Creature which thus bewitches and insnares us 1. Do not smile upon it as being in deep friendship with it but draw a Veil over its false Artificial inticing Beauty Put the Creature into the very same Dress into which the Apostacy of the first Adam betrayed it This made it not to be valued and shall we not stand at a distance from it in its Temptations 2. Speak not kindly nor familiarly to your Lusts to renew their old Fondness and acquaintance The Nurse keeps a deep silence when she would wean off a Child from cleaving to her Chide away a Temptation when it whispers in your Ear as Satans Factor to decoy you Hanker not after your Lusts as David after Absolom but hew them in pieces as Samuel did Agag Have you betrayed the honour of Christ and the integrity of your Souls in cleaving to Vanity and will you yet countenance cocker and plead in defence of your Lusts 3. Sing to your hearts be quieting them in the Lord 's tender Faithfulness Compassion and Alsufficiency when you are under the severest Method and course of weaning Psal 101.1 David resolved that of Mercy and Judgment he would sing For all the ways of the Lord are Mercy and Truth to such who keep his Covenant The 32. of Deuteronomy which consists of Mercy and Judgment is called Moses weaning Song to reduce Israel from a pursuit of their Idols as lying Vanities and to reunite and knit them to the Lord. 4. Keep a Record of all you experiences how the Lord sustained you when your Spirits were sinking in your weaning distresses Isa 63.7 8 9 10 11 12. 5. Let your weaning Design be carryed on by degrees not with violence Judahs Reformation was not Lasting because it was set on foot by the rapid Motion and over-bearing Authority of Josiah only Jer. 3.3 4 10 11 19 21 22. 6. Use no severity which is not of Divine prescription 7. Withdraw out of sight the Fewel Baits and Provocatives of your Lusts 19. Again would you be weaned then Covet to be dissolved in Affection from Worldly Vanities before you be dissolved in Person Weaned Saints covet to dye but dissolute Epicures groan because they must dye as having not answered the end of their Being and placing their Portion and Felicity in sublunary Enjoyments They Carowse so long at the Devils Wassal-Bowl till being intoxicated with a Reprobate mind they meet their Eternal destruction with laughter in the Face Labour to be above the fond Love of Natural Life and the slavish Fear of Deaths Artificial Cruelty Life were not worth the accepting it is attended with so many miseries were it not to make Provision for Eternal Happiness Neither is Death to be dreaded by such who demonstrate the Temper and disposition of a Pilgrim Charles the fifth forbade Death to be named in his Court under the penalty of Death But Moses dyed at the mouth of God readily at his Command because he had long before put off his Shoes the servile fear of Death in casting away all defiling terrene Affections which cling about a Worldling and make Death unwelcome Saints may well bow the head in submission and covet to dye because then and not till then they are perfeclty weaned when the Lord kisses their Souls out of their Bodies as welcome Guests to Glory It was reported of Ottomans great Horse that wheresoever he set his Foot no Grass could grow in that place So soon as a Saint by Death sets his Foot within the Portal of Celestial Glory the Weeds of his Lusts dye at the very Roots the Pride of all Flesh is stain'd and vamshes Again take beed of being hardened in Sin by Antiquity of Custom or by the outward successes and prosperity of Sinners Jer. 44.15.16 17. The Prophet refutes this Plea at 20 21 22. Ps 73.1 to 15. Lastly Wisely and Faithfully Improve all the Lords weaning-strokes on your selves or others Let others who have been Thunder struck and blasted even while they have lain soaking at the Breasts of the World and have dyed lamenting their own Folly and the Worlds Treachery too late be your warning-Peals But we readily turn off the prognosticks yea the very Executive part of God's Wrath as if our selves were not concerned in the dreadfulness of either An instance of the former you have in Vespasian who when he saw a Blazing Comet and a gaping Sepulchre thought to wave his own destiny with this prophane Jest that the former portended only the Death of the King of Persia who at that time wore long Hair The latter the death of the old Empress Julia who having one Foot in the Grave must of necessity suddenly yield to the stroke of Fate Wherefore think you hath the Lord of late made such changes in overturning overturning overturning by Pestilence War and the desolating Conflagration of our City but only to awaken us out of that pleasing Dream of sensuality into which the pleasures and profits of the World had insensibly betrayed us And yet how sottishly stupid are Sinners bewitcht with the Sirene songs of Lusts and the Worlds Flatteries Though frequent Earthly disappointments sing out the Passing-Bell of our dying Comforts and write a mournful Epitaph over the withering Glory of Creature-Enjoyments Yet we mind it not but cross the Lords wise Holy and Gracious designs by our security and clinging faster to the Creature We still pursue the Vanites of the World little considering that they will prove our vexation or our Ruine Like dying persons we grasp the harder whatsoever Vanity takes us by the hand Like drowning Men we catch at straws though they sloat swiftly away upon an ebbing Stream Sinners will ye still proclaim your folly and Phrensy in cleaving to an Aguish Breast which is crackt and chapt with flaws of disappointment which can yield nothing but corrupt humors and windy crudities which will gripe and torment your Consciences which will inflame your Pride and sensuality to the certain Ruine of your Souls Wherefore hath the Lord stained the Glory of all human Pride but to bring us low upon our Knees that himself alone may be exalted in reigning over our hearts and affections in which he will indure no Corrival or Competitor Yet still we more eagerly Court lying Vanities by how much the Lord would Rend them from us as the Pillows of our Security and the Purveiors of our Lusts Let me therefore in the fear of God and Love of your Souls perswade you to sit Loose from the fancied felicity of the World It 's both our Curse and Folly that we make our Lives uncomfortable to gather only Fewel for our Lusts The World will deal as Treacherously with us as Absolom's Mule did by him when we have most need of relief it will run from under us and leave us hanging in despair 'twixt Heaven and Hell Labour therefore to be Divinely born of God then you will trample the World under your feet and become sick of Love to Christ so shall
