that this life minister to him Whereas there is envyings debate and strife among you are ye not carnal and walk as men 1 Cor. 3. 2. Now the kind of impatience here intended is for offences to be so moved or inraged as to run beyond the bounds of Gods alowance Be angry but sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Intimating a great aptness in persons when provoked to be so inraged as to continue and boyl in wrath seeking for revenge contrary to Gods counsel Be in malice as Children Object But it may be Objected whether an allowance of anger or impatience under provocation may not be Answ There is anger in good part and in bad part so to take offence or be angry or impatient as to thirst after personal revenge or requital surely is not good He that is so angry with his brother shall be in danger of Judgment for in their anger they slew a man and in their wrath they digged down a Wall cursed be their anger for it was fierce Gen. 49. 6 7. Here Impatience is taken in ill part and by Christians to be abhorred and avoyded it being not of that kind Exod. 32. 19. And Moses anger waxed hot full of zealous and sore displeasure not simply against their person but against their sin Thus God is said to be angry with his people when by their sins they provoke him Numb 11. 10. But Impatience and anger in ill part is such as runs out to the breaking the hedge of Government running into cursing swearing tumults fighting or brawling Object 2. But it may be again Objected that the Sign it self seems to give an allowance of great anger or impatience under great Offences for it saith When at a small offence you are so impatient that you commit great sin Answ Doubtless under great Offences greater displeasure may be manifested but let the growing heaven-born Christian set up his standard here that at no offence small or great he may dare at any hand to break down the wall in a word Be angry and sin not Ephes 4. 26. By this means we make our quarrel Gods whose vengeance is and he will righteously repay otherwise that is when impatience carries us into the path of sinning we make the quarrel our own and take Gods work from him and so incur his displeasure upon us The good Lord give in wisdome and strength to Christians here under all provocations whether great or smal in Church or Family from friend or enemy that they let patience have its perfect work rather to the suffering any wrong than committing the least sin how like our Head the Lord Jesus would this declare us to be Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth yet when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not took it most meekly and committed himself to him that judgeth righteously Object 3. But it may be objected again whether by this Superiours as Governours Parents or Masters may or not be angry with their Inferiours Answ Yes and correct them to but it must be as their drinking was in Esthers time according to the Law of Gods allowance Read for our rule in this case and let us live and die by it Nehem. 5. 6 7 9. And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words then I rebuked the Nobles and Rulers saying It is not good that you do ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the Heathen our enemies O let Christians make this their rule under all provocations to keep within the fear of God because of the reproach of the Adversary yea let your provocation be what it will or from whom it will friend or enemy child or servant them that have most cause or least cause still remember and keep to this it is better ten thousand times ten thousand patiently to suffer than impatiently to
said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live then washed I thee with water yea I throughly washed away thy blood and anointed thee with oyl Eccles 16. 6 9. compared with Chap. 36. 11. Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and abominations Here by comparing our estate with Israels estate we may read our danger with Israels danger who being apt to forget the condition God found them in and redeemed them from are charged to remember their own evil wayes This Remembrance was that that wrought such high admiration in St. Paul 1 Tim. 1. 12 13. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me that he counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious Clearly noting that Pauls remembrance of Christs goodness to him in misery encreased his esteem of Christs mercy Secondly A second Cause may be this Actual withdrawing from that wonted familiarity we use to have with Christ once if it were well with us he must know it and be praised for it if it were evil with us he must be told of it and at the least absence you could cry with the Spouse Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest and causest thy flock to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turneth aside from the flocks of thy companions Cant. 1. 17. Thus in a holy friendly intimacy claims his company if now such discover strangeness to him in being strangers to his Fould in a word at every Christians service now seldome though once often thus neglecting the means of encrease must needs cause decrease Thirdly The third Cause may be this Deep declinings to heart acquaintance The watch now over the heart is not so strict as once it was so tender in times past that every comer in and goer out must be under strict examination who they were for whether or no they went Christ Jesus earand but now the door of the heart is set open too too often at hours too unseasonable for reasons too slender to the entertaining many a strange face that never was wont to come there since the King of Glory had taken his possession for this Jeremiah complains against Jerusalem How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee They kept not their heart with all diligence knowing that out of it are the issues of life But trusting it too much were deceived and turned aside thereby Fourthly A fourth Cause may be this Decaying in love to Christs Children once your chief delight was with the Saints and especially those that excelled in vertue now dayly decaying in your love to them and acquaintance with them This Christ Jesus maketh an unerring reason He that loveth his Brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him 1 John 2. 