honour one of another and seeke not the honour of God onely Secret selfe will so serve God that shee will foist in her owne ends credit praise and respect even while shee seemes to seeke Gods and so while shee should save her owne stake shee loseth Gods shee aimes not at him and the glory of his grace onely and therefore not at all So much for pâ—oofes Reasons of this doctrine are many and may bee drawne from many heads as first from the nature of this corrupt selfe Secondly from other Reason 1 mens courses 3. The practice of Satan Fourthly the justâ—ce of God From the nature of this selfe For the first we may consider the danger of mixt selfe from her owne corrupt quality both in respect of the first familiarity of it Secondly the generalnesse of it Thirdly the violence of it and Fourthly In 4 things the tenaciousnesse or continuance of it Touching the first bosome beloved 1. Familiarity or closenesse and inward corruptions doe most bleare the eie of discerning and pervert judgement because they goe in a streame least suspected A traitor who insinuates himselfe into a man so deeply as to comply and correspond with him in all his courses will deceive most dangerously So self runnes in the streame of nature and pleases it in every thing it is as a bribe in the hand prevailing wheresoever it goeth Prov. 17.8 As that naturall agreement and well pleasingnesse of Delila to the humor of Sampson forestalled all which was spoken against her so that he laid it not to heart but went forward so selfe hath a bewitching nature and will suffer no objection to prevaile For why All seemes to be as it should be the flesh is so tickled and inchanted with selfe-ease selfe-conceit selfe-duties and the like they do so delude the heart with an opinion that all is as it should bee that it detaines it in error habitually yea it can so incorporate it selfe into all the best religious duties that shee will very hardly be distinguished one would thinke the annointed of the Lord were before him that of the Apostle expresses it well it doth easily beset us Heb. 12.1 as a man whose loines are compassed about with a close girdle is as he would be If any doubt or scruple arise in the minde about a mans estate by and by selfe rocking the cradle stills the whimpering child and all is quiet and as it should be It s like a bad Courtier which watcheth as a cat the mouse that none whisper one wry word in the Princes eare or if he doe yet he is close at the elbow and suffers nothing to enter Secondly the Generalnesse Selfe is not as particular lusts as adultry 2. The generalnesse lying murder covetousnesse or the like but selfe is all corruption in one the very spirit and roote of bitternesse Heb. 12.15 which giveth joice and nourishment to all branches It s the Idoll of all speciall lusts to which all do homage and service it s the body of all those members I may rather call it the soule of all in which they live All their springs are in selfe now then if this be so generall and so overspreading an evill what wonder if the deceit thereof bee as generall and dangerous what may not the Prince doe and yet no man open his tongue against him what may not a Pope doe though he draw innumerable souls with him into perdition who may say what dost thou Such a Lord and Pope is Selfe and more universall Thirdly the violence of it Selfe is neer it selfe alway 3. The violence and desires such objects as are profitable but much more when the object promises a great contentment and advantage faith and grace and holy duties are subjects promising great reward even immortality Rom. 1. when therefore these are propounded to the soule though upon farre other tearmes yet how forward and eager is corrupt selfe to act her part and how doth she boast that she can put forth her selfe in so high matters what is so selfe putting forth as an handmaid affecting the place of her mistresse who can beare her insolency what is so negotious and eagerly busie as an usurping Absalon acting the part of an unlawfull Prince over subjects Prov. 30.23 2 Sam. 15.2 Such is selfe never so stirring and like her selfe as in Gods matters which promise the greatest gaine and good to selfe and what wonder then if so stirring and violent a thing doe deceive a man and hold him in an opinion of welfare 1 Kings 9. Acts 9. Iehu in his heat of selfe-zeale being warme in his geare Ananias and Saphira being in the heat of their great charity had no leasure to discerne that subtilty and self-ends which prevailed over their outward performances the one of murthering Ahabs posterity for a Crown for so it was the other the robbing of the Church for the saving of some mony 4. Tenaciousnesse Fourthly and lastly the Tenaciousnesse of selfe I meane when she is put hard to it rather then she will shrinke in her horns and lose all her labour she will hold close to her own tacklings and devour a great deale of difficulty For a mans desire he will seperate himselfe saith Salomon that is deny himselfe and go farre Prov. 18 1. 1 King 15.27 1 King 18.28 if need requires It was easie for Baasha to kill Ieroboam when it went in the streame of his owne ambition But not easie for Baals Priests when the case so required to wound and launce themselves or now for Papists to whip and mortifie their flesh or for those in Micha 6. Mica 6. to offer the Lord the first fruit of their bodies for the sin of their soules rivers of oyle and wine yet what will not selfe stand to within her possibility rather then resigne up her right Sleidan reports of a souldier cast out of the top of a castle among others appointed to be so slaine a marveilous height from the earth who yet by miraculous providence catching hold on the shrags of a mulbery tree saved his life Such a thing is this selfe rather then perish she will catch hold upon any thing be it never so above her in shew not onely hard duties but even sufferings and herein seene to amate and equall even true selfedeniall till shee be tried What wonder then in such achievements if she delude the soule dangerously and maintaine a false principle to overthrow it To forgoe a mans lusts so farre as that the uncleane spirit seems to be gone out of a man to suffer persecution as Alexander did with Paul Eph. 20. a terrible example for such a timeserver Luke 11. Acts 20. 2 Tim. 4.14 2 Tim. 4.14 to deny a mans credit ease health honour ends and life for profession sake is a signe of some holding out and yet selfe cannot hold out ever Thus much for the first Reason drawne from the
no reason be given how a workeman could atchieve it or perfect it where say they are his tooles his leavers his hammers for the nonce Neither meane I the carnall reason of prophane Esau's and libertines whose belly backe pride and ease of the flesh wholly sway them and who have dashed out that dimme light of morall or naturall notions left in our decayed nature through the prevailing of their lusts Even professors of Râ—ligion but I meane them who ordinarily professe Religion whose knowledge of Religion added to their naturall light doth curbe and over-rule in good measure the excesse of carnall reason in her grossenesse For why Education training up to knowledge and observing of truthes taught in the word will easily moderate the basenesse of this carnality though grace and sanctification hath not yet subdued either their mindes to the true sense or their hearts to the savor of Gods matters as in the regenerate Nay further I would have all to conceive the doctrine in generall as belonging to all carnall reason without exception wheresoever it bee found insomuch that the very godly themselves so farre as unregenerate Yea the godly themselves in part and especially Satan by infidelity tempting them are carried this way dangerously as those many instances of Scripture of Moses of Samuel of Gedeon of Sarah of others witnesse who when they heard of 1 Sam. 16.6 Num. 20.10 c. or went about Gods messages or matters presently they cavilled by carnall reason saying Should all the flocks of the mountaines or heards of beasts be slaine to feed this people Should Sarah at this age give suck If the Lord be with us why are these things upon us Is not the Lords annointed Eliab before him Meaning these things to reason seeme impossible therefore they are so or this or that seemes likely therefore it is so whereas when they speake as beleevers they looke at another principle thus or thus God will or will not have it therefore so it is and must be God will and can doe this or that therefore done it shall bee whatsoever flesh cavills to the contrary Ere I leave this first generall I will adde some instances of Gods matters Instance 1 Worship of God wherein carnall reason prejudicateth and hindreth the soule from conceiving and beleeving For although I might onely speake in generall and say it hinders in all both morall especially if truly understood as the hallowing of a Sabbath the ruling of the thoughts and affections in secret and especially mysteries revealed in Christ yet it will better satisfie the minde of you that heare beloved to name some speciall branches by which carnall reason may be guessed at in other kindes The instances are these First in matter of Religion and worship and the speciall wayes of God to us as in commands promises threats or our service to him in selfe-deniall faith mortification and the like For religion and worship how doth carnall reason judge Surely not according to the nature of it which is a powerfull uniting of the soul to God and restoring it to the integrity of nature according to creation But it conceives confusedly of it as a due which the creature owes to God that the inferior worship the superior never looking either at the right maner or true ends thereof And therefore although it grant a worship yet it judges of the frame thereof according to the patern of corrupt reason and thinkes that God is best pleased with a blindnesse of devotion a superstitious zeale such a worship as astonisheth the sense with some carnall abstinences rites or ceremonies of mans devising or some outward pompous rites and glorious shewes of Pietie in decking of Churches in golden and silver ornaments precious vestments costly Temples and rich furniture But as for spirit and truth of soule attending the Lord purely in those ordinances which himself hath invented altogether senselesse thereof As we see in Popery at this day to what point it hath brought the worship of God That worship which bites not the Spirit is most specious to the eye working upon the carnall part and putting it in hope that God will bee as well pleased with her service as she her selfe is that agrees best with carnall reason That preachers speake smooth quaint pleasing things tickle the eare displease not corruption That the Sermon be short and of quicke dispatch that we cope all our Sabbath devotion yea all our religion within the Church walls and savour little of it within our owne houses callings and government but live by comparison of our selves with the prophane who care for no worship at all this pleases flesh alife For Commands So for Commands so farre as they goe in reasons streame as to live and be painfull in our callings to beware of bringing our names into discredit by lewd company drinking swearing and pot-companionship to keep our state from decay to be no spend-thrifts and so become burdensome to our friends or the Towne These and the like commands because they borrow authority from carnall inconveniences please carnall reason well But to obey in suffering as well as doing with the losse of credit estate life to trust God in all these and live by faith that God will support us in our endevours this is foolishnesse to carnall reason A man who suffers for the safeguard of his conscience seemes a stark foole to a worldling Matth. 16.20 Tush say men hee may thanke himselfe this needed not to betide him For Promises So in the matter of promises carnall reason loves to heare that men shall fare well for their trusting God and obeying him But how They savour no spiritualnesse in a promise So their Cow may not cast her Calfe Psal 17. so their bellies may bee filled with the treasure hidden in the earth Deut. 33. enjoying the blessing and influence of the Sunne Moone and heavens that they may abound in Corne and Wine and Oyle and feele no lack in their health bodies names children so long I say they are for promises They can alledge that God hath promised no more to drowne the world Gen. 8.22 That Summer harvest seed time and harvest shall continue these they lot upon and snatch at but as for the promise to ease a loaden soule to restore to it life and immortality by the Gospel This and the like are gibbridge to them He that should presse them to get the favour of him that dwelt in the bush were as one that told them a tale of a tub Deut. 33.16 or spake in Hebrew and Greeke unto them So I may say of Gods threats Perhaps in terrible thunder and lightning they wil run into a hole But they behold no power nor Majesty of a just and revenging God in any of them For why Thier sinne lies deeply bundled up in them in the bottome of a deluded and secure conscience and therefore they feare nothing they are setled upon their
but let not words blowes and sutes follow as if you were heathens Oh saith one Shall I endure such a base fellow to overcrow me No hee shall well know I am a better man then himselfe ere I have done with him Oh earth earth earth heare the word of the Lord Abate thy heart abase thine heart and doe as he did Humfrey Mummouth who meeting his enemy who had sought his life when he could have crushed him entreated him to bee friends and brake his heart doe thou so and prosper Touching the second point of inferiours attempting superiours 2. Branch Instruction Inferiours dealing with superiours must wisely observe whâ—t their persons will beare let this caution be observed from Naamans servants that we wisely observe what our persons will well beare and admit Inferiour mens sway and stroke will goe but a little way with superiours The meannesse of the one and the prejudice of the other will be barres Yet so it may fall out that necessity may put some calling upon an inferiour as when there be no superiours or equalls present when silence would embolden the offender much when the glory of God lies at the stake unavoidably and especially when the grace of the reprovers wisdome may be like to over-match both his owne meannesse and the others stoutnesse Otherwise there had need be great caution lest inferiours rather run themselves into the suspition of sawcinesse receive great affronts and discouragements if not wrongs from the reproved lest also the offender be more hardned in his sin A caution and the ordinance with the fruit of it be dishonoured and unprofitable But to returne if God doe intimate to the spirit of any wise inferiours that they ought to reprove then let them suspect their owne persons and beware that they make no open contestation but bee content with privacy where no affront may be given before witnesses especially let it be carried with great aloofenesse and rather with insinuation of an error then taxing openly exhorting rather to a contrary duty then reproving the fault downeright 1 Tim. 5.1 Rebuke not an Elder not onely a Minister but a superiour in any eminency but exhort him as a father Otherwise if God afford not discretion and opportunity better is a warranted silence and commending the cause to God with some item of a grieved heart then a rash venturing and rushing beyond our bounds But to bee sure let all lenity bee used all possible acknowledging of their places yeares worth and worship give them all their due both titles and praises to the uttermost that it may appeare the reprover is so far from presumption that were it for the meere regard of the offenders soule the glory of God and the discharge of conscience with peace the reprover would much rather have chosen silence then to attempt reproofe and so leave the issue to God So much for this second Uses of the speciall fact of 〈◊〉 servants I come now to the Uses arising in speciall from this example of the servants wise and loving carriage towards their Masters spirituall distemper And first if it be so difficult a worke to ease a distressed spirit Let Vse 1 all such as have obtained this mercy from the Lord know that they have met with no common mercy Instruction It is a peculiar favour to enable the Minister to speake a word in season to a wearied soule But how much more for the soule to find the word and to feele it to be so Instruction to the heavy hearted Proverb is not as the gift in the hand which Salomon tells us prospers whithersoever it goes and carries a commanding power with it Esay 57. The setling of a distressed heart by counsell is a mercy highly to be prised No To speake to the heart is Gods worke whosoever be the instrument and none can create the fruit of the lippes save onely hee that first created and formed the body of the earth and breathed into it the breath of life We Ministers may speake to the eare discerne and advise urge answer doubts and convince but the spirit of grace which annointed the Lord Jesus to bee the Prophet of his Church can carry those words into the soule and cast them there as seed and give them a body and being altering ignorance doubting feares deadnesse bondage insensiblenesse infidelity heavinesse into light resolution hope life liberty feeling faith and comfort He that said lift up thy voice as a trumpet and convince my people of their sinnes and againe Comfort ye my people comfort them at the heart meanes not that we should pierce into and reach the heart for we cannot get to it but that we bee the messengers of peace and glad tidings God onely must by his Spirit convince Joh. 16.9 and he onely can carry consolation through those manifold turnings and crooked windings of the soule even home and close to the heart rootes He onely can say My doctrine shall droppe as dew Deut. 32 1. and as the small raine wetting at the roote Therefore whosoever thou art here in this audience whom ever the Lord hath caused to breake through the hoast of discouragements and to consult with the Minister sincerely aiming at the true ends of counsell and hath also met with thy speciall disease spoken to thy heart so that it hath gotten a reall bottome out of the word and promise for the sole of her foote to rest upon against feare and doubting Oh! learne to prise such a favour above all treasures Elisha was sent but to one leper as many as there were in Israel and did not he esteeme that priviledge Let the 15.16 and 17. verses witnesse for him So the Minister of God goes to hundreds of sicke and afflicted ones But perhaps he is sent in the spirit of counsell and sealing up of peace through pardon to a very few It is their portion to whom it pertaines those must partake it who can receive it and only such can be thankefull What is the cause why we comfort so many through the seven yeare of whom perhaps wee heare no more againe ever after Our feete are not beautifull to the most of them they never imbraced the power of truth they despised the counsell of God for their salvation and the consolations of God seemed small things unto them They have got that they came for a kinde of stopping of their outcries of conscience their wounds are kept sweete and doe not rankle as they thinke they can now follow their businesse and goe about the world at their pleasure pleasing themselves with that the Minister hath said unto them And that no man shall pull from them for it pleases them well to heare themselves to be under the condition of grace that faith belongs to them that the least desire of faith is faith But alas They are comforted all at once their comfort growes not as their doubts grow they are not unsatisfied in
to all the truth of God without neglect so especially to those maine truths which they most sticke at and come shortest of that their insight into Gods method and way may be more evident unto them As for novelties and fancies of men of unstable minds ready to carry them away from the simplicity of the Gospell whether erroneous opinions or things which have some truth but yet for the present are not pertinent or profitable but might under some pretence of zeale and devotion withdraw them from their grounds ere they be setled which I observe to be a notable trick of the Divell to disorder the course of a soule travelling towards heaven they are shy thereof and cannot close with it Let every one that desires to know himself to thrive to Godward well marke this whole Section So much for this third marke Another is That such a soule strives after that which makes most Marke 4 for her owne good and for the justifying of God Even that foolish modesty which holds many under the hatches that they will not open themselves to any but keepe the Divells counsell to their owne hindrance and thereby nourish unbeleefe the longer in themselves when they are convinced of it as its long ere many will be they abhor it using all means with Paul if by any they may attaine faith at last They doe not as Ahaz who being willed to aske a signe from God to confirme his promise refused it and let all goe at six and sevens pretending that he needed none but would leave it to God without such adoe Esay 7. But he is rebuked for greeving of God by such slightnesse who loves that his people should take order to resist their infidelity and hasten to beleeve using every ordinance each occasion for the atchieving of such a grace Such a restlesse spirit they are led by who keepe the price of the high calling of God in their eie loth to lose it Phil. 3. and preserving the tender care and inquiry after it in their soules as an object of greatest excellency A bottomlesse carelesse spirit to get and lose as fast and to spill that pretious liquor which God hath been long putting into them they loath and detest 2 Joh. 8. and still seek to make up a full reward to themselves and cannot be quiet till the Lord give into their bosomes measure heaped up and running over that they may be at rest If they have any bottomlessenesse it is for the world and the cares of it but as for grace they keep all they have and still are on the gaining hand till they attaine their desire Psalm 84. No faintnesse there shall be but from strength to strength they goe full fast till they appeare before God in Sion Fifthly as they are alway hastening the Lord and impatient in Marke 5 respect of their importunity of desire Psal 70.5 so yet they are patient in respect of discontent unweariedly waiting upon the Lord for the accomplishing of their petition They have learned that lesson of the Psalmist Blessed are they that wait upon him and of Ieremy Lamen 3.25 It is good to wait patiently upon the Lord. It s much to them that the Lord will come and bring healing in his wings at last requiting long delay as Malachi speakes with speed Mal. 3. and as for urging the particular time when he will come and how soone they leave it to him whose the seasons of mercy are by whom onely the day of sealing is appointed they must wait They attend upon a Soveraigne God who shewes mercy to whom and when he pleases Rom. 9. yet also his mercies are fare to them whom hee hath called to the hope thereof Therefore their part is to get the spirit of supplication alway attending the Spirit of grace Zach. 12.10 which will hold out with the Lord without fainting and concurre with him in his time of ease In which respect it makes not haste but considers that each day hastens Gods time For as it is in the second comming of our Lord Jesus Matth. 24. end so it is in his first None knowes whether he will come at noonetide or at the evening midnight or cockcrowing but come he will So whether in youth or middle yeares or old age thou knowest not whether in a short time or after a long season whether in thy hearing or at the sacrament or in prayer or at a fast or in some great crosse or at thy death its unknowne Thou hast a promise come he will and therefore wait upon him thou art not too good and when he comes thou shalt not repent thee Marke 6 Againe this is another marke That such a soule suffers not it selfe to be taken up so deeply with the common mercies of the earth that the mercy of pardon and salvation should lose her price and wax stale with her Oh she strives to put difference alway between the content which blessings of this life bring and those which the mercy of heaven affords Give Esau a messe of pottage and his longing is satisfied Give a child a bright counter Heb. 12. and he will forgoe a gold angell It pleases a foole as well to have his bable as a Kings Crowne why Because he is a fool and discernes not so a wretch that never came in the favour of mercy will equall it to any common thing fill his belly give him ease cloath his body fill his purse and you may rob him of his birthright So hee have content any way and for the present he is well Not so that soule that longs for mercy For why It compares one with other and makes as much difference as between gold and drosse holds firmly the esteem of mercy to herself and will not suffer the base vanishing creature to come between her and home and steale her heart away by such rattles and feathers as these are Zach. 12.10 It comes here to minde what Zachary speakes That the spirit of grace goes with the spirit of compassions There are such compassions towards the Lord in a poore soule as there are in the Lord towards it In the Lord there are tender mercies as that other Zachary speakes Luke 1. Through the tender mercies of our God mercies of tendernesse and compassion to a poore miserable lost sinner reaching to forgivenesse These are peculiar not common or such as he bestowes upon them whom he pitties not in their miserie Now therefore that soul that partakes these tender mercies is as tender of them and doth so prize and esteem them that no other mercy can steale away the affections of the soule therefrom nor stall the heart therein much lesse make tender mercies to wax stale and common but still the price thereof rises till the Lord fill her therewith Marke 7 Lastly note this out of Naamans example That a perpetuall and sure marke of a man who is grace and faithward is this that his old perversenesse
in generall And it s no other save the bad Selfe of good Selfe an ill quality cleaving to a good subject In this sense it is upon point no other then old Adam the depravednesse and disorder of the appetite before spoken of As the wildenesse of an horse or his lamenesse are accidentall to his good metall and good pace even so that faculty whereby I naturally seeke mine owne welfare and safety is good But the disorder thereof whereby I seeke my selfe corruptly and impiously is accidentall thereto and separable from it by grace In Scripture this is called flesh lust and sometime by a metonymie of the subject for the adjunct Selfe to shew the inwardnesse and rooted familiarity of corruption to nature So Iob 42. I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes So Paul 2 Cor. 12. Of myselfe I will not boast And if I preach my selfe that is my corrupt selfe Adam was so created that God was his appetite the desire of his soule was to him onely as the chiefe good and his owne happinesse further or elsewhere he sought not Him he trusted to honoured obeyed and embraced with his whole man But after he had deserted God he justly was deserted of him to seeke after an imaginary happinesse falling downe by the penalty of Selfe to a denied apple and thereby given over to the creature to grope therein after a welfare ever coveted never obtained Still the subject nature remained to seek himself but that directive of minde and freedome of pure will that kept him before now being gone he was changed into a corrupt Self-seeking and Selfe-love As it fares with him that strives to behold the bright body of the Sun but by reason of weak eies cannot dazles and flags downeward and thinkes he sees three Sunnes for one but in truth sees none So the soule sunke down from God by wilfull desertion and not being able any longer to behold the excellency that is in him falls downe and adores a false Trinity the lust of the heart the lust of the eye and the pride of life the vaine cursed creature that hath nothing in it equalling the soule instead of God Selfe then in this sense is nothing else save corruption and originall sinne Contrary to this Selfe is Selfe-deniall in a good sense which to speake properly is nothing else save Regeneration whereby the soule generally denies corrupt Selfe in her frame and streame bending a contrary way forsaking the creature and returning to God Esay 55.8 her first happinesse and making him really that unto her which corrupt Selfe erroneously was That is herselfe and herselfe his to seeke his ends and felicitie therein renouncing her owne In this sense Divines speake and write when they treat about the state of Vnregeneracy or Apostacy from God and to this head referre all those markes signes and degrees whereby Selfe may be discovered Also to this referre all that is usually discoursed touching conversion of the soule to God and turning herselfe Acts 26.18 from her vaine Idolls and darkenesse to the living God All is no other in a word save setting the soul streight to her first object renouncing the Selfe and obliquity thereof when fleshly wisdome of the minde and carnall favour of the heart is turned to the wisdome of God to salvation and the savouring of it freely and sweetly then is this great cure wrought This of the second Branch 3 But all this while I have spoken of corrupt Self generally considered and apart Selfe in the remedy But herein yet appeares not her own venom while she is let alone she is still and quiet as a snake in her hole being no whit lesse herselfe I grant but yet not apearing in her right colours 1. In the Law Selfe in the remedy is the true corrupt Selfe when God sends her in a light to discover all her filth to convince to tame her and fetch her home then she shewes the metall she is made of and then it appeares it was hell fire that kindled this heat in her and bred this monster of privation and enmity to God Marke well what I say all you that thinke originall sinne a bug-beare when the Law came fire revived it was dead before lust was unknowne till the Law said Thou shalt not lust But as the Toad being prickt spits poison So Selfe encountred with a Law proves out of measure sinfull and rebelliously dashes herself against it as a pitcher against a stone wall to this kinde referre all that rebellion of Selfe against the word of conviction and that sly-selfe which chuses to scrue herselfe into the deepest bondage and horror that may be rather then shee will come to the bent of Gods bow that is lose her life and proud spirit upon the pikes of wrath which is the onely way which God hath appointed to wit when she is wholy broken in peeces upon this wheele and come to an utter strait then to shew her a doore of hope of this it shall be sufficient to speake but a word since I have largely treated of it in her due place But legall Selfe is not the deepest poison of Selfe But especially in the Gospel The worke of the Law is but a remote remedy The Gospell is that neare object which above all other discovers Selfe in her kinde The closer the Gospell and Christ come to the soule the more opposite is Selfe and as Faith is the most eminently spirituall grace above all graces so is Selfe the deepest deadliest enemy to it of all other yea to whatsoever savours of it any promise any offer of mercy any work of Christ in the soule any preparation making that way Selfe was jealous of the Law lest she be dispossessed But infinitely more jealous of Christ lest he take new possession It s the most uncouth desolate object unto her to thinke of giving up herself to Christ and leaving her old hold that can be imagined Hence come those infinite many and subtill and desperate feares doubts impossibilities difficulties objections against the promise in the rebellious those invincible snares of ill conscience accustomed to sin that so great a sinner so unworthy a wretch should ever speed of favour from so potent a God so just and terrible a Judge And hence is it also that not onely Selfe is so obstinate in the wicked But when a soule is got under a condition of mercy yet then Selfe wraps such a world of exceptions against her owne particular beleeving Hence also it is that rather then she will be cast out shee will put herselfe upon the promise oftimes with self-presumption resting in her false hopes duties performances affections preparations and the like but all to deceive herselfe and by seeming self-deniall to twine as the Ivy about the oake for her owne ends that by mixing herselfe with Christ she might still grow from her owne roote and rest in her bottome that so not Christ but Selfe might be all in all contrary to
must needs vanish and leave the soule as low as ever they found it and so the longer and closer they are clave to the greater confusion they cause till the soule being weary of her owne pride and mixtures freely resigne it selfe as empty and nothing to the meere good pleasure perswasion and leasure of the spirit to act and effect all both preventings assistings and perfectings by his owne strength which is alway strongest when the soule lies lowest as the red earth of which Adam was formed till the Lord breathed the spirit of life into it And surely to conclude there is nothing more easie then to be deluded in the triall hereof for such is the inchantment of self in this kind that no experience of disappointing the soule by her false feelings will teach her to deny her selfe and humble her self before God except only she apply her selfe closely to the rule of the word in every steppe she takes examining from what bottome her affections and preparations proceed and finding self to be chiefe in the work instantly to suspect it and constantly to resist it beleeving that the most abiding and lasting worke of humâ—liation and preparation proceeds from the sweetnesse and freedome of a promise from a reconciled God when the heart is most desolate and helplesse in her selfe By these few the reader may perceive what I meane by this privy-selfe and by these heads hee may learne to judge of other like which are infinite Now then I proceed to prove the point that this mixt selfe when all is done will deprive the soule of mercy if it be not prevented Let the first text be that Heb. 4. ult We see they were disappointed of the entring into his rest why were not they faire for it Proofes of the point yes surely they had forsaken Egypt and come a great journey in the wildernesse But what letted them Unbeleefe And what caused that Selfe Not only their wishing to be in Egypt at their fleshpots nor yet their fornication and Idolatry But as Esay tells us they rebelled against his holy spirit Esay 63.10 Their spirituall rebellings cavillings distrust were the causes They erred in heart as the Psalmist calls it that is Psal 9.2 they entertained false conceits against him sometime they asked Can God spread a table in the wildernesse Sometime they pitied their children saying Alas We shall never see Canaan Sometime they said Numb 9. the Giants were able to eat them up there were chariots of iron Sometimes they said this was not the way God might as well have brought them the right way to Canaan as the wrong if he had meant them well They made the promise of entring easily and plaine in it self to be difficulter then it was some saying it is as high as heaven how shall we get thither can we climbe up others thus it is as deep as the nethermost earth how shall we descend thither is it possible for us to construe so hard a promise whereof we see neither sense or colour to make a worke of forty daies to be forty yeares and yet meane us well Therefore Moses tells them Deut. and Rom. 10. say not the word is far off for it is neare thee in thy mouth yea thine heart that thou mightest beleeve it The deceit of the erring hearts warped these crotchets to hold them out of Canaan and to scatter their carcasses in the wildernesse Another text is Heb. 12.15 Heb. 12.15 Let no man faile of the grace of God Let there be no bitter roote springing up in you to defile you and turne you off He had spoken before of Esau who was the first borne and sought the blessing with teares yet failed of it he came too late after it was conveied away from him too sure to Iacob why he had a bitter roote springing up in him a selfe-willed peevish heart against his brother he disdained that he should be preferred The Apostle applies it to the Hebrewes who were faire for the promise read Rom. 10.1 2 3 4 Rom. 10.1 2 3 4. 5 6. c. but yet failed and lost it the Gentiles were preferred And why there was this bitter roote of selfe in them they stood upon their conceit none were the Church save they none so righteous as they They scorned that dogs should goe to heaven before those whose righteousnesse was so precise as theirs and this conceit defiled hardned them and overthrew the righteousnesse of Christ They could never submit selfe to the word preached nor comply with it but bitterly rejected it and them who preacht it as being a new way to heaven and not that which they had learned and should they stoop to this new learning of Christ This bitternesse overthrew them So Ahaz Esay 8. Esay 8. was faire for the promise of victory insomuch as the Prophet bid him demand a signe he would not why Selfe-presumption letted him he thought he was sure enough of God if once he spake the word But the Lord looked at his owne honour and therefore gave his people a signe by a Virgin that should conceive and bring forth a sonne So that the confidence of his foolish heart which thought hee beleeved God whereas in truth he sought himselfe onely and not the glory of God Luke 4. deceived him So it is said Luke 4. the Pharisees and Elders comming to Iohns baptisme despised the counsell of God touching their salvation why because they were carried with strong self-prejudice against the way of Iohns Ministery and chose rather not to bee faved at all then that way The Galathians were faire for heaven also and ran well Gal. 3. what letted them a misprision thrust into their heads by false teachers that Pauls way and Gods way agreed not and that the old way by Ceremonies was best easiest and likeliest because agreeing with flesh and this makes Paul to feare lest he had bestowed his paines upon them in vaine Our Saviour Christs Disciples were faire for faith what letted them selfe-sloth dulnesse of heart Oh you dull and slow of heart to beleeve all which is written in the Law and Prophets concerning Christ Luke 24. in what a depth of darkenesse did it hold them Their eies were held so downe that they could not discerne the Lord Jesus when hee stood and talked with them I will but adde one or two more That yong man in the Gospell was not farre from the Kingdome what stopped him Surely he came full of himselfe and had kept the Law from his youth this he had a strong conceit of but when hee was turned out of that confidence and put into a new way of selfedeniall and selling all he went away sorrowfull not onely because he was covetous but because forestalled in opinion that his way was best and is now crossed To conclude that is a solemne text which our Saviour urges Ioh. 5. Joh. 5. How can ye beleeve when ye seeke or receive
so the people let them bee exhorted also to exalt free grace and meere Christ in the promise not muttering that they find not that fruit of their selfe-deniall that they expect but counting it their chiefe work to wait at the posts of grace not as foolish pilgrimes doe at the gate of the Popes entrance knocking with a golden hammer till he bring them his Jubilee blessing but with patience attending the promise till the Lord shall stirre the dead poole of their hearts and quicken them with hope confessing that it is mercy they may live and breathe in Gods aire much more by the aire of a promise although not yet so established in their hearts as they could desire yet sufficient to keep them from grudging to make them lay their hand upon their mouth and to bee dumb Malac. 3. till the Lord bring healing in his wings and put an end to their waiting But as for esteeming themselves for their common gifts of knowledge or zeale to be ever the neerer to God for which thousands are in hell abhorring it and chusing to be the poorest doore-keeper in Gods house then the highest Pharisees in the Church who need no righteousnesse of another because they boast of their owne Therfore in all matters of God deny thy self cleave to God God is the first cause and therefore the true end of our being actions service All Rivers runne into the Sea For us to make our selves our owne ends were to make our selves God independent and to make God an Idoll To deny our selves is to distinguish our selves from the ungodly who make themselves and the creature their happinesse Wee looke to better our selves by our selfe-love but indeed we destroy our selves Selfe is our disease selfe-deniall is our cure Whether is it better for us to yeeld to but we infinitely better our selves by denying our selves even an hundred fold as Christ tells us Object But who ever hated his owne flesh Doth not God himselfe perswade us by selfe-loving arguments As by profit pleasure peace I answer yes Selfe is a plant of Gods planting in our nature But it is one thing to destroy an horses good mettall another to rectifie and subdue it so it is one thing to destroy Selfe and affections with Stoicks another to regulate and direct them Love thy selfe and spare not so the Lord by his word may order thee in it and take off thine exorbitant Selfe as in the love of thy wife seeking of learning wealth honour favour c. For the better perswading of thee hereto take some motives and some meanes First for motives Till Selfe be denied thou dost in vaine enterprise to be religious thou opposest a desire of thine owne against an whole body of death for Selfe is overspread in all the lims and faculties of thy body and soule as the forme is over the matter and the Call over the inwards Thou wilt be tried with selfe resistance except the principle be first removed Flesh will so dog thee with her askings that thou wilt be weary with refusings Till the soule be thus prepared there can be nothing done The first husband must be dead ere thou canst marry a new at least in the rectified intention and preparation of thy soule The flesh of the Virgin had beene a clogge to the second person except first separated and purified by the holy Ghost Else Demas might have clave to Paul as well as Silas the ten spies to God as well as Caleb and Iosue But they were of two spirits No agreement betweene two crosse principles Secondly God will never stoope to thee his will is not to be bowed to thine nor ever will while the world standeth For his will is the rule thine the string out of tune What should order a crooked thing but a streight Neither can they both stand together take whether you will both you cannot have you cannot have your will and swinge in your contents of world lust and liberties and Christ too no man can serve two Masters nor drive two such trades at once as a Fullers and a Colliers the one sullyes as fast as the other whitens nay of the two there is more to be made of following Selfe alone without Christ then Selfe and Christ by the former a man may at least get himselfe a worldly happinesse though he lose heaven after But by the latter a man makes him wretched and distracted so that he can neither enjoy the one nor the other Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life The heart of a Christian is single in respect of his object onely God and his favour no mixtures with it Either deny nature in her inordinatenesse or else give God over for both cannot consent in one degree of eminency who cares for a wavering minded man either to make him our chapman or friend or husband For still hee seekes not us but himselfe Let no sweet morsell be kept in our palate to cause God to be out of rellish with us Better key-cold then lukewarme Thirdly it is equall that Christ and God be chiefe because they have bought us with a price to bee theirs Wee should doe him great wrong who hath bought a Captive if hee should doe his owne worke God hath not onely bought our service but our selves Except then wee never made such a bargaine with God wee must bee for him who hath so dearly bought us To be sure God will bee revenged of us as well for not making that bargaine as for not keeping it 2 Pet. 2. Some hypocrites are said to deny Christ who bought them A servant is his Masters mony Fourthly The soule feeles a heaven in selfe-deniall What inward content thinke we had Abraham when he had denied Isaacs life And Moses and Paul when they could preferre God and his Church before their salvation to suffer afflictions with Israel rather then to be a Prince in Pharaohs Court Contrariewise what an hell carrieth that man in his soule who for base ends denies God and conscience Let but a man deny one base lust of revenge wrath and what an heavenly heart doth he carry with him to prayer Fifthly Think what an emptinesse there is in thy self thine own aimes and bents of heart and in those creatures and objects which thou judgest so sweet Wells wanting water and cloulds without raine As one saith of the Pagan Gods why did men chuse so many save that each one was emptinesse When the eie of Selfe falls downe from one cleere Sunne it thinkes it sees three or foure but they are all but fancies The fullest creature is but a brittle glasse full of water give it but as a cracke and it is gone If we were convinced hereof who would seeke vanity Who would deceive himselfe in eating ashes Esay 44. and hold a lie in his right hand It is meere inconsideratenesse and want of weighing things as hee saith there of the Idolater Sixtly Either be armed strongly
her in all straits and troubles As Selfe was a body of death in her before easily besetting her so is Christ now a very reall being of Truth and Grace a very life of being and welfare unto her Now the soule is willing to shake off Selfe because she hath a better thing in possession which frees her from the old yrkesomenesse vanity bondage and unsubsistence which before she was disquieted with Oh! it is a wonderfull priviledge to a poore soule that whereas before it was tedious to her to muse of the promise to deny her owne hopes flashes and pangs to cleave to the bottome of another out of herselfe now all these are become sweet unto her because Christ is now instead of Selfe unto her even all in all Before it was a violent worke to apply the soule to meditation for she was out of the element of Grace but now she counts it familiar worke because the presence of Christ hath made it so a mercy more worth then all the world beside when shee considers duly of it Before shee was haled as a Beare to the stake to the word to the sacraments to other ordinances duties now she hath fellowship with them as her owne even as she is Christs before she knew not what to make of herselfe her affections her desires but now shee is able to discerne what God hath done for her and her affections mournings and duties stand not up in the roome of Christ but flow from him safely and returne to him as the waters to the sea whence they came Oh! what oddes is there betweene the dead life of Selfe moving the soule heavily as Pharaohs charet wanting their wheeles and the living life of Christ alway affording some warmth vigor breath and motion to the soule and assuring her that is not from herselfe but from a principle without which will not faile her Oh! this second Adams quickning spirit is as far above that dead principle of Selfe as a living creature is above an Image Thirdly the Spirit of Grace drawes the soule to the end of Grace The third is the end to behold the purpose of God in declaring the riches of that mercy by which he saved a sinner that he might purchase more glory to himselfe then good to the soule Of this I spake before by another occasion only note this that the Spirit carries Selfe out of the soule hereby For when the soule is ravished with the view of those excellencies of God manifested by redemption she loseth herselfe as in a streame as being ashamed to thinke that she should so basely struggle for that by her own strength which onely the Spirit of the promise can conduct her unto for the ends of the promise serving to make the Lord admirable in his Saints Oh! how is the soul ashamed yea confounded for her own folly that she should goe about the fadoming of so bottomelesse depth with her owne bucket I conclude these three branches with renewing my exhortation Try your selves by these whether the Spirit of Grace bee in you or no for if it be it hath the promise of a full bottome to stablish the soule upon it hath brought realnesse of comfort and peace into it and it hath carried it into the sea of the riches of grace so that it can make songs of the Lords deliverance with more admiration then if the inheritance of a Prince had befalne it I cannot insist now any longer So much for the second marke that the Spirit of Grace is for Grace To make an end a third and last marke of the Spirit of Grace is The third marke is The calme proceeding of this Spirit of Grace that it goeth forward calmely and softly in her pursuit of the promise without any carnall striving and violence of Selfe much lesse fretting and distemper of spirit upon Gods delaies She teaches the soule to waite upon the Lord and harken what he would say to his Saints for he will speake peace to them that they may not returne to folly their old selfe-staggering unsettlednesse or bondage The Spirit of Grace is much like the Temple of Salomon it loves not to hear the din of Selfe to disquiet it Psal 85.8 as hammers and tooles might not bee used in the building of the other 1 King 6.7 While he is at worke he cannot endure Selfe to disturbe him he will raise up the frame himselfe we must onely say Grace grace unto it but he will both lay the foundation and corner stone Zach. 4.7 and set the building upon it and it shall prosper in his hands Suffer we our selves orderly and by degrees to be led from step to step without turning off on the right hand or the left meekely and patiently attending his leasure in our innocency and use of meanes and foist not any secret weights of our owne into the ballance as if the Lord were not alone able to perfect his owne worke onely let there be no stops in our owne spirits to set backe or quench this Spirit of Grace under the pretence of our quiet and patient wayting 1 Thes 5. A point which no hypocrite can discerne If he be bidden to rest he leaves his diligence and waxes idle whereas true striâ—â— and true rest goe together and a poore soule so rests from his selfe striving that yet he continues his selfe-denying diligence in the use oâ— meanes Esay 30. Try your selves also in this but I remember I have touched â—oâ— part before when I spake of the violence of Selfe This shall thereâ—ore suffice to have spoken touching the markes of this Spirit of Grace and the several branches thereof Now in a word for the other peece of the question how this Spirit of Grace may be attained Quest 2. Hâ—w this Spirit of grace may be attained I answer briefly First be earnest in prayer to God for it for the Spirit of Grace and supplication are joyned together Zach. 12.10 That both the Lord would cast down this strong castle of Selfe and raise up the strong fort of his own salvation upon the ruines Answ 1 thereof joyne with prayer meditation be much in the use of all other powerfull ordinances of God fasting especially the true Sampson to Answ 2 cast down the house over the head of self and unbeleefe And observe seriously Answ 3 the graces of others such as have shot this gulfe and have had the Answ 4 experience of Christ in them Again seek not to please our flesh as it is said David would never crosse Adonija from his youth and that made him such a good one but abridge our selves of our wills even in some lawfull liberties 1 King 1.6 and abstaine from many things which others permit to themselves dyet our selves daily as those which runne for a prize and that may somewhat inure us to deny our selves in this great worke of Answ 5 Grace 1 Cor. 9.25 Tye our selves closely to the duties of
with all the poison and disdaine they can professing themsâ—lves to hate the very tribe of them with a deadly irreconciliable feud That Centurian in Luke 5.7 is praised for loving the Nation of the Jewes But these abhorre both the persons and the whole Nation of the Ministers taking occasion by all possible meanes to expresse it in whatsoever companies they come yea in the most reproachfull manner what opinions and affections they beare toward them 2 King 9.11 Such were those fellow Captaines of Iehu who when the Prophets messenger came to doe his message asked him what mad fellow was this who came in unto thee Even such base triviall names doth the world give to the Ministers of God And as the villany of old Popish Idolls deserved the base tearmes of pild Priest hedge Priest knave Priest and the like So now ungodly wretches dare abuse Gods Ministers as fast for their goodnesse calling them singular fellowes proud pestilent Preachers fantasticall fellowes factious enemies to the estate Oh! of all other men they thinke such may be spared they were well ere such came and till they be rid of them they shall never be quiet As Ieremy saith Woe is me that my mother bred me a man of contention And againe Jerem. 15.10 Esay 8.18 I and my children are as signes of contradiction publick spectacles to men and Angels yea the very off-scouring of men It cannot be imagined how Alehouse hunters libertines epicures sweaâ—ers worldlings dare speake and thinke of Gods Ministers Oh! the bitternesse of their spirits Proverb the venome of their tongues who can stand before envy Well let not all this daunt us Let us do as our Lord Jesus himself and his Apostles who escaped not the like handling even carry our selves as wisely as we can and heap hot coales upon their heads by our long suffering and meeknesse But as for them look for no other while they continue as they are they doe but their kinde They who despise Christ himselfe are high traitors and they cannot be guilty of lesse then of petty treason who dispise his Ministers and if the maligners or revilers of the fathers of their bodies were to be stoned without any more adoe What shall the scorners and revilers of the fathers of souls be done too Psal 105.15 Surely although they may escape the judgement of man they shall never avoid his who hath threatned them that doe but touch how much more lay so violent and execrable hands upon his Ministers From what other spirit can it come let the pretences be what they will but a spirit of desperate prophanenesse and debauchednes yea a Giant-like defiance with God which because it cannot reach God himself therefore le ts fly all their reproaches and scorns upon such as doe most neerly resemble and beare witnesse of him upon earth Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee saith the Prophet have lighted upon me If the Minister can approve it against thee that he beares no other blowes or markes then such as should have lighted upon God himselfe Woe to them that are guilty of such blasphemy for the Lord shall plague them with the same eternall plagues wherewith he plagues those who immediately have blasphemed Majesty it selfe But I dwell not upon these I hasten to Reproofe And first this sharpely censures all such as disesteem discourage and Vse 3 desert such Ministers as they are bound doubly to honour and respect Of Reprofe Deserters and discouragers of such Ministers as they are bound too to be blamed This very fact of Naaman shall rise up in judgement against them in the day of Christ Did Naaman so deerly love the Prophet one whom he never saw before Before whose gate only he had stood and heard a message from but as yet had not seene At the bare report of him For a bodily cure Nay the hope of it a far off Shall an heathen do all this Shall he even doe some yea any great thing for him What colour shall they pretend then that are farre from doing the least thing for such a Minister of God as not onely they have seene but also heard lived and conversed with not the first day but ten twenty thirty forty yeares Not as Prophets but Preachers the least whereof is not onely greater then Elisha but Iohn Baptist himselfe Matth. 11.12 not promising the cure of leprosie but of the soule not offering the effect of Jordens waters but the waters of regeneration in baptisme Not by a messenger but by their owne hand and by the power of the word farre more excellent then the urim of a Priest or the vision of a Prophet Surely one might well thinke that such people should refuse no paines cost or hazard for such Ministers But be willing if need were to thrust themselves between the swords point and their bosomes to ride and runne to doe them good to stake their purse counsell travell selves soules and all for their encouragement If for the Brethren much more for the Fathers should we lay downe our lives But is it so 2 Joh. 3.16 Surely let that prejudice which men generally have of the very handling yea naming of such a point as this is say for them what their affections are in this case yea and the thoughts even of Ministers themselves who study how to passe over this point as the Dog of Nilus passeth by the streame rather catching here and there a lap then daring to stay and drinke for feare of some Crocodile or other to snap him up I hope brethren you will pardon me if I deale plainly as having no claime either to your tithes or purses who I am sure have spent five times more charge in furnishing my selfe for the worke of the Ministery then ever my Ministery was worth unto me therefore the rather I beseech you give me favour I come not to accuse you of this congregation for your present love or countenance Onely I must tell you many who now in our welfare use of gifts liberty and elbowroome shew themselves forwardest to encourage us Note this fulfilled Prophesie if God turne the wheele and change our publicknesse into privacy and our liberty to restraint and our peace into enmity and our health into sicknesse and leave us to their curtesies will be the first that will lowre upon us and challenge us rather for our curiosity and precisenesse then regard us either for the former services we have done or for the sorrowes we suffer Experience hath proved it so throughly already in many worthy lights who have spent all their oile for the use of the Sanctuary that even those hearers of theirs who most of all seemed to rejoice in their light have no sooner saw their light to be a little darkened to the worldward but they have slipt away in a mist and beheld them as strangers afar off deserted them their wives and children so that except God had
mine eyes or bee taken lame in my hands or feet or unable to get my living or lye upon my poore husbands hand till we bee not worth a groat with a thousand such crotchets Are not these just plagues of old unbeleefe Doe not men upon their death beds cry out It is just with God thus to handle me for I never could trust him nor his word further then I saw felt and tasted him Oh God hath met with you Did he not threaten the despisers of his Law with astonishment of heart with hanging by the eye-lids an heart of heavinesse sorrow saying in the morning would God it were evening in the evening would it were morning Read Deut. 29. that roll of curses what anguish of heart fears perplexities the Lord threatens to send upon such as applauded themselves in their rotten peace and the stubbornenesse of their unbeleefe Surely we may thinke then it s juster to smite them that have abused his Gospell with spirituall penalties making a scourge of their owne cords And yet all this will not serve to drive men out of their prophanenesse and dallying with the word still they will cavill against faith and say Tush these men of the Spirit would have all men like to themselves but we cannot bee so heavenly our time is not yet come when God will it shall be and till then t is but folly for us to struggle we will doe what lies in us and put our helping hand to Gods and then hope the best Others tell the Minister they thinke it is impossible for any to know themselves happy in this life or if it be not yet it is very difficult or very unlikely Oh say they we cannot forgoe such a lust or ill custome and this faith will bereave us of all our sweet pleasures and liberties we shall never have done with it if we once beginne others come by it easilyer then we we are dull schollers poore men must doe as they may and cannot follow this learning so hard our businesse and worke hinder us and our memories are shallow we see these beleevers are as little set by among men as any a thousand of these base cavills men have But remember that these vanities will make you forsake your mercy at last Jonah 2.8 and then he that will bring you but once word to rest upon in your horrors should be as one of a thousand but then it will be too late Esay 27.11 then terrible sentences will come into your thoughts That he who made them will not save them and he who formed them will shew them no mercy And then shall that bee verefied Acts 13.40 Behold ye despisers wonder and vanish I worke a worke in your dayes which if one tell you of you will not beleeve you that wilfully stopt your eares against Gods word before shall now wish you could see the truth and beleeve it but if you would give a world for it it shall be denyed you If there bee any sparke of sense in you let this move you else you shall then catch at a word of God to comfort you but none shall be granted you So much for this first Use A second Use is Instruction to teach us the most pretious and excellent Vse 2 nature and prerogative of faith For the nature of it Instruction 1. Branch The nature of Faith is most pretious 1 Pet. 1.8 wee see this only and no other grace is allotted the soule for this end to fasten and take hold upon the Word and Promise As the Word is the only thing which beares witnesse unto us of good and his way to heaven for we see nothing as Peter speakes yet beleeve so the onely gift to cast the soule upon this word is faith And therefore it is the off-spring of God that grace which hath the birthright of all the rest and is the Reuben and strength of God such a one as if the Lord would even study how to dwell with us and in us Prov. 8.31 as wisdome saith in the Proverbs She delights to inhabit with men yea how to make us partakers of the divine nature and restore his Image in us he could not doe it by any other so excellent a grace as by this of faith Therefore Esay 57. it s called the creation of God 2 Pet. 1.2 3. I create the fruit of the lips peace if the daughter peace then much more the mother Faith its that grace which onely can say as Iob did Job 23.12 I have esteemed the words of his mouth it counts one word or promise of God as a deed done for faith is when that is done which is spoken it gives a realnesse and being to the word and promise and as you see a mould presently fashions the mettall according to it self just like it and as the seale printing upon the soft wax leaves that impression upon it which it beares it selfe even so it is with faith it fashions it selfe according to the mould of the word and beares the same stampe upon it which the seale of the word bare looke upon the one and behold the other Nay it s the instrument of the Spirit without which it workes not As Samuel said to Ishai of David send for him for wee can doe nothing till he come So till faith come into the soule to bee the organ of the Spirit to worke in us by it alas the Spirit is a stranger to our soules It s that coale from the Altar wherewith the Lord touches and inspires the soule the soule is the life of the body and faith is the soule and life of the soule causing it so much to excell it selfe as an Angel doth a man Briefly the word is a dead letter to us if faith make it not a powerfull word a word of life in us It s that which causeth out of the belly of the soule even as water from a spring to flow rivers of waters of eternall life John 7.38 even of peace through pardon and of joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1.8 2 Pet. 1.2.3 By it as Peter saith Most great and pretious promises are given to us so that if that hand that taketh rich gifts be a pretious hand then surely so is faith which only receives the gift of Christ and all he hath and hoardeth them in the soule That Christ Eph. 3.14 may dwell in your heart by faith That you may comprehend all love even the length depth and all dimensions thereof as flesh here is able to doe as all Saints doe saith the Apostle No other grace is ordained to this end save this It was the instrument of receiving Christ into the wombe of the Virgin by which all generations should call her blessed and so it is still the same spiritually Luke 1.38 ver 48. Prov. 31.29 and therefore may say as Mary did The Almighty hath magnified me above all my fellow graces Many daughters have done well but
thou hast excelled them all 2. Branch Prerogative of Faith And secondly the prerogative of faith is sutable to her nature for although many things are very pretious in nature as jewells which excell in lustre and brightnesse which yet equall not the price with any reall use Job 28.19 yet this pretious grace is as usefull also and therefore well might Salomon say and so Iob also She is more pretious then Rubies and the Topaz of Ethiopia shall not bee taken for her And that appeares by this that she is the doer of all in all in the soule both for light In sundry respects direction and strength First for light as the Sunne is first subject of naturall light in the world So is Faith in the supernaturall divine light in the soule And is to the whole man as our Saviour speakes of the eye if it be light then is the whole body light the hand Matth. 6.22 the foote the members are all light if the eye be cleare And as the Ephod or Urim were to the Priest so is faith to the soule even the oracle of it and conceives the deep things of God and reveals them to us to whom before they were hidden And if it be true as it s most true that we know no more in Gods matters then wee beleeve then surely faith is the key of all true and saving knowledge in the soule Then also she is the directresse of the soule As servants from the Master or Mistresse so doe all the graces of the Spirit receive direction from the gift of faith As in a ship each boy hath his taske some to row with oares in the boat others to climb the shreeds to pumpe to stop the leaks some to attend the steridge but all receive direction from the boatswaine he orders them and their works So Faith workes not every thing immediately in the frame of a Christian she hath abundance of workemen and as the Centurion said to his so Faith saith to hers Doe this suffer this conquer this come goe and they all obey If a crosse come goe Patience endure it If a blessing come Sobriety use it temperately as if thou didst not use it If any duty of mercy to soule or body to be done Charity and Liberality must doe them If any hard taske then Wisedome Diligence or Selfe-deniall must step forth and to these Faith gives their charge and orders their worke Thirdly she is the strength of all other graces of the Spirit As all sinewes are from the braine all Arteries from the heart all veines from the liver thence they derive their originall and all that activity which they exercise in the body So 1 Joh. 3.9 all the graces of the Spirit fetch their being and support from Faith Shee is the seed of God in the Soule and she is the strength of God also His seed because whatsoever divinenesse is in the gift of patience long-suffering thankfulnesse mercy love hope of salvation it comes from the fountaine of Faith She is the Merchant Royall all other Chapmen have their wares from her Store-house Then she is the strength also of God in all graces Whatsoever thou seest excellent in a Christians frame or graces if thou hadst an eye to see thou shouldst behold them all in one faith out of whole Forge and Anvill they are all formed For why Faith taking hold of Gods maine strength to save carries away all his strength to obey if God will save me surely hee deserves my love my patience and surely hee and his love will put mee forth and uphold me in doing for him in curbing my passions in mortifying my Giant-like corruptions the great sonnes of Anak those Emims and Zanzummims 2 Cor. 5.8 Esay 26.12 which are above all the rest in fiercenesse and strength So that now mark this Doctrine of Faith casting the Soule upon the Word and Promise for pardon and life argues the most excellent nature and prerogative of faith above all other It is evident by this whatsoever the Lord workes in man he workes by the Word and the Spirit and whatsoever these two act in the soule they act it by faith as their onely instrument so that Faith is the onely Intelligencer to the Soule from the Spirit and from Heaven and that grace which is maintained as agent for God in the soul No other gift is so As hee saith of the ship that there are in it many who do needfull works but the Pilot doth all in all he doth not so sordid works as they but he doth greater and better for he sits at the sterne and guides the course of the Ship into the Haven the other are but subordinate but shee is principall so I may say of Faith and other graces all of them conferre to the well-being of a Christian but faith to the being The Ship boyes stop leakes and row with Oares but they doe not the great worke of guiding the Ship by Card and Compasse till she come at land So all that which any grace of the Spirit doth that faith doth But faith doth somewhat which they doe not nor can doe Nay faith is faine to cover all the defects of other graces to save them harmlesse and to beare their chin above water from sinking As we see that the Shield is not onely armour to fence the body Ephes 6.16 but also to fence off blowes and affronts from all the armour it selfe so that the dint come not at the head-peece or corslet or the rest Onely faith brings the Lord Jesus into the soule to doe all her workes in her and for her and when all is done to pardon the wants and to cleanse away the spots thereof by cloathing her with that robe under which God seeth no deformity to impute or punish it To conclude I say brethren that I presse this purposely that as I have spoken much of those things in this Book which tend to faith so I would perswade you to thinke no paines too great to bestow in the getting thereof because this grace being once gotten to cast the soule upon the Word and Promise yea God himselfe in Christ By this meane she hath all because she encloseth him who is all in all in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdome who is the fulnesse of God in whom we are complete And so much may serve for this use Vse 2 Another use of instruction may be to give us some further light into the substance of this grace of faith Of Instruction Faith hath two parts 1. Self denial by shewing you of what ingredients the receit is made or of what parcels it consists And they are two The former deniall of our selves The latter resigning up of the soule to Gods Word For to cast the soule upon the promise implies both these Selfe-deniall then first is one parcell of this grace For why It is impossible that the soule should cast it selfe upon a Word
