16. and praying Lord quicken me in thy way Psal 119. 37. As endeavours withou God cannot so God without endeavours will not quicken that spiritual principle the flint must be struck upon the steel or there is no fetching of fire out of it You should stir up your self for and interest Christ in all your Duties that the sword of the Lord and of Gideon may go hand in hand together Jud. 7. 18. 20. The 4. Rule is Do Duties for right Ends as well as from a right Principle by a right Strength and with a right Supply Right ends of Duty are 1. That God may be honoured by it 2. That your thankfulness to the God of your Mercy may be expressed 3. That those Duties may be profitable to others Tit. 3. 8. And lastly That your Soul may meet with Christ in them You should cry in every Duty have over Lord for Heaven getting a full tide of Affections and cry with David Oh that I had wings Psal 55. 6. and winde in my wings Zech. 5. 9. Revel 12. 14. even the wings of a dove wherewithal you may flye to the Ark of Mercy as Noah's dove did 15. The fifth Rule is See that your heart rest not short of Christ in any Duty Let go your hold of no Duty until you finde something of Christ in it and until you get not only an handful but an armful with old Simeon Luke 2.28 yea an heartful of the blessed and beautiful Babe of Bethlehem therein Indeed you should have commerce with Heaven and communion with Christ in duty which is therefore called the presence of God or your appearing before him Exod. 23. 17. and Psal 42. 2. Your Duties then must be as a Bridge to give you passage or as a Boat to carry you over into the bosom of Christ Holy Mr. Bradford Martyr said He could not leave Confession till he found his heart touch'd and broken for sin nor Supplication till his Heart was affected with the beauty of the Blessings desired nor Thanksgiving till his Soul was quickned in return of Praises nor any Duty until his heart was brought into a duty-frame and something of Christ was found therein Accordingly Bernard speaks Nunquam abs â—e absque te recedam Domine I will never depart in duty from thee without thee O Lord. Augustine said hâ— loved not Tully's elegant Orations as formerly because he could not finde his Christ in them nor doth a gracious Soul empty Duties Rhetorical flowers and flourishes expressions without impressions in praying or preaching are not true bread but a tinkling Cymbal to it and cannot be put off with the empty spoon of aery Notions or lovely that are not also lively Songs If Christ talk with you in the way of duty your heart will burn within you Luke 24. 16. 32. 6. The sixth Rule is Neglect not the Magnalia or great Duties of Christianity while you do observe it may be oversolicitously even to Superstition the Minutula or lesser Duties as the Pharisees in their straining at gnats and swallowing camels Matth. 23. 23 24. As Saul that scrupled eating flesh with the blood 1 Sam. 14. 33. yet not at all the shedding of the blood of the Lords innocent Priests 1 Samuel 22. 16 17 18. And as those wicked Priests seemed to make Conscience of putting the price of Blood in the Treasury but none at all of imbrewing their hands in the innocent Blood of the Lamb of God Matth. 27. 6 c. the price of that Blood may not lye in their chest yet the Blood it self may lye on their Consciences v. 25. 7. The seventh Rule is You must persevere in Duty all your days as before You may not be a young Saint and an old Devil like the New-moon that gives light for a while in the former part of the night but goes down into darkness long before the Night is gone You may not be a lightsome Professor in your Youth and have your light wrap'd up in darkness in your old Age but your Grace like good liquor should run fresh to the bottom and your last days should be your best CHAP. XII Of the Hearts Treachery in exercising of Graces 1. THe Deceits of the Heart concerning Grace are manifold to be here discovered as 1. You may mistake Gifts for Graces 2. False and seeming Grace for true and saving Grace 3. Common Grace for special Grace which accompanies Salvation and is peculiar to the Elect of God All these are over and above those Deceits aforementioned in mistaking Nature for Grace Civility for Sanctity and Restraining for Renewing Grace You may think that you are exercising the very right and real Grace of God when 't is only some Mock-grace that is exerted and exercised in you In order to the undeceiving of your Soul herein you must 1. know what this Grace of God's Elect is which Spirit of truth the world cannot receive Joh. 14. 17. And 2ly how to distinguish it from those other falsly supposed Graces which the Non-elect world may and do receive First of the 1. to wit What right Grace which the Apostle calls true Holiness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4. 24. the Holiness of Truth Gr. or true Holiness in opposition to that which is falsly and feignedly supposed only to be so This right and real Grace or Holiness is called in Scripture The Riches of his Glory Rom. 9. 23. The Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. and the very life of God himself Ephes 4.17 yea the very Image of the heavenly Adam 1 Cor. 15. 49. wherein we resemble Christ not only as a picture doth a man in outward Lineaments but as a Childe doth his Father in Countenance and Conditions This resemblance consists not in Corporeal Substance so much as in Divine Qualities Grace in truth is the choicest frame and excellency that flesh and blood is capable of 'T is as Reverend Mr. Robert Bolton defines it the most glorious Creature of the Father of Lights flowing immediately from his blessed face As in the hand of Moses the Serpent was turned into a rod Exod. 4. 4. so in the hand of the Messiah our crooked Natures are made streight by Grace the Lion is changed into a Lamb c. Isa 11. 6 7 8. and our rough spirits are made plain thereby Isa 40. 4. 'T is the work of this blessed Carpenter so Christ is called Mark 6. 3. to hew and square many a knotty piece of Timber that it may become fit materials for his holy Temple 2. The second thing you are to know is how to distinguish the right from the wrong and first how Grace is distinguishable from Gifts which may be your first enquiry To which I answer 1. in the general 'T is possible a man that hath Grace may think he has nothing but Gifts and 't is as possible that a man which hath nothing but Gifts may think that his Gifts are Graces He that hath Gifts hath indeed an excellent thing and that
