have gotten thus much and thus much Let me tell thee If thou didst beleeve the truth which thou canst not do while thy understanding is darkened through Errors thou mightst have gotten this and that from Jesus Christ for by beleeving in thy understanding there is a receiving of him CHAP. X. This Object That Receiving of Christ is not an act of the Vnderstanding for that may be in Hypocrites and Vnregenerate Persons answered OBJECT THese Acts of the understanding may seem not to be a receiving of and from Christ for these may be in an Hypocrite Hypocrites have their understandings inlightned and assent so firmly unto the things that are revealed in the Gospell as those which are regenerated do They are often times perswaded and affected with the perswasion of the word to go unto Christ The Seat of Grace it may be said is not in the understanding for it's Grace which makes good which no virtue in the understanding doth for no man is said to be good because he knows Faith so far as it is in the understanding is common as well to an unregenerate man as to a regenerate man The Objection is grounded upon these two things 1. Because the Scripture doth ascribe unto Hypocrites and men that perish that they do beleeve 2. Upon this Principle viz. That is only to be counted a Grace which makes a man good and no man is said to be good for what he knows but for what he doth Answ Because of this difficulty some have placed the difference btween a regenerate and an unregenerate man only in the Wil that a regenerate man approves and an unregenerate man doth not of the light that shines in him But though that be true yet the Scripture doth make a cleer and distinct difference between a regenerate man and an unregenerate man even in their very mind and understanding As you may see in 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath all the reason and understanding which a man as a man is capable of he doth not understand the things of God neither can he saith the text But we have the mind of Christ As the sense doth only meddle with the things that are sensible So reason and understanding in men doth meddle only with the things that are naturall or with things that are spirituall in a naturall way For as every thing is so it works So in 1 Thes 5.23 You have the whol man distributed into spirit soul and body I pray God sanctifie you throughout in spirit soul and body By the spirit be means the understanding as you may see by the like phrase in Rom. 12.2 where he bids them be renewed in the spirit of their mind And by Soul he means the Will and affections and by Body the outward practice and conversation And in John 6.44 Our Lord laies the reason why some come to him and not all because some were taught and some were not taught of the Father Murmur not among your selves for no man can come to me except my Father which hath sent me draw him for it is written in the Prophets You shal be al taught of God Every one therefore that hath learned and been taught of the Father comes unto me And in Eph. 4.20 You have not so learned Christ That word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Imports a different apprehension in men of the same object Jesus Christ You have not So learned him that is so as some other men have whose hearts are not renewed and changed to walk according to what they know of him If you do but observe it in that very place the Apostle gives that as the reason why some put off the old man with its deceitfull lusts and others are cloathed with the new man in righteousness and true holiness in verse 21.22 Because that they had not so learned Jesus Christ It 's a marvellous hard thing I confess to assign the difference that is between the historical faith of him that shal be saved and of an Hypocrite it 's hard but yet the Scripture makes a difference and distinction In the general therefore Grace or Virtue may be considered under a double notion Either as it gives a power and ability to do good And so Grace may be said to be in the understanding Or Secondly As Grace doth put that power into use and inables a man to use that power wel And so it 's properly in the Will For al vertuous acts must be voluntary and therefore they depend upon the sanctification of the affections But though the use of this light in externall acts depends upon the Will yet notwithstanding this light in its self doth differ from all other light For it 's a new one Bear with the Phrase for it 's the phrase of the Holy Ghost in Rom. 12.2 Be renewed in the spirit of your mind This saving Faith gives an intuitive knowledg of the things of God as they are in themselves 2 Pet. 1.9 saith the Apostle He that lacketh these things the word in The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things are not present It 's all one with that of 2 Cor. 3.18 We behold with open face And with that in Eph. 1.18 where he praies that they may have their eyes opened to see what is the hope of their calling what it is in it self For the better understanding of this you must know That unto the sight of the eye there goes two things First A Faculty and a visive power And Secondly There must be light to discover the Object unto the eye So unto the sight of the mind there goes these two things First Somthing which doth convey the mind of God which the School-men cals Lumen deferens Something which conveys things unto the understanding And that is the word of Scripture The letter Similitude discourse and reasonings wherby one thing is gathered and concluded from another And this answers unto the light which is in the air for the eye to see by There is also Lumen disponens or a light which makes the understanding to see or take notice of the things revealed that is as the light of the eye And this light which indeed is the light of Faith it is infused and comes not nor is caused by discourse or study or by deduction or consequence from any naturall thing but ariseth immediately from the spirit bringing the things of God and the Soul together You shall discern it in that similitude which the Scripture sets it forth by Tasting and Seeing Tasting That as a man that tasts a thing he hath it present with him the savor of it that there is no disputing against it or making him to beleeve otherwise Do not you tast it saith he So also the things of God are brought unto the soul so through the word by faith that there is not a possibility for the soul to be mistaken That you may see a little into this take the cleerest
the deceitful lusts Look what Paul saith there concerning al sin that the scripture saith concerning this one sin of Covetousness In Math. 13.22 The deceitfulness of riches Covetousness wil plead Conscience of a mans calling Care of Gods command to provide for a mans family Yea the Glory of God I would have more saith a man that so I may do more service and good Saul did save the Cattel but it s said It was for sacrifice Covetousness wil put a man upon al duties of morality and civility The covetous man whom God abhors saith the Psalmist In Psal 10.10 He doth crouch and humble himself that is he is as sweet and loving and affable and courteous and as seemingly ready to do any office and service for one as any can be Nay it wil put upon any spiritual duties Artaxerxes was a great friend to the reformation of the Church of the Jews But it was out of Covetousness In 2. Kings 6.10 And Ezra 7.23 That so they may pray for the life of the King and of his children and that no wrath may come upon him nor his Realme Hewould give a toleration to those poore banished ones that they might go to their own Country and set up the religion of their Fathers It wil make a man keep a good Minister in his house In Judges 17.13 I have a good Levite saith Micaiah and now I know that God wil bless me saith he It wil make a man not fail to heare the best sermons In John 6.26 Ye follow me not for the Miracles that is not for the discovery