of life or spirit of lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 7. and man became a living soul So when thou lyest dead before the Lord without any life or breath of Prayer in thee thou canst not so much as breathe before him he 'l breathe a Soul of Prayer into thee he 'l put breath into thee as he did into Acts 9. 11. Saul Behold he prayeth saith God 2. Sometimes a man sends a gift to one that never asked him for it so doth God sometimes send his gifts of grace to them that never ask for it he gives them before they ask it Opposers and Persecutors are said to be the greatest Sinners yet saith Christ upon the Cross Father forgive them they know not what they do he spake it of those that put him to Death Some might have said Lord they are opposers of thee even to the Death be it so saith Christ I have mercy for opposers too and for persecutors too Father forgive them they know not what they do But Lord they do not beg for pardon wilt thou give such a kindness to them that ask not for it They do not acknowledg their fault if thou wilt shew mercy to them stay till they acknowledg their fault and be humbled and ask pardon nay saith Christ I will prevent poor sinners with my love Though they do not ask forgiveness yet I beg forgiveness Father forgive them But Lord these are great sinners and less mercy would serve the turn forgiveness is a great mercy no saith Christ no mercy less than forgiveness will serve the turn they 'l be never the better for any mercy without forgiveness therefore they shall have it Father forgive them but forgiveness is a great mercy be it so saith Christ I know what I do I have great mercy the greatest mercy for the greatest sinners and because they cannot ask it I will ask it for them Father forgive them Vse 6. Wo to you Professors that have not true grace from Matth 13. 12. Luk. 8. 18. them shall be taken away even that which they have Luke saith From them shall be taken that which they seem to have For if we speak of true grace they have not grace only seem to have it They seem to be holy and their seeming holiness shall be taken from them They seem to believe and their seeming Faith shall be taken from them They seem to repent and their seeming Repentance shall be taken from them They Matth. 13. 20. seem to joy in Christ and in Mercy and the Promises but their seeming joy shall be taken from them The spirit doth but assume them he doth not inform them nor enliven them As the dead bodies which Angels assume for a time they seem to live and talk and eat and drink but when the Angel leaves them because they were not the Angels proper bodies they vanish away and lose that life they did seem to have So the Spirit of God doth assume and act the souls of many men in the Church for a time to do service for God by them and all that while they pray and preach and hear and walk up and down in Duty out of one Duty into another and the Spirit leaves them because he did but assume them and then they drop down dead as indeed they are and always were Thus the Spirit did assume Judas for a time Judas was but a dead man in soul all the time he was with Christ only the Spirit of God assumed him and acted him and he followed Christ and went about Preaching the Gospel with the other Disciples but when the Spirit left him he betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver that was his proper work and despaired and dyed Vse 7. This should put the Saints upon a serious Tryal of their graces The Point tells you that where there are beginnings of true grace God will make rich Additions of more grace Oh then try what grace yours is if it be true grace God will give more grace As the Apostle saith He that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it If it be a good work God will perfect it he will cherish his own work Sirs God will not nurse up a spurious seed Bastard grace whereof he is not the Father Oh! then all you that would taste comfort from this Point try your graces The Evangelical Hypocrite is he I aim at There is Gospel-Hypocrisie so I call it for where the Gospel comes there are two sorts of Persons that walk beside it 1. Some directly oppose the Doctrine of it and those are Justitiaries that set up their own Righteousness as the Jews Rom. 9. 31 32. did And therefore it is said That Christ came to his own and his John 1. 11. own received him not And such are the Papists at this day who are justly by our Divines said to answer to the Jewish Pharisees These are Christian Pharisees they receive Christ in Name but set up their own Righteousness and will be justified by their own Works and saved by their own Merits 2. Others there are that receive the Gospel and so decry all their own Righteousness and cry up Christ they see nothing in themselves and look for all from Christ renouncing their own Righteousness and resting upon Christ alone for salvation These are of divers sorts 1. Some receive Christ with an Historical lifeless Faith they believe in Christ but will not part with their sins they gladly embrace Christ as a Saviour but oppose Holiness and will not change their lives and because Christ came into the World to save sinners they take liberty to sin and hope to be saved as well as any These are those we call our large Protestants who are as great Enemies to Christ as Papists are The Papists persecute the true Christians in the Point of Doctrine and these Enemies within us persecute the true Christians in Point of Holiness The Papists they will be saved by works without Faith these will be saved by Faith without works These are spots in our feasts The Epistles of James and John were written as Antidotes against this kind of poyson And Jude writes against these men ungodly men turning the Vers 4. grace of God into lasciviousness Arguing from mercy to liberty which is the Divils Logick Continuing in sin that grace may abound And my Beloved in this lyeth the very form of an Evangelical Hypocrite in denying his own Righteousness to establish his sin he will advance Christ to advance his lust Dub. But how can open sinners keep their lusts live in visible prophaneness and yet believe in Christ Sol. Because the Gospel brings the sweetest and highest Consolations along with it And therefore every man under sense of sin will fly thither for Sanctuary and hide himself under the Canopy of the Gospels mercy A man that travels under the fiery Beams of the Sun in an hot day the cool shadow of a Tree is very
temptations there 's never a temptation but it is from Divine ordination and therefore is managed by the reins of Divine moderation so that as the expert Rider rules the horse and the skilful Coach-man by his dexterity guides the Coach so the wise and merciful God governs the temptation he holds the temptation in his hand with Curb and Bridle he allots it its bounds and graciously prescribes its measure so that it shall not be upon you out of measure Oh! what a rare comfort is this to a poor soul that a God so good circumscribes temptation within limits it may flow in upon you but shall not over-flow you I say it shall not overflow the banks God himself will keep and bound it within its channel its Waves may drench you but they shall not drown you The Great God that saith to the Sea Hitherto shall thy proud waves go and no farther the same God sits upon the waters of every temptation 5. In all your trials and temptations act your faith upon this principle that God will extract good out of them this is the Royal prerogative of God to do so it is his peculiar and he will do so it is spoken of him as one of his incommunicable excellencies that God commanded light to shine out of darkness It is the property of the Devil to draw evil out of good and darkness out of light but it is the sweet property of a gracious God to draw good out of evil and light out of darkness he will turn the shadow of death into the morning tempted souls the Lord who tries you will extract good out of your trials and temptations Vse 3. Expect a perpetual succession of temptations Tota fidelium vita tentatio est all the life of Believers is a temptation When one leaves you look certainly for another In your new birth you are born to temptations this life is but a long chain of successive and continued temptations The temptations of Abraham were many some casting up the accounts of his temptations that are recorded reckon them to be ten it may be I may find more concerning his habitations he was to change them thrice 1. He left his own Native Country at Gods Command and quit all his kindred and dwelt in Charran Act. 7. 3 4. 2. From thence he went at the same command into Canaan whither must he go to a place he knew not to men that knew not him 3. And there God gave him no inheritance in it no not so Act. 7. 5. much as to set his foot on which seems to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift and no gift to promise to give him a land and then to give him not a foot of land in it a shrewd temptation 4. Then there was a famine in the land of Canaan and Abraham Gen. 12. 10. was fain to go down to Egypt Canaan doth not afford him bread which yet he must believe shall flow with milk and honey to his seed 5. In Egypt he was tempted about Sarah his wife and he said Gen. 12. 11. to 17. she was his sister And Pharaoh took her into his house he was under danger of his life and which was worse his wife was under danger of her chastity 6. Then when he came into Canaan again Lots Herdsmen Gen. 13. and his fell out where they should feed their cattel and they did separate from one another and Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan he had brought Lot along with him and nourished him as his child in his bosom and now to be used so unkindly by Lot here 's another temptation 7. Then Lot his kinsman is taken prisoner and Abraham is Gen. 14. fain to engage himself in a War against four Kings for the rescue of Lot taken Captive 8. Then he was afflicted for want of an heir and complains to God What wilt thou give me since I go childless Gen. 15. 2. 9. Then again as he is offering sacrifice and the Sun was going down an horrour of great darkness fell upon him and he Gen. 15. 12 13. received sad news from God that his seed should be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years 10. Then he is tempted with the delay of performance God Gen. 16. 1. promised him a Son but tries him sorely with delay of performance the execution of performance is put off And Sarai Abrahams wife bare him no children Abraham was old ere he had the promise and hope of a Son and still the older the more uncapable yet God makes him wait five and twenty years for performance 11. Then at his wifes perswasion he goes in to Hagar her Gen. 16. 5. maid and she brings him a Son called Ishmael and there falls out discord and contention between Sarai and Hagar and Sarai chides Abraham for it and lays the blame upon him 12. Then God commands him to be circumcised and to circumcise all his seed and all that were in his house And Gen. 17. 24. Abraham was ninety years old and nine when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin Indeed circumcision was the sign of the Covenant and Abraham was not only content to wait for God but also to smart for him God bids him cut his own flesh and he is willing to carry this painful mark of the love of his Creator not regarding the soreness of his body for the confirmation of his soul 13. Then he is tempted again by Abimelech and saith that Gen. 20. 2. Sarai his wife was his sister and Abimelech takes Sarai his wife from him 14. Then he is sorely tempted again by the ejection of his Son Ishmael for Sarah said unto Abraham Cast out the bond-woman Gen. 21. 10 11. and her son for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son even with Isaac And the thing was very grievous in Abrahams sight because of his son 15. Then he is tempted here God commanded him to kill and sacrifice his Son all the former were but easie tasks of faith to this all ages have stood amazed at this to sacrifice his Son All the other were but mole-hills to this great Mountain Dost thou take pleasure in humane sacrifice or if thou wilt have it must I be the Monster of all parents to do it must my hands destroy the fruit of mine own loins If thou wilt have him must I my self do it what none else but I my self must do it A temptation most transcendent and yet this follows after all the rest Sirs What say you Do you think to live quiet you have been tempted and now you hope to be quiet mistake not look for more still and more yet and more continually Do you think at the end of a temptation there 's an end of temptations No no they must begin again God hath more work for you to do God will