Try we our selves then in this Do we wish that the rule were crooked that we might crooke our owne way Doe we tremble and start at the closenesse of Gods soveraigne Commands saying These are hard things who then shall be saved It s a signe we are hollow and if we could we would bee willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 2.5.6 that we might live the sweet life of an ideot But doe wee presse after light information resolution and when we have it welcome it and obey it Doe we desire that we might live under a convincing Word and Ministery Doe we count it our happinesse that the righteous smite us Are we willing upon better information to undoe our errors to beginne againe anew rather then we would still erre Surely it s a signe of an honest heart closing with Commands Triall 2 Secondly an honest obeyer of Commands hath a speciall tendernesse of heart She is tender to obey and soundnesse of judgement to discerne and to close with commands to abhorre and to abandon the contrary I may compare a close heart in these two Simil. to a skilfull musitian and to the tender ey-lid A musitian that hath exact skill on the lute or viall will lay his eare to the strings and by his quicke discerning will presently finde out the least jarre of his distuned instrument Another man would judge that there is very good musicke but he cannot rest so content but still is putting downe or winding up his pinne and string till his eare bee pleased Oh! there be many secret jarres in the spirit of a good Soule which others see not and therefore applaud and commend but hee cannot allow himselfe in them he counts not himselfe thereby justified he discernes the jarre of his heart though others like his musicke never so and perceives which way his heart windes and doubles flagges and faulters as in keeping of a Sabbath in hearing the Word in the end and scope of his actions and is never well till his heart be in tune And so it is with him in his affection his heart smites him for that jarre as Iehosaphat having wound in himselfe into an Idolatrous company and hearing his foure hundred Prophets flatter him could not be quiet 1 King 22.7 but started at it as a man out of his place Is there not here saith he ever a Prophet of the Lord to consult with So David having cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 checked himselfe and smote his heart for it As I said it is with a good heart as with the ey-lid which being given to cover the curious eye is so tender that if the least mote touch the eye it cannot endure it but twinckles and complaines instantly Try thy selfe then by this rule If thou feele Gods Commands with a furr'd glove on thy fingers and as one would feele the least needle with a cloath about this hand if thou goe to worke grossely with commands it must be a very great and large one which thou feelest but as for the lesser and narrower ones thou hast no sense thereof as in truth an hypocrite cannot reach the spiritualnesse of any Command thou shewest thy selfe what thou art But if thou set the Commands of God in the closset of thy soule if thou hast a tender sensible feeling of all thy jars and cavills with the Commands of God if thou start at the least appearance of evill aswell as those evills which will waste and gull downe thy conscience it s a marke of an heart truly closing with Commands Thirdly it s a very good signe of a close heart if having beene prevented Triall 3 once by the sweet of a surfetting sinne It profits in obedience by experience of former disobeying the soule have enough and too much of it for ever after If a tender stomacke have overshot it selfe with excesse in some dish of meat commonly nature will doe penance all the life after and loath that dish Seldome doe we read that the Saints fell into the same sinnes which once they paid for David returned no more to his uncleannesse Hezechia to his pride of life Peter to his denying of his Master Try thy selfe then by this If thou make a falling sicknesse of thy sinnes and art alway complaining praying and disgracing of a sin but yet fallest into it againe as often thy heart is either unsound or unguarded I grant that Beelzebub will light againe often upon the place which he is beaten from but I speake of a defilednesse of heart consenting to that which it seems much to whine and complaine of For surely a good heart is alway in combat against any sinne but above all against her most knowne naturall corruptions her eye is alway upon them they make her as the fish out of her element quaking for feare No hectique disposition upon the body so sapes away the strength thereof as the feare of a sinne formerly foiling the soule makes it fearefull of it yea it nourisheth in it selfe a perpetuall antipathy and enmity with it Many may be her staggers but still she lies in watch and wait against them and all the opportunities occasions and inducements unto them Fourthly an honest heart hath a sensible joy in it selfe that there is Triall 4 a word of God to decide the question between her and her sinne In cases of question she is glad that the word may decide it Be the colours of a base lust never so strong and many yet the soule is glad to heare that neither it selfe nor yet her corruption must determine the case but that the word must and can beare sway She saith in such a case as Saul did in casting lots betweene himselfe and Ionathan 1 Sam. 14.41 The Lord give a perfect lot This is a signe that although the heart might possibly be blinded by ignorance in some case yet sincerity is stil alive because it can rejoice to hear the cause of God pleaded against her owne and can finde in her heart to abandon the most pretious lust rather then the least tittle of Gods commands should perish He who hath an ill cause loves not to heare of an equall bearing by impartiall Arbitrators But he whose cause is good or at least who loves peace is more troubled with the controversie then tickled with the gaine and therefore bindes himself to stand to award and is glad that there is any way to make an end Fifthly the honest heart cares alway more for the preservation of the integrity of Commands then for her owne safety and ends She Triall 5 is like herein to the harlot whose the child was 1 King 3. end The false mother hearing Salomon call for a sword to divide the childe She prefers the safety of the Command before her owne skin looked onely at her owne ends to be as the other woman was but in the meane time she discovered her owne unnaturalnesse and that the childe was none of her
so mistakes and misconstrues must either deceive himselfe in looking for more or defraud himselfe in looking for lesse then the promises containe in them What a continuall vexation is it then to erre about the extent of those things wherein to erre is above all other errors most dangerous and remedilesse Many more reasons might bee added but the substance thereof will occurre otherwise Vse 1 I proceed to the Uses First this point is Terror to all in generall who doe not beleeve the whole body of truth according to it selfe Of Terror Branch 1 without the which promises cannot possibly be construed aright Now alas Truths of God must not be taken by tradition and prejudice but from the whole body of truth beleeved as Gods what a common error is this Who beleeves or deducts promises from the rocke of truth as marble pillars digged out of the whole quarry Men take the whole truth of God for the most part from the tradition of men from the interpretation of others which is no other save upon trust as their Parents Masters or teachers have instil'd it into them and I grant its meet to be so at first for so those Samaritans John 4. at first harped upon the truths preacht by Christ by the information of the woman But they did not rest there till by her they were drawne to heare him speake himselfe and then they told her plainly that they resolved their faith not into her report but Christ himself It is with many of us as with Papists who use the Church to bee the principle of their faith whereas she should onely be a guide an informer and directresse It s not to be doubted but the Church is the preserving and sustaining pillar of truth in point of guiding the soule to the truth for had not the Church nursed us taught and train'd us up where had we been But this must not be enough to stablish us except we meane to disguise our selves and bewray our sandy foundation when tempests and troubles shall try what is in us no we must put a difference betwixt our drawing to the truth and our beleeving the truth and never rest till the bright morning starre of the Word the Lord Jesus hath risen in our hearts who will cast such a through light into them as shall shine from East to West Matth. 24. and enlighten us in all truth yea lead us into all truth by his Spirit Churches judgement must guide us principle us in the truths of Scripture that Spirit I meane which assists his word in the hearts of all humble and teachable ones This will cause us not to take here a shred and there another such a command or such a promise as pleases us not knowing what to make of the rest but to set open our whole hearts unto the whole truth the whole body thereof that it may enter into us possesse and dwell in us plentifully in every part it will present to our eyes that God of truth speaking in his word and piercing thereby into the very marrow and bones dividing the thoughts and carrying the soule into the streame of that excellency of his whereby we may be convinced of his truth it will shew us the truth of the written word in the eternall word of the Father full of Grace and Truth the way the truth and the life in whom who so beleeves to salvation doth also beleeve all and every truth which ever came out of his mouth and wee shall no more doubt of that then of Christ himselfe in whom all truth is established and gathered as the whole verge of a garment into one knot so that as no man bids us to prove that its day light when the Sunne shines so wee shall need no proofe or demonstration of any particular part of the word having embraced Christ that eternall word of God into our bosomes because he brings all his truths with him and having himselfe fulfilled that one great promise of his incarnation and redemption hath also in that made good all the other promises and made them Yea and Amen to the praise of his glory Oh therefore The Spirit of Christ must be our first planter of truth in the soule how wofull is the condition of such as forsake this way of faith and goe to dig pits which will hold no water boasting that nothing shall ever pull them away from the truth no feares persecutions change of times and I know not what away with thy vain brags If thou hast not first planted thy selfe upon Jesus the body of truth thy particular knowledge of truths will vanish of it selfe for he who gathers not with Christ scatters but how much more when thy slight building shall be shaken with crosses and enemies Therefore gaster your selves from such frothy bottomes as will deceive you get truth first planted in your soules with the love of it for some reall and maine good which it hath done you Terrour to all Popish and blinde maintainers of truth upon error and opinion and when Christ shall have brought his truth with the saving comfort of it into you it will hold your hearts close to it never to goe from it it shall keepe your hearts and mindes in the knowledge of God it shall discover to you that rich hoord of promises which are hid in Christ out of whom they are but as the sound of many waters and vanish as fast as they come This will teach us a rule of conceiving truth aright This will scatter all mists of error darkenesse mistakes from the minde and purifie the heart by the obeying of the truth as Saint Peter speakes 1 Pet. 1.22 2 Pet. 1.19 yea it will be a light shining in a darke place and guiding the feet into the way of peace Abhorre then a patched confused knowledge of truth destitute of the truth in Jesus as thou wouldest abhor and loath utter blindenesse and arrant ignorance it selfe in the highest degree For indeed setting aside the shew of it it s but cousen germane to it who abhors not a misbeleeving Turke or Jew as a very infidell Who loaths not an Hereticke Papist Pelagian or a Schismaticke as we doe misbeleevers Yea in some respect worse because they are so leavened that it is easier to draw a Pagan not prejudicate to the faith then such It s true that the other have more of truth in them then the other But they doe so corrupt confound and misapply truths they maintaine not truth in the accord and the harmony of truth therefore they hold truth rather to overthrow truth then to establish it and in effect are greater enemies to the promises and to the truth in Jesus then they can seeme friends to some kindes of truth whatsoever their abettors and patrons would or can speake in their defence So much for this first Secondly and more particularly its terror to all audacious and impudent Branch 2 spirits of hypocrites Of
shall fall into some scandall 3. Fear of falling into some scandall and not persevering and never persevere but he who hath delivered will deliver from every evil way and work He wil preserve the souls of his Saints he wil write his law in their heart they shall not depart from his feare I am perswaded nothing shall separate c. He is faithfull who hath promised Sometime sicknesse poverty debt disquiets and how then In six troubles he will keepe thee and in the seaventh that it shall not oppresse Hee put his hand under my head and will make my bed in sicknesse when I was weake the Lord holpe me Againe the soule complaines 4. Sicknesse debt enemies unfaithfull friends and the like But I have enemies Well but if thy wayes please the Lord he can make them thy friends If not though an Army of them compasse mee about yet will I not be afraid But perhaps friends faile and turne unfaithfull Well yet Mica 7. When I dare trust no friend nor wife I dare trust the Lord. When my father and mother forsooke me but the Lord took me up Can a mother forsake the childe of her womb Yet will not the Lord. He will sustaine and redeeme thee In all their afflictions hee was afflicted Esay 63.9 Oh! but they prosper and I decay They beare all the stroke and my cause is sentenced Stay a while and their green Bay tree shall wither True it is it is long first Psal 73. Psal 37.6 But fret not thy selfe roll thy way on Jehova and be doing good and hee will effect it Hee will bring forth thy righteousnesse as the morning Hee will plead thy cause Mica 7. When there is casting down thou shalt see a lifting up and hee shall save the humble person Job 22.29 But thou wilt say My prayers be not heard Not presently but it is that thou mightst pray oftner and earnestlier that so God may deliver thee from that thou fearest and his grace may bee sufficient for thee Thou wilt still object 5. When prayer is not heard My troubles are as no bodies secret and stinging unknowne to any But not unto the Lord whose eyes are in every corner of the earth and knows the heart and reynes yea the most hidden sorrowes that he may be strong with the weak and contrite ones Oh! but I am darke for lack of faith Yet let him that is in darknesse and seeth no light trust upon God Esay 50. But I want meanes The Lord is my support Psal 23.3 leads me to the pastures and streames and when I am lost yet sustaines me So that although the Olive and Vine should faile though there should be no Calfe in the stall nor Sheep in the flocke Habak 3. yet will I make the Lord my salvation But my temptations and assaults by Satan are fierce to Atheisme to deny providence the Scriptures and such like molestings It they be tedious they shall bee short and faith shall quench the most fiery darts 6. Temptations and fierce assaults of Satan Matth. 5.12 1 Pet. 4. But he stirres up his instruments to vex and pursue Well they may cast thee into prison tenne dayes but hold out and I will give thee a Crowne of life Gods hook is in their nostrills Blessed art thou when thou art persecuted for the name of Christ The Spirit of glory shall rest upon thee Fear not man whose breath is in his nostrills Esay 40.7 But I feare evill times will plucke me from my stedfastnesse No Thousands and tenne thousands shall fall on both sides but thou shalt goe free in the midst Matth. 24. If possible the Elect should be deceived But it s not possible I have prai'd for thee that thy faith faile not The just shall have a shining light upon their pathes Luke 22.31 Oh! but perhaps I am in perplexing straits what course to take Well but a voice shal be behind thee and say This is the way walke in it Oh but my sorrowes are the miseries of the Church Esay 30. The gates of hell shall not prevaile against her Be of good courage I have overcome the world The ship that Christ is in Matth. 18. John 13. ult Mica 7.8 cannot be drowned He will rebuke the waves and cause a calme Rejoyce not over me O mine enemy for when I am down I shall rise Christ hath naild my enemies to his crosse led captivity captive Esay 26.1 Salvation hath the Lord set for walls and bulwarks Esay 13.5 God will defend Jerusalem Light is sowne for the Righteous Beare the yoke because thou hast sinned and the Lord shall breake the decree Mica last and tread them as mire in the streets In the meane time Jer. 46. I will correct them in measure and Esay 28. Did I correct him as I corrected them who afflicted him No but in measure But how shall I doe when the King of feares comes The sting of death is sin which being taken out thou shalt triumph 2 Cor. 15. O death where is thy sting But I have poore children to provide for Well Exod. 20. The Lord shewes mercy to thousands of them that love him And the children of the righteous inherit the earth Psal 25. But when I am dead what shall become of me Take no thought Esay 57. They shall rest in their graves perfumed and softned by the grave of Christ and be purged by it from corruption Their names shall be sweet on earth as the pretious ointment And their soules shall reigne with God in full perfection of happinesse above sinne sorrow and all enemies till it shall joine with the beloved body againe at the day of Christ to enjoy in heaven perfect consummation These and such like promises let every poore soule cull out for herselfe out of the treasury of the Scriptures and enlarge them to her owne use that it may goe well with her and that the promises may be beleeved according to their extent for this is the misery of the soule that God hath fulnesse for her in his promises but shee will not see it acknowledge it embrace it accommodate it but let them lye rusting there without regard as men use to suffer their Armour to doe because they have no use of it Thus much shall serve for a direction in this kinde and for this Use as also for the whole Doctrine and former part of this verse containing Naamans obedience Now I come to the latter part of the verse The last generall His successe Three things in it which containes the immediate successe of his washing And that is first the expression That his flesh came againe c. Secondly the cure it selfe He was cleane And thirdly now we heare no more of his former distempers all are vanisht and washt away with his leprous skin in Jorden These points I note here As for the remoter consequences following upon this cure afterward I shall come to them in
save draw the spirits of curious and distrustfull men to wofull Idolatry To put confidence in him under a Witch to expect successe from a cursed Principle to ascribe that glory which belongs to God alone to base means which all are reduced to the Divell their first mover Satan knowes he gaines more this way then he loseth by the truth he speaks or the good which followes He denies himselfe at no time save for wicked ends Beware therefore Dare not to confound those excellent wayes of God in his power providence and mercy to his creature with the Satanicall and Sorcerers courses of prophane beasts As for those miraculous operations of God in his Church throughout all ages of the Old Testament in the poole Siloam and the gift of ejecting Satan by some certaine persons there was enough to prove that they were from God John 5.4 Matth. 12.27 for the confirmation of Truth the strengthening of Faith the drawing of Proselites But as for all the other the Lord justly suffers Satan to deceive such as deceive themselves first and reject the truth as we see in Saul Esay 8.19 Should the living goe to the dead 1 Sam. 28.6.7 Jam. 3.15 and to them that whisper out oâ— the earth Geomanticks No but to the Law and to the Testimony if that favour not there is no wisdome in them save that which Saint Iames calls from beneath and divelish A most wofull thing that in a land where the Gospell hath beene preached this eighty yeares such abominations should swarme and that with impunity yea in some cases which I name not with Apology God amend it So much for this Branch Secondly Goodnesse of God in using weake and poore things to effâ—ct great is much to be admired hence acknowledge the infinite goodnesse of God in devising such aide and succour to poore creatures both their bodies and soules for the expressing of his tender mercies to us in this infirmity of our flesh That by a word speaking he should create the fruit of the lippes even peace Esay 57. by the Ministery of a sinfull man further off from power to convert a soule then Jorden to heale a leper and beget it to a lively hope and immortality and glory That thereby the word preached should carry with it the working of faith and regeneration As the Lord Jesus his own blessed words effected miracles in the speaking causing the dead to arise the lepers to be cleansed Marke ult the deafe to heare So the words of his Ministers by the same vertue from him should doe greater things then these even by instruments most weake how admirable is it To the end that our faith might not stand in man but in God! 2 Cor 4.7 That the deadly soule leprosie worse then Naamans bodily of infidelity pride hypocrisie selfe should be washt all away by the water of Baptisme through the word of the Covenant to which its annexed in all beleevers and these shall become sealing ordinances to ratifie the truth of regeneration to the soule and to confer the nourishing power of the Spirit unto life eternall how admirable is it It is the omnipotent power of God which causeth it which separates the silly creature of water bread and wine for the present from common use Sacraments how divinely appropriated to seale up to the soule strong assurance of salvation takes off the base outside of it casts an honourable mantle over it appropriates it to holy solemne and divine use and service unites the Lord Jesus himselfe with his whole merit and efficacy to it and all to effect this end to convey the Lord Jesus into the soule of the Beleever assuring it by vertue of this sealing ordinance that as verily as the body by vertue of appetite eates and drinkes the creatures so truly doth the soule take and eat the body and bloud of Christ to the souls nourishment by Gods command and promise This is a mystery and it should teach us that if God have assumed such poor creatures sacramentally into the partakership of himselfe therefore to take heed lest we vilifie the outward ordinance as pretending all the power to be from Christ but to acknowledge each part thereof to bee from him and one as true though not as effectuall a part as the other Ye parents make not Baptisme a common thing make not so solemne a thing to wait upon your leasure and complements when all your trinkets are ready then carry your childe to the Sacrament No let your bables attend it not it them Despise it not for the outside there is a blessing in it and under the basenesse of elements lies hidden a world of worth and honour Therefore not to be used as common things And you my brethren the people run not out from it so soon as the word is preached as if you discerned no Christ in and under it annexed to it for your owne speciall use and good I tell thee those silly creatures are essentiall parts of the Sacrament as well as the grace and ordinances of God to bee reverenced though I say not with our own invented yet with that esteeme with which God hath honoured them viz. to be channells and conveiors of that grace of the Lord Jesus for life and support else would he not have graced Sacraments with the like honor to Faith Except a man be borne of water and the Spirit John 3.3.4 Marke ult and He that beleeves and is baptised shall be saved God can worke without them when they cannot bee had but when they may he will have them share in point of honour with the graces sealed from which they cannot be severed nor may be rent So much for this second Use And lastly although I doe not here equall Jordens waters to a Sacrament Jordens waters a resemblance of baptisme nor dare I call it a type of Baptisme yet is there a cleere and lively resemblance thereof in it I speake not this to teach any to use their wits boldly to allegorize every thing as some have done In this its safest for us to captive our wisdome to God to bee no wiser then himselâ—e but where he pleases to expresse allusions there to follow with sobriety As in the allegory Gal. 3. end of Sina and Jerusalem to typifie the nature of bondage and of freedome So that of Noah's flood which Peter Epist 1. Cap. 3.21 tells us is semblable to Baptisme Else its best for us to forbeare types only we may make resemblances As here this healing of Naaman by Jorden and expressing of it by the flesh of a childe teaches us thus much That the Lord who occasionally used this water to such an end as to cure an incurable leprosie of an aliant and stranger from the Common-wealth of Israel doth assure us that much more by Baptisme as by an appointed and setled sealing way he is able to heale the fretting leprosie of sinne and curse in all his
NAAMAN THE SYRIAN HIS DISEASE AND CVRE Discovering lively to the Reader the spirituall Leprosie of Sinne and Selfe-love Together with the Remedies viz. Selfe-deniall and Faith Besides sundry other remarkable points of great use as you may finde them after the Epistle to the Reader With an Alphabeticall TABLE very necessary for the Readers understanding to finde each severall thing contained in this Booke By Daniel Rogers B. in Divinity and Minister of Gods Word at Wethersf in Essex LONDON Printed by TH HARPER for PHILIP NEVIL and are be sold at his Shop in Ivy Lane at the Signe of the Gun MDCXLII TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE Lady CECIL Countesse of Winchelsey late Wife and now Widow to the Right Honourable THOMAS Earle of Winchelsey deceased GRACE and PEACE Right Honourable THE graces of Selfe-deniall and Faith are like those two pillars of Iachin and Boaz 2 Chron. 3.17 erected at the beautifull entrance into the Temple for all men to cast their eyes upon and that worthily for most costly and pretious was their matter and most curious and artificiall was their workemanship For as those two Pillars led the way into a glorious Temple yet made with hands so doe these two stand in the porch of a better Temple even that of Grace here and Glory eternall in the heavens And as they so stood neare the gate of entrance that no man could enter in save by them although themselves never went in but alway staid without so these graces though they shall leave the soule in Heaven because she should not need them yet they shall not forsake her while she abides in the porch but shut heaven doore upon her ere they take their leave Moreover as the contriver and erecter of the former was that famous and cunning Artist Hyram of Tyre so 1 King 7.13 no lesse an artificer then Hyram nay a greater then Hyram is here I say the Spirit of the Lord Iesus is the framer and setter up of these in the Soules of Gods Elect. And these two graces good Madam with the discovery thereof are the chiefe frame of these my ensuing Lectures in which both when I preached them and now I write them I aime at this marke to withdraw the soule from the life of it owne hand to the life of the Lord Iesus Esay 57.9 and from an empty Religion to be acquainted with the mysteries of the Gospell the only manuduction to true godlinesse All profession being nothing else save a shadow and bottomlesse building which is not grounded and quickned with Selfe-deniall and Faith And indeed Right Honourable if ever any age of the Church did then doth this in which we live in my judgement require that the labours of us Ministers be improved about the urging of these whether we looke upon the times or turne our eyes to God himselfe in his administration and government we shall observe the former excessively overgrowne with an outward and formall Religion and for the latter when did the Lord so estrange himself from us and dwell as it were in the midst of a thicke cloud So that except by the lively practice of these two graces we do not stir up our selves to take hould of him how can our lives chuze but be sad and comfortlesse Surely if ever we had now need to prease upon more familiar acquaintance with God in all his graces and as David did to view his Temple well True it is that the old Iew had little knowledge of God save by the name of Iehova Alsufficient and a generall aime at the promise of a Messia the blessed seed to come Doubtlesse they lived at poore termes It was enough for them to cast an eye upon Gods Temple as Daniel in captivity and Iona in the Whales belly might do Dan. 6.10 Jona 2 7. Strange and deep was that mercy which would so far off behold such as so far off beheld him but now we the Church of the New Testament are come nearer to God Heb. 12.24 we are come to mount Sion to the heavenly Ierusalem to the Church of the first born to Iesus himself the Mediator of the Covenant and the bloud of sprinkling which speakes better things then that of Abel We are come now beyond the Porch and Sanctuary even to the Holy of Holies through his flesh that hath broken downe the vaile of seperation So that now we are past viewing of the Temple well for we had need become this Temple our selves 2 Cor. 3.18 Whose corner stone is precious Iesus and wee precious stones built upon him and rising up daily to a more lively and well proportioned building 2 Pet. 1.4.5 A little taste of the gift of God a few good reaches and affections after holinesse are not enough for us but to be grounded upon these foundations of Selfe-deniall and Faith 2 Pet. 11.1 which promise us an open entrance into that eternall Temple According therefore to those talents of Wisdome and Knowledge which the Lord hath long imparted to us by the blessed lights of his Ministers who sometimes shined in our Sphere but now in glory it is expected at our hands That we comprehend with all Saints that depth and breadth of love which is in Christ Eph. 3.17 18. that he may dwell in our hearts by faith Heb. 6.1 that forgetting our first elements we strive toward perfection so far as in this vaile of misery its possible to reach to I know your Honour hath long made this your marke and that leaving things behinde you have long looked forward to the prize of the high calling of God Phil 3.13 and to that end have I sent you this Booke that it may affoord you some succour and direction hereto in your private condition and sad widowhood These thirty yeares I have wholly intermitted any converse with your Ladiship an error scarce pardonable except your so farre distant dwelling from the place of your first nativity and education did plead some pardon for me being one whose age and occasions admit no travell to remote places Yet have I not wholy been unacquainted with your course and conversation in Gods waies nay I know through how many combats and fights of affliction God hath brought your Honor into the condition wherin you stand And besides Heb. 10.32 I may say of you as the Lord once said of Iehoshua Zach. 3 2. Is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire Hath not the Lord taken you as a dry branch and planted you in the Courts of his owne house to grow wel-liking and flourishing in goodnesse Sometimes the Lord abhorred a female out of that flecke which had a male Mal. 1.14 But now the males of your flocke are all gone the Lord hath left you as a female hope of recovering the honour of a collapsed family A great honour for to say the truth who hath beheld so deep an eclipse of such as have beene neare
cold We see all come to passe Therefore let us all whom God cals by tongue or by penne looke to the safeguard of Truth and say as those did to David so we to Truth Thou art worth ten thousand of us if we dye wee may be supplied but if thou shouldest miscarry all of us must perish As the life of old Iacob was bound up in Benjamins so ours in Truth As in some former Treatises I have endeavoured to give Section 5 my poore witnesse to the practicall truths of Religion as a most sworne enemy to all Schisme and Novelty so in this I aime more especially to encounter prophanenesse and lukewarmenesse and both to convince the former and rectifie the latter As Sinne lies deeply rooted in the one so even Grace it selfe for lacke of quickning lies dead in the other Those that are not sunke into a prophane way yet may be sunke from a zealous I consider with my selfe that as Treatises doe well for maintaining of truths so Sermons are more peculiar for the suppressing of vicious manners or lukewarm profession In Treatises we speak Gods conclusions in Sermons God seemes to speake his owne so great the oddes is in what way a truth be uttered our owne or Gods As Israel thought herselfe doubly strong having got the Arke into the Campe to fight with the Philistins so in preaching we seem to doe as the Angel who went to heaven in the smoake of Gods sacrifice There is more of God in this method then in any and wee had need use the forciblest corrasives to eat out the dead flesh of vice and the keenest spurres to drive others out of the declining temper of their lukewarme profession and neutrality Moses we know might serve to teach people Truths and Ordinances But when the great worke of scaring rebels and convincing the conscience was to be done God himselfe was faine to descend in his likenesse with terror and smoke and all too little and questionlesse that is the most noble Ordinance which works most upon and most prevailes with the part of man which is noblest and whereby we draw nearest to God the heart I meane and the affections In Gods sacrifices we read not much of the looking upon the braines or offering them up to God by fire but of the heart liver and the inward parts the fat of them as choice was Gods part The reason no doubt was that although the understanding is the guide of the soul yet because the object of it is onely truth But the object of the will and affections is properly good and by embracing and affecting of good we come nearer to God then by meere understanding of truth therefore the word preached most affecting the inner man by drawing perswading convincing quickning and comforting of it must needs have the preeminence of all other Ordinances There is oftentimes in the unregenerate alway a gulfe set betweene the understanding and the affections so that the one never comes at the other but when once affections are truly stirred this gulfe vanisheth and an easie path-way is made in the soule to welcome Gods grace and to expresse it in the life neither seeme we in any other respect to excell those wicked Angels save in the goodnesse of our affections I speake not this as an enemy to knowledge without which the heart is nought but because the wofull age we live in above all other things is most empty and yet most carelesse of getting good affections Every one thinkes himselfe to be happy in that he knoweth not in that he affecteth beleeveth or loveth whereas in these latter our union and communion with God consists The heart and spirit of the man his bent his frame that is the man and I beleeve that as they say of the materialls of the world they would soone dissolve if the soule of it were taken away so the vast body of Light and Knowledge of many professors will ruine and oppresse herselfe ere long for lack of sutable life spirit and affections This notion seemed to me very forcible to perswade the publishing of these Sermons after some other Treatises formerly set forth But will some say we grant all Sermons are indeed as you say powerfull instruments to stirre the soule bâ—â— what is that to printing and writing You know no peâ—cill can fully reach a living face The Presse cannot comprehend the Pulpit and writing of a Booke is but as the picture of a dead man in comparison of the lively voice To whom I answer Time hath beene when I have beene so farre transported with this thought that I would have preferred the preaching of a Sermon to the printing of a Booke But now I must sing another note and therefore I answer further although the objection in part be true yet consider God hath covered the uncomely parts with greatest honour and although the grace of the Spirit in preaching and giving overtures of lively impression to the heart cannot be equalled by printing yet printing hath also that peculiar use which preaching it selfe reacheth not that is constantly to represent things which while they were in uttering seemed pretious but yet are soon forgotten Luke 1.4 I say to present them alway to the eye and so to hold them there as a naile fastned in a sure place from wanzing and leaking out And moreover when the Preacher shall with diligence and observation both marke wherein God assisted him most and hold himselfe as neare as he can to his expressions somewhat more may be compassed in this kinde then otherwise But however he is a foole who counts not halfe a loafe better then no bread or despiseth the Moon-shine because the Sun is down and I hope that such as were once attentive hearers of these things when they read these Lectures shall in some sort recognize the savour and grace which in hearing they seemed to acknowledge Wherefore to conclude as I for my part thinke it a favour that I may be the overseer of mine owne Bookes which else by audacious and unskilfull adventurers might have beene defaced and also that I may set my base heart on work any way to prevent sloth ease So I shall desire thee good Reader to apply thy self with thy best care and prayers to peruse what God hath herein presented thee withall And if thou pickest any thing out blesse God and pray for me even for Thine in Christ D. Rogers The list of Contents TOuching Gods Soveraignty and Freedome in decreeing Touching the preventing assisting and perfecting grace of God in mans vocation Touching Selfe and Selfe love Touching carnall Reason How farre policy lawfull Touching Gods way in humbling the soule or the condition of the Promise Touching Servants and their duties with Masters a full discourse Touching Faith a discourse thereof at large Touching the due reverence support of the Minister by the people Touching the Promises and Performances of God Their nature and use Touching the effect of Faith and
weapons and tremble at thy wretchednesse Branch 6 Sixtly let this doctrine not onely convince thy judgement of a truth that the case thus standeth Lay downe thy pride and rebellion between God and thy soule but let it proceed to bring thine heart and whole selfe under the authority of this advantage at which God hath thee That is let it worke exceeding humiliation and feare of spirit in thee and cause thee to pull downe thy peacocks fethers and lay downe thy pride rebellion and gainsaying heart and be as one out of himselfe As that jailor when the earthquake had broken the prison doores Act. 16.27 and loosed the prisoners thought himselfe but a dead man Act. 9. and Paul being under the arrest of Gods might and power lay for dead So the thought of this thy wofull disadvantage under the hand of God should cause the jollity of thy spirit to quaile and thy bog and bold heart to be abashed saying if this be thus whence comes my impudent resolute purpose to go on in my course I see I have not mercy at my command nor grace pind to my sleeve when I can but use three or foure good wordes at my death Alas I perceive I my selfe am infinitely under the advantage of Justice and wrath both in Adam and by my owne wicked courses Is this then Oh my soule a season of revelling of casting care away of adding drunkennesse to thirst Is this a time to contest to provoke to increase sinne by wilfulnesse What do I think to scare God by my murmurings and cavills against him Oh no! this is the way to make judgement inexcusable and hell seven times hotter then at first See Esay 28.22 Therefore lay it to heart as those in Act. 2. did when they heard Peter shew them what pickle they were in for murdering the Lord of life Oh! their hearts were gored as with a swords point So let rottennesse enter into thy bones tremble and say What if the Lord should take this advantage of his to destroy me What if his long suffering all this while hath onely spared me as a vessel of wrath that he might with the fuller swinge come upon me and all at once sweep me to hell what a taking are those men in who are at their enemies curtesie as having lost all they have or condemned in as much as they are worth and at the mercy of their adversary who hath got an execution against all their estate surely hee were an odde man for stoutnesse of stomacke who should stand it out and dare his enemy to ceaze upon him Alas Esay 27.4.5 what a poore wretch should he be made So here what rescue hath the dry stubble against the advantage of fire if once kindled in it Oh! if thou canst bring downe thy base and sturdy heart by this meditation how thou standest at the meere curtesie of him who cannot only destroy thy body Luke 12.4.5 but cast body and soule to hell if this will master thy proud heart and make thee crouch and put thy face within thy knees for confusion and sorrow thou hast attained some part of that end which this convincement serves for Seventhly yet rest not in this dejection onely Consider that the soveraignty Branch 7 of God doth not reach only to destroy the creature Soveraignty is free to save aswell as to destroy but sometimes to abase it and save it There is a soveraignty of mercy a free and bountifull grace aswell in that God who hath thee at this advantage as a power to condemne And therefore apply thy selfe to the beholding of those cords which the Gospell puts in and offers thee in this dungeon and of that ladder which is thrust in for thee to come up by as to the meer implodding and sadding thy thoughts with the likelyhood of thy confusion Consider its one step to pardon to lay to heart Gods advantage For who are they who perish who carry a blacke marke of wrath about them Surely those who either acknowledge no such thing live at hearts case and elbow-roome and come leaping forth in their chaines with Agag or else if they heare of it murmur fret and kicke against it 1 Sam. 15. If then thou hast escaped both one thing remaineth escape also an unbeleeving heart Rest not in these suburbes of hell but behold the freedome of mercy in the promise And do not reach first at Election and so fal backe and breake thy necke Election not to be first lookt at but the offer of grace But take this first worke of humiliation in thee as an hansell of hope that more shall follow and as for Gods secrets they must attend faith not goe before it Therefore nakedly and without further dispute convince thy judgement of a possibility of escaping this advantage which God hath thee at Not by thy struggling and fighting against it as Pharaoh against the waters returning but by thy meeke and humble stooping under it And know that this doctrine of Gods soveraignty serves to try the spirit of men of what mettle they are made of and to condemne none save the finally rebellious Those who cease whetting at Gods secrets as not belonging to them and only betake themselves to the softly streames of Siloam beholding with stedfast eye Deut. 29.29 the freedome bottomednesse and unchangeablenesse of the promise have a marke upon them of such as shall be saved the soveraignty of Gods advantage against the poore creature notwithstanding Come then to the Lord and say thou mayst indeed justly damne me yet thou mayst also save mee O Lord doe not destroy thy creature let it please thee to have mercy and desire not the death of a poore wretch with thee the fatherlesse shall find mercy of which I am What boot shall it be for thee to have my bloud Oh spare a little let me recover my selfe if thou must needs be just powre thy wrath upon despisers but spare the penitent and such as lye at thy feet as lost Eightly let this conviction of judgement turne thy soule to make an adventure and where thou seest a breach made there to lay the battery Branch 8 of faith to assay an entrance into the City of grace The Lord having cut off his plea by as strong a remedy Assay to beleeve and redemption yea stronger then ever the former advantage lay calls thee to lay hold of it strongly in the blood and satisfaction of thy Redeemer How dost thou find thy selfe affected in this case Whether chusest thou to curse God and dye or to breake and pull downe thy stomacke and live judge thy selfe herein acording to the rule if ever the advantage of God dranke up thy spirit how wentest thou to worke didst thou recke thy teene upon God and quarrell with him for his forsaking thee or soughtst thou after a way of hope by Gods cutting off his owne advantage in his Sonne Dost thou behold the Lord
God when the famine pinched him and to kill the Prophet and yet to goe no further then himselfe confuting himselfe when hee and Iehoshaphat and a third King went against the King of Moab Cap. 3. and was at a straight like to perish for lacke of water both he and the Armies behold what a change it wrought on the sudden For then he seekes to the Prophet and bemones the straight in which the Army was making no other account but that God might justly suffer them all to perish And when Elisha disdained to looke at him yet his fiery spirit held it selfe in by compulsion from any misdemeanor So that he must bee a monster of men whom a deepe straight will not subdue and tame unto the stooping to any conditions I grant this may sometime prove only an act of policy or of carnall feare and so cease We read of a royall spirited Emperour Henry the fourth of Germany who being wearied with the tyranny of sundry Popes and of Alexander by name was at last by his roaring Bulls and excommunications which in those daies scared the greatest brought to such an exigent that he with his Empresse and their young son were faine to stand 3. daies barefoot at the proud Popes gate And being after admitted to his presence when he was urged to lye prostrate before him the Pope treading upon his necke and spurning off his Crowne with his foot although the spirit of the Emperour could have rebelled and beganne to disdaine it yet for policy sake he was compelled to desist It s noted in Judges that when the Ammonites oppressed Israel the Elders of Gilead and brethren of Iptha who before had thrust him out for a bastard being in a straight for a Captaine Judg. 10. were compelled to goe to Iptha to crave his returne and to undertake the warre and when he cast them in the teeth with their former injurious casting him out yet the extremity they were in humbled them and kept them downe so that they were glad to take shame to themselves and to begge aide even of that bastard when they saw their welfare lay bleeding at the stake and none fit to helpe them but himselfe These are but common naturall instances yet they lay forth the point thus farre that the naturall spirit of the hautiest and most disdainefull man toward such as himselfe will abate and come downe when an exigent is upon them And the like may be said of man toward God when they are laid upon his bayard and when he hath them upon the hip by any deepe and straight sore and extremity Yea it is true even of Gods owne deare people already in Covenant with him whose slavish hearts have often been compelled by Gods Chaines upon them to forget their jollity and sensuall appetite and to stoope to Gods power under their straights That which I formerly spake of the Soveraignty of Gods Nature I may here verifie of the outward extremities which he brings us into Both serve to bring downe the heart and to make it humble and subject Iob was an holy man yet such naturall scurffe the Lord saw to lurke in his spirit that he was faine by the losse of all his substance children health of body the enmity of his friends the terrors upon his soule the admonition of Elihu and the Lords owne tawing of him by the view of all his power and the terror of Leviathan and Behemoth at last to wring this speech from him Cap. 42. I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes Hezekiah also was a godly King Job 42.3 but his treasures and wealth and elbow-roome made him so fledge and jolly that he forgat himselfe till the Lord smot him with the plague Esay 38.15 put him in feare of his life and urged him to say I will walke all the rest of my daies softly in the bitternesse of my soule in the midst of my house The Lord had him upon the hip and then he could crouch 1 King 19.12.13 Jonah 1. 2. 1 Sam. 24. Elija Iona David and Salomon all holy men yet till they were frayed with the thunder and earthquake cast into the Whales belly straighted betweene the choice of either famine warre or pestilence and the like saw not into the frowardnesse rebellion and stoutnesse of their spirit But of all others it is truest of such spirits as the Lord subdues to himselfe and drawes out of a cursed sinfull course Such as this patterne in our text resembles Naaman I meane for although as yet he was not privy to Gods purpose towards him in this abasing of his stout heart yet he was in Gods dispensation now in the way unto it and by this as a step came to the other The prodigall who is a true mirror in all points of a debaucht sinner and fugitive from God was faine to be pursued so narrowly by the hand of God Luk. 14.15.16 that till there was no possibility of subsistence for him any way he never thinkes of a father and lesse of returne and least of humbling himselfe But when hee was brought to an absolute straight and could no longer hold out his great stomacke and resolution never to see his father begins to quaile and then his father began to savor with him It is with the spirit of a sinfull Rebell against God as it is with a City besieged by a strong enemy but the City having both abundance of outworkes and strong forts raised up with plenty of provision within besides store of brave souldiers who will spend the last drop of their heart blood ere it be said they are cowards scorne to yeeld their City But when long time of assault the instance and unweariednesse of the besieging army hath battered downe all their forts Simile murdered all their Souldiers with the Canon beaten downe their Citie over their eares houses Temples walls and opened a wider breach for entrance then they can make up againe besides the exhausting of all come and victuall within and intercepting all succors from without Then perhaps when no remedy else from forraine aide appeares they will hang out the white flag and cry for conditions of surrender but before nothing but scorne and defiance will be admitted Even so is it with the unregenerate soule shee pleases her selfe with her false treasure the perswasion that she is rich and full and happy and yet perhaps remaines meerely ignorant or at least in a formall and dangerous estate insensible of wrath or danger This state she findes ease in and when the Lord would hunt her out of it she sits upon her Idolls securely and will not stirre The out-workes and forts of the soule against God She imbarkes her selfe in this error by the conceit of her wealth health youth outward contents want of crosses credit good successe how can God hate her giving her all these if the Lord drive her out of these outworkes yet she runs into stronger forts compares her selfe
with others worse then her selfe pleads her civility innocency of life good parts devotions and moralities if God ferret her out of this burrow she will annexe and apply her selfe to Christ after a fashion for aide and entrench her selfe within her duties teares good affections zealous performances good opinion of others if this fort be battered shee will still betake her selfe to her seeming selfe-deniall in many things forfeit of her will of sundry lusts pleasures bad company and redeeme selfe with some forfeit of selfe Shee will not bee pulled out of her Castle of selfe-conceit nor give up her counterfeit sufficiency and treasure within for any withour one bird in hand is worth two in the bush Till at length custome and confirmed error doe so harden her that she will sooner part with her life then her false happinesse or resigne up her bulwarkes and City to Christ and his besieging Army In such a case what must the Lord doe See Deut. 29.19 The siege of God to such a soule Surely either give her quite over as impregnable and raise his siege or else resolve to put her to the uttermost straights that can be Sometime by blasting her best blessings and with some deadly disease taking off the edge of worldly content making her soule to loath dainty meate or putting a surfet and fulsomenesse into all which she enjoyes that she cannot taste them or letting in a veine of vengeance into conscience convincing her that all is not well so that nothing can comfort her Job 33.14.15 she is Gods enemy an hypocrite an unbeleever wants the promise lives without God in the world never was humbled broken denyed her selfe never was lost nor forsaken and therefore never was out of her owne bottome to live in another stocke and roote of Christ When the Lord mixes himselfe really with crosses with terrors with law or Gospell to convince the soule either of sinne or righteousnesse then she begins to feele a straight and to be at a losse else she is merry and so long as she hath one ragge to cover her filthinesse one penny in her purse one crust to gnaw upon one shred to hang by Revel 3.18 she will be cloathed rich full and compleate Christ shall never heare of her It must be an hard besetting with a narrow straight which strips her and robbes her of her selfe-sufficiency Therfore Elihu Iob Cap. 33. under that one instance of sicknesse sweetly compares the state of an unregenerate person before straights come with the estate when they are upon him Before saith he God speakes once and twice by promises and by blessings but man heares like the Adder with a deafe eare she makes wash-way of patience word conscience and all But when the Lord afflicts both Conscience and body at once the one with terrours and affrightments in the night when men should sleepe the other with a consumption in his parts so that his bones sticke out and clatter his soule loathes dainty meat his moisture is spent and the buriers and mourners gape for him Then in this straight if an interpreter come and declare his righteousnesse and set him at liberty he shall be welcome Why Oh because God hath asswaged his pride and tamed him so that whereas before he was too high for any man to talke with now being on the rack you may have him at any termes and willing to come to any conditions Surely so it is in any other kinde of straight whereby the licentious spirit of man is subdued and scared while that lasteth the man is in a quite contrary frame to that he was in at liberty Reason 1 And what reason may be given hereof viz. Why the soule is best in case to deale withall under an exigent then otherwise I answer First a straight calls in and limits the spirit which before went at large and no compasse would hold it It brings the heart into bounds The sicke bed is narrrow the sicke conscience is upon strict termes with God whereas health and security make men wilde Job 39.9 like the Roe or wilde Asse Who shall yoake an Unicorne to the plow But the Lord having a man upon the hip can make him stoope to it The very she Asse when she is in her monthes may bee a taken in a pit Jerem. 2.14 cannot rise and runne away she is in a straight her big body will not suffer her to escape Now whomsoever the Lord converts he will narrow their course and bring them to a short Reason 2 account till then there is no talking with them Secondly by an extremity the Lord makes the creature understand his power over it and that it hath a superior to controll it whereas before it acknowledged Reason 3 no Lord or controller but it selfe Thirdly it abases and pulls downe the error of the heart and the selfe-love of it which presented all things in a false view to it and removed all feare and suspicion farre off so that as Paul without the law was jolly and alive so is this living without any bands or chaines Now under a straight it reflects upon it selfe some sad notions of feare sinne guilt wrath judgement so that the case is much changed Fourthly it abases the pride of the heart conceit of it Reason 4 selfe rebellion against God and makes it crouch as knowing there is no fighting against necessity This Elihu calls Gods hiding of our pride Straights will take away the bubbling and pride of a wretch and force him to an humblenesse yea they will hold downe the spirit to a patience and bearing long so that the Lord may take leasure to doe that which a free heart and jolly in sinne could not attend unto before a Sermon of an houre long was irkesome Now with Saul at Damascus gates it takes law and saith what wilt thou have me to doe Fiftly it bores an eare into Reason 5 the soule which before had none it pierces the heart and makes it apt to heare yea swift tractable and teachable saying speake Lord for thy servant heares Sixtly it provokes diligence painefullnesse and unweariednesse Reason 6 in using of meanes As Ninivee under Ionas arrest which before lay in a bed of ease sloth and sottish carelesnesse Seventhly it makes Reason 7 the heart glad of any one word of hope possibility of remedy and promise of mercy Eightly it breakes the heart and melts it to heare that Reason 8 the Lord will encline toward it being so low brought as it is Ninthly Reason 9 it causes a marveilous esteeme of mercy sets a wonderfull terrible hiew upon sinne and a precious marke upon forgivenesse causes the soule to forget all her vanities former objects in respect of that she would have Oh! Naamans disease seemed now hideous a cure precious all his honour and favour at home is forgotten for the time Tenthly it causes the Reason 10 soule to be glad of remedy from whomsoever be he never so base mean
all adversity as Oded saith If thou scape the Lion the Beare shall meet thee if both a Serpent out of the wall shall bite thee There is no struggling And besides why should a streight so scare thee from God hath it no power or use in it to draw thee neerer God will nothing serve thee save to hate him for amends whom thou hast already hurt Is not all for thy good if thou be not a Bedlam And mayst thou not blesse God for a Little-ease when the world could not hold thee nor the earth beare thee for thy wildnesse and insatiablenesse in sin Tell me Streights cannot bee well wanted if God had not matched thee who could hadst thou not been damned Shall then the remedy bee worse then the disease wilt thou breake all chaines wit hs and ropes like Samson cannot a prison hold thee when all is done Oh if not before yet at the last when God hath thee there grinding like an Asse look up and say I will return to my father Or thinkest thou that thou shalt not profit by it Remember it is a marke of a reprobate not to profite by the last medicine Oh! there is abundant gaine in a crosse and streight Beleeve the doctrine and apply thy selfe to it sue to God for an heart to concurre with him in it and thou shalt finde a streight to be more wholesome for thee then to have thy will Heathens could say so and art thou a Divell to deny it One of them a deep observer of moralls and events having knowne one to bee very licentious in life and after comming to see him on his death-bed writes thus of it to his friend Yesterday I understood by visiting such a one how much better wee are in sicknesse then in health For what sicke man shall you see covetuous or libidinous or revengefull or contentious So that it were to be wished that we were such in coole blood and in health as in feare of death wee are forced to bee So farre hee So that wee shall need to consult with no Scripture for the matter But if we doe we shall read Lam. 3.27 It is good for a man that he beare the yoke and vers 22. even in chains and banishment the Church confesseth The compassions of the Lord are renewed every morning which she did scarcely see in liberty I need name no more Onely let this be noted That it is not wise for us so studiously to shun or shift off streights Shunne not streights nor so eagerly to lay for ease and liberty to the flesh except wee would covet sorrow and avoid humiliation Rather lay together what vantage thousands have made thereof both Prodigals before conversion and Revolters after repentance how the pride and jollity of the one in knowing no God as Nebuchadnezzar and the Jaylor hath beene turned into meeknesse and how the carnall sensuality of the other as David being driven away by Absolom and Samson in prison hath been corrected and changed to sobriety and watchfulnesse Lastly let this exhort all who would be truly happy to looke up to God the maker of yokes the easer of yokes and the sanctifier thereof that he would concurre with them in giving them a kindly worke and issue Vse 4 upon our soules Exhortation Looke up to God for a sanctified use of all strairs Alas straits and extremities are no reall substance of goodnesse but only preparatives and accidentalls occasioning the worke The effect of grace resteth in the pleasure of him that sends them if with an heart of mercy they shall not cease till they have left the soule under the authority of grace if not they shall onely make it inexcusable in the day of destruction Rest not then in this which many rest in that they feele an awed fearefull heart checking and taming them from old ventrousnesse and sawcinesse against God This is a great change but not the change which they must looke after For as a Master Not onely to awe and tame us doth as truly loath a base slave as a sawcy fellow to be his servant preferring a lowly and chearefull subjection before both extreames so doth the Lord he loaths both the bold the servile spirit If Naaman had rested in this his crouching at the Prophets gate under the disease he felt he had never been cured and yet even this was one step to pull downe his stomacke We see that when hee was put to it in the next verse he raged as base as he seemed here A Lion is a Lion still both couchant and rampant But if a Lion were made a lambe it should be a Lion no more Religion stands in no forreigne violence or pangs and acts of compulsion but in inward habits and principles Every violent thing doth but watch her time to bee set at liberty as a prisoner to finde the doores open and to file his chaine off Why Because he was where he would not be and seekes to be where his delight is A proud carnall heart vaine and loving sensuall objects may be held from them a time and for the while in some respects thinke its well that its free from the tyranny of some lusts for the noysomenesse sake But when it can have liberty to them and be let out to old objects of vanity pride and sensuality it prefers it rather because the constitution of it is naturally so I say therefore rest not in such an estate Consider how endlesse it is to strive with a body of evill by a few pangs of actuall distaste and violent restraint Thinke with thy selfe how little thou hast prevailed by all this course and that it will be a work ever to do till the Lord binde the soule to her good behaviour by putting goodnesse into it and causing it to behave it selfe well it is but as the damming up of a violent streame which will have her course Be not too much dismaid at the thought of a new change of thine heart it s at the first a sad object to the carnall heart but the sweetnesse of it at last makes it welcome The Lord begins with violence but ends in sweetnesse the spirit of grace working a principle of delight in the soule But to work a change in the soule and to turn it to God The dismall thoughts of a true change by a milde and softly drawing the will freely to choose grace before corruption even for the good and savour which it feels therein As it was lately with a melancholy man upon his marriage he was exceedingly dejected to thinke that now hee had put himselfe into a new frame which hee had not formerly knowne and lost the liberty of his single estate brought the charge of wife children and family upon himself whereof before he was free so is it with the corrupt part when it judges of that estate which God pulles her to But if God match that feare with the sweetnesse of union and marriage
they will ground themselves upon the wisedome of flesh and the preaching of such as seeke with curious and quaint oratory and the deceitfulnesse of man to entangle the minde or else they care not whether they heare any or no. But oh ye wise worldings know ye that God doth usually the greatest things by meanest instruments know ye not that flesh loves it selfe and that there is small hope of doing any great things by fleshly meanes should then flesh glory in her selfe and take away the glory from God by an unsanctified and unsavoury boasting of it owne strength Surely looke to it they who build their faith on man must rush their soules to destruction of necessitie And the wisedome of God hath chosen the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve If ever yee looke for this be wise intime and become fools that ye may be truly wise to salvation 1 Cor. 1.1.27 Of which I shall speake more fully in the next use Vse 5 Lastly therefore let it be use of examination to all sorts to try themselves about this issue Examin what great things God hath wrought in them by the poore and silly meanes of his Ordinances Try whether the Lord hath by them translated you from the kingdome of Satan and darknesse to the kingdome of his deare Sonne rid you out of the thraldome of your lusts and Idols to serve the living God Thinke not that the kingdome of Christ stands in a few trickes of wit or entising words of a frothy Mounteebankes tongue thinke not that fine sentences or strong lines or a jangling wit priding it selfe in a vaine-glorious Preacher will goe for pay when Christ shall come to judge Trials and markes of our fleshly wisedome subdued Luke 18.8 The great worke which hee will look for will be faith unfained a broken spirit love out of a pure heart a new creature Therefore take some markes hereof and try your selves First the Lord by poore meanes will cast downe that frame of carnall Triall 1 wisedome in you be it never so strongly setled and convince yee of your folly in that you should ever so besot your owne selves as to thinke that the way to heaven should lye in such a course as you have walked in Oh! shall you say if ever I goe to heaven God must turne a new leafe with mee flesh and bloud a curious humorous conceit will never inherit the kingdome of God The Lord I say will discover to your eye such an excellencie in his Ordinances even when they seeme weakest to your fancie that you shall fall downe and say The Lord is in you of a truth The scales of your carnall eye shall fall off Acts 9. Revel 3. Psal 119. and you shall bee annointed with eye salve to behold wonders in those poore instruments and ordinances which you have so long despised The old judgement of error and this foolish world shall be taken away and a new Spirit of discerning shall be given you to looke off from the base out-side of man of preaching of Sacraments and you shall see a divine power and majestie therein The Asse shall not seeme so base as the rider seemes glorious and you shall strew your clothes and bowes of trees in the way of Christ crying Hosanna and magnifying God that by such poore pipes and channels conveyes so great things to men Ask your selves did you ever perceive such a worke wrought in you If not you still abide in the gall of bitternesse and are pur-blinde seeing nothing a far off Secondly the Lord will make you so farre from your disdaine that he Triall 2 will make you crouch and be glad of the silliest Minister of God in all the countrey as those Acts 2. Acts 2.37 who came trembling about those same Apostles whom in the former Chapter they had flouted and mocked as drunken with new wine and said Men and brethren what shall wee doe to be saved So shall you doe such as you have jeered for zealous men of the Spirit you shall now be glad to bee admitted to aske them what course you may take to escape hell and surely try your selves in this point if still your disesteeme of Gods Ministers continue in you you are none of those in whom GOD hath wrought any great worke in Thirdly the Lord shall correct that corrupt selfe-love and partialitie in Triall 3 you whereby the affectation of some odde Minister whom you humored covered and darkened the graces gifts of God in others lesse reputed of by you Oh! now shall the Lord purge out your private judgment and put a publicke spirit of communion of Saints into you Alas you shall see all the Ministers of Christ one as well as another to bee the mutuall aiders of your faith and furtherers of your joy given by God not for this or that man but for the good of the whole body And accordingly you shall prize them even for the graces of God in them and for the use which they serve even the worke of the Ministerie 1 Cor. 3. Ephes 4. and the edifying of the Church in love Partialitie and private ends of your own shall stinke unto as knowing that if God convert you to himselfe hee makes you members of the body which beares you up not you it Not the meannesse of the vessell shall now offend you but the rich treasure in it shall ravish you now if your souls may be saved all other respects shall vanish 4 Triall Fourthly God will teach us to deny our selves in that base ease and sloth of our spirits which satisfies us in having in hearing a Minister and the sound of his words which contents us in that wee enjoy Sabbaths Sermons and Sacraments by course in a rolling succession without observing the power and savour which any of them leave in us This commonnesse and taking all for granted upon a custome blindes us even as a cloath hung before our eye hinders the action thereof and puts it out by degrees This ordinarie accustoming of our selves to that which is obvious casts a veile over our hearts so that we never come within the holinesse of the ordinances neither mark any great worke done by them either in our selves or others And by this meanes wee are hardned by them rather then wrought upon either by humbling quickning or renewing How hath the Lord then wrought in us have we after a long sleepy and drowsie hearing and receiving at last been pulld by the eare and jogged by the Spirit to stand up and be awakened to see the wonders hidden under the veile of humane infirmitie and the povertie of the Ordinances Doe we wax wearie of formall remembring of a few sentences or commending the Preacher talking of what we heard and doe our hearts begin to burne within us when the Word is opened through the evidence of that Spirit which speakes in the Word Luke 24. Doe we feel the weight of truth uttered