10. If any man say I love God and hates his Brother he is a lyer for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can be love God whom he hath not seen Chap. 4. 20. Plainly asserting the impossibility of loving the greater if we love not the lesser so that to what degree there is decay in one there is the same in the other Fifthly The fifth Cause may be this Encrease of affection to perishing things At your first acquaintance with Christ the world and its offers was contemned by you now it is esteemed you had once a holy carelesness for the things of this life now an unholy carefulness for them then you sate at Jesus feet hearing his word but now cumbered with much serving Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Meaning whosoever loves the world at such a rate as to be more thoughtful after its vanities than Heavens excellencies For the love of Money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6. 10. Lastly A sixth Cause may be this The withdrawings of the holy Spirit that was once pleased and did then visit you often but now is grieved and visits you seldome that once helped you much against temptations laying for dead the deeds of the body now lets you alone to be beaten and baffled with every evil motion and this as the effect of the Spirits withdrawing whose work where ever it is being to greaten the esteem of Jesus Christ and foil temptations of every kind if not discouraged grieved and hindred for fear of which are those high Christian Precepts given not to vex it quench it or grieve it and that because as our natural body without life is voyd of action so without the holy Spirit is a Christian man dry and barren at best but like the Fig-tree something only in shew yet cursed by Jesus Christ for want of fruit When the Apostle Jude comes to speak of some that in the last dayes should turn Mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts mark how they are charactrized out These be they who separate themselves sensual Having not the Spirit Jude reckons them among the Sodomites for filthiness calls them Raging Waves Wandring Stars Murmurers Complainers worse than natural Bruit-beasts and the sum of all As being destitute of the Spirit In the midst of all Davids languishings for fear of so high a loss is not this one of his most bitter cries Cast me not away from thy presence and Take not thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51. 11. I have now done having cast my poor Mite into Gods publick Treasury as one Lift if God will to encourage the growing Christian and reduce the decaying Christian if any be bettered by it I have my end let God have the Honour To whom through Jesus Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit be all due Praises ascribed in Heart with Tongue and Conversation for ever and ever Amen ERRATA EPistle Dedicatory Page 6. Line 25. read your heart p. 9. l 1. r. Isa 55 p. 25. l. 23. for a Sign r. assigned p. 34. l. 4. f. ye r. we p. 72. l. 15. f. Reprobate r. Reproach p. 48. r. Ajâ—lon p. 51. r. Mat. 5 p. 53. r. Zech. p. 58 midle r thou wast p. 61. l. 3. 71. l 8. f. was is r. were are p. 82 l 5. f. even r noon p 92. l. 1â— f. now is r. now are p â—1 l. 14. r. observe and f Eâ—hes 2. 12. r. 2 Cor. 12. 21. p. 93. l. 6. r. of it p. 94. l 5. r. Sign p. 1,6 l. 27. f. shin r. skin
would be by way of change your hearts were wonderfully taken up with admiring this choyce that were not only of Gods preparing to Redeem you from the highest Wrath but to Redeem you to the highest Glory I fear your hearts now this change is not so new is unable to express what once though in the time you had less Knowledge you could have reported of this matter the sense of Wrath then at Gods unfolding your condition being so apparent and the necessity of a Saviour without which you must perish being so urgent put you upon that thoughtfulness of heart what to do that you might not Perish but be Saved and filled your hearts and hands so full of better Business that Husband Wife Children House Land Trade and whatsoever else till then had been dear to you now became strange in your esteem thus did you run well and of Christ Jesus were known well your fruit being sweet to his taste and love in each answered love with such delight that you could say with David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and whom in Earth in comparison of thee Was not then the light of his countenance life to you and his withdrawings your death none but Christ could satisfie you to be talking with him and walking with him and whether he is in the Garden or Wilderness or any Solitary place you must be with him nay rather could you not bleed with him than feast without him thus in nothing more happy than with your Beloved wondering greatly at this great Grace that in such a condition should find you and to such a condition bring you look back call to remembrance dayes past was it not thus with you and a thousand times more But how is it now you have seen some of the depth of Christs love and born the heat of the day in some measure Do you love him yet more and more Is Prayer Hearing Reading Weeping Watching Fasting Doing Suffering welcome still Doth the pulse of your Soul run this way