the Souls of the ungodly to win by your lives You should all be Preachers and even Preach as you go up and down in the World as a Candle lighteth which way ever it goeth As we are sent to save sinners as Ambassadors of Christ by publick Proclamation of his Will so are you sent to save them as his Servants and our helpers and must Preach by your lives and familiar exhortations as we must do by authoritative instruction A good life is a good Sermon yea those may be won by your Sermons that will not come to ours or will not obey the Doctrine which they hear Even to women that must keep silence in the Church doth Peter command this way of Preaching I Pet. 3.1 2. That if any of them have Husbands that obey not the Word they may without the Word be won by the conversation of the Wives Thousands can understand the meaning of a good life that cannot understand the meaning of a good Sermon By this way you may Preach to men of all Languages though your tongues had never learnt but one For a holy harmless humble life doth speak in all the Languages of the World to men that have eyes to read it This is the Universal Character and Language in which all sorts may perceive you speak the wondrous works of the Holy Ghost I charge you therefore Christians deprive not God of the honour you owe him nor the Church or Souls of wicked men of this excellent powerful help which you owe them by continuing in your weakness and unsetled minds and spotted lives but grow up to that measure that may be fit for such a work As you durst not silence the Preachers of the Gospel so do not dare to silence your selves from Preaching by your holy exemplary lives And alas do you think that feeble giddy scandalous Professors are like to do any great matters by their Lives Would you wish the poor World to write after such a crooked and bloted Copy Will it win mens hearts to a love of Holiness to talk with a Christian that can scarce speak a word of sense for his Religion or to see a Professor as greedy for a little gain as the veryest worldling that hath no other hope or to hear them rail or lye or slander Or to see them turn up and down like a Weather-cock according as the Wind of temptation sits and to follow every new Opinion that is but put off with a plausible fervency Do you think that men are like to be won by such lives as these 14. Do you consider what great things you must make account to suffer for Christ You must forsake all that you have Luke 14.33 You must not save your lives if he bid you lose them Matth. 16.25 You must suffer with him if you will be glorified with him Rom. 8 17. You may be called to confess Christ before the Kings or Judges of the earth and then if you deny him he will deny you and if you be ashamed of him he will be ashamed of you unless you be brought to a better state Luk. 9.26 Mark 8.38 You may be called to the fiery tryal and to suffer also the spoiling of your goods and in a word the loss of all And do you think that you shall not find use for the strongest Graces then Have you not need to be confirmed rooted Christians that must expect such storms Are Infants meet for such encounters Have you not seen how many that seemed strong have been overthrown in a time of tryal And yet will you stop in a weak estate Perhaps you 'l say We cannot stand by our own strength and therefore Christ may uphold the weakest when the strongest may fall To which I answer It s true but it is Gods common way to work by means and to imitate nature in his works of Grace and therefore he useth to root and strengthen those that he will have to stand and conquer yea and to arm them as well as strengthen them and then to teach them to use their arms Eph. 6.10 11 12 13. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this World against spiritual wickedness in high places Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand You must look when you are illuminated to endure a great fight of afflictions to be made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions and to be companions of them that are so used and therefore you have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God you may receive the Promise Heb. 10.32 33 36. If you will endure in the time of persecution the Word must take deep rooting in your hearts Matth. 13.5 20 21. and you must be founded on a Rock if you look to stand in time of storms Matth. 7.24 25. In the mean time it is a fearful thing to see in what a wavering condition you seem to stand like a Tree that shakes as if it were even falling or like a cowardly Army that are ready to run before they fight and like cowardly Souldiers you are still looking behind you and a small matter troubleth and perplexeth and staggereth you as if you were ready to repent of your repentings And must God have such servants as these that upon every rumour or word or trouble are wavering and looking back and ready to forsake him 15. Consider also that the same Reasons that moved you at first to be Christians should now move you to be confirmed thriving Christians For they are of force as well for this as for that You would not have mist your part in Christ for all the World if indeed you have the least degree of Grace And if the beginning be good and necessary the increase is neither bad or needless If a little Grace be desireable sure more is more desirable If it was then but a reasonable thing that you should forsake all for Christ and follow him it is sure as reasonable that you should follow him to the end till you reach that blessedness which was the end for which at first you followed him What Christian hast thou found God a hard Master a barren Wilderness to thee or his service an unprofitable thing say so and I dare say thou art a bastard to use the Apostles phrase Heb. 12.8 and not a Christian Some tryal thou hast made of him What evil hast thou found in him or what wrong hath he ever done thee that thou shouldest now begin to make a stand as if thou were in doubt whether it be best to go further If ever Christ were needful he is needful still and if
and languor of his Faith is seen in the faintness of his desires and the many blemishes of his Heart and Life And sight and sensual objects are so much the more powerfull with him by how much the light and life of faith is dark and weak 3. The Hypocrite or best of the unregenerate believeth but either with a Humane faith which resteth but on the Word of Man or else with a dead opinionative faith which is overpowered by infidelity or is like the dreaming thoughts of a man asleep which stirre him not to action He liveth by sight and not by faith For he hath not a Faith that will overpower Sense and sensual objects Jam. 2.14 Mat. 13.22 II. 1. A Christian indeed not only knoweth why he is a Christian but seeth those Reasons for his Religion which disgrace all that the cunningest Atheist or Infidel can say against it and so far satisfie confirm and establish him that emergent difficulties temptations and objections do not at all stagger him or raise any deliberate doubts in him of the truth of the Word of God He seeth first the naturall evidence of those foundation-truths which Nature it self maketh known as that there is a God of infinite Being Power Wisdom and Goodness the Creator the Owner the Ruler and the Father Felicity and End of man that we owe him all our love and service that none of our fidelity shall be in vain or unrewarded and none shall be finally a loser by his duty that man who is naturally governed by the hopes and fears of another life is made and liveth for that other Life where his Soul shall be sentenced by God his Judge to happiness or misery c. And then he discerneth the attestation of God to those supernatural superadded Revelations of the Gospel containing the Doctrine of mans Redemption And he seeth how wonderfully these are built upon the former and how excellently the Creators and Redeemers Doctrine and Lawes agree and how much countenance supernatural truths receive from the presupposed naturals so that he doth not adhere to Christ and Religion by the meer engagement of education friends or worldly advantages nor by a blind resolution which wanteth nothing but a strong temptation from a Deceiver or a worldly Interest to shake or overthrow it But he is built upon the Rock which will stand in the assault of Satans storms and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 16.18 13.23 7.25 Joh. 6.68 69. 2. But a weak Christian hath but a dim and general kind of knowledge of the reasons of his Religion or at least but a weak apprehension of them though he have the best and most unanswerable reasons And either he is confident in the dark upon grounds which he cannot make good and which want but a strong assault to shake them or else he is troubled and ready to stagger at every difficulty which occurreth Every hard saying in the Scripture doth offend him And every seeming contradiction shaketh him And the depth of mysteries which pass his understanding do make him say as Nicodemus of Regeneration How can these things be And if he meet with the objections of a cunning Infidel he is unable so to defend the truth and clear his way through them as to come off unwounded and unshaken and to be the more confirmed in the truth of his belief by discerning the vanity of all that is said against it Heb. 5.12 13. Matth. 15.16 1 Cor. 14.20 Joh. 12.16 3. The seeming Christian either hath no solid Reasons at all for his Religion or else if he have the best he hath no sound apprehension of them But though he be never so learned and orthodox and can preach and defend the Faith it is not so rooted in him as to endure the tryall but if a strong temptation from subtilty or carnal interest assault him you shall see that he was built upon the sand and that there was in him a secret root of bitterness and an evil heart of unbelief which causeth him to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 Matth. 13.20 21 22. Matth. 7.26 27. Heb. 12.15 Joh. 6.60 64 66. 1 Tim. 6.10 11. III. 1. A Christian indeed is not only confirmed in the essentials of Christianity but he hath a cleer delightful sight of those usefull truths which are the Integrals of Christianity and are built upon the fundamentals and are the branches of the master-points of Faith Though he see not all the lesser Truths which are branched out at last into innumerable particles yet he seeth the main body of sacred Verities delivered by Christ for mans sanctification and seeth them methodically in their proper places and seeth how one supports another and in how beautifull an order and contexture they are placed And as he sticketh not in the bare Principles so he receiveth all these additions of knowledge not notionally only but practically as the food on which his Soul must live Heb. 5.13 14. 6.1 2 c. Matth. 13.11 Eph. 1.18 3.18 19. Joh. 13.17 2. A weak Christian in knowledge besides the Principles or Essentials of Religion doth know but a few disordered scattered Truths which are also but half known because while he hath some knowledge of those points he is ignorant of many other which are needfull to the supporting and clearing and improving of them And because he knoweth them not in their places and order and relation and aspect upon other Truths And therefore if Temptations be strong and come with advantage the weak Christian in such points is easily drawn into many errors and thence into great confidence and conceitedness in those Errors and thence into sinfull dangerous courses in the prosecution and practice of those Errors Such are like children tost up and down and carryed to and fro by every winde of doctrine through the cunning sleight and subtilty of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 2 Cor. 11.3 Col. 2.4 2 Tim. 3.7 3. The seeming Christian having no saving practical knowledge of the Essentials of Christianity themselves doth therefore either neglect to know the rest or knoweth them but notionally as common Sciences and subjecteth them all to his Worldly interest And therefore is still of that side or party in Religion which upon the account of safety honour or preferment his flesh commandeth him to follow Either he is still on the greater rising side and of the Rulers Religion be it what it will or if he dissent it is in pursuit of another game which Pride or fleshly ends have started 2 Pet. 2.14 Gal. 3.3 Joh. 9.22 12.42 43. Matth. 13.21.22 IV. 1. The Christian indeed hath not only Reason for his Religion but also hath an inward connatural principle even the spirit of Christ which is as a New-nature inclining and enlivening him to a holy life whereby he mindeth and savoureth the things of the Spirit Not that his Nature doth work blindly as Nature doth in the
in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 It is therefore his care and course to give place to wrath when others are angry Rom. 12.18 19. and if it be possible as much as in him lyeth to live peaceably with all men Yea to follow peace when it flyeth from him Heb. 12.14 And not when he is reviled to revile again nor to threaten or revenge himself on them that injure him 1 Pet. 2.21 22 23 24. Reason and Charity hold the reins and passion is kept under Yea it is used holily for God Eph. 4.26 Slow to anger he is in his own cause and watchfull over his anger even in Gods cause Prov. 15.18 and 16.32 Eph. 4.31 Col. 3.8 2. But the weak Christian doth greatly shew his weakness in his unruly passions if he have a temper of body disposed to passion They are oft rising and not easily kept under Yea and too often prevail for such unseemly words as maketh him become a dishonour to his profession Oft he resolveth and promiseth and prayeth for help and yet the next provocation sheweth how little Grace he hath to hold the reins And his passionate Desires and Delights and Love and Sorrows are oft as unruly as his anger to the further weakning of his Soul They are like Ague fits that leave the health impaired 3. And the seeming Christian hath much less power over those Passions which must subserve his carnal minde For Anger it dependeth much upon the temperature of the body and if that incline him not strongly to it his credit or common discretion may suppress it Unless you touch his chiefest carnal interest and then he will not only be angry but cruel malicious and revengefull But his carnal Love and Desire and Delight which are placed upon that pleasure or profit or honour which is his Idol are indeed the reigning passions in him and his grief and fear and anger are but the servants unto these Act. 24.26 27. XXXVII 1. A Christian indeed is one that keepeth a constant Government of his Tongue He knoweth how much duty or sin it will be the instrument of According to his ability and opportunity he useth it to the service and honour of his Creator In speaking of his Excellencies his Works and Word inquiring after the knowledge of him and his will instructing others and pleading for the Truth and wayes of God and rebuking the impiety and inquities of the world as his place and calling doth allow him He bridleth his Tongue from uttering vanity filthiness ribbaldry foolish and uncomely talk and jests from rash and unreverent talk of God and taking of his Name in vain from the venting of undigested and uncertain doctrines which may prove erroneous and perillous to mens souls from speaking imprudently unhandsomly or unseasonably about holy things so as to expose them to contempt and scorn from lying censuring others without a warrantable ground and call from backbiting slandering false accusing railing and reviling malicious envyous injurious speech which tendeth to extinguish the love of the hearers to those he speaketh of from proud and boasting speeches of himself much more from swearing cursing and blasphemous speech and opposition to the Truths and holy wayes of God or opprobrious speeches or derision of his servants And in the Government of his Tongue he alwayes beginneth with his heart that he may understand and love the good which he speaketh of and may hate the evil which his tongue forbeareth and not hypocritically to force his tongue against or without his heart His tongue doth not run before his heart but is ruled by it Eph. 4.15.31.29 and 5.3.4.6 Psal. 37.30 15.2 3. Prov. 16.13 and 10.20 21.23 18.21 15.2.4 Psal. 34.13 Prov. 25.15 23. 28.23 Matth. 12.31 32 34. 2. But the weak Christian though his tongue be sincerely subject to the Laws of God yet frequently miscarryeth and blemisheth his Soul by the words of his lips being much ofter than the confirmed Christian overtaken with words of vanity medling folly imprudence uncharitableness wrath boasting venting uncertain or erroneous opinions c. so that the unruliness of his tongue is the trouble of his heart if not also of the Family and all about him 3. The seeming Christian useth his tongue in the service of his carnal ends and therefore alloweth it so much unjustice uncharitableness falshood and other sins as his carnal interest and designs require But the rest perhaps he may suppress especially if natural sobriety good education and prudence do assist him And his tongue is alwayes better than his heart Pro. 10.32 19.5.9 Ps. 50.20 12.3 144.8 120.2 3. Prov. 21.6.23 XXXVIII 1. The Religious discourse of a confirmed Christian is most about the greatest and most necessary matters Heart-work and heaven-work are the usual employment of his Tongue and Thoughts unprofitable Controversies and hurtfull wranglings he abhorreth And profitable Controversies he manageth sparingly seasonably charitably peaceably and with caution and sobriety as knowing that the servant of the Lord must not strive and that strife of words perverteth the hearers and hindereth edifying 1 Tim. 6.4 5 6. and 4.7 8. 2 Tim. 2.14 15 16 17 24 25. His ordinary discourse is about the Glorious Excellencies Attributes Relations and works of God and the Mysterie of Redemption the Person Office Covenant and Grace of Christ the renewing illuminating sanctifying works of the Holy Ghost the Mercies of this life and that to come the Duty of Man to God as his Creator Redeemer and Regenerater the corruption and deceitfulness of the Heart the methods of the Tempter the danger of particular Temptations and the means of our escape and of our growth in Grace and how to be profitable to others and especially to the Church And if he be called to open any Truth which others understand not he doth it not proudly to set up himself as the Master of a Sect or to draw Disciples after him nor make divisions about it in the Church but soberly to the edification of the weak And though he be ready to defend the Truth against perverse gainsayers in due season yet doth he not turn his ordinary edifying discourse into Disputes or talk of Controversies nor hath such a proud pugnacious Soul as to assault every one that he thinks erroneous as a man that taketh himself for the great champion of the truth 2. But the weak Christian hath a more unfruitful wandring tongue And his religious discourse is most about his opinions or party or some external thing As which is the best preacher or person or book or if he talk of any text of scripture or doctrine of Religion it is much of the outside of it and his discourse is less feeling lively and experimental yea many a time he hindereth the more edifying savoury discourse of others by such religious discourse as is imprudent impertinent or turneth them away from the heart and life of the matter in hand But