ready way to blast it or to anticipate it with a Curse Even Manna over-eagerly hoorded up stank and suddenly became as much loathed as it was impatiently longed for Had Jacob as plain a Man as he was been thorowly weaned from Self-seeking and Unbelief he had never attempted to have snatcht at the Promise while the Fruit hung unripe upon it nor to have forestalled the Blessing of his Father by the disguize of an Artificial Lye A weaned Saint so far as such will not turn aside to crooked ways and unlawful shifts to accomplish his design Faith doth not set a Man upon preposterous Courses Therefore let none pretend to trust in God's Promises while they make void his Laws That is an Orthodox Regular Faith which so bears Witness to the Truth of the Promise that it will not betray the Trust of Duty There is Power and Wisdom enough in the Womb of every Divine Promise to bring it self to the Birth without the Midwifery of any sinful expedients or excentrical practices to uphold the Lords fidelity by our dissimulation Therefore a weaned Frame doth not only produce a Working Suffering and Abstaining Patience from the forbidden Fruit of Sin but also an Expecting Waiting Patience in order to reap when Ripe the Blessing of every delayed Mercy A weaned Saint had rather have the Boon which he asks denied than cross the Rule in asking He is more troubled if his desires prove Inordinate than that the Lord takes no Order to speed and gratifie them He is very full and pregnant with holy desires yet his Importunity doth not justle out his Modesty He is a self-denying Supplicant his desires are neither peremptory nor impatient He will lie at Heaven-Gate though Relief do not hasten to him He esteems an heart made willing and able to wait as a Mercy equal to that he waits for And indeed it is part of an Answer as well as a Pledg of gratifying his Request 9. The ninth sort of Sinners not truly weaned are such who are Dumb under the Lord's weaning strokes which is more sad and dangerous than any sting of Affliction whatsoever There is a false quietness or silence of Spirit under Cross disappointments and sufferrings which differs very much from the generous Divine Submission and Acquiescency of a weaned Saint 1. It arises from want of inward Conviction of sin A spurious Patience is the sullenness and stoutness of a rebellious proud impenitent hard heart Foulness of Guilt produces Felness of Spirit 2. It flows from utter despair because such who are constrainedly patient and repine though they do not Rage conceit that the stroke of their wound is unparallel'd and incurable Amos 6.10 Hold thy peace be silent even from praying for we have plaid the part of Hypocrites so long that Now we may not make mention of much less Glory in the Name of the Lord. 3. Reason or Common sense may Argue sinners into a meer Moral Patience making a Vertue of Necessity Because when the Lord of Hosts takes hold on Judgment no Created power can strike his Sword out of his hand And what is without all Remedy must by silence be endured But a truly weaned Saint doth not only submit out of Duty and Conscience rather than Constraint but can also Cleave to God he will Clear and Justifie yea Bless him with a thankfull heart and a Fruitful Life when he lays his Ax to the Root of his dearest enjoyments Faith welcoms Afflictions as good Angels sent for its Instruction because they Cure our sinful Surfeits and Bleed us in the Master-Vein A weaned Saint counts himself less than the least of Divine Mercies even below the Lords condescention to Correct him He will joyn and take part with God against his own Interest and Enjoyments Yea he rejoyceth in the Lord abstractedly for himself when he is stript naked of all Earthly Comforts A supernatural Patience can rejoyce in Bonds sing in Prison Glory in Tribulation Triumph in Sufferings and count it self exalted in the deepest abasement for Righteousness sake A Real Christian maintains a Consistency in the tranquillity of his Mind while he Ploughs the Waves of every amazing Providence with the steedy Helm of an Heroick Faith guided by the Pole-Star of the Word of God He is anointed with the Spirit of Holiness as a Son of Peace therefore he murmurs not Thus Oyle asswages the Tempestuous Raging of the Sea His Faith works by Love and this puts a good Construction on every Divine Chastisement But now the Hypocrite who seems weaned by submissiveness in suffering sets a demure Countenance on a froward Heart His Patience is most-what selfish and theatrical to gain the Reputation of a Generous and Heroick Mind Yet out of desperate presumption he courts Death as the only Refuge of his Cowardise The Hypocrite studies his Hearts-ease in his seeming Patience He well knows that a Bird by fluttering draws the snare the straiter upon it self that a Fellon who attempts to break Prison is loaded with a heavier Chain that the stubborn Child by fretting and kicking gets nothing but more stinging Lashes Thus a Malefactor lays down his neck upon the Block as eaven cleaverly as he can lest if he should startle or resist he should increase his Torture But now a weaned Saint is patient