is predicated of the subject is common to every particular soule as well as to the beleeving Church For every beleever leanes by faith upon the Lord Jesus and comes out of his particular wildernesses leaning upon him And therefore I rather agree with * Non solum vicinae gentes sed etiaÌ„ ipsi qui sunt in populo hanc mirantur sic ascendenteÌ„ ex deserto Luther Luther upon the place not only saith he the Neighbour Nations but those of the same Nation shall admire her comming out of the wildernesse In short I conceive the words have a Prosopopeia in them The Church or soule speaks them as if she should have said Methinks I fancie the world standing wondring at me how I can leane upon Christ in my wildernesseconditions and out of the saddest wildernesse how I can come up by the strength of Christ leaning upon him They will wonder at my glory and honour that Christ will priviledge such a worme as I am so as to lean upon him and that he will help me They will not understand how I can come leaning in the wildernesse they will say Who is this Christs power of Grace in me will be hidden to them and yet they will admire Who is this That comes up out of the wildernes Out of a sad low condition out of a lost rugged condition out of crosses trials afflictions inward or outward But I shall open this terme more hereafter Leaning Tremellius reads it associans associatura joyning or marrying or about to joyne or marry her selfe Vatablus Hierome and Lyra read it Deliciis â—ffluens flowing abounding with delights Beda and Brightman read it Innixa leaning upon her Beloved And so our Translation The quarrell betwixt these Expositors is not so great but I conceive it may easily be thus taken up 1. Leaning is a posture of familiarity And she that is so bold as to leane upon her Beloveds arme is surely lodged in her Beloveds heart and is associans marrying or associatura about to marry to her Beloved and 2. Leaning is a posture of love too She that leanes loves and surely she takes pleasure in her posture she takes delight in her Beloveds company Upon her Beloved Christ Jesus who loves her and having first loved her is now beloved of her He is called Her to denote her propriety in him Thus you have the sence of the former part of the Text. The Church or the beleeving soule fancies that the world seeing her keep her hold on Christ in saddest conditions and keep a close communion with Christ in the midst of briars and thorns in a barren heath and dry ground in the midst of trials would be ready either out of ignorance not knowing the power of grace that upheld and helpt and sustained her or else admiring her happy and glorious condition that in the wildernesse she had such a Beloved to leane upon or admiring the strangnesse of her constancy and patience that she would adhere to Christ at such a low ebbe would either by way of scoffing or admiring cry out Who is this that nothing will part from Christ Or Who is this that Jesus Christ will thus owne and uphold in saddest conditions Or Who is this What power is this that upholds this man or woman in such estates as every one else would bee lost in Who is this that commeth by the feet of faith and patience up out of these deep sad wildernes-straights and yet comes up with such a fixed temper of spirit with such a stayed mind and with such a stedfastnesse of reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ Who is this that commeth up Thus you have the former part opened It followes now in the Text. I raised thee up under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee For the opening of these words and making my way cleare these two things must be resolved 1. Whose part of the Dialogue whose speech these words be 2. What the meaning of them is The first great question is whose part in this dialogue of love these are This is certaine they are either Christ's or the beleevers the opinions of men are divided about it Some think that the words are the continued speech of the Spouse their great reason is because the words both before it and after it are the Spouses Of this opinion are Gregory Aquinas Lyra Hierom yea and learned Mercer and M. Ainsworth There are some others that think they are the words of Jesus Christ minding the Spouse how he raised up his Church say some which I doe not deny so they doe not limit it to the body of beleevers collectively for my owne part I strongly incline to the latter viz. That the words are the words of Christ my reasons are 1. Partly because the 4 verse containes a phrase of speech with which she had twice closed a speech before viz. chap. 3. 5 6. chap. 5. 8. and partly because of the congruity which appeares to me in the sence thus The Spouse before had seemed to cast out words as if she had bin almost ashamed of Christs company and by her walking with him had made her selfe a laughing stock or a wondering stock to the world for so the phrase Who is this may also be taken to which Christ replies I raised thee c. as if he should have said and do I not deserve this and a great deale more too Remember but what I have done for thee I have raised thee up under the Apple-tree c. To which as overcome with love the soule replies v. 6. Set me as a seale c. As if she should say Truth indeed Lord thou hast done it O set me now as a seale upon thine arme as a seale upon thy heart c. A third reason is the incongruity of the sence if the word be taken as the words of the Spouse which will further appeare in the opening of the words The first question being resolved I come to the second To shew you what is the meaning of these words In doing of which 1. I shall shew you the opinion of others 2. I shall reject most of them shewing you reason why I doe so 3. I shall give you my owne opinion concerning the words and reasons for it Sort. 1 1. I will begin with such expositors as would have these words to be the Spouses words and these are either Papists or Protestants The popish expositions run together I say they that is the Spouse the beleeving soule raised thee awakened and applied thee under the apple-tree hanging upon the crosse Gregory saith that the apple-tree is procul dubio arbor sanctae crucis the tree of the holy Crosse Sort. 2 M. Ainsworth and Mercer carry it another way I saith M. Ainsworth that is the Spouse raised thee up by earnest prayer Psa 44. 24. Raised up Christ under the apple-tree the tree of free grace and life mentioned Chap. 2. 3. To this sence
or draw away the heart too much from God take up our Church-time or family duty-time or secret duty-time c. in such case they must bee forgot too 4. Comparatively they must be forgot God must be greater than they in the throne of our heart wee must not love father nor mother nor daughter nor wife nor child more than Christ So Mathew expounds that place Luk. 14. 26. in Matth. 10. 37. wee must not be lovers of any pleasures more than of Christ nor of house or lands or honour or any piece of vanity under the Sunne This is plaine for we must love Christ with all our heart and soule and though the second commandment bee thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe yet it doth not say Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy Christ 5. Lastly In effect they must be forgot Christians must doe as if they had no relations they may rejoyce and buy and sell and purchase and use the world but marke how it is in a forgetting manner 1 Cor. 7. 30. they that rejoyce must be as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as if they possest not and they that use the world as if they used it not Christians may be called by their titles of Rabbi and my Lord and Madam but while they are so they must have a scornfull low slight esteeme of these swelling words of vanity not despising the meanest of Gods Saints but ready in honour to preferre them above themselves and accounting the title of Christian of a servant of God to be a greater title of honour than worldly dignities can invest them with And now I have finished my first taske in the explication of the doctrine in which I have shewed you what of our fathers house must be forgotten 2. How farre we must forget it The second thing I propounded was to shew you how that soule is beautifull with what beauty the soule is beautifull that thus forgets its owne people and its fathers house This I shall shew you 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Not with a corporall beauty this makes not the flesh beautifull It ads no lustre to flesh and blood possibly it may discolour that 2. Not by a native beauty no naturall beauty The beauty that will appeare in the soule upon this selfe deniall is not like the beauty of the face which appears after washing off dirt which clouded natures colours 3. Not in the eye of the vaine creature nor in its owne eyes Aske a vaine creature he will tell you that the leaving of vaine dresses and patches and plaitinge of the haire is the way to make the creature look like no body to make it despised in the world c. and such a one perhaps lothes and abhors it selfe as a vile creature Jo. 42. 6. Thus it shall not be beautifull and it is no matter whether it be or no. But secondly such a soule shall bee beautifull these three wayes 1. Imputatione By the beauty of Christ put upon it see for this that notable place Ezech. 16. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Then wast thou decked with silver and gold and thy rayment was of fine linnen and silke and broidered worke and thou wert exceeding beautifull And thy renowne went forth amongst the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through the comelinesse which I had put uppon thee saith the Lord God Christ makes the reflexion of his beauty to bee cast upon such a soule and it becomes beautifull through his comelinesse the soules doing these things doth not make it spiritually any more than corporally beautifull but they being done it becomes comely through Christs comelinesse comely through a comelinesse that is put upon it that 's the first way Secondly It is beautifull 2. Through Christs Acceptation Of free grace Christ said to the young man in the 19 of Matth. Sell all thou hast c. and thou shalt have treasure in heaven not thou shalt earne it but thou shalt have it Christ accepts the soule as beautifull and accounts the soule as beautifull that for his sake will forget its owne people and its fathers house Cant. 4. 1. Behold thou art faire my love behold thou art faire thou hast doves eyes c. 3. Such a soule is beautifull though not in the worlds eyes yet in the Saints eyes The world will hate and despise them but the Saints will love and value them Cant. 6. 1. the Daughters of Hierusalem say unto the spouse whither is thy beloved gone O thou Fairest amongst women the daughters of Hierusalem the Saints account such a soule beautifull It may bee that shee may call her selfe black the greatest of sinners and the least of Saints yea and the world may so call her but those that are godly shall esteeme her comely and the King shall desire her beauty And that leads me to the last particular in the explication of the Doctrine 3. What is the meaning of that phrase The King shall desire thy beauty 1. Generally It is a speech according to the manner of men Gen. 4. 7. it is said of the husband toward the wise Vnto thee shall be his desire And wee meet with that phrase Deut. 21. 11. when thou seest amongst the Captives a beautifull woman and thy desire shall be towards her to make her thy wife 2. But more particularly I think the true meaning of the phrase may bee understood in these particulars First of all it implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall discover and see an excellency in such a soule we can desire nothing but we shall first discover some excellency in it Now the Lord discovers an excellency in such a soule hee shall eye such a soule as an excelling soule as a lovely soule worthy of him though not through its owne worthinesse and suitable for him 2. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall love such a soule discovering in it a suitable excellency he shall love it his heart will be ravished with it Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart Christs affections will be drawne out to a soule that so forgets it selfe his heart will bee melting towards it and on fire for it there must first bee a love in the soule to the object before the heart bee drawne forth to covet an union with it 3. It implies That the Lord Christ will in his heart preferre such a soule when a mans desire is towards a particular woman to make her his wife he preferres her above other women his desire is not to her sex but to her to her rather than ten thousand others The Lords desire shall bee towards such a soule As you have heard described to you that hee will preferre her above ten thousand of his creatures though the Lord sees thousands of his creatures hundreds in a congregation that the world dotes upon some for their faire faces and on others for their brave parts this Eliab and the