by a weake man to bring our soules under the authoritie of God even as if hee himselfe spake Doe wee feele the power of an Ordinance as farre above man as heaven is above earth to awe and over-rule us It is a signe that God is preparing to worke somewhat more then ordinary in us if we suffer it not to slip from us 5 Mark Fifthly this shall be another signe to us if wee acknowledge a providence of speciall mercie in that the Lord will use poore meanes to convey his greatnesse and goodnesse into us For what proportion is there between the Majesty of God and our basenesse Or how should wee endure either to heare his voyce or the voyce of an Angell Therefore the familiaritie of the instrument and the weaknesse of the Ordinances is a great benefit unto our simplenesse And as those Israelites were not able to beare the terrors of God no nor so much as the face of Moses being armed and honoured with the extraordinary gifts of the spirit were faine to desire that Moses might speake Exod. 20. and that with a veyle upon his face to weaken the shining of his countenance So should wee turne our offence at the basenesse of Christ and the ordinances into admiration and thankes that thereby the excellency of God might bee accommodated the more easily to our weaknesse 6 Marke Sixtly another marke is when the sinfulnesse of the instrument abusing the ordinance by his ignorant rash confused and unprofitable handling of the word yea attempting the Sacraments with profane hands through the scandalousnesse of his life doth not weaken the esteeme of the ordinances themselves in our hearts nor cause us to stumble at them slight them ever the more Rather when our soules tremble at such impudence and boldnesse of man that they should dare with unskilfull or impure spirits to obtrude themselves upon Gods holy matters and looke up to God by prayer that either he would better and change or else cast them out of his Church that they may no longer darken and destroy the excellencie of truth by their sacriledge and audaciousnesse Mean time looking beyond the sin of the person let us behold the glory of that Ordinance in the nature thereof which yet wee see so sullied and eclipsed by the blindnesse and wickednesse of base usurpers Lastly 7 Mark when wee can fasten upon those great things which the Lord offers us by weake meanes and that by faith in a promise taking them out as our owne peculiar portion For as when the Lord cast downe the walls of Jerico by those Rams-hornes the chiefe active instrument of the miracle was the faith of the Church Heb. 11. as the Author of the Hebrewes tells us so the great things of God are conveyed by faith into the heart through the Conduit of a promise Looke what the Lord of the Ordinances Sabbath and Sacraments hath promised to work by them in the soule when there seemes least likelihood to man that the soule may and will expect from him thereby through faith Therefore try our selves in some of these This doctrine aimes not at discoursing of the severall workes of the Word yet so farre as the point will admit let us try our selves by some of them The promise of God assures us that the weapons of the Minister of God are mightie through God to cast downe strong Towers of a prejudicate rebellious stout proud heart and the high thoughts of man 2 Cor. 10.4 which resists the obedience of Christ Can we then speake it in truth that we have found this vertue go out from the Word into us that when wee went to the Word full of our selves yet we have returned thence emptie And as a Souldier out of an hot battell wherein he hath lost an hand a legge or received some deadly wound yea which is more lost his great stomacke so that hee sees himselfe to be a very foole and no body to that he seemed So have wee seen that in the Law which hath cooled our courage and made us affraid to set up our bristles any more Then a weak Ordinance hath wrought a strong worke in us for it hath mastered that which was our strong fort I meane the fervour of our jolly stomacks It was not the work of a poore instrument but the power of God which did it Againe it is the promise of God that the truth shall make us free Have we then felt that it hath unbound our soules from the chaines of our feare bondage and infidelitie Hath it so enlightned us with the glad tidings of Christ that it hath also piercied into our affections deeply to long and hunger after them for our selves Did we finde that after once we heard the truth as it is in Jesus wee could not lin nor give over till it conveyed the merit of his satisfaction and bloud into us to pacifie our conscience and to rid us of that feare of death Heb. 2.15 whereunto before wee were subject And so renew our soules by the efficacie of his death so that we have crucified our old man with the affections and lusts Ephes 4.18 and felt the bloud strength and marrow of the new Adam and quickning Spirit reviving our veines and bones Surely then poore meanes have done great things in us far above all which the power of weake man can reach unto Againe the Gospell serves to breed and beget the soule to the hope of immortality and life in us Doe wee then feele that as poore as the Preacher was 2 Tim. 1. yet the Lord over-ruled him so as by the power of the Spirit breathing in him the carnall savour of the creature the love of the world and a fading life here below is driven out of us and the breath and savour of Grace and Heaven is put into us Hath it cast out our lingring after an earthly Paradise irrecoverable and carried us into a Paradise of glory never to be cast out more Hath it filled us with heavenly desires even while we are upon earth Hath it set us in an estate of content and peace yea as it were in a rich veine of hope wherein wee are restlesse and ever digging deeper till we attaine full satisfaction in the fulnesse of the fountaine Surely if we can say this in any measure we may buy and sell upon it that the promise by faith hath been the mean of uniting us base flesh and sinfull dust and ashes to the Lord himselfe eternall and incomprehensible that is to say corrupt weake wretched man to God blessed for ever Nothing can doe such a worke but a divine ordinance by the power of a Mediator through a promise for what is weaker then a Minister to effect it or what more impossible and incompatible in reason then for a sinfull man to partake it This then bee said of this second thing collected out of this verse to wit the meanes of Naaman his healing the
To teach us the price of grace which of us would ever thinke grace to be such a thing as it is which of us would not wax wanton with God and forget our former condition which of us would pâ—â—se mercy and conversion as the inestimable free gift of a gracious God who might have left us at large to the corruptions of the world and the depth of the Divell But when we see how the Lord crosseth us what blocks are in our way and how hard it is to be vessels prepared for mercy to be clensed from our evill savour which would defile the grace of God then we wonder that ever the Lord should bestow any mercy upon us at all And so we walke in the sense and savour of it more humbly and thankfully afterward we suspect our base hearts we are jealous of forgoing it earnest to pursue it glad of the least dram of it and why we know the price and worth of it In this frailty and corruption of nature we can beare no great measures of grace by good experience of that it cost us to compasse it Where is there a man who is meet to enjoy any great matter from God either outward blessing or spirituall favour without pride and swelling So that the Lord is faint alway to be much in preparing such as he intends to bestow any great matter upon How long was David in preparing by the Lord See 1 Sam. from chap. 15. to the end of the book ere he came to the kingdome Between his first anointing and his Crowning how many turn againes and pursuits had he Surely as the Merchant of the East Indies who ventures for rich wares and pretious commodities hath an hard taske of it goes through strange hazards by pirates by tempests by winds by rocks and by continuall feare both going for them and comming home with them and all to teach him the price of them that he may after enjoy them more soberly so is it here The Lord is faine to prolong the day of his mercy and pardon and to bring the soul through many adventures to teach it to enjoy mercy without wantonnesse giddinesse lightnesse and boasting A drunken man can beare strong drinke or wine with his weake braine aswell as our slight hearts can entertaine grace we wax vaine and frothy idle and empty as not knowing what we have received from God nor how sober and wise we ought to be in the use of it 2 Cor. 1.2.3 So Paul the Lord meant to betrust him with deep revelations But before that how was he faine to buffet him what bitter greetings had he of his vile heart and how was he abased in his owne feeling And why Surely to teach him to walke humbly not to swell nor disdaine others but to distinguish the excellency of Gods grace from the basenesse of his owne spirit As we see it to fall out in the disposition of seasons and weather Simil. while the winter season is in her setling and height although there be a generall coldnesse of the aire yet it is mixed with some calmnesse and moderation But when once the spring tide is approaching we see what inequality of weather there is winds raines tempests and blustering all to purge the sky and to bring down the winterly distempers of it that the coast being cleare the sweet season of the spring and summer may succeed Just so it is with the soule perhaps while it lies under the winter of her owne desolation she makes a shift and hath no great chaines upon her as being under the hatches of misery But if once the Lord cause the spring time of life and conversion to approach strange it is what tempests clouds and weather arise the heart growes full of feares corruption rebells by occasion of the Law and selfe rises up in armes by occasion of the Gospel a marvailous change appeares in the soule through terrors bondage doubtings resistings cavellings and distempers of a base heart loth to leave that hell of hers which by custome became her heaven But all this is but as it should be the Lord proceeds gradually and by steps delayes the worke of grace and all that the coast may be somewhat cleared before hand and the soule prepared to welcome the season of mercy with calmenes humblenesse and modesty To conclude the Lord is Reason 4 most wise in thus trying his owne servants before he convert them To discerne them from such as are not his owne to the end that he may discerne them from such as are not of his number For why when hypocrites once come to see the conditions of grace what attendance upon means what knowledge and sense of sin what deep convincing of conscience is required how humble hungry painfull earnest the Lord lookes the soule should be that desires grace how plain-hearted in her aimes and prising it above all liberties how willing to sell all and glad it may to buy this pearle lo their rotten carnall hearts fly off and abhorre to stoop so low upon any hopes They thought heaven might be compassed with small adoe and that they might have it and their owne wills too But when they see it will not be nay more that many a poore honest soule is faine to waite long at Gods gate till he see it a fit season to bestow his grace upon it alas poore wretches they never were either so pinched with sinne nor affected with mercy as to bestow halfe the cost for it although they might be sure of it and therefore they fall off either altogether and so turne backe to their lusts or else if light and compulsion of conscience scare them from that they still abide as they are in a saplesse fulsome and dead course But it is not so with the others Gods true Merchants of the best pearles who know the true worth of them will not be beaten off by such discouragements but but with Naaman in the verses following rather then they will forfet all their hopes and carry back their lepers skin With them See Mat. 13.44 they will put their lives in their hands or rather themselves in the Lords to deale with them as he please and whatsoever difficulties or delayes they meet with they will beare them seeing they are for the best all shall end well By waiting the Lord will appeare at last but by giving him over they are sure to perish Oh! there is great use of this course how many desperate hypocrites doth the Lord trie hereby discovering their basenesse rage and discontent and how doth he comfort his owne faithfull poore servants that have waited upon his salvation assuring them it was his owne grace that sustained them in such delayes and difficulties to hold on Vse Instruction admonition to all Novices in grace not to be dismaid for difficulties The use whereof should be instruction and admonition to all Naamans and novices in regeneration and the worke of
in our estate and wealth fatting welfare diet attendance fulnesse of outward accommodations victory over our opposites freedome from crosses elbowroome in the world acceptation with our betters favor with such as can helpe us in our straits unlooked for gaines and overplus of commodities meete for the use of this life The creature is very apt to tickle and satisfie the corrupt heart of man not onely for need but for delight These both all of them and any of them have a marveilous agreeing nature in them with the corrupt sensuall appetite of man and therefore easily incorporate with our spirit and tickle the flesh so that as a girdle full enough for the loines easily compasseth the body and keepes it close within the compasse thereof even so this sensuality and grose selfe of the creature easily begins the heart and compasses it with delight therein so that it must bee a marvelous strong convincement from an higher cause which must disswade unsettle and gaster the soul from such a sufficiency As musicke through the familiarity of it to the eare and sence doth so please it for the time that it is led from serious thoughts and objects of worth and is taken up and possessed wholly with it so the comfort warmth of the creature in every kind and the more the worse hath a marveilous attractivenesse inchantment and unsuspectednesse in it to satisfie the soul with it selfe and causeth it while its warmed in this nest to say with that Epicure I am as I would bee and I wish no better Alas what wonder The soules misery is not only in this that she hath lost her true Paradise but that shee is alway hankering and catching at every shadow and vanity in hope to lay hold upon the Paradise she hath lost she dreames that she had one and should have one but what an one she hath lost or what she should recover she knowes not she gropes as one smitten with blindnesse about the doore but cannot hit upon it the further she wanzes the further off she is from true content But to bee sure that true Sufficiency and Paradise of grace shee hath no appetite after it Nay any false vanity and most lying content in all the world is enough to cheat and to seduce the heart from fastning upon it Again we see that men can finde a secret satisfaction to themselves to bee as they are to the end they might rid themselves of any further care after a sufficiency of Christ although they have no earthly content in the world to still them nay perhaps when sicknesse poverty shame debt sorrow and all misery at once environs them hope of freedome kepes their carnall heart from bursting be it never so farre off and if any thing in the world even the very rags on a mans backe or a crust to feed the belly yea if it be but moone shine in the water which a man can catch at it is enough any thing rather then Christ nay any bable to avoide Christ will serve the turne What wonder then when a deluded heart can fasten upon any reall contentment to flesh be it never so farre from spiritualnesse as ease and welfare or the like if I say it greedily catch at that and satisfie it selfe with it seeking no further But if it have variety and choice of these to repose content in so farre may we be from wondring at men satisfying themselves herein that rather we may stand and wonder that ever the Lord should so powerfully breake in upon the soule as to gaster it from such a selfe sufficiency convince her of her nakednesse and pull her from her owne to seeke a sufficiency in Christ And there is reason for it For this like a viper Hath a peculiar deceit in it unsuspected stinges the soule to death by sweetnesse Perhaps the former sorts of grosse selfe admit some checks and stings of conscience through the corruption thereof But these being the good creatures of God and lawfull both for kind use and abundance yea for a competent delight in them if we could hit upon it rightly doe without any suspicion with a smoothnesse and facility carry the heart into the stream of their sufficiency and sâ—â—suality and so choak all longing or desire after Christ Perhaps every one is not so grosse as he who sold his birthright for pottage nor to say to the wedge of gold Thou art my God This all would confesse to be horrible and to deny the Almighty in plaine tearmes Iob 32. but when men can joyne these with the Almighty and yoke them as men do horses and oxen in drawing of the same plough to draw the affections of their soules equally to love and satisfie themselves in as what is more easie then to cosen the heart with this error Oh then how hard is it to cure such selfe in the creature or to shew it the basenesse of such a sufficiency Any thing serves a base heart which hath lost her savour Further illustration of this That which is spoken of Laodicea agrees to this selfe even literally Thou saiest I am rich and cloathed and needest nothing It s the secret voice though all will not speake out of worldly wealthy ones and of all others of the same ranke before named each feather being of the nature of this nest of selfe viz. I am sufficient of my selfe and neede nothing Rich and jolly worldlings ascribing that to their wealth and to the creature Rev. 3.18 which is the Creators due that is to put their confidence and trust therein 1 Tim. 6.18 and not the living God and to turne the glory of Christ which is uncorruptible into the image of a base creature Rom. 1. to make it her all in all her fullnesse her sufficiency and so seekes no further A carnall heart never stands to question what the difference is betweene the content of the creature and the comfort of Christ alas it hath lost that savour Gen. Josh ult and cannot see a far off therfore rests it selfe as Terah and his compâ—ny on the other side of the river and never comes over it with Abraham to the land of promise Behold in the creature shee will set up her rest And sutable to this is that of the wise man The rich mans riches is his strong hold Prov. 18.11 not only to hide himselfe in against all affronts but to fortifie himself against Christ and his grace No question of it the appetite of the carnall heart which wants the creature and the savor of the carnall heart which hath got it already though commonly it provokes a thirst after more are the two common barres of the most people to keep out Christs sufficiency and in my judgement the latter more then the former Eccles 7.12 For Silver answers all saith Solomon that is a man of silver may have anything because its the price of all things how hard then is
it to see an insufficiency in a thing which is the price of every thing Mony and wealth can build Churches pulpits buy all ornaments of a Church Bibles and Tables and Chalices and hire Preachers and maintaine the Gospel now why then should it not buy Christ too especially if alms good deeds and workes of charity accompany a profession of Christ and his religion and a verball depending upon him and his merits alone not any Popish works or Idolls for salvation Alas such profession of word and holding Christ in judgement may easily stand with living upon the creature and building the soules nest of joy content and sufficiency in the holes of this rocke How hardly then should such a rich man or such a selfe in the creature enter into heaven What an enemy it is to Christ It is easier for a Camell to goe through a needles eie The Lord Jesus the truth it selfe spake it of a yong man who thought himselfe past danger Matth. 19.23 who yet hearing of this sufficiency of Christ if he would sell all went away sorrowâ—ull and why he had great possessions that is great possessions had him and filled him top full with another sufficiency which made Christ unsavory and the same I may say of these who were in the chase to get them when the sufficiency of Christ and all his dainties and fulnesse even a feast was offered them lo their answer was I am to goe see a farme I have bought oxen Luke 14. I am to marry a wife have us excused we have that which we like better we cannot come Farmes and oxen are joyned with wives to shew that selfe in any creature and carnall content sets the heart at rest and gives it a common wealth within so that it need not seeke out Matth. 13. So the third and last bad ground which had both some roote and some depth within yet without was so cumbred with these thorns of mony and pleasures living preferment great dependances favor and repute in the world that like a canker they fretted out the marrow and vigor of Christ and faith or neede of his sufficiency First How the creature forestalls Christ 1. It swells the soule with imagination that God loveth it 2. Prides it selfe in the ease and welfare which it feeles the fulnesse of the creature swells the soule up with a conceit that God loves it deerely that hee will entertaine it so richly thinking him to be as busie in heaven to make it a mansion as hee hath beene liberall in giving it one here not dreaming that the body may be full when the soule is leane and that riches are given for a snare of the owners as Micoll to betray David Secondly it prides the soule to thinke of her selfe according to the outward appearance and glee of wealth and welfare and that the soule is in as good case to God as worldward and though there bee infinite much in the world against it yet such is the bribing property of selfe in the creature that it perverts sound judgement not suffering the soule to thinke a thought against her owne worth conceiving that all should think her as she doth her selfe very good and in a safe condition Not remembring that for all the creature it may be blinde miserable and naked and go from a Paradise here to an hell hereafter as Dives did Thirdly it stiffens and hardens the heart against the words both of Law and Gospel 3. Stiffens the heart against the word preached the one including all the richest within wrath and driving them to a losse within themselves the other offering the eie-salve gold and robe of the Lord Jesus to supply that losse How shall that soul hearken to either which feeles no neede when the eare and heart is so bedulled and ingrossed with fulnesse and fatnesse of the creature that none of the Redeemers sufficiency can enter Now if it stumble at these two in the porch how should it ever enter into the secret the holy of holies in faith and regeneration This may be enough for the purpose of this discourse to open the truth save that this one reason may be added That selfe in welfare and wealth hath in it the spirit of scorning the Ministery of Christ With disdaine it bewrayed it selfe even when Christ himself preached for it is said That some who heard him scorned him for they were rich Luke 5. and the like humor possesses their successors And this property agrees well with them who make the creature their strong hold as I have heard of a City besieged which cast out loaves and victualls to the enemy in scorne and telling them that they were farre from starving As he said soule take thine ease thou hast laid up for many yeares Even for so many that the need of Christ will hardly be felt Therefore to conclude this branch also let mee admonish these persons that if ever the Lord will settle the alsufficiency of Christ upon them Admonitions to this sort he will first captivate this selfe in the creature and sub-ordaine it to himselfe he will cause the image of it to be despised yea cause the soule to cry out of her selfe and say what a foole yea a beast am I in thy sight Psal 73. the soule I say shall bee full of the creature even in a contrary sense that is stomacke sicke of it as a surfet The Lord shall rectifie the soules judgement about this selfe then the ranknesse of this pleurisie to be let out of the soule 1. See the vanity of the creature First by shewing it the vanity and insufficiency of it to helpe in the day of wrath how poore a fort it will prove in the day of affliction and feare It cannot rid the owner of an ague of the tooth ache of the least affront it hath no bloud in it to satisfie 2. Behold the image and face of God in the promise Secondly the Lord shall set the soule in a serious posture and meditation of that presence of his which shall make all the earth and the glory of it to vanish and melt and those who have beene formost in this creature-happinesse to come hindmost stand a far off from them who have chosen Christ to be their sufficiency then shall the glory of the one bee turned to confusion and the disdaine of the other to admiration Then shall all their worldly proppes become as broken staves the splinters of which shall pierce them much more then ever the care to get them could pierce them with sorrow 3. Behold the curse stamped upon the creature yea despaire The Lord will cause them to looke into the creature and to behold it as branded with a curse by sinne but doubly cursed when in stead of serving Christ it resists him and fights against him and makes Christ and the soule servants to it which is to renounce him who is blessed for ever
for that which is cursed for ever not onely through the want of Christ but through her enmity to Christ 4. See the ugly hue of this sin Fourthly They shall see the ugly shape of that creature which they have made an Idoll and committed spirituall Sodomy with it as degenerate a villany as to commit filthinesse with a beast They shall see what a dampe it brings the soule into when it places her happinesse in the earth and the hidden treasures of it how it makes the word and ordinances most fulsome and unsavory 5. All the savor of a creature rests upon mercy 5. That all sweetnesse which any creature can afford must come from Christ dropping fatnesse into it by his footprints in it what savor then can it afford when it opposes Christs sufficiency by her own vanity and so robs him of his what savor can the soul suck from a creature which is a dead carrion what is all the comfort of a creature to a dead soule not only destitute of the life of Christ but stabbing Christ to the heart rejecting his life yea 8. It will worke the soul to a revenge of it selfe chusing to cut off the creature from it self then it would not be cut off from it By these the like convincements the Lord will cast down the fort of self in the creature stripping it naked of all her false sufficiency shewing her she is but a gull not able to afford that which she crakes of that shee hath nothing but bare walles to boast of that so this strong hold being razed and made levell with the earth poverty of spirit may enter into the soul and Christ and his sufficiency which onely belongs to them who are brought to nought in themselves may come into it 2 Cor. 10.4 Therefore let all such as have felt this disease in themselves cease to marvell why their hearts have beene so empty of Christ Conclusion of the point and beene left to such a wofull staggering of heart in point of comfort For they have forsaken the fountaine and digged broken pits to themselves which will hold no water Let them renounce them for hereafter and say Ashur shall not save us wee will not ride upon horses upon these vaine creatures for with thee the fatherlesse shall finde mercy make them no prop of support either by greedy seeking Jer. 2.13 Hos 13.2 sensuall keeping or loathnesse in forgoing And Lord I finde my selfe as destitute and forlorne a wretch in point of grace notwithstanding all my deep portion in the creature as if I were the veriest begger in the Country I see all true sufficiency to be in thee and that thine exceedes mine both for kinde roote quality and degree of content as much as a carnall a fading blasted and vanishing yea a vexing one is inferior to a spirituall immortall incorruptible and satisfying sweetnesse wherefore I count my selfe the same man whether I want or have abhorring my selfe in dust and ashes I renounce mine own and rest at thy dispose for the creature to have more or lesse of it and cleave to thine And so much also shall serve for this fourth branch The last kinde of grosse selfe is Selfe-religion or Religious selfe The fifth Branch Selfe-religion And this is the invention of Satan Christs deadly foe that whereas all will not be prophane nor naturalists nor epicures but will be religious lo he hath a baite for every fish What it is and can insinuate himselfe aswell into Religion it selfe as into lusts and pleasures and so provide that in all the duties and priviledges which professors of Christ boast of yet there shall bee a cord upon their heele which shall pull them backe from all power and savor of Christ aswell as if they had never been towards any Christ at all And so the nearer Christ they seeme to goe the more dangerous shall their selfe-delusion prove and the more confident their sufficiency of devotion makes them the more wofull shall their defeat at last bee and all for want of soundnesse and sincerity And in this point I would insist in three things Priviledges Duties The branches of Religious selfe three and degrees of Religion All these strengthen Selfe-religion in hypocrites and time-servers and shroud them under a false covert and protection of that which is farre from them for the first it was alway is and will be 1. Privledges the boast of Jewes Papists and common Protestants They were the children of the free not the bond-woman Abrahams seed such as whose all the promises were to whom the Ordinances and Oracles of God belonged others were dogs and swine and accursed to them they cried the Temple the Temple they were of all other nations the chosen generation Matth. 3.9 the peculiar people all others rejected save themselves The Lord must want worshippers if he cast them off and by this meanes they were so puffed up in themselves that when Christ came in person to offer himselfe for salvation they abhorred and slew him and cast him out of the vineyard that fulnesse and sufficiency they felt in their priviledges Privledges of Religion great enmity to many in keeping them from Christ caused them to live in a practice of horrible treachery and impiety against God and desperate contempt of the Lord Jesus as it were under a banner of defiance Just the like is the practice of Papists who under colour of the Church the Church the succession of Bishops the ancientnesse of their Religion the glory of their outside of worship pompe and bravery of rites and ceremonies their prosperity and worldly happinesse their large and generall extent in government their superstitious devotions and what not which flesh can desire make themselves beleeve that they are the onely Christians and all other are upstarts and counterfeits So doe our common Protestants and hypocrites they boast of their baptisme their part in the communion of Saints their right to their word and ordinances they are no hangbyes no Gibeonites no recusants no prophane ones no morallists nor epicures but constant worshippers of God frequenters of the sacraments and partakers of all the priviledges of the Church When Constantine restored the Church to her priviledges she began to degenerate And this puffes them up the divell blinding them that they should bee bewitcht with his charme and looke no further then a bare priviledge comparing themselves with such as still walke in a loose and prophane course and in respect of such deeming themselves very religious But what is the effect hereof surely this that under pretence of their great priviledges they are full of themselves so that the pith and marrow of them for all tend unto and end in Christ or else are empty shells faith I mean and Christ in his sufficiency to forgive save and sanctifie them is a meere stranger unto them The Church was purest when her priviledges were fewest The
surviving nature of it the surviving and outlasting nature of this Danger 2 enemy should strike sad thoughts into us Doubtlesse its the conceit of many in whole bosome it liveth that at one time or other they shall bee rid of it it shall not alway lodge in them but in the meane time that pleasingnesse of it within the bosome doth bewitch them so that they rest in wanzing hope of it without serious using of such meanes as might serve to cast it out of them and so their thoughts perish and selfe lives still in them and so will doe some Sermon fast or meanes they hope shall destroy it for they would bee rid of it but this enemy hath nine lives and will never die quite onely they might quell the poison and power of it if their hearts were serious but then the meanes to effect it require such attendance that they chuse rather to sit still with ease And although they doe take good paines yet they doe but make themselves beleeve they would be rid of it for indeed long custome hath stupified their hearts and made them senslesse of their ayle they have lost their old tendernesse and feeling of the mischiefe of it and therefore they carry it with them to Church to fasting to sacraments and to all good duties but they lose it in none of them all it returnes as it went and out-lives them all Alas no wonder how should a body of death be destroyed by shadowes except that body of life or rather that quickning Spirit be brought in to cast it out how should it give place What wonder if after all vowes Bare offers â—mpâ—ements or means cannot encounter a body of death and experience of the contrary still Selfe of uncharitablenesse privie revenge censuring unmercifulnesse selfe-ease selfe in the creature survives in the soule and out-lives all affections of complaint and dislike so long as the stronger man is not really sought unto to cast out this strong and to beare it downe by his promise and power with head and shoulders This would make the soule resolute and cordiall to say I am resolved indeed to be rid of it for I would not else have done that I have done to cast it out I would never really have admitted the Lord Jesus into me to doe it for he comes strong and will throw him out ere he have done He that doth but wish a bad and noysome Tenant were out of his house Luke 11.21 may hold him in and lose his rent all his life long but if he get a writ of ejectio firmae and bring the Sheriffe in person to throw him out by force and armes he may be beleeved that he would have him out Doe then in this case as the poore Shunamite in the case of her dead childe 2 King 4.30 comming and moaning to Elisha when he hastily sent Gehazi with his staffe to lay it upon the childes face that would not serve her turne she caught the Prophet by the feet saying As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee and lind not till she had brought him to the corps where he found the worke to be of more hardnesse then the laying on of a staffe by Gehazi himselfe by the omnipotency of God was onely able to doe it Danger 3 Thirdly adde this one more the closenesse and inwardnesse of this enemy of Selfe The closenesse inwardnesse of Selfe consider how secret and scarce discernable it is Take one or two instances for many in the use of spirituall communion of the Saints how difficult is it to discover the closenesse of this Selfe and how privily it scrues it selfe into such fellowship not for the true and spirituall ends thereof but for some by respects as the admiration of holy persons contentation to a selfe-loving heart seeking her credit or perhaps some knowledge or the like Oh! how hard is it to finde out this that the scope of the soule is meerly and simply to draw up as with the bucket of an hungry empty heart that grace understanding which is hidden in it Again so close and secret is selfe that it is a great difficulty to discerne selfe-joy selfe-content comming from the creature from entire and sound content flowing from Christ It is as hard as to separate confused sorts of corn mixed together Not but that the difference is great but earthly Selfe so scrues and mixes it selfe with religious that oft-times the soule markes not the difference so shee may fare well and please her selfe shee doth not so discern the principle whence it comes but either preferres the content of the creature or else mixes and confounds it with the best content till the creature creep in too farre the heart wax wanton and defiled yea so snarled that it must cost her the vomiting of her morsels ere she can recover a cleare appetite againe so closely and as it were betweeene the marrow and the bones doth this lurking enemy lodge within us So much for the danger Now from both these considerations be we admonished to conceive of to abandon and cast out this enemy I might call it as Paul calls death this last enemy of our peace Overcome this Pressing of the admonition 1 Cor. 15. and all other shall give place as we would obtaine that we run for so in Gods feare let us beware of this enemy Let us not bee as that foole in Salomon when all is sayd Though we bray him in a mortar yet will not this Selfe depart It is even as Saul was whom as Samuel found 1 Sam. 15. so hee was faint to leave with this wofull marke Honour me before the people so saith she Forgoe not thy selfe but if the doctrine be true shee will bee that last foe which will keep thee from conversion Then either renounce her or else say as that wofull wretch said of his harlot I will have her though I go to hell with her So it must be whether thou say so or not therefore renounce not thy Lord Jesus and his free grace to melt to soften to save and change thy heart for the sake of her with whom if thou wilt needs keep her in thy bosome thou canst not possibly have a soft a tender a repenting heart thou canst not thrive to heaven-ward she will lye in wait for thy pretious soule she will be as a canker to thy growth and prospering thou shalt toyle and moyle but she shall blast thy labours and as once one said of the cankers of a state what 's become of all our great Treaties Voyages Nothing so I may say here what 's become of all my strife how chance I grow no faster Surely nothing Thou art as thou wert if not much worse heaven is further off an hard heart neerer the doore Oh thou art smitten and yet knowst not who smote thee But now thou dost prevent the blow I may say of this Selfe as we say
all these thou complainest of no man need bid thee be revenged of them or watch them a shrewd turne but I tell thee an enemy within thy bosome counted thy darling and close friend one called Selfe is a more deadly enemy and can doe thee more hurt then all of them together hereafter raile not upon the evill world thy cruell Landlord thy false friend bankerupts who have runne away with thy goods or thy bad wife that stings thee with her tongue thy bad children ill neighbours thy persecutors not one of these but may set thee a steppe forward to heaven none can deprive thee of it but Selfe can and will world divell and his instruments could not hurt thee were it not for this traitor which sets open the doore unto them to tempt to defile thee See Naaman here in what a wildred case he is except the Lord had made him see his enemy and undoe all his crosse selfe-willednesse and waywardnesse and to stop to Gods way yea and glad to scape so too unto what a perplexity had he brought himselfe after besides his pudder for the present even so know thou that when thou hast runne into thy long error thou must come backe againe this way of selfe-deniall or else the further thou goest the worse will thy case bee Oh! it is a tugging crying sinne it wearies ten Preachers to denounce against it Oh! to what a sweete peace had the Lord brought many an hearer of the word had it not beene for this Beloved we have had some faithfull servants of Christ both living and happily dead among us who have confessed that by this Selfe and her meanes they have spent forty years ere they could come to beleeve and do we look to make it a short cut of forty daies therefore mutter not at thine enemies much lesse at the Lord but at thy selfe and say thy perdition is from thy selfe God is enlarged Hosea 13.9 but Selfe hath hidebound thee and straited thee in thine owne bowells count that Sermon which hath taught thee this lesson one of the best that ever thou heardest Luke 5. There were many lepers in the daies of Elisha but he was sent to none save to Naaman the Syrian and hee had beene sent to him also in vaine if Selfe might have borne sway A second Branch of Instruction is of Instruction Be not offended with crosses to stay that impatience of our spirits Branch 2 which usually falls from us under the visitations of God either upon our whole man or body soul and conscience state posterity or whatsoever For why should we murmur against him that by wounding our side should let out an impostume which would else kill us such an one as no other meane would have cured save this doubtlesse as Hezekia saith By this man liveth And Iob cap. 33. Elihu tells us Hereby even by the corrections which he hath sealed such as he there mentioneth consumptions Esay 3.8 fevers and diseases which take away stomack and the like the Lord hideth the pride of man which is selfe he brings to the pits brinke of the grave that he may keep the soule from hell even the nethermost pit Oh! when the bladder of Selfe and Pride and Presumption is prickt and the bubbling froath and windy puffing thereof is let out a man comes to see himselfe as hee is a forlorne creature then his duties affections hopes sorrowes desires and performances vanish no man can so basely thinke of him as he conceives of himselfe then hee is vile dust and ashes in his own eyes Who is more free from all arrogating to himselfe and his owne righteousnesse then one that lies all pale and consumed with paine and sicknesse When we doe meet with one except some desperate blinde Pharisee who in his extremity dare trust to himselfe where is then his vain-glory his boasting of devotions fasts prayers and alms Alas the image of them is despised the pride of life is crack't and the great stomacke is broken and then his high thoughts which exalted themselves against Christ and an humble heart quaile and come downe Crosses are great meanes to let out Selfe out of the Soule Then if an interpreter come one of a thousand to declare his righteousnesse how welcome is hee When the heart is empty of Selfe then doth the Lord commonly fill it with good things and when it despaireth of selfe-hope then the Lord saith Deliver him I have received a ransome Hence it is that Iob cap. 10.12 saith Thy visitations O Lord have preserved my spirit And the truth is it is well in these dead times if any thing will doe it As Paul Phil. 3. saith If by any meanes I may attain it The word without some afflictions upon mens spirits or name bodies or posterity and that in some stinging kinde pierces not the spirit is straitned Sometims after long struglings and wrastlings of men with this Selfe hoping to picke somewhat out of their owne strength they are tired and wearied in their way and their former feares come upon them a-fresh so that they can finde no rest in their bones Then they begin to consider seriously of it and conclude There is a pad in the straw still they crosse the worke of God in one kinde as fast as they further it another Surely they resolve an heart of hollownesse sloath unsoundnesse and loathnesse to renounce the creature or their stoutnesse and sullen heart or the warmth of their owne feathers their zealous affections These or the like oppose the nakednesse and simplicity of the promise and keep the conscience in snares and defilements and they cry out Miserable men who shall deliver us And sometimes by other affronts the Lord is faine to sharpen the point of his convincing ordinance that the Soule may think the Lord is in sad earnest when she findes him to hunt her out in every corner and give her no rest till she can be content to be saved any way so she may be saved A very Papist in his straits will disclaime himselfe and say It is safest for the avoyding of vain-glory to cleave onely to mercie and shall we that professe none but Christ come short of them To conclude then as we read Heb. 12. My son refuse not the chastening of the Lord Job 7.18 nor grudge at his visitations as Iob once murmured Why dost thou visit him every morning and try him every moment Why dost thou set mee as a marke against thee But in the issue of that great trouble he was of another mind saying cap. 9.31 My very cloathes defile me And cap. 42.4 Now have I seene thee therefore I abhorre my selfe Let us doe likewise and abhorre our owne murmurings at our crosses for although they are irksome to the flesh yet they are wholesome for the spirit as we say of the body that when the spleen is smallest that is best So the body of grace is at best when that Spirit in
our places and callings and be not too indulgent to our backs bellies companies travells and the like sensuall recreations and contentments many men affect such a breâ—th in the uttermost of their liberties and jollitie that their very garbe bewraies them to bee men who savor not much of denying themselves goe to the Lord often with this thorne in thy heele and bemoane thy paine unto him 2 Cor. 12.6 till he ease thee as Paul did and ceased not till the Answ 6 spirit was sufficient for him Beseech the Lord not to leave thee to thine owne findings but to take thee into his own patronage maintaining thee at his cost and charge It is said that Ieconia long after his obedience to the Prophet Ieremy Jerem. 52.31 to yeeld up himselfe to the King of Babel was so honoured by God as to become of a vassall and captive a favorite and to be nourished from the Kings owne dish to have a portion of meate from him daily meditation of the Pearle Matth. 13.44 caused the Merchant to sell all and buy it How doth Paul Phil. 3. heate his heart with the Lord Jesus till hee cast out himselfe as dung Dâ—vid Psal 73. recovers himselfe out of his temptation of distrust and impatience by meditation and then breakes out Whom have I in heaven but thee Luke 2.51 Mary bred Christ in her soule by pondering the message of the Angell against her feare and doubting Nothing a greater nourisher of Selfe then unacqaintance and slothfull neglect of the promise Againe behold the practice of the Saints both in Scripture and experience both living and dying Heb. 13.7 how they have moulded their souls into the truth of God and have been content to hazard their own salvation thereupon saying if I perish I perish Let also as I toucht before the afflictions Answ 8 of God whether in our bodies or soules breake us off from our wilde olive stock and implant us into the naturall and sweet olive Say Lord it is a sweet mercy not to live to my self though it cost me deare to learne this discipline but to be at thine allowance As an idle wench chuseth to live basely and idely at her owne hand rather then under a Mistresse so would Self do if God did not over-rule the soul But when she is corrected and instructed then she smites upon her thigh and repenteth Lastly Answ 9 be not too eager in pursuit of our worldly affairs but quietly let us set our boate upon our streame of providence to crosse our selves in our carnall appetites and though God crosse us not yet deny we our selves inuring our hearts to mercy compassion to such as are in necessity bodily or spirituall Let not Papists the chiefe favorites of Selfe condemne us Protestants in this kinde farre it be it from us to foster a spirit of envy which lusteth in us after uncharitablenesse indignation morosity austerity censoriousnesse anger revenge suspitions contentions Jam. 4.4 discontents either with men or with providence and Gods administrations that please us not for these morall distempers will defile us spiritually if we be not aware of it Seeke not honour repute respect and acknowledgement from men let God alone with these Joh. 5.44 and let us not for such base scurfe yet highly set by in the world destroy the worke of God Oh! beloved consider what I have said of this weighty argument and the Lord give us understanding in all things for mine owne part I have cause to mourn that notwithstanding all I have spoken I have so small hope to prevaile with men because I goe against their edge and speake riddles to men of another metall What are we but signes and spectacles to men and divells in preaching these doctrines What serve we for save to harden their hearts For they will fulfill the doctrine and Selfe is like to quash their hopes when all is done The Lord prevent it in you for his mercies sake And so much also shall suffice for this whole use of exhortation to them that seeke conversion Now concerning the latter branch of Exhortation 2. Branch of Exhortation Gods people must practise selfe-deniall in their conversation to them who through mercy are converted already Let me urge this upon them so much the rather to deny all for Christ and his name by how much they have already obtained favour to count all as drosse in respect of pardon and reconciliation If in the former respect that of our Saviour be true how much more in the latter He that will bee my Disciple must deny all if the case so require take up his crosse and follow me And the truth is such are the times we now live in that I am in a manner forced to adde this point of use to the former For you must know the former is secret from the view of men though one day it shall be knowne to men and Angells so that we should doe men a world of wrong if we should judge them to bee other then selfe-denyers and beleevers Matth. 16. end But indeed there is another selfe-deniall a consequent upon faith and that is an outward renouncing of our selves and selling our selves out of all our profits pleasures ease and liberties for the name the truth of doctrine the profession of Christ in power That rather then we would betray these to the enemies thereof neither liberties nor lives should be deare to us Now herein what doe men Alas they shew that either they never knew what it meant to cast out Selfe to receive Christ or else they have found a narrow distinction between barke and tree to save themselves harmelesse viz. That although they deny themselves inwardly for him never so yet they have a dispensation so that outwardly they will not lose a dramme of wealth credit maintenance ease love of wife child will or appetite for his sake And at this plat the world of our professors now fall off Causes They love Christ with their hearts but they will not lose one straw for him Alas what wonder that it is so with them For why Why most men so little deny themselves for Christ To deny a mans selfe for Christ requires a better bottome then they have any The Lord Jesus never denyed himselfe to the death for the redemption of their soules never gave himselfe as a price to wrath for their pardon and peace The Apostle Rom. tells us Doubtlesse for a good man one would be content to dye Christ hath not been a good Christ to them for if he had they would deny themselves to the death for him They are upon their owne bottome still their owne ease will health pleasures life and liberties are too deare to them they love them as pretiously as a zealous Christian loves Christ therefore they will part with nothing for him If Christ were their Selfe their inner man their joy and content they would cleave to him as their
naturall and beloved object The truth hath not made them free for if it had they would forsake all for it and buy it whatsoever it cost them but not sell it whatsoever they might have for it Besides they know not what spirit they are of while peace lasteth and the Gospel runnes in the streame of their liberties gifts services commodities and advantages who but they An humble and zealous Christian would almost tremble to heare their protestations their engagements for God and truth the cause of Christ and Religion who but they in their fastings and prayers deepe detestation of the sinnes of the times and mourning for the sorrowes of such as suffer But let the winde turne to another coast so that they see the enemies of truth lay hard to their free hold and they must either sadly suffer indeed for that they have professed or else bewray themselves to be hypocrites Then they shew upon what hinges their doore hanges and turnes even upon Selfe and selfe-love Then they wax stiffe for themselves then they cleave to the creature their ease and welfares their liberties and worldly contents Why this Alas They understood not their owâ— spirit and therefore it laid them in the suds ere they were aware Now their great declaiming against the sinnes of timeservers and selfe-loving hypocrites is turned to apologize for their inconstancy selfe-love and ends of their owne Moreover another cause is they sought not Christ simply and honestly for himselfe but for somewhat which might bee gotten from him to serve their owne turne by his meanes They know not how to licke themselves whole upon the Lord Jesus for any thing they lose for him and therefore they are loath to venture any more then they must quite make forfeit of If they knew whom to trust for amends or could beleeve that hundred fold requitall for God and his Gospel which is promised to all that lose any thing for him Oh! it would lithe their hearts exceedingly to suffer any thing for him To conclude they consider not what a poore bargaine they make of it when they sell the honour and glory of the Lord Jesus for the redeeming of a poore transitory content here below they consider not that they fish with a golden hooke for minums if they lose their hooke upon a shrag of triall and temptation they can never make amends againe for it by all they catch though the fish were fairer Conscience is no commodity to weigh in the balance against ease and carnall profits and pleasures as Elisha asked Gehazi Is this a season to purchase olives and vineyards and menservants or maidservants They consider not what poor and silly figleaves they sow together to cover their nakednesse when they pretend a necessity of serving God their owne way that way which will hold best agreement with their own ends to shun serving him his way of suffering which contradicts their self-love In all these respects and in many more let us not wonder at the wofull declension of these revolting times which leave the Lord Jesus himselfe to sinke or swim Nay further let us not be offended overmuch at such as at their first entry and onset upon Religion seemed so zealous as to chalenge all enemies of Christ and began to suffer for him But having born the brunt a while and felt the triall too hot and too heavy for them have with more shame and reproach revolted from him then ever they began to suffer with honour and commendation And sithence it fareth thus let all whom it concerneth Counsells to helpe this Exhortation to approve their faith and fidelity to the Lord Jesus as it doth concerne all who will not prove hypocrites now in these wofull daies strive for the holding up and preserving the entire honour and esteem of Christ his Grace his truth profession and Gospel both in their owne soules with sincerity and before men without shame or cowardize Consider poore soule by whose strength thou standest do not look too wisely upon next hand examples of staggerers and timeservers though perhaps thou hast admired them for their zeale and gifts know them by their fruits stagger not at their revolts But looke to Jesus the author and finisher of thy faith Heb. 12.2 who for the hope set before him and the love to thy soule and salvation despised the shame and endured the crosse Behold if examples do so much affect thee the patternes of those faithfull ones who in all ages have borne witnesse to Jesus and not esteemed their credits or goods or lives so that they might vindicate the glory of Christ and discharge the trust which in baptisme and much more in their conversion to God was committed to them to be faithfull souldiers and to contend for the truth against Divell and his instruments the world and their own fleshly selfe-love The Lord hath had in all ages some who have though it a businesse of importance to sticke to Christ and his honour whatsoever it cost them although thy strength be small the trialls of the malicious sharpe and fiery as darts yet if thou canst deny thine owne selfe humble thy soule be little in thine owne eies be above thine owne ends and sensuality Then that God who hath suffered thousands of subtill selfe-loving hypocrites to fall on thy right hand and thy left shall keepe thee safe in the midst under the covert of the wings and shadow of his Almighty power Psal 92.7 Counsells And to this end and purpose first get faith in Trialls more pretious then gold and looke not to suffer for Christ by thine owne strength but get strength from him whom thou sufferest for Get thee his innocency be sure thy cause be good joyne with it a good conscience two excellent banners to fight under and then by prayer beg from Christ that strength courage meeknesse simplicity selfe-deniall unashamednesse to confesse him and to suffer for him which becommeth one who hath received thy being of grace and the hope of welbeing of glory for ever from him Beleeve that hee who nayled all enmity of Satan and the gates of hell to his crosse hath risen by the might of his Godhead and is at his right hand will so provide that the remnant of their conquered and captivated malignity and malice shall never prevaile against thee If ever thou tookest hold of his strength to save thee from hell and from perishing trust him for strength to overcome all earthly enemies he can and will subdue them unto thee divert them disarme them disable them and give thee full redemption from them If ever hee built thee soundly upon his rocke feare not neither stormes nor sands nor tempests nor any assaults shall ever cause thy building to ruinate but thou shalt stand because built upon a rock Secondly be not heedlesse and carelesse of trouble but be well settled and informed in thy judgement concerning the weight and the importance of the truth of God Let
not trouble for the cause of Christ finde thee so busied about doing for him that thou shouldest neglect the consideration of those weighty respects for which he calls thee to suffer also Many irresolute and staggering ones have done Christ as much dishonour as some libertines and timeservers Selfe-love and ease hath so blinded them on the one side that they can looke but one way As thou canst not deny but truth is pretious powerfull and prevailing So adde this thereto aske what is truth study it inquire into it the consequences which attend upon both the faithfull sticking to it against all enemies and the treacherous traducing it for fear or flattery or any sinister ends Remember that of Davids servants and apply it to truth thou art worth tenne thousand of us if we fall there be others to raise up in our stead but if thou fall how irrecoverable is thy losse And say not this truth or that I could suffer for but such and such I dare not for if thou honor not God in denying thy owne cavils and suffering for any truth perhaps thou shalt be so left to thy selfe-shifts and snared by thine owne treachery that either God will deny thee an heart or the honour to suffer in greater truths if occasion serve Thirdly know for certaine God will have a day to trie thee what cost thou wilt be at for him If he have brought thee through the pikes of the enemies of thy conversion trust to it he will have some triall or other to know all that is in thine heart God bestowes no great favours especially Christ himselfe but he will be sure to try thee throughly of what mettall thou art made and whether the experience of his first and greatest love have deserved at thine hands the fruit of thy faith to cling to him and be of more worth then thine owne ends and contents He rejoyceth to discover those who are firme to him and beare him hearty loyall affection from the hollow and false If Abraham Hezechia Ionah Peter wanted not their trialls of whom some stuck to God others warped shalt thou escape Nay if God would try Saul and Ieroboam and Iehu so deepely will he passe thee over No bee not such a foole as to thinke that thou shalt scape in a mist swimme alway in a calme sea and runne a smooth course for as verily as God is true thou shalt be tried yea perhaps many wayes one after another Resolve thy selfe it is no slight thing in Gods esteeme to try his if he should leave them without trialls whereof all sonnes are partakers they were bastards Heb. 12.8 it is drosse and no oare which is not worth the trying easie duties of praying hearing and worship are no trialls for Gods close people in these dayes he will have other trialls for them and although perhaps thou hadst scaped many windes and blasts yet he will have some direct and opposite winde to try thee to the quicke ere the Lord have done with thee Selfe had need have trialls as Gideons souldiers Upon these considerations apply this exhortation briefly to thy selfe Application of all in two duties Be for him that hath beene for thee even the Lord Jesus be for his glory and honour to thy uttermost I will commend but two passages to thee First in the feare of God my beloved be sure that you deny your selves for God in the point of doing for him Secondly 1. To doe all for God in the matter of suffering in both which thy whole obedience standeth I urge no exactnesse but such as the Gospel both promises and affords to a beleeving soule onely I exclude treachery and falshood For the former aime at God and deny thy selfe in thy doings and duties in thy worship and use of meanes in thy speciall calling and condition of life This will inure thee to the latter selfe-deniall in suffering Throughout thy whole conversation of life towards God and man thou shalt finde that from the center of selfe-love the Divell will teach thee to draw lines of crookednesse and obliquity warping from God and tending to it selfe The soule cannot endure to be under the authority of God either commanding promising or threatning it hath a bredth of her owne in the narrow of God See Hos 10.1 and where shee can fleece away ought from him and his ends to herselfe she is safe yea where the duties are strictest shee bewraies most a false heart which being pincht in the point of her owne ends is ready to cast all in the dirt In fasting what pleasure can the soule finde to herselfe instead of soule afflicting Esay 58.3.4 Much more then in ordinary duties she will dispence and seeke herselfe In mens buyings and sellings how doe they foist in a dreg of seeking themselves loath to lye close to the rule to doe as they would bee done too In preaching the solemne truthes of God what a deale of selfe-honour and men-pleasing creeps into the duty What duties meanes or graces are there which are void of this dead fly Witnesse the innumerable dispensations which this libertine age seekes to herselfe in all her wayes in fashions attires recreations worldly dealings lending letting hyring and borrowing In the duty of prayer how scanty seldome carnall are wee Looking sometime more at them that heare us or at the setnesse of our sentences edge of our owne affections then at Gods awfull presence our owne abasement or the speciall ends that concerne us What causes so little mourning and fasting for the sinnes and sorrowes that are upon us or hang over us Selfe-love every man lookes to his owne matters his owne griefes losses take up all his teares and desires What causes Magistrates to be so partiall and connivent at offenders at drunkards breakers of the Sabbath Selfe-love they are affraid to be noted to bee precizer then needs they seeke their owne bribes or ease men are loath to disquiet themselves for God or conscience Whence comes our murmuring under our crosses or our sottishnesse and insensiblenesse under them Both from selfe-love either tendernesse to our owne skin or loathnesse to be at any cost to search out the causes to humble the soule or to repent loathnesse I say to lay any thing to heart What is the cause of so many jarres and janglings among Christians for meere trifles to the dishonour of God and their communion Selfe-love that seekes her owne ease and profit little looking how others fare Christians in generall will professe selfe-deniall yet take pritches discontents Endlesse it were to mention all learne we to seeke God in all we doe and whatsoever we finde our conscience to accuse us of as an excrement and superfluity of our owne beware we nourish it not in our selves lest it poyson the carriage the bent and streame of our indeavours with singularity hypocrisie and selfe-love Shake off conceits rash surmizes tetches enmities sullen froward humors 2. In suffering Lastly
into the dungeon and then it falls downe as Saul with that light which shone about him Act. 9. and saith what wilt thou have me to doe I am as thou wilt have me 1 Sam. 3. my wisdome my wit shall be thine speake Lord and thy servant heareth he that formerly should have perswaded me of this might as easily have forced me to say it is light at midnight But Lord now I am a foole in my selfe meerly empty of mine owne sense and wholly thine addicted to sweare to thine edicts and if thou sâ—â—ak the word I lay hand upon mouth and have done This is to be as a little child whom ye may winne to say what ye list Oh! this is the next way to make thee wise to salvation This is to be unto Gods wisdome as the Queene of Sheba was to Salomons even to have no spirit left in her Oh! thou must say with David My fingers shall forget to play and lose all cunning Thirdly thou must so be stript of all thine owne Word of truth must cast the seed of God into the soule when once emptied of her selfe as yet thou must Branch 3 not be a meere void and empty one of all other wisdome But the word of truth must be shed as seed into thy soule and the principles thereof must be infused into it to informe it and to create of nothing a new nature of divine light into it I say as they spake in Act. 23.7 If an Angell from heaven have revealed any thing from heaven to him we will not gainesay it These words the Pharisees used of set purpose to oppose the Sadduces who denyed Angels and souls of men So must thou That which hath beene most contrary to thy wisdome must now bee all in all Now thou must oppose thy selfe thus If God have revealed any truth of his from heaven I will sooner cast thee out then resist it Be thou as parties who put their matters to compromise They are first bound in bonds to stand to award So doe thou binde thy carnall reason as a dogge to the stake that it stirre not a foote nor once mute while God is speaking yea doe thus with gladnesse as poore men are glad to be bound to arbitrement because they desire an end So thou because thou desirest to be savingly wise be glad there is such a word of truth shining in a darke place and open all windows to let it in do not stop any crevis of light which might enter but greedily attend study meditate in this word till the Lord thereby have let it into those darke corners of the heart that was before in the shadow of death and till the truth doe incorporate with thine understanding and cause the scales of darkenesse to fall off as Pauls did that thou maiest see cleerely those things that concerne thy peace All the fogs mists and cavills of carnall reason being scattered Oh! let her interrupt the Lord as she will yet the soule knowes whither to goe for deciding the question she will not forfeit her bond by which shee is bound to stand to the last decision of the word Fourthly get the spirit of the Lord Jesus into thy soule The fourth The Spirit of the Lord Jesus must create holy wisdome in the soule Joh. 1.18 who is the active worker of true and sanctified wisdome in the renued soule According as the Apostle tells us He is made unto us of the Father wisedome c. He enlightens every one that comes into the world with true light being that light which the soule must come by to the Father whose light cannot else be approached By the flesh of the Lord Jesus the soule is made capable of this light of the word else there is no capablenesse And the Spirit of the Lord Jesus workes the soule into this light because it reveales him unto it in the mystery of reconciliation and forgivenesse For why Till the soule be made wise to salvation all her wisdome is only in the brain will not hold The Spirit of Christ therefore lets into the heart as well as the head of the beleever this light and conveies the goodnesse warmth and sweet of it into the soule and that it is which causes it to dwell in the soule and to be an immortall and unâ—â— caying light which shall abide to eternall life till the soule see light in Gods light else the light of the Hypocrite is but a violent and dim twilight caused rather by a necessity of conviction then a powerfull perswasion Therefore apply thy selfe especially to such helpes as may bring Christ into thy soule The sight of his salvation to thy soule is the quintessence of spirituall wisdome this will cause thee to grow in all light when once thou art enlightned in the mystery of acknowledging Christ to be thy Saviour Ephe. 1.18 For why This will teach thee that Christ is all godlinesse in a mystery all the whole truth of God is lapped up in him as his infants body was lapped up in cloaths and swath-bands Else all knowledge is but a guessing and conjecturall thing count it then thy chiefe wisdome to be wise in escaping the snares of death and in beleeving unto salvation Oh! who shall bring me where I shall heare a Sermon of Christ to pardon me to reconcile me to God! If faith in the Lord Jesus once turne thy stream and carry thee with a fuller sway to heaven then all thy worldly wit carried thee before to thy cavills and objections there is hope thou hast well quitted thy selfe of carnall reason Faith the true eye to behold the mysteries of salvation Fifthly looke with the eye of faith into all the mysteries of godlinesse to beare downe carnall reason No mystery can be understood without faith The Spirit of God workes faith first as that instrument whereby the soule is led into all the secrets of God Faith by a promise will make carnall reason stand by as a very foole Hence it is that the spirituall man is said to judge all things even the hidden things of God And yet to be judged of no man 1 Cor. 3. Why Because the light of faith is the highest light All other lights are of a lower kinde And hence it is that a carnally wise man comming to heare a poore soule to speake by the light of faith touching the matters of God stands as a man astonished and as a foole in the presence of a wise man For why The Spirit which revealed the promise of salvation reveales therewith all other promises and all parts of the will of God So then I say in the fifth place let faith subdue thy reason and shew thee a reall sensiblenesse savour and wisdome in all the matters of God By her eye judge of the Sacraments discerne the reall presence of Christ there though not really carnall behold a sacramentall union betweene him and the Elements for the carrying of the soule into