the injury was like to go both against me and many others of my Brethren Therefore finding since among the relicts of my scattered Papers this imperfect piece which I had before written on that Text I was desirous to publish it as for the benefit of weak Christians so to right my self and to cashier that Farewel Sermon If the Reader will but peruse these Directions impartially and read them as he doth the Prescripts of his Physicians which are not written meerly to be read but must be daily practised whatever it cost him as he loveth his life then I make no doubt notwithstanding the weakness of the composure but it may further the cure of his spiritual weaknesses and distempers and of the consequent troubles and losses of others and himself I hope I shall not meet with many besides malignant hypocrites who will be so impenitent and peevish as to fly in the face of the Reprover and Directer and say that I open the nakedness of many servants of Christ to the reproach and dishonour of Religion I have told you from the Word of God that it is Gods way and must be ours to lay the just dishonour upon the sinner that it may not fall upon Religion and on God And that the defending or excusing odious sins in tenderness of the persons who committed them is the surest and worse way to bring dishonour first or last both upon Religion and on them A Noah a Lot a David a Solomon a Peter c. shall be dishonoured by God in holy Record to all ages that God may not be more dishonoured by them And the truly penitent are willing that it should be so and account their honour a very cheap Sacrifice to offer up to the honour of Religion which they have wronged And till you come to this you come short of true Repentance He that defendeth his open sin unless he could deny the fact doth as bad as say God liketh it Christ bid me do it the Scripture is for it or not against it Religion taught it me or doth not forbid it me The godly allow it and will do the like And what can be said more Blasphemously against God or more injuriously against Religion the Scriptures and the Saints But he that confesseth his sin doth as good as say Lay all the blame on me who do deserve it and not on God on Christ on Scripture on Religion or on the Servants of God For I learned it not from any of them nor was encouraged to it by them None are greater enemies to it than they If I had hearkened to them I had done otherwise It is one of the chief reasons why Repentance is so necessary because it justifieth God and godliness And alas it is too late to talk of concealing those weaknesses and crimes of Christians which are so visible before all the World which have had such publick effects upon Churches Kingdoms and States which have kept almost all the Christian Churches in a torn and bleeding woful state for so many hundred years to this present day Which have separated the Churches of the East and West and defiled both And have drawn so much blood in Christian Countreyes And keep us yet like distracted persons gazing strangely at our nearest friends and running away by peevish separation from our Brethren with whom we must live in Heaven and mistakingly using those as enemies with whom if we are Christians as we profess we are united in the same Head and by the same Spirit which is a Spirit of Love In a word when our faults are so conspicuous as to harden the Infidels Heathens and ungodly and to hinder the Conversion of the World and when they sound so loud in the mouths of our common reproaching enemies and when they have contracted so much malignity as to refuse a cure by such Wars Divisions Church-desolations Plagues and Flames as we have seen It is then too late to say to the Preachers of Repentance Be silent lest you open the nakedness of Christians and disgrace Religion and the Church We must not be silent lest we disgrace Religion and the Church to save the credit of the sinners Whoever readeth the holy Scriptures and ever understood the Christian Faith must needs know that nothing in all the World is so much against every one of our errors and mis-doings It is only for want of more Religion that any Professors of Religion do miscarry Nothing but the Doctrine of Christianity and Godliness did at first destroy the reign of their sin and nothing else can subdue the rest and finish the Cure It is no disgrace to Life that so many mens lives are burdensome with sickness which the dead are not troubled with Nor is it any disgrace to Learning that Scholars for want of more Learning have troubled the World with their contentious Disputes Nor is it any disgrace to reason that mens different Reasons for want of more Reason doth set the World together by the ears We can never magnifie you enough as you are Christians and Godly unless we should ascribe more to you than your bounteous Lord hath given you who hath made you little lower than Angels and crowned you with glory and honour Psal. 8.5 6. But your sins are so much the more odious as they are brought so near the holy presence and as they are aggravated by greater mercies and professions And God is so far from being reconciled or reconcileable to any one of them that though he see not such iniquity in Jacob as is in Heathens and the ungodly because it is not in them to be seen yet he seeth more aggravated iniquity in such sins as you do commit in many respects than in the Heathens And that which is our common trouble is that you hurt not your selves alone by your iniquities Families are hurt by them Neighbours are hurt by them Churches are distracted by them Kingdoms are afflicted by them and thousands of blind sinners are hardened and everlastingly undone by them The ignorant Husband faith I will never follow Sermons nor Scriptures nor be so Religious while I see my Wife that maketh so much ado with Religion to be as peevish and discontented and foul-tongued and unkind and contemptuous and disobedient as those that have no Religion The Master that is prophane saith I like not your Religion when that servant which most Professeth Religion in my house is as lazy and negligent and as surly and sawcy and as ready to dishonour me and answer again and as proud of his little knowledg as those that have no Religion at all The like I might say of all other Relations All the dishonour that this casteth upon Grace is that you have too little of it and it is so weak in you that its Victory over your flesh and passions is lamentably imperfect A servant hearing a high commendation of a Gentleman that he was of extraordinary wisdom and godliness and bounty and patience and
to God He hath respect to the humble contrite soul. Isa. 57.15 and 66.2 Psal. 51.17 The hungry he filleth with good but the rich he sendeth empty away Luk. 1.53 He giveth more grace to the humble when the proud are abhorred by him 1 Pet. 5.5 The Church of Laodicea that said I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing was miserable and poor and blinde and naked Rev. 3.17 As many that are proud of their honour and birth run out of all by living above their estates when meaner persons grow rich because they are still gathering and make much of every little So proud Professors of Religion are in a Consumption of the Grace they have while the humble increase by making much of every little help which is sleighted and neglected by the proud and by shunning all those spending courses which the proud are plunged in Be sure to keep mean thoughts of your selves of your knowledg and parts and grace and duties and be content to be mean in the esteem of others if you would not be worse than mean in the esteem of God DIRECT V. Exercise your selves daily in a life of Faith upon Jesus Christ as your Saviour your Teacher your Mediator and your King as your Example your Wisdom your Righteousness and your Hope ALL other studies and knowledg must be meerly subservient to the study and knowledg of Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 That vain kind of Philosophy which St. Paul so much cautioneth Christians against is so far yet from being accounted vain that by many called Christians it is preferred before Christianity it self and to shew that it is Vain while they overvalue it they can shew no solid worth or vertue which they have got by it but only a tumified mind and an idle tongue like a tinkling Cymbal 1 Cor. 13.1 and 12.31 and 2.4.14 15 16. and 1.18 19 20 21 23 24 27. Col. 2.8 9. We are compleat in Christ in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ver 10. No study in the World will so much lead you up to God and acquaint you with him especially in his Love and Goodness as the study of Christ his Person his Office his Doctrine his Example his Kingdom and his benefits As the Deity is your ultimate end to which all things else are but helps and means so Christ is that great and principal means by whom all other means are animated Remember that you are in continual need of him for direction intercession pardon sanctification for support and comfort and for peace with God Let no thoughts therefore be so sweet and frequent in your hearts nor any discourse so ready in your mouths next to the excellencies of the eternal Godhead as this of the design of mans Redemption Let Christ be to your Souls as the Air the Earth the Sun and your Food are to your bodies without which your life would presently fail As you had never come home to the Father but by him so without him you cannot a moment continue in the Fathers love nor be accepted in one duty nor be protected from one danger nor be supplyed in any want For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.18 19. And by him it is that being justified by Faith we have peace with God and have access by Faith unto this Grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Rom. â— 1 2. And it is in him the Head that we must grow up in all things from whom the whole body doth receive it's increase Ephes. 4.15 16. You grow no more in Grace than you grow in the true knowledg and daily use of Jesus Christ. But of this I will say no more because I have said so much in my Directions for a sound Conversion DIRECT VI. Let the Knowledg and Love of God and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven YOu are so far HOLY as you are DIVINE and HEAVENLY A Christian indeed in casting up his accounts being certain that this World doth make no man happy hath been led up by Christ to seek a Happiness with God above If you live not for this everlasting happiness if you trade not for this if this be not your treasure your hope and home the chief matter of your desires love and joy and if all things be not prest to serve it and despised when they stand against it you live not indeed a Christian life GOD and HEAVEN or GOD in HEAVEN is the Life and Soul the beginning and the end the Sum the All of true Religion And therefore it is that we are directed to lift up our Heads and Hearts and begin our Prayers with Our Father which art in Heaven and end them with ascribing to Him the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever It is not the Creatures but God the Creator that is the Father the Guide and the felicity of Souls and therefore the ultimate end and object of all Religious actions and affections Dwell still upon God and dwell in Heaven if you would understand the nature and design of Christianity Take God for all that is for God Study after the knowledg of him in all his Works Study him in his Word Study him in Christ And never study him barely to know him but to know him that you may love him Take your selves as dead when you live not in the Love of God Keep still upon your hearts a lively sense of the infinite difference between him and the Creature Look on all the World as a shadow and on God as the substance Take the very worst that man can do to be in comparison of the punishments of God but as a Flea-biting to the sorest death And take all the dreaming pleasures of the World to be less in comparison with the joyes of Heaven than one lick of honey is to a thousand years possession of all the felicities on earth Think not all the pleasures honours or riches of the world to be worthy to be named in comparison of Heaven nor the Greatest of Men to be worthy to be once thought on in comparison of God As one straw or feather won or lost would neither much rejoyce or trouble you if all the City or land were yours So live as men whose eyes are open and who discern a greater disproportion between the portion of a worldling and a Saint Let God be your King your Father your master your friend your wealth your joy your All. Let not a day go over your heads in which your hearts have no converse with God in Heaven when any trouble overtaketh you on Earth look up to Heaven and remember that it is there that Rest and Joy are prepared for believers When you are under any want or cross or
Mind and used by it And as interposed matter or defective application may cause the Image on the Wax to be imperfect though made by the most perfect Seal so is it in this case when one man doth defectively understand the Scripture-description of a godly man or Christian and another by misunderstanding mixeth false conceptions of his own and another by a corrupt depraved will doth hinder the understanding from believing or remembring or considering and using what it partly apprehendeth what wonder if the Godliness and Christianity in their hearts be unlike the Godliness and Christianity in the Scriptures When the Law of God in Nature and Scripture is pure and uncorrupt and the Law of God written imperfectly on the heart is there mixt with the carnal Law in their members no marvel if it be expressed accordingly in their lives I have therefore much endeavoured in all my writings and especially in this to draw out the full pourtraiture of a Christian or godly man indeed and to describe Gods Image on the soul of man in such a manner as tendeth to the just information of the Readers mind and the filling up of the wants and rectifying the errors which may be found in his former conceptions of it And I do purposely inculcate the same things oft in several writings as when I preached I did in all my Sermons that the Reader may find that I bring him not undigested needless novelties and that the frequent repetition of them may help to make the deeper and fuller impression For my work is to subserve the Holy Ghost in putting Gods Law into mens hearts and writing it out truly clearly and fully upon their inward parts that they may be made such themselves by understanding throughly what they must be and what a solid Christian is And that thus they may be born again by the incorruptible immortal seed the Word of God which will live and abide for ever and may purifie their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1.22 23 25. He is the best Lawyer Physician Souldier c. who hath his Doctrine in his brain and not only in his Books and hath digested his reading into an intellectual systeme and habit of knowledge If Ministers had an hundred times over repeated the integral pourtraiture or character of a sound Christian till it had been as familiar to the minds and memories of their hearers as is the description of a Magistrate a Physician a School-master a Husband-man a Shephered and such things as they are well acquainted with it would have been a powerfull means to make sound Christians But when mens minds conceive of a Christian as a man that differeth from Heathens and Infidels in nothing but holding the Christian Opinions and using different words and ceremonies of worship and such like no wonder if such be but opinionative lifeless Christians And if their Religion make them no better than a Seneca or Plutarch I shall never believe that they are any surer to be saved than they And such a sort of men there are that suppose Christianity to consist but of these three parts 1. The Christian Doctrine acknowledged which they call Faith 2. The Orders and Ordinances of the Christian Church and Worship