noble Vines and his house or heart is furnished with graces as the Temple of the Holy Ghost Christ stands at the door of the heart and knocks Revel 3.20 as well as Satan both of them woes and wins it sometimes Satan avails and wins the heart by his insinuating temptations and sometimes our Saviour doth it by his exceeding great and pretious promises let in by his Spirit 5. Having shown the first particular the subject or matter the Heart of Man that it is corrupted by sin and Satan the second thing to be spoke to is the Praedicate or Manner how it is corrupted and the manner of the corruption of this matter the heart is manifold in Scripture As first 't is now a weak heart in the faln estate Ezek. 16. 30. strong enough it is for sin but exceeding weak for duty Oh how weak is thy heart Secondly 't is a wilful heart that is rebellious and obstinate against the will of God Deut. 2. 30. not onely the heart of Sihon King of Heshbon was an obstinate heart but also the heart of Gods own Israel was a rebellious heart Jer. 5. 23. as soft as wax in Satans hand plyable enough and yet as hard as a stone altogether unplyable in Gods hand 3. 't is a stony heart Ezek. 11. 19. 36. 26. 't is a flinty not a fleshy heart by nature 't is refractory untractable and impenetrable resisting the Divine touches of the Word and Spirit the natural heart is wholly a stony heart which none can draw or pull out as the word in the Septuagint signifies or change but the hand of Heaven onely the free-will of Man cannot do it but 't is the free grace of God alone that of these stones raiseth up Children unto Abraham Matth. 3. 9. Garriant illi nos credamus saith Augustin Let Men prate what they please of the free-will of Man to good there is no such thing believe it the heart is naturally insensible of the Word inflexible to the Spirit and impenetrable to the grace of God in it self 't is to every good work Reprobate 't is as hard fourthly as the Adamant Zech. 7. 12. which word signifies Untameable that hardest of stones harder than the flint Ezek. 3. 9. yea than the nether mill-stone Job 41. 24. Pliny saith the hardness of this stone is unspeakable the Hammer cannot break it neither can the fire burn it no nor so much as heat it Hircino tamen rumpitur sanguine yet if it be soaked in Goats-blood 't will then dissolve into pieces and so may the hardest Heart by the blood of Christ the true scape-goat Levit. 16. 21 22. if applyed and improved by Faith 6. Fifthly 'T is a stiff-necked and uncircumcised heart Jer. 9.23 Act. 7. 51. even in their very Circumcision there was an uncircumcision unregenerate Israel was to God as the Ethiopians those black Pagans that could not change their colour Jer. 13. 23. Amos 9. 7. that never did bleed for sin by Divine compunction but the foreskin of filthiness was still remaining and that with so much stiff-neckedness as rendred them incapable of Divine impressions insomuch as neither Ministry nor Misery nor Miracle nor Mercy could Mollifie until the Lord give a new Spirit the same heart in substance but renewed in its qualities the strings or heart-strings are the same but the Tune is changed Psal 51. 12. Eph. 4. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Sixthly 'T is a whorish heart Ezek. 6. 9. that goes a whoring from God and runs after false lovers that lie in wait for the very Soul Psal 73. 27. Hos 4. 12. 9. 1. The Heart of Man is full of Harlotry and the Spirit of Whoredom causeth it to wander not onely from God but also from under God from under the precincts of the Divine Will and so from under the protection of the Divine Power as the Wife that forsaketh her Husband and plays the Whore with strangers is therefore worthily cast off by him for both dissolving the Marriage-knot and for destroying true Humane Society as Matth. 19. 9. This Revolting Heart Jer. 5. 23. Satanico impetu driven by the devil gaddeth after strangers Jer. 2. 25. 36. and casts God away as into a corner 7. Seventhly 'T is a divided Heart Hos 10. 2. a double heart Psal 12. 2. an Heart and an Heart Hebrew one Heart in the Mouth and another in the Body being one thing in profession and another in practice halting between two 'twixt God and Baal 1 King 18. 21. 'twixt Christ and sin being one while for this and another while for that unconstant to both and uncertain of either and constant in nothing but in inconstancy The divided or double-hearted man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the double-souled one is not for Gods service for he will be served truly that there be no halting and totally that there be no halving Hence the Apostle James adviseth the double-minded or cloven-hearted to cleanse their hearts from that corruption that cleaveth to them that their minds mouths and manners might correspond all together Jam. 1. 8. 4. 8. and hence the Prophet David prays that God would unite his heart that was so apt to be double and divided betwixt the things of God and the things of the World Psal 86. 11. that it might be fixed upon God And hence also God hath promised to give oneness of heart Ezek. 11. 19. I will give them one heart opposed to this double and divided Heart being partly for God and partly for the world as Ezek. 33. 31. This boon you should heartily beg with David that you may entirely cleave to God alone Deut. 10. 20. 30. 20. Act. 11. 23. and serve him without distraction in all simplicity and godly sincerity 1 Cor. 7. 35. 2 Cor. 1. 12. Anima dispersa fit minor the heart divided is thereby disabled for duty Therefore the Prophet prays Lord thou art God alone unite my heart so that it may be fixed as Quicksilver is by Pyrotechny on God alone 8. The time would fail me to insist upon all the cursed Characters that the Looking-glass of the Word of God represents to you concerning the Heart of Man as eighthly 'T is a froward and fretting heart Prov. 17. 20. 19. 3. never pleased whether full or fasting Ninthly 'T is an Hypocritical Heart Job 36. 13. hollow-hearted ones heap up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. turning Repentance into a form and converting conversion it self into sin such foul sinners shall be cast into the hottest place of Hell whereof Hypocrites are as the Free-holders and all other sinners but as Tenants to them Matth. 23. 14 15. 33. 24. 51. Tenthly 'T is an haughty heart Prov. 18. 12. the pride of the heart deceives Man Obad. v. 3. So bladder-like is Man that bag of dust that being filled but with the wind of earthly vanities he grows great and swelleth in his own conceit strutting it all along in his goings as if
Eccles 7. 14. he hath set them as it were in Aequilibrio in an equal balance the one is up at one time and the other at another time there is a vicissitude of all created beings there is foul weather as well as fair night as well as day and Winter as well as Summer You must expect Sickness as well as enjoy Health and Adversity as well as Prosperity You may not say with David My mountain is so strong I shall never be moved Psal 30. 6. for even the strongest mountains melt at Gods presence Judg. 5. 5. Psal 114. 3 4 6 7. either when God shews you the presence of his anger or only hides from you the presence of his favour God goes as it were in a circle with David in that 30th Psalm and the various Providences that he was at several times under made as it were a piece of checkered work the black of Misery as well as the white of Mercy There is no man no thing that can say I am but God whose Name it is Exod. 3. 14. and who only is Unchangeable Hebr. 13. 8. If God finde that Prosperity makes us too light and frothy in his ballance then as there is need he makes us heavy with Affliction 1 Pet. 1. 6. 8. The second Direction is Be sure that in your Prosperity you forget not divine Threatnings as you are apt in your Adversity to forget divine Promises As the higher that the River riseth the higher doth rise the Boat that swims in it So the Minde of man as the Boat is apt to be lifted up with an high and prosperous estate as Obad. 3. Hab. 2. 