of God by me in working of Miracles and that you may see in me more then a bare man as my Miracles do discover me to be but ye follow me for the Loaves That people did go after Christ the best of Preachers a great many miles and did run the reproach of the people of those times What made them to be the first at Church but because they thought God would the better provide for them in 2 Tim. 3.2.5 Those that are covetous at the second verse have a form of Godliness A form of Godliness is nothing but the picture of a thing to the life when a thing is so like another by Art as that it can scarce be known then it is said to be a form Jesus Christ is said to be in the form of God because he was as like God as could be And in the form of a Servant because you would rather have thought him to be born to misery than to be Lord of life Covetousness wil have a form of Godliness He will do the same duties that any Godly man in the world doth Fasting and praier is an extraordinary duty a great affliction of the flesh it 's a duty of the greatest seeming holiness that can be yet in Isaiah 57.17 the Reason why they fasted so often was but for Covetousness that they might put a greater face and a fairer shew upon their persecuting the Brethren who did differ from them When they had a mind to fall upon their Brethren for that which they should have born with them in then they call for a fast like the Crocodiles cry that is only to get a prey So like as a man may be to a Godly man so like will Covetousness make a man be to him If a Godly man praies so will he And if a Godly man forbears outward acts of gross sins so will he If a Godly man suffers so will he When God commends Job that there was not a man like him saith the Devill it is nothing for a man to do as he when he hath so good wages for his work Have you not given him much Riches and Honor and many Children in the world And as it doth thus deceitfully cheat a man and is hardly to be avoided because it seizeth upon all if they look not to it So that you may see Secondly That it is hard to be Cured And therefore in the Scripture you shal find if you observe it as many Arguments nay more Arguments against Covetousness than against any sin except it be Unbelief In Matth. 6. Jesus Christ spends a whol Sermon almost against it He doth so in Matth. 15. He doth so when he comes to speak to his Disciples of the ruine of Jerusalem He doth so when he speaks of the Hearers Look through the Gospel and the Epistles and you shall find that there are more Arguments against Covetousness than any thing but Unbelief And wherefore but because it 's a hard thing to cure it And that you may further see that it 's hard to be cured confider how it deals with a man The Scripture useth divers words to this purpose somtimes it saith it doth divide a man So the word usually is which in the Scripture is translated Care The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Care signifies division of spirit It separates a mans heart from God It makes a man a Beast To have a heart and a heart and not to walk perfectly with him It makes a man take Religion by the very throat in Matth. 13.22 for it did choak the word And in Luke 12.29 saith the Text Be not of a doubtfull mind The word in the Greek is Be not like unto Meteors As Meteors and exhalations that are drawn from the Earth that hangs between the Earth and the stars so wil Covetousness make a man that he shall not be totally profane nor throughly holy neither in the upper region nor in the lower region upon the dust He hath a spirit that is mingled and therefore is on all sides but hearty for nothing that is good or for salvation Nay it goes further in Luke 21.34 Take heed least your heart be overcharged with Gluttony and Drunkenness and the Cares of this life Christ doth joyn Covetousness with Gluttony and Drunkenness because it hath the like effects upon the Soul of a man that they have upon the body of a man When a man hath drunk extraordinarily his understanding is sensless and so is a man made by the Cares of this world Be not overcharged The word signifies Made heavy His spirit is like lead he hath no spirit in any thing that he doth for God further than he is acted by the world Of a meer spirituall duty he hath no more feeling than a stone hath If there be not Rhetorick in praier and Invention in Sermons it 's not food to him Nothing that is spirituall affects him but his heart is like a stone It 's a strange speech in Luke 18.27 to this purpose when Christ said It was as hard for a rich man to be saved as for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle And they said then none of them can be saved saith Christ The things which are impossible with men are possible with God Are possible with God That word I would insist upon a little There are some things that the Scripture saith are easie unto God Do
this for any other Act of Faith whatsoever As our Lord said in another case These things you ought to have done but not to have left the other undone Matth. 23.25 So I say you ought by Faith to assent to the truth of what is promised And you ought by Faith to keep your hold and union unto Jesus Christ but you ought as well to receive and to get in what you have not yet Intend this act of Faith more than al other acts as that end to which all other acts of Faith serves and which maintains all other Acts of Faith Know that you are therefore to trust and are to be united to Christ that you may receive from him and be filled with his fulness Be contented with no other kind of receiving through Faith than what may be able to maintain all other acts of faith For as the Stomack in the body must be looked unto because it maintains the blood and spirits if the stomack takes not in and receives all the rest of the parts of the body will decay Or as the fountain and water head must be kept continually cleer because it sils the stream and the pipe Or that I may set it out more familiarly As a man that hath a great family and many mouths to feed he takes care that he hath receipts coming in proportionably If we get not in from Christ continually nothing that is required wil go on well and be well performed Out of the receipts of faith you are to purifie your hearts and to mortifie corruptions The receipts of faith must strengthen comfort and incourage your hearts in God and put you on upon prayer and all other things Every duty you perform must be done in the strength which you receive from Jesus Christ and therefore you need receive much We are troubled if the earth yields not forth its increase If by our Trade comings in are not according to our expences We are justly troubled if we find distance and strangeness of heart between us and Jesus Christ If our Souls close not by faith with Jesus Christ and his righteousness but stands off and stands out with him We are as well to be troubled if we receive not of his fulness Thou oughtest as much to put thy faith upon receiving as upon adhering unto Jesus Christ That thou majest adhere and cleave unto Christ by faith thou saiest that Christ is thy life and thou art undone if thou rest not thy self upon him Thou art undone also if thou dost not receive of his fulness Union with Jesus Christ is done by faith at once Receiving from Christ is to be done daily You will cleave unto Christ so much the faster as you find you have received from him Whether shall we go from thee say they thou hast the words of eternall life John 6.68 When they had once found life in Jesus Christ they could not tel how to leave him Like foolish Children that play with the breast but suck not Such folly is in our hearts We must have promises suitable to al our conditions but we let them lie by us and we improve them not Though we have a right in Christ yet we draw not from him Grace for Grace Like persons that lay up Gold but it is for some speciall use Or like Cordials that are taken only in extraordinary fits but not continually So do we make use of faith But as a worldly man counts there is so much loss as there is no laying out of the money that lies by him If his money lies by him any time he counts there is so much loss to him because it might have brought him in somthing So count so much loss of your faith as you want use of it in receiving from Jesus Christ 2. And as you ought to put your faith thus upon the act of receiving So put it upon receiving much The receipt of a little from Christ is as much as nothing to him John 16.24 Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name They had asked but he counts it nothing because it was not answerable unto the interest that Christ had in his Father nor suitable to what he had purchased for them nor unto the power that Christ had to give You have asked nothing in my name In my name that is as having my right made over to you and as having as much to do with the things you need as I have that am Lord over all I say Christ counts every thing less than this nothing If you ask less than this you ask nothing and if you receive less than this you receive nothing Faith may have what it wil. Matth. 