Grace Phil. 3.13 15. never at his journies end till he get to Heaven Psal 17.15 Five Marks of Uprightness by Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick in his Anatomy of Uprightness p. 202 c. 1st Mark If a man be upright he will mostly strive for an inward reformation of his heart Psal 119.10 Jam. 4.8 Rom. 1.9 it is not sufficient his outward actions look well unless his heart were better Oh saith he that this heart were better more holy more humble more believing the principal regard of the hypocrite is to externals 2d Mark If a man be upright a little holiness will not serve his turn Phil. 3.12 13 14 15. 3d. Mark A person may know his uprightness by the conscionable disposition of his heart about all sins Psal 18.23 Job 1.1 Hypocrites have still some way of wickedness Such a soul as is upright will make conscience of secret as well as open sins Job 31.26 27 c. Prov. 12.5 yea of the least sins Davids heart somote him for cutting off the skirt of Sauls garment yea of sins which are in a sort more connatural to him Psal 18.23 In a word Uprightness appears in nine things about sins 1. It will endure Tryal Psal 139.23 2. It will often try it self 3. It scares it self and is suspicious 4. It will bless God for being kept from sin as David did for Abigaels Counsel 5. It is more severe against its own sins than anothers 6. It condemns sin in all in Parents as Jonathan in Saul in Children as Jacob in Simeon and Levi in great ones as John Baptist in Herod 7. It grieves for its own sins and the sins of others also Rivers of water ran down Davids eyes upon that account 8. It 's more moved for sins against God than injuries done to it self As David cannot bear Goliahs Blasphemies yet can bear Shimeis railings 9. Abstinence sufficeth not without hatred and hatred sufficeth not without mortification 4. Mark Uprightness is known by a mans disposition about holy Duties And in holy Duties five things manifest the uprightness of the heart 1. Universality Psal 119.6 Acts 24.16 Heb. 13.18 An hypocrite's obedience cannot be universal because his grounds and motives are but particular 2. By its constancy Job 2.3 still he holdeth fast his intregity There are three times in which an hypocrite may express great forwardness 1. When straits of conscience are on him Isa 26.16 2. When duties are not dangerous Mat. 13.5 6 20. 3. In the presence of others as Joash while Jehojadah lived 3. By simplicity of obedience when a man looks not at himself but at God's Command 2 Cor. 1.12 5.14 4. By the spirituality of obedience when the very heart and soul the spirit and affections act themselves and co-operate with our services 1 Cor. 14.15 Rom. 1.9 Ephes 6.5 6. 5. by the humility of obedience Hypocrites are proud of their work When God enlarges the heart a Saint may rejoyce but the Hypocrite will boast A Saint gives all to God 1 Chron. 29.13 14. 5. Mark A fifth tryal of Uprightness is if the bent and purpose of the heart be unto God Psal 119.5 Psal 40.8 1 Chron. 19.31 Acts 11.23 and this bent or purpose of the heart implies three things 1. An inward desire joyned with love Psal 119.5 2. An habitual inclination not a suddain pang Psal 119.20 3. An active purpose Acts 24.16 Six Tryals of Sincerity such as no hypocrite in the world can have By Mr. Sydenham in his Treatise of Hypocrisie Tryal 1. To hate sin as sin to hate it in its whole nature in its first motions not because it troubles the conscience or brings me to hell or renders me unsutable to my designs and relations in the world but as it is sin Tryal 2. No hypocrite can delight to be made ashamed by God in its duties to be made purely nothing in its own eyes and the eyes of others This a sincere soul can do he can take pleasure in the Lords humbling of him An Hypocrite cannot endure to be outshined the principle that acts him is self-self-love but a Saint loves to be laid low before God Tryal 3. No Hypocrite can bless God and love him from his heart when God smites him in his deaerst enjoyments or nearest lusts strike him in any thing that the eye or heart of him is upon and he secretly hates Christ Now a Saint in such a case will cling to Christ he cannot but love him for all that Tryal 4. No Hypocrite can love the person of Christ nor a Saint as a Saint he only loves to be pardoned by him and have some comfort from him but never finds his heart to work in love to Christ and have union with him as the ground of all his comforts And so for a Saint loves him not as such but as so and so tempered and qualified Tryal 5. No Hypocrite can go on in any spiritual work or service for Christ with any contentment without sensible comforts or outward respects the wind of men fill his sails But a Saint can take pleasure in the poorest work of Christ wherein he is least seen Tryal 6. No Hypocrite in the world can long to be like Christ as to be respected by Christ he cannot love the Holiness of Christ as the good things he gets by Christ But a sincere heart if he have never so much comfort yet if he be not like Christ is not pleased And this is the first Direction try by sound evidences of sincerity Make choice of the fittest seasons for this great