4. whereas in Prosperity you should ever have your Minde below your Means and in Adversity above them Now there is no better way to keep down the Minde below the Means than by making a beleeving Use of Divine Threatnings which shall certainly come to pass It cannot be otherwise but your heart will be lifted up above your brethren as Deut. 17. 20. in prosperity unless you be preserved from it by beleeving that God is as certain in accomplishing his Threatnings as he is in fulfilling his Promises If you take the Jewels of his Mercies and make Idols of them as Israel did in the Wilderness Exod. 32. 2 3 4. or if you abuse any of his Corn or his Wine or any of his Flax or his Wool as Israel did in Canaan Hos 2. 8 9. you must know that God will not take it well at your hands no he hath threatned there to take them from you you shall no longer be trusted as a Steward with them 9. The third Direction or help is Look upon Prosperity as harder to bear with an holy frame of heart than is Adversity But when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardened his heart Exo. 8.15 If you be Prosperity-proof as the Walls of some Castles are said to be Cannon-proof and the Armour of some Captains is said to be Musquet-proof then you need not fear Adversity If Adversity hath in all killed its Thousands sure I am Prosperity hath killed its ten Thousands Nulla Infoelicitas frangit quem nulla Foelicitas corrumpit No Adversity can break him whom no Prosperity can corrupt Through peace and prosperity Satan destroyeth many Dan. 8. 25. as the Grecians did Troy with their peaceable pretences of entertaining the Trojan horse The same Manna melted by the heat of the Sun which otherwise would endure to be baked in an Oven-fire Take heed that the warm Sun-shine of prosperity melt not away your very seeming to be religious Jam. 1. 26. and you become only as the Morning-dew Hos 6. 4. when the hot-fire of persecution does not shrink you in Luther uses this Proverb Bonos ferre dies ossa requirit valde robusta the sence whereof is It requires more strength to carry well under good than under evil days Travellers cast stones at laden not at fruitless trees So doth Satan Job 1.2.7 10. The fourth Help or direction is In Prosperity be joyful to wit in God and Godliness Eccles 7. 14. beiom tobah heieh betob In a good day be you in good Hebr. which implies You must 1 be in a good frame 2 Take a good course And 3 be of good cheer or be joyful Delighting your self in Gods great goodness to you Neh. 9. 25. You must look beyond Mercies at the God of your Mercies and be both thankful to him and joyful in him Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 31. Jer. 9. 23. Psal 33.1 Phil. 3.1 and 4. 4. Zech. 10. 7. Isal 41. 16. If you be in such a good frame and breaking off sinful courses you take a good course to wit to be fruitful Acts 9. 31. this may lengthen out your tranquillity Dan. 4. 27. If you serve your God in the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 The more Wages God gives you the more Work he expects from you For Solomon's Altar was four times as big as that of Moses and Ezekiel's Temple was ten times as big as that of Solomon's to teach you that where God gives much he also expects much The better man you are in your Temporal estate the better man you should be in your Spiritual too If you fail herein God may Curse your blessings Malac. 2. 2. and blast your hopes making you ashamed of your revenues through his fierce anger Jerem. 12. 13. causing you to know the worth of Mercy by the want of it yea and destroying you after he hath done you good Josh 24. 20. 11. The fifth Help and Direction is Put your whole trust in God and not any part of your trust in uncertain Riches Mark 10. 24. in the day of your Prosperity this is harder to do than in the day of Adversity For most rich men think themselves simply the safer and the better by their Riches and so make their Gold as it were their God and have a kinde of Confidence and Hope in them Job 31.24 25. While the Mammonist saith to his Gold Thou art my confidence he as it were bows the knee at least of his heart and worships before his golden god saying to it If thou fail me I must needs perish this the Apostle expounds calling it a trusting in uncertain Riches 1 Tim. 6. 17. which is plainly a Creature-confidence and no better than flat Idolatry Col. 3.5 and spiritual Adultery Jam. 4.4 yea and enmity with God in a sence both active and passive for it maketh a man or this Mammonist in his own person actually to hate God and reciprocally to be hated by God for so doing Now who would buy Gold at so dear a rate Upon this account 't is harder to trust God in prosperity than in Adversity for in the former the creature interposeth betwixt God and you and therein you are apt to stay and stick fast and to go no further whereby your trust in God is eclipsed as the Moon is by the Interposition of the shadow of
to do Gods will they have so much authoritie and advantage to do their own wills Their Sea-room is their Danger their Honours and Riches are like Fishes full of bones which while Children feed upon they are in danger of choaking Now that it may be better with you both and that your Goodness may further sanctifie your Greatness and that you may be always delivered from a Deceitful Heart and at last inherit the sure mercies of David so prayeth Your Honours most Devoted Servant Christopher Nesse TO THE READER Candid and Christian Reader BEhold here a marvelous and mystical Mirrour or little Looking-glass a portable Pocket-book I present to you a Divine Glass better than the best Chrystal-glass in the world which can onely discover the disorders defects and deformities of the Outward man and how to regulate all these in order to Acceptance with men but this through Grace will discover all those of the Inward man and how to rectifie them in order to your Acceptance with God This is not a Glass that makes a resemblance of the bare superficies and outward face of things onely but it discovers the spots freckles and smutches of the Hidden man the Heart 1 Pet. 3. 4. So that it is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speculum a Looking-glass but 't is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perspecillum a Perspective-glass which gives you a distinct prospect into every cranny and corner of your treacherous Heart 'T is not a Glass that represents the bare Images of things which can never be handled by the hands of any man but the things themselves even such things as your hands may handle of the Word of Life 1 John 1. 1. 'T is not a dark and aenigmatical Glass like that of the Law of Moses which was covered with a Vail 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 3. 13. But this Looking-glass of the Messias the Law of Liberty Jam. 1. 23. is as clear as Chrystal Rev. 21. 11.18 22. 1. unto the man whose eyes are opened Numb 24. 3. with Christs spittle and clay Joh. 9. 6. and with his Eye-salve Revel 3. 18. And 't will plainly represent pi al pi Hebr. mouth to mouth and face to face Prov. 27.19 even to the transforming of your Soul into the Image of Christ 2 Cor. 3. 18. 'T is not a Glass that gives false and flattering representations making foul things seem fair or fair things foul but according to their Nature so is their Colour and complexion in a real Portraicture 'T is a Glass that proposes to view the Anatomy or Dissection of the Heart wherein the many Fibrae or small threads of its Treachery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lying open with their faces upwards Hebr. 4. 