because he espies Love in the Correction and hopes to experiment spiritual Advantage from his sufferings He can espy a bright Lamp of Salvation in the midst of the smoaking Furnace Honey in the Carcase of a Lion Halcyon-days in a Storm and is assured that of Thorns he shall gather Grapes and fetch Meat the hid Manna of Divine Consolation out of the Eater of some wasting devouring providence The Hypocrite may pretend to some degree of Softness of heart while scorcht by Affliction yet he soon returns to the folly of sin and discontent at his sufferings As the Flesh of a Peacock Roasted turns Raw again after a few hours Reservation On the contrary the magnanimous patience of a weaned Saint being insuperable is not stinted nor ordinarily Ruffled or discomposed by the severest sequestration of his nearest and dearest Earthly Joys His Faith can divorce the heart from the Heart the renewed part of a Christian from the Carnal and make the Soul forget its wonted Acts of excess in the Fond sallyings out of his Affections to the Creature All the use of mourning for the want or loss of Worldly accommodations is only This to revenge himself on his Lusts which he made the Idols of his heart He knows that sighs are too Spiritual a blast to be spent on any thing but his Sins Being fixt in the admiration of the Lords infinite excellencies no Worldly loss or gain can divert his intire Communion with the Fountain of pure Joy Thus he stains not his Christian profession with any sullen Tears in a Low afflicted state nor is transported with fond delights in an High-estate For he well considers that it is from the same
because of the bitter effects of sin yet his heart is secretly espoused to it He may repent of his dissembled severity and wish that himself may die rather than that his corrupt inclination should be pinion'd or put into little ease Rather strive to break the heart of old Adam to kill the very Root of an Hellish-Nature seek the destruction of whatsoever is disgustive to the Constitution of the new Creature that there may be no more hope of reconciliation unto sin than of the meeting of Heaven and Hell together Lay not down your sins as Weapons at the Foot of God as a Conqueror when you can no longer naintain the fight but out of Loyalty execute them with your own hand Cast them not only away in a Fright upon the Hue and Cry of your Conscience but pursue them to the Horns of the Altar drag them thence where they expect Protection and Sacrifice them with chearfulness otherwise they will mar and defeat all your Religious Services and the hope of future Glory Formalists descend to Hell more unsuspectedly under the Garb of Religious Vows and severe threats against their Lusts Thus some Parents in a short Passion Rate their Children out of their sight when they have done a shrewd turn yet they can immediately turn their Faces aside and smile at their unlucky Wit or after a short time cocker them the more Satan as a cunning Spinster leaves on the Distaff of a depraved Nature such pretended good resolutions as a Lock of Wool as a Pledg or advantage of future returning to draw out the Web of Iniquity to a greater extension than before Thus many Sinners purchase the Infamous Title of Sceptical Futurists in Repentance as they prove themselves to be Platonick Lovers of Vertue only in speculation For their Vows of Reformation must be interpreted as we read the Hebrew Dialect altogether backward Thus the more they tamper with and strain the Rusty Wards of a dissembling heart with some false Key of slight Reformation the harder it will be to open to the Motions and convictions of Christs Spirit 7. Improve weaning-Considerations such as these That persons of strong and fond affections to Creature-enjoyments are usually persons of strange and deep afflictions It 's thought that Abraham was toying and sporting with Isaac a little before the Command came to Sacrifice him Usually we follow our Idolized Comforts to the Grave with Mourning as Phaltiel did Michal to Bahurim when Ishbosheth snatcht her from him When the Lord observes that we grow fond of Strangers and familiar with the Worlds Temptations he puts out the Candle of prosperity and Seals up the Star-Light of all Creature-Comforts with which we have wantoniz'd in our fond admiration that we may depend on Him Alone as the God of our Light Comfort and Salvation When a dark Night of Affliction Steals on us then we run home to nestle in the Bosome of Divine-Alsufficiency though we had our Vagaries before in Courting every forreign Creature-Comfort to support and gratify our fleshly sensuality I will go and return unto my place that is confine and shut up my self in Heaven I will get me out of sight and Call that their weaning being apprehended more grievous they may under the depth of their distress seek me more early and earnestly Hos 5.15 David the Man after God's heart was chastened every Morning because when the Lord came to feel his Pulse how his Love and delight beat towards him he found the Frame of his heart to vary and faulter His very flesh and heart failed that he might cling the closer in distress Then Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus Israel became Jezrael the scattered Flock and her weaning by Captivity was in order to her betrothing Some there are whom neither smiles nor frowns neither Blows nor Charms of Love will wean Yet it is more ingenuous to be estranged from our Lusts by the Gracious and Spiritual appearances of the Lord than by imbittering the Breasts of the Creature or forcing the Lord to put on the disguize of an Enemy to affright us Usually we will not be weaned till we observe the Image of Death to sit upon the Eye-lids of our dearest Comforts Make therefore a wise contemperament of Love and Fear in your own Souls be won by the former and awed by the latter Fear may enter as a rivetting Wedg the first contest with our darling Lusts but