Work Direct 2. and set about this when you find your hearts in the most quiet and serioust frame for as he that will see his face in a glass must be fixed and not in motion or in the water must not disturb or make any commotion in it so is it in this case Psal 4.4 Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still Endeavour to cast out and watch against Self-love Direct 3. lest thy heart being prepossest thereby thy judgement be blinded and become partial in passing sentence upon thy estate labour to bring thy heart to be willing to know the worst of it self yea and if thou have all this while been deceived to bless the Lord that now at last thy mistake is discovered and to be willing to lay the foundation new again This you must do for he that will put on the person of a Judge must put off the person of a friend Labour to keep upon thy heart a deep and lively sence of the approaching Judgement Direct 4. throughout this work knowing what a potent influence this hath upon the conscience to make it deliberate serious and faithful in its work and therefore demand of thine own conscience upon the resolution of each Question whether it will own and stand to that it now speaks in the great day when the counsels of all hearts shall be made manifest Go to the Lord by prayer when thou art going about this work Direct 5. and earnestly beg guidance and assistance from him therein it is the work of the Spirit to seal and assure thee and he hath promised him to that purpose to such as seek him Luke 11.13 John 14.26 Condemn not thy self presently for an Hypocrite Direct 6. upon the discoveries of thy many weaknesses and imperfections in obedience these should humble but not discourage thee it is not thine inevitable weaknesses thy sensible dullness thy lamented roavings thine opposed distractions thy mistaken unbelief as one well notes that argues thee Christless or excludes thee from the Promises Numb 15.27 28 29 30. Heb. 5.2 these break not the bond of the Covenant the Lord expects not Angelical perfection from you in this estate but looks at your sincerity and knows as a father how to pitty your lamented infirmities Psal 103.11 12 13 14. CONCLUSION ANd now I have given you my best advice and counsel to preserve you from the snares and evils that are and are coming upon the world what use you will make of it I know not I doubt not but it will find a welcome reception among humble and hungry souls though the full and wanton soul despise it He that hearkeneth unto Counsel saith Solomon is wise Prov. 12.15 And if thy heart be shut by pride or interest against it it is an omious sign to thy soul 2 Chron. 25.16 and presages ruine Which sad event I shall beg the Lord in Mercy to avert FINIS
nay by this means thou mayest be sinning in another when thou lyest in the dust Lastly consider how careful God hath alwayes been to keep his People off at the greatest distance from Idolatry Compare these Scriptures 2 King 17.15 Ezek. 44.20 Numb 23.38 1 Thes 5.22 Heb. 4.1 O let these Arguments be impartially weighed and let not any low fleshly interest be set up to oppose them COUNSEL III. Beware of such persons as are Factors and Agents for Antichrist and keep off from such a Ministry the tendency and scope of which is to entice and draw you to Idolatry Mat. 7.15 10.17 Phil. 3.2 Col. 2.8 There is a * It is not my design to asperse any godly person that by the prevalency of temptation may joyn w th them the Lord I hope will recover such out of the snare but I speak of the body and generality of them generation of men now abroad skilful to destroy souls who would make Merchandise of you and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as mean well but want prudence to discern such as mean ill These are of two sorts the generality of them are by a righteous hand of God given over to such dissoluteness and debauchery that their folly and madness is made manifest to all men 2 Tim. 3.9 And others that have gifts and parts how few are there of them but imploy them in defending abominable Superstitions and perswading their Congregations to submit to them So that you have your choice whether you will drink poyson mixt with water or infused into brisk and generous wine which will give it a speedier access to the spirits These are †Jactant crepanque Scripturam sed eam non intelligunt imo pervertunt apperiunt quasi fontes scientiae qui aquam non habent doctrinarum praemittunt imbrem velut nubes prophetiae Hieion contra Jov. Wells without water deceiving the hope of weary and thirsty souls Clouds they are without rain that send not forth one gracious shower to refresh the Inheritance of the Lord The best of them is a bryar and the most upright of them sharper than a thorne hedge Mic. 7.4 I believe there be many among you that are sharp set and by this time have felt the misery of a spiritual famine 'T is bread you come for but your Father hath shut up house and is gone for a time the Glory is departed they are become Wells without water breasts without milk is there not a vanity in these as well as in the creatures when God is withdrawn from them We may say concerning them as Isaac did to his