9.29 Be it to thee according to thy Faith If faith opens its mouth wide it shall be filled As it was in the gathering of Mannah Every one had as much as his has ket was although it was never so great that he brought to gather it in If thy faith be great thou shalt have great things If thy faith be small thou shalt have precious things As there ought not to be the least doubt or question in a Beleever because God is so able to perform his promises and so faithfull and true So there ought not to be any question or exceptions of any thing to be received that is in Jesus Christ because al is yours Observe it Faith is indefinitly called a receiving because it receives this and that that which is essentiall and that which is consequentiall That which is for the inward and for the outward man for mortification and vivification for faith and for holiness Faith is a receiving without any limitation As none may say that he is rejected because the promise runs indefinitly Mark 16.16 Who ever beleeves shall be saved So none may say that this and that cannot be had by faith which is promised because faith is indefinitly called a receiving In Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we have received Grace for Grace Mark the Text. We have received of his fulness You are to go unto the Well head to fetch water out of the Sea Gold out of the Mine you are to take from fulness and therefore you should not take a little You are to receive Grace for Grace The meaning of it lies thus 1. One Grace is to be unto you a pawn and a pledg of another One kindness of another For as God loves because he loves So God gives Grace because he hath given Grace When you go to receive any thing from him you are not so much to look at his Act in giving nor at your own act in using of his Grace as you are to look at this that he hath given Grace He gives Grace for Grace 2. Or thus Grace for Grace That is as face answers to face in a glass that there may be a proportion and simâ—litude between us and Christ That as what impression is upon the Seal is left in the wax so what Grace and favor God hath shewed unto
dog as I instanced before yet his meaning is that he is come for you though not in the first place yet in the second and if he gives you but crums yet he wil give you the Childrens Bread 2. Neither be discouraged in this act by the smalness of your receipt Although you have gotten but a little in the use of many ordinances many yeares For mark it If you get never so little you get by that a title to al you shal have al in Gods own time That litle is like the bunch of Grapes which interests you in al the land of promise There was a blessing left in the Berry though there was but here and there one left upon the Tree They that make often and quick returns although they get but little at a time yet they get much in the whol Lay therefore al thy gettings together I say al together consider not the returns sent in in one praier or one sermon or one ejaculation or casting your heart into Heaven but lay al together Beggars take any thing that is given them they are not chusers they will be contented with the smallest That money which is not currant with others will pass with them The smallest piece of silver you have is a kindness to them Such meat as is not of use in the family is dainties and of use with them Herein thou shalt shew thy self to be a receiver in that thou art contented to be at Gods allowance Beloved you are receivers and receivers of free Grace You have it not because you earned it but because God doth abound and is rich in good works And therefore although you have never so little you have cause to rejoyce Thou art but a receiver by faith and therefore thou hast no cause to murmur Thou hast al things of Grace and thou shalt have every thing if thou submittest unto God in every thing he doth as pleasing unto thee for him to do what he pleaseth 3. And as you have not cause to be discouraged at the smalness of your receipt So neither are you to be discouraged in your receiving by the greatness of your wants For the promise runs thus in Matth. 21.22 All things whatever ye ask in my name beleeving you shall receive If you want all things yet if you shall have whatever you shall ask then believe that there is nothing that the greatness of your wants can amount unto that should make you say within your selves that this cannot be nor that cannot be given The greater things you ask the sooner you shall have God gives blessings like himselfe The promise is indefinite And if you ask you shall receive 4. Be not discouraged in this act of faith by the greatness of your receipts For although you have received much yet look for more He gives liberally and upbraids not James 1.5 He doth not say I have given you this and that and so often and releeved you in so many wants and set you up when you have been bankrupts and set you up in the state wherein you were many a time There is this reason why the greatness of your receipts should not discourage you because the more you have received the more there is yet behind to receive I say there is more yet behind to receive To whomsoever much is given God looks for much from them Luke 12.48 He gives Grace for Grace as you heard John 1.16 If he gives much Grace he wil give more Grace in a like proportion We are ashamed to ask of them again whom we have received lately from But here you need not for God hath much to give and that which you have received is not in your own name but in the name of him that is the Lord of all even Jesus Christ God gives often that there may be a fruition and Communion between you and him He gives you but a little at a time that you may come oftner and he gives you often because you may know that whenever you come you are welcome to him Thirdly And as you ought not to be discouraged So especially I beseech you take heed of refusing what is offered to you There is nothing more opposite to receiving than refufing In Acts 13.46 47. saith the Text there They did reject put away from them the words they did judgthe mselves unworthy of eternall life Seeing you put it from you and judg your selves unworthy of eternal life That putting away is directly opposite to this receiving Whoever doth put away the gracethat Gods offers he doth by that act pass Judgment upon himself as one that is worthy to have destruction for his portion And they did put it away by contradicting blaspheming and by questioning without any kind of reasoning but meerly out of the enmity that was in their Spirits unto the Doctrine which the Apostle preached concerning free justification So much shal suffice to have spoken of the second Use CHAP. IV. By this property of Faith viz. to Receive try whether your