Love can only compleat the Conquest A Child is weaned rather by singing to it than by blows 8. Be convinc'd of the Lords Love and Compassion in weaning you then you will more chearfully comply with the severest method of estranging you from a fond nestling in the bosom of any Lust The Lord's End is that you may arrive to a masculine State and Spirit in your Christian course that you may be fitted for more eminent service Thus Covenant-afflictions which are the Lord's Graving-Tools whereby he polishes his Saints for Glory are to be preferred before common Mercies and Right-hand weaning strokes before Left-hand Comforts and enjoyments It is for our Spiritual advantage that the Lord thus instructs us with severity by desertions persecution of Worldly Men and the frequent Alarm of temptation Therefore we should suit our selves to him we should not be humorsome and discontented at this necessary though bitter work In measure will the Lord debate it with his people in such a season How doth he bear long with their froward manners as with Israel in the Wilderness Ephraim resisted the Lord's weaning-strokes yet he did not give him over to the hardness of his heart He rather pittyed healed and led him restoring Comfort to him when himself and others lookt upon his State as desperate The Lord applyed his Ear and when Ephraim bemoaned his youthful Pranks and Excesses then the Lord's Bowels were troubled for him and he had Mercy on him as a pleasant Child when himself was ashamed in bearing the Reproach of his Youth How doth the Lord sing to his Childrens hearts while he weans them in a dark night of Affliction Isa 66.13.14 As one whom his Mother Comforts so will I Comfort you And when you shall see this What The happy Effect and Issue of your Captivity that I weaned you from the enjoyments of your own Land for your Spiritual advantage your heart shall rejoyce and your Bones shall flourish like a green Herb though you despondingly said they were dry and scattered as Chips about a saw-pit Abraham made a Feast when he weaned Isaac so God and his Angels rejoyce to see a Nursling of Satan become a Weanling unto Christ Such are now Feasted with the hidden Manna of Divine Consolation in their Wilderness-distresses they are Beautified with the white-Stone of Absolution as a peculiar remark of favour and honoured with the new Name of the Lord's adopted Darlings yea themselves can now rejoyce to tear the Body of sin Limb from Limb and can sing Triumphantly in the Funeral of the
to be sure it will if you stupify your Souls and Caress them with sensual pleasures in the gratification of your Lusts What sinners will ye break away from the Worlds soft imbraces and prove Changelings in the profest Mystery of Iniquity to take up the severities of a mortified Conversation If there be any day of accompt for all your Vanities and Excesses yet you have time enough before you to be Pensive the Judg of Mankind is not yet upon his Circuit nor stands he yet before the door of your hearts as ready to depart that thereupon a Psalm of Mercy should be denied you as shut up under final impenitency and unbelief Thus Satan the World and sinners own sensual Hearts betray them to their Eternal Ruine But the Baits of Riches Honours and Pleasures become Fewel to Lusts rather than satisfie a humorsome Curiosity They become an Itch to the Pride of Life which we please oun selves to spread by rubbing They are not Restringent to our dropsical Intemperance of Covetousness nor any allay to the Tympany of an ambitious Pride Covetous Wretches who undermine others are like the blind Mole which spends its strength and Life in casting up Hillocks of purer Dust yet neither are made to discern their own Misery till the stroke of Death Irrecoverably seize upon them 4. Difference The Parent estranges the Child from the Brest out of self-ends To avoid the toyl of suckling or to take more liberty and Pleasure But the Lord weans every New-Born Christian for his proper advantage only to make him a farther partaker of his Holiness Heb. 12.9 10. The Child is froward because it knows not the Intention of the Mother But a Saint chearfully submits as Peter at last to have his Feet washt by Christ because he is assured that in Faithfulness the Lord corrects him for his instruction in the Mysteries of the Christian Institution O how Justly yet with a pitiful severity doth the Lord wean us to win us over to himself Would any one think of his Creator or make any serious provision for the Life to Come if the Breasts of the World were not imbittered by the disappointment of Carnal self-seeking designs To suffer a sinner to draw hard and long from a Lust is no real indulgence but an occasion of the sinners surfeiting and Induration Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone His sin shall become his punishment As that Pope said in sprinkling his supposed holy-water He who will be deceived let him be deceived So Sensualists suck Poyson and their own Eternal Ruine out of those harmless Creatures which to weaned Saints are sanctified sublimated and made truly comfortable Our folly will be inexcusable if after all Experiments of the Worlds Grand Cheats we shall contribute any Longer to our own vexation and self-wounding Why should we clog our affections these Dove-like Wings of the Soul with Mire and Dirt which should by Meditation lodg in the Bosom of God there to Caress us with pure Soul-satisfying Pleasures to all Eternity Why do we pant after the dust of the Earth which is the Serpents Curse Why do we in a restless Agony thirst after such empty Joys which end with a dulness and damp upon our Spirits 2. Difference The weaned Child pines and grows weak when taken from the Breast too soon but the earlier we forsake Sin and the World the better we thrive in our Spiritual Stock and Stature We obtain greater Vigor of Love and Zeal for God we become more Spiritual in our whole Conversation