then his desire Luke 17.5 are most for faith you shall then find him with the Disciples crying out Lord increase our faith But now though a wicked mans heart rise against every grace yet it rises most strongly against those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts which are a wicked mans bosom lusts Mat. 26.8 9. his darling sins c. Hence the covetous heart rises and swells most against liberality as you see in Judas Rev. 3.15 16 17. Luke 19. What need this waste Flesh and bloud looks upon all as lost that is laid out upon Christ his servants and services And the luke-warm Christians heart rises and swells most against zeal and fervency and the griping Userers heart rises and swells most against restitution Job 21.14 15. and the adulterers heart rises and swells most against purity chastity continency and the ignorant mans heart rises and swells most against light and knowledge Eccles 7.10 the ignorant man is willing to go to hell in the dark and ready and bold enough to conclude that we never had such sad and bad times as we have had since there hath been so much preaching and so much hearing and so much fasting and so much praying and so much light and knowledge in the world But now it is quite otherwise with a true child of God Rom. 7.22 23. for his heart rises and swells most against the Toad or Toads that are in his own bosom and the daily and earnest desires of his soul are that God would make him eminent in every grace yea that God would make him most eminent in those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts and corruptions which more peculiarly more especially he hath cause to call his iniquity Psal 49.5 or the iniquities of his heart and of his heels Look as we have some dirt more or less that will still cleave to our heels whilst we are in a dirty world so there is some defilements and pollutions that will still be cleaving to all our duties services wayes and walkings in this world which we may well call the iniquity of our heels Now a gracious heart rises most against these c. Thirteenthly No man can truly love grace in another but he that has true grace in his own soul 1 John 3.10 No man can love a Saint as a Saint but he that is a real Saint no man can love holiness in another but he that has holiness in his own soul no man can love a good man for goodness sake but he that is really good We know that we have passed from death to life 1 John 3.14 This Text you have opened in the first Maxim of this Book because we love the brethren Sincere love to the brethren is a most evident sign of a Christians being already passed or translated from death to life that is from a state of nature into a state of grace such a poor soul that dares not say that he has grace in his own heart yet dares say before the Lord that he loves delights and takes pleasure to see the holy graces of the Spirit sparkling and shining in the hearts lives and lips of other Saints secretly wishing in himself that his soul were but in their case and that dares say before the Lord Psal 15.1 4. Psal 16.3 He that loves his brother saith Augustine better knows his love wherewith he loves than his brother whom he loves that there are no men in all the world that are so precious so lovely so comely so excellent and so honourable in his account in his eye as those that have the Image of God of Christ of grace of holiness most clearly most fairly and most fully stampt upon them When a poor Christian can rejoyce in every light in every Sun that out-shines his own when he sees wisdom and knowledge shining in one Saint and faith and love shining in another Saint and humility and lowliness shining in another Saint and meekness and uprightness shining in another Saint and zeal and courage shining in another Saint and patience and constancy shining in another and then can make his retreat to his closet admiring blessing of the Lord for the various graces of his Spirit shining in his children and be frequent and earnest with God that those very graces might shine as so many Suns in his soul doubtless such a poor soul has true grace and is happy and will be happy to all eternity In Tertullian's time the Heathen would point out the Christians by this mark See how they love one another Now to prevent mistakes I shall shew you the several properties of sincere love to the Saints First True love to the Saints is spiritual it is a love for the Image of God that is stampt upon the soul 1 John 5.1 Every one that loveth him that begat 1 John 4.7 loveth him also that is begotten of him A soul that truly loves loves the father for his own sake and the children for the fathers sake If the Image of God be the load-stone that drawes out our love to the Saints then our love is real to them he that does not love the Saints as Saints he that does not love them under a spiritual notion he hath no true affection to them Naturally we hate God Gen. 3.15 1 John 3.12 because he is a holy God and his Law because it is an holy Law and his people because they are a holy people 'T is only the Spirit of God that can inable a man to love a Saint for the image of God that is in him many there are which love Christians for their goods not for their good they love them for the money that is in their purses but not for the grace that is in their hearts many like the Bohemian Cur fawn upon a good suit Love to the Saints for the Image of God stampt upon them is a flower that does not grow in natures garden No man can love grace in another mans heart but he that hath grace in his own men do not more naturally love their parents Prov. 29.10 Ezek. 25.15 and love their children and love themselves than they do naturally hate the image of God upon his people and wayes I have read of one who was so lusty and quarrelsom that he was ready to fight with his own image so often as he saw it in a glass O! how many are there in these dayes that are still a quarrelling and fighting with the image of God wherever they see it True love is for what of the divine nature for what of Christ and grace shines in a man it is one thing to love a godly man and anther thing to love him for godliness Many love godly men as they are Politicians or Potent or Learned or of a sweet nature or affable or related or as they have been kind to them
but all this is but natural love but to love them because they are spiritually lovely because of the seed of God in them because they are all glorious within John 1.3.9 Psal 45.13 is to love them as becometh Saints it is to love them at a higher and nobler rate than any hypocrite in the world can reach too The Wasps flie about the Tradesman's shop not out of love to him but the honey and fruit that is there But Secondly True love to the Saints is appretiating a gracious soul sets the highest price and the greatest value and esteem upon those that are gracious Psal 15.4 He honours them that fear the Lord Psal 119.119 Psal 1.4 he looks upon the wicked as lumber but upon the Saints as jewels he looks upon the wicked as dross but upon the Saints as the gold of Ophir he looks upon the wicked as chaff but upon the Saints as wheat 1 John 12. he looks upon the Saints as sons but upon the wicked as slaves Heb. 1. ult he looks upon the Saints as heirs of salvation but upon the wicked as heirs of damnation Gracious souls do not value persons by their great Places Offices Names Professions Arts Parts Gifts gay Cloaths gold Chains Honours Riches but by what they are worth for another world As the great God so gracious souls look not how rational men are but how religious not how great but how gracious not how high but how holy Psal 16.3 and accordingly they value them My goodness extends not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight Prov. 12.26 The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour 'T is grace that differences one man from another that exalts one man above another A gracious man though never so poor and low and contemptible in the world is a better man than his wicked neighbour though he be never so great or rich in the world in the eye account and esteem of God Angels and Saints there is no man to the gracious man The Sun doth not more excel and out-shine the Stars than a righteous man doth excel and out-shine his unrighteous neighbour Prov. 28.6 Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his wayes though he be rich A gracious man prefers a holy Job upon the dunghil before a wicked Ahab upon the Throne he sets a higher price upon a gracious Lazarus though cloathed with rags and full of sores Luke 16. than upon a rich and wretched Dives though he be cloathed gloriously and fares sumptiously every day This is and this must be for a lamentation Psal 45.13 Wicked men may highly prize and admire a the common gifts of the Saints as Pharaoh admired at the wisdom of Joseph and Nebuchadnezzar admired at the wisdom of Daniel but they never prize nor admire at their graces Every one that doth evil hateth the light Joh. 3.20 that this poor blind mad besotted world rates and values men according to their worldly interest greatness glory and grandure but gracious souls they rate and value men by their graces by their inward excellencies and by what they are worth for eternity in the eye of a gracious man there is no wife to a gracious wife no child to a gracious child no friend to a gracious friend no neighbour to a gracious neighbour no Magistrate to a gracious Magistrate no Minister to a gracious Minister no Master to a gracious Master nor no servant to a gracious servant internal excellencies carries it with a gracious man before all external glories The Jews say that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were as much worth as all the seventy Nations in the world Doubtless seventy gracious persons in the esteem and judgment of those that are gracious are more worth than a whole world yea than seventy worlds of graceless persons Well Sirs remember this No man can truly prize and highly value grace in another but he that hath grace in his own heart Some prize Christians for their wit others prize them for their wealth some prize them for their birth and breeding others prize them for their beauty and worldly glory some prize them for the great things that have been done by them others prize them for the good things that they have received from them some prize them for their Eagles eyes others prize them for their silver tongues and others prize them for their golden parts but he that is truly gracious he prizes them for the grace of God that is in them he sets the highest value upon them for their holiness No unregenerate person hath a love to all the Saints for though he seems to love some yet he loaths others he is guilty of sinful partiality having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons They seem to love the rich and despise the poor James 2. c. But Thirdly True love to the Saints is universal to one Christian as well as another to all as well as any to poor Lazarus as well as to rich Alraham to a despised Job as well as to an admired David to an afflicted Joseph as well as to a raised Iacob to a despised Disciple as well as to an exalted Apostle Eph. 1.15 Wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Iesus and love unto all the Saints Col. 1.4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Iesus and of the love which ye have to all the Saints Faith in Christ Jesus maketh love to all the Saints therefore they go commonly coupled in Pauls Epistles It was the glory of the Ephesians and Colossians that their faith and love reached to all the Saints their love was not a narrow love a love confined to some particular Saints but it was universal to all Saints Phil. 4.21 Salute every Saint in Christ Iesus the meanest as well as the â—ichest the weakest as well as the strongest the lowest as well as the highest and those that have many infirmities as well as those that have fewer infirmities Eph. 1.21 22 23 1 Pet. 2.17 and those that have but mean parts and gifts as well as those that have the strongest parts and the most raised gifts All Saints have the same Spirit the same Jesus the same Faith c. they are all fellow-members fellow-travellers fellow-soldiers fellow-Citizens fellow-heirs and therefore must they all be loved with a sincere and cordial love Love is set upon the brotherhood upon the whole fraternity of Believers and not here and there upon one Divine love casts an eye of favour upon grace in rags upon a dunghil in a dungeon a den a prison a fiery-furnace Psal 16.3 grace is as lovely in the illiterate as in the greatest Scholar in the servant as in the Master in the maid as in the Mistris in the child as in the Father in the
This is made good by ten Arguments Page 60 to 65 Six considerable things about probabilities of grace Page 65 66 67 68 69 If a Christian can't say he has grace yet he should not say he has no grace for he may have grace and yet not know it Page 81 82 He that prizes the least dram of grace above ten thousand thousand worlds certainly that man has true grace in him Page 200 T is the wisdom and ought to be the work of every Christian to own the least measure of grace that is in him though it be mixed and mingled with many weaknesses infirmities Page 332 333 'T is the wisdom and should be the work of every Christian to look upon all his graces and gracious evidences as favours given him from above as gifts dropt out of heaven into his heart as flowers of Paradise stuck in his bosom by a divine hand Page 333 334 335 When you look upon your graces in the light of the spirit it highly concerns you to look narrowly to it that you don't renounce and reject your graces as weak and worthless evidences of your interest in Christ c. Page 335 336 337 The spirit does four things in respect of our graces Page 348 Christians may safely rejoyce in their graces Page 349 350 351 The more grace any man hath the more clear the more fair the more full the more sweet will his evidences be for heaven c. Page 378 379 380 381 382 When your graces are strongest and your evidences for heaven are clearest and your comforts rise-highest then in a special manner it concerns you to make it your great business and work to act faith afresh upon the free rich and glorious grace of God and upon the Lord Jesus Christ Page 382 383 384 385 H Of the hatred of sin An Hypocrite can't hate sin as sin Page 303 304 305 True hatred of sin includes six things Page 305 306 307 308 Of the heart and of keeping of it Where the constant standing frame of a mans heart desires and endeavâ—urs are set for God Christ Grace Holiness there is a most sure and infallible work of God upon that mans soul Page 127 128 129 130 131 132 A gracious heart is an uniform heart Page 161 162 163 164. A gracious heart sets himself most against his darling sin his bosom sin his constitution sin c. Page 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 He that has given up his heart and life to the Rule Authority and Government of Christ he has a saving work of God upon him Page 203 204 That man that will cleave to Christ with full purpose of heart that man shall certainly be saved Page 204 205 That man that makes it his principle care his main business his work of works to look to his heart to watch his heart to reform his heart that man doubtless hath a saving work of God upon his heart Page 205 206 207 208 209 210 Ten wayes shewing how men should keep their hearts Page 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 There are many that are great strangers to their own hearts Page 339 Of Hypocrites First an Hypocrites inside is never answerable to his outside An Hypocrites inside is one thing and his outside another thing Page 287 288 Secondly no Hypocrite under heaven is totally divorced from the love and liking of every known sin Page 288 289 290 291 Thirdly an Hypocrites heart is never throughly subdued to a willingness to perform all known duties Page 291 292 293 Fourthly There is never an Hypocrite in the world that makes God or Christ or holiness or his doing or receiving good in his Station Relation or Generation his grand end his highest end his ultimate end of living in this world Page 294 295 296 297 Fifthly no Hypocrite under heaven can live wholly and only upon the righteousness of Christ the satisfaction of Christ the merits of Christ for justification and salvation Page 297 298 299 300 Sixthly an Hypocrite never embraces a whole Christ he can never take up his full rest satisfaction and content in the person of Christ in the merits of Christ in the enjoyment of Christ alone Page 300 301 302 303 Seventhly an Hypocrite can't mourn for sin as sin nor grieve for sin as sin nor hate sin as sin nor make head against sin as sin Page 303 304 305 Eighthly no Hypocrite is habitually low or little in his own eyes no hypocrite has ordinarily mean thoughts of himself or a poor esteem of himself Page 308 309 310 311 312 Ninthly no Hypocrite will long hold out in the work and wayes of the Lord in the want of outward incouragements and in the face of outward discouragements Page 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 Tenthly no hypocrite ever makes it his business his work to bring his heart into religious duties and services Page 318 319 320 321 Eleventhly an hypocrite never performs religious duties from spiritual principles nor in a spiritual manner Page 321 322 323 324 325 Twelfthly no hypocrite in the world loves the Word or delights in the Word or prizes the Word as 't is a holy Word a spiritual Word a beautiful Word a pure Word a clean word Page 325 326 327 328 329 Thirteenthly and lastly an hypocrite can't endure to be tryed and searcht and laid open Page 329 330 331 I Of judging our selves We must not judge our selves Hypocrites by those things that â—he Scripture never makes a character of an Hypocrite Page 74 75 76 77. We must not judge our selves hypocrites for such things which being admitted and granted to be true would unavoidably prove the whole generation of the faithful to be Hypocrites Page 77 78 79 In judging of our spiritual estates and conditions we must alwayes have an eye to our natural tempers complexions c. Page 79 80 81 Of judgments Spiritual judgments are the worst of judgments Page 338 L Of love to the Saints No man can truly love grace in another but he that has true grace in his own soul Page 189 190 Six wayes whereby men may certainly know whether their love to the Saints be real or not Page 190 to 200 M Of singular manifestations Some Christians live under the singular manifestations of divine love Page 341 342 Of Melancholy The evil effects of Melancholy Page 72 73 74 Of merciful men Such as are truly and graciously merciful are blessed c. Page 34 35 36 Of true mourners Such as are true mourners are blessed Page 32 N Of Name and of a great Name Many Professors take up in a great Name Page 337 338. O Of Obedience If your obedience springs from faith then your estate is good then you have assuredly an infallible work of God upon your souls Page 132 Seven wayes to know when your obedience is the obedience of faith with the resolution of some considerable questions about obedience worthy of serious consideration Page 132 to 161 P Of the Promises The
