lost for want of spirits Were it not more honorable to you and your houses to be imployed as publique blessings to Church and Common-wealth to have thousands of soules blesse you and blesse God for you than for you to go siner than others to have your tables better furnished than others to sport and game more than others to spend more than others 4 Againe you had need of other spirits for your example is looked at more than others either in good or evill as Christ said of himselfe in another case If I bee lifted up I will draw all men after me so I may say If godlinesse be lifted up in the examples of great ones it will draw all men after it What ever evill is seene in you is not onely followed by others but used as a plea to maintaine and encourage that which is evill in many others Charles the fifth was wont to say that as the Ecclipse of the Sun is a foretoken of great commotions so the errours and oversights of great men bring with them great perturbations to the places where they live 5 Their sinne is worse than others for it doth more hurt and therefore their punishment will bee greater than others as their actions are exemplary so will their punishments Hence that place Mich. 6. 5. O my people remember from Shittim unto â—ilgal at Shittim the Lord destroyed the Heads of the people Num. 25. 4. The destruction of great ones is to be for ever remembred 6 And yet further you have need of other spirits because you have temptations greater and stronger than others therefore if you have not the more excellent spirits you are in greater danger than others The high estate of great outward dignitie is a very dangerous estate if God gives not an extraordinary spirit There is a notable story of Pius Quintus that Pope who excommunicated Queene Elizabeth my Author of the story is a Jesuite Cornelius à Lapide one highly esteemed amongst the Papists and therefore the truth of it is to bee the lesse suspected the story is this he sayes that this Pope Pius Quintus was wont to say of himselfe that When I was first in religious Orders that is without any further Ecclesiasticall dignity I had a very good hope of the salvation of my soule but being made a Cardinall I began to be much afraid but now bein Pope I do even despaire So sayes Cornelius did Clement the eight that followed after him thinke of himselfe Thus by this example wee see what a dangerous thing it is to bee raised in outward honour and yet still the spirit to continue base and vile 7 Above all you who are honourable and great in the world you had need labour to bee gracious because sin is more unsutable to your condition than to others It was the complaint of the Church Lam. 4. 5. that those who were brought up in Scarlet did embrace the dung How unsutable was this to have the highest places and the lowest spirits Bernard writing to a noble Virgin who was godly he sayes that others were cloathed with purple and silke but their consciences were poore beggerly they glistered with their Iewels but were base in their manners but you sayes he without are meanly clad but within shine exceeding beautifull not to humane but to Divine eyes How unsutable was the one but how comely and sutable the other It is reported of Scipio Asricanus that when he took new Carthage he took a young Gentlewoman prisoner who was so faire that she ravished all mens eyes this Scipio then said If I were but a common souldier I would enjoy this Damsell but being Commander of an Armie I will not meddle with her and so preserving her entire restored her to her friends Thus he though a Heathen thought wickednesse too meane for and unsutable to greatnesse Sinne is uncomely any where much more uncomely amongst great ones and grace is comely where ever it is much more to the great ones of the earth As Aeneas Sylvius was wont to say concerning learning I may say the same concerning godlinesse Popular men should esteeme learning as silver Noble men should account it like Gold and Princes should prize it like Pearles Thus if godlinesse be as silver to ordinary men it is to be accounted as gold and pearls to you The Scripture compares beauty in a woman without wisdom to a Pearl-in a Swines snour Pro. 11. 22. as a thing unsutable Thus are all outward excellencies where there is not grace 8 And would it not be a grievous thing to you to see poore inferiour meane men and women to be lifted up to glory your selves cast out an eternall curse have not many of them most excellent pretious spirits doe they not doe God farre more service than you doe they not bring more honor to his Name than ever you did Think then with your selves Why should God put those who are of such choice pretious spirits into such a low condition and raise me to such an high Is it not because he intends to give me my portion in this life but reserves better mercies for them afterwards It would bee very grievous indeed if it should prove so 9 The hopes we have of the continuance of our peace in the happy enjoyment of those pretious liberties of the Gospel that in so great mercy have been continued unto us depends much upon the worke of Gods grace upon your souls If God takes off your spirits from common vanities the pleasures of the flesh from the poore low things of the world from your own private ends and causes the feare of his great Name to fall upon them and raiseth them to the love of and delight in the great things of godlinesse to be given up wholy to him to lift up his great Name we shall then look upon you as the joyfull hopes of our souls that God still doth will delight in the blessing peace prosperity of his people But if we see darknesse upon your spirits then a dismall night of darknes is upon us As when we see it wax dark in the valleys we say it is towards night if it begins to be dark upon the hills it is nigh night but if it be dark in the skie it is night indeed So where we see the workes of darknesse amongst the people it is a signe that a night is comming but where we see them in those of a higher ranke in the Gentry it makes us feare that the night is nearer but if in the Nobility and the great men then it is a dismall night indeed Wherefore be you exhorted in the Name of the Lord to labour much that you may have more gracious and holy spirits than others together with your dignities whereby you are lifted up above others Wee envie not your honours we desire that they may be raised higher by grace Grace may well stand with the enjoyment of all your dignities yea grace is the only thing that blesseth them and advanceth them And you whose spirits God
there neither wants multitude nor fortitude And Cap. 12. he reports of him that in the time of a famine he caused all his vessels of gold and silver to bee melted to buy corne withall for the reliefe of the poore That Herod likewise which S. Luke speakes of in the 12. Acts 23. who was smote by the Angel and eaten of wormes yet even this man had many excellent morall gifts Iosephus reports of him That hee was a man of a most milde disposition readie to helpe those which were in adversitie free from outward grosse defilements and that there was no day past him in which he did not offer Sacrifice and for a testimony of his mild gentle temper he tels a notable story of him that when one Simon a Lawyer in his absence had scandalized him with many grievous accusations before the people As that hee was a profane man and that upon just cause he was forbidden to enter the Temple when Herod was certified of these things and came to the Theatre he commanded that this Simon should be brought to him and would have him sit downe next to him and in peaceable and kinde manner hee spake thus to him Tell me I prethee what thing thou seest fault-worthy or contrary to the Law in me This Simon not having any thing to answer besought him to pardon him the King grew friends with him and dismissed him bestowing gifts on him What a shame is this example to many Christians and yet wee would all be loath to bee in this mans condition It is reported likewise of Titus whom God made a grievous scourge to the Jewes yet hee was so meeke so liberall so mercifull of so milde and sweet a nature that he was usually called The love and delights of mankind If hee had done no good in any day hee would use to say I have lost this day Suetonius tels of him that hee was wont to use this speech That none should goe away sad from speaking with a Prince Excellent things are likewise reported of Trajan he was accounted a patterne of upright dealing in as much as when a new Emperour was afterwards elected the people were wont to wish him The good successe of Augustus and the uprightnesse of Trajanus and yet the persecution of Christians under him was very grievous It is likewise said of Antoninus Philosophus that he was of such a sweet temper that hee was never much puft up in prosperity nor cast downe in adversitie Thus we see men may have excellent gifts of morality and yet all these but as the flowers that grow on brambles far different from those graces of this other spirit that wee speake of which only growes upon the tree of life As many a faire flower may grow out of a stinking root so many sweet dispositions and faire actions may bee where there is onely the corrupt root of nature It is true learning and moralitie are lovely they are pearles highly to be esteemed they are great blessings of God but there is a pearle of price that is beyond them all which the true wise Merchant will labour to get and will be content to sell all to obtaine as Matth. 13. 45 46. And this pearle of price is that by which this other spirit comes to be so excellent above all that learning and morality or any common gifts can make it It is said in that place of S. Matthew That the wise merchant sought other goodly pearles common gifts are to bee sought after as things that have much excellency in their kind but it was that one pearle of great price that hee sold all for It is that grace of God in Christ that raises the spirit above all other excellencies and is to bee prized and sought after above all things whatsoever And that you may know that there is a great deale of difference betweene naturall endowments morall vertues and true spirituall excellencies that this other spirit is farre beyond the excellencies of these take these notes of difference 1 This other spirit is a renewâ—d spirit A new spirit will I give ya saith the Lord in 11. Ezek 19. It doth not arise out of principles bid up with us the Lord makes the spirit sensible of its natural corruption and weakenesse and of the Almighty worke of his grace upon it It 〈◊〉 made another spirit by a high and supernaturall worke of God upon the soule working a mighty change in it creating new principles new habits Examine what change have you found in your spirits if they be no other then ever have beene yea if the change be onely graduall not essentiall if it be onely the raising of some naturall principles so as to enable you to live in somewhat a fairer way then you did if it bee not the worke of God breaking your spirits in pieces and making of them anew if it bee not a new creation in you surely then yet your spirits are void of that true blessed excellency that this other spirit hath 2 This other spirit workes from God and for God it is sensible of the need it hath of continuall influence from heaven it drawes vertue and efficacy from God conveying his grace to the soule through that blessed covenant that hee hath made with the children of men in Jesus Christ receiving thus grace from on high it is acted up to God himselfe it lookes at God in what it doth it is carried out of love to him with unfained desires to lift up his great Name Morall vertues are wrought by that reasonablenesse the soule sees in such vertuous actions and the highest pitch they reach to is the love to that equity which appeares in them to a mans reason and therefore the spirit of a man that is raised no higher then these blesseth it selfe rather then God in the exercise of them It is farre from drawing any vertue from God in a way of covenant of grace or from denying it selfe and returning all the praise and honour to God Seneca was a man of as brave a spirit for Morality almost as ever lived and yet see how farre hee was from working from God and for God observe a strange expression of his in one of his Epistles The cause and foundation of a blessed life is to trust ones selfe to bee confident in ones selfe it is a shamefull thing to weary God saith hee in prayer for it What needs prayer Make thy selfe happy It s a foolish thing to desire a good mind when thou mayest have it from thy self right reason is enough to fill up the happynesse of a man 3 Where true spirituall excellency is there is a connexion of all spirituall excellencies of all graces Ephes 5. 9. The fruit of the spirit is in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth and the reason is because all are united in one root namely in love to God and holinesse The beauty and comelinesse that God puts upon the spirit
