so great a people as was committed to his charge God was so well pleased with his petition that he gave him wisdome and wealth and honour too Make this Use of it Let us consider what relation we stand in in what ranck God hath set us let us consider what good we are advantaged to do by the place we are in what helps we have to do it and what mischiefs and inconveniences may come and let every man in his place and standing consider what good he may do and what evil he may avoid and let us go to God for wisdome He that is a Magistrate let him do as Solomon did desire God above all things to give him wisdome to rule as he should that God would give him a publick heart for a publick place and he will do it And those that in their families would have wisdome to go in and out before them let them go to God for wisdome that they may avoid the snares that are incident to family-government distrustfulnesse worldlinesse unfaithfulnesse in their particular calling And so for personal wisdome to guide and manage our own persons let us desire wisdome of God to know the hidden abominations of our own hearts the deceits and subtilties of our own hearts which is out of measure deceitful To know our particular sins to know what hurts us and to know how to avoid it and how to carry our selves in our particular wayes to order our conversation aright every way We see here S. Paul led his life and conversation by that wisdome as it was needfull for him so he had it and we must go all to the same spring for it we must go to God And we must know that God will not onely make us wise to salvation that he will not onely give us wisdome in things that meerly concern heaven but the same love the same care that gives us wisdome that way will give us wisdome in our particular callings to take every step to heaven the same Spirit of God doth all He gives us grace necessary to salvation and he gives us grace likewise for the leading of a Christian life Therefore it is an abominable conceit to distinguish Religion from Policy and Government as if the reasons of Religion were one and the reasons of State were another and as if these were distinguished one against another it is an abominable Atheistical conceit for the same heavenly Spirit of God that reveales the mysteries of salvation reaveales likewise to men the mysteries of State Christ hath the keyes of heaven of the mysteries of God and he hath the keyes of all earthly policy whatsoever He hath the greater hath he not the lesse Doth he guide us by his Spirit in heavenly mysteries and then for matters of Policy and Government of States and Common-Wealths are we to be guided by the Devil by devillish carnal wisdome No he gives all wisdome in its due place even wisdome for common things Therefore consider when men will not be ruled by God by wisdome from above in the regiment and government of their lives how fearfully and shamefully they miscarry Partly by reason of the accidents of this life and the variety of businesse You know wisdome as it governs our life about the things of this world it deales with things unstable uncertain and vain as Solomon saith they continue not long in the same state therefore if a man have not a better wisdome then his own he shall be mightily to seek Partly because of the imperfection of his wisdome the things are imperfect and the wisdome without it be guided from heaven is much to seek oft-times Take the wisest man when he leaves heavenly wisdome once as we see in Solomon he thinks to strengthen himself by combination with Idolaters that were near to him did he not miscarry fouly And hath not God made the wisest man that ever were in the world exemplary for grosse miscarriages because they had too much confidence in their parts and neglected the guidance of God in the course of their lives Who was more fool then Achitophel who was a greater fool then Saul and then Heâ—…od The Emperours had great conceits Constantine the Great a good Christian Emperour he had a conceit if he could stablish a new Seat at Bizantium Constantinople it was called afterwards He would seat the Empire there he would rule Rome by a Vice Roy by another and he would be there himself and rule all the Eastern parts of the world A goodly conceit he had of it but this proved the ruine both of East and West For hereupon when he was absent from Rome the Pope of Rome he came up and grew by little and little The Emperours they thought they did a great matter to advance the Pope who was Christs Vicar a spiritual man they consulted with Carnal wisdome and he came and over-topped them and eat them out and out-grew them as the Ivie doth the tree that nourisheth it The Pope never left growing till he had over-topped them So men when they go to carnal wisdome and neglect prayer and neglect the counsel of God and the wisdome of God to guide them in the matters of this life as well as for the life to come they come to miscarry grosly Therefore let us take S. James his counsel We all lack wisdome let us every day beg it of God desire God every day that he would Make our way plain before u in our particular goings in and out that he would discover to us what is best And here I might take occasion to reprove sharply the Atheisme of many that would be accounted great States men that bring all Religion to reasons of State They bring Heaven under earth and clean subvert and overthrow the order of things and therefore no wonder if they miscarry They care not what Religion it be so it may stand with Peace whether it be false or true if it may stand with the peace of the State all is well Give me leave to touch it but in a word It is a most abominable conceit Religion is not a thing so alterable Religion is a commanding thing it is to command all other things and all other things serve that And it is not a matter of fancy and opinion as they think out of their atheisme to keep men in awe It is stablished upon the same ground as that there is a God that upon the same ground that we say God is upon the same ground we may say Religion is It teacheth us that that God is to be observed and that Christ is equal to him as God and inferiour to him in regard of his humanity c. So that there is the same ground that there is a God and that there is a Religion And so again by the same reason that there is one God by the same reason there is but one Religion And it is not any Religion that will serve the turn For
atheisme how can these men hope for favour from God when he hath sealed his Word with this that as he is true and truth it self his Word is true they shall never enter into heaven So again if this be true that God is true and his Word thereupon is not yea and nay it serves to comfort us many wayes When we are oppressed in the sense of sin If we confesse our sins he is merciful to forgive our sins he that is true hath said it whose Word is not yea and nay but yea trust to it If we doubt of perseverance for the time to come he that hath begun a good work will perfect it to the day of the Lord. He is yea and his Word is yea he is true and his Word is true Again hence for our judgment we learn this truth That the Word of God hath the same ground of truth as God himself therefore it is the Judge of all Controversies of all things questionable in Religion the Word of God is Judge because it is not yea and nay but yea and it is true as God is true And it is Judge of this controversie too whether it be the Word of God The question between the Papists and us is whether the Epistles and the Prophets be the Word of God or no whether is it or no I answer from Apostolical testimony S. Paul saith As God is true his Word is true the true Word of God and All Scripture is given by inspiration The Word of God therefore is the Judge of all Divine truths because it is most certain even as certain as God himself What are the properties of a chief Judge He must be true without errour authentical without appeal such as can from himself without a higher determine