subject as in the Prince in the buyer as in the seller c. Look as all our delight must be in the Saints so our delight must be in all the Saints 'T is sad sinful to contemn our poor brethren and yet this was the very case of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.21 22. for they in their love-feasts carried it so unequally that one was hungry to wit the poor and another was drunken to wit the rich And this made the Apostle put that question to them What have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not or put them to shame that have nothing And the Apostle Iames doth very roundly reprove and condemn that partial love that was generally among the Jews in his dayes Iam 2.1 2 3 4. My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons for if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay cloathing and say unto him sit thou here in a good place and say to the poor stand thou there or sit here under my footstool are ye not then partial in your selves and are become judges of evil thoughts Not that the Apostle doth simply or absolutely prohibit a civil differencing of men in place from others for it cannot be denied but that there is a holy and warrantable respect of persons in respect of their age callings gifts graces and greatness in the world but when the rich mans wealth is more regarded than the poor mans godliness and when men carry it so to the rich as to cast scorn contempt disgrace and discouragement upon the godly poor They that respect a rich man that has but a little grace before a poor man that is rich in grace are worthy of blame All true born sons love to see the image and picture of their father though hung in never so poor a frame and in never so mean a cottage So the true born sons of God they love to see the image of God the picture of God upon the poorest Saints 'T is sad to prefer a worldly lustre before heavenly grace a gold ring before a rich faith a chain of gold before a chain of grace Non ex personis fidem sed ex fide personas Tertul. Ver. 5. Hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom It is a vile thing saith one of the Ancients to have the faith of Christ in respect of persons We do not judge of faith by persons but of persons by faith 'T is the great wisdom of a Christian not to judge of men by their outwards but by their inwards not by their externals but by their internals not by what they are worth for this world but by what they are worth for that other world The poorest Saints are God's portion Deut. 32.9 They are his pleasant portion Jer. 12.10 They are his peculiar treasure Exod. 19.5 They are his jewels Mal. 3.17 They are the apple of his eye Zech. 2.8 They are his glory Isa 4.5 They are the crown of his glory and royal diadem Isa 62.3 and therefore 't is a dangerous thing to flight them to disown them to look frowningly upon them or to carry it unworthily towards them Pompey told his Cornelia It is no praise to thee to have loved Pompeium Magnum Pompey the Great but if thou lovest Pompeium miserum Pompey the miserable thou shalt be a pattern for imitation to all posterity So I say it is no great matter to love those that are rich and pious great and gracious high and holy but to love the poor Saints of God in their lowest and most miserable condition when they have not a rag to cover them nor a crust to refresh them nor a fire to warm them nor a friend to stand by them nor a penny to help them this is praise-worthy this speaks our much of God of Christ of grace within Romanus the Martyr who was born of noble Parentage intreated his persecutors that they would not favour him for his Nobility For it is not said he the bloud of my Ancecestors but my Christian faith that makes me Noble 'T is not race nor place but grace that makes a man truly noble without a peradventure he that loves one Saint for the image of God that is upon him he cannot but fall in love with every Saint that bears the lovely image of the Father upon him he cannot but love a Saint in rags as well as a Saint in robes a Saint upon the dunghil as well as a Saint upon the throne usually those Christians that have least of the world have most of Christ commonly those Christians that have least of the world have most of heaven in their hearts houses and lives But Fourthly True love to the Saints will extend to those that are most remote in respect of place Rom. 5.26 as well as to those that are near They of Macedonia and Achaia made a contribution for the poor Saints at Jerusalem 3 John 5. The Saints of Macedonia and Achaia did freely and cheerfully contribute to the poor Saints at Jerusalem whose faces probably they had never seen And Gaius is commended for his love to strangers A gracious man that has an estate a treasury an inheritance he is like a common fountain that freely gives out to strangers as well as to near neighbors A great fire will warm those that sit far from it as wel as those that sit neer unto it So sincere love will extend and stretch out it self to those Saints that are most remote gracious souls do dearly love and highly value those Saints whose faces they have never seen nor are like to see in this world and from whose hands they have not received the least civility and all upon the serious reports that they have had of the grace of God that has been sparkling and shining in them Rom. 12.9 1 Pet. 1.22 1 John 3.18 whose habitations are at a great distance from them A sincere love an unfeigned love a hearty love will be running out towards those that live most remote from us if we do but understand that God is in them and with them of truth But Fifthly Our love to the Saints is right when we love them best and most in whom the spiritual and supernatural causes of love are most sparkling and shining where grace draws the affections there the more grace we see the more we shall love Psal 16.3 My goodness extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight Psal 45.19 There are Saints and there are excellent Saints The Hebrew word that is here rendred excellent signifies
magnificent ones noble ones glorious ones wonderful ones O Sirs there are some Saints that are magnificent in grace noble in grace glorious in grace wonderful in grace Now this is certain if grace be the true reason why we love any then the more excellent the more magnificent any are in grace Psal 15.4 the more highly we shall prize them and the more dearly we shall love them and the more abundantly in our hearts we shall honour them Look as grace rises higher and higher in the same person so we shall rise higher and higher in our love to the same person Dan. 9.23 John 21.20 Daniel was greatly beloved and Iohn was singularly beloved and why but because they were more eminently gracious than others were Where there is most grace there God is most honoured and there Christ is most exalted and there the Spirit is best pleased and there Religion is most adorned and there Satan is most dethroned and there the world is most conquered and there sin is most subdued and there duties are most exactly performed and therefore there the gracious soul can't but love best and most There are some that seem to love such and such godly men whose judgments are weak and light little and parts low and grace small who yet look with a squint eye an envious eye upon every Sun that outshines their own upon every ones graces and excellencies that are more sparkling than their own Though pride and envy have received their deaths-wound at the souls first conversion yet they are not quite slain in a believer there is an aptness even in real Saints Luk. 7.16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. to grudge and repine at those gifts graces and excellencies in others that outshine their own John's disciples muttered and murmured because Christ had more followers and admirers than John and that spirit that lived in John's disciples is still alive to this very day This is and this must be for a lamentation Well Sirs look as the fairest day hath its clouds the finest linnen its spots the richest jewels their flaws the sweetest fruits their worms so when many precious Christians are not themselves when they are in an hour of temptation when their corruptions are up and their graces down they may and too often do Num. 11.29 envy and repine at those graces excellencies and abilities that do over-cast cloud Heb. 12.15 darken and outshine their own The best of men are but men at the best and there is still those bitter roots of pride vain-glory self-love envy c. remaining in them that occasions their hearts to rise and swell yea sometimes to cast disgrace upon those excellencies in others that themselves want As that great man that could not write his own name Eusebius speaks of him in his Ecclesiastical Histâ—ry c. and yet called the liberal Arts A publick Poyson and Pestilence This spiritual disease is mostly to be found among Christians that are got into some of the highest forms in Christianity take your ordinary common Christians and they commonly rejoyce most where they see most grace And so do your Christians in a higher form too when they come to themselves and to make up their accounts and have wept over those cursed roots of bitterness that are so apt to be sprouting out Now there is no greater argument that our grace is true and that we do love others for grace sake than our loving them best that have most grace though they have but little of the world A pearl is rich if found on a dunghil though it may glister more when set in a ring of gold so many a poor believer is rich in grace and precious and glorious in the eye of Christ and should be so in ours though like Job he sits upon a dunghil though in the eyes of the world he may seem to glister most when adorned with riches honour and outward pomp If grace be the true reason why we love any person then the more grace that person hath the more we shall love him A godly man loves all that are godly but he loves them most that excel most in the power purity and practise of godliness c. But Sixthly and lastly True love to the Saints is constant 't is permanent John 13.1 15.12 c. 1 Cor. 13.8 Love never faileth Heb. 13.1 Let brotherly love continue 'T is a love like that of Christ's who loved his to the end 1 Joh. 4.16 He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Our love to our brother must not only lodge with us a night and away but we must dwell in brotherly love Look as our love must be sincere without hypocrisie so it must be constant without deficiency that love was never true that is not constant true love like the pulse will still be beating it will still be working and running out to the person beloved true love will not fawn upon a Christian when high and frown upon him when low it will not kiss him upon the throne and kick him upon the dunghil The grounds and causes of their love are constant viz. God's commands their spiritual relations and the truth of grace in their souls and therefore their love can't but be constant Prov. 17.17 Christian friendship makes such a knot that great Alexander cannot cut c. A friend saith Solomon loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity Euripides hit it when he said That a faithful friend in adversity is better than a calm Sea to a weather-beaten Mariner He that truly loves will love in adversity as well as in prosperity in storms as well as in calms in winter nights as well as in Summer dayes he that sincerely loves the Saints he will love them as well when men frown upon them as when they smile upon them as well when men strike them as when they stroke them as well when men cast them down as when they lift them up as well when men cry Crucifie them crucifie them as when they cry Hosanna Hosanna to them Consalvus a Spanish Bishop and Inquisitor wondred how the Christians had that Commandement Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self so indelibly printed in their hearts that no torture could blot it out and make them confess and betray one another or cease from loving one another Hieron I have read of one Ursinus a Christian Physician who being to suffer Martyrdom for the Gospel of Christ began to waver and faint which when Vitalis a holy man saw he stept to him and though he knew it would cost him his life yet he thus comforted and encouraged him saying What have ye been heretofore so industrious to preserve mens bodies and will you now shrink at the saving of your own soul Be couragious fear not c. For which faithful counsel he also was condemned to death and suffered accordingly Ruth 1. A true friend is neither
turning from sin shall find no more sweetness in that grand promise of pardon Prov. 28.13 than devils or damned spirits do Look as one sin unforgiven will as certainly undo and damn a man as a thousand so one sin unforsaken will as certainly undo and damn a man as a thousand The true penitent is as willing to turn from all his sins as he is willing that God should pardon all his sins But Eighthly and lastly There is in every penitent a sincere hatred of sin a universal hatred of sin Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil Prov. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil True hatred is to the whole kind Arist Amos 5.15 Hate the evil and love the good Psal 119.104 Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way Ver. 128. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way Ver. 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Ver. 163. I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love True hatred is universal 't is of the whole kind he who hates a toad because it is a toad hates every toad he that hates a serpent because it is a serpent hates every serpent he that hates a wolf because 't is a wolf hates every wolf he that hates a man because he is holy hates every man that is holy and so he that hates sin because it is sin hates every sin and therefore he can't but turn from it and labour to be the death and ruin of it Holy hatred is an implacable and an irreconcilable affection you shall as soon reconcile God and Satan together Christ and Antichrist together heaven and hell together as you shall be able to reconcile a penitent soul and his sin together A true penitent looks upon every sin as contrary to the Law of God the nature of God the being of God the glory of God and accordingly his heart rises against it he looks upon every sin as poyson as the vomit of a dog as the mire of the street as the * Pliny saith that the very trees with touching of it would become barren menstrous cloth which of all things in the Law was most unclean defiling and polluting and this turns his heart against every sin he looks upon every sin as having a hand in apprehending betraying binding scourging condemning and murdering of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ and this works him not only to refrain from sin but to forsake it and not only to forsake it but also to abhor it and to loath it more than hell it self The penitent soul will do all he can to be the death of every sin that has had a hand in the death of his Lord and Master he looks upon the sins of his body to be the tormentors of Christ's body and the sins of his soul to be the tormentors of Christ's soul to be those that made his soul heavy to the death and that caused the withdrawings of his father's love from him and that forced him in the anguish of his soul to cry out Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And this raises up in him a universal hatred of sin and a universal hatred of sin alwayes issues in a universal turning from sin Now these eight arguments do sufficiently prove that a true penitential turning is a universal turning a turning not from some sins but from all sins But some may be ready to object Object and say Sir this is a hard saying who can hear it who can bear it John 6.60 who shall then be saved for if a man repents not unless he turns from every sin then there is not a man to be found in all the world that repents for there is not a man in all the world that turns from every sin that forsakes every sin c. 1 King 8.46 For there is no man that sinneth not Prov. 20.9 Who can say Job 9.30 31. Psal 130.3 2 Chron. 6.36 Job 14.4 Psal 51.5 Ponder upon these Scriptures c. I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin It is a question that implyes a strong denial Who can say it and say it truly that he is pure from his sin surely none He that shall say that he has made his heart clean and that he is pure from his sin sins in so saying and commonly there are none more unclean than those that say they have made their hearts clean nor none more impure than they that say they are pure from their sin Eccl. 7.20 For there is not a just man upon the earth that doth good and sinneth not These words in their absolute sense are a full testimony of the imperfection of our inherent righteousness in this life and that even justified persons come very short of that exact and perfect obedience which the Law requireth James 3.2 For in many things we offend all or as the Greek has it we stumble all 'T is a metaphor taken from Travellers walking on stony or slippery ground who are very apt to stumble or slide This Apostle was worthily called James the just and yet he numbers himself among the rest of the sanctified ones that in many things offended all The Apostle does not say in many things they offend all but in many things we offend all We that have more gifts than others we that have more grace than others we that have more assurance than others we that have more experiences than others we that have more preservatives to keep us from sin than others even we in many things offend all nor the Apostle doth not say in some things we offend all but in many things we offend all the Apostle speaking not of the singular individual acts of sin but of the divers sorts of sin nor the Apostle does not say in many things we may offend all but in many things we do offend all 1 John 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us The Apostle does not say if thou sayest thou hast no sin thou deceivest thy self as if he spake to some particular person only but if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves nor the Apostle does not say if ye say ye have no sin ye deceive your selves as if he intended weak or ordinary Christians alone but if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves we Apostles we that in all grace and in all holiness and in all spiritual enjoyments exceed and excel all others even we sin as well as others He that is so ignorant and so impudent so saucy and so silly as to say he has no sin sins in saying so and has no sincerity no integrity nor no ingenuity in him Ver. 10. If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us As much as in us lyes we make
wanting to relieve a people so that must needs be a well ordered Covenant where there is nothing wanting to govern poor souls or to relieve poor souls or to save poor souls and such a Covenant is the Covenant of grace And sure the Covenant of grace is a sure Covenant Jer. 31.31 33 35 36 37. Psal 19.7 Rev. 3.14 Isa 54.10 Deut. 7.9 The Lord thy God he is God the faithful God or the God of Amen which keepeth Covenant with them that love him Psal 89.33 My Covenant will I not break Hebrew I will not prophane nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips All God's precepts all God's predictions all God's menaces and all God's promises are the issue of a most just faithful and righteous will God can neither dye nor lye Tit. 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began There are three things that God can't do 1. He can't dye Nor 2. He can't lye Nor 3. He can't deny himself Josh 23.14 And behold this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof O Sirs the Covenant of grace is bottomed upon God's everlasting love John 13.1 upon Gods unchangable love upon God's free love whom God loves once he loves for ever Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love God can as well cease to be as he can cease to love those whom he has taken into Covenant with himself And as the Covenant of grace is bottomed upon God's everlasting love so 't is bottomed upon Gods immutable counsel Heb. 6.17 God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath And as the Covenant of grace is bottomed upon the immutable counsel of God so it is bottomed upon the free purpose of God 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure that is the decree and purpose of God's election stands firm and sure Now the purpose of God's election is compared to a foundation because it is that upon which all our happiness and blessedness is built and bottomed and because as a foundation it abides firm and sure And as the Covenant of grace is bottomed upon the free purpose of God so 't is bottomed upon the glorious power of God The power of God is an infinite power Isa 33.11 Isa 41.2 Mal. 4.1 1 Cor. 1.25 it is a supream power a power that overtops the power of all mortals What 's the stubble to the flames the chaff to the whirlwind no more is all created power to the power of God The weakness of God is stronger than men and did not Pharaoh find it so and Haman find it so and Sennacherib find it so and Nebuchadnezzar find it so and Belshazzar find it so and Herod find it so In all the ages of the world the power of God hath bore down all before it the power of God is an independant power a matchless power an incomparable power an enduring power an eternal power And as the Covenant of grace is bottomed upon the power of God Heb. 6.17 18 Psal 89.34 35. so it is bottomed upon the oath of God Luke 1.72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy Covenant Ver. 73. The oath which he sware to our father Abraham To think that God will break his oath or be perjured is an intollerable blasphemy Once more give me leave to say the Covenant of grace is bottomed not only upon the oath of God but also upon the precious blood of Christ The blood of Christ is called the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 Mat. 26.28 This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Heb. 9.15 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the fiâ—st Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Ver. 17. A Testament is of force after men are dead It is called a Covenant and a Testament 1. A Covenant in respect of God and a Testament in respect of Christ 2. A Covenant in respect of the manner of agreement and a Testament in respect of the manner of confirming Jesus Christ died as a Testator and by his death confirmed the Testamentary gift before made of Life and Salvation Now the Covenant of grace being thus gloriously bottomed as you seâ— it must roundly and undeniably follow that thâ— Covenant of grace is a sure Covenant For this is all my salvation and all my desire i. e. This is the great ground of all my hope concerning my salvation and of all the happiness and blessedness which I look for in another world This everlasting Covenant this sure Covenant is the great Charter of Charters that I have to shew for eternal bliss David was drawing neer to his eternal home and whether his graces and gracious evidences for heavens happiness were bright and shining or blotted and clouded I shall not at this time stand to enquire it is enough that he stayes his soul upon the Covenant of grace and that he comforts and solaces his soul in the Covenant of grace And O that all Christians when their graces and gracious evidences are either clouded or blotted or else sparkling and shining that they would frequently eye these three royal Forts viz. 1. The free-grace and favour of God 2. The Mediatory righteousness of Christ 3. The Covenant of grace Now that I may the more effectually prevail with you to look upon these royal Forts and to delight in these royal Forts and to prize these royal Forts and to improve these royal Forts Give me leave to offer these three things briefly to your consideration First Our best graces and performances are not commensurate and square payment in the eyes of pure justice all of them as inherent in us and acted by us are but imperfect excellencies No man hath so much grace and holiness as is required nor doth he so much as he is obliged to do Every particular grace though it be of an heavenly and divine original yet it is like the Stars twinkling though placed in the heavens so that if God should enter into judgment with the most righteous person even the righteousness that is in him Psal 143.2 Job 14.3 4. Rom. 3.20 would not be safety and defence unto him for what a deal of pride have we mixt with a little humility and what a deal of passion have we mixt with a little meekness and what a deal of hypocrisie have we mixt with a little sincerity and what a deal of earthly-mindedness have we