father Gen. 22.7 Behold the fire and the wood but where is the Sacrifice Here you may see the skin and shadow of an Ordinance but where is the power where is the life quickening and soul refreshment that was wont to accompany them Ah poor England what hast thou lost what a Ministry hast thou sinned away wa st thou not renowned among the Nations for the power and purity of Ordinances were not thy Ministers as sheep coming up from the washing whereof every one bare twins and none was barren among them How was the Lord Jesus lifted up in thy Ministry that all might see the Necessity Beauty and Excellency of him and did not the pangs of the New-birth frequently come upon souls in thine Assemblies But alas those dayes are over they are gone they are gone ah wo is us that we must say So it was Well then what will you do in this case will you seek the living among the dead will you suck empty breasts whence you can draw nothing but wind or blood O no but rather say as Cant. 1.7 Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of thy companions These Companions of Christ must be none of yours Because it is the manifest drift and design of their Ministry Arg. 1. to unteach and beguile you of those precious Gospel-Truths which you have formerly received and learnt This some of them have not shun'd to declare in the face of their Congregations and nothing is more apparent than that it is the design they all manage I appeal to your own observations what is more common with them than to tell you you have been misguided by your Teachers these twenty years and now must return to the good Old Way which themselves are utterly unacquainted with Now what do you by attendance on such a Ministry but run your souls upon a temptation to unsettlement and Apostacy and dig a grave as I may say to bury all the precious Truths you have learn'd under your former faithful Ministers Who may sigh over you and say as Peter Martyr did when he was in Oxford at the coming in of Queen Mary he heard a Colledge-Bell ring to Mass and looking out at his Study window saw the Scholars flocking apace to it being struck to the heart with this sight he brake out into this expression Pet. Martyr Haec una notula said he omnem meam doctrinam evertit i.e. This Bell rings a passing-peal to all my Doctrine and upon serious consideration this will appear to be no small evil For you cannot but be convinced that it is your duty to be immoveably fixed in the Truths of the Gospel which you have received and to suffer no man to spoil you of them if you doubt that read 2 Pet. 3.17 18. Col. 1.23 Ephes 3.17 Col. 2.6 7. 1 Cor. 15.58 And if this be your sin to be moved away from it then it must needs be your duty to avoid the temptations means and occasions of such unsettlement And this is that which is intended in all those cautions given in the Word and but lately recited I am against the Prophets that steal the Word every man from his neighbour Jer. 23.30 He means the false true Prophets that enticed the People from those Truths which the Prophets had taught them There be spiritual Cut-purses abroad pray look to your selves the old Chemarims are revived again in this Generation the word Zeph. 1.4 is conceived to come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incaluit i. e. men more zealous and hot than ordinary for their superstitious Traditions inflam'd with desires to draw you to it Ut multitudine sequacium sese efferunt Which the Apostle englishes Gal. 6.13 that they may glory in your flesh And therefore beware of men Doth not your attendance upon Arg. 2. and following of such a Ministry help to midwive and bring forth all those evils with which their Ministry travels and is in pain to be delivered of could they do any hurt if they were generally declined and avoided their strength lyeth in you As a great Commander once said to his Souldiers That he flew upon their Wings Hence it was
be comfortable to him in a calm review at death and judgement this would make you accurate Christians indeed O treasure up these Principles and live in the daily exercise of them COUNSEL VI. Prepare for fiery Tryals whilst the Lord gives you such a gracious Season of Peace and Liberty Eccles 8.5 A wise mans heart discerneth both Time and Judgment And indeed it is a special point of wisdom to apprehend and improve Seasons aright Christian thou must use thy forseeing faculties to discover dangers at a * Non facile inveniuntur praesidia in adversitat quae non fuerint in pace Quesitae Aug. distance and so prevent surprizals A prudent man fore seeth the evil Prov. 22.3 yea sense it self teacheth the bruit Beasts to get to the hedge when a storm is coming and canst not thou forsee a Storm in the Clouds do they not gather blacker and blacker over thy head O prepare for it get thy suffering Graces thy winter Germents on Put them in mind saith the Apostle to be ready to every good Work Tit. 3.1 be it active or passive obedience you must be ready for it Blessed Paul had fitted and provided himself Acts 21.13 I am ready not only to be bound but to dye at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus he had as I may say laid his neck on