He must be infallible without perill of errour All these belong to Gods truth It is yea it is true without errour it is alway yea And then it is authenticall there is nothing higher but God himself whose Word it is and it hath the same authority that himself hath As God is true so it is true It is authenticall without all appeal we cannot go higher then God himself in his Word We cannot call God or Christ from heaven he hath left us his VVord and therefore it is to be credited of it self And it is infallibly true without danger of errour one depends upon another As God is true so our Word is true If God be true infallibly this issues by consequence that the Scripture is the Judge and infallibly true without danger of errour Hence we may know what to judge of that Romish assertion There are no other Judges in the world can be said to be yea alway Councels are not alway yea they are yea and nay what one Councell hath set down another hath reversed In the Councel of Basile the Pope was above the Councel In another Councel that is above the Pope So one Popes decrees thwart another The Popes are yea and nay and not yea for many hundred years they laboured to crosse and thwart one another So Councels and Popes are yea and nay and not alway yea Traditions of the Fathers are yea and nay and not alway yea they thwart themselves S. Austin the best of the Fathers to whom the Church is most chiefly beholding of all the rest he was yea and nay Doth he not retract He wrote a book of Retractations of his former opinions then he was yea and nay and yet a holy man That which is the Judge of controversies must be yea that is infallibly true authentically true that there be not a higher From all others from Fathers and Councels there may be appeal to Scripture but from Scripture to none because it is the Voice and Word of God All things else are yea and nay they are changeable and they may be so without prejudice to the being of them A Councell may be a good Councel and unconstant in many things Fathers may be holy Fathers and uncertain it is onely the prerogative of God to be infallible like himself unchangeable in his nature and his Word is like himself Hence likewise issues this That whatsoever agrees not with the Word of God which is not yea and nay is false and naught Therefore those opinions of the Church of Rome that say they cannot erre if they be not yea with this yea then they are not yea for onely the Word of God is not yea and nay but onely yea that is onely certain and true All other Religions that are not Divine are yea and nay Popery is not grounded upon the Word of God because it is yea and nay that is it is uncertain See how they crosse many wayes this Word of God that is alwayes yea and true as God himself is true Is it yea that they saw no Image of God and therefore they must make and worship no Image Nay saith the Church of Rome they have a nay for this yea they will make Images and worship them the Image of Mary and other Saints Yea saith the Scripture drink ye all of this Nay saith the Church of Rome they have a nay for this yea only the Priest must drink the wine Let the Word dwell plenteously in you is the yea of Scripture The Church of Rome hath a nay for this yea it is dangerous for the people to read the Scripture and therefore they are forbidden it VVe must pray with the understanding as well as with a good affection 1 Cor. 14. that is we must know how we pray it is proved at large excellently Nay understand or not understand so the intention be good saith Rome pray in Latine or howsoever there is their nay to this yea Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers is the yea of Gods Book therefore the soules of the Clergy and whosoever The Church of Rome hath a nay for this yea therefore their doctrine is bad for only God is true and his VVord is only not yea and nay but alway yea infallible therefore that which is contrary to it must needs be false If onely yea be true then that which is contrary to it must needs be false And likewise again if Gods VVord be not yea and nay that is not unconstant then whatsoever is unconstant and thwarts it self in contradictions is not Gods VVord Popery is full of inconstancy full of contradictions to it self First besides inconstancy and uncertainty it is full of contradictions it is yea and nay for a body to be in many places at once and yet a true body to be in a hundred in a million of places at once as they would have Christs body to be in the Sacrament here is to be and not to be a body and no body for it hath not the properties and quantity of a body for a body can be but in one place at one time here is yea and nay For Christ to be a perfect
that upstart Religion that hath been devised for their own ends for their own profit because it would bring us under a curse They would have us to trust to our own works in matter of salvation to trust to our own satisfaction to be freed from Purgatorie c. They would have us to trust to creatures to something besides God to trust in the mediation of Saints to be our intercessors c. And what doth this false trust it breeds despair at length What is the reason that a well advised Papist that knowes what he doth cannot but despair or else renounce Popery Because Popery carries the soul to false props in matter of Justification they renounce their own Religion at the hour of death as Bellarmine did they live by one Religion and die by another which would not be if their Religion were good For their hearts tell them that they have not done so many works that they may trust in them and they have not been so well done that they may trust in them It is a dangerous thing Cursed is he that trusts in man or in any thing in man Nay we must not trust our own graces as they are in our selves not by way of merit no not by way of strength we must not trust our present graces to carrie us out without new supply to further us It was Peters fault Though all men deny thee yet will not I he trusted to his present strength he forgot that if he had not a new supply from the spring of grace that he should miserably miscarry and so he died All our righteousnesse to trust to it it is a broken reed It is somewhat if we place it in the due place to give us evidence that we are true Christians but to trust in it by way of merit the Divell will pick so many holes in that kind of title and conscience will see so many flawes in it if we bring no better title then either the holinesse in us or the works from us the Divell and our own conscience will spie so many flawes and cracks in it at the time of Death that we shall not dare to trust in it but we must run out of our selves to Christ or else we die in desperation Let us know these things all things but God the more we know them the lesse we trust in them but it is clean contrary of God the more we know him the more we shall trust in hm the more we meditate and enlarge our hearts in the consideration of his divine essence every way the more we shall trust in him They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal. 9. Let us trust in no outward thing No not in the humanity of Christ I add that further we are very prone to trust in things sensible and the Apostles because Christ was present with them and comfortable among them as indeed he was sweet and loving bearing with their infirmities and incouraging them upon all occasions O they were loath to part with him he tells them that he must leave them but they should not fare the worse he would send them the Comforter The flesh it self profits nothing without the Godhead saith he Trust not in the Sacraments above their place It is a dangerous thing to put too much in any creature God is extreamly offended at it as not onely our adversaries the Papists but proud persons among us that are weary of the doctrine of the Church and will not submit in their pride to riper judgments they attribute too much to the Sacraments as some others do too little they attribute a