as well as Caleb 1 Some thinke that Ioshuah at the first did conceale himselfe although after hee did declare himselfe fully but certainly this had been a very great sinne of his to conceale himselfe in such a Cause of God to have stood as Neuter for the saving himselfe hee would not have passed without some signification of Gods displeasure against him for this But Verse 30. God promises Ioshua that hee shall enter into the Land together with Caleb Others therefore thinke that at the first Caleb was the more forward of the two in speaking because hee was of the more honourable Tribe one of the chiefe of the Tribe of Iudah and Ioshua was of Ephraim And besides Ioshua being Moses Minister to attend on him it might bee the more suspected that he might speake to gratifie Moses against whom the people now murmured because of the straits they were brought into by him And besides others thinke that Moses here relates this by Ioshua That Ioshua was used in the penning of this relation and therefore the lesse is said concerning Ioshua Another spirit The spirits of the rest were base and cowardly poore dead unworthy spirits but hee had another spirit went not that way There is a strange conceit some of the Jewish Interpreters have of this other spirit that is say they Caleb and Ioshua when they were in the Land and in their journey they said as the rest of the Spies did and concealed their purpose of declaring any other opinion they had of the Land than the others had and this they did for feare of their lives but when they came before Moses and the children of Israel then they had another spirit and spake plainly what they thought Many such chaffy interpretations of Scriptute wee finde amongst them God having given them over to the spirit of blindnesse Hee sollowed me fully The words are Hee fufilled to follow mee Nothing could take him off from mee what ever therefore becomes of the rest hee shall possesse the Land and his seed with him I intend only to handle the two latter commendations of Caleb First that hee was a man of another spirit Secondly that hee followed God fully And herein first severally secondly in the reference of the one to the other For the first the Point is It is the excellency of godly men to be men of other spirits of choice spirits differing from the common spirits of the world 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have not received the spirit of the world sayes the Apostle but the spirit which is of God There is a great deale of difference betweene our spirits and the common spirits of the world There is a vile spirit ruling in the world As Eph. 2. 2. A spirit that workes strongly and actively in the children of disohedience But of the godly it may be said as it was of Daniel Chap. 6. 3. An excellent spirit was found in him so surely an excellent spirit is found in them Herein first what this other spirit is Secondly wherein the excellency of it lies Thirdly apply it For the first it is first a spirit that hath other principles a better principled spirit than the spirit of the world The spirits of worldly men have base corrupt principles by which they judge of things by which they are led according to which they favour rellish whatsoever is propounded to them The vilenesse and power of these appeares in the wayes of the world but the spirits of the godly are acted by Divine heavenly holy principles that carry them to God to divine and heavenly things they carry them by a kind of naturall instinct the frame of their spirits is so principled that by as it were a naturall instinct naturall I mean the new nature they savour of spirituall and heavenly things their hearts worke after them cloze with them unite themselves to them finde much sweet and contentment in them are fastned and setled unto them What is the reason the same truths propounded set before divers spirits whose naturall parts are equall one sees much excellency in them receives them rellishes them the other looks on them as mean and foolish things wonders what men see and finde in them they are unsavory to them their hearts turne away from them This is from their divers principles Where the spirit is well principled it is carryed on sweetly and strongly in Gods wayes though the naturall parts bee weake though obiections against them many pretences for evill wayes fayre yet these divine principles are as a pondus a waight upon these spirits that carries on the soule still towards God when all is said that can bee against Gods wayes and for sinnefull wayes it will it cannot but hold the conclusion Surely Gods wayes are good As that blessed Martyr said I cannot dispute for the truth but I can dye for the truth These principles cause if not a disputative knowledge yet a savory knowledge Perswade a man by most subtill arguments eloquent orations that what he tasts sweet is bitter perhaps he cannot answer all you say but yet hee knowes the thing is sweet So the Spirit principled right with grace having the savour of the knowledge as the Apostle speakes though many subtill wiles of Satan and cloquent perswasions from the wisdome of the flesh be brought to perswade to the contrary yet still it sayes It is good to walke in the wayes of godlinesse Every life hath principles according to the nature of it receiving to it selfe things sutable or turning from things disagreeable to it the vegetative life according to the nature of it so the sensitive and the rationall life and the life of grace according to it Most mens spirits are led by the principles of a sensitive life few live so high as rationall principles reach to There is a death of the soule in this respect onely God puts in by a common worke of his Spirit some common notions which appeare in some which give but a glimmering light and are very weake but where the life of grace is in any soule there are principles of an higher nature full of light and beauty carrying the soule to high spirituall supernaturall things for the attaining to and injoyment of the highest good Other creatures under the rationall are made for the enjoyment of no higher good than is within the cōpasse of their owne natures therfore their principles are onely to receive in such good things as are sutable to those natures and in them they rest satisfied for they are capable of enjoyment of no higher I say they cannot enjoy any higher indeed they are of use to and were made for that end that they might be serviceable to some higher good than themselves but this they enjoy not The destruction of their natures is the highest use that creatures which are above them have of them But the rationall creature was made for a higher good than is within
is not forced and haled to them doth not take them up as tiresome burdens Gods Commandements are not grievous they are not as fetters of iron but as chaines of gold for beauty and ornament there is a readinesse of spirit to what ever is good they are vessels of honour ready prepared to every good worke 2. Tim. 2. 21. It is written in the volume of thy booke I should doe thy will and â—o I come psalm 40. 7 8. There is a sutablenesse betweene the law and the spirit the law is written in it never so in it's element as when it is in the wayes of obedience there is not that straitnesse of spirit as in others but here the heart sweetly enlarges it selfe as the flowre that opens it selfe to the shining of the Sunne Thirdly a sublime spirit raised high by spirituall heavenly influences not swelling by pride a spirit that hath all earthly things under feet as the Holy Ghost sets out the Church Revel 12. 1. Things received with admiration by other spirits it looks on with contempt as things infinitely inferiour to it a godly mans feet are where other mens heads their heads that is the pitch and height of all their aimes is upon things that are on the earth but the Saints have these things under their feet When Valence sent to offer Basil great preferments to tell him what a great man he might be Basil answers Offer these things to children not to Christians When some bade stoppe Luthers mouth with preferment one of his adversaries answered It is in vaine he cares not for gold his spirit was too noble and high to bee tempted with gold base low spirits would have beene taken with such things such a spirit as Demas who forsooke Paul to imbrace this present world but a spirit raised by God is above them How was S. Pauls spirit above mony when he speaks of lucre he cals it silthy lucre 1 Tim. 3. 3. A godly mans spirit is sutable to the high dignities put upon it and priviledges it hath Saul when made a King had another spirit put upon him contemning former things highly esteemed of a man raised on high lookes on things below and they appeare small things to him so here Reason may raise the spirits of men above the common sort a rationall man lookes at many sinnes as too mean and base for him scornes to staine his excellency with them as the sinnes of sensuality and filthy lusts Tully thinkes him not worthy the name of a man that spends a whole day in the pleasures of the flesh and Socrates had such a vile esteeme of sinne as he thinkes it shall be one of the greatest torments of men in another life to be tied and bound to the sinnes they most delighted in here Seneca hath a notable expression to this purpose I am too great and borne to greater things theÌ„ that I should be a slave to my body But if Reason raises the spirit so high how high then doth Grace raise it This spirit cannot be satisfied with small low things as it is reported of Luther when great gifts were sent to him hee refused them with this most brave and excellent speech I did earnestly protest that God should not put mee off with these things meaning that hee would not be satisfied with anything that was here below All the things in the world are farre from being able to satisfie this spirit it accounts all yea if they were a thousand times more than they are but a poore pittance for the portion of an immortal soule If God should make more worlds for it yet if he give not himselfe to it it would not be satisfied nothing but a God an infinite universall eternall Good can fill up the desires of this spirit Thou hast made us O Lord for thy selfe saies Saint Austin and our hearts are unquiet till they come unto thee It is the worke of a base drossy spirit to thinke If I had but so much or so much yearely I should have enough how base the spirit of that rich man blessing himselfe in his goods Soule take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many yeares what were all those to his soule to the happinesse of his soule These are spirits that have higher designes theÌ„ so their designes no lesse than a Kingdome yea than God himselfe Rom. 2. 7. They seeke for glory honour immortality eternall life Though they can bee content with little of the world for their use yet they cannot bee content without that Good Happinesse that is infinitely higher and better than all the world for their portion As Abraham said concerning his child when God promised him a great reward Gen. 15. 2. Lord what will thou give me so long as I goe childlesse Lord what is all the reward I can have except I have this mercy except I have a child because the Messias was to come out of his Ioines So the soule here if God should promise it never such great things yet Lord what are all these things to me if I have not thy selfe All the gifts that God can give to this spirit will not satisfie it except he gives himself to it As God is not pleased with what wee tender to him except we give our selves to him So a godly heart is not contented with all that God gives to it except hee gives himselfe to it Thus Bernard exceeding sweetly As what I have if offered to thee pleaseth not thee O Lord without my selfe so thy good things we have from thee though they may refresh us yet they satisfie us not without thy selfe Yea further the enjoyment of God is not enough except they may have a full enjoyment of him they are not satisfied except they bee filled with the fulnesse yea with all the fulnesse of God Ephes 3. 19. See a notable example of this in Moses Exod 33. 12. and so on The Lord had done great things for Moses many wayes but besides all hee had done for him hee told him that hee knew him by name and that he had sound favour in his sight one would have thought this might have satisfied him No Moses must have more Verse 13. I pray thee if I have found grace in thy sight shew me thy way that 〈◊〉 know thee and that I may finde grace in thy sight God grants him this and rels him Verse 14. that his presence shall goe with him and hee will give him rest surely this will satisfie him No Verse 16 Moses must have yet more hee must have such a presence as the world may know that God doth goe with him and that hee and his people are a separated people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth and Verse 17. The Lord saith to him I will give thee this thing also that thou hast spoken Surely this will satisfie him No Moses is not satisfied yet Verse 18. I beseech thee