Faith be true or no. Objections answered USE III. IF Faith be a Receiving then by that property try whether your Faith be true or not What is the Spirit of it Is it a having and a craving and a longing appetite and desire in thee that can never be satisfied and contented Faith will make a man to live upon that he hath that is to take the comfort of it But it looks after more than it hath The just shall live by Faith saith the Text in Heb. 10.38 But what is that Faith A patient waiting that when you have done the will of God in one thing you may receive the promise in another And a patient waiting upon him as one that will not tarry long Faith makes a man to wait for far greater things than it hath already received This is the property of faith Give it but one thing that is good and you must give it all As he that commits one sin and commits it but once gets thereby a disposition unto every sin So he that doth excercise true faith once upon Christ must alwaies have from Christ As persons that long must have every thing they see else they are ready to die So faith looks for all from God and from none else It takes all that comes from God and looks for all that it knows God hath to give And hence it comes to pass that if one Beleever sees another in his party-colored coat as I may cal it alluding to that of the old Testament where the beloved child was so cloathed If a Beleever sees another cloathed with Peace and Joy through beleeving It works doubting in him and questioning whether he be a child of God because he hath not received those gifts or hath not received so much from God as others have Object It may be some will say unto me here I have cause to complain for I have not received And I have reason to complain because
Faith he small yet it makes us the Sons of God III. LAstly Though we beleeve never so little yet if we beleeve we shall receive this Dignity to become the Sons of God There is a receiving in the least degree of Faith That is that which the Text holds This term to Receive notes as little action as I said in the beginning as can be Only it notes as being in subjection a being continent or a vessel to put somthing into it As Gold and Jewels may be wrapt up and put into a filthy clout or rag So may this Grace of Faith into an heart that is exceedingly corrupted and defiled Again you know you use to say That the Receiver of stoln goods is not the principal offender he is only one that doth conâ—eal and preserve that which the other hath gotten Such a kind of thing is Faith he that doth receive is not the principal Agent As the Wax doth receive the impression of the Seal and yet the Wax doth no more than either Clay or Earth or any base Mettal as Lead would do only a compliance there is with the Seal And let mead further As Receiving notes little action in that respect So a narrow mouthed Bottle takes in but by little and little As the stone upon which the Rain falls is hard and but a little wrought upon and filled by it things that are hard are softened by little and little As the hard and stony Earth is softened by the little Rain that falls long upon it So now suppose a little Faith and this gotten the hardliest and come the slowest by that possibly can be to be as weak as can be in your spirits and to be as dull as is imaginable yet notwithstanding this shall receive a blessing from God even those great blessings in the Text not only to be a Son of God but to have such dealings from God as becomes a Child and God deals in this like unto himself according to the course which he took in charging us with the guilt of the first Adam For as we are conceived in sin that is as soon as ever we are conceived as Job saith but curdled and a span long we are accursed so soon is the guilt of Adams sin imputed So the very embrie and the least thing of Faith is that which God will bless The first conceptions of Faith are blessed as the first conceptions of a man are accursed because of the Fall So soon as ever we receive Christ so soon is the Righteousness of Christ the Second Adam imputed and passed over unto us He will not quench the smoaking Flax nor break the bruised Reed Matth. 12.20 There is great difference between flax and wood Flax is but a blaze when it is light and lasts not long And so it notes such a kind of Faith that is soon up and soon down exceeding tender and delicate soon discouraged and dismayed A Faith that is working by fits only and not such a Faith as is of a constant motion The smoaking of flax is less than the burning of it The smoak may be conceived to be such as either is offenlive unto the eye And so there is a kind of beleeving or I may rather call it of unbeleeving which is extreamly offensive unto God as smoak is unto the eye When we are alwaies unsatisfied when doubts beget doubts when God answers one objection and we take it up again and we over and over again with things that have no reason in them nor are fit to be spoken But suppose it to be smoaking flax Or In regard of its weakness which shall come into a flame afterwards which is capable of further encrease as the smoak goes before the flame yet the Lord will not quench it What is that he will cherish and nourish it For the Negative includes the Affirmative In John 6.37 He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out that is I will entertain him And as he will not quench the smoaking Flax so he will not break the bruised Reed Though Faith be as a Reed a very weak thing of it self though it be bruised and when it is bruised it will run into a mans hand as you know the Scripture useth that similitude concerning Pharoah Many waies do we pierce the heart of the Lord and grieve him with our Unbelief We beleeve after such a way as it troubles him to see us Though we be as a broken Reed that cannot support or be leaned upon So though thy Faith be such as is neither pleasing to thy self nor unto God and cannot carry thee through any Duty in Praying or Hearing or other Ordinance but as a man that leans upon a broken staff doth fall So in every Duty Thou prayest thy self into anguish of spirit and hearest thy self into troubles Now although thou hast such a Faith as this yet God will not forsake it but cherish it and not break it but bind it and fit it for Spiritual use Suppose a man doth by his doubts and cavils against God offend him as a Reed doth that runs into the hand yet saith the Text he will not break it that is he will strengthen it For that is an usual figure in the Scripture when the Text saith He will not do a thing to mean that he will do the contrary unto it As those that come unto me I will in no wise cast out but I will entertain and sup with them and make them glad with my presence In James 2.26 the Apostle tels you That that Faith that will save a man is such a Faith as hath a spirit with it Even as the Body without the Spirit is dead so is Faith without Works That which I bring it for is this That if there be but the least Spirit or breathing in Faith it is that which will save I say if there be but the least breathing in Faith it will save As men that are exceeding tender and careful of the lives of those that are sick when they seem to be as if they were gone and dead they will lay a glass to their mouths and if there be but the least breath or smoak come upon the Glass they will apply all manner of things that may recover them out of the swoun wherin they are So is it with God When thou thinkest thy self to be gone and those about thee think thou art gone and thou thinkest thou canst never recover thy self to any confidence of hope again yet God wil hold a glass to thy mouth and if there be but the least breathing towards Jesus Christ it shall pass with him as well as the noble Faith of Abraham did when he could part with his Child at the Command of the Lord which is the meaning of the Apostle in that place Here is refreshing and strengthning unto that poor Soul that cannot go to Jesus Christ but crawl as I may so speak That liveth like a man in the Sea and sees the