13. are detected Mark 4. 22. 'T is a Glass that in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19. will tell you all that ever you have said or done Joh. 4. 29. 'T is a Glass that may serve you as an Oracle to tell you what you ought to say and do at all times in all places and upon all occasions Isa 8. 20. 16. 'T is a Glass that affords an entire Representation of whole Man from top to toe from side to side yea and his Inside as well as Outside 'T is a Glass whose reflexive rays do not only scatter light whereby you may discern what is the pollution of your first birth and what ought to be the purity of your second birth but it also sparkles heat to warm your Heart Luke 24. 32. and fiery flames to burn up corruption in it Isa 4.4 They say Wizzards or wise men so called can shew in their enchanted Glass by their Charms and Sorceries the very Idea's or Images of those Thieves that stole away the Goods of them who so devoutly not to say devilishly do consult with them to know it that they may recover their lost Goods again This is done by Collusion one Devil discovers another for more Devilish ends to wit that their Devotionist may become a Disciple to the Devil and fall down with Saul to worship him for helping him to finde his lost Goods But behold this is a sacred Glass that will make a divine Discovery of those grand Thieves to wit Satan Sin and Death amongst which Man did fall as he was travelling the wrong way from Jerusalem to Jericho from the Tree of Life to the Tree of forbidden Fruit and was stripped by them of his Garment of Innocency sadly wounded and left not onely half dead but even stark dead in trespasses and sins Luk. 10.30 Eph. 2. 1. Yea this Glass discovers to you not onely the Malady in the cases aforesaid but also the Remedy how you may be quickened from your dead estate how you may be healed of your spiritual wounds and also how you may recover your lost Goods as 1. The Image of God 2. Favour from God 3. Fellow-ship with God provided you give not a careless cast of your eye upon this Glass but take a serious awful and consciencious Contemplation of the natural face of your Inner man in it and so long until you be metamorphosed into Christs Image That you may do so and be so is the hearty Prayer of From my Study in Fleet-street July 12. 79. Your Brother in the best Bonds Christopher Nesse THE CONTENTS CHAP. 1. OF the Heart in general how corrupted by the Fall and how those Corruptions of a deep Dye are to be seen in God's Looking glass Sundry Motives to improve this Spiritual Glass Page 1. Chap. 2. Of the Hearts Treason against God Some Heart-rowzing Considerations as 1. Every one hath an Issue of Sin 2. It begins betimes 3. It runs long unstaunched 4. No Physician but Christ can heal it 5. Man is naturally afar off from this right Healer 6. Christ hath many Followers and but few Touchers Encouragements to improve this true All-Heal Jesus Christ 16 Chap. 3. Of the Hearts Treachery against Man's self How the Heart was treacherous in Jeremy's time is so in our time and will be so to the end of the world Of the matter manner and measure of it 35 Chap. 4. Of the measure of its Treachery How 't is more treacherous than all the deceitful persons both men and women which weread of in the Sacred Scriptures though never so deceitful 56 Chap. 5. 'T is more deceitful than all the deceitful things which the Holy Scripture mentioneth though never so deceitful as the Serpent Sorceries c. 80 Chap. 6. 'T is more deceitful than All as it puts a Cheat 1. upon the highest Object to wit God 2. upon the noblest subject to wit the Soul 3. And for the longest time to wit Eternity Several Objections against this Assertion are answered 104 Chap. 7. Of the Hearts Treachery 1. As to State 2. As to Actions The State is twofold 1. Temporal 2. Spiritual The Temporal State is twofold 1. Prosperity whereby the Malady of the Hearts deceitfulness is handled and the Remedy against it
2. to open blind eyes Isa 42. 6 7. by the Preaching of the Gospel Act. 26. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 4 5 6. Revel 3. 18. accordingly Christ in faithfulness to his Commission from the Father healed the blind-man whom they brought to him and besought to touch him Mark 8. 22. Christ himself became a leader of the blind he himself took the blind Man by the hand v. 23. which he might have commanded to be done by some other but he did it himself as holding it an honour yea a pleasure to do a Man in misery any office of courtesie and Christ leads him out of the Town as unworthy of the favor of being witness of so great a work of Mercy v. 23. 26. There he touches his blind eyes the first time and made him see Men as Trees v. 24. then he touches him the second time and made him see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 procul dilucidè longè latéque all things clearly v. 25. All which shews that you may expect the same kindness from Christ according to his Commission for your Spiritual Illumination and this he doth for you gradually and not all at once when you can but darkly discern the Plague and Leprosie of your heart in the Looking-glass of God at the first you must come believingly to him again till you see all clearly 10. The second Encouragement The poor and rich are alike welcome to Christ for while he was going along with the Ruler to heal his dying Daughter he neglected not the poor afflicted Woman that had not one half-penny left her wherewith to help her self Mark 5. 22. 26. no doubt but Jairus the Ruler of the Synagogue could have wished the poor Woman farther off at this time than to be within reach and touch of Christ because she hindred his Saviour from hasting to his Daughter that was hasting to the very point of death but this sweet Providence to the poor Woman must come in as a Parenthesis for the exercise of the Rulers Faith and Patience his Daughter must be dead outright the poor Woman must be healed and he confirmed thereby ere his desire be accomplished that God may be glorified in all and that it might be made manifest that Christ was no respecter of Persons Act. 10. 34. not regarding either Wealth or Wisdom Sex or Countrey c. which outward things neither help nor hurt neither please nor displease him but as they are found in a good or in a bad person otherwise they are insignificant Cyphers without a Numerical figure Grace in Rags is as acceptable to Christ as Grace in Robes 11. The third Encouragement is That which separateth from the Congregation of God and from Communion with Men doth not separate from Christ but rather driveth to him as the filthy issue did this poor Woman she had a legal Uncleanness upon her and therefore was to be separated both from touching and from being touched by any Levit. 15.7 11 19 25. neither of those could be done without Levitical pollution yet adventures she to draw near to Christ that she might touch him she touches Christ and had a blessed success Thus must you do though your way hath been before the Lord as the uncleanness of a removed Woman Ezek. 36. 