submitted to and decently used which they call Godliness And 3. The heart and life of a Cato Cicero or Socrates adjoyned But all that goeth beyond this which is the Life of Christianity and Godliness a Lively Faith and Hope and Love a Heavenly and Holy mind and life from the renewing in dweling Spirit of God which is described in this Treatise they are strangers to it and take it to be but fansie and hypocrisie These No-Christians do much to reduce the Church to Infidelity that there may be indeed No Christians in the world For my part I must confess if there were no better Christians in the world than these I think I should be no Christian my self And if Christ made men no better than the Religion of Socrates Cato or Seneca and did no more to the reparation and perfecting of mens hearts and lives I should think no better of the Christian Religion than of theirs For the means is to be estimated by the End and Vse And that 's the best Physician that hath the Remedies which are fittest to work the cure If God had not acquainted me with a sort of men that have really more Holiness Mortification Spirituality Love to God and to one another and even to enemies and more heavenly desires expectations and delights than these men before described have it would have been a very great hinderance to my Faith The same may I say of those that place Godliness and Christianity only in holding strict opinions and in affected needless singularities and in the fluent Oratory and length of prayer and avoiding other mens forms and modes of worship and in any thing short of a Renewed Holy Heavenly heart and life And undoubtedly if a true full Character of Godliness had been imprinted in their minds we should never have seen the Professors of it so blotted with sensuality selfishness pride ambition worldliness distrust of God self-conceitedness heresie schism rebellions unquietness impatiency unmercifulness and cruelty to mens souls and bodies as we have seen them in this age and all this justified as consistent with Religion And I fear that because this Treatise will speak to few that are not some way guilty every face which hath a spot or blemish will be offended with the glass and lest the faulty will say that I particularly intended to disgrace them But I must here tell the Reader to prevent his misunderstanding that if he shall imagine that I have my eyes upon particular parties and as a discontented person do intend to blame those that differ from my self or to grieve inferiours or dishonour and asperse superiours they will mistake me and wrong themselves and me who professedly intend but the true Description of sound Christians diseased Christians and seeming Christians And for the manner of this writing I am conscious it hath but little to commend it The matter is that for which it is published The Lord Verulam in his Essayes truly saith that much reading makes one full much discourse doth make one ready and much writing doth make a man exact Though I have had my part of all these means yet being parted five years from my Books and three years from my Preaching the effects may decay and you must expect neither Quotations or Oratory Testimonies or ornament of stile But having not yet wholly ceased from Writing I may own so much of the exactness as will allow me to intreat the Reader not to use me as many have done who by over-looking some one word have made the sense another thing and have made it a crime to be exact in Writing because they cannot or will not be exact in Reading or charitable or humane in interpreting The Contents THE Characters of a strong
loveth him more for his Mercy to the Church and for that Goodness which consisteth in his Benignity to the Church But he Loveth him most of all for his Infinite perfections and essential excellencies His Infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness simply in himself considered For he knoweth that Love to himself obligeth him to returns of Love especially differencing saving grace And he knoweth that the souls of millions are more worth incomparably then his own and that God may be much more honoured by them than by him alone And therefore he knoweth that the mercy to many is greater mercy and a greater demonstration of the goodness of God and therefore doth render him more amiable to man Rom. 9.3 And yet he knoweth that the Essential perfection and goodness of God as simply in himself and for himself is much more amiable than his Benignity to the creature And that he that is the first efficient must needs be the ultimate final cause of all things And that God is not finally for the creature but the creature for God for all that he needeth it not For of him and through him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 And as he is Infinitely better than our selves so he is to be better Loved than our selves As I love a wise and vertuous person though he be one I never expect to receive any thing from and therefore Love him for his own sake and not for his benignity or usefulness to me So must I love God most for his essential perfections though his benignity also doth represent him amiable As he is blindly selfish that would not rather himself be annihilated or perish than whole Kingdoms should all perish or the Sun be taken out of the world because that which is best must he loved as best and therefore be best loved so is he more blind who in his estimative complacential Love preferreth not Infinite Eternal Goodness before such an imperfect silly creature as himself or all the world We are commanded to love our Neighbour as our selves when God is to be loved with all the heart and soul and might which therefore signifieth more than to love him as our selves or else he were to be loved no more than our Neighbour So that the strong Christian loveth God so much above himself as that he accounteth himself and all his interests as nothing in comparison of God yea and loveth himself more for God than for himself Though his own salvation be loved and desired by him and God must be loved for his mercy and benignity yet that salvation it self which he desireth is nothing else but the love of God Wherein his love is the final felicitating act and God is the final felicitating object and the felicity of loving is not first desired but the attractive object doth draw out our love and thereby make us consequentially happy in the injoying exercise thereof Thus God is All and in all to the soul. Psal. 73.25 Rom. 11.36 1 Cor. 10.31 Deut. 6.5 Mat. 23.37 Mat. 19.17 2. A weak Christian also loveth God as one that is infinitely better than himself and all things or else he did not love him at all as God But in the exercise he is so much in the minding of himself and so seldom and weak in the contemplation of Gods perfections that he feeleth more of his love to himself than unto God and feeleth more of his love to God as for the Benefits which he receiveth in and by himself than as for his own perfections yea and often feeleth the love of himself to work more strongly than his Love to the Church and all else in the world The care of his own salvation is the highest principle which he ordinarily perceiveth in any great strength in him and he is very little and weakly carried out to the Love of the whole Church and to the Love of God above himself Phil. 2.20 21 22. 1 Cor. 10.24 Jer. 45.5 3. A seeming Christian hath a common Love of God as he is Good both in himself and unto the world and unto him But this is not for his Holyness and it is but a general uneffectual approbation and praise of God which followeth a dead uneffectual belief But his chiefest predominant Love is always to his Carnal self and the Love both of his soul and of God is subjected to his fleshly self-love His chiefest Love to God is for prospering him in the world and such as is subservient to his sensuality pride coveteousness presumption and false hopes Luke 18.21 22. 1 Joh. 2.15.2 Tim. 3.2 4. Joh. 12.43 Joh. 5.42 VII 1. A Christian indeed doth practically take this Love of God and the holy expressions of it to be the very life and top of his Religion and the very life and beauty and pleasure of his soul He makes it his work in the world and loveth himself complacentially but so far as he findeth in himself the Love of God And so far as he findeth himself without it he loatheth himself as an unlovely carkass And so far as his prayers and obedience are without it he looks on them but as unacceptable loathsome things And therefore he is taken up in the study of Redemption because he can no where so clearly see the Love and Loveliness of God as in the face of a Redeemer even in the wonders of Love revealed in Christ. And he studieth them that Love may kindle Love And therefore he delighteth in the contemplating of Gods attributes and infinite perfections and in the beholding of him in the frame of the Creation and reading his name in the book of his works that his soul may by such steps be raised in Love and Admiration of his Maker And as it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun or light so is it to the mind of the Christian indeed to be frequently and seriously contemplating the nature and glory of God And the exercise of Love in such contemplations is most of his daily walk with God And therefore it is also that he is more taken up in the exercises of thanksgiving and the Praises of the Almighty than in the lower parts of Godliness so that though he neglect not confession of sin and humiliation yet doth he use them but in subserviency to the Love and Praise of God He doth but rid out the filth that is undecent in a Heart that is to entertain its God He placeth not the chief part of his Religion in any outward duties nor in any lower preparatory acts Nor doth he stop in any of these however he neglect them not But he useth them all to advance his soul in the Love of God And useth them the more diligently because the Love of God to which they conduce as to their proper end is so high and exellent a work Therefore in Davids Psalms you find a heart delighting it self in the praises of God and in Love with his word and works in order
care for your state for all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs that is They too much seek their own and not entirely enough the things that are Christs which Timothy did naturally as if he had been born to it and Grace had made the Love of Christ and the souls of men and the good of others as naturall to him as the Love of himself Alas how lowdly do their own distempers and soul miscarriages and the divisions and calamities of the Church proclaim that the weaker sort of Christians have yet too much selfishness and that selfdenial is lamentably imperfect in them 3. But in the seeming Christian selfishness is still the predominant principle he loveth God but for himself and he never had any higher end than self All his Religion his opinions his practice is animated by self-love and governed by it even by the Love of carnal self self-esteem self-conceitedness self-love self-willedness self-seeking and self-saving are the constitution of his heart and life He will be of that opinion and way and party in Religion which selfishness directeth him to choose He will go no farther in Religion than self-interest and safety will allow him to go He can change his friend and turn his love into hatred and his praises into reproach when ever self-interest shall require it He can make himself believe and labour to make others believe that the wisest and holiest servants of God are erroneous homorous hypocrites and unsufferable if they do but stand cross to his opinions and interest For he judgeth of them and loveth or hateth them principally as they conform to his will and interest or as they are against it As the godly measure all persons and things by the will and interest of God so do all ungodly men esteem them as they stand in reference to themselves When their factious interest required it the Jews and specially the Pharisees could make themselves and others believe that the Son of God himself was a breaker of the Law and an enemy to Caesar and a blasphemer and unworthy to live on the earth And that Paul was a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among the people and a ringleader of a sect and a prophaner of the Temple Act. 24.5 6. and which of the Prophets and Apostles did they not persecute Because Christs doctrine doth cross the interest of selfish men therefore the world doth so generally rise up against it with indignation even as a Country will rise against an invading enemy For he cometh to take away that which is dearest to them As it is said of Luther that he medled with the Popes crown and the Fryars bellies and therefore no wonder if they swarmed all about his ears Selfishness is so generall and deeply rooted that except with a few self-denying Saints self-love and self-interest ruleth the world And if you would know how to please a graceless man serve but his carnal interest and you have done it Be of his opinion or take on you to be so applaud him admire him flatter him obey him promote his preferment honour and wealth be against his enemies in a word make him your God and sell your soul to gain his favour and so it 's possible you may gain it XVI 1. A Christian indeed hath so far mortified the flesh and brought all his senses and appetite into subjection to sanctified Reason as that there is no great rebellion or perturbation in his mind but a little matter a holy thought or a word from God doth presently rebuke and quiet his inordinate desires The flesh is as a well-broken and well-ridden horse that goeth on his journey obediently and quietly and not with striving and chasing and vexatious resisting Though still flesh will be flesh and will be weak and will fight against the spirit so that we cannot do all the good we would Isa. 5.17 Rom. 7.16 17 c. yet in the confirmed Christian it is so far tamed and subdued that its rebellion is much less and its resistance weaker and more easily overcome It causeth not any notable unevenness in his obedience nor blemishes in his life it is no other than consisteth with a readiness to obey the will of God Gal. 5.24 25. 1 Cor. 9.26 27. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof They run not as uncertainly they fight not as one that beateth the air but they keep under their bodies and bring them into subjection lest by any means they should be castawaies They put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.13 14. As we see to a temperate man how sweet and easie temperance is when to a glutton or drunkard or riotous liver it is exceeding hard so it is in all other points with a confirmed Christian. He hath so far crucified the flesh that it is as dead to its former lusts and so far mastered it that it doth easily and quickly yield And this maketh the life of such a Christian not only pure but very easie to him in comparison of other mens Nay more than this he can use his sense as he can use the world the objects of sense in subserviency to faith and his salvation His eye doth but open a window to his mind to hold and admire the Creator in his work His tast of the sweetness of the creatures is but a means by which the sweeter Love of God doth pass directly to his heart His sense of pleasure is but the passage of spiritual holy pleasure to his mind His sense of bitterness and pain is but the messenger to tell his heart of the bitterness and vexatiousness of sin As God in the creation of us made our senses but as the inlet and passage for himself into our minds even as he made all the creatures to represent him to us by this passage so grace doth restore our very senses with the creature to this their holy original use that the goodness of God through the goodness of the creature may pass to our hearts and be the effect and end of all 2. But for the weak Christian though he have mortified the deeds of the body by the spirit and live not after the flesh but be freed from its captivity or reign Gal. 5.24 Rom. 8.1 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. yet hath he such remnants of concupiscence and sensuality as make it a far harder matter to him to live in temperance and deny his appetite and govern his senses and restrain them from rebellion and excess He is like a weak man upon an ill-ridden headstrong horse who hath much ado to keep his saddle and keep his way He is stronglier inclined to fleshly lusts or excess in meat or drink or sleep or sports or some such fleshly pleasure than the mortified temperate person is and therefore is ofter guilty of some excess so that his life is a very tiresome