Mat. 7. 13 14. but then you must not look for the same journies end The Lord give you hearts to consider it and feare to tremble at it 3. And from hence thirdly you may bee instructed that it must bee something more than nature that must make a poore soule beautifull and desirably beautifull in Jesus Christs eyes It must neither bee naturall beauty will doe it nor yet naturall parts no nor natures glory nor the best of nature naturall righteousnesse Matth. 5. 20. It must be something more than flesh and bloud yea something more than flesh and bloud can helpe us with But I passe over this 4. From hence fourthly you may be instructed What an infinit love the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved his Saints with 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold saith the Apostle with what manner of love the father hath loved you with that you should be call'd the sonnes of God Here hee sayes hearken O Daughter the Daughter of a King is honourable but the daughter of the King of Kings is much more honourable But if I may say it here seemes to be a degree of love beyond it the Kings wife is more honourable than the Kings daughter Behold therefore O yee upright in heart with what manner of love the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved you that hee should desire your beauty not only love you but if uncomely poor wretches make you beautifull according to that Ezech. 16. 13 14. nay not only so but desire your beauty not onely like it but desire it O love infinit love when David sent his servants to let Abigail know that hee desired her beauty marke how she admires at it 1 Sam. 25. 41. shee arose and bowed her selfe on the earth and said Behold let thine handmaid bee a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord Doe you heare this newes O yee daughters of men doe you heare this newes that the King of glory the Lord Jesus Christ that hath no need of you that is infinitly above you hath sent me this day to tell you that hee desires your beauty Rise up O yee Saints bow your selves and say Let us be servants to wash his feet c. Let us bee the doore-keepers of his house his meanest servants No Christians you shall be his sons and daughters Nay hearken O daughters here 's more for you The King desires your beauty Spell this love at leisure and now wash your soules follow after Jesus Christ study it with your most serious thoughts live to it with strictest lives What conversation becommeth the gospell what manner of persons should you be Follow on make haste and rise and follow him singing crying as you goe O the heighth and depth the incomprehensible heighth the unfadomable depth of love wherewith the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved sinners before the beginning of the world c. And lastly 5. Can you learn a lesse result from hence than this that Saints selfe-denying despised Saints are happy creatures Terque quaterque beati blessed againe and againe Surely you have not heard mee all this while but you are preventing me in the words of the Psalmist Happy are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God we may say of them O nimium dilectis Deo creatures strangely beloved of their God strangely happy in this that the King should desire their beauty Let the world scorne one let them put out the finger and barke at the moone let them mock puritanisme let the way of holinesse be every where spoken against pro hominum arbitrio let them talke so long as you gaine you dance before the ark though Michal mock out at the window You shall be more beautifull the more vile they think you it is for the Kings sake that hath desired your beauty and scornd theirs for the Kings sake that hath chosen you to obtaine everlasting life through Jesus Christ but hath ordained them to wrath and neglected their beauty One would not think now that these creatures that ravish Christs heart should offend worldlings eyes so much surely Christ should have no judgement if these were the contemptible ones of the earth the unlovely creatures Well well Christians let them mocke on after the way which they call simplicity and foolery moping c. worship thou the God of thy fathers thou shalt have thy pleasures when they shall have torments thou shalt have thy crowne and honour when the pride of their glory shall bee stained and that shall lie in the dust These children of vanity forget what Abraham though something too late to doe him good advised their brother to remember Luk. 16. 25. That in their life time they received good things and those precious Lazarus'es evill things but yet a little while and you shall be comforted and they tormented yet a little while and you shall be honoured and they shall be cursing the wombe that bare them and the paps that gave them suck cursing the honour that ruin'd them the pleasures that damned them the worldly glory which hath made them inglorious for ever yet a little while and instead of their sweet smels they shall have the stinkes of fire and brimstone and instead of their girdles rentings of heart for ever instead of their well-set haire they shall have baldnesse they shall spend more time in rending and tearing their haire than ever they did in curling or powdring it Yet a little while and instead of their stomachers they shall have girdings with sackcloth everlasting burnings instead of their present beauty But blessed shall you bee for you shall shine like the Sun in the firmament of the father for the King hath desired your beauty I have at last done with my first use of Instruction I proceed now to a second and that shall bee of examination Vse 2 Are you willing now to know Christians whether Jesus Christ cares for you yea or no whether you be desirable in his eyes yea or no heaven and hell hang upon this thing Trie whether you have forgotten your owne people and your fathers house The most men and women are afraid of the touchstone and are willing rather to take heaven for granted though they find hell for certaine but this is not safe with you Trie your selves then Christians I will helpe you a little in so good a work 1. If you have forgotten your fathers house you have first seene a great deale of folly and vanity in it Man is a reasonable creature and will never leave any thing but he will see some cause to leave it Did the Lord ever yet convince you throughly not with a Notionall but an heart conviction of the folly of your fathers house Did the Lord ever throughly convince you of your evill wayes the sinnes of your natures the customary sinnes of your lives of your education sinnes and your beloved sinnes Had you ever a through conviction of the vanity
righteous with God to render trouble to them that trouble him we presse God with our sinnes as a cart is prest with sheaves it is his owne similitude no wonder if hee lades us with troubles to the breaking of our hearts when wee take such liberty to break his lawes I am not of their mind that think Saints troubles come not upon them for their sinnes that they come not as law demands for satisfaction I grant that they may come medicinally or meerly for the exercise of faith or patience or some other graces I also easily grant Whether wee may call them punishments or no though I see no solid reason against the affirmative in that nicety I will not dispute but this is sure enough If the Saint were not a sinner hee should not bee a sufferer neither in body nor in spirit nor in his estate nor his relations Death with all the appurtenances of it death both in the egge and bird is sinnes wages sinnes off-spring Saints by their sinnings by their inconstant and uneven walkings are causes of their own sufferings causes of their owne miseries A third head of causes for the Saints troubles may be the world And that 1. In respect of the incertainty of its comforts 1 Joh. 2. 17. The world passeth away and againe 1 Cor. 7. 31. The fashion of this world passeth away Job complaines that his welfare past away as a cloud Job 30. 15. Take what you will of the world it passeth away our friends passe away One generation goeth and another commeth Our prosperity passeth away Job's sunshines had a cloud came over them Riches take themselves the wings of the morning and flie away Now hence of course ariseth trouble when the heart of the creature is fixt upon a Relation and the Generation passeth the parent dies the husband wife child friend or what ever the Relation be it is gone Man goeth to his long home the mourners of course goe about the streets the affection remaines but the object being gone the spirit is disquieted the heart dissetled c. and so for other things Trouble followes of course upon the flitting and passing away of what the heart was let out after 2. The world is also a cause of the Saints troubles In respect of the ill nature of its inhabitants the malice of them Joh. 15. 19. Because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you The world is very selfish in its love it loves none but its own If yee were of the world the world would love its owne The world cares for none but those that are it 's owne it hateth Christ and all that claime kinred of him all that are in relation to him Joh. 15. 18. it hated Christ before it hated the Saints but hating him it hateth those that are flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones Eph. 5. 30. Thus you see various causes of the Saints troubles and so I have dispatched the third thing I promised you The fourth followes What peace is that that the Saint may have in Christ in the midst of this worlds troubles how is it in Christ and what paines hath Christ taken concerning it and how may the Saint get this peace and find it out in Christ and draw it from Christ To this I shall answer and first wee must enquire what peace is Pax est concordia Peace is an agreement say some tranquillitas ordinis a quiet of order saith Aquinas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because it drawes into an unity unio cordium rerum an union of hearts and actions say others tranquilla constitutio animorum ac rerum say others a quiet composure of differing spirits and actions Mutuus consensus say others a mutuall consent betwixt persons All amount to the same peace is a quiet composed frame of spirit amongst divers parties Now as there are many different parties in the world to agree and many different cases upon which agreements may bee so there are different sorts of peace There is an outward peace or an inward peace a peace with men and a peace with God peace with men may be either Politicall with Princes and subjects of different Kingdomes or amongst the subjects of the same Kingdome or betwixt the head and members of the same body politick or amongst men of the same City and Corporation contrary to forrain or civill warres and dissentions Or it may be domestick which is an agreement betwixt Husband and Wife Parents and Children Governours or Servants of the same family or more private betwixt party and party call'd pax sociorum the friendship and agreement of friends and companions c. All these now are the worlds peaces which Christ puts in opposition to his peace Ioh. 14. 27. Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you There is a peace that is properly called Christ's peace It was Christ's legacy hee left it by his last will and testament to his Disciples and Saints hee distinguiguisheth it from all other peace whatsoever Now in generall this is the peace that the Saints may find in Christ in the midst of this worlds troubles it is Christs peace But more particularly what is that what peace is that that the world cannot give that Christs peace This is that peace with God which is nothing else than mutuus consensus Dei hominis an agreement betwixt God and man the Creator and the creature it may be considered in the root and in the fruit in the cause and in the effect in the originall and in the coppy 1. The originall is our Justification in foro Dei in Gods Court A peace betwixt God and the soule by vertue of an Act of Oblivion that the Lord hath passed in Heaven concerning all the sinners sinnes hee hath said I will remember your sinnes no more hee makes them as if they never had beene now upon the passing this Act there is an agreement concluded betwixt God and the sinner the differing parties are one the peace is made and entered in the rolls of heaven God looks upon the sinner no more as his enemy but as his sonne daughter friend in the nearest relation to him From hence ariseth 2. A piece of conscience which is nothing else but the agreement of the sinner within himselfe Conscience that is Gods agent in the soule proclaims no more warre bids no more defiance the man is at peace with himselfe hee dare say to himselfe conscience is it peace and his conscience shall make him answer it is peace Now this peace is but the sealing up of the other in the court of the mans own bosome A coppy of the other taken out by faith according to that Rom. 5. 1. Beeing justified by faith wee have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ this is also Christ's peace Now this peace with God whether considered in the originall