stronger and stronger The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day Are ye able to speak in truth this to be your condition Or do you grow weary and faint in your mind thinking now Christs way too strait his work too great If it be come to this then it is a piece of the saddest news that ever came to thy Soul Yet God knows it is no new thing but an evil too too common among Professors who like Israel of old thought Manna while new most welcome yet in its continuance though Gods own Institution which was a reason sufficient why it still should be welcome they loath and term it light Bread thus were their goodness like a morning cloud or early dew that passeth away In like manner New Testament Churches that had fair and flourishing beginnings yet in time comes to hang down their heads and grow feeble and faint in their minds How were the Corinth Church that had been their Apostles glory and crown become his sorrow and grief what bitter messages doth God send to most of the Churches in Asia complaining that they had fallen from their first love threatning them with no less than to Unchurch and spew them out of his mouth such wild Grapes in time did this once flourishing Church bring forth and the very complaint of Jeremiah concerning Israel in them verified Chap 2. 21. Yet had I planted thee a noble Vine wholly a right Seed how then art thou turned into a degenerate Plant of a strange Vine to me My dear Brethren these are not the tyth of the sad instances that might be alledged of such as once were fair and flourishing yet in continuance of time to a sad degree left their standing and so incurred Gods sore displeasure and severity upon them all which premised proves it so far from being any of our happiness to begin well though at the rate here mentioned in our Espousal dayes that truly it will but prove an addition to our unhappiness if we shall not end well for better is the end of a thing than the beginning All which notes a Christians true good to consist as in a fair beginning so both to hold on well and above all to end well What Christian is he that will not tremble then to consider both old and new Testament Churches what fair beginnings they made and yet what dismal ends they came to as Jude complains Trees without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots The good Lord help you my Brethren and my self to lay this thing to heart that with fear and trembling we may work through our Salvation and from first to last avoyd that damning sin of carnal security that God knows doth too too much rock many Professors in our dayes into a deadly sleep who being once green and flourishing still retain a strong opinion of hereafter Glory though grown as dry and barren as the Fig-tree that Christ Jesus would not suffer to stand Thus considering with my self and musing in my mind what a fearful thing it would be for me and you that have had such like beginnings and have made as great promise of a good conclusion to fall into the hands of the living God who will strip us as naked of his Glory if here we are found wanting as ever we were born unless the falling of former Churches prove so our admonition as he that standeth takes heed lest he fall for which cause I have both for your benefit and mine own gathered together Thirty Symptomes of Growing and Thirty more of Decaying to Godliness in the first you may for present only read the Signs of Growth in the second you may read both the Signs of Decay to Godliness with the Causes and Remedies which with Gods blessing I humbly pray and hope may tend to your strengthening if Growing or to your speedy reducement if Declining Read therefore what now by the help of the Lord is brought to your eye with much seriousness and while you look upon the Book be still reflecting both upon the heart and life with this kind of searching language Is my case thus or is it thus However your own opinions may be of Growth or Decay they are your Highest Concernment Entertain therefore with all love my poor yet affectionate Dedication remembring the Marriage of the Lambe draweth nigh and his Bride must make her self ready Be sure then you be not found without your Wedding Garment but imagine your selves the very next door to Being compassed with the majesty of that day let the thoughts of it keep you company in Buying Selling Eating Drinking yea in the whole course of your Pilgrimage and follow God with incessant Prayers to fill your Souls brim full of the living Worth of hereafter Glory and the unsupportable weight of its contrary That to this great end these my poor Labours and such as these in the glory of their perfection may
and others in one of these cases As for matter will they not reply it is such as I know already as well as the Minister can tell me otherwise it is but poor weak ordinary matter and as to the manner will they not reply either he speakes too high or too loud that they like not or in their account not high enough too low that they like not otherwise in their account too fast or too slow and all this they like not Now as to the man this being first premised he is one that hath ordinary approbation and seale from heaven to his Ministry in the working through grace sinners to conversion why as to such a man they dislike him and manifest their dislike yet being asked can give no reason nay it is probable to say truly they cannot tell why they dislike him but yet they do they are not free to hear such a man Is not this a silly weakeness got among some professors the good Lord undeceive and humble such surely it 's possible for some to show deslike in some or all these cases and as little cause for â—t as Corah and his company had to dislike as they did Moses and Aaron Numb 16. 