yet himselfe could bee contented to bee accounted an off-scouring for Christ the sublimity of his spirit was not a greater glory to him in the one than the humility of it was in the other Though a godly man minds high things above others yet can be well contented to be used in the meanest services for the good of others though he be raised above the world yet judges himselfe lesse than the least of the Saints Though he aimes at the highest pitch of godlinesse yet blesse God for and makes much of the least breathings of his Spirit and such a heart is pretious indeed in Gods eies this O Lord thou canst not despise Psa 51. 17. so the words are God can despise Kings and Emperours God can despise the glory and lustre of the world but a humble broken spirit the Lord cannot despise There is no object that God accounts worth the looking at in the world but such a one Esa 66. 2. To him will I looke sayes God The highest heavens and the lowest heart are the two places of Gods most glorious residence Seventhly it is a publike spirit enlarged for publike good not a narrow base straightned spirit Godlinesse doth mightily enlarge the heart of a man The Lord perswade Iaphet to dwell in the Tents of Shem the words signifie The Lord enlarge the heart of Iaphet When a man is converted his heart is enlarged and it must needs bee so for now the spirit makes after the enjoyment of God an infinite universall good now it opens it selfe to receive and imbrace a God in whom it expects all good before it followed after some poore drops of good in the creature but now findes all is to bee enjoyed in God himselfe and being thus enlarged to receive an universal good it desires to enlarge it selfe as much as it can to be an universall good but that is proper to God yet a publike good it may be and therefore spreads it selfe as farre as it can Now it loves good as good not upon particular private grounds and therefore the more good the more beloved It mindes good as in reference to God and therefore where God may bee most honoured there the heart most sollicitous most industrious it is willing therefore to empty it self of it's private good that the publike may bee furthered If Nature will venture it 's own particular good for the generall as heavy things will ascend contrary to their natures to keep out vacuity and so to preserve the Universe much more then will Grace Every godly man one way or other according to the abilities he hath is a publike blessing to the place where hee lives The Saints of God are compared to a cloud Heb. 12. 1. the comparision is true in this respect a Cloud waters the earth as a common blessing so are they not as water-pots that water but a few spots of ground in a garden And this publikenesse of spirit is then right and truely gracious First when it is content to doe publike good where it selfe shall be taken little notice of as many times the Engine that doth all in great workes is inward hidden not taken notice of Secondly when he can bee glad that any publike good worke goes on and prospers though others bee used in it and not himselfe to the eclipsing of his light Thirdly when he is willing to be used in any service though but to prepare worke for others which they not hee shall have the glory of after he is gone As Luther writing to Melancthon encouraging him against the strong opposition that they met with in the cause of God God sayes hee is able to preserve his owne cause falling and to raise it fallen if we be not worthy let it be done by others Such a publike spirit as this is is an excellent spirit indeed Eighthly it is a sanctified spirit 1 Thess 4. 8 He hath made us partakers of his holy spirit Chap. 5 23. I pray God sanctisie you throughout your whole spirit and soule Sanctified that is 1 Not such a mixt spirit as the common spirit of the world hath not that mixture of filth and drosse in it but is pure purity consists in freedome from mixture with that which is of a baser nature if mixt with that which is of a superiour nature that doth not make the thing impure as when silver is mixed with gold but when it is mixed with lead or drosse The spirits of the godly are mixed with grace but that makes them more excellent and pure such mixture of spirituall excellency that is above the excellency of the soule their spirits close with but if there come any mixture with that which is base beneath the excellency of the spirit this defiles and this their spirits cannot close with but are sensible of the evill of it and never leave working till they have purged it out from them 2 Sanctified that is God hath set them apart for himselfe as Psal 4. 3. Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himselfe and they have devoted dedicated and consecrated themselves to and for God they are spirits resigned given up to the Lord. 3 All the parts abilities common gifts of this Spirit are sanctified a higher excellency is put upon thē than they have in the spirits of other men weake naturall parts in these are more excellent than the strongest not sanctisied As the consecration of Wood and Leather and meane things put greater excellency upon them than Gold and Silver had that were not so consecrated yet the larger the naturall parts are of a sanctified spirit the more excellent it is 4 It is able to make a sanctified use of what it meddles withall of what it hath to deale in of all the workes and wayes of God it makes all to be holy to the Lord. Ninthly It is a true heroicall spirit none have such brave heroicall spirits as Gods servants have it is not discouraged by difficulties it wil set upon things a sluggish spirit thinks impossible it will goe through that which such a one thinks can never be it breaks through armies of difficulties that it might goe on in its way and accomplish its worke not discouraged as the sluggish spirit who cries out there is a Lyon in the way It is not the difficulty of the worke but the basenesse of our spirits that ordinarily hinders us in our way some difficulties that others count great hinderances it slights and contemns as reproach and scorne in the wayes of God it can contemn contemners and vilifie those who account the wayes of God as vile this the true spirit of Iesus Christ of whom it is said Hebr. 12. 2. He endured the Crosse and despised the shame the shame whereby others despised him was despised of him not accounting it a thing worthy for his spirit to be troubled at no more is a true godly spirit hindered in his way by this than
frame is compared to the setting of a member in joynt As Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spirituall restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse the word signifies Put him into joynt againe And here you have had the discovery as of what this other spirit is so wherein the excellencie of this other spirit lies now then let us make Applicaon of all CAP. III. A discovery to the men of the world whereby they may see that their spirits are not like the spirits of godly men HEnce let the men of the world see there is a great difference between their spirits the spirits of the godly There are men indeed of excellent spirits God hath such in the world in whom he delights with whom he converses whom he employes in high and excellent services but you are of base sordid uncleane spirits the spirit of whoredome of lying stubbornnesse vanity folly is in you your spirits drossie sensuall froward malicious profane sleight empty unsavory unfaithfull perverse What delight can the Lord who is an infinite holy glorious Spirit take in such How farre are these from any communion with God No marvell though nothing of God or any spirituall thing bee savory to them Oh the corrupt principles that mens spirits are possessed with the corrupt rules they goe by and corrupt ends they have in what they doe the base imployments they put their spirits to the noisome distempers of them and base comforts they feed upon The heart of the wicked is little worth sayes the Scripture Pro. 10. 20. Perhaps your Lands your houses may be something worth but what are your hearts worth they are worth nothing full of chaffe and drosse like childrens pockets full of stones and dirt while the spirits of the godly are Store-houses of most choice and pretious treasures When Grace is gone from the soule the excellency is departed from it as it was said of Ruben his excellency was departed in respect of that sinne of his How many a man or woman who have faire comely bodies good complexion beautifully dressed up but within spirits most ugly and horrid spirits full of filth full of venome loathsome distempers spirits full of wounds and putrified sores breeding filthinesse continually nothing else but filth and corruption issuing out from them Men of corrupt mindes as the Apostle speakes How unsavory to any who have the least of God in them If the Lord should give men but a view of the horrid deformednesse and filthinesse of their spirits it would amaze them and sinke their hearts in wofull horrour they could not but abhorre themselves as loathsome creatures fit to be cast out from the Lord as an everlasting curse especially if together with the filth of their owne spirits they had a sight of the infinite brightnesse and glory of the holines of God who is an infinite pure glorious Spirit God abhorrs not any other filthinesse but the filth of spirits The Devills are abhorred of God because they are uncleane spirits There is no other object of Gods hatred but the corruption of spirits God made mans soule at first a most excellent creature the very glasse of his owne infinite wisedome and holinesse but now what an ugly base loathsome creature is it where it is not renewed If mens bodies were deformed and ranne with loathsome issues and putrified sores how dejected would they be in their owne thoughts But certainly this spirit-defilement is incomparably worse If mens bodies were so putrisied that they bred vermine continually as it is reported of Maximinus how grievous would it be to them Their spirits have these loathsome diseases upon them by which they are infinitely more miserable If they had such a distemper of body as their excrements came from them when they knew not of it this would be accounted a grievous evill but their spirits so corrupt that much filth comes from them and they know not of it Many are so deeply putrified in their spirits that they usually sweare and speak filthily and know not of it and think this a sufficient excuse that they did not thinke of it It is a rule in nature that the corruption of the best thing is alwayes the worst as a stain in fine Cambrick worse than in a courser cloth So by how much the spirit of a man is more excellent naturally than the body which is the brutish part by so much the corruption of the spirit is a greater evill than any the body is capable of The reason why the Devils are so vile and miserable now is because sinne seized upon natures which by Creation were most excellent When diseases seize on the naturall spirits in the body they are the most dangerous deadly Soul-diseases of al diseases are the greatest evils and usually prove deadly yea the least spirit-corruption would most certainly prove deadly were it not for the application of that blood that is more pretious than ten thousand worlds Spirit-defilement is such a defilement as defiles every thing you meddle with as Tit. 1. 15. To the impure all things are impure Of what use are men whose spirits are so vile many make no other use of their spirits but to be as the Philosopher said of the sensitive soul of the Swine it served for no other use but to be as salt to keepe the flesh from stinking How are many mens spirits employed about nothing else but to make provision for the flesh and the filthy lusts of it O that an immortall spirit capable of eternall communion with the blessed God and to be employed in such high and heavenly exercises as for which it was made should now come to be so farre degenerated and debased Especially how vile is this that men who in regard of estates and place are raised above others and be trusted with large and blessed opportunities of worthy services for God and the Church but they minde nothing but satisfying their lusts to have their sports let the cause of God Church or Common-wealth lie bleeding they regard not What a lamentable thing is it to have the weight of great businesses of consequence to depend upon such weak-spirited men who minde nothing but vanity and basenesse they have no worthy enterprize in their thoughts their spirits so effeminated that they will do or suffer any thing for the satisfying of their lusts Others there are who have remaining in them many excellent parts pretious naturall endowments but of what use are they but to enlarge their spirits to be capable of more wickednesse than the spirits of other men are wise to doe evill the fittest instruments for Sathans depths Who such enemies to Christ as the Scribes and Pharises men of the strongest parts Who such enemies to S. Paul when hee came to Athens as the Philosophers there and no Church was founded at Athens which was the place of the greatest learning in the world And thus it hath beene in