the builders refused A man of no fashion in the world who cared for him did any of the Pharisees believe on him The wife you know takes her honour from her husband and usually if hee be accounted one of no fashion shee is not valued at a very high rate Saints though they be indeed the worlds pillars yet in the vulgar estimate they are the worlds burthens and where ever they live they usually live at a low rate in worldlings desires if any of note before turne puritane hee loseth his rate in the worlds thoughts presently the Gentleman loseth his honour the Lady her repute but it is because their prizers have lost their wit and their eyes and it need not much trouble a Saint for Christ desires their beauty still They have put themselves out of the worlds reckoning and heightend themselves in Christ's esteem Despise on sooles the King hath desired these soules beauty Ah! but will a poore misdoubting Christian say I am afraid they have a true object of laughter in me I am afraid I have not that desireable beauty but am a painted sepulchre were I but convinced that I had indeed truly forgot my fathers house and that the Lord Christ had indeed desired my beauty I could naile their scoffes to my heeles and mourne over their gallant follies But I feare 1 Obj. Alas I am going home to my fathers house ever and anon I am ready to yield to temptations ready to fall into sinne yea and the Lord pardon mee I fall seven times a day If I had forgot my fathers house should I have such inclinations to goe home would my heart draw so hard for vanity as it doth sometimes should I sinne so often c. I answ 1. Which way stands your affection your heart you say bends that way but which way stands your affection doe you take pleasure in such inclinations have you a good mind to sinne if you durst to returne to your old vanities if you durst only you durst not that 's an ill signe But upon such inclinations doth there presently arise a loathing in your soules doe you say Get thee behind mee Sathan that 's a good signe that though you be invited by a temptation of vaine company or the Devill c. yet you have truly forgotten your fathers house 2. You goe home sometimes you say it may be you fall into some of your former vaine courses and are with some of your vaine companions But I pray What doe you when you are in your fathers house are you pleased with your vanities or with the vanities of your friends or doe you spend your time in chiding It may be your heart sometimes declines to some vanity or you are sometimes in converse with vain persons Are you one with vanity one with sinners or doe your spirits rise against your selves and against the vanities of those with whom you are What indignation is wrought if any you may have forgot your fathers house for all this going home 3. You goe home sometimes you say But I pray How long doe you stay there Is sinne your trade Doe you live in knowne sinnes this indeed will argue your profession but hypocrisie But on the contrary though you fall through weaknesse yet doe you rise through grace though you sinne sometimes yet is sinne as Davids concupiscence call'd a stranger in the Parable Thus the best Saints have sinn'd yea and may sinne not of wilfulnesse but of weaknesse not trading in sinne nor lying in it but falling into it and rising by repentance 2. Obj. Ah! but will another Christian say I cannot deny my selfe in the company of my fathers house wretch that I am I got acquaintance when I was young with vaine persons or I am related to such and I dare not say but I love their company and oft times leave better for them neither can I deny my selfe in my relations My heart is excessively let out after them 1. Thou saiest thou art oft times yet a companion of vaine persons but consider Christian are they thy invited ghests or accidentall meerly are they intruders or are they the welcome crmpanions of thy life are they thy pickt company or no thy intimates or meerly companions in respect of thy trade and converse with the world If thou delightest not in them they indeed are sometimes thy companions but thou art not theirs 2. Art thou a companion with them in sinne or onely in civill actions or for discourse c. sometimes if the first indeed it is a signe thou hast not left thy fathers house but if the latter onely it is no such signe thou keepest thy course they come to thee and it may be disturbe thee but thou doest not goe to them 3. Thou sayest thou lovest them But it would be considered Whether thy love be meerly naturall or more It may be thou lovest them because they are witty people or of ingenuous dispositions Thus Christ loved the young man Matth. 19. and thus thou mayest love them It is an ill signe if thou lovest them because they will drinke or sweare or bee vain and wanton in their discourse or carriages 4. Thou sayest thou lovest thy relations and thou canst not deny thy selfe in them thy heart is so glued to them c. and God forbid but thou shouldst love them 1. with a naturall affection it s a signe of a wretch Rom. 1. 31. to be without naturall affection and 2. with a providentiall love and care hee that provides not for his family saith the Apostle is worse than an infidell But 1. Suppose Christ should call thee to suffer for him and thou hadst a good mind to it and they should plead hard for thee to spare thy selfe wouldst thou with Hierom shake off thy father and mother and children and runne to Christ this would bee a signe thou hadst forgot them Though thou lovest them 2. Notwithstanding that thou lovest them wouldst thou favour them in any sinne against God and onely luke-warmely reprove them like old Elie It is not well done of you O my sons because thou lovest them wilt thou rather let them dishonour God damn their owne soules doe any thing rather than reprove or smite them this love indeed is a reall hatred and will argue little love to God in thy soule But on the contrary though thou lovest them with the tenderest love wilt provide for them with the most providential care yet is thy love so truly tempered that it shall not in the least hinder thee from doing thy duty to Christ no nor yet from doing thy duty to them from reproving sharply admonishing severely is thy love such that it shall not blind thy eyes so as thou wilt wink at the least neglect of duty in them not at the least sin in them Love them then as wel as thou canst it shall be no sad evidence against thy soule otherwise Parents look to it your children will curse you another day for your
the mistakes he hath therefore rather chose to put himselfe upon thy charity then put thee or himselfe to the trouble of a table of Errata's which is usually made with trouble and seldome used when it is done A short Table of the severall things contained in the two last Sermons THE Psalme analysed and the words of the Text opened 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. 5. Doctrines noted out of the words 13 14. The fifth Doctrine handled viz. That soule that would have the Lord Jesus Christ desire its beauty must forget its owne people and its Fathers house and whosoever doth that shall be beautifull 14 15 16 c. The Method of handling the Doctrine propounded 15. What is meant by our Fathers house 15. What of our Fathers house must be forgotten opened in five particulars 1. The manners of our Fathers house viz. our sins 16. 5. Sorts of sins chiefely hinted in that expression 16 17 18 19. Sinnes 1 Originall 16. 2 Of Education 17. 3 Of Company Conversation 18 4 Of Custome 18 19. 5 That are our beloved sins 19. 2. The Company of our Fathers house 19 20. That is two-fold ib. 1. Our dearest Relations 19 20. How they must and must not be forgotten 20. Not 1 in honour 2 nor affection nor 3 providentiall care but. 1. If God they draw severall wayes 20 21. 2. If their love beclâ—eâ— us out of the way when God calls us 21. 2. Sinfull Company is the company of our Fathers house 23. 3. The soule must forget the honour and pomp and riches and greatnesse of its Fathers house 24 25 26. How that must be ibid. 4. The soule must forget the pleasures and vanities of its Fathers house 27. That explained 28 29. 5. The soule must forget the Righteousnesse of its Fathers House 30 31. VVhat that is ib. Civility is but a smooth way to hell it is worth nothing no more is fâ—â—â—â—lity in duties â—â— 2. Br. Of Explic. How these things must be forgotten 32 33 34 45. c. 1. Sin and sinfull Company must be forgotten absolutely 32 33. 2. The rest must bee forgotten secundùm quid 33. 3. They must be forgotten Conditionally 33. that explained 34. 4. Comparatively they must be forgotten 35. 5. In effect they must be forgotten 35 36. 3 Br. of the Explication viz. How that soule shall be beautifull that thus forgets its Fathers house 36 37 38. That shewed Negatively Positively 36 37. Negatively not with A corporal beuty 36. A natural beauty 37. in its owne eyes a creatures eye 37. Positively it shall be beautifull 1. By Imputation 37. 2. By Christs Acceptation 38. 3. In Saints eys 38 39. 4. Branch of the Explication viz. what is meant by that phrase The King shall desire thy Beauty 39 40. Opened Generally 39. 2. Particularly Six things implyed in it 40 41 42 43. 1. Christ shall see an excellency in such a soule 40. 2. He shall love such a soule ib. 3. He shall in his heart preferre such a soule 40 41. 4. He will endeavour and effect an union with such a soule 42. 5. He will covet a neare Communion with such a soule 4. 6. He will love such a soul with a constant and inseparable love 43. 5. Reasons of the Doctrine 44 45 46. Because 1. It is the very law of marriage 44. 2. While the soule lives in its Fathers house it cannot be beautifull 44. 3. Till the soule part with these it cannot cleave to Christ 45. 4. Because God is a jealous God 46. 5. Because it is the will of Christ to whom aâ— an Husband the united soule must bee obedient 46 The Application of the Doctrine à 47 ad 89. 1. For Instruction in severall Branches Br. 1. That the most part of the world 〈◊〉 those which the world esteems of are uncomely indesireable creatures in Christs eye 47 48 49 50. Br. 2. Which may the way to heaven lyes and that it is a straight way 51 52 53 54. Br. 3. That something more than Nature must make a soule beautifull in Christs eyes 54. Br. 4. With what an infinite love hath Christ loved his Saints 54 55 56. Br. 5. What happy creatures are poore self-denying Saints 56 57 58. 2. Use For Examination Whether we have forgotten our fathers house and our beauty be desireable in Christs eyes or no. 59 60 61 62 63 c. 1. You have seen a great deale of folly in your Fathers house 60. 2. You have had another excellency discovered to you 60 61. 3. Your parting hath not been without some teares 61 62. 4. You have some combatings of spirit with your fleshly inclinations to go home againe 62 63. 5. Christ is your sole delight and all Christ is your delight 63 64. 6. Doe you abide and dwell with Christ 64. 3 Use For Consolation 1. Against all the uncomelinesse Saints apprehend in themselves 65. 2. Against all the dirt the world casts upon Saints 65 66. 3. Against the worlds low esteem of them 66. Severall Objections of misdoubtings Christians answered 67 68 69 70 71. 1 Ob. I am ready to yeeld to temptations and fall into sinne I feare I have not forgot the manners of my Fathers house An. Notwithstanding thy falling into sinne sometimes yet thou maist have forgot it try therefore 1. Which way stands thy Affection 68. 2. Doe you not chide your selves back 69. 3. How long doe you stay at home 69. 2. Ob. I have not forgotten my Fatheas house I am often in vaine company yea and I love them my heart is too much glued to my Relations Answ 1. Are they thy invited guests or intruders 71. 2. Art thou a companion of them in sin or only in civill actions 71. 3. Dost thou love them with a meer naturall love or more 71. 4. Could thy Relations hinder thee from Christ or thy love hinder thee from discharging thy duty to them faithfully 72 73. 3. Ob. I am not low enough for Christ I am rich and noble c. Answ 1. This is a melancholy fancy fat folk may get in at the straight gate with crowding 74. 2. Dost thou not affect and delight and hunt after worldly pompe and glory 74. 3. Dost thou look upon thy title of the servant of Christ as the highest title of honour 74. 4. Is thy outward greatnesse no snare to thee in the waies of Christ if none of these it cannot hinder thee 74 75 4. Obj. Ah! But I am so much addicted to vaine pleasures c. 1. Answ Dost thou love thy pleasures more then God 76. 2. Wilt thou baulk an opportunity of communion with Christ or his saints to enjoy a vaine pleasure 76. 3. Dost thou affect pleasures that cannot consist with holinesse as adultery c. 77. If none of these thou mayest enjoy them and yet be beautifull in Christs eyes ib. Vse 4. For exhortation 1. To those who have not forgotten their fathers house 77 78 79 80 81.