as the end of that Psalme witnesseth See againe Psal 43. wherein the absence of one principle caused David to grow into deadly dumps and that was this His troubles were so long that he beganne to thinke God might repent him of that free grace wherewith he had once imbraced him This caused exceeding distemper in his spirit so that hee thought himselfe cast off So Hezechia in his sickenesse Esay 38. So Ionah in the whales belly And so the Church in captivity Lam. 3. thought herselfe forsaken and that God had forgotten to be mercifull Hence the heart grew hardened the peace of it declined to feare and horror then the word and promises grew unwelcome then the ordinances grew unsavoury then the practice growes secure and loose and so all goes to havocke which might all have beene prevented if the soule had kept herselfe to the rule That whom the the Lord loveth Joh. 14.1 to the end he loveth them Read moreover Lam. 1.8.9 where Ieremy describes the wofull downfall sorrow that Jerusalem was fallen into and how she was come down wonderfully by steps to the lowest abasement And why Sure the sad error lay in the foundation she thought God would keep covenant with her though she brake with him she thought that to lye close to God and keepe covenant was no such great matter but that she might trie conclusions and so by a little deceitfulnesse of sinne the heart grew defiled the conscience crazy the spirit hardened by custome the soule impenitent and secure grew to care for no threats to reject commands to distrust promises and so came Jerusalem down wonderfully All which had beene prevented if either she had kept close to the covenant or repented betimes upon her revolt Besides look upon Heb. 3.12 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe to depart away from the living God and so wax hardened by the deceitfulnesse of sin How doe many who beginne zealously yet wax weary of weldoing by an evill heart Upon that how doth Satan encrease delusion and tickle with his temptations How doth the error of the wicked added thereto draw away more by example Psal 50.18 Then perhaps God is patient and smites not so that the sinner thinkes him like herselfe then loosenesse growes then a conceit that former practice hath been too precise lesse will serve Then groweth a mean esteeme of the word especially if powerfull and comming close Then perhaps sin having kindled thus far makes the life of faith unsavoury the baites of sin sweet makes us thinke it easie to repent at our pleasure and so we grow some to embrace one lewd pranke some another some to take their ease neglect prayer good company nible at the Divells baites pleasure company gaming petty oathes dalliance with women base fashions to concurre with the world and at last to waste the conscience with Sampson and David so farre that a man is snared and growne to a falling sicknesse and cannot recover himselfe All which might have beene prevented by holding the rule keep well while thou art well Be not weary of weldoing and the like It were endlesse to dwell any longer upon proofes Reasons are many First because Religion is a condition of life much Reason 1 more warily to be tended and watched unto then any other businesse whatsoever Now yet in all other affaires thus we finde it yeeld but one absurdity infinite many will follow upon it unavoidablely Take it in the businesse of war If one mistake fall out how many sad inconveniences follow Let a besieger of a City be too ventrous and what perill ensueth How was Abimelec slaine by a milstone under the wall How was Vria and other worthies destroyed by a desperate affront made by Ioab How were the Benjamites enclosed betweene the two armies of Israel the one burning their City the other before their face How easie is it to fall upon privy ambushments suspecting no danger In point of contention betweene couples in marriage or partners in trading or others in worldly businesse neglect but one rule in marriage to forbeare and give place to wrath what a fire is kindled Neglect but oft recknings betweene men how endlesse and confused grow the accounts Admit but one tetch and conceit without due pondering the matter and how endlesse contention followes blowes upon words sutes upon blowes and the ruine of each other by sutes So fares it in all other kindes Let there be but an error in the digestion and what can mend it Nothing the bloud must needs be bad the concoction cannot amend it and so all diseases attend the ill stomacke both in the head and parts of the body Is it so in all things and must it not much more bee so in the chiefe affaire of all other which is the matter of Religion Must not one radicall error there cause an infinite pudder in the consequences thereof Yes verily no remedy of it Reason 2 Secondly by law of contraries it must needs follow For if true peace in our course attend the cleaving to our rule because the whole safety of it hangs upon the grounds and directions of truth which minister life support light and defence to the particular practise how can it chuse but that those who warpe from the rule must of necessity forfeit peace and runne upon confusion See Gal. 6. He that walkes according to rule peace shall be to him For when the rule holds entire it ministers peace to the soule in all her actions even as a sound inside of health in the heart liver and braine ministers content to the body in all her operations And contrarily if the rule be broken it fares with the life as it fares with the operations of nature when the inward parts wax diseased a palsey braine causeth the members to flag and hang downe an ill liver causeth the body to swell Even so is it with a spirituall man All the acts of Religion must issue from the soundnesse of rule and grounds if either there be knowledge or no sincerity or if there both yet some maine error creep in between the joynts secretly lo all the whole life is miscarried and those errors which we see may thanke some rooted one which we see not because it affords continuall succour unto it Reason 3 Lastly Religion is an holy harmony and consent agreeing in all her parts most sweetly Religion is like an harmony Eccles 10.1 As a song sung or lesson plaid in musicke let but one disproportion bee in the tone and voice one string jarring in the instrument the whole melody is marred one dead fly marres the whole box of ointment So is it in Religion each part affects the other by consent an error in one makes a jarre in all either there must be a sutablenesse in all or else there is a disorder in the whole If then a string amisse be enough to spoile musicke what is an error in the instrument
better bottomes Therefore they have met with snares Beware also of being irresolute upon the grounds of God either in judgement or practise Irresolution in matter of Religion as dangerous as utter blindenesse Stagger not admit not doubtings and demurres upon principles formerly confessed Some by Satans injections have consulted with flesh after their conviction by the truth of God and have faln to dispence and distinguish upon them and as those that seeke interpretation of Statutes when they feele them too strict to alay and adulterate truths as being willing to procure credit ease and security to their owne estates and lives But what hath it wrought them after a short time save endlesse accusation and torment And no doubt many feele a sad heart within and keep their conscience at a bay from breaking out although they make faire weather of it set the best side outward Others for love of preferment have beene weary of truth and have fallen from being Protestants to bee Pelagians then Papists then Neuters and Atheists The wofull example of Francis Spira seduced by a Popes Nuncio to renounce his profession and of others whom I name not are still in fresh memory If wee will needs change change for the better and prevent an endlesse vexation as Luther Vergerius and that worthy of eternal fame Galeacius did by renouncing their false principles Againe refuse not to amend any erroneous grounds which have broken into thy course admit any information of truth Be not stubborne and resolute to maintaine any evill in thy course but mend it discover those manifold offences and evills which have molested thy conscience and life while they were undiscerned when God hath once discovered them beware of nourishing them be it never so great vexation to thee to undoe thy former errors and mistakes yet if God reveale better grounds and rectifie thee with better principles feare not the worlds aspersion and censures but redeeme a perpetuall inconvenience although by a present mischiefe as the Proverb saith pulling down a bad chimney with some cost rather then induring a perpetuall smoky house sore eies Look up for courage and grace to the Lord and know that it is the high way to credit and peace Augustines books of Retractings and Recantings of errors are above all his other workes because above himselfe he was not forced to it but of his owne accord chose it to avoid such inconvenience as was else like to have ensued Finally beware of all speciall errors Beware of speciall errors such as threaten the perverting of thy peace As for example If thou finde any rooted lust any seed of loose liberty in the secret of thine heart as the bitter roote of uncleannesse love of the world pride in thy gifts or what ever it be doe not let it alone because perhaps for the presenâ— thou canst bite it in and feelest not the sting of it to molest thee Thou perhaps dost not directly favour it nor nourish the flame of it with oile rather thou wilt suspect thy selfe and speak against such evills But yet thou consultest not with the truth as it is in Jesus to cast out such a lust Ephe. 4.21 and to defie it as one that would picke a quarrell with his enemy that he might goe to law with him and undoe him that thou mightest never more heare of it and what doth this breed in thy course at length Surely as coales under the ashes burne out in time when all are asleepe and burne downe the house so doth such a lust salute thee suddenly when a fit object is offered unto thee 2 Sam. 12.4 as a stranger is said to come to David when he killed his neighbours sheep and then thou and lust will feast together and breake out to thine unspeakeable sorrow How mightest thou have prevented it with seriousnes sadnesse in time and what sorrow will a Delila dallied with create at last Say not shall I cast it out and shall I renounce it but deny thy owne strength and as in anothers case thou wouldest doe in going to the Sheriffe of the Shire so goe to the Lord and perswade him thou meanest it and he shall cast it out for thee else beshrew thy self in vaine when it is too late a little matter would have done it at first Remember what Paul told the Centurion and Pilot Acts 27.21 in the midst of that confusion and feare of shipwracke Sirs saith he you should have hearkened unto me at first and have staied and wintred at Candy it was no season to goe to sea at such a time of yeare so should you have saved all this losse and pudder Oh! this loosing from Candy this forsaking the harbour of Gods safe principles is the cause of all our wreck and sorrow now therefore at last heare Paul and take counsell and cast out all your old tacklings rudders and mast of your owne principles into the sea be led by Gods truth and although perhaps you may lose your ship some comfort and peace which else you might have kept yet be content to pay that penance for your folly and will and so ye may escape safe to heaven with your soules count it a blessing of no small value and beware of the like afterward Vse 3 Lastly to conclude be exhorted to be wise in laying beforehand sound groundcells and bottomes in your owne hearts Exhortation Lay good grounds at first for the well ordering of our life to guide your selves by both in the life of faith and the race of conversation It is no easie thing I grant to be well grounded it will cost some paines to deny Selfe and old errors and to be set as a doore upon new hinges But the fruit of peace will requite it abundantly and a worke well entred is truly said to be halfe done Thinke not much of it therefore it will quit the cost and make thee a gainer Remember the rock out of which thou wert hewen even our grandmother Eve who in her innocency abusing her freedome chose to runne into an error which proved deadly to her posterity how easily then maiest thou doe so being compassed about with darkenesse Againe consider If meere mistake and ignorance can bring in such confusion as a witty though wicked heathen tells us that the mistake of a glasse turned a man into an Asse what then may a chosen a purposed error bring to passe In these respects be thou choice of thy grounds whatsoever thou canst get by hearing reading catechising conference experience store it up as in a treasure Men shew this wisdome in carnall things how choice are men in their seed How will they picke it What mony doe they grudge to give for it Choicenesse of men in outward things to have good principles What choice sienes will they get for their stocks And what breed will they buy for the stocke of their cattell But come to the principles of their Religion and conversation
and there the most refuse stuffe the most base opinions of the vulgar the errors of the wicked their own conjectures selfe sowne corne and the seed which growes upon their own soile will serve seeking out no further whence it comes to passe that their fruit their corne and their cattell prosper but their soules and consciences their spirituall peace and growth in grace comes to nought In other matters they finde no pudder onely in their estate to God-ward their feares and distempers are unspeakeable and for the most part remedilesse Oh! be choice then in your grounds and principles Search the Scriptures goe to the Law and Testimony get Gods heifer to plow with deny your selves and to conclude with this example of Naaman ascribe this honour to God that he is meetest to rule in his own element and therefore doe not forestall him in his owne way Thou wouldest hearken to each man in his owne element it is a maxime of experience as to a mariner in the judgement of the windes to a plowman about oxen to a souldier in point of battell and shall every one be preferred as a Counsellor for Religion and heaven before God and his word Pray and use all meanes for the spirit of thy great Prophet the Lord Jesus to advise thee how to passe all thy matters establishing all thy thoughts by his counsell that happy successe and blessing may follow thee in all thy waies Psal 119. and thou maiest be free from the miseries of error Advices for the well ordering of our course One word of advice and so an end It may be here demanded what principles should a man get for the managing of his course To which I answer It were needlesse here to number or instance in particulars It must be the habit of wisdome which must prompt the soule in such cases as fall out onely these three I would briefly commend to all who would cut off sorrow from their life The first concerning God himselfe the second touching men the third our selves yet all tending one way And these three are faith righteousnesse and contentation No three vices create so tedious a pudder in the course as distrust unrighteousnesse and discontent For the first see Heb. 13.5 1. Faith in God Let not your conversation be in covetousnesse for he hath said he will not faile I doe not give this rule to the poore onely but to the rich not onely this * Preached in the yeares 1630. 1631. deare yeare but alway Oh! this one error of distrust what a flood-gate of sorrowes doth it let in when charge of children debts deare prises unthankfull unmercifull world pinches a man then at the hardest to have this bond of the Lords in a corner to sue what a stay what boot in beame is it Oh! when a man can say my bond shall be as good as mony at all times I hold upon all sufficiency I have that I have from a fountaine alway running which shall hold when the deepest lake shall drie up But let a man want this bottome this center to draw lines of supply from it and what is a mans life but vexation causing the heart to bee endlesse in flinging about coasting and sherking every where and what then Indirect courses snares and endlesse unquietnesse defeat and disappointment of expectation and lying down in sorrow Oh! ye rich men in these hard times if God bee able to satisfie you as well in spending as sparing and provide you rest in the middest of other mens carking who thinke when all is done they shall dye beggars what shall ye lose by releeving the poore and starven ones Secondly righteousnesse is a brestplate armor of proofe 2. Righteousnesse to man to keep out darts and stinging vexation See Ephe. 6.14 As faith fences the inward man so doth this the outward Oh! goe out walke abroad in the world with this corslet and it shall repell all reproach and odious disdaine of men It will make a man shotfree as Charles the fifth rushing into the battell said a true Emperor was never shot with a bullet it will harnis thee against all feare what any man can cast in thy teeth whatsoever courses others take raking and scraping tooth and naile by hook or crook yet thou goest on quietly servest providence makest no more haste then good speed and hereby perhaps thou thrivest faster then great sticklers with all their irons in the fire But say thou shouldest not yet thou canst say that 1 Sam. 12.3 Acts 20.33 which they cannot with Samuel and Paul whose oxe have I taken whose silver have I coveted whose bloud have I sucked whose face have I ground Oh brethren This deare yeare I doubt may call the sinnes of many oppressors to remembrance The poore shall curse thee Oh thou regrater thou engrosser of corne and raiser of prises from seven to tenne shillings or a marke in the bushell And shall not the Lord heare them Will not the example of that corne cormorant who hanged himselfe the other day sting you A sad example will it not cause all thy false weights cut measures cheats tricks and cunning to vex thee then is the more behinde and one day this error of thine will gugge thee to the quicke and cause thee to cry out away with this mammon of deceit I am choked with it Thirdly contentation is a sweet ground to settle upon Phil. 4.6 Let your moderate minde be knowne to all men the Lord is at hand Bee content with your present state 3. Contentation in our selves as Heb. 13.5 Oh! what a world of sorrow doe they incurre who beginne their course with unsettled discontent Oh! the present is of all other most unpleasing They are going up the craggy hill looking at last to get to the toppe and there to finde a Paradise but they meet with a Purgatory A quiet minde sitting at the bottome of the hill is much better beside the trouble Get the ground of your content within for without you cannot it is safer to bring your mind to close with your meanes then make a coate for the Moone that is to draw them to an equipage with it for it is endlesse Oh! mens hopes and hurries are their life And what comes of it pudder and vexation The roote of the error is never amended in the progresse but growes worse as a fore that rankles House must be joyned to house land to land farme to farme trade to trade riches will not come in fast enough Alas to trade with a mans owne stocke is simple men must occupy with three parts of other mens stocks to a fourth of their owne They gape at their commings in but at their charges housekeeping servants toile of body and spirit ill debtors usurious payments they looke not They looke to cleare all and prove rich men But in the meane time their principle being bad corrupts their whole course and blasts their hopes For hee that
insomuch that that the people thought it had beene better if the onset had never beene made Now when they saw this the Elders come to Moses saying God be judge betweene us and you q.d. we pray God there be plaine dealing among you for you have made us stinke in the sight of Pharaoh all goes worse and worse through your mediation Exod. 5.20.21 who would have liked this contrariety Yet the Lord who could exalt himselfe above all these lets and over Pharaoh himselfe wrought to his people a deliverance even from hence and that which this tyrant would not permit willingly to be done lo the Lord by forcible breaking in upon him doth compell him to and in the way of saving Israel from him overthrowes himselfe Joh. 9.5.35.36 See Joh. 9. When the Lord Jesus had once prevented that poore blinde creature with love and the handsell of his cure presently in stead of good successe all falls out very foule for why The Pharisees to stoppe the glory of it swarme like hornets about this poore man disquieting him with questions and snaring him with their malice till at last for his loyall Apology for Christ they had cast him out by excommunication This might seeme an hard gobbet for so weake a stomacke to digest and rather a meane quite to discourage him But could all their railing upon him and Christ alienation of him from Christ estrangednesse of parents doe it No as poore as that seed was in him yet lively it was and held out forcibly against all enemies valiantly defending Christs honour and innocency till when the time came that the Lord Jesus saw good to strike up the bargaine a few words served the turne and in the meane while no discouragements could beat him off all wrought him closer and faster to Christ by that secret and hidden attendance of the Spirit upon the poore entrance which had beene begunne Rom. 8. All shall tend from the first to the last to their good whom God loveth not onely in sanctification but in vocation also both being subordinate to election though the former under a stronger promise Act. 9.1.6.7.8 c. Who also thirdly could have thought that Paul had beene neare his conversion when he breathed out threats against the Saints like a Lion at his nostrills Yet that could not keepe off Gods preventing mercy from casting him downe and taming him and being so cast downe and a breach made let the Lord slacken his worke Did he not assist it strongly When this poore prisoner instead of pursuant lay blinde and desolate yea when all were affraid to meddle with him as thinking the Lion to be couchant for a skill that he might be rampant after how doth the Lord breake through all difficulties and sends Ananas to open the eies both of his body and soule and make him a sound man And thus here this poore Naaman in shew further from cure then at first how doth the Lord strangely turne the winde out of the East of a distemper into the South of a calme Causing here poore servants to become prevalent with their Lord to yeeld to that which he had renounced Surely so it is the Lord can on the suddaine cause deliverance to appear as recovery out of a long quartaine ague even when all hope is past when doome is given of shipwracke Act. 27. God shall make Paul to stand up with a word of hope to poore wretches he can hasten salvation with wings when it seemes a farre off when misery is at the deepest then comes up the seed of light which was sowne for the righteous As when there is no strength to bring forth the Lord unlooked for enlarges birth for the fruit that is to come to the birth and as the tender nurse overcomes the poore froward child with love and mildnesse till she have brought it out of it humors so here Esay 38. the doctrine then stands firme upon her bottome If any here aske Quest how and which way the Lord goes to work in such a businesse I answer Answ Assistance of grace wherein it stands by accommodating himselfe in speciall to the condition of such a soule as doth sticke thus in the birth and staggers between Gods preventing and perfiting grace I say his assistance is alway according to the soules difficulty Here in this case of Naaman we may clearly see how he steppes in by the servants furnishing them with more understanding of his case and inabling them to ponder the same with the sad effects of it more then Naaman himselfe and hereby kindling in them a sparkle of divine counsell which enabled them to speake wisely feelingly pertinently and in due season according to his condition with speciall blessing succeeding the same and carrying it home to their Masters spirit how easily had the thing fallen out otherwise in every of these had not God assisted him By these instruments the Lord first stopped the precipitate minde of Naaman from so suddaine a departure weakened his strong conceit overthrew his carnall cavill abated his pride cooled his rage enlarged the promise the easinesse the probablenesse yea the divinenesse and certainty thereof till having beaten downe his high thoughts he is made a low valley and prepared for cure and conversion So in like manner doth the Lord worke in any soule which needs his seconding assistance towards the enjoying of salvation he will not suffer them to want any helpe which may further them For example Instances Doth the Lord see their discouragements to come from others He will arme them with strong courage of resistance and resolution as Joh. 9. Are they miscarried with strong error agâ—inst the way of the promise The Lord will send them counsell from heaven to rectifie and settle them Are they held under great infirmity and crasinesse of spirit not daring to beleeve The Lord will not breake the reed that is already brused nor quench the smoking flax Are they prejudicate against the Minister God will bring forth his light as here he did Elisha's and imbreed an holy opinion of him Doe friends oppose and become enemies God will turne them to friends and furtherers againe Are they froward and distempered in spirit so that they are as troubled waters and cannot see light of truth or make so much haste that they cannot waite The Lord will sweeten and moderate their spirits with meekenesse and forbearance Are their corruptions strong The Lord will beate them downe before them Briefly be their lack and ayle whatsoever it can be God will supply it he will enlighten sustaine perswade enlarge prepare them for his worke both by casting out that which is contrary and by encouraging that which is weakly begunne till the worke be finished If he meane that the businesse shall be depending longer then the lets shall be smaller and more tolerable if the objections and oppositions be more forcible hee will shorten the season Note and hasten his worke
His assistance shall be sufficient till judgement breake forth into victory Onely here may be a question why the Lord suffers such stops ignorances weaknesses feares and discouragements to abide in his poore servants so long Quest and yet lets them alone when he might remove them sooner Answ God hath speciall reason to delay his worke I answer The time is not yet come he will doe it after he hath well disciplined and yoked them to his owne way humbled them in the particular insight into their owne corruption basenesse and insufficiency of themselves and caused his power all that while to appeare to them which at the first could not so have appeared if he had prevented all such trouble at once But there is a time present for Gods sufficient grace to stay them from revolts and extremities and there is a time to come for Gods perfiting grace to set them free then shall they looke backe and see reason in all this way of God See Joh. 13.9.10 When Peter was averse to Christ in the offer of washing our Saviour tells him What I doe now thou knowest not but hereafter thou shalt 2 Cor. 12. A secret hand shall uphold thee the whilest but after shall discover the reason of all Now I come to some use briefly Vse 1 This first instructs Gods deare servants about the preciousnesse of their priviledges Instruction and that in two respects First it teacheth them what Branch 1 oddes there is betweene such as the Lord hath honoured with the grace of vocation above others Assisting grace of God the roote of manifold priviledges to a beleever Doth the Lord thus apply himselfe to such as are out of his covenant Doth he so prevent them at first or doth hee after so follow them up and downe as the nurses eie attends the feeble Infant for feare of shrewd turnes When their rebellious spirits cavill winde out of his armes and roll backe to their dungeon doth he clapse them more strongly Doth he take it to concerne him to doe so for his honour No surely and yet as the case stands with them he knowes they must sinke except he pitty them But he is free and bound to none save to whom he bindes himselfe therefore he speakes to the one and to the other very differently To his owne that golden promise belongs The Lord will dry up Euphrates to make a way for his scattered ones some thinke it concernes the returne of the Jewes miraculously as once through the red sea Esay 28. But to the other that fearefull speech There shall be a line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little Why That they may turn back spue fall and rise no more Blessings he meanes shall turne curses to enemies to condemne them But crosses and offences shall turne releases and eases to the other Oh! fearefull is the state then of the one happy of the other Well might it be said Luke 4. of Naaman There were many lepers in the dayes of Elisha but onely Naaman to whom he was so sent As Lysias told Paul he was faine to buy the liberty of a Citizen of Rome with a great summe which Paul was borne too for nothing Tell it thy soule in secret how few have I seene God compassionate and shew a tender heart unto when they have fought against mercy How hath he suffered them to roll to their dunghill Rev. ult His eie hath not pittied them but he hath said He that formed them will shew them no mercy let the wilfull be more wilfull and the caviller fulfill his measure let the carnall have is owne way stumble and fall and rise no more at the stumbling blocks of his owne iniquity Ezek. 14. If he will needs depart let him goe Joh. 6. Did our Saviour pull those time-servers which followed him for the loaves backe againe when they revolted and pickt a quarrell with him No surely he let them go But to his Disciples he said Will ye also go He was loath to part with them Oh! what should more prevaile to affect the hearts of al Gods people who have met with assisting grace then this experience Hath hee dealt so with all sorts as with you As Moses pressed the children of those Israelites that survived their fathers Did ever God so speake to man Deut. 4.33 as he hath to you and yet lived So say I Doth God no more for you then for all sorts Then account him but a God in common But hath hee even when you have beene at last cast suddenly caused light to appeare turned the low wheele uppermost brought light out of darkenesse and spread a table in a dry barren land This he hath not done for all If you have found the winde thus suddenly to turne Oh acknowledge it What if it had not beene so If God had not beene so on your side Surely the floods had prevailed and drowned you If he have made those waters walls to you Psal 123.5 which have beene gulfes to others is it no more then he ought you Or did you wade out of your owne strength Did your owne hand sustaine you Will yee play the Pelagians now in this kinde and ascribe this escape to the lot of your better judgement honesty labour and prevention then others Is there roome for such scurfe here Or may free will presume to bee named the same day with the assisting grace of God Those innumerable difficulties and dangers of shipwracke which thou hast avoided could thy owne wisdome and will shunne them No let thy soule breake out into admiration at this freedome of mercy now as at first and confesse Not to me Lord but to thy selfe give the glory Thou hast done it for thy name and to get thee glory else it had beene undone for ever they and I were digged out of one rocke Esay 63.3 and their prerogative was as great as mine Who am I that thou shouldest reveale thy selfe to me and not to the world That which put the difference was the grace that separated us being all of one rocke of one masse And secondly Assisting grace following prevention is a bottome of sound experience to a poore soule See Rom. 5.10 it should instruct Gods owne servants to gather experience Branch 2 from hence for all their life Is there such a golden firme chaine betweene one part of vocation and another Is assisting grace so tied to preventing and perfecting grace to both that nothing can sever them How much more then is sanctifying grace tyed to the grace of calling Tell me then poore soule hath the Lord done so great a favour as to make thee one of his own inspite of Selfe Satan and the world to redeeme reconcile and justifie thee to count thee his beloved his secret one Could nothing keepe thee from vocation and faith What then shall stoppe thee from heaven and life from perseverance and perfecting thy holinesse in the feare
pride and will in us which hath hitherto borne sway and defiled both minde and members to the obedience thereof as fearing to crosse her and let us at last bee confounded for it If Iob were so how much more need had wee Chap. 42.4 And seeing it hath ever misled us let us crosse it abhorre it and give up our selves to the rule and authority of the Lord Jesus He is our sole King who must rule he will teach us to chuse will and affect love loath feare abhorre nothing but which shall be for our good Be ruled by him and he will destroy Athalia the usurper and set up the true heire and the land shall have rest Otherwise if we finally hold our owne against him he will doe that in wrath which he would have done in love and have his will of us in hell and suffering who could not get it in obeying For every one that contends with him in judgement Esay 54. end he shall most righteously condemne And so much for the coherence Now I come to the words themselves of this thirteenth Verse You may remember beloved the Analyse I gave you of the contents in this Verse and the order thereof First as you know I beganne with the attemptors The first generall head of the verse the attemptors these servants of Naaman in whom I considered First that speciall duty of loyall faithfulnesse to their Masters soule and body and the welfare of both This I call the duty they stood bound unto by vertue of their relation Sutable whereto was his commendation in a due respect and tendernesse towards them as a father towards children Father say they if the Prophet c. The word I grant is generally a tearme of reverence howbeit here the realnesse of their faithfulnesse shews that there was more in it They carried a filiall subjection towards him as to a father of peculiar honor account with them No children could have more faithfully demeaned themselves to their naturall Parent then these servants did to Naaman For why Opening of this ground of the servants fidelity they observing the scope of their Masters journey to bee weighty an object of great expectation to their Master and seeing him now through his distemper to take a course contrary to his owne designes yea thereby being ready to renounce the meanes of his welfare by a meere tetch and pritch against the Prophet What doe they Most faithfully set themselves to procure a redresse of this error as foreseeing it like to be sad and remedilesse except prevented in time And this they do with some earnestnesse seeing the case so to require that is they oppose him in his mood and humors seeke to rectifie them and breed a good opinion of the Prophet in him that so he might obey the message recover the cure and turne from his wilfull purpose of a wrathfull departure This will better appeare if we conceive that which some servants yea the most would have done in this case Surely to demerit their Master to humour him in his base pangs they would have come to him and said Here is a surly fellow indeed a Prophet who sent for our Master and yet that scornes to speake to him lo he hath sent him a flim flam a tale of a tubbe And what Nobleman of worth could brooke it Come Master let us scorne to attend upon him any longer let us set spurres to our horses and let him goe let him keepe his cure to himselfe If they had said so they might surely have beene welcommer to a man of passion then speaking as they did But the Lord whose the work was put more faithfull and wise thoughts into them then so for the attaining of his ends Doctrine Servants must be faithfull to their Masters both for body and soule The point then is this Servants must be loyall and faithfull to their Masters and procure their good both spirituall and outward for conscience sake I am now entring upon a point of morall nature yet of speciall use and importance for the instruction of this condition of people which seeing I am fallen upon though besides my scope of this text yet I will labour to open unto you as God shall give me grace ere I come to those other points more suting to my purpose Marke it then The dutie of servants in speciall is faithfulnesse to their governours of both sexes to whom they belong Every servant should count himself as an Onesimus in name and deed to his Philemon Philem. 11. usefull in all respects but especially in faithfulnesse That which once the Duke of Medina generall to the King of Spaines his fleet against England in eighty eight spake basely each servant should speake out of conscience For being asked by one what his meaning was to do with the English in case he got the day whether he would not spare the Catholicke party he answered he would neither spare one nor other but make way for his Master A speech of a very wickedly faithfull servant But a good servant must say so I am for my Master that is my scope So their Master fare well though they have an ill word and have small thanke yea sometime by himselfe for flatterers for a time finde more favour then faithfull ones yet they must still bee faithfull Reasons and proofes are these Reason 1 First reason It is an honourable thing to be a servant and bee put in trust by a Master To be trusted by our betters is honourable therefore he must be faithfull else it were more slavish and treacherous When Ioseph was tempted to unfaithfulnesse in a high degree his argument of disswasive best he could use to an heathen was My Master met with me a stranger and boughr me yet hath betrusted me with all he hath he knoweth of nothing of all under mine hand Gen. 39.8.9 he hath forbidden me nothing save thee and shall I play the traytor with him in this No. The trade of a servant in each kind is a stewardship no servant is so silly but is or may be in case to bee trusted with more or lesse that way Now it is required of each steward that hee be faithfull 1 Cor. 3.2 not that all servants are equally betrusted yet none are so ill trusted but if they despise conscience both the life and state of their Master more or lesse may lye at their curtesie As one said of a traitor who so despiseth his owne life may easily be Master of anothers They are supposed faithfull not suspected If they be false what may not they attempt Chastity of wife of daughter welfare and safety of sonne wealth and estate of Master name credit and content of all And should such an one bee faithlesse and not faithfull No verily except one maine sinew of society among men should bee cut in sunder Some servants are I grant more interessed in their Masters then others Merchants Factors
exempt a man from pride and disdaine None is so low but he loves to be Master of something Yee shall not see three or foure cattell together but one will be Master There is a wofull pride of spirit in man disdaining to bee under any As those base Jewes Joh. 8.33 in their greatest slavery yet vaunted they were free men and never served any And hence it is that we call the meere underling the dogge as of a Schoole of a family c. So loathsome a thing is subjection But marke let conscience of love and sense of divinenesse in an ordinance possesse the spirit of a man and this sinkes his spirit by and by As it is said 1 King 10.5 the Queen of Sheba came to Salomon with an equall and high spirit to dispute but seeing more then a man in him lo her spirit fayled her What is that She felt an infinite inequality in her selfe to Salomon thought it no disparagement to her selfe to be inferiour to so wise a man as he and therefore set her heart at rest from any more bubbling thoughts and calmed herselfe to a most meeke selfe-deniall If meere gifts will doe so what will grace doe Surely much more For as it will cause the inferiour to sinke and beat downe his spirit under the authority of a well ably qualified governour as I grant God requires all to be so yet it will discover a divine power even in the weake and unqualified by vertue whereof it will deny it selfe and say I quash my proud and base heart which would easily disdaine to submit better parts of wit skill Religion to one that wants all to God in man although I see nothing in him that should deserve it And this true selfe-deniall is the roote of all faithfulnesse in a servant For pride and stoutnesse in an inferiour will alway be slipping necke out of the collar Shall such an one as I of such breed worth abilities stoop to obey and serve especially such an unworthy one No I scorne it Oh! but this scorne marres the servant because it destroyes the ordinance God must levell thy heart and fill thy valley and cast downe thine hill that thou maiest say downe stout heart God lookes not at what thou seemest otherwise but at thy inferiority and in that respect commands thee not to looke at what thy proud heart would but at what his ordinance hath thought wisest Better thou lose thy proud heart which shall be thy gaine then God lose his honour the ordinance her due regard and so both Kingdome Church and family the good which thy subjection procures By this meane the stoutnesse of the heart stoops and is convinced that is but an equall thing it should be subject And secondly the barre being so removed the heart is let out to the fruits of humblenesse that is to serviceablenesse For what should I refuse to doe for or under such a governour as I see by the wisdome of God set over me for both mine owne and for a generall good and the ends of providence If once I see how wofull a confusion it were to pervert an ordinance how can I chuse but also deeme it a strange unrighteousnesse for one under the ordinance to withdraw service What is selfe-deniall but a letting out and taking downe of a base heart thinking it self too good to serve to a willingnesse in undertaking what service soever the rules of honest government can impose without grudging or contradiction So that as a proud heart is bound up soule and body so an humble spirit is enlarged unto every such service as reason guided by Religion can impose Nothing can come amisse to an humble heart selfe-deniall of her owne accord falls to serviceablenesse And what wonder When once the spirit of an inferiour hath no drift will way of his owne besides his Masters but is wholly his and for him how can it chuse but utter it in doing as it is bidden Goe come doe this and he doth it This for the Third Fourthly hence comes faith to fall to her worke For as a Christian in his generall worke of Religion 4. Grace in inferiors sets faith on work 1. Purgeth the soule of speciall distempers so a servant in his speciall relation of service lives by faith And how In these three respects First faith clenses out of the soule all those distempers which usually possesse the spirit of servants It is not enough for faith to purifie the conscience in generall from all dead works But in speciall it descends deeply and searcheth the corruption which creepes into duties into the graces of the soule into the use of meanes into the particular relations wherein the soule stands to God whether directly or indirectly Else what were a generall purging of evill which comes not into act But it purgeth each privy corner of the heart and brings the heart thus purged before God in the severall occasions which are offered Nothing comes between the cup the lip in this case All particular falshood will be hunted out of a servant whose heart is clensed by faith from all dead workes all basenesse and distempers will give place There is not one base quality of the heart but if nourished will corrupt faithfulnesse if any one string bee out of tune this harmony will vanish any case or sloth of heart will make a man unsaithfull in point of diligence an angry froward heart will make a man unfaithfull in point of answering againe and cavilling any falshood and hollownesse will cause unfaithfulnesse in point of doing the service which it promises as he who said hee would goe into his Masters vineyard Matth. 21.30 yet went not In a word a corrupt heart will be unfaithfull to the marriage bed of his Master defile his children with cursed examples filch away his commodities report wickedly of him as an hard Master who reapes where he sowed not corrupt the rest of the fellow servants and what not Onely faith clenses the heart of these evills and justles them out of place for how can Christ agree with Belial or these with faithfulnesse 2. Furnishes the heart with good qualities Secondly faith frames the image of God in the soule as in generall so in the particular relations of life that furnisheth the heart with sweet qualities with promote faithfulnesse What trouble is to an heart which is diligent to take any paines To an heart that loves the Masters good and is upright to seeke the credit welfare of the Master To an heart that is well grounded what base commands of an ungodly governour will prevaile against faithfulnesse to God To an heart well seasoned with grace for the right manner due measure and the right ends of obeying what service will be difficult Now faith it is which onely can make faithfull And thirdly faith having thus qualified the heart 3. It puts it it into actuall exercise doth also put it into service causeth this habit
crooke How many unfaithfull Hazaels are there to the lives and persons of their Masters 2 King 8.15 as the dayly experience of Assises and Sessions doe witnesse How many villanous wretches to the peace of their governours being so audacious as to go between barke and tree breeding suspitions jealousies and debates betweene man and wife that having done so they may worke thereupon to incorporate themselves into more credit How many are traytors to their chastity maydes impudent and whorish to allure their Masters men their Mistresses or Dames to uncleannesse overthrowing the foundation of the family by such bastardy besides the kindling of another fire that will never goe out How many are there who like Onesimus rob their Masters of their monies plate and then play the fugitives putting theiâ— Masters to endlesse trouble and regret of body minde and yet lose their labour when all is done How many servants be unfaithfull in the children Some tainting them with secret lewd qualities ill counsells bad examples corrupt and rotten communication betraying them to vile company uncleannes to rob their Parents to be stout against them and rebellious How many children may thanke unfaithfull servants for their depth of defilement yea for the utter ruine of their bodyes and soules How many have stollen away their deare children married against their consents exposing them to Parents hatred and to extreame misery How many Gehazi's which make use and gaine of Masters to their reproach and dishonour gaining by their extreame losse not caring what become of their credit or thrift so they may raise their owne fortunes And no doubt the greater the place of servants is and the temptations they have the more foule and odious their practice is making their Masters to bee counted hard that they may goe away with the gaine or else slyly plotting and sharing with such as they trafficke with to conceale their theft and falshood How many unfaithfull servants to the soules of their Masters as Doeg to Saul alway suggesting false accusations against them who are most faithfull to them that so they may betray them How many who are Bauds Pandars to their Masters to helpe them in their cursed purposes to procure the harlots and keepe their counsells to draw them into endlesse expences lusts quarrells with their Christian yokefellowes lewd and clandestine companies wasting of their states and patrimonies How many that serve their turnes as Sauls servants did his in bringing him to a witch to borrow great summes of mony for the serving of their pleasures But no sooner are their Masters come to ruine but these Pâ—rasites fall off like lice from a dead corps Oh! the unspeakeable mischiefe that unfaithfull servants create to their Masters How many sow such dissentions and quarrells betwene their Masters and others like base pickethanks till thereupon sutes yea challenges duells and bloudshed follow Againe what an unfaithfull humour is it in servants to be more for strangers and their content then for their Masters benefit giving lending and bestowing upon such as they please more then either they have leave to doe or thanke for that hereby they may enhanse their owne prayse and account What truth is there to lose account with the Master to procure it with the stranger by losse of fidelity How doe many lewd servants slander fidelity with the aspersion of covetousnesse They will never bee base and worldly they say to be counted faithfull while they live If they lived under beggars it were another matter but as long as they live under rich men they will have it and let them in Gods name keepe a good house with that they have meane time neither have their Masters ever the more thanke nor their businesse better done besides the needlesse wasting of the creature to the value of scores yea hundreds through the yeare not for need but a base custome and there be servants also as unthankfull in their conniving at others as these are wastefull themselves thinking it rather their reproach then faithfulnesse to betray and prevent such pillers and pollers of their Masters and when these are put away or suffer for their falshood how doe they fill the Country with clamours and uproares against their innocent Masters for rejecting them How common a course is it with servants to spare themselves in point of paines and providence for their Masters their ease makes cold in winter heat in summer to bee tedious to them labour prevention watchfulnesse over the cattell commodities and businesse of their Masters how burdensome is it How little serves their turnes How doe they murmure if their taske please them not What shifts have they to avoid it If weather if travell upon errands and journeies if worke bee against them how doe they cavill How ready to thrust forth others and to grudge with him in the Gospel that the heat of the day lyes upon them more then others Gen. 31.40 So farre are they from enduring Iacobs service with ill tearmes If wages please not how doe they cast their Masters in teeth with other mens servants How full of eye-service are they If their Masters see them how nimble at a start are they but if their backes bee turned how resty and lazy And what melting spoiling breaking losing and battering the commodities of their Masters within doores What neglecting of their cattell fences annoyance of other neighbours abroad so that all goes to havocke for lacke of diligence It were endlesse to mention all Ye Masters know better and by more wofull experience who keep many and of both sexes in your families then my self can doe But oh you unfaithfull servants When I have said what I can you can cover your falshood from men and so hope to doe from God but although the Law take not alway hold upon you to take away your lives or to stocke whippe brand imprison or punish you here be sure of it the Lord Jesus will one day judge you for your prankes and rex that you have plaid in your services either plaguing you with the like servants or else pronouncing that terrible doome upon you Cast that unfaithfull servant into utter darkenesse there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And yet I have knowne many my selfe of both sexes who have many yeares after their stealths and cheats committed come in and after conviction of conscience by the word made outcries and asked what shall we doe Our Masters and Mistresses are dead Their children we know not off What shall our stollen goods be done with How shall restitution be made Their consciences have so torne them and their old morsells have so glowed and heartburned in their stomacks that they could have no peace till they could vomit them by such restitution as they could make And whereas others bee more stiffe and stout then to be so convinced let them know their sin and damnation sleepe not The Lord shall awaken them one day to their cost although now they
shopkeepers let not your servants behold in you a spirit of covetousnesse to obtrude bad wares for good to belye their goodnesse to sell for too great prises false weights scant measures Such scurffe will soke into them as water into the bowells and fret like a canker The Divells market is so full as it is by this tradition and exchange from Master to servant This is not to be a father but a traitor for a three penny commodity to betray a soule to hell and the whiles to the like practise Such straked roddes laid before sheepe will cause them to bring forth spotted lambes How many on the gallowes and more in hell roare and cry out upon such Masters Thy life shall goe for his and he in hell groanes for thee to follow without speciall mercy and repentance so much for this Impose lawfull commands in measure Fourthly in the obeying of such commands as are lawfull and currant yet impose not tyranny in the measure thereof both in the former and in this latter servants may bee overloaden When Masters care not what excesse of toile and moile servants undergoe and that out of season beyond strength without due rest sleepe or intermission they shew themselves no fathers for fathers pitty their children but oppressors Thy servant is for thee to use not tire or teare out Thou must not take both fleece and flesh too So when that is laid upon the yong and ungrowne in either sexe which belongs to stronger armes and shoulders to lift or when a taske is imposed which exceeds the skill or experience of a servant it is an exaction an overdriving of them more fit for Egyptian taske Masters then Christian governours Take the servant in his way and element it is best both for thee and him So also let thy spirit be sweet and easie toward him in his moderate labours else thou wert better lay on more work For the spirit of a Master if insulting taunting chiding upbraiding is more heavy and contrary to the spirit of an underling then worke is to the body A servant would not care what hee did for his Master so he might have peace and quietnesse But a tyrannous spirit and wrathfull tongue with implacablenesse is a continuall wearinesse and dropping to a poore creature A loving interpretation a tender compassionate heart acknowledging with content the diligence of an inferiour is as marrow to the bones Thou couldest not abide a froward currish spirit a dogged servant answering againe crosse and disquieting of thee Take heed then thou measure out to him by the same rule whereby thou wouldest have him measure out unto thee Awe him and rule him spare not and correct errors yet with a fatherly heart and hand 1 King 13. but play not the Rehoboam to his subjects who cared not what measure he laid on nor feared what they could requite him withall His little fingers should be heavier then his fathers loynes but his fathers twelve tribes turned to become his two tribes and so the mends was in his owne hands Encourage him sometime Fifthly if thou see thy servant extend and inlarge himselfe for thy content beyond ordinary conceale not his labour of love for it is love and bounty of affection which causes him so to expresse himself Else he would shrinke in and restraine himselfe Doe not therefore Nabal like look another way and reject it but see it encourage and accept it as thou wouldest have Christ doe thine Sometime a little liberty of honest exemption refreshing his wearinesse or a little overplus a teston or a shillings requitall will do more then all violence Somewhat hath some savour and what a servant wouldest thou bee to God if thou hadst all commands and no encouragements Sixtly Yeeld him all due protection and shelter the Lord requires thy fatherly protection to shield and safeguard thy servant while he is in thy businesse that none molest wrong or discourage him The Lord promises to uphold us while we walke in his way So must we under God protect such as commit themselves to our shelter Much more then oughtest thou to shew thy self a father and friend in troubles and vexations by enemies who pursue him in his estate or otherwise Most of all if the Lord lay his hand upon him either in minde or body Most Masters if they finde that their servants grow sad and sorrowfull in spirit and loaden in conscience abandon them presently and are loath to endure the trouble or to beare the losse of some little time of hearing the word consulting with the Minister whereas rather they should be meanes to provide counsell for them So for body if a servant be hurt brused or lamed in our businesse or if otherwise the hand of God be upon them not to leave them to themselves but to fellow-feele their affliction to be afflicted with them and helpe to beare some of the burthen which they undergoe God tries thee in such a case whether thou wilt take all his service but shake off all burden Seventhly Carry an equall impartiall hand carry an equall hand betweene thy servants who deserve well It is a maine duty of the Master to regard those most that deserve best for that will provoke the honest to emulation and shake off the bad altogether But among the equally well deserving let not an unequall streame of affection be carryed and all kindnesses goe to one as a favorite and nothing to others for that will breed heart burning and ill will both against the Master and amongst themselves and much impeach thy wisdome and government Eightly as thou must doe for them while they are under thee Respect them at departure breeding in them the knowledge and skill in thy trade and the experience which thou canst afford them so at their departure after long and weary service with thee doe for them as their occasions require of thee The Jew though he were sold as a slave for his time yet at his dismission was to have a gratuity paid him to beginne the hard world withall either by lending him somewhat for a time to occupy or to helpe him in his marriage or by commending him to some better service or yeelding him any such countenance or testimony as may advantage him The worlds cry is no penny no Pater noster if once worke be done let him looke us no more in the face But the weldeserving require another carriage Thy servant hath spent his best time with thee therefore it were harsh altogether to neglect him in his decaying time Let thy counsell and aide be ready for him if he desire it in token thou lookest at his deserts as much as thine owne ends And so much for directions Which if they were duly practised how would they winne and draw the hearts of servants to their Masters What burthen would they refuse for such As the old men told Rehoboam If thou shalt speake kindely to these people they will be
effect Now till the one be severed from the other and the soule see cleerly what troubles it looke what is spoken is as water spilt upon the ground For what availes it to lay an outward plaister upon a soule sicknesse or to give spirituall counsell to a worldly sorrow and a carnall malady When the body is eased then the soul still remaines in her distemper and never complaines There is many one that being rid of shame poverty enemies bad husband or wife never complaine after Againe oftimes there is a true speciall disease and yet through the distemper of the spirits by melancholy 3. Unstablenesse c. the soule is not capable of counsell through unsettlednesse and ficklenesse which till physicke have removed the soule cannot apprehend or retaine counsell Againe some are so weake and feeble minded that they through long custome in their greefes cannot well tell how to beginne or proceed in the mentioning of their estate Others have confused legall terrors so that all is not well with them and yet they cannot directly say why Perhaps they have beene indirecty wrought upon by some afflictions upon them in their bodies children wife or name and this hath pinched them so farre that their consciences are toucht and give in some reason against them from their owne guilt and sin yet not in a kindely sort from the word convincing them and killing corruption or leaving them in case to heare of any remedy Others are distempered in spirit yet not from within but without the Divell mixing himselfe with their fancy and thoughts and so causing a distemper in the frame of their soules as by hideous temptations about the Godhead the Scriptures the Ordinances the Providence of God c. And sometimes by heating the fancy he disturbeth the will with base desires and the sensuall appetite with odious lusts when yet the soule of it selfe is no cause hereof in speciall Some are troubled for their corrupt natures Others for some peculiar corruptions or evills inward or outward Some are dâ—stempered about their Evangelicall disposition either about the condition of faith the truth of it the measure of it or the roote whence it commeth or else the worke of faith it selfe the long delay between the one and the other the holding under of their spirit by feares by the difficulty of beleeving by the hiddennesse of Gods decree by the freedome of the spirits working by the feare of death ere the promise bee received by casting the unlâ—keliâ—ood of ever beleeving or of casting out some lust that dogges them or of finall persevering Others are troubled about the truth of grace Others the measure Others the recovery of it after their revolts In such a multitude and variety of diseases had not he need to be one of a thousand who should discerne wisely the speciall case of a distempered spirit Especially when perhaps the spirit it selfe cannot cleerly judge of her own The applying of remedies hard And secondly when the malady is perceived yet the application of the remedy and the beating in of resolution and satisfaction is not so easie The cure of diabolicall temptation is contrary to the cure of our owne corruption He that should urge a poore soule to attend the one or to shake off the other suddenly might destroy it There are peculiar remedies according to the diseases one salve and counsell cannot heale all sores oftimes there is necessity of staying a man in an extremity who yet may not be comforted Againe the objections of an unsatisfied spirit are not easily answered although perhaps the remedy be knowne Want of experience or of tendernesse or as the case may be of courage and boldnesse or too much haste or delay in applying remedy or want of some speciall apt Scriptures to terrifie or such promises or examples as might specially comfort are out of minde and finally the Lord is not present with every counsell and so the cure waxes tedious the patient impatient the counsellor weary and discouraged So much for the Reasons Now I come to the Uses Vses And first I would beginne with one or two generall ones the one touching the dealing with naturall distempers The other touching the duty of inferiours when they are called to treate with their betters For Naamans distemper much what was a carnall moodinesse and rage And the servants who encountred it were inferiours yet prospered in their attempt because qualified for the purpose In the first respect let it be Instruction 1. Instruct 1. Branch Anger must be pacified with meekenesse 1 Pet. 2.23 Prov. 26.5 to all who have to deale with distempered passions that they requite not evill with evill Let the same minde be in us which was in our Lord Jesus of whom Saint Peter saith When he was reviled he reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that judgeth righteously And the like hath beene the practice of all Gods Saints except in some cases we be compelled to answer a foole according to his foolishnesse lest he encrease in his pride and rage and so grow to implacablenesse Thus Ipta handled those proud Ephramites who would be answered with no reason Judg. 12.4 but shewed that they came with proud and disdainfull hearts to speake desperately in their wrath An exception When hee saw them more enraged with his equall answers he fell to blowes and cooled their courage with slaying two and forty thousand of them And the truth is none but dogged hearts and treacherous spirits will be incensed by softly speeches For the Lord hath appointed it as a quencher of the cause of wrath Pride and Selfe are the matter and cause of this distemper and that which kills these kills the effect Mildenesse and love will shame pride and put it to confusion and when an angry man sees his wrathfull face and sparkling eyes in a quiet glasse he is astonished and afraid of himselfe but if he see himselfe in another which is like himselfe he is enraged to try who shall shout furthest in the Divells bow None save a Iudas will be provoked with mildenesse And therefore it is just that such should be left to the fruit of their owne hands to reape as they sow But usually it is otherwise and so have the Saints practised Not onely such as have stood in feare of the angry as it stood Abigail upon to please David with faire words and with kinde presents 1 Sam. 25. because she saw him armed to make havoke but even such as had power to revenge themselves Thus Gedeon when he could have served those Ephramites as Ipta after did yet he chose rather to appease them by faire speech Alas saith hee Judg. 8.3 you shall not need to grudge me this victory for what is my strength and prowesse to yours And who knowes not Ephraim to be chiefe of the tenne tribes Or what is the whole vintage of Abiezer to the after
you may say the living are worse and stinke worse above ground then if they had beene rotting in their graves So that by experience we are now growne to trust no sicke mens promises whatsoever they bee Oh you wofull people Doe you thus requite the Lord Alas I foresee you are ripe for the harvest and groane for the sickle to reape you downe indeed at last without any remedy And although some of you make a shift to hold out 1 Thes 5.2 yet your damnation sleeps not it shall come like a whirlewinde when you cry peace most then shall it come swiftly Oh be reproved Sort. 4 And lest I should touch upon outward blessings and deliverances only let mee adde somewhat of Gods word and his patience towards others of us How have some of you here present complained of your sillinesse to conceive the things of God the hardnesse of your hearts to melt at the word How have you beene vile in your selves for your ignorance and unbeleefe How have you wondred at the gifts of others Oh! if I might obtaine mercy of God to pray as such to remember to conferre as they how should I use it The Lord hath heard some of you granted you light and discerning melted your hearts enlarged your affections ripened your gifts and hath any sweet fruit proceeded from hence Could ye also trust him for the creating of the grace of faith in you and for converting your natures have you not given him over in that worke for the granting whereof he was sealed Joh. 6.27 I meane the seeking of the meat that perisheth not No But hee hath beene content with common gifts and so rested You have therefore shewed you selves false in covenant and given over the Lord in the plaine chase when you might have felt and groped the Lord in his manifest providence Act. 14. Sort. 6 Others how hath God lengthened out their daies beyond expectation When as they never looked to have harrowed that which they had sowne not so much as to see one of their children brought up How hath God given them a restitution from paines and infirmities and made their latter daies which they never thought to see farre better then the former so that they have lived to see more of Gods truth both in word and works Rom. 2.3 then ever they imagined But what hath this long suffering of God led them to repentance Hath not their clay laid in the warme sunne hardened the more Is their any power in their soules to breake off their old lusts and to returne to God sincerely No surely but having the better end of the staffe they have prolonged life to encrease wrath and to treasure up vengeance Nay to speake a word to the better sort how many of us in our deepe heavinesse of spirit under the Sort. 7 burthen of conscience when no counsell could worke upon us have even given sentence on our selves that there is no hope Jerem. 2. how have wee counted our lives scarce worth a straw under our feete Yet hath the Lord blowne over our fears made a calme swallowed up death into victory Nay some of us in our deepest sicknesses of body when sinne and Satan are most busie have we not found God neerer to us then in our best health Hath he not answered us as Hanna in our long praiers Hath he not enlarged the promise unto us by the seale of his Spirit making as I may say the light of the Moone as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seven times greater then ever in comfort and holy confidence above all feares How hath this wrought with us Hath it knit us in so firm a covenant with God as never to be broken off Hath it caused us to walke here below as shadowes and to despise all the earth in comparison of our hopes I doubt not but some doe and shall finde the fruit of it at death But oh that such faire wether should doe harme and be an occasion to make us wax wanton earthly and thinke grace to be pind to our sleeves how reproveable is it Good brethren looke to your selves If carnall reason bee so base what is it to blindfold our eies against ocular mercies Oh! such favours as some of us have met with should make us cry out I have found I have found God hath not dealt with others as with me Therefore whether it be my lot to be in straits or whatsoever temptations I must endure yet I will call to minde the old mercies of the Lord and be comforted yea I will gladly be under infirmity 2 Cor. 12.9 that the strength of God may be perfected in me and though he kill me yet I will trust in him through mercy Oh that this fruit might appeare Who would have thought that when Hezechias request was granted to wit the going backe of the Sunne tenne degrees for the assuring of his recovery that his recovery should have beene so stained with apostacy But alas God hath made our fears and griefes goe back as many for us and yet we have revolted not as he did once but made a falling sicknesse of our course To conclude the Use In the Sacraments and Seales of Gods Covenant Sort. 8 how hath Christ come as it were in his likenesse unto us and by outward signes spoken to all our senses yea thrust our hands into his very sides that if it be not himselfe let us distrust him still see feele smell handle taste eate my flesh drinke my bloud a fancy hath no substance lo here is substance What fruit hath it had Brethren I shall speake a fearfull speech I am resolved that the carnall reason of most men is enlarged rather then diminished by the Sacraments And the judgement of most is become greater by them then if they had never had any Alas they cry not out as ashamed and convinced ones My Lord and my God! Thomas himselfe shall rise up against such So much for this Use also Thirdly let this be a caveat to Gods owne people to teach them to Vse 3 beware of this evill except they will have the Lord reprove them to Admonition their faces viz. That they will beleeve God no further then they see him when they heare the promises urged upon all broken and mourning soules what say they Yea you say well if wee could feele it thus Instances 1. Putters off the promise to be reproved First I say this may bee a pranke of an hollow heart and then it is horrible As we see in those Jewes who were alway pressing upon Christ for a signe Tell us if thou be the Christ And why Not as meaning to beleeve for so he tells them I have told you oft by preaching and miracles yet you beleeve not but as a cloake of your prophanenesse viz. That they could not so cleerly behold him as they desired But put case it be otherwise with us and that thou meanest