especially his opinions and distinct manner of worship are the chief of his discourse 3. And for the seeming Christian though he can affectedly force his tongue to talk of any subject in religion especially that which he thinks will most honour him in the esteem of the hearers yet when he speaketh according to the inclination of his heart his discourse is first about his fleshly interest and concernments and next to that of the meer externals of religion as controversies parties and the severall modes of worship XXXIX 1. A Christian indeed is one that so liveth upon the great sustantial matters of Religion as yet not willingly to commit the smallest sin nor to own the smallest falsehood nor to renounce or betray the smallest holy truth or duty for any price that man can offer him The works of Repentance Faith and Love are his daily business which take up his greatest care and diligence Whatever opinions or controversies are a foot his work is still the same whatever changes come his Religion changeth not He placeth not the Kingdom of God in meats and drinks and circumstances and ceremonies either being for them or against them but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ as he is acceptable to God so is he approved by such a Christian as this however factious persons may revile him Rom. 14.17 18 1 2 3 4 5 10. The strong Christian can bear the infirmities of the weak and not take the course that most pleaseth himself but that which pleaseth his neighbour for his good to edification Rom. 15.1 2 3. The essentials of Religion Faith and Love and obedience are as Bread and drink the substance of his food These he meditateth on and these he practiseth and according to these he esteemeth of others But yet no price can seem sufficient to him to buy his innocency Nor will he willfully sin and say it is a little one nor do evil that good may come by it nor offer to God the sacrifice of disobedient fools and then say I knew not that I did evil For he knoweth that God will rather have obedience than sacrifice and that disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft And he that breaketh one of the least commands and teacheth men so shall be called Least in the Kingdom of God And he that teacheth men to sin by the example of his own practice can little expect to turn them from sin by his better instructions and exhortations He that will deliberately sin in a small matter doth set but a small price on the favour of God and his salvation Willfull disobedience is odious to God how small soever the matter be about which it is committed Who can expect that he should stick at any sin when his temptation is great who will considerately commit the least especially if he will approve and justifie it Therefore the sound Christian will rather forsake his riches his liberty his reputation his friends and his country than his conscience and rather lay down libertie and life it self than choose to sin against his God as knowing that never man gained by his sin Rom. 3.8 Eccl. 5.2 1 Sam. 15.15 21 22 23. Mat. 5.19 The sin that Saul was rejected for seemed but a little thing nor the sin that Vzzah was slain for and the service of God even his sacrifice and his ark were the pretence for both The sin of the Bethshemites of Achan of Gebezi of Ananias and Saphira which had grievous punishments would seem but little things to us And it is a great aggravation of our sin to be chosen deliberate justified and fathered upon God and to pretend that we do it for his service for the worshiping of him or the doing good to others as if God would own and bless sinful means or needed a lie to his service or glory When he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal. 5.5 and requireth only the sacrifices of righteousness Psal. 4.5 He abhorreth sacrifice from polluted hands they are to him as the offering a dog and he will ask who hath required this at your hand see Psal. 50.8.4 Isa. 1.9 10 11 12. c. 58.1 2 3 4. c. Jer. 6.19.20 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 21.27 It is not pleasing to him all that eat thereof shall be polluted Ho. 9.4 See Isa. 66.1 2 3 4 5 6. The preaching the praying the sacraments of wilful sinners especially when they choose sin as necessary to his service are a scorn and mockery put upon the most Holy one As if your servant should set dung and carrion before you on your table for your food such offer Christ vinegar and gall to drink 2. In all this the weakest Christian that is sincere is of the same mind saving that in his ordinary course he useth to place too much of his Religion in controversies and parties and modes and ceremonies whether being for them or against them and allow too great a proportion in his thoughts and speech and zeal and practice and hindereth the growth of his grace by living upon less edifying things and turnning too much from the more substantial nutriment 3. And the seeming Christians are here of different wayes One sort of them place almost all their Religion in Pharisaical observation of little external ceremonial matters as their washings and fastings and tythings and formalities and the traditions of the Elders Or in their several opinions and wayes and parties which they call Being of the true Church As if their sect were all the Church But living to God in faith and love and in a Heavenly conversation and worshipping him in spirit and truth they are utterly unacquainted with The other sort are truly void of these essential parts of Christianity in the life and power as well as the former But yet being secretly resolved to take up no more of Christianity than will consist with their worldly prosperity and ends when any sin seemeth necessary to their preferment or safety in the world their way is to pretend their high esteem of greater matters for the swallowing of such a sin as an inconsiderable thing And then they extol those larger souls that live not upon circumstantials but upon the great and common truths and duties and pitty those men of narrow principles and spirits who by unnecessary scrupulosity make sin of that which is no sin and expose themselves to needless trouble And they would make themselves and others believe that it is their excellency and wisdom to be above such trifling scruples And all is because they never took God and Heaven for their All and therefore are resolved never to lose all for the hopes of Heaven and therefore to do that whatever it be which their worldly interest shall require and not to be of any religion that will undo them And three great pretences are effectual means in this their deceit One is
were done to himself Mat. 25. and hath commanded the strong to bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves Rom. 15.1 2 3. and to receive one another as Christ received us Rom. 15.7 and hath told those that offend but one of his little ones that it were good for that man that a milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18.6 and hath told him that suiteth his fellow servants that his Lord will come in a day when he looketh not for him and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24.48 49 50 51. I wonder what men would have Christ do to free himself and the Christian Religion from the imputation of the sins of the Hypocrites and the weak distempered Christians Would they have him yet make stricter Laws when they hate these for being so strict already Or would they have him condemn sinners to more grievous punishment when they are already offended at the severity of his threatnings O what an unrighteous generation are his enemies that blame the Law because men break it and blame Religion because many are not Religious enough As if the Sun must be hated because that shadows and dungeons do want light or Life and Health must be hated because many are sick and pained by their diseases But Christ will shortly stop all the mouths of these unreasonable men and O how easily will he justifie himself his Laws and all his holy waies when all iniquity shall be for ever silent And though it must needs be that offences come yet wo to the world because of offences and wo to the man by whom they come Mat. 18.7 Luke 17.1 The wrong that Christ receiveth from hypocrites and scandalous Christians of all ranks and places is not to be estimated These are the causes that Christianity and Godliness are so contemptible in the eyes of the world that Jews and Heathens and Mahometans are still unconverted and deriders of the Faith Because they see such scandalous tyranny and worship among the Papists and such scandalous lives among the greatest part of professed Christians in the world whereas if the Papal Tyranny were turned into the Christian Ministry Luke 22.25 26 27. and 1 Tim. 5.17 and their irrational sopperies and historical hypocritical worship were changed into a reverent rational and spiritual worship and the cruel carnal worldly lives of men called Christians were changed into Self-denial Love and Holiness In a word if Christians were Christians indeed and such as I have here described from their Rule what a powerfull means would it be of the conversion of all the unbelieving world Christianity would then be in the eye of the world as the Sun in its brightness and the glory of it would dazle the eyes of beholders and draw in millions to enquire after Christ who are now driven from him by the sins of Hypocrites and scandalous Believers And this doth not contradict what I said before of the Enmity of the world to Holiness and that the best are most abused by the ungodly For even this enmity must be rationally cured as by the errour of reason it is sed God useth by the power of intellectual light to bring all those out of darkness whom he saveth and so bringeth them from the power of Satan to himself Acts 26.18 Men hate not Holiness as Good but as misconceived to be evil Evil I say to them because it is opposite to the sensual pleasures which they take to be their chiefest good And the way of curing their enmity is by shewing them their errour and that is by shewing them the excellency and necessity of that which they unreasonably distaste Acts 26.9 10 11 14 19. Luke 15.13 14 15 16. Acts 2.36 37. VI. Lastly In these Characters you have some help in the work of Self-examination for the tryal both of the Truth and Strength of grace I suppose it will be objected that in other Treatises I have reduced all the infallible Marks of Grace to a smaller number To which I answer I still say that the predominancy or prevalency of the Interest of God as our God and Christ as our Saviour and the Spirit as our Sanctifier in the estimation of the Vnderstanding the Resolved Choice of the Will and the Government of the Life against all the worldly interest of the Flesh is the only infallible sign of a justified regenerate soul. But this whole hath many parts and it is abundance of particulars materially in which this sincerity is to be found Even all the sixty Characters which I have here named are animated by that one and contained in it And I think to the most the full description of a Christian in his essential and integral parts yet shewing which are indeed essential is the best way to acquaint them with the nature of Christianity and to help them in the tryal of themselves And as it were an abuse of Humane Nature for a Painter to draw the picture of a man without arms or legs or nose or eyes because he may be a man without them so would it have been in me to draw only a maimed picture of a Christian because a maimed Christian is a Christian. Yet because there are so many maimed Christians in the world I have also shewed you their lamentable defects not in a manner which tendeth to encourage them in their sins and wants under pretence of comforting them but in that manner which may best excite them to their duty in order to their recovery without destroying their necessary supporting comforts O happy Church and State and Family which are composed of such confirmed Christians where the predominate temperature is such as I have here described Yea happy is the place where Magistrates and Ministers are such who are the vital parts of State and Church and the instruments appointed to communicate these perfections to the rest But how much more happy is the New Jerusalem the City of the Living God where the perfected spirits of the just in Perfect Life and Light and Love are perfectly beholding and admiring and praising and pleasing the Eternal God their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier for ever where the least and meanest is greater and more perfect than the confirmed Christian here described And where Hypocrisie is utterly excluded and Imperfection ceaseth with scandal censures uncharitableness division and all its other sad effects And where the souls that thirsted after Righteousness shall be fully satisfied and Love God more than they can now desire and never grieve themselves or others with their wants or weaknesses or misdoings any more And O blessed day when our most Blessed Head shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels and shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that now believe whose weakness here occasioned his dishonour and their own contempt when
them against Heresies which indeed are all but novelties that so they may know how to try the Doctrines that afterward should be offered them and stick fast to that which the Apostles taught He next requireth them to abound therein to let them know that as it is no small matters that they expect by Christ so they should not rest in small degrees of Grace or duty but especially the duty of Thanksgiving which is an Evangelical and celestial duty and so admirably beseems a people that have partaked of such admirable Salvation and is so suitable to our mercies and our condition and Gods just expectation As it is Love and Grace whose eternal praise is designed by the Gospel and are magnified in the Church by the Redeemers great and blessed work So it is returns of Love and Praise and Joy that should be the most abounding or overflowing part of all our Christian affections and performances After this explication you may see that the sense of the Text lyeth plain in this Proposition Doct. Those that have savingly Received Christ Jesus the Lord must be so far from resting here as if all were done that they must spend the rest of their dayes in walking in him being Rooted and built up in him and stablished in the Faith as the Apostles taught it and abounding in it especially with joyful prayses to our Redeemer And because that my design is only to Direct young Christians how they may come to be established and confirmed in Christ I shall therefore pass over all other things that the full handling of this Text requireth and shall only give you 1. A short intimation here what this confirmation and stability is which shall be fullyer opened to you in the Directions 2. And shew you the need of seeking it And 3. How you may attain it 1. This Confirmation is the Habitual strength of Grace distinct from present actual confirmation by the influence of Grace from God For though God may in an instant confirm a weak person against some particular temptation by his free assistance yet that is not it which we have here to speak of but Habitual confirmation in a State of Grace And ordinarily we may expect that Gods co-operating assisting Grace should bear some proportion with our Habitual Grace Even as in nature he concurreth with the strongest men to do greater works than he causeth the weak to do and with the wisest men to understand more than the foolish do I say but that Ordinarily it is thus A Confirmed Christian as contrary to a weak one 1. Is not to be judged of by his freedome from all scruples doubts or fears 2. Nor by his eminency in mens esteem or observation 3. Nor by his strength of Memory 4. Or freedom of utterance in Praying Preaching or Discourse 5. Or by his seemly deportment and courtesy towards others 6. Nor by his sedate calm and lovely temper and freedom from some hast and heats which other tempers are more prone to 7. Nor by a Man-pleasing or dissembling faculty to bridle the tongue when it would open the corruption of the mind and to suppress all words which would make others know how bad the heart is There are many endowments laudable and desirable which will not shew so much as sincerity in Grace and much less a state of Confirmation and stability But Confirmation lyeth in the great degree of all those Graces which Constitute a Christian. And the great degree appeareth in the operations of them As 1. When Holiness is as a New-nature in us and giveth us a Promptitude to holy actions and maketh us free and ready to them and maketh them easie and familiar to us Whereas the weak go heavily and can scarce drive on and force their minds 2. When there is a constancy or frequency of holy actions which sheweth the strength and stability of holy inclinations 3. When they are powerful to bear down oppositions and temptations and can get over the greatest impediments in the way and make an advantage of all resistance and despise the most splendid baits of sin 4. When it is still getting ground and drawing the Soul upward and nearer to God its Rest and End And when the heart groweth more Heavenly and Divine and stranger to Earth and earthly things 5. And when holy and heavenly things are more sweet and delectable to the Soul and are sought and used with more Love and pleasure All these do shew that the Operations of Grace are vigorous and strong and consequently that the Habits are so also And this confirmation should be found 1. In the Vnderstanding 2. In the Will 3. In the Affections 4. In the Life 1. When the Mind of man hath a larger comprehension of the Truths of God and the Order and Method and Vsefulness of every truth And a deeper apprehension of the certainty of them and of the Goodness of the matter expressed in them When Knowledg and Faith come nearest unto sight or intention and we have the fullest the truest and the firmest and most certain apprehension of things revealed and unseen when the Nature and the Reasons and the ends and benefits of the Christian Religion are all most clearly orderly decently constantly and powerfully printed on the mind then is that Mind in a Confirmed state 2. When the Will is guided by such a confirmed understanding and is not bruitishly resolved he knoweth not for what or why When Light hath fixed it in such Resolutions as are past all notable doubtings deliberations waverings or unwilling backwardness and a man is in seeking God and his Salvation and avoiding known sin as a natural man is about the questions whether he should preserve his Life and make provision for it and whether he should poison or famish or torment himself When the Inclination of the Will to God and Heaven and Holiness are likest to its natural Inclination to Good as Good and to its own felicity And its action is so free as to have Least Indetermination and to be likest to Natural necessary acts as those are of blessed Spirits in Heaven When the least intimation from God prevaileth and the Will doth answer him with readiness and delight And when it taketh pleasure to trample upon all opposition and when all that can be offered to corrupt the heart and draw it to sin and loosen it from God prevaileth but as so much filth and dung would do Phil. 3.7 8 9. This is a confirmed state of Will 3. When the Affections do proceed from such a Will and are ready to assist excite and serve it and to carry us on in necessary Duties When the lower affections of Fear and sorrow do cleanse and restrain and prepare the way and the Higher Affections of Love and Delight adhere to God and Desire and Hope do make out after him and set the Soul on just endeavours When Fear and Grief have less to do and are delivering up the heart still more and more