ever Jesus Christ comes he comes as a King he will be Lord or nothing As Kings when they come into private mens houses command all their servants as their own and use every roome as if they that owed them had nothing to do with them They take all power out of their hands for the present and use nothing but what they bring with them and that which is of their own providing So when Jesus Christ is come into the Soul he will have every thought after his mind and not give a man leave so much as to look after any other thing than himself Men look not for such a kind of thing as this is by Christ and therefore they are not able to endure it Men look for ease and not to be kept to their duty and they look for peace and not for to be under the reproof and corrections and instructions of the Lord. And men look to have their good will accepted and that Jesus Christ will be served with nothing of what is ours but of what he gives Or rather thus when Jesus Christ comes unto men he brings trouble Behold a Sword He changeth men from what they were and takes them off from the practises wherein they walked which they thought were good As when Jesus Christ came he nulled all the services of the Jews which they thought were exceeding Glorious Now Jesus Christ comes and sets the ax at the root of the Tree and saith If we will not bring forth Fruit we shall be cut down Now the Soul looks not for any such thing as this What are the expectations of men by Jesus Christ but only that Jesus Christ should be a Chariot that Jesus Christ should give him his hand to sit by him in Heaven Men look that Jesus Christ should come with his Arms ready to receive them and his Bosom to lay them in They look for nothing but what may make their lives more free and their Spirits more quiet than they were before You will be mistaken in receiving Christ If you have peace with him you shall have trouble You shall be a King and reign but he will be a King and reign over you He will be served by you but you shall take all from his Treasure that you may say only as David did Of thy own do I serve thee Now this being contrary to mens apprehensions they are not willing to it and being not willing to it they are not believing If Jesus Christ be not received according to that Glory which he hath and which doth belong to him Make as much of him as you will yet still it will not be salvation to you We saw his Glory saith the Apostle when he preached as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God John 1.14 As that is it was no other Glory and can be counted no other Glory but what belongs unto God himself Now as Jesus Christ is preached and known so he must be received by the hearers There is nothing that is worship and honor unto God nothing that will make us happy but what is done unto God and Christ as such The Apostle makes this in 1 Thes 2.13 to be a sign of the effectuall calling and conversion of the Thessalonians That they received the word not as the word of man but as it was indeed the word of God As the word must be received as Gods word indeed so must Jesus Christ be received as he is indeed Look therefore what Jesus Christ must be that he may be the Author of salvation you must receive him as such if your Faith be saving It was necessary if he would save us that he should be God and Man that he should be the head of al things that he should be holy and separate from sinners Do you now receive him by Faith as such a one Doth your Faith close with him gladly under these respects It is not enough to saving Faith that you do not deny him to be thus but he must be owned by you to be thus I say he must be owned by you A man may under one consideration be wonderfull kind and respectfull to a Person when under another consideration he will shew no respect to him As for example They said unto Lot that he came in among them to sojourn and would have Lorded it over them That is as if they should have said If Lot will live among us and take his being with us as an ordinary Person he may But if he thinks all things must be as he wil If he will trouble himself with our matters and order al things according to his Will and be our Governor we wil have nothing to do with him Therefore the Apostle faith of some men that they love him not as a Lord 1 Cor. 16.22 If a man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed They love him as Christ for so he is anointed and as Jesus for so he is a Savior But this Lord being added makes their hearts to rise against him and against the precious oinment and Graces that are in him And so you shal find in Jude 4. He saith there are some that do deny the Lord. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for a Lord is a Master of a family If Jesus Christ will come and he wil have all our time and strength and not only that but the things that are done must be after his order and according to his mind Our wisdome and reason must not direct us in the things that we do though they be materially good If so the Text saith They deny him that is They profess they will not have such a one to rule over them And thus if you compare it carefully in Luke 20. from 9. to 17. verse with Math. 21. where the same parable is repeated though those that had the Vineyards let out to them were angry with the servants yet they used them not so il as they used the Son And why did they use him so ill It was only because he was the heir and would have ruled over them We will not say they have this man rule over us And therefore as Persons are wont to enquire what the quality and disposition of those are with whom they desire to marry before they make any treaty or Covenant with them A wise Man or Woman first sits down and consider whether they can like a Man or Woman of such a Spirit and behavior Suppose him to be dull and harsh and contrary to her desire So first get the knowledg of Jesus Christ as he is one that saves and then examine your selves how you can submit unto him that you may judg whether your Faith be true or not Can you submit unto Christ as God having all things of himself and having an absolute dependance on him for all Can you receive him as your Lord and head and therefore say as John did he must increase but I must decrease he must reign and
men even concerning the things of the Gospel which is contrary unto their lusts But yet it s not grounded upon any thing but meerly upon demonstration upon demonstration I say or experience and therefore it doth not save There are some therfore that receive Jesus Christ only into their reason Into their reason only I have made these severall steps in the laying open of this truth because that the Devil doth with the Souls of men even as Warriers do when they have a place to hold out against an enemy If so be that they cannot keep one Wal or one part of the Fort they get to another and there strengthen themselves They would keep them out of al. If the Devil can keep Christ out of the fancies of men he wil. If he cannot stay him there by reason of the means that they live under then he staies him in Reason and labors to set him up there You shal know what I mean by it by and by A man may receive Jesus Christ into his reason and yet have no good wil to him which is the Point that I have in hand For as the Eye being opened cannot but see the light so neither can the Understanding but take notice of the truth that is propounded unto it The Will hath a power when the Object is before it to refuse it But the understanding hath no such power But when as a thing is propounded it cannot but observe it A man may not like nor own what is propounded but he cannot but take notice of it And therefore by the way when we say that men will not know or men are wilfully ignorant The meaning is this They wil not be known to know or do wilfully keep