presence there they make it an Idol they give it such reverence as they will not do to God himself and from a false conceit Oh there is I know not what presence Therefore the Lutherans must needs in a great degree be Idolaters by their Consubstantiation and the Papists by their Transubstantiation by their reall presence Coster saith and saith truly If Christ be not there we are the greatest Idolaters in the world But there is a more subtile kind of attributing to the Sacraments that alway God gives grace with the Sacraments the Sacraments convey grace alway as a plaister it hath a kind of power to eat out the dead flesh and as Physick hath a power to carry away the ill humours so the conveying of Grace is included in the Sacraments so they tie Gods Grace to these things Indeed there is grace by them though not in them God gives grace to the humble receiver but otherwise to him that comes not with an humble believing heart they are seals to a blanck there is no validity in them All the good use they have is to strengthen faith and if there be not something before to be strengthened and confirmed and assured they are but seals to a blanck It is in these things according to our faith and according to our preparation and then God in the holy and humble and faithful use of them blesseth his own ordinance for the increase and confirming of our faith and for the increase and strengthening of all grace So that there is not any thing in the Church but the proud naughty heart of man will take hurt by it rather then submit to the pure and powerful truth of God it will have by-wayes to have Confidence in the flesh one way or other And many men rather then they will trust to sound repentance and humiliation for sin they will trust to the words of absolution without it and when are they said go to hell with a pardon about their necks The false heart will trust to outward things though it be damned for it In their place they are good if they be used onely as helps in their kind We lay more weight upon outward things upon the Sacraments and upon the words of the Minister then they will bear and never care for the inward powerful work of grace Everything of God is excellent in their order and kind but our corrupt hearts bring an ill report upon the things You see then it is a dangerous disposition to trust any too much it is to Idolize them and to wrong God to take the honour from God it is to hurt our selves and bring our selves under a curse and to wrong the things themselves to bring an evil report upon the things It is universally true you shall never see a false bitter heart that will not stoop to Gods plain truth they will have by-wayes of their own but in some measure or other they are barren of greater matters and given up to some sensible bitternesse to self-conceitednesse and self-confidence they are alway punished in that kind with a spiritual kind of punishment We must take heed therefore of trusting too much eo any thing but God himself God is jealous of our trust he will have us trust in nothing but himself in matters of salvation no not in matters of common life
all the truth at all times except he be called to it in judgement c. Otherwise truth as all good actions it is never good but when it is seasonable and then it is seasonable when there is convenient furniture of circumstances when a man is called to it For there may be a reservation a man is not bound to speak all things at all times but to waite for a fit time One word in a fit time is worth a thousand out of time but mentall reservation to speak one thing and to reserve another it is absurd and inconsequent and so is dissimulation there is a lie in fact a mans life is a lie that is a dissembler dissimulation is naught A man may sometimes make some shew to do something that he intends not Christ made as though he would have gone further when he did not mean it but dissimulation is that which is intrinsically naught But some man will say Except I dissemble I shall run into danger Well it is not necessary for thee to live but it is necessary for thee to live like an honest man and keep a good conscience that is necessary For come what will upon true dealing we ought to deal truly and not dissemble Those that pretend a necessity they must do it they cannot live else they cannot avoid danger else unlesse they dissemble saith Tertullian very well There is no necessity of sin to them upon whom there lies no other necessity but not to sin Christians they are men that have no necessity lies upon them but not to sin It is not necessary they should be rich it is not necessary they should be poor it is not necessary they should have their freedom and liberty there is no necessity lies upon them but that they be good that they do not sin Can he pretend I must sin upon necessity who hath no necessity imposed upon him by God but to avoid all sin As for lying which is against this simplicity that should be in speech all kinds of lies officious lies or pernicious lies officious lies to do a good turn to help our selves or others with a lie it is a giosse sin It is condemned by St. Austin in a whole Book which he wrote against lying therefore I passe it I shall have occasion to speak somewhat of it afterward It is intrinsically ill every lie because it is contrary to the hint of speech God hath made our reason and understanding to frame speech and speech to be the Messenger and Interpreter of reason and of the conceit now when speech shall be a false Messenger it is contrary to the gift of speech speech should be the stream of understanding and reason now when the fountain is one and the spring is another there is a contradiction it is against nature so it is intrinsically ill It is not onely against the will of God but it is against the Image of God which is in truth It is ill not by inconvenience or by inconsequence but a pernicious lie is inwardly ill jesting lies pernicious lies officious lies all lies let them be what they will they come from the father of lies the Divel and are hated of God who is truth it self Besides that it is a sin opposite to society and therefore by Gods just judgment it is punished by societie all men hate a lyar a false dissembler as an enemy to society as a man that offends against that bond whereby God hath knit men together Now to move us the better to this simplicity this direct course of life that there may be a conformity and harmony between the outward and inward man in the thoughts speeches and actions that they may be one Consider first of all that this simplicity it is a comely thing comelinesse and seemlinesse it is a thing that is delightful to the eyes of God and to a mans own conscience and it stands in onenesse and proportion for you know where there is a comely proportion there all things suite in one As in a comely body the head and all the rest of the members are suitable there is not a young green head upon an old body or a fair face on a deformed body for then there is two the body is one and the complexion another Beauty and comelinesse is in one when there is a correspondency a proportion and harmony in the parts In Revel 13. you have a cruel beast there with the horns of a Lamb there is two there is a goodly pretention and shew but there is a beast that is hid within Dissimulation is double where there is singlenesse and doublenesse there is deformity alway It is an ugly thing in the eyes of God it is a mishapen thing it is a Monster Jacob's voice and Esau's hands words as smooth as oyl and war in the heart It is a monstrous thing Even as there be Monsters in nature so there be in disposition Where there is such a grosse mixture the Devil and an Angel of light outwardly an Angel of light and inwardly a Devil to hide a Devil in the shape of an Angel of light there is a horrible deformity It is a comely thing therefore when all things hold conformity and correspondence in our lives when they are even amongst men when we labour to have sanctified