Christ and of the singular manifestations of the love of Christ to their souls The great reason of reasons why the springs of comfort of joy of inward peace and of assurance rises no higher in many Christians souls is because the springs of grace and holiness rises no higher in their souls Had Christians more grace and more holiness in their hearts and lives God would quickly bring down more of heaven and assurance into their souls There is a blessed assurance as I have told you before which arises from the discovery of grace in the soul Now the more ample large and full the matter of our assurance is the more ample large and full must our assurance be Methinks the connexion of these four verses in Titus 2.11 12 13 14. shews this When grace that appears to us teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts c. See what follows then we are most likely to look for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And that prayer of the Apostle for his Ephesians Eph. 3.16 17 18 speaks as loudly in the case That God would grant them to be strengthned by the Spirit c. to be rooted and grounded in love And what then That ye may comprehend with all Saints the length and breadth of the love of God Suppose in health or sickness living or dying a man should labour to support comfort and chear up his spirit in the thoughts or meditations of his eternal election and free justification And suppose that at that very time the Spirit of God his own conscience â— Thes 2.13 14. a faithful Minister or an experienced Christian should tell him That if he be really justified he is really sanctified Now if this man should say What do you tell me of sanctification or I know not whether I am sanctified or no or I look not to sanctification I mind not holiness I regard not the fruits of the Spirit will not the holy Spirit will not an enlightned conscience will not a faithful Minister will not an experienced Christian reply Then certainly thou art not elected thou art not justified for it is a truth as clear as the Sun a truth that will admit of no dispute viz. Rom 8.1 13 29 30. That none are eternally elected and freely justified but they are sanctified and that they that are not sanctified are not justified Mark there is a closs connexion of sanctification with justification in the promises of the Covenant sanctification and justificatiòn go hand in hand they come forth like twins out of the womb of free-grace as you may see in these remarkable Scriptures Jer. 33.8 Bern. in Cant. Serm. 37. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me Here you see them both expressed together in the same deed I will cleanse them from all their iniquity there is our sanctification promised And I will pardon all their iniquities there is justification promised So Mich. 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt câ—st all their sins into the depths of the Sea Here you find justification and sanctification again in the promise He will subdue our iniquities This is sanctifying And he will cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea This is justifying Heb. 8.10 I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts there is the promise of sanctification Vâ—r. 12. And I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more There is the promise of justification 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins There is our justification promised And to cleanse us from aâ—l unrighteousness There is the promise of sanctification Ezek. 36.25 From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you There is the promise of sanctification Ver. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses There is the promise of justification 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified Justification and sanctification are inseparable companions distinguished they must be but divided they can never be where sin is pardoned the gift of sanctity is still conferred 'T is weakness 't is wickedness for a man to conclude that he is in an elected and justified estate when he has nothing when he has not the least thing to evidence himself to be in a sanctified estate Both justification and sanctification have a necessary respect to the salvation of all those that shall go to heaven He that will go to heaven must be sanctified and he that will go to heaven must be justified No man can go to heaven without both no man can go to heaven unless he be justified Rom. 8.30 Whom he called them also he justified and whom he justified them he also glorified None are justified but such as are called and none are glorified but such as are justified And as no man can go to heaven but he that is justified so no man can go to heaven but he that is sanctified John 3.5 Jesus answered and said unto him verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Ver. 5. Jesus answerd verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God See my Treatise on Holiness Heb. 12.14 And holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. By these Scriptures 't is evident that there is an absolute necessity both of sanctification and justification in reference to salvation Now as sanctification and justification are linkt together so the more clear the more full the more evident and the more eminent a mans sanctification is the more clear the more full the more evident and the more eminent will the evidences of his justification be The greatest evidences of our sanctification carries with them the greatest assurance of our justification and of our salvation But The fifteenth Proposition is this When your graces are strongest and your evidences for heaven are clearest and your comforts rise highest upon the sight of your graces or gracious evidences then in a special manner it concerns you to make it your great business and work to act faith a fresh to act faith with a greater strength upon the free rich and glorious grace of God and upon the Lord Jesus Christ 'T is reported of the Chrystal that it hath such a vertue in it that the very touching of it quickens other stones and puts a luster and beauty upon them This is most true of faith faith is a grace that gives strength and efficacy to all other graces it is like a silver thred that runs thorow a chain of pearl it hath an influence upon all other graces
poor The safest chest is the poor mans Box. God will never forget your charity to his Heb. 6.10 Cicero could say that to be rich is not to possess much but to use much And Seneca could rebuke them that so studied to encrease their wealth that they forget to use it being perswaded that God doth bless their increase the more for they have among them a very elegant Proverb to that purpose Decima ut dives fias Pay thy tythes that thou mayest be rich The poor mans hand is Christs Treasury and he shall not lose his reward that casts his mites into that Treasury It is fabled of Midas that what ever he touched he turned it into gold But this is most sure that whatever the hand of charity toucheth it turneth it into gâ—ld be it but a cup of cold water nay into heaven it self Mat. 10.42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Cold water having not fuel to heat it cold water which cost not the charge of fire to warm it A Sea of pleasures a heaven of blessings attends men of charitable minds though their charity can extend no further than to a cup of cold water for God measures mens deeds by their minds and not their minds by their deeds The Kenites in Sauls time that were born many Ages after Jethro's death received life from his dust and favour from his hospitality nay the very Egyptians for harbouring and at first dealing kindly with the Israelites though without any respect to their righteousness were preserved by Joseph in that sore famine and kindly dealt with ever after by Gods special command I have read a story of one Evagâ—i a rich man who lying upon his death-bed and being importuned by Sinesius a pious Bishop to give something to charitable uses he yielded at last to give three hundred pounds but first took bond of the Bishop that it should be repaid him in another world but before he had been one day dead he is said to have appeared to the Bishop delivering in the bond cancelled as thereby acknowledging that what was promised was made good Whether the Relation be fabulous or not I shall not now stand to determine but this is certain that all acts of charity shall be certainly and signatly rewarded Several Writers observe that the ground is most barren nearest the golden Mines and experience tells us that many who are enriched with fair estates are most barren in good works but this will be bitterness in the end He that shall consult two Scriptures among many others will conclude that he that hath a withered hand has no honest heart 2 Chron. 31.10 1 John 3.17 The wealth that such men have is but as Aristotle calls it Arist Rhetor. l. 2. c. 6. Foelix amentia a happy madness because they are so taken up with their wealth that they neither know what they are nor what they do Josephus writing of the waters of Egypt saith That they were blood in the hands of an Aegyptian but water in the hand of an Israelite Wealth in the hand of a worldling is like blood in the hand which is good for nothing Josephus but wealth in the hand of a charitable Christian is like water in the hand which may be of use both to a mans self and others By what has been said there is nothing more evident than this viz. That men of publick spirits and men of charitable spirits of all men on earth are 1. To be most highly prized 2. Most cordially loved And 3. Most greatly honoured c. Gentlemen those that shall read what I have writ in this Epistle concerning publick spiritedness and charitableness and know you well they know how to make the Application without any further direction from me Sir John I must crave leave to say that it is and will be your honour and comfort both in life and death and in the day of your account that in all the great Places Offices and Employments unto which divine Providence has called you for divers years together you have laid out your time your strength your estate for the publick good when others have been serving themselves upon the publick you have been a serving of the publick Sir 't is your great mercy and happiness that you can stand forth and say as once Samuel did Behold here I am witness against me 1 Sam. 12.3 whose Ox have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith Your prudence and moderation before your Mayoralty and in it when you had many a narrow bridge to go over and after it to this day will never be forgotten by all sober Citizens Sir the French History tells us that when an old Courtier would needs depart from the Court and retire himself to a private life the King desired him to leave his advice in some general Rules about the Government of his Kingdom Upon this motion of the King the old Courtier took a sheet of white paper and writ upon the top of the leaf Moderation and in the middle of the leaf Moderation and at the bottom of the leaf Moderation intimating to the King that the only way to keep his Kingdom in Peace and Prosperity was to manage his Government throughout with a spirit of Moderation When Vespasian asked Apollonius what was the cause of Nero's ruin he answered That Nero could tune the Harp well but in Government he did alwayes wind up the strings too high or let them down too low Both of your staying in London in the time of the last great Plague when death peep'd in at every window and when most Magistrates Ministers and People were fled from their Habitations the terror of the Lord and of his judgments being very great in that day upon all sorts and ranks of men and that chiefly mainly if not only upon the account of publick service and that nothing might be wanting on your side to preserve poor creatures from perishing The old Romans for lesser services than you did in these dismal dayes have set up many a statue of brass but the Lord is faithful and will not forget to reward your work your great work your hazardous work and that matchless love and bowels that you shew'd to very many that were impoverished for want of Trade and to very many that lay in a sick languishing and dying condition How free how full how seasonable how sutable how impartial how constant and well regulated your charity then was and since hath been is very well known to God above and to some faithful friends still alive but all will out in the great day Mat. 25. I know you don't love that your left hand should know what your
times of great afflictions temptations desertions fears and doubts a very great aptness and proneness in Christians to expect strange means rather than right means and new means rather than old means and invented means rather than appointed means to build their faith upon somthing beside the Word or that is without the compass of the Word rather than upon the plain and naked Word it self being in this very like to many weak crazy distempered and diseased Patients that are more ready to fancy every new Medicine and new Doctor they hear of and to be tampering with them than to expect a recovery by going through a course of Physick prescribed by the Physician that best understands their diseases and the most proper and effectual means for their recoveries You know when Naaman the Assyrian came to the Prophet Elisha to be cured of his Leprosie he only sent out a Messenger to him who bid him go and wash seven times in Jordan and his flesh should come again unto him and he should be clean 2 Kings 5.10 but Naamans bloud rises and his heart swells and he grows very wrath and all because he did not like the means prescribed by the Prophet and because he thought in his own heart that the Prophet would have used more likely means to have wrought the cure ver 11 12. So many Christians when they lye under great agonies and sore perplexities of soul and are encouraged to act faith upon the promises and to rest their weary souls upon the Word of grace they are ready to think and say that these things these means will never heal them nor comfort them nor be a relief or support unto them unless the Lord does from heaven by extraordinary Revelations Visions Signs and Miracles confirm his promises to them and hereupon they make light of the blessed Scriptures which are the springs of life and the only bottom upon which all our comforts peace and happiness is to be built yea they relinquish that more sure word of prophecy which shines as a light in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 Certainly the acting of faith on the precious promises and the cleaving of the soul unto those blessed truths declared in the Gospel of grace is the most sure ready and compendious way of obtaining a blessed assurance Eph. 1.13 and a full establishment of heart Com. on Gen. cap. 38. in all sound solid and abiding joy and peace and therefore Luther though as he confesseth he was often tempted to ask for Signs Apparitions and Revelations from heaven to confirm him in his way yet tells us how strongly he did withstand them Pactum feci cum Domino Deo meo c. I have saith he indented with the Lord my God that he would never send me Dreams Visions Angels for I am well contented with this gift that I have the holy Scripture which doth abundantly teach and supply all necessaries for this life and that also which is to come Certainly Austin hit the mark when he prayed Lord let thy holy Scriptures be my pure delights in which I can neither deceive or ever be deceived Certainly the ballance of the sanctuary should weigh all the Oracles of God decide all and the Rule of Gods Word be the square and judge of all O Sirs dare you venture your souls upon it that the blessed Scriptures are false that they are but a Fable dare you stand forth and say if the Scriptures be not a lye let us be damned for ever and ever dare you stand up and say we are freely contented that the everlasting worm shall gnaw on our hearts for ever and that our bodies and souls shall for ever and ever lye burning in infernal flames if the Scriptures prove not at last a cheat a deceit a meer forgery and imposture Now if you dare not thus to say and thus to venture then peremptorily resolve to be determined by Scripture in the great concernments of your precious souls They that would take their parts in promised comforts they must follow the voice of the Word and subscribe to the sentence of conscience following that Word If the Word approve of thee as sound and sincere with God assuredly thou art so for that rule cannot err If the Word saith that thy heart is right with God thou must maintain that Testimony against all disputes whatever Never enter into dispute with Satan or thine own self about thy estate but by taking and making the Scripture the judge of the controversie when fears rise high you say you shall never have mercy bâ—t dotâ— the Word say so The Lord never gave himself to me but doth the Word say so Never was any as I am but doth the Word say so I cannot see nor conceive nor think that the Lord hath any love for me but doth the Word say so yea doth not the Word say That his thoughts are not as your thoughts nor his wayes as your wayes Isa 55.8 9. But as the heavens are higher than the earth so are his wayes higher than your wayes and his thoughts than your thoughts I have not that peace and joy that others have therefore the Lord intends no good towards me but doth the Word say so Oh but if my inside were but turned outward good men would loath me and wicked men would laugh at me but doth the Word say so Oh but my heart was never right with God but doth the Word say so Oh but that which I have taken all this while for saving grace is but common grace but doth the Word say so Oh but the face of God is hid from me my Sun is set in a cloud and will never rise more but doth the Word say so Oh but Satan is let loose upon me and therefore God hates me but doth the Word say so yea doth not the Word tell you That those who have been most beloved of God have been most tempted by Satan Witness Christ David Job Joshua Peter Paul c. Oh but I am afflicted so as never was any before me but doth the Word say so Oh let the Word have the casting voice and not thine own frail distempered reason Oh don't only hear what sin and Satan and thine own heart can say against thee but hear also what the Word of the Lord Jesus can say for thee Let the Word of the Lord be judge on both sides and then all will be well I know that the impenitent and unbelieving person that lives and dies without grace in his heart and an interest in Christ shall as certainly be damned as if I saw him this very moment under everlasting burnings because God in the Scripture has said it Mark 16.16 John 3.18.36 Rev. 21.8 Rom. 2.4 5. 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Gal. 5.19 20 21. Heb. 12.14 And I know that the holy humble true penitent believing self-denying and sin-mortifying Christian shall be as certainly saved as if at this very time I saw him in an actual