some others if they have been faire and ingenuous if you have beene of sweet natures and tractable dispositions you have cause to blesse God in some respects so much the more for the change hee hath wrought in them for his mercie towards you that you did not rest in those naturall excellencies and mistake them for saving graces as many doe with much danger to their soules and when you see the base corrupt spirits of other men as those who have any thing to doe in the world shall meet with exceeding vile corrupt spirits not onely in the worst sort of men but in those who seeme to be faire in whom a man would never have thought to have met with such base workings of spirit that would make a man wonder Oh Lord what are the spirits of men Then I say when you see this blesse the Lord let your spirits and all that is within them blesse his name who hath put such difference betweene your spirits and theirs as you cannot but acknowledge except you should be exceedingly injurious to the grace of God in you Cap. IX Communion and converse with men of such excellent spirits is a most blessed thing IF the godly be of such excellent spirits then converse and communion with them is a most blessed thing no greater heaven upon earth than this for here you may see the beauty and lustre of Gods graces shining the brightnesse of which darkens all the beauty and glory of the world to a spirituall eye Seneca saw so much excellency that Moralitie put upon a man that hee sayes that the very looke of a good man delights one The very sight of such servants of God who walke close with God who are carefull to keep their spirits clear and shining truly it is very delightfull it hath much quickening in it the uprightnesse holines spirituall enlightnings that their soules have will guide them to advise for God in safe and good wayes The advise of godly men in things concerning God is much to be prized It was a good speech of Shechaniah to Ezra Chap. 10. 3. Now therefore let us make a Covenant with our God c. according to the counsell of the Lord and of those that feare the Commandement of our GOD. It was good to follow their counsell The spirits of these are favory in their discourse in their duties in all their carriage their example exceeding powerfull and profitable The blessing of Abigail upon David was The Lord binde up his soule in the bundle of life Enjoyment of communion with Gods people is the binding up of our soules in the bundle of life for every one of them hath life in him Doctor Taylor the Martyr rejoyced that ever he came into prison because he came there to have acquaintance with that Angel of God Iohn Bradford as he cals him If the society of one sweet heavenly spirited man bee enough to make a prison chearfull what a blessing then is the enjoyment of cōmunion with many All my delight saith David is in the Saints in them that excell in the earth It is the blessing of the Gospell to come to the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12. 23. when we are amongst them we may in the beholding the worke of their spirits come to see many failings in our own that we saw not before and so be humbled for them and be put on to seeke helpe We may see the same graces shining in them that we feele in our owne hearts and so be strengthened and encouraged in them and stirred up to blesse God for them and the sutablenesse betweene their spirits and ours if ours be right will cause such a closing and mingling as from thence there will arise an unspeakable delight and incomparable sweetnesse No society under heaven hath that pleasantnesse sweetnesse in it as the society of the Saints no mens spirits close so fully one with another as theirs no mens spirits bound so firmly by such indissoluble bonds together as theirs they know the excellency of one anothers spirits so as they can freely open themselves unbosome their hearts one to another and venture their lives one upon another and it is the most honourable society in the world for it is the association of the most excellent and glorious creatures God himself delights to joyne himselfe with them to be amongst them as 2 Cor. 6. 16. I will dwell among them saith the Lord and walke there and I will be their God and they shall be my people But the words are more significant in the Originall they expresse Gods delight not onely to dwell among them and walke with them but to dwell in them and walke in them And hence that expression of Tertullian that wee made use of before in another case is very pertinent for our purpose here likewise When good men meet sayes hee when godly men are gathered together this is not to bee called a faction but a Court What place is accounted so honourable and excels in more delights than the Courts of Princes The society of Gods Saints communion with Gods people hath more honour is filled with more delights than any Court in the world where this is wanting the society of the wicked that is unsavory and tedious because their spirits are so vile and corrupt like the slime and filth there is congealed when many Toades and venomous filthy creatures doe joyne together How abominable is their breathings together to a gracious spirit how loathsome is the mixture of their spirits Zach. 13. 2. we have a promise that God will in his due time take away the uncleane spirit out of the Land and oh what a blessed time will that bee How happy would Gods servants thinke themselves if they might bee delivered from the noysomnes of corrupt unclean spirits Let us keep our selves what we can now from mingling with them wee shall within a while be for ever delivered from them CAP. X. That all those whose spirits God hath thus differenced should improve this Mercy by walking not as other men IF God hath beene mercifull to you in giving you another spirit improve this mercy shew in all your wayes that you are acted by another spirit let the renewed spirit guide you let the beauty and excellency of it appeare If wee live in the spirit let us walke in the spirit sayes the Apostle Gal. 5. 25. The works of the flesh are manifest Gal. 5. 19. Why should not the works of the spirit be so too God hath beautified your spirits with his owne Image in this hee hath honoured you that you might honour him in holding forth the beauty and excellency of his Image he hath made you a peculiar people to that end that you might shew forth the vertues of him who hath called you out of darknes into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. It is a dishonor to a parent or any special friend to hang his picture in some
dark hole in some obscure contemptible place it is expected we should make it conspicuous that we should hang it in some eminent place so as to manifest that wee rejoyce in it as an ornament to us It is a great evill to obscure the Graces of Gods Spirit to keepe in the work of God upon our spirits in which hee hath set out the glory of his owne Image to that end that he might be glorified in us before men Angels Every man delights in the expression of that wherin he esteems his excellency to consist be it Eloquence Wisdom or any Art wherin he hath attained any eminency yea if he accounts his excellency to consist in his riches in his honor in his beautie he loves to make them appear before others as the Prophet in another case Esa 60. 1. Arise and shine for the light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee If God hath shined upon your spirits by his grace let your lights shine before men that the world may see there are men of other spirits who can doe such things as they cannot Oh what beautifull convincing cōversations would men live if they were onely acted by this renewed spirit As it was said of Steven they could not resist the Spirit by which he spake so it would be true here men could not resist that spirit by which you live What doe you more than other men sayes Christ to his Disciples Matt. 5. 47. Men of other spirits must manifest in their lives that they can do more than other men Let me in the name of the Lord plead with you for more honour and service for the Lord than he hath from others First your birth is from him you are borne of God in another manner than others are and therefore it must not be with you as it is with others Men of high birth will not live as other men doe Hence we read of a custome amongst the Heathen they were wont to derive the pedigree of their valiant men from their gods to this end though the thing were not true yet they beleeving themselves to be a Divine off-spring they might upon confidence there of undertake higher attempts than others with the more boldnesse Much higher things should those endeavour after who are indeed borne of God Secondly God hath put forth an other manner of power out upon your spirits than upon other men other men have but a generall common influence of Gods power let into their spirits but he hath manifested the exceeding greatnesse of his power in you as Eph. 1. 19. observe the gradation there the Apostle speaking of the power of God put forth upon those that doe beleeve expresses it in a sixfold gradation 1 It is his power onely the power of a God could doe it 2 It is the greatnes of his power 3 It is the exceeding greatnesse of his power 4 It is the working of his power 5 It is the working of his mighty power 6 It is the same power by which he raised Christ from the dead and set him at his right hand in the Heavens farre above all Principality and Power and might Now God doth not use to put forth great power but for great purposes he uses not his extraordinary power for ordinary things when supernaturall power is put forth it is that it might raise to supernaturall operations 3 Againe God doth put other abilities into you that others have not that grace with which hee hath endued your spirits is a sparke of his owne divine nature as you have heard it hath a divine power with it and a divine activity in it that is expected from you that none can doe by an inferiour power as by the strength of parts education morall principles if your lives bee not beyond the highest of those who have none other principles than such to raise them you dishonour God and his grace and your holy profession Fourthly your spirits have beene made acquainted with more truths God hath revealed to you the secrets of his Counsels of his Kingdome he hath showne you himselfe his Glory his Majesty Soveraingty Holinesse he hath showne you the reality beauty excellency equity of his blessed wayes Hee hath made known to you the certainty the infinite consequence of the things of eternitie the vilenesse pollution poyson danger of sin he hath given you experiences of the things of heaven the sweetnesse of his wayes the distresse of conscience for sinne Fifthly he hath separated you for himself he hath takē you into a near communion unto himselfe though God is to be feared by all yet more especially in a higher degree hee is to bee feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of them that are about him Psa 89. 