3. They gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift ye up your selves above the congregation of the Lord. How causeless this carriage was from Corab Dathan Abiram with two hundred and fifty Princes the Lord from Heaven in a way not common discovers they that die die not the common death of all men as that Chapter fully shews so heinous was their sin in Gods account to murmur against his servants without a cause And is it then a new thing that such be in Churches now in this decaying Sign of dislâ—king matter manner or man was not this very Spirit got into the Corinth Church and bold even to shew it self against that holy man St. Paul that had begotten them to the faith 2 Epist 10 For his Letters say they are weighty and powerful but his bodily presence weak and his speech contemptible Here they was not sparing to vent themselves the small cause they had yea the unreasonableness of that their dislike let the considerate judge whose conscience is not asleep Again in 1 Cor. 4. such a like Spirit discovers it self after so ungratious a rate as that Wise-mans reply will evidence in vers 3. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or mans judgment they account the Apostles fools themselves wise the Apostles weak themselves strong by all this without adding what Scripaures more might be added it is very evident if we will take the holy Spirits testimony that such persons under this very Sign were in the Apostles dayes and doth not also the testimony of a good conscience say there are such even now Object But how comes this to pass Answ This defect seems to arise from this even selfe-conceitedness tall thoughts in some of their own great abilities comparing themselves with themselves and so think what they ought not of themselves But as a help against this disease I would remind what the Apostle writes to such like people or at least to prevent such a distemper Rom. 10. 3. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man which is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think But to think Soberly as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Clearly implying that God hath not dealt to every man the same measure or knowledg or reach in Gospel truths And least they be hasty to pass Judgment upon others he would have them think soberly of themselves And when they are ready to manifest dislike rather to account it their weakness than strength and so to be silent CHAP. V. Containing five Causes of deceit fully thinking we know enough with four marks to know when we are under that deceit SIGN V. VVHen you think you know enough The greatness of this defect and the danger of it may be seen if something be premised and considered When you think you know enough that is you are grown so tall in the knowledge of God and the Ordinances of his House the way to his Kingdome the strength of your adversaries the Flesh World and Devil and the plague of your own heart for all this must be premised as being in such persons as think they know enough if their thoughts be not gross deceit and then what need of Hearing or Assembling or crying after knowledge or lifting up the voyce for understanding Is not this gross deceit grown somewhat common but of dangerous tendency to knock both heart and hand from off the means God hath ordained to encrease and sanctifie Knowledg Is not such a conceit the road way to Atheisme Were it not gotten among some sleepy Christians in the Apostles time Doth not that saying 1 Cor. 8. 2 3. directly aim at such If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know But if any man love God the same is known of him As much as if the Apostle should say you think you know much truly if you know so much as that you love God you are known of him and if you know this you know what you can know in this life but if you know not this you know nothing yet as ye ought to know whatever you think of your selves and therefore look to it that you love God and dwell not about this or that tall conceit of your knowledge but if you or any man love him the same is known of him And this I shall humbly add if any man love God the same hath learned to think soberly or meanly of himself But the danger of this appears further if we consider that some for being under this Dying Sign were about to be spewed out of Gods mouth Revel 3. 17. Because thou saist I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of Nothing yet art so ignorant or knowest not that thou art wretched miserable poor blind and naked How doth the Holy Spirit illustrate to us the miserable estate of this People under this Dying Sign Wretched one would think that enough yet he adds Miserable and that is not enough to set it out but they are Poor Blind and naked in a word they are quite the contrary to what they think of themselves and what is in growing Christians Now I shall with Gods help show some Causes of this Deceit you may think you know enough First when you measure what you know by your own eyes or light you do think so not measuring what you know by the Rule of Knowledge the Word of God 1 Cor. 10. 12. For we dare not make our selves of the number or compare