that Jesus Christ may still set up his Laws in my heart and exercise his dominion over me Now doubtless there is not the weakest Christian in the world but can venture himself upon such an appeal to God as this is and without all peradventure where such a frame and temper of spirit is there the dominion of Jesus Christ is set up and where the dominion of Christ is set up there sin has no dominion Mat. 6.24 but where the dominion of Christ is not set up there sin is in full dominion Christ's dominion cannot consist with sins dominion nor sins dominion cannot consist with Christ's dominion Now by these eight things if men are not resolved before hand to put a cheat upon their own souls they may know whether their sins have dominion over them or no and so accordingly conclude for or against themselves But Fifteenthly and lastly A godly man may argue thus There is no condemnation to them who walk not after the flesh Walking in Scripture signifies to hold on a course of life Gen. 5.22 17.1 but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 But I walk not after the flesh but after the spirit therefore there is no condemnation to me Walking after the flesh notes a course of sin and walking after the spirit notes a course of godliness Now to such as keep off from a course of sin and that keep on in a course of godliness there is no condemnation there is not one condemnation for God the father won't condemn such a person nor Jesus Christ won't condemn such a person nor the holy spirit won't condemn such a person nor the word of grace won't condemn such a person nor no commandment or threatnings will condemn such a person no nor such a mans own heart nor conscience if it be rightly informed won't condemn him and therefore well may the holy Ghost say to such a one there is no condemnation to such a one there is not one condemnation c. ☞ Now thus you see by comparing spiritual things with spiritual things and by a rational arguing from Scripture a man may attain unto a comfortable certainty of his gracious state and safely and groundedly conclude his interest in Christ Now this assurance of Gods favour by the witnessing of our own spirits which assurance is deduced by way of argument syllogistically is more easily attained than many may I not say than most Christians imagine for let a gracious man but clear himself of heart-condemning sins 1 Joh. 3.20 21. and rationally argue as before has been hinted and he will speedâ—ly reach to some comfortable supporting soul-satisfying and soul-quieting assurance there being an infallible connexion between the forementioned graces and future glory These fifteen arguments may well be lookt upon as fifteen sure and infallible evidences of the goodness and happiness of a Christians estate O that you would often every day think on this viz. That the undoubted verity of Gods promises proveth an inseparable connexion between true faith and eternal glory John 3.14 15 16. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life John 5.24 Verily verily these serious asseverations or protestations amount almost to an oath I say unto you he that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life He hath it in the promise he hath it in the first Fruits Rom. 8.23 he hath it in the earnest Ephes 1.13 14. and he hath it in Christ his Head Ephes 2.6 Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is Baptised shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned 1 Pet. 2.6 Behold I lay in Sion a chief Corner stone Elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded John 6.40 And this is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Verse 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting Life John 2.25 Jesus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Verse 26. And whosoever liveth and believeâ—h in me shall never dye John 20.31 But these are written that ye may believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name Look as certainly as the unbeliever shall be cast into outer darkness so certainly shall the Believer be partaker of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light for certainly the Promises are as true as the threatnings Acts 16.30 31. Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Josh 23.14 chap. 21.45 The Apostle speaks not doubtingly perhaps thou shalt be saved nor they do not say Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and it may be thou mayest go to Heaven but they speak boldly confidently peremptorily believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved O my Soul what greater certainty and security can any man have than the infallible promise of that God that is truth it self who will not who cannot deny his word but the same love and free Grace that moved him to infuse grace into his childrens souls will move him also to keep the word that is gone out of his mouth and to make good whatever he hath promised thus you evidently see that the Promises prove an inseparable connexion between Grace and glory between Faith and everlasting Life so that let me but prove that I have a saving Faith and the Scriptures last cited prove infallibly that I shall be saved O labour as for life daily to give a firm and fixed assent to the truth of those blessed Promises last cited and hold it as an indisputable and inviolable Principle That whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ or whosoever hath received Christ as his Lord and Saviour shall be certainly saved 1 Tim. 1.15 1 John 1.9 Heb. 6.17 18. â—zek 32.11 and chap. 18.32 1 John 5.10.14 Jam. 2 19. This is the person that hath the Word the Promise the Covenant the Oath of that God that cannot possibly lye or dye for the pardon of his sin and for the Salvation of his Soul Now O my Soul what security couldest thou ask more of a deceitful man than that which the great Iehovah â—he faithful God of his own accord hath given to thee viz. his word and his Oath Now not to believe God upon his Promise and Oath is to make him a Lyar yea the worst of Lyars yea 't is
to do worse than the Dâ—vils â—â—r they believe and tremble Though the word of the Lord desâ—rves the greatest credit that any mortals can give unto it he being truth it self that hath said it though it had no Oaths nor no Asseverations to be its surety yet God in his infinite condescending love to poor sinners that he may sink the truth of what he saith deeper into the hearts and minds of his people and leave the fairer and fuller print in our assents to the same he sets on the word of Promise with the weight of Asseverations and Oaths yea and to all these he hath annexed his Broad Seal the Lords Supper and the Privy Seal of his Spirit O unreasonable unbelief shall not the Oath of God silence all Disputes A man would never desire of any honest man so much as God hath condescended to for the confirmation of our Faith witness his Promises his Covenant his Oath and his Seals and therefore let us give glory to him by believing and quietly rest upon his faithfulness O Sirs that soul that dares not take his sanctification as an evidence yea as a choice and sure evidence of his interest in Christ and of the Lords precious love to him according to the Promises of his favour and Grace several of which hath been but now under consideration that Soul ought to acknowledg it as his sin yea as his great sin for which he deserves to be smartly rebuked as making God a loud Lyar. O my friends it is a spiritual peevishness and sinful crossness that keeps many good men and women long in a sad dark doubting perplexed and disconsolate condition and certainly 't is no small sin to set light by any work of the blessed Spirit and the joy comfort and peace that we might have by it ah how many are there that fear the Lord who quench grieve vex and provoke the holy Spirit by denying his work and by quarrelling against themselves and the blessed work of the Spirit in them Certainly 't is the duty of every Christian to hear as well what can be said for him as what can be said against him Many poor Psal 77.2 Psal 88. Job 15.11 chap. 16.8 9. weak and yet sincere Chr stians are often apt to be too sowre rigid and bitter against their own souls they love to practise a merciless severity against themselves they do not indifferently impartially consider how the case stands between God and their own souls It is in this case as Solomon speaks in another There is that maketh himself rich Prov. 13.7 Ever since man ceased to be what he should be he striveth to seem to be what he is not It is not the outward shew that shews what things are and yet hath nothing And there is that maketh himself poor and yet hath great Riches That is there be those in the world that pretend they are rich and make a shew before men as if they were men of great estates whereas indeed they are exceeding poor and needy There are not a few that stretch their wing beyond their nest that bear a port beyond their Estates that trick up themselves with other mens plumes laying it on above measure in cloaths in high entertainments in stately Buildings in great Attendance c. when not worth one groat in all the World but either they dye in Prison or lay the key under the door or compound for twelve pence in the pound c. And there are others again that are exceeding rich and wealthy and yet feign themselves and look upon themselves to be very poor and needy To apply this spiritually 'T is the damning sin of the self-flattering Hypocrite Rev. 3.17 to make himself rich to make himself significant to make his condition better than 't is And it is the vanity the folly of some sincere Christians to make their condition worse than indeed it is to make themselves more miserable and unhappy than indeed they are Ah Christians 't is sad with you tâ—s night with you when you read over the evidences of Gods love to your souls as a man does a Book which he intends to confute Is it not sad when Christians shall study hard to find evasions to wheel off all those comforts refreshings cheerings and supports that are tendered to them that are due to them and that they may upon Gospel-grounds justly claim as their portion as their inheritance And O that all such Christians would seriously and frequently lay to heart these eight things First that they highly dishonour the blessed God and the work of his Grace by denying that which he hath done for them and wrought in them Secondly they are spiritual Murderers they are self-Murderers they are soul-Murderers for by this means they stab and wound their own precious souls and Consciences through and through with many a deadly dart Now is there any Murder like to spiritual Murder to self-Murder to soul-Murder surely no. But Thirdly They are Thieves for by this means they rob their own precious souls of that joy peace comfort rest content assurance and satisfaction which otherwise they might enjoy Now there is no theft to spiritual theft and of all spiritual theft there is none to that which reaches the precious and immortal soul Mark all prevalent Disputes about our personal integrity they do hold off the Application and tasts of comfort though they do not disanul the title and right Even the good man will walk uncomfortably so long as he concludes and strongely fears that his Estate is sinful for sensible comfort riseth or falleth cometh on or goeth off according to the strength of our judgment and present apprehensions observe it is not what indeed our estate is but what we judg of it which breeds in us sensible comfort or discomfort a false heart may even break with a timpany of foolish joy upon an erring perswasion oâ— his estate and so may a sound sincere heart be very heavy and disconsolate upon an unsound misconstruction and judging of its true condition But Fourthly They bear false witness against Christ his Spirit their own Souls and the work of Grace that is wrought in them O how many dark doubting drooping Christians are there who if you could give them ten thousand worlds yet would never be brought to bear false witness against their poorest Neighbour Brother or Friend and that out of Conscience because of that Command Thou shalt not bear false witness c. who yet make no Conscience no bones of it frequently to bear witness against the Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious works upon their own hearts But Fifthly they joyn with Satan and his work and his suggestions and with that strong party he has in them against the Lord Jesus Christ and his work and his weak party in them See Mr. Dod on the Commandments p. 310 311. and p. 321 322 323 324. Sin is Satans work and Grace is Christs work Now how sad is it
honest thoughts such gracious thoughts of himself or of the goodness or happiness of his condition as he should entertain and as he would entertain if once he could but be too hard for the World the Flesh and the Devil O that you would remember this for ever viz. That the Lord never makes any Promises to support comfort cheer and encourage his people against their sadness darkness doubts and droopings but they shall support comfort cheer and encourage his poor people in that condition for otherwise the Lord should provide means for an end out of his infinite Wisdome love and tender care and compassion towards his people and yet they should never attain that end but thus to imagine is no small folly yea 't is little less than Blasphemy Well Sirs this is to be for ever remembred viz. That whatsoever gift or Grace of God in man brings him within the compass of Gods Promises of eternal favours and mercies that giâ—t that Grace must needs be an infallible sign or evidence of Salvation but such are the gifts and Graces specified in the fifteen particulars but now cited and therefore that Soul that really finds those gifts and Graces in himself or any of them shall certainly be saved But The Ninth Maxim or Consideration NInthly Consider this That in divers men there are divers degrees of Assurance and in one and the same gracious Soul there are different degrees of Assurance at divers times but there is in no man at any time in this life perfection of degrees for our understanding and knowledg in this Life is imperfect both as to the faculty and its acts 1 Cor. 13.12 For now we see through a glass darkly Gr. in a Riddle but then face to face Now I know in part but then shall I know even * As is not a note of equality but likeness so that the sense may be this look as God knoweth me after a manner agreeable to his infinite excellency so shall I know God according to my capacity not obscurely but perfectly as it were face to face as also I am known A clear distinct immediate full and perfect knowledg of God is desirable on earth but we shall never attain to it till we come to Heaven this Well is deep and for the most part we want a Bucket to draw withal the best of men can better tell what God is not than what he is the most acute and judicious in Divine knowledg have and must acknowledg their ignorance witness that great Apostle Paul who learned his Divinity among the Angels and had the Holy Ghost for his immediate Tutor yet he confesses that he knew but in part certainly there is no man under heaven that hath such a perfect compleat and full assurance of his Salvation in an ordinary way as that one degree cannot be added to the former Neither is there any repugnancy in asserting an infallible assurance and denying a perfect assurance for I infallibly know that there is a God and that this God is holy just and true and yet I have no perfect knowledg of a Deity nor of the holiness justice and truth of God for in this life the most knowing man knows but in part Dear friends in the Church of Christ there are Believers of several growths there are Fathers young men Children and Babes 1 John 1.13 14. 1 Pet. 2.2 And as in most families there are commonly more Children and Babes than grown men so in the Church of Christ there are commonly more weak staggering doubting Christians than there are strong ones grown up to a full assurance Some think that as soon as they be assured they must needs be void of all fears and filled with all joy in believing but this is a real mistake for glorious and ravishing joy is a separable accident from Assurance nor yet doth Assurance exclude all doubts and fears but only such doubts and fears as ariseth from infidelity and reigning hypocrisy But The Tenth Maxim or Consideration TEnthly Consider we have no ground from Scripture to expect that God should either by a Voice from Heaven or by sending an Angel from about his Throne or by any glorious apparitions or strong impressions or by any extraordinary way of Revelations assure us that we do believe or that our Grace is true or that our interest in God and Christ is certain or that our pardon is sealed in Heaven or that we are in a justified state and that we shall be at last undoubtedly saved O no! But we are to use all those blessed helps and means that are appointed by God and common to all Believers for the obtaining of a particular Assurance that we are Believers and that our state is good and that we have a special propriety in Christ and in all the fundamental good that comes by him Mark he that will receive no establishment no comfort no peace no assurance except it be administred by the hand of an Angel and witnessed to by some Voice from Heaven c. will certainly live and dye without establishment comfort peace or assurance Gregory tells us of a Religious Lady of the Empresses Bed-Chamber Vide Gregorii Epistolae á Lapide in 8. ad Rom. v. 16. whose name was Gregoria that being much troubled about her Salvation did write unto him That she should never cease importuning of him till he had sent her word that he had received a Revelation from Heaven that her sins were pardoned and that she was saved To whom he returned this Answer That it was a hard and altogether a useless matter which she required of him It was difficult for him to obtain as being unworthy to have the secret Counsels of God to be imparted to him and it was as unprofitable for her to know and that first because such a Revelation might make her too secure and secondly because it was impossible for him to demonstrate and make known unto her or any other the truth and infallibility of the Revelation which he had received to be from God so that should she afterwards call into question the truth of it as well she might her troubles and doubtings concerning her Salvation would have been as great as they were before O therefore let all Believers that would have sure establishment sound comfort lasting Peace and true and sweet assurance of the love of God and of their interest in Christ c. take heed of flying unto Revelations Visions or Voices from Heaven to assure them of their Salvation and of the love of God and of their interest in Christ c. If you who are advantaged to consult H story please to do it you will find upon Record that where one hath been mistaken about searching his own heart and trying his wayes and observing the frame and temper of his own spirit many hundreds have been eternally deceived and deluded by Voices Visions Apparitions Revelations 2 Thes 2.9 10 11 12. and strange impulses and strong