we experiment an increase of sweet Communion with the Father of our Spirits Enoch being weaned early from the corrupt examples of His Generation walked with God hand in hand as a great Favourite He soon grew a great Proficient in Grace therefore he commenced in Glory by a skip over the heads of the rest of the Patriarchs He lived only three hundred sixty five years as many as there are days in a year as if the perfection of Time as well as of Holiness were accomplisht in Him Therefore he was snatcht up to Heaven as being early ripe for it and lest the World should offer Violence to so flourishing a Plant of Paradise Weaned hearts whose Love keeps pace with Self-denial are less projecting for the World and most Officious to advance Christs Interest Satans Fondlings must lie at Ease and are rockt fast asleep in the Cradle of sinful sloth and security lest they should cry out of his Cruel Bondage A prosperous Estate proves very uneasie it pinnions all the Faculties of the Soul and makes them unwieldy that they cannot act vigorously nor chearfully in a Course of Righteousness Yet a weaned Saint mounts his head and heart above the Skies while his Feet stand upon the Earth as a Sea of Glass mixed with Fire He who fears the Lord shall dwell at ease as the Psalmist speaks or lodge in the Bosom of Divine Goodness where he may stretch out his affections in meditation upon the Immensity of Gods perfections to a full and Infinite Satisfaction Thus we save the Lord the Labour of acting terrible Tragedies upon us Yet commonly we are Active in increasing our own miseries when we become one Spirit with the defiling Vanities of the World As Rangeing-Deer if we prove Outlawries to Christ's Discipline and will not be weaned from such Temptations which dispirit us in his service we expose our selves to become the Mark of every Judgment and to be made a Prey to Satan Nor doth this weaned Frame fit us only to expedite all Christian Duties but it Steels us with Resolution and Fortitude in suffering for the Name and Testimony of Jesus Worldlings dread the very mention of the Cross much less are they Conformed unto it But every weaned Saint is a Cross-Bearer the greatest Tryals Difficulties and Severities of Mortification are Food to strengthen the Faith of such yea they are Trophies of their Self-denial Paul being weaned knew what it was to be emptied even while he abounded To be abased in Honour to be as sorrowing yet alway rejoycing in distress yet not in despair as Poor yet making many Rich as having nothing yet possessing all things Yea he protested that he delighted to die dayly to the Vigor of his Lusts and the Allurements of the World Herein Christ's Weanlings differ from Satans Sucklings or Hypocrites who pretend only to be weaned that the former have better tempered Eyes to behold inticing Objects unto sin and yet their Mouths not water Abraham might look on the Flames of Sodom which Indulgence was forbade to Lot lest that Prospect should make an Impression of Lusting on his heart toward his pleasant accommodations lest behind This was actually verified in his Wife Though she were fired thence yet she left her Heart behind therefore she lookt back with some regret she lookt and lookt again so long till she became as stiff and stupid as a Stone The Nazarites might drink Wine after they had in
Cast its Rider yet we must supply it with necessary Recruits This is far from making Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof The Apostle Paul who beat down his Body who gave it Club-Law the Black and Blew Eye that it might not cast an Amorous wanton Glance to court sensual Vanities yet knew how to observe a fit moderation in it He Censures all monastick self-imposed Severities which spare not the Body as a Device of Satan to destroy it rather than to bring it in subjection to the Spirit Christ himself would not have New Wine put into Old Bottles To signifie that immoderate Fastings Humicubations Pilgrimages and all extraordinary Sufferings or Tamings of the Flesh are not suitable to young Converts newly weaned lest they deter them from a chearful imbracing the Christian Institution and a constant Progress in Religion Pride usually springs up from the Root of such bitterness against the harmless support of Nature Popish Severities fatten Lusts while they starve the Body and while Men thus threaten to stub up their inordinate desires they water their Root the more by a secret complyance with them This Irregular Zeal blazes like Moses Bush in a threatning of Mens Lusts yet there is no heat of a just Revenge which may quite consume them Sinners deceive and more pollute their Souls by false Counterfeit un-Scriptural Arts and Rules of weaning 6. Another sort of Sinners not really weaned are such who being twitcht and bitten with the Worm of Conscience have a false Appetite raised towards the Bread of Life Thus the Capernaits cryed out in a transient Passion Lord evermore give us of this Bread And Marcella in the Croud of Christ's Auditors brake out into this exstatical Applause Blest is the Womb which bare thee Such are not weaned from the Love of their Lusts who commend the Preacher that they may be excused from being commanded by that Doctrine which he presses upon them for Obedidience unto Christ Others have too gross and carnal a conceit of Spiritual Ordinances who think these appointed to allay the sharp bitings of an inflamed exulcerated Conscience while they sin presumptuously By immoderate Belchings and stretching of their Appetite after Worldly flatulent crude Joys they eject and Vomit up the good juice of the Word and other Ordinances which should nourish their Souls to Eternal Life But if they do not puke and keck at the wholsom Food of Divine Truth yet there remains a Lipothymia or general faintness and failure of true affection which chills all endeavours after a Heavenly Conversation by too great Evacuations of that