17. yet will he have pitty for his Holy Name v. 21 22. He will pitty you for his own Names sake when he cannot do so for your sake and in that very Month of your filthiness find you Jer. 2. 23 24. though he find you in your Blood he will not leave you so but makes that time your time of love and biddeth you live when in rigour of Justice he might bid you dye even to all eternity Ezek. 16. 4 5 6 8. Oh be of good comfort the Master calleth you Mark 10. 49. Draw nigh to him in duty and he will draw nigh to you in mercy Jam 4. 8. Sanctifie him in your Approaches Levit. 10. 3. and he will satisfie you with his Salvation Psal 91. 16. The Lepers that were separated from the City for their Leprosie could say one to another Why sit we here until we dye 2 Kin. 7. 3 4. and Esther said I will go unto the King and if I perish I perish Esth 4. 16. though it was not according to the Law for her to do so yet found she favour and sweet success Esth 5. 2. But sure I am 't is according to the Gospel that you should draw nigh to Christ who holdeth out his Golden Scepter for you to touch it 12. The fourth Encouragement is Though all other means and men fail you yet Christ will not fail you Thus the Woman had spent all that she had upon Physicians which had all failed her Mark 5. 26. and had proved Jobs miserable comforters to her who instead of lightening her burden had loaden'd her more they were Physicians of no value that mistaking her disease had applyed Corrosives instead of Cordials and through want of skill it may be though there might be a good intent they had almost killed her and not cured her Job 13. 4. 16. 2. Then when all failed Christs holy hand is reserved for a dead lift and faileth not when the Psalmists flesh and heart both failed yet his God never failed Psal 73.25 26. When he was ready to swoon away in himself having a death upon his helps and a damp upon his hopes then the joy of the Lord was his strength Neh. 8. 10. God was the Rock of his Heart whence flowed his Spiritual joy that same precious commodity which no good can match and no evil can over-match you shall never find failing in him that yet forgives your failings Psal 89. 33. Isa 54. 7 8 9 10. Deut. 31. 6. Josh 1. ◠Hebr. 13.5 'T is five times over in Scripture 13. The fifth Encouragement is Though your issue of sin be an old issue and that flux of filthy matter hath been long upon you eve◠from a Child as before though you had i◠twelve years as the Woman had hers or twenty thirty yea forty years yet may you come with hope of Cure to Jesus Christ his Name Jesus ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sano signifies an healer and he is a none-such Saviour yea for None-such Sinners even a Manasseh in the old Testament found healing mercy with and from him whose issue had run long and the filthiest matter imaginable below that sin unto death for he had been first a defyer of God secondly he had been a Murderer of Men and thirdly he had been a Worshipper of Devils 2 Chro. 33. 1. 12. When the Rod spake he heard it as Mic. 6. 9. who would not hear the word v. 10. Adversity whips many a Soul to Heaven which otherwise prosperity had coached to Hell and a Mary Magdalen in the New Testament found healing mercy from Christ out of whom he had cast seven Devils Mark 16.9 As a Woman had first brought in death to wit Eve so this Woman
silent never examining comers in or goers out of the heart 't is become naughty and self-deceiving this Candle of the Lord in you as your Spirit is called Prov. 20. 27. should examine as the Sentinel upon the Watch all comers and goers crying ever and anon Who comes there and Who goes there And as Joshuah did to the man Josh 5. 13. Who art thou for Art thou for us or for our Adversaries If your heart be silent herein and say nothing in such Christian Examinations then such a Traveller as came to David's heart 2 Sam. 12. 4. may be welcome to your heart Mariners do say there be more Ships cast away in Calms upon Quick-sands c. than in Storms upon Splitting Rocks If Despair with Saul hath slain its thousands sure I am Presumption with David hath killed its ten thousands If a Spiritual Calm or slumber be upon you then you cannot cry out Who comes there c. The Philistims may be upon you and you know it not 2. A brawny heart that hath lost its Tenderness is a Self-deceiving Heart Josiah 's heart was tender 2 King 22. 19. this pleased God well and so was David's when it smote him for cutting off Saul's lap 1 Sam. 24. 5. But how had he lost his Tenderness when his heart did not smite him for cutting off Uriah 's life c. One of a tender Constitution cannot endure the least cold wind to blow upon him but must have all Windows and Doors close shut to secure his tender body Oh that you were as wise for your Soul as he is for his Body in shutting all close that not the least cold Air of sin may come unto it If your heart be not ever suggesting duty or humbling for neglect it deceives you 15. 3. An untractable heart such as will not be handled nor come to hand in a parley is a self-deceiving heart David bids you commune with your own heart Psal 4. 4. and you should call your faithless heart to a faithful account duely and daily and you should view your works every-day as the Lord your God did his all the six days of the Creation Gen. 1. and happy is that Soul that finds them good though not very good as God did his works in a serious Self-Reflection but if your heart fly from you and will not commune with you saying Oh what have I done Jerem. 8. 6. 't is a self-deceiving heart David pray'd Lord incline and unite my untractable heart your windows should be as those of the Temple 1 Kin. 6. 4. broad inward to give more light inwardly 4. An unstable heart is a self-deceiving heart if it will not stand at the mark till your parley with it be brought to some blessed issue Jam. 1. 8. halting betwixt two and is as much for Baal as for God as much for sin as for Christ so is but with Agrippa almost a Christian this half-parlying in self-tryal undoes thousands whose hearts are unstable in it 't is the work of the Spirit to binde the heart as Psal 118. 27. and to convince throughly of the state either of sin or grace without this your heart will slip you in self-examination which is as the rubbing of your eyes to see better where you are and what you are doing CHAP. VII Of the Hearts Treachery in prosperity 1. NOw come we to a more particular discovery of the hearts treachery and that in two grand respects 1. In respect of your state and condition in this lower World and 2. in respect of your various actions in order both to this and to a better world First of the first to wit your state and condition in this world which is twofold 1. a Temporal 2ly a Spiritual state in both which your heart may deceive you if you do not take heed to it to keep it with all keepings Prov. 4. 23. Now 1. of the Temporal state which is twofold 1. the state of prosperity 2. the state of adversity first of the first of these to wit the state of Prosperity 1. Of the Malady 2. Of the Remedy 1. The Malady wherein the deceit of the heart is discovered in sundry particulars as the first Discovery is Your deceitful heart may carry your soul at some times further off from God thereby just as the Moon which the more Light she receives from the Sun of the firmament goes the further off from him and sometimes when she is in the full the shadow of the Earth doth interpose itself and so eclipses and darkens her even so man is as the Moon in the full having fulness of all things this oftentimes sets his Soul further off from Christ the sun of righteousness Mal. 4. 