wanting to thee Goe sell all that thou hast Christian let me tell thee all this self-Righteousnes must be sold not lost but slighted If thou hast no more than a Bridled nature it is not enough the young man went away from Christ sorrowfull Mar. 10. The Pharisee went away not justified Luke 18. ver 14. Nay secondly if thou hast no more than a refined Nature it is nothing though it be seven times refined It is a piece of Nature That there is a God Nature revealeth it to men and that this God is a spirit and that Si Deus est animus c. Hic tibi praecipuè sit pura mente colendus Seeing God is a spirit he must 1. Be worshipped 2. Be worshipped sincerely Cato could say so this is all but Nature the finest of Nature Thou mayest pray in thy Family Morning and Evening the Heathen would doe as much they would cry to their Penates yes thou mayest doe it and without the Common-prayer Booke too I doe not read that they had one in use to worship their Idols with Nature had given them a tongue to speak their wants without a Tutor and yet be a wretch under the Apple-tree The Pharisee would be so far from being ashamed to pray in his Family that he would not be ashamed to come and pray in the Temple Luke 18. v. 10 11. He fasted twice a weeke They fasted often Mat. 9. 14. They were strict observers of the Sabbath how many quarrels had they with our Lord Jesus Christ for healing for his Disciples but plucking of eares of corne on the Sabbath day Here was Nature seven times purified and yet for all this Christ tels his Disciples Mat. 5. 20. That except their righteousnesse exceeded the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees they should never enter into the Kingdome of God Tremble at this you that are lyers Sabbath-breakers prophane persons unjust in your Callings unconscionable in your walkings with God Tremble at this you that never pray in your Families in your Closets God never heares of you but when you come to Church and then to no purpose neither you are not yet raised nay far from it Flesh and bloud might have revealed this unto you This is the first Note Secondly know If you have not pluckt and tasted of the fruit of the Apple-tree you are still but under it You may remember I construed under the Apple-tree out of Jesus Christ If you have got no benefit by Jesus Christ you have no portion in him if you be not in him and if he be not in you It is the Apostles Note 2 Cor. 13. ver 5. Know you not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates The Apple is in the man that hath eat it Christ is in the soule by a spirituall union if the soule hath any part in him or shall ever have any benefit by him Free Grace is the fruit of this Apple-tree of Paradise Are the Graces of God in you but some may say how shall we know that The tasted Apple is 1. Sweet 2. Cordiall 3. Nutritive 4. Diffusive 1. Sweet Cant. 2. 3. As the Apple-tree amongst the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved amongst the Sonnes I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was pleasant to my taste The Spouse there compareth the Lord Jesus to an Apple-tree a rare Apple-tree as an Apple-tree amongst the trees of the wood Now he was not only an Apple-tree in himselfe a sweet Tree full of the Apples of Life and free Grace but he was an Apple-tree to her he was her beloved and shee sate downe under his shadow Now it was 1. With great delight 2. His fruit was sweet to her taste If Christ be in thee and thou beest in Christ Christ is very sweet to thee thou sittest under his shadow with great delight and his fruit is pleasant to thy tast 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you that beleeve he is precious His name to thy soule is as an ointment powred forth Cant. 1. 3. Why like an ointment powred forth Mar. 14. v. 3. Joh. 12. 3. When the box of ointment was broken and powred forth on Christs head the whole house was filled with the savour of it Is it thus with thy soule Christian Is Jesus Christ precious to thee Is his name to thy soule like an ointment powred forth Is thy whole heart filled with the sweet smell of Jesus Christ Art thou ravished with his love his incomprehensible his unfadomable love Is Christ in his Ordinances precious to thy soule that thou desirest the sincere milke of the word as the new borne babe desires the milke of the breasts Doth the very thinking of Christ ravish thy heart Doth the naming of him carry thy soule almost above it selfe in an extasie of love Is he like an Apple to thy tast that thy mouth is filled with the sweetnesse of his juice High thoughts of Jesus Christ argue that Jesus Christ is spiritually tasted by thy soule Art thou melted with his love It is a signe thou hast tasted of the fruit of the Apple-tree 2. The tasted Apple is cordiall Cant. 2. 5. Stay me with flaggons comfort me with Apples Cant. 7. 8. The smell of thy nose is like Apples It is spoken there of the Church Apples are cordiall in tast and comfortable in smel Try thy self by this Christian Is Christ cordiall to thy soul when thy soul is fainting swooning in the thoughts of thy self and thine owne wickednesse and vilenesse Doth it then comfort thee to remember Jesus Christ his love and merits Christ is no cordiall to wicked unbeleeving wretches it terrifieth them the more to remember Jesus Christ When the Lord hath awakened their consciences and startled them in their naturall condition tell them of Christ this adds fuell to the flame Why It is this Christ whom they have scorned abused crucified It is this Christ concerning whom they have said We will not have this Christ to raigne over us Now they thinke that they heare that scorned Christ ringing a dolefull peale in their eares Bring those mine enemies that said I should not rule over them and slay them before me But to the Beleever Christ is comfortable when he looks upon himselfe as a great sinner the naming of Christ comforts him Ah! saith he that is he that dyed for my sinnes and rose againe for my justification Rom. 5. 25. When he looks upon all his righteousnesse as a monstruous cloth and as filthy rags the naming of Christ is againe a cordiall to him Ah! saith the soule that is he that was made for me wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption When he looks upon himselfe as a debtor to an infinite justice the name of Christ is a cordiall againe that 's he saith the soule that hath paid the debt to infinite justice for me that for me hath satisfied his Fathers wrath that powred out his soule unto death and was Esa 53 4
painted hand reacheth nothing the hand must be a reall hand that plucketh the Apple-tree There is a great deale of drossy counterfeit faith in the world The Devils have some graines of faith amongst them the Apostle sayes They beloeve and tremble Wicked and prophane wretches have their degrees of faith too they will at least tell you they beleeve that Christ came into the world and dyed they give credence to the story c. But this faith is no true hand it will plucke never an apple of Life 2. As the hand must be true so it must be perfect it must have fingers enough to doe it It must be perfect justifying faith though it reach not the perfection of faith that a justified person may have There are severall acts of faith some will have knowledge to be an act of it others and the most say that knowledge is supposed to faith but Assent is the first and lowest act Many goe hither and no further they goe away not justified but the perfection of that faith which justifies lyeth in a trusting too and a relyance upon the Lord Jesus Christ To this faith are all the promises pronounced Blessed is that man that puts his trust in the Lord And who is he that sits in darknesse and seeth no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God I say this is the perfection of that faith which must be de necessitate necessarily required to justification It is not the reflection of faith that is in a justified person Try thy selfe O Christian dost thou truly beleeve then not barely assenting and giving credence to the word of God as a word of truth but being sensible of thy owne vilenesse and the insufficiency that is in thy selfe for any salvation dost thou truly relye upon Jesus Christ and this will be tryed by the third particular necessary to the hand that reacheth 3 The hand that reacheth must be lively It must have a principle of life in it selfe and must act in lively operations The dead hand let it be never so true flesh and bloud it reacheth nothing it hath no internall principle of life in it selfe to carry it out in externall operations of Life so must it be with the souls hands that reach and plucke the Apples of free grace of the Tree of Life mentioned Rev. 22. 1. It must have an internall principle of Life The hypocrites faith hath no internall principle of life in it the soule is not quickned neither hath it any power to act externall operations Viva fides est operosa is a knowne maxime Faith in the Saints is powerfull 2 Thes 1. 11. The worke of faith with power Jam. 2. 17. Faith without works is dead Now it 's lively 1. Internally purging the heart It purifieth the heart 2. Externally it worketh by love it worketh as a loving heart towards God so in acts of love Faith if it be true hath not only a perswading and comforting quality to perswade the soule of God and the faithfulnesse of him that hath promised and to refresh the soule by staying upon God but it hath a quickning quality to enliven the soule and quicken it to an holy close walking with God The same faith that saith to the soule this promise is the truth of God stay thy selfe upon it saith also to the soule this precept is the rule of God walke according to it Now Christian try thy selfe whether thou hast tasted of the fruit of the Apple-tree whether thou hast a portion in Jesus Christ yea or no If thou hast reached to thy soule an Apple of free grace thou hast an hand by which thou didst it it must be a true hand Faith is the hand Hast thou not the painted faith of the hypocrite but the true faith of the Saints called by a distinguishing character The faith of Gods Elect Titus 1. v. 1. Hast thou not a finger only but the perfect hand that faith which truly justifieth thy soule which doth not consist in a bare notion and knowledge nor yet in a bare assent but in a fiduciall cleaving to the Lord Jesus Christ Is it lively as living in respect of the inward principle so lively in respect of the outward operations If so then it may be a true faith and thy hand with which thou hast reacht the fruit of the Apple-tree for the comfort of thy soule may be such a one as will doe it and thy hope may be upon good and justifiable grounds but if not deceive not thy owne soule Christ and you are strangers yet and thou art out of Christ I shall adde but one Note more which shall be yet further for the clearing of this Lastly therefore know Thou canst have no such hand unlesse it be given thee from above The hand of Faith is none of Natures products Alas how many cheat themselves with Faith when the Devill hath indeed as much true faith as they have There is a naturall perswasion and there is a morall perswasion and there is a traditionall perswasion and a diabolicall perswasion all these differ from the worke of Faith which is true and that hand which must reach Jesus Christ to my soule 1. There is a naturall perswasion Nature hath principles to perswade the soule by to some Assent Nature perswades us there is a God and he must be worshipped Looke upon me saith Nature Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum I have not a spire of grasse but tels thee there is a God See the variety greatnesse beauty of my work Read a great God in a great Whale or Elephant a beauteous God in a glorious flower A wise God in my choice of works Behold a God in the order thou hast seen in me See him in my Law written in thy heart Rom. 2. 15. From these and such like things Nature bequeathes a faith to the soule and learnes it credere Deum to beleeve a God But this is far from faith not only from justifying faith but also from faith as to that point It wants that steadinesse of assent which must be in assent when an act of faith A Roman writ to Tully to write him something concerning the immortality of the soule Tully writ back againe to him Evolve librâ—m Platonis nihil amplius est quod desideres Read saith he Plato's Book over concerning it and you will desire no more The Roman returnes him answer Evolvi iterum atque iterum evolvi c. I have read it over saith he againe and againe but I know not whence it is when I reade it I assent to it but I have no sooner laid the book out of my hand but I begin to doubt againe whether the soule be immortall yea or no. So it is with all perswasion from natural principles as to that extent of Doctrine it would perswade us of the perswasion that ariseth from them is faint and weake one while we thinke it is true another while we question