Spiritual nourishment which before was taken down Hence the solid parts of Christianity are dissipated and melt away so that the means of Grace which should allay their hunger toward the World become unprofitable This proves fatal because sinners easily deceive themselves with this Distemper as if it were a genuine hunger toward the Ordinances The Word Preacht may raise strains of great Joy in the hearing yet the heart not be renewed nor subdued to Christ's weaning Discipline Sucking Children have their smiles at their own pretty Fancies yet are not able to act their Reason in any reflection upon the Vanity and Deception of those Imaginations Phrentick sinners may Cant it in Religious Notions which is but a false conception of Spiritual Joy because it is only a transient passion raised from the briskness of the animal Spirits which fly up into the head yet infeeble afterwards the Executive faculties of the Soul because they have no tendency to produce a siricter course of Life Culinary fire may scorch more than Elementary yet this by a more Vital kindly heat best conserves health and ripens Fruits So violent sudden passions in sinners may transport them beyond the ordinary rank of Christians in some extraordinary services and sufferrings yet such seeming Zealots are so far from being weaned by self-denial that they were never sensible of the proper and real dispositions which introduce the form of a New-Ceature in Christ 7. Another sort in the contrary extreme are the Devils weanlings I mean such who pretend to be Comprehensors in the Christian State and to have arrived at perfection in Holiness These are really possest with a Dumb and Deaf Spirit they neither pray for Pardon of sin nor attend on any Gospel-Ministry because out of Pride Curiosity Fancy and Self-Conceit they presume they have Graspt the perfection of Divine Wisdom as a Monopoly to themselves How are such deluded being sensual and not having the Spirit of Christ whom they pretend to only Let such know that a State of Spiritual weaning doth not infer a Contempt of Gospel-Ordinances it rather increases a genuine strong Affection in hungring and thirsting after them The weaned Saint forsakes not his proper Spiritual Food for Wind and Trash but rather renews more earnest desires after the sincere Milk of the Word of Righteousness He lives not a separated Life from the Communion of Saints only he exchanges his former Diet which was the Dust of the Serpent for more solid and refined nourishment He forsakes not the first Principles in Christianity as contemptible Milk for Babes but proceeds to grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of God in Christ This more humbles and meekens him toward his Fellow-Saints by Self-denial It makes him more Holy and Heavenly more estranged from the World and the Vanities of it Like David he is driven into the Wilderness he doth not chuse to want publick Ordinances When he doth his Soul even then pants after the Living-God he thirsts with a more restless strong and impatient appetite to see the Lords Power and Glory so as he had injoyed him in the Sanctuary 8. Sort of sinners not weaned are broken-winded and impatient Suiters for Relief in their distress Such are not prevailed with to give Christ the quiet and full possession of their hearts in an universal Dominion over them because they are not content that he should speed or delay grant or deny their desires The Israelites were counted estranged from God because they waited not for his Counsels neither were stedfast in his Covenant While the Lords dispensations pleased them they sang his praises What a strong Rock what a pittiful Redeemer had they to befriend them Yet let him try their Patience in suspending his help how soon do they forget the wonders of his hand grow weary of his conduct suspect his care and faithfulness reproach him and fall to their old hank of murmuring But a Saint truly weaned doth not Antedate Divine Promises nor slack his own purposes of Obedience He doth not anticipate deliverance nor with a short-winded impatient peevishness snatch a Mercy out of the hand of the Lord before he be willing to bestow it Our mouths must not water after the forbidden Fruit of Sin nor after the overhasty fulfilling of any Promise Raw Fruit breeds Worms in Children Not to wait silently for the Ripening of deliverance is the
Old Man because it is the Festival of their Spiritual Liberty in their Conformity to Christ's Death and Resurrection therefore get a good Opinion of the Work and it will succeed accordingly For the Rod as Aarons often Blossoms and brings forth the precious Fruits of Righteousness Is not this more Eligible than for tasting only a little Hony in any unlawful delight without the allowance of your Heavenly Father as Jonathan to incur the Penalty of Death it self Therefore in the next place shut fast the Cinque-port of your Senses and clear up the Eye of your Faith to take a view of the Creatures Vanity in order to admiring God in Christ Watch your hearts if you would get them weaned Keep them with all Diligence Sobriety and Watchfulness must be conjoyned in Christs Nursery as well as in the Discipline of his Camp Labour to be well read in the Anatomy of your deceitful hearts to understand your Constitution Inclination and Disposition For Satan hath Snares of all sorts and sizes to suit and please the several humours of sensual Sinners He is a cunning Angler do not you nibble at his Temptations lest as those Fish which Frisk and Play in the fresh Waters of Jordan you unawares stream down into the dead Sea of Worldly corrupt examples 10. Take heed of the occasions of sin The Rechabites would not chew the Husk of a dry Grape lest they should be inticed to drink Wine Pray as St. Augustine that when thou hast a heart to sin thou mayest want a Temptation and when a Temptation is presented thou mayest want a heart to comply with it This is the