judgments of things and speak what is our judgment and have outward expressions answerable to the inward impressions wrought by the Spirit of God every way then a man is like himself he is one there is not a heart and a heart Adam at the first was every way like himself but after falling from God to the creature the changeable corruptible creature to have his corruptible end he fell to this doublenesse And as S. James saith A double-minded man is unconstant in all his waies That is another reason to move us to simplicity of disposition for where doubling is a man is unconstant in all his waies What doth S. James mean by this where he saith A double-minded man is unsettled Because a double-minded man he looks with one eye to Religion and to those things that are good and with another part of his heart to the world and hereupon he can never be settled any way Why Because having unsettled intentions having false aimes double aimes he will be crossed continually Please God he would he would be Religious that is one intention but now comes the world and Religion to dash one against another and then he must be inconstant because he hath not simplicity he hath not a single eye as Christ saith If the eye be single then the body is light He hath not a right intention a right judgment of things he judgeth too high of the world and not high enough of grace and goodnesse And hereupon it comes that when the world comes to crosse his good intentions having his mind on earthly things because it is crosse to Religion his mind
them and makes them grow more afterward and recover their former backwardnesse A true Christian is alway on the mending hand An hypocrite growes worse and worse alway till he be uncased altogether and turned into hell These and such like considerations may stirre us up to labour to have a conversation in simplicity and godly sincerity Now how shall we come to carry our selves in sincerity that we may have comfort in all estates That we may carry our selves in sincerity First we must get a change of heart our nature must be changed for by nature a man aimes at himself in all things and not at God A man makes himself his last end he makes something in the world either profits or pleasures c. the term that he looks unto therefore there must be a change of heart a man must be a good man or else he cannot be a sincere man Such as we are such our actions will be therefore we cannot be sincere till we have our hearts changed No man can aim at Gods glory but he that hath felt Gods love in himself therefore as a particular branch of that labour to get assurance of the love of God in Jesus Christ for how can we endeavour to please him unlesse we love him and how can we love him unlesse we be perswaded that he loves us in Christ Therefore let us stablish our hearts more and more in the Evidences of his love to us and then knowing that he loves us we shall love him and labour to please him in all things These are grounds that must be laid before we can be sincere to get assurance of Gods love to us in the pardon of our sins Our conscience must be purged from dead works to serve the living God as the Apostle saith that is we cannot serve God to our comfort till our consciences are sprinkled with the blood of Christ which assures us of the pardon of our sins Therefore saith Zachary We are redeemed that we might serve him in righteousnesse and holinesse before him all the dayes of our life So that unlesse a man be redeemed he cannot serve him in righteousnesse and holinesse before him all the daies of his life that is he cannot serve God in sincerity For who will labour to please his enemy Therefore the Papists maintain hypocrisie when they say we ought not to be perswaded of the love of God for then we ought to be hypocrites for how shall we seek him with the losse of favour and of credit and of life it self if we know not that his favour will stand us in stead if we lose these things for him Again that we may be sincere let us labour to mortifie all our earthly affections to the world for how can we be sincere when we seek for honours and pleasures and riches and not for better things Therefore we must know that there is more good to be had in truth in a down-right Christian profession then in all worldly good whatsoever And if we be hypocrites in our profession there is more ill in that then in any thing in the world This will make us sincere when we can be perswaded that we shall get better things by being sincere in Religion then the world can give us or take away from us For why are men insincere and false-hearted Because they think not Religion to be the true good they think it is better to have riches then to have a good mind these things therefore must be mortified and a man must know that the life of a Christian is incomparably the best life though it be with losse of liberty yea with the losse of life it self Simon Magus grew to false affections in Religion because he thought to have profit by it So the Pharisees they had naughty hearts and therefore they had no good by Religion No man can profit by Religion so long as his heart is naught so long as there is some Idol in his heart A good Christian had rather have a large heart to serve God and rather grow in the Image of God to be like him then to grow in any thing in the world and that makes him sincere out of a good judgment because Christian excellency is the best excellency incomparably For he knowes well what all else will be ere long what will all do good riches honours friends what good will they do in the hour of death There is nothing but grace and the expression of it in the whole conversation that will comfort us therefore he undervalues all things in the world to sincerity and a good conscience Again that we may have our conversation in sincerity let us labour in every thing we do to approve our selves to the eye of God We see the Scripture every where shewes that this hath made Gods Children consciencious in all their courses even when they might have sinned not only securely but with advantage What kept Joseph from committing folly with his Mistresse Shall I do this and sin against God Gen. 39. And so Job in chap 31. he shewes what awed and kept him from ill doing in vers 3. Doth not he see my wayes and account all my steps this was it that kept him in awe So the Church of God Psal. 44. being in great distresse they kept themselves from Idolatry and from the contagion of the times wherein they lived upon what ground you shall see in vers 21. If we had done thus and thus shall not God search it out for he knowes the very secrets of the heart So a Christian being perswaded of the eye of God upon him it makes him sincere The eye of God being Ten thousand times brighter then the Sun he being light it self he made the heart and he knowes all the turnings of the heart The consideration of this will make us sincere in our closets in our very thoughts for they all lie naked and open to his view What is the reason that men practise secret villainy secret wickednesse and give themselves to speculative filthinesse because they are atheists they forget that they are in the eye of God who sees the plots and projects of their hearts and the nets that they have laid for their brethren Therefore David brings them in saying Tush God sees us not And that is the reason they are unconscionable in their desires in their hearts in their secret thoughts It is from a hidden Atheisme For if we did consider that the eye of God sees us in all our intents and actions and sees us in what manner we do all and to what end that he sees every action with the circumstances the aimes and ends if the heart did well ponder this it would prevent a great deal of evil Conscience is the witnesse of our conversation a witnesse that will keep us from offending If there were a witnesse by and that witnesse were a great person a Judge c. it would keep us in our