2. for Fulness and Pride or Haughtiness are coupled together as the Cause and the Effect Ezek. 16. 49 50. Fulness brings forth Haughtiness which is both the hate of Heaven and the gate to Hell yea the very first fire-brand that set Sodome on fire That Pride is the product of Prosperity appeareth from Psal 73. 5 6. Job 15. 25 26 27. and 1 Tim. 6. 17. And proud man made so by Prosperity God beholdeth afar off Psal 138. 6. They are got a great way from God he drives them as the Chaldee Paraphrase there signifies afar off from Heaven as disdaining to come near such loathsome Lepers and thrusts them down as low as to Hell at last How oft also doth the interposition of earthly enjoyments which is but a shadow eclipse and darken the Soul of man God-ward 2. The second Discovery is In Prosperity the Soul of man is very prone to forget both his Mercies and the God of his mercies for Fulness breeds Forgetfulness Deut. 32. 15. and Saturity brings forth Security Luxuriant animi rebus plerunque seoundis Nec facilè est aequâ commoda mente pati Mercy is many times but a nine days wonder and 't is hard for even the choicest Soul to keep the sense of a mercy for any considerable time warm upon the heart whereas we should keep the loving-kindness of God in everlasting remembrance but alas it is with us as it is with children eaten bread is soon forgotten our luxuriant and wanton minds soon forget Divine favours as Psal 106. 13. they hasted they forgot Hebr. which is a great aggravation forgetfulness should indeed be a grave wherein we ought to bury the Injuries done to us by Man but not any of the loving kindnesses done to us by God Psal 103. 2. The best use of a bad Memory is to forget Injuries from man but to forget the Benefits of God is gross Ingratitude David felt some dulness and drowziness in this respect and he therefore rowzeth up his own Soul to this Remembring-work Oh where is the man the woman that hath their hearts as much affected with Mercies and that praises God as fervently for them when they are stale and old Mercies as while they are fresh and new and but lately received 3. The third Discovery
is In Prosperity the Soul of man is more prone to be corrupted and to contract the scum of filthiness like the standing pool that will in process of time stink of it self when running waters do retain their own native sweetness 'T was Fulness that bred filthiness in Israel as well as forgetfulness Jen. 5.7 It breeds this latter in good men but the former always in bad men Cores and Bacchus are great friends to Venus c. Those worshippers of Baal-peor first eat and drank and then rose up to play to wit with their Midianitish Mistresses 1 Cor. 10.7 Num. 25. 3. 18. If Moab be not powred from vessel to vessel he will settle upon his lees his taste remaineth in him and his scent is not changed Jerem. 48. 11 12. he hath had no changes therefore he feareth not God Psal 55. 19. and the prosperity of fools destroys them Proverb 1. 32. the Sun-shine thereof doth but ripen them for destruction Bernard calls Prosperity Misericordiam omni indignatione crudellorem Mercy given in wrath hath abundance of wrath in it and he had no minde to any such Mercy David carried it better when he watered his bed with tears in the time of his persecution Psal 6. 6. than he did when he wash'd his steps with butter as Job 29. 6. in the day of his prosperity Israel had strong Espousal-loves to God while they followed him in a land that was not sown Jerem. 2.2 'T was not so well with them when they came to rest in a Land that flowed with Milk and Honey Deut. 32. 15. Prosperity is too strong Wine for some weak Brains and therefore 't is supposed that Elishah must have a double portion to that of Elijah for he must be in favour with Kings and great at Court c. which things are very hard to bear with an holy frame of heart 2 Kin. 2.9 4. The fourth Discovery is The Soul of man is soon overcharged in Prosperity Luke 21. 34. Christ himself gives this caution to his own dear Disciples well knowing that the standing of the best of fallen Mankinde is but a slippery standing and a very little thing will over-charge and overturn them If this might befall those green trees what can dry trees such as we are expect Small Vessels cannot carry great Sails but be in danger of over-whelming neither is every little boat fit to launch out into the wide Ocean of worldly Felicity There is truely danger to be without danger and Christs Lambs mostly thrive best upon short not over-grown Pastures The intoxicating Cup of Pomp and Prosperity did hurt even holy David 2 Sam. 11. 1. 11. and godly Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32. 31. when over-charged with it Alas what are the best when left to themselves and in the counsel of their own hands and hearts good David did that bad act at that time which he would not have done in Sauls time and which Vriah one of his worthyes would not do in his time the best are too apt to furfeit of too much of the world abundance of the things of this life is like fish that is full of bones which while Children eat too greedily they are in danger of choaking with it 5. The fifth Discovery is The Soul of man is more exposed to the temptations of Satan in Prosperity than in Adversity 't is said that Neptune kills more by Calms upon Sands than by Storms upon Rocks And yet Sea-room here is your danger unless with blessed Paul you have learnt to abound as well as to be in want Phil. 4. 12 13. for then is the Soul most secure and least stands upon its watch as at other times yea and is the greatest object of Satan's malice Oh how maliciously did the devil say to God Doth Job serve God for nought hast thou not blest him with all Prosperity Job 1. 9 10. God delighteth in the prosperity of his servants Psal 35. 27. But Satan stomachs it exceedingly and therefore speaks angrily to God that Joh might serve God well enough for such price and pay and that he himself could finde never a gap in the hedge of Divine Protection that was round about him and his he could make never a breach which he would gladly have done But if you neglect your watch never so little in your Prosperity as you will be very prone to do then breaks in your Adversary and comes over the gap to spoil you Ambrose elegantly illustrates this truth by the Oister which while she is tossed and turmoiled by her Enemy the Crab in the salt-waters keeps her shells so close together that she secures her self from all danger of being then devoured but when she lies securely upon the shore without fear of her foe she opens her self then to the warm Sun which while she is in doing then cometh the Crab and puts a stone between the lips of her shells thrusts in her Claws and easily as well as safely draws out the fish even so the Soul that is tossed to and fro by the crabbed adversary upon the brinish waters of affliction shuts up the heart and mouth close for fear of offending Psal 39. 