is a high esteemer of the Unity of Christians and abhorreth the principles spirit and practises of Division 128 53. He seeketh the Churches unity and concord not upon partial unrighteous or impossible but upon the possible righteous terms here mentioned 139 54. He is of a mellow peaceable spirit not masterly domineering hurtfull unquiet or contentious 146 55. He highliest regardeth the interest of God and mens salvation in the world and regardeth no secular interest of his own or any mans but in subserviency thereto 152 56. He is usually hated for his Holiness by the wicked and censured for his Charity and Peaceableness by the factious and the weak and is moved by neither from the way of Truth 157 57. Though he abhor ungodly soul-destroying Ministers yet he reverenceth the Office as necessary to the Church and world and highly valueth the holy faithfull Labourers 159 58. He hath great Experience of the Providence Truth and Justice of God to fortifie him against temptations to Unbelief 161 59. Though he greatly desireth lively Affections and gifts yet he much more valueth the three Essential parts of holiness 1. A high estimation in the Understanding of God Christ Holiness and Heaven above all that be set in any competition 2. A resolved choice and adhesion of the Will to these above and against all competitors 3. The seeking them first in the endeavours of the life And by these be judgeth of the sincerity of his heart 162 60. He is all his life seriously preparing for his death as if it were at hand and is ready to receive the sentence with joy but especially he longeth for the blessed day of Christs appearing as the answer of all his desires and hopes 164 Six Uses of these Characters 170 THE CHARACTER OF 1 A Sound Confirmed Christian 2 And of the Weak Christian 3 And of the Seeming Christian. IN the Explication of the Text which I made the ground of the foregoing discourse I have shewed you that there is a Degree of Grace to be expected and sought after by all true Christians which putteth the Soul into a sound confirmed radicated state in comparison of that weak diseased tottering condition which most Christians now continue in And I have shewed you how desireable a state that is and what calamities follow the languishing unhealthfull state even of such as may be saved And indeed did we but rightly understand how deeply the errors and sins of many well-meaning Christians have wounded the interest of Religion in this age and how heynously they have dishonoured God and caused the enemies of holyness to blaspheme and hardened thousands in Popery and Ungodliness in probability to their perdition Had we well observed when Gods Judgements have begun and understood what sins have caused our Warres and Plagues and Flames and worse than all these our great heart-divisions and Church-distractions and convulsions we should ere this have given over the flattering of our selves and one another in such a Heaven-provoking state and the ostentation of that little goodness which hath been eclipsed by such lamentable evils And instead of these we should have betaken our selves to the exercise of such a serious deep Repentance as the quality of our sins and the greatness of Gods Chastisements do require It is a dolefull case to see how light many make of all the rest of their distempers when once they think that they have so much Grace and Mortification as is absolutely necessary to save their souls And expect that Preachers should say little to weak Christians but words of comfort setting forth their happiness And yet if one of them when he hath the Gout or Stone or Collick or Dropsie doth send for a Physitian he would think himself derided or abused if his Physitian instead of curing his disease should only comfort him by telling him that he is not dead What excellent disputations have Cicero and Seneca the Platonists and Stoicks to prove that Virtue is of it self sufficient to make Man happy And yet many Christians live as if Holiness were but the way and means to their felicity or at best but a small part of their felicity it self or as if felicity it self grew burdensome or were not desireable in this life or a small degree of it were as good as a greater And too many mistake the will of God and the nature of Sanctification and place their Religion in the hot prosecution of those mistakes They make a composition of error and passion and an unyielding stiffness in them and siding with the Church or party which maintaineth them and an uncharitable censuring those that are against them and an unpeaceable contending for them And this composition they mistake for Godliness especially if there be but a few drams of Godliness and Truth in the composition though corrupted and over-powered by the rest For these miscarriages of many well-meaning zealous persons the Land mourneth the Churches groan Kingdoms are disturbed by them Families are disquieted by them Godliness is hindered and much dishonoured by them the Wicked are hardened by them and encouraged to hate and blaspheme and oppose Religion the glory of the Christian Faith is obscured by them and the Infidel Mahometan and Heathen World are kept from Faith in Jesus Christ and many millions of Souls destroyed by them I mean by the miscarriages of the weaker sort of Christians and by the wicked lives of those carnal Hypocrites who for custome or worldly interest do profess that Christianity which was never received by their hearts And all this is much promoted by their indiscretion who are so intent upon the consolatory opening of the safety and happiness of Believers that they omit the due explication of their Description their Dangers and their Duties One part of this too much neglected work I have endeavoured to perform in the foregoing Treatise Another I shall attempt in this second Part There are five Degrees or ranks of true Christians observable 1. The Weakest Christians who have only the Essentials of Christianity or very little more As Infants that are alive but of little strength or use to others 2. Those that are lapsed into some wounding sin though not into a state of damnation Like men at age who have lost the use of some one member for the present though they are strong in other parts 3. Those that having the Integral parts of Christianity in a considerable measure are in a sound and healthfull state though neither perfect nor of the highest form or rank of Christians in this life nor without such infirmities as are the matter of their daily Watchfulness and Humiliation 4. Those that are so strong as to attain extraordinary degrees of grace who are therefore comparatively called Perfect as Mat. 5.45.5 Those that have an absolute Perfection without sin that is The Heavenly Inhabitants Among all these it is the third sort or degree which I have here characterized and upon the by the first sort and the Hypocrite
irrational creatures but at least it much imitateth Nature as it is found in Rational creatures where the Inclination is necessary but the Operations free and subject to Reason It is a spiritual appetite in the Rational appetite even the will and a spiritual visive disposition in the understanding Not a faculty in a faculty but the right disposition of the faculties to their highest objects to which they are by corruption made unsuitable So that it is neither a proper power in the Natural sense nor a meer act but neerest to the nature of a seminal disposition or habit It is the health and rectitude of the faculties of the Soul Even as Nature hath made the understanding disposed to Truth in generall and the will disposed or inclined to Good in generall and to self-preservation and felicity in particular so the Spirit of Christ doth dispose the understanding to spiritual truth to know God and the matters of salvation and doth incline the will to God and Holiness not blindly as they are unknown but to love and serve a known God So that whether this be properly or only analogically called A Nature or rather should be called a Habit I determine not but certainly it is a fixed Disposition and Inclination which Scripture calleth the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and the seed of God abiding in us 1 Joh. 3.9 But most usually it is called the Spirit of God or of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his 1 Cor. 12.13 By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body Therefore we are said to be in the Spirit and walk after the Spirit and by the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.1.9 13. And it is called the Spirit of the Son and the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father or are inclined to God as Children to their Father and the Spirit of grace and supplication Rom. 8.15.23.26 Gal. 4.6 5.17 18. Eph. 2.18 22. 4.3 4. Phil. 1.27 2.1 Zech. 12.10 From this Spirit and the fruits of it we are called New Creatures and quickened and made alive to God 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 2.15 Rom. 6.11 13. It is a great controversie whether this Holy disposition and inclination was Natural to Adam or not and consequently whether it be a restored nature in us or not It was so natural to him as Health is natural to the body but not so natural as to be a Necessitating Principle nor so as to be inseparable and unlosable 2. This same Spirit and holy inclination is in the weakest Christian also but in a small degree and remisly operating so as that the fleshly inclination oft seemeth to be the stronger when he judgeth by its passionate struglings within him Though indeed the Spirit of life doth not only strive but conquer in the main even in the weakest Christians Rom. 8 9. Gal. 5.17 18 19 20 21. 3. The seeming Christian hath only the uneffectual motions of the Spirit to a Holy Life and effectual motions and inward dispositions to some common duties of Religion And from these with the natural principles of self-love and common honesty with the outward perswasions of company and advantages his Religion is maintained without the Regeneration of the Spirit Joh. 3.6 V. From hence it followeth 1. That a Christian indeed doth not serve God for fear only but for love even for love both of himself and of his holy work and service Yea the strong Christians Love to God and Holiness is not only greater than his Love to Creatures but greater than his fear of wrath and punishment The Love of God constraineth him to duty 2 Cor. 5.14 Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 therefore the Gospel cannot be obeyed without it He saith not O that this were no duty and O that this forbidden thing were lawfull Though his Flesh say so the Spirit which is the predominant part doth not But he saith O how I love thy Law O that my wayes were so directed that I might keep thy statutes Psal. 119.5 For the spirit is willing even when the flesh is weak He serveth not God against his will but his will is to serve him more and better than he doth He longeth to be perfect and perfectly to do the will of God and taketh the remnant of his sinfull infirmities to be a kind of bondage to him which he groaneth to be delivered from To will even perfection is present with him though not perfectly and though he do not all that he willeth And this is the true meaning of Pauls complaints Rom. 7. Because the flesh warreth against the Spirit he cannot do the good that he would that is he cannot be perfect for so he would be Gal. 5.17 His love and will excells his practice 2. The weak Christian also hath more love to God and holiness than to the world and fleshly pleasure But yet his fear of punishment is greater than his Love to God and Holiness To have no Love to God is inconsistent with a state of Grace and so it is to have less love to God than to the world and less love to holiness than to sin But to have more Fear than Love is consistent with sincerity of Grace Yea the weak Christians love to God and Holiness is joyned with so much backwardness and aversness and interrupted with weariness and with the carnall allurements and diversions of the Creature that he cannot certainly perceive whether his love and willingness be sincere or not He goeth on in a course of duty but so heavily that he scarce knoweth whether his love or loathing of it be the greater He goeth to it as a sick man to his meat or labour All that he doth is with so much pain or undisposedness that to his feeling his aversness seemeth greater than his willingness were it not that necessity maketh him willing For the habitual love and complacency which he hath towards God and Duty is so oppressed by fear and by aversness that it is not so much felt in act as they 3. A seeming Christian hath no true Love of God and Holiness at all but some uneffectual liking and wishes which are overborn by a greater backwardness and by a greater love to earthly things so that Fear alone without any true effectual Love is the spring and principle of his Religion and obedience God hath not his heart when he draweth near him with his lips He doth more than he would do if he were not forced by Necessity and Fear and had rather be excused and lead another kind of life Mat. 15.8 Isa. 29.13 Though Necessity and fear are very helpfull to the most sincere yet Fear alone without Love or Willingness is a graceless state VI. 1. A Christian indeed doth love God in these three gradations He loveth him much for his mercy to himself and for that Goodness which consisteth in benignity to himself But he
to his praises Psal. 116.1 c. Psal. 106. 103. 145. 146. c. Rom. 8.37 2. The weak Christian is taken up but very little with the lively exercises of Love and Praise nor with any Studies higher than his own distempered heart The care of his poor soul and the complaining of his manifold infirmities and corruptions is the most of his Religion And if he set himself to the Praising of God or to Thanksgiving he is as dull and short in it as if it were not his proper work Psal. 77. Mar. 9.24 16.14 3. The seeming Christian liveth to the flesh and carnal self-love is the active principle of his life and he is neither exercised in Humiliation or in Praise sincerely being unacquainted both with holy Joy and Sorrow But knowing that he is in the hands of God to prosper or destroy him he will humble himself to him to escape his judgements and praise him with some gladness for the sunshine of prosperity and he will seem to be piously thanking God when he is but rejoycing in the accommodations of his flesh or strengthning his presumption and false hopes of heaven Luke 18.11 12.19 Isa. 58.2 VIII 1. A Christian indeed is one that is so apprehensive of his lost condition unworthyness and utter insufficiency for himself and of the office perfection and sufficiency of Christ that he hath absolutely put his soul and all his hopes into the hands of Christ and now liveth in him and upon him as having no Life but what he hath from Christ nor any other way of access to God or acceptance of his person or his service but by him In him he beholdeth and delightfully admireth the Love and goodness of the Father In him he hath access with boldness unto God Through him the most terrible avenging Judge is become a Reconciled God and he that we could not remember but with trembling is become the most desirable object of our thoughts He is delightfully employed in prying into the unsearchable mysterie And Christ doth even dwell in his heart by faith and being rooted and grounded in love he apprehendeth with all saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and knoweth the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.17 18 19. He perceiveth that he is daily beholden to Christ that he is not in hell that sin doth not make him like to Devills and that he is not utterly forsaken of God He feeleth that he is beholden to Christ for every hours time and every mercy to his soul or body and for all his hope of mercy in this life or in the life to come He perceiveth that he is dead in himself and that his life is hid with Christ in God And therefore he is as buryed and risen again with Christ even dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ. Rom. 6.3 4 11. Col. 4.4 He saith with Paul Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Thus doth he live as truly and constantly by the second Adam who is a quickning spirit as he doth by the first Adam who was a living soul. 1 Cor. 15.45 This is a confirmed Christians life 2. But the weak Christian though he be also united unto Christ and live by faith yet how languid are the operations of that faith How dark and dull are his thoughts of Christ How little is his sense of the wonders of