he hath not received The meaning is not then whosoever hath the improvement of Nature to him shall be given true Grace but whosoever hath true Grace given to him to him still it shall be given and he shall have more abundance God will heap favours on them i. e. The beginning of Grace is a pawn of more Grace and every former Grace shall be a pledg of future First God gives Grace therefore we have it whosoever hath then he adds more to it to him it shall be given 1. The words are a Reason why Christ said to the Apostles Vnto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven For or because whosoever hath to him shall be given I pray mark it I say It is a Reason not why natural men should have Grace given them but why the Disciples should have Grace given them 2. Having or not having is to be understood of Saving Grace Therefore speak I in Parable to them because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand Ver. 13. Here Christ gives the Reason clearly which he toucht in Ver. 11 But to them it is not given why he spake to the Scribes and Pharisees in Parables because hearing Christ before preach plainly the Kingdom of Heaven they would not understand nor believe nor obey him Hearing they would not hear And seeing his Holiness and his Miracles they would not believe nor receive him for the Messia Thus seeing they would not see And therefore they deserved that Christ should now preach in obscure and cloudy Parables to them We see then the cause of Christ's preaching in Parables was the obstinacy of some who were present and they were not meer simple men unlearnd men but the Scribes and Pharisees and Priests who follow Christ only to carp at and catch him 2 To deride him and he was not to give holy things to Dogs From these the mysteries of Heaven were justly vailed because in seeing and hearing they did not and would not see nor hear and understand Observe hence Obs Such minds as hearers bring to Christ such Sermons doth he preach to them Because they would not understand they shall not When they will not understand those things that are clear and manifest Christ involves his speeches in darkness because the Disciples do plainly and honestly receive what is given they are worthy i. e. counted worthy to whom more secret mysteries should be Communicated Obs As it is the mercy and gift of God that some hear and understand what they hear so it is the dreadful judgment of God that some in hearing hear not nor understand Having travel'd thus far in the Explanation of our Text we now arrive at the several Theses or Doctrines contained in it upon which we will lay the Structure of the following Discourse 1. Doct. The matters of the Kingdom of Heaven are Mysteries 2. It is a matchless aend blessed Priviledg to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven 3. The Divine knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is given to some not to others 4. Where there are beginnings of true Graece though never so weak God makes rich additions of more Of these we will treat in order as they lye before us 1. Doct. The matters of the Kingdom of Heaven are Mysteries 1. Jesus Christ is a great Mystery The Creator became a Creature He who made Man was made Man He was born of the Virgin-Mother and yet made his Mother He that was the Father of Eternity was born in time He never offended his Father and yet was the greatest offender in the world A sinner and no sinner For he knew no sin and yet was made sin for us He was David's Son and yet David called him Lord. Mat. 22. 42 43. 2. Justification by Jesus Christ is a great Mystery There is a Curse denounced against them that break the Law Gal. 3. 10. and yet the Saints are not cursed though they never kept the Law The Saints cannot be Justified by the Law and yet the Law Gal. 5. 23. cannot but Justifie them There 's nothing hinders Acceptance but Sin yet Sin doth 1 Tim. 1. 13. not hinder their Acceptance 3. Faith is a Mystery The Apostle saith Faith is the substance Heb. 11. 1. or subsistence of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen See and not see things not seen and yet Faith sees them Things to come and yet makes them present and gives them present Being It is a Mystery Christ was born some thousand years after Abraham and yet Abraham saw John 8. 56. his Day By Faith Moses saw him that is Invisible saith the Text Invisible and yet saw him It is a Mystery He saw him by Faith who could not be seen by Sense It is said of Abraham that against hope he believed in Rom. 4. 18. hope 4. Regeneration is a Mystery That a man should be born again and yet not enter into his Mothers Womb it is a Mystery How can a man be born when he is old saith Nicodemus John 3. 4. Can he enter the second time into his mothers Womb and be born So Conversion is a Mystery That a man should be the same and not the same the same man for soul and body and yet not the same in regard of supernatural Life and Being put into him It is a Mystery To see a mans Judgment and Affections turned backward He that was proud before now turned humble and he that was ambitious before now despise the vain World it is a strange Mystery The men of the World stand wondring at it as 1 Pet. 4. 4. the Israelites did at Saul Is Saul also among the Prophets And the Church admired at Paul Act. 9. 21. 5. Humility is a Mystery The Saints know themselves to be Kings and yet refuse not to be every mans Servant To lye lowest is the only way to rise highest Whosoever shall humble himself the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Matth. 18. 4. Matth 23. 12. August de Temp. heaven But whosoever doth exalt himself shall be abased Videte magreum miraculum c. saith Austin See here a great miracle God is on high and yet the higher thou liftest up thy self the further thou art from him and the lower thou humblest thy self the nearer thou art to him The Angels those great Courtiers and Princes of Heaven such is their humility they become Ministring spirits to the Saints surely the Angels humility is a Mystery Again That a man should use the World as if he did not 1 Cor. 7. 29. 30 31. use it weep as if he did not weep weep and not weep rejoyce as though he rejoyced not rejoyce and not rejoyce And they that buy as though they possessed not buy and not buy that they that have Wives he as though they had none married and yet unmarried it is a Mystery 6. Self-denial is a
the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 En. 1. l. 6. unless it be Sun-like and hath the form and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it so neither can the soul of Man behold God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be God-like hath God formed in it and made partaker of the Divine Nature As in the natural body it is the heart that sends up good blood and warm spirits into the head whereby it is best enabled to its several Functions So in the spiritual fabrick 't is the heart that sublimates the head and stores it with pure influences the affections beget imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Iliad T. v. 44. As the Treasurers of an Army give out Corn and Provision to the Soldiers Some men have too bad hearts to have good heads they cannot be good at Theory who are so bad at the Practice Our Lord Christ hangs all true acquaintance with Divine Truths upon the doing of Gods will If any man will do his John 7. 17. will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God Such as set themselves to do the will of God shall know the Doctrines and Mysteries of God Corrupt passions and earthly affections are apt of their own nature to disturb all serene thoughts to precipitate our Judgments and warp our Understandings There is an inward sweetness and deliciousness in Divine Truth which no sensual mind can taste or relish And therefore the Platonists solicite so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A separation from the body in all those that would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purely understand truth The more our souls dive into our bodies the more will reason and sensuality run into one another and make up a most unsavoury and muddy kind of Knowledg And therefore wicked men let them imagine what they please have no true Knowledg of God Such as men themselves are such will God himself seem to be It is the Maxim of most wicked men that the Deity is some way or other like themselves their souls do more than whisper it though their lips speak it not That Idaea which men generally have of God is nothing else but the picture of their own complexion 6. Know things as God doth know them God to exercise the wisdom that he hath given to man hath planted a difference in the Creatures and hath given a faculty to man to know and make a right choice in those differences and then man doth know things aright when he knows them as God knows them and then man makes a right choice when he chuseth as God chuseth Now God knows that riches are but little things and that credit in the world is but a shadow and that honours in high places are but like leaves on the top of a tree And who would climb a tree to fetch a leaf But God knows that pardon of sin is a choice rarity 7. Know things and judg of them as they are in another world Whilst thou livest in the world and hast all things before thee know and judg of them as thou wilt when thou art going out of the world and hast all things behind thee ah my Beloved when thy last sand is run out thou wilt have a far different opinion of the World from what now thou hast Vse 7. As I desire you to know the Mysteries of Heaven so I would have you to know your selves that you have an Interest in these blessed Mysteries that they are yours Salvation is a Mysteries but if you know that salvation is yours and the way to salvation is a Mystery but if you know that you are in the way Ah! this is the soul and sweetness of the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaveb This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greece of Greece the wheel in the wheel the Heaven of that heavenly Knowledg It is to no purpose to know that these things are Mysteries unless we know they be for us and for our good that Christ is ours and that God is reconciled to us Vse 8. You Saints and Children of God who enjoy this great priviledg Oh! go you and bless God For unto you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Would it not have greatly ravisht your hearts had you been the persons present to whom Christ spake these words Surely it would But though Christ be in Heaven yet he hath left this Text behind him to speak to you and to tell you It is given unto you to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given Observe here two things 1. It is a gift To know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven saith Christ it is given to you Dear souls Flesh and Hath 16. 17. blood hath not revealed these things unto you but your Father which is in heaven Now gifts are received with thankfulness even small gifts are taken thankfully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom Odys Plutarch de Artaxcrxe Longimen It is said of Artaxerxes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was no gift so small which he received not kindly I say we take small gifts thankfully how much more spiritual gifts Such gifts as have Heaven and Salvation wrapt up in them Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Eph. 1. 3. Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ These gifts are blessings and for such blessings Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Being is a gift but grace added to it is a blessing to be born is a gift but the new birth put to it is a blessing otherwise It had been good for that man saith Christ if he had never been born To have Understanding and Knowledg is a great gift but to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven is a great blessing Blessed are the eyes which see the things that Luke 10. 23. ye see 2. They are Mysteries and will ye not bless God that he should make Mysteries known to you They are Mysteries of his bosom and is it nothing to be Gods bosom-friends They are the Mysteries of his secret wise and eternal Counsels And is it nothing to be Gods Privy-Counsellors They are the Mysteries of eternal life And is it nothing to know the Rolls and Records of eternity Saints God hath made ye his Cutodes Rotulorum is not eternal life a delicate flower to smell at Is it nothing to see within the vail Surely it is a great priviledg therefore you may rejoyce in it and bless God for it And this leads us to the third Doctrine which is this Doct. 3. The Divine Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is given to some not to others In this Doctrine there are three things clear and obvious 1. The Knowledg of Divine Mysteries is a gift To you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven What is given is a gift Divine Knowledg is a
and grace for grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one grace for another The latter for the former for having mentioned the fulness of Christ he saith That not one but many graces are drawn and derived from him not one but many graces the first whereof is the cause of the second the second of the third and the third of the fourth and so along always the latter is given for the former till all the gifts of grace being compleated beatitude it self is at last perfected Not as if more grace were given for the right use of grace for that were to take us off from Christ to our selves whereas 't is the Apostles scope to fix us wholly on Christ but the Condition and Nature of Saving-grace which is such Vt prima Trahat alteram that the first draws the second they are as it were so concatenated as one Ring in a chain draws another and for the former that is given the latter is given that is God because he hath given the one will give the other such is the Order and Method he observes he give grace for grace that is where he finds one grace he gives another and where he finds some he gives more Or Grace for Grace i. e. Gratiam super Gratiam grace upon grace i. e. abundance of grace having scarce received one but presently receive another and after that another which Musculus saith the Hebrews express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle shews it in Rom. 8. 30. From the fulness of Christ we have received the grace of our Calling and upon our calling the grace of Pardon and Justification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Justification the grace of Adoption and Sanctification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Adoption the grace of Glory and Salvation still grace upon grace as the Apostle expresseth it in Ephes 1. 