not for as many worlds as there be men in the world change conditions with them But Fifthly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that they don't sin because there is not a just man upon the earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles 7.20 And because no man can say I have made my heart clean 1 John 3.6 8 9 10. I am pure from my sin Prov. 20.9 And because in many things we offend all James 3.2 And because if we say We have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 John 1.8 yet they dare say that they would not willingly wilfully wickedly resolutely maliciously and habitually sin against the Lord to gain the whole World though they dare not say they don't sin yet they dare say if they might have their choice they would never dishonour God more nor Crucify the Lord of glory more nor grieve the Spirit of Grace more nor wound Conscience more nor cloud the face of God more nor darken their evidences for Heaven more nor interrupt their communion with God more c. But Sixthly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that God is their God or that Christ is their Redeemer or that the Spirit is their Comforter yet they dare say that if God and Christ and the Spirit and grace and glory and holiness and happiness were offered to them on the one hand and all the honours pleasures profits delights and carnal contents of the World were offered them on the other hand they had ten thousand times rather Cant. 5.10 Deut. 26.17 Psal 73.25 Phil. 3.6 7 8. they had infinitely rather choose God and Christ the Spirit grace holiness everlasting happiness than the contrary Look as Rachel cryed out Give me Water or I dye So these poor hearts are stil crying out O Lord give me thy self or I dye Give me thy Christ or I dye Give me thy Spirit and Grace or I dye Give me pardon of sin or I dye Lift up the light of thy Countenance upon me or I dye Bring me under the bond of the Covenant or I dye O Lord let all these things be done or I am undone and that for ever Lord let the men of this World take the World and divide it among themselves let me but enjoy thy self thy Christ thy love and I shall say my Lot is fallen to me in a pleasant place and verily I have a goodly heritage Psal 16.5 6. But Seventhly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that they have Grace in their own hearts yet they dare say that they dearly love Acts 11.23 Psal 15.4 Psal 16.3 Lam. 4.2 1 Thess 1.2 3. Heb. 11.38 and highly honour and greatly prize the Graces of the Spirit which they see sparkling and shining in the hearts and lives and lips of other Saints And they dare say that there are no men in all the world that are so precious so lovely so worthy and so honourable in their eyes or so high in their esteems as those who have the Image of God of Christ of holiness most clearly fairly and fully stampt upon them But Eighthly Though poor doubting trembling Christians dare not say that they have such strength and power against their sins as they would have or as they should have or as many of the dear Saints of God have who often lead Captivity Captive Psal 65.3 Gal. 5.14 yet they dare say that when the Lord is pleased now and then by his Spirit Power Word Grace c. to help them though it be but a little against their sins to help them in any measure to subdue their sins or to assist them to bring any one sin or another to an under or to arm them against any temptations occasions or provocations to sin there are no such times or seasons of joy comfort delight refreshing and content to their Souls as these are The language of their Souls in such a day as this is is this O that it might be alwayes thus with us O that every day we might lead Captivity Captive O that every day we might have our lusts at an under O that every day we might triumph over the old man O that every day one lust or another might fall before the power the Spirit the presence the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ But Ninthly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that they make so much advantage Psal 4.3 Psal 66.19 20. Psal 138.3 Lam. 3.55 56 57 58. so much earnings of the Sermons they hear or of the Prayers they make or of the Scriptures they read or of the communion of Saints that they enjoy as others do yet they dare say that they would not for all the World cast off Praying or Hearing or Reading or the Communion of Saints and give up themselves to the wayes of sin and Satan and the World But Tenthly and lastly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that Christ is their Saviour yet they dare say that they desire and endeavour to honour Christ as their Lord though they cannot see Christ bestowing himself on them as their Redeemer John 20. â—8 yet they are willing to make a resignation of themselves up to him as their King they are willing to resign up their hearts and lives to the Government of Jesus Christ though they cannot find comfort yet they will oppose sin though they cannot comprehend Christ yet they will not willingly offend Christ though they cannot see their own propriety in Christ yet they desire nothing more than that Christ may claim a propriety in them though they cannot see Christ as a friend yet they can look upon sin as an enemy though they cannot close with the Promises yet they will close with the Precepts though they cannot close with the Priviledges of a Christian yet they will close with the Services of a Christian though they cannot share in the comforts of a Christian yet they will side with the duties of a Chrâ—stian though they cannot clear up their interest in Christ yet they are willing to yield subjection to Christ though they want strength to throw themselves into the arms of Christ to save them yet they will cast themselves at the feet of Christ to serve him though they want the light of comfort and consolation yet they will walk in the light of commands and directions Isa 50.10 All men will grant that these ten things are strong probabilit es of Grace but give me leave to say that they are withouâ— all controversy most sure sound solid and infallible evidences of true Grace and of an interest in Christ and Salvation and therefore all those poor doubting staggering and trembling Christians that find all these or any of these ten things in their own Souls they ought for ever to bless the Lord and speak well of his Name upon these accounts And therefore O
of Dispensations in his dealings with a man When God sets a man up before all the world as a mark to shoot at as he did Job Now a poor Christian is ready to doubt and conclude Job 7.20 c. 16.12 Surely the Lord has no regard of me he has no entire love for me his heart is not certainly towards me seeing all these sore tryals make so much against me but here the poor Christian is mistaken as Jacob once was Gen 42.36 And Jacob their Father said unto them Me have ye bereaved of my children Joseph is not and Simeon is not and ye will take Benjamin away all these things are against me Gen. 45.5 6 7 8 9. But Jacob was out for all those things made for him and for the preservation of the visible Church of God in the World Certainly all the afflictions that befall the people of God Rev. 3.19 Heb. 12.5 6. are but his love-tokens As many as I love I rebuke and chasten and therefore those Christians are miserably mistaken that take them for testimonies of his wrath and effects of his disfavour O Sirs what can be more absurd displeasing and provoking than for a Christian to make that an Argument of Gods hatred that he intends for an instance of his love and yeâ— Christians are apt thus to act It is observable the Apostle reckons affliction amongst Gods honoraries and tokens of respect Judg. 6.12 13. Exod. 17.7 Phil. 1.29 For to you t is given saith he not only to believe but also to suffer Which saith Father Latymer is the greatest promotion that God gives in this world Job 7.17 18. Job when he was himself could not but admire at it that God should make such an account of man and that he should so magnify him and dignify him as to think him worthy of a rod a whiping as to think him worth a melting Prov. 1.32 Psal 73.5 Eccles 9.1 2. and trying every morning yea every moment T is certain that great prosperity and worldly glory are no sure tokens of Gods love and t is as certain that great troubles and afflictions are no sure marks of Gods hatred and yet many poor Christians when the waters of affliction rise high and are ready to overflow them O how apt are they to conclude that God hates them and will revenge himself upon them and that they have nothing of God or Christ or the Spirit or Grace in them Or 5. Lam. 1.16 When the Spirit the Comforter stands afar off and witholds those special influences without which in a common ordinary way a Christian cannot divinely candidly clearly and impartially transact with God in order to his own peace comfort and settlement Or 6. When either a Christians evidences are not at hand or else they are so soiled darkned blotted and obscured as that he is not able to read them Psal 88. Job 33.10 It is an old saying that Melancholia est vehiculum Daemonum In the German proverb Luther sayes it goes for currant Caput Melancholicum diaboli Balneum The melancholy head is the Devils bathing place Or 7. When a Christian is extreamly opprest with melancholy Melancholy is a dark and dusky humor which disturbs both Soul and body and the cure of it belongs rather to the Physitian than to the Divine It is a most pestilent humor where it abounds one calls it Balneum Diaboli the Devils Bath t is a humor that unfits a man for all sorts of services but especially those that concern his soul his spiritual estate his everlasting condition The Melancholy person tyres the Physitian grieves the Minister wounds Relations and makes sport for the Devil There are 5 sorts of persons that the Devil makes his Ass to ride in triumph upon viz. the ignorant person the unbelieving person the proud person the hypocritical person and the Melancholy person Melancholy is a disease that works strange passions strange imaginations and strange conclusions It unmans a man it makes a man call good evil and evil good sweet bitter and bitter sweet light darkness and darkness light The distemper of the body oftentimes causeth distemper of soul for the Soul followeth the temper of the body A Melancholy spirit is a dumb spirit you can get nothing out of him Mat. 9.28 29. It is no more wonder to see a Melancholy man doubt and question his spiritual condition than it is to see a child cry when he is beaten or to hear a sick man groan or to hear a drowning man call out for a boat You may silence a Melancholy man when you are not able to comfort him Whilest Nebuchadnezzar was under the power of a deep Melancholy he could not tell whether he was a man or a Beast Melancholy is the mother of fears doubts disputes and discomforts and a deaf spirit you can get nothing into him Now of all the evil spirits we read of in the Gospel the dumb and the deaf were the worst darkness sadness solitariness heaviness mourning c. are the only sweet desirable and delightful companions of melancholy persons Melancholy makes every sweet bitter and every bitter seven times more bitter the melancholy person is marvellously prone to bid sleep farewel and joy farewel and meat farewel and friends farewel and Ordinances farewel and duties farewel and Promises farewel and Ministers farewel and his Calling farewel and t is well if he be not even ready to bid God farewel too Melancholy persons are like Idols that have eyes but see not and tongues but speak not and ears but hear not Melancholy turns truths into Fables and fables into truths it turns fancies into realities and realities into fancies Melancholy is a fire that burns inwards and is hard to quench Now if a Christian be under the power of natural or accidental Melancholy his work is not now to be a trying his estate or a casting up of his accounts to see what he is worth for another world but to use all such wayes and means as God hath prepared in a natural way for the cure of Melancholy for as the Soul is not cured by natural causes so the body is not cured by spiritual Remedies Now in the seven cases last mentioned a Christians work lyes rather in mourning self-judging self-loathing self-abhorring and in repenting and reforming and in fresh and frequent exercises of Faith on the Lord Jesus on his Blood on his Promises and on his free rich sovereign and glorious Grace â—hat is displayed and offered in the Gospel and in a patient waiting upon the Lord in the use of all holy and heavenly helps for deliverance out of his present straits tâ—yals and exercises then in falling upon that great work of casting up his spiritual accounts and of searching into the Records of glory to see whether his name be Registred in the Book of Life or no. O Sirs when poor Christians are bewildered their proper work is to cast themselves upon the
comforts Christians must carefully distinguish between the presence of hypocrisy and the predominancy of hypocrisy In the most upright hearts that are in the world there is more or less hypocrisy remaining in them All the Saints that ever were in the World Rom. 7.22 23. Heb. 12.15 have found more or less of this root of bitterness springing up in them t is not the presence of hypocrisy but the reign of hypocrisy that damns the soul that hypocrisy that is discerned resisted opposed and mourned over will never make a Christian miserable Where the standing frame and general bent of a mans heart is upright there the presence of hypocrisy cannot denominate a man an hypocrite All men must stand and fall for ever according to the standing frame and general bent of their hearts if the standing frame and general bent of their hearts be sincere they are happy for ever but if the standing frame and general bent of their hearts be hypocritical they are miserable for ever But The Fourteenth Maxim or Consideration FOurteenthly Consider you must never judg your selves unsound or hypocrites for such things or from such considerations or by such Arguments or reasonings which being admitted and granted to be true will necessarily and unavoidably prove the whole generation of the faithful Psal 7â— 15 the whole body of them that fear the Lord to be unsound and to be a pack of notorious hypocrites he that shall judg himself unsound or an hypocrite because his thoughts and imaginations are that he is not sincere Isa 55.7 8 9. for because he is thus and thus tempted or because he is at particular times and in particular cases thus and thus worsted and captivated by sin notwithstanding all the resistance that he is able to make against it and notwithstanding his hatred of it and his loathing and judging of himself for it or because he is thus and thus afflicted in his Family Jacob Joseph Job David Heman Paul and those worthies in the 11th of the Hebreâ—s have been as much afflicted as thou hast been now for thee to conclude that thou art not beloved because thou hast been thus afflicted this is to conclude against all those worthies of whom this world was not worthy Heb. 11.38 or in his Relations or in his own person or because he is thus and thus dâ—stracted in Prayer and straitned in Prayer or because he is somtimes troubled with sad hard hideous and blasphemous thoughts of God he does in so judging judg and condemn the whole Generation of the Righteous for there are none of them but first or last more or less have been exercised even as he is or as he has been exercised Who dare judg his neighbour his brother his friend an hypocrite because the hand of the Lord has been various wayes lifted up against him or because Satan has been let loose to play with his grand battery upon him Now if thou darest not judg thy neighbour an hypocrite upon these accounts how darest thou to judg thy self an hypocrite upon the very same accounts When thy neighbour thy brother thy friend is thus and thus afflicted tempted distressed c. thou canst tell them that this has been the common lot of the People of God in all the Ages of the World thou canst tell them that no man knows love or hatred by these things and that all things come alike to all Eccles 9.1 2 3. Isa 1.25 chap. 27.9 Heb. 12.10 11. James 5.10 11. thou canst tell them that the most choicest Saints have been most afflicted tempted clouded and distressed thou canst tell them that all shall end well that all shall issue well Remember the patience of Job and consider the end that the Lord made with him Thou canst tell them that thou hast got that good by afflictions temptations cloudings distresses that thou wouldst not exchange for ten thousand worlds Now if Christians when they are afflicted tempted clouded distressed would be but as kind favourable and merciful to themselves as they are to others in the same condition how weâ—l would it be with them how soon would they get out of the snare O Sirs if thâ—s rule were but prudently considered and seriously practised how would the fears doubts and darknesses of many poor weak doubting staggering and trembling Christians vanish and what peace comfort and settlement would they quickly find O Sirs we must never stand to that judgment which we pass upon our Spiritual estates which is irrational or without sufficient ground from Scripture or which would be to condemn the Generation of the just we may safely appeal from that sentence of our judgment which acts it self in times of passion or violent temptation as he did from Alexander drunk to Alexander sober c. We must not unjustly vex our own hearts and dash out our integrity when the sentence that we pass upon our selves is rather of imagination than of reason When a man thinks and thinks again and again that his heart is not sincere with God though many if not all evidences of sincerity appear in him and when he cannot produce any one inherently distinguishing ground of an hypocrite in himself why this is but an imaginary judgment and utteâ—ly unreasonable for this is to condemn the innocent without cause O Sirs that soul will never be setled in peace and comfort which gives way to his own imaginations and passions and which hath a conceit that every sinful thought or violent temptation or more durable conflict with an inward corruption or the resurrection of some old sin or frequent distractions in Religious duties or particular falls or flips into this or that sin cannot stand with grace cannot stand with uprightness cannot stand with singleness and soundness of heart O that you would for ever remember this viz. That where a man hath either no ground at all or those that he hath are false he should never so settle on them and yield and entertain them as to question his estate for them or for them to shut the door of comfort against his own Soul But The Fifteenth Maxim or Consideration FIfteenthly Consider in judging of your selves and your spiritual estates and conditions you must alwayes have an eye to your natural tempers complexions constitutions and inclinations and the sins and temptations that these do lay you most open too and remember that as in some tempers a little grace makes a very great shew so in other tempers a great deal of grace makes but a very little shew A little gold ring upon an Alablaster hand makes a more glorious shew than a very great Ring upon a leprous hand the Application is easy A little water in a long narrow mouth'd glass seems to be a great deal when ten times yea twenty times as much in a large Cistern is hardly discernable the application is easie A little Sugar will serve well enough for sweet Wines but much more is requisite to sweeten