good behaviour Now when a man shall consider I have a witnesse within me my conscience and a witnesse without which is God who is my Judge who can strike me dead in the committing of a sin if he please this would make men if they were not atheists to fear to sin Let us labour therefore to approve our hearts to God as well as our conversations to men set our selves in the presence of God who is a discerner of our thoughts as well as of our actions and that which we should be ashamed to do before men let us be afraid to think before God that is another means to come to sincerity Another Direction to help us to walk sincerely is especially to look to the heart look to the beginning to the spring of all our desires thoughts affections and actions that is the heart the qualification of that is the qualification of the man If the heart be naught the man is naught if that be sincere the man is sincere Therefore look to the heart see what springs out thence if there spring out naughty thoughts and desires suppresse them in the beginning Let us examine every thought if we find that we do but think an evil thought execute it presently crush it for all that is naught comes from a thought and desire at the first therefore let us look to our thoughts and desires see if we have not false desires and intents and thoughts answerable God is a Spirit and he looks to our very spirits and what we are in our spirits in our hearts and affections that we are to him Therefore as a branch of this what ill we shun let us do it from the heart by hating it first A man may avoid an evil action from fear or out of other respects but that is not sincerity Therefore look to thy heart see that thou hate evil and let it come from sincere looking to God Ye that love the Lord hate the thing that is evil saith David not only avoid it but hate it and not onely hate it but hate it out of love to God And that which is good not only to do it but to labour to delight and joy in it For the outward action is not the thing that is regarded but when there is a resolution a desire and delight in it then God accounts it as done And so it is in evil if we delight in evil it is as if it were done already Therefore in doing good look to the heart joy in the good you do and then do it and in evil look to the heart judge it to be evil and then abstain from it This is the reason of all the errours in our lives because we have bad hearts we look not to God in sincerity Judas had a naughty heart he loved not the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore he had a naughty conclusion What the heart doth not is not done in Religion Thus we see how we may come to have our conversation in sincerity that we may rejoyce in the testimony of our conscience Therefore now to make an Use of Exhortation we should labour for sincerity and esteem highly of it because God so esteems of it Truth is all that we can alledge to God we cannot alledge perfection St. Paul himself saith not I have walked exactly or perfectly no but he saith This is our rejoycing that we have walked in sincerity So if a mans conscience can excuse him of hypocrisie and doubling though it cannot free him from imperfections God in the Covenant of Grace looks not so much at perfection as at truth Here I might answer an Objection of some Christians Oh but I cannot pray without distraction I cannot delight so in good things c. Though a Christians heart cannot free him from this yet his heart desires to approve it self to God in all things and his heart is ready to say to the Lord as David said Lord try me if there be any way of wickednesse in me And therefore he will attend upon all means to get this sincerity He will be diligent in the Word of God for therein the mind of God is manifestly seen The Word of God it is a begetting Word it makes us immortal it makes us new creatures it is truth and the instrument of truth Truth will make truth The true sincere Word of God not mingled with devices it will make what it is The Word of God being his Word who is Almighty it hath an Almighty transforming power from him It is accompanied and cloathed with his Almighty Spirit Truth will cause truth such as it is in it self it will work in our hearts In that mungrel false Religion Popery they have traditions and false devices of men and so they make false Christians such as they are they make strain them to the quintessence and they cannot make a true Christian Truth makes true Christians therefore attend upon Gods Ordinance with all reverence and it will make thee a sound heart it is a transforming Word Those that desire to hear the Word of God and to have their consciences to be informed by the hearing of it they are sincere Christians and those that labour to shut up the Word of God that it may not work upon the conscience they are false-hearted A heart that is sincere it prizeth the Word of God that makes us sincere the Word of God hath this effect especially being unfolded in the Ministery of it that a man may say as Jacob did Doubtlesse God is in this place It is all that is ours nothing runs upon our reckoning but sincerity For what I have not done truly Conscience saith I have not done to God and therefore I can expect no comfort for it but what I have done to God I look to have with comfort for I know that God regards not perfection but sincerity he requires not so much a great faith as a true faith not so much perfect love as true love and that I have in truth as S. Peter said Lord thou knowest that I love thee This will make us look God who is the Judge in the face It gives us not title to heaven for that is onely by Christ but it is a qualification required of us in the Gospel nothing is ours but what we do in truth And again consider That it will comfort us against Satan at the hour of death when Satan shall tempt us to despair for our sins as that he will do we may comfort our selves with this that we have been sincere We may send him to Christ for that must be the way who hath fulfilled Gods will and satisfied his Fathers wrath Satan will say This is true it is the Gospel and therefore it cannot be denied but it is for them that have walked according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh for those that have obeyed God in all things Now when our Conscience shall joyn with Satan and
as S. Paul doth here My care in my course of life and conversation hath been in Simplicity I have cast my self upon God and his government and not looked to the world and in sincerity I have aimed at God in all things I have had no false and by aimes I have not spared even my life by any carnal end I have not served my self either in Religion or in my course of life but I have laboured to serve God in serving my brethren and have led my life by the grace of God and by the Word of grace which I laboured to know that I might follow Let us be able in some measure in truth to say thus And then we may say further with S. Paul That this is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience We shall never want joy And then let the world judge of us as it will there is such a strength and power such a prerogative and majesty in Christian comfort when a man can as I said reflect thus on himself that though in a weak measure yet in truth his conversation and course of life hath been though his slidings have been something in simplicity and sincerity that nothing can daunt it in this world It is above all discouragement above all eclipse of good name the testimony of Conscience which hath Gods testimony with it The witnesse of two is a strong witnesse the witnesse of God and conscience it will so settle our soules that neither ill reports nor any usage in the world shall daunt us we shall have comfort in all the passages of our lives be they what they will Whereas other men that lead not their lives in a constant course of holy simplicity and sincerity they are as the Prophet saith like the leaves of the Forrest shaken with every alteration with every rumour of ill newes But a sound Christian