7. Sixthly God hath put other dignities upon you that hee hath not put upon other men he hath made you Citizens of the new Ierusalem favorites of heaven heires co-heires with the Lord Jesus Christ God hath raised you above the condition of men and therefore you must not walk as men The Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 3. blamed the Corinthians that they did walke as men Hee hath redeemed you from the earth Revel◠4. 3. Therefore you must not walke as the men of the earth God hath not dealt thus with other people they know not what these things meane Therefore well may the Lord expect from you other manner of service and honour than he hath from other men Seventhly more depēds upon you than upon others the waight of many services depends all upon you which are no wayes expected to bee performed by others What shall become of Gods Name his Glory the fulfilling his will in the world if men whose spirits are fitted for his service should not live in a higher way of holinesse and doe more for him than others God expects great things from you Esay 63. 8. I said surely they will not lie When others are base unfaithfull and vile in their wayes yet God rejoyceth in this that hee hath a generation in the world a choyce company of other spirits pretious excellent spirits and hee shall have other dealings from them Eighthly your sinnes goe nearer to the heart of God than others Other men may provoke God to anger but you grieve his Holy Spirit God tooke it very ill at Salomons hand that hee dealt ill with him after hee had appeared twice to him 1 King 11. 9. How often hath God appeared to your soules What gracious visitatiōs have your spirits had from him It is a shamefull thing indeed for you to fall as other men doe It was an aggravation of the fall of Saul 2 Sam. 1 21. That the shield of the mighty was cast downe the shield of Saul as though he had not beene anoynted with oyle for you to fall as though you had not beene anoynted as others which have no such oyntment powred upon them this is
in the worke of grace is a perfect beauty and comlinesse Ezech. 16. 14. There is no grace wanting there is all true spirituall blessings Ephes 1. 3. Blessed bee God who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings so the words are in your bookes but in the Originall blessings is in the singular number with all spirituall blessing there is all and yet but one blessing to note that spirituall blessings are so knit together that they all make up but one blessing and therefore where there is one truely there none can be wanting there is such grace as in the growth of it it springs up to eternall life There is such a perfection as wants onely the ripening and it would bee the same with the life in heaven but where there wants any essentiall part though it bee ripened never so much let it grow up never so fast it will never come to be perfect Thus if there be any worke of grace wanting if there be any defect in the principle though that that be there grow up never so fast yet it would never attain unto eternall life Therefore in the work of sanctification where it is true though it bee never so weake yet there is this perfection that there are all graces in it but where there is onely a sweet nature where there is onely some morall worke upon the spirit there are onely some particular excellencies The most Morall man that ever lived hath had some way of evill that his spirit hath run out unto 4 Where there are true spirituall excellencies there is an impulse of heart a strong bent of spirit in following after the Lord there is such a powerfull impression of divine truths upon the soule as presses it on with strength in Gods wayes so that it cannot easily bee hindered as the Propher saith Esay 8 11. That the Lord spake to him with a strong hand that he should not walke in the way of the people such a spirit hath not onely some desires and some wishes to that which is good but goes on bound in the spirit as S. Paul sayes of himselfe The love of Christ constraines him there is a power of godlinesse where it is true When Eliah had cast his Mantle upon Elisha the spirit of Elisha was prest to follow him 1 King 19. 19 20. so that when Elisha desired leave of him to goe to his father and mother to take his leave of them and said that then he would follow him Eliah answershim What have I done to thee Eliah indeed did nothing in outward appearance to draw him after him for what was the casting of his Mantle upon him to worke such an effect in him but together with the casting of his Mantle there went a spirit into Eliah that hee could not but follow him Such a powerfull worke is there in the sanctifying graces of Gods Spirit as with strength to cause the soule to follow him there is a law of the minde that hath power and command in it as before there was a law of sinne But where there are onely sweet natures there men are easily drawne one way and as easily drawn the other way they joyne with those that are good in good actions but their hearts are not so set on that they doe but that they may bee easily taken off and carried another way Fifthly where there are onely moral principles there the soule sees not into is not sensible of turnes not from the evill of sinne as the greatest evill it sees not such evill in it as to make it subscribe to the righteousnesse of God in all those dreadfull things that are threatned against it but thinkes they are too hard Surely God is not so severe a God God forbid things should bee so as those wee read of in the Gospell When Christ spake that Parable concerning those who smote the servants of the Lord of the Vineyard Luke 20. 16. and told them that the Lord should come destroy those Husbandmen and give his Vineyard to others It is said When they heard that they said God forbid So many when they heare the dreadfull wrath of God denounced against sinne they say God forbid they thinke indeed that sinne ought not to bee committed but they doe not thinke it so great an evill as to procure so great miseries but if their spirits were right they would apprehend sinne as opposite to an infinite good and so having a kind of infinitenesse of evill in it they would not onely yeeld to the Justice of God revealed but acknowledge that there are greater and more fearefull miseries due to it than can be conceived yea they would see cause that if God should bring those evils upon them for their sinne that there is infinite equitie that they should lay their hands upon their mouthes and take shame to themselves and acknowledge the Lord to bee righteous for ever Sixthly where there are onely naturall and morall excellencies they do not raise the soule to a love of the strictest wayes of God they thinke of accuratenesse and exactnesse in Gods wayes to be but nicenesse and too much precisenesse luke-warmenesse is the onely temper sutable to them they thinke wisedome consists in the remission of godlines not in the improvement of it what is beyond their temper they judge as weaknes and folly and it must needs bee that morall men must have such thoughts of the strictnesse of the wayes of God because that good they have is such as arises from the principles of naturall reason and makes a naturall good its end and therefore all their vertue and goodnes must be such as must not stretch nature but must be subserviet to that naturall good they frame to themselves Now the observing of some Rules and Duties of Religion will suite well with this and so farre they approve and like well of Religion and here they sticke and thinke any thing that is further than this is folly and more than needs The worke of godlinesse in the power of it must needs be distastefull to them because it seekes to empty a man of himself to cause him to deny himselfe to fetch all from principles beyond himselfe to be for a higher good than himselfe is which is an infinite good and therefore if it were possible it would work infinitely towards it but howsoever it will set no limits to it selfe Seventhly where there is onely nature or morality there is no sense of the breathings of Gods Spirit in his Ordinances the Ordinances are dead and flat things to them a meere morall man can like well enough of presenting himselfe in the Ordinances but he feeles no vertue in them no impression that they worke upon him that abides on his spirit after the Ordinances are done he knowes not what it is to enjoy God in them he knowes not what it is to stirre up himselfe to take hold on God in the exercise of them those excellencies that hee hath
are not drawne out maintained or increased by spirituall objects and duties but it is otherwise where true spiritual excellencies are such a one goes to Ordinances and holy duties with expectation to meet with the Lord there Hee can discerne and feele the gracious presence of the Lord he findes the Spirit of the Lord breathing graciously upon his spirit and rofreshing his soule with much quickening and life and sweetnesse hee findes his spirit drawne out by them his heart much inlarged his graces much increased in the use of them or if at some times he wants this then hee is sensible of the want of it of that difference that now hee feeles betweene that which sometimes hee hath had and that which now hee wants but the other is sensible of no such want all times are alike with him Thus you see how you may examine your spirits whether the excellencies of them be naturall whether they be onely morall or truely spirituall By these Notes you may see that to bee true of your selves that our Saviour said to his Disciples in another case You know not of what spirit you are Though God hath given you many excellent blessings beautified your spirits with many excellents endowments which are in themselves lovely desirable yet he hath not raised your spirits to that true spirituall excellency that he useth to raise the spirits of his people unto even in this world There are yet other higher excellencies to be attained to to be sought after without which all the other you have will vanish and never bring up your soules to the enjoyment of God as yours in Christ But what should be done that we may get another spirit Worke what you can upon your hearts what ever truth may further convince you of the difference of spirits that you may bee throughly convinced that there is indeed a vast essentiall difference and that you may see into the evill of your spirits and bee sensible of the want of this true spirituall excellency and lie downe before God dejected and humbled in the sight thereof Secondly bee much in the company of the godly When Saul was among the Prophets the Spirit of God came upon him he began to prophesie too Elijah told Elisha that if he were with him when he was taken up then hee should have his spirit come upon him wherefore Elisha kept close to him would by no meanes leave his company By being much in the company of the godly you will come to see some beams of the excellency of their spirits shine out to you whereby you will see that your spirits are not like theirs that they are in a happier condition than you that they are men in a nearer reference to God than you you will soone discerne that surely the world is mistaken in these men Thirdly frequent the Ordinances of God where the Spirit uses to breath set your soules before the worke of Gods Spirit The Spirit breaths where it listeth therefore it must bee attended upon in those wayes which it self chuseth Though your spirits bee never so dead and polluted who knowes but that at length in the attending upon God in his way the Spirit of God may breath upon you may breath in you the breath of life it hath breath'd upon as dead polluted spirits as yours and it hath cleansed them sanctified them it hath filled them full of spirituall and glorious excellencies Fourthly nourish and make good use of those common workes of Gods Spirit you have already they have much excellency in them if they be not rested in but improved they may be very serviceable for the worke of Gods grace but as Christ sayes of the riches of the world If you bee not faithfull in them who will trust you with the true riches so if you be not carefull to make use of the common works of Gods Spirit how can it be expected that the Lord should blesse you with further mercy this way Bee sure you doe not wilfully go against the rules of right reason you are convinced of do not darken that light of reason that God hath set up in you do not extinguish those sparkes in naturall conscience that God hath kindled there do not dead those principles you have received in your education use that strength of reason resolution and naturall conscience you have to keepe in your spirits that they bee not let out to feed upon sinfull delights With what face can you complaine of weaknesse and yet feed your distempers There is little hope of such as have extinguished the light of their common principles which once they had in an eminent māner their light of reason once was at least as a faire Candle-light but now it is like the snuffe in a socket almost drowned quenched with their filthy lusts How just with God were it that these men should be left to die and perish for ever in their filth Fifthly seek earnestly from God to renew to sanctifie your spirits it is he that is the Father of spirits and the spirit of man is under no other power but the power of God himselfe and he hath the command of all and with him there is abundance of spirit and he is willing yea hee hath promised to give his Spirit to them that aske it Luke 11. 