did it freely we buy without money or money-worth Isa 55. 1 2. 2. If you aske to what end hee did it It was his own glorie that he might get himselfe glory from poore dust and ashes that little thanke him for all this mercy declared to their souls He Predestinated Redeemed and Adopted us meerely to the praise of the glorie of his grace Ephes 1. verse 6. The end which he aimed at in Calling us was his glory Rom. 9. 23 24 25 26. If you aske me why God that could as well have been glorified in the damnation of poore wretches would chuse rather to be glorified in their salvation and bringing them to life I must run back again to the Fountaine againe meerly because so it pleased him because it was his will There wee must rest I shall now proceed to the Application of this mysterious sweet and precious Doctrine and it might be applyed severall wayes But I shall onely apply the consideration of it as offering you ground and matter First of Humiliation Secondly of Instruction Thirdly of Examination Fourthly of Exhortation Fiftly of Consolation Use 1 First of all for Humiliation Harke Christians is it so that thou wert so lost and undone that none but Jesus Christ could raise thee and hee hath done it when none else could and wil raise thee higher yet and this hee could not have done without taking thy flesh dying upon the Crosse suffering the bitternesse of his Fathers wrath consider then what cause thou hast to be humbled for thy sins 1. Considering that these were they put Christ to death 2 that by these since that time thou hast crucified the Lord of life 1. Consider that thy sins were those that put Christ to death Rom. 4. 25. He was delivered to death for our sinnes Me thinks every one when they heare of Christs Agony and bloudy Sweat of his Whippings Buffetings of his bitter Sufferings c. should be ready to cry out with Pilate Quid mali fecit What evill I pray hath he done Ah none Christian it was to raise thee thou wert dead lost undone he dyed to raise thee thou stolest the fruit he climbed the tree thou enjoyedst the sweetnesse of sinning and he for that was acquainted with the bitternesse of suffering He bore thy iniquity even thine and mine too if we be elected Certainly it was a great griefe of heart to David to remember that he had an hand in the bloud of Uriah that was surely the great transgression that hee complained of to be sure that heart-troubling sinne for which hee puts up that particular Petition Deliver mee from bloud-guiltinesse O God And questionlesse it was no small Trouble of Spirit to Paul afterwards to consider that he was one of them that were consenting to Stephens death Acts 7. 59 60. Chap. 8. verse 1. he afterwards repeats it with shame I was a persecuter Christian here is one murdered by cruell hands not an Uriah not a Stephen but hee that is worth ten thousand of these not an Abell yet his bloud troubled Cain all his life time but one whose bloud cries for better things than the bloud of Abell did here 's the Lambe of God slaine slaine by thy hands he was bruised for thine iniquities and his soule was made an Offering for thy sinnes Is it nothing to thee O Christian when Pilate was but about to condemne him his wife came startled in and cries Have nothing to doe with that just man and when Stephen charged the Jewes Acts 7. 52. for being the betrayers and murtherers of the Lord Jesus they apprehended it as a thing so hainous that they would not endure him beyond that word but were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth verse 54. Christians there is none of you here but your sinnes were the betrayers and murtheres of the Lord Jesus that Christ that had such eternall sure and unchangeable thoughts of love to your soules Ah! how great were those sins which could not be remitted without the bloud of the immaculate Lamb of God Me thinks every one of you should sit downe and say Ah Lord that ever I should be such a wretch so farre to provoke the fire of thy wrath that nothing could quench it but the bloud of thy Sonne that I should throw my selfe so deep into Hell that nothing could raise mee but the bloud-shedding of the deare Sonne of Gods love You have had to doe with that just man Christians not to doe with condemning him but even with the vildest acts of Barbarisme were done unto him your hypocrisie was the kisse that betrayed him the sinnes of your hands and feet were the nailes that fastened his hands and feet to the Crosse the sinnes of your body were the Spears that pierced his sacred side the sinnes of your soules were they that made his soule heavy to the death that caused the with-drawings of his Fathers love from him and made him in the heavinesse of his panged soule to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me O sit downe goe alone weep and weep bitterly for him whom you have pierced for those stripes by which you are healed 2. But secondly if any thing will move your soules to make your head a Fountaine of water and your eyes Rivers of teares Consider That this Christ you have crucified even since his death upon the Crosse for you When the Apostle St. Peter Acts 2. had made a long Sermon of Christs love shewing the Auditors what Christ had done and what he was he summeth up all verse 36. God hath made that same Jesus whom yee have crucified both Lord and Christ Now saith the Text verse 37. When they heard this viz. that they had crucified this Christ they were pricked at the heart This Christ my beloved whom you have crucified by your youth sinnes and life sins this was he that was crucified for you O be pricked at the hearts at this saying Was it not enough that he once was pierced scoffed wounded crucified for you but must you againe crucifie him and which of you doe it not daily Causinus tels us a story of Clodoveyus one of the Kings of France that when he was converted from Paganisme to Christianity while Remigius the Bishop was reading in the Gospell concerning the Passion of our Saviour and the abuses he suffered from Judas and the rest of the Jewes he brake out into these words If I had been there with my Frenchmen I would have cut all their throats In the meane time not considering that by his daily sins he did as much as they had done Which of us is not condemning the crucifiers of Christ for their cruelty and in the meane time we condemne not our selves who by our daily sinnes make him to bleed againe afresh Ah let us judge our selves and sit downe and mourne we are they that have added to Christs bonds that have increased his wounds and the pangs of his grieved soule
which is now glorified with our renewing lusts and corruptions I shall conclude this use with a prayer that God would fulfill to all our soules that gracious promise Zach. 12. 10. That he would poure out the spirit of grace and of supplications upon us and make us to look upon him whom we have pierced and doe pierce daily and mourn as a man mournes for his only Son And be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternes for his first-borne I passe on to a second way of Application viz. by way of Instruction Hath Christ and Christ alone raised us 1. Let us hence be instructed How Instruction much the Lord Jesus Christ loved us And here let my soule be drowned in sweetnesse and in sinking cry out O the depth of unfadomable love What tongue what Saint what Angell can speake out this unspeakable love Pray O pray Christians That Christ Eph. 3. 17 18. may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints What is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Is it love in a friend to passe his word for his friend arrested and ready to be haled to gaole and to take the debt upon himselfe and is it no love in Christ yea is it not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unspeakable of loves for Jesus Christ when a writ of eternal vengeance was Ready to issue out against you to be your surety and beare the blow off to the breaking of his own armes Was it love in the Roman to personate his friend and upon the Scaffold and after to suffer for him and is it not infinite love for Jesus Christ to take the raggs of your flesh upon him and indeed to dye a death upon the crosse for you for you deare friends for you he was smitten despised rejected of men he dyed to make you live he was content to fall so you might rise Let your thoughts sinke in this ocean and spend your lives in spelling the letters of love that must be joyned in this one word or sentence I Raised thee From hence Secondly be Instructed What a perfect Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ is he leaves nothing for thee to doe but to thanke him hee makes the plaister and layes it on hee trod the Wine-presse alone and there is none with him he hath left thee nothing to do but to believe his last words All is finished he conquered sinne upon the Crosse and death and hell in the grave He will have none to be a sharer with him either in his worke of Merit or Application get but hands he will deliver thee thy pardon ready written granted sealed nay he will help thee with hands too He was made perfect through sufferings Hebr. 2. 10. Heb. 5. 9. Being made perfect hee became the author of salvation to them that obey him 3. From hence againe bee instructed Christian What need thou and every poore soule hath of the Lord Iesus Christ Thou wert fallen and layest as unable to helpe thy selfe as an Infant throwne into an open field Men and Angels were at their wits ends to answer to this question How then can any be saved The Heavens said Salvation was not in them and Earth sayes Salvation is not in us nothing but God-man can doe this great work There is no other name but onely the Name of Iesus by which thou or I or any of the children of men can be saved If thou hast him thou hast enough if thou hast not him it is not all the righteousnesse of Saints and Angels that will make a garment which will not bee too short to cover thy nakednesse O cry Lord give mee Christ Lord give mee Christ or else I dye Thinke not of thy owne merits thy righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloth and as a filthy ragge Christs Righteousnesse is sufficient for thee 4. Let all the redeemed ones of the Lord be instrushed How much they owe and shall for ever owe to him that is become their Saviour It is no slight mercy Sirs to be saved out of everlasting burnings It is a piece of love which as wee can never comprehend so we can never walke up to O let us all say What shall wee render unto the Lord for his mereies wee will take the cup of salvation and praise the Name of the Lord. You would thinke you owed a great deale to him that should exalt you from a Dungeon to a Throne Mephibosheth thought he was mightily honoured to be admitted to eate bread at the Kings Table How much Ah! How much Christians is every of your soules indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ who remembred you in your low estate For his mercy endureth for ever But I passe on further Use 3 From hence may every one try himselfe whether he be raised out of that lost undone condition wherein he was by Nature I have spoke to this in the former Doctrine but because I here meet it so fit again take two Notes of Triall from this Doctrine 1. If you be raised you are raised by Christs merits 2. You are raised according to Christs method 1. If you be raised It is by Christs merits all the Abana and Parphars of thy owne merits would not doe it One drop of that fountaine that was set open for Iudah and Ierusalem for sinne and for uncleanenesse is worth all the waters of thine own Damascus What trusts thou in Christian Is it what thou hast done Alas thou art so far from having any naturall strength as Pelagians and Arminians dreame or any other strength of merits either of thy owne or thy friends which Papists dreame of that if all the Saints in the earth and all the Angels of heaven could unite their forces in one arme and to one act they could as little have lifted thee up out of the pit into which thou wert fallen as thou couldst lift up an house with the palme of thy hand if it were fallen downe It was onely this mighty one this Prince of glory this King of power that could doe it Say therefore as they say that great Papist concluded Tutissimum est Christi merit is confidere it is most safe onely to rest upon him believe it all other trusts are as the bruised Reed of Egypt and as the broken staffe of Assyria which if thou trusteth too they run into thy hand and pierce thee they will cause thee to fall many strides short of heaven when they have carried thee to their furthest their Nil ultra O trust not in them if there be all thy confidence thou art not yet raised 2. If Christ hath raised you it hath been in his method of Application Christ saves none but whom he sanctifies and sanctifies none but whom he justifies and justifieth none but whom he calls Some men are justified they think but they know not which way and