in the worst alteration there may be combustions there may be alteration of State yet his heart is fixed he is not moved Likewise in the hour of death he can say with Hezekias Thou knowest Lord I have led my life in simplicity that I have served thee with a perfect heart that is in sincerity I have desired and endeavoured to grow better which is all the perfection we have in this world sincerity witnessed by growth and strength against the contrary this will comfort us in all the alterations and changes in this world which is as a Sea full of trouble and at the hour of death likewise and at the day of Judgment this is that onely that will make us able to look Christ in the face Truth hath a Divinity in it this simplicity and sincerity more then any earthly thing it hath that in it that is real and spiritual A man that hath the Grace of God in the truth of it there is a great deal of majestie in it There is the greatest majestie in heavenly things when they appear most simple because of their excellency There is some thing of Gods in sincerity so much as a man hath in truth so much of Gods He partakes of the Divine nature as S. Peter saith so much as he hath in truth though it be never so little and being a branch of God it will make him look upon God in the day of Judgment Why because he knowes he is in the Covenant of Grace that he hath title to heaven by Christ. When a mans conscience can tell him that he hath led his life not by carnal wisdome but in the truth of Grace it will make him out-look Satan and all the troubles of the world and look unto Christ with comfort Who would not be in such a state Thus we see a Christian leads his life Not in fleshly wisdome but by the Grace of God I will adde one thing more and so finish the verse We may see hence That the most Religious men are the best Statesmen I know proud carnall Machivillian dispositions make a scorn at these positions they think them to be austere and poor principles till they come to death As that Wretch said himself when he came to dye That he had provided for all things but for death but while they are in their ruffe they think they can manage States and do all When indeed they bring the vengeance of God upon their own persons and upon the State they live in For God is neither in them nor with them He is not in them for they want Grace they are led by carnall wisdome altogether And he is not with them God will not give them good successe unlesse it be to increase their Judgement He will not give good successe to those projects that they take up contrary to his rule Therefore those that will be guided by reasons of Religion and submit themselves to the guidance of Gods blessed Spirit they are best for the state of their own soules and best for the publick estate For doth not God know the mysteries of State better then any man Is not he a better Politician then any Achitophel in the world If they have any State-policy that is worth the naming is it not from him Is it not a beam from that Sunne Yes why then who is the better the difference of parts excepted but take them alike a gracious man and another that is not so let the one fetch his counsel from hell from darknesse and the other be ruled by reasons of conscience and Religion there is no comparison God will crosse and curse their projects that are for their own ends both in themselves and in the State too As for the other that are under Grace and the government of Grace God will be wise in them by his Spirit and he will be wise for them Psal. 1. Whatsoever a good man doth it shall prosper it is a large promise How wondrous happy and wise were the Children of Israel when they kept the Covenant of God This is your wisdome to keep the Commandements of God Deuteron 4. and their wisdome made them happy How happy were they in David's time who made the Statutes of God the Man of his Counsel How happy was the State in Solomons time till Solomon did warp and bend to Carnall counsell to strengthen himself How happy was his Government till that time but never after that they were environed with enemies round about but alas who could hurt the people of God so long as they submitted themselves to the government of grace they were alway happy Therefore it is an idle thing to suppose that there will be any good successe by carnal projects no the onely good States-man is the religious man And it was never better with the Church of God before or since the time of Christ then when those were in the stern Do but think of this oft as S. Jude saith God onely wise we must all of us light our candle at that fire All wisdome even this poor spark of reason that God enlightneth every
man that comes into the world withall it comes from Christ Jesus In him are all the treasures of wisdome God and God-man onely wise There is no wisdome without him therefore let us submit our selves to his Government let us pray to him and seek for wisdome of him in all things But I go on to the next Verse VERSE XIII For we write none other things unto you then what you read or acknowledge and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the end HEre S. Paul strengthens himself by another course First he retires to his own heart and conscience My rejoycing is this the testimony of my conscience c. and he sets this as a Bulwark against all the slanders and detractions of his opposers whatsoever he sets it as a flag of defiance the testimony of his own conscience But to set himself the more upright in their hearts whom he was to deal withall knowing what a great advantage it was to have the good opinion of them and to wipe away all imputation he passeth from his conscience to their conscience For my own conscience my rejoycing is this that you cannot accuse me that I have led my life by carnal false principles but by reasons of Religion and by the blessed motions of Gods Spirit Nay I can go further then so for what I say of mine own conscience I dare say you can say too for I write no other things then what you read or acknowledge What you read Some take it What you know or acknowledge because these are distinct things The word Anaginoskein signifies to know or to read but usually to read We may well therefore take it so as most translate it here I write no other thing concerning my simplicity but what you read or acknowledge I write of my simplicity simply I speak not of my sincerity insincerely but what I write you read or acknowledge because S. Paul knew he had a place in their conscience they could not but acknowledge what a man he was for the Spirit was wondrous effectual by his Ministery in their hearts and they were his Epistle as he saith in another place and therefore he appeales to their acknowledgment to their conscience We write no other thing c. And for the time to come I trust you shall acknowledge to the end So he doth appeal to their conscience for the present and he doth take in trust the time to come what their thoughts shall be of him and what his estate shall be You shall have Grace to think well of me to the end because you shall have ground to think well of me from my constancy I hope you shall acknowledge to the end and you shall have wisdome and experience of my goodnesse to acknowledge to the end I will give a touch on these things because they be useful and but a touch because I stood somewhat on them before and shall have fit occasion for them severally after We write no other things then what you read This seemeth strange why how could they read other things then what he wrote Yes if he had written falsly if he had not expressed his thoughts in his writings then they had read one thing and he had been another As a woman that is painted there is Prosopon and Prosopeia there is the visage and the true natural countenance she is not the woman she appeares to be her face is one and her self is another but I am as I expresse my self His meaning is I speak of my simplicity and sincerity simply and sincerely I speak not of my vertues