13. But you will say how can I pray without the Spirit I answer put thy selfe upon prayer and who knowes but assistance and blessing may come present thy selfe before the Lord tell him what thou apprehendest of the vilenesse of the filthinesse of thy spirit what convictions thou hast of the necessitie of the renewing of it of the excellencie thou seest in the spirits of his servants tell him of those desires thou hast to be blessed with such a spirit O Lord thou hast given me many bodily blessings great blessings of my estate more than others many excellent gifts but Lord there are other mercies my soule wants Oh that thou wouldest give me another spirit As this Caleb Ioshua 15. 19. gave his daughter Aohsah a blessing namely the upper springs and the neither spring so doe thou seeke of God that as he hath given thee the blessing of the nether springs so hee may give thee the blessing of the upper namely that he may blesse thy soule with true spirituall blessings Sixtly be sure thou lookest up to God in Christ to seek this mercy in him look on him as annoynted by the Father with the fulnesse of the Spirit look to him in whom all the fulnesse of the God-head dwels bodily that out of this fulnesse spirituall blessings may bee conveyed to thee for otherwise whatsoever thou seekest for of God and not in this way thou seekest but in a naturall way Seventhly be carefull to observe the beginnings of those speciall stirrings of Gods Spirit in thee those gales that sometimes thou mayest feele and then put on what possibly
afraid to lose some of worldly joyes It is the engagement of mans heart to his lust that makes him thinke there is any strength in those objections and reasonings that he hath in his heart against Gods wayes when the heart is taken off they vanish of themsel 〈…〉 2 There is a fulnesse of all the faculties of the soule working after God full apprehensions full affections the soul is filled with the will of God as Col. 4. 12. That yee may stand perfect and full in all the will of God as the sailes silled with the winde My soule and all that is within me praise the Lord saith David As it is in giving men full possession of a house they give up the keyes of every roome so here the soule gives up every faculty to God the whole soule opens it selfe to receive the Lord and his truth There is a loving the Lord with all the mind with all the heart and with all the soule there is a spirituall life quickning every faculty there is a sanctification throughout every faculty though no faculty be throughly sanctified 3 The soule followes God fully in regard of the true indeavours of it to put forth what strength it hath in following the Lord all the faculties worke and it is not satisfied that they should worke remissely 〈…〉 it would have them worke ferv 〈…〉 y and powerfully as David Psal 63. 8 My soule followes hard after thee there is a panting of the heart a gasping of the spirit after the Lord As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soule after thee O God saith David Ps 42. 1. My heart breaketh for the longing it hath unto thy judgements Psal 119. 20. The spirit boils in fervor while it is serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Esay 26. 9. With my soule saith the Prophet I have desired thee and with my spirit within me will I seek thee This soule doth not only love God with all the mind and with all the heart but with all the strength too there is no strength reserved for any thing else but the Lord. 4 The soule that fully followes the Lord followes him without delay in the use of all meanes and in all the wayes of his Commandements the delaying and putting off is an argument of remissenesse Davids soule followed hard after the Lord as you heard before in the 63. Psalme and this made him seeke the Lord early Verse 1. O God thou art my God early will I seeke thee saith lie the present time is the sulnesse of time with such a soule We reade of Haman Ester 3. 5. that he was full of wrath and hence he procures that the Posts should bee hastened about his worke in destroying the Jewes Verse 15. And it sets upon all means what way soever it may be brought neare to God either by ordinary meanes or else by extraordinary useth all ordinances conscionably in their season will abstaine from all occasions of evill avoids all hinderances in that which is good if he knowes any thing may further him in the bringing of his heart nearer to God he readily and thankfully embraces it and makes use of it hee useth all meanes and yet resteth not in any meanes 5 Againe a soule that followes God fully followes him in all the wayes of his Commandments is the Lord saith of David Act. 13. 22. That hee had found a man 〈◊〉 would sulâ—ll 〈◊〉 has will in the Originall the word is in the plurall number That would fulfill all his wils There are many reasons that many give why David was called A man after Gods owne heart Some thinke because hee was so broken a hearted man Others because he had such a thankfull heart but this Scripture resolves us for God sayes That hee had found a man after his owne heart and gives that reason of it because hee would fulfill all his wills This soule desires to fulfill all righteousnesse as Christ saith of himselfe It became him to fulfill all righteousnesse It desires to yeeld obedience to God and to be holy in all manner of conversation as the Apostle speakes in 1 Pet. 1. 15. Then shal not I be ashamed saith David when I have respect unto all thy Commandements Psal 119. 6. Wee have a notable place for this universalitie of obedience in the 1. Coloss 9 10 11. We pray saith the Apostle that yee might be fulfilled in all knowledge of his will in all wisedome that yee might walke worthy of the Lord and please him in all things being fruitfull in all good works strengthened with all might through his glorious power to all patience there are six all 's together in this Scripture A heart that is fully for God is for all Gods wayes in all things it is not willing to baulke any way of God Zachariah and Elizabeth were two choyce spirits indeed and this was their honour that they walked with God in all the Commandements and Ordinances of the Lord blamelesse Luke 1. vers 6. 1 It is willing to follow the Lord in difficult duties when it must put the flesh to it in duties that require paines much labour that cannot be done without some hard things attending on them God hath some hard peeces of services to put his people upon to try the uprightnesse of their hearts the sinceritie and power of their loves to him in and God takes it exceeding well when they will follow him in such duties As that hard peece of service he put Abraham upon in offering his sonne when Abraham was willing to follow him in that Now saith hee I know thou lovest mee It is nothing to follow God in such duties as will so suit with us wherein we need put our selves to no trouble many are well content with such duties and seeme to yeeld to God in them but goe beyond those and put them upon further and they stirre not but as the rustie hand of a Diall if you come at that time of the day wherein the houre falls out the same at which the hand stands it seemes to goe right but if you passe that time the hand stands yet still it goes no further than it did and so shewes the Diall not to be good So here when it fals out so that a duty is enjoyned which is sutable to a mans mind and ends he will readily yeeld to it and seeme as if hee made conscience of obedience to God in it but if you put him on further in duties that are not so sutable to him there he stirres not because of the difficulty which he sees in them and in this he shewes the falsenesse of his heart that hee doth not follow God fully 2 Againe one that followes God fully will follow him in discountenanced duties Some duties are liked well enough of in the world for reason tels every man God must have some service and some generall way of serving of God
to the soule but how pleasant then is the fruit when it comes to ripenesse The more fully we follow on in Gods wayes the more full will the testimony of the witnesses both in heaven and earth bee in witnessing our blessed estate unto us Those three witnesses in heaven the Father Word and Holy Ghost and those three on earth the spirit water and the blood of which S. Iohn in his 1 Epistle 5. 7 8. they will all come with their full testimony to that soule which followes God fully By following the Lord fully wee keep our evidences cleare sinne blots and blurs our evidences that oftentimes wee cannot reade them but when the heart keeps close to God and walks fully with him then all is kept faire The Kingdome of God consists in righteousnesse peace and joy the more fully wee are brought into his Kingdome the more fully wee are under his government as there will bee the more righteousnesse so the more peace and joy Es 9. 7. Of the encrease of his government and peace there shall bee no end saith the Text. The more encrease there is of Christs government in the soule the more full it is the more peace will be there Seventhly there is great reason that wee should walke fully after the Lord because the way that God cals us to walke in is a most blessed and holy way In the 21. Revelation 21. verse The streets of Ierusalem that is the wayes of Gods people in his Church wherein they are to walke they are said to bee of pure gold and as it were transparent glasse they are golden wayes they are bright shining wayes Prov. 3. 17. The wayes of wisdome are the wayes of pleasantnesse and all her paths are peace There is not any one Command of God wherein hee would have us to follow him but it is very lovely there is much good in it God requires nothing of us but that which is most just and holy as God is holy in all his workes so he is holy in all his Commands they are no other but that which if our hearts were as they ought wee would choose to our selves A righteous man is a law to himselfe he sees that good that beauty that equity in all Gods Lawes as hee would choose them to himselfe were hee left at his owne liberty What one thing is there in Gods Law that could bee spared What is there that thou couldst bee glad to bee exempted from It may bee in the strength of temptation when some lust is up working the flesh would faine have some liberty but upon due serious thoughts looking into the bottome of things a gracious soule closeth with the Law and loveth it as gold yea fine gold and breakes for the longing it hath not to the reward of obedience to Gods Statutes and Judgements but to the Statutes and Judgements of God themselves as David saith his soule did Howsoever our path in following the Lord may seeme rugged and hard to the flesh in regard of the afflictions and troubles it meets withall in it yet where there is a spirituall eye the way of holinesse appeares to it exceeding lovely and beautifull Though David Psa 23. supposed the worst that might befall him in his way as that he might walke through the valley of the shadow of death yet he cals his way greene pastures and saith Godwill leade him by the still waters It is true the wayes of God are grievous to the wicked but very good and delightfull to the Saints because they are the wayes of holinesse as Esay 35. 