thee 2. Thee that wert as low as others Adam left thee as deep in hell as any reprobate there Loe here the infinitenesse of free grace Two were in the same house yea grinding at the same mill of iniquity and thou art taken and the other is left possibly thou wert in thy wildest youth seeming to ride faster to hell than the other were that were thy brethren friends and acquaintance yet the Lord hath raised thee and let the others lye wallowing in their bloud he hath not said to them live 3. Thee that wert his Enemy Was ever dying love yea love in dying extended to an enemy before You have heard of two stories one of a Grecian the other of a Roman paire Theseus and Perithous Pilades and Orestes that would have dyed for their friends each for another but hath any offered to dye for his Enemy Moses would offer to have his name blotted out for his people that were Gods people and which he loved but would Moses have done it for a Philistine yet this hath Christ done O love ye the Lord all his Saints 4. Thee that never askt it He was found of them that sought it not Alas mankind lay as well without a tongue to aske as an hand to help themselves and behold Christ pitied them and amongst them thee his love declared from Eternity towards thee had not so much cause in thee as a poore prayer would have amounted to he was not moved by thy sighs and teares but by his owne infinite love 5. Lastly thee that hast still Rebellion in thee Christ said within himselfe when he dyed upon the Crosse Now is my heart-bloud powred out for as vile wretches as any are and for those that I know will requite my bleeding wounds my dying love with new speares and thornes thus he knew that thou wouldst doe in the time of thy unregeneracie yea and after thou shouldst be called too Who lives and sinnes not Now Christian lay these things to thy heart meditate of study out this love and see if thou hast not cause to say My soule and all that is within me my tongue and all that is without me praise the Lord. But O remember Christian Remember Burnt offering and sacrifice he doth not require but this he requires that thou shouldst doe his will O say Loe I come I am ready to do it But more particularly let me point thee out some particular duties that the Lord requires of thee in a poor answer to his rich Acts of eternall love First hath not he thought his glory too deare to lay aside for a while for thee nor his Word and Truth too dear to pawne for thee nor his bloud too deare to spill for thee hath he valued nothing in comparison of thee O doe thou value nothing in an equall ballance with him be willing to deny thy selfe for him who in every thing hath denyed himselfe for thee Thy Lusts cannot be so pleasing to thee as Christs glory was to him Be content to leave them Thy Honour cannot be so great as his was which he left for thee and became ignoble in our eyes Surely when wee saw him we esteemed him despised smitten of God and afflicted Isa 53. 4. But it was when hee was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities when the chastisement of our peace was upon him and that by his stripes we might be healed Thy Riches cannot be greater than his yet remember him O remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for your sake became poore that you through his Povertie might be made rich 2 Cor. 7. Thy life cannot be more deare than his yet he valued not his life for thee but powred out his bloud his precious bloud upon the Crosse that through his bloud thou mightest have remission purchased Learne hence Christian a lesson of self-deniall Be content to suffer for him who was content to suffer that he might raise thee value nothing in comparison of him This Lesson had Saint Paul learned Phil. 3. v. 7 8. What things were gaine to me I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may win Christ c. ver 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Looke upon nothing in an equall ballance with him 1 Cor. 2. 2. I determined not to know any thing amongst you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Secondly hath Christ entred into a Covenant and given his word to his Father and kept his word with his Father for you O then learne of him Vow your selves to him and keep the vowes of your lips Say with David Psal 116. ver 16. Ah Lord truly we are thy servants we are thy servants and the sons of thy handmaids for thou hast loosed our bonds Say with David Psal 40. Mine eares hast thou opened and bored them Say Ah Lord we come to doe thy will Christ kept his word with his Father for you Ah keep your word with him pay him the vowes which you have made Thirdly Hath Christ to raise you taken upon him your flesh O then Take ye upon your selves his spirit He hath become for you the childe of man doe you become for him the children of God Be made partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. Your Nature was full of imperfection and weaknesse the divine Nature is full of perfection and glory He hath raised you be raised put off your filthy rags and put on change of Raiment Fourthly Hath Christ died that he might raise you from the death of Sinne and from the power of the Second death O then dye to sinne Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evill concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things c. The Apostle Saint Paul presseth the great duty of mortification from this very principle Likewise reckon yee also your selves to be dead to sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 11. and so on ver 12 13. Let not sinne therefore reigne in your mortall bodies c. Ah throw away the nailes that pierced your Christ Fifthly Did Christ rise from the dead that he might raise you from the death of sinne O then rise to newnesse of life The Apostle Saint Paul presseth this worke of Vivification also from Christs Resurrection Rom. 6. ver 4. We are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father euen so we also should walke in newnesse of life and so all along that Chapter Sixthly Hath he
selfe Deniall I rejoyce to see the flowings of the spirit of grace in those eminent Servants of the Lord that have both hunted for venison and caught it to make savory meat for the Saints discovering those secrets of the Lords strength and unsearchable riches of love beyond the pennes or tongues of those that have gone before them But methinkes I have sometimes feared lest while those Eminent ones have driven according to the peace of their own soules and made it their work almost onely to dresse out the strong meat they should have driven beyond the pace of the Lambs and onely go away with part of the flock who are able to receive and have eares to heare such sublime gospell mysteries I have sometimes wished a Shepard or Hooker or two more to stay behind and to drive the remnant of the flock which in heaven will overtake the other though there be many things to be spoken which without over driving them they are not yet able to beare I being one borne out of due time am onely fit for such a work the opening the Rudiments of Christianity and it shall be my crowne if by teaching the A B C of the wayes of grace I may be made instrumentall but to fit Saints for their highschooles I have presumed here to present your Honour with the first Lesson of Grace He that will be my disciple saith Christ let him deny himselfe and take up the crosse and follow me first deny himself then follow me Not but that I hope your Ladiship can readily endorse this sermon with that speech of the young man All these have I kept from my youth Though I need not mind your Honour that it is a lif 's not a dayes practice Madam there can be no Mistresse like Experience which easily convinceth me that your Ladiship who have had a constant sight of sublunary vanities an enjoyment of creature-contentments is farre more able to read him who now writes a lecture of the Vanity of every thing under the Sun than he is to read it your Ladiship who hath been blest in the want of those advantages and onely from a guesse at the body by the foot can subscribe Solomons account of them surely Madam there is nothing under the Sun but in cleaving to it and neglecting Christ a rationall creature must dishonour himselfe as well as his Saviour and as well call in question his own judgement and out-law his owne reason as disobey his God Christ Madam Ah! Christ Christ alone is the excelling one that is Altogether desires It is the Rose of Sharon only that wants prickles His name is the onely box of Ointment which one fly or other will not make to stinke And now I mention his name I remember what the spouse saith Thy name is an ointment powerd forth therefore doe the Virgines love thee Of those Virgines I trust your Ladiship is those that love Christ for the ointment of his name powred forth so I trust hath the Ointment of grace powred upon that head from which you drew your naturall breath ran downe to the skirts of all her Relations Madam This world is not so well bred but in Christs wayes if your Ladiship desire to walk you must expect to be a sharer in the scoffs of those that put out the finger at those that run not with them to the same excesse of Riot I need not mind your Ladiship of the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ who patiently endured the crosse and despised the shame for your sake Madam the wayes of Christ the paths of holinesse are onely uncomely to those before whose eyes the Devill hath cast a mist and the God of this world hath blinded their eyes lest the glorious light of of the gospell should shine upon them If the King desires our beauty no matter whether our rate be high or low amongst the children of Vanity whose God is their Belly and whose glory is their shame May your Ladiship strive after perfection and yet daunce before the Ark though Michal mocks out at the window The Moone keeps its course though the dogs bark This Sermon Madam was formerly dedicated to your Ladiships eares I never thought then that the noise of it should have gone beyond the chappell it was preacht in nor indeed had it had not your Ladiships noble Mother commanded the transcription of a coppy which desire was also seconded by other Noble friends whose commands I was as unwilling to disobey as unable to performe through my multitude of other occasions which is the only reason of my publication of it that I might be thrifty of my time for my other studies and by troubling the world worke my own ease Having resolved upon this course I was desirous it should appeare as covertly as might be and have therefore added it to some other Sermons preacht long before then sent to the presse to gratify the desire of the Printer Madam your Ladiship I trust will easily excuse me for the want of paines in it If I should spend time to tickle some few ears it would be unthriftily done and possibly I might by it lose the advantage of speaking to many anothers heart I had rather so preach and write that those that heare or read my sermons should read and heare with a trembling heart than with a tickled fancy Madam Such as it is I crave leave to present it to your Ladiship Beseeching the God of grace so to empower every line that it may be a drop of mercy to your Honours and every Readers soule That your Ladiship may grow up like the tree planted by the rivers of water and bring forth fruit in your season That in the renewing of every week there may appeare in your Ladiships heart conversation an answer of those old prayers newly returned to your Ladiships Noble Parent That the Lord may have glory your soule peace and hee the dayly answer of his prayers who truely is Madam Your Honours most humbly obliged servant in the Lord Jesus John Collings Chaplyfield house Aug 21. 1649. A LESSON OF Self-Denyall Psal 45. 10 11. Hearken O daughter and consider and encline thine eare Forget also thy own people and thy Fathers house so shall the King desire thy beauty IT is agreed almost amongst all Expositors that this Psalme is a Marriage-Song and principally relating to the spirituall marriage between Jesus Christ and the beleeving soule or between Christ and his Church But there is a little question amongst them whether the spirituall sense of it be couched under a type or an Allegory Some thinke that the Holy Ghost here treates of that spirituall marriage under the type of Solomons marriage to Pharaohs daughter of which wee read 1 King 3. 11. Of this opinion saith D. Rivet are D. Rivet Pref. in hunc Psalmum the Hebrew Interpreters and most others as Calvin Bucer Junius Jansenius c. yet these grant that there are some things in the Psalme not