to go beyond you but I speak sincerely what I speak you read for I think not that he means his former Epistle but what he wrote concerning himself and the leading of his life that which I speak concerning my self that you read and what you read that I speak It yields me this Observation which though I had occasion to speak of when I handled Simplicity yet I shall now touch it That A Christian man is one man he doth act one mans part He hath not a heart and a heart he is not a man and a man there is a harmony between his thoughts and resolutions between his speeches and his actions they all sweetly accord together what he thinks and resolves on that he speakes what he speakes that he writes what he writes and speaks that he doth he is one man in all he doth not deal doubly It is the easiest thing in the world to be politick to be naught to double the nature of man teacheth a man to be false mans heart is full of naughtinesse it is a hard thing for a man to be one and till a man be a gracious man he shall be a double man Therefore you must take heed of a fault which is called the abuse of signes of such signes as serve to expresse what a man is inwardly Let your inward disposition and the signs that expresse it accord The signs of expression that come from one man to another are speech writing countenance and the like A man should not be one thing within and his speech another he should not be one thing and his writing another he should not be one thing and any other expression another This abuse of signes and expressions when they are one way and the heart another besides the odiousnesse of it to God as being contrary both to his Nature and to his Word it is contrary to his nature for he is simple and sincere he is one in all there is no shadow of change in him there is no mixture As it is contrary to his Nature so it is contrary to his Word that bids us not dissemble nor lie one to another It makes a man most like the Devil who never appears in his own shape but alwayes in another He comes in our friends as an Angel of light he never discovers himself in his own colours Besides all these and such like respects it is the overthrow it cuts the sinewes of humane society for what is the band of humane society but the entercourse by speech and writing and the like Now if there be abuse of these signes that they are one thing and we another that we do not expresse what is the true thought and impression of our hearts all society is dissolved Therefore we cannot too much hate Popish principles of not keeping fidelity with Hereticks as they call them it is the custome of them to deal so As you know in a War of theirs with the Turks the story is well known when the Cardinals had broken their promise after they had in a manner gotten the Victory the Turks even cryed to Christ that he would revenge their treachery and the Turks came again upon them and overcame them and gave them a mighty overthrow Their grosse principle of equivocation and the like which stands in the abuse of expressions and signes Yea their abuse of the blessed sign and seal
stones and pearles Solomon presseth it have a high estimation of wisdome of the government of Gods Spirit as the best government And be out of love with carnal reason with carnal affections and their guidance account them as base things not worthy to come into the esteem of a Christian heart Those that highly prize wisdome God will lead them by it those that sell all for the pearl shall have it There must be a high price set on the guidance of Gods Spirit and on grace as indeed it is worthy of it and then we shall have it Again if we would lead our lives according to spiritual and heavenly wisdome according to grace and gracious wisdome let us learn as it is Job 22. to be more and more acquainted with God by prayer for grace comes not from within us Grace is in Christ as in the root as in the spring as in the Sun we have it but as the beam as the stream therefore let us learn to be acquainted with God and with Christ by prayer and meditation and search into his Word by reading and by hearing him speak to us and let us often speak to him Let us acquaint our selves with him by prayer and by hearing his Word and then we shall have his grace to guide us For grace is a fruit of his peculiar love he gives grace to his own peculiar people How do you think shall he have a peculiar delight in us if we labour not to be more and more acquainted with him by often speaking to him by often hearing of him by coming into his presence and attending as much as we can upon his holy Ordinances by conversing as much as we can in the holy things of God Those that will be warm they come under the beams of the Sun those that would have the Spirit work effectually they must come where the Spirit is effectual where the Spirit works Now the Spirit is effectual in the Word preached the Spirit fell upon Cornelius and the rest when they were hearing of S. Peter And the Spirit is where there is conversing in good company Where two or three are met together I will be in the middest of them saith Christ. If we walk with the wise we shall be wiser It must be the heavenly wisdome of a Christian if he would lead his life by grace to attend upon all the meanes of grace because the Spirit of God is effectual by his own means he works by his own means therefore use the meanes that the Spirit hath sanctified for the working of grace I do wonder at a company of vain sottish creatures that carry themselves according to their vain conceits according to the whirling of their own brain in toyes and baubles that come into their heads they care not for the hearing of Gods blessed truth either they abstain altogether or else they hear it carelesly as if it were a thing that concerned them not Oh but those that will lead their lives by grace they come to it by the Spirit and the Spirit is onely effectual in holy Ordinances It must be our wisdome therefore to bring our selves under some meanes or other that the Spirit may be effectual The wisest and the best men in the world are no longer gracious then they are wise this way if they neglect good company good acquaintance if they neglect the hearing of the Word if they neglect prayer they will grow dead and dull and carnal-minded they will be possessed with base thoughts How do men differ one from another not so much by any habitual grace that is in them as by avoiding all that might prejudice them in a Christian course and by using all means whereby the Spirit of God may be effectual Again the way ro be under the grace of Gods Spirit is often to meditate of the grace of God the free love of God in Jesus Christ for so it comes first The first grace of all is Gods free love in the forgiving of our sins and accepting us to life everlasting and then he doth alter and change our natures more and more he transforms us more and more when we find therefore any defect of grace in our hearts when we find coldnesse and deadnesse and dulnesse go to the first fire to the first Sun to the free grace of God in Christ pardoning all our sins and accepting us to life everlasting and promising us grace to lead our lives in the mean time If you have fallen into any sin by the temptation of Satan or your own weaknesse beg not first grace to alter your course to sanctifie your life but renew every day your interest in the first grace in the forgivenesse of sins and your acceptation to everlasting life For till God have pardoned your sinnes and have witnessed to your soules that you stand reconciled he will not give the best fruit of reconciliation which is grace Therefore every day examine your lives if you have offended God in what termes you stand with God and if you stand in ill termes that there is any sin against conscience the best way is not presently to amend that for that will not be except the heart be warmed with Gods love and favour in the pardon of your sins first and in the acceptation of you in Christ notwithstanding