this obeying and washing was an easie taske The words give it cleerly for thus they argue If it had been a difficult thing which the Prophet had enjoyned thee thou wouldest have done it and wilt thou not doe this which is so easie So that now this first motive they oppose to the chiefe stop and let in their Masters thoughts viz. That it was a troublesome and unlikely way to succeed They tell him no it was a very easie one and likely to succeed For the other reasons I will open them as I come to them First let us fasten upon this And for the Text you see it manifest the servants urge their Master with the priviledge which God by the Prophet hath bestowed upon him God say they of meere mercy hath sent for thee by his Prophet of his owne accord offered thee a cure upon condition of washing By this meanes it comes to passe that whatsoever it be to other lepers whom God hath not vouchsafed this honour to whom it is no easie worke yet to thee it is Looke not thou at the difficulty of the cure in it selfe or to others looke thou at the priviledge which God conferres upon thee above others and to be sure by vertue thereof thy cure is easie Now if it be so stand not questioning any longer why such and such lepers come short of cure leave that to God mercy onely can give a reason of that but consider that to thee Naaman in person this grace is offered to wash and be cleane Take the offer as it lyes to thee thus under Gods call and to thee it must needs be as easie as it seems Now if it be so make it not worse then God hath made it That which God hath made easie make not thou difficult But wash and be cleane The point then is this Obeying of the charge of God To beleeve and be saved is an easie taske But here quickly you will object how is this Doctrine raised Did Naamans servants or Naaman himselfe understand each other or conceive the charge and promise to reach at any thing save a meere bodily cure What is that to the beleeving of a promise The ease of the one Quest proves not the other easie I answer Answ as before I grant your objection to be true in respect of themselves considered apart but now I consider them both in and under the assistance of that grace which intended Naamans conversion in all the passages concurring thereto So that as the affronts and humblings which Naaman had were ordered by the Lord for a spirituall humbling selfedeniall so the advice of the servants is guided by God to a spirituall issue although perhaps neither of them saw it for the present till afterward Who can say that the words of that poore blinde man Joh. 9.10 in the defence and honour of Christ were to his own feeling any other then meere thankefulnesse and naturall affection to Christ for his benefit of sight received For as yet he had no faith and yet it is questionlesse that on Christs behalfe they were secret seeds of that esteeme of Christ and breakings off from the hopes of things below which afterward brake out more cleerly when Christ met him into actuall beleeving So much for that The barre being removed we come to the point The obedience to the command of faith is easie Doctrine Obedience to the command of faith is easie Here because this point will bane all hypocrites who runne apace to this baite as pleasing to the palate let me put in a word or two to stoppe their hasty proceedings I meane not that every drunkard or wretched adulterer who come steaming forth of the stewes or from their Alebench or any other such shall finde it in the case they are an easie worke to beleeve No bee it knowne unto them that its simply a thing impossible for them as such to attaine it Explication Matth. 19.23 It is as easie saith our Saviour for a Camel to goe through the eie of a needle as for a rich man whose confidence is in his riches to enter into heaven I shall at large give them their answer in due time onely this I prefix to the point to beat off any from such a vaine confidence The Text harpes upon another string to wit one who by peculiar providence was made capable of this priviledge and to him and all such as are under the assisting grace of God its easie The phrases which the holy Ghost useth in this kind to evince it as it was otherwise with Naaman here then with such diseased lazers as lay at the poole at Bethesday J h. 5. who came to the poole but yet they must attend the moving of the waters first by the Angel else not But Naaman had a call by the Prophet to come downe and then an absolute promise that upon his meere washing without any other condition hee should be forthwith clensed So I say the gift was free and without any more adoe conferred upon his obeying So here those whom the promise concernes have no more to doe but simply to beleeve and to them its easie I say not now how every such one doth finde it but how the Lord offers it and how it might be if he did not lay not offences in his owne way if hee make it difficult and put in more conditions then the Lord puts in who saith simply to a loaden soule Come I will ease thee the fault is his owne Rom. 6 ult John 1.12 Marke the phrases of Scripture The gift of God is eternall life What 's easier and freer then gift As many as received him hee gave them the gift to be called the Sonnes of God What is easier then receiving this gift Lord thou hast done all our workes in us saith Esay what is more easie then to have a mans worke done for him Esay 26. Ephes 1.20 Hosea 2.12 Heaven is called an inheritance What is more easie then for a child to bee made his fathers heire and to possesse all his lands It is the holy Ghosts phrase that we are married to Christ What is more easie then for a poor desolate wench which hath nothing to take too to consent to be the wife of a Prince or some great man especially if he be a sutor to her and will have no deniall in any case So what is easier then to passe away without any exact payment of a mans debt by the neere account of his creditor Psal 32.1 who imputes it as paid and imputes it not as due although it be unpaid Take a free man of Londons son and heire what is an easier thing then for him then to be borne free of the City It costs him nothing it is a priviledge cast upon him As Paul told Lysias he was a Citizen of Rome and when he replied Act. 25. it cost him a great fine Paul told him but I am so borne it cost me nothing
I will not any longer dwell upon bare illustrations I know that every word I speake makes you stand upon thornes till you see the bounds of the point Therefore first I will reason it mixing here and there proofes of Scripture then apply it with such caution and encouragement if God please as shall both sholl out the dogs and welcome the children whose bread it is The reasons may bee taken from sundry kinds of ease First from that respective ease which stands in relation Reasons 1. In respect of he difficult wâ—y of the Law And for that I say that there is great difference between the difficult way of the Law and the sweet way of the Gospel The Law prescribed a tedious yea an impossible way to heaven Doe this and live requiring so exact pure and strict a way as exceeded the capacity and ability of our fallen nature to attaine Now the Lord in the Gospel propounds another way most easie and comprehensive and that in and by another saying Beleeve and live He changes the rigor and burdensomenesse of doing into the ease of beleeving which translates the guilt and curse of the soule upon another translates the service of obedience upon another drawes power and ability to endeavour after obeying from another who also covers and conceales the defects thereof and accepts such endeavours as proceed from a nature in great part unsanctified as if they came from an intire and perfect principle As imputation of a righteousnesse is a farre easier thing then an infused and inherent righteousnesse dwelling within us So the way of the Gospel is farre more easie then the way of the Law See Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not doe through the weakenesse of flesh God supplied How By sending his Sonne both to condemne sinne in the flesh and in the same flesh to fulfill all righteousnesse Why That the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us In whom Even in weake ones who had no strength by a farre easier way then the Law imposed See also Rom. 10.6.7 The Law saith he that doth the commandements shall live in them But the righteousnesse of faith saith another thing What is that Beleeve and live Say not who shall ascend to heaven Or who shall descend into the deepe For Christ hath both descended of his own accord to satisfie and ascended thither in triumph And this word is offered unto thee is neere thee is in thy mouth and thy heart to do it the doing it is only the beleeving it If thou confesse with thy mouth and beleeve in thy heart this sweet easie way of God thou shalt be saved So much for the first Reason Secondly this appeares in another respect also The Lord aimes at Reason 2 a further thing then the obedience of beleeving He aimes also at this In respect of a further thing which the Lord armes at 2 King 3. the reducing of our decaied and corrupt frame of nature to his owne image in light and holinesse Now as he who aimes at a maine scope in a thing thinkes it a light thing to compasse the meanes tending thereto So it is here take an Instance Iehoram and two other Kings combined to destroy Moab in their journey they were like to perish for lacke of water They consult with Elisha He at last tells them This is a light thing with the Lord to give you water and save your lives for he intends a further blessing to deliver Moab into your hands It was not light to worke such a miracle but in respect of a further aime it was but light So to beleeve is not easie in respect of it selfe so much as in respect of a further excellency to restore us to that perfect image of God which once made us happy it is light with the Lord to take of our guilt to remove our curse and that barre which stood in our way by Adams fall to keepe us from ever comming to God againe in his purenesse and holinesse of nature This may be a second reason Thirdly let us come from respective ease to reall ease And here we shall also finde that in two respects The obedience of faith is easie Reason 3 First in respect of the preparation leading to it Secondly of the effectuall working of the gift of obeying the Gospel For the former wee shall discover it in these two things First in respect of the price Secondly of the manner of dispensation Touching the former of these the price was easie Marke my meaning I say not that it was an easie price in it selfe considered Note this against Sectaries Although if some idle brains might be beleeved the price should not be great for they say that Christ was such a person as to whom sin could not be so imputed as to take hold of him by the curse but God imputed this ease to the excellency of the person of his Son being God that instead of suffering the wrath of Gods justice in his soule and body he should onely suffer so much penalty as that traitor Iudas and those enemies of his Pilate the Elders and souldiers inflicted and this suffering although in it selfe not equall to justice yet God the Father imputed it as an equall satisfaction A most horrible fancy we renounce it and affirme that the ease of the price stands not in him that paid it for so it is the most full deare and costly purchase that ever was paid since the beginning yea greater then the damned in hell pay who by all their paying satisfie not But its easie to us it comes to our hands ready wrought and finished and costs us nothing at all the Lord doth not require of us so much as the wetting of one finger or stirring of one joint towards a price for it were bootlesse so we can but accept it and apply it to our selves Christ paid a most full price to the cost both of bearing his Fathers wrath and desertion for a time although with moderation of extremities and disguisements in his soule and the effusion of the last drop of his heart and life bloud in his body and lesse then this would not nor could not satisfie justice for if it would it should and the Lord offered his Son wrong if he might have taken lesse yet would urge more I say this being considered that he chose this in his wisdome as the best and for my part I see it not to be any trenching upon the omnipotency of God or any other ends of God whatsoever to urge this for the safeguard of his justice for without the integrity thereof he is not God If he would have his Son lose his glory that he might satisfie justice and then would content himselfe with a pageant of satisfaction by imputing why might not Christ wholly have beene spared as well But this by the way because I see many incline to thinke God might if he had would satisfied himself in the pardoning of sinne
Christ and a lightnesse in his burthen Others a marveilous difficulty and such a thing as must be striven for and yet may be mist The answer is Heaven and Grace are both the most easie and the most difficult that can be Answ Grace is the hardest and the easiest thing of all Math. 19.26 both may well stand They are most easie to the soule which will bee taught of God and will not resist his method by attending their owne wisdome But to others they are matters of greatest difficulty To God all things are possible to flesh and bloud to the wit and will of man to the freedome of our owne choice nothing is so impossible I remember the answer of a Philosopher to a great Prince who had beene his scholar and was discontented at him for publishing his bookes be content saith hee and know my bookes of Philosophy are publisht and not published for none are ere the wiser for them save those to whom they were read and made evident So here The mystery of Christ is the most easie and the most hard easie only to such as in whom the Lord hath opened an eare Job 33.15 and revealed it to others hard So much for Instruction Vse 2 Secondly this is Terror to all such libertines and carnall Gospellers who make Religion Faith great works light and slight matters Terror to many running away with them as horses with empty waggons not through any Branch 1 ease they have by the Spirit but from the excesse and superfluity of their own blindenesse and presumption Slighters of the worke of grace abuse the doctrine of ease Others are blinde idiots tell them of Regeneration and Conversion and they run to their own strength they doe hope well that if they put their good will to Gods God will so far enable them as to get somewhat They hope men make more ado about matters then God himselfe God hath told them that faith in the promise is easie and none of these sowre Preachers shall pull this liberty from them what needs all this adoe If God be on our side we feare nothing as long as men walke even and faire harmelesse and devout bearing a good minde toward God keepe their Church and pay all men their dues and give to the poore for ought they see God is mercifull will not the death of a sinner is found of them that sought him not Esay 65.1 Matth. 11. â—9 Esay 57.17 His yoke is easie he saith he will not bee alway heavy upon men he knowes we be no Angels yea he saith that he hath seene the iniquity of mens covetousnesse and hee will heale them and make no more adoe It is for his glory to bee mercifull As for these Ministers who sticke so much at the truth of heart and faith unfaigned they say onely God knowes the heart and they trouble mens heads more then they doe them good making men unquiet and finding out new crotchets What is mans life say they if hee may not bee merry and cheerfull God loves it and Christ hath dearly bought it and its best to be merry eat and drinke and cast away care God say these hath made us of bodies as well as soules we be not all spirit nor shall be in this world we must tend Sermons so as we may tend our worke too our bodies must be made of for God and what skils it though we play and be good fellowes and drinke a cup or two so it be in the feare of God although we be none of these Puritans yet wee be not against them we hope by this meanes to spend out our short time having God afore our eies and to be in heaven ere we be aware Oh yee wofull creatures Doe you thus construe Gods ease I aske you Hath the Lord ever brought you under the bondage of spirit for all your cursed nature and impious prophanenesse Did it ever cut you off from your old stocke Did it ever bring yee under hope No doubtlesse Thinke not then to make faith an easie purchase upon your owne purse it will be one day in that your last night of death and darkenesse such a toilesome journey through tempest and foule weather dirt and wearinesse that you shall be quite tired and then shall true toile succeed false ease Hearken not to that lying spirit which beares you in hand all ease ease for it shall turne to extremity of anguish and to a desperate impossibility The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it The Lord indeed moderates the labour of his poore weary travellers to Zion Psal 84. So that they shall grow from strength and feele no faintnesse But no man shall goe up in a feather bed to heaven if it were ever an easie way it was never easie foolehardy stout travellers which boast of their limbes shall faint suddenly Matth. 15. Dogs must not come with poore children for Gods dole it belongs not unto them So much for the first Branch Others also there are whom this terror reacheth unto And they are Branch 2 base hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God Hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God are rejected devising painfull and tedious waies of their owne but shunning Gods easie way They will obtrude their whole rivers of oile and wine and whole barns of corne for the sinne of their soules whereas he askes onely a third part of an Hin and an handfull of flower for a meat offering A poore thing in Gods way is better excepted then all excesse of our owne Ye load mee saith God and pester me with your offerings I groane under the burthen of your sacrifices Honour me in mine owne way and I will make it easie and sweet to you But else the sand is not more heavy to mens shoulders then you to Gods you are out of Gods element therefore every thing is weighty you may complaine that you are not regarded but the Lord pitties no toile of hypocrites against his word Elija shall sooner consume the sacrifice with fire from heaven by standing still and praying in Gods way then all Baals Priests with their lancings and leapings upon the Altar Cost without wit is waste It s said of Ionathan that he had wrought with God that day on which he overcame those Philistins So I say Gods people work with God 1 King 18.28 with 37. 1 Sam. rather he with them but hypocrites work with themselves therefore they lay out their labour for that which profits not and mony for no bread They goe against the streame a Esau in his hunting for the blessing went another way with lesse adoe Esay 55.2 1 Sam. 14.45 2 Tim 3.7 As it s said in Timothy Alway hearing never comming to knowledge Oh the endlesse bootlesse toile of hypocrites You poore asses running the Divells round and grinding in his mill with your eyes blindfold at last be scared out of your trade You doe but as Sampson
mocked It behooves us to hope the best of all whom we cannot convince of the contrary But except this principle be ingrafted first all other shewes will vanish and a false heart must one way or other bewray her selfe This open sincere heart is the best present for a Preacher and that which will doe great things if need be as Naaman was here ready to do It saith to the Minister there is mine heart take that in pawn and the rest will follow But an iron close hollow heart is poison to a Minister The Jesuits begged of King Henry the fourth of France that he would bequeath them his heart in token of his esteeme which they keep in a golden cup in one of their Chappell 's Let us doe so to the Minister of Christ and as I said let not Fryers and Jesuits prevaile more with their votaries for their hearts then faithfull messengers from heaven with their people That which is well for the present among us brethren I commend If the Gospel had not some friends it could not be so well as it is onely take heed that bad times eclipse it not But I speake as I doe because daies of peace are not as daies of trouble among some good hearts of sincerity many are hollow and the best may amend and learne to bee confirmed to doe that they doe upon grounds of conscience And I desire the Lord that without prejudice wee might heare this truth and receive it Aske thine heart whence is it that my affections are so blunt and dead towards Gods Minister The more I am loved the lesse I love 2 Cor. 12.15 What Did his message never pierce my soule Did it never convince me to be a ranke enemy of God by nature That the wrath or favour of the Almighty was my life or death Did it never convince me of this that the Lord Jehovah hath in the bloud of his owne sonne devised offered sealed up a reconciliation and that for me Alas what wonder if the hearth of that Altar be cold whereon Gods fire was never kindled O Lord work the sense of the message of immortality and life in me by the Spirit of grace and then I shall behold the honour and worth of thy Minister with a spirituall eye and that common base judgement of the world shall vanish Then shall his feet be beautifull his face and voice pretious and his love above the love of any earthly object Job 33. Then shall I call him with Elihu one of a thousand For where one Minister cares for reconciliation himselfe or teacheth it to others some others doe not so they have the fleece what care they whether men sinke or swim Oh! Now I see it s a rare grace for a Minister to prise a soule to tremble at the losse of it to value it at the price of the bloud of the eternall God and the losse thereof as the spilling of the heart bloud of Christ Oh Lord Didst thou meane a poore soule so well as to give him a part in this bloud And to send me tidings thereof by the messenger of peace thy Minister sealing up that unto me on earth which in heaven thou hast granted me My goodnesse my thanks cannot reach thee but it shall fall upon thy Minister whose blessed voice thou hast caused to sound in mine eares and to convey thy love into my soule I hope I shall not forget such a Levite all my dayes So much for this Use Fourthly and lastly this point is for Instruction to teach us what duty Vse 4 we owe to God himselfe Instruction If we owe the Minister great things what owe we to God himselfe If to the Minister a poore mortall worm we owe such honour and reverence what then owe wee to God himselfe If we should doe great things for the instrument of our peace who is the messenger onely of glad tidings What then owe we to him that is the fountaine of it and him that sends it from heaven to us What should seeme great unto us for such kindnesse How should wee carry our lives liberties soules and selves in our bosomes ready to lay downe for him What cost what price is so great which should part the Lord and us Gen. 23.15 As Ephron said to Abraham touching the price of Machpelah its worth so many shekels of silver but what is that betweene me and thee So should we say Oh what is my best treasure worth Lord in respect of losing thy love and communion God will have his servants do some singular thing for him Some shreds I doubt not we should beteame him what great thing would we doe for him What vertue goes out of us What streames of our love and affection goe to him from whose springs all proceed unto us What singular thing doe we for him who gave his Sonne to save enemies and his Minister to bring us newes of it Servants who attend royall Benefactors love to seale their loyall love by some undeniable exploit and marke of extraordinary service As those worthies of David would breake through an hoast of enemies to fetch him water 2 Sam. 23.15 so great an hazard that David thought it a present meet for God And all to teach us that he whom great things do become to give deserves the greatest from us even the very neglect of life it self if he aske it When I read of the strange adventures of men for the pleasing of their Lords and Commanders methinks it shames us Christians It s recorded of the souldiers of Charles the fifth who hearing that he desired a way to be made for his army over a certaine broad River then beset with the ships of the enemy They put their swords in their mouthes and drew those ships surprised to the shore and conveied over the army in them What was this but for the pleasing of a mortall man But when as one day the soule shall be summoned before God and demanded by the Judge what singular thing hast thou done to put it out of question what love thou bearest to me What a wofull regret will it be when it can bethink it selfe of nothing save shreds and parings We could beteame that God should straine himselfe to a demonstration of some great thing for us If it were to make the Sunne stand still or goe backe ten degrees to worke some miracle or shew some signe from heaven of love to us that it might appeare how great we are in his bookes And we make small account of small blessings which others share in with us who are lesser then the least But what doe we picke out to resalute him withall How doe we curtall him of his ordinary dues rather Gen. 22.2 as thinking much of that The Lord bad Abraham do a great thing for him even kill his son and he was ready to do it and the Lord said Now I know that thou lovest me indeed But if he should put us to
our pleasure If they see that we are all for gold and gaine little caring for a flocke save for the fleece raking all from them to fill our purses and coffers and letting their soules goe to hell I pray tell me will they care for our preachings or counsells If wee shall now and then come in with a quaint Sermon or two and speake like Angels shall our counsell prevaile When they see our lives will they heare our words Shall not some poore simple Preacher far inferiour to us in learning or parts sway more with the conscience then a thousand such as we Cease therefore our owne base ends doe not fret against them who are above us in honesty but equall them in sincerity and then wee our gifts and counsells shall beginne to perswade and as a needle draw the thred of conviction after them Feed we the flocke of Christ not of constraint for base lucre or our owne ends but of a ready minde and then the worke will succeed and prosper 1 Pet. 5.4 Parliament men 〈◊〉 Patriots The like I may say to such as when occasion serves are employed in weighty matters of Church Common-wealth I am perswaded there be many good Patriots in this Land who wish well to the publicke good but what is that which hath hitherto hindred Simil. They say there is a fish called therefore Echeneis which will take hold of a ship and stop the passage of it And there is a weed whins I thinke which will cause the plow which rends up most weeds to stand still and I thinke no lesse but that this selfe-love is the fish and weed which hath thus long in secret prejudiced the effect of our Parliaments where Sages sit to consult but they have not cast out this Davus as I may call it which disturbs all such and such abuses I could reforme thinkes one and seeke to reduce improptiations to the right of the Church but then I must restore many my self and that will pinch Such Lawes I could wish but then perhaps I should be the first that should suffer If such a Minister were in my Parish as made conscience he would spy out my base wayes and reprove them and then I should be noted and so it were better to live under a worse that I may still sleepe in a whole skin The truth is this selfe-love is the canker which ruines States and Common-wealths whiles each man lookes at the consequence of good Lawes not at their goodnesse what hurt will redound to my name and state not what good may accrew to the publicke And hence it is that although for their owne liberties and the outward welfare of the subject each one is ready to strike in yet for those things which concerne the honour of God the welfare of his Gospell and purging out abuses they are fearefull to medle Oh they feare they shall hereby bring their names in question and thus private ends crosse the publicke Oh if men in authority had sincerity sutable the North winde doth not so drive away raine as they might suppresse sin And when inferiours perceive the honest bent of governours to make and execute Lawes neither turning to the right hand nor the left neither looking at flattery feare or foolish pitty Oh how would they quaile and tremble If in our Townes and families it were thus that Headborrowes would consult and governe according to this rule not looking at their owne ends a squint but with a single eye what might not be done Whereas the most like well a good order and punishing of the unruly in generall till it come to my sonne daughter servant tenant or kinsman and then they have the disease in the nose called touch me not then their wine is water and their silver tin and their zeale turnes to ashes Others love and like order but they will not stir themselves they love to spare their travell their purses or the note of others they love ease and thereby sinne goes unpunished or foolish pitty marres the City and sinne growes so rife by custome that its past remedy To conclude if husbands would sincerely counsell their wives Husbands and Parents without selfe respects and parents their children and Masters their servants what housholds should we have But when husbands are affraid to distaste their wives and chuse rather to endure ill fashions the losse of the worship of God in family then displeasure of their wives parents chuse rather to lay the bridle on their childrens neckes then to crosse them seeking their owne ease with their ruine as Ely and David did and Masters care not how servants spend the Sabbath or carry themselves so their worke goe forward how should it be chosen but God and Religion must be cast out of the family So much shall serve for Admonition Vse 4 Next whereto as I conceive Exhortation may be added That as I have warn'd them against base respects Exhortation to sincerity in Counsell so I might perswade all sorts and especially such as whose counsell amounts to the greatest good or deepest evill to sincerity and faithfulnesse And once againe my brethren Ministers consider you shall never be able to convince by the sincerity of truth and the word till you adde sincerity of conscience and intention of the peoples good Evidence of truth from God and evidence of sincerity for God must as Aaron and Hur alway prop up your Ministery on both sides as Moses arme from flagging Ministers doe not alway prevaile when they doe thus but never when they doe otherwise Act. 26.27 Excellent was that speech of Paul to Agrippa Oh I desire that thou wert not almost but altogether as I am excepting my bands He wishes him well with integrity of love So thou were a through Christian let the chaine rest upon me I seek thy soul no ease to my self I know there be many of us who have shot those gulfes which I spake of in the Use before And I know that we would many of us abhor to crooke the rule of Truth to flatter others in their lewdnesse and sinne for our owne bellies hopes or purposes and to hold correspondence with our betters by corrupt consciences I know we dare not to curry favour and shunne the opinion of singularity sow pillowes under mens elbows cry peace peace in their ears against the word which were to put out theirs and their owne eyes both Matth. 23. ◠Jam. ult that both leader and led might fall into the pit But yet there is even in us another dreg of Selfe to bee purged out We are men of passion as Elia was and when the Divell sees that we will close with our calling be painfull or that we will not easily be seduced to open ambition epicurisme company pleasures and covetousnesse all which nourish false ends then he hath another bait for us That we may couch Selfe under our best reproofes and sometime pitch upon them with
No they would not for a world have concealed it but now they were glad that they gave not place to their Masters madnesse or their own feare of his ill will and that by this craft of theirs even of sincerity they had conquered him Oh how many temptations we have within and without to lay downe our counsells and give all over thinking wee shall tire our selves and prevaile little purchase ill will for our love and hatred for our sincerity and that would grieve us Grive us nay it would have grieved us if we had beene hollow but there is no cause of griefe now whether our counsell take or not our labour is with God Sonne of man saith God to Ezek. 18. If thou seest the plague comming and shalt plainly tell them of it thou hast saved thine owne soule their bloud shall be upon their owne head if they beleeve not Here is the season of upbraiding by base Rebels for our plaine dealing But bee of good cheere hereafter will be the day in which wee shall be admired when the Lord shall arraigne all Sycophants for their flattery and spilling the bloud of soules and the bloud of Christ the price thereof then conscience shall rend them in peeces then all their owne ends of gaine or ambition shall vanish and then they will cry out Oh that we had beene faithfull Then shalt thou be comforted and they tormented yea let all such as have received good counsell rejoice and bee thankefull David having heard Abigails plaine counsell was rapt into praise unto God 1 Sam. 25. Oh saith she my Lord it will not grieve thee when thou shalt sit upon the throne that thou hast obeyed thine handmaid and not shed innocent bloud Grieve thee nay wonderfully glad thee that thou scapedst such a disaster Oh saith he blessed be the Lord and blessed be thy counsell which hath turned off my sword from this fact which else I had committed so shalt thou blesse God for a counsellor and for mercy to perswade thee by it and say it was ten to one that I tooke it I had as many temptations to reject it as Naaman had here which if I had I had gone on in my unbeleefe and pride to hell which gulfe I have now shot We need not aske whether Naaman comforted himselfe in following the advice of his Servants Concerning which the verses following entreat Thus much for this third argument of the Servants viz. the sincerity of Elisha his counsell There is yet one more which now I come to and so finish the whole Verse And that is in the last words How much more when he saith unto thee wash and be cleane It is taken from a comparison of unequalls Their fourth and last aâ—gument from comparison Thus thou pretendest great respect to the Prophet in greater things this is but a small one if thou meane as thou makest shew thou must needs obey in the lesser if thou meantst it in the greater else thou shouldest be but hollow and not to be trusted The point is He that is honest and upright Doctrine The faithfull in greater things will much more be so in smaller if he be faithfull in greater things will much more be so in smaller This point attends the former very fitly That called upon us for the brestplate of righteousnesse This puts upon us the belt or girdle of Truth Both are peeces of the Christian armor Ephes 6. and the summe of it is That where truth is there is proportion and equalnesse A man may know where to have an honest man if he shew forwardnesse in great things by good reason a man may expect readines to do smaller matters He is but a meer boaster and hypocrite who makes great shewes of doing this or that but being puâ— to the triall shrinkes his neck out of the collar even in trifles no man judges such a one to be any better then a gull But to speak a word or two in the Proofe and so breefly come to the Use Luke 16.11 The ground of it may be fetcht from that speech of our Saviour If you be unfaithfull in the lesser things the Mammon of this world who will trust you in the greater Treasure That is if you may not be trusted in the disbursing of a little pelfe and trash that perisheth for the good of the body and releefe of the poore who will trust you in the dispensing of heavenly treasure to the comfort of the soules of such as need it As if he had said The Law of equity supposes that if you were faithfull in a greater you might be well trusted with the lesser but if the lesser bewray you to be unfaithfull doubtlesse much more would you be so in the greater If I should betrust a man with twenty shillings to distribute it among poor folke the party should deceive me and rob the poor of it I durst hardly trust him to be my Executor to disburse a great summe to their use The reason is good and holds strong that basenesse of heart which hinders him from the lesse by reason of a trifle would assuredly much more withdraw him by a greater booty and try his falshood And so by contraries But I will adde a Reason or two First Religion agrees well with naturall principles and admits those consequences which reason allowes Now there is nothing more common Reason 1 in nature and reason then this That every whole must needs containe his parts and every general his particulars for why its greater and therefore includes his lesser Againe we have a rule issuing from hence That which availes in the greater much more availes in the lesser Whether greater in quantity the greater circle includes the lesse the perfectest figure as a circle comprehends a lesse perfect as a cube or in quality as a greater heat containes a lesser a greater light as the Sun containes the lesser as the Moone So in other degrees greater strength containes a lesse in numbers hundred comprehends scores oftnesse comprehends seldomenesse in notions the more unlikely comprehends the lesse the more difficult the more easie and arguments may easily be drawne from the one to the other to convince any that is guided by sound reason Therefore it must hold in Religion also Reason 2 Secondly God is the God of order and his off-spring is like him Religion is an orderly thing no confusion But if men might goe to worke as they list and goe out and in be off and on in greater matters conscionable in lesser carelesse bound to no rule where should wee have or finde men Religion being the seed of God acts and workes the heart to grace or duty by an infallible principle so that who so makes conscience of great things doth it upon a command of God and not only for observation sake or base respects Now he who is guided by a command considers it according to the extent of it and if he bee willing in cases
Publicans and vilest ones unprofitable servants whereas their building within rises up to a greater height of self-confidence by their outward castings downe for they thinke that not onely they may merit for themselves but for others and more then fulfill the Law and so by equalling themselves to Christ they overthrow the sole soveraignty of his satisfaction and merit But O ye â—opish mortifiers of the flesh adde one thing more get the power of the word into you to divide betweene the bones and the marrow Heb. 4.12 to goe betweene your hearts and your corruption and to cast downe those high things of yours those imaginations which set up themselves against the simplicity of Christ and then so farre as the word warrants us wee will joyne with you in outward fruits wherein though many of us faile more then you yet this makes your Doctrine never the sounder nor justifies your defect in the great matter of Sincerity and Faithfulnesse Wofull hypocrites who straine out a gnat but swallow a Camel dare not eat an egge in Lent but dare kill your Prince And although wee will not wholly condemne all those patternes of humility whom you boast of for certainly many of your first Monks and Votaries were honester then your selves yet we know that their devotion had much wil-worship in it which cannot warrant yours much lesse can yours stand which hath neither honesty within nor warrant of the word without to maintaine it So much for this also Vse 3 Thirdly this serves to instruct us how to esteem of Gods administrations and dealings and how to dispute with our own soules in the case of our distrust and infidelity I remember the argument by which Elisha perswades that Iehoram and his company 2 King 3. to beleeve that God will give them water in that perill of drought This is a small thing saith he for the Lord to doe for you For why He will also deliver the Moabites into your hands a farre greater thing Sutable to which was that which the Lord would convince Ahaz of by Isaiah Esay 7. viz. the victory he should have of the Aramites Is it a small thing saith he for you to weary the Lord and to distrust his power Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and shall call his name Emanuel which is a greater thing then to give you victory To apply this Let us learne hence to summe up the mercies of God vouchsafed us already and let us weigh them in due ballance If wee have seene him feed seven thousand with a few loaves Gods faithfulnesse to us in the maine must make us trust him in the smaller things doe we distrust him to feed twelve Disciples Do we finde that he hath bestowed upon us the maine let us beware of distrusting him in the lesser For he holds this rule much more surely then we We will trust a friend that hath lent us an hundred pound for the lending us twenty shillings and shall we distrust God He that hath made our bodies and breathed in our soules will he deny us food and raiment Is not the belly better then meat and the body then cloathing Whence is then this our distrust If he hath given us his Sonne Matth. 6.25 will he not with him much more give us other things lesser matters If he have made us a feast in the mountaines will he not much more give us ordinary food in the valleyes Had it not beene a base distrust in them that came into Canaan to thinke that God might suffer them to starve in the midst of a land flowing with milke and hony having before by a miracle nourished them with manna quales and the following rocke of water in the desert Doth the Lord urge us sinfull wretches by a Law which himselfe will not observe If we be faithfull in the greater treasure will he trust us in the lesser and will not we trust him Let us boldly urge the argument upon him by faith and we shall prevaile Rom. 8.32 he himselfe hath put it into our mouth If it become weake Read a speciall place in Math. 16.8.9 it s because we have made it so by our unbeleefe and let it fall to the earth We deceive our selves in the fundamentall promise and then accuse him that he keeps not touch with us in the lesser But if we would deale substantially in matters of weight we should finde that other lesser things would follow our hand with ease and the great ship of the main promise would carry all our smaller vessells of our secondary supplies after it without our rowing or strife But oh how basely doe we deale herein with God and our selves We dare beleeve that God will save our soules but whether he will keep us from poverty or no or bring us out of debt or enable us to maintaine our charge we cannot tell we have not so cleer a word for that we say as for the other Nay rather we yeeld more to sense and carnall reason in this then in the other or else make our selves thinke we beleeve the former better then indeed we doe Alas if the greatest were beleeved it were easie to cast anchor upon the other If the mountaine be given us shall a molehill be denied us No but we are pinched more with unbeleefe in the lesser then the greater if we had the like pinch of heart about the chiefe point of favour and pardon would it not thinke we dash the other and make it nothing Save my soule Lord and for my body doe thou as thou wilt for thou canst not doe amisse thou art tyed by thy promise to the lesser How comes it to passe then that those who have tasted how sweet the Lord hath beene in easing us of a burthen which wee never lookt to be rid of that we distrust him for faith in petty cases As for the easing us of such a strait aiding us in such a crosse of bad wife subtill enemy helping us in the losse of a good Ministery or in the encumbrance of a bad unprofitable people or ill and unsavoury Minister or strengthning us against such a lust or enlarging in us such a grace or granting us such friends in our distresse of body or blessing in our trade or training up of children or saving us and them from the customes of this present evill world or giving us our daily bread Oh thou of little faith what wilt thou be heathenish Shall the Lord cloath the grasse and deck the lillies which labour not nor spinne and shall he leave thee naked Not if thou labour and spinne out the promise in speciall Other of Gods people have done so Habac. 3. 1 Sam. 17. Habacuc would not distrust God though no bullocke were in the stall no calfe or sheep in the fold David will not distrust God touching the Philistin having killed both Lion and Beare and concludes 1 Chron. 16. that God will not
desolate and desperate which is the estate of hypocrites and selfe-deceivers Esay 50. ult and so God should put no difference between a poor humbled soul mourning for him and one that compasses himselfe with his own sparkles All these being of infinite absurdity and ill consequcnce it must needs bee that God will not bee angry nor contend for ever but finde a time an accepted season in which he will ease the heavy heart of her distempers and set her at liberty Thirdly the Lord hath the spirit of man and the passages and waies Reason 3 thereof in his owne hand to sway draw alter turn it as he pleases He formed the spirit first of his owne breath knows how it defiled it self understands the wofull inability of it to heale it selfe sees and beholds the secret windings and turnings of it how it wraps it selfe into endlesse errors and wearisome doubtings he permits all these in wisdome and when he sees his fittest time he can turne the course and streame of the spirit his owne way though the rebellion crossenesse feares and staggerings thereof be never so perplexed There is an absolute soveraignty of God over the will and conscience of man that when hee please he can do with it as men do with rivers of waters Proverb which though naturally they runne downeward yet by art and skill are recalled and derived to such uses as best serve to the benefit of the owners so that the question is not whether the heart would of it selfe encline but whether God enclines it Fourthly the power of the Spirit is such that it blowes at it owne Reason 4 pleasure and is of a most perfect freedome to blow where when how farre it selfe will and is not in the power of any Divell enemy man himselfe to crosse it God hath the winde of perswasion in his owne hand and he holds the winde in his fist All perswasions arguments and motives doe so farre prevaile or not prevaile with the spirit of man as the Spirit it selfe pleases to set them on When he will overrule the Spirit a little motive a word speaking shall effect it when he will stop the power of it nothing shall prevaile Luke 5.3.7 As Peters nets lay by when the season was so when the time of catching came all the fish came together and were enclosed under it So the counsells of the best wisest strongest must lye by as ineffectuall when God is absent the heart lies as a stone frozen into ice no axes mattocks strife of man shall break it But when his heart is enclining to man and meanes him good then shall the Spirit lye in another coast and suddenly thaw and melt the ice of the soule and dissolve those strong chaines which bound it before and made it past mans skill to pierce it so that as before nothing could soften it so now nothing shall harden it Now then marke If this power be in the Spirit of grace it must needs serve for somewhat it is not needlesse Therefore it must serve to this end to rid captives of their chaines to speake a word in season to a soule that is weary to carry the seed of life and the promise into the poore and fatherlesse spirit and there to enter open and enlarge the soule so farre that as it had no power to apply to receive or embrace any light or hope now it may be as the eternall gate opened by the eternall Spirit who hath the key of David and have no power to shut it selfe any more nor to resist the Spirits power and perswasion Reason 5 The fifth Reason is taken from the scope which mercy propounds to herselfe in the turning the soule to God Even the glory of it own selfe and that nothing may share with it selfe in this great worke of over-powring the soule As she onely hath those weights in her hand which can over weigh the base and backward heart so she will doe it when the soule hath struggled and tyred her selfe in her owne way hoping by her owne skill to effect it Then can mercy onely save the soule and remove the false principle which she found in the soule to crosse it even when the soule seemed to be most earnest in seeking it The Lord seeks more to honour himselfe above the soule then to shew it mercy onely for the private good thereof and when he findes that the soule herselfe can make no work of it is past hope in herselfe sees most basenesse in herselfe then is his fittest season to worke for his owne name and then none shall share with him in that point whereof he is so jealous that is his glory Esay 63.4 Esay 42.5 There is a speciall text of worth for this point which I wish all to observe Esay 57.17 I was angry with him and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart But I have seene his wayes and will heale him and restore comfort and create peace What While he goes on in his frowardnesse kicks against the pricks and hath no disposition in him to convert Surely no for all the work of Selfe is but the frowardnesse of a man with himself because he cannot have his will of God But then will God heale that man may be set on ground and bee convinced of his owne impotency for no reason can be given why at last the Lord should so overrule him save meer mercy to one in misery except any will say that a froward heart can merit any mercy So then the entire glory of the grace of mercy causes the Lord at last to finish the worke hee hath begunne that both the Alpha and Omega may be his both warpe and woofe from him Thus much for Reasons Now I proceed to some Questions Three Questions For upon that I have said sundry may be made Especially these three First wherein doth appeare that a soule in the way of grace and under the condition of it may yet a long time lie under such distempers ere it come to apply the promise this may arise from the present case of Naaman of whom the Doctrine saith that the Lord now found a time of grace for him though it were long first some therefore may desire to see it proved that it may be long first wondring that it befalls not the soule as soone as shee is under the condition of it The second question may bee why the Lord should permit such delayes and longsome staggering since that it may seeme it were better if it were speedy and put out of doubt at first Thirdly it is asked by what markes it may appeare to a poore soule that the Lord intends to finish his worke and to set her out of her old feares and distempers To answer the first of these this I say experience proves it that conversion is not finisht in many a soule which yet may be under a condition Quest 1 of it as soone as begunne Why conversion is not
speakes most directly to his heart As for pleasing himselfe in being in the element of any truth whereof he sees no use it is irkesome to a wise heart although he reverence all And these may serve for a taste of many more lets which differ as men differ and for answer to the first question I come to the second Since it is thus what reason may be given to Quest 2 satisfie men in this way of good for many would thinke it better if God tooke a more short and speedy way But I answer Answ for many causes God permits it To summe them up breefly One is 1. Cause because the Lord herein lookes at some grosse sins which ruled and reigned in the former part of mens life and in youth which are as iron moles and will hardly be worne out of the flesh being bred in the bone save by tozing and searching the heart throughly Secondly that he might breed some restraint in youth and curbe them from such offences as after must cost a great deale of purging plowing and harrowing ere the soule will affoard good mould for the word For sure it is the more rebellion the Lord meets with the more irons he loades the soule with Esay 28. Thirdly that he might exercise each soule in finding out her owne speciall let and not goe to worke in a fulsome generalnesse Fourthly to breed in the soule a solemne and sad thought concerning the way of God and roote out that giddinesse and vanity which puffes up the soule in a vaine presumption and ease Fifthly to occupy the minde of the Minister in right and carefull dividing the word and studying to approve himselfe as a workeman not to be ashamed striving to be faithfull both in the gift of discerning spirits that he may speake to the purpose not at randon as also to be painfull in catechizing which containes the wise and leasurely way of God to scrue and dive into the hearts of men by degrees and to soke the heart in the principles of faith which they that want may be long enough in hearing Sermons ere they conceive the order of the mystery of faith and how the soul comes to claspe with the promise Sixtly the Lord hereby corrects those most wicked evills which have carried the soule in and under the Ministry of the Gospel especially the dallying with the seasons of grace 7. That by this mean the Lord might clense the heart from Selfe in every kinde and twitch up every roote and rinde of selfe-love which would dangerously mix it selfe with the promise Lastly that the Lord as I toucht before might prepare way for himselfe in the honour of the soul when it shall finde by experience that all her salvation is of him and he could bring it out of nothing nay worse then nothing when as the soule lay strugling with herselfe without hope or remedy So much for answer to the second question The third and last question is how the soule may finde by markes Quest 3 that the Lord is following on with the work of grace That so it may be comforted in this that she is no hypocrite and so shall not wanze and moulder away as wax before the Sunne but obtaine the fruit of the promise in Gods due time For answer whereto this I say it may bee knowne by the contrary to those markes which bewray hypocrites Answ Marke 1 The first shall be this A soule truly under the condition of grace is very vigilant stirring and observant of the seasons which affoord grace not only generally to hearken after the word but specially to observe the Angels moving of the water The Lord doth not alway stir alike The Minister is not moved nor the heart of the hearer affected alike It s rare when the Lord and the soule close throughly one with the other when the word is preacht so savourly and lively and carryes the vertue of the speaker with it into the hearer and when the hearer meets it with a discerning of a season from God But when the soule meets with such Oh it abhors to dally and trifle with God to greeve him with slightnesse either for the present or after But confesses it to be a rare occasion presses hard with the Lord for blessing and followes on as Gedeon did those enemies Judg. 7. while the sent was hot lest he should be defeated Thus doth a good heart watch her time alway being upon wing for her prey and loaths carelessenesse of the watchwords of God No sin stings her more then former dallyings with the Lord nothing brings her upon her knees in secret more then this sinne and the sad fruit of it nothing puts her in more feare lest God should forsake her and suffer his Spirit to give over all saving strife with her nothing more is desired then that the Lord would forget her many provokings this way and stir her up with threefold alacrity to redeeme such seasons for time to come Whereas an hypocrite sees not such mercy from God or else vanishes in the fruit of them le ts all goe and nouzles himselfe in a blinde hope all shall be well whiles yet old sinnes and dallyings are upon the score unrepented of and unforgiven and the soule hardning more and more and waxing daily more and more crazy and unfit to be wrought upon Marke 2 Secondly a thriving soule God and promise-ward above all things nourishes life in herselfe not onely in ordinances but in the course and way of conversation Where ever she become the Spirit of life leaves her not wholy but more or lesse accompanies her spirit to preserve it from deadnesse flatnesse remissenes and suffering the worke of God to lye by in her And howsoever she feels a very body of death in this kinde fighting against the law of life in her yet knowing which is the stronger she gives not place No although the more she strives to be lively and savoury upon the promise and by faith the more the death of corruption resists her and discourages her yet even in this darke belly of the whale she casts her eie towards the Temple Jonah 2.8 and dares not yeeld when yet she is almost foiled but discernes a base body of death from the desire of her owne heart and because she feeles a dying she judges herselfe not wholly dead but to have some life under the embers which she makes much of and nourishes as one would hatch up one coale of fire upon dry straw lest it should goe quite out Such a soule abhors a daily deadish and sad heart more then death it selfe labours to revive it selfe by all hot waters from swowning and dying rejoyces when she recovers exercises her selfe with others as well as in secret to whet up that dull and weake edge of life and faith which remaines and is glad to feele that it is not alway alike with her in this kinde Whereas an hypocrite who never attaind to this sweet life
in as much as thou art become a sonne of Abraham Luke 19.7 Thy Regions are white unto harvest thy staffe stands next doore to grace and thy redemption is neer nay the day of the Lords redeemed is come Esay 63.4 Oh! thou mayst lift up thy heart unto God and say How is it that the Messenger of the Lord is come unto me Lo on the sudden I feele mine heart so strangely thawed and teachable over it was wont to be that I can give no reason of except the Lord meanes to save me I therefore interpret it as a signe of favour yea thou mayst be sure of it and therefore repent thee not of all thy paines which thou hast taken for it seeing thy reward will abundantly answer thy travaile And so much briefly may serve to have said of this use and of the Doctrine The chiefe doctrine of the whole verse opened at large I hasten now to the point it selfe of Naamans obedience The greatest and chiefest of all other which I aimed at in the handling of this Scripture Then saith the Text hee went and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden What was this A common act as others were No other then the former to come out of Aram to goe to the King of Israel or to stand at the doore of Elisha Oh yes those were his own this is Gods those he made no bones of but this was that which had made all this pudder it was the Lords owne way and device for the triall of his faith in the miracle and the subduing his heart to the naked obedience unto him And lo now his stomacke is come downe the let is removed and therefore he doth as he is bidden and goeth and washeth seven times in Jorden Marke the point it will cost us some time to handle Doctrine The point is Every one who is able to prove himselfe Every soule within the condition of mercy ought to beleeve within the condition of the promise may and ought to cast himselfe upon it obey the command of God and beleeve For the proofe of the point it will be expedient that first we cleare the ground of it out of the example of Naaman in generall and then by some evident texts of Scriptures with a briefe reason or two And having so done we will proceed to the explication of the contents of the Doctrine For the generall correspondence of Naamans case with this point some may doubt how it may be said of an Heathen in the point of curing of a bodily disease how he can be said to bee under the condition of a promise and so to believe For answer Answer whereof I say as before that although the worke of grace were a stranger unto him in respect of his owne feeling untill the time that the Lord wrought indeed grace in his heart yet forasmuch as the Lord over-ruled all the occurrents in the businesse by his owne hand for the effecting of that which he intended and swayed his heart to those preparations which were fit to lead to such an effect Therefore I do not see why on Gods behalfe those severall dispositions which were in Naaman may not be proportionable unto those which are wrought in such as are converted to God That Naaman was truly brought home to God besides the sequell in the Chapter mee thinkes this is sufficient that not onely God would chuse him as the onely Leper whom Elisha should heale but also would order the circumstances thereof in so set and solemne a manner that all men may behold a gracious worke as well as a miraculous For I demand what should need so many interruptions and defeats in the miracle such a trying and searching of a mans Spirit and such a purposed drawing of him to see more then an externall hand in the thing except more then an outward cure had beene intended by God A very small and short matter might else have been made of it if the Prophet had been used onely to heale his body and as Naaman thought the bare comming out and laying his hand on or speaking two or three words might have served the turne But now the Prophet must not bee seen Naamans weaknesse must be discovered to himselfe and hence it appeares that the Lord would have his Spirit and Soule acquainted with God as well as his outward man So much for the answer of the doubt And so I come to shew what conditions were wrought in Naaman before his cure and then how his obedience must be an act of faith issuing thereupon respiting proofes and reasons till the Doctrine be suted to the Text till which it will not be seasonable to settle it upon her bottome But this wee will referre to the next Lecture THE SEVENTEENTH LECTVRE upon the fourteenth VERSE VERSE XIV Then he went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden and his flesh came againe as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane I Having shewed you beloved in the end of the former Exercise that Naamans example may wel yeeld us the consideration under our hand referred the particulars unto this Sermon Naaman then may be conceived under the condition of mercy in the purpose of God sundry wayes In respect of the order that God tooke with him both in preventing him and assisting him before the cure In the former we saw how the Lord by a bodily disease made him in the generall case of one needing ease for he abased his person in the midst of sundry other happinesses with the noysome disease of Leprosie which was in it selfe a marvellous yoke and as God guided it a very pinching one unto him burdening him more then in a common manner How Naaman was under the condition of of cure If this had not been the first ground of the worke had been removed Next hereto the Lord prevents him very sweetly with the newes of one who in such a desperate case is credibly reported unto him to be a man like to heale him and this comes to him by a speciall providence appointing a skirmish between Aram and Israel wherein a Damosell might be taken prisoner and such a one one of a thousand who had taken notice of Elishâ—'s worth in this kinde and this being by Naaman apprehended tooke off utter despaire of incurablenesse and put him into some hope of a possible cure Thirdly hereupon he slackens no time but addresses himselfe in the best manner to use the most apt and likely meanes for the commending of his businesse to the Prophet and for the bringing of him to the speech of the Prophet having no doubt a speciall desire to obtaine that really whereof hee saw possibility before Fourthly by his travell and furnishing himselfe with gifts attendance comming to the King of Israel with his message wherein he was greatly defeated he is by the Lord so mercifully assisted that he ceased not till by the Prophets owne intimation and further light and assurance not only
off as it were a glimpse of light through a cloud that her estate is not quite forlorne whereupon the extremity of her former feares is much alayd and shee put out of despaire into some expectation of better things although as in the twilight much mixture of old terrors remain not quite banished as the Canaanites among Israel to teach them warre and to occupy them in combats Thus was it with those Ninevites who by the instinct of mercy darted into them by the Lord secretly lifted up their heads a little towards hope of not perishing and to the musing upon the benefit of deliverance The third is an holy compassion of heart towards him whom the soul hath pierced by sinne even the Lord of life who yet was well content to be murthered lest his murtherers should perish The due meditation whereof melts the soul into marvellous heavinesse that she should seeke his ruine who sought her making Not as mourning for his death for else she must have for ever been damned but for her treachery against the mercy of a Father who cut off his Plea and the love of a Saviour who gave his life for her This makes her impotent in her mourning and steeps her in gall and wormwood Zachar. 12.10 as not able to utter indignation enough against her selfe for it Fourthly yet as one borne downe with the singularity of such mercy and the fulnesse of that price which is paid to justice for her sinne shee is loth to let it passe without a desire to partake it yea and an ardent affection after it as one that is famished for lack of bread or drinke can be satisfied with nothing save that which it longs for though shee were offered treasures in stead of it yet shee still cries with Rachel Gen. 30.1 Give me this or else I dye And fifthly here she stoppes not but warily lookes about her that she binde not the hands of mercy from bestowing her desire upon her by her boldnesse and loosnesse of heart life and therfore she is watchful to her self lest in this her pursuit after mercy she should offend it any way by her pride frowardnesse base words passions or behaviours worldlinesse commonnesse of heart about her earthly lawfull businesse loose hearing forgetfulnesse or the like Sixthly she is marvellous restlesse in the applying of her selfe to all such meanes and ordinances as might further her desires and reveale unto her more light and evidence of Christ fearing lest by any defect of hers and letting slip the opportunities and seasons of grace and stirring motions of the Spirit shee might provoke the Spirit of grace to give her over to her owne unprofitablenesse she tries all as ascribing that honour to God to chuse what he will worke by to these hornes of the Altar she will cleave and if shee must dye shee will dye there Seventhly the more she growes in understanding of the way and mystery of salvation by Christ the more shee compares it with the best contents which this world in any kinde did ever present unto her and finding them light in the ballance and farre from being what they seeme or performing what they promise nay although they could doe both yet in comparison with mercy shee stamps them under her feet esteeming them all as drosse and dung Phil. 3. Lastly by this meanes she resolves fully in her last thoughts to sell off all whatsoever might seeme pretious unto her lusts liberties vertues Religious duties yea that onely stop of grace the mixture of Selfe with Christ that so shee might in the losse of all make up a price of grace that is that she may come with nothing and make a price of no price and so buy the Pearl till which purchase be made her own she can have no peace And this purchase stands in her faith which as an hand takes and accepts the seasin and delivery of the Lord Jesus given to her by the hand of him that surrenders him unto her by the promise Touching the which act of faith it remaines that we speake a little having said of this preparation so much as for the present wee think meet Touching faith what it is and how it is bred in the soule Concerning which and first of the nature of it so farre as it is the act of the soule obeying and yeelding to a word of promise I will say a little as may best sute the Text here under our hand Naaman then we see overswayed by his servants doth submit himselfe to the word of the Prophet and hee goes to Jorden and washeth Faith then to tell you first in what it stands not is not properly an habit of assurance or certainty of pardon through a personall and particular appropriation of Christ to her selfe Although asrance be never without faith yet assurance is not the proper act of Faith The originall of this error proceeded as many others have done from heat of confuting Papists in their opposing of possibility of Assurance That wee might the moâ—e fully confute them our first defenders would maintaine that the nature of justifying and saving faith stood in assurance which Tenet was indeed more then a confutation for although it is the portion of none save beleevers to enjoy this assurance yet neither is it the portion of all that beleeve to attaine it but only some special ones to whom it is granted neither is that assurance which such have the formal act of their faith but rather an effect or coÌ„sequent of the act of beleeving of an higher measure then that is For sure it is the greater our feeling of assurance is the lesse our faith is To shew then what it is It is such an act of the soule as upon good ground and warrant casts her selfe upon the promise for pardon and life By casting her selfe can be meant no assurance within her selfe but a submission and resigning up of her selfe to the promise in respect of that power and truth of the Promiser who bids her come and hee will ease her This is a sure word and hath neither trick nor device in it neither hooke nor crooke but is that which it imports and cannot deceive And this sure word is the object which faith lookes at Shee lookes not so much at the assurance which shee feeles within her selfe but at the certaine and infallible truth of the Word without As for her selfe shee knowes shee is full of doubts feares and unsetlednesse but so is not the Word of God nor himselfe that speakes in it She even in the very act of believing is full of strife and struggling For the making of this plaine consider faith in all her passages and you shall see it Quest 1 The soule hath three questions The first question is whither the Soule shall turne her selfe in her legall straits Flesh saith thus Goe on no further towards the promise for it is a difficult worke to believe and unlikely to take effect
or if it doe yet thou shalt alway be doubtfull The Word on the contrary saith Doe not desist nor revolt to thy former pleasure in sin for in that course there is no hope thou art then in a desperate case Proceed rather and goe to the promise for thereby its possible thou maist find some redresse What doth the soul in this strife She compares the argument of the word with the counsell of the flesh and findes it better then this because it is farre more safe to chuse a possible redresse of misery then to fall upon the assured pykes of certaine wo and despaire Here we see a fight but no victory no assurance only that rest which the soule hath is not from any thing she feeles within herselfe but without in the word Secondly here comes in a second doubt and therein Satan tells Quest 2 the soule it is true Thou chusest hope before despaire but what hast thou to doe with peace Or how knowest thou whether thou oughtest rather to chuse the one then the other or what right hast thou to ease and pardon Here againe steppes in the word and succours the soule telling her That she ought to fasten upon life and pardon and chuse it before sinne and death for God hath bred in her the condions of faith a longing mourning restlesse selfe-denying heart therefore to her and to no other this pardon and ease belongs and she may claime it God indeed hath no where said in his word I will pardon thee Iohn thee Thomas c. But he hath said such and such I will pardon so and so qualified Now she assumes this qualification to herselfe and therefore she concludes that to her it belongs This is another word of the Spirit which still drawes on a poore soule to bee willing to beleeve But now comes the nearest worke of the Spirit in the word and Quest 3 that answers a third objection which is this How shall I know in speciall its mine owne Perhaps it may belong unto such a one as I am but many things belong to men which yet they are by one meanes or other defeated of How shall I know that God will give it me in speciall and grant me the gift of faith to beleeve it In this the word grapples closely and nearly with the soule and brings it to the strict point of beleeving and tells the soule That all to whom the promise of pardon and life belongs by the allowance of God he will most undoubtedly bring it to passe for them and conferre it upon them yea and give them faith to cast themselves upon it For in saying Come unto me all you loaden ones and I will ease you he meanes not onely you may but you must come not only it belongs unto you to come but I will in my calling you enable you to come and put strength and power into you to come that is to beleeve and by beleeving ease you By this the word setles the soule upon the promise as being that which it seemes she sees God is willing she should beleeve and therefore will conferre it on her And in so doing the Spirit causeth the heart which is willing to become effectually willing that is takes away all feare of defeating and tells her she shall speed of her desire and therefore now she dares venture and cast herselfe upon the promise and if she perish so she is content for she dares jeopard her soule upon Gods Truth Now we see this casting and venturing upon the promise is the best of all these three acts of the word and yet here is no assurance for the soule in respect of herselfe is neverthelesse full of doubting all her bottome is this last word of the promiser that he will effect that in the soule which he hath promised By all these I inferre The act of faith is no assurance within but an evidence without resting upon the word which word the more evident it is made to the soule the better and stronger is the act of beleeving but the best of these is no assurance Quest It will bee demanded May not assurance be had at all I answer Answ yes it may be and is the portion of such as the Lord sees meet to enjoy it Eph. 1. Rom. 8. but that stands upon another bottome and that is the immediate evidence of the Spirit in the conscience of one who is already a beleever making her to know that she beleeves This is not by the word directly but the Spirit of the word which reflects that into the heart with knowledge and feeling which before she only had by the fidelity of the Promiser But this as I said is not faith for then none should have faith who want this which God forbid but an effect of faith in some speciall persons and not all that beleeve Thus much for the former question Now for the latter viz. how faith is wrought The sufficiency of a promise is the object of faith You see brethren it is evident that the nature and worke of saving faith stands not in any fulnesse of sailes or reflex knowledge and overpowring sweetnesse of perswasion But as I said in a grounded casting herself upon the word For by this only mean faith is wrought And I call it grounded because so weighty a matter as the resting and casting of the soule upon a thing requires that the thing bee a foundation of great warrant to beare up a soule from revolting againe Nay when the conscience is come thus farre as to fasten upon the word Oh! she hath thousand objections against the sincere meaning of God in his word Hence it is that the word is so full of places wherein this sufficiency of the promise to rest upon is urged Sometime the Lord contests with them that quarrell against it Is the Arme of the Lord shortned Hath he said it and it shall not come to passe Hezechia tells us Esay 38.15 He hath spoken himselfe unto us and he hath done it Heb. 13.5 For he hath said I will not faile nor forsake thee So againe The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Among men its called an unsure argument to prove a thing by authority because men are liars further then their truth will speake for them And yet some great persons have born such sway and authority in the hearts of their Disciples that their bare word hath carried assent with it But to be sure this is a sure argument God hath said it therefore it is true as in all the words which ever went out of his mouth so especially in his promise Phil. 4. 2 Cor. 1.20 that above all pleads certainty Faithfull is he who hath promised who also will effect it And Elizabeth Luke 1. tells Mary There shall bee a performance from the Lord to his handmaid of that which he hath promised All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus with a thousand more But