8. And a high-way shall be there and it shall bee called the way of holinesse The uncleane shall not passe over it Eightly the consideration of the end of our way should bee a strong motive to draw our hearts fully after the Lord in it the entrance into it is sweet the midst of it more as before we have shewed but the end of it most sweet of all there is that comming that will fully recompence all Consider of the sweetnesse of the end of our way 1 In that period of it that will be at death and 2 In that glorious reward we shall have in heaven That sweet and blessed comfort that the full following of the Lord brings at death is enough to recompence all the trouble and hardship that wee meet withall in our way while we are following of him This hath caused many Saints of God to lie triumphing when they have been upon their death-beds blessing the Lord that ever they knew his wayes that euer he drew their hearts to follow after him in them When Hezekiah received the message of death Esay 38. 2 3 he turned his face to the wall and said Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezechiah wept sore O the sweetnesse that possessed the heart of Hezekiah which did flow from the testimony of his conscience that hee had fully walked after the Lord with a perfect heart the verbe there I have walked is in that Mood in the Originall that addes to the signification of it It signifies I have continually without ceasing walked Thus Luther who was a man whose spirit was exceeding full in his love unto and walking after the Lord Jesus Christ while hee lived and when hee came to die his spirit was as full of comfort and joy as before it was full of zeale and courage these expressions brake from him O my heavenly Father O God the Father of the Lord Iesus Christ the God of all comfort I give thee thanks that thou hast revealed thy Sonne Iesus Christ to mee whom I have beleeved whom I have professed whom I have loved whom I have honoured whom the Bishop of Rome and the rest of the rout of wicked men have persecuted and contemned and now I beseech thee O my Lord Iesus Christ receive my soule my heavenly Father although my body is to be laid downe yet I certainly know that I shall for ever remaine with thee neither can I by any be pulled out of thy hands The grace of Gods Spirit oftentimes appeares most in the glory of it when death approacheth because grace and glory is then about to meet That soule that hath followed God fully here when it comes to depart out of the body it onely changeth the place nor the company which was the speech of a late reverend holy Divine of ours a little before his death I shall change my place saith hee but not my company meaning that as he had conversed with God and followed after the Lord here in this World hee was now going to converse with him and to follow after him more fully in a better World Death to such a soule it is but Gods calling of it from the lower gallery of this World to the upper gallery of Heaven to walke with him there Here
God saith David maketh my way perfect the word is He frees my way Solvit so it is translated by some Hee frees it from snares and this is a great mercy Hence Psalme 18. 32. Where this thanksgiving of David is againe repeated there the word is translated Dedit Hee hath given my way to be perfect this is a good gift indeed for God to make a mans wayes free and cleare before him to take off the temptations that did ingage and insnare his spirit and then as Verse 34. of that place in Samuel He maketh my feet as Hindes feet O how swiftly and powerfully then may the soule runne in Gods wayes when it is thus freed Psalm 119. 44 45. I shall keep thy Law continually for ever and ever and I will walke at liberty When the heart is at liberty then it goes on continually for ever and ever in following after the Lord but if there be any secret ingagement in it it will be weary and one time or other will leave off a man that is fettered can neither go apace nor continue long A fourth thing that hinders men in following God fully it is going out in the strength of their owne resolutions not in any strength that they receive out of the fulnesse of Jesus Christ they trust more to their owne promises than to Gods Luther reports of Staupicius a Germane Divine that hee acknowledged of himselfe that before he came to understand aright the free and powerful grace of Jesus Christ that he vowed resolved an hundred times against some particular sin and never could get power over it at last he saw the reason to be the trusting to his own resolutions A fift cause is the meeting with more difficulties in Gods ways than wee made account of when Christians thinke onely of the good and sweet that they shall meet with in Gods wayes but they doe not cast in their thoughts what the troubles are like to bee that they shall finde in them like Ioseph who dreamed of his preferment and honour that hee should have above his brethren but dreamt not of his selling into Egypt nor of his imprisonment there Christians should at the first entrance into Gods wayes expect the utmost difficulties they should enter upon those termes to incounter with great troubles if they meane to sollow God fully in them It is a shame for any Christian to account any trouble that he meets withall in Gods wayes to be as a strange thing unto him Because the Lord had takē S. Paul as a chosen vessell unto himselfe and purposed to draw his heart fully after him observe how God deales with him in his first entrance into his way Acts 19. 16. I will shew him how great things hee must suffer for my Names sake But what then would take off the heart and carry it fully after the Lord These three things will doe it First the reall sight and thorow sense of sinne as the greatest evill Whē God leads his people weeping and with supplications then hee brings them into a straight way wherein they shall not stumble Ier. 31. 9. and againe Ier. 50. 4 5. the Lord saith that his people shall goe weeping and seeke the Lord their God they shal aske the way to Zion with their faces thither-ward saying Come let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not be forgotten When they are led weeping in the thorow sense of their sinne then their faces are set toward Zion and then they are willing to joyne themselves to God in a perpetuall Covenant The second thing that will take off the heart fully is the cleare sight of God in these two considerations 1. In relation to our selves to see how there is all good in him for us to enjoy fully though wee have nothing but him alone what ever wee would have in any creature in any way so farre as is good for us it is to bee had in him when the soule is thorowly convinced of this it comes off sweetly and flowes fully after the Lord. 2. Consider God in relation to all other good thus that nothing else hath any true goodnesse in it but in reference and subordination to him The third thing that will take off the heart fully is the feare of God and the feare of eternity powerfully falling upon the soule and deeply taking impression in it For the feare of God take that place 2 Cor. 2. 1. Perfect your holinesse in the feare of God The feare of God is a great means to bring your holinesse to perfection and for the second that place in Phil. 2. 12. Worke out your salvation with feare and trembling The feare of the eternall salvation of the soule of the infinite consequence of it will cause us to labour to work it out CAP. VI. That it is the choicenesse of a mans spirit that causes him to follow GOD fully FRom the reference that this following of God fully hath to the excellency of Calebs spirit The Doctrine that ariseth is this That it is the choicenesse and excellency of a mans spirit that causeth him to follow God fully As Comets that are called blazing stars do soone vanish because of the basenes of the matter out of which they are but Starres in the Firmament continue because they are of an heavenly substance so there are many blazing Professors of Religion who rise high for a while but at last they come to nothing because their spirits are base and vile but those who have heavenly and choice spirits they god on in their way finish their course to the honour of God and his truth Pro. 11. 5. The righteousnesse of the perfect shall direct his way but the wicked shall fall Ezec. 36. 26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you c. And after it followes And cause you to walke in my Statutes and yee shall keepe my Iudgements and doe them This new spirit will cause a man to walk in Gods Statutes a man of such a spirit shall certainly keepe his judgements and do them even to the end It is not strength of parts that will carry a man thorow nor strength of Argument nor strength of conviction nor strength of naturall conscience nor strength of resolution nor strength of common grace it is onely this choice excellent spirit that other spirit of which wee have spoke so much before In this point I shall follow these three things 1 Wee shall shew what there is in this spirit that doth carry on a man fully 2 Why onely this can doe it 3 Apply it For the first it is the choicenesse of a mans spirit that causeth a man to goe fully after God for 1 By this a man comes to have a more full presence of God with him than any other man can have such a man is nearer unto God than others hee hath more of the nature of
God than others is more capable of the presence of God than others and God delights to let out himselfe more to him than to others These are filled with all the fulnesse of God according to that expression of the Apostle Ephes 3. 19. Now this fulnesse of God in their spirits must needs carry them on because it so satisfies them as they feele no need of other things Empty spirits are alwayes sucking and drawing of comfort from the creatures that are about them hence it is that their hearts are taken off from God so much Againe a spirit that is filled with God is not so sensible of any evils that are without so as empty spirits are as it is in the body when it is filled with good nourishment with good blood and spirits it is not sensible of cold and alteration of weather as the body is that is empty and filled onely with winde Secondly the choicenesse of a mans spirit raiseth it to converse with high things and so carries it above the rubs the snares and hindrances that are below and being above these it goes on freely and fully in its course and is not in that danger of miscarrying as other poore spirits are who converse so much with the things upon the earth as Birds that flie high are not catched by the Fowler they are not taken by his Lime-twigs by his Net or Pit fall so as others are who are much below upon the ground Broverb 15. 24. The way of Life is above to the wise that hee may depart from hell beneath It is the keeping in his way above that delivers him from the dangers snares that are laid for him below Thunders and Lightnings tempests and stormes make no alteration in the highest Region so the threats and oppositions against the wayes of godlinesse and all the troubles that the world causeth make no alterations in heavenly hearts that keepe above When the tree growes low it is subject to bee bitten by the Beasts but when it is growne up on high it is out of danger The lower the heart is the nearer the earth the more danger but when it is got up on high the danger is past and now what should hinder it from the growing up to the full measure of it in Christ Thirdly the choicenesse of a mans spirit changeth his end and so carries him on fully after the Lord for when the end is changed all is changed when there are but particular changes it is a certaine argument that the highest end is not changed but when that is changed there must of necessity bee an universall change upon these two grounds 1 Because the last end is alwayes loved for it selfe and therefore infinitely loved 2 It is the rule of all other things that are under it the good of all things under it is measured by it and is subordinate to it Fourthly this choicenesse of spirit causeth a suteablenesse a sympathy between the frame of the heart and the wayes of holinesse Now sympathies first are alwayes between the generall natures of things and not individuals not particulars as thus where there is a sympathy betweene one creature and another it is alwayes betweene the whole kind of those creatures wheresoever such Natures are found there will be this agreement Wee may see it more clearely in that which is contrary that contrariety of nature which wee call Antipathy it is not betweene any particulars so much as betweene the whole natures of things as between the Wolf the Sheep there is such a contrariety Now the nature of the Wolfe is not contrary so much to any particular sheep but to the whole nature of sheepe wheresoever the nature of it is found and therefore to all sheep Thus it is in the soule where there is such a kinde of opposition of it against sinne it is not against any particular sinne so much as against the whole nature of sinne wheresoever it is so where there is such an agreement which wee call a sympathie it is not so much with any particular way of holinesse or perticular Act but with the whole nature of holinesse wheresoever it is found and therefore such a soule must needs follow God fully Againe sympathies doe alwayes worke without labour and paine and therefore where there is such an agreement betweene the frame of the heart and the wayes of God the heart must needs worke fully because it workes delightfully and yet further this agreeablenes of sympathie is deepely rooted in the very principles of the creature it is founded in the very being of it and therefore it must needs worke strongly and constantly Vaine reasonings carnall objections subtill arguments strong oppositions can never prevaile against that soule where there is this deep-rooted agreeablenesse betweene the frame of it the wayes of holinesse But that you may see further what a wonderfull agreeablenesse Grace makes betweene the spirits of the godly and the Law of God which is the rule of those wayes wherein God would have the soule to follow him in observe the severall expressions by which the Scripture sets it out First it is written in the tables of their hearts Secondly it is their meditation day and night Psal 1. Thirdly it is the joy of their souls Psal 119. 