1 2. but in the sun-shine of peace and prosperity the heart opens and is without a covering then the Spiritual adversary finds free passage entrance and entertainment 6. The sixth discovery is the Soul of man is prone in prosperity to grow lazy in its devotion The warmest Prayers are ever in the winter of adversity Hos 5. 15. Isa 26. 16. Summer-prayers are but yawning perfunctory and superficial devotion not powred out with connatural violence The Kingdom of Heaven is not stormed The Jews in their Ceiled houses were regardless of the House of prayer Hagg. 1. 4. as their beds were too soft so their hearts were too hard for any due devotion but Prayer is mostly the Daughter of Calamity as it is the Mother of Comfort Affliction exciteth Devotion as a pair of bellows blows up the fire Christ in his Agony prayed more earnestly Luk. 22. 44. And Martha with her Sister Mary sent Messengers to Jesus when their Brother Lazarus was visited with sickness Joh. 11. 3. Thus also under Gods Visitations we do mostly visit God in sending our Messengers of continued groans and earnest Prayers to him whom we much neglect in our prosperity and therefore how justly may God say to us as Jephthah said to his Countrymen Do ye now come to me in your distress when in your prosperity ye said to me Depart from us Judg. 11. 2. 7. God may say as much to most of us who seldome seek to him before plain need drives us 7. Having first discovered the Malady the second work is a word of the Remedy in some following Rules and Directions as special helps against the hearts treachery in a time of prosperity 1. Direction is in prosperity you must with holy Job greatly fear adversity Job 3. 25. for God saith Solomon hath set the one over against the other
quoad fontem or quoad finem his works neither flowed from a right Principle nor tended to a right End 12. The fourth Reason is This sweet natural Disposition may yet be most highly improved under the Administration of the Gospel of the Messias more than under the Administration of the Law of Moses which hath nobler Enticements and better Promises Hebr. 7. 19. 22. and 8. 6. and 9. 23. the Gospel hath a better Hope better Promises a better Sacrifice and is a better Testament a better Covenant than the Law This Gospel-Administration may therefore bring some men to high Illuminations to delightful tastes of Spiritual things yea and to some inferiour Gifts and Operations of the Spirit also as those in Hebr. 6. 4 5. all which may satisfie the souls of men and make them think themselves sound and sincere Saints and Servants of God yet no better than Hypocrites in God's eye Alas there is seeming Grace as well as saving Grace There is no true Grace wrought by God but Satan may have his counterfeit to it he is God's Ape and hath oftentimes imitated God If God's Servants work Miracles in Egypt Satans Sorcerers can do so with their enchantments As there is a false Faith and a false Hope as well as a true and lively one every true Grace hath its Mock-grace so there may be a seeming Sincerity which is not a saving one CHAP. X. Of the Hearts Treachery in Hypocrisie 1. HAving shewed you the first thing to wit the Malady how you may be mistaken about your Spiritual estate I come now to shew you the second thing to wit the Remedy How such a weighty and mighty mistake may be prevented that you put not an everlasting Cheat upon your precious and immortal Soul In order hereunto I shall first make some Discoveries of the common Causes and groundless grounds of such a Mistake the better to undeceive you from under the deceivings of your own deceitful Heart And I the rather take this Method because as in natural Distempers when the Cause thereof is found out by their proper Symptomes and Indications then is the Cure accounted to be half done even so it is in Spiritual Diseases The first false ground of those Self-deceivings may be an outward Peace and plenty of worldly Goods How many do bless themselves herein as if they were high in God's favour because they do enjoy those low and common Blessings in the mean while not considering that they which have them may be miserable with them and they that want them may be happy without them Paul was verily more happy in his chains of Iron than King Agrippa was in his chains of Gold as above c. and not understanding that the Sun-shine of Gods favour is made to fall upon the evil as well as upon the good the Sun shines and the rain falls upon the just and unjust Matth. 5. 45. 2. The Hebrew word for the Sun is Shemesh which signifies a Servant intimating that the Sun is the Servant-General to the world shining indifferently upon the evil and the good and imparting both heat and light without distinction to all In like manner the Rain doth not only fall upon choice Flowers and Fruit-trees of the enclosed Gardens and Orchards but also upon the common Briars and Brambles of the barren Wilderness Divine Love or Hatred cannot therefore be read out of the having or wanting of these worldly things Eccles 9. 1. The vast Empire of the Turks is but a Crust faith Luther which the Master of the Family the great Landlord of the World casts unto a dog no better doth he account that Grand Seignior How many be there in the world that have these temporal things given them as Michal was given to David to become a snare to him 1 Sam. 18. 21. Thus mens plentiful Tables do become Snares to them Psal 69. 22. and thus all their Wealth and Honours may be given to them as Saul was given to Israel Hos 13.11 in wrath and not in Mercy Oh then take heed of all self-deceiving inward thoughts about these transitory things Psal 49. 11 12. How did that rich Fool 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talk with himself Dialogue-wise like a fool he did not only think within himself but he also talked to himself in casting up his Reckonings he was up with the more and down with the less and after a long self-deceiving debate to and fro he at last comes to a self-blessing conclusion to wit of making his gut his God whereas that very night he was shot like a bird with a bolt while pruning her self in the boughs and comes tumbling down to the earth His glass was quite run out when he thought it had been but newly turned Luke 12. 17 18 19 20. Thus also Babylon glorified her self Revel 18. 7 8 9. yet she shall not be glorified by God for he hath appointed shame eternal for her and shameful spewing upon her glory Hab. 2. 16. 3. The second false ground of those Self-deceivings may be your good Nature which you should always account but a bad Grace Let a man have never so sweet a natural Constitution never so complaisant and amicable a Disposition yet 't is but still a corrupt and depraved Nature The first man defiled Nature by his Fall and ever since Nature hath defiled Man yea every Man not only those that are morose and of a cross-grain'd and crooked Temper naturally but even those also that have the most compos'd calm and candid constitution of spirit from their birth only The faithful Creator did sow good Seed in his own Soil but the Envious one that Superseminator Satan came by night and sowed his tares Mat. 13. 24 25. This malicious Enemy the Devil would not stay to pour in his poison into every vessel of the heart of Man as every man is born and comes into the world but he takes a craftier course in pouring his poison into the very root and fountain of Mankinde to wit into the first man Adam that so all the branches and streams arising thence might be poisoned also God made man at first upright but man through the Devils instigations hath found out many sinful Inventions Eccles 7. 29. God made man in his own Image he had Knowledge in his Minde Rectitude or rightness in his Will and Holiness in his Affections but the grand Cheater soon cheated him of this excellency as men use to cheat children with an Apple Man is now of another make than God made him totus homo est inversus Decalogus whole evil is in man and whole man in evil and he is turned upside down by his Fall into an universal opposition to the Law of God hence the best nature in the world is no better than a wild Olive Rom. 11. 24. and doth retain yea maintain and that very strongly those two strong holds of Satan in it to wit 1. Enmity against God and all goodness and 2. Vnion with sin