should make it our great business and work to come up to them and to imitate them to the life O friends the examples last cited should be very awakening very perswading very convincing and very encouraging because in them you may see that though abstinence from the appearance of evil be a difficult thing yet 't is a possible thing Shall we love to look upon the Pictures of our friends and shall we not much more love to look upon the holy examples of those eminent Saints that had the lively picture of Grace and the lovely Image of Christ fairly stampt upon their hearts and lives 'T is both our Mercy and our duty to eye the examples and to follow the footsteps of those Christians that have been most eminent in Grace as you may plainly see by comparing of these Scriptures together Prov. 2.20 Heb. 6.12 1 Thes 1.6 Phil. 4.9 2 Tim. 3.10 11 12. Heb. 12.1 Phil. 3.17 1 Cor. 11.1 Titus 2.7 He that would fain write a fair hand had need have his eye often upon his Copy and he that would fain abstain from all appearance of evil he had need often to eye the gracious examples of such who have made Conscience of abstaining from appearing evils as well as from apparent evils But Eighthly and lastly Consider what some refined Heathens and civilized Pagans have done in this very case There are stories of Heathens that would not look upon excellent Beauties lest they should be ensnared Dâ—mocritâ—â— pluckt out his own eyes to avoid the danger of uncleanness Socrates speaketh of two young men that flang away their Belts when being in an Idol-Temple the lustrating water fell upon them detesting saith the Historian the garment spotted by the Flesh Alexander would not see the woman after whom he might have lusted Scipio Africanus warring in Spain took New Carthage by storm Aure victor at which time a beautiful and noble Virgin fled to him for succour to preserve her Chastity he being four and twenty years old and so in the heat of youth hearing of it would not suffer her to come into his sight for fear of a temptation but caused her to be restored in safety to her Father So when Demâ—sthenes the Oratour was asked an excessive sum of money to behold the beautiful Lais he answered He would not buy repentance so dear neither was he so ill a Merchant as to sell eternals for temporals Nor Caesar would not search Pompeyes Cabinet lest he should find new matters of revenge Memorable is the story of the children of Samosâ—ta that would not touch their Ball but burnt it because it had touched the Toe of a wicked Heretical Bishop as they were tossing and playing with it Now shall some refined Heathens shall civilized Pagans abstain from the appearance of evil from occasions and temptations to sin and shall real Christians fall short of them Shall blind nature do more than Grace Shall men fallen in the first Adam do more than those that are raised and enlivened by the second Adam But to prevent all mistakes let me add though many Heathens have abstained from the appearance of some evil yet they have not abstained from the appearance of all evil neither have they abstained from the appearance of any evil out of a hatred of evil nor from any principles of saving light or life or love nor out of any regard to any Royal Law of God nor out of any regard to the honour or glory of God but either out of vain-glory and popular applause the Pole-stars by which they steered all their actions or out of Hypocrisy which set a tincture and Dy upon all their actions what Writer hath more golden Sentences than Seneca against the contempt of Gold yet if Tacitus and others of his contemporaries may be credited none more rich none more covetous than he as if out of design he had perswaded others to cast away their money that he himself might come and gather it up again c. And thus you see that there are very great reasons why every Christian should avoid the very shew suspition or appearance of evil c. But Eleventhly and lastly He that sets himself resolutely mostly habitually against his bosome sins his constitution sins Psal 18.26 his most prevalent sins c. he has certainly a saving work a powerful work of God upon his Soul True Grace will make a man stand stoutly and stedfastly on Gods side and work the heart to take part with him against the most darling sins though they be as right hands or as right eyes True Grace will lay hands upon a mans most beloved lusts and cry out to Heaven Lord Crucify them Crucify them down with them down with them even to the ground Lord do Justice do signal Justice do speedy Justice do exemplary Justice upon this Head-lust this Master-sin Lord hew down root and branch let the very stumps of this Dagon be broken all in pieces Lord curse this wild Fig-Tree that never more Fruit may grow thereon Certainly God and Christ is set up highest in that mans heart who bends most of his thoughts strength and endeavours against his constitution sins against the sins of his Place Calling condition and complexion 'T is very observable that the Jews after they had been in the Babilonish Furnace for Idolatry they ever hated and feared that sin as much as the burnt child dreads the Fire yea they would dye any death rather than admit an Idol Josephus tells us how stoutly they opposed Pilate and Petronius that would have set up Caesars Statue in their Temples offering their throats to the Swords of the Souldiers rather than they would endure that Idol in Gods house O when once the heart of a Christian comes thus to be set against all his Golden and Silver Idols then we may safely say Behold a true Israelite in whom there is no guile He that finds his lusts his bosome his darling lusts begin to fall before him 〈◊〉 6 1â— as Hâ—mâ—â— once begun to fall before Morâ—eoai he may safely and confidently conclude that he is of the seed of the Jews and that the seed of God abideth in him 1 John 3.9 But having discoursed so largely as I have concerning bosome sins darlâ—ng lusts head-corruptions in my other writings I need say no more at this time And thus you see that there are Eleven particulars in regard of sin and a Christians actâ—ngs about it that speaks out a true saving work of Grace to be in the Souls of the Saints But c. Secondly Where the constant ordinary standing and abiding purpose disposition frame and general bent of a mans heart soul spirit desires and endeavours are fixed and set for God for Grace for Holiness in heart and life there is a most sure and infallible work of God past upon that mans soul the constant bent and the setled purpose of a true child of God is for God for Grace for Holiness in heart
general Rule So here as no man can safely and groundedly conclude from no better Promises than from some few particular actions though in themselves materially and substantially good that his heart is therefore sincere 'T is not a pang of the Soul nor a mood nor a fit of an Ague nor a flash of Lightning nor a mans being as the morning dew but his habitual purpose resolution and inclination to good that evidences the man to be really good Psal 119.20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgments at all times c. A sheep may slip into a slow as soon as a Swine and an Apple-tree may have a fit of barrenness as well as a Crab-tree But the sheep loves not to wallow in the Mire as the swine does And though the Apple-tree be barren one year yet it brings forth fruit the next so on the contrary no man ought to conclude because of some gross particular sinful actions and extravagant motions that his heart is unfound O Sirs we are not to make a Judgment of our states and conditions by some particular actions whether they are good or evil but we are to make a Judgment of our states and conditions by the general frame bent and disposition of our hearts and by the constant tenour of our lives 'T is certain that God accounts every wicked man guilty of all those sins wickednesses and vanities which the setled purpose desire bent bias and frame of his Soul inclined him to though he doth not actually commit them Matth. 5.28 He that looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery already with her in his heart A man may commit Adultery and yet not touch a Woman There are many thousands that dye of the wound in the eye So 1 John 3.15 Whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murtherer A man may commit Murther and yet not kill a man yea he may commit Murther and yet not touch a man Prov. 23.7 For as he thinketh in his heart so is he The man is as his mind is God esteems of wicked men according to their hearts and not according to their words So 't is as certain that the Lord accounts every godly man to do all that good that the setled purpose frame bent biass and unfeigned desires of his Soul inclines him to 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing mind 't is accepted So Heb. 11.17 By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac and he that had received the Promises offered up his only Son that is in disposition and full purpose of heart and willingness of mind which God accepted for the deed a true intent is in Gods account as a real act So David had a purpose a mind a will to build God a house and for this God commends him 1 Kings 8.18 And the Lord said unto David my Father whereas it was in thy heart to build a house unto my Name thou didst well that it was in thy heart yea God rewards him for it as if he had actually done it and tells him in his ear that he would build him an house 2 Sam. 7.27 So when that servant that ow'd his Lord ten thousand Talents had shew'd his readiness and willingness and resolvedness to pay all Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all Matth. 18.26 a thing as impossible for him to do as 't is for us to keep the whole Law and not to fail in one point but his desires his mind his will his purposes was to do it well and what does his Lord do why his Lord had compassion on him and loosed him and forgave him the debt v. 27. his Lord took this for full and current payment he accepted of the will for the deed So when Zacheus had unfeignedly professed his purpose and willingness to make restitution Christ presently replies This day is Salvation come to thy house Luke 19.9 Certainly the Lord accounts that Soul a true Believer and a blessed Soul that unfeignedly desires to believe witness that Matth. 5.6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled And 't is as certain that the Lord accounts that sinner a true penitent that doth unfeignedly desire purpose and resolve to repent to break off his sins and to turn to the Lord as you may see in that great instance of the Prodigal Luke 15.18 19 20. I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants And he arose and came to his Father But when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him Assoon as ever the Prodigal did but purpose and resolve to repent and return to his Father the compassions of his Father are kindled and turned towards him and he does not go but runs and falls on his neck and in stead of kicking and killing there is nothing but kissing and embracing a returning Prodigal God alwayes sets a higher value upon our dispositions than upon our actions 2 Cor. 8.10 1 Cor. 9.17 1 Pet. 5.2 Exod. 25.2 Philemon 14 and in our best services he esteems more of our wills than he does of our deeds as is evident by the Scriptures in the Margent Every good man is as good in the eye and account of God as the ordinary frame and bent of his Spirit speaks him to be Every man is as holy as humble as heavenly as spiritual as gracious as serious as sincere as fruitful as faithful as watchful c. as the setled purposes desires resolutions and endeavours of his Soul speaks him to be Hence Noah is said to be a just man and perfect or upright in his Generation Gen. 6.9 And hence Job is said to be a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1.1.8 And hence David is said to be a man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13 14. And to fulfill all his wills Acts 13.22 here the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is wills to note the universality and sincerity of his obedience And hence Zacharias and Elizabeth are said to be both righteous before God walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God blameless Luke 1.5 6. Hence the Church is said to be all fair Cant. 4.7 Thou art all fair my love and there is no spot in thee And hence those hundred forty and four thousand Saints that had their Fathers Name written in their Foreheads Rev. 14.1 are said to be without fault v. 5. And in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God God in the Covenant of Grace and upon the credit of his Sons blood and for the glory of his Free Grace and favour is graciously pleased to accept of his
known in prosperity nor hid in adversity True love is like that of Ruth's to Naomi that of Jonathan's to David permanent and constant Job 6.15 16. Many there be whose love to the Saints is like Job's brooks which in the Winter when men have no need of them overflows with tenders of service and shews of love but when the season is hot and dry the poor thirsty traveller stands in most need of water to refresh him then the brooks are quite dried up They are like the Swallow that will stay by you in the Summer of prosperity but flie from you in the Winter of adversity It is observed by Josephus of the Samaritans Joseph Anti. lib. 11. p. 286. that when ever the Jews affairs prospered they would be their friends and profess much love to them yea they would vaunt of their alliance saying That they were near akin and of the race of Ephraim and Manasses the sons of Joseph But when the Jews were in trouble and affliction and brought to an under then they would not own them Lib. 11. p. 272. Lib. 12. p. 304. Lib. 13. p. 322 323. c. nor have any thing to do with them yea then they would set themselves with all their â—ight against them as the same Historian tells us This age is full of such Samaritans yet certainly such as truly love they will alwayes love such as truly love the people of God they will love them to the end In the primitive times it was very much taken notice of by the very Heathen that in the depth of misery when fathers and mothers forsook their children Christians otherwise strangers stuck closs one to another their love of Religion and one of another proved firmer than that of nature They seem to take away the Sun out of the world said the Orator who take away friendship from the life of man for we do not more need fire and water than constant friendship Though wicked men may pretend great love to the Saints yet their love is not constant Gen. 31.24 29. 33 1 2 3 4 5. Dan. 6. God sometimes indeed over-rules their spirits with a very strong hand as he did Laban's and Esau's or as he over-ruled the spirits of the Lions to preserve Daniel and of the Ravens to feed Elijah but so soon as that over-ruling providence is over they are as they were befoâ—e God for a time gave the Israelites favour in the eyes of the Egyptians but before and after they were their utter enemies But now a gracious soul he loves the Saints at all times his love to them is constant But Fourteenthly That soul that dares not say that he has grace yet can truly say before the Lord that he prizes the least dram of grace above ten thousand thousand worlds certainly that soul has true grace in him Doubtless there are none that can prize grace in their understandings and judgments above all the world Mic. 6.6 7. Phil. 3.18 19. Mat. 19.16 to 25. Psal 2.21 but such as are first taken out of the world by grace There is no man on earth whose heart is void and empty of grace but sets a higher value and price upon his lusts or upon his relations or upon his honours or riches or pleasures or upon this or that worldly enjoyment than he does upon grace or the fountain of grace yea how many thousands are there that set a higher price or value upon a Hound a Hawk a Horse a Harlot a good Trade a fair Estate a rich inheritance yea upon the very toyes and trifles of this world than they do upon God or Christ or grace 'T was never yet known in the world that ever God sent such a man to hell who prized grace above heaven it self who had rather have grace and holiness without heaven than heaven it self without grace and holiness Fifteenthly That soul that dares not say that his condition is good yet can say in truth of heart before the Lord that he would not change his condition with the vain carnal formal and prophane men of the world for ten thousand worlds that man is certainly for heaven and heaven is certainly for that man we may be very highly and groundedly confident that God will never cast that man to hell among devils and damned spirits at the great day who in his day of life would not chuse to be in the condition of the men of the world for as many worlds as there be men in the world Look as none meet in heaven but such as are like to like in their renewed natures principles and practises so none meet in hell but such as are like to like in their old natures Deut. 22.10 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16 17 18. principles and practises That God that would not suffer an Ox to be yoked with an Ass in this world nor a Believer with an Infidel will never suffer such to be yoked with devils and damned reprobates in that lower world who would not to gain many worlds be willingly yoked with wicked men in this world certainly they shall never be a Christians companions in that other world whose society and company and whose wickedness and baseness have been a grief a torment a hell to him in this world Psal 119.53 136. Jer. 9.1 2. Ezek. 9.4 6. 2 Pet. 2.7 8. When Mrs. Katherine Brettergh was upon her dying bed and most grievously assaulted by temptations in the midst of her sore conflicts this was no small support and comfort to her That surely God would not send her to hell to live for ever among such wicked persons whose company and whose sin was a burden to her in this world c. But Sixteenthly James 3.2 Eccles 7.20 Prov. 20.7 Joh. 1.1 8. That soul that dares not say that he does not sin For in many things we offend all and there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not and who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin And if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us yet can say in uprightness before the Lord that he would not willingly resolutely maliciously wilfully wickedly and hab tually sin against the Lord to gain a world that soul that don 't nor won't through grace assisting Psal 119.1 3. 1 John 3.9 allow himself or indulge himself in a course of sin or in a trade of 〈◊〉 in the common practise of any known sin that soul is certainly a gracious soul Rom. 7.15 The evil that I do I allow not 'T is one thing for a man to sin 't is an other thing for a man to allow himself in sin 't is one thing for a godly man to step into a sin Psal 139 24. and 't is another thing to keep the road of sin Search me and try me and see if there be any way of wickedness in me or as the