themselves from reflecting upon the consideration of what they do know for when the light comes It cannot I say but be received Therfore for the better opening of a mans receiving Jesus Christ into his reason Know that there is a difference between Reason and Reasoning In the Latine tongue they have two words that do aptly express it Ratio and Rationis operatio It is that reasoning which God hath given unto men to joyn truths together which are of one sort and belongs unto one subject And to collect and gather the consequences which follow thereon This is reasoning And by this many men come to be great disputers and contenders as you shal hear by and by for that Faith of Christ which they have not dwelling in their hearts As in the time of the Law The Jews had some who kept their Genealogies who retained the knowledg of every Tribe the heads of the families and the kindred and the alliances which every one had to another by matches and marriages So God hath given Reasoning in the soul this office To keep the foundation or principall heads of truths and to keep also in memory the consequences which are as it were the kindred of those foundation truths the marriages which one common head hath with another the influences which one point hath into another This Reasoning ads nothing unto truth but doth arise from the nature of truth it self and is in the thing in the truth whether or no that it be reached by us or not As for example We reason thus If God made the World then the World was not eternall Whether we collect this or not yet in this saying viz. That God made the World This viz. that it is not eternal is comprised And this kind of Reasoning the Scripture makes use of in the matters of Faith Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by Faith in Jesus Christ And in Matth. 22.32 Upon this Jesus Christ proves the resurrection of the bodies of men viz. God hath said That he will be the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and of those that beleeve upon him If he hath said saith Christ that he will be their God then by consequence They do live unto him and their bodies also shall live together with their Spirits And because the Scripture maketh such use of these consequences or this kind of reasoning therefore we are commanded to attend unto reading because the words of scripture are means whereby things comes thus into our Understanding And we are required to Search the Scriptures John 5.19 which is a Metaphor taken from Hunters whether they be Beasts or Men They look after the foot-steps of their Game As by instinct the Dog taketh the sent here and there and follows the Game as if it were following the conclusion So the mind of a man puts things together and must put the things together that are in the Scripture and conclude from them But besides this Reasoning There is also Reason which is the principles and notions of things that are in us by nature And these are of two sorts Some are common and universally true True in every Matter or Science As for example That the rule is before and more known than that which is ruled by it That the Cause is more excellent than the Effect That the means so far as it is a means is less excellent than the end These and divers others are true not only in humane Sciences but in matters of Faith As for example It is as true that the scripture because it is a rule is before mens Faith and before the Church and of greater authority and efficacy Even as it is true that the Laws of men are in order of nature before any thing can be done lawfully or to have a reward or acceptation And so again The Body of Christ though it be in Heaven and ful of Glory yet notwithstanding is as well contained there and not every where as it was in one place and not in another when it was upon the earth Now besides those generall and universal principles of reason there are in us by nature particular principles or notions which do belong unto particular subjects As Unto the nature of God and unto Righteousness and unto Justice Whether that righteousness be personall and morall or whether it be political or that which a man is to exercise as a Iudg towards others There are notions which are proper unto the beings and kinds of Creatures Now to draw unto the thing that I would speak unto in divers cases Both Reason reasoning may argue an unwillingness to receive Iesus Christ and so a want of true faith The receiving Jesus Christ may be such both into reason and into reasoning as argues a man not to beleeve upon Christ unto the Salvation of his soul Give me but leave to instance but in some of these as breifly as I can As I. When no more is beleeved concerning God and Jesus Christ Mark it when we beleeve no more of God and Jesus Christ then can be deduced out of the principles of the knowledg of God which are in us by nature Take the principles of the knowledg of God which
but speak the word saith he and my servant shall be healed And there are some things that the Scripture saith are hard to God there is more of God required to do them than other things And some things that are but possible unto God As if he should have said It 's all that God can do If there were but a whit of less strength in him he were not able to make a man that is covetous to beleeve Give me leave to speak with reverence according to the expression His strength is matched It 's as much as he can do It is but possible to him to make a rich man that is in love with this present evil world to come to Heaven And as if the Apostle Paul could not say enough to shew the hardness of being cured of this sin you shall find him heaping up words in 1 Tim. 6.9 There are Temptations and there are Snares and there are Sorrows The word properly signifies the pains of a Woman in Travel which can neither be avoided nor prevented and are impossible to be born long And he saith they are drowned in perdition and destruction having reference unto the 18. Chapter of Matthew at the 66. verse It was a kind of death to the Assyrians to tie a Mill Stone about a mans neck and to throw him into a deep water Look how there is no hope of saving such a man so little hope there is of a covetous man Observe it he speaks rather of such a man that was covetous who had made profession of Religion and known the truth rather than any other and he saith of them That they Pierce themselves through The word signifies they do as it s said of Julius Caesar that they came about him so with Bodkins and Swords that his Body was as a Butt or Pin-cushion there was not a whole place in him he was wounded in Back and Belly in Armes and Legs and in every part there was a wound So saith the Apostle You wil be by the Cares of this world you will be run through and through and through with Cares and Sorrows And what hope is there of a man when he lives thus when sin hath such advantage of him how hard a matter is it to be cured I have bin the longer in the explication because it is the sin of the times and the sin of Professors CHAP. IV. Use 1. Follâ—◠〈◊〉 Callings Use 2. Seek the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 and his righteousness and other things shall be added Use 3. Let all your care be for eternal life to be rich in God Use 4. You shall have all the things of this life that are needfull if you wil look after Grace Godly men never want but when they cannot be content to be at God's dispose Use 5. See your life lie in Grace not in Riches USE I. FOllow your Callings For the living in a particular calling is as necessary to pluck down the rankness of a mans spirit and to make him fit to serve God I say it is as necessary in its kind as the word is in its kind There are some sins that arise from the body and diligence in a particular calling mortifies them Follow your Callings Take what providence casts upon you in them but be not sollicitous Beloved Do not care how it may be with you so you may but provide