till she have cast off all weights and clogges which might hold backe and with-draw her from this free and full giving up her selfe to God Simile I make this plaine by a similitude A Clergie man hath a Benefice which by his errour is fallen into the lapse if hee will still plead a true right by his preaching of his Sermons or serving Cure he loseth his living or if his stomacke be too great to confesse the lapse But if he will acknowledge his lapse and have his friend ready in the Court to begge it of the King to whom it is fallen hee may possibly save the lapse and recover his living with a better title then at first So here Grace is fallen into the lapse by Adams and thy sinne by this the right of it is forfeit into the hand of the King of heaven if thou wilt now confesse the forfeit and renounce thy crazie title if thou wilt resigne it up into the Kings hand going to thy friend the Lord Jesus to begge it for thee againe thou mayst have it better confirmed then ever Else Simile if thou plead thine owne righteousnesse thou losest Gods Another Simile As it is in the marriage union A woman cannot wholly resigne up herselfe to a man except she wholly be free from all her own cavils and exceptions which might hinder her resolution If either her minde stand to live a virgin as distasting the married estate in generall or if she like it but yet refuse except shee may have her owne ends reserve stroke in her owne hand to dispose of that she hath or have such and such liberties to goe and doe as her listeth or if shee feele the yoke of subjection heavie to her and will be eased of it or if she dislike the person or qualities of the party or his abilities or breed parentage or trade calling any of these are sufficient to hold her spirit off and to use her freedome live single Even so here Till Self and selfe-ends be all borne down by the streame of grace and the promise there is no possibility for the soule to yeeld up her selfe and resigne her liberty That which they speake in Joh. 8.33 Wee are Abrahams children were never bound unto any is the voyce of every base heart which though it ly in the deepest slavery yet thinkes her selfe free because that chaine is sweet by custome and becomes even as deere as life it selfe And to bee broken off from it is more bitter then death Oh! every one thinkes thus Rom. 7.9 Now I am alive to my will and lusts If once my necke bee under the coller of Christ I must stoope farewell then all my liberty But till the soule bee brought to see that in the promise which will equall such carnall liberties and recompence them with an hundred fold in a better kinde shee will never be perswaded to deny her selfe Shee sees her selfe warme in her nest feeles no want loves her ease and therefore will not out of her track And hence it is Psal 45. To be brought to an utter strait and a forlorne condition is one ingredient of faith that Salomon tells Pharaoh's daughter in the name of the Church that if shee will forget her selfe her Idols and heathenish heart her fathers house and contents her private wealth and honour that she may wholly bee his and according to his heart in her prizing him for himselfe and for his meere love above all other delights if she will bee subject to him and deny her owne name and will then she should bee a wife for him and hee would delight in her love not else So that resigning up her selfe wholly to bee at his dispose was one maine peece of the marriage Even so is it here That soule which will enter league with God and cast her selfe upon him for pardon and life must wholly cease to be her owne and come under both the name and authority of another or else shee equivocates and lies to the holy Ghost worse then Ananias did First that averse heart in generall to the match must be taken off that contrariety and distaste of conversion and Christianity must be abandoned Rebellion against the way of God must be abhorred then all quarrels against God the conditions of a regenerate person the difficulties the crosses annexed to it must bee devoured All the soules mixtures both in the way of beleeving and obedience afterward must bee pared away All her owne duties performances labours zeale devotion religion morality all her affections bred in her from her owne ends must bee forfeit She must be content that Grace honour her selfe with the only stroke in the worke of conversion if she beare not all the sway she will beare none at all Now if any of these sticke in her stomacke if she be willing to have the fat and sweet but shee will have none of the soure she is still within her owne bounds and cannot freely resigne up her selfe to the promise for Selfe and the Word are directly contrary No soule will cast her selfe upon a bare word of God but that which hath first renounced all that might really give her content without it And therefore to finish such a soule puts her selfe out of her owne dispose and submits her selfe to be at the dispose of God to doe with her as he pleases according to that which in his word hee hath revealed himselfe to be willing to doe She desires that she might bee more willing to have God glorified in his owne way and honoured in his mercy then to enjoy pardon and heaven in her owne way And although it bee not the case of every weake soule to come thus farre because that which drawes the soule first to seeke God is her owne pinch of guilt and curse and her desire of forgivenesse peace yet her entire desire is to cast her selfe so farre upon the bare word of God that if that can faile she is willing to perish and as she growes in light and strength she is glad to be informed what the scope and purpose of any truth of God is and being so shee desires to stoop to it most humbly and entirely that whatsoever become of her owne yet Gods will may be done in her and by her And this may serve briefly to shew what the first part of faith imports that is Selfe-deniall I have oft spoken of it before Thus much here may serve 2 Part. Resignation Resigning up of the soule to God is a second ingredient of faith The second thing in faith is Resignation of her selfe to God This is when God is fully and wholly that unto the soule which before Selfe was or any thing in the world wherein her content stood Consider good brethren I speake of a weighty thing and not for discourse sake Perhaps you may thinke I goe to deepe and indeed so I doe for a carnall fleet heart howbeit no truth of
God must bee concealed to please our basenesse therefore to cast and resigne up the soule to God is neither more nor lesse then to lot upon the Lord in the promise to become that unto the Soule which before Selfe and the world was in the uttermost of her profits and pleasures lusts and vanities which gave her that satisfaction which she desired Oh good friends that neither I nor you might utter and heare that in a few sentences which perhaps all our life hath scarcely reacht unto For I tell you plainly such a speech as this might well set us both upon scanning how the case stands with us Wee all know what our owne ends what the world 1 Joh. 2.16 Matth. 18.9 the pleasures of it the lust of the heart the lust of the eye and the pride of life have been unto us Surely as our eye and right hand When as God is to the Soule that which formerly Selfe and sin were it is a signe of resignation to God Tell me now Are any of us so cast upon the word of God and those qualities of a promise before named faithfulnesse constancy lovingnesse freedome and the rest that wee can venture all our welfare thereon That God will so alsufficiently supply us that both all our former unlawfull liberties and contents shall bee as meere losse and dung to us and wee shall think our selves never the worse Againe that all meet and lawful contents shall be ministred unto us and that by a promise Lastly that if ought bee denied us which may seeme desirable wee shall therefore not thinke it meet because God gives it not for else his love could beteame it and if wee must want it yet even therein we shall abound because wee have his promise that it shall bee an hundred for one Yea and that wee shall esteeme the presence of God his favour peace of heart in forgoing a blessing or patience in bearing a crosse greater gaine by farre then to have had our wills in kinde Truly brethren to have God that unto us which before other things were is not lesse then I have spoken and yet so is God to that poore soule which hath cast her selfe upon him for pardon and life for hee who will not faile in the greatest will not faile in the smaller Marke then Faith in casting her selfe upon the promise is an hard grace but yet wise shee will lose nothing in the Hundred but shee will get in the Shire and she is warranted so to doe by the Lord who will have her know if she will be ruled by him and trust his word she shall be no loser but an infinite gainer yea and know it also to her great content though now and then mixt with some doubtings and weaknesse And by this meane the soule waxes confident upon God in the promise and by degrees growes to see this truth as well in other promises as in the maine of which I shall after say somewhat I say faith growes by experience to an holy complacence in God by his promise to be all one with him acquainted with his truth and bounty to venture herselfe and all her happinesse thereon and so to have such an affiance and trust in God as not easily to be unsettled by each delusion or conceit of Sathan or world or herselfe But still in all her seeming straits and difficulties to rely upon the promise and to picke out the true meaning thereof even the length and depth of it and seeing God cannot lye therefore to wait for resolution in all doubtfull cases rather then rashly to question the promise and to repent her of her choice This holy obedientiall affiance and trust upon God by a promise is that happinesse of a Christian soule and that true rest of heart which she should pitch herselfe upon as that portion which she counts best an fallen into a goodly ground It is a good illusion which Saloman or Batsheba hath Prov. 31.11 of the good wife That the heart of an husband rests in her hee is so linckt in love and affection to her so experienced in her fidelity chastity helpfulnesse and gracefulnesse that his heart rests upon her and trusts to her Be the businesse never so weighty be he never so farre distant from her let never such conceits and suspitions come in his minde all are washt off the trust which hee hath in her quits his minde and hee rests upon her without casting any scruples May it bee so betweene sinfull couples who may be and are in many things unfaithfull and shall not the Lord much more be trusted Yes doubtlesse A true beleeving soule goes not to worke by guesse casts not with herselfe what if God should faile her What if she should bee defeated But because the promise hath secured her of Gods unchangeable truth she takes it Simil. and as with a knife cuts in two all such cords of withdrawing feares and throwes herselfe upon it as the anchor is cast upon the bottome under water when once the Pilot hath by his plummet sounded it and there it sticks and holds the ship from tossing too and fro with winde and waves even so doth the soule which hath known the Lord and taken sure markes of him knit and fasten it selfe upon him and stands not to descant off and on this way and that but drownes it self once for all in the sea of his Attributes no more to be distempered by any of her objections That time which others spend in asking Shall I Shall I I could be content but may I safely doe it and shall I be welcome With the like stuffe shee spends in doing as she is bidden 1 Sam. 15. Esay 26.3 and hazarding all upon the faithfulnesse of him who is the everlasting strength of Israel and cannot lye Oh thou wouldest cast thy selfe upon the truth of a man whom thou hast found to keep touch in his promises and wouldst blush if such an one should cast thee in teeth that thou didst distrust his promise having never taken him tardy in any thing Should a sinfull man so engage thine heart and so ingratiate himselfe with thee and shall not the Lord much more deserve it of thee Gen. 8 9. If ever thou wilt have thy weary wings at rest fly to this Arke and settle there Buy and sell upon the promise set downe thy staffe there for this is the way to engage the Lord to thy selfe thou honourest him above all honouring by thy faith and he will for it requite thee and trust thee for ever and bind himselfe not to leave thee because he knowes thou makest full reckoning of his helpe thou hast cast off all other props of thine owne that he might be instead of them all unto thee Such a one shall not need to feare that it shall be disappointed So much for this Use Vse 4 I come in the next place to a briefe Use of Admonition to all that would cast themselves upon
of all thy former delights cast them all at Gods feet and thy selfe upon his promise But thou wilt aske me How shall I thus throw my selfe upon it To cast the soule upon the promise whaâ— it is I answer doe these three things First take the due estimate of the promise and that is done by minding pondering familiarizing with it By minding it I meane a marking of it an heeding of it as a thing of no ordinary excellency Count it as thou wouldest the chaire of Estate which thou bowest unto as representing the Kings person So doth the promise it s the chamber of presence in which God discovers himselfe the royall Chaire which carries State in it when thou beholdest it behold in it the Majesty of God Esay 26.10 which no hypocrite can see in it It s hidden from his eye but to a beleever set by God in the clift of the rocke Exod. 34.6 thence to see the glory of God his graciousnesse and to heare all his good proclaimed to such an one the promise is of a most eminent excellency Deut. 32. end full of all the fulnesse of God Slight it not therefore but set thy marke upon it Secondly ponder it as Mary did weigh well the contents of it the blessed consequences of beleeving Take to consideration the worth of the pearle Luke 1.29 and treasure hid in the field as that wise Merchant did Matth. 12.44 It s as the applying of Ebed melecs rags under Ieremies armeholes Jer. 38.11 that he might be drawne out with ease Meditation is an heavenly trading of the soule in her thoughts and affections with Gods matters till the soule clapse with them Psal 119. Thirdly make the promise familiar by this means Draw thine heart to it make it thy familiar friend and counsellor to passe all thy matters for thee and in all thy doubts consult with it and let that give sentence And having received it esteem the words of the mouth of it as Iob did Job 23.12 above thy appointed food powre all into the bosome of it as thou wouldst powre out the symptomes of thy disease into the bosome of thy Physitian or a child all her griefes losses and sorrows into the lap of a tender mother Thou shalt fare better by a promise then they shall doe at their hands This is the first direction Secondly be under the authority and evidence of a promise and be convinced by it that it s thine that all before said of the strength wisdome other properties of a promise do belong to thee as really and are put into it by God that thou mightst have thy part in them See clearly as in a mirror that God intends all to thy selfe and as in the Covenant more generally so in the Seales more particularly As Laban seeing how strangely things went Gen. 24 50. said We can say neither more nor lesse but Gods finger is here it must be a match This is the work of the Spirit of the promise alway assisting it and telling the soule under the Condition Doubtlesse thou art the party whom God means to save Ester 6.6 As Haman said whom should the King mean save me So shalt thou say but much more warrantably If God had not indeed meant me well he would never have so convinced me and set me on ground that I should have nothing to gainsay The Judge on the bench saw not the theefe steale but by the sworne evidences of witnesses he is so convinced in himselfe that he reads sentence without question by this meanes the soule brings out Gods cloake staffe and signet as his pledges left in her hand to assure her of his good meaning toward her Gen. 38.25 Thirdly claspe unto and with the promise cleave unto it to bee rid of all thy annoyances at once Once convinced of the promise and ever fastned to it And this cleaving to it is that worke which immediately causeth the consent and obedience of the soule unto it to cast it self upon the promise open it thus The soule in the act of beleeving is sollicited by Satan and unbeleefe to give over and returne to folly But the promise pressing in perswades her to beleeve and renounce her old distempers The soule in this demurre consults with herselfe thus If I goe backward I perish irrecoverably If I go forward I see difficulty yet hope What then shall I doe Surely I cannot be worse then I am I must dye however in not beleeving but in beleeving I may live Therefore I will cast my self upon the promise and live A man will doe thus naturally though he have no promise Thus did those 9. lepers 2 King 3. only upon an hazard they cast themselves upon the army of the Aramites Why Because they were sure to dye in the City So the poore soule giving herselfe for dead puts her life in her hand and saith worse then dead I cannot be better I may be by a promise Nay if God be true I shall be and therefore I will venture my soule and jeopard all upon Gods faithfulnesse if I perish I perish in the armes of a promise not in Satans clawes and by my unbeleefe In this strife of the soule the Spirit doth lay in such strong weights of perswasion against the disswasives of corruption that the soule finally is overruled and so consents and obeyes to cast herselfe upon the sure bottome of a promise for pardon and life By these directions thou maist helpe thy selfe in this weighty worke but because the heart is dull upon the spurre Motives to Faith let me adde a few motives to quicken thee Let one be this Remember first that this will be the issue of Gods enquiry at his comming to judgement Secondly that by this resigning up the soule to God the greatest honour is done to him which by a mortall creature can be Thirdly that all such in the day of the Lord shall be most glorious Fourthly that the greatest wrath and vengeance shall light upon the heads of unbeleevers Fifthly that this being the rarest grace of all others in the world is therefore worth our chiefest endeavour Of these and the like I purpose God willing to treat of the next Lecture Now for the present having exceeded our ordinary bounds we will desist here Let us pray THE EIGHTEENTH LECTVRE continued upon the 14. VERSE VERSE XIV Then he went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden and his flesh came againe as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane AT the end of the last Exercise Brethren I began to finish the first and maine Branch of Exhortation raised from this act of Faith to cast the soule upon the promise To the which end I added to the directions for the duty certaine motives time giving leave onely to name such as came to minde I have referred the briefe touching of them in severall to this occasion Motive 1 Let the first if
others Consider good friends what the Scripture speakes If yee will not beleeve you shall not be established Esay 7.9 Nothing but this Anchor will settle the ship nothing but Faith will overcome the world either within us or without us The heart being unpurified will bewray it selfe onely to faith is granted to weare the crowne of victory 1 Joh. 5.5 for this is that victory even our faith Oh! who would be alway unsetled and lye open to all mischiefe who might prevent it Zach. 12.10 Conclusion of the exhortation But I conclude this Use with the former Directions and Motives Pray to God for the Spirit of grace and supplication goe together that his spirit may perswade thy soule to both these to deny thy selfe and to resigne up thy selfe to the promise Say thus Lord thy workes are all perfect where thou beginst thou finishest It is beyond flesh to retaine this grace I have run I have laboured but except thou give me the hand to helpe me over this steep hill I shall fall back again to my old distempers the end will be worse then the beginning 1 Sam. 14.13 Oh therefore let me goe up the hill of faith as Ionathan did up the hill against the Philistines give mee a signe as thou gavest him and then all lets and oppositions shall fall before me all high things which set up themselves yea the worst that is the contrariety of heart to this thy way of beleeving shall be cast downe and then shall I submit nakedly to this obedience of faith The Lord grant it to us all for his Names sake This for the first and maine Use of Exhortation be spoken Branch 2 A second Branch of Exhortation is to all such as through mercie have cast themselves upon the promise already for pardon and life and that is that they still practise the same grace in the course of their life in all their straits crosses duties dangers and difficulties in all their temptations losses wrongs and pursuits at the hands of the unthankfull or unreasonable And in a word whether for things concerning this or a better life that they cast themselves upon the promises for salvation sustaining and full redeeming them from them all Know this brethren that as much adoe as faith costs us for pardon Plead the promise for sanctification as well as pardon Matth. 4.1 yet wee have not done there It is as great a grace to preserve the soule as it was to beget it at first enemies will not give us over as soone as wee are converted to God but rather assault us more forcibly as Christ himselfe was by Satan after his baptisme and unction to be Mediator Now then what helpe have we against all affronts save to cast our soules upon him for reliefe and redresse whom wee have already adventured upon for pardon and life What is our Charter save that of our Saviour Be of good courage I have overcome the world Joh. 16.33 14.1 Esay 26.3 Let not your hearts be troubled you beleeve in the Father beleeve also in me Cast your selves upon Jehova for he is eternall strength Here on the one side steps in feare and saith I shall never overcome such a corruption and lust of earthlinesse or pride or selfe-love or revenge or uncharitablenesse or I shall not grow in grace as others doe but alway stand at a stay or I feele no thriving by the meanes still after fasting Sacraments the old deadnesse of heart abides and I walke as the horse in the mill in one dead frame of heart and life Well deny thy selfe first and then resigne up thy selfe unto the promise Doest thou willingly yeeld thy selfe to any base corruption Or doest thou wilfully slight the meanes or defile thy conscience Then looke to thy selfe and lin not till thy pardon and peace be renewed But otherwise look not at thy distrust or unworthinesse but humble thy soule for thine unbeliefe and recover by the promise Say thus Lord when I was weake and without strength I cast my selfe upon thy word for pardon of sin and release of curse how much more may I doe it for supply of wants Plead the promise now as thou wert wont to cleave to it at first When Bathsheba was afraid her sonne Salomon should bee defeated of the Kingdome 1 King 1.15.22.26 she and Nathan plotted together to concurre with one Argument and came to David saying Did not my Lord the King say that Salomon should reigne How then is it that Adonija sits on the throne What did David He rouzes up his dying body and sweares As the Lord lives looke what I have said shall be accordingly done Thus by pleading they sped Plead thou the promise which once God gave thee and so shalt thou also Lord Didst not thou say Sinne shall not reigne Thine shall grow Thou wilt finish thy worke and they shall hold out to the end And now lo the Divel perswades me it shall be otherwise But O Lord had I first clave to sense and feeling I had never beleeved Therefore now teach mee to cast my selfe upon thy Word still and looke off from appearances Although I feele no great growth yet because thou hast said I shall and I doe not wilfully oppose it therefore I beleeve I doe In like manner steps in the malice of Satans instruments and they threaten my ruine and make me thinke I shall one day perish by them But I aske my soule Doest thou not side and sort with them by an ill conscience forsaking thine integrity Then cast thy selfe upon the promise Psal 73. end Call thy selfe a foole a beast for distrusting God Roll thy wayes upon him and say Was not I alwayes with thee Didst thou not promise to guide me by counsell till glory whom have I in heaven or earth like thee When Iehoshaphat in 2 Chron. 20.5 was beset with three armies what did he Cleave to sense and so despaire No he pleads a promise an old one made to Salomon at the dedication of the Temple Didst thou not say when enemies should besiege us and we looke up to thy throne thou wouldst looke downe Lo here is an object for thee Mount Seir and Moab and others What did God Instantly answered and scattered them all Alas brethren our faith forgets her plea and is weary of her worke God sets enemies about our eares to file off the rust of faith that shee may still honour him against feares and carnall reason We say we have cast anchor upon Gods bottome for pardon but how shall it appeare If we say so who shall gainsay us in a secret thing But shew it then in our course that secret grace may discover it selfe in straits and trialls that we may know all that is in our owne hearts either how weake they are that we may strengthen them or how strong that we may be thankfull But when sorrowes and feares beset thee on every side sicknesse debt losses of husband
wife good ministery when bad times examples of debauchednesse malitious foes treacherous friends when all these or any would make us thinke our faith was but a fancy and we cast our selves upon a promise in vaine Then looke about thee here and never till now is the triall whether thou hast cast thy selfe upon God or no upon his wisdome to reach thee a way of escape upon his power his truth love and constancy that he can and will free thee Is this faith to pretend casting thy selfe upon God once for all and when trialls come Joh. 11.27.39 to warpe and to say with Martha Now hee stincketh To fling up and downe and say How shall I beare this losse Endure such affront Get out of this poverty Avoid this enemy Cease all other tricks and learne one better then all As the Cat once being challenged by the Fox in point of wit when the Dogs came upon them the Fox with all his wit was torne in peeces the Cat had but one way but it was worth all she got up an high tree and secured herselfe Read Ezra 8.22 He would not dishonour God but fell to the worke of fasting and beleeving and so prevailed Give not thy right in one promise for a world It s a fountaine better then all dry pits A wise man will not sell his possibility of a great inheritance for a trifle assure thy self there is a promise in the word belonging to every duty and every part of a Christians course which who so can beleeve shall go through it whether doing or suffering with sweet ease in respect of him who goeth to work of his owne head He that casts himselfe upon the word cuts off many troubles which others meet with because his heart being well appaid in Gods love is not easily unsettled and as for such as must pinch yet there hee is upheld knowing they come from God in love are no greater then mercy sees meet are such as Christ himselfe is a party in and affords to his members his owne courage meeknesse power and victory to sustaine them in and in his due time will give a redemption from to all who wait for it in well doing and faint not Plead therefore the promise and trust God in all The third Branch of Exhortation concernes those who have cast Branch 3 themselves upon the promise both for pardon Persevering in beleeving procures assurance also for all other support here To such I say give not God over here neither but still presse him for assurance fulnesse of perswasion touching both The faithfull improvement of the promise in respect of the truth of the promiser is often requited by the Lord with such a gratious strength and full faile of the Spirit of the promise as makes God and the soule to grow into close communion and holy familiarity and carries the soule above her doubts feares and complaints because the Spirit of God witnesseth unto our spirits both that we are his and hee ours Nothing shall separate us from his love nor it from us All things pertaining to life and godlinesse shall be ministred This is that which Paul speakes of Ephes 1.13 By which Spirit after you had beleeved you were sealed and by it the Lord makes the soule so interessed in him that as he knowes who are his 1 Tim. 3.1 So they who are his know themselves so reflecting this assurance to their owne consciences so that they walke as enlarged ones because perfect love expells feare I will not say that their joy doth alway equall their peace But their peace equalls their assurance Hence it is that commonly such finde hard duties easie crosses welcome feares vanisht Lesser light in Faith may goe with greater assurance God present in ordinary so that their falls are few and their peace is constant according to that knowledge which they have Which I adde because I doubt not but many an upright Christian may in some cases exceed him in some acts of closenesse and obedience both in doing and suffering who yet goes beyond him in assurance the reason is plaine because assurance followeth not alway upon the greatnesse of light but the constant living by faith in that light which a man hath so that for lacke of light greater faith may come short of that measure of obedience which lesser faith may have To returne let none be wanting to himselfe in seeking the greatest degree but beware of resting upon this that his faith is unfeigned and the faith of the Elect and so never seeke further This is the generall disease of most Christians at this day wherein I am perswaded few attaine that degree which formerly in times of smaller light but more tendernesse conscience watchfulnesse and sincerity with diligence they attained unto Oh thou shalt one day finde the fruit hereof Note this when that broad doore of entrance into the Kingdome shall not be granted thee If any aske by what markes the Spirit of sealing is discerned I answer First by more then ordinary selfe-deniall humility Markes of assurance Luke 5.8 spiritualnesse The nearer the soule comes to God the more it abhorres it selfe Secondly such an one hath much inured herselfe to weigh the promise as that scholler soonest growes to bee above his rules who hath got most exactnesse in his rules Thirdly he is ordinarily free from doubts Rom. 8. ult I am perswaded that neither life nor death c. Fourthly death is welcome to him as it was to Simeon Lord let thy servant depart in peace because mine eyes have seen thy salvation Fifthly such an one is above carnall respects or owne ends for he knowes his requitall is not daunted with trouble hard duties losses for Gods cause for hee understands his hundred fold And so I might adde more which the examples of David and Paul in Scripture will affoord One more I adde If God visit them with any spirituall desertion as he may in extraordinary yet the experience of former mercy at the lowest point keepes them so that the grace of God shall ever be sufficient and therefore they shall bee content for the time of their eclipse to be under infirmity seeing hereby God is most glorified Luke 22.42 and their grace approved Thus it was with our head Christ himselfe and with Paul 2 Cor. 12.9 So much for this third and last Branch and so for the whole use of exhortation Vse 6 Lastly this is use of Comfort and Encouragement to all Gods weake Consolation Weake beleevers must not quaile and give over though sound and faithfull ones who though in much poverty and infirmity of spirit have desired to cast themselves upon the promise when yet their light is divine and their setling and comfort but small Say thine owne heart oft misgives thee saying I have long heard and received the Sacraments with other helps but I cannot put on the Lord Jesus I cannot in particular fasten upon each part of
creatures Else God his subjects might rule him not he them then might they give him law not he them What a poore and titular King were hee who must stand to the good will of his people as being more strong and subsisting in themselves then himselfe What a King would he be who either for lacke of power or because hee hath resigned up his power cannot match them who are under his command How poore was it with David 2 Sam. 3.39 when his owne sonne and his subjects yea Ioab and Abishai were too strong for him A true King must bee furnisht with power policie and influence of authority sufficient to curb over-match and subdue his subjects how much more then the Lord Doubtlesse were not his lawes full of majesty and authority they could not match and equall the corruption of their hearts whom they ought to governe For example The heart of man is very stout lofty and rebellious If then the Word and Law of God were not full of strength able to make it quake and tremble yea to cast downe and breake the rockes and hills Nahum 1.3 and to make Carmell and Lebanon to shake Dan. 5.6 how should he controll it Even Belshazzars knees smote together at his hand-writing The heart of man is base and slavish Slaves watch their season and opportunity when their Masters eyes is off his backe turned to play their parts If then this law of his were not like the soule in the body wholly in all and wholly in every part beholding the creature alway in each corner and at every turne how would hypocrites make bold with him But now his whip is before them and his sword hangs over them perpetually His Sergeant and Keeper is never from their heeles their owne conscience and his Spirit as Elisha's with Gehazi going out with them comming in whither shall they goe from his presence but hee will over-take them If they goe up to Heaven Psal 139.8 or downe to Hell or to the utmost parts of the Earth his eye followes them and they are still naked before him Therefore there is no playing their rex more in one place or one time then another Jer. 17.9 So againe The heart of man is deep and deceitfull who can know it If then the Lord were not more searching narrow and politick then all the cunning of hypocrites and if his commands were not able to hunt them out of all their nooks and corners as Samuel did Saul 1 Sam. 15. 1 King 14. and as Abija did Ieroboams wife how should he keep his state and dignity over it Must he not needs be over-reached by it But now the candle of the Lord searcheth all the bowels of the belly Prov. 20.27 all those secret windings and turnings of a close and false heart are open to him and to his word commands and terrors even as Benhadads plots to Elisha And so may I say of all the rest 2 King 6.12 The word of God is fully able to match and controll whatsoever is in the corrupt heart of man and in that respect is a law meet and fit torule and controll it And therefore how meeke calme how open plaine how loyall faithfull should that obedience be which the soule should performe unto his commands So much for this Seventhly the Lord hath power to repeal Lawes as well as to make Reason 7 them his will maketh that to be Law at one time God hath power to repeate the saddest law therefore to make it Deut. 22.6 which at another is none he can reconcile contraries by his will he that at one time forbids to kill the Damme upon the Egges at another time commands to kill the women and their sucklings at their breasts or in travell or big with childe and yet both lawfull He that forbids the spoiling of so much as the scraps that fall from our Tables or are left after meales at another commands the remainder of the Passeover next morning 1 Sam. 15.3 to be burnt with fire Exod. 12.36 He that forbids to steale a pin or a point from another commands to rob men of their best jewels gold and silver So that from his mouth we must receive Law his will is Law either forbidding or enjoyning Therefore it must needs be that it is soveraigne and not to be controlled by any or all the creatures The Lord commands policie to be used by a Captaine in warre yet if hee will have men play the fooles and fight with Lampes and Rammes-hornes Judg. 20.29 Josh 6.8 it is better then policie yea he will have Saul to wait for Samuel 1 Sam. 13.13 although his Souldiers goe from him and his enemies are ready to surprize him When the Lord commands it is a sinne to suffer an Oxe to perish or a sheep to miscarry in a ditch or the like And againe Luke 14.5 1 Sam. 15.3 when he pleaseth all the fat Oxen and Cattell of a Kingdome must bee slaine downerights and be made dung for the earth yea their owners also must be destroyed So much for reasons Now I come to the second generall viz. to answer those two questions Quest 1 What I mean by the Intension and Extension of Commands By Intension I understand the simplicity uprightnesse Answer Intension Extension of Commands what and integrity which Gods commands require of his people By extension I meane the largenesse and elbow-roome the bredth and reach of them Both these make much to set forth their authority For the former Gods object at which he aimes in commanding which hee bindes by his charges and arraignes at his Barre for breaking them is the conscience of a man hee sets up his Rules in the secretest part of man called in Scripture the Spirit or inner man of the most retired thoughts and affections To this Closet no law of man can pierce save God he is the Lord of the bodies but the soules are Gods peculiar Hee requires indeed outward kissing the Sonne and bowing the knee Jer. 31.31 Rom. 14.11 but he moreover urges the due of the heart There he will have his lawes written even in the heart and thence he will have obedience to flow So Paul Prov. 26. Rom. 7.22.25 I delight in the Law of God in my inner man And whom I serve in my spirit Heb. 4.6 The intents of the heart are pierced by this word and Law-giver he judgeth the uprightnesse tendernesse narrownesse closenesse of our obedience by the heart root If it be planted there even in the bent and streame thereof all is well not else Read Matth. 5.28 You have heard say of old Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say He that lusteth after a woman hath committed that sinne in his heart So that the Lord lookes at a pure principle manner and scope of the heart as well as the curbing of the outward man or members Princes are mounted upon Thrones
of Ivory or Gold But the Lord onely exalts himselfe in the spirit and conscience there he sits as Soveraigne and causes it to become his owne Recorder witnesse and Judge against the person himselfe so that the greatest selfe-love in the world cannot bribe the conscience to side with the sinner against him who is the Lord of conscience and can condemne both the one the other 1 John 3.20 Matth. 10.28 Feare not him who can kill the body onely but him who can cast body and soule into hell fire I say unto you feare him So then the Soveraignty of the commands of God stands much in the intents of God and that meaning of his to rule the spirits of his subjects and in all their obedience either negative or affirmative either in doing or suffering to cast a secret chaine upon the conscience to obey cheerfully equally uprightly wisely constantly For instance in the worship of a Sabbath the abhorring of oppression the suffering for the cause and truth of God the Lord lookes not at the externall act but the intent of the soule and the pure carriage of the heart towards himselfe as with what delight it keepes a Sabbath how cordially it preserves the spirit chaste and cleane for what ends it suffers the crosse whether for Gods or it owne Thus much for the former Quest 2. What is meant by the extent of a command The latter is what is meant by the extent of a command I answer The full reach of the command As for instance First the unlimitednesse of the command The Lord makes not some Lawes for great ones and some for small ones as if the great flye might get through the cobweb but the little ones must be taken but his nets as they are small enough to catch the small fish so they are strong enough to hold Whales and the mightest They reach to all sorts without limit rich and poore noble and simple high and low one and another Secondly their extent stands in their influence to all The Princes law reaches to all his Subjects as well as to his Chamber of London but yet the law-giver reacheth no further then his presence in absence and behinde his backe his Lawes are slighted But this Law-giver is omnipresent and assists his Lawes with immediate influence causing them to convince in secret as well as in publicke and is able to execute his owne Lawes to the uttermost so that for lacke of strength and reach of arme no sinner can goe unpunished Thirdly this breadth reaches in the affirmative command to the negative and in the negative to the affirmative as directly as if they had both been expressed In the narrow Lawes of men the sense and scope of the Law must bee limited to the words of the Statute which as the common speech is have no meaning in them beyond the tearmes thereof But the power of Gods commands stands in their insinuations and imply somewhat by necessity which they expresse not Fourthly their extent stands in the coherence thereof to wit that whatsoever maine good or evill the Lord commands or forbids by the same power hee forbids or commands whatsoever concernes that command the means tending thereto the occasions leading all circumstances attending whatsoever possibly the soule of man can apprehend directly or indirectly to make for that Law or to thwart or crosse that Law Fifthly it reaches to the quantity and measure of the duty urging not only sin to be shunned in the greatest degree but also in the smallest and so duty to be done not only in the main peeces but in the pettiest all proceeding from the same goodnesse and justice Sixthly it reaches to the measure of the principle of obeying urging it to obey not coldly deadly slackly formally but to put forth the uttermost affection strength wisdome will courage zeale reach and largenesse fruitfulnesse and extension of the inward and outward man to concurre with the meaning of the Commander which the Holy Ghost calls all welpleasing Col. 1.7 Seventhly it reacheth to an universality of time place occasions not to be limited straitened and circumscribed at our narrow will and pleasure but tyes us alway yesterday to day and ever to one obedience Heb. 13.8 not to vary with the time with the multitude by occasion of dangers feares losses enmity power of man not to be cast off in private in secret but to be enlarged according to it selfe generally to all circumstances This is a field of matter but I have already elsewhere walked in it in some sort as the reader hereof may perceive by that I have written in my practicall Catechisme part 3. in the article of the directive rule of our obedience the Law of God where I treat fully of the point So much for this second To these two questions a third may be added Object and answered ere we goe any further and that is that it may seem harsh to presse this point under the Gospell since that the liberty thereof takes off this strictnesse and limits commands from the old extent of them to the ease of the Gospell To the which I answer That the Gospell is so farre from that loosenesse that rather it establishes Answ extends and corroborates them then otherwise A great part of our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount is spent in confuting this conceit Matth. 5.6.7 not onely of Pharisaicall but of Antinomian abuse and dissolutenesse Paul also tells us Ro. 2. ult that faith setles the Law stronger upon her bottome then ever So that he is as well accursed now as ever who shall adde or detract Rev. 22. True it is that the terror rigor and the impossiblenesse of the Law is removed by our Lord Jesus The Law how far it s strengthened or weakned by the Gospell 1 Tim. 1.5.6 but looke what is taken off in that kinde is supplied in another for the spiritualnesse and purity of obeying is enlarged now rather then diminished only it is true that even in this enlargement the Lord Jesus hath made his yoke most sweet and easie to them who out of faith love and a good conscience seeke the end of the commandement as Paul speakes of which more shall be occasioned to speake after if God will in the use of Exhortation It s enough here to say That as the Lord Jesus hath removed that burdensomenesse tyranny and irkesome rigor of Lawes which was intollerable so he hath put another yoke upon the soule instead thereof which although love make sweet yet justice will not abate nor cut off Love made Iacobs labour welcome but still the frost was tedious and the heat wearisome Gen. 29.20 and the conditions hard enough to flesh and bloud So much for this and for the ground of the point Now in the third place I come to the use of the Doctrine And Vse 1 first let it be Instruction and Caveat to all superiours and men in dignity and authority as to acknowledge
thinke they shall so easily escape Matth. 12. Could the Lord Iesus in the dayes of his abasement take upon him so severely as to make a three stringed whip scourge out those buyers and sellers in the Temple to overthrow their Tables and to scatter their money about the ground and all for the violation of one Command and shall he not much more take upon him think we when he shall come not as a meeke Lambe not as riding upon an Asse colt but as the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda triumphantly riding upon the clouds of glory and decking himselfe with strength and revenge as with a garment Shall then these breakers of his commands carry it so smoothly away Shall they not flee from the presence of this terrible Judge Acts 5.5 Could Peter a seely man being armed with the authority of this Judge with one word of his mouth throw downe those two hypocrites Ananias and Sapphira and lay them dead upon the place and shall not the Judge himselfe comming in person much more with one frowne of his irefull face crush all such daring enemies of his glory as have made his solemne Commands idle scare-bugs and have turned them into shadowes Now whiles the consciences of men are inchanted with hopes of preferment with ease with the glistering shewes of pompe and state the examples of their betters and the common streame of carnall worshippers when they see the power of truth to be troden downe and the sincerity of Religion to be discarded it s an easie thing for them to beare downe commands and not to be troubled at it but when as the Lord shall open and enlarge conscience to the uttermost and bid her speake out and not be afraid to beare witnesse against all breakers of his solemne commands shall they then thinke we set up their hornes so high as now they doe Dan. 5.7 Shall not rather their knees knock together as Belshazzars did in the midst of his quaffing in the cups of the Temple When the terrible Judge shall not write onely upon the wall but thunder with his voice against all that have brake his cords Psal 2.5 and cast his chaines from them shall they be able to endure him when all their musters shall be pulled off from their faces and all things shall be naked in the sight of him that judgeth and conscience shall aske them questions without admitting any shuffles or equivocations shall they subsist and hold up their faces Then conscience shall put them to it Heb. 4.13 and say dost thou thinke in thy very soule that the Lords day are dayes to be prophaned with unlawfull games and pastimes with drinkings and dauncings Speake truth now dost thou thinke in conscience that those who walke closely with God maintaining the power of Religion in their lives are the worst men living Or dost thou thinke in thy conscience thou didst well in leaving thy flocke and charge at randon and spending thy time in dependances hopes of promotion ease pleasure and such like Dost thou thinke in thy conscience that any thing can purge out the defilement of Popish Idolatry and superstition Will scraping of the stones of the house fretted with a canker of incurable leprosie serve the turne Can any thing save onely pulling downe the house and making it a heape of rubbish make it cleane Speake as in conscience thou thinkest should man in his opposing Gods commands be obeyed before God himselfe or God before him If thou wert now to beginne againe durst thou breake the least of his commands and teach others to doe so Durst thou lend thine authority presence countenance tongue or pen to defend the breach of any command of mine Oh I say when conscience shall set thee thus upon the rack and stretch every joint of thy soule upon the wheele of Gods strict inquisition will there be any place for trickes and evasions No no. Thinke sadly then of the sadnesse of commands Oh all ye presumptuous hypocrites while there is season for it Now the Divell sets you upon a pinacle and shewes you all the glory of this sensuall and carnall world and offers you the greatest reward for your breaking of the most chiefe and sad commands it s now a merry world if it would last alway to breake commands Who rule the rost or carry matters more boldly or gaster other more terribly then such as cut off commands most desperately But lo there will be bitternesse in the end You shall not alway carry it at your pleasure none to gainsay you This Judge of all flesh one day shall turne your triumphs and scornes and insolencies into a most sad sorrowfull dejectednesse one day your hearts shall melt as water and your countenances shall fall downe as Cains did after God had convinced him of his cruelty and bloudshed Gen. 4.9 Heb. 12. ult Think of it betimes in Gods fear it s not for the honor of our God our consuming fire to suffer every bold breaker of the commands to lurke and lye safe in his den No God shall finde them out to be dissemblers The Lord Jesus shall not then flatter them but set their sinne in order before them therefore let the terrors of God pierce you now let rottennesse enter into your bones and let the voice of a commanding God cause the lips to quiver and your bellies to tremble Hab. 3. feare him that is the great commander of the world who hath chaines for Princes and can binde Kings in fetters of iron Psal 149.8 yea can cast soul and body into hell I say feare him 1 Sam. 15.16 If he were so terrible to Saul in the words of a weake Prophet Samuel if now hee be so potent in the voice of a convincing Preacher What shall hee then be in his owne voice and presence when the mountaines shall rend in sunder and the frame of things be disolved So much for the former Branch of this second Use 2. Branch Terror to all profane ones Psal 2. Psal 12. Iob 21.14 For the latter sort briefly if this point justly terrifie all hypocrites for blanching with God how much more then doth it condemne all profane and professed rebels who doe walke and trade without remorse in the open breaking of Commands Who say to God Depart from us who cast away his cords and breake his bands in sunder who say Our tongues are our owne wee will speake as we will and what Lord shall controll us Who proclaime their sin as Sodom and say If this be to be proud I will bee prouder more uncleane sweare ten to one breake all Sabbaths that evill I doe I will doe it and I care for none of these strict and severe urgers of Commands I will be the worse for them Well goe on you shall have your belly full in hell of your owne will There you shall sweare and curse and blaspheme God and pay for it all the while therefore if
owne But the true mother who knew the cost and price of her child could not endure the cutting of it asunder but cried Give her rather the child then it should be slaine Just so is it here A base heart never bred by the grace of the Spirit to obey Commands rejoices when it selfe and the word may have share and share like is glad to see the word mangled and that God should have one peece of his will and she another But a close soule obeying Commands is of a farre other frame for she hath been bred of the immortall seed of the word lien in the wombe felt the warmth and drawne the breasts of it and lives and growes by it Therefore shee cannot endure to see it divided wrested abused and cut in two rather she is content to abhorre herselfe her owne ends and respects and cries O Lord let not the childe be hurt rather let my will bee cast in the dirt This is a sad triall indeed let us come to the scanning of it While Gods and our streame may be suffered to runne in one chanell we easily give way to God But if it so fall out that he will not suffer our dung to swimme with his Apples but if we will goe in his stream we must goe in it meerly onely our lusts must bee renounced nay perhaps so the case stands that even our lawfull liberties must be removed our lives healths gifts contents ease elbowroom credit and sway must be shaken off to obey a Command and those who would perswade us as Peter did Christ to pitty our selves Mat. 16.25 must bee rated away and forsaken wife childe friend counsellor people Minister who come in and tel us if you suffer and obey God farewell the ease of our life farewell the jollity of our towne our shops trades takings revenewes credits contents Oh! I say if in such a case the life of the childe the honour of the world and of conscience bee more pretious then all these 2 Chr. 34.17 if then we flagge not with hopefull Ioash when his Princes came to entice him If then we stick to a Command if then we cleave to a charge this is a signe of soundnesse indeed Triall 6 Sixtly if we cleave to Gods Commands prove it by this marke if we looke at a Command nakedly and cavil not against it by the opposition of it to other commands if we set not Gods Commands together by the ears as Saul did affirming that the killing of al sorted not with piety or charity if we leave the consequences of our obedience to God without pleading against them by arguments from absurdity or inconvenience it s a signe of a close heart Our nature is when wee see the sad command to lie before us to dispute against it thus What shall become of my people if I obey this command what shall become of the glory of God But honest obedience takes no more thought for God then he takes for himselfe if he commands us ought he cals not at our hands for more then he allowes us but takes that to his owne consideration and will have us let him alone with that Wee shall not need take thought for the good which is lost by our obeying But we must not doe evill that good may come of it To forecast the disasters which our obedience may inferre Note well is to take upon us the person both of the Subject and of the King if the King call for obedience let the inconvenience upon it lye upon him wee have done our duty Try we our selves then about this if we bee negotious and curious for God in a thing wherein wee are not called its thanklesse double diligence 2 Sam. 6.6 As we see Vzza in staying the Arke was more provident for God then hee required and therefore paid dearly for it though his intent was good So when we judge of obedience not by successe but by the word It was God his will that the Arke should be brought home by Saul though he slew the men of Bethshemesh for looking into it See 1 Chron. 12. Seventhly he obeyes closely who onely trusts God and licks himselfe Triall 7 whole upon him for any losse which he sustaines It trusts God to make good all she loses either for doing his will or for suffering for it An hypocrite upbraids God as for his doings Esa 58.6 so for his sufferings Matth. 25.24 Hee thinkes God to be bound and beholden to him for them and if hee either regard him not in the one or reward him not for the other hee thinkes himselfe wronged Contrarily a close obeyer counts his reward to stand in his obedience that God will account him worthy either to doe or suffer for him Acts 4.22.23 And if he lose either his will and base lusts by the one or his credit health wealth or friends by the other he lookes at the promise of an hundred fold grounded upon Gods alsufficiency and faithfulnesse A notable text we have 2 Chron. 25.9 when the Prophet forbad Amaziah to goe fight with his enemies his objection was That he had hired Souldiers of Israel for some thousands of Talents how should he doe for those The Prophet tells him The Lord could abundantly restore those Talents Brethren we would suffer perhaps for God but then as it was with Amaziah these Talents are the sorrow of all hence comes our unwillingnesse to suffer But as the Prophet said so say I The Lord can make them good doe but trust him Affliction is a bitter herbe but it beares a sweet flower and sweeter fruit Give the Lord thy Talents and thou shalt have an hundred fold backe againe These losses which thou fearest thy wife thy children thy contents give them up to God trust him with them and he will refine them all for thee that thou shalt receive them at his hands purer and cleaner not to say greater and fuller then ever before Those vapours which the Sunne exhales from the earth lose nothing by it for they are so altered in the ayre that they come downe againe more fruitfull upon the earth then ever So if God have once tryed thee in this furnace all shall come forth purer then ever The daughters of affliction are the fairest of all other There were no such women for beauty as Iobs three daughters were after his affliction He himselfe was purer and so was all he had Job ult and as affliction is a furnace so is it a banque Iob had twice as much after he had lost all as before No trade so gainfull as this of the Crosse a man that hath had the experience of it gaines twice so much nay an hundred times more then he had before I say not temporally and yet God is alsufficient but spiritually to all that suffer meekly and patiently Cast off therefore the clog of these Talents both from thy heart and thy heeles which do so hang on and oppresse and
sinfull wretch yea obey me punctually closely universally yea my very thoughts that he might be a servant according to mine owne heart and whether I give a reason or no of my charges I thinke it equall that my inferiour doe nothing at all swerve from my commands Oh! what shall become of me for my loose heart thoughts affections conscience What shall I answer for my dead hard lazy empty senselesse sensuall heart in point of a tender chearfull and upright walking with thee I see Sauls subjects being charged to fast 1 Sam. 14.30 trembled to see his owne sonne to touch a little hony so farre were they from tasting it and shall the awe of a man in a trifle saving the vow so absolutely surprise their wills and yet the eternall and righteous will of God not be able to prevaile over me O Lord I deceive all that know me when I doe the materiall part of a command the life of the duty is absent when I doe the morall part the spirituall is far off and although I see and know it thus I am so chained under the law of my corruptions that the integrity the scope the fruitfulnesse the large-heartednesse of my obedience is not to be seene Oh! I offer sacrifices halt and blinde wanting heart liver and reignes I am so fraut with my selfe Rom. 7.23 and the command of evill that good is seldome present A lust hath a principle in me causing mee to love it to serve it to use all means to fulfill it to shunne studiously whatsoever might crosse it But I feele not that spirit of grace which should cause me to obey from a principle of sweetnes still there is somewhat which me thinks I chuse rather to doe and to be swaied by then the law of love to God for his love to my soule Oh! herein the Lord my God be mercifull to mee that wheras I have found as much mercy as any yet I have bowed to this lust and that and worship my owne fancies and am as like to do still if the awe of God lie not more closely upon my soule Oh! that this fire might alway so burne upon mine altar as might consume my drosse and put some life and courage into into mee to get out of this Circle in which the Devill hath conjured mee to walke deadly and basely towards the Commands of God! Nay which is worse O Lord I am growne to this point even to lie as a beast in a slow groning under her burden so lie I in a fullen discontent of heart at the Lord himselfe that he enlarges mee no better when as yet I nourish my selfe all the while in my ease and carnall distaste of his streight Commands Oh! me thinks my cursed heart because it cannot have her will of him could even tell him to his face That he is an hard Master and gathers where he strawed not Alas I consider not that he hath mee at the vantage because I have lost the grace of my creation nay abused a better grace of Mercy and therfore may justly be punisht for the least Rebellion And not only thus but from this stubborne heart of mine it comes that I set my sayles abroad and commit my selfe to winde and weather am not smitten when I breake all cords in two as Samson I am loose in Sabbaths in the curbing of my passions my vaine thoughts have their through-fare and lodge in mee and yet I am not troubled I swallow every gobbet and let it go Once I could straine at a gnat but now I devoure Camels and heare no more of them Oh! Lord I picke quarrels with those lawes which have formerly been equall to mee And more then these Lord I am growne to this sad point that the sence of a bit and bridle is by custome of loosenes quite slipt out of my mouth I begin to frame God to be such an one as my base heart could be content he were even a God like to my selfe who will neither do good Psal 50. nor evill whose threats are as the clappes of thunder without any stroke following I hope to go on in a Round and way of easy Religion and doing of one duty after another successively without strayning of a joint But as for any sadnes of Commands to weigh downe my spirit to solid feare being thus accustomed to a slight and vaine course I feele it not God helpe mee In all these respects what shall a poore soule O Lord do Conclusion of this branch with it selfe What O my deer God shall bring me back againe after all these desperate revolts unto thee I wonder that I should not be wholy left to utter woe and open offences I know nothing in my selfe why Satan should not have mee at such a bay as to cause me to depart from God grossely and generally aswell as in these secret rebellions For I waxe weary of thy yoke and am content that others should abide the heate of thy worke and my selfe be released O Lord I am so farre from pleasing my selfe in this state that rather then I would be under the misery of my slightnesse I could wish thou woldst cast some other unpleasing chaines upon mee some stinging crosse some corrasive to eate out my dead flesh And as untoward as I am to suffer if I deceive not my selfe I could wish the sweet fruit or such a course with some pinch to my flesh rather then thus giddily to provoke thy Majesty by the transgression of thy Commands But thirdly and above all this is exhortation to all Gods people Branch 3 to sadden their hearts and to lie under the Authority of Commands for Conscience sake A most sollemne point above all that I can say to urgeit As before I spake when Iacob went to Luz God cast a feare upon the nations that they durst not stirre a joint against him Oh! Genes 35.5 such a feare shouldst thou beseech God to cast upon thy soule in secret Feare of God besetting the heart a great meane to keep close to God wheresoever thou becommest that it may hem in and compell thee to obey As it s sayd of the clowd which filled the Temple and caused the people to feare the presence of God who was in the midst therof so should this cloud alway lie upon thy soule to smite an awe into thy soule of offending Theris is a base spirit in us it is not love alone which can long hold us within bonds Heb. 12. end Therfore we had need as it is Heb. 12. end to hold fast such grace as may cause us to walke in reverence and holy feare Deut. 32.46 Moses summing up the contents of that Swans song of his in two words tells the people Set your hearts to all the words of this booke which I testifie to you this day that is the law of the covenant it s a sadde law sadly therfore set your hearts to it He whom wee have to do with
will serve Or at some young youth who marries a woman of threescore Alas they are mismatcht all see and say money and wealth or preposterous love for their owne ends not for the due ends of marriage love made such matches No apt and meet ones may marry they onely are beyond exception So is it here Not every one who is without a promise may presently marry it not each base fellow steaming and sweating out of the Alehouse or Stewes Such little look at a promise as a promise for the honour of grace but at their owne ends to gull themselves with false hopes David saith well Psal 119. Thy promise O Lord wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust But God causeth not every one to beleeve a promise but forbids them as presumptuous yea though they dare say that though there were but three saved they should be one and againe what a foole art thou that canst not beleeve I would beleeve I trow or else its pitty but thou shouldest perish Oh thou foole even of thine owne mouth Answ 2 This for them But secondly a promise is exclusive as well of such as are in fairer way of beleeving and that is of all such as will bring of their owne cost towards beleefe and salvation Oh thou cousenest thy selfe not knowing a promise for a promise is such a way of God as craves the onely reliance of an empty desolate soule upon it selfe That 's the nature of it it s a royall thing can endure no peere or partner So much of this 2. In the accord of promises to them in sundry parculars The second accordance of a promise stands in the qualifying of it to the person who may and doth beleeve it or if you will in the severall beneficialnes of a promise to the soul and this more directly toucheth the point in hand Concerning which to speak fully is no easie thing howbeit some particulars I will point at for your better conceiving of it And first you must know that this accord of a promise presupposes the due order in which a promise belongs to the soule This I would expresse in two branches 1. Promises must be understood as issuing from truth in generall First the promise being a parcell of the whole truth of God requires that the soule doe beleeve the whole truth before it can beleeve speciall parts of it Faith being a resolution of the soule into the meere verity of him that speakes in the Word a part whereof is a promise Why Because it savours more of Self then Faith that I beleeve those things in the word which immediately concern my own welfare except first I be concluded in this That God who is the first truth and deserves to be credited for himself only is the author of the whole word through Hence Heb. 11.2 the Apostle doubts not to affirme That by faith wee beleeve that the worlds were framed by the word of God and that things now seene were made of things not appearing This is but a remote thing to the maine object of faith which justifies But yet it s inclosed in it as the pearl in the mother of pearle he that lively beleeves one may beleeve the other more easily as deducted thence The act of justifying is an act of that lively faith which doth more then justifie Note So also true faith so beleeves a promise that it also beleeves dogmaticall truths practicall truths threats charges admonitions instructions as well as comforts and promises because it lookes at him who deserves the universall saving reliance upon Gods truth for himselfe aswell as for our owne ends This for the first branch Secondly 2. In respect of Gods order viz. first promises of reconciliation then of sanctification promises must be beleeved in that order of immediate saving of the soule in which the God of order hath propounded them to the soule then we beleeve a promise accordiâ—g to a promise when we first beleeve that promise which concernes pardon reconciliation and life and then proceed to beleeve such as concerne government and sanctification First those that are our being then our welbeing As in a fat of wares first we must unfold and take out the upper then the nether The prime and first promise must be first beleeved then the rest I speake now of the priority of order not of nature to us ward not the word ward for so every good thing is given at once to the soule Christ I meane and all he hath But for us See 1 Cor. 1.30 till we have beleeved the first of saving us we cannot beleeve any other which followes upon it viz. of mortifying a lust quickning to holinesse The like may be said of the order of spirituall and temporall promises till the former be digested the latter cannot be The reason because the first gives vertue title and claime yea influence into the other This for the first Secondly he who beleeves a promise according to a promise 2. A promise must be beleeved according to the intent of the promiser beleeves it according to the intention of the promiser Each promise swims to the soule in the bloud of Christ and therefore hath a strong bottome and undeceiveable Promises are no loose interlocutory words falling from the mouth of God when he mindes other matters Nor yet as mens promises who first garishly make them and after intend them but first God meanes them really and then fulfills them To beleeve aright is to beleeve as the promise is strongly and surely bottomed and grounded they deserve fully the soules rest and affiance not staggering and doubtfulnesse We must not use promises as we would use little pegges or tagges which though we dare hang our hat on yet we dare not sway our owne strength upon for they cannot beare it But as we use some strong brazen or iron crooke upon which we durst weigh our whole body such is the promise Es 26.3 fix thy self upon it for the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Doe not as those two Disciples at Emmaus who said we thought and looked that he would have risen againe by this time but now wee know not what to make of it and yet Christ was even then risen and talking with them when we warpe and lye aloofe upon a peradventure this is not according to a promise but when we lye close to it as a foundation which will beare us up strongly Thirdly they beleeve a promise according to it who beleeve it in the due limitation of it and that in two regards First of the variety of estates to whom they belong 3. When a promise is beleeved according to the due limâ—tations In two respects 1. Of the variety of estates to whom they belong All beleevers are not equally capable of all Promises Promises goe according to the need of Christians Promises concerning crosses belong properly to the afflicted Promises concerning growne ones concerne the strong Promises to