very Dialect of the Devils Sophistry you may come within the smell of sin and yet not be infected but you cannot play on the hole of the Asp or Cockatrice and yet be safe or secure If Satan like Archimedes can but have so much scope in thy heart as to place there his Engine of temptation he will soon shake and dissolve the whole Frame of thy Integrity if it be meerly Moral Besides to venture on the occasion shews that there is a secret liking of that sin it leads to though we conceit our selves to be weaned from it Nor will the Lord ordinarily keep us from the sin if we keep not our selves from the temptation and then we are sure to fall 11. Let this weaning design be your daily work upon which you are most intent It 's dissicult and not rid off with lazy wishes Augustine while he prayed to be weaned from his youthful incontinency secretly wisht he might yet be spared in his vain excesses We say of every darling Lust let Reuben Live and not dye Indulge not therefore your flesh though it cry out in a render delicacy that you would pitty and indulge it You must not desist from the severity of this work for your hearts sullenness and frowardness That Parent who spares to correct the Child for its crying hardens and confirms it in its Rebellion Thus it proves the future grief and shame of the Parent as well as the present disquietment of the Family Be not slight and remiss in weaning-attempts If so you must begin again as the Nazarite who had transgrest against the strict Law of his scparation The work will prove more difficult uncertain and hazardous as to its happy Issue Carry thorow this weaning design begin not in the Spirit to end in the Flesh If a Man omit a stroke in swimming he is soon carried down the Stream 12. Improve the Christian Sabbath especially to promote this Design As 't is the fittest season so Satan most watches to render it unsuccesful He then uses the same stratagem which the Benjamites did Judg. 21.19 20 21. to snatch them up Wives from among the Daughters of Israel to inlarge their almost extinguished Tribe When Christians come forth in Spiritual Dances to celebrate this holy Festival to the Lord then Satan lies in Ambuscado behind the Vineyards of Worldly profits and pleasures Thence he sallies out with his Temptations to commit a Rape upon the Virgin-purity of our Souls which should be espoused only to the Lord. But do not drive on this Task of weaning only during the Sabbath-space How should Lusts which have been rooting all the Week nay possibly our Life-long be pluckt up in one hours formal attendance on the Ordinances 13. Therefore begin this weaning task betimes in Youth before you and your Lusts be grown into a strict familiarity hardly to be shaken off David complained that the Sons of Zerviah were too hard for him while he was newly entred on his regal power But do you execute your Lusts as the Jews did Christ early in the Morning You will otherwise by indulgence and connivence give them greater advantage against you It 's dissicult to pull up Weeds when the Garden is overgrown and they have spread their Roots by long neglect to clear the Ground So is it to break off a setled long confirmed habit in Vice Do not accustom your selves to lie soaking at the Breasts of Lusts and the World especially being prompted to it by a Natural Instinct Our corrupt Nature is not as green Wood which needs much help of Art to make it burn but as Touch-wood the least spark of Temptation which lights on us fires all that train of Corruption yea the Magazine of Hell which is stored up in our degenerate and wicked hearts Therefore improve the soaking Showres of Divine Mercy and Goodness to soften your hard hearts that you may more easily root up your Lusts Maintain also the Love of Christ shed abroad in your Souls This as a more intense Divine flame will overpower and extinguish the Fire-Balls of Lust and Temptations which Satan darts into your Spirits 14. Again go not out in the strength of your own Resolutions and Covenantings to Reform these without renewing Grace cannot work any estrangement from your Lusts Rather look up by Faith to a pierced crucifyed Jesus Fetch Life from his Death Be so sixt to his Cross by Meditation that if a Temptation pass by before you bow the head and Court you you may not be at leisure to observe it much less to descend and imbrace it Say as Nehemiah to Sanhallat Why should this Work of the Lord slack while I parle with Satan to neglect the Building up of my Soul in Holiness More earnestly implore the confirming Aid of Christ's Mortifying Spirit to superaded his anointing Grace to thy Baptismal Vow that thou mayest beincouraged to conflict more resolutely against the Temptations of Sin Statan and the World While the Lock of your Faith is growing and spreads in Prayer your strength to resist and Conquer your Philistin-Lusts will renew and not suffer you to be defeated of your Hopes of Triumph 15. Despise those Reproaches which sensual Sinners cast upon a weaned Frame It 's no more than you were forewarned of and fore-armed against when you first entred upon the Christian state They think