Gods love revealed to the world in the mysterie of Redemption How little use doth he make of Christ And how little life receives he from him And how little comfort findeth he in believing in comparison of that which the confirmed find He is to Christ as a sick person to his food He only picketh here and there a little of the crums of the bread of life to keep him from dying but is wofully unacquainted with the powerfullest works of faith He is such a Believer as is next to an unbeliever and such a member of Christ as is next to a meer stranger 3. And for the seeming Christian he may understand the letter of the Gospel and number himself with Christs disciples and be baptized with water and have such a faith as is a dead opinion But he hath not an effectual living faith nor is baptized with the Holy Ghost nor is his soul engaged absolutely and entirely in the covenant of Christianity to his Redeemer He may have a handsome well-made image of Christianity but it is the flesh and sense and not Christ and faith by which his life is actuated and ordered Joh. 3.6 Rom. 2.28 IX 1. A Christian indeed doth firmly believe that Christ is a Teacher sent from God Joh. 3.2 and that he came from Heaven to reveal his Fathers will and to bring life and immortality more fully to light by his Gospel and that if an Angel had been sent to tell us of the life to come and the way thereto he had not been so credible and venerable a messenger as the Son of God And therefore he taketh him alone for his chief Teacher and knoweth no Master on Earth but him and such as he appointeth under him His study in the world is to know a crucified and glorified Christ and God by him and he regardeth no other knowledge nor useth any other studies but this and such as are subservient to this Even when he studieth the works of nature it is as by the conduct of the restorer of nature and as one help appointed him by Christ to lead him up to the knowledge of God And therefore he perceiveth that Christ is made of God unto us wisdom as well as Righteousness And that Christianity is the true Philosophy and that the wisdom of the world which is only about worldly things from worldly principles to a worldly end is foolishness with God He taketh nothing for wisdom which tendeth not to acquaint him more with God or lead him up to everlasting happiness Christ is his Teacher either by natural or supernatural revelation and God is his ultimate end in all his studies and all that he desireth to know in the world He valueth knowledge according to its usefulness And he knoweth that its chief use is to lead us to the love of God Math. 23.8 1 Cor. 1.30 2.2 c. Joh. 1.18 Col. 2.3 Eph. 4.13 2. Though the weak Christian hath the same Master yet alas how little doth he learn and how oft is he hearkning to the teaching of the flesh and how carnal and common is much of his knowledge How little doth he depend on Christ in his enquiries after the things of nature And how apt is he to think almost as highly of the teaching of Aristotle Plato Seneca or at least of some excellent preacher as of Christs and
fetcht from Heaven The interest of God and his soul as to eternity is the ruling interest in him As a traveller goeth all the way and beareth all the difficulties of it for the sake of the End or Place that he is going to how ever he may talk of many other matters by the way so is it with a Christian he knoweth nothing worthy of his life and labours but that which he hopeth for hereafter This world is too sinful and too vile and short to be his felicity His very trade and work in the world is to lay up a treasure in heaven Mat. 6.20 and to lay up a good foundation against the time to come and to lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.19 And therefore his very heart is there Mat. 6.21 and he is emploied in seeking and setting his affections on the things above Col. 3.1.2 3. And his conversation and trafick is in Heaven Phil. 3.20 21. He looketh not at the things which are seen which are temporal but at the things which are not seen which are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 He is a stranger upon earth and Heaven is to him as his home 2. The weak Christian also hath the same End and Hope and Motive and preferreth his hopes of the life to come before all the wealth and pleasures of this life But yet his thoughts of Heaven are much more strange and dull He hath so much doubting and fear yet mixed with his faith and hope that he looketh before him to his everlasting state with backwardness and trouble and with small desire and delight He hath so much hope of Heaven as to abate his fears of hell and make him think of eternity with more quietness than he could do if he found himself unregenerate But not so much as to make his thoughts of Heaven so free and sweet and frequent nor his desires after it so strong as the confirmed Christians are And therefore his duties and his speech of Heaven and his endeavours to obtain it are all more languid and unconstant And he is much proner to fall in love with earth and to entertain the motions of reconciliation to the world and to have his heart too much set upon some place or person or thing below and to be either delighted too much in the possession of it or afflicted and troubled too much with the loss of it Earthly things are too much the Motives of his life and the reasons of his joyes and griefs Though he hath the true belief of a life to come and it prevaileth in the main against the world yet it is but little that he useth it to the commanding and raising and comforting his soul in comparison of what a strong believer doth Mat. 16.22 23. 3. But the seeming Christian would serve God and Mammon and placeth his chief and certainest happiness practically upon earth Though speculatively he know and say that Heaven is better yet doth he not practically judge it to be so to him And therefore he loveth the world above it and he doth most carefully lay up a treasure on earth Mat. 6.19 and is resolved first to seek and secure his portion here below and yet he taketh Heaven for a reserve as knowing that he world will cast him off at last and dye he must there is no remedy and therefore he taketh heaven as next unto the best as his second hope as better than hell and will go in Religion as far as he can without the loss of his prosperity here so that earth and flesh do govern and command the design and tenor of his life But heaven and his soul shall have all that they can spare which may be enough to make him pass with men for eminently religious 1 Joh. 2.15 Mat. 13.22 Luke 18.22 23. Luk. 14 24 33. Ps. 17.14 Phil. 3.18 19 20. XIV 1. A Christian indeed is one that having taken heaven for his felicity doth account no labour or cost too great for the obtaining of it he hath nothing so dear to him in this world which he cannot spare and part with for God and the world to come He doth not only notionally know that nothing should seem too dear or hard for the securing of our salvation but he knoweth this practically and is resolved accordingly Though difficulties may hinder him in particular acts and his executions come not up to the height of his desires Rom. 7.16 17. c. yet he is resolved that he will never break on terms with Christ There is no duty so hard which he is not willing and resolved to perform and no sin so sweet or gainful which he is not willing to forsake He knoweth how unprofitable a bargain he makes who winneth the world and loseth his own soul and that no gain can ransome his soul or recompence him for the loss of his salvation Mar. 8.36 He knoweth that it is impossible to be a loser by God or to purchase heaven at too dear a rate he knoweth that whatsoever it cost him heaven will fully pay for all and that it is the worldlings labour and not the saints that is repented of at last He marvelleth more at distracted sinners for making such a stir for wealth and honours and command than they marvail at him for making so much a-doe for heaven He knoweth that this world may be too dear bought but so cannot his salvation yea he knoweth that even our duty it self is not our smallest priviledge and mercy And that the more we do for God the more we receive and the greater is our gain and honour and that the sufferings of believers for righteousness sake do not only prognosticate their joyes in heaven but occasion here the greatest joyes that any short of heaven partake of Mat. 5.11 12. Rom. 5.12 3 c. He is not one that desireth the end without the means and would be saved so it may be on cheap and easie terms But he absolutely yieldeth to the terms of Christ and saith with Austin Da quod jubes jube quod vis Cause me to do what thou commandest and command what thou wilt Though Pelagius contradicted the first sentence and the flesh the second yet Augustine owned both and so doth every true believer He greatly complaineth of his backwardness to obey but never complaineth of the strictness of the command He loveth the holiness justness and goodness of the Laws when he bewaileth the unholiness and badness of his heart He desireth not God to command him less but desireth grace and ability to do more He is so far from the mind of the ungodly world who cry out against too much holiness and making so much ado for heaven that he desireth even to reach to the degree of Angels and would fain have Gods will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven and therefore the more desireth to be in heaven that he may do it better Psal. 119.5 Rom. 7.24 2. The weak Christian hath the
to his spiritual ends Whether he eateth or drinketh or what ever he doth he doth all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 The posie engraven on his heart is the name of GOD with OF HIM and THROUGH HIM and TO HIM ARE ALL THINGS TO HIM BE GLORY FOR EVER AMEN Rom. 11.36 He liveth as a steward that useth not his own though yet he have a sufficient reward for his fidelity and he keepeth accounts both of his receivings and layings out and reckoneth all to be worse than lost which he findeth not expended on his Lords account For himself he asketh not that which is sweetest to the flesh but that which is fittest to his end and work And therefore desireth not Riches for himself but his daily bread and food convenient for him and having food and rayment is therewith content having taken godlyness for his gain he asketh not for superfluity nor any thing to consume it on his lusts nor to become provision for his flesh to satisfie the wills thereof But as a runner in his race desireth not any provisions which may hinder him and therefore forgetting the things which are behind the world which he hath turn'd his back upon he reacheth forth to the things which are before the crown of glory and presseth toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus not turning an eye to any thing that would stop him in his course Thus while he is employed about things below his mind and conversation is heavenly and divine while all things are estimated and used purely for God and Heaven Luk. 16.1 2. 1 Pet. 4.10 Tit. 1.15 Prov. 30.8 1 Tim. 6.8 1 Tim. 6.6 Jam. 4.3 Rom. 13.14 Phil. 3.13 14 15. 2. But the weak Christian though he have all this in desire and be thus affected and resolved in the main and liveth to God in the scope and course of his life yet is too often looking aside and valuing the creature carnally for it self and oft-times useth it for the pleasing of the flesh and almost like a common man his house and land and friends and pleasures are relished too carnally as his own accommodations and though he walk not after the flesh but after the spirit yet he hath too much of the fleshly taste and is greatly out in his accounts with God and turneth many a thing from his masters use to the service of the flesh and though he be not as the slothfull wicked servant yet is it but little improvement that he maketh of his talent Mat. 25.17 26 27 28. 3. But the seeming Christian being carnal and selfish while his notions and professions are spiritual and divine and his selfish and fleshly interest being predominant it must needs follow that he estimateth all things principally as they respect his fleshly interest and useth them principally for his carnal self even when in the manner he seemeth to use them most religiously as I have said before And so to the defiled nothing is pure Rom. 8.5 6 7 8 13. Tit. 1.15 XXII 1. A Christian indeed hath a promptitude to obey and a ready compliance of his will to the will of God He hath not any great averseness and withdrawing and doth not the good which he doth with much backwardness and striving against it but as in a well ordered watch or clock the spring or poise do easily set all the wheels a going and the first wheel easily moveth the rest so is the will of a confirmed Christian presently moved as soon as he knoweth the will of God He stayeth not for other moving Reasons Gods will is his Reason This is the Habit of subjection and obedience which makes him say speak Lord for thy servant heareth and Lord what wouldst thou have me do And Teach me to do thy will O God Psal. 143.10 1 Sam. 3.10 Act. 9.6 I delight to do thy will O God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal. 40.8 The Law written in our heart is nothing else but the knowledge of Gods Laws with this Habit or promptitude to obey them the special fruit of the spirit of grace 2. But a weak Christian though he love Gods will and way and be sincerely obedient to him yet in many particulars where his corruption contradicteth hath a great deal of backwardness and striving of the flesh against the spirit and there needs many words and many considerations and vehement perswasions yea and sharp afflictions sometimes to bring him to obey and he is fain to drive on his backward heart and hath frequent use for the rod and spurr and therefore is more slow and uneven in his obedience Gal. 5.17 3. The seeming Christian is forward in those easie cheaper parts of duty which serve to delude his carnal heart and quiet him in a worldly life but he is so backward to through sincere obedience in the most flesh-displeasing parts of duty that he is never brought to it at all but either he will fit his opinions in religion to his will and will not believe them to be duties or else he will do something like them in a superficial formal way but the thing it self he will not do For he is more obedient to his carnal mind and lusts than he is to God Rom. 8.6 7. And forwarder much to sacrifice than obedience Eccl. 5.1 XXIII 1. A Christian indeed doth daily delight himself in God and findeth more solid content and pleasure in his commands and promises than in all this world His duties are sweet to him and his hopes are sweeter Religion is not a tiresome task to him The yoak of Christ is easie to him and his burthen light and his commandments are not grievous Psal. 37.4 1.2 40.8 94.19 119.16.35.47.70 Mat. 11.28 29. Joh. 5.3 That which others take as Physick for meer necessity against their wills he goeth to as a feast with appetite and delight He prayeth because he loveth to pray and he thinks and speaks of holy things because he loveth to do it And hence it is that he is so much in holy dutie and so unwearied because he loveth it and taketh pleasure in it As voluptuous persons are oft and long at their sports or merry company because they love them and take pleasure in them so are such Christians oft and long in holy exercises because their hearts are set upon them as their recreation and the way and means of their felicity If it be a delight to a studious man to read those books which most clearly open the abstrusest mysteries of the sciences or to converse with the most wise and learned men and if it be a delight to men to converse with their dearest friends or to hear from them and read their letters no marvel if it be a delight to a Christian indeed to read the Gospel mysteries of Love and to find there the promises of everlasting happiness and to see in the face of Jesus Christ the clearest Image of the