for eternity Be content with a little so you may but have Grace If you have Food and Raiment be quiet As upon a day of fast a man may eat so much as may fit him to the work so my Beloved care for no more all the time of your life than what may keep you from temptations and inable you to the work of your Calling And that work of your calling you may certainly do for God whatever your condition be Turn all your care unto this that you may treasure up riches in Heaven What matter it if you be poor or have or not have as long as you do enjoy Christ This is the great exhortation of our Lord Jesus Christ in this place That time that men spend in forecasting how they should do in ill times that time is all lost and should be spent only in this How they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a world to come I say it is all lost 〈◊〉 use you are not able to secure those things And it 's worse than lost because it is a sin to care for to morrow Prudently dispose of what God hath given you but be not troubled though you cannot so dispose of things as to save you from evill Be not afraid of any evill that can befall you fear nothing but sin and Gods wrath It is your wisdom to do so A wise man on a Journey cares not if his lodging be hard and diet course because he is upon his way and thinks to have better at home The love of his business makes him not think of these things What is your business but to provide for Heaven What is your home but to dwell with Jesus Christ and to have Communion with him Therefore mind not other things never be troubled what you are in other respects USE II. And let me add this in the second place That the more care you take for spirituall things the more care God will take for your earthly estate Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shal be added to you in Math. 6.33 For al these things your Heavenly Father cares for that is if you care not In Heb. 13.5 6. Let your Conversation be without Covetousness for he hath said he wil never leave you nor forsâ—ke you God enters into Bond to save that man harmless from all losses and evils in the world that does but mind the things of him He were an unjust master to set us a work and to leave us to our own finding Is it not better a great deal to be at Gods hand than at your own That he should find you than your selves Therefore speak to your hearts after this manner I cannot by my care add one Cubit to my stature and make one business go well and get in one debt and take one penny the more and get one new Customer Let me speak to you in your own language If so be that I do what I can it wil be no advantage to me in these things But if I be careful to make my peace with God to get my pardon Sealed to get my waies Sanctified God wil give me so much of these as I need he hath enough and he wil give me liberally so that I shall have no cause to complain If I have not so much as another yet notwithstanding I shall have a blessing with what I have and that will be more than anothers much If men did put themselves upon this that it is to be their care to look to their Souls and when they have used meanes for their estates and bodies to leave all to God's disposing
Let me speak to you that are rich Be unto all you have as a man is unto his meat who is sick having no desire at all to it Have such a stomach to riches as a man of a ful stomack hath to his meat Let it be al one to you whether you have or have not Though you have Estates let not your Estates have your affections You that are in the waies of gaining and getting that are in the spring of the world that have ful trades and great advantages Take what God gives you but take it as that which is to be laid by you not as your own but as that which you must lay up and lay out for God for the use he cals for and not as that which is given to make you great Use Riches as God appoints You that are poor be content and murmur not for riches are rather things to be feared than desired Beware of Covetousness Feed upon God and Christ and the hopes of another world If you have not enough to satisfie the outward man And that is no hard Counsel for if a covetous man can satisfie himself with a little by feeding upon the hopes of what he shal heap together either for an after day or for his posterity there is then a nourishment and a succor and a food much more in the feeding upon and thinking of Honor and Glory and Immortality and eternal life If you be content to want God will let you have If you be contented God will provide for you In Heb. 13.5 Let your Conversation be without Covetousness and be content with that you have for he hath said he will never leave nor forsake Feed upon God and Christ and the hopes of another world and the more you do so the less wil your condition be discontentful to you Yea my Beloved Let me speak to you that are Godly How uncomely a thing is it for you to mind earthly things Is your God your Belly Are your hopes and your treasures here The more Gospel Christians you are the more contented you will be with a little of the world For when God in the old Testament gave but little Grace then he gave much riches The Land of Canaan and their great and large inheritances were all of them but so many Ceremonies and shadows and Types of the large portion which the Saints are to have in spiritual things by Jesus Christ As the Apostle therfore said unto the Galatians when they were returning unto the Circumcision Have you begun in the Spirit and will you make an end in the Flesh So I say unto you you go back again unto Types and shadows You do so when God hath brought you to the land of true good if you return unto the desire after riches Cloaths that are too big for a man have neither warmth nor comliness in them If you desire more than God gives you have lost the comliness and the profit and health that may be by the blessing of God in Riches to you A word let me speak to you all Covetousness is the sin that now doth begin to sprout and bud And there is nothing that is a sadder presage of the wrath of God against us than the straightness of mens hearts It is reported there was a great deal of wealth in Constantinople when the Turk took it but he took all and brought them into slavery because they would not lay it forth to maintain a just war against him Of another place it is reported that it was lost not so much by the force of the adversary as by the Covetousness of those that should have provided opposition against the enemy If you do but lend you eares a little to men you shal find them murmuring at their Taxes you shal find them complaining at their not getting as they have done That they are willing to be any thing rather then further to be at charges To loose what they have taken in hunting rather then to be at the charge to dress and rost it As I may use that expression of the scripture In the beginning of these late troubles I wish it be not laid to our charge the charge of those who were so forward and free to lend in an animosity when that which they fought for is now brought to their doores is scarce worth acceptance A folly Like unto those who travel to the East-Indies to fetch home things that are not of a price and esteem Some indeed have been overcharged and burdened But it is better a great deal that a man should lay out much for God then a little God wil make good al that faith that you have had in him for the publique good If you should loose what men have promised you yet so far as it was for his name sake God wil become a debtor to you and pay you wel And I look upon the times when I heare men complain Truly I cannot tel how better to compare it Then as if an heire should grievously complaine that he is put to charges to take up the possession of his great inheritance Or as if a man should complain that hath laid out al the mony in his purse when he hath good commodities in the roome of it God hath begun to