the block before hand 2 Tim. 4.6 I am ready saith he to be offered up Thus Christ was ready for his sufferings Loe I come saith he upon the Fathers Call Psal 40.7 And as this is an argument of an heart truly gracious so is it a singular advantage to the Christian when troubles come it is as the shoe Ephes 6.15 and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace Ah when you come off these plains of peace and liberty into the hard rugged paths of suffering you will find what a benefit it will be to you to be well shod with this preparation of the Gospel of Peace Habakkuk had it chap. 3.16 I trembled in my self that I might rest in the day of trouble and then when difficulties and straits came he could go away singing under them ver 17. Though the fig-tree c. yea he could walk securely through the thickets of trouble and over the craggy rocks and precipices of danger as is intimated ver 19. The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds feet i.e. to pass with ease per montes per rupta in such wayes of difficulty as would distract others and he will set me upon my high places i.e. * Libere et absquae metu in cedere in locis excelsis he will enable me to go without fear over Mountains of trouble Oh Christian how soon a storm may rise thou knowest not Gen. 22.2 Acts 12.1 to be sure it will not be long the Heavens are black and some drops already fallen prepare therefore for it and have your suffering Graces ready Quest But what are they and how must they be prepared Sol. Though every Grace is necessary in its place and in the course of a Christians conversation comes to take his turn as every spoak in a wheel bears a stress and is of use in the whole turn and round thereof yet as those spoaks which are undermost at present do present service so those Graces which are now exercised and are to bear the present burden of this day are such as these 1. Faith This hath a precedency given in to all other Graces as in point of justification so of sustentation in a suffering hour Ephes 6.16 Above all taking the shield of Faith this is like the liver-vein this goes to Christ and conveies Blood and Life to the soul from him now the Just shall live by Faith Heb. 10.38 It was by Faith those renowned Worthies Heb 11. performed such glorious Actions By Faith it is that a poor Christian gets a glimpse of the invisible God and Glory which marvellously supports him under distresses Heb. 11.27 2 Cor. 4.18 By this the soul is filled with peace and inward tranquility Rom. 5.1 2. And that is a singular preparation for suffering Eph. 6.15 Smite Lord smite said Luther for my sins are forgiven me Feri Domine feri nam a peccatis meis absolutus sum Luth. By Faith a poor soul rouls its self and its burden upon God 2 Tim. 1.12 and so quits and discharges it self of all that anxiety and perplexity of spirit which puts the sinking weight into affliction Oh then look to thy Faith see it be not only alive but lively keep that Grace in thy heart and thou shalt do well 2. Patience a Grace fitted for the purpose it is not only a grace it self but the Conservatory of other graces And God hath placed Temperance on the right hand of Godliness to defend it from injury by the flatteries and allurements of the world so hath he placed Patience on the left to defend it from the wrong it might receive by adversity 2 Pet. 1.5 6. a grace so necessary in an evil day that the Spirit hath set it in equipage with Faith it self Heb. 6.12 and the Crown promised to it Rom. 2.7 'T is an hardy Grace bred by tribulation Rom. 5.3 will make a Christian long-winded in his race to Glory Oh then beg that you may be strengthened with all might in the Inner-man unto all Patience if not though you may be set out with much seeming gallantry of resolution yet you must needs faint in the way and fall short at last 3. Holy Courage and Magnanimity This Grace must now say in thy heart as Elijah once did As the Lord lives I will shew my self How conspicuous hath this Grace been in those worthy Hero's that are past on before us See Dan. 3.16 17. Heb. 11. per tot Acts 20.24 21.13 When Valens the Emperour endeavoured to draw Basil from the faith he first offers him great preferments but his spirit was raised above that Offer these things said he to Children then he tryes him by threanings of grievous torments but his spirit was above that also Threaten these things said he to your purple Gallants that give themselves to pleasure The same Basil relates the answer of the fourty Martyrs whose story he writes When the Persecutors saith he offered them great Preferments to draw them from Christ this was their answer Why offer you to us these small things of the world when you know the whole world is contemned by us One of the Nobles of Jutian present at the tormenting of Marcus Bishop of Aerthusa was forced to say We are ashamed O Emperor the Christians laugh at your Cruelty and grow the more resolute Our very Women and Children not to speak of men saith Lactantius do overcome their Tormentors and the fire cannot fetch so much as a sigh from them The same glorious Spirit of courage for the Lord Jesus rested also upon Luther †Quas non