grounds of comfort and when they cannot raise their souls to any high and passionate joys they yet walk in a settled peace of soul and in such competent comforts as make their lives to be easie and delightful being well pleased and contented with the happy condition that Christ hath brought them to and thankful that he left them not in those foolish vain pernicious pleasures which were the way to endless sorrows 3. But the seeming Christian seeketh and taketh up his chief contentment in some carnal thing If he be so poor and miserable as to have nothing in possession that can much delight him he will hope for better dayes hereafter and that hope shall be his chief delight or if he have no such hope he will be without delight and shew his love to the world and flesh by mourning for that which he cannot have as others do in rejoycing in what they do possess and he will in such a desperate case of misery be such to the world as the weak Christian is to God who hath a mourning and desiring love when he cannot reach to an enjoying and delighting Love His carnal mind most savoureth the things of the flesh and therefore in them he findeth or seeketh his chief delights Though yet he may have also a delight in his superficiall kind of Religion his hearing and reading praying in his ill-grounded hopes of life eternal But all this is but subordinate to his chiefest earthly pleasure Isai. 58.2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my waies as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God they ask of me the ordinances of justice they take delight in approaching unto God And yet all this was subjected to a covetous oppressing mind Mat. 13.20 He that received the seed into stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended Whereby it appeareth that his love to the word was subjected to his love to the world Obj. But there are two sorts of people that seem to have no fleshly delights at all and yet are not in the way to salvation viz. the Quakers and Behmenists that live in great austerity and some of the Religious orders of the Papists who afflict their flesh Answ. Some of them undergo their fastings and pennance for a day that they may sin the more quietly all the week after And some of them proudly comfort themselves with the fancies and conceit of being and appearing more excellent in austerity than others And all these take up with a carnal sort of pleasure As proud persons are pleased with their own or others conceits of their beauty or witt or worldly greatness so prouder persons are pleased with their own and others conceits of their holiness And verily they have their reward Mat. 6.2 But those of them that place their chiefest happiness in the love of God and the eternal fruition of him in heaven and seek this sincerely according to their helps and power though they are mislead into some superstitious errors I hope I may number with those that are sincere for all their errors and the ill effects of them XXIV 1. A confirmed Christian doth ordinarily discern the sincerity of his own heart and consequently hath some well grounded assurance of the pardon of his sins and of the favour of God and of his everlasting happiness And therefore no wonder if he live a peaceable and joyfull life For his grace is not so small as to be undiscernable nor is it as a sleepy buried seed or principle but it is almost in continual act And they that have a great degree of grace and also keep it in lively exercise do seldom doubt of it Besides that they blot not their Evidence by so many infirmities and falls They are more in the light and have more acquaintance with themselves and more sense of the abundant love of God and of his exceeding mercies than weak Christians have and therefore must needs have more assurance They have boldness of access to the throne of grace without unreverent contempt Eph. 3.12 2.18 They have more of the spirit of Adoption and therefore more child-like confidence in God and can call him Father with greater freedom and comfort than any others can Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 Eph. 1.6 1 Joh. 5.19 20. And we know that we are of God and that the whole world lyeth in wickedness c. 2. But the weak Christian hath so small a degree of grace and so much corruption and his grace is so little in act and his sin so much that he seldom if ever attaineth to any well-grounded assurance till he attain to a greater measure of grace He differeth so little from the seeming Christian that neither himself nor others do certainly discern the difference When he searcheth after the truth of his faith and love and heavenly mindedness he findeth so much unbelief and aversness from God and earthly mindedness that he cannot be certain which of them is predominant and whether the interest of this world or that to come do bear the sway So that he is often in perplexities and fears and more often in a dull uncertainty And if he seem at any time to have assurance it is usually but an ill-grounded perswasion of the truth though it be true which he apprehendeth when he taketh himself to be the child of God yet it is upon unfound reasons that he judgeth so or else upon sound reasons weakly and uncertainly discerned so that there is commonly much of security presumption fancie or mistake in his greatest comforts He is not yet in a condition fit for full assurance till his love and obedience be more full 3. But the seeming Christian cannot possibly in that estate have either certainty or good probability that he is a child of God because it is not true His seeming certainty is meerly self-deceit and his greatest confidence is but presumption because the spirit of Christ is not within him and therefore he is certainly none of his Rom. 8.9 XXV 1. The Assurance of a confirmed Christian doth increase his alacrity and diligence in duty and is alwayes seen in his more obedient holy fruitful life The sense of the love and mercy of God is as the rain upon the tender grass He is never so fruitful so thankful so heavenly as when he hath the greatest certainty that he shall be saved The Love of God is then shed abroad upon his heart by the Holy Ghost which maketh him abound in love to God Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. He is the more stedfast unmoveable and alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord when he is most certain that his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 2. But the weak Christian is unfit
yet to manage assurance well and therefore it is that it is not given him Graces must grow proportionably together If he be but confidently perswaded that he is justified and shall be saved he is very apt to gather some consequence from it that tendeth to security and to the remitting of his watchfulness and care He is ready to be the bolder with sin and stretch his conscience and omit some duties and take more fleshly liberty and ease and think Now I am a child of God I am out of danger I am sure I cannot totally fall away And though his judgement conclude not therefore I may venture further upon worldly fleshly pleasures and need not be so strict and diligent as I was yet his heart and practice thus conclude And he is most obedient when he is most in fear of hell and he is worst in his heart and life when he is most confident that all his danger is past Heb. 4.1 2. 3.14 15.16 3. But the seeming Christian though he have no assurance is hardned in his carnal state by his presumption Had he but assurance to be saved without a holy life he would cast off that very image of godliness which he yet retaineth The conceit of his own sincerity and salvation is that which deludeth and undoeth him What sin would not gain or pleasure draw him to commit if he were but sure to be forgiven It is fear of hell that causeth that seeming religion which he hath And therefore if that fear be gone all is gone and all his piety and diligence and righteousness is come to nought Gal. 6.3 Joh. 8.39 42 44. XXVI 1. For all his assurance a confirmed Christian is so well acquainted with his manifold imperfections and daily failings and great unworthiness that he is very low and vile in his owne eyes and therefore can easily endure to be low and vile in the eyes of others He hath a constant sense of the burden of his remaining sin Especially he doth even abhor himself when he findeth the averseness of his heart to God and how little he knoweth of him and how little he loveth him in comparison of what he ought and how little of Heaven is upon his heart and how strange and backward his thoughts are to the life to come These are as fetters upon his soul He daily groaneth under them as a captive that he should be yet so carnal and unable to shake off the remnant of his infimities as if he were sold under sin that is in bondage to it Rom. 7.14 He hateth himself more for the imperfections of his love and obedience to God than hypocrites do for their reigning sin And O how he longeth for the day of his deliverance Rom. 7.24 He thinketh it no great injury for another to judge of him as he judgeth of himself even to be less than the least of all Gods mercies He is more troubled for being over praised and overvalued than for being dispraised and vilified as thinking those that praise him are more mistaken and lay the more dangerous snare for his soul. For he hath a special antipathy to pride and wondreth that any rational man can be so blind as not to see enough to humble him For his own part in the midst of all Gods graces he seeth in himself so much darkness imperfection corruption and want of further grace that he is loathsom and burdensom continually to himself If you see him sad or troubled and ask him the cause it is ten to one but it is himself that he complaineth of The frowardest wife the most undutiful child the most disobedient servant the most injurious neighbour the most malicious enemy is not half so great a trouble to him as he is to himself He prayeth abundantly more against his own corruption than against any of these O could he but know and love God more and be more in heaven and willinger to die and freer from his own distempers how easily could he bear all crosses or injuries from others He came to Christs school as a little child Mat. 18.3 And still he is little in his own esteem And therefore disesteem and contempt from others is no great matter with him He thinks it can be no great wrong that is done against so poor a worm and so unworthy a sinner as himself except as God or the souls of men may be interested in the cause He heartily approveth of the justice of God in abhorring the proud and hath learned that Rom. 12.10 in honour preferring one another and Gal. 5.26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another 2. But the remnant of Pride is usually the most notable sin of the weak Christian Though it reigneth not it souly blemisheth him He would fain be taken for some body in the Church He is ready to step up into a higher room and to think himself wiser and better than he is If he can but speak confidently of the principles of Religion and some few controversies which he hath made himself sick with he is ready to think himself fit to be a preacher He looketh through a magnifying glass upon all his own performances and gifts He loveth to be valued and praised He can hardly bear to be slighted and dispraised but is ready to think hardly of those that do it if not to hate them in some degree He loveth not to be found fault with though it be necessary to his amendment And though all this vice of pride be not so predominant in him as to conquer his humility yet doth it much obscure and interrupt it And though he hate this his pride and strive against it and lamenteth it before God yet still it is the forest ulcer in his soul And should it prevail and overcome him he would be abhorred of God and it would be his ruine 2 Chro. 16.10 12. Luk. 22.24 25 26. 3. But in the Hypocrite Pride is the reigning sin The praise of men is the aire which he liveth in He was never well acquainted with himself and never felt aright the burden of his sins and wants and therefore cannot bear contempt from others Indeed if his corrupt disposition turn most to the way of coveteousness tyranny or lust he can the easier bear contempt from others as long as he hath his will at home and he can spare their love if he can be but feared and domineer But still his Pride is predominant and when it affecteth not much the reputation of goodness it affecteth the name of being rich or great Sin may make him sordid but grace doth not make him humble Pride is the vital spirit of the corrupted state of man XXVII 1. A confirmed Christian is acquainted with the deceitfulness of mans heart and the particular corrupt inclinations that are in it and especially with his own and he is acquainted with the wiles and methods of the tempter and what are the materials which he maketh his
fear the Lord and that he keepeth all the tears of his servants till the reckoning day And if judgement begin at the house of God and the righteous be saved through so much suffering and labour what then shall be their end that obey not the Gospel and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.17 18. Eccl. 8.12 Prov. 11.31 13.6 Psal. 56.8 Deut. 32.35 Jam. 5.9 2. And the weak Christian is one that will forsake all for the sake of Christ and suffer with him that he may be glorified with him and will take his treasure in heaven for all Luk. 14.26 33. Luk. 18.22 But he doth it not with that easiness and alacrity and joy as the confirmed Christian doth He hearkens more to the flesh which saith favour thy self suffering is much more grievous to him And sometimes he is wavering before he can bring himself fully to resolve and let go all Mat. 16.22 3. But the seeming Christian looketh not for much suffering He reads of it in the Gospel but he saw no probability of it and never believed that he should be called to it in any notable degree He thought it probable that he might well escape it And therefore though he agreed verbally to take Christ for better and worse and to follow him through sufferings he thought he would never put him to it And indeed his heart is secretly resolved that he will never be undone in the world for Christ Some reparable loss he may undergo but he will not let go life and all He will still be religious and hope for heaven But he will make himself believe and others if he can that the Truth lieth on the safer side and not on the suffering side and that it is but for their own conceits and scrupulosity that other men suffer who go beyond him and that many good men are of his opinion and therefore he may be good also in the same opinion though he would never have been of that opinion if it had not been necessary to his escaping of sufferings what flourish soever he maketh for a time when persecution ariseth he is offended and withereth Mat. 13.21 6. Unless he be so deeply engaged among the suffering party that he cannot come off without perpetual reproach and then perhaps Pride will make him suffer more than the belief of heaven oâ— the love of Christ could do And all this is because his very belief is unrooted and unsound and he hath secretly at the heart a fear that if he should suffer death for Christ he should be a loser by him and he would not reward him according to his promise with everlasting life Heb. 3.12 XXIX 1. A Christian indeed is one that followeth not Christ for company nor holdeth his belief in trust upon the credit of any in the world and therefore he would stick to Christ if all that he knoweth or converseth with should forsake him If the Rulers of the Earth should change their religion and turn against Christ he would not forsake him If the multitude of the people turn against him nay if the professors of Godliness should fall off yet would he stand his ground and be still the same If the learnedest men and the Pastors of the Church should turn from Christ he would not forsake him Yea if his nearest relations and friends or even that Minister that was the means of his conversion should change their minds and forsake the truth and turn from Christ or a holy life he would yet be constant and be still the same And what Peter resolved on he would truly practise Mat. 26 33 35. Though all men should be offended because of thee yet would not I be offended Though I should die with thee yet will I not deny thee And if he thought himself as Elias did left alone yet would he not how the knee to Baal Rom. 11.3 If he hear that this eminent Minister falleth off one day and the other another day till all be gone yet still the foundation of God standeth sure he falleth not because he is built upon the rock Mat. 7.22 23. His heart saith Alas whither shall I go if I go from Christ Is there any other that hath the word and spirit of eternal life Can I be a gainer if I lose my soul Joh. 6.67 68. Mat. 16.26 He useth his Teachers to bring him that light and evidence of truth which dwelleth in him when they are gone And therefore though they fall away he falleth not with them 2. And the weakest Christian believeth with a Divine faith of his own and dependeth more on God than man But yet if he should be put to so great a tryal as to see all the Pastors and Christians that he knoweth change their minds I know not what he would do For though God will uphold all his own whom he will save yet he doth it by means and outward helps together with his internal grace and keepeth them from temptations when he will deliver them from the evil And therefore it is a doubt whether there be not degrees of grace so weak as would fail in case the strongest temptations were permitted to assault them A strong man can stand and go of himself but an infant must be carried and the same and sick must have others to support them The weak Christian falleth if his Teacher or most esteemed company fall If they run into an error sect or schisme he keeps them company He groweth cold if he have not warming company He forgeteth himself and letteth loose his sense and passion if he have not some to watch over him and warn him No man should refuse the help of others that can have it and the best have need of all Gods means But the weak Christian needeth them much more than the strong and is much less able to stand without them Luk. 22.32 Gal. 2.11 12 13 14. 3. But the seeming Christian is built upon the sand and therefore cannot stand a storm He is a Christian more for company or he credit of man or the interest that others have in him or the encouragement of the times than from a firm Belief and love of Christ and therefore falleth when his props are gone Mat. 7.24 XXX 1. A strong Christian can digest the hardest Truths and the hardest works of Providence He seeth more of the reason and evidence of truths than others And he hath usually a more comprehensive knowledge and can reconcile those truths which short sighted persons suspect to be inconsistent and contradictory And when he cannot reconcile them he knoweth they are reconcileable For he hath laid his foundation well and then he reduceth other truths to that and buildeth them on it And so he doth by the hardest Providences Whoever is high or low whoever prospereth or is afflicted however humane affairs are carried and all things seem to go against the Church and cause of Christ he knoweth yet that God is good to Israel Psal.