give you what you have fought and prayed for And let me say thus much that though some men cry out Persecution Persecution Yet is it any persecution for the servants to take their wages Is it any persecution to cal upon you for that which may prevent them that would bring about a warr and to keep those beasts that would devoure from being able to break in upon you Is it persecution for men to sit under their own vines and eate the fruit of their own fig trees In their houses and be quiet and none to make afraid Is this persecution for men to be free from oppression and to be called upon for nothing but that which is for publique use and charge Is this persecution When men have no enemies but because themselves would be great and over al and are not satisfied Is this persecution Conferre with the primitive times and tel them you are under persecution Such as they never felt for you dwel at peace and none molest you you are at a better allowance and maintenance then many have heretofore had for more work What rate would men have given some yeares agone for that which they now do injoy It is not therefore any just reason that men have to complain thus but only through the wretchedness of mens hearts who are also unsatisfyed because they know not wel what they would have therefore it is that there are such complaining in the streets It is not from persecution but from Covetousness because men have not al they would have The great sin of al is Covetousness because men are drawn nearer to the world and to themselves Men think al disswasions from the world to be but an art to
and did beleeve that then God would bless them How many then would give that precious time strength and Spirit which now runs out to the world unto the service of God USE III. If every one that would attain to eternall life must take heed of Covetousness Then let all your care be for eternall life to be rich in God as Christ saith in verse 21. Be rich in God that is in the things of God and in the things that are for Gods Glory God doth not call you from the world to put you upon a loss but to turn your affections upon the right Object It 's not to undo you but to make you in better things As Parents when they would wean the Child from the Nurse unto themselves they make the nurses breast black and they fear the Child So saith Christ take heed and look to your selves when he hath no other end in it but that he may have your love and you have his at length Many will say saith David in Psal 4.7.8 Who will shew us any good but saith he Thou hast put more gladness into my heart than when Corn and Wine increase As if he should have said when the Devill sees men inquiring after happiness and salvation he does shew them good he presently meets them as Abraham did the Gibeonites wih Corn and Wine the things of this life and takes off their hearts from happiness And it is so prevailing a means Math. 4.9 that he betook himself to that alone when he tempted Christ All this will I give thee When he had shewed him all the Glory of the world that is when he had made the world as glorious as possible it could be to the mind of Christ He did not do unto Christ as unto us deceive our fancies but he put the greatest Glory upon Riches that could be and then he thought that Jesus Christ would bow down to him If the Devil cannot make a man as prophane and as loose as he desires then he will make a man Religious but mingle Covetousness with it He will stir up a man as it is reported by one that writes of the walkings and apparisions of the Devill The Devil came to many a man in Luthers time and provoked them to stand for Justication and lay aside popish Religion but he told them also they should get so much by the bargain And when he mingled this Poyson with that Wine he did bring them to as much formality as they were in before in their ignorance They were as bad as before because of only their Covetousness When he hath once got a man under his power he wil make him to grind at this mil as they did Sampson Therefore the Love of the world is called in 1. Tim. 6.9 The Devils snare and bond And it is the sin of the Jews by which they were and are kept from embracing Christ They did look after an earthly Kingdom Be not hindred of true happiness by those things Barter not away your souls for an abundance of the things of this life Let not your minds run out after what you see or what is to be had besides grace and holiness and communion with God Our Lord Jesus Christ is moved to see one got into good Company here in this Chapter at the 13. verse seeming to have an inheritance here to neglect to get Salvation and Grace Grace and the favor of God are true riches and al other things are not so They are but shadows of riches and therefore called a fancy Agrippa his poâ—… and Glory is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25. Acts 23. Though a man seem to be blessed of God when he hath this world yet it is but seemingly so And therefore the scripture calls it a fashion 1. Cor. 7.31 Rom. 12.2 The fashion of this world But there is no true goodness in riches In Luke 2.21 Saith Christ a man that treasures up for himself is not rich in God That treasures up for himself That is Riches are but a particular good that may serve a mans self but that is all it can do It makes a man leave God who is a universal good That only is true Riches which doth procure to a man all good and that nothing can do but what comes from God which is Grace USE IV. You shal have al the things of this life if you wil look after Grace Al that is needful Godliness hath the promise of this life It gives content 1 Tim. 6.6 That is as much as a man doth either need or desire if his desires be rational and spiritual It gives content The word that the Apostleuseth for content is a word that is used among Common wealths that have al things in themselves and need not other Countries Religion needs not be beholden to any estate and condition or any thing in this world for any thing that belongs to this life Godly men do never want but when they cannot be content to be at Gods dispose He wants not that is content He hath content whose wil is conformable unto God There are at the least twenty several sences of that in Psal 37.25 I never saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread But that which is most probable from the Context and scope of the Psalme is I never saw A righteous man 〈◊〉 it is a righteous man that doth not fret at thâ—… prosperity of wicked men Not begging bread that is in want Let any be of a liberal spirit willing to part with what God gives him when God doth cal and that man never wants Men that have dogs appetites are never satisfied When meat feeds humors then parents deny their children meat So doth God when he sees what he gives doth not work conformity to his wil. Do you mind your work and God wil care for your maintenance And you shal have spiritual things at a better rate and on easier terms then you have earthly things The paines you take for heaven shal bring you in communion with God which cannot be got by your indeavors God wil not put you to more nor so much in working for him as you put your selves to in getting the world Wicked men have been at death convinced of this Had I saith one been as good a servant to God as to the King I had been happy Yea those that know better what it is to prepare for Heaven than others do complain that they are not so carefull for spirituall things as they are for the things of this life When they go about Riches or the things that concerns Riches they are buried in the business and there their thoughts are intent but at prayer and Hearing their Thoughts are divided and their Hearts are wandering and yet still they grow in Grace Psal 127.2 It 's in vain to go to bed late or rise up early so he gives his Beloved sleep that is without this carking care he gives them sleep that sleep is a Lying in