the weak belong to novices Promises touching them that stand are of one kinde and promises concerning them who are revolted and backslidden are of another Each promise holds a naturall and geniall propriety to such as they concerne No true beleever ought to bee a stranger to any of the promises But hee ought especially to apply himselfe to such as are appointed for him This is to put on Christs apparrell rightly When men mismatch the promises looking rather at such remote promises as lesse belong to them passing by the proper and peculiar ones they feele not the true use and benefit of them What hath hee to doe with promises of growth who is revolted hee hath more need of recovering What hath hee to doe with promises of knowledge who is puft up with that hee knowes Hee hath need rather of such as concerne the humbling of his soule What should hee trouble himselfe with promises of support in greatest difficulties temptations persecutions who rather had need to bee better resolved of pardon it selfe 2. In respect of the variety of promises themselves Secondly in regard of the variety of the promises themselves for there must be a limiting of temporall promises in respect of spirituall He that will enlarge temporall promises to himselfe in point of enjoying them according either to the price which they cost or the right purchased thereby shall disguise himselfe exceedingly For although they are fully purchased for all beleevers in point of right yet not so in point of dispensation herein wisedome orders bounty according to the object upon whom God sometime enlarges 1 Cor. 3.22 sometime restraines All are ours if we be Christs Howbeit not alway for equall measure or time This is our basenesse that we are carried to promises as the beast to her food not by faith but appetite Note Faith puts the knife to the throat and restraines the soule to the ensuing of such promises not as her selfe but as the Lord thinks best And she teaches the soule that it 's better for her that God sometimes should exchange promises for her rather then give her such as she would chuse and preferre through lacke of discretion For they are an hundred times better for us which requite us an hundred fold in one kinde for such as we forgoe in another rather then such as wee covet If God will try some graces in thee as selfe-deniall and patience under sufferings covet not thou the exercise of others as of Sobriety Cheerfulnesse and Thankfulnesse for Blessings 4. When a promise is beleeved according to the extent thereof Fourthly they beleeve a promise according to a promise who beleeve it according to the fulnesse and extent thereof And this branch doth most closely concerne the doctrine in hand As many enlarge promises beyond that which they import so many more doe curtoll them and serve them as Hanun did Davids servants cutting off their clothes by the middle They are straitned in Gods enlargements like Ionah who grudged that God should be so gracious to Ninevee Jona 4. As it is with Beggars who qualifie the measure of their Almes according to their owne basenesse not the bounty of him who bestoweth A Beggar will bee content with cleane straw in a Barne to lodge in But a friend will looke to be lodged in a good roome and best Feather-bed Why Because he measures his welcome according to his friend his beteaming heart It seemes a great thing for a poore sinfull wretch to obtaine forgivenesse but as for other promises hee thinkes them a farre off Or if hee get a few promises by the end hee thinkes God must needs shorten him of others But the Lord will have faith comprehend the length depth breadth of promises yea the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all Unbelief is like Iehoram Ephes 3. 2 King 13.18 who being bidden to shoot the Arrows and smite the ground limited God to thrice whereas God meant seaven times Men having given us bread send us for meat to another doore and for drinke to a third But the Lord will traine all his to know his doore and none else and to expect all from himselfe Men loath ordinary Beggars and give at certaine times but not ordinarily But Christ Jesus is yesterday to day Heb. 13.8 and for ever the same upbraiding no man All promises of God are equally Yea and Amen in Christ one as another 2 Cor. 1. end Some one maine benefit there may be in marriage but there are abundance of second ones consequent thereupon all entailed to it So is it here So that hee who shortens and limits promises doth not according to them but contrary to their extent Separate not the things which God hath put together but rather make a golden chaine of one and other If God will give me the best viz. heaven it selfe hee will not deny us the temporall For the promises reach as farre as the merit Christ died to redeeme body and soule from all distresses though as I noted all sorts of promises are not accomplished to all beleevers at all times yet their right to them all is equall Fifthly he beleeves a promise according to a promise 5. When it is beleeved according to the peculiâ—rity and speciall ufe of it who beleeves a promise in the peculiarity and speciall use thereof For although each promise hath the fulnesse of God in it because it cost the blood of the Lord Jesus and no peece of his Testament no one Legacie of his could be made effectuall to the Church save by his death yet he doth not thrust all the vertue of his death into one or two or a few promises but for the more cleare satisfaction of the soule he distinguishes his good things into as many severall and peculiar promises as the necessities of his people doe require To the end that every one that needs any good thing may know where to finde it Simile And as Apothecaries who sell many wholesome Drugges doe not shuffle all together but for the more ease and certainty disperse them into so many severall boxes and celles where they may be sure to finde them when they need them without mistake or errour So hath the Lord done hee hath not generally and confusedly put all graces and benefites into one promise but hath dispensed them in sundry promises Not a good thing but it hath her peculiar promise to which the Lord will have all his people to resort And by this meanes he trains his people to be well versed in his Scriptures and to pick out promises as they lye yea promises which seeme to bee made to some speciall persons yet hee will have them as the Bee to carry them home to their Hives As that promise which was made to Christ himselfe Esay 49.8 he will have us apply it 2 Cor. 6.2.3 That which was made to Ioshua Chap. 1.4 he will teach us to improve it Heb. 13.5
And except there bee speciall cause of the contrary I mean that promises are proper to some and incompetible to others The Lord will have us search each corner of his Word to fetch out those promises which lye there as gold in veins for the comfort of his people Promises made to the head to the body to any member belong to the members to any part to the whole body except a limitation bee made All promises made to the head belong to the whole body all that concerne the Church concerne also the members and such as concerne one member doth also reach to another circumstances being wisely observed So that looke what a poore soule would have from God whether grace to heare and receive aright to pray or worship God spiritually to endure patiently and take up her crosse or to mortifie any lust to get a soft heart to be setled and stablished in faith to be kept from this present evill world or whatsoever else one place or other of Scripture will help thee to a promise for the nonce by which if thou have a gift to goe to the right Box thou shalt much more clearly and fully rest thy selfe upon God for a supply then if only thou shouldst consult with general promises which though they containe the particular yet are lesse evident and expresse not peculiar good things with such accommodation as the particular doe Our base spirits are content to generalize with God so we have any promise it serves our turne And why Because wee use promises for fashion and make our selves thinke wee doe that wee doe not whereas beleevers of promises search out their owne Legacies in special as if one should search a Will of a deceased friend as the Angels pry into the Mercy-seat 1 Pet. 1. and look a far off to see what God hath promised As common folke think they have stopt Gods mouth sufficiently if they worship him any way by singing a Psalme or reading a Prayer halfe asleepe and halfe awake so deale they with promises If they can catch any by the end it is enough for them As for culling out marking or singling those promises from the rest which might specially stay comfort and speake to their owne hearts from God they have no skill and accordingly is their gaine generall promises generall comfort But I say peculiar application of mine own promises is according to a promise Each promise will not suit to every necessitie Speciall wisedome and paines is required to get them distinguish understand and apply them as the plaisters which serve for speciall sores 6. When it is beleeved according to the scope and bent of them Sixthly and lastly he that beleeves a promise according to it beleeves it according to the scope and bent of it This is that which I said in the proofes All promises as they are Yea and Amen in Jesus so they must be beleeved as they are in Jesus Most men scumme off the fat and sweet of promises for their owne ends leaving the lean and sowre for whoso will But marke Pauls words there Ephes 4.21 That yee put off the old Man and put on the New This is the pad in straw which few men see in a promise They thinke promises sound nothing save good newes and that they catch at greedily But the scope of a promise is another thing as it cost blood to purchase So it must cost us our lusts and base evils to forgoe And there must be an harmony betwixt the purchase and the fruit Christ proclaimes no man ease and liberty to live as he list hee catches the soule by an holy craft of Promises that hee may winne and subdue it wholly to himselfe who redeemed it That every knee may bow and call Jesus the Lord not boast onely of his salvation but submit minde wit senses will affections passions purposes lusts yea the streame and bent of the whole man unto him And in truth hee who doth not deceive himselfe in Jesus will not onely boast of him as Papists doe Sweet Jesus sweet Saviour sweet Christ but will say Joh. 21. Matth. 11.29 my Lord and my God my King and my Prince A promise under the sweet name of it carries a sad instinct with it into the spirit of a beleever 2 Cor. 5.16 bringing in the truth as it is in Jesus new Lord and new lawes All old things are passed away and are become new This alarme no base hypocrite can endure And therefore smoke doth not more scare Beâ—s then promises doe them For why They know there is such an intimation in all promises as they are in Jesus that whomsoever Jesus eases of his yoke him he puts another yoke upon even of obedience and selfe-deniall which to flesh is irksome except hee who puts it on doe also in the putting on make it sweet and easie as hee will doe to all beleevers And these few may serve for a taste to the rest for the due conceiving of this What it is to beleeve a promise according to it Now briefly two or three reasons of the Doctrine one may be this Reason 1 because there is the same reason of promises in particular as of the Word in generall But wee know the heavie denunciation of God Revel 22. end against whosoever should dare to adde or diminish from or to the Word defacing it by either making it a monster consisting of more parts or of lesser then it consists of properly How then should any dare to offer it to the promises which are as it were the veines of gold in this mountaine and the most pretious parts of all the Scripture if any be more pretious then other Secondly except the promises be taken according to that no more Reason 2 nor lesse then they beare and import what a world of prejudice must needs accrue unto the promiser How shall Gods honour bee maintained if the soule enlarge promises beyond their extent or to that which never came into the heart of God to intend in them For then must the erroneous soule needs bee sadly defeated of her expectation and so be ready to mutter and cavill against God and make him a liar On the other side if the soule limit and shorten God in his promises what doth she save impute that to him which that unprofitable servant did injustly lay to his charge That hee was an hard Master Matth. 25. reaping where he sowed not What can bee fouler reproach to God then both these whereas by esteeming a promise duly God is vindicated and saved from dishonour in both respects as neither being larger nor straiter then his Word Thirdly what a snare would it prove to the soule her selfe to bee Reason 3 alway in darknesse doubting and demurring about the promises for lacke of due understanding what the promises import For why The pith and marrow of the promises lies not in the words and outside but in the sense and meaning of them which who
with it passe it by Their severall objections have been answered before Now I onely presse reproof upon them Light is sowne for them Psal 97.11 but they will not see it but goe on with their burden as if they would offer their eares to be boared for slaves As those mentioned last are in one extreame and snatch at that which is denyed them for stollen waters are sweetest so these cannot make use of that which belongs unto them when yet it is pind on their sleeves To whom I say as Esay did to Ahaz when he refused to aske a signe Is it not enough for you to grieve men Gods Prophets but you will grieve my God also What Are you too well offered Esay 7.13 and cannot see when you are well used nor discerne your friends from your foes Doe you thinke it is enough to nod your head as Asses doe at a promise beleeving it onely as a tale told but with-draw the affiance of your soules from it Is it enough for you to moane and complaine to desire and mourne Are these faith Is it better for you to shrugge in the cold weather and to wish a fire yet in the meane time to starve for lacke of that which is offered you To goe naked and let the garment lye by unoccupied Oh! checke your selves bitterly for this irregularity whatsoever the cause be whether unworthinesse or sloath or sullennesse it is not according to a promise that I am sure of Oh! get your soules out of this emptinesse into the life and marrow of a truth Learne the truth as it is in Jesus that you put him on being naked Not to marry the promise being faire for it is contrary to a promise But to beleeve and to cast your selves upon the Word to rid your selves of staggering accords most kindly with it So much for this Branch 2 Of Reproofe Ephes 3.16 Psal 78.19 Secondly this reproves all limiters and restrainers of promises for that is not according to a promise The truth in Jesus is the largenesse of it Its length depth breadth height all dimensions are in it Thus those Israelites straitned the holy One of Israel Can hee prepare a Table in the Wildernesse This is our cursed spirit when a promise seemes true in the generall yet in the particular not so as Martha confesses the power of Christ to bee able to doe all things Joh. 11.39 but when it came to the point of raising her brother then she said Lord hee hath been buried foure dayes he stinkes What a base carnall limitation of Almightinesse is this Limiters and restrainers of promises reproved See what a contrariety is in our hearts to a promise according to the extent of it As the Cable seemes to a Needles eye so doth all the points of an extended promise seeme to our hide-bound hearts Gods enlargements worke by contraries and make us the more straitned as in the point of the same or the kinds of promises and so the rest Now I thinke God hath heard my prayer but how long he will that I saith one know not it seems too much to presse hard upon him so long so often for so many favours True if he were a man Jer. 2.13 Esay 26.3 Heb 13.8 or a dry pit but hee is a God a fountaine of living waters Men will bee weary of doing good but it is Gods nature to doe it as the streames to flow Who thinkes it a wrong to a fountaine to draw from it daily Doth it not come alway more fresh and sweet It is the honour of a Prince to look at himselfe in giving not at others The ofter thou commest to a promise Sundry instances of it the welcomer It is according to the truth as it in Jesus Oh saith one I have trusted God for pardon but as for purging my corruptions of pride ease vanity the world or if so yet for purging or weakning this or that beloved lust 1 Kings 20.28 cannot beleeve it Why Is God the God of the valleyes onely not of the Hills also So saith another I can trust God for heaven but not for outward things for my selfe but not for my children while I live but not when I must dye loath I am to heare of that or for the present so farre as I finde my needs but what may hereafter betide mee in my name health state safety liberty God knowes Doth God know and dare not you beleeve Is this according to a promise and the extent thereof Truly Popery cares for no faith we have all a Pope in our belly that 's unbeleefe we go farre onward in Religion But we have hearts which shrinke in the wetting and hold not out in breath and pace with promises grudge and cannot beteame our selves the wealth and fulnesse of God lest we should be compleate in him and too wealthy by him Ionah grudged promises to others but we are envious to our owne soules I remember what once a devout â—otary prayed Lord saith he grant me my petition this once I come not often to trouble thee and on condition thou wilt grant me this I will never trouble thee more Oh base wretch Is thine eye evill because Gods is good Thirdly this reproves all such as stretch out promises beyond their Branch 3 bounds and set them on their owne Tentors till they rend them Enlargers of promises beyond their due bounds to be reproved They could beteame the temporall promises of God to themselves and the Church for deliverance and redemption from all enemies for peace protection and welfare were unlimited But those which touch their souls especially to kill their lusts they care not how narrow they frame them even as the bed and covering of which Esay speakes that is so narrow that it will not wry them warme They beleeve not promises as they are but fancy them They chuse rather that the bush would not burne at all then that it might not consume in burning where God straitens they enlarge Shalt thou teach Jesus how to frame his truths Surely this kind of receiving of truths is not according to Jesus and the honour of Jesus but according to Self and carnall selfe-love Thou maist as well take upon thee to alter the whole frame of Scripture as of promises for God hath bounded them and their land-marks cannot be removed Apply thy self unto them as they are for they will not accommodate themselves to thy humor thy seasons or contents Fourthly this is reproofe to all who beleeve not promises according Branch 4 to the intention of them Not to beleeve a promise according to the intention of it is sinfull They make them weaker and insufficienter then they are This doth intollerably trench upon the honour of Jesus this of all the rest is farre from embracing the truth as it is in Jesus What is it which Jesus hath not done or suffered to stablish and ground truthes And yet how basely doe we
handle him in this We look rather at our little sins in our beleeving then his great promises Oh saith one if my sinnes had not been so deep died so odious and long lien in I should hope well Rather thou shouldest say if mine heart were not so hardned that I am past all feeling and faith I should doe well If thy sinnes have not driven thee to be desperate in rebellion and contempt they are not surely too great for mercy to pardon Looke upon Manasse and Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 Though I were a persecutor a blasphemer and injurious Chron. 33.12 yet mercy and truth abounded in Christ Jesus He saith not sinne abounded beyond mercy Oh saith another But I have sinned since my first enlightning sin'd against the remedy adding drunkennesse to thirst What Dost thou so still and nourish a rotten peace and a secure heart still against the promise No but thou doubtest that thy abusing the meanes and hardning of heart will not be pardoned But know that the Lord Jesus his sufferings are of a deeper nature to merit then thy sinnes to destroy He was made all sinne 2 Cor. 5.21 satisfied for all sinne he was a nature of sinners not a sinfull person onely and therefore can pardon even them that murthered him and not in vain is that example set down in Acts 2.30 to prevent that feare They who come to Christ must come to him not as the greatest sinners onely but as to the greatest Saviour able perfectly to save all who come unto him The strongest eye must bee cast upon his strength Heb. 7.25 Esay 27.5 not upon thy deservings The mystery of mercy is to save to the uttermost that so the soul may break and God may be honoured to the uttermost Well but yet he pardons none save such as have faith and how shall I know that he will give it me I answer the promise that offers pardon workes faith to beleeve it and therefore it s said that it creates the fruit of the lips Esay 57.16 Matth. 11.29 which is peace it offers ease to him that is loaden if it offer the effect it must needs worke the cause But saith a poore soule this might be if mine affections would rise to it with some earnestnesse but I am dead and under infirmity Nay even then also can the Lord create this hand of faith in thee 2 Cor. 12.9 by the seed of the word how did Paul lie under sad buffetings yet this grace was sufficient for him In a word what ever the sense of thy weaknesse be yet its Gods strength which thou must take hold on to make peace and that comprehends thy weaknesse when thou canst not comprehend that strength So much for this Fifthly this reproves such as runne to promises without wisdome Branch 5 aptnesse Unapt appliers of promises or other parts of the word reproved and the particular necessities under which they live When they should runne to the promise for comfort they rather please themselves in running to the threats of the word for deeper humbling that pleases them better because they thinke it may better be felt but this course sutes not with the truth as it is in Jesus which requires that each malady apply it selfe to her proper remedy This causes the wound to rankle not to heale When men are called to doe some speciall service and duty they forsake that and rush themselves upon suffering promising to themselves that God will sustaine them and so provoke needlesse sorrow like Ionah to themselves and all by their rashnesse Others being called to suffer Jona 1.6 shunne that and promise to themselves strength in doing But this is to misapply promises for they alway attend upon commands and while we be in Gods way not our owne God payes no man wages for doing his own work Others promise themselves great blessings upon attempting difficult workes above their strength unto which they have no calling leaving their Ministery ere God knocke them off or thrusting themselves into trades in which they want skill leaving their owne and the like But the wiser way for them were to apply themselves unto promises which concerne those speciall callings conditions and waies unto which God calles them Branch 6 Sixtly and lastly those are here to be reproved who doe in any kinde goe to worke preposterously with the promises Preposterous appliers of promises reproved contrary to their nature and use or scope who separate them from their end which is to mortifie purifie and better the soule as well as to comfort and pacifie it Also all such as mistake discover darken stretch dis-joint the promises who take not such a due measure of the promises as they ought putting them on as they may best fit them and so never come to the kindly use and fruit thereof as the Lord offers them Of which I say no more this shall serve for this whole Use of reproofe Thirdly this point serves for Exhortation Exhortation to incite and draw all who Vse 3 would beleeve aright to beleeve according to the uttermost extent and purpose of a promise and not to defraud the soule of that due which the Lord allowes her This is the way to engage the soule in God to walke most comfortaly in the life and practice of faith God requires no small service and cost at his peoples hands which will hardly be except the soule be deep in Gods bookes and that cannot be till she come to beleeve promises according to their full extent To this end two things would be knowne First 2. Questions 1. How a promise beleeved what should the soule doe that she might beleeve a promise according to the reach of it Secondly how should she practise and set this grace on worke For the former of these three things would be done First 1. A promise must be sounded the soule must fathom and comprehend a promise truly Eph. 3.15.16 That you may comprehend with all Saints what is the length c. That which the woman John 4. tells our Saviour I may say of this The Well is deepe and there is nothing to draw with There is depth in a promise but few are men of understanding to fetch it out There may be enough in it for ought most men looke after their shallownesse discourages them from attempting it Vertue is gone out of the Lord Jesus into it both for life and godlinesse this and a better life in crosses and blessings for all turnes so that each idle cavill of a base heart ought not to elude it Hath God set it open for his whole Church to be filled with the fulnesse thereof and shall it not be sufficient for a poore members supply Accustome thy selfe to deal with a promise as the marriner doth with the sea whose depth he is ever and anon sounding lest his ship should runne a ground and be swallowed up Thy misunderstanding may eclipse the beauty of it
thy ignorance and blindenesse may frustrate thy benefit but still the promise shall stand neverthelesse full of water of life Enlarge thy cord and plummet that thy slight heart deprive thee not of both the view and of the use of it Secondly having found out the bottome and depth of a promise 2. Draw out of this welspring of salvation bestow paines and draw waters plentifully out of this well of salvation bestow good labour and travell In fetching up water out of deep wells you shall see how many hands at once are at worke at the wheel or pully to get up the bucket This is the worke of faith alway to be tugging at the well with cable and armes to get out this water of life Esay 12.8 Say thus here it is put Lord by thy selfe and to be had I will therefore by thy strength handle a promise according to the uttermost of that which is in it I will draw and that with joy for there it is and thus it is to be had It s sad working hereat with the most but it should be a merry work we should sing at it and deceive our toil by the sense of our necessities and the variety of those ordinances meditation prayer and the like must be our hands and unweariednesse must be our instrument Take wee heed lest through sloath and a base heart we content our selves with scrappes and puddle water who might fill our selves with good things and with rivers of water springing up in us to eternall life 3. Give not over the promise though long held off Thirdly give not over a promise although the error of this wicked world and Satan together with the Lords delayes should weary us especially under our afflictions If our Lord Jesus his discouragements could have killed the courage of that poore woman of Canaan she had never obtained a cure Oh! our Saviour did what hee could to try whether she would be beaten from the promise viz. That Jesus the sonne of David came to save both the bodies and soules of all truly distressed ones Jewes and Gentiles But she had so farre extended the promise Matth. 15. which Christ seemed to restraine onely to the Jewes calling the rest Dogges that it was strange shee was not out of conceit as one mistaken But as if she had been in his bosome so doth she hold fast the promise Though he say nothing yet hee will doe somewhat I will still keep my right he meanes not Israel according to the flesh but the promise and such an one am I. Shee knew promises looked not at the worthinesse of man but at the mercy and faithfulnesse of God Surely I shall bee answered by and by for I have the scope and end of the promise on my side Faith had taken full measure of the promise by her owne want and therefore our Saviour sends her away with the admiration at her faith Oh! let us thus duly apply our soules to the seale of the promise and it shall leave behinde it the stamp of all that vertue and fulnesse which God hath put into it A base heart not concurring with God in this largenesse of his promises is as hard wax put under a faire seale Simile which takes no impression at all from it though clapt on never so hard But as the softned wax taketh all the counterfeit of the seale and expresseth them to the uttermost Even so an heart rightly prepared receives the print of the seale letter for letter face for face yea grace for grace Faith is both hand and hammer to drive the naile of the promise Eccles 12. given by one Pastor the Lord Jesus up to the head This for the former question Now I come to the latter Quest 2. How shall we practise this duty how this duty may be practised And for answer to that this I say Wee must know that the life of faith in all beleevers rests upon such promises as concerne their condition be it what it will be knowing that there are speciall ones given us by God as Peter speakes Chap. 1. and verse 3. of his second Epistle for our supply in all needs The soule then doth not foolishly misapply these but gathers them up stores them like a wise Steward both old and new that she may bring them forth in due season as a man would every morning put on the apparell of that day for his use and comfort And this is her putting on the Lord Jesus Rom. 13. ult who first hath taken measure of her needs and then offers himselfe in his promises and ordinances Word Sacrament Prayer and fasting and the like to fit her as her cloathes doe her body Some of these I have already toucht in one of the Uses before Ans diversly upon the Doctrine of Naamans obedience A few more I will adde now not pressing the use of them but barely presenting them to your view Sometime thy base heart feeles old guilt and accusation of conscience to returne after mercy tasted and hope of victory enjoyed But why is this Surely that hereby the work of Selfe-deniall might be perfected in thee 1. In the return of guilt strength of sin custome presence of it and sinne might be knowne to be out of measure sinfull that it might bee more abhorred and stronger faith in pardon and purging thereof improved Clasp upon the Word for it I am he who will heale all thy rebellions for my name sake both new and old It is according to a promise that the Lord should leave none of thy corruptions unsubdued Who is a God like unto our God who forgiveth iniquity transgression and sin Mica ult marke how many words he useth to include all sin whatsoever both of nature and course yea sinnes after the light of the Gospel embraced And I create the fruit of the lippes peace and I will heale him I have seene his rebellions and smote him hid me and was angry and he went on in the frowardnesse of his owne heart Esay 57. But I will heale him and restore comfort unto him Againe perhaps thy soule meets with some eclipse of Gods presence and forsakes me so that I live in darknesse and walke up and downe with a dead heart without feeling Well 2. In the deadnesse hardnesse of heart if it be by reason of some apparant sinne against conscience returne with a broken heart by a promise to God Jer. 3.1 A man having divorced an Adultresse will not returne to her But if thou wilt returne to me I will not reject thee Returne O yee backsliding people and I will have mercy upon you and heale all your iniquities But if the Lord bee departed otherwise know it is not to forsake forever For a moment I was angry Esay 54. But with everlasting compassion I will embrace thee And in the Psalme 55. The Lord will not leave his people for ever Sometime the soule is afraid she
the next verse The cure then of Naaman is that which in these latter words is to be considered and first of the holy Ghost his expression 1. The expression His flesh came againe as the flesh of a little childe for of this I will say somewhat ere I come to the main point Many words had been used to expresse Naaman his obedience how punctuall it was and now as many are used to expresse the cure how entire and perfect it was as if God would not come short of him but be as punctuall in full curing of him as hee had been in close obeying God Who doubts of the perfect cure of such a Leper as was made of a scurvie loathsome nasty skin like the skin of a little childe that is as whole as he was borne So that it notes a perfect restitution of Naaman to his former integrity of soundnesse Gods remedies are perfect ones But mens are lame and crazie Mens remedies are alway lame ones if they heale one way they hurt another We use to say of Physicall courses purgings bleedings as they helpe in point of present cure and remove present death and danger so yet they leave a touch upon the body afterward and leave either some other aile behinde or else take away strength abate the spirits or other like and all to shew us that mans medicines are like himselfe and that is crazie doubtfull and dangerous so that not long after the same or worse maladies and diseases follow but to bee sure death Hence arose that proverbe Many Remedies are worse then the diseases themselves And all commodities in this life carry inconveniencies after them Perhaps they are one way beneficiall and two wayes prejudiciall But Gods cures are like himselfe perfect intire and absolute No more leprosie is heard of to grow upon Naamans skin after God had done with him he came no more into the hands of other Physitians through relapse into the old distemper Eccles 7.14 No man can finde out any thing after God But hee can finde out sundry failings after men when they have done their best I will not insist upon it onely it may briefly teach us these two Items First to turne our doting eyes from the perfection of any creature here by reason of those crackes and flawes which are in the best of them We must turn our doting eye from the perfection of the creature What petty Deities and Idols are Physitians esteemed among carnall people for their skill in curing diseases especially if their gift be any more then ordinary Say it be but in any one kinde or disease as a Consumption Feaver Dropsie or the like especially if when others have given over the cure as desperate they take it in hand and effect it What money what honour is thought enough to requite a man Nay as Patients teach them so how doe Physitians learne to dote upon themselves And how will they boast themselves like petty Kings of their supposed skill Oh! if this medicine saith one wil not heale him nothing in the world will doe him good And another I healed him saith he when no other could turne his hand to it And I will pawne all I have upon my skill that I heale him Could God himselfe speake any more Let me not bee thought to speake disdainfully against the persons of any learned or religious Physitians much lesse their profession both which I honour and am bound to doe while I live for the good received from them through Providence And I know many there are in this kinde eminently religious and well deserving But onely by so just occasion one Item I would give to Physitians Physitians must know themselves only instruments of Providence for such as God will heal and another to Patients To the former this That as they are conversant most what about searching out naturall causes symptomes and cures of diseases So no profession is more subject to Atheisme and prophanenesse then such except the Lord subdue and captivate their spirits and skill under his Providence making them servants to attend it for the good of such as to whom God hath appointed life by meanes and no otherwise For why Who knowes not but many recover of diseases in the judgement of Physitians incurable And how many there are in whom nothing save safety appears who yet in the midst of the Physitians security dye instantly All to shew that the passages of life and death are not in mans hand but in the Lords who oft-times delights to blind-fold the wise and prudent in their own sense and to doe good by those who are of meaner parts Not but that the parts of learned Physitians are to bee esteemed who cannot be too well parted since they deale in so pretious a subject as the life of the most excellent creature man but that with parts they joyne a God adore him and set him up in their souls as supreame and chiefe treading themselves under feet in point of that Royall prerogative of saving life Alas how doth the Lord humble our confidence daily when hee crosseth our conjectures and betrayes our folly both in our hopes of recovery when there is none and in our despaires when there is no cause What mortall man whose breath is in his nostrils would not here submit and lay downe his weapons at the feet of the Lord of life and death confessing himselfe a foole and that both in his owne case and others the Lord may and doth often conceale from him the reall cause and truth of Diseases 2 Kings 4.27 The holy Prophet Elisha led by a Divine and miraculous Spirit humbly professed it to Gehazi in the womans case who came for her dead childe The Lord saith hee hath hidden it from me And shall not we say so who are poore silly ones to him even as a base ignorant empiricke is to us and much more So for people how insolent are they in this kinde People very fond in magnifying the outward cause and neglecting God Robbing God of his honour and setting up base man in his throne Oh saith one such a Physitian let me have or let such a sickeman have and upon my life he will heale him Let the upper milstone runne upon the nether and I warrant your corne betweene will be grown What Is there no more in it then so Is there no God Oh cry you mercy saith one I forgot that now I speake as a man Nay rather like an Atheist and so let a Physitian whom they like visit them his comming is to them as good a medicine as the physicke he brings If Physitians would abhorre and tremble at such Patients and Patients such Physitians mules scratching each others itch they would learne more humility and divinity Honour the Physitian and spare not so thou give him no more then is due to an instrument Let him and thou sanctifie both physicke and receits by prayer and faith and behold it as
beleeving ones and seale the soule of such a one through the faith of the word to a true ingrafting into Christ Affectation to allegorize the Scriptures a dangerous course and the new Birth Constantine the great and good Emperour being a leper and told that nothing else could heale him save bathing of his body in the bloud of infants ript out of their mothers wombe abhorred the speech of it as counting the remedy worse then the disease That which hee did mercifully in forbearing doe thou religiously in embracing The bloud and water flowing out of the pierced sides of the Lord Jesus and washing thy soul by faith sacramentally is only able to heal thy leprosie to make so perfect a cure as shall never need to be repeated Naaman and thou need nevere be washed the second time if once throughly cured and in truth it was this bloud which made Naamans cure so perfect Apply thy soule to it therefore to make a perfect cure in it better then all thine owne patcht and halfe cures Looke not at the outward water alone looke at the power and vertue of him whose bloud onely can heale both the water from her cursed barrennesse to make it fruitfull and seasonable seed of life and thy soule by water from guilt power and eternall curse due unto it Christ in the water is the power of it one droppe of his sides issuing out water and bloud is the efficacy of the Sacraments Mix all with faith to cleanse thy soul to purge thy leprosie it s shed to thine hand and powred out by himselfe most willingly for thee If thou refuse it thou art guilty of shedding it but not by beleeving and applying it Numb 19.4 No legall cleansings of the leper by Aaron can equall it he sprinkled the bloud and ashes of a Cow Christ sprinkles with his owne he often Christ once for ever he imperfectly so that the leprosie might returne Christ fully never to returne Hâ—â— 8.15 If then the bloud of an heifer could purge by ceremony a polluted body how much more shall this bloud of the eternall Covenant cleanse thy conscience from dead workes to serve the living God But beware thou do not goe and wash in Jorden with lesser faith then Naaman did doe as much for thy soule as he for his body else thou separatest the things which God hath united and destroyest the power of the Sacrament and the purpose of God for thy regeneration yea the very creature of water shall rise up in judgement against thee in the day of judgement for that it closed with Christ inseparably in his Ordinance but thou most prophanely didst warpe from him by thy unbeleefe So much also for this third Branch and for the second Doctrine and so for this Lecture Let us pray c. THE ONE AND TWENTIETH Lecture continued upon the 14. VERSE VERSE XIV Then Naaman went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Ioraen and behold his flesh came againe as the flesh of a little child and hee was cleane Then he returned and stood before the man of God c. The second head The cure of Naaman WEE noted Brethren two lesser Observations in the end of the last Lecture out of this last part of the verse viz. The successe of Naamans obedience Now leaving them and the expression of the cure wee come to the cure it selfe And saith the Text he was cleane No intermission of time passed between his washing and cleansing both went inseparably together The â—â—ine poinâ— flowing hence which we have reserved to this Exercise is That Gâ—ds promises are alway as good in the performing as in the making if not better for so falles it out with Naaman here The Prophet promised him cure of his Leprosie by washing himselfe And lo now he is as good as his word he washes and is cleane in body This is as much as was promised But moreover as appeares by the sequell he proves a cleane soule also and this was an over-plus to the promise It is a light thing for the Lord to heale his body except hee heale himselfe And in this respect I may well say as I said before That Gods cures are perfect indeed all perfect gifts are from above and all that are from thence are perfect to purpose Ere I come to handle the point this I would premise Brethren how fitly this point followes the other to make the heart and life of a poore beleever comfortable The former point told us that promises must bee interpreted aright and not mistaken not restrained but beleeved according to the utmost extent of the promiser But then comes in a doubt Though I enlarge them in their full reach yet God may restraine them to the shortest size True if thou stretch them upon thy carnall tentors But take them according to the word as indeed thou shalt not need to make them better then God hath made them and then this point will tell thee to thy comfort that God will performe whatsoever hath gone out of his mouth to the uttermost nay perhaps cast in such an over-plus as was neither promised nor looked for The Text is president enough for it if there were no more So that even in the entry upon the point we may set a starre in the margent and for our better encouragement both to beleeve and in beleeving to waite patiently may say these two points carry very sweet newes from heaven to a poore empty and hungry soule both that he will have it beleeve to the uttermost and when she hath so done God hath in store for her as much performance yea and much more then shee hath faith But let us come to the point The order I will observe in the point shall be this First I will prove it by Scripture Secondly by reason Thirdly I will cleare a maine doubt about the Doctrine And so lastly come to the Uses and first of the first Concerning which this I may say That the whole Booke of God Doctrine Gods performances alway as good if not better then his promises is nothing else but a very Theatre and open Stage wherein the Lord acts his part of performing of promises And not so alone But so curious the Spirit of enditing the word is in every Chapter and Verse lest the reader should spy any flaw or crack in the performance of promises that it steppes out of his tracke oft-times to reconcile and equall each performance to her owne promise And this both in the maine promise of Christs exhibition and in all secondary promises whether generall and concerning the soule of the whole Church and each member of that body or personall and temporary promises concerning this and that person And the greater distance there seemed betweene making and keeping of promises the more curious regard hath the Holy Ghost to expresse Gods keeping touch when his time was come For example Proofes and Instances God had promised to Abraham that
to be more usefull for the present and therefore chuses a performance in his owne kinde which shall bee an hundred fold more gaine to the soule then the other 2 Cor. 12.3 4. Paul being sorely buffeted not for sinne but to prevent it prayes instantly to God to remove it The Lord seeing that performance not to be proper for the end of his buffeting continues it yet hee breakes not promise for he ministers grace sufficient to uphold him under it Verse 9. By this meanes he attaines his end to humble Paul and moreover teaches him to desire to live under desertion and infirmity sometimes that so he might get that experience of Gods strange upholding of him in the want of feeling which before hee had found under feeling By this meane though irksome to the flesh to want the use of graces and gifts the Lord traines him to a sober use of his revelations and to renounce himselfe so farre under buffetings as to chuse rather to bee as the Lord would have him then as himselfe chose to be The use of this qualification is this The use of this limitation Both to coole our spirit of selfe-love which is ready to appoint God his way of performance as also to teach us wisedome to apply our selves to the best good of a performance rather then to the performance it selfe Gods people looke more at the good of a performance then the bâ—re performance of a promise to ascribe this honour to God that he better knows how to make good a promise to us then wee can chuse And therefore not by and by to cry out against God for not performing it because our turnes are not served But rather by our defeat to search into the cause and to see whether God and we looke the same way or no If we doe not we may bee long enough ere we be satisfied or honour God in his faithfulnesse If we will tie God to performe one promise and the Lord meanes to performe another we shall be farre to seeke Say we therefore thus Lord teach me to looke out what the promise is which thou aimest to make good Faithfull I am resolved thou art but that stands not in serving my turne but in serving thy selfe upon me Since thou doest all things well I doe but wait to see thy way for it is best and shall curb my spirit and give me best content because it tends to make mee more experienced more humble and at last thankfull to thee for that good which thy selfe meantst me which is infinitely better then that which I fancied So much for the first Limitation the second In generall promises to the Church the time of performance must be left to God and why The second limitation may be this In promises concerning the welfare of the Church in generall except the Lord tye himselfe punctually to a time of redresse or deliverance we must conceive of Gods performances indefinitely without prefixing a time or period of our own For in such it is enough for the quitting of Gods faithfulnesse that he performes really although he leave the time when to his owne wisedome We look that Gods love in hearing us for such performances should trench upon his wise providence but that ought not to be In such cases it behoves us to distinguish upon promises In such as touch the soule and life of a beleever usually except some speciall thing hinder the soules beleeving and the promises performance goe together as for the strength against a lust for quickning up of any grace or gift for sanctifying of any ordinance But not so in the publicke promises The reason is because the Lord may have a predominant way of his owne to barre present performance He doth neglect the speciall good of them who pray for a more universall good of his owne either because the sinnes of his enemies by whom hee uses to scourge his Church See Gen. 15.16 are not come to the highest pitch and so it will not bee most for his glory to punish or suppresse them yet or because the provocations of his Church and the sins thereof are not yet purged throughly nor brought to the lowest point These respects may hinder speciall reliefe of some present miseries restraints and persecutions of his people There is wee say in the motion of every planet a straight motion comming from the Planet herself and a backward motion of the first mover So is it here the motion of a promise is retrograded and retarded by the wisedome of the first mover The grand promise of the Lord Jesus his incarnation was indefinite and in the bosome of God when to fulfill it one thousand two or three thousand might have brought it forth as well as foure yet providence reserved it to the end of the fourth thousand Gal. 4.4 And when that fulnesse was come nothing could stop the fulfilling of that which yet before that time no prayers no expectation of the Church could hasten Then and not till then Instances of the point he that would come came and tarried not So also wee that live in this age conceive our selves to be pitcht under the fourth viall under which wee are warranted to wait for the revealing of Gods wrath and the ruine of the Beast But for us hereupon to limit God to owne time and period seaven or ten or fifteene yeares whatsoever we may suppose by probabilities and to determine God to our own season is most bold and presumptuous For God hath as well a way of his revenge and scourging of particular Churches for their infidelity and unfruitfulnesse as he hath of fulfilling his maine promise Sure we are his Word will prove true within the Terme of this Viall But to bound the space and duration of it we may not That the Jew shall be called and the Gospel generally preached ere the end come and that the Lord Jesus shall even in this world expresse himselfe to be the Lord and King of his Church and set up his Throne visibly upon their reall ruines who not waning braines can or dare deny it And yet who if he have braines dare punctually determine it within so or so many yeares The use of this qualification is most pretious and weighty viz. The use of this second limit Wee must not taxe Gods administrations That in our prayers and services of the time be they ordinary or extraordinary wee lash not out through our ungrounded zeale and passions to presse the Lord to our time in redressing the miseries of his Church in punishing his enemies reforming abuses or restoring comforts to her mourners Slacken no whit of thy zeale but let it still be carried within bounds and goe eaven pace with Gods time and be limited by that condition And moreover let it curb our querulous and discontented spirits which being full of griefe for the upbraiding and insulting Peninna's 1 Sam. 1. over the perplexed Hanna's and
as you know And so I say to us Levit. 26.21 If wee walke contrary toward the Lord hee will walke contrary to us trust to it And that not onely in case of foule revolts if wee should play the Adulterers Oppressors Blasphemers c. Such sinnes wee dare not meddle with haply for the lowd cry and inward wasting of conscience Heb. 10.37 But yet perhaps we dare withdraw our selves from God by unbeliefe fall out of love with his promises wee dare forgoe our joy and delight which we have had in his presence Jer. 2.13 and runne to pits which will hold no water as if the fountaine were unpleasant Wee dare suffer that pretious seed of Life to dye if it may dye in us and walke deadly coldly basely in our course We dare allay and forsake our first love to God and zeale to his truth wee dare run to the course of this declining formall saplesse and powerlesse world and shake off all spirituall closenesse and communion with God and yet wee thinke to doe well But know it this is the great quarrell of all Levit. 26.25 I meane the quarrell of Gods covenant God will avenge it sadly his soule shall have no pleasure in such Lay it to your hearts brethren and know the performance of promises is the immediate way whereby the Spirit of Grace conveyes the presence of God to his servants Wee have no voice to heare nor sights to see save the voyce and light of the promises If we can cleave to them we hold the Lord and hee is present in our soules as he was to Paul in that sad darknesse Acts 27.23 But if wee shake off the life of faith where is our title to the performing of promises or where is our right to the presence of God I remember what the Lord tells those Israelites in the Wildernesse I will send my Angell before you Exod. 23.20 and he shall carry you forth in your journey But take heed you grieve him not for he will not spare you but withdraw his presence from you So say I We would claime Gods presence and God must bee our God and performe all promises as fast as we gape after them But in the meane season we leave the condition at large Some of us have formerly been zealous yea suffered for God and lost our credit our goods our liberties for him Here was life and power but now wee hold but a carkasse of the old temper a meere name that we live wee are growne Polititians civilians close professors wise in our way rest in the fagge end of formality and common worship And what thinke we May we be as bold upon performance of promises as formerly May we chalenge the presence of God in his Word as formerly No no others of us dare be forward with God as Iona was nourish our spirits in anger Jona 1. 4. let the Sunne goe downe upon it rage and raile like mad men in our moods And if we be told of it wee will defend it we will be so for we say our wrong was reall and flesh and bloud cannot beare it What Will you flye from God and looke that hee should follow you up and downe Judg. 19.3 as the foolish Levite did his whorish Concubine Others of us dare abuse the Sabbath or else have no delight in it speaking our owne words Others cannot be rated off from the creature but run after our profits wills vanities pleasures fashions and cocker our children therein without checke Others will take the uttermost of our liberties and goe upon the brinke Others regard not our families set not up the worship of God there or pray for fashion Others are growne just to the frame of the times and give God so much and no more then the common sort doe and yet passe well And so I might be endlesse But know it Brethren Gods promises are like himselfe and are faithfully performed on his part howbeit if this be our frame we shall finde a change and hee will take in his Sun-shine we shall not finde his presence as in former times to us Job 6. and throughout Did the Lord withdraw himselfe from holy Iob while he walked in uprightnesse and eclipse his presence and promises from him write bitter things against him compasse him about with terrors hide his face and all justly even to humble him more deeply and prevent that which else prosperity might have bred in him Wonder not then brethren if the Lord withdraw himselfe from us and turne away his performing of promises into breach of covenant when hee meets with such scurfe as this in our hearts and lives And let the use of the point in Gods name be this which I pray us all to oberve that henceforth we cease to wonder if wee finde the Lord otherwise towards us then formerly so long as the quarrell of his Covenant depends I grant that there were never any dayes such as ours in point of complaint of Gods absence darknesse and not performing of promises But withall consider when were there such wofull dayes of Revolts Apostasies from God and the power of his truth as now Each face is pale and each hand is upon the pained side But it is rather because men may not have their will of God and keep him close in performance of promises when yet their lives swarme with all abominations Should I not be avenged of such time-servers and hypocrites as these saith the Lord in the Prophet doe you wonder if hee have hidden himselfe Esay 1. and doth count you as you are refusing to performe promises No no wonder not wonder rather if he should looke not for it till you repent If he darken himselfe in the chiefe promise of pardon of peace and comfort in conscience or in point of his Spirit of presence and the graces of it as humblenesse and patience love and mercy if he shorten you in the beauty of your conversation that your lives are not so sweet Spirituall penalties attend spirituall sins your light not so cleare as in time past if hee absent himselfe from you in his Ordinances restraining the influence of them suffering them to be dark and fruitlesse if he leave you in your companies to bee unprofitable in your liberties to bee carnall in your solitarinesse to be dead hearted if he harden your hearts and cause you to erre from his waies so that all your praiers fastings sacraments covenants should come forth at your nostrils as irkesome as those Quales did I say wonder not it s but righteous Make this use of it Vse Breakers of covenant with God shall finde God breake with them to abhorre boldnesse with God in challenging promises to be performed when you breake the condition Rather enter into your soules and search out the cause of the Lords absence saying it was not wont to be thus that thou shouldest breake promise thus Lord and leave me
and looke not that they should drop into thy bosome or be let downe in an engin all on the suddaine upon thee thou knowest not how quicken up thy faith daily else performances will prove but dead ware and according to thine unbeleefe 3. Murmuring so shall it be unto thee Thirdly murmure not when promises answer not thine expectation If crossed in our marriages in our children in the successe of our labours if debts pursue us if crosses follow us if wee be not presently answered in our fasting and prayers but still our hearts be obstinate and hardned then we fall to mutter against God as if he were unfaithfull but never enter into our selves to see how we warpe from the promise and go to worke with our owne tooles Ex. 14.2 4. Some grosse sin Fourthly lay no stumbling blocke of our owne iniquity in our owne way to stop the performing of promises Every loose common and hollow professor let him decline never so much from God in his course yet will boast as much of promises as others and will not be beaten off Judg. 19.20.21 ca. As those Israelites in fighting with the Benjamites would needs goe forward in the revenge of their sinne and lookt that God should assist them but never saw the sinne which still lay underneath their Idolls I mean which cost them the losse of forty thousand souldiers ere they got the victory Men think if they should be stript of Gods promises they were forlorne folk but in the mean time they walke not close with God keep not touch with him in their covenants dare play most unfaithfull parts with men in their practice and thus runne into arrearedges never dreaming that thereby they forfeit their right to performances but hold up their heads with boldnesse and think that as good bloud runnes still in their veines as in the best beleevers 5. Limiting of God Fifthly limit not God in his performances we care not how little we have for our money so we may have our humor pleased in some carnall content we can forgoe spirituall so we may have our turn served in some one promise we have enough and can give God over for a good while after and think much to hold on with Gods bounty because our strait hearts are pincht with the exercise of faith and therefore its just with God to punish our basenesse and unbeteaming spirits 6. Error of the wicked Sixtly beware of the error of the wicked who goe to worke by sense and esteeme Gods performances according to the outward meanes and possibilities which they have to compasse their ends God is but a formall notion upon point with them If thou looke upon the world thou losest the sight of God and wilt turne Atheist Seventhly beware of oversight and inobservance of promises God performes daily and hourely one or other to thee or thine to body or soule in blessings or in corrections yea more then hee is bound to But thou gapest after some greater or some other things 7. Unobservance so overseest and passest by such as are before thee and thereby stoppest the course of thanks and of blessings because thou seest not how many waies Gods performances lye Be quicke fighted in observing mercies and say with the Church Lam. 3.23 The compassions of the Lord are renued every morning great is thy faithfulnesse An observing heart encourages the Lord to performe more and he cannot abide an heart that pockets all and puts them into a bottomlesse purse Hag. 1.8 8. Curiosity and censure with others Eightly shunne curiosity and propensenesse to challenge the Lord when his publicke government and administrations please us not To these many moe might be added as sloth and ease worldlinesse formality in worship little meditation and such like They procure a dead life a barren heart an uncomfortable course Remember it must be an heart qualified for the nonce which must walke with God in his promises and performances It must be a cleare humble watchfull innocent and selfe-denying spirit not tainted with il custome and such shall have no cause to complaine of God nor be sent empty away So much for this Use Eightly this point is Exhortation to all beleevers and that in sundry particulars Vse 8 First that they revive in themselves the former Doctrine that is Exhortation that they take measure of Gods promises to the full that since God is so faithfull Branch 1 a performer of them all they may understand their owne liberty To take measure of promises and improve it Lose no performance for lacke of a promise God can enlarge Christ to every dimension of fulnesse height and depth So doe thou Those John 6.27 could beteame to follow Christ for loaves but they saw no further Say we thus Lord if thou heare me in this prayer thou shalt heare of me often I will ply thee with importunity for there is no measure no end nor bottome of thy goodnesse I will come to morrow next day continually For thou art yesterday to day and for ever the same Tell thy soule Heb. 13.8 heaven were not heaven if thou couldst reach all in it yet doe thine endeavour and pray with Paul Eph. 3.16 that thou maist see more in Christ then thou canst aske or thinke Mat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in the Lords Prayer thou art bidden to aske bread enough for the day and that which exceeds for so the word signifies As much more Lord as thy bounty can afford Oh brethren who would not know this Charter and Lease except he cared not whether God performed or no Lord I beleeve in that promise which reaches to all my life to my corruptions temptations straits feares to this and to a better life Secondly having so done learn to lot upon him for each performance Lot upon God for performance Ezra 8.21 especially when it goes hard Branch 2 with thee otherwise except God should sticke to thee Thus Ezra having obtained leave of the King for his journey and being now at a pinch for a sufficient convoy in so perillous a journey concluded he would not goe to the King for it lest he should upbraid him but he would goe to the promise for it by fasting and prayer and having so done was well appaid in himselfe lotting upon God that in such an extremity he would not faile him So do thou Thirdly to this end strengthen thy self by the plentifull experience of performances Branch 3 in time past get a calender of performances Strengthen thy self by thy experience at such a time I was heard for my wife for my childe answered in point of marriage estate gifts credit such a strong corruption was subdued such a grace enlarged so that I see it were not in vaine to waite upon thy promises if I had faith sufficient to equall and concurre with them Let me forget none of thy faithfulnesse in my receivings of the Sacraments
or the like comes from the not suffering the word to enter but holding it out at staves end Now then must not the word of promise beleeved become as contrary to her Why did Micaiah so scare Ahab Because he never spake well to him So why doth the grace of faith so scatter these distempers Because she speakes all against them overthrowes and resists them Contraries have mutually the same respect in their consequencies The distemper of an unbeleeving spirit alway beares downe the word till the word as the stronger man armed with the power of Christ doe foile her and strip her of all The weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall able to cast downe strong holds of corruption Sinnes weapons are carnall Gods are spirituall Therefore there is no proportion in the contrariety God will divide the spoyles that is cease the distempers The reason appeares from that speech of Jonah Ionah 2.8 They that embrace lying vanities forsake their owne mercy But I will looke toward thy holy Temple and promise and thereby abandon them Each destroy the other Reas 5 Fifthly the promise drownes all former distempers because it performes that really which selfe and corruption beare the soule falsly and erroneously in hand withall These afford the soule a rotten peace a deceitfull content vanishing and ending in sorrow See Esay 50.11 But the word doth it really and surely no more to be infringed No more hungring or thirsting if once satisfied with this bread and water of life The text imports it Naamans servants here tell Naaman That which all thine owne discontents and humours could never minister unto thee that the obeying of the message will really afford thee See Act. 13.38 That from which you could not be justified from by the law of Moses by this Man every beleever is justified All at once set free from outward enemies and inward distempers Reas 6 Sixthly the experience of the Saints proves this who till they have cast anchor upon the word and settled upon this center could never find rest in all the circumference as I may call it of your owne best selfe your goodnesse affections gifts or duties Bellarmine himselfe confessing that in respect of the uncertainty of our good workes or else the perill of vaine-glory issuing from thence it is most safe for us to rely upon the sole and meere mercy of God the bare word of truth and promise How much more then shall Gods people say If it had not beene for thy word I had perished in my affliction This is to a poore soule as the chaire of Saint Peter is to a deluded votary the determining voyce All eternall immutable things comprehend and devoure the fading and changeable but cannot be comprehended by them nor resisted by their opposition Lastly the maine and chiefe reason of all is because the word Reas 7 and promise of God is not the bare letter of words or syllables Many branches but furnish'd with all the power and authority of God so that who so clings and cleaves to it is out of his owne keepe and under the Lords There is as our Saviour speakes spirit and life 105. in all which he speakes This may appeare to us in these foure specials First in the wisdome thereof This way of God crosseth all Branch 1 other wayes and hedges the soule out from all sound comfort by them only fastning it upon this 1 Cor. 1. As Paul cals the Gospel in this respect the wisdome of God casting downe all those devices of mans wit wil works or wayes by which flesh would set up a peace and ease of all distempers to her selfe There is no doubt but the errantest hypocrite living would gladly if he could by his smoothing with his owne false heart come to a kind of setling that he might no more be troubled But it is as the sowing of a new peece to an old garment and the rent becomes the worse Even as a short narrow Map of a Shire makes every petty cottingers lands to vanish and causes him to account himselfe a starke begger lord of a Mole-hill not worth the owning So doth this way of God force him who thought himselfe no meane man in his Religion and hopes to seeme a starke foole in his owne eyes For why hath the Lord revealed the way to life by the reall death and resurrection of his onely Sonne glory being made shame and holinesse sinne and eternity death to satisfie justice and shall I play the Mountebank and thinke to satisfie by mine owne trickes and devices Oh foole oh beast Secondly in the righteousnesse of God As the Sunne is able Branch 2 by his heat to licke up all the dew of the earth and scatter all the mists of the aire and the Sea is able to swallow up and devoure whatsoever is cast into it never to appeare more Even so the merit of Righteousnesse and Sanctification by our Lord Jesus compared oft to both these in Scripture is able to licke up and dispell all the most desperate feares doubts and distempers of the soule So Paul speakes Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnes Rom. 3.25 What righteousnesse Surely the equalnesse of pardoning them who are of the faith of Jesus because he hath received a full ransome else saith he if he should not justifie such an one he should not be just So full a content hath Christ given his Father for sinne that if the Father should not acknowledge it sufficient he should doe Christ wrong and if he should not impute it to a poore soule that beleeves he should doe the poore soule wrong nay having freely yeelded his Sonne and received the price for that very end he should doe himselfe infinite wrong by unfaithfulnesse But there is no such feare The Judge of the world will not do unrighteously he will not condemne the righteous and the unbeleever alike For he hath accepted his Sons death as a ful discharge If we should receive a summe of money for the use of an Orphan and when the Orphan comes of age should detain it should he be righteous Mercy then is of free gift and faith is a free gift But justification of a poore soule for Christs merit is an act of righteousnesse So 2 Cor. 5.20.21 Be reconciled to God Why Because he hath made him sinne who knew none that we might be Gods righteousnesse Branch 3 Thirdly all other properties of the promiser are included in the promise as the truth faithfulnesse mercy love greater then that of the creation and all the rest scattered in the booke of God his eternity and unchangeablenesse and the like are all in the Word See 1 Tim. 1.15 Psal 25.10 1 Pet. 1.25 with sundry others So that the soules doubts and distempers may easily be cast upon such promises for so the Apostle cals them 1 Cor. 7.1 as are built upon such foundations Branch 4 Fourâ—hly
God hath strength in his hand to doe this whatsoever Satan hell law or wrath should say to the contrary I say he hath enough to warrant that he hath done against all opposers See Esay 27.4 5. Anger is not in me why Lay hold upon my strength and make peace The satisfaction of Christ is the strength of mercy as truly as the law is the strength of sinne The arme of mercy is so strong through this that the strong arme of justice cannot pull it away from forgiving a poore sinner but mercy will still be above and will not be beaten downe but prevaile against justice yea triumph against judgement By this strength then which overcomes justice shall not the distempers of the soule much more be vanquished and overcome Branch 5 Lastly the intent and purpose of God is by his promise to doe this favour for the soule even to put it out of all doubt and question and to breed assurance in it Heb. 6. That by two things the word and oath of God wherein it was impossible for God to lie we might have full assurance and so twice more in that Epistle he speakes The meaning whereof is As surely as I from all eternity did intend it in the foundation of mine election that is my Sonne as verily as I accepted it at his hands when he offered it up by his eternall spirit as verily as I offer it to my Church under the word of truth which cannot lie and have pawned my Ministers credit upon it that except I speake truely they are errant dissemblers as verily as now my deare Sonne at my right hand in glory pleads for poore soules that they may partake it so truly and really without hooke or crooke doe I intend to shew them mercy Why should not every one then that needs it fasten upon it and drowne all his distempers in it decide all doubts and rest well satisfied Conclusion of reasons To these I might adde many mo As that the promise beleeved gives the soule a full requitall for all which shee forgoes As Peter said We have forsaken all and followed thee Lord what shall we have Our Saviour answers him An hundred fold here and after eternall life So perhaps thou hast forsaken thy old crasie props for Gods word what shalt thou have Even perfect peace that which they could never have bred thee Againe I might say That faith enlarges the hidebound and shrunk heart and makes it concurre with the Lord and equall his bowels I meane to be enlarged in her bowels toward him againe whereas before it was not so but she limited the holy one of Israel and restrained his compassions Besides this word of the promise sets up a light in the heart above all that light which was there before We know when it is dark we are glad of a candle But when the Sunne shines bright a candle is a poore needlesse thing and is drowned by a superiour light So here a blind dark deluded heart is glad of any dimme candle of its owne to make it thinke it sees but when the word comes that dimme light vanishes These and many more I might adde but these are sufficient I hasten to the question and objection and the answers of them Here then first it may be asked The Answer to a Question But may a poore soule truly loaden with her owne sinne and under a condition of a promise be subject to so many distempers I answer yea surely as in the wombe the woman that is conceived with child yet ere the fruit be perfected feeles abundance of inward griefes and pains strugglings and wrestlings ere the fruit be come to the full ripenesse But when it is once come to that the former distempers cease Even so is it here Till faith have formed the soule to a true quietnesse and setling there cannot chuse but be many feares and turne-againes although the seed be cast into the wombe really But what are these I answer In three kinds Such as these I may referre them to these three heads for order sake First erroneous conceits on the right hand proceeding from selfe-love flattering it selfe by her hopes her morall qualities her negative abstinences opinion of her religious duties her affections complaints her liking of goodnesse flashes of joy and the like Oh! how can she chuse but doe well how can she be out of the way Then must thousands perish if she be wrong She is not so sinfull that she should put Gods mercy too farre to straine it selfe Ah poore wretch thinkest thou to fare well by making God lesse work or by making thy selfe to need him above all sinners The Word goes not by thy small sinne but by the graciousnesse of the promiser So also of this sort are all mixtures of selfe and soderings against the Word hoping that such a degree of desire or sorrow or selfe-deniall will serve although it have no roote in the Word nor continue Seeking God so farre as will hold with such a lust liberty or evill custome To sticke to our old condition though we find it crasie by the Word and to be unwilling to goe any further and to strippe and bare herselfe of her owne bottome that Christ might come and take possession But desperately to venture and cast all upon hazard if I be not well let all goe I will take as I find but I will altar none of my course This for the first sort Secondly there are distempers on the left hand for the soule is hurried with extremities on both sides till she beleeve I meane with bondage as well as boldnesse Of this sort are all base feares and wicked conceits against our selves That we are the unhappiest of all men of more aversnesse to Gods will and way then any men or women living That our corruptions are baser then any our natures more crooked inconstant awk and perverse that such spirits as ours so sly subtill and lewd cannot belong to God For then some restraining grace or other would have kept us all this while Why oh poore soule is it not as much for the glory of mercy to save a crooked spirit as a streight dost thou so looke upon thine owne ends that Gods are forgotten Also a false opinion of Gods enmity toward us because we feele our selves as corrupt and hardhearted as ever little amendment in us but much what the same under long hearing many mercies patience crosses meanes of grace What should this argue but that our hearts are given over and left of God Surely if he had chosen us we should not be thus Some there must be after all costs and trials who must be left in their hardnesse of heart and none more like to be of that number then such as we feele our selves So tempted to vile thoughts to lewd lusts and affections So many backwarder and further off then we in shew yet have beene brought home to God before us Many of our time age and
condition battered broken and humbled but our hearts remaining as hard as ever and will not melt Wee have had more tendernesse then now we have and if then we could not beleeve how should we now We could have prayed fasted mourned better then now we can we are now tempted to give over all our hearings Sacraments we therefore feare all hope is past we neglected the special season of mercy by our dalliance and now it is too late So much for the second Thirdly from this longsomnesse and wearinesse the soule growes to disquietnesse of temper to tedious sorrowes bootlesse afflictings and baskings of it selfe and that by any occasions of another nature any accidentall crosses melancholy discontent and wearinesse of our selves of our lives wife children trade and converse with men conceiting our selves to have no right to any of these and therefore they will but encrease our judgement better it were therefore to make a â—iddance of our selves aforehand by violent drowning stabbing stifling of our selves then to beare it out to the uttermost Or else distemper may expresse it selfe otherwise by anger and vexation with our families and servants quarrelings with Gods Minister sometime bodily distempers grow upon such they cannot sleepe cannot follow their callings walke idly and joylesse mopish are afraid we shall be bereft of all we have and come to shame or at least die before ever we get grace or hold of the promise This also for a draught of the third Now I say for conclusion the word of Promise satisfies the soule in all respects both lesser and greater so that now the poore creature is like Peter Act. 12. out of his walking sleepe when the Angel was gone and came to see that cleerely which before was as a shadow So the beleeving soule by this light of the promise and by this sword of the spirit discovers and cuts off her annoyances here one there another as a strong man might cut off theeves assaulting him one by one at a narrow wicket And we might exemplifie all these by Scripture brethren if time would permit take one text for all Those in Hosea when once God humbled them and enlightned them they could cry out Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses now we see that with thee the fatherlesse shall find mercy we will breake off all our false hopes and cast away our covers of shame and those props of our owne whereby we hoped to releeve our selves without thee now we will abandon and renounce them all A maine place for the proofe hereof And so much for the answer of the question Now also a doubt here ariseth which in a word I will resolve and then come to the use The question is If the Word cease all distempers how comes it to passe that the Saints are so molested with them after their beleeving for how many doubts and feares objections temptations and lusts befall the best I answer this will be resolved by like Scriptures He that beleeveth in me he that eates of my flesh and drinkes of my bloud Iohn 6. shall hunger nor thirst no more How is it then that our hunger abides all our life I answer He shall hunger no more deadly distrustfully mortally but hopingly beleevingly and savingly So here These distempers may now and then arise but not as formerly then they were generall reaching to our estate now onely particular about our actions our comfort as arising from ignorance errour or speciall distrust Againe then they came from our owne principle of heart and mind corrupted but now they proceed from concupiscence and the remainder of old Adam in us which cannot doe other Satan also incensing it and causing it to present it selfe so much the more rankly by how much he feares his owne dispossession But now faith our new principle causeth an holy Requiem in the soule so that it may say truly as he spake basely Soule take thine ease Thou hast goods laid up for many yeares So I say some bounsings and clatterings the Devill may cause at our doores but the peace of God which hath calmed all distempers before we beleeved shall also allay and scatter all our mists of darknesse afterward as they arise and maintaine perfect peace For why This is the first fruits of that peace which we have in our conscience toward God through justification even as the eares of corne which the Jewes brought to God was a pledge unto them that they should have the possession of the whole crop Lastly I answer that by this doctrine I meane not that a Christian doth cut off all distempers so that whether he beleeve or beleeve not sleepe or wake he is sure for ever after No in no wise But that so long as he holds close to the word there is power in the word to effect that continually which it effected at the first Christ and his promise is Yea and Amen yesterday to day and the same for ever but how provided that the soule lie still as close to the promise to day as yesterday that it see as much need of it to dispell unbeliefe feares unquietnesse this day as heretofore and waxe not loose and presumptuous which is the way to expose the soule to temptations or else to nuzzle it up in a rotten quietnesse for the tâ—me which will breake out againe after But as we say to a Tradesman or others Keepe your shop well and that will keepe you neglect it and that will give over you so here Tend the promise and you shall find sufficient in it to uphold you in peace and to keepe off those flies of Beelzebub which were wont to annoy you But if you cease your worke wonder not if your distempers returne for although there were no enemies without to molest there is enough from within a base heart to create pudder and unsettlednesse to the soule And so much for the Answer also to this Question Now I come to some use and indeed the use is very weighty and manifold Use 1 And first this point argues the sleightnes of such as being urged to beleeve Conflict answer thus So we would and should if we could be rid of our accusing thoughts fearfull distempers which do molest us As if a man waking at midnight should say If mine eyes were not shut it would not be so darke Whereas the cause is in the night not in the eye for if it were day the eye would see well enough They make the effect the cause and the cause the effect If thou couldest beleeve thy distempers would vanish therefore remove that first Take out the beame and thine eye will soone be lightsome The want of faith causeth such a multitude of distempers to annoy thee and the gift of faith would clense the coast Beginne then at the right end of the staffe and let not errour beguile thee Use 2 Secondly this doctrine may give us a good Receit against Melancholy Instruct A
if you have beleeved the Word of God indeed whence are those privie nips of your conscience which do so continually assault you Whence are those terrours of heart with which many of you are met with when you would faine be at peace When you are in the middest of your ease and jollity your liberties your sports and pleasures whence come those cold qualmes over your base spirits barring you out from peace and fastning terrours upon you stronger then you can resist Dare you pretend your selves beleevers when you feele still your old distempers to tosse and turmoile you and to hold you downe with strong hand in secret Joh. 8.30 If they whom the Sonne hath freed are free indeed whence is your slavery No no you do but set a good face on it you make faire weather outwardly but hatch inwardly such a viper as will fret your bowels and destroy you it is one thing to smother and choake your feares and beare downe your distempers another to drowne them in the sea of the promise you have other delights to fill your hearts withall the Lord would have set on the worke of the law more throughly and made you more to stinke in your owne nostrils and to prize the Word of God and the promise of ease if ever you had beene truly loaden But sithence you would have both your lusts and the promise too holding a wolfe by the eares which you are loath to forgoe and yet cannot well keep know that you deceive your selves in boasting that you hold close to the promise for they that do so may lose their distempers therein which you keepe still It is true That the Lord would have all his as Esay saith count it their strength to sit still But how not in a chaire of ease pretending a freedome which you never had and favouring your selves in any forbidden vanities of your owne envie lust pride revenge and the like But the strength of a poore soule is to sit still in respect of her cavillings and fightings against the truth of the promise Perhaps you will say you do so and feele no such matter in your selves but are quiet and secure But I answer your peace is not sound there is a crack in it as appeares by this That you walke not as Gods free-men do you are as close to God in your love in your tendernesse in your humble carriage as you would pretend to be in your beleeving No man can palpably discerne the Devils chaines upon the Lords free-men Wherefore to conclude I say to you as he to that messenger What hast thou to do with peace turne thee behind mee Oh these are the daies wherein the most vile and presumptuous hypocrites catch at a promise and beare downe their consciences But be not thou O Christian friend like to them for their disease wound is but healed deceitfully and shall breake out againe most deadly when they shall not be able to resist it except it please the Lord to send them upon better conditions to claime the promise So much shall serve for this Use Fifthly this bitter reproofe of all such who in the judgement Use 5 of Charity do beleeve and cleave to the Word yet will not be drawne from the bad custome of their former doubts conceits and distempers but suffer Beelzebub still to light upon their sore and to molest them and gall them still Oh! what a dishonour is this to the promise of God still to hold a secret correspondence with Satan and to nourish our old picking of knots and answering of feares by our owne blanching wit and devises yea spending houres and daies wearisomely in setting our owne wit and invention on worke to beat off our objections and thinking they have done themselves good service in the meane while Whence comes this surely by your weaknesse and relapsing from your former hold of the promise This self-wit and will is so naturall that we are prone and propense to revolt and roll backe unto it as fast as the Lord seems to settle us by his Word it is an inbred evill alway fighting against the law of faith as it is easie for a woman to go to a pond or pulke standing neere to her doore though the water be not so good rather then to goe to a fountaine of living water further off Ease and ill custome are inchanting enemies But remember that onely that blood of sprinkling hath in it a sure bottome of staying feares so that the soule may be quiet from the destroying Angell and the out-cries of Egypt Could they who never had the experience of such a thing before yet so confidently venture their lives upon the Word and shall such as have in likelihood approved this promise of God by experience and ventured themselves upon it and felt it a soveraigne remedy against their distempers returne to tread the maze of their old confused thoughts the second time As if the Word had suddenly lost her strength and virtue to sustaine them as formerly Shall forgetfulnesse melancholy temptation corruption ill custome be able to pull them from an assured hold of rest to assured vexation and distemper I speake it brethren upon knowledge It hath beene thus and is thus with many through a wearisomenesse of this spirituall trade of beleeving that men grow into a very falling sicknesse in this kind that is such a custome of wofull doubtfulnesse and distempers that they seem to delight in it Alas poore soule dost thou thinke that to be presumption in thee which the Lord himselfe calls confidence or because perhaps thou feelest the dregs of a bold heart still abiding in thee hast thou no other way to avoid a shallow save by running into a gulfe If the Lord be willing thou shouldst hold thy peace upon the naked termes of his offer and promise seemes it too good for thee or if it be must thou needes undervalue his grace by thy basenesse as if it were too great for him to bestow because it is too good for thee to enjoy Know it from the ground of this doctrine the Lord delights as little in this practise of thine as thou seemest to delight much in it And although I deny not but in respect of thy weaknesse there may be some place for pity yet there is more cause of sharpe reproofe For why Didst thou never beleeve the Word deceive thy selfe no longer and put away thy distrust from thee But hast thou beleeved for so thou didst pretend then trust the Lord still and say with him Why dost thou thus fret O my soule in my breast and recoyle against that which hath formerly satisfied thee Turne rather thy vexation into prayer and say Remove these unpleasing chaines Lord at last and set mee at liberty shew me this wisedome from above not onely barely to cling to it but also to improve it so as to feele the power of it to shut out my base distempers out of doores and there to hold
much lesse doe they make toward it Iohn 12.20 21. and use all meanes to scrue themselves into it as those Greekes John 12.21 who to get into Christs company sought first to Philip and he to Andrew and then both brought them to Jesus Such Mediation would help us to this Counsellor So much for this third To hasten another let is unconvincednesse of heart by the promise A fearfull sinne when men will not admit the Word to prevaile so farre with them as to debate the matter seriously with themselves till it have left a convincing evidence behind it that their estate is warrantable But suffer themselves to dance in a net and to lie in an ambiguous and doubtfull suspence and uncertainty when by taking paines and laying themselves in the ballance of the Sanctuary they might find themselves either not to have to doe with the promise and so amend their defects or else to be those to whom the promise pertaines and so rest satisfied and set their hearts at rest as convinced that it is theirs Oh! it 's a disease so naturall unto us that it is hardly rooted out viz. to please our selves with the conceit that all is well and our distempers shall cease but not to try our selves till wee bee convinced Give me leave to tell you brethren this dallying with a promise and not going through-stitch will breed you sorrow in the end Not long since the report of a strange accident came to mine eares of a certaine Gentleman who was in love with a Virgin of good ranke to whom he had long made love and thinking all cock-sure because she made very faire correspondence toward him he beganne to please himselfe in his fond humour and gave himselfe such content in his hopes without any sadde enquiry of her finall consent to marry him which might easily have beene had if he had followed it that he furceased as one that might have her at his command The Gentlewoman perceiving that he did not carry himselfe throughly in the businesse nor as one that resolved to come to an issue set her heart upon another lover of more ardent affection and resolution This mâ—ssage being brought to the Gentleman as he was playing upon his Lute so smote him that he dashing his Lute and breaking it into fitters forthwith went out of his right wits The promise is like to this Virgin she serves to be married really and not alway to be dallied with She loves that the soule should make towards her with affection but when the season is come that the bargaine should be made up and that the soule be convinced of her good will to marry it she cannot endure any dalliance or paltring If then the season be neglected and the soule grow to take things for granted without any serious triall and conclusion she turnes another way and enclines to marry one who will bestow more hearty love upon her Beware good brethren of this dalliance they who desire to be eased of the distempers of the single estate and to live in a setled course must wisely take the opportunity and season which God offers and embrace it lest after their sorrowes returne double and treble and when they would faine proceed it be denied them We see single persons withstanding good offers lie by unregarded till they repent them Men love a staggering course whereas when they feele their necessities to pinch them and to send them to God for ease and not so onely but the Lord reveales the promise with a great deale of sweetnesse and delight to them so that their hearts grow very farre in love with it prize it and thinke no paines or cost too great for it then ought they to discerne the season of the Sonne of man and to apply themselves seriously and sadly to take the opportunity Then should they come to a point with the Lord and with all humblenesse and wisdome say thus O Lord thou hast said that a loaden wretch shall find ease in thee a fatherlesse creature left and forsaken of all proppes shall find mâ—rcy with thee If I deny that thou hast made me such an one I should lie for I lie under a burden intolerable and the hearsay of thine ease hath drawne me after it with an unfeigned restlesse and hungry heart therefore what more can be said but it is of thee that I am the party What have I to say to the contrary Thy truth is without hooke or crooke none more needing none such a sinner as I none so faithfull as thou none such a God as thou to pardon and subdue sinne Thou hast therefore done this O Lord as I conceive because thy meaning is to save me and bind mine heart for ever to thee I can neither say more nor lesse but it is from the Lord and if he will doe it what is freer then his gift or stronger then his will I am content that my will be borne downe by it and bee as one bound both hands and feete unable to resist Thus the soule which desires to come to an issue with God discourses from point to point with it selfe till it grow convinced Even as Judah seeing the cloak signet and staffe brought forth acknowledged how the case stood and yeelded And Haman hearing that such and such an intent the King had to honour a favorite by and by laying things together grew to thinke Whom would the King sooner honour then my selfe That which he weakly and from the mutable favour of a man whose breath is in his nostrils concluded erroneously that doe thou gather infallibly from the mouth of a God whose love is unchangeable and so let thy soule be at quiet as Rebecca's was when it was agreed upon that she should marry Isaac there was no dallying admitted but instantly and undelayingly she goes to him and becomes his wife Oh brethren we are making the match off and on all our life long still asking shall I and shall I Oh I could beteame it and never come to an end and thereby come infinitely short of that comfort of our union and fellowship with God which else might be enjoyed To end therefore let us no more consult with our owne base dallying lasie spirits but begge that spirit which onely can convince the soule of righteousnesse and never lin till our gadding and vaine hearts be ballanced and perswaded to settle once for adoe upon the promise Iohn 16.9 a truly convinced that it is ours So much for this fourth The fifth is a cowardly heart that dares not venture nor cast it selfe upon God but chuses rather to lie frozen in her owne dregges then to venture her life and hazard her salvation upon the promise How can such a soule chuse but keepe her distempers still Whereas Gods poore servants have an heart of coâ—rage given them to cast the hardest Brethren I feare many of us were never in Naamans case Doe but a little consider of it The case with him stood just
I finished the last Lecture yet this one day of our Lecture being the last that you and I are like to teach and heare each other and the last of our yeare requiring that I should say somewhat unto you Also my studies having reached fully to another Sermon and besides this fourth part of the Chapter craving some connexion with the three other handled already I have set apart this day to this end One point may give light to al the particulars following being 7. if God permit To wit to handle some one such point out of the whole Harmony of these five Verses following as may give you some generall light into the whole context for time will not permit us to go through all These five verses then as I told you in their Title containe the remoter consequences of Naamans obedience To give you a briefe view and taste of them these they are First there is the true spirit of the cure to be evidently discerned in this new Convert feeling the truth of the Word in himselfe and virtue let out from heaven into Jordan to heale him he takes it not as a common thing and like a blocke without sense but is presently and instantly and erresistibly ravished as with a new spirit begotten by the worke of God upon his soule as well as his body The Lord darting grace of mercy and compassion into his heart as well as health into his flesh to intimate unto him by whose providence from first to last he was guided to so strange an effect Lo he comes to the Prophet with a spirit of impotencie admiration and zeale to acknowledge the Lord with all fervor of spirit and to knit his heart for ever in love unto him for this cure of body and soule Secondly feeling himselfe unable to reach the Lord himselfe he goes to his Prophet the next instrument of his good forgets his former discontent and entirely embraces him as the Prophet of God sent unto him for this purpose and to him he directs his thankfulnesse which fell short of God himselfe Thirdly hee enters solemne league with the Lord to be a close client of his for ever ejuring all former false and idolatrous service and vowing himselfe wholly to the Lord and his worship for time to come Fourthly he takes hold and possession of the Church of God acknowledging it to be the onely true Church and therefore scruing himselfe into it that although his face was Aram ward yet his heart was to Jerusalem ward and to the true and onely place where the Lord had visible residence and presence at this time And this although he testified by a weake and poore expression of taking with him the earth of the holy Land Yet the inward soundnesse of heart exceeded his weake signification Fifthly he discovers his unfained conversion by a most tender sense of that sin whereby he had formerly most offended God viz. his presence at the worship of Rimmon this darts into his converted soule even as a dash of the tooth-ach or the sting of an hornet Sixthly he is exceedingly pierced with feare and care how he might nourish that sparkle which God had begun in him and how he might shun and prevent that rocke of offence at which he had mortally stumbled before Seventhly he is very glad to aske direction while it was now to be had how he might order his whole course for time to come which being darke and doubtfull for the present hee therefore craves the Prophets advice and prayers unto which the Prophet gives him a mercifull answer These are the parcels of this fourth generall I can but goe over the first The point then is this Where God workes a true cure upon any soule Doctr. Every true cure hath the spirit of the cure attending it there he also workes the spirit of the cure By a cure I meane conversion of a soule from Idols not Rimmon but lusts and vanities to the living God By the spirit of a cure I meane that instinct and disposition that due temper and quality which such a cure deserveth at the hands of the cured And I say not the spirit of him who is cured but the spâ—rit of the cure that is such a spirit as the mercy of him that heales the soule instils into it viz to be for God who hath beene for it Onely this As Gods cure hath beene gracious so is the spirit of the cure zealous and as his worke hath beene entire whole and unfained to the good of the soule that it might no more returne to folly so is the spirit of the cure sincere intire constant God hates patchery and halfe cures and the spirit of the cure hates halfe thankes halfe love halfe affections In a word the spirit of a sound cure of a soule is a tender spirit the very first fruits of the heart enlightned with faith forgiven renued and warmed in the wombe of mercy the most naturall peculiar acceptable and well pleasing fruit of the soule to God What the spirit of a cure is It stands in a tender love truly called the first love a tender joy in God tender compassions towards him tender jealousie of that which might provoke â—im tender care to please him tendernesse of spirit both to him in affections of desire and delight and also for him in zeale and revenge defence and taking up armes for him And it rests not in him but descends to a tender love to his Truth Worship Services Sacraments Sabbaths Servants and all which hath any relation to God even for his sake This in short is that I meane by this spirit of a cure I pitch upon this point the more willingly because it hath an easie comprehension of all those seven consequences of the cure above named And although each of them be distinct yet because this is my last Lecture I am glad that one doctrine hath so good a lot as to give you though but in generall and farre off a view of the whole For in this spirit of the cure all those fruits of Naamans returne from Jordan may be coucht together as a garment into one knot Explication of the Doctrine Marke then for explication sake thus much It is with the soule in point of spirituall cure as with the body in case of a bodily Who being heal'd by some odde rare Physitian of a mortall disease and such an one as all the Physitians in the country could not turne their hands unto yea such as all others gave over as desperate and past their skill by some odde Physitian I say one of a thousand who himselfe could not have heald it neither except he had by divine hand beene peculiarly made and train'd up for the very nonce to be skilfull in such a disease and such a one as will by no meanes take money or fees but scornes it only stands upon doing good preventing sad wreck of the diseased that he might get himself a name of
questions Prayers confessions and the like who doth not wish himselfe in their case except it be some errant blocke who discovers his brutishnesse all are ravisht to see such early beginnings The Lord knowes the fittest way to worke upon men Sooner will a young novice by his active spirit of the cure stir up others then some solid and grave Disciples because the spirit of the one is more stirring active and drawing than the other Fourthly there is in the cure of the soule converted to God Reas 4 such an irresistible power and impotencie From that irresistible power of Grace in the soule especially in the first turning home of it that there is no choaking quenching or damping of it It resembles her originall Seed leaven mustard-seed are things of an active and encreasing nature Leaven in a little while will sowre all the lump Hence are those expressions of the Saints Thy Word was in mee as coales of fire in my bosome Can a man carry them there and not be burnt I would have kept in thy words saith David but such was the nature of them that they would not be concealed I had no rest nor peace till I had uttered them to Congregations Peter could not hold Christ in his bosome till he had uttered himselfe to Nathaniel That woman of Samaria had fire in her bosome when she went to tell her kindred citizens the news of Christs discourse The love of God workes in the breasts of his Saints as it first wrought in his owne he having conceived it once could not cease till it had discovered it selfe to poore sunken Adam and hee would rather chuse to make his onely Sonne a Masse shame then he would not expresse it Even such is the same love having once wrought in them it is as the new wine in the caske which must have vent or else it will breake It is like Josephs affection to Benjamin all must be had out from him Gen. 45.14 and he must utter himselfe to him and fall upon his neck with a kisse and teares The newer any thing is the more forcible So is it with love The Apostle hath a sweet word to expresse it The love of Christ constraines us 2 Cor. 5. The word signifies 2 Cor. 5.14 gathers us up together as a beast hemmed in a Pinfold hath an appetite after liberty so the spirit of love finds it selfe straitned till it breake out And 1 Cor. 13. love is bountifull and working 1 Cor. 5. full of affection hopeth all things endureth all things and the like The fifth God is the God of order and loves sutablenesse of Reas 5 Age and Temper youth naturally is hot and full of expressions God is the God of order it is comely for young ones to be so their lusts were so before grace therefore grace must be so also I restraine not this heat to meere youth for if God do convert elder ones as Naaman there is a spirituall youth or first age even in them also grace at the first is most operative be the yeares what they may be but especially when grace falls upon tender yeares as for the most part that is the season ere the soule be sapped in lewd customes then it quickens those hot spirits which it meets with to singular expressions Reas 6 Lastly by this spirit the Lord provides matter and argument of convincement For the due convincement of such as after may wax luke-warme and loose and inward checke for time to come if at any time his people shall revolt from this grace of first conversion The Lord knowes our mold and fashion just Psal 103. We seem at our first setting forth to the journey so trimme and so prepared that no troubles nor difficulties shall daunt our resolution But by that time wee have travelled a while what with the ill way what with ill weather bad successe and what with our owne weary and crazie spirits within we waxe unto ward and stagger whether we should goe forward or no. The Lord knowes how many waies this first spirit of the cure flagges and wanzes in us sometimes the abundance of iniquity causes the love of many to waxe cold this degenerate formall world is ready to quench our spirit the presidents of many zealous and painfull professors who are turned drunkards uncleane worldlings Epicures and sinfull wretches 2 Pet. 3. ult do shake us The errour of the wicked puls us from our stedfastnesse feare of some men flattery of others but especially a cursed heart on the one side giddie presuming venturous on the otherside slavish fearfull and distrustfull distempers us so that although we keep from grosse evils yet we are far from that frame of zeale closenesse and watching which we have found onely peace from Now when it falls out thus and that crosses debts ill marriage care of children and other disguisements come upon the necke of the other then is the Lord faine to step in and take us to taske to upbraid us and cast us in teeth with our first spirit of cure our early first love sweet affections covenants humble feare watchfull care diligent paines zealous spirit Luk. 23.31 What was this done in the greene tree and shall it not be done in the dry What shall first beginnings shame thee Didst thou begin in the spirit if yet thou didst so and wilt thou now end in the flesh Oh! is there not enough in that never dying spirit of an immortall hope of salvation to carry thee on in thy poore course with equalnesse of affection Say the edge be a little blunted what is metall gone too is the steele worne out of the backe That first spirit of sound joy in God should by this day have bred in thy belly a welspring of water flowing to eternall life Oh! for shame strengthen the weary hands Heb. 12.13 and feeble knees and correct the crooked that it turne not out of the way Thus the Lord charmes a declining spirit by an experiment of her owne and brings her backe with sorrow and shame to her former temper So much for Reasons Use 1 Now for Use first is the spirit of a true Convert thus zealous for God This then teacheth us a difference of cures and that all are not alike for there are many to be sure farre from this temper and frame of spirit Instruction with an item Not every cure hath such a stroake in the soule of a man thus to change qualifie and act his spirit to and for the Lord. And all to teach us to try our spirits and to be afraid to rest in any base counterfeit cures which afford none of this life and operation Who doth not now a dayes boast himselfe to have gotten this through cure Counterfeit cures very common in the world true cures rare If once baptized and professe the Gospell it is treason in these dayes to put a difference betweene men Alas yee poore wretches
the spirit within you shall put the difference though others hold their peace The base degenerate carnall spirit of men now a daies boasting of a cure and conversion but still the same for their temper and frame of spirit or else in a base outside of zealous performances and shewes of good without any cordiall geniall spirit of self-deniall tendernesse and love to holinesse bewrayes sufficiently whence their cures came Tell mee I pray was there such a spirit of a cure in him whom Christ cured at the Poole after 38. years disease Joh. 5. as was in that blind man Ioh. 5.7 Ioh. 9.7 8 9. Joh. 9. When the former of these was in healed what news were there he went to the Pharisees and there jangled but Christ heard no more of him so that after meeting him in the Temple he told him Thou art now healed but sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee A sad item so soon after Alas what wonder it was a cure of the left hand a bodily cure of lame feet not of a lame spirit and thereafter came of it no spirit of tendernesse thankes acknowledgement or engagement followed And what came of those cures in the wildernesse which befell the Israelites when the Lord had heald them of their bondage taken away the feare of Pharaoh his hoast Exod. 12. compared with 15. c. and with Num. 11. 15. and the danger of the red Sea when hee had removed the sad disease of famine and thirst sent them quailes in plenty dropt Manna from heaven into their bellies and fill'd them with the Rocke which gusht out and followed them with water when as there was a plague gone out among them Aaron with his censer went and stood betweene the living and the dead and staid it when scorpions were let fly among them to sting them to death the Lord set up a brazen one upon a Pole to looke upon that beholding it they might escape What came of all these cures Nothing their carcasses fell in the wildernesse after all these themselves grew as base murmurers rebels and breakers of Covenant as ever But as for any true spirit of a sound cure I meane any remembring of him that had healed them alas it was farre from them and why I pray you Surely because the cure was but by halfes not a full and sound one it came from one Physitian but not from the like purpose of heart it reacht their bodies but toucht not their soules How many are there among us whom the Lord hath wrought cures upon Some of us he hath cured of our poverties and filled our purses with money paid our debts and set us on foot others have beene cured of our ill Names healed in point of our bad yoak-fellowes others of us have beene healed of our diseases of body agues consumptions dropsies and God hath betrusted us with second lives like Hezekiah whē as we would have given the hope of them for a straw but to what end have all these boones befallen us surely to make us more ranke proud jolly in our selves we have had a spirit of our cures too but it is such as the disease had beene much better then the remedy and had beene like to have held us in more humblenesse and feare then our cures Eccles 13.5 I may say with Salomon I have seene a misery under the Sunne a cure bestowed upon a poore sicke man to the ruine of him 2 Chron. 28.22 Is not this a fearfull cure Ahaz because he was worse for crosses is thus branded This is King Ahaz what shall our brand be who are worse for our cures But this is not all the preposterousnesse of it That all the hope of these seemed to be before their cure False cures have a preposterous spirit O then if God would not destroy them of this disease but let them live what manner of ones would they prove but when they lived what deivlls have they proved That good King sung Esay 38.19 The living the living shall praise thee But these may cry The living shall do thee more dishonour then ever And to leave these others have beene healed by a better hand by the Ministry of the Spirit they have beene healed of their ignorance uncleannesse profane lives they have gotten knowledge reformation of some grosse evils but what shall we say of them Is the spirit of a cure seene upon them Can any man say that grace hath bred in them tendernesse of conscience love to the people of God a change of heart Alas no such matter Nay there are some who are not so much as rid of their grosse lusts and yet make great shew of zeale and forwardnesse Note As lately one arrested by the hand of God with sudden feare of death emptied himselfe of all and confessed that hee was habited in a custome of adultery with three or foure harlots about the same time and yet an hearer noter repeater of Sermons and a kind of Professor Cures now are all mens cases All will be religious and that shall be the cover of all their ranke lusts plaisters are now applyed to all sores let them be as festred within as rankled and corrupt as they will not to speake of secret evils of wrath frowardnesse rage unmercifulnesse rebellion of heart worldlinesse and the like Alas these men have no leasure to thinke of they seeke religion as drunkards seeke drinke to besot and disable their consciences from stirring and stinging of them Misery of such as rest in false and halfe cures What shall I say of such Alas there is no spirit of a cure to be seene in them they want the sound cure which a spirit of conversion hath in it God hath two closets of plaisters and medicines the one outward the other secret in the former hee keepes universall salves for all sores in the other Medicines for an hard heart a proud spirit unbeleefe subtilty hollownesse imponitency To the former men flock apace and if they can get them they care for no more But the heart which God onely askes for runnes full of all excesse and so long as the still stream of outward Religion possesses them with security of their estate they never lay ought to their hearts till wrath and hell-fire flash in their faces and feare surprizes Hypocrites Esay 33.13 Then all turnes to horrour and who shall endure everlasting burnings But oh yee wofull people Might you not have beene admitted into the inner closet if you had preased hard to it yes verily That paddle and adoe which you have made to soder and play the Hypocrites might have beene better spent and sped better to purchase a sound cure never to be repented of Tell me if a man that hath a dangerous sore upon his body content himselfe with going to a base Quacksalver with a budget at his backe and get of him a little salve in a clout to skinne his sore
one thing within the whole compasse of Religion more usually counterfeited then this neither is there any one point in which either the deceit of the heart is more dangerous or the soundnesse of it more comfortable to the soule then this is We read in stories that all brave Princes have beene counterfeited by sycophants Charles the fifth Edward the sixth of England and others But although their outsides favoured them yet their spirit discarded them at last a base-bred fellow cannot equall the spirit of noble bloud All Judasses and Theudasses Acts 5. came to naught Acts 5. end because they had bastard spirits There was once as a French rare History hath it a Souldier in the Campe wherein one Martin Guerra a rich Citizen of Tholouse served who being in all points like to that Guerra A rare history of a French counterfeit and getting so farre in with him as to know the secrets that had passed betweene him and his wife at last brake from the Army to Tholouse and boldly went home to Guerra his wife as his owne and after some little suspition yet so cleared all doubts that he accompanied her as his wife and lived in peace till at last the true Guerra comming home and claiming his wife a sute in Law was commenced at Tholouse betweene them and had not some privie markes at last betweene her and the true husband cleared the controversie to the Court the counterfeit had brought them to such a demurre that they knew not what to determine And so may it fare here such are the apish imitations of impudent and unsuspected Hypocrites in point of zeale devotion affections and abstinencies from sinne that the very annointed of God seemes to stand before him 2 Sam. 16.6 Nothing in this case is surer to determine the controversie then the spirit it selfe of true breed and Nativity Hardly can the spirit of birth and regeneration be long dissembled but one way or other earlier or later it will be discovered Triall of the true spirit of Grace is from it selfe Therefore let every one try himselfe by this marke even the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe Not at first perhaps for Alexander was almost crowded to death in the tumult at Ephesus and in Pauls quarrell almost puld in pieces a terrible patterne as a worthy Writer speakes But yet at length time tried him and he grew an open revolter after and was delivered to Satan Act. 19.33 compared with 2 Tim. 4.14 Acts 6.5 1 Tim. 1.20 2 Tim. 4.10 Matth. 13.27 Nicolas the Deacon cheated the twelve Apostles but his spirit betrayed him to be a wicked uncleane wretch Demas Hymenaeus and Philetus went farre but their spirit failed them The spirit of the Grape will not be counterfeited by the fruit of a Bramble the one is generous the other base Eagles breed no Crowes nor Doves any Kites nor Lions Foxes No more doth the spirit of Grace breed false Hypocrites Well said those servants The envious man hath sowne Tares for the Husbandman sowed nothing but good Wheate It will be an infallible marke of thy true birth if thine owne principle be throwne out and if the spirit of mercy become that in thee and unto thee which thine owne spirit once was even a second nature Grace will casheire and throw out thy usurping spirit As they cast out Ipta Iudg. 11.2 Note that it shall not reigne A false spirit workes from within to an outward but Gods Spirit workes from without to an inward operation That is Grace going out of her selfe and suspecting her selfe both for the metall and for the stampe for the kind and for the degree for the quality and for the continuance abhorring her own sparkes and false blaze still seekes out for a new spirit of Heaven a new frame of heart But our owne spirit seekes within her selfe what light what affections what imitations shewes and duties she can finde out never suspecting her impotency to reach truth and soundnesse Now although such may goe farre with their Lamps a long time yet at last want of Oyle will make their lamps flagge when their feelings cease when the praises of men faile when some of their actions cause them to be questioned and when some right wind blowes full upon them then they totter when the winds and floods came Mat. 7. ult the house ungrounded fell By one way or other it must at last appeare who are men of their owne stockes and who are bankrupts not to say this moreover that a wise man well marking the Spirit of Grace and comparing it with the other will by one signe or other easily discerne a Noble and true bred spirit from violent pangs even at the best But although he should not yet the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe in time and discard the spirit of the flesh A true sonne of faithfull Jonathan is a most precious peece to David though a poore lame creeple Gen. 25.6 Particular trials of the spirit of Grace then all the posterity of Saul besides One Isaac is more worth then all Ketura's brood The breed of a thing is all in all with men even in these outward creatures horses kine and the like So one soule of the right stamp is more precious with God then a thousand Be sure that the Word of the promise that immortall seed of God in the blood of a covenant bred thee to the hope of life The Word of God is the immortall seed which bred it and the assurance of pardon and this will turne all false principles of flesh and blood out of doores Prove thy genealogie that thou art an Hebrew of the Hebrewes a true borne Jew not of the letter but of the spirit of Grace and then thou hast that marke upon thee which will not be worne out God lookes first at what thou art for thy spirit and breed and then what thou dost Phil. 3.8 Rom. 2. ult Never vie upon him with thy heapes upon heapes of worships of means of duties but first approve thy selfe See Prov. 23.26 and these will follow alone as the wombe that conceives truly is free of all other conceptions so the true breed of the Spirit abandons all false conceptions If all other seed of thine owne all principles of flesh be cast out and the wombe of the soule cleane and cleare this spirit of grace may live and come to the birth in thee And all false preconceptions cast out The wombe that beares a true bred soule must be as the wombe that bare Immanuel a Virgin wombe wherein never any other fruit lay before The meere onely and pure love of the Father purchased by the blood of Christ must onely beget thee to God if ever thou be begotten and no lesse spirit Like Iosephs Tombe never any had lyen in it before Luk. 23.53 then that which united the Godhead of Jesus to his flesh will serve to beget thee to him
if it would if thy owne hopes workes or selfe could have reacht such a generation in vaine should the Lord have beene at all that cost when he brought forth his eternall Sonne into the world to die for it to shed his blood for it that it might become the seed of his Church by the Ministrie of the Word Deceive not thy selfe in this triall which is very easie to doe except God give thee an heart inquisitive willing to be resolved and earnestly craving that thou mayest not be deceived Secondly try thy spirit of Grace by the operations of it As the principle is so will the operations be By the operations of it Abishag may nourish David while there is any naturall heat left in him but if that faile she can put no life into him Adorne a dead King with a Scepter and Crowne and all his Robes Alas it will make a good Pageant 2 Sam. 1.2 3. but all is lost labour Trie then what the fruits of that spirit are which thou hast if they be such as flow from an outward accidentall cause violent and over-ruling they will faile when that cause ceaseth to worke But if thy hope joy and peace be from within let outward meanes and motives either continue or cease still thy operations will abide and flow sweetly currantly cheerfully from thee Water taken off the coales ceaseth to seeth yea growes colder then at first A sive held in the water holds it as well as a bucket corke held downe under water will sinke as well as lead But if the one be taken out and the other be left to her selfe all returnes to the old course So is it here A curious Philosopher once framed an engine of metall in the forme of a man and brought it to such perfection that it could jabber and patter out some words but one that beheld it cryed out Oh faire skull without braines As in mans body all true operations of life and sense to move to worke to sleepe eate and the l ke come from a principle of life and so serve the soule even so here Operations must not be the principle it selfe but onely belong to it but if they be the principle it selfe they are a false principle He that commends a Preacher because his friends love him 2 Chron. 24 16. as Joash served God while Jehoiada lived hath no love in his heart and therefore may hate his service after as he did He that cleaves to good company to hearing to profession for a vantage of his owne reputation to get good custome in trading or a good match or to serve his owne turne or keepe some of his own heat having no other Principle must needs turne bankrupt for lacke of a stock of his owne And the misery of such a one is Note That he heares prayes and worships that he might heare pray and no further from no hottome and so his operation becomes his principle Of all such wee may say such a principle will surely breed their ruine either their eternall ruine if no outward affronts intercept their course or else both ruine here and for ever if crosses come For why they do as a foole who commits himselfe to the seas in a broken Barge When means faile when Ministery ceaseth when it becomes a reproach to professe when false friends draw away the heart when suffring for the Gospell comes losses trials and troubles approach then all Religion vanishes No hypocrite can be above Gods stormes and tempests especially if a right wind blow it will be turn'd up by the rootes Every wind perhaps will not search each rotten tree 2 Tim. 4. but some one or other will The mind of the world searcht Demas the wind of pride and ambition Diotrephes The wind of secret lusts turne of some 3 Ioh. 8. the wind of affliction others and the wind of time and continuance will search deepest of all for a stone can flye no further then the strength of the hand which threw it will carry it Therefore be sure that the operations of goodnesse which come from thee proceed not from a false principle but from the spirit of grace Thirdly trie this spirit of grace by the constituion and frame thereof that is by the soundnesse of it Unsoundnesse of spirit Try it by the fâ—ame soundnesse of it cannot reach that which soundnesse can For why The best in an unsound person are his Negatives reall positive and habituall grace he cannot attaine unto So farre as a negative way may go an unsound heart may attaine To side with religion as good to deny himselfe in many things for it and to suffer somewhat from some confessed excellencie therein deserving it or some light restraint example or ends may be an unsound hearts condition but positively and really to lay the honour of God to heart inwardly to love that he commands to grieve for the sin of such as resist it inwardly to sympathize the furtherance of it that is beyond him The reason is because his love is not from union but from an adherence or hanging by in judgement or pangs of affection Take two examples It is said that two sorts strove for David to be their Kings the ten Tribes of Israel and the two other Tribes There was more Negative spirit in the ten then in the two Why say they should not David be more ours then yours we are ten and you are but two wee have ten parts in him we can conferre more honour upon him and give him more subsidies then you and many good morrows But whence came all this from shame and pride that they should be backwarder to fetch him home then the rest But the positive grace of love to David came from Juda and Benjamin for why he was bone of their bone he was their flesh Nature strove in them 2 Sam. 19.43 humor in the other their words therefore were stronger then the words of ten times as many tongues of counterfeits They no doubt made as great a brable but geniall love could not be dissembled So it was in those two harlots pleading for the child both spake earnestly neither could put downe other in point of words 1 King 3.26 the false mother was as deepe in her Negative principle as the other seemed to be For why she meant to be even with the true mother and would see her childlesse as well as her selfe So the living child might be divided she cared not But by this Salomon descryed her The sword being brought then that reall heart of a true mother appeared in the one which could not in the other for she had it not in her A wretch could be content to leave off all Religion if he were sure that none would take it up after him for he is good because it shall not be said but he will be as forward as any But if none would be good he could be willing to be naught Why for lacke
resist that spirit by which you speake and walke It is not your duties hearing Sermons which will serve turne except you get into the way of God and get your spirits whetted up to a lively temper of godlinesse you shall but adde heapes to heapes and die of thirst Rake up the ashes of your first sacrifice and see if there be any one sparkle alive Iudg. 15.16.18 to kindle that old fire in your hearts God hath now farre more need of it then he had then If you cannot find old sparks goe to Heaven for new for a double portion of it else you will hardly hold out in these cold times You young Novices here among us who in your youth have begunne well and honoured the labours of Gods servants by your zeale by your answering to Catechism by drawing on many to God be not discouraged that the same Grace which made you young Sts. can make you old ones I doubt it not but blesse God for the hope I conceive of your growth and fruit Esay 8.18 1 Iohn 4.4 though we are as signes both we and the children which God hath given us and wonders to the world feare not greater is he that is in us then with them You Magistrates hereabouts you Headborowes and Officers at home doe not play the cowards in the cause of God and the government of the Towne suffer not drunkards to fill up your Alehouses here upon the day of our Lecture and to rout in all cursed behaviour all the day after going together by the eares swearing and swaggering let not your Taverns and places of resort be more frequented then Gods house I see ruine before mine eyes and the young fry will prove worse then their Predecessors your glory is gone except you hold together and prevent sinne from flowing downe your streets and overthrowing all 2 Cor. 2.14 â—â— And in a word to all sorts I speake scatter the savour of this spirit of Grace all about the places where you dwell shine especially within your owne sphere and families lay in for grace and mercy for your husbands wives children kinsfolke and neighbours who have long beene ignorant profane or formall worshippers at the best pluck them out of the fire by violence Iude ult Perhaps some seed lies under a clod they are not so deeply sunk under the slavery of those Idols but that God may fetch out somewhat of them at the last and shall it die for lacke of stirring up Be earnest with God and strive hard for the whole corner this poore Countrey in which ancient zeale and the spirit of Grace decayes exceedingly Easie serving of God for fashion and this love of the creature hath eaten up all The last yeare we were almost starven for bodily bread but God be thanked better food did helpe well both to content the poorer sort and to uphold their spirits with patience yea and to perswade the richer sort to mercy and compassion Now we feare a worse famine if not want of the Word yet that the Lord for our wretched unfruitfulnesse may fill our mouthes with Quailes Mumb. 11.20 and suffer them to come out againe at our nostrils may fat us with meanes and curse us with leannesse in our soules Psal 106.15 Lord suffer not the child to die at the breasts for lack of milke nor having it to surfet Oh thou who hast bred us by thy Word with the lively spirit of Grace preserve us by the same nourishment whereby wee are begotten And so for such among us brethren as have continued constantly Branch 5 in this zeale of the Gospel Consolation to all such as walke in the comfort of the spirit of conversion I doe here reach out comfort unto them and say to them as Elisha to Naaman Goe in peace Though you and I should never heare the voyce nor see the face of other yet we shall do well as long as the peace of God is with us Nourish your hearts still till death in this love of the Gospel Make not shipwrack in the havens Thinke not now of any new way Turne not to the world for they care not for you you stink to them therefore hold to your old Master and be his servants for ever Let the Lord beate you out of his doores before you dare start from him you have beene his so long that as Peter said Whither should we goe Lord from thee Iohn 6.68 thou hast the words of eternall life Though there be neither Calfe in the stall nor Bâ—llock in the heard though the Olive cast her fruit and the Vine decay yet God shall be your salvation Though meanes faile Habac. 3.17.18 yet this spirit of grace in you shall be a lively immortall stock in you and preserve you by faith to the day of salvation 1 Pen. 1.5 These are times wherein sinne abounds it is the very houre of darknesse Revel 3.10 Pray that as you have kept the Word of Gods patience all this while so he would keepe you though all the world should be over-shadowed And although perhaps you take thought for your first edge which is blunted by long continuance and custome Ephes 3.16 17 yet so long as your metall holds good steele to the back and you grow rooted settled and stable in all faith love and fruitfulnesse feare not he that hath begunne will perfect his worke Faithfull is he who hath promised 1 Thes 5.24 To the worke of whose Grace I commend you which is able to sanctifie you throughout and both to keep your bodies soule and spirits 1 Thes 5.25 pure and blamelesse to his comming through the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and the Spirit that immortall invisible and onely wise God 1 Tim. 1.17 be all honour and praise for ever Amen FINIS AN APPENDIX OR POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER ANd thus good Reader thou hast these Lectures penned to the uttermost wherein they were preached And as I inteÌ„ded to preach no more so neither doe I purpose to trouble thee with more then I preached The Verses following to the twentieth savour wholly of a spirit carried zealously towards God whose mercy cured both Naamans body and soule a draught whereof I gave thee in this last Lecture I grant there are some passages of obscurity attending the words next to them I have handled which some scrupulous Reader might thinke himselfe wronged if they should wholly be unsaluted Wherefore to give a very short touch of them thus conceive of the severals thereof THerefore take a blessing c. But he said Vers 15. end 16. As the Lord liveth Touching this Addition of his large gifts to his large heart I have already spoken of it in the servants arguments and shewed there the duty of the people to their Ministers And we must know it did not abhorre from the custome of those times either to offâ—r or accept gratuities by the Prophets But touching his refusall
discovery of Grace in the effects of that discovery and the end of it For the first of these The Spirit of Grace is all for Grace in the discovery of the mystery of it the amplenesse largenesse height depth and length of it to the poore soule that it may appeare in all the excellency and fulnesse freedome bounty unchangeablenesse and wel be teamingnesse thereof that no corner of it may lie hidden from the heart of a sinner so farre as may further him in the bottoming of the soule in mercy This is a singular and peculiar act of the Spirit tending to this end that the soule may not stagger about the sufficiency of Grace which God offers unto her but may behold the power of the Priesthood of Christ once offering up himselfe as a compleat and spotlesse sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the elect needing no more to be offered able to procure from the Father endlesse wel pleasednesse and acceptance also a free offer of reconciliation and to create in the soule alone and of it selfe without any antecedent free will liking and cooperating of Selfe a most sufficient clearing of conscience from guilt and feare yesterday Heb. 10.3 Heb. 13.8 to day and for ever This cannot sinke into the heart of an hypocrite he cannot bee perswaded that there is enough in the Lord Jesus alone to discharge him in the Court of heaven the offer and promise are empty notions with him to sway all his strength upon neither dare hee rest thereupon with peace without a further addition of his owne feelings But the Spirit of Grace grounds the poore soule in this as the maine worke of all that so all the building may subsist thereon and makes sure retreat and refuge for her in the midst of her distresse that her foundation may not be shaken I wish that the method of that Epistle to the Hebrewes especially in the 7.8.9.10 Chap. might well be observed to the understanding of this act of the Spirit Secondly the Spirit of Grace doth not onely offer such a light to the soule but lets it in by her owne working into her setting the soule on worke to concurre with his revealing light and shewing it both that the Lord will conferre no lesse then all this Sufficiency upon a needing soule and therefore shee may without presumption take and partake them from his hand It sheweth her that it is the endlesse matchlesse Grace of God that he can find in his heart to pardon her yea to cast love upon her not only when she seems zealous and affectionate for Self can make her beleeve that but even when she is basest in her owne eies and under the conscience of her guilt when she is in her bloud when her originall loathsomenesse her actuall wickednes of thoughts of words of wrath hypocrisie and the like doe lye as a burthen upon her yet then even then marke what I say he hath love in a corner of his heart for such an one such as he will have herselfe confesse to be causlesse on her part yea such as if he had no more aime at being knowne to be loving then to love for any amiable thing in the object he would never shew to any Nay more lest the Spirit of Grace should leave any thing behinde him he doth offer to create the gift of faith in the soule Esay 5â— 19 to claspe upon this gift of mercy and includes this gift in the offer as knowing that it were in vaine to offer the one without working the other And hereby he causeth the soule to lay hold upon his strength and ablity to save as having received a ransome sufficient which is no other saving the writing of his covenant in the fleshy tables of her heart Esay 27 4.5 prepared by himselfe for the nonce And moreover that all this hee hath done of his owne free will and motion without any former principle acting him to intend it or concurring with him to create it I say he hath done it of himselfe as judging it meet for himselfe to doe whatsoever we bee and for the glory of his Name No entreaty of men or Angels no difficult tearmes of perswasion caused it but it flowed naturally from him as most honourable to his Majestie to doe Fifthly the Spirit of Grace stayes not here but proceedes to accommodate the soule to embrace this power of God for to what end should the Lord be willing to do it in her for her except she also felt sutable inclinations wrought in her soul towards it And therefore he moves her sadly to digest this grace offered to count it no light nor strange thing no nor yet beyond the soules apprehension but as on the one side hee causeth it to be most weighty pretious and to be highly valued so on the other side he makes it familiar sweet clear and evident not a thing above the clouds nor under the earth farre fetcht but neere the soule put into her bosome Rom. 10. belonging to her not to bee rejected or thrust away from her except she will perish These together with the infinite benefite of receiving it and the endlesse losse in forgoing it as being the onely remedy doe marvellously stablish the thoughts upon it and ravish the affections with it so that layes a most sad charge upon the poore soule upon paine of forfeiting her peace for ever not to passe it by slightly deadly and formally but to view and meditate of it savourly deep y unwâ—ariedly with admiration till by this mirrour of beholding the Lord with open face she be transformed to the gloriousnes of this gracâ— and carried 2 Cor. 3. end yea left in the streame thereof by the Spirit of the Lord. This for the first of the three particulars The second is the effect of this presenting worke of the Spirit And that is union The second worke the effect hereof viz. Union Whereby the Spirit of Grace shewes the soule into what a condition she is translated by faith in the promise That is she is made one with the Lord Jesus thereby and really partaker of all his good things true peace contentment in blessings crosses all conditions freedome from all former garboiles feares enemies joy in God and his salvation never to be divorced from him any more This causes the soule to shake off that wearisomenesse of Selfe never settled that bottomelessenesse never grounded that inconstancy and vanity never at rest and why Because it had no reall good to fasten upon and to determine those restlesse desires of hearts But now the Lord Jesus himselfe both in his present grace and hope of glory to come runues in her streame or rather turnes hers into his so that looke what Selfe was to her before emptily and barrenly now Christ is in her stead Christ is the Selfe of the soule he is all in all to her acts her comforts her staies her quickens her guides upholds