3 4 c. We shall now give you the Reasons of the Point why it is that where there are beginnings of true grace though never so weak God makes rich additions of more grace And Reas 1. Because grace in a Saint is God's own child the infant grace is the Spirits little babe begot in the Womb of the soul by the Spirit the soul is the Mother of it and the Spirit is the Father of it Now you know a Father is very tender of his young babe he takes it up in his Arms and looks upon it he reads his own Image in it and puts it in his bosom he handles it as gently as ever he can and preserves it from the least harm So when the Infant-grace is born in the soul the Spirit is very tender of his young babe he makes wondrous much of it and is as Preservative of its life as ever he can As you may see in Paul he had been in sore pangs of Travel three days and three nights together and the child Grace was newly born and see what care the Spirit had of it said he to Annanias Arise do not stay saith he but Acts 9. 11. arise and go into the street which is called Straight and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth The child Grace as soon as it was born began to cry and the Spirit presently takes care of it 1. The Spirit when the soul is brought to bed and safely delivered of her Man-child Grace sets the little babe to nurse and provides suck for it and gives it the Breasts of the Ordinances as the Apostle saith And I brethren could not speak 1 Cor. 3. 1 1 Pet. 2. 2. unto you as unto spiritual but as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk And in 1 Pet. 2 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby A babe when 't is new-born must have milk which is the most nutritive food in the world so must the little new creature when it is born it must have milk and therefore the Spirit provides it for him The Ordinances are the Breasts and the Ministers are the Nurses which give it suck As the Apostle saith We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth 1 Thes 2. 7. her children 2. The Spirit dades his little child Grace and teacheth it to go As God saith When Israel was a child I loved him Hos 11. 1. Verse 3. and called my son out of Egypt I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms And therefore are we said to be led by the spirit and to walk Rom. 8. 14. in the spirit 3. The Spirit teacheth his little child Grace to speak as a Father you know takes up his little one upon his knee and teacheth him to Articulate words and to call Dad so doth the Holy Spirit teach the child Grace to cry Abba Gal. 4. 6 Father Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Reas 2. Where there are beginnings of true grace God makes rich Additions of more grace because such is the Lords noble Nature that he loves to be giving To give is an Act Dare honestum quid est Recipere utile Dans exercet Actum Monestum Accipere utilem Agit ille hic patitur potius for a Prince rather for a God poor men receive rich men give Subjects receive Princes give Creatures receive the Creator gives The more noble and eminent natures are the more they give and the less they receive The heavenly bodies glance their light and dart their influences upon the Earth below but receive nothing from the Earth To give is an Act of perfection to receive is a note of imperfection were we not imperfect we need not be receiving He that gives imitates God who gives and receives not again because he wants not any thing And therefore it was a saying of Christ It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. It is a part of Gods Beatitude that he is all things and hath all things to give that he can give and not be beholden to receive that he is an overflowing Sea always pouring out his gifts and golden streams upon the Creature When he hath given thee grace he hath more grace still to give And being a God and not man he gives continually to give he makes his continued Act He 'l never cease giving to his Saints not only in this life but in the life to come he will be giving out unto his Saints eternally As the Sun is always giving out its heat and virtue to the World so will God be always giving out his sweetness to his Saints throughout Eternity So that he that hath grace shall have more grace he that hath it in the bud and in the beginning shall have it in the perfection fear not poor creature if thou art always wanting God will be always giving and being a God
be given to them that have grace be it never so small Then Saints see what your work is What 's that to receive How may we receive more grace First Open thy soul to receive grace For to receive a thing is sometimes a motion of the subject or faculty opening it self to receive it As the hand doth open it self to receive a gift and a vessel must be opened to receive oyl or cordial pour'd into it The earht opened her mouth and swallowed up Corah And Numb 16. 32. Gen. 4 11. the earth as God said to Cain opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand Now the opening of the soul to receive Grace consists in these three Things 1. In believing the Promise when the soul believes its door stands open to receive the golden Treasures of Grace that are brought into it out of the store-house of the Promise And therefore saith the Text They rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto Acts 14. 27. the gentiles 2. In love to grace promised for love is an opening grace When a man loves a friend dearly he opens his Arms to embrace and receive him so when a man loves grace he opens his heart to welcom grace into it And therefore ye shall find this passage between Christ and his Spouse saith Christ Open to me my love And saith the Spouse I rose up to open to Cant. 5. 2. Vers 5. my beloved He that loves Christ will open the two-leav'd gates of his soul to let in Christ with all his train 3. In desire after grace promised for the desire of grace is an opening of the soul to receive grace As the Lord saith Psal 81. 10. Open thy mouth wide i. e. ask freely open thy mouth in Prayer as wide as thou wilt And I will fill it 2dly Lye low The valleys that receive all the showres and floods into their bosom lye low under all the high hills and proud mountains so the humble Saints that lye in the bottom of self-abhorrence under all the rest receive the showres of grace the floods stay upon them and they drink them in they are overflown like your low grounds with abundance of grace 3dly Accept of grace to receive grace is to accept of grace As Jacob said to his brother Esau Nay I pray thee if now I Gen 33. 10. have found grace in thy sight then receive my present at my hand i. e. accept of my present at my hand Vse 5. What shall I do that have no grace To him that hath shall be given But what shall I do that have not Consider grace is a gift and therefore 1. God can give grace where it is not he gives grace where is none he doth good to them that are not good A gift is bestowed where it is not See Isa 44. 3 I will pour water upon Isa 44. 3. him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring i. e. as I pour Water and Floods upon the dry and thirsty ground that hath none so will I pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring Where observe God gives showres of grace where there 's not a drop before 2. He can give grace to whom he will he can love whom he will and he can give grace to whom he will this is the Prerogative of Gods Love he can love any one Man being a narrow creature cannot love any one one that is fowl and ugly and crooked but God can love any one he can love unhandsom and deformed Creatures and marry them and make them lovely Naaman the Syrian was a Leper and therefore wondrous ugly he was a Leper in Body and Mind too The beauty of the mind presents a crooked person comely to us but Naaman had beauty in neither part he was a Leper in body and an Idolater in mind and yet God loved him and by a poor maid in his house sent him to the Prophet of Israel and healed his outside and healed his inside made his Body comely and made his Soul comely 3. He makes notorious sinners noteable Saints he makes Persecutors Preachers As he did Paul and all the Church admired it But they had heard only that he who persecuted us Gal. 1. 23. in times past now PREACHETH the faith which once he DESTROYED See the Work and Free-grace of God! Would God shew mercy to him that destroyed the Faith Yes he gave Faith to him that destroyed the Faith Paul if he could would have kil'd Christ and yet God gives him Christ The Gentiles were the greatest Sinners in the World and they were at the height of sin when the Gospel began to be Preached to them they were counted unclean the unclean Act 10. 14 15. beasts swine and other Beasts which the Jews under the Law might not eat did signifie the Gentiles and the Jews not eating the unclean beasts did signifie that they should have no communion with the unclean Gentiles yet on the GENTILES Vers 45. Acts 11. 17. also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost And forasmuch as God gave them i. e. the Gentiles the like gift as he did unto us 4. Sometimes God makes his greatest Act of Love to pass upon the greatest sinner Paul you know was a Saul indeed chief of sinners he saith it of himself and yet notwithstanding Acts 9. 3 4. Christ Preached from Heaven to him he sent men to Preach to others as Philip to the Eunuch but Jesus Chrrist doth himself Preach to Paul Jesus Christ when he was on Earth in the form of a servant called the other Apostles as Matthew at the receipt of custom and Peter when he was fishing follow me but when he was on his Throne in Majesty he Preacht from Heaven to Paul Wondrous love to a wondrous sinner 5. He bids thee pray and he 'l give Ask and it shall be Matth. 7. 7. Luk. 11. 13. given you But you 'l say he saith this to Saints Sol. See what our Lord Christ saith to the Woman of Samaria If thou knew'st the gift of God and who it is that saith John 4. 10. to thee Give me to drink thou would'st have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Dub. But I ask and yet 't is not given Resp Questionless he that bids us ask means to give As we bid our Children say I pray you father give me such a thing we do it not but when we mean to give it them Object But I cannot pray I cannot pray for grace Answ 1. He that will give thee grace when thou prayest will give thee grace that thou mayest pray As God first formed Adams body and it lay dead before him on the ground without breath or life or soul in it and God breathed into his nostrils the breath
habit A man may free himself from his acquired Corruptions he may by care and industry of his own mortifie his acquired depravations of Nature As we read of many Socrates and Plato who by their Wisdom and Industry freed themselves from the slavery of many sensual appetites and passions which their corrupt nature and evil company had led them into and yet the natural corruption remained still Thou thinkest thou art converted because thou hast overcome thy drunkenness but drunkenness is but an acquired corruption thou didst get it by custom and mayst break it by custom and yet nature remain still unchanged 5. The change of the heart chiefly appears in the change of the ultimate or utmost end As the Pollution of the whole man and all his Actions Moral Civil and Religious consists chiefly and appears in seeking self or making our selves our utmost end so our sanctification lyeth in this and appears chiefly in making God the ultimate end of all we do A man before he is sanctified desires God and Christ only to keep his sores from aking for so I look upon all men made up of wants if the body ake with diseases and pains the stomack with hunger conscience for sin all their happiness lyeth in the easing thereof here lyeth their bliss They seek after God only as a Physitian to heal or cure them but not as the end of their cure The sick man sends for the Physitian but his health and recovery is his end so do men before their Conversion in their pangs of Conscience their afflictions their wants and necessities they seek to God and make use of God as an instrument but their ease and interests are their ends Jehu sought the Lord but his last end was himself But when the heart is sanctified then God is their end instead of their lusts and sins God is the only end in their eye instead of the riches or comforts of the World God is the Object in their eye Whom have I in heaven but thee and Psal 73. 25. there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee God was instead of all things to him 1. The soul seeth its own vileness and the Lord in his Glory This is the first Principle of seeking the Lord the soul seeth all his good laid up in the Lord more than in himself nay wholly in the Lord not at all in himself All my springs saith the soul are in thee All my treasures of Righteousness and Redemption all my riches of Wisdom and Sanctification they are all in thee and therefore the Saints when they see their own vileness and the Lord in his Glory are so far from seeking that they loath themselves 2. The soul slights the creatures as vessels of meer vanity Oh try your selves then by this touchstone A carnal heart may cross his own Will but not his own utmost end A man may seek the Lord with delight and follow the Zech. 7. 5 6. Isa 58. 4 5. Ordinances and fast and pray but himself is his end still How shall we know we make God our end 1. When you make him your happiness those that are throughly sanctified make the Lord their last end and happiness Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O Deut. 33. 29. Psal 144. 15. people Happy are those people whose God is the Lord. The full rest and peace of the soul is to be found only in the Presence of God in this Being of Beings his perfections are in himself he keeps a perpetual sabbath of rest in himself And in this rest only the gracious soul seeks his rest God is the journeys-end of all his Labours Life and Travels When Solomon had tyred out himself in his Travels through all the things of this World at last he returns empty and crying home and now when he sums up all his Glory he saith The words of the preacher the Son of David King in Jerusalem Eccl. 1. 1. He stiles himself 1. A man gathered to the Church to be as near God as he can 2. The Son of David to whom the promises were made And then thirdly King of Jerusalem the least and last of all Secondly When you do the Lords work purely for the Lord the Hypocrite will do the Lords work but 't is because his own Interests are bound up with it As a man that goes to the City he will do your business but he would not go unless he had affairs of his own to do there But the gracious heart will go for God and ride for God meerly upon the Lords occasions Thirdly When you carry all things down the stream toward God As a River running toward the Sea many springs fall and run into it but it carrieth them down all with it so the upright soul there are many occasions hinderances businesses but he carrieth them all down along with him they must all go with him they shall not divert him but he will over-master them and lead them his way nay the more he is hindred the more violent is his motion It is time for thee O Lord to work for they have made void thy Psal 119. 126. 127. law therefore love I thy Commandments above gold yea above fine gold Fourthly Therefore they that are sanctified love the Lord fully that is above all A man is highly endeared to that which he makes his end his end commands his affections to love the Lord and to be beloved of the Lord and behold his Glory is the main end of the upright heart Fifthly They that are sanctified dedicate themselves to the Will of God I mean to the whole Will of God Their will is emptied into his will Teach me to do thy will Psal 143. 10. Psal 40. 8. O God I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart The Hebrew word for an holy man is a consecrated man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man seperated from common to a Divine use The sanctified man is a man separated from his own will and set apart to do Gods Will he is gone out of his own Will and lives at a distance from it he is sorry that he hath served his own will so long and is weary of the service 1. They that are sanctified do Gods Will purely because it is his will because it pleaseth him there is a dear propensity in the Saints to do Gods Will because it pleaseth him Thus saith the Lord unto ths Eunuchs that keep my sabbaths Isa 56. 4. and chuse the things that please me This is their choice it is in their hearts to do it because it pleaseth the Lord I will Psal 69. 30. praise the name of God with a song and magnifie it with thanksgiving This also shall please the Lord better than an Ox or Vers 31. Bullock that hath Horns and Hoofs This is the Motive and loadstone of their Obedience in that it pleaseth him This is the joy
of their work and that which makes musick upon the strings of their hearts because it pleaseth him It is with every man as it was with Sampson he would needs have a wife of the Philistins Why so because she pleaseth Judg. 14. 3. me So why do men seek themselves love themselves and espouse these and those lusts but because it pleaseth them Look then as the soul when he loved himself did seek to please only his own will in every thing and 't was good because it pleased him so the Saint whose heart is now endeared to Christ though he cannot perfectly do it that 's in Heaven yet he seeks to give the whole will of Christ content because it pleaseth Christ He that is unmarried saith the Apostle careth for the 1 Cor. 7. 32. things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord. 2. The upright heart though he cannot joy in the Lords Love yet he will joy in the Lords Will His delight is in the Psal 1. 2. Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night 3. They close with the whole Will of God as their happiness It is not only good to do the Lords Will for thus men may seek the Lord as thinking it good so to do but as their Blessedness else 't is not their last end and so not sought as their last end The sanctified soul obeys God as his Blessedness Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord Psal 119. 1. Vers 2. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart This makes them seek God with the whole heart because they count this their Blessedness this makes a gracious heart prize service to God above the whole Creation and set an higher rate upon a good work than upon a miracle he had rather be obeying than working miracles rather humbling his soul than removing mountains because he is doing the Will of God Vse 8. Saints reach after more grace It should not content a Saint to have grace but to have more grace As it doth not content God to give grace but to give more grace so it should not content a Saint to have grace but to have more grace Because 1. The more grace thou hast the more of God thou hast in thee And he that is full of grace is full of God To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might Eph. 3. 19. be filled with all the fulness of God 2. Abundance of grace is lovely for grace is the beauty of the soul the quintessence and sweetness that doth dulcifie and perfume the soul A little sugar doth not sweeten a cup especially if it be a bitter cup such as mans nature is we say of a little that 't is as good as none at all A little Frankincense doth not perfume a room especially if it be a stinking room such as mans impure nature is Where grace is predominant there a Saint is lovely Ah my Beloved God would have the Saints lovely in his eye and lovely in the Worlds eye Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven There must be abundance of light in thee to shine over all the Horizon of thy Conversation as there is abundance of light in the Sun that shines over all the Hemisphere we live in and therefore 't is a great body so must thou be a great Saint to shine before all men and therefore the little stars do not shine scarce to our eye Ah my Beloved This is the reason why many who call themselves Saints are not lovely in the eyes of the World they have not abundance of grace they have abundance of profession but not abundance of grace abundance of profession but little grace and this makes them so odious in the World abundance of profession without grace makes them but the more odious in the world The world seeth so much pride and so little humility in them so much worldliness and so little of Heaven in them so much unjust dealing and so little truth in them that the world is apt enough to conclude that either this is not the Gospel which they profess or that they are not true to their profession John the Baptist had abundance of grace and he was very lovely in the eye of the World he was lovely in Herods eye Mark 6. 20. 3. Abundance of grace is lively for grace is the life of the soul and where life is but weak there the actings are not lively A weak man cannot run But saith David I will run the way of thy Commandments He was lively for he had Psal 119. 32. abundance of grace Moses was mighty in Prayer saith God Let me alone that Exod. 32. 10. my wrath may wax hot against them i. e. hinder me not by thy Prayer from punishing them Moses had abundance of Spirit he was too hard for God himself as I may say with reverence Saints had ye abundance of Faith ye would be lively in believing As 't is said of Abraham He was strong Rom. 4. 20. in Faith 4. The more grace thou hast the more terrible to the Devils The Devil trembles at the mighty Prayers of a gracious man the Devil trembles at the strong Faith of a gracious man Oh! Who would not have grace And who would not have much grace When the Apostles acted by Faith came as Christ said to cast out Devils Did not the Devils tremble at them Saint he fears thee more than thou needest fear him Jesus I know Act. 19. 15. and Paul I know said the Devil That is I know them to my fear they have put me to flight many a time And if you were such as they I should fear you also Believe it Soul he trembles at thy holiness he trembles at thy Faith put it forth in Prayer and thou shalt see him run Resist the Devil Jam. 4. 8. and he will flie from you 5. The more grace thou hast the more thou shalt-serve the Lord which is the true and proper end of thy Creation Lord saith one is it much that I serve thee whom Thom. a Kempis l. 3. c. 10. all creatures are bound to serve It ought not to seem much unto me to serve thee but this rather seems much and marvelous to me that thou vouchsafest to receive into thy service one so poor and unworthy to serve thee He goeth on Behold all is thine which I have and whereby I serve thee and yet in very deed thou rather servest me than I thee 6. Nothing but grace will bring thee to Heaven Vanity of vanities and all is vanity but only to love God and wholly to serve him Knowledg is Vanity yea Knowledg of God himself is Vanity and of Christ himself is Vanity without grace to love him and live to him As one
and the power and goodness of the promiser Love lives upon Faith we can love God no longer than we believe When the imaginary Faith of wicked men like a candle dyeth within them their supposed love to God goeth out with it also They hate him in Hell and can do no other we love God no longer than we have a good opinion of his love to us 't is Faith that seeds this Lamp with Oyl We love him because he first loved us And therefore when the spring of Faith is low the stream of Love is very ebb Prayer lives upon Faith we pray no longer than we believe Prayer shall be heard We knock no longer at Gods door than Faith seeth we are welcom When a man feels guilt of sin yet Faith seeth the Lord will pardon it for his own name-sake Who is a God like unto Mica 7. 18. thee that pardons iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage He will turn again he will have compassion on us he will subdue i. e. pardon our iniquities so the word signifies and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea When a man feels the strength of sin yet Faith seeth that the Lord will waste and subdue it and doth not this bear up grace from sinking With what courage doth grace fight against sin when Faith tells her God is on your side and you shall overcome Faith finds and feels rest in trouble Vnto the upright there Psal 112. 4. ariseth light in the darkness The life of a Christian is a life of Faith which is a life contrary to sense and reason when the Lord kills what Doth he intend then to save me yes that he doth saith Faith and therefore Though he kill me yet will I trust in him and thus is grace inlivened When the Lord binds me in Cords of misery doth he intend me any good Yes saith Faith he intends to teach thee and instruct thee Blessed is he whom thou chastenest O Lord Psal 94. 12. Vers 13. and teachest him out of thy law that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity WHILE the pit is digged for the wicked Faith informs the Soul that God is upon a good work whilst he is binding and breaking his people Oh! he is teaching them some high and holy lesson his corrections are their instructions He is preparing them for a day of prosperity As 't is in the next verse That thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity while the pit is digged for the wicked Where take notice of these two Things 1. While God is chastising his People he is preparing them for a day of smiles and felicities When he was breaking Job upon the wheel of Affliction he was but preparing him for a greater day of Honour and Prosperity 2. While God by chastisements is preparing his people for some greater happiness at that very time he is preparing a Gallows for the wicked he is digging their pit to bury them in That thou mayst give him rest from the day of adversity while the pit is digged for the wicked While the Jews were under a Cloud and God preparing deliverance for them he was at that very time preparing Hamans Gallows The wicked like condemned men are suffered to live till their Gallows and Grave be made ready Now Faith is well read in Divine Mysteries in Gods proceedings she acquaints the soul that God by chastising and touching the Body is teaching her that his strokes are not huntful Nocumenta sunt Documenta Secondly The Lord increaseth grace in his People by preserving a tenderness upon their Consciences 't is grace that makes the Conscience tender and that tenderness nurseth up grace with exquisite care in the soul The most tender hearted nurse is not more chary of her dear Babe to give it suck keep it clean preserve it from harms and see it come on and prosper than the tender Conscience is of her grace the sweet Babe of the Holy Ghost within her Blessed yea thrice blessed are they to whom God hath given a tender conscience As grace withers and shrinks up by an hardness coming upon the heart so grace improves mightily in a soft and tender soyl 1. The tender Conscience startles at secret sins as well as open sins to sin in the dark as well as in the light his Memento or if you please his Motto is Shall not God search this out Psal 44. 21. He fears Gods Eye more than all the Worlds eye The tender Conscience trembleth at your cunning arts and ways of sinning whereby in your bargains you can bring about your covetous desires under hand and no man discern you You call only those sins secret that are done in a corner but if in your publick dealings you can by your subtilties come over another Are not these secret sins too Tender conscience cannot swallow them And is not grace growing now 2. Tender conscience is quick and sensitive of small sins vain thoughts idle words lesser oaths wanton glances wishes and motions to sin He knows no duty small because there 's no Commandment small he calls no sin little because there 's no poyson little no death little no hell little and doth not this give strength to grace 3. The tender conscience smites the Saint after he hath sinned as oft as he sinneth After sin committed his heart gives him no rest till he hath made his peace with God If corrupt nature cannot but sin yet renewed conscience cannot but repent of sin it cannot but rise again if God be offended it cannot but meet him with humiliation if Man be wronged it cannot but make restitution or satisfaction as Zacheus did When David had sinned in numbring the people his heart smote him I have sinned greatly in that I have done Surely 2 Sam. 24. 10. grace gets ground by this 4. Tender conscience trembles at the appearance of evil as some eyes cannot abide to look on the Picture or Image of a Toad that which looks like sin he abhors it it scares a holy soul from any enterprize if it be but male coloratum an ill aspect Every thing that might any way redound to the wounding of Religion or at which any offence might be taken he entertains it not and doth not this give nutriment to grace 5. Tender conscience is jealous of the appearance of good as it hates the appearance of evil so it dares not always trust every appearance of good The tender conscience as far as it hath light will try all things and hold fast only what is good not what seems so Satan deceives more easily and destroys more dangerously when he assumes the shape of an Angel of light That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination Luk. 16. 15. in the sight of God 6. Tender conscience takes heed of what he knows lawful He doth not only fly what appears evil and try what appears good but
Saints that they may be more serious in their duties 2. The other evil in a slight and formal Communion with God in Duties is unthankfulness Duties of godliness are not only a debt to God but a reward to us Therefore in slightness there is not only unfaithfulness but unthankfulness Both the Majesty and Mercy of God is despised and can God be well pleased with such things 3. There is a third evil in a slight Communion with God in Duties and that is unfruitfulness we get nothing from God in duties we pray slightly and therefore get nothing by Prayer we hear the word slightly and therefore profit not by it Now that the Lord may cure his people of this slightness of heart and make their graces grow he useth this dispensation to leave them in want of assurance 6. God increaseth his Saints graces by terrors within he not only suspends their comforts but afflicts their souls he writes bitter things against them 1. These rowse them up to seek God They that see themselves lost will find a way to God They that have Hell-fire burning in them will value Heaven and pardon and the least drop of Gods love Oh! now promises are precious and Gods love neglected is now sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Now they cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly 2. These fright them out of their dreams and carnal slumbers as the cry made at midnight that the Bridegroom cometh awoke the virgins out of their sleep Among the other diseases of the soul Divine desertions cure deadness and dulness of heart Sometimes living men are in a lifeless state their hearts are so benummed that they seem to lye among the dead They can hear the word carelesly and sleep out whole Sermons there is no vigour nor activity in their graces at home and therefore the Lord hangs their souls over the mouth of Hell and makes them drink of that red wine the dregs whereof the wicked of the earth shall Psal 75. 8. wring out and drink them that by this strong potion he may rowse them up and quicken their dull and drowsy spirits 3. These terrors work them more closely to Christ And for this cause God gives his People sad visions of sin and wrath he shakes the soul with Earth-quakes that she may stand faster upon her true Basis and Foundation These storms make their hearts gather in to Christ That I may be found in him saith Paul The soul must have some dry land to stand upon and when the flood of Gods terrors overflow the soul then she flyeth to Christ as Noah's Dove to the ark 7thly The Lord increaseth grace in his Saints by afflictions he makes them by marring them Divine Wisdom works by contraries he makes them shine brighter by their Eclipses and clears up their light by darkness Schola crucis Schola lucis And truly It is the property of true-born grace to grow the greater by the cross As the laurel tree is not smitten Plin. Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 55. nor blasted with lightning no more is heaven-born grace hurt by any afflictions but much bettered by them 1. God increaseth his Saints graces by sharp sicknesses by diseases unto death i. e. this startles mightily Oh Lord thou didst surprize me unprovided and if thy hand had cut me off with that disease my soul had been cut off from heaven for ever This enters deep upon the soul and strikes terrour upon the heart the Lord I hope shall never find me so again This stirs up thankfulness to the Lord that hath not only in this tryal saved me from the grave but also from Hell 2. Sicknesses deaden the Saints to the world They that in sicknesses are always leaving the world learn to dye unto the world They have death always in their eye They see themselves still upon the borders of the grave They are ever and anon lanching in eternity and this makes grace grow 3. Sicknesses are searchers Thou enquirest after mine iniquity Job 10. 6. saith Job and searchest after my sin When God smites our bodies he searcheth our hearts and makes enquiry in our lives and now saith the soul Let us search and try Lam. 3. 40. our ways When God is searching VS it is high time for VS to search our selves and this also makes grace to grow 4. Sicknesses dig Wells of godly sorrows in the heart They are as it were Gods Mattocks and Spades whereby he delves deep into the center of the heart and digs Wells of repentance which send forth streams of confession of sin which before would not run because they had no vent being covered and stopt with the earth of lust and hardness and worldliness upon them but now they find a passage When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the Psal 32. 3. 4. 5. day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moysture is turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin 2. By poverty and narrowness of estate Many men must Aquilone maxime gaudent densiores ab afflatucjus laetioresque materiae firmioris Plin. Nat. Hist l. 17. c. 2. Jer. 6. 22. be kept short and bare that they may thrive in grace Pliny saith That trees generally like best that stand to the North-wind It causeth them to spread thick and more flourishing and makes the Timber more strong and solid The Lord threatneth the Jews with a people from the North-Countrey the Chaldean Army which should carry them captive into Babylon The North wind winnowed them and fanned all their Idolatry They flourished gallantly in Religion after the North wind had blown upon them 1. The cold blasts of poverty correct pride and moderate high thoughts Make a man poor and you make him humble Pride is an absolute enemy to grace and prosperity is the seminary of pride The North-wind of poverty cools the courage and tames the spirits of men and now they know God and themselves Their Plumes fall and now they will digest a reproof and sit upon even ground with the lower Saints When the world frowns upon them they seek the smiles of God before they were too high for him 2. Poverty teacheth them to pray they can now fall upon their knees those that never called upon God learn now to visit the Throne of grace and cry Lord Give us this day our daily bread Nay they long for the spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nay those that have prayed in their fulness now pray feelingly They can go to God in sense of wants before they did not hear nor feel their own Prayers In their prosperity they did not care what Prayers they put off God with Now they set the highest rate upon Prayer for they are fain to live upon Prayer An hungry belly makes a Saint hungry after Ordinances and after Gods Presence When a mans debts and poverty make
him say I know not what to do then his soul saith Mine eyes are up unto thee O Lord. 3. When a man seeth that God blasts all his projects and endeavours and that he shall not be rich in this world then he looks after grace and so a poor estate makes a rich soul A man for a while ascribes his poverty to his great charge and family or to his carelesness and improvidence or to his superfluous expences and therefore brings himself into a narrower room and saith I will try this and that way and he riseth up early and goeth to bed late And now saith he I shall be rich But when he seeth all will not do his good husbandry and pains do not enrich him let him improve his utmost diligence yet all his care cannot add one cubit to his stature then he looks upward and saith Now I see it is God alone that gives wealth riches are only in Gods hands I perceive now that God will not have me rich in this world And therefore Lord Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me give me grace instead of greatness humbleness of heart instead of Honour God instead of gold 8. God increaseth grace in his Saints by awakening sin in the soul As long as sin lyeth a sleep the Saint thinks it is not there He conceives of himself better than he is A disease lying hid and dormant in the body is supposed to be out of doors we think we have not what we feel not and therefore God awakens sin in the soul For 1. Thereby it is discovered 2. Thereby the War is maintained against corruption till it be rooted out God increaseth grace in the Saints by their continual War and conflict with sin The enemy is destroyed by rising their rising is their ruin had they lain still they had lain safe What made Zedekiah and his people to be carried captive 2 Chron. 36. 13. but because they rebelled and rose up against Nebuchadnezzar When sin riseth the Saint riseth and gathers forces against it and therefore God awakens sin in the Saints that they may raise Armies and get new Victories over it Were there no War there would be no Conquests did not sin rise there would be no War against it and therefore Sirs God awakens pride lusts and sins in his Saints that they may hew them down such a sin assaults them and takes the field against them that in a pitcht Battel they may tread it under foot and make an end of it for ever And therefore I would advise you to two Things 1. Do not think thou art under the Power of thy sin when thou art at War with thy sin and it with thee When the soul many times hath had sweet rest in God then to break his joy again in pieces Satan hath stirred up a sin to assault him and now he cryeth out That all his sweet joys were but delusions were my state right should I be thus assaulted again And he thinks he is under the power of sin because there is a new rising of sin against him To answer thee thou must know that there is difference between time of War and time of Victory between the day of conflict and the day of conquest Now is our day of conflict and that of sin which remains in thee must rise again in thee that it may be subdued When Rebeccah had twins in her she was troubled and marvelled at it and went to the Lord who told her The elder shall serve the younger So there is flesh and spirit in the Saints and these two are contrary so that you cannot do the things that you would and sometimes cannot will yet something opposeth this well know it that the elder and stronger shall serve the younger Lord it shall be so because thou hast said it A man that is at War with another and is able to raise Forces against him hath received power against him but Victory is not gotten presently 'T is so here The bruised reed shall he not break till he bring forth judgment unto victory Though Thou art bruised in the conflict yet there 's no fear of breaking if God will not do it none shall do it Now Christ will not break thee The bruised reed shall he not break and therefore thou shalt get the Victory only know for the present thou hast power Thou goest to all Ordinances to ordinary duties thou prayest daily and strivest daily and when thou meetest no help there thou goest to extraordinary duties thou dost fast and lye in sack-cloth against thy sin and raisest the powers of heaven Oh Lord awake Awake thou arm of the Lord here 's a continual and hot War now against sin And this is the first thing I would have you consider Do not think thou art under the power of thy sin when thou art at war with thy sin and it with thee 2. The thing I would advise you to is this Be sure to improve your utmost strength and rise with all your might against the Lords Enemies I mean your sins do not the work of God negligently which is an accursed thing Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently And for this cause God casteth you into sore straits The Israelites should have done the work perfectly when they were commanded to root out the Canaanites but because they were slack and did it unfaithfully therefore God left them as Briars and Thorns to be always an affliction to them And this is the reason why God leaves such a lust or sin in you to be a perpetual scourge to you in your bosoms when you are pressed to take up Arms for Christ against the sins of your hearts if you fight not with all your strength and pursue not the Victory to the utmost till you find your Enemies dead before you God may give you into their hands to lead you into captivity and to hold you in chains that will eat into your souls and may in this distress stand afar of as one that knows you not 9thly God increaseth his Saints graces by the work of humbling Many within a while forget that they have been humbled Time wears out all those Characters of humiliation that were at first engraven upon them their wounds and bruises they had at their first Conversion are healed up again and upon this they have decayed in grace and at last become Apostates and the greatest enemies to the Saints And therefore God to preserve his Saints graces and to increase them keeps up still the life of humiliation in them As the radical moysture in the body is the pabulum caloris naturalis the nutriment of the natural heat and the Oyl is the food of the Lamb which its light lives upon so humiliation is the humidum radicale the radical moysture the fundamental sap that keeps Faith and Prayer and the other graces alive They that humble themselves will pray and seek the 2 Chr. 7.
sins in other kinds are so many and so great that you should bear the more patiently to be hardly thought of when you know you are so bad If you are in truth godly you have seen a sink of uncleanness in your selves and have loathed and condemned your selves often and do you think much then to be condemned by the world If you judg your selves to be so bad should you be troubled that you are thought by others to be bad If you condemn your selves is it suitable for such a spirit that hath been condemning himself to be vexed in that he is condemned by others Conclude therefore it is no great matter to be condemned by the world so long as we are not condemned with the world Seventeenthly Again yet God goeth higher with his Saints he assaults them with the reproaches of Saints Oh! the godly wound me and speak ill of me If 't were others I could pass it by but those that are godly are upon me and whet their tongues against me What shall I do now Is God doing me good by this Yes by this if thou knowest how to make use of it How now judg thy self most of all when the Servants of God think hardly of you and above all if it be wise and impartial men that are acquainted with you it is then your duty to be very jealous of your hearts and ways to fear least you are guilty and to search the more diligently Eighteenthly Yet further God increaseth his Saints graces by Temptations by all sorts and varieties of Temptations And therefore if you would look to grow in grace you must expect and make account of all Temptations whatsoever I say you must look to dwell in the air of perpetual temptations and so have the four cardinal winds of temptations to be always nay sometimes at once blowing on you and blustering about your ears You must never think to be free you would fain have it always a calm and serene air but be not mistaken look for an air full of windy exhalations for the end and use of the winds is to open the pores of the earth for fructification to ventilate and fan the air thereby to purge it and keep it from putrefaction to gather the Clouds together and then dissolve them to water the Earth and nourish the fruits of seeds plants and trees so that as the end for which God made the Winds is for life and growth so doth he in his Wisdom make use of Temptations to serve the growth of your graces For to be tempted is the Way and Conduct of God over his Church and over all souls and was a part of the life of the Son of God It must be also part of the life of a devout soul and we must not doubt but God hath great designs upon them whom he puts into this state For as Gods Power so 2 Cor. 12. 9. our grace also is made perfect by weakness thence she receiveth lustre God purifies us by contradictions and subversions he confirms and assures us by temptations You shall need to take great notice of what hath been said because there are Christians that are of two different Judgments about this point 1. Some expect the way of Religion should be very facile and easie to them and that as soon as ever they are Saints they should sail always with a secûnd or prosperous wind But they are far deceived who think Piety grows among Lillies that the way toward perfection of grace is strew'd with flowers who imagine nothing but sweetness and that devotion is a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and consequently that there is or should be nothing that is difficult Which yet they are the sooner perswaded to in that they only seek a certain satisfaction and ease to their own flesh using no violence but fastning only upon this That it is sufficient for a man to do what he can 2. There are others on the contrary that look upon the exercises of Religion as so rigorous strict and painful that they say of it as the sensual Jews did of the Land of promise It is an ill Countrey possessed of Gyants and that eateth up the inhabitants Here are two different sentiments lying in extreams and consequently faulty both deceive themselves To remedy this the truth we are to say is That godliness is indeed a lilly but growing among thorns Religion hath its thorns they prick it may be hurt us but these thorns are laden with Roses As Moses found God in the burning bush of thorns so a Christian finds God and Grace and Comfort in a Bryar-bush of Conflicts and Temptations And as temptation was the life of Jesus so it is the life of our souls to believe otherwise were to flatter our selves And yet 't is certain there is much content in this warfare for the grace and help of God is always present which will never fail us as long as we dispose our selves to receive it in this respect it is that Religion is all sweetness in that we are able to do all in him who strengthens us in him who comforts us But lastly God tempts his Saints by Satan by the Devil himself and thence I argue that God increaseth his Saints graces by the very temptations of the Devil God sets the Devil upon his own Saints unlooseth the chain and lets him out upon them as a Mastive and there leaves them fighting hand to hand Satan is a Mastive in Gods Chain and therefore could not come out at all to bait us unless God loose him and set him on us Was not Satan fain to get leave of God before he could assault Job Yes surely Satan had his Commission from God to deal with Job The power the Devil had God puts it into his hands That part of the conference between God and Satan is worthy your notice saith Satan to God Put forth thine hand now Job 1. 11. and he will curse thee to thy face Saith God to Satan Behold Vers 12. all that he hath is in thy power Satan moved that God would put forth his hand against Job and God puts Job into Satans hand Was not our Lord Christ led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil Paul had a messenger of Satan sent by God himself to buffet 2 Cor. 12. 7. him Why then should you think much that God in his Sovereignty useth this discipline to exercise and increase his peoples graces as though some strange thing happened unto you 1 Pet. 4. 12. And what I pray you will the issue hereof be but that you may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing 1 Pet. 1. 7. of Jesus Christ Deo soli Honor Gloria AN ACCOUNT OF SATANS TEMPTATIONS 2 Cor. II. 11. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices THE way to Heaven is encounter'd with difficulties and Travellers are in danger of
when he saith Touch his bone and his flesh he aims at deep affliction Touch him so as that his very bones may shatter that the very pillars may shake Touch him so as that the pain and distemper may sink into his very bones into his marrow the bone it self is a part without feeling yet to touch the bone impotts the greatest pain that can be felt 4. Satan if he prevails at the first on-set in the beginning of a temptation he drives on furiously and takes advantage to rout the whole soul As a Troop of Horse that having once broke the rank goeth on fiercely hoping thereby to rout the whole body so doth Satan you may see it in the pitcht battel which he sought with Peter Peter you know goeth after Jesus to the high priests Palace there Peter unawares doth as it were draw out into the field Well the Devil resolves to enter into Battalia with him Simon Simon saith Christ Behold Satan hath desired to have you that Lnk. 22. 31. he may sift you as wheat And there he doth first skirmish with Peter and sends out a Damsel against him Thou also Matth. 26. 69. 70. wast with Jesus of Galilee but he denied before them all saying I know not what thou sayest Here she breaks the rank and gets in upon Peter and what doth Satan do now He drives on furiously takes the present advantage and sends another maid and she chargeth him more strongly for she saith to them that were there This Vers 71. fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth Mark ye this fellow and she saith it unto them that were there round about him A worse charge than the former And again he denieth with an oath But Satan follows on still and now draws up Vers 72. Vers 73. his whole body against Peter After a while came unto him they that stood by a stronger multitude still and said unto Peter Surely thou also art one of them for thy speech bewrayeth thee Vers 74. Then began he to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And now he routs Peter and disperseth all his forces for saith the Text He began to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And here you have a second particular Satan is armed with malice against souls Thirdly Satan is armed with pride As David saith The 3 Particular Psal 10. 2. wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor Let them be taken in the device they have imagined Fourthly and lastly Another reason that helps Satan on well 4 Particular in his devices is because he hath a large conscience Indeed he hath no conscience Satan hath conscience of sin but he makes no conscience of sin he hath conscience of sin that is smiting him with sense of guilt but he makes no conscience of sin and therefore can do any thing As a man that makes nothing of sin to swear nor lye he may carry on any design he may grow rich Now the Devil is such he will swear and dissemble and lye and therefore may carry any design on foot He did lye to Eve in paradise and he was a lying spirit in the mouth of Gen. 3. 5. 1 King 22. 22. Ahabs Prophets Vse 1. The first Vse is this If Satan be so learned and exquisite an artist in the Trade of deceiving souls then let us not be ignorant of his devices as the Apostle saith but be fore-warn'd and fore-arm'd In the handling of this Vse I shall discover Satans plots and temptations Satan doth tempt men First Before conversion Secondly Satan tempts men in conversion And thirdly Satan tempts men after conversion 1. Satan tempts men before conversion that they may not be converted First To delay their repentance till they be sick When we are sick then we will repent Pain and weakness of body is no advantage to repentance and returning unto God it unfits the soul for action Hence observe what the Apostle James saith when he reckons up the several conditions of the Saints Is any among you afflicted let him pray he speaks Jam. 5. 13 14. that in general but saith he Is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he had said a sick man can hardly pray for himself Is any among you afflicted let him pray In afflictions a man can pray for himself But is any sick among you Let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he should say a sick man cannot pray for himself he hath enough to do to wrestle with his pain and conflict he hath need to call others to pray for him A diseased body unfits the mind for holy duties and therefore sick Hezekiah's praying Isa 38. 14. is called chattering like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter The pain of his body wrought such a disquietness and uncomposedness upon his spirit that he could not pray but chatter or like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter that is I Annotat. could not speak but sigh and groan or I was so full of pain that my Prayers were very quick and short not sentences but words not words but syllables not plain syllables but chatterings How pitiful then are they mistaken who put off repentance till their bodies be in pain till they are sick or weak They do it upon this ground because when the body is sick they think repentance is easie It is quite otherwise And therefore did Satan aim to make Job sick Satan was Job 2. 5. confident to trouble the mind of Job by casting Darts and Diseases into his body by making Job sick he hoped to make Job blaspheme and curse God Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face If Satan thought by pain and sickness to make Job blaspheme God Dost thou think that pain will be an advantage to thee to turn to God It is said in Revelations at the pouring out of the fourth Chap. 16. 9. vial when they were scorcht with great heat they blasphemed God and they repented not to give him glory Let wicked men be scorcht with a feaver or with a pestilence or sickness and 't is the way to make them blaspheme God and therefore 't is a woful thing to put off repentance to a pained body pain in its own nature fits us rather to blaspheme and fly upon God than fly to God Never think it is one thing what God may make use of but do you never think to have help for the cure of your souls by the diseases of your bodies Usually we find that either sick persons repent not or theirs is but a sickly repentance Indeed a long and lingering sickness may do much there is a time wherein the understanding may act deliberately and the work may be digested but a short sickness and a short repentance such as it is I
ever doubt of I say Satan tempts before Conversion namely to hinder us from entring the ways of grace and to keep us out of Christ For if we be once in Christ we are gone from him he can hurt us no more than he can Christ and you may see how far his malice can reach The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head that is his power The seed of the serpent shall bruise his heel that is his humanity When thou art once in Christ he can bruise but thy heel he may stir up affliction bring thee to thy grave but shall never bring thy soul to Hell At the best pain can but restrain your lusts it cannot heal them A disease can but abate the acts of sin it can never destroy the life of sin Death it self cannot kill sin the sins of wicked men live when they are dead The grave cannot consume them nor the fire of hell waste their strength the sins of unbelievers shall remain not only in their guilt but in their power to all eternity Quest But how does Satan hinder our conversion Answ By kindling a stronger love in us to sin There is in all men by nature a love to sin and Satan comes and blows that fire into a flame and so our love becomes predominant and afterwards it becomes a great work to un-love that sin 2. Satan tempts the unconverted these two ways 1. By inspiring his false Prophets and Ministers Thus he 1 King 22. 22. 1 King 22. 4 5. devised Ahabs destruction I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets And again Ahab King of Israel asked Jehosaphat King of Judah who came to see him whether he would go with him to Battel to Ramoth Gilead Well the King of Judah promised the King of Israel and told him saying I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses Afterwards Jehosaphat said nnto the King of Israel enquire I pray thee at the word of the Lord to day Then the King of Israel gathered the prophets that is Vers 6. the false prophets inspired by Satan together about four hundred men and said unto them Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battel or shall I forbear and they said go up for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the King Consider it seriously They that admininister the Oracles of God are the greatest mercies or greatest curses When they drop from their lips nothing but Gods mind they are mercies if not they are curses 2. Satan tempts the unconverted by numbering more false prophets than true For when Satan cannot act for Truth on his side he will act by number He will weigh the balance by number when he cannot by truth he will disgrace truth by the greatness and multitude of number against it for he knows what will take among carnal and ignorant men they are carried with quantity more than quality What are you saith Satan that are but one or two wiser than so many Can truth sit upon the lips of so few If it were truth why should not others know it as well as you Why should so many be ignorant of it Thus he carried his device upon the wings of multitude against Ahab to hatch his design against 1 Reg. 22. 6. Ahab he did sit upon the spirits of four hundred prophets against one Micajah so there are many loose lives against one Christ though there be many now a days that teach men by their words and doings that men may live loosely yet Christ saith Broad is the way to destruction and narrow is the way to life So that the fewness of those that carry on the way to life is a Testimony of the truth of it 3. Satan tempts the unconverted by putting men out of conceit with the godly that they are proud and Hypocrites Secondly Satan tempts men in conversion He can play his part here also he is cunning everywhere to destroy if he cannot keep sinners from conversion he will hinder them in conversion Now Satan temps men in conversion 1. By putting hard thoughts of God himself into them and therefore no marvel if they have hard thoughts of godly men When such a soul is coming unto God he is by Satan way-laid with this namely that God will never pardon him he would repent but dares not he takes God for his Enemy Satan would fain make a poor soul that 's coming unto God think that God is his Enemy and will not save him it is one of his Master-pieces to bring the love and good-will of God into suspition Oh! saith he why should I repent I shall not be accepted and this is no small weapon And thus Satan deals with grown Saints and strong Christians and therefore surely the temptation is a strong Engine it hath more than ordinary strength in it He practised thus against Job 1. 16. Job The fire of God saith the messenger is fallen from heaven and hath burnt up the sheep Mark ye why did Satan consume Jobs sheep with fire He stirred up the Sabeans Vers 14 15. to take away his Oxen and Asses and why not the sheep why to provoke Job if he could to be passionate against God and for that was his great design to curse and blaspheme God to beget an opinion in Job that God was now his Enemy as well as Man The fire of God is fallen upon the sheep thou canst not put this off as thou mightst do the other and say this is but the malice or covetousness of the Sabeans that rob me of my goods no thou shalt see now that God himself is angry heaven frowns upon thee the fire of God consumes thee Turn over the Records of all antiquity and see whether ever God dealt thus with any but those cursed Sodomites upon whom God rained fire from heaven Was God their enemy in that punishment Behold he sends such an one upon thee though God hates nothing so much as sin yea nothing but sin yet he would fain save the sinner Now then bring your souls to this either I will be a natural man still or else I will get into Jesus Christ Sirs If you live in sin you will lose your souls if you throw away sin you shall be received into the bosom of Christs love 2. In conversion one device by which Satan tempts is when poor creatures are coming home to God to fright them with fearful blasphemies As for example he will first tempt or suggest to thee that there is no God and this temptation springs immediately from Satans hatred of God he would annihilate God But now to oppose Satan in this his device how shall I encounter him Thou must arm thy self against this temptation thus Answ 1. Tell him Satan thou knowest there is a God thou wouldst have me believe there is no God and yet thou knowest that there is a God The Devils also believe
that is that Jam. 2. 19. there is one God and tremble Answ 2. And observe it in that the Devil tempts thee that there is no God should be a means and argument to thee to believe more certainly that there is a God Satan would keep you from believing that which he cannot but believe And this should be a strong argument to make us believe that there is a God for were there no God the Devil would never tempt to think that there is a God 3. Another temptation to men in conversion is this My heart is hard I cannot repent of sin I cannot be sorry for my sins Oh! you must venture your soul upon Jesus Christ for free pardon and justification you must take Christ and he will give you a soft heart he will give you repentance unto life Acts 5. 31. You must take Christ for pardon and for repentance also that you may be pardoned Quest But may I before I repent take hold of Christ for pardon May one that cannot repent lay holy and lean upon Christ Answ 1. There 's difference between one that cannot repent but would 2. And one that doth not repent and will not cares not to repent 1. He that doth not repent and will not he may not take hold of Christ nor lay claim to him 2. But he that cannot repent but would he may lay hold of Christ that he may repent and he will go to Christ nothing shall stave him off to fetch repentance from him I say he may go to Christ for repentance See how David did do so Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me There are two snares and nets which the Devil sets for people 1. One is that they hope to be saved by Christ and never care to be humbled nor to be sanctified and in this the prophane are caught 2. Another snare which Satan layeth is to make men labour for Humiliation Holiness Mortification Obedience and not labour to believe and in this well-meaning people are caught For the first First They that hope to be saved by Christ and never care First snare to be humbled nor to be sanctified these are sadly in Satans snare he holds them deadly for Faith which justifieth makes holy though it doth not justifie by its holiness Faith makes thee a new creature that Faith is none of Gods making that doth not make thee a new man And therefore it was the speech of Francis Spira in his desertion and anguish of spirit Pag. 114. I will not saith he derogate from the certainty of saving-faith and the promises of the Gospel for they are most sure but yet take heed of relying on that faith that works not a holy and unblamable life worthy of a Believer believe me quoth he it will fail I have tryed it and therefore he much commended to them the Epistles of Peter which press sanctity and chastity Secondly The other snare which Satan layeth is to make men Second snare dig and labour in the Mines of Humiliation and Holiness and subduing their sins and not take pains to believe 1. Here 's labour in vain for that which can never bring thee Christ nor salvation and that Satan knows and therefore puts men on it to make them spend time and pains to no purpose he puts them in a way where Christ is not that they may not find Christ where he is As Rahab sent the men of Josh 2. 5 6. Jericho away towards Jordan to seek for the spies when she hid them in the stalks of flax So Satan sends men a travelling after Christ over Hills and Dales over the hills of Duty and high strains of Holiness and days of Humiliation And therefore as Christ said to Martha so say I to these Ye are careful about many things how to subdue your sins and be humbled for them but one thing is needful that is to come to Christ and believe in him do this and you shall be saved 2. When ye have believed and received Christ then you shall be able to do all things then you shall have 1. Mortification and Victory over your lusts 2. Sanctification and Ability to duty and not before These be the Births of believing you must believe before you can have these As a woman must be married to a man before she can have lawful children by him Were it not a simple thing for a woman to expect children legitimate by a man and then she would marry him As absurd it is to expect First to have legitimate graces in the soul and then to believe to be sanctified and get victory over sin and then to believe in Christ for Faith which doth espouse thee to Christ is the cause of all true Mortification and Holiness as marriage is of children As the Apostle tells you Ye are married to another even to him who is raised from Rom. 7. 4. the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God Christ is as it were the Father of all our graces of him we received grace for grace and when he hath married us to himself he begets them in us Of his grace he conveys grace to us and he never doth it but by our Faith in him for it is by Faith that he lives in us and we in him and holiness is the means by which Christ after he is believed in brings them that believe in him to salvation And this removes that objection that troubles many repentance Act. 2. 38. and conversion is requited to pardon of sin Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost Again Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may Act 3. 19. be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Once more For him hath God exalted Act. 5. 31. with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins How then shall I believe his promise of mercy to the pardon of my sins that cannot clear my Conversion to my Conscience None can enter into the Kingdom of God except they be born again of the John 3. 3. Rom. 8. 13. spirit If I live after the slesh I shall dye Here are two questions consounded they must be distinguished and taken asunder 1. What manner of persons they be whom God admits into Heaven 2. What manner of persons may receive Christ unto Justification of life For the first 1. God indeed receives none into Heaven but those on whom he hath written the golden Characters of sanctification And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of Act. 20. 32. his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified For the second who may receive Christ 2. I say
therefore bear them with willingness and patience 2 Cor. 4. 16. gain if he tempts you by losses your loss is your gain your wants will be your riches your outward poverty will be your spiritual wealth what you lose one way you 'l get another what you lose in the flesh you 'l get in the spirit Though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day saith Blessed Paul the soul grows new as the body by pressures grows old Afflictions may make thy outward face look withered and aged but thine inward man grows young and vigorous by them It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted Now then bring your heart to this and bear all the temptations of the Lord with willingness and patience Vse 10. See God on the top of every trial or temptation God saith the Text did tempt Abraham you will say God tempted Abraham by word of mouth by an express command Is God wont to tempt and try men thus in these days I answer no you heard that God doth tempt and try men two manner of ways 1. Immediately by himself thus he tempted Abraham thus was Christ led by the Spirit to be tempted in the wilderness 2. Mediately by means and instruments by Satan sometimes by wicked men other times yea by Saints also sometimes as the Lord Christ was tempted by Peter when he spake of his sufferings Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto Matth. 16. 22. Job 2. 9. thee And Job was tempted by his own dear wife Curse God and dye And this is the Order of God at this day you see the means the instruments of temptation but though God be not seen yet he stands upon the top of every temptation no wheel moves in the world but by the direction and counsel of the first mover There is a concatenation of causes and God is at the upper end of the chain and nothing can be done by any link of the chain of second causes without the first cause In the fourth to the Hebrews there it is said that Jesus Christ Vers 15. was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Mark it his Temptations were in all points like ours Temptations may be taken 1. For sufferings Or 2. For temptation to sin as having a power or causality moving us thereunto As for Christs sufferings they were exactly like unto ours To that end he took a Body and Soul and in his state of humiliation lay actually under them and felt them As for temptation to sin that is inward and outward Inwardly indeed he was not tempted but outwardly he was by men and devils more than ever man was and was tempted to the same kind of sins at least some of them which we being tempted to commit yet he never sinned Now the Apostle tells you there that he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities We have not an High priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Nay because he was tempted like as we are he cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities that is he cannot but be inwardly affected with the sense of our temptations Sirs your temptations touch him the temptations that you feel touch him his very bowels are full of the feeling of your infirmities he is acted with mercy and compassion towards you and he would have man to know it That which is the object of his compassion is our infirmities that is sins of the soul and pains of the body but chiefly sin infirmity here is sin and punishment sin and suffering which makes our case very miserable Some will think that Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sins others will think Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sorrows but ye are mistaken poor souls ye are mistaken saith the Apostle we have an High priest that is touched with the feeling of our infirmities with the sense and feeling of both of your sin and guilt of your sorrows and sufferings Whatever troubles you troubles Christ and the reason why he is so sensible of our sad conditions is because he was tempted in all points like unto us Christ as God is infinitely merciful but he became man tempted man that he might be sensible of our infirmities with our own humane affections that he might pity man with the affections of a man with such affections as we are wont to pity one another and therefore he was not only man but a tempted man because experimental knowledg and practical sense is the most effectual Hearken then you tempted souls how deeply is Christ touched with the feeling of your infirmities who was himself a tempted man as ye are he was in all points tempted like unto us This is that wonderful way which God by his profound Wisdom contrived to make his mercy greater and in some sort more than infinite he would have a kind of knowledg of mans infirmities which as God and Infinite he could never have AN ACCOUNT OF MANS TEMPTATIONS Psalm LXXIX 41. Yea they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel THIS Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhortative and Instructive 1. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suasive and Exhortative in the first verse Give ear O my people to my law encline your ears to the words of my mouth 2. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instructive and Teaching I say for their choice Instruction and gathered out of the Records of Gods Providence towards his own people the Jews at the second verse I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us We will not hide them from Vers 3. 4. their children shewing to the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done c. And that which the Psalmist would instruct them in is to obey God and adhere to him in dependance and subjection And not to be as their Fathers a stubborn and Vers 8. rebellious generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God He warns them against Rebellion because their Ancestors and Fathers sinned at that rate and were severely punished by God Where you may observe by the way Observ That to say our Fore-fathers did thus and thus therefore so will we is no good argument Shall we be wiser than our Forefathers yes that you must or else you may smart for it The Holy Ghost here tells them that they must not be as their Fathers no sirs you must be better than your Forefathers the Light of the Gospel should make you far better and time should make you better and experience should make you better the example of Fore-fathers is not to be followed except wherein they followed the Lord.
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
live godly in Christ Jesus they derive it from him and direct it to him they breath for him and bring forth all their actions for him for this is essential to an Evangelical life to do all in the strength of Christ as their root and to do all for Christ as their end And if this be a godly life to live to Christ then let us so think of him and so do that from henceforth our hearts and mouths may neither speak nor think but of him that all things else may be of no savour to us that nothing enter our spirit which resenteth not the Spirit and Odour of Jesus Christ and respires not his honour and glory I say let us be vigilant and faithful to do and desire nothing but the honour of Christ to regard nothing but his pleasure and glory so as to have no eyes but for Jesus no more life but what is consecrated to the honour of his Soveraignty and Greatness Vse We have shewed you what a godly life is and how you may attain a godly life Let us now stir you up to attain this godly life 1. Let me take St. Pauls word to Timothy that which he recommends to him is Piety Exercise thy self unto godliness 1 Tim. 4. 7. Truly all virtues are good and all suitable to the state of a Christian the acquisition and practise of them all useful and necessary but he would have his prime and chief care be To exercise thy self unto godliness for godliness is the Ornament and Mistress of all other virtues it leads us to God and makes use of all virtues to conduct us thither and having no Object but God teaches us the worship and honour that we must render to him and like a good mistress puts us into a ready and easie practise of virtues and entertains us in the exercise of actions that honour God and are acceptable to him 2. Godliness is profitable as Paul saith in the same place Bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable to all 1 Tim. 4. 8. things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come True godliness is one of the principal foundations on which Christian perfection stands and is supported In the conduct of men all actions and exercises of their life are ruled according to the Piety and as we commonly say according to the Devotion they have If their Piety be not well-laid the rest of the Christian life will be unconstant and its exercises very uncertain and superficial as we see in the devotion of many which is only in the exterior Who as the Apostle saith having the form of godliness deny and despise the power thereof In such souls we see nothing solid nothing but inconstancy in their lives imperfection in their actions disquiet disturbance and adherence to several creatures in their spirits a small blast of adversity over-turns them Object But it is an hard thing to be godly we have Satan opposing us and he is too hard for us besides our own corruptions and strong temptations Answ While we strive to be godly we may safely expect the Presence of God he is never wanting to those that seek after him and never fails those that engage in his quarrels As he who plots sin shall be sure to find Satan standing at his right hand so he that pursues after God and Holiness shall find God nearer to him than he is to himself God hath not forsaken the earth but as he sustains the whole universe much more those who are seeking grace and participation of himself Are you then striving to be godly and aiming at a Divine life His almighty arms will bear you up and he 'l cherish you with his own goodness Wheresoever God beholds any breathings after himself he gives life to them as those which are his own breath in them where there is any serious and sober resolution against sin any real motion towards God there 's the blessing of heaven in it He that planted it will also water it and make it to bud and blossom and bring forth fruit Object But a godly life is an afflicted life Answ You have heard that grace in us is the life of Jesus in us We ought then to know what his life was The life of Jesus is Divinely Humane and Humanely Divine he is God and Man and therefore lives a life Divine and a life Humane As God he lives the life of God in the bosom of his Father a life of Glory Power and Majesty As Man he lived the life of Man in lowness humiliation in impotence in sufferings so that at the same he is living in the bosom of his Father and dying on the arms of the Cross There he reigns and governs and judges all the world here he is accused and accursed condemned and crucified at the same instant he is in the exaltation and greatness of his Majesty and in the lowness and humiliation of our Humanity Such also ought the Christian life to be on the one side it is great seeing grace makes us the Children of God elevates and unites us to God On the other side the same life is obscured dejected wholly in the spirit of humiliations and privations for grace cannot reign in the soul without operating therein annihilation death and humility Again The Saint by his Union to the Son of God is raised Eph. 2. 6. up and made to sit in heavenly places in Jesus Christ And at the same time the life of a Christian is exposed here to Temptations derided by men and condemned by the world at the same time it is in the greatest cherishing of God and under the fiercest agitation of the Cross So that an afflicted godly life should be no wonder being compared with the life of Christ Besides God enlightens the soul by grace 't is granted but 't is in annihilation he upholds her but 't is in confounding her he unites her to him but it is in separating her sometimes from himself and she remains separated from God as long as she remains upon earth While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6. so she is at once united and separated Again This is the Conduct of God over his Church If we reflect upon the highest works we shall find he puts not on the Ornament of Grace he lays not the foundation of her estate but in lowness his grace his gifts his spirit and his communications When did he come down from heaven and give her his law with such appearance of glorious Majesty as never the like was but when he had brought her into a wilderness When the Lord Christ instituted the Sacraments which are Conduit-pipes to convey his graces to his Church he chose bread water such things as are mean little or nothing esteemed among men In the Birth of the Church he took the Cross for the Throne of his Empire a Calvary for his Seat-Royal he rejected an estate by Poverty Sufferings and Martyrdom and at this day he doth the same in the Regency of his Church And according to Gods proceedings in the Conduct of his Church is likewise his carriage in the sanctification and government of our souls he leads them by the Cross he retires from them he hides himself he leaves them in privations he humbles them annihilates them smites them overthrows them Whereby is discovered how they are as I think deceived who in their devotions and religious exercises seek resentments enjoyments content and satisfaction and would know and feel the excellency and elevations of grace I call it a deceit as I suppose for Christian grace consists chiefly in privations in lowness in rigours and that is it they stand most in fear of and avoid But as the life of Jesus began in poverty and ended on the Cross so a perfect Christian who would live a life of grace must resolve to walk among Thorns to bear privations and sustain desertions for the Cross and Thorns are things proper to Christian-grace and to the love of Jesus Let us not so much seek after assurance of heaven as a thing to come as after heaven it self present in us For where Heaven comes into a heart it will bring its own light comfort and assurance along with it Get Heaven into your soul and you will easily have the assurance of Heaven Let us have a fire in a room and we shall quickly have the light and warmth of it there also Men seek the assurance of Heaven as a thing to come but neglect the present power and possession of Heaven it self in their souls Oh! let us get the Sun it self into us and then we shall not be without its shine and smiles within us FINIS Books Printed for and are to be Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel PResent State of New-England Burges's Husbandmans Companion Burges's Englands Bond. Adams's Catechism Survey of Quakerism A view of Antiquity by J. Honner Abyssus Mali or Man's Corruption by Nature by W. G. England's present and most great incumbent Duty by Robert Perrott The Ark of the Covenant opened or a Treatise of the Covenant of Redemption Janewayes Life Meads Almost Christian Mr. Cawtons Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. Vincent and Mr. Hurst Phelpes Caveat against Drunkenness Wadsworths last Warning unto secure Sinners Kidder on the Sacrament Wells Funeral Sermon by Mr. Tho. Watson Mr. Wadsworths Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. Bragg Bishop Reynholds Meditations on the Fall and Rising of St. Peter Practical Divinity of the Papists proved to be destructive unto Christianity and Mens souls Burroughs's four Treatises Dr. Collins on the Canticles