by any fears or dangers on the other Sincere Christians have not taken up Religion on such slight grounds as to be either flattered or frighted out of it sincere Christians reckon upon afflictions Joh. 16. ult Acts 14.22 2 Tim. 4.8 temptations crosses losses reproaches on the one hand and they reckon upon a crown of life a crown of righteousness a crown of glory on the other hand Jer. 6.16 and hereupon they set up their staff fully resolving never to depart from the good old way wherein they have found rest to their souls Sincere Christians take Christ and his wayes for better for worse for richer for poorer in prosperity and adversity they resolve to stand or fall to suffer and reign to live and die with him When all outward incouragements from God shall fail yet a sincere Christian will keep closs to his God and closs to his duty Heb. 3.17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herds in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvaâ—ion When all necessary and delightful mercies fail yet he will not fail in his duty though God with-hold his blessings yet he will not with-hold his service in the want of a livelihood he will be lively in his duty when he hath nothing to subsist by yet then he will live upon his God and joy in his God and keep closs to this God Though war and want come yet he will not be wanting in his duty Mark there are three things in a sincere Christian that will strongly encline him to keep closs to the Lord and closs to his wayes in the want of all outward incouragements 2 Cor. 5.14 Phil. 4.12 13. Rom. 14.7 8. and in the face of all outward discouragements And the first is a forcible principle Divine Love the second is a mighty aid the Spirit of God and the third is a high aim the Glory of God Look as Ruth kept closs to her mother in the want of all outward incouragements and in the face of all outward discouragements And Ruth Ruth 1.16 17. said whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge and nothing but death shall part thee and 〈◊〉 So saith a sincere Christian I will take my lot with Christ were ever it falls I will keep closs to the Lord and closs to my duty in the want of all outward incouragements and in the face of all outward discouragements Though outward incouragements be sometimes as a side wind or as oyl or as chariot wheels means to move a Christian to go on more sweetly easily and comfortably in the wayes of God yet when this wind shall fail and these chariot wheels shall be knockt off a sincere Christian will keep closs to the Lord and his wayes All this is come upon us Psal 44.17 18 yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy wayes But what do they mean by saying All this is come upon us Why that you may see in the foregoing part of the Psalm Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame Vers 9 10 11 12 13 14. The Jews sold Christ for thirty peace and the Romans sold thirty of them for a penny as Josephus relates and goest not forth with our armies thou makest us turn back from the enemy and they which hate us spoyl for themselves thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat and hast scattered us among the heathen thou sellest thy people for nought and dost not increase thy wealth by their price thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us thou makest us a by-word among the heathen a shaking of the head among the people Antiochus Epiphanes lookt upon the Jews Religion as superstition his wrath and rage was exceeding great both against the Jews and against their Religion he practised all manner of cruelty upon the miserable Jews but yet there was a remnant among them who were faithful to the Lord and to his Covenant and to his Laws and to his wayes even to the death though in the time of the Maccabees many revolted to Paganism yet some maintained their constancy and integrity to the last That is a great word of the Prophet Micah Mich. 4.5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever This absolute and peremptory resolution to be really the Lord's and for ever the Lord's is of the essence of true conversion 'T is not the world's flatteries that can bribe off a sincere Christian from the wayes of God nor 't is not the worlds frowns that can beat off a sincere Christian from the wayes of God But an hypocrite will never an hypocrite can never hold it out to the end his ground-tackle will never hold when the storm beats strong upon him An hypocrite is hot at hand but soon tires and gives in But Tenthly No hypocrite ever makes it his business his work to bring his heart into religious duties and services he never makes conscience of bringing his heart into his work Mat. 15 8. â— Mark 7.6 An hypocrite is heartless in all he does Psal 78.34 When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God The Fox when caught in a gin looks pitifully but it is only to get out They worshipped the Lord as the Indians do the devil that he may do them no hurt Ver. 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed unto him with their tongues Ver. 37. For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfâ—st in his Covenant All lip-labour is but lost labour When mens hearts are not in their devotion their devotion is meer dissimulation These hypocrites sought God and enquired early after God but it was still with old hearts which are no hearts in the account of God They made lip work of it and head-work of it but their hearts not being in their work all was lost their seeking lost their enquiring lost their God lost their souls lost and eternity lost Hos 7.14 And they have not cried unto mâ— with their hearts when they howled upon their beds When mens hearts are not in their prayers all their praying is but as an hideous howling in the account of God As dogs bruit beasts and Indians do when they are hunger-bit The cry of the heart is the only cry that God likes loves and looks for he accepts of no cry he delights in no cry he rewards no cry but the cry
of the heart Hypocrites are heartless in their cryes and therefore they cry and howl and howl and cry and all to no purpose they cry and murmur and they howl and repine they cry and blaspheme and they howl and rebel and therefore they meet with nothing from heaven but frowns and blows and disappointments Isa 29.13 Wherefore the Lord said for as much as this people draw neer me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me Ezek. 33.31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Though this people flocked to the Prophet in troops as men and women do to places of pleasure and though they carried it before the Prophet as if they were Saints as if they were the people of God as if they were affected with what they heard as if they were resolved to live out what the Prophet should make out to them yet their hearts run after their covetousness Though these hypocrites profest much love and kindness to the Prophet and paid him home with smooth words seemed to be much affected delighted ravished and taken with his person voice and doctrine yet they made no conscience of bringing their hearts into their duties An hypocrite may look at some outward easie ordinary duties of Religion but he never makes conscience of bringing his heart into any duties of Religion When did you ever see an hypocrite a searching of his heart or sitting in judgment upon the corruptions of his soul or lamenting and mourning over the vileness and wickedness of his spirit 'T is only the sincere Christian that is affected afflicted and wounded with the corruptions of his heart When one told blessed Bradford that he did all out of hypocrisie because he would have the people applaud him He answered It is true the seeds of hypocrisie and vain glory are in thee and me too and will be in us as long as we live in this world but I thank God it is that I mourn under and strive against How seriously and deeply did good Hezekiah humble himself for the pride of his heart 2 Chron. 32.25 out of the eater came meat out of his pride he gat humility O Sirs A sincere Christian makes it his great business to get his heart into all his Religious duties and services to get his heart into every way and work of God 2 Chron. 17.6 Psal 86.12 Jehoshaphats heart was lifted up in the wayes of the Lord. So David I 'le praise thee 2 Chron. 22.9 Cant. 3.1 2 3 4 5 6. It is reported that when the Tyrant Trajane commanded Ignatius to be ript unbowelled they found Jesus Christ written upon his heart in characters of gold here was a heart worth gold That 's the golden Christian indeed whose heart is writ upon all his duties and services O Lord with all my heart And so Psal 119.7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart Ver. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee So Jehoshaphat he sought the Lord with all his heart Isa 26.8 The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee Vers 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Lamen 3.41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens Rom. 1.9 For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son Pauls very spirit his very soul was in his service Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Ver. 25. With the mind I my self serve the Law of God A sincere Christian is alwayes best when his heart is in his work and when he can't get his heart into his duties Oh how does he sigh and groan and complain and mourn at the foot of God Lord my tongue has been at work and my head has been at work and my parts have been at work and my eyes and hands have been at work but where has my heart been this day Oh it is and must be for a sore and sad lamentation that I have had so little of my heart in that service that I have tendered to thee This is the daily language of an upright heart But now all the work of an hypocrite is to get his golden parts into his duties and his silver tongue into his duties and his nimble head into his duties but he never makes conscience of getting his heart into his duties If any beasts sacrificed by Heathens who ever lookt narrowly into the intrails was found without heart this was held ominous and construed as very prodigious to the person for whom it was offered as it fell out in the case of Julian Hypocrites are alwayes heartless in all the sacrifices they offer to God and this will one day prove ominous and prodigious to them But Eleventhly An hypocrite never performes religious duties from spiritual principles nor in a spiritual manner An hypocrite is never inclined moved and carried to God to Christ to holy duties by the power of a new and inward principle of grace working a sutableness between his heart and the things of God An hypocrite rests himself satisfied in the meer external acts of Religion though he never feels any thing of the power of Religion in his own soul An hypocrite looks to his words in prayer and to his voice in prayer and to his gestures in prayer but he never looks to the frame of his heart in prayer An hypocrites heart is never toucht with the words his tongue utters an hypocrites soul is never divinely affected delighted or graciously warmed with any duty he performs An hypocrites spiritual performances never flow from spiritual principles nor from a heart universally sanctified though his works may be new yet his heart remains old his new practises alwayes spring from old principles and this will prove the hypocrites bane Vide Isa 1.10 to 16. as you may see in that Isa 1.15 When you spread forth your hands to heaven I will hide my eyes and when you make many prayers when you abound in duty adding prayer to prayer as the Hebrew runs I will not hear your hands are full of blood These were unsanctified ones their practises were new Mat. 6. chap. 23 Luke 18. but their hearts were old still The same you may see in the Scribes and Pharisees who fasted prayed and gave alms but their hearts were not changed renewed sanctified nor principled from above and this proved their eternal bane Nicodemus was a man of great note name John 3.4 No man can understand
little it will pass for currant with God and therefore he is free to venture upon the clossest search of God A false evidence is the fruit of a slight and superficial search Now look as Bankrupts care not for casting up their accounts because they know all is naught very naught yea stark naught with them So hypocrites they care not to come to the tryal to the test because they know all is naught yea worse than naught with them they have no mind to cast up their spiritual estates because at the foot of the account they must be put to read their neck verse undone undone And therefore as old deformed women cannot endure to look into the looking-glass lest their wrinckles and deformity should be discovered so hypocrites cannot endure to look into the glass of the Gospel lest their deformities impieties and wickednesses should be discovered and detected I have read of the Elephant how unwilling he is to go into the water but when he is forced into it he puddles it lest by the cleerness of the stream he should discern his own deformity So hypocrites they are very unwilling to look into their own hearts or into the cleer streams of Scriptures lest their souls deformity and ugliness should appear to their own terror and amazement O Sirs look as it is a hopeful evidence that the Clyents cause is good when he is ready and willing to enter upon a tryal and as it is a hopeful sign that a man's gold is true gold when he is willing to bring it to the touchstone and that a man thrives when he is willing to cast up his Books So it is a hopeful evidence that a Christian is sincere with God when he is ready and willing to venture upon the tryal of God Gal. 6.4 5. when he is willing to cast up his Books his accounts that he may see what he is worth for another world Augustin Aug. in Psal 33. Concl. 2. speaks of an acute person who was wont to say that he prized that little time which he constantly set apart every dâ—y for the examination of his conscience far more than all the other part of the day which he spent in his voluminous controversies Of all the duties of Religion an hypocrite dreads most that of self-examination and that of venturing himself upon the search and tryal of God Well for a close Though an hypocrite mâ—y deceive all the world Job 34.21 22. 2 Chron. 16 9. Prov. 5.21 15.3 Ambros offic l. 1 c. 14. like that counterfeit Alexander in Josephus his story yet Augustus will not be deceived the great God will not be deceived for his eyes are quick and piercing into all things persons and places Look as the eyes of a well drawn picture are fastned on thee which way soever thou turnest so are the eyes of the Lord fastned on thee O hypocrite which way soever thou turnest 'T was a worthy saying of one If thou canst not hide thy self from the Sun which is God's Minister of light how impossible will it be to hide thy self from him whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun The eye of God many times is very terrible to an hypocrite which makes him very shie of venturing upon the tryal of God No hypocrite since the world stood did ever love or delight to be searcht and tried by God And thus I have shewed you the several rounds or steps in Jacob's Ladder which no hypocrite under heaven can whilst he remains an hypocrite climb up to And so much for this Chapter CHAP. V. Now in this fifth and last Chapter I shall lay down some Propositions and Directions that so you may see what a sober use and improvement Christians ought to make of their evidences for Heaven and how in the use of gracious evidences they ought to live above their gracious evidences and how to exalt and lift up Christ above all their graces evidences and performances FIrst Proposition 'T is the wisdom and ought to be the work of every Christian to own the least measure of grace that is in him Though our graces like Gideon's Army are but a handful in comparison of our sins which like the Midianites are innumerable yet a handful of grace is to be owned in the midst of an Host of sins though it be mixed and mingled with many weaknesses and infirmities Sin is Satan's work and grace is Christ's work and therefore Christ's work ought to be eyed and owned though it be mingled with much of Satan's work That Christian is much clouded and benighted who hath two eyes to behold his sins but never an eye to see his graces Christ gets no glory nor the soul gets no good when a Christian is still a poring upon his sins How can that Christian prize a little grace and bless God for a little grace and improve a little grace who won't own a little grace because it is mingled with many weaknesses Shall the Husbandman own a little wheat when mingled with a great deal of chaff 1 Sam. 21.13 14. shall the Goldsmith own a little filings of gold when mingled with a great deal of dust and shall not a Christian own a little grace when mingled with a great many failings David had a great many infirmities yet he owns his uprightness Psal 18.23 I was upright before him And Job Job 3. had a great many weaknesses yet he owns his integrity Job 27.5 Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me Ver. 6. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live The Spouse was sensible of her blackness yet owns her comeliness Cant. 1.5 I am black but comely So Cant. 5.2 I sleep but my heart waketh Jeremiah was a man of many failings yet he owns his hope in God Jer. 17.17 Jer. 20.14 ult Thou art my hope in the day of evil The poor man in the Gospel was very sensible of the sad reliques and remains of unbelief that was in him and yet with a holy boldness and confidence he pleads his faith Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help my unbelief Peter miscarried sadly Mat. 26.69 ult and yet he owns his love to Christ Joh. 21.15 Lord thou knowest that I love thee Ver. 16. Lord thou knowest that I love thee Ver. 17. Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Paul had his infirmities and weaknesses hanging upon him witness that 7th of the Romans and yet how frequently and boldly does he own the grace of God that was in him throughout his Epistles Nothing keeps grace more at an under than mens not owning of a little grace because it is mingled with many infirmities The best way to be greatly good is to own a little little good though in the midst of much evil But The second Proposition is this It is your wisdom and should be your work to look
why others don 't much mind them or take any great notice of them But The fourth Proposition is this If this way of trying our spiritual estates by holy and gracious qualifications were not both lawful and useful then certainly the holy Spirit would never have prescribed it nor never have prest men so earnestly upon it as we find he has done in the blessed Scripture Take a taste 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith Psal 4.4 Vide Chrysostom on the words Gal. 6.3 4. 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. prove your own selves The precept is doubled to teach us to redouble our diligence in this most needful but much neglected duty of self-examination The final tryal of our eternal estates doth immediately and solely belong to the Court of heaven but the disquisitive part belongs to us Here are two emphatical words in the Greek First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 examine your selves The word in the general signifies to take an experimental knowledge of any thing that is either uncertain unknown or hidden most men are great strangers to God to Christ to Scripture and to themselves and therefore saith the Apostle Examine your selves Now if there were not sure marks and infallible signs whereby men may certainly know what their present estate is and how 't is like to go with them in another world the redoubled commnad of the Apostle would be in vain The second Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prove your selves The original word signifies a severe and diligent inquisition into our selves so as to have a full experience of what is in us Doubtless the Apostle would never call again and again upon us to try and examine our selves whether we be in the faith if it were not lawful to come to the knowledge of our faith or of our being in the state of faithful Christians in a discursive way arguing from the effect to the cause So in that 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure The Greek word translated give diligence is very emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies to do a thing not in an overly lazy careless way but to do a thing with industry vigilancy and unweariedness of spirit Now it is granted on all hands that election cannot be made more sure in respect of God or it self but only in respect of us that we may be more perswaded of it Election cannot be made more sure than it is already for those whom God hath elected shall be certainly glorified but we must make it sure on our parts Rom. 8.29.30 that is we must labour to have a real bottom and grounded assurance that we are elected by God in his eternal decree to obtain life and glory by Jesus Christ There is a double certainty 1. There is certitudo objecti a certainty of the object so our election is sure with God for with him both it and all things are unchangable 2. There is certitudo subjecti the certainty of the subject and so we must make our election sure to our selves in our own hearts and consciences Now the means whereby we are to come to this assurance is by adding grace to grace and by causing those several graces to abound in us This is the way of wayes to make all sure to us Now by these Scriptures 't is most evident that we stand engaged to make our election sure by holy signs and marks But The fifth Proposition is this That other precious Saints that are now triumphing in glory have pleaded their interest in God's love and their hopes of a better life from graces inherent Grace in the working of it is often compared to life Now look as natural life is discerned by the actions thereof as by so many signs so also is supernatural life I 'le only point at some of those Scriptures among many others that clearly speak out this truth the first Epistle of John James 2.17 ult Job 23.10 11 12. and the whole 31. Chapter of Job Psal 119.6 Isa 38.2 3. Neh. 1. ult 13.14 c. Now all these Scriptures do evidently prove that the precious servants of the Lord did take their graces for precious signs and testimonies of God's love of their interest in Christ and thereby received much comfort peace and satisfaction And truly to deny the fruit growing upon the Tree to be an evidence that the Tree is alive is to me as unreasonable as it is absurd Certainly 't is one thing to judge by our graces and another thing to trust in our graces to make a Saviour of our graces There is a great deal of difference betwixt declaring and deserving Christians they may doubtless look to their graces as evidences of their part in Christ and salvation and the clearer and stronger they are the greater will be their comfort and assurance but not as causes No man advanced free grace like Paul no man debased his own righteousness like Paul he counted it but dung and dross and no man exalted the righteousness of Christ like Paul Phil. 3.6 7 8 9 and yet by this way of signs he gathered much comfort and assurance 2 Tim 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness How plainly how fully doth he here conclude his right to the crown of life from his fighting a good fight his finishing his course in a way of grace and holiness and his keeping the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is boasting they boasted in the testimony of their consciences O the quiet and tranquility that arises from the testimony of a mans sincerity both in heart and life By this great instance you may clearly see that a Christian may greatly exalt Christ lift up free grace tread upon his own righteousness as to justification and at the very same time take comfort in his graces and in his gracious actings So in that 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of a good conscience that in godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world His joy was founded on the testimony of his conscience but from what did his conscience testifie from his sincere conversation Again take that memorable instance of Job God hid his face from him the arrows of the Almighty stuck fast in him Satan was let loose upon him the wife of his bosom proved a tempter to him a tormenter of him his most inward acquaintance deserted him reproached him and condemned him as an hypocrite God writ bitter things against him and made him to possess the iniquities of his youth all was clouded above him and he stript of all the outward comforts that did once surround him so that he had nothing left to stay him to refresh him to support him and to be a comfort and joy to him Job 1.8 2.3 but the