blind a light to them in darkness at the same time under the dominion of Sin But what may be the Causes of this that persons should take such pains in Religion and at the same time be but meer painted Sepulchres Answ First gross ignorance Secondly Carnal security First Gross ignorance that God did never institute Laws for Laws sake but for his Name sake and sinners saving never placing happiness in them but in him that is the Author of them O then what ignorance and madness is it for people to content themselves with flesh-circumcision God will punish such with the uncircumcised Jer. 9. last Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will punish the circumcised with or as truly as the uncircumcised for the one hath it not in the flesh and the other not in the heart Secondly Carnal security That is dream they shall be accepted because great Prayers great Preachers great goers to Church though this be good in it self yet this is filthy and bad when either it is alone or rested in When they shall say peace and safety then suddain destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5. 3. CHAP. XIX Containing in it a description of a decaying Christian by his light trouble at Miscarriages though known to Gods eye while kept from mans eye with two special Causes of this Decay SIGN XIX VVHen you are not much troubled at your own Miscarriages while they are kept from publick view By Miscarriages here I would be understood the failings and fallings of Gods Children not wilfully nor altogether willingly but through infirmity being overtaken or as it were insnared before they are aware yet truly privy to what they have done and not ignorant they have gone out of the way Nevertheless if their going thus far in sight and sense of uneven walking be found without much trouble it is most evident then their case is very sad Now who is he that lives and sins not 1 King 8. 46. And who is he that can hide what he doth from an All-seeing eye Psal 139. 7. And what is it that puts distinction between a good mans sinning and a bad mans sinning but that the one sins with all his will the other with scarce any of his will to the one what he doth is matter of delight to the other what he doth is his sickness though it is true he doth it yet his heart is grieved for it now the more or less a good man is troubled upon this score the more or less is his decay where the awful fight of Gods eye is much reverenced there all Miscarriages are soon discerned and much avoided but the lesser any man is beset with this grace lessens his fear to the greater and heightens his fear to the lesser that is Gods eye is not so much run from as mans eye one of the highest temptations to sin being secresie and one of the greatest seasons to try whether a man hath good will to do amiss or no it having in it no kind of let to touch his sensitive part with care or fear to eschew it because that visible shame that sin brings in all probability cannot come then Satan is at work mightily having the highest opportunity unless the Conscience be found very tender to strike the heart into a trembling sense of that piercing eye of the Almighty saying with Job Doth not he see my wayes and count all my steps chap. 31. 42. What else can hinder closing with temptation to a high degree now such misdoing as this of secret sinning found in any and they not much troubled because it is not made known let the sin they have committed be never so small in account yet a sin doth prove such very desolate of the grace of God Amnon one of Davids Sons being evil disposed towards Tamar his Sister is not thoughtful at all of Gods secret eye but careful how to avoid mans eye as this saying proves Have all men out from me 2 Sam 13. 9. none but Tamar must stay with him towards home he is wickedly designed running into Gods eye without all fear so he may run from mans eye It was not thus with good Joseph Jacobs son when he had as much if not more secresie and the temptation without very strong to have drawn him into high miscarriages at such a time in a resisting way gives this reply How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39. 9. In like manner Annanias and Saphira that sold their possessions under pretence of giving the price as a Free-will Offering to the Lords use but when required to speak the truth whether or no they kept any thing back in fear to mans eye rather than Gods eye sins at a high rate Lying as the Scripture gives it to the Holy Ghost Acts 5. 1 2 3 4. But as it is the practise of decaying Christians to be most careful to keep their miscarriages from mans eye in like manner their sorrow at the sight of sin is distinguishable to be different from the sorrow of the growing Christian though his miscarriage may be only known to God saying with David Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this wickedness in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest clear when thou judgest On the contrary as Jeremiah complains I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his evil saying what have I done every one turneth to his course as the Horse rusheth into the battail But I shall proceed to the Causes of this Decay Now the Causes of this which being avoyded may serve also as Remedies against this Dying Sign and they may be these two First want of fear to God Secondly want of love to God First want of fear to God he whose heart is possessed with the fear of God as knowing his greatness and his goodness his mighty power and arme to save or destroy though such a one wants no power or secresie to offend this God by committing actual evil a-against this God yet dare not cannot will not do it But were it not for the fear of God could and would do what they cannot nor dare not this held good Joseph Gen. 29. 7. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Nehem. 9. 15. But so did not I because of the fear of God these persons wanted neither power nor secresie to have complyed with the temptations before them yet they are held by this precious grace the fear of God Secondly want of love to God is a Cause of this decay did we so love him as we ought we would not so wound him by our sinning as we do Had they known him indeed it may be said had they loved him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 2 Cor. 2. 10. If any man love me he will keep my sayings and my father will love him