your sins as he justifieth us every day not onely in the first act of conversion but daily he acquits our consciences daily from our sins and therefore in the Lords Prayer Christ teacheth us every day to say Forgive us our sins And then after forgivenesse of sins to beg the particular graces for our lives that we want I would this were better thought on Challenge likewise the Covenant of grace we have a promise of all grace and the spring of all grace We have a Promise of Love God will teach us to Love one another We have a promise of Fear he hath promised that He will put his fear into our hearts that we shall never depart from him We have a promise of the holy Spirit Let us challenge these Promises every day So much for the Directions how to lead our lives by Grace But by the Grace of God Saint Paul here makes it the ground of his rejoycing that he led not his life by fleshly wisdome but in simplicity and sincerity and by the Grace of God and all that are led by S. Paul's spirit live thus There is a Religion in the world that bears it self very big on high terms of Universality Succession Antiquity c. and they will have it thought to be a spiritual and holy Religion Well if a man be a carnal man that is led with fleshly wisdome and not by the grace of God that Religion must needs be a naughty Religion that hath onely the support and the foundation of it in fleshly wisdome which is an enemy and opposite to the grace of God and to simplicity and sincerity But Popery is this
Take it in the regiment and goverment of it Take it in the worship Take it in the opinions you may draw all to one of those three heads For the government of it There is a wisdome a wondrous wisdome a fine subordination to one Head the Pope to hear all controversies and under him the Cardinals and under them the Generals and all at Rome and they have th eir Provincials under them here is a wondrous fine subordination butall this is by fleshly wisdome For this beast riset out of the earth and out of the Sea out of the Tumult of the people out of base earthly respects Therefore it is said in the Revelation when the Bishop of Rome became Pope and was at the highest that a Star fell he fell when he rose when he was at the highest he was at the lowest why because his rising was carnal and earthly or lower if you will it was hellish and devillish Their government is opposite to Christs Government and being so it must needs be mightily opposed by him again and therefore it must needs down the fabrick of it being opposite to the frame of Christs Government though it be wondrous witty Therefore in the Revelation 666. is the Number of a man If you mark the frame of the Romish policy it is wondrous accurate it goes smoothly by tens and by hundreds 666. This Babylon is the number of a man a fine policy but it is but the number of a man it is the device of carnal wisdome it self therefore it is divellish wisdome Thus it is in the government of it And their Worship is according to the wisdome of the flesh some wisdome there is in not going to God immediately but by Saints and Angels What! is it not wisdome in the Princes Court first to go to the Favourite and by him to the Prince So is it not wisdome not to go directly to God it is bold rashnesse to come immediately to God but by Saints and Angels This is the wisdome of a man this is the wisdome of the flesh Colos. 2. this is carnal wisdome it is opposite against the truth Doth not Christ bid us come all to him do Angels love us better then he Is not he the great Favourite of heaven I will not enter into controversie but onely shew how they work by fleshly wisdome Here is wisdome when we cannot raise our selves up to God to bring him down to us As in the Sacrament they shew carnal wisdome Oh it is a fine thing that Christs body and ours should be joyned together it seemes to be a fine point that Christ should be hid in the bread c. But here is no spiritual wisdome The union that the Scripture speaks of is by faith ascending into heaven laying hold on Christ there and going back to the crosse and seeing Christ crucified there and so he is meat indeed and drink indeed as we see him crucified and satisfying Gods wrath for us for our sins And so again is it not a pretty wisdome to draw men by pictures and likenesses are not men delighted with the Images of their friends and of their parents and therefore is it not a good religious policy to have pictures of Christ and pictures of God the Father Here is wisdome correspondent to the dealing and affaires of men but all this is fleshly wisdome The Scripture speaks mightily against making of Images the Word of God is directly against it this is fleshly wisdome Grace doth not rule here So that the soules when they go out of this world being very unclean that they should be purged that there should be some satisfaction some Purgatory c. here seems to be wisdome but wherefore serves the blood of Christ then that is the onely Purgatory that purgeth from all sins mortall sins venial sins all sins Again is it not a seeming wisdome to come to heaven by our own works by our own merits that so we may set the people on to good works or else we dull their spirits and endeavours I but this is fleshly wisdome this is devillish wit and so it will prove in the end for the Scripture goes onely to Christ onely Christ. We are saved by faith onely by Christ. I will not enter into the point I onely shew you what a seeming wisdome they have but it is not heavenly but meerly carnal And that their Religion is carnal do but consider that all the points wherein they differ from us may be resolved either to belly-policy or to State-policy either to ambition and riches or the belly Wherefore is their Monarchy all their great preferments but to increase their ambition Wherefore are their pardons and indulgences but to get money basely as some of their own Writers confesse And their Purgatory c. these things be for carnal ends it is a Religion fitted for their own ends They make what they list to serve them Religion Nature Reason Conscience whatsoever is good they make all stoop to interest their own cause in Their orders that is their spiritual good must be their advancement it is but a colour put uponcarnal ends The spiritual good is their own advancement they aime at their own peculiar interest in all their villainies As if God stood in need of our lie as if Gods glory were advanced by the Devil As well their Government as their Religion is lies it is defended by lies by equivocation and rebellion by withdrawing the allegiance of Subjects and murthering of Princes Lawes and Religion and all must stoop to their wisdome under pretence of bonum spirituale These things are known I do but touch them to breed a deeper hatred of this Religion which is altogether fleshly and carnal And so far as they are led by carnal wisdome they are not led by the grace of God Wherefore is their lying for advantage their dispensations and horrible allowing of any thing is it not meerly carnal wisdome In a word their Religion is meerly policy if it be not too good a word for it it is meerly carnall policy it came not from heaven but from the bottomlesse pit Then they fell from heaven when they grew to their highest when they were in their top This I thought good to touch collaterally from the Text which doth characterize a true Christian indeed in his temper that he is joyful when he is as he should be and the ground of it is from a good conscience and that good conscience ariseth out of a course of life and conversation led in simplicity and sincerity to God For Religion hath majesty enough in it self without far fetches and devices And the principle from whence By the grace of God in the evidence of the Spirit and not according to fleshly and carnal wisdome In a word therefore labour that from the evidence of the Spirit having your soules sanctified by the Spirit you may reflect on your selves and look into your lives and say truly