is the great Charter the Magna Charta of all your spiritual priviledges and immunities Now in this great Charter the Lord declares That sincerity shall go for perfection Luke 1.5 6. Acts 13.22 2 Chron 3â— â—8 19 20. In this great Charter the Lord hath declared That he judges his people by the standing bent and frame of their hearts and not by what they are under some pangs of passion or in an hour of temptation In this great Charter the Lord declares That his eye is more upon his peoples inward disposition than 't is upon their outward actions and that his eye is more upon their will 2 Cor. 8.12 Phil. 2.13 than 't is upon their work In this great Charter the Covenant of grace the Lord hath declared That he will not forsake his people nor cast off his people Ponder much upon Jer. 31.31 to 38. because of those failings and weaknesses that may and do attend them 1 Sam. 12.22 For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people He chose you for his love and he still loveth you for his choice God will rather pity his people under their weakness than he will reject them for their weakness The Covenant of grace that God hath made with his people is as the Covenant that a man makes with his Wife I will betroth thee unto me for ever saith the Lord. Hos 2.19 20. Jer. 3.13 Turn O back-sâ—iding children saith the Lord for I am married unto you Now a man will never reject his Wife he will never cast off his Wife for those common weaknesses and infirmities that daily attends her no more will the Lord cast off his people because of the infirmities that daily hang upon them In this great Charter the Covenant of grace the Lord declares that he will require no more than he gives and that he will give what he requires and that he will accept what he gives and what can a God say more and what can a gracious soul desire more O Sirs when all is cloudy over head and all dark within doors when a Christians graces are not transparent when his evidences for heaven are soiled and blotted and when neither heart nor house are as they should be 't is good then to turn to the Covenant grace and to dwell upon the Covenant of grace Thus David did 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow Let me give a little light into the words Although my house be not so with God Though David in the main had a good heart yet he had but a wicked house Absalom had slain his Brother rebelled against his Father and lay with his Fathers Concubines And Amnon had defloured his Sister c. Now David under a deep sense of all this wickedness and of his own personal unworthiness sadly sighs it out Although my house be not so with God c. though I have not walked so exactly and perfectly as I shold have done though neither I nor my house have walked answerable to those great mercies and singular kindnesses of God that have been extended to us Yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant The word everlasting hath two acceptations it doth denote 1. Sometimes a long duration Vide Isa 55.3 Gen. 17.7 Psal 105.9 10 Isa 61.8 Heb. 13.20 in which respect the old Covenant clâ—athed with figures and ceremonies is called everlasting because it was to endure and did endure a long time â— Sometimes it denotes a perpetual duration a duration which shall last for ever In this respect the Covenant of grace is everlasting it shall never cease never be broken nor never be alteâ—ed Now the Covenant of grace is an everlasting Covenant in a twofold respect First Ex parte soederantis in respect of God who will never break Covenant with his people but is their God and will be their God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 For this God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guide even unto death I and after death too for this is not to be taken exclusive he will never leave his people nor forsake his people Heb. 13.5 6. Secondly Ex parte confoederatorum in respect of the people of God who are brought into Covenant and shall continue in Covenant for ever and ever You have both these expressed in that excellent Scripture Jer. 32.40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Seriously dwell upon the place it shews that the Covenant is everlasting on God's part and also on our part On God's part I will never turn away from them to do them good and on our part They shall never depart from me How so I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me even that fear spoken of in ver 39. That they may fear me for ever Ordered in all things O! what head can conceive or what tongue can express that infinite counsel wisdom love care and tenderness that the blessed God has exprest in ordering the Covenant of grace so as it may most and best suit to all the wants and straits and necessities and miseries and desires and longings of poor sinners souls The Covenant of grace is so well ordered by the unsearchable wisdom of God that you may find in it remedies to cure all your diseases and cordials to comfort you against all your faintings Isa 40.28 Psal 147.5 and a spiritual armoury to arm you against all your enemies viz. the world the flesh and the devil Dost thou O distressed sinner want a loving God a compassionate God a reconciled God a sin pardoning God here thou mayest find him in the Covenant of grace Dost thou want a Christ to counsel thee by his wisdom and to cloath thee with his righteousness and to adorn thee with his grace here thou mayest find him in a Covenant of grace Dost thou want the Spirit to enlighten thee to teach thee to convince thee to awaken thee to lead thee to cleanse thee to cheer thee and to seal thee up to the day of redemption Eph. 1.13 here thou mayest find him in a Covenant of grace Dost thou want grace or peace or rest or quiet or content or comfort or satisfaction here thou mayest find it in a Covenant of grace God has laid into the Covenant of grace as into a common store all those things that sinners or Saints can either beg or need Look as that is a well ordered Commonwealth where there are no wholsom Laws wanting to govern a people and where there are no wholsom remedies
mixt with a little heavenly-mindedness and what a deal of unbelief have we mixt with a little faith O Sirs in the great business of your access to God and of your acceptance with God Rom. 3.20 to ver 27. Phil. 3.8 9 10. and of your reconciliation to God and of your justification before God 'T is best safest and noblest to bottom your faith hope and expectation infinitely rather upon imputed righteousness than inherent righteousness upon what Christ has done for you than upon what he has done in you Inherent righteousness is stained imperfect impure but imputed righteousness is pure and perfect if there were any stain or any imperfection in that it could not justifie us it could not save us it could not secure us from wrath to come Such evidences as are not fetcht from any thing in us nor from any things done by us but are fetcht by faith from our free justification and from Christ's full satisfaction which he hath wrought for us will be found the most full the most sweet the most refreshing the most comforting and the most satisfying evidences Christ is all fair all perfect all pure and therefore let him be most in your eye and most upon your hearts but here take heed that you don't look upon your graces or your gracious evidences as poor low weak contemptible things as too many do for the least of them is more worth than heaven and earth and they may yield you much comfort much support much refreshing and much satisfaction though they can't yield you that full comfort nor that full satisfaction as Christ himself can yield as Christ's satisfaction can yield as free justification can yield Though children and friends can't yield to a Wife that full comfort content delight and satisfaction as her Husband does yet they may yield her much comfort much content much delight much satisfaction The application is easie But Secondly Consider That Christian that hath free-grace that hath free justification that hath the Mediatory righteousness of Christ that hath the satisfaction of Christ that hath the Covenant of grace most constantly in his sight and most frequently warm upon his heart that Christian of all Christians in the world is most free from a world of fears and doubts and scruples which do sad sink perplex and press down a world of other Christians who affect a life of sense and who daily eye more what Christ is a doing in them and what they are a doing for Christ than they do eye either his active or passive obedience Christ hath done great things for his people and he has suffered great things for his people and he has purchased great things for his people and he has prepared great things for his people and yet many of his own dear people are so taken up with their own hearts and with their own duties and graces that Christ is little eyed by them or minded by them and what is this but to be more taken with the streams than with the Fountain with the leaves blossoms and fruit than with the Tree it self with the bracelets ear-rings and gold chains than with the Husband himself with the Nobles that wait than with the King that is waited on And this is the great Reason why so many Christians who will certainly go to heaven do walk in darkness and lye down in sorrow But Thirdly Trusting in our own duties and resting on our own righteousness and not on Christ's solely is a close secret spiritual Isa 58.1 2 3. Zech. 7.5 6. dangerous and unperceivable sin which the nature of man is exceedingly prone unto The Pharisees were mightily given up to trust in their own righteousness to rest on their own righteousness Mat. 6. chap. 23 Luke 18. and to boast and glory in their own righteousness and this prov'd their mortal disease their damning sin trusting in their own righteousness had so besotted and benummed them that they had no mind no heart to open the gates of their souls that the King of glory might enter in And this was that which undid the Jews Rom. 10.3 For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God And 't is observable the Apostle useth an emphatical word of a Jew Rom. 2.17 Thou restest in the Law Look as there is nothing more pleasing to Christ than the renouncing of all confidence in our own duties and righteousness so there is nothing more provoking to Christ than the setting up of our own duties and righteousness This is a secret Imposthume that kills thousands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art secure in the Law as in some admirable priviledge and signal testimony of Gods love This was Bernards temptation when being assisted in duty he could stroak his own head with bene fecisti Bernarde O Bernard this was gallantly done now chear up thy self It was the saying of a precious Saint That he was more afraid of his duties than of his sins for the one made him often proud and the other made him alwayes humble It was good counsel Luther gave Cavendum est non solum à peccatis sed à bonis operibus We must take heed not only of our sins but of our good works Duties can never have too much diligence used about them nor too little confidence placed in them they are good helps but bad Saviours it is necessary we do them but it is dangerous to rely upon them If the devil cannot disswade us from performing Religious duties then his next work will be to perswade us all he can to rely upon them to make Saviours of them because this will as much gratifie Satan and as certainly ruin our souls as if we had wholly neglected them O man thine own righteousness rested in will as certainly and eternally undo thee as the greatest and foulest enormities This soul-sickness is that spiritual Idolatry that will undo thee for thou makest thy self a Saviour and thy duties a Saviour and sayest of thy duties as they did of the golden Calf These are the gods that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Open wickedness open idolatry slayes her thousands but secret idolatry a secret resting upon duties slayes her ten thousands multitudes bleed inward by this disease and die for ever Open prophaness is the broad dirty way that leads to hell but Religious duties rested in is as sure a way though a cleaner way to hell prophane persons and formal Professors shall meet at last in one hell Ah Christians don 't make Religious duties your money lest you and your money perish together The Phenix gathers sweet odoriferous sticks in Arabia together and then blows them with her wings and burns with them So do many shining Professors burn themselves with their own duties and services You know in Noahs floud all that were not in the Ark though they climb up the tallest Trees and the
that are in the soul faith is as the spring in the watch that moves the wheels not a grace stirs till faith sets it at work What is said of Solomons vertuous woman viz. Prov. 31.15 27 Heb. 11. Rom. 4.3 8.24 Zech. 12.10 That she sets all her Maidens to work is most true of faith faith sets all the graces in the soul at work We love as we believe and we obey as we believe and we hope as we believe and we joy as we believe and we mourn as we believe and we repent as we believe all graces keep time and pace with faith c. Now when your graces are most shining and your evidences for heaven are most sparkling O then give faith elbow-room give faith full scope to exercise it self upon the Lord Jesus Adams obedience to innocency was not more pleasing and delightful to God than the exercise of your faith on the Lord Jesus will be at such a time pleasing and delightful to him you are to look upon all your graces and gracious evidences as your highest encouragement to a lively cheerful 1 Joh. 5.13 Rom. 1.17 and resolute acting of faith upon the person of Christ the righteousness of Christ c. All a Christians graces and all his gracious evidences should be but as a golden bridge Gen. 45.19 21 27. or as Josephs wagons a means to pass his soul over to Christ afresh by a renewed exercise of faith When your graces and gracious evidences are most splendent then be sure that Christ be found lying as a bundle of myrrhe between your breasts and all is well and will be well Dear Christians Cant. 1.12 when your eyes are fixt upon inherent righteousness Plutarch in the life of Phocion tells us of a certain gentle-woman of Ionia who shewed the wife of Phocion all the rich jewels and precious stones she had She answered her again all my riches and jewels is my Husbands This is more applicable to Christ c. The precious stone Opalum is said to have the vertue of all stones the brightness of the Carbuncle the purple colour of the Amethist the amiable greenness of the Emerald but what are all these to Christ and upon your gracious evidences then let your hearts be firmly fixt upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his imputed righteousness Pauls eye was fixt upon his grace upon his better part Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Ver. 25. And with my mind I serve the Law of God And yet at the very same time his heart was set upon Christ and taken up with Christ Ver. 25. I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ Though Paul had an eye to his noble part his better part his regenerate part yet at the same time his heart was taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ as freeing of him from the curse of the Law the dominion of sin the damnatory power of sin and as translating of him into the glorious liberty of the sons of God I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ So in Col. 2.2 3. You have their eyes fixt upon grace and at the same time their hearts fixt upon Christ That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Their eyes were upon grace but their hearts were taken up with Christ So in Phil. 3.8 The Apostle had his eye upon the excellent knowledge of Christ But Ver. 9. his heart is taken up with the righteousness of Christ That I might be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Though Paul had his eye upon grace upon inherent righteousness yet in the very presence of his grace his heart was taken up with Christ and with his imputed righteousness as is evident in the Text. This is your glory Christians in the presence and sight of all your graces and gracious evidences to see the free grace of Christ and his infinite spotless matchless and glorious righteousness to be your surest sweetest highest and choicest comfort and refuge Look as Rebkekah was more taken with the person of Isaac than she was with his ear-rings Gen. 24.30 53 64 65 66 67. bracelets jewels of silver and jewels of gold So it becomes a Christian in the presence of his graces and gracious evidences which are Christs ear-rings bracelets and jewels to be more taken up with Christ than with them He that holds not wholly with Christ doth very shamefully neglect Christ Aut totum mecum tene aut totum omitte Grego Nazien Christ and his Mediatory righteousness should be more in a Christians eye and always lye nearer to a Christians heart than inherent righteousness Grace is a ring of gold and Christ is the sparkling diamond in that ring Now what 's the ring to the sparkling diamond 'T is not safe to pore more upon inherent righteousness than upon imputed righteousness 'T is not wisdom to have our thoughts and hearts more taken up with our gracious dispositions and gracious actings than with the person of Christ the righteousness of Christ the life of Christ the death of Christ the satisfaction of Christ c. Dear Christians was it Christ or was it your graces or your gracious evidences or your gracious dispositions or your gracious actings that trod the wine-press of your Fathers wrath that satisfied divine justice that pacified divine anger that did bear the curse that fulfill'd the Law that brought in an everlasting righteousness that discharged your debts that procured you pardon that made your peace and that brought you into a state of favour and friendship with God If you answer as you must none but Christ none but Christ O then let your thoughts and hearts be firstly mostly chiefly and lastly taken up with the Lord Jesus Though inherent grace be a glorious creature yet 't is but a creature Now when your thoughts and hearts are more taken up with inherent grace than they are with Christ the spring and fountain of all grace you make an idol of inherent grace John 1.16 Col. 2.2 3. and reflect dishonour upon the Lord Jesus A Christian may lawfully look upon his graces and his gracious evidences and a Christian ought to be much in blessing and praising of God for his graces and gracious evidences and a Christian may safely take comfort in his graces and gracious evidences as they are the fruits of God's eternal and unchangable love Isa 38.3 2 Cor. 1.12 but still his work should be to live upon Christ and to lift up Christ above all 'T is Christ 't is his Mediatory righteousness 't is free-grace that a Christian ought to make the