14 vers and 47. verse Fourthly they love it above gold above fine gold Fifthly their hearts breake for the longing it hath after it Sixthly they lift up their hands to it Psal 119. 48. Seventhly their mouthes talke of it Psal 119. 13. ver 46. ver Eighthly their feet run in it Psal 119. 32. Ninthly their soule keeps it Psal 119. 167. Tenthly they will never forget it Psal 119. 16. Eleventhly they give up their members as instruments of the righteousnesse of it Rom. 6. 13. And lastly to name no more though there be many more expressiōs in Scripture to set this out they apply their hearts to it to fulfill it alwaies even to the end Psal 119. 103. Fifthly This choicenesse of spirit causeth a man to looke to his duty and not to regard what may follow The thing that hinders most in their following the Lord it is want of this it is not want of conviction what should be done but the reasonings of their heart about the hard and troublesome consequences that will follow if the things bee done But a true gracious heart saith onely Let mee know what is my duty let the right bee done though heaven and earth meet together Sixthly The choicenesse of a mans spirit causeth a man that if he doth looke at any consequences that may follow upon his way he lookes onely at the last issue of all what his way will prove in his last conclusion how things will goe with him when he comes to the last triall what will be the ultimate end of all Will it then be peace shall I then be glad of these wayes I now walke in Seventhly The choicenesse of a
mans spirit strengthens it against the impressions that sensitive objects use to leave upon soft and weake spirits Most men have their spirits formed and fashioned according to sensitive objects it is not what they apprehend in abstract notions that works upon them let them bee what they will yet when they have to deale with sensitive things the sweetnesse desireablenesse glory of them works the most powerfully their hearts are altered according to the impression that they leave upon them and this is great weaknesse and an effeminate softnesse of spirit Hence the word translated Effeminate 1 Cor. 6. 9. signifies soft-spirited men This distēper in the spirit is like that in the flesh when it is corrupted with the dropsie the flesh is soft and if you put your finger to it the impression of your finger sticks in it and pits the flesh so the impression of sensitive objects sticks in distempered weake soft spirits as it was in the other Spies who were sent with Caleb and Ioshuah the terrible things they saw in the land stucke mightily in their hearts they brought with them the impressiō of them fastened in their spirits hence Numb 13. 33. according to the translation of the Greek Translators it is They brought the feare of the land with them But this choicenesse of spirit that was in Caleb and is in those who are truely godly keepeth from this and there must bee this firmnesse in the spirit of a man or else it will never cary him after the Lord fully 2 Sam. 22. 26. With the upright thou wilt shew thy selfe upright the word translated upright signifies strong and perfect There is required strength and that more than ordinary too to cary on the soule to perfection Thus you see what there is in this choice spirit that caries it on fully after the Lord Now there must of necessity be this or else this full following of the Lord will never be nothing else will doe it And that 1 Because the wayes of God are supernaturall and therefore there must bee something in the spirit of a man which is supernaturall that must reach to them this which is supernaturall in the spirits of godly men wee see it in the effects and we know it is above reason and all naturall principles whatsoever But what is is very hard to expresse and therefore men of parts in the World are madde to think that any should imagine that those who are of weaker parts than themselves should have any thing in them to carry them on in other wayes than they walke in which they doe not understand because they doe not know what that same thing is which is called supernaturall they will rather think it a conceit and phansie than any reall excellency because they can apprehend other things better than others they thinke why should they not apprehend this better than others if there were any reall excellencie in it 2 The wayes of God are not only above nature but contrary to nature and therefore there must bee needs some speciall choycenesse of spirit to carry a man on in them there must bee a contrary streame to over-power the streame of nature and this streame must be fed by some living fountaine or else there will never bee a holding out In following after the Lord all naturall abilities and common grace will doe no more but stop the streame of corrupt nature they cannot so overpower it as to carry the soule another way but the worke of grace in this choicenesse of spirit will doe it 3 The streame of times and examples of men are exceeding strong and it is not a little matter that will carry on the soule against them The dead fish is carried down the streame though the winde serves to blow it up all naturall abilities of the soule will no more helpe a man against the streame of examples than the winde can carry the dead fish up the stream but if there were life put into the fish it were able then to move against the winde and streame too 4 There are so many strong alluring temptations where in the wiles subtilties depths of Satan are very powerfull to draw the heart away from God that except there bee some speciall worke of Gods grace to give wisdome to discerne the deceits of sin to make the soule spiritually subtill to find out the cunning devices of Satan and to discerne the danger of them the soule most certainly could never hold on in the way of its following after the Lord. 5 There are so many troubles oppositions that it meets withall in this way that most certainly would drive it out were it not for some choyce Worke of Gods grace in it but this choycenesse of spirit will carry a man through all them It is Gods promise Esay 59. 19. That when the enemy shall come in like a floud the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him We made use of this Scripture before for opposition of strong corruptions but it is true here now for the resisting of strong spirituall enemies of strong oppositions when they come in like a floud against the soule to carry it out of Gods wayes the Spirit of God in it doth lift up a standard against them were it not for this it could not hold It is this good and sound constitution of the soule that makes it endure those oppositions that it meets withall An aguish heat may bee greater than that which ariseth from a good constitution but it is not able to resist cold so there may be a naturall violence in a mans spirit for a while in the profession of Religion which may seeme to be zeale but not arising from the good constitution of the soule when troubles come it vanishes giving no strength at all 6 There are so many scandals and reproaches that rise against the ways of God so many aspersions that are cast upon them that if a man hath not more than an ordinary spirit hee most certainly will be offended Blessed are they that are not offended in mee saith Christ It is a great blessing when there fals out scandals and when we see grievous aspersions cast upon Gods wayes yet not to be offended there needs be some more than ordinary light to discover to a man the certainty of that good there is in the ways of God he had need be sure of his principles and know in whom he hath beleeved 7 Yea God many times hides himselfe from his servants while they are following after him and this oftentimes proves the sorest temptation of all and a greater discouragement then all the rest for as for oppositions scandals reproaches these are things they make account of and can often lightly passe them over but when God hides his face this puts them at a stand now they are in the dark and know not what to doe Christ was not much troubled at the reproaches of men at the oppositions hee met withall
from them for the Scripture saith He despised the shame and endured the Crosse but when his Father hid his face from him then he was in an agony then his spirit began to bee amazed then his soule was sorowfull to the death then hee fals groveling upon the ground then he sweats drops of water and bloud then hee cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee These spirituall desertions in their degree Gods servants often meet withall in their way so as if they had not choice spirits some speciall worke of God in their soules they would certainly fall and sinke in it Now put all these together and we see it is not every ordinary spirit that is like to goe on fully after the Lord it must needs bee some thing extraordinary that preserves a spark in the midst of waves that preserves a candle light in the midst of storms and tempests Never wonder then or bee offended to see so many to fall off from God few men have choice spirits those who are godly expect no other from most professors and therefore they are not troubled when they see this fall out They went out from us because they were not of us saith the Apostle Wicked men are offended because they know not what the worke of grace meanes and hence if they see a man make profession of Religion they make no difference as though there were as much to be expected from him as from another as though the cause of God fell when he fell no such matter If you see mens spirits proud slight earthly sensuall or carried with a greater violence than their principles will beare I doe not meane though their affections may sometimes goe beyond their knowledge but by principles I meane the rooted graces of God in their hearts as one may perceive in some there are not graces rooted sutable to their expressions outward wayes and when you see not an evennesse in the wayes of men then never expect from them any full following the Lord and if they fall off be not troubled let it be no more than you made account of before-hand would be Hence the world is mistaken who judge it stoutnesse and stubbornnesse of spirit in Gods servants that will go on in the wayes of godlines they are a kind of inflexible people there is no perswading of them there is no dealing with them No it is no stubbornnesse it is the choicenesse of their spirits that makes them to doe as they doe you judge it stubbornnesse because you doe not know the principles upō which they goe I confesse if I see a man stand constantly in his way and will not bee moved by the perswasions of others if I doe not understand the reasons upon which hee goes I cannot but thinke it stoutnesse and this is your case but if you did but know what are their reasons what are their powerfull motives that draw them on in the wayes of God you would not have such thoughts of them Their spirits within them constraine them as Elihu sayes of himselfe in another case Iob 32. 18. Take these convincements that it is not stubbornnesse but choