distress and vexation of mind call to mind such promises as are fitted to your condition For there can be no condition imagined but there are promises suited to it and a Christian wisdome must be to accommodate the remedy to the sore and malady of his heart Enquire what word there is in God's Book to still the tempests and distempers of your spirits and then make application of it Promises faithfully remembered and well digested will arm and fortifie your Souls that they shall be able to put any case of trouble inward or outward and come off victoriously and triumphantly Put case you be as poor as Job Lazarus the Prophets Widdow Call to mind the promises of temporal blessings in abundance Put case you be persecuted by the tongues or hands of wicked Men call to mind the promises that you shall be delivered your enemies confounded Put case your hearts be heavy for some great losses of Goods or Friends Call to mind the promises that you shall be gainers by your losses Put case your spirits be wounded with the sense of Divine wrath Call to mind the promises of pardon peace and rest Put case your Graces be weak and corruptions strong Call to mind the promises of sanctification and quickening Put case some great eminent danger threaten you Call to mind the promises that nothing shall hurt you that every thing that befalls you shall work together for your spiritual and eternal good 2. Provision thus brought in by the Memory the next work of Faith is to prepare and make it fit nourishment This is done by searching for and finding out that Grace or part of obedience upon which the fruition of the promise depends to which sufficient hath been spoken already nor will it be disheartned for weakness if there be truth yea if no more than a true desire Mat. 5. 3 6. Neh. 1. 11. The third and last chief work of Faith is application of the promises to your selves in particular this is feeding upon the provisions brought in and dressed Faith first does its utmost to assure the soul that what God hath promised is already done Mark 11. 24. 15. 28. Job 13. 15. Yea and it makes it good thus 1. It hath Christ and he is all 2. It hath if not the thing promised as good or better 3. When it findes much ado It goes to God and seeks help of him Mark 9. 24. 2 Chr. 20. 12. Psal 73. 23. 24. 27. and concludes with the Psalmist 60. 12. 73. 1. You will be sure to finde while you live here on Earth the Devil ever anon throwing his Fiery darts into your Souls You must take the Apostles advice to stand alwayes Armed with the whole Armour of God Above all taking the Shield of Faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all his Fiery Darts THE EIGHTH SERMON YOu have heard what the Daily Duty is of all who live and dwell in God viz. To live by Faith How faith maintains the Soul in life and the Apostle bidding you to take the Shield of Faith and to use and move and mannage it according to the place Satan casting his Darts at you aimes at and according to the kindes of his temptations I shall give you a truth and tast how faith may be mannaged and what the several acts of Faith are by which the fierceness of these Darts of Satan may be quenched There are six Fiery Darts besides many others which Sathan throwes at the Souls of those that dwell in God whereby he works them much disquiet and trouble The first and worst is concerning the forgiveness of sins He would and often doth perswade them that their sins are unpardoned and that God will damn them for their manifold transgressions and mighty sins The apprehension of this fills their Souls with horror nor can the greatness and grievousness of this affliction be expressed A second is Concerning their spiritual Estate he would make them believe they are yet in a state of Unregeneracy and that the Root of the matter is not in them but that they are but painted Hypocrites A third is Concerning Mortification of Lusts and Sanctification of Life neither of which they have attained and they are afraid they never shall A fourth is Fear of Poverty and temporal Misery what will become of them in sickness and old Age they cannot tell want coming on them like an Armed Man this Dart sets on Fire many Lusts A fifth is Concerning the right use of prosperity and adversity Satan perswades them they neither do nor ever shall use either rightly A sixth is Fear of falling away Faith rightly mannaged will blunt the piercing points of all these Darts and take away all the burning Poyson in them and so repell them that the Soul shall not be hurt at all by them though until Faith have done it suffer much affliction by each of them I shall not now undertake to shew what be the several acts of Faith that have force to overcome these several temptations but will declare very briefly what those acts are whereby Faith supports and settles the Soul and makes it victorious in any trouble or affliction whatsoever inward or outward which may be applyed to any of the cases fore-mentioned Qu. What use will this Doctrine be to those that are not under any trouble that have no manner of affliction upon them Ans There is no Christian that is at any time of his life free from all affections no Day comes so fair over any godly Man's head wherein he meets not with some matter of grief yea so much that he findes enough ado to sustain and master it Luk. 9. 23. 2. Those that are now free from affliction may they know not how soon be hem'd in compassed about and overwhelmed with variety of afflictions as Job was and therefore ought to live in continual expectation of crosses and distresses publick domestical personal and although there are great hopes of peaceable times yet hopes may be frustrate our sins are many and mighty which gives us just cause to fear God's judgments we have also Enemies many and politick and malicious and the Devil and his Instruments are busie but howsoever how calm soever the publick state may be yet afflictions and miseries may and will sure enough befall those that fear God If not outward yet inward Many are the afflictions of the righteous And manifold are their infirmities in their afflictions and therefore they are called by that name Evils will not come the sooner because expected but they will fall the lighter And faith is necessary that they may so do it cannot therefore but be necessary and profitable to acquaint you with the acts of Faith in general at least whereby a Christian Soul may be upheld in evil times against all afflictions and miseries whatsoever This grace well acted will bring
meat for those that are of full age profounder and more mysterious Doctrines The Stewards of the House appointed to dispense both to both as they are able to bear them As the head of the House taught them to do by his practice every part and particle of the Holy Scriptures Histories Precepts Prohibitions Promises threatnings are all of them choice Viands wherewith holy Souls are satisfied as with marrow and fatness Nor are they only meat but Medicinal also and therefore called wholsome words that have a healing property in them The Spirit of God accompanying his word is called by our Saviour the Water of Life Hadst thou asked of me said he to the Woman of Samaria that denyed to give him of her Water I would have given thee a better and far more excellent kind of Water than this is that I have desired of thee Whosoever drinketh of this Water shall thirst again but whoever shall drink of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst Of this living Water they that dwell in God do drink continually whereby the thirst of their Souls after earthly things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is quenched And their consciences are satisfied and quieted against the sense and apprehension of Gods wrath due for their fins And the sense of his love affected by this Water is better than Wine whose property is to comfort the heart beget new Spirits purge warm refine and waken them Yea this House is a House of Wine And the graces and fruits of the Spirit are delightful to them as Wine with which they being spiritually drunk have inward spiritual joy bred in them testified in the private and publick praises of God by Psalmes Hymns and spiritual Songs Their hearts being merry and chearful They make a rejoyce as if they were set on fire with Wine But here is another food which every one of this House have for commons every Day The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed Note well that spiritual things have their truth and reality as much and beyond comparison in their kind as corporal ones have theirs This meat and drink surpasseth all other upon a manifold account 1. Of the place from whence it comes This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven Not out of the middle Region of the Aire as Manna did but from the highest Heaven 2. The Variety of Viands in it for all things are in Christ who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption Let our wants be what they will let our wills be what they can to feed on this or that dish Nothing can be imagin'd nourishing or cheering which is not to be found in Christ Manna which was but a type of this true bread is said to have had all sorts of good tasts in it 3. Of the sufficiency of it for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily The whole Mass and gathering together of all Divine and everlasting goods Whereof the parcels and streams do issue out upon the Church They are in him not in shaddows and figures as in the Old Testament but in reality and substance And of his fulness have we all received grace for grace Not a fulness of abundance only but a fulness of redundance also out of which a sufficient portion is distributed to every of his Members There can be no want in him where Riches are unsearchable As he is able to save them unto the uttermost that come unto God by him and so to satisfie them that feed upon him as it is said of those four thousand Men beside Women and Children They did all eat and were filled 4. Of the powerful efficacy that is in it I am the Bread of Life That is there remains in me received and applyed by a lively faith power to quicken the Soul that is dead in sin separated from God the true Spring of Life and to preserve it alive by a communicative and continual influence of Divine grace and to give it also the life of joy and comfort yea and to cure not only all the Maladies that molest the Life of Grace but of Nature also 5. Of the permanency of it this is not like other Food and Physick that perisheth it self and is not able to keep the body into which it is received from perishing Upon which account we are forbidden to labour for it Labour not for the Meat which perisheth but for that Meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of Man shall give unto you What is that The Bread that I will give is my Flesh If any Man eat of this Flesh he shall live for ever This Meat and Drink is every Day received by this whole Houshold not after a corporal and carnal manner as those Capernaites conceived Christs meaning How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat But by believing that it was given for them and is the Price of their sins to God He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst As Meat is received into the stomack by eating so is Christ into the Soul by believing He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him that is to say is inseparably united to me and I to him even as food is with him that eats it This and no other way is this meat and drink received in the Holy Supper wherein here is or ought to be a frequent communicating where and when every Communicant by eating and drinking the consecrated Bread and Wine being Sacramentally Christ's body and blood Signes to represent it Seals to confirm aud Instruments really to exhibit them doth acknowledge and preach the benefits of the Lord's Death and protesteth to take part thereof by a lively faith which is as the Eye and Hand to the Mouth and Stomack of the Soul taking Christ into and uniting him to them even as corporal Food is by eating and digesting united to the Body 6. This is that Feast of fat things of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined which the Lord of Hosts promised to all Nations gathered together in his Church to some of all veiling Heavenly things under Earthly condescending so low as to enter into the inward Man by the outward our apprehensions being so weak and narrow that we cannot otherwise be acquainted with them while our Souls are in our Bodies They are much guided by our fancy and then spiritual things are conveyed to them this way only we must remember that there is a far greater excellency in the things themselves than in their representations For what is
where I did and going did a Rain-bow note Surely thought I This is the Lace of Peaces Coat I will search out the matter But while I lookt the Clouds immediatly Did break and scatter Then I went to a Garden and did spie A gallant Flower The Crown Imperial sure said I Peace at the root must dwell But when I digg'd I saw a Worm devour What shew'd so well Pleasures Riches Honours under which all the good things of the World are comprehended are utterly impotent altogether insufficient to give the Soul of Man any Rest Herb. Dot. False glozing pleasures Casks of Happiness Foolish Night fires Womens and Childrens wishes Chases in Arras guilded emptiness Shaddows well mounted dreams in a Career Embroider'd lies nothing between two dishes These are the Pleasures here Riches seem to be something able to do something in order to this end but in truth they are nothing can do nothing Labour not to be rich Wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not wherefore do you lay out your labour for that which satisfyeth not Take Earthly Honours in and take his testimony who had all these in abundance made tryal of them to finde what good was in them and was more able to improve them than was ever any meer Man since the fall and hear him after his utmost experimental disquisition that not only he found not what he taught namely rest for his Soul Vanity of Vanities saith the Preacher Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity But that he found the clean contrary trouble sorrow anguish bitterness Vexation of Spirit The rich Man is brought in singing a Requiem to his Soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many Years take thine ease eat drink and be merry But wisdom upbraids his folly for placing his joy and peace in his possessions and promising to give his Soul ease and rest in his abundance 2. Nor is it to be found in knowledge Humane or Divine not in the former For in much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow Learning cannot be attained without great pains of mind and body and he that hath attained the highest degree and greatest measure hath his minde more unsatisfied than when he began to study And herein Children and fools have the advantage who as they want wit so they want wo. Not to know much but to know nothing in the sweetest life of all Nor in this neither for experience shews that such that give themselves most to the study of Scripture and get greatest ability to discourse of Divine matters are as far from rest as others which appears by the falling off of many of them from one Sect to another till they have made tryal of every dispensation as they call it and then they are as far from satisfaction as ever and farther 3. Nor in a form of Godliness 't is not the outward profession of the true Religion nor frequent use of holy Ordinances or religious exercises publick private secret that hath any more power to bring rest and quiet to the soul than Elishah's staff laid upon the dead Childes face had to bring heat or life into it The frequent complaints of many Christians that are much in both confirm this 4. Much less in Doctrines and Inventions of Men. These are Husks that Swines do eat they that fill their Bellies with them are like unto Pharaoh's lean kine And as they nourish not so they quiet not miserable Comforters are they all All that would take up their rest in any of these may hear the Prophet speaking thus unto them Arise ye and depart for this is not your Rest Positively the Souls true rest is to be had only in God who is a fit Harbour and Heaven for the heart to cast Anchor in because he is a Spirit 2. Being infinite he is able to fill the boundless and endless desires of it Moreover he made the Soul for himself And gave it at the first a Being in himself a local Being in the Body and a Spiritual Being in himself This being in God is Mans first being when Man fell by sin God in Justice cast him out of himself Forsook him and so the Union and the Communion that he had with God was broken off Hence it is that the Soul being out of God its proper Habitation can have no true rest till it return thither Return unto thy Rest O my Soul The first step the Soul takes in this return to its rest is a free and well-advised choice of God to dwell in him and serve there observing and conforming to the Laws and Orders of the House Joshua put the Children of Israel to their choice Choose you this Day whom you will serve whether the God your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood or the Gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord. Professeth her resolution that whatsoever they did what choice soever they made He and his House would serve the Lord. They make the same profession express the same resolution God forbid that we should do otherwise we are witnesses against our selves that we have chosen us the Lord to serve even the Lord our God him will we serve and his Voice will we obey Such a choice David made I have voluntarily Decreed to give up my self to be guided by thy Word I have chosen thy Precepts above other things for my soverain good and treasure with which I am resolued to be satisfied and contented and precisely to order my words and thoughts and actions according to them Having inclined my Heart to perform thy Statutes always even unto the end And being fully purposed that my Mouth shall not transgress and that my Feet shall run the wayes of thy Commandments Yea were I put to my choice I would choose rather to sit at the Threshold of the House of my God to be a Door-keeper in it than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness The like choice did the three Children make and so did Daniel and Moses and Mary and those ancient Martyrs who would not accept deliverance which was offered them conditionally that they would deny the true God and not serve him this is the first way whereby Men make God their habitation namely by choosing him giving him their judgments wills and affections the probation before all other Persons or things or service Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire in comparison of thee A Day in thy Courts is better than a thousand Thy loving kindness is better than Life How much better is thy Love than Wine and the smell of thine Oyntments than all Spices The Law of thy Mouth is better to me than thousands of Gold and Silver It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes The second follows which
you under the wing and protection of your God and so free your Hearts from all fear and discouragement and disquiet The acts of Faith effectual to this end are Nine in Number and in this Order The first is an act of Information Faith informes the Soul of these things Namely concerning the nature Author ends measure and continuance of the affliction 1. Concerning the nature or matter of it that it is humane There hath no temptation overtaken you but such as is common to Man Let it be what it will other Men as good yea better than you have suffered in the same kind drank of the same Cup yea deeper than any of you have yet done Poverty sickness reproach loss of dear relations trouble of mind Job and David and Paul for example and the Macabee Confessors and Martyres 2. Concerning the Author that who or whatsoever is the Instrument God is the Principle Agent His Decree ordained it and his actual providence hath inflicted it 3. Touching the ends God aimes at in your afflictions Among others they are these To bring you to a sight of your sins long since or lately committed To humble and reprove you to purge and refine you to work self-denyal in you to reduce you into the right way to quicken your devotion To wean you from the love of the World and make you long for Heaven To cause you to relish mercies and comforts better To save you from Damnation and to make your Crown of Glory weightier 4. Touching the measure that it shall be no more than needs and no more than you shall have strength well to bear 1 Pet. 1. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 13. All your Enemies shall not be able to add one scruple more Job 1. 12. 2. 6. Wife and loving Parents correct their Children in measure there is no fear that they will break their Bones Learned and loving Physicians have due respect when they administer Doses to the strength of their Patients Such a Father and Physician is God and a thousand times more tender 5. Touching the continuance of the affliction incumbent Faith informes the Soul that the Diet-drink prescribed shall be no longer required to be taken than till health be recovered That the Plaster shall lie no longer on the sore than till the Cure be wrought that the Gold be no longer in the Fire than till the Dross be consumed at longest it shall be but until Death and all the space until then let it be never so long is but a little moment in respect of Eternity a little Cloud quickly passing The second is a quickning exciting act Faith excites the Soul first to make search and scrutiny into this affliction 2. To cast it self down in humble acknowledgment of its own desert and Gods Justice accusing and judging it self and justifying God in his sharp Dispensation 3. To pour out its complaint to God and cry for mercy and pardon of the sin procuring the Cross and for sanctification and removal of it 4. To cast off all purposes of falling into sin again of giving God any more cause to punish 5. To use all lawful meanes to get the Cross removed or mitigated Jos 7. 11. 13 16. The third is an employing act hear faith speaking thus We have no might neither know we what to do It causeth the Soul to renounce its own wisdome strength and all confidence in the Creature draws the heart from carnal repose in means or friends The fourth is an act of discovery it discovers to the Soul that sees no help any where else all-sufficiency of help in God All-sufficiency of wisdome power grace mercy truth and love and it discovers also the manner of God's dealing which usually is to grant deliverance and send help then when to sense and reason it is furthest off Deut. 32. 36. Jer. 30. 12 18. Psal 142. 6. It looks also back upon former favours which are as Bills obligatory of future good things even all that God sees necessary That which God hath once done for any of his in sustaining relieving and delivering them He will do over and over again for them if they inforce themselves towards him The fifth is a meekening act Faith makes the heart willing to submit it self to the good pleasure of God and patiently and gently to bear his corrections And the considerations whereby Faith moves and prevailes with the soul to carry it self meekly under Gods hand are such as these first from the desert of sin you have merited all this and much more and are punished beneath your iniquities 2. From the hand that layes this Rod upon the back It is a Fatherly one that gives you this bitter Cup. 3. From his predestinating you to be conformable to the Image of his Son who was a Man of sorrows acquainted with griefs 4. From the recompence of reward which is infinitely heavier than your sufferings The sixth is an act of remembrance It causeth the soul to call to mind those sweet and gracious promises God hath made in his Word to his People in their afflictions 1. That he will look down from Heaven in mercy and cast a gracious aspect upon them 2. That he will be with them to support and comfort them in their troubles 3. That he will deliver them out of trouble 4. After they have suffered a while establish strengthen them and then receive them to Glory where they shall never suffer more but in his presence have fulness of joy and at his right hand pleasures that shall please for ever more A seventh is an act of recumbency a resting rolling relying act casting the Soul upon God and staying there clasping a desiring depending committing it self to divine providence with assured trust and confidence that all shall be well because all shall end well though sense and reason say never so much to the contrary this confidence doth as it were oblige and bind the Lord to do his People good Psal 37. 40. 57. 1. 147. 8 9. Es 26. 3. Jer. 39. 18. The eighth is an act of expectation waiting for comfort and deliverance referring both time and meanes and manner unto God The nineth and last is an act of rejoycing and triumphing the former it doth because it feels the Physick to work kindly and the latter in assurance of a blessed issue There are besides these many several Laws which you that dwell in God are bound to observe continually A few of them I shall commend unto your practice you must be alway watching alway working alway rejoycing and alway praying and alway giving thanks and alway ready to remove out of the lower Rooms wherein you live into higher whither you shall hear a voice saying come up hither Every one in this House must be ever-more working watching They ought not to sleep at any time Ye Brethren are all the Children of the Light and the Children
are not straitned in us but you are straitned in your own Bowels 4. It is a House no less lightsome than large God is light and in him is no darkness at all in this light we shall see Light The Lord will be unto thee an everlasting Light When there was a thick darkness in all the Land of Egypt The Israelites had Light in their dwellings All that are Israelites indeed have light in God their dwelling place When all others in the World sit in darkness and the shaddow of Death And they do contemplate the light of his Mercy Truth and Power With open Face beholding his Glory by which they are transformed more and more into his Image Sometimes indeed they are compelled to sit in darkness of dangers and distresses inward and outward Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his Servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light He hath led me and brought me into darkness but not into light But even in this darkness they are not altogether without light they have the light of God's Word They Word is a Lamp unto my Feet and a light unto my Path. And in his Word they have the light of his promises that he will bring them out of that darkness whereinto he brought them and turn their grief and afflictions into joy For thou wilt light my Candel the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness Yea even when and all the while I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me God is a Sun ten thousand times more full of Light than this material Sun and it is impossible that he that dwells in the Sun should want Light 5. It is a warm House Light hath heat in it emiently as the Peripateticks say yea it is both warm and cool A Summer and a Winter House both great Men were wont to have several Mansions for these two several Seasons of the Year This House is as some choice Roomes in some great Houses are warm in Winter and cool in Summer Many there are that dwell in God who have more Winters than one every Year scarce one Summers day in many Years I am afflicted and ready to die from my Youth up Yet in the sharpest weather this House of yours keep their hearts warm So that the Spouse said I sleep but my Heart waketh They can say with Paul As sorrowful yet alway rejoycing I am filled with comfort I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations Being justified by faith we have peace with God and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we glory in tribulations also Because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Although the Fig-Tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the Fields shall yield no increase the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herd in the Stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation If it be objected that this is not alway true that they who dwell in God are alway thus joyful nay many times their hearts have not the least sense of comfort yet in such a case they have a warmth and heat that is far better and includes abundance of comfort in it and in due season will flame forth namely that of love and that both of desire and complacency Set me as a Seal upon thine arm for love is strong as death The Coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame many Waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it This warmth their hearts never want though sometimes the sense of the second motion of it may seem to them as dull as that of their joy Nor is there any time wherein they cannot say with David My Heart was hot within me Yea discouragements from the World are so far from cooling your love to God that they make it hotter as Water cast upon Lime so Michol's scoffs were to David's Zeal such is a flame issuing from the fire of Love If this be to be vile I will yet be more vile than thus Others of God's People have many Summer Days yea almost all their Days all the Year long for many Years together are such Job had such a long Summer all which time God's Candle shined upon his head The secret of God was upon his Tabernacle His most wise Conduct governed his House provided plentifully for it He washed his steps with Butter and the Rock poured him out Rivers of Oyl Hyperbolical termes As if he had said I enjoyed all my goods and pleasures according to mine own desire When the Eare heard him then it blessed him and when the Eye saw him it gave witness unto him He sat chief and dwelt as a King in the Army Was both beloved and feared yet in all these hot Sun-shine Dayes of prosperity this House of his kept his heart cool towards the things of the World He lived in continual fear of loosing them I feared saith he a fear and it came upon me I never all this while gave my self over to carnal security I alway affrighted my heart with the apprehension of the Accidents of this life and contained my self in fear and humility towards God and within the bounds of modesty towards men Hear him making a solemn protestation how cool his heart was kept from evil concupiscence and cursed love to Women I set a watch saith he at the entrance of my sences made a Covenant with mine Eyes That my Soul might not by them receive any vicious enticements to uncleanness Or if my sences had been at any time allured by any object of sin yet my heart which is the seat of God's Spirit hath opposed them It never walked after mine Eyes And as for temporal good Though I had exceeding great store of them and all justly gotten yet was I free from rejoycing carnally or setting my whole delight in them nor did I put any confidence at all in them Thus loose was this holy Man's Soul kept from the things of the World The lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life And so was the Soul of Moses who living by faith in God had his affections so cooled to the pleasures of Egypt that with ease he forsook them all and with joy joyned himself to the Ignominious condition of his brethren 6. No House is so full of goods as this is none so stored with all things both for necessity and delight Houses that are high and strong and large and lightsome and warm if they want provision of good and furniture are far from being accounted good Houses These only where there is a fulness of Houshold stuff
all fulness with marrow What is Wines on the Lees what are all earthly royal dainties to these rich graces and Divine special favours and blessings offered and bestowed and participated of in the Sacraments At which sumptuous and delicious banquet every worthy receiver that has made due preparation by self examination is or should be much affected and ravished As the Divine Poet was who thus expresseth himself First as to the manner of Importation and submission Herb. H. Com. Not in rich Ornament or fine Aray Nor in a Wedge of Gold Thou who for me wast sold To me dost now thy self convey For so thou should'st without me stil have been Leaving within me Sin But by the way of nourishment strength Thou creepest into my Breast Making thy Way my Rest And thy small quantities my length Which spread their Forces into every part Meeting Sins force and art Yet can these not get over to my Soul Leaping the Wall that parts Our Souls and fleshly Hearts But as the out-works they may controll My Rebel-flesh and carrying thy Name Affright both sin and shame Only thy grace which with these Elements comes Knoweth the ready way And hath the Privy Key Op'ning the Souls most subtile Roomes While those to Spirits refin'd at Door attend Dispatches from their Friend Give me my Captive Soul or take My Body also thither Another life like this will make Them both to be together Before that Sin turn'd Flesh to stone And all our Lump to leaven A fervent sigh might well have blown Our innocent Earth to Heaven For sure when Adam did not know To sin or sin to smother He might to Heav'n from Paradise go As from one Room to another Thou hast restor'd us to this ease By this thy Heavenly blood Which I can go to when I please And leave the Earth to their food When he was pleased to go to this Heavenly Banquet and he was so pleased as oft as might be and so should every godly Christian hear him warbling this Divine Rapture Idem the Banquet Welcome sweet and sacred cheer Welcome deer With me in me live and dwell For thy neatness passeth sight Thy delight Passeth Tongue to taste or tell O what sweetness from the Bowl Fills my Soul Such as is and makes Divine Is some Star fled from the Sphere Melted there As we Sugar melt in Wine Or hath sweetness in the Bread Made a head To subdue the smell of Sin Flow'rs and gums and powders giving All their living Lest the Enemy should win Doubtless neither Star nor Flower Hath the Power Such a sweetness to impart Only God who gives perfumes Flesh assumes And with it perfumes my heart But as Pomanders and sweet Wood Still are good Yet being bruised are better sented God to shew how far his love Could improve Here as broken is presented c. Let the wonder of this pitty Be my ditty And take up my lines and life Hearken under pain of Death Hands and breath Strive in this and love the strife Nor found he this food beyond all degrees of comparison nourishing and strengthning but he feeleth it also most effectually healing Physick as appeares by what he speaks to his pratling Conscience which call'd every fair look sowl every sweet Dish sower If thou persist I will tell thee That I have Physick to expell thee And the Receipt shall be My Saviours Blood when ever at his board I do but taste it straight it cleanseth me And leaves thee not a Word No not a Tooth or Nail to scratch And at my actions carp or catch Here is therefore no such provision of food no such sumptuous fair in any House as this Solomon's so much admired was as Husks yea and stark hunger compared to this and each of the Houshold fares alike And they have both Dinner and Supper every Day of the same delicates that which Matthew calls a Dinner Luke calls a Supper And they are called upon to feed heartrly Eat O Friends Drink yea drink abnndantly O well-beloved Nor are there any such fellow-Commoners to Dine and Sup with any where as here These are all Noble Honourable Persons The choicest and most excellent Kings and Priests A chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Holy Nation a peculiar People Yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Dines and Sups with them Mephibosheth thought it no small honour that David set him among them that did eat at his own Table How great honour must it then be to sit at Christs Table who is David's Lord And to increase their comfort they have assurance of the same Session with him in the Kingdome of Glory I appoint you saith he a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed me that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome Nor are there any such servitures in any House as in this to wit the Holy Angels Are they not all Ministering Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall he Heirs of Salvation There are that make them both Cooks and Butlers that dress and dish up and bring in the provision of this continual Feast attend at Table and Minister Cups of Consolation And moreover wait upon every Member of this Family when they go abroad about the works of their Callings and in all the changes of their life who have care of them besides this common attendance a peculiar Guardian of Angels from their new birth at least as some probably gather from sundry Scriptures Nor are there any such Vessels in any House to serve up the Meat and Drink in as are in this The Dishes Spoons Covers and Bowles belonging to the Sanctuary were all of pure Gold so were all the Vessels of the pure Table All the drinking Vessels of King Solomon were of Gold and all the Vessels of the House of the forrest of Lebanon were of pure Gold At that Royal Feast which Ahasuerus made to all his Princes and Servants That lasted an hundred and fourscore Days They gave them Drink in Vessels of Gold The Vessels of this House wherein the Saints dwell and wherein they have their Meat and Drink served up are much more precious than the Gold that perisheth which is corruptible how pure soever even great and precious promises in which are contained all the choicest Viands that Earth and Heaven can yield both for the nourishment of Soul and Body For Godliness is profitable for all things having the promise of the Life that now is and that which is to come Nor are there any such Seats to rest both Souls and Bodies on in taking repast in any House as in this Kings have had their Seats for themselves and by them for their Children and Favorites on which they sate down to eat meat they were terrestrial these coelestial places We read of the great King sitting at his Table with his Spouse
is by closing with him Many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord and shall be my People and I will dwell in the midst of them This joyning makes this natural dwelling Neither let the Son of the Stranger that hath tyed himself to the Lord speak saying the Lord hath utterly separated me from his People Also the Sons of the Stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and love the Name of the Lord to be his servants even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and their Sacrifices shall be accepted He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit United with Christ and so to God the Father in Body and Soul as by a Bond of spiritual Matrimony in the Communion of the Spirit of Holiness This actual closing with God is especially by faith which is a trusting in his mercy through the mediation of his Son with an obediential affiance I have trusted in thy mercy and by this means made thee my Habitation and Salvation wherein I take no small Consolation Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Rely with hearty confidence upon his faithful promises and most powerful wise and good providence for preventing and removing of evils and obtaining all good spiritual temporal and eternal The want of this is noted in that wicked mighty Man Loe this is the Man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his Riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness By repenting whereof and closing with God by a religious trust he might have made him his dwelling place for not doing so he is threatned to be pluckt out of his own dwelling place 3. God is made our Habitation by cleaving to him thus closed with persevering in faith and holiness adhearing constantly and abiding faithfully to God Seeking and expecting all our safety from his sole protection and accordingly qualifying our selves for a capacity thereof keeping in the way to which he hath promised his safeguard This is the meaning of the subject of this proposition in the first Verse of this Psalm He that dwelleth in the secret Place of the most High The same with making the Lord even the most High our Habitation Sticking fast also to him with the affections of the heart especially that of Love which hath the Nature of Glew The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own Soul Ruth clave to Naoimi intreat me not says she to hear thee or to return from following after thee For whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge where thou dyest will I dye and there will I be buried Hezekiah cleave unto the Lord and departed not from him but kept his Commandments him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave thus thou shalt make him thy habitation To the later Branch of the Question I answer in the words of the Apostle John in his first Epistle where he gives among others these four Characters of Persons dwelling in God 1. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him The Commandments of the moral Law are meant which whosoever keepeth approves himself to God and Men and to his own Conscience that he hath his dwelling in God He that lives in the breach of them evidenceth that he hath not his abiding in God Nor will obedience to some of these Commandments be any comfort to a Mans conscience that God is his habitation That young Man in the Gospel could say to Christ who bad him if he would enter into life keep the Commandments and mentions sundry of them All these things have I kept from my Youth up The proud Pharisee thanked God he was not as other Men were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers that he fasted twice a Week and gave Tithes of all that he possessed Herod did many things Obedience must be Universal Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet is guilty in one point offendeth in all David did according to all that God commanded him Zacharias and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Conscience must be made of every sin great and small They only are blessed that do no iniquity I have refrained my Feet from every evil way I hate every false way Darling sins must be abandoned and abominated sins of constitution calling company I kept my self from mine iniquity So must every secret sin even of thought Why should I think upon a Maid Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments shall be excluded out of Heaven yea all appearance of evil must be abstain'd from And conscience must be made of every duty how costly dangerous or difficult soever 2 Cor. 8. 7. Phil. 4. 8 9. Dan. 6. 10. Rom. 12. 19 20. True it is we must be most careful of such duties that God hath laid a charge upon us especially to perform namely substantial duties of Piety and Charity and the duties of our particular Callings and Relations Mat. 22. 38 39 23. 23 24. 1 Sam. 15. 22. Hos 6. 6. Luk. 3. 13 14. 1 Tim. 6. 1 2. Tit. 2. 15. Eph. 5. 22. Not that it is expected that we should legally keep all these Commandments for this is impossible while we are in these earthly Tabernacles Evangelical obedience will be accepted which stands in five things 1. That we approve of all the Commandments of God I esteem all thy Commandments to be right the Law is holy the Commandment is holy just and good 2. That we unfeignedly will and earnestly endeavour to keep the whole Law We trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes Let now thine Ear be attentive to the Prayer of thy Servants who desire to fear thy Name 3. That there be in us as earnest an endeavour Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence both towards God and Man 4. That we unfeignedly repent as oft as we fall or fail Grieving that we have done amiss and resolve to do so no more If thy Brother Sin against Thee seven times in a Day and seven times in a Day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out I gave her space to repent of her Fornication and she repented not They repented not to give him glory neither repented they of their murders or of their Sorceries nor of their thefts no Man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done There was under the Law a Sacrifice even for Perjury whereby a Man seals himself to the Devil 5. That we believe in the Lord
get not your selves and them timely into this House where and no where else there is safety The general means is implyed in the word making which speaks stirring and action As God the Father hath made his Son Jesus Christ unto believers wisdom righteousness and sanctification and redemption So he that by faith in Christ which works by Love makes God unto himself all that to him which in all estates may give him comfort and satisfaction his King Lord Husband Father Sheapherd Son Shield Comfortress Hiding-place Habitation and Portion You that have as yet no such portion in God arise and be doing The Soul of the Sluggard desireth and hath nothing because his hands refuse to labour but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat Such shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God's House and he shall make them drink of the Rivers of his pleasures Wherefore do they spend Money for that which is not Bread and their labour for that which satisfieth not Heathens were wont to say the Gods sell good things to Men for Labours True it is all Men are alwayes making We read of many that have made and do make wofull work They made a Calf in Horeb. Ephraim hath made many Altars to Sin They have made goodly Imamages Molton Images of their Silver and Idols according to your own understanding Their Feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood They have made their hearts as an Adamant Stone Woe to thee that puttest thy Bottle to thy Neighbour and makest him drunken We have made Lies our refuge Ye have made the Commandment of God of none effect By the Tradition ye have made my House a Den of Thieves Some having put away Faith and a good Conscience concerning faith have made shipwrack Fools make a mock of sin Such kind of making makes Men meet to be made partakers of the Inheritance of the Devil and his Angels in blackness of darkness for ever Another manner of making is required of them that would have God to become their Habitation Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make ye a new heart and a new spirit return ye now every one from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his Path streight Make straight Paths for your Feet Make the way of the Gospel easie for you By the diligent Obedience give diligence to make your Calling and your Election sure More particularly consider what they that want a House and hear of a good one to be had do and do likewise 1. They are sensible of and lay sadly to heart their misery thereby What comfort can that Man have that hath Meat Drink and Cloaths and Silver and Gold and Jewels if with these he hath not a House to live in And such a House as can keep him and what he hath dry A Housless Man is exposed to unsufferable evils to all the injuries of Heaven and Earth in the Day the draught consumes him and the frost by Night and all his Sleep departeth from his Eyes 2. They consider how happy they are that have a House and such an one as hath been described for properties furniture conveniences and how happy themselves should be if they had the same 3. The desire of your Soul is carryed earnestly after this Happiness and they express their desires both by enquiring of them that have how the House they have heard of may be had and requesting them that have interest in the owner and disposer of it to befriend them in speaking a good word for them and also making and putting up their supplication themselves to him to vouchsafe this favour to them 4. They are contented to purchase or take it at any rate within their power are willing to come up to the full price or rent demanded 5. They put themselves into the way that leads to this House with the Price in their hands as those Lords are said to go to Delilah 6. They are careful to qualifie themselves so as to be made meet to enter into the House and dwell there We read of a prohibition to suffer any that are blind and lame to come into the House of David Nor might any enter into Ahasuerus Gate cloathed in Sack-Cloath 7. They are ready to enter into Covenants and Bonds and an Oath too if need be to perform Conditions that are required by him that owns the House and must give them possession of it 1. All this must be done by you that are out of God that he may become your Habitation See and know that it is an evil and a bitter thing to be without God in the World You have no Union nor Communion with Christ the Spring of all spiritual and everlasting blessings You are separate from his body in which only he communicates his grace You have no Interest nor Portion in the goods promised by the Covenant of grace are without all hope of salvation while in that condition You are subject to the wrath and curse of God your very blessings are curses your Table is a snare and that which should be for your welfare is a trap Not only the corporal but spiritual food even the consecrated Elements which you receive Every Creature is your enemy and seeks your ruine yea all things work together to effect it You are every moment in danger of dropping into Hell out of which there is no Redemption And what will ye do in the Day of Visitation to whom will ye flee for help There is no help for you out of me They shall be bound up and tyed together as bundles and cast into the Furnace of Fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth You may seem to your selves and others to be in a good condition because you have the World at will and are perhaps civil and honest yea and formally religious like the Laodicean Angel Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art poor and blind and naked Apprehend these as the Officers of the Children of Israel did when Pharaoh denyed them Straw To be in evil case be afflicted make these miserable so the word signifies Go too now ye rich Men weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you Though a sinner do evil an Hundred times and prolong his Days yet surely I know that it shall go well with them that fear the Lord which dwell in him But it shall not be well with the wicked whose Habitation the Devil is whom they serve and with whom they shall shortly dwell in his infernal House to all Eternity Mean time their judgment lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not but is coming Post-haste to meet them Evil
his Hypocrisie Qu. What was wanting in these Chapmen that bid thus fairly for this House and went without it Answ Three things which you must bring to make up the Price of this Purchase or fare as they did Namely 1. Poverty of Spirit they came with Money You must come without or go without Come buy without Money and without Price He that hath no Money Come apprehend your selves in the prodigals condition in extream want of grace and in debt to divine Justice ten thousand Talents and utterly unable to pay one Unite To such a Chapman will the Lord look and hearken For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of an humble spirit And to be sure he dwelleth in God in whom God dwelleth Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven 2. Self-denyal If any Man will come after me let him deny himself Christ was going unto his Fathers Bosome he was there always they that go after him must needs go in thither this only self-denyers do who forsake the motions of their own corrupt reason and will loath whatsoever is lovely to Nature that will hinder them in the course of godliness mortifie the old Man crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts yea dispose themselves to hate even their neerest kindred in case the love of them be incompatible with the love that is due â—o Jesus Christ Nor is their life â—ear to them nor dare they do that which they do but suspect is â—ispleasing to God Many have written divinely upon this subject Mr. Baxter incomparably 4. An intire resignation of the whole heart to Jesus Christ Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me and you shall finde rest for your Souls Yield and submit our selves we must both actively and passively 5. Get into the way that leads unto this House I am the way saith Christ No Man cometh unto the Father but by me The way to get into Christ is by a lively faith denying our own righteousness and rolling our Persons Souls and Bodies upon the Person of Christ God and Man and upon his merits and righteousness and upon the promises made in him for remission of sins and salvation receiving him not only as a Savior but also as a Lord as willing to be ruled by him as well as to be saved If you finde it difficult to do this do as that poor Man did Who cryed out and said with tears I believe Lord help my unbelief 6. You that are yet in a state of nature blind and lame and worse cloathed than with Sack cloath and so unmeet to be admitted into this House Anoint your Eyes with Eye-Salve that you may see You know of whom you may have it and have faith to be heal'd of your lameness as that Cripple from his Mothers Womb had in whom the Spirit of God had infused some seeds of Faith which Paul conceived by Revelation And cast away those filthy Garments that are upon you as menstruous Clothes saying get you hence and put on other Apparel The new Man which after God is Created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth 7. Nor do you stick at any engagements or obligations or oaths required of you but freely enter into any that shall be put upon you by him who cannot impose any thing but what is holy just and good And resolve to keep them I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Thus do and you shall not fail to finde the Lord to be what a House and all desirable Furniture and Conveniencies can be unto you THE THIRD SERMON THere is yet one thing more required of you that would make God your habitation viz. That you make your selves his habitation He will not suffer any to dwell in him who freely do not suffer him to dwell in them in all the Scriptures we quoted out of the Apostle John's first Epistle Characterizing them that dwell in God We finde the dwelling to be mutual If therefore you desire to dwell in God serve his desire which is that he may enter and dwell in you in your whole Man in all the faculties of your souls mind will affections memory and conscience and in all the senses and members of your Bodies Eyes Ears Mouths Hands Feet But especially he craves the heart My Son give me thy Heart and let thine Eyes observe my Ways The heart first and then the Eyes Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lift up O ye everlasting Doors that the King of Glory may come in Mens hearts are compared to Trap-doors the lifting them up is the opening of them They must be lift off from things of the World from the things below and be lift up to things above Set your affections on things above not on things on the Earth See how earnest the Lord Jesus is with you to give him entrance Behold I stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the Door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me Read Cant. 5. 2 7. and observe the several degrees by which this Door comes to be opened unto him Now because it is not every heart that is fit to entertain God The heart of the Wicked is little worth The Query will be what manner of heart it is that God is willing and desirous to dwell in Our Saviour resolves the Query It is an honest and good heart For only such a heart is good soyle fit for the good Seed of the Word to fall into and God comes into the heart with his Word Qu. What is an honest heart and what makes it so Answ That is an honest heart That provides for things comely before God and Men. It was honestly said of those Israelites to Moses Go thou neer and hear all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it They have well said saith God all that they have spoken but O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me The fear of God is the principal grace that makes the heart honest And then a Man fears God when distrustful of his own insufficiency to do any thing that God requires he is studious and willing to give up himself to Christ to be taught of him and enabled by him to do all the will of God A good heart is described and set forth in Scripture by sundry Names and Epithites namely new broken single whole pure perfect And although it be true that he that hath one of these in truth hath all they are all one Yet because each of them requires a several notion to open it and because some can
I am dealing with may and ought to take comfort in this that they cannot deny but that they have been truly humbled though in a lower degree It being the truth and not the measure that warrants sinners to come to Christ and qualifie them for faith in him He saith not come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden in such a degree But all that labour and are heavy laden in a true degree Qu. What is the lowest degree of true Humiliation Answ It is that which brings him into the Beggars case Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the c. When is a Man so Answ When out of a sense of his own emptiness and apprehension of Divine Justice to which they are indebted he is wrought upon by God's gracious promises to seek supply from Christ's fulness As when a Man is extream poor and knows himself to be so having never a Penny in all the World and owes a very great Summe and that to such a one as will not abate one farthing of the Debt but exact the whole and for default of payment will cast him into Prison there to lye and rot nor has he a friend in all the World to help him only he hears of a rich Man that is able to pay all he owes who hath discharged the Debts of many in his case but alass he dares not adventure for a good while to go and speak with him because he hath no interest in him In this case he is exceedingly cast down not knowing what to do yet at last necessity forcing he is resolved to go to him and seek supply from him relying wholly upon his goodness having heard how mercifully he hath dealt with all that have so done Is not this thy case poor despondent Christian Hast thou not seen thy Soul totally empty of Grace yet indebted to God Ten Thousand Talents whose Justice thou knowest will exact the utmost Mite do'st not thou see fulness in Christ and all-sufficiency that he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him to discharge their debt were it ten thousand times greater Though thou did'st not dare to go to him for a while yet at last did'st adventure being encouraged by what others in as bad a condition have found and by sundry gracious invitations and promises excluding none that have an heart to come Upon which promises thou do'st in great humility roll thy Soul and resolvest therein to rest Thus the Prodigal saw an emptiness in himself knew there was fulness in his Fathers House was moved to go to him trusting in his gracious disposition So the Syrians Behold now we have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are merciful Kings Let us put Sack-cloath upon our Loynes and Ropes upon our Heads and go to the King of Israel peradventure he will save thy Life So they put Sack-cloath upon their Loynes and Ropes upon their heads and begged their Masters Life Qu. How shall I know I have this poverty of Spirit Answ By the signes of a poor Beggar He is full of complaints to such as can relieve him full of requests No need to teach him rhetorick Industrious to get maintenance out he will though the Law be against it The Belly hath no Eares If he be blind he will get some to lead him if lame he will get a Crutch to uphold him He is more-over meek patiently bearing checks and reproaches content to stay his leisure of whom he begs and expects an Almes full of observance also towards him ready to obey his commands trembling at his frownes and greatly thankful if he give him but a Crumb And if he hath offended is at no rest till his anger against him be appeased and his favour and good will regained Thou canst not but finde all these signes in thy self in reference unto God and therefore mayest take comfort in thy poverty Add unto this another sure evidence of true humiliation namely thou esteemest sin the greatest evil and Jesus Christ the greatest good put naked Christ in one Scale and all the pomp and glory of the World in the other and whether of these would weigh the most in thy judgment and valuation Obj. But thou knowest not the time when thy heart was broken and humbled Ans Suppose thou sawest a good Crop of Corn upon a piece of Ground wouldst thou not think it had tillage good enough though thou sawest not when it was broken up Nor how deep the Plow went The fruits thou bringest forth of holiness righteousness sobriety and charity argue the fallow ground of thy heart to have had sufficient plowing Though thou know not the time when nor the means whereby this was done Thou walkest not in the counsel of the ungodly much less standest in the way of sinners least of all sittest in the seat of the scornful But thy delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law thou meditatest Day and Night As thy affections are such are thy words seasoned with salt such as discover Grace in the Speaker Minister Grace to the hearers and thy conversation accordingly and actions such as become the Gospel Herein thou exercisest thy self to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and toward Men. Thou dost good to all especially to the houshold of faith Art ready to distribute willing to communicate Ye shall know others by their fruits do Men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figges of Thistles even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit Thou mayest and oughtest to pass judgment upon thy self that certainly the Root of the matter is in thee That thou art a Tree of righteousness the planting of the Lord wherein he is glorified Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much Fruit so shall ye be my Disciples Ye shall shew your selves to be truly such doing acts worthy of such a Title And if you be indeed Christ's Disciples you need not question your dwelling in God Obj. 2. These Godly doubting Christians are so far from acknowledging any such fruits or taking comfort in them that they deny there is any good in them any good fruit brought forth by them They believe themselves would have you believe so too That their Vine is of the Vine of Sodom and of the Fields of Gomorrah Their Grapes are Grapes of Gall. Their Clusters are bitter their Wine of the poyson of Dragons and the cruel Venome of Asps instead of good fruits They will tell you your hearts and tongues and lives are full of evil fruits Vain and vile thoughts and idle and ungracious words unprofitable impious and unrighteous actions Fruits not tending to Life but Death That they are Trees not for fruit but for the Fire Corrupt Trees at best whose fruit withereth which have neither life nor sap to bring forth any fruit unto God Even like Trees after Autome Yea quite pluckt up by the Roots
longest to be freed from it It 's Grace certainly that makes thee able to discern so hidden and close a Corruption and to hate it And as sense and feeling is a certain sign of a living Man as was now said So thy sense of hypocrisie with a hatred of it is a sure note and token of thy sincerity So that thou art not in the Flesh but in the Spirit Nor matters it so much what evil motions thou findest in thy self as how thou standest affected to them There are and will be filthy scums rising up in thy heart continually while thou livest here But while thou castest it off as it riseth by confession and self-condemnation it shall never hurt thee God will not condemn but absolve and acquit thee of it Thou mayest and oughtest to take comfort in the allowance of the Law of God in thy judgment and in thy will consenting to do it having an unfeigned desire purpose and endeavour to please God and to do his will this being the work of God's sanctifying Spirit and a special fruit of Christ's purchase as real comfort therefore herein as if thou wast perfect in obedience For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath nor shall he be rejected for that he hath not In this God's choicest Servants have comforted themselves against all their imperfections and falls and failings Obj. But I question the truth of my desires Answ That thou need'st not do as long as thou esteemest God's grace and favour above all things Seeking by prayer and other means every Day to grow less sinful and more holy and mournest for thy Daily miscarriages lamenting after the Lord. Obj. But my Conscience condemns me for an Hypocrite Ans O spiteful bitter thought bitterly spiteful thought Thou hast reason to discredit thy Conscience if it be opposite to the Word of God and not to regard it against the Word of God If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things He knowes the way thou takest that it is right And his word which is the Judge of Conscience hath given Sentence on the right side And therefore thou art bound in this case to check and condemn thy Conscience for troubling thee causlesly So did David and Job Let me give thee one caution take heed of making inherent Grace the only and chief ground of thy comfort Though it is indeed the only evidence of thy title to comfort For in so doing thou shalt commit two great evils one against thy self in leaning upon a bruised Reed for thine own Spirit may fail thee and be overwhelmed and thy heart may reproach thee another against the Lord making an Idol of that gift of his which cannot be so trusted in without sin Rely more upon God's Grace without thee than that which is within thee Yet cherish also inherent Holiness as thy only evidence of Life Eternal and the beginning of it Finally give not credit to thy misgiving heart that would perswade thee thou hast no assurance that God is thy Habitation For thou hast that degree of assurance which is necessary to the beeing of Grace the lowest degree of certainty which is in every true believer consisting in an application of adherence Whereby the Soul of a penitent sinner casts it self upon Jesus Christ with a resolved humble recumbency cleaving to him as the Ivy doth to the Oak Eagle to the Carkass goes out of it self renouncing its own Merits and relying upon the Person and Merits of Christ his active and passive obedience for forgiveness of sins and for Life and Salvation This is the act of Faith and every one that thus receiveth him with an Obediential affiance knows that and that through him dwelling in his heart he hath his dwelling in God You therefore as yet that have not any comfortable assurance cease hence-forth to doubt and fear and assay to joyn your selves with them that have with whom we are next to deal as Saul assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples at Jerusalem Who will not at all as they were awhile of him be afraid of you but receive you joyfully into their blessed Society And when thou hast told despair Divine Herbert's strange story Say to it as he doth Hark Despair away THE FOURTH SERMON HAving dealt with those of this Divine Houshold that have as yet no comfortable assurance that the Lord is their Habitation we proceed to deal with them that have higher degrees of assurance which carry sensible comfort with them one is the Application of Experience when a Christian discerns in himself Divine impressions effects of regenerating Grace two or three whereof we will mention The prime and most general is a real change of the whole Man from evil to good This is a sure evidence of our being in Christ If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away all things are become new Whoever is changed in all his senses motions and affections speeches and actions is certainly ingrafted into the Body of Christ by his spirit The substance of the Soul and Body is the same the qualities and operations altered Another is walking in the light as God is the light Living and conversing following that light of God which is conferred upon us by Grace evidenceth us to be partakers of the Divine Nature Purifying our selves as he is pure Hereby we know we have fellowship one with another God with us and we with him that he dwells in us and we in him Love to the Brethren Christ's whole spiritual kindred who are knit to him to the bond of Faith and among themselves by that of love another infallible note We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren When a Christian's faith in lively exercise reflects upon its own acts receptive of Christ and operative by him having withall a sanctified Conscience witnessing sincerity in the actings he gathers by discourse and reasoning his own spiritual estate as Paul did Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the World and now abundantly to you-ward Such an application of experience had Thomas upon his Faith not quite exquisit before but very weak was raised and renewed by beholding touching and feeling The other application is that of evidence when the testimony of God's spirit comes and concurs with ours when we finde the Holy Ghost in us not only as a seal imprinting the graces of Christ upon our Souls nor only as an earnest giving us the first Fruits and as it were handle of Heaven Those holy and Heavenly Gift conferred in this life being a pledg of the perfection which shall be in the next but
particular duties are many in sundry references both to things and Persons The first of the former sort we will dwell awhile upon are Earthly Houses and Habitations Some whose dwelling Place the Lord is have no House on Earth which they can call their own Of those that have some are not suffered to live in them and of them that have this liberty some have very poor Houses with as poor Furniture or other Conveniences Others have convenient Dwellings with an indifferent outward estate and some few have gentile and stately Edifices with riches and honour in abundance 1. To those that have no earthly Houses of their own but are in a state of beggary or next to it of whom some there are who never had any others had comfortable ones but have lost them by Fire or other casualty and so are for the present Housless to these I have this word of Exhortation Let not your hearts be troubled 1. Because you are not without Fellowes and Companions better than your selves that are in the same Housless condition you have heard of some Of whom the World was not worthy Who wandred in Deserts and in Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth And of the blessed Apostle St. Paul Who both hungred thirsted and was naked and had no certain dwelling place And of our blessed Saviour Who had not where to lay his head And you know how little it troubled these holy Ones that they were thus destitute how well pleased with their want it being their Heavenly Fathers good pleasure that it should be with them as it was And how joyfully those believing Hebrews took the spoyling of their Goods knowing that they had in Heaven a better Mansion and a better and an enduring substance 2. You are not without a House which likes you best and which you would not change for the best House in the World You hear God asking you as Elkenah did Hannah Am not I better to thee than Ten Sons Had you not rather enjoy me and do you not finde more comfort in me than in Ten Houses And your Heart answereth truth Lord. And can it then be troubled It may be said of all Houses compared with this of yours as it 's said of all Nations they are as nothing less than nothing and vanity And in truth all Houses and Riches which others inherit are not though they seem to be You only and your fellow Inhabitants inherit that which is Esther had good reason to be content when she was preferred to the best place of the House And so have you who are preferred to live in the best House and in the best place the very heart of it You are not only graven upon the Palmes of God's hands but you are in his heart set as a seal there Yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good with my whole heart and with my whole Soul How then can ye choose but rejoyce exceedingly in the want of all Creature comforts yea though you have to boot the present feeling of the greatest outward evils And say with the holy Prophet Although the Figg-Tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Field shall yield no Meat the Flocks shall be cut off from the Fold And there shall be no Herd in the Stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance The Lines are fallen to me in pleasant places Yea I have a goodly Heritage Having nothing I. possess all things having the Haver of all things 3. You may and ought to take comfort in the promises which God hath made to his People in this case of Poverty which for the present pincheth you He is pleased to bring you to this want of house and maintenance that he might humble and prove you to do you good in the latter end And he is able and no less willing to help you either by inclining the hearts of the rich to shew compassion upon you to receive you into their Houses and feed you at their Tables or if you have but Pulse to eat he can make that nourish you better than Kingly fare yea he can make you go in the strength of one Meal made of a Cake baken on the Coals Forty Dayes Qu. But may we expect God will work Miracles now adayes Yes that we may rather than his promise should faile Is my hand shortned at all This resolve upon that the Eyes of the Lord run too and fro throughout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him And of this also that all things are possible to him that believeth And therefore with Job resolve to trust in him though he slay you and to dye rather than to help your selves by any unlawful means and cast off all solicitous carking thoughtfulness for your Bodies where to dwell and what to eat and wherewith ye shall be cloathed Ponder those Seven Disswasives from distrustful cutting dividing distracting cares And having Food and Rayment how little how course soever be content therewith Considering that a little that the righteous Man hath is better than the riches of many wicked Nor do you doubt all but if God see that a House with wealth and riches may serve to further your spiritual and eternal good you shall not fail to have them before you dye He hath raised the Poor out of the Dust and lifted the needy out of the Dunghill and set him with Princes And so he will you Hear his express primise Wealth and Riches shall be in his House or if you live and dye poor and mean your Children shall be blessed with abundance His Seed shall be mighty upon Earth And you that were some Years since wealthy but by the rage of the Fire or malice and fraud of Men or other mishaps are become as poor as Job do not despair of recovering your losse but remember what the Man of God said to Amaziah who demanded of him What he should do for the Hundred Talents The Lord is able to give thee much more than this and how he gave Job twice as much as before Wait upon God and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the Land Yee have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is pittiful and of tender Mercy 2. To you that have Houses of your own but may not live in them at least cannot with any safety 1. See and acknowledge the hand of God in your expulsion as in every other Cross so in this you should a Divine Providence It is God that and not Man only that hath thrust you out 2. Examine the cause of
in the Light but sit in Darkness and in the shaddow of Death Namely 1. Grosly ignorant ones that are utterly unacquainted with the first Principles of the Oracles of God These are in Satan's Power under his Government who is the Ruler of the Darkness of this World against these is the wrath of God revealed from Heaven in temporal and spiritual and Eternal Judgments Knowledgè being the Foundation and Seed of all saving Grace they must needs be graceless that want it 2. Wickedly erroneous ones those who hold in their judgments Doctrines overthrowing the Christian Faith these are not many Doors from Death For every fundamental Errour hath a damnable defilement being a Leprosie in the Head the worst of that kinde of Plague 3. Openly prophane ones that live in the omission of known duties and in the practice of known gross sins Who for the pleasures of the Flesh renounce the Heavenly blessings as Esau did who for a Morsel of Meat sold his birth-right Fornicators Thieves Drunkards Revilers Swearers Sabbath-breakers c. This ye know that no such have any abiding in God but dwell in the Devil whose they are and whom they serve and with whom they shall abide eternally without Repentance 4 Meer civil ones who live not in any open offence against the Second Table but are utterly regardless of the First which are of absolute necessity to prove Man's being in God The Gospel teaching us to live godly as well as righteously and soberly Nor without holiness shall any Man ever see God 5. Hypocrites who though they seem to have a prime respect to the First Table which Christ calls the First and great Commandement yet they make little or no Conscience of the Second Table duties love not their Wives are cruel to their Children and Servants will lie and cheat and cozen tipple c. The damnable estate of these hath been sufficiently discovered and that the lowest place of Torments in the burning Lake is assigned for them 6tly Haters and Blasphemers and Persecutors of the ways of Godliness and of them that walk in those wayes by word or deed This is an evident token of Perdition and the wrath of God shall come upon such to the utter-most if they perish in their malice The duty we owe to all these is to mourn for their undone condition and to desire and strive earnestly to convert them That they may be in capacity to live and lodge with you under the same Roof and partake of the same glorious Priviledges and Graces and Comforts So you ought to do by these when you have occasion to converse with any of them as Lydia by Paul and Silas constrained them to come into her House and abide there at least by earnest invitation and perswasion as Jael did Sisera with another manner of mind Turn in my Lord turn into me fear not You are bound to have the same tender and cordial affection towards all these that are out of God's grace that Saint Paul had towards the Galatians that were fallen from grace My little Children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you 1. Be in pain for them as a Woman in travel is Grieve and groan and sigh and weep bitterly for them as Lot did for the Sodomites With whose filthy conversation he was vexed for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing hearing vexed his righteous soul from Day to Day with their unlawful deeds I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Teares that I might weep Day and Night as well for the sins as the slain of the Daughters of my People For they be all Adulterers an Assembly of treacherous Men and bend their Tongue like their Bow for Lies They proceed from evil to worse Samuel mourned for Soul Even mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carryed away Jesus grieved for the hardness of the Heart of the Jews Beheld their City and wept over it Out of much affliction and languish of heart I wrote unto you with many teares Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their Belly whose Glory is their shame who mind Earthly things For loves sake love to God who is dishonour'd and your Countrey which is endangered and to these poor Creatures that are destroying their poor Souls and your own Souls which you will preserve from infection by this means lay sadly to heart and grieve affectionately for the sad dark doleful damnable condition so many thousands in this Land are in Should you come into Houses full of dead Men that had slain themselves would not your Eyes affect your Hearts could you forbear tears You can scarce come into any House where some are not spiritually dead and destroying their own Souls which is a thousand times worse 2. Pray for them Brethren my Hearts desire and prayer for Israel is that they may be saved O that I shmael might live before thee If any Man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto Death he shall ask and he shall give him life God shall pardon him and by that means free him from everlasting Death Father forgive them for they know not what they do Lord lay not this sin to their charge There are none you know or meet with worse than these for whom Stephen thus prayed they were stiff necked so hard that they were not to be made plyable uncircumcised in Heart and Eares as prophane inwardly and wicked as the Heathen themselves though they outwardly in their Bodies carryed the Seal of God's Covenant They always resisted the Holy Ghost by whom God's truth was not only propounded but the truth of it likewise so powerfully demonstrated that they could not contradict it but only by obstinate malice They gnashed upon that Holy-man with their Teeth from madness and malice which they bear to the Evangelical Doctrine which he preached and they stoned him with Stones to Death Pray also that God would work a change in their mindes and manners draw them by a merciful Violence out of Satan into Christ 3. To your mourning and prayers add utmost endeavours using every one according as his Nature and Condition shall require Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the Fire The simple weak and seduced deal gently with Those that are hardned and perverse and corrupters of others be as much as in you lyeth Instruments of their Salvation by more severity Save them with fear namely by a lively denuntiation of God's Judgments darted into your Consciences pulling them out of the Fire that is doing what you can
Persons as prophane and upon that strict profession of walking precisely according to the Rule of the written Word which they think gives you no Warrant for your seperation from their Society in the service of God and my humble and earnest request to you is to lay aside your prejudice and examine by that good Word whether your separation be not sinful I shall presume you will freely grant both that it 's necessary to Salvation that a Man be a member of the true Visible Church because in the Word you finde the profession of the true Religion yea the very hope of Salvation and joyning to the true Chruch going together and that so long as God continueth the Doctrine of Salvation to a People and his Solemn Worship so long he dwells among that People and Salvation may be had there and that no utter separation may be made from those Assemblies where God dwelleth and where Men may be assured to finde Salvation though there may be many great corruptions both in Doctrine and Worship in those Assemblies There were so in the Church of the Jewes in Christ's time the Priests and Teachers were ignorant and wicked and had a corrupt and unlawful entrance into their Calling and the People were like to the Priest generally notoriously and obstinately ungodly and the Worship used in that Church was wofully corrupt many superstitious Ceremonies the Observation whereof were more strictly urged than the Commandments and Ordinances of God the Temples made a Den of Thieves the Discipline and censures shamefully abused the Doctrine was corrupt in many points and the great Sacrament of the Passover ill timed yet the Word tells you Christ whose example it binds you to follow and you profess your selves followers of him in all imitable things made no separation from this Church professed himself a Member of it was by Circumcision incorporated a Member of it received Baptisme in a Congregation of that People was a hearer of their common-service and their Teachers allowing and commanding his Disciples to hear them communicated in the Pass-over with the People and the Priest no more did his Apostles make separation from this Church after his Ascention till their Day had its period Peter and John went to their publick Prayer in their Temple So Paul and Barnabas in their Synagogue By their example it appeares that till God hath forsaken the Church no Man may forsake it and that it is no sufficient warrant to separate from a Church because it is guilty of such sins and corruptions as deserves God should forsake it and for which he hath threatned in his Word that he will forsake it till it appear that God hath put in Execution that which he justly threatned we ought to acknowledge and receive it as his House and not to refuse to dwell with him in it For shall Man be holier than God and hate corruption more than he And yet we may not communicate with it by consenting to any corruptions that are or shall be detected or proved to be in it wherein we have our Saviour's example to guide us All this I take for granted that you will surely grant because many Books largely asserting all this have been many Years in the hands of those who have led away many to separation a syllable whereof they have not gain said and they are in yours nor have I heard a word of your dissenting But this I hear you say that you question the constitution of the Church of England and that you cannot joyn with their Congregations in Divine Worship because they stand under an Antichristian Government and the worship in them is a devised worship Touching the constitution of the Church of England I have no more but this to commend to your consideration namely the answer that was long since given to the Brownists to which I never saw reply given Their Objection was this that the People of England were never rightly called for in the beginning of the Queen's Reign they were by her command and Proclamation compelled to embrace the Protestant Religion and to conform to God's worship whereas in the New Testament we have no Example of People compelled to the Service of God christ commanding Fishermen to convert souls by preaching not Princes to make Disciples by compulsion Therefore the church of Christ had no right constitution The Answer to the separation of old is this that if we speak of a Church first planted the people of such a Nation are first called by the word before they come to be a Church but it is not so of a Countrey where for a long time true Religion hath been professed which is our case And as to that part of the Object that there is no such example in the New Testament 1. The Magistrates were then Enemies to the Christian Religion 2. It sufficeth that we have examples in the Old Testament 2 Kings 23. 21. 2 Chr. 15. 13. 33. 16. 34. 33. Nor have Christian Princes less power in their Dominion to abolish Idolatry and by Law and penalties to compel their Subjects where there is a parity of reason 3. We finde that private Governours in the New-Testament have required and brought in their Families to embrace and profess the Christian Faith Joh. 4. 53. Acts 10. 21. 16. 34. 18. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 16. But that these did any more than teach and command them to learn consent and profess some question if they did so much And so much they did may and ought to do Gen. 8. 9. And whether a Christian Magistrate may do more For though it 's out of all doubt that not only all external duties of the Second Table but also all such of the First Table of the Moral Law are directly and properly of political cognizance yet they doubt much whether any Evangelical Ceremonies or Formes of Worship which relate to Christ be so because they are supernatural and Conscience is the only Rule whereby the Merit of those Duties is to be Judged which must be satisfied before any Papal Injunction can be imposed or obedience can be safely yielded and therefore they would have the ranged not among the essential but among the contingentials of Political Government But they earnestly deny that any internal duties and matters of Faith and Evangelical Doctrine fall within the spheer of that cognizance either directly or indirectly because no humane power extends to acts of the Soul and it is the duty of the Minister and not of the Magistrate to reform even in such matters and yet the Magistrate may and ought to exercise his power for restraining and punishing the fruits and effects of such Errours when the peace of the Common-wealth comes to be disturbed thereby but he has no warrant to punish the misbelief or incredulity concerning Articles of Chirstian Faith no nor Idolatrous Formes of Worship unless they proceed from the errour or obliquity of their Subjects
believers and those that are regenerate by God's spirit apply themselves to the obedience of the Law without constraint or terrifying having the habit of righteousness and holiness in themselves as an inward and living Law They have no need of the horror and constraint of it and also being justified by Christ they are freed from the condemnation of it seeing that a Soveraign pardon stayeth and endeth all Actions and Condemnations grounded upon the Law Great Houses with the Gardens Orchards Parks and Grounds belonging to them have their bounds and limits made by Walls Pales and Hedges That great glorious House which Ezekiah saw in a Vision had its limit This is the Law of the House upon the top of the Mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most Holy God is said to have determined the bounds of all Mens Habitations upon Earth The Ten Commandments of the Moral Law are the Bounds Walls Pales and Hedges set round about the House wherein you that are Saints on Earth inhabit beyond which you may not pass but must keep within this compass As the Waters dwelling within the great Channel have their bounds which they are commanded to keep and forbidden to transgress pass or go over I establish saith God to Job my Decree upon it speaking of the Sea break up for it my Decreed place set Bars and Doors to it Figurative terms to express the concavities wherein the Sea is enclosed and said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed You are commanded in like manner to keep within the bounds of your Decreed place and you are bound to keep within them under a greater penalty than that which was laid upon Shimei when he was confined to his House by Solomon and to the City of Hierusalem the Walls whereof were his utmost limits The King sent and called for Shimei and said unto him build thee an House in Hierusalem and dwell there and go not forth thence any whether For it shall be that on the Day thou goest out and passest over the Brook Kidron that thou shalt surely dye Abide within So long as you do so you abide with God Cursed be the Man whose Heart departeth from the Lord. As a Bird that wandereth from her Nest so is a Man that wandereth from his place Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed who do erre from thy Commandements Thou hast trodden down all them that erre from thy Statutes Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil Heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Every Sin small and great is a transgression of the Law Exceeds the bounds which God by his Law hath appointed unto Men for the moderating regulating of their thoughts words and actions And every transgression and disobedience every commission and omission received a just recompence of reward If at any time through frailty or violence of temptation you pass these bounds If at any time said I Alass who doth not every Day both in thought word and deed There is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not In many things we offend all David a Man after God's own heart passed these bounds oft through infirmity once most abominably Well consider what is to be done after such excursions Consider your wayes in your hearts Bend your minds very diligently weigh ponder think seriously with your selves what you have done Most Men are guilty of this neglect No Man repenteth of his wickedness saying What have I done Remember this and shew your selves Men bring it again to mind O ye Transgressors Know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Be ashamed and confounded to have been found out of the bounds of your House Then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Let it not be said of you as of the generality of the Jewes in Jeremyah's time Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not at all ashamed neither Let the review remembrance and thought of every ordinary sinful digression by rash anger or any bitter expression against Wife Husband Childe Servant Neighbour by vain empty idle unprofitable conference at any time by intemperance in Eating or Drinking though never so little beyond necessity or honest delight making you unfit for divine service in either of your Callings by immoderate sleeping or not being up as early for God as for your selves or spending more time in dressing your Bodies than your Souls by wanton glances of your Eyes or lusting after strange Flesh or abusing the lawful duty of Marriage by envying and grieving at the outward welfare of others or discontentment with your own health wealth credit or carking distrustful caring for to morrow or hasting to be rich by passing rash censure upon the spiritual estate of others or speaking of their faults and follies with mirth by silence at the unsavory speeches of any or conniving at their miscarriages not reproving them at least by discountenance for fear of giving them offence by having too great a hankering of heart after things not evil in themselves Tobacco Hunting Hawking Angling Gameing though not for gain but sport by suffering buying and selling thoughts and vile distractions to have incursions and lodging within you in holy Duties Let the thoughts I say of these and numberless other sinful digressions fill your Souls with shame and blushing ing and sinful abhorrence Much more if you call to mind grosser crimes Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Nor let your shame for taking so many steps out of your Heavenly Fathers House or sense of selfloathsomeness hinder your return thither but say as that unclean spirit for it is lawful and stands with godliness honesty and reason to learn of an enemy I will return unto my House from whence I came out And as that penitent Wife that had stept aside from her Husband I will go and return unto my first Husband for then was it better with me than now So did the Prodigal resolve to do I will arise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity Go and knock at the Door of Divine Mercy confess your folly accusing and judging your selves Surely it is meet to be said unto God who hath revealed himself not only in his Law by commanding and threatning but also in his promises of grace to comfort and encourage by the remission of sins so the Italian reads the word following I
pardon I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me If I have done iniquity I will do no more Confess thy sins with such an honest as well as broken heart and thou needest not fear but God will open the Door to thee and let thee see himself again He that keepeth his sins upon his conscience disguiseth and dissembleth them and doth not confess them to God and to Men also if need require it shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy Let your sins be of what sort they will of ignorance infirmity presumption those three Parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Goat and of the Prodigal may give you ground of assured hope after such confession and supplication for a pardon that thou shalt not fail to receive it and the sense of it Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool If convinced in your own Consciences you give glory to God by a free confession and fly to his mercy by faith and a lively conversion He will quickly cause you to feel by effect the forgiveness of your sins let them be never so grievous This is the Voice of the second of those general Laws I mentioned called the Law of Faith the Doctrine which offereth and promiseth remission of sins and salvation requiring only in order hereunto repentance and faith Repent ye and believe the Gospel The two great Gospel commands which you with whom I am dealing have been inabled by grace to yield obedience unto whereby you have made the Lord your Habitation Nevertheless they are duties which all the Days of your life you are bound to be doing To act both these graces every Day as there is occasion and there will be occasion for acting both while you have a Day to live to renew your repentance and to live by your faith as it is written The just shall live by his Faith The meaning is he shall live healthfully happily blessedly in which sence living is taken John 4. 51. 1 Sam. 10. 24. psal 38. 19. 1 Thes 3. 8. And that this is the Prophets meaning appeares from the scope and occasion of the words in the 1st Chap. he complains and expostulates in the beginning of the second the Lord answers the just shall have deliverance but it shall not be yet The Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry The Prophet might have objected and asked but how shall the afflicted Jewes be able to live in the mean season for Seventy Years together The Lord answers by a distinction the unjust puffes up himself with vain confidence But the just shall live by his Faith Whence it is evident that true Faith if well mannaged is able to keep a life yea to make him live healthfully and happily even in the worst and sadest times and to this conclusion these Scriptures give suffrage 2 Chr. 20. 20. Psal 27. 13. Dan. 6. 23. Esa 50 10. 26. 3. Heb. 10. 39. 2 Cor. 1. 24. And reasons grounded upon Scripture come in as Auxiliaries 1. From the Object of Faith namely the promises which are meet matter to maintain life Phil. 2. 16. John 6. 63. Jer. 15. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 2. Esay 55. 1. 12. 3. 66. 11. Cant. 2. 5. Job 15. 11. 2. From the Nature and Office of Faith which is to rest upon God's faithfulness for the performance of these promises it certifies and assures the Soul that all shall certainly be made good Psal 89. 34. Numb 23. 19. By this means saith gives a Christian actual present possession of all good things even in their absence Faith is the substance hoped for that is it gives substance to things that have no Beeing The evidence of things not seen that is that it both convinceth the judgment that such things must come to pass and it makes the mind conceive them really present Joh. 8. 56. 1 Cor. 10. 3. 3. From the fruits or if you will the Children and Daughters of Faith which are attendant on her and helpful to her in maintaining life namely hope which keeps the heart alive by expecting better when things are at the worst banisheth despair is compared to an Helmet and Anchor 2. Joy this is the juice of Faith the Souls strength banisheth sorrow eats up all Earthly griefs 3. Courage and boldness which expells fear 4. Love this makes bitter things sweet causing a cheerful willingness to suffer the hardest things for the sake of the party beloved 5. From a singular property and power that is in Faith to break through all difficulties leap over all carnal objections and remove all impediments Rom. 4. 18 22. Qu. How may we mannage our Faith so as to maintain this life of joy and comforts Ans Your care must be to make this sure not only that you are within the compass of God's special Covenant to them that are out of this belong no promises nothing but threatnings and curses but also that these special qualifications are in you which are annexed to particular promises the fruition whereof depends upon the practice of some choice part of obedience which if you neglect you do but presume and tempt God in making title and laying claim to them Compare Psal 91. 11 12. with Mat. 4. 6 7. 2. This done learn Four things concerning the promises 1. The matter which is supply of all good and deliverance from all evil 2. The kind or quality of them the principle promise indeed is absolute but all the rest are conditional these shall all be literally fulfilled for you so far forth as they may be subservient to that 3. The manner of propounding them some promises are expresly declared both general and special ones others are by consequence implyed in the examples or prayers of the faithful 4. The several wayes of God's performing his promises Sometimes he gives his People the very thing he promiseth Sometimes he denyeth that and gives them some thing equipollent proportionable instead of it or else that which he knows is far better for them 5. You must in every state of life when you finde need set your Faith on work both to fetch in provision out of the Word and to prepare it and to apply it 1. The way to bring in provision for the maintenance of life is by the memory whatsoever faith doth in the Soul it doth it by the help of this faculty Heb. 12 5 6. Forgetfulness is the cause of fainting in all time therefore of need when-ever you are brought to any streight that you can see no way of escape or means of relief but begin to faint and sink under
better discern of one than of another it will be needful to speak a word or two to each of them That is a New heart which is furnished with a new spirit that is to say new dispositions inclinations and habits It 's called new because it 's opposed to the old spirit that of the World and of the Devil who by breathing on Men makes them go an end into old courses And because it s ever fresh and green and comfortable to them that have it That is a Broken heart which is smitten and pierced with remorse for sin broken down and brought low all high thoughts laid flat and level Broken off from the wayes of sin and stubborness in pursuit of those wayes Broken up as fallow ground made soft and tender as Josiahs was That 's an open heart which is enlightned to see our estate by nature and bewail it And to see comfort in Christ and rejoyce in it To have it also enlarged towards God's faithful Ministers as Lydia's was towards Paul and his fellow-labourers who constrained them to come into her House and abide there as also to run the way of God's Commandments A Single heart is opposed to eye-service and to carnal wisdom and to double mindedness and to guile A Whole heart is a willing heart when we are willing to a thing we use to say with all our hearts It 's opposed to a heart withdrawing it self and to a heart divided willing to lay hold on God and the World too and that fulfilleth not to walk after God That heart is pure that suffers no sin to abide in it without disallowance It being both against the judgment and will and when after falling into sin there is a speedy rising again with self-abhorring 1. A Perfect heart includes integrity and uprightness The heart is then intire when it is sanctified throughout and when there is a study and desire to attain perfection of degrees and a readiness to do all whatsoever God calls for and a constant holding unto God Following hard after him Keeping race with him And it is then upright when it is solid and true great just and when it is led by a right rule and aimes at a right end Such a heart as this God loves and dwells in and if you provide such a dwelling place for God he will be your dwelling place Qu. But is all this or any of this in the power of meer natural Men Such as you have been all this while perswading and advising to do Is it not severally taught and held that no Man can do any thing to help forward or further his own conversion Is it not a truth that no natural Man hath any desire of grace or of the means of grace never thinks of it because he is dead in trespasses and sins and how can a dead Man desire Life or use any means to attain it Nor when God by his Word makes offer of his grace can he perceive it Nor when he doth by God's Word and Spirit beginning to enlighten him in some measure to perceive it is he able to imbrace it Because wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God and because he is under the power of Satan And is not the Religion of the Papists convinced of gross error for teaching that the natural man is able both by his free-will to prepare himself for grace and to accept of grace when it is offered Yea to desire it like the Man that lay in the way to Jericho half dead yea and to do some good works If all this were true yet it hinders not but that God's Ministers may and ought to call upon natural Men to do what they can to reach forth their utmost towards grace for the obtaining of it Hear ye deaf and look ye blind that ye may see Some power they had which they are commanded to exaert and act and they are reproved for not doing what they could Ye Hypocrites ye can discern the face of the Skie and how is it that ye cannot discern this time Yea and why even of your selves That is your own Conscience dictates to you so many proofs of God's truth and God's Kingdom being set forth so clearly unto you by so many marks and tokens Judge ye not what is right that is to say that I am the Messias you have so long looked for They had therefore power to judge of the Visitation of Grace and God's Kingdom and in the Verses following they are told they neglected the time of God's patience It would befall them as a Debtor who suffers himself to be imprisoned after wearying out his Creditor namely that they should finde no more grace or pardon at his hands Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is neer Nor ought Nature to be laid over-low Grace is Nature's perction what does it but repair the decayes of Nature Nature is the matter and Grace the Forme of God's Kingdom both in Earth and Heaven It Figures and Formeth Nature to the Image of God Moreover this is the way of God's exhibiting grace there is a necessity of Natures concurrence First this must precede as we are taught to pray for our daily bread before forgiveness of sins God cannot save an unwilling Man the will being uncapable of force and violence and all possibilities divine are carried on in an ordinary way of Man's industry who must therefore carry on himself as far as he can which whoso doth not hath no ground to expect common grace He that doth may expect to receive supernaturals common And he that abides with God in these may probably expect supernaturals special Qu. What are the abilities which Nature may and must reach forth in the pursuit of saving grace Answ She may and must approve the good ways of God More purity of Principles being left in Mans mind and conscience than in his will and affections That devilish Sorceress could say I see and allow and like that which is good and honest though I pursue and practice the contrary That sentence and principle pressed by our Saviour All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye unto them was the Posie of an Heathen Emperour 2. She may and must assay and make after Lift at the Commandments of God as a blind Horse having heard a noise hath been seen to lift up his head and turn that way where the noise came And a Child being commanded by his Father to reach a thing which he cannot will put to the little strength it hath and tug at it to remove bear and bring it 3. Matter of duty and obedience may be done by a natural Man They did well that took heed to the Word as to a light shining in a dark place though the Day-star was not yet risen in their hearts There is no outward exercise of Religion but we finde graceless
hypocrites have been conversant in them even afflicting their souls and fasting frequently and praying on such Days very servently And this is that which God's Ministers are bound to press upon Men that are in a natural condition to do matter of duty to set themselves as objects of the spirit of God attending upon Divine Ordinances As a neglected Courtier sets himself in the Kings sight standing and waiting where he usually passeth and there humbly faces him It is observed that the Spirits out-goings are only upon such as face him He goes right on and turns not as he goes They must do as Esther did who esteemed her self as lovely as she could in the Kings sight set her self in the best dress she had as an object of the Kings call and see what good success she had by so doing Qu. How far doth nature qualifie her self for grace when she reacheth forth her abilities as far as she can Answ 1. Morally God took occasion from Ahab's humiliation to spare his life when upon hearing of Elijah's words he rent his cloaths put Sack-cloath upon his flesh and fasted and lay in Sack-cloth and went softly seest thou saith God unto the Prophet how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his Days So he took occasion from what those noble Bereans did in bringing their Bodies to publick Assembly takeing the heads of Paul's Sermons and examining the Notes they had taken by the Scriptures to work effectual faith in them 2. Passively a Man makes himself an object of the grace Life a handle for the Spirit to lay hold upon when he harps upon the string of his misery Cries out of his sin implores mercy and waits for grace in the use of means And it is not only possible that he may be translated out of the state of nature into the state of grace but probable he shall be so The Gospel being the market of grace he that goes to buy there without Money it 's probably he may be furnished to his mind As they that lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the moving of the Water were in fair probability to be healed of their Diseases The Scribe that answered discreetly was not far from the Kingdom of God If there be no certainty of obtaining saving grace yet this should not discourage any natural Man from doing their utmost for the obtaining of it no more than the Husband-man is discouraged from Plowing Sowing because he is not certain he shall have his seed again No more is the Merchant sure he shall have his Ship come home laden with goods yet he ventures and so do all that trade for earthly commodities The Argument or motive to pains-taking from a peradventure or may be hath a force in it 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. Dan. 4. 27. Joel 2. 14. Zeph. 2. 3. They that neglect to use the means are sure to perish and such are most Men in these last Days who embezzel Nature's abilities make her poorer than she is strip her naked even of common Principles Sensual livers that drown all in Belial manners and having stifled Conscience give themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness live as if they had no God to serve no soul to save or as if their souls served only as the souls of Swine to keep their Bodies from putrifying They that are less licentious and lead a civil life are generally prodigiously sloathful work not at all or not with half their might as if grace and glory were not worth the while to labour for Now them that are such we command and exhort to be impatient of a natural condition to look upon grace as lovely and the Mother of delights Herb. Ch. the Foil If we could see below The Spheer of Virtue and each shining grace As plainly as that above doth show This were the better Skie the brighter place God hath made Stars the foyle To set off Virtues Griefs to set off sinning Yet in this wretched World we toyle As if Grief were not foul nor Virtue winning Thus saith the Lord God O ye House of Israel let it suffice you of all your abominations It is now even time to turn over a new leaf Let possibility and probability put you upon straining your selves with all your strength for the improving of Nature in her abilities and prove me now herewith saith the Lord. If so the common grace I have given you to actuate nature I will not also add sanctifying saving Grace Yea let me assure you that if you finde in your selves a valuing of an estate of Grace in your selves above all earthly things and a vehement and constant desire to have admission into God's Grace and savour and that not only for the benefit and comfort it brings with it but for the beauty and excellency it brings with it also at least you would and wish heartily that it were the ground of your desire and if withall your purpose and resolution be to persevere in the use of all the means appointed to bring you to this estate God hath begun a work of Grace in your Souls which he will perfect and you are in the number of those thrice happy People whose habitation the Lord Jehovah is With whom we are next to deal And first with those whose habitation God is sure enough but they have no comfortable assurance that he is so Cannot say as David here in my Text He is my refuge I say they are not comfortably assured for there are none whose habitation the Lord is are utterly without all assurance Certainly the Lord is theirs that he dwells in them and they in him but many of them know not that they have this knowledge and some of them deny it yea conceive and conclude that they are out of God and as far from him as Hell from Heaven That it 's possible for Men to know a thing and not to know they know it yea to deny that they know it appears by these words of Thomas in the name of all his fellow Disciples to our Saviour who had assured him that Whither he went they knew and knew the way Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way They knew both but they knew not that they knew either And that Men in the state of Grace and abiding in God may be so far from any sensible and comfortable assurance of their interest in God of his love and favour towards them that they may seem to be assured of the contrary apprehend him as their mortal Enemy appeares by those words of Job He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me Mine Enemy sharpeneth his Eyes upon me Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy Now the Grounds and Reasons why many precious Souls have such doubts and feares and are apt to pass such a sad conclusion