power to make restitution and saith as Zacheus Luk. 19.8 If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him four-fold Though flesh and blood perswade him to the contrary and though it leave him in want he will pay his debts and make restitution of that which is ill gotten as being none of his own He will not sell for as much as he can get but for as much as it is truly worth He will not take advantage of the weakness or ignorance or necessity of his neighbour He knoweth that a false ballance is abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight Prov. 11.1 He is afraid of believing ill reports and rebuketh the backbiter Prov. 25.23 He is apt to take part with any man behind his back who is not notoriously inexcusable not to justifie any evil but to shew his charity and his hatred of evil speaking especially where it can do no good He will not believe evil of another till the evidence do compell him to believe it If he have wronged any by incautelous words he readily confesseth his fault to him and asketh him forgiveness and is ready to make any just satisfaction for any wrong that he hath done He borroweth not when he seeth not a great probability that he is like to pay it Nor will remain in debt by retaining that which is another mans against his will without an absolute necessity Rom. 13.8 Owe no man any thing but to love one another For to borrow when he cannot pay is but to steal Begging is better than borrowing for such Psal. 37.21 The wicked borroweth and payeth not 2. And the weak Christian maketh conscience of Justice as well as acts of piety as knowing that God hath no need of our Sacrifices but loveth to see us do that which is good for humane society and which we have need of from each other But yet he hath more selfishness and partiality than the confirmed Christian hath and therefore is often overcome by temptations to unrighteous things As to stretch his Conscience for his commodity in buying or selling and concealing the faults of what he selleth and sometimes over-reaching others Especially he is ordinarily too censorious of others and apt to be credulous of evil reports and to be overbold and forward in speaking ill of men behind their backs and without a call especially against persons that differ from him in matters of Religion where he is usually most unjust and apt to go beyond his bounds Jam. 3.15 16. Tit. 3.2 Eph. 4.31 1 Pet. 2.1 3. The seeming Christian may have a seeming Justice But really he hath none but what must give place to his fleshly interest and if his honour and commodity and safety require it he will not stick to be unjust And that Justice which wanteth but a strong temptation to overturn it is almost as bad as none If he will not seize on Naboths Vineyard nor make himself odious by oppression or deceit yet if he can raise or enrich himself by secret consenage and get so fair a pretence for his injustice as shall cloak the matter from the fight of men he seldom sticketh at it It is an easie matter to make an Achan think that he doth no harm or a Gebazi think that he wrongeth no man in taking that which was offered and due Covetousness will not confess its name but will find some Reasonings to make good all the injustice which it doth 1 Tim. 6.5 2 King 5.19 20. XLVI 1. A Christian indeed is faithfull and laborious in his particular calling and that not out of a covetous minde but in obedience to God and that he may maintain his Family and be able to do good to others For God hath said In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread Gen. 3.19 And six dayes shalt thou labour Exod. 20.10 And with quietness men must work and eat their own bread and if any will not work neither should he eat 2 Thess. 3.10 11 12. Abraham and Noah and Adam laboured in a constant course of imployment He knoweth that a sanctified calling and labour is a help and not a hinderance to devotion and that the body must have work as well as the soul and that Religion must not be pretended for slothfull idleness nor against obedience to our Masters will Prov. 31. 2. The weak Christian is here more easily deceived and made believe that Religion will excuse a man from bodily labour and under the colour of devotion to live idly 2 Thess. 3.8 1 Tim. 5.13 They learn to be idle wandering about from house to house and not only idle but tatlers also and busie-bodies speaking things which they ought not Slothfulness is a sin much condemned in the Scriptures Ezek. 16.49 Prov. 24.30 18.9 21.25 Mat. 25.26 Rom. 12.11 3. The seeming Christian in his labour is ruled chiefly by his flesh If he be rich and it incline him most to sloth he maketh small conscience of living in idleness under the pretence of his Gentility or wealth But if the flesh incline him more to Covetousness he will be laborious enough but it shall not be to please God by obedience but to increase his Estate and enrich himself and his Posterity whatever better reason he pretend XLVII 1. A Christian indeed is exactly conscionable in the dutyes of his relation to others in the family and place of his abode If he be a husband he is loving and patient and faithfull to his wife If he be a father he is carefull of the holy education of his children If he be a Master he is just and mercifull to his servants and carefull for the saving of their souls If he be a childe or servant he is obedient trusty diligent and carefull as well behind his Parents or his Masters back as before his face He dare not lie nor steal nor deceive nor neglect his duty nor speak dishonourably of his Superiors though he were sure he could conceal it all For he knoweth that the fifth Commandement is enforced with a special Promise Eph. 6.2.5.9 And that a bad Childe or a bad Servant a bad Husband or Wife a bad Parent or Master cannot be a good Christian Col. 3.18 19 c. 4.1 1 Pet. 2.18 2. But weak Christians though sincere are ordinarily weak in this part of their duty and apt to yield to temptations and carry themselves proudly stubbornly idly disobediently as eye-servants that are good in sight or to be unmercifull to inferiours and neglecters of their souls And to excuse all this from the faults of those that they have to do with and lay all upon others as if the fault of husband wife parent master or servant would justifie them in theirs and passion and partiality would serve for innocency 3. And the Hypocrite ordinarily sheweth his hypocrisies by being false in his relations to man while he pretendeth to be pious and obedient unto God He is a bad master
shall be overcome by his own successes and the just shall conquer by patience when they seem most conquered The name and form and image of Religion the carnal hypocrite doth not only bear but favour and himself accept But the Life and serious practice he abhorreth as inconsistent with his worldly interest and ends For these he can find in his heart with Ahab to hate and imprison Micaiah and preferr his four hundred flattering Prophets 1 King 22.6 8 24 27. If Luther will touch the Popes Crown and the Fryers Bellies they will not scruple to Oppose and ruine both him and all such Preachers in the World if they were able John 11.48.50 Acts 5.28 LVI 1. A Christian indeed is one whose Holiness usually maketh him an eyesore to the ungodly world and his charity and peaceableness and moderation maketh him to be censured as not strict enough by the superstitious and dividing sects of Christians For seeing the Church hath suffered between these two sorts of opposers ever since the suffering of Christ himself it cannot be but the solid Christian offend them both because he hath that which both dislike All the ungodly hate him for his holiness which is cross to their interest and way and all the Dividers will censure him for that universal charity and moderation which is against their factious and destroying zeal described Jam. 3. Even Christ himself was not strict enough in superstitious observances for the ceremonious zealous Pharisees He transgressed with his Disciples the tradition of the Elders in neglecting their observances who transgressed the commandment of God by their tradition Matth. 15.2 3. He was not strict enough in their uncharitable observation of the Sabbath day Matth. 12.2 John that was eminent for falling they said had a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking and they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners But wisdom is justified of her Children Mat. 11.18 19. And the weak Christians Rom. 14.1 2 3. did censure those that durst eat those meats and do those things which they conceived to be unlawful They that erre themselves and make God a Service which he never appointed will censure all as lukewarm or temporizers or wide conscienced men that erre not with them and place not their Religion in such superstitious observances as Touch not taste not handle not c. Col. 2.18 21 22 23. And the raw censorious Christians are offended with the Charitable Christian because he damneth not as many and as readily as they and shutteth not enow out of the number of believers and judgeth not rigorously enough of their wayes In a word he is taken by one sort to be too strict and by the other to be too complyant or indifferent in Religion because he placeth not the Kingdom of God in meats and dayes and such like circumstances but in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.15 16 17. And as Paul withstood Peter to his face for drawing men to make scruple or conscience of things lawful Gal. 2.11 12 13. so is the sound Christian withstood by the superstitious for not making scruple of lawful things 2. And the weak Christian is in the same case so long as he followeth prudent pious charitable guides But if he be taken in the snares of superstition he pleaseth the superstitious party though he displease the World 3. And whereas the solid Christian will not stir an inch from truth and duty to escape either the hatred of the wicked or the bitterest censures of the Sectary or the weak the Hypocrite must needs have one party on his side For if both condemn him and neither applaud him he loseth his peculiar reward Matth. 6.2 5. 23.5 6 7 8. LVII 1. The confirmed Christian doth understand the necessary of a faithful Ministry for the safety of the weak as well as the conversion of the wicked and for the preservation of the interest of Religion upon earth And therefore no personal unworthiness of Ministers nor any calumnies of enemies can make him think or speak dishonourably of that sacred office But he reverenceth it as instituted by Christ and though he loaths the sottishness and wickedness of those that run before they are sent and are utterly insufficient or ungodly and take it up for a Living or Trade only as they would a common work and are Sons of Belial that know not the Lord and cause the offering of the Lard to be abhorred 1 Sam. 2.2 17. Yet no such temptation shall overthrow his reverence to the office which is the Ordinance of Christ much less will he be unthankful to those that are able and faithful in their office and labour instantly for the good of souls as willing to spend and be spent for their Salvation When the World abuseth and derideth and injureth them he is one that honoureth them both for their work and masters sake and the experience which he hath had of the blessing of God on their labours to himself For he knoweth that the smiting of the Shepheards is but the devils ancient way for the scattering of the flock Though he knoweth that if the salt have lost its savour it is good for nothing neither fit for the land nor yet for the dung-hill but men cast it out and it 's trodden under foot he that hath ears to hear let him hear Luk. 14.34 35. Mat. 5.13 14. Yet he also knoweth that he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward Matth. 10.41 42. And that he that receiveth them receiveth Christ and he that despiseth them that are sent by him despiseth him Luk. 10.16 He therefore readily obeyeth those commands Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as those that must give account 1 Thes. 5.12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in Love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine 2. But though the weak Christian be of the same mind so far as he is sanctified yet is he much more easily tempted into a wrangling censoriousness against his Teachers though they be never so able and holy men and by seducers may be drawn to oppose them or speak contemptuously of them as the Galathians did of Paul and some of the Corinthians accounting him as their Enemy for telling them the truth when lately they would have pluckt out their eyes to do him good Gal. 4.15 16. 3. But the Hypocrite is most easily engaged against them either when they grate upon the guilt of his bosome sin or open his hypocrisie or plainly cross him in his carnal interest or else when his
Pride hath conquered his Sobriety and engaged him in some Sect or erroneous way which his Teachers are against and would reduce him from Joh. 6.66 Mark 5.27 2 Chron. 25.16 LVIII 1. A Christian indeed is one that hath stored up such manifold experience of the fulfilling of Gods promises and the bearing of prayers and of the goodness of his holy waies as will greatly fortifie him against all temptations to Infidelity Apostasie or Distrust No one hath stronger temptations usually than he and no one is so well furnished with weapons to resist them The arguments of most others are fetcht out of their Books only but he hath moreover a life of experiences to confirm his faith and so hath the witness in himself He hath tryed and found that in God in holiness in faith in prayer which will never suffer him to forsake them Yea it is like that he hath upon record some such wonders in the answer of prayers as might do much to silence an Infidel himself I am sure many Christians have had such strange appearances of the extraordinary hand of God that hath done much to destroy the remnants of their own unbelief Psal. 66.16 2. But the Experiences of the younger weaker Christians are much shorter and less serviceable to their faith And they have not judgement enough to understand and make use of the dealings of God but are ready to plead his providences unto evil ends and consequences and to take their own passionate imaginations for the workings of the Spirit It is ordinary with them to say This or that was set upon my heart or spoken to me as if it had been some divine inspiration when it was nothing but the troubled workings of a weak distempered brain and it is their own fantasie and heart that saith that to them which they think the Spirit of God within them said Heb. 5.11 12 13. 2 Thes. 2.21 John 4.1 1 Tim. 4.1 1 Cor. 12.10 Jer. 23.28.27.32 29.8 3. And the Hypocrite wanteth those establishing Experiments of the power of the Gospel and the hearing of prayers and fulfilling of promises and communion with Christ in the spirit And therefore he is the more open to the power of temptations and a subtil disputer will easilier corrupt him and carry him away to flat Apostasie For he wanteth the Root and Witness in himself Mat. 13.21 22 1 John 5.10 Heb. 6.6 7 8. Luk. 8.13 LIX 1. A Christian indeed is one that highly valueth sanctified affections and passions that all he doth may be done as lively as possibly he can And also holy abilities for expression But he much more valueth the three great essential constant parts of the new creature within him that is 1. A high estimation of God and Christ and Heaven and Holiness in his understanding above all that can be set in any competition 2. A resolved choice and adhesion of the Will by which he preferreth God and Christ and Heaven and Holiness above all that can be set against them and is fixedly resolved here to place his happiness and his hopes 3. The main drift and endeavours of his Life in which he seeketh first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Mat. 6.33.9.20.21 In these three his Highest estimation his Resolved choice and complacencies and his Chief endeavours he taketh his standing constant evidences of his sincerity to consist And by these he tryeth himself as to his state and not by the passionate feelings or affections of his heart nor by his memory or gifts or orderly thinking of expression And it is these Rational operations of his Soul in which he knoweth that Holiness doth principally consist and therefore he most laboureth to be strong in these 1. To ground his Judgement well 2. And to resolve to fix his Will 3. And to order his Conversation aright Psal. 50.23 Yet highly valuing sensible Affections and gifts of utterance but in subserviency to those which are the vital acts 1 Cor. 13. Rom. 7.18 19 c. 6.16 22. Rom. 8.13 Jam. 2. Col. 1.9 3.16 2. But the weak Christian usually placeth most of his religion in the more affectionate and expressive part He striveth more with his heart for passionate apprehensions than for complacency and fixed resolution He is often in doubt of his sincerity when he wanteth the feeling affectionate workings which he desireth c. thinketh he hath no more grace than that he hath sensibility of expressive gifts And so as he buildeth his comfort upon these unconstant signs his comforts are accordingly unconstant sometime he thinketh he hath grace when his body or other advantages do help the excitation of his lively affections And when the dulness of his body or other impediments hinder this he questioneth his grace again because he understandeth not aright the nature and chiefest acts of grace 3. The Hypocrite hath neither the Rational nor the Passionate part in Sincerity But he may go much further in the latter than in the former A quick and passionate nature though unsanctified may be brought to shed more tears and express more fervour than many a holy person can Especially upon the excitation of some quickning Sermon or some sharp affliction or great conviction or at the approach of death Few of the most holy persons can constantly retain so lively fervent passionate repentings and desires and resolutions to amend as some carnal persons have in sickness The power of fear alone doth make them more earnest that Love maketh many a gracious soul. But when the fear is over they are the same again How oft have I heard a sick man most vehemently profess his resolutions for a holy life which all have come to nothing afterwards How oft have I heard a common drunkard with tears cry out against himself for his sin and yet go on in it And how many gracious persons have I known whose judgements and wills have been groundedly resolved for God and holiness and their lives have been holy fruitfull and obedient who yet could not shed a tear for sin nor feel any very great sorrows or joys If you judge of a man by his earnestness in some good moods and not by the constant tenor of his life you will think many an Hypocrite to be better than most Saints Who would have thought that had seen him only in that fit but that Saul had been a penitent man when he lift up his voice and wept and said to David Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evil 1 Sam. 24.16 17 18 19 20 21. A smaller matter will raise some sudden passions than will renew the soul and give the preheminence to God and Holiness and Heaven in the Judgement Will and Conversation Hos. 6.4 13.3 Isa. 58.2 Mat. 13.20 LX. 1. A Christian indeed confirmed in Grace is one that maketh it the business of his life to prepare for death and delayeth not his serious thoughts of it and preparations