rings and the nose jewels the changeable suits of apparell and the mantles and the wimples and the crisping pinnes and the glasses and the fine linnen and the hoods and the vailes and instead of these send in mercy a girding with sackcloth a rent heart and a weeping eye and a serious soule It was a sure rule that a Divine once gave to another enquiring of him why he did not perswade a Gentlewoman with whom hee was acquainted to leave off some vaine dresses shee wore Saith hee I will first perswade her to get Christ into her heart and then shee will leave these of her selfe The soul that hath Christ in his heart need not to be perswaded to leave its fidling and dancing and love songs and vaine dresses and paintings and revellings and naked breasts it knowes these will not make its beauty desirable in Christs eyes and it is lost labour to perswade others to it When Solomon forsooke God then he ran to pleasures and vanities and sought every thing that should please his carnall eye and tickle his vaine fancy but he no sooner returnes to Christ but hee sayes of mirth it is madnesse and of laughter what doth it Christians you must forget these or Christ will overlook you Tertullian call'd the unvailed virgins of Tetull in lib. de velandis virginibus his time Capita Nundinalitia and Pudor ostentatitiae Virginitatis Phrases I will not English You must forget the pleasures and vanities of your fathers house that is the fourth I will instance but in one thing more Fiftly and lastly You must forget the Religion and Righteousnesse of your fathers house Indeed there is not much there it may quickly bee all forgotten but what there is must all bee forgotten There is a conceited Religion at least a selfe-righteousnesse which is naturall to all the sons of Adam Master Hooker gives this reason for it because our first father Adam was worth so much hee could have gone to Heaven upon his own legs Now as it is with a young spenthrift though hee hath spent all his fathers estate and be not worth a groat yet hee cannot abide to think hee should bee a worse man than his father so it is with the sons of Adam because hee could once have done enough for heaven wee that are his children though he lost all his power before hee died yet we cannot endure to think our selves worse than our father and are ready to think heaven may be erned still and we may doe something for our selves The young man Mat. 19. was at it Master what good thing should I doe to inherit everlasting life and so the converts at Peters Sermon Acts 2. and the Jaylour Acts 16. What shall we doe to bee saved hence is Morality and Civility taken up by some and formality in duties taken up by others and man pitcheth his staffe in himselfe and resolves there to rest but this must bee forgotten if ever we would be desirably beautifull in Jesus Christs eyes for all our Righteousnesses are as menstruous clothes and as a filthie ragge in the sight of God Is 64. 6. and againe Matth. 5. 20. Except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall never enter into the Kingdom of God Civility rested in saith a Divine of our owne is but a beautifull abomination it is but a smooth way to hell It is true in the world a civill man is valued at an high rate because the world is full of grosse profanenesse and outrageous wickednesse but Civility is like the Cab of 2 Kin. 6. 25 Doves dung or the asses head the latter was worth fourscore pieces of silver and the fourth part of the first valued at five picces of silver but it was because there was a famine in Samaria This is that makes Civility rated so high in the world but in it selfe it is worth nothing and Formality in duties as little though it amounts to as much as the Pharisees fasting twice a week and praying thrice a day and paying tythe of all that hee hath Notwithstanding all this all God I thank thee I am not c. yet the poor wretch is poore and miserable and blind and naked All this must bee left and another righteousnesse sought and found before the soule comes up to a desirable beauty And thus I have shewed what of our fathers house and our own people must be forgot Let me come in the next place to shew you how and how farre these things must be left and forgot To that I answer 1. Some of these must be absolutely forgot The manners of our fathers house all sinne and wiekednesse must be so forgot Is 55. 7. Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts Hos 14. 8. Ephraim shall say what have I to do with Idols There must bee no willing purposed practice of any sinne how dear soever how accustomed soever however acquired how long soever lived in the wicked man must forsake his way the evill of our doings must be put away evill must bee eschewed so must sinfull company too 2. The rest of them must bee secundum quid forgotten in a great measure Our relations must not be doted upon our honours and worldly glory not hunted after nor must our hearts be taken with them wee must not be lovers of pleasure wee must not rest in our righteousnesse not dote upon it our heat of affection to these things the running out of our hearts to them the fixing of our hearts upon them this must be forgotten c. 3. Conditionally they must bee forgotten If they clash with Christs commands if our Relations would draw us from Christ or retard our way to Christ if in our acts of love to them we must forget the commands of Christ that either wee must not obey God in our places or wee must break with them and not be thought to love them in this sense they ought to bee forgotten yea to bee hated Christ in this case call'd Peter Sathan this is Christs command Luk. 14. 26. If our honours and glory in the world would lie in the way to keep us from stooping to Christs command and from thence our flesh it would fetch such conclusions as these It is not fit for so great a person as you to have such strictnesse in duties to be acquainted with such meane creatures as many Saints are to go to Church so often to be at private meetingt so much c. In this case we must forget them If our riches begin to stick to our heart and to tempt our heart from God that wee cannot enjoy them but our hearts will cleave to them In such a case a Christian shall bee a saver if as Crates threw his gold into sea that hee may study Philosophy hee also throw away his estate to study Jesus Christ If our pleasures be such as in the substance if such shadowes have any are sinfull
betimes believe it there will bee more weeping else when you come to part Dir. 4 Lastly Crie crie mightily unto God that he would take off your heart Believe it it must be his work you will be wearied else in the multitude of your owne indeavours if the Lord draw off the heart it will be drawne indeed Be much in publique prayer but especially be much in secret prayer I must conclude 2. Br. Lastly you that have been taught of the Lord to forget your fathers house that so the King might desire your beauty Let mee plead with you still to forget it more Selfe-deniall is a long and hard lesson a Christian must be learning it from his cradle to his grave and every time hee studies it hee shall find something to be done that is yet behind and all that he hath done to bee done better you have learned in part how to doe it I need not direct you you need no other directions then 1. To study every day more and more the vanitie of the creature Read over the book of Ecclesiastes well it is enough to teach you that lesson 2. Converse little with your fathers house have as little to doe with the world the pleasures or profits or riches or companie or manners of it as you can the lesser the better 3. Be more acquainted with Jesus Christ get neerer to him bee more in communion with him get more tasts of Heaven Earthw ill relish the worse for it I might presse upon you the same motives I urged before and I should doe it with advantages you know what this King is how much to bee desired how much to bee odored you know what a difference there is betwixt the worlds comelinesse and the comelinesse which hee putteth upon his Saints Let mee onely urge one word or rather name it Some read the words quia concupivit Because the King hath desired thy beauty here 's an argument an engaging argument to a Saint The Lord hath effectually made it knowne in your soules that hee desires your beauty more than tenne thousands of others Hee hath whispered not onely in your eares but in your heart his desire to you Ah now Christians be you humble self-denying ones because the King hath desired your beauty Let the love of Christ constraine you to order your hearts and conversations as becommeth the Gospell of the Lord Jesus Christ According to the lawes of this King that hath so passionately desired and so effecaciously declared his desire to your beauty I must have done The Lord adde his blessing FINIS THE RIGHT VVAY TO TRUE PEACE OR A discovery of a Gospell-Mystery how the spirit that is troubled may find Peace in Christ and how A Christian may know whither the Peace which his spirit hath in trouble or with which it comes out of any trouble be Christ's Peace Discovered in a Sermon Joh. 16. 33. By John Collings M. A. Preacher of Gods word in Norwich Joh. 14. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe also in me London Printed for R. Tomlins 1649 To the Right Honourable the Lady Katharine Courteen Grace Mercy and true Peace Madam WHen this Sermon was first preach'd your Honour was pleased to entitle your selfe to it conceiving it which indeed was composed for my selfe to have been prepared and suted to the temper of your Ladiships spirit at that time So farre my Master onoured me that day as to doe him a double work with the same hand Truly Madam it was a salve provided for my owne use and not intended further than for my friends in that assembly where first I published it and accordingly was laid up in my closet till I brought it forth privately for the use of some other noble friends who were better able then my selfe to judge of the efficacy of it having received from some of them a probatum est and God having made it acceptable and in their estimation more usefull than my own low opinion of the workman's pains in it conceived it They were pleased to desire the recent which to spare my owne paines in transcribing it was the onely cause of my least thoughts of the publication of it Truly Madam in these unhappy times wherein the Presse is become such a prostitute I think I may easily be excused of my ambition to have this or any other worthlesse notes of mine come under it To abate the noise of many things in Print which believe it sounds not at all sweet in my eares I have desired it should be added to some former Sermons which before were in the Printers hands in which also I satisfied but his desires in denying my selfe in my owne But to those worthlesse precedent pieces it comes in a fit place The first of the Sermons tels us what is the state of the Elect by nature The second what is their estate in Christ and describes their way of Restauration The third points out their duty as redeemed ones to lean upon their beloved The fourth minds them of the Saints great duty of selfe-denyall Now in regard that the soule reconciled to God may bee sometimes saying where is my God become and as there is none lives and sins not so none shall live but at one time or other shall meet with trouble I have added this to the other in which I have endeavoured to discover to a Christian how hee may recover his quiet and in the midst of those troubles which in the world hee shall bee sure to meet with find that peace which passeth all understanding The first of these Sermons shews us our originall want of peace being not reconciled to God The second describes our Peace-maker and his severall acts both of purchase and application by which he both made peace for his elect in generall and applies it to each of them in particular The third discovers the instrument and directs the soul in the particular use of Faith which is the instrument to convey this peace to the soule upon all occasions The fourth will teach the soule how to keep its peace And this in case the soule hath lost its peace and the spirit of the Christian bee over whelmed with trouble wil in some measure direct him how to find his peace and how to come out of trouble by the hand of Christ Madam this is a great Gospell mystery It is a subject that deserved a more learned pen and one more experienced in the wayes of God to have discussed and resolved it than that poore worthlesse creature who hath undertaken it That in the world the Saints must look for trouble your Honour knowes I believe by as sad experiences as most of those that tread the wayes of God That in the midst of these troubles in Christ the soule of the Christian may have peace This Text and Sermon Madam I trust wil sufficiently make good both by generall proofe and particular demonstrations In troubles to have peace is no
characteristicall note of a Saint To come out of troubles and reduce the spirit to a quiet composure is a worke may be done by those that have not tasted how good the Lord is But in the midst of oppressing troubles to draw peace from Jesas Christ and to come out of worldly troubles with a Gospell-peace to have a soule calmed upon Gospell-principles Hic labor hoc opus est This is a work worthy of a Saints indeavour and a wages worthy of his paines Disturbed spirits may quiet of course nature may be out of breath with sighing and the fountaine of teares dried up the spirit of a man meerly as a man of an heroick high-borne gallant temper may beare his infirmitie and hee may break through an host of troubles meerely by the strength of his owne spirit or the force of his owne reason But to come out of trouble this way shall bring no comfort to the soule This is but breaking prison without a faire dismission or paying the Jaylors fees Troubles will overtake such soules with an hue and crie and fetter them in a worser manner and God will againe arrest them upon quare clausum fregit an heavier action than before But by this shall a Christian know if the wound of the spirit bee healed it is with the balme of Gilead if he hath come out of trouble fairly hee hath come out upon Gospell-considerations The peace in trouble that is not found in Christ is not worth the taking up and from it a Christian shall extract no comfortable evidence of peace to his owne soule but in his peace hee shall have great bitternesse I have often thought that a watching Christian might bee justly troubled to consider sometimes how hee comes off a trouble for it is usuall with us either to let nature tyre out it selfe and when our Passions are ridden off their legges then they lie downe or else to conclude it upon morall principles Thus if our spirits bee sick as if there were no God in Israel wee for the most part send to Belzebub the God of Ekron and forsake the cistern of living waters to digge up to our selves ciflernes that will hold no water or if any none long O that those that professe to live above nature and carnall reason would also act above them If our bodies be sick nature prompts us to a Physician and our reason forbids us to use an Emperick O that Gods children would learne this reason in the midst of all trouble to runne to the balme of Gilead to the Physician there for all other Physicians are of no value and will professe much but doe little to the setling of a disturbed spirit Madam I have presumed out of all those noble friends which God hath made mee happy in to pick out your Ladiship to present this worthlesse piece of my labours to partly because I know it holds out to your Ladiship a great piece of your Honours gracious practice and partly because it hath seemed good to our wise God to nothingnesse of the creature I am afraid the City will runne out at the Gates I shall therefore add no more but humbly offering it to your Ladiship shall take my leave and rest Your Honours most humble servant in the Lord Jesus John Collings Chaplyfield-house Septemb. 3. 1649. THE RIGHT WAY to true Peace c. JOHN 16. 33. These things have I spoken that in me you might have peace In the world you shall have trouble but be of good cheare I have overcome the world THis with the two former Chapters contains Christs last Sermon to his Disciples having fore-told them of his death and passion Ch. 13. they were troubled upon that occasion hee preacheth this Sermon which in whole is a consolation They were troubled and who could be lesse to part with such a friend They lived under the protection of his wings Hee begins his Sermon with Let not your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe also in mee The whole Sermon is partly an Exhortation partly a consolation hee exhorts them chiefely to continuance in the faith and to brotherly love hee comforts them partly against his death partly against their owne death and partly against that opposition which he knew would usher in their death and be intermediate betwixt his departure from them and their following after This is the sum of his whole Sermon In this Chapter Christ chiefely doth foure things 1. Hee foretelleth them what they should meet with from the Jewes viz. That they should bee put out of the Synagogue that they should kill them and think they did God good service and as he foretells so he comforts them against this ill measure from the 1 verse to the 15 verse 2. He foretells his owne death and comforts them in respect of his departure from them from the 5 v. to the 20 v. 3. Hee foretells their flight and desertion of him yet before his death and comforts himselfe as to that by the consideration of his fathers presence with him which made him not to be alone though in respect of creatures hee should bee alone v. 32. 4. Hee concludes the Sermon in this verse which I have read to you in which you may consider these three things 1. A Disease In the world you shal have trouble where note the subject of it you 2. The disease it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trouble Tribulation 3. The climate where it rageth that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the world 4. The fate of it it is inevitable to those that live in that lower region you shall have trouble But as here 's the disease so here 's 2. A Remedy too The Antidote stands near the Poyson there you may consider 1. What it is Peace 2. Where it is to be found that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Christ in mee you shall have peace 3. Quibus for whom it is you saith Christ 4. The care Christ hath taken in providing it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things have I spoken c. And for feare of fainting during the Physick here is also 3. A Cordiall to refresh and uphold the spirits during the fit and there you may consider 1. The Physitian administring it Christ 2 The way of administration of it by words and words of command Bee of good cheare 3. The chiefe ingredient in the cordiall I have overcome the world Christ's victory over the world that was it Let me adde a few words now for the explication of the words before I come to the Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things have I spoken to you seeing your hearts dejected and cast downe because I told you I must goe away I have taken paines now to preach this Sermon to you wherein I have hinted to you many comfortable notes I have now done And the end that I have aimed at in all is your peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you might have a quietment and rest of spirit in mee
trouble under every crosse whence is it then that their spirits are sometimes so much down so much sunk whence is it that assoone as ever a Saint is troubled he doth not presently without any more adoe runne to Christ and secure himselfe and be at rest but wee heare day after day that the Spirit of the Saint is under the same burthens overwhelmed in the same manner as if there were no balme in Gilead no Physician there Truly there may bee many causes possibly there may be a sullennesse in the soule that it will not out of the cave it is angry with God and will refuse comfort Possibly God may please to deny a present application of a comfort by the hand of the spirit which can alone make a plaster stick upon a wounded spirit bee it never so well made and spread But I perswade my selfe two great and very usuall causes yea most usuall are Ignorance and negligence Either the soule is a stranger to the Rock or else it doth not put forth its legges in running to it 1. A Christian may have a great interest in Christ a great portion in the rock of ages and yet be in a great manner ignorant of him and this partiall ignorance though it shall not hinder their finall salvation for our high-priest hath compassion on the ignorant saith the Apostle to the Hebrewes yet it may hinder their present comfort It may be the soule is not so acquainted with the word of God that when it is in trouble it can turne to a promise presently that shall relate to its condition it may be it may not bee so acquainted with all the corners of Christs gracious heart that it can presently consider Christ in a sutable notion to comfort it under its present burthen Now this very ignorance and not being acquainted with Jesus Christ may a great deale hinder the soules comfort and make him go with a sad heart a great deale longer than that soule that is more growne in the knowledge of Christ more acquainted with every piece of his nature more experienced in his wayes Indeed secondly a great cause may be the soules negligence a knowledge may lie dormant in the soule a man may have legges and not use them so a Christian may have a sufficient acquaintance with Christ in his words of promise and wayes of mercy and yet for all this if it will sit still in an houre of trouble and never set it selfe to meditate upon these things never put forth it selfe to trie if it can close with the promise that it knowes never trie whether its faith will efficaciously worke upon the mercifull nature of Jesus Christ though it knowes it A soule may walk troubled long enough but this I have nothing to doe with here Christians ah you that feare the Lord in the dayes of your peace be every day gaining more and more knowledge of God in his wayes of mercy be every day gaining more and more knowledge of God in his precious promises learne to know every hole of the rock that so you may readily flie to it in an houre of straits readily run to it in an houre of trouble That your spirits may no sooner be troubled but you shall being so acquainted with the book of God presently turne to a good word of promise that shall make it better or presently fix your eye upon Christ and consider him in some sutable notion of love or other from which your soules shall gather peace This shall be your wisdome Br. 3 Lastly you that are believers have you heard that there is peace laid up for the Saints against the dayes of trouble Then learne if ever you meet with trouble in the world whether outward or inward Not only to look after peace and a quietment and settling of your spirits againe but look to draw your peace from the Lord Jesus Christ in the day of trouble to quiet your spirits in him and to heale your spirits with something drawne from him some word of his some meditation concerning him c. Fetch out your peace and quietment in all troubles from the bosome of the Lord Jesus Christ Let mee for this exhortation onely give you some few directions and then I shall conclude with two or three motives I know every child of God is listning after this and apprehends a great deale of sweetnesse in this fully conceiving that it would be a very sweet thing if he could bring this about that his soule should come out of every disturbance Walking upon Christs hand you cannot but say this would be a sweet comming off indeed Ah but will some say how should this bee what course should we take to worke this about what would you advise a poore creature to doe that it might come out of troubles on this fashion To this I shall answer in a few directions and that briefely Dir. 1 First Let it be thy first work when thou art overwhelmed with a rrouble be it from what cause it will to sit downe and think what is now a bitter dispensation that doth not please mee I am troubled at it but let me think is there nothing of God in this dispensation commeth this affliction out of the dust see if thou canst see nothing of Gods power or soveraignty wisdome or justice providence love and goodnesse c. I dare say there is scarce any affliction befals thee but if thou studiest it well thou wilt see all of these yea more of God than these come to in it thou wilt be brought at last to conclude surely God was in this crosse in this losse of a friend in this losse of estate and I was not aware of it surely it is the will of the Lord concerning me and shall I not submit God might doe what he hath done he is my Lord and soveraigne why then doth my spirit rise up in armes against him this is the ordering of a wise Providence If what I would have had had come to passe then surely I could not have mended it it would have been worse for me surely here is love in this dispensation for that God is all love that measured it out to mee Thus by understanding what of God there is in thy triall thou wilt gaine a true peace The truth is it is the usuall course of men and women holy men and women as well as others if a trouble come upon them to sit downe and conceit what of man there is in it and say This was such a ones malice to mee now hee hath done me an ill turne c. whereas this instead of bringing the soule off trouble in a sanctified manner doth nothing else but involve the soule in an inextricable Labyrinth of afflictions and if ever it comes out it is at the back-doore too Dir. 2 When thou hast considered what there is of God in it then mediate a little what there is in God to mend it Sit downe and think with thy selfe is