of Christ should constrain us both to forbear evil and to perform good 2 Cor. 5. 14. Hence the Apostle doth beseech us by the Mercies of God Rom. 12. 1. 'T is true indeed this slavish fear hath little of Grace in it yet 't is better to have this servile fear than none at all Psal 4.4 and 36. 1. Gen. 20. 11. Where no fear is there is no bridle to restrain from any kinde of extravagancy Answer 2. Restraining Grace doth not mortifie Sin nor destroy the Root of it but only puts a band of iron and brass upon it for a time as Dan. 4. 14 15. so that the budding forth and the outward Exercise of sin is only for the presen◠hindred Thus Abimelech's Lust was not a◠all mortified although God withheld him from doing violence to Sarah nor was Laban's heart changed when God chained him 〈◊〉 from harming Jacob Gen. 31. 24. 29. 42. Neither was Saul's in his deepest melting over David the old heart remains when 't is hedged in from outward acts with a thorn-hedg◠of Affliction Hos 2. 6. 15. The 3. Answer is Such as have Restraining Grace only and not Renewing Grace also 't is their great trouble that they are held in so much and so long in the stocks of Conscience Alas they would gladly be enlarged and set at liberty again as gladly as a man that is set fast in the stocks would be set out of them at liberty that they may finde out their own old paths again Hos 2. 6. They do grudge at the hedge and wall that God hath set 'twixt them and their sin Whereas we finde David with his new heart blesses God for hindering him from doing evil 1 Sam. 25. 33 34. But those men murmur that they are hindered by this Restraining Grace and not any real Diminution of the inward substance and quality of it The 4. Answer is This Restraining Grace is always ab extra proceeding from an external cause or original as the burning Bush Exodus 3. 2. had the light of fire continued upon it but the heat thereof was restrained by an outward over-ruling Power And so it was with the fiery furnace Dan. 3. 27. which had heat as well as light only it was chained up and restrained at that time the great God of Nature can chain up any particular nature In both these Instances God restrained the combustible matter so that the green leaves of the Bush and the living bodies of the Men were not so much as singed by it Thus also God restrained the hungry Lions from devouring holy Daniel Dan. 6. 22. and thus likewise God restrains the rage of mon Psal 76. 10. 'T was not any inward Principle that restrained prophane Esau from harming his Brother Jacob but it was an outward awe of his aged Father Gen. 27. 41. The days of mourning for my Father are a◠hand and their will I slay my brother Jacob. Thus it appears that Restraining Grace differs from Renewing Grace quoad fontem the fountain and original from whence they flow the latter is from an inward Principle the former from an external Cause or Motive as is exemplified in Scripture 1. 'T was Pharaoh's knowing Joseph that made him courteous to the Israelites and that restrained him and his people from exercising cruelty to them Exod. 1. 8 9 10. 2. 'T was a Reverence that the Israelites had to Joshuah and the Elders c. that restrained them from their Idolatry from their worshipping of Baalim and Ashtaroth Josh 24. 31. and Judg. 2. 7. 10 11-13 3. 'T was an awful respect that Joash had to Jehoiada which moved him to do right in the sight of the Lord all the days he lived with him to instruct him 2 King 12. 2. whereas after Jehoiada's death King Joash hearkened to his flattering Courtiers and left God's Temple to worship Idols in the Groves 2 Chron. 24. 24. 17 18. And thus it is with all those that carry well for the sake of a godly Father or Mother or Master or Minister while they live to awe and instruct them but as if akin to profane Esau after the death of those then they run into excess of Riot and exorbitancy The 5. Answer is And as they differ each from other quoad fontem so likewise fifthly quoad finem according to the End to which they have a tendency Restraining Grace is principally for this end to uphold Societies in the World especially that Society of the Church as above It s End is for the good of others more than of a mans self that receives it but renewing Grace is primarily for the benefit of the Receiver and secondarily for others 17. The 6 and last Answer is They do differ in their Extent and Latitude in respect of those four Circumstances 1. Person 2. Time 3. Subject and 4. Object 1. In respect of the Person Restraining Grace is given to the good and bad promiscuously but Renewing Grace is given to the good only Thus the former was conferr'd upon the Heathen King Abimelech upon wicked Saul and the like as before and the reason is because the End of it is for the good of others as is aforesaid 'T is possible that the receiver of restraining Grace may receive no benefit at all to himself by it especially no benefit that accompanies Salvation Hebr. 6. 9. 2. In respect of Time Restraining Grace may binde up a man from evil for a time only and the man afterwards may have the reins of the bridle laid upon his neck and he left loose to run riot in the hands of his own counsel as Israel Joash c. aforementioned and as Saul Herod and many others 3. In respect of the Subject Restraining Grace may binde the hand when not the tongue or the heart it may leave both them at liberty Thus Saul's hands were sometimes tyed up by David's Innocency and Jonathan's Intercession while his tongue and heart were at liberty to do David a mischief 4. In respect of the Object Restraining Grace may lay fetters upon a man in his way to this or that notorious sin and yet the man may have elbow-room enough in his way to other sins Thus Herod was restrained by his reverence to the Baptist from doing many evils in his doing much good Mark 6. 20. yet was he at liberty for his sinning with Herodias Whereas renewing Grace as it differs both as to its fountain and as to its end so 't is distinguishable in all those four Circumstances 1. 'T is not so Common 2. 'T is more Durable 3. More Extensive to all parts and faculties of body and soul And 4. More Vniversal against all sin CHAP. XI Of the Hearts Treachery touching Actions 1. HAving discovered the Treachery of your Heart touching your state both Temporal and spiritual I come now to discover what it is touching Actions which are threefold Natural Civil and Religious Actions Concerning your natural and civil Actions how you ought to watch your Heart