the pursuit of our Eternal Interest When sublunary Vanities like Hagar aspire to the preheminence they must be cast forth with disdain 2. You must distinguish 'twixt a Transient delight by way of surprizal and a setled resolved delight by way of plenary consent The Discipline of Christs Camp will not Indulge so large Articles to the World as to resign up the heart to the inordinate Love of the most excellent Creature This is spiritual Adultery and Idolatry This Treachery is an inconsistent Heterodox practice to the power and purity of Christianity Every glance of admiration cast upon mundane Objects and which terminates therein is a great disloyalty and high breach of the Mariage-Covenant 'twixt Christ and the Soul As Solomon said to Bathsheba when she petitioned that Abishag the Shunamite might be given to Adonijab to Wife Dost thou know what thou hast ask'd Thou mightest with as little peril have ask't the Kingdom for him 1 Kings 2.22 There is no less than Treason in such a Request So when we importunately ask this and that and the other unsuitable boon at the hand of God may be not Reply Ask the Kingdom also For thou seekest Covertly to reject thy Allegiance unto Me to prefer Earthly Vanities for the gratification of thy Lusts Many times we beg the fulness of the Creature to our own destruction at least against the Comfort of our Life when the Lord Curses and Blasts it or crosses us by it though we do not forfeit our Interest in God himself 3. You must distinguish 'twixt a Gradual and a Superlative Delight 'twixt a Subordinate and an Inverted Love so as that the Creature should sway and over-rule the poise and bent of our Souls 4. You must distinguish 'twixt Loving and delighting in the Creature abstractedly from God for it self and a complacency in it only as it is a Lower Pledge of our Heavenly Fathers providential Love and Bounty For though the Lord give us all things liberally to enjoy yet it is with this reserved Limitation that we should enjoy God in the Creature and the Creature for God 5. You must distinguish 'twixt Tasting of the Creature by way of Tryal and experience as Solomons who distilled all the Quint-essentials of their excellencies that he might sum up Vanity at the Foot of his Survey and Accompt and betwixt Resting in and Trusting to the Creature as if it had any inherent power to make us happy 6. You must distinguish 'twixt a moderate limited delight and a passionate importunate Transporting Complacency which will not be delayed much less denyed or confined to any Competent allowance of Earthly Comforts This proves fatal when the Soul grows Dropsical and impetuous in its desires crying out as Rachel Give me Children or I dye When as ravenous Harpies we will adventure to snatch any Worldly accommodation out of the hand of God without or against his Will and Consent Such supplies are our Snares they are not the gifts of Divine Bounty but the Fewel of our Lusts and yet we esteem them as an Adequate portion to make up true Happiness and Contentment 7. You must distinguish 'twixt an indifferent mutable delight because the Creature in its own Nature is transient and perishing and a resolute fixt delight which terminates in it as the Center of satisfaction A Carnal heart which designes to be Rich will dive and digg as low as Hell to the bottom of the Stygian Lake for the ingrossing of Golden Sands But a Spiritual heart refers it self to God's allowance in these temporal Mercies It sets not up its Rest in the Creature as resolving not to seek any Happiness beyond it but uses it only as a Staff to lean on in its Pilgrimage not as a Bed to lie down on for Repose and Tranquillity of mind or in the midst of distresses Indeed the Bed is too short and the Covering too narrow to wrap up our Contentment in it Earthly things are my Provisions in the way to Canaan but not a sutable sufficient Portion to make me happy A Carnal heart loaths even Manna in the Wilderness and says 't is better to sit down by the Fleshpots of Egypt But a Gracious Soul will only Taste of the Creature as Jonathan did a little Hony dipping the tip of his Rod in it He stays not on this side Jordan but advances in his March toward Canaan The World is not his Rest he seeks a Heavenly Country and is not satisfied till he lye in Abrahams Bosom He doth not so stupidly caress his Soul with sensitive Enjoyments as to make him Careless whether he travel Homewards rather as the industrious Bee he lightly touches on Worldly delights in Order to the stocking the Hive of his Soul with an increase of Grace and Comfort 8. You must distinguish 'twixt delight in the Creature as 't is a shower of common Bounty and as 't is a Gift which comes from the Heart and special Love of God The former Dispensation gives only a Civil Right unto our Enjoyments but the latter Sanctifies and improves the true Use of the Creature for the Lord's honour and our Spiritual advantage Therefore if we would keep our hearts in a weaned Frame let us bound and moderate our affections to the Best of Creatures otherwise we shall discover an Impotency in Grace if not a Nullity As we must put the Sacrificing Knife of mortification to the Throat of every Rampant Lust So the moderating Restriction of Sobriety to the least extravagancy of our inordinate desires The Jews cryed up those superstitious ordinances viz. Touch not Tast not Handle not to the infringement of their Spiritual Liberty But it will be our Wisdome and safety to impose necessary Laws on our unruly and unsatiable affections toward Earthly Vanities So shall we not mistake wherein our chiefest Happiness consists neither shall we be slack and slight in pursuing it when discovered Some Hounds while they Course along pleasant Flowery-Fields are so taken with the fulsome Scent thereof that they either lose or forget their Prey But weaned Christians while they pass thorow variety of Creature-Delights are not so prone to be ravisht from the Contemplation of the Chiefest Good They lose not the exquisiteness of their Spiritual Sagacity neither do they admiringly dote on sublunary Profits and Pleasures nor neglect to pour out the strength of their Love and Delight on the Lord of the Creation as the only Center of true felicity and satisfaction Every Man hath some delightful Object or other to which he sacrifices his time and the strength of his Affections as to a Deity In this Sence we should make the Lord our Delight that we may say with David Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth whom I desire in Comparison This Spiritual Delight in the Lord contains not only the serious Contemplation of his Divine Excellencies in their suitableness to our present and future State of Happiness whereby a restless