to do us good But though God turn not away from us oh how apt are we to turn away from Him Nay saith the Lord I will Jer. 32. 40. put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me God inclines our hearts to do those things which He commandeth and so by over-powring our stubborn and perverse wills He makes us to be a willing people in the day of His power Psal 110. 3. First This Covenant of Grace is one in substance for there is one God one Mediator between God and men even Christ Jesus one manner of reconciliation Acts 4. 12. Joh. 14. 6 8. 56. one faith one way of salvation and that for all those that are saved since the beginning of the world or shall be saved to the end of it So the Covenant of Grace is one according to the principal conditions whereby 1. God obligeth Himself to us promising remission of Sins to all those who repent and believe and we do bind our selves to believe in God and act repentance 2. But according to the less principal conditions or as others say the manner of administration so they are two Covenants the Old and the New the first and the second Q. Wherein do the two Covenants agree viz. this old and new A. 1. They agree in the author God and in the Mediator Christ 2. In the promise of Grace which is of pardon of Sin and life everlasting freely given to those that believe by and through Christ which promise of Grace was common to the Saints of old as well as unto us although now it is more clear and more often repeated 3. In the condition in respect of us In both God required faith and obedience So to Abraham Walk before Gen. 17. 1. Mark 1. 15. me and be upright And to us Repent and believe the Gospel So the new Covenant agrees with the old according to the principal conditions both in respect of God and also of us Q. Wherein the new Covenant and the old do differ A. 1. In corporal promises as the Land of Canaan promised to the Jews their form of ceremonial Worship and their outward political Government until Christ came Christ to be of their seed and many other such-like But the new Covenant hath not such special corporal promises but only in general that God will preserve His Church to the end of the world c. 2. In the circumstances of the promise of Grace In the old Covenant they were received into Grace and favour upon believing in Christ that was to come In the new Covenant we are received into Grace and favour by believing in Christ that is already come 3. In the rights and signs added to the promise of Grace for in the old Covenant there were other Sacraments various chargeable painful as Circumcision the Passeover Oblations Sacrifices But in the new Covenant there are fewer Sacraments and they more simple as Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 4. In the clearness in the old Covenant all were typical and under shaddows as their Priests Sacrifices c. so all things were obscure But in the New Covenant all things are clearer both in Doctrine and in Sacraments we having the fulfilling of the types 5. The old Covenant and the new do differ in gifts heretofore it was more narrow and sparing now a more large Jer. 31. 31 2 Cor. 3. 9. Joel 2. 28. and plentiful effusion of the Graces of the Spirit I will make a new Covenant with them saith the Lord I will write My Law in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be My people c. I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh c. 6. In the time the old Covenant was but temporary until the coming of the Messiah The new Covenant is eternal I will make an everlasting Covenant Jer. 32. 40 with them 7. In obliging the old Covenant obliged the people to all the Law both both Moral Ceremonial and Judicial The new Covenant obligeth us only to the Moral Law and to the use oâ— the Sacraments of Christ 8. In the amplitude and largeness in the old Covenant the Church was included within the Jewish Nation to which all others that would be saved must joyn themselves thence was that saying Salvation is of the Jews But in Joh. 4. 22. the new Covenant the Church is scaâ—tered over all Nations and access is open to it unto all believers Of every nation he that feareth God and worketh Acts 10. 35. righteousness is accepted of Him 1. Then take we heed of refusing this acceptable time and this day of Salvation Now the door is open let us come in thereat and joyn our selves to the Lord to be His Covenant-Servants and that for ever taking the Lord to be our God to love serve and fear Him and to keep his Commandments 2. The cause why God enters into Covenant with us is as because He loves Heb. 6. 18 us so to give us strong consolation that He will do us good and make us for to know it Labour we therefore for more knowledg of God in Christ to understand the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3. 8 19. and to be filled with all the fulness of God For there may be knowledg without Grace but there can be no Grace without knowledg Then may we comfort our selves in applying the promises of the Covenant to our selves as to instance in these three promises only As 1 Of Justification when Sin lyes heavy on thy Conscience lay claim to the Covenant wherein God hath said Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more 2. Of Sanctification if a lust be too strong for thee and thou wouldst fain be rid of it go to God and beseech Him to make good His Covenant in this respect to deliver thee from all thine enemies to write His Law in thy heart to give thee a new heart to pour clean Ezek. 36. 25 26. water upon thee even the sanctifying Graces of His holy Spirit and from all thy filthinesses to cleanse thee And then as He said to St. Paul His Grace 2 Cor. 12. 6. shall be sufficient for thee 3. Of outward blessings and deliverances in every streight want danger disease or the like plead hard with God tell Him of His Covenant pray Him to be thy buckler and to deliver thee to supply all thy need and to be a present help unto thee in thy needful time of trouble c. The promises are full of consolation but thou must suck hard at these breasts of consolation and draw them out Isai 66. 11. And so make use of the promises to the utmost Thus Jacob stayed himself upon the promise when he was in great extremity and in very much fear of his rough brother Esau he urged God with his promise Lord thou hast said Thou Gen. 32. 12. 28. 13 15. wilt surely do me good deliver me
must with delight apply Christ and His merits to all the necessities of our Souls spiritually feeding upon Him and growing by Him For the eating of the Bread to strengthen our nature betokeneth the inward strengthning of our souls by Grace through the merit of breaking Christ's body for us And the drinking of the Wine to cherish our bodies betokens that the blood of Christ shed on the Cross and as it were drunk by faith doth cherish our souls And as God doth bless these outward elements to preserve and strengthen the body of the receiver so Christ apprehended and received by faith doth nourish him and preserve him both body Joh. 6. 50 51. and soul unto eternal life 1 Cor. 10. 3. 11. 17 19. Q. Who are to be admitted to be partakers of this Sacrament A. 1. They who are of years of discretion and sound judgment able to discern the Lord's body ought to repair to it If they are able to prove and examine themselves and rightly to remember the Lord's death For so is the Commandment This do in remembrance of me And let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup for so ye shew the Lords death till He come 1 Cor. 11. 27 28. 2. They who are baptized and by Baptism made members of the Church For our Covenant with God made in Baptism is renewed in the Lord's Supper As formerly none might eat of the Passeover unless he were circumcised so none may partake at the Lord's table unless baptized 3. Who in word and deed profess their faith and repentance or who express the profession of their faith and repentance by the actions of their life For of occult and hidden things the Church judgeth not but she admitteth all those whom she can judge to be members of Christ that is those whom she hears and sees by their confession and by their outward deeds to profess their faith and repentance whether they be Godly or whether they be Hypocrites not yet made manifest Q. What is to be performed of every Christian that he may partake worthily of the Lords Supper A. Three things 1. A due preparation before receiving 2. Great heed in the whole duty of receiving 3. A thankful close and shutting up of it Of all these in order Q. What is the preparation requisite to this holy Sacrament A. Duly to search and examine their own souls if they can find in themselves those things which God requires in worthy Communicants This preparation is twofold 1. Inward 2. Outward 1. Inward which is spiritual and that consists in a man's examining of himself and so to try his own worthiness There is a double worthiness 1. A Worthiness of the person if thou hast faith and the righteousness of Christ imputed by faith to thee 2. A worthiness of the using which is true reverence inward and outward forgiveness love a serious bewailing of sins and repentance the meditation of the benefits of Christ the discerning the body of the Lord thanksgiving and the avoiding of all offences All these things be particularly discussed by many worthy writers and therefore I here wave them Briefly thus Such as will in a holy sort prepare themselves to celebrate the Lord's Supper must have 1. A knowledg of God of Man's fall and of the promised restauration into the Covenant by Christ 2. True faith in Christ for every man receiveth so much as he believeth Heb. 4. 2. 3. True repentance of all their sins past Isai 66. 3. Psal 26. 6. 4. Perfect love and charity forgiving as we would be forgiven true repentance purgeth out malice among all other sins and a sound faith worketh by love towards God and towards our brethren also Mat. 5. 22. Jam. 1. 19. 20. Gal. 5. 6. The holy Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29. placeth preparation in these three acts 1. Discerning the Lord's body 2. Examining of our selves 3. A worthy disposition To speak a little of all these distinctly 1. Discerning the Lord's body which consists in a good understanding and judgment of the nature use and necessity of the Sacrament Now because these things cannot be understood but out of the fundamentals of Christian Religion about sin and misery following thence the Grace of Christ and the blessings therehence slowing of our duty in thankfulness and obedience to God therefore the knowledg of the principal points of Christian Religion which are necessary to Salvation are needfully required to this discerning here spoken of 2. Examining our selves which consists in a serious trial if we are so disposed that we may use this Sacrament with profit The rule of this examination is the Word of God especially as it concerns the institution of this Sacrament Our dispositions to be looked into in this trial of our selves are our faith repentance charity a desire of new obedience 3. A worthy disposition which consists in an agreeableness of our affections with this sacred business And here is required 1. That we renew our repentance as for all our former sins so especially our late failings and for those sins we are most inclined unto and those committed since our last receiving 2. To stir up in our selves a hungring and thirsting after Christ and His Grace as for pardoning and mortifying our sins so to be enabled for better obedience and newness of life 3. To stir up our faith to lay hold on the promises of the Gospel 4. That with all humility reverence and devotion we receive this Sacrament as the Seal of the Covenant of Grace and of the promises of God Thus far of the first part to be performed by every Christian worthily to partake of the Lord's Supper which is Preparation Now for the second Heedfulness in the duty of receiving And that consists in these four things 1. Reverendly to attend the better to apply the whole action joyning with the Minister in his Prayers making use of all the Sacramental actions both in the Minister and also in the receivers whereof we spake at large before and so thankfully commemorating the Lord's death for the comfort and refreshing of our souls 2. According as it is commanded all must take the Bread and Wine into their hands 3. According to Christ's command to eat that Bread and drink that Wine 4. They must use thanksgiving offering up themselves both souls and bodies is a Sacrifice of thanksgiving In which Rom. 12. 1 respect this Sacrament is properly called the Eucharist As oft as we eat this bread and drink this cup we shew the Lords death c. The Ordinance it self is full of death what other language doth bread broken and the blood severed from the body speak but a dying Christ As the Ordinance so the Communicant doth by eating and drinking in fact declare his profession of adherence to Christ and embracing of the death of Christ for remission of Sins and reconciliation of his person unto God Which although at all times
precept drives on to an endeavour of obedience and well-pleasing Slavish fear forceth a man to do the duty some way or other without any regard to the manner of doing of it There is also another branch of a holy filial fear when we thinking on the examples of God's vengeance shewed on wicked men for their sins do take care not to fall into the same sins lest we have the same punishments and so crave aid and assistance of God against them depending upon His Grace and assistance by His Spirit For we are of the same flesh and blood as they were and bear about us a body of sin So said the Apostle These things were our 1 Cor. 10. 6. to 12. examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them c. Neither let us commit fornication c. Neither let us tempt Christ c. Neither murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now all these things happened to them for ensamples and were written for our admonition c. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall Therefore we are bid to work out our Phil. 2. 12. own salvation with fear and trembling Seeing our own weakness wretchedness and sinfulness to lye low in our own sight and to look up unto and rest upon the Almighty Power and Grace of God Nothing so much awakens us to cast all our confidence upon God and by faith to rely upon Him as to have a distrust of our selves seeing our own weakness and frailty And when we thus go out of our selves resting wholly upon God it always goes best with us Ephraim was Hosâ—â— 1â— 1. heard in that he â—eared Therefore Solomon said happy is the man that feareth always Prov. 28. 14. How wretched soever we be of our selves by faith we know that through God's most gracious acceptation of us in Christ we shall be blessed God requires to Himself the reverence both of a Father and also of a Master A son honoureth his father and a servant Mal. 1. 6. his master If then I be a father where is mine honour and if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts He that truly worshippeth God will endeavour to shew himself both a dutiful Son and an obedient Servant unto Him Therefore let the fear of God be a reverence joyned with honour Q. But how shall we answer that place there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear 1 Joh. 4. 18. hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love A. The wicked fear not displeasing God so that they may do it without punishment but because they do know God is armed with power to revenge therefore they tremble and fear apprehending His wrath and vengeance But the Godly fear to displease and offend God more than they fear the punishments And therefore they are the more careful wary and watchful The fear which the Apostle John there speaks of is slavish fear There is no such slavish fear in love but perfect love casteth out that fear that is our true lively and sincere love to God carryeth it self no longer towards God with a simple fear of His terrible Majesty and Judgments but with a sweet humble and reverend apprehension of His Grace and goodness by which He hath made and declared Himself most amiable and lovely to the soul whereby is begotten hope and confidence in Him Q. How may we understand that place Ye have not received the spirit of Rom. 8. 15. bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father A. There is a threefold operation of the Holy Ghost in those that are led by Him 1. He is unto them a Spirit of bondage working fear 2. He is a Spirit of adoption working love through the sence of God's mercy for He not only makes them the Sons of God but intimates to their Spirits God's love towards them that they are His Sons 3. He is a Spirit of intercession making Rom. 8. 26. them to go with boldness to the throne of Grace and call upon God as their Father We are now to speak only of the first The Godly usually in the first act of Conversion feel the Spirit casting them down in the sight of their sins rebuking them for sin and convincing them of sin letting them see the bondage and servitude under which they lye that they are slaves of Sathan and guilty of everlasting damnation which works in them great fear As the proclaiming of the Law wrought in the Children of Exod. 20. 18 19. Israel great terrour and amazement So John Baptist began at the Preaching of Mat. 3. 10. the Law and the people asked him Luk. 3. 10. what shall we do that we may be saved And yet the Apostle here doth not compare the Godly under the Law with the Godly under the Gospel but the Godly under the Gospel with themselves their second experience of the operation of the Spirit in them with the first Whereas in the first operation He was a Spirit of bondage now He is a Spirit of adoption God is pleased to bring us by the gates of Hell to Heaven First deeply to humble us then to exalt and comfort us So then the meaning of these words ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear is thus Albeit in the time of your first Conversion you were stricken with a fear of that wrath which is the recompence of sin yet now the Spirit of adoption hath not only released you of that fear of damnation which you conceived at the first through the sight and sence of your sins but also hath assured you of Salvation making you certain that God is become your Father in Christ Jesus All the terrours and fears wherewith God humbles his children at the first are but preparatives to his comforts and Consolations that they may be the more sweet to the Soul In this 15th verse of Rom. 8. Two effects of the Spirit are opposed For in some the Spirit worketh fear in others love and assurance and first fear then assurance In all the elect which are of years of discretion the Spirit worketh a slavish fear first before the filial assurance fear is the sign of the Spirit of bondage confidence and assurance in God as a Father is the proper effect of the Spirit of adoption So the Jews at Peters Sermon were Acts 2. 37. first pricked at the heart and after comforted in assurance of forgiveness All are brought to this exigent more or less that they may acknowledg they stand in need of Christ and be stirred up to seek out after him Such as were never afraid were never assured So none have the Spirit of adoption but such as have had the Spirit of bondage
these ungodly Swearers shall and that for ever for the Lord hath said He will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain God will have us to fear and reverence His glorious and fearful name the Deut. 28. 58. Psal 99. 3. Lord our God Let men praise His great and terrible name for it is holy The Jews heretofore were and yet still are so superstitious erring too much on the right hand that they mention not the Name of God but by a circumloquution and so had divers phrases to express God by as Caiaphas said to Christ Art thou the Son of the Blessed Mark 14. 61. would not say of God or of the Lord. But these on the contrary cannot speak six words without an oath and think it a Gentile quality and a gracing to their speeches to swear by the great and dreadful name of God I must not say they are Atheists although I really Tit. 1. 15 16. believe them so to be their mind and conscience is desiled They profess that they know God but in their works they deny Him being abominable disobedient unto every good work reprobate Like as they abhor not evil and abhor Psal 36. 4 10 3. Zech. 11. 8. to walk in God's ways even so the Lord will abhor them Their worm shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched Isai 66. 24. and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh Although they think as their brethren of old those wicked rebellious Jews that they have made a Covenant with death and that they are at an agreement with Hell that when the Isai 28. 15. over-flowing scourge shall pass through that it shall not come unto them But the Lord telleth them your covenant 18. with death shall be disanulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through then ye shall be trodden down by it Some may think me too invective or â—atyrical against these prophane Sweaâ—ers let such know that these are the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever They are God's Mal. 1. 4. â—nemies that take His name in vain Psal 139. 20. which should cause grief of heart and detestation of spirit to all those that love and fear the Lord. So the following words of David are Do not I hate Verses 21 22. them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine enemies We have not a prophetical spirit as David had to know certainly God's enemies although by their fruits they may be known we Mat. â— 20. may and must hate their vices and wickednesses and leave them to the righteous judgment of God continuing to mourn for these abominations which do make the Land to mourn and not ceasing to pray for them If peradventure 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. God will give them repentance unto life and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will to do his will Never was a child more like his father than they are like their father the Devil whose works they Joh. 8. 44. do By cursing and swearing whoredom Hos 4. 4. and adultery they break out for usually these abominable sins with others the like do go together they that make no conscience of one sin neither will they of another And when once the Devil hath gotten sound footing in such or such persons he drives them on without resistance They break all bonds asunder and cast all cords from them no bounds will hold them neither Psal 2. 3. Luk. 18. 4. the Laws of God nor man for they fear neither nor the checks of their own Consciences But like fed horses Jer. â— 8. neigh after their neighbours wise therefore God will cast them into a bed but it shall be a siery one into great tribulations Rev. 8. 22. except they repent of their deeds for whore-mongers and adulterers Heb. 13. 4. God will judge though they may escape the judgment of men yet God will assuredly judge them and will render to every one according to his 2 Cor. 5. 10 works Although while they are here they make the Land to mourn and the earth to groan under them to bear such wicked wretches God will come and Rom. 8. 2â— put a difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath So Eccles 9. 2. we leave these Swearers who have attained to the highest form in the Devil's School By all these things we are taught how grievously they do sin who swear so rashly and easily oaths flowing from them as water out of a conduit in their ordinary speeches and discourses whose mouths are full of cursings and bitterness Rom. 3. 14. Job 15. 5. whose mouths utter their iniquities their own mouth condemns them Verse 6. and their own lips testifie against them they in the mean time not thinking that thereby they do expose the glory and the name of God to scorn and so do urge and provoke God to shew and inflict the severity of His judgments and vengeance upon them for the Lord will not suffer those to go unpunished who thus take His name in vain The Son of Syrach said Accustom not Ecclesiasticus 23. 9 10 11 thy mouth to swearing neither use thy self to the naming of the holy one For as a servant that is continually beaten shall not be without a blew-mark so he that sweareth and nameth God continually shall not be faultless A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house If he shall offend his sin shall be upon him and if he acknowledge not his sin he maketh a double offence and if he swear in vain he shall not be innocent but his house shall be full of calamities There is none that frequently swears but sometimes he forswears or perjureth himself like-as he who useth his mouth to multitude of words sometimes must needs speak unfit things Therefore said the wise man In the multitude of words Prov. 10. 19. there wanteth not sin But some will think to say O Lord O God O Jesus c. in their common talk or in a wondering way good God! good Lord is no sin Know assuredly that such foolish admirations and taking of God's Holy name lightly into our mouths on every slight occasion is utterly condemned in the third Commandment So the Reverend Archbishop Vsher and many other reverend and learned Divines do firmly conclude There is also a superstitious and idolatrous oath to swear by an idol or by Gods Creatures as by the Mass our Zeph. 1. 5. Lady c. by bread fish salt fire Amos 8. 14. light and many such-like fond trashes Whereas God never made or appointed His creatures for such uses Others will plight
men in Adam as believers are in Christ which is by a foenant or Covenant agreement Q. How can God be said to Covenant or enter into promise with man A. It is of Gods great condescension so to do in regard of His Soveraignty over man And yet to give and to promise to give are acts of His dominion and liberality and so no ways repugnant to the great and glorious Majesty of God But it is to confirm us in our hope and confidence in Him and in our obedience unto Him Q. Why doth God deal with man in a Covenant way rather than in a meer supreme and absolute way A. 1. To sweeten and endear Himself unto us So that Adam could not but have thankful and loving thoughts of God that would thus far condescend unto him 2. To incite and encourage Adam the more to obedience and that to a willing and free obedience When our first Parents had broken this Covenant and were fallen God out of His infinite pity mercy and compassion to mankind made with them another Covenant a Covenant of Grace And because man was an ill-keeper when he had his salvation in his own hands he soon by Sin lost it and himself thereby Therefore our gracious God would not have our Salvation any longer in our own keeping but made this His Covenant with man in the hands of a Mediatour even the Lord Jesus Christ who Mal. 3. 1. is therefore called the Angel of the Covenant who will be sure to preserve and keep us by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. And herein Gods unspeakable mercy to manking appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but â—itus 3. 4 5 6 7. according to His mercy He hath saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by His Grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Yea before God pronounced the Curse or Sentence of Judgment after Adam's fall He graciously shewed a way and a surer way of salvation in and through Christ the Mediator when He said the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head As this Covenant was first Preached by God to Adam the Lord shewed him his Sin and the curse due for Sin and then sets an enmity between him and the serpent they must fight it out whereof the issue will be thus A certain seed of the woman shall utterly overthrow Sathan even breaking the head of that Serpent but the Serpent shall only bruise His heel which signified light and temporary afflictions both in the Head and also in the members of Christ the head By virtue of which promise the Church continued until Abraham's time and then the Covenant is renewed In Gen. 22. 18. thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed The condition required of Abraham was to believe so Abraham believed in Gen. 15. 6. God and He counted it to him for righteousness Not that this was Abraham's righteousness before God but that habit that grace of faith chiefly looking to the Messiah promised that believing disposition whereby he was able to believe that promise this was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness Rom. 4. 2 3. which brings us to speak of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace is a mutual agreement between God and men whereby God confirms unto men that He will be favourable unto them forgiving them their Sins and giving unto them new righteousness His Holy Spirit and everlasting life by and through His Son our Mediator And men oblige themselves unto God to receive so great benefits by lively faith and to yield to God all true obedience This mutual agreement between God and man is confirmed by outward signs and seals which we call Sacraments Sacraments are holy signs testifying God's good-will toward us and our gratitude and duty towards God This Covenant could not be made without a Mediator for we could never make satisfaction nor return into favour with God by and of our selves Neither could God admit us for His justice sake without sufficient satisfaction which we could never make For we were enemies to God and so there was no way open for us to come unto God but by that new and living way namely the blood of Christ So then this Reconciliation Heb. 10. 20. could never be made but by the satisfaction and death of the Mediator That on which all the promises now initially hang is nothing but believing Who so now believeth in God shall be put within the Covenant And there are these four reasons why all depends upon faith First Because true faith is never alone but draws with it all other Graces he that believes in God hath a good opinion of God and loves God and he that loveth God must needs be full of good works Jam. 2. 17 18. Secondly Only faith makes the promises sure unto us otherwise Christ and the Covenant of Grace had been spared Thirdly The Covenant consists of promises nothing but faith can answer this Covenant which is not a Commandment but a Promise Commandments are answered by obedience but Promises are answered by faith Fourthly It is by faith because God would have it go by free Grace and not of debt God dealeth with us as with Sons and not as with Servants He pays Rom. 3. 27. Rom. 11. us not wages but gives us an inheritance So all boasting is excluded The sum of the Covenant of Grace is this That God will be our God and give us everlasting life in Christ Jesus if we receive Him by faith being freely Joh. 1. 12. Jer. 31. 33. Acts 16. 30 31 by His Father offered unto us where hence will follow new obedience whereby the faithful walk worthy of the Grace received and this is also by the Grace of God This God's eternal love and free Grace towards us is the highest link of our salvation both in order of time nature and causality Whom He predestinated Rom. 8. 29 30. those also He called and whom He called those He justified and whom He justified those also He glorified God loved us when we were Sinners enemies to Him and that by wicked works If our wicked works could not Col. 1. 21. prevent the love of God to us why should we think they can nullify or destroy it if the mass guilt and greatness of Adam's Sin in which all men were equally sharers could not interrupt or frustrate God's counsel of loving us when we were His enemies why should any other Sins over-turn the stability of the same love and counsel when we are become His Sons and have a Spirit given us to bewail and lament our Sins It was God's promise flowing from this everlasting love that caused Him to make an everlasting Covenant with us that He would not turn away from us
the body for our thoughts are before His face The easiest way of explaining or understanding the Commandments is by dividing the obedience due to every Commandment into its proper virtues as parts and then the vices contrary to those virtues will easily appear As there are these seven virtues or parts of obedience due to the first Commandment 1. The acknowledging of God 2. Faith in God 3. Hope 4. Love of God 5. Fear of God 6. Humility 7. Patience But here we are to speak only of the fear of God The true fear of God is to acknowledge the extream anger of God against sin and His power to punish it and to esteem our displeasing of God or offending Him and consequently an estrangedness from Him as the greatest evil and therefore extreamly to hate and detest sin and to be ready rather to suffer any evil than to offend in any thing Or thus The fear of God is from acknowledging of His Wisdom Power Justice and Right which He hath over all creatures and out of subjection unto Him not willing to offend Him Levit. 19. 14. Thou shalt fear thy God I am the Lord. God is feared as He is just and powerful to punish in regard of the evil of punishment which He can inflict So we stand in such a Godly fear as not to do any thing but that which maketh for God's glory and yet this is not a servile fear whereby one is afraid to be damned but an awful filial fear whereby we are afraid to offend our Maker and Heavenly Father So our Saviour bids Mat. 10. 28. us rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell So St. Peter bids us to pass the time of our sojourning 1 Pet. 1. 17. here in fear Let us have grace whereby Heb. 12. 28. we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear For as a Father pityeth his Son so the Lord pityeth them that fear Him Whereas all carnal fear and especially the fearing of any thing more than God is here condemned Fear ye not their fear neither be afraid Isai 8. 12 13. but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts Himself and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread I even I am He saith the 51. 12 13. Lord that comforteth you who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the Son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker c. and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressour Fear not them which kill the body but Mat. 10. 28. are not able to kill the soul but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell We should be more afraid to displease God than any other and this fear of God should be stronger to move us to do good than the fear of man to move us to do evil There is a twofold fear of God 1. Filial 2. Slavish 1. Filial which is from acknowledging of sin and the anger of God against it and from a serious grief for sins committed because of offending God thereby and in regard of calamities that we and others endure for sin and a fear of future sins and punishments with an ardent desire of avoiding those evils through the acknowledging of God's mercy shewed to us in and through Christ This is usually called filial fear because it is such a fear as dutiful Children have toward their Father grieving for the anger and displeasure of their father and fearing least they should offend him again and so be punished for it and yet are always perswaded of their fathers love and good-will towards them and therefore love him and through this love do grieve the more because they have offended him So we read of Peter that when he had denyed his Master he went forth and wept bitterly Mat. 26. 75. But servile and slavish fear is such as of Servants to their Masters to avoid punishment without faith and without a desire and striving to amend and is usually joyned with despair and a with-drawing from God and fleeing away from Him Filial and slavish fear differ in these three things 1. Filial fear proceedeth from our trust and confidence in God and love to Him But servile fear ariseth from a sight of sin and sins flying in the face with the sence of judgment and of the wrath of God 2. Filial fear principally turneth away from sin which displeases God but not from God Himself But servile fear is a fleeing from and a hatred not of sin but of punishments and judgments of God and so at length with a fleeing from and a hatred of God Himself 3. Filial fear is joyned with some assurance of salvation and everlasting life and so draws us nearer to God But a servile fear is joyned with an expectation of everlasting damnation and casting away from God and so drives farther from Him which is so much the more in them as their doubting or despair of the Grace and Mercy of God is more or less This slavish fear is in the Devils and wicked men and is the beginning of everlasting death which the wicked and ungodly do feel even in this life So said Cain to God My punishment is Gen. 4. 14. greater than I can bear Behold Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face I shall be hid and I shall be a fugitive a vagabond in the earth c. So Ahaz his heart Isai 7. 2. was moved and the hearts of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind And so Saul he was afraid 1 Sam. 28. 5. and his heart greatly trembled The Jam. 2. 19. Devils believe and tremble There are some things do oppose and resist the fear of God in defect and some in excess 1. In excess as servile fear and despair of which we spoke something before 2. In defect as 1. Prophaneness 2. Carnal security 3. Contempt of God 4. An Idolatrous fear The wicked are utterly devoyd of all fear and reverence of God they have Psal 36. 1. no fear of God before their eyes an idolatrous fear is not that fear alone which is from idols as the poor Heathen Indians worship the Devil because he should not hurt them but that fear also which is from men and from the world when a man fears them more than he fears God Some carnal security may be in the Godly yet it is otherwise with them than in the wicked It is so in the Godly that the fear of God is not altogether cast out of their heart but the 1 King 14. 9. wicked like Jeroboam cast God behind their back So God complains of the Ezek. 33. 35. Jews they had forgotten Him and cast him behind their
stranger to the grace of liberty whom the service of fear meerly bindeth and obligeth 8. Know thy self that thou mayest fear God know God that thou mayest love Him For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the end of the Commandment is charity Even as out of knowledg of thy self the fear of God comes into thy heart so if thou knowest God as thou oughtest thou wilt be sure to love Him 9. He will easily swerve from the way of righteousness who fears men more than God For the fear of man brings a snare 10. If the love of God cannot keep thee from sin let the dread of Him who is a sin-revenging Judge terrifie thee the fear of hell the snares of death that burning fire the ever-gnawing worm those pains of hell stinking brimstone black flames of fire the blackness of darkness for ever and all those miseries accompanying it which are insupportable to be born impossible to express passing all understanding to conceive at least terrifie thee from sin 11. The fear of man brings distrust but the fear of the Lord brings strong confidence â—rov 14. 26. 12. He that truly fears God loves God and he that truly loves Him fears Him For these in our worshipping of God are conjoyned and cannot be separated 13. When thou hearest that God is merciful see that thou love Him when thou hearest that God is just see that thou fear Him that being stirred up both by the love and fear of God thou mayst be careful to strive to keep His Commandments Pray therefore with David O let me Psal 119. 1â— 1. not wâ—nder from Thy Commandments And O that my ways were directed to keep Thy Statutes Always remembring that frequently iterated precept of our blessed Saviour If ye love Me keep My Commandments EXERCITATION THE FIFTH Psal 62. 5. My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him OH how good is it to wait upon God! they alone who have found the benefit of it know how good it is There be three especial ingredients to make up this duty of waiting upon God 1. Faith 2. Patience 3. Diligence 1. Faith which is the substance of Heb. 11. 1 things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Faith is the bottom of our waiting upon God Faith discovers to us on what grounds we may stand as namely upon God's faithfulness and all-sufficiency c. and therefore David still encourageth himself as twice in this Psalm to wait upon God 2. Patience waiting implies delay and delay without patience is insupportable Hope deferred makes the heart Prov. 13. 12. sick Delay is a sore sickness and Patience is the only cure of it without which that sickness will prove death 3. Diligence and activity he that waiteth for a mercy must serve God's Providence in the use of all the means which God hath ordained and appointed for the accomplishment thereof It is Diligence as well as Faith and Patience that must inherit the promises We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not Heb. 6. 11 12. slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Waiting without diligence is nothing but slothfulness and security Waiting signifies a patient abiding and expectation of help from God I waited Psal 40. 1 2 3. patiently upon the Lord and He inclined His ear unto me and heard my cry He brought me also up out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings And He hath put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God I will wait upon the Lord I will not go back from Him I will try or use no unlawful means but will wait in His Isai 26. 8. way and expect His help and aid and the fulfilling of His promises depending wholly upon Him and His Word Faith apprehends the promise and thereby brings forth Hope and Faith by means of Hope makes them that believe to wait God is not like to man but in whatever He promiseth He approveth Himself most faithful both in His ability and performances I will therefore trust in the Name of the Lord and stay Isai 50. 10. my self upon Him my God This waiting upon God is a virtue Definition whereby we are inclined to the expectation of those things which God hath promised to us If we hope for that we Rom. 8. 25. see not then do we with patience wait for it This waiting this expectation 1. It hath God for its principal object that our faith and hope might be in 1 Pet. 1. 21. God and the less principal objects are all those things whereby as by means and steps we come to God 2. It hath respect to God as the Author and Giver of every good thing which it expects Every good gift and Jam. 1. 17. every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning Commit thy way to Psal 37. 5. the Lord rest also on Him and He shall bring it to pass Every-where in the Old Testament where the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is wont to be rendered Hope it signifies properly expectation And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies more than bare expectation it signifies patient expectation and that unweariedly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maneo I tarry so 2 Thess 3. 5. it is rendered into the patient waiting for Christ namely by which expectation we expect till Christ shall come to judge both the quick and dead there it is taken passively for the expectation in or by which Christ is expected by us The Septuagint render these words thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Soul subject thy self to God for my expectation or my abiding continuance patience perseverance is from Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subjectio simply signifies sub alio jacere to lye under another but properly it signifies more as namely to be subordinate or to subject our selves in an orderly way So it denotes an orderly subjection and implyes the reverence of the heart respectful speech and gesture obedience without resisting a willing subjection and in due manner as is required So be subject is a general word comprehending all other duties and services to be obedient in all things The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies tolero sustineo remaneo persevero A man must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stay abide and stand under his weight and burden until God â—ase him Magis significat expectationem longanimitatem quà m adversitatum tolerantiam sic alii Propriè est ipsa laudabilis sub cruce permansio constans in virtute cum crucis tolerantià vel contemptu perseverantia Properly it signifies that laudable constant abiding under affliction and a perseverance in
except the Father draw him That ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us ward who 〈…〉 eve according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead c. Here is the exceeding greatness of Gods power and the working of His mighty power which is expressed as much in the conversion of a sinner and in working saving Faith in his heart as it was manifested in raising Christ from the dead O the great power Eph. 2. 4. 56. riches inmercy and greatness of the love of God to poor sinners And to me in especial Where-with He hath loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Furthermore the principal efficient cause of Faith is God the impulsive cause is His free grace by which we are elected and called the instrumental cause whereby Faith is given to us in those of ripeness of age is ordinarily the word of God Faith cometh by hearing and Rom. 10. 17. hearing by the word of God And yet not the preaching of the word alone but as it is joyned with the efficacy of the Holy Spirit For the Lord opened Acts 16. 14. the heart of Lydia that she attended to those things spoken by Paul Thâ—â—â—â—tter of our Faith which is as the obâ—ect largely is the Word of God properly the free promises of the Gospel founded upon Jesus Christ The righteousness of God Rom. 3. 22. verse 25. which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation Rom. 10. 9. through Faith in His blood If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved So then justifying Faith consists in these two things 1. In having a mind to know Christ 2. In having a will to rest upon Him Whosoever sees so much excellency in Christ that thereby he is drawn to embrace Him as the only Rock of Salvation that man truly believes to justification Thus far of the description of Faith the several kinds of Faith and the causes of it that we may know the nature of true justifying saving Faith Such a Faith as our Saviour here requires Oh! this precious Faith of what 2 Pet. 1. 1. absolute necessity is it Necessary to everlasting Salvation We are kept by 1 Pet. 1. â— the power of God through Faith unto salvation Believe on the Lord Jesus Acts 16. 32. Christ and thou shalt be saved Which was the answer the jaylor had of Paul when he asked What he must do to be saved Without Faith it is impossible Heb. 11. 6. verse 2. to please God by Faith the elders obtained a good report Faith causes us to apprehend those deep mysteries of salvation which by the eye of Sense we can never fathom as Trinity in Unity the Incarnation of the Son of God c. The Word is unprofitable to us if it be not mixt with Faith In the Sacrament Heb. 4. 2. we receive no more than we do believe hast thou no Faith thou reapest no fruit or benefit or comfort If thou prayest thou must pray in Faith nothing Jam. 1. 5 7. wavering else do not think to receive any thing of the Lord. Whatsoever Mark 11. 24. things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them So we see that Faith is of absolute necessity in all our spiritual duties Worship and Services Pray we therefore with the disciples Lord increase Lord strengthen our Faith Luk. 17. 5. Acts 15. 9. Rom. 3. 28. Gal. 2. 16. Faith it purifies the heart Aman is justified by Faith We are justified before God only by Faith in Christ i. e. by Christs righteousness imputed to us by God and received and laid hold on by us with a lively Faith As Faith justifies it also quickeneth The righteousness of God Rom. 1. 17. is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith Faith is the means of obtaining and professing a spiritual life From faith to saith that is to say more and more according as Faith increases and grows stronger so it doeth more and more enjoy the benefit of this righteousness of Christ imputed Labour therefore to be strong in faith Abraham being strong in faith gave Rom. 4. 20. glory to God The stronger in Faith the more glory mayest thou bring to God They which be of faith are blessed Gal. 3. 9. with faithful Abraham Our faith must be a working faith Faith worketh by Gal. 5. 6. love It shews it self by the fruits of a new-life which are comprehended under the love of God and our neighbour 1 Thess 1. 3. We read of the work of faith our faith must not be a dead and idle faith but a lively and working faith shewing it self by its fruits and effects Jaâ—m 2. 18. verse 20. Shew me thy faith by thy works faith without works is dead There can be no justifying and saving faith separate from good works for he who truly doth good works hath a lively faith which is the root and spring of them and good works are proper perpetual and inseparable from a true and lively faith So we must reconcile those two places of Scripture which seem contrary to each other in Jam. 2. 24. Ye see then that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely and Rom. 3. 28 We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law the meaning is thus We are justified before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ but our good works which are the true fruits of saving lively faith declare us to be just before men Let us therefore be fruitful in every good Câ—â—â— 1. 10. Coll. 2. 7. 2 Thess 1. 3. Heb. 10. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 1. Jude 20. Rom. 3. 22. Rev. 14. 12. work and be stablished in the faith let our faith grow exceedingly that we may have that full assurance of faith This faith as it is a precious faith as we said before so it is a most holy faith It is called the faith of God Rom. 3. and the faith of Jesus Christ where the object is put for the subject And in our spiritual armour above all we are Eph. 6. 16. bid to take the shield of faith whereby we shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the Devil Now a shield is an instrument of War made for defence to award and keep off the blows of an enemy such a shield is faith to bear off and beat back the sierce temptations of Satan whom we must resist being sted fast in the faith 1 Pet. 5. 9.
Gods Wisdom Providence Justice and Goodness not to be obedient to God in bearing of adversities which he hath inflicted upon us but through grief to fret against him or do something against his commands not craving deliverance or help from him nor moderating grief by the acknowledging and resting on his Divine Will but to yield to grief so far as to be broken and overcome thereby and so driven to dispair So did Saul and Judas Iscariot To this impatience belongeth that complaining and crying out as if God afflicted us beyond our deserts and we had merited no such thing There is also a Hypocritical Patience as in those who vainly excruciate and torment themselves as those worshippers of Baal who cut and 1 Kings 18. 28 gashed themselves with knives till the bloud gushed out And of the same sort are also the Popish whippings c. There is also a Stoical Apathy or insensibility which we may call stupidity her rejected because a sense of our grief and some complaint or lamentation is not contrary to Patience so that we charge not God foolishly but justify God in his dispensations and utter nothing against him and complain not so much for the affliction as for our sins and acknowledge that he hath punished us less than our Ezra 9. 15. iniquities have deserved Why cryest Jer. 30. 15. thou for thine afflictions thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquities because thy sins were increased God hath done thus unto thee Thus we may glory in tribulation knowing tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5. 3 4 5. and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us That is we rejoyce in our present afflictions which are an assured proof unto us of everlasting 2 Cor. 4. 17. glory These light and momentany afflictions work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Here is a Hyperbole beyond an Hyperbole It is an evident token unto us of Salvation Phil. 1. 28. and that of God The Holy Ghost doth through tribulation fashion and frame us to Patience in which God doth from time to time give us assured proofs of His Grace and Protection whereby we conceive a firm hope in Him grounded upon the love which He bears unto us which He hath given us large cause of feeling and hath lively sealed it to our hearts by His Spirit of Adoption The more Gods servants suffer tribulation and adversity with patience The more they feel in themselves and have experience of His aid and assistance and this makes them more to hope in God as knowing they shall never be ashamed of their faith and hope Rom. 10. 11 and considence in Him Through patience and comfort of the Rom. 15. 4. Luke 8. 15. Scriptures we have hope Let us bring forth fruit with patience such fruits as God by His dispensations calls for and requires of us and that with patience that is persevering to the last in the middest of and notwithstanding all our tryals and afflictions God will render Rom. 2. 7. to them eternal life who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality So we have need of patience that after Heb. 10. 36. we have done the will of God we may receive the promise In all things approving our selves to be the servants of God who is stiled the God of patience in much patience in afflictions Rom. 15. 4. in distresses in necessities c. which 2 Cor. â— 4. we endure Being strengthned with all might accerding to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness So that the Ministers of Col. 1. 11. Christ may glory in us in the Churches of God for our patience and faith in all 2 Theâ— 1. 4. our persecutions and tribulations which we endure Let us follow after righteousness godliness 1 Tim. 6. 11. faith love patience meekness 2 Cor. 8. 7. And as to grow in grace so also in this of patience Adding to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to 2 Pet. 1. 5. 6 7. knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity That God may know and approve our works and our labour and our patience that we have born and have had patience and have not fainted Rev. 2. 2 3. That it may be said of us among others Here is the patience of the Saints here Rev. 14. 12. are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus That Christ may say to us Because ye have kept the Rev. 3. 10. word of my patience I also will keep you from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth It is not anothers patience that will avail us unless for our example and imitation but in our patience we must possess and that our own souls Consider the work of God In the Eccl. 7. 14. day of prosperity rejoyce In the day of adversity consider God hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him That is be wise in discerning the various ways of Gods Providence for to second them with thine affections either of joy or sorrow Since Gods Will cannot be altered wisdom should make a man quietly submit unto it for there are variable things in this world to which we must conform our affections both of joy and grief Here we may expect nothing but changes and alterations for in the middest of life we are in death Here is no perpetuity of any condition Adversity is a considering time when God writeth bitter things against Job 13. 2â— us therefore in the day of adveâ—â—â—ty consider Endeavour to have such a feeling as God calleth the unto by His visitation or dispensation for He hath set adversity against prosperity He hath mixed evil with good to direct man by these different means of mildness and severity unto a happy death for after death there are no more vicissitudes nor varieties all things and conditions are then perpetual neither is there any place for repentance or amendment Q. What is the true nature of this vertue of Patience A. I answer This Christian Patience looks on a Three fold Object 1. On God By whose Good-will and pleasure all adversities are appointed and from thence come This Job in his afflictions did see and acknowledge when he said shall we Job 2. 10. receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil In this regard murmuring against God is opposed 1 Cor. 10. 10. to patience Neither murmur ye as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer This murmuring against God is the ready way to our
their hearts God will rent the caul â—oâ— â—â— 3. of their hearts consume and destroy them Humility is to acknowledg that all the good things which are in us or done by us are not from any worth or excellency in our selves but meekly from the free-grace and goodness of God And so from the acknowledgment of His Divine Majesty and our own frailty and unworthiness to submit our selves wholly to God to give glory of all those good things in us to Him alone and so truely to fear God to acknowledge and deplore all our sins wants and weaknesses not to desire great things or high places but to contain our selves within our own place and callings not resting on our own endowments but wholly on Gods help not to despise others in comparison of our selves nor hindering them in the performance of their duties but to acknowledge that others are and may be as worthy instruments of Gods glory as our selves and so to give them honour and respect accordingly Not to affect excellency above others but to be content with our place and those gifts which God hath given us and to employ all our gifts and studies and parts to Gods glory and the good of our Neighbours not to murmur against God if we are frustrated of our hope if we are contemned and despised of some but in all things to give unto God the praise of His Wisdom and Justice This is the practice of an humble man Job 22 29. When men are cast down then thou shall say there is a lifting up and God will save the humble person He forgetteth Psal 9. 12. not the cry of the humble He will Psal 10. 17. hear the desire of the humble A mans pride shall bring him low but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit It is Prov. 29. 23. Prov. 16. 19. better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud God said by Moses to Pharaoh How Exod. 10. 3. long wilt thou refuse to humble thy self before Me When he had so many Plagues and Judgments upon him yet he did not humble himself but his heart and the hearts of his servants were not humbled therefore they were utterly destroy'd and consum'd and sunk like a stone in those mighty waters of the Red-Sea So God brought them low Now these things are written for our 1 Cor. 10. 11. 7. 8. admonition that we should not be proud and stubborn haughty and rebellious c. as they were lest God pour down His vengeance and judgments on us likewise The humble shall see and be glad Psal 34. 2. and consider it their heart shall live that seek God O consider this ye that proudly forget God lest He tear you in pieces and Psal 50. 22. there be none to deliver yet there is hope for all this if thou wilt humble thy self and pray and seek the face of God and turn from thy wicked wayes then 2 Chron. 7. 14. Isai 55. 7. will the Lord hear from heaven and will pardon thy sins and will have mercy upon thee For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Humility makes men like to the holy Addition Angels but Pride made those become Devils that were Angels Pride was born in Heaven and as if it had forgotten which way it fell there-hence it can never return thither again Pride is the very beginning and end and cause of all Sin it is the root of all evil and Mistress and Queen of all other vices Other vices do only oppose and fight against those virtues which they are contrary unto as Drunkenness warreth against Sobriety Anger against Patience Wantonness and Whoredom against Chastity c. but Pride lifâ—eth up it self against all virtues and like a general and pestiferous Disease corrupts them all One said well there are four things draw the Chariot of Pride 1. Desire of Dominion 2. Love of ones own praise 3. Contempt of others 4. Disobedience And the wheels of this Chariot are boasting and arrogancy multitude of words and levity The Chariot-driver is the spirit of Pride and all they that are lovers of this present world are carried in this Chariot the horses of this Chariot are unbridled the wheels are very slippery the Chariot-driver very perverse and furious and they that are carried therein very infirm and weak persons Therefore this sin of Pride is to be cut down and grubbed up even at the very roots lest hiddenly and secretly it rising up it grow and increase by our allowing and bearing with it and so become stronger by use and custome much care and watchfulness is required against it Pride overthrew the Tower of Babel confounded our Speech prostrated Goliah hanged Haman slew Nicanor killed Antiochus drowned Pharaoh destroyed Sennacherib made Nebuchadnezar like a beast Herod to be eaten up with worms ruined stately Cities and Palaces and God sets Himself against all proud persons The Heathens could say Nosce teipsum è caelo descendit Know thy self is a saying or an Oracle from Heaven They that know themselves cannot be proud persons for they see so much sinfulness weakness ignorance and infirmities in themselves which kills self-Self-love that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and makes them even out of conceit with themselves seeing they have nothing but sin in and from themselves Every man of himself is a very Devil having nothing but wickedness in him All the imaginations and thoughts of his heart are only evil continually evil and extreamly evil If Gen. 6. 6â— he hath any good at all in him it is from God He cannot think a good thought as of himself much less speak or do that which is good all our sufficiency is 2 Cor. 3. â— of God Man by the fall of Adam was despoyled of all spiritual and supernatural gifts as faith love righteousness c. so also of all natural gifts as understanding judgment will c. which although they are not taken away yet the uprightness soundness and regularity of them is lost The understanding being filled with darkness and blindness the will with crookedness and perverseness c. yea and all things which belong to the blessed life of the soul are extinguished and lost until by grace of regeneration they are recovered Because Christ restoreth all these things to us therefore they are accounted from another and not from nature and therefore were once taken away Reason was not taken away by the fall but it was exceedingly corrupted and depraved that only foul ruines thereof do now appear The light shined in darkness Joh. 1. 5. and the darkness comprehended it not In the perverted and degenerate nature of man there shine yet some sparks which shew him to be a reasonable creature differing from brutes because he is endued with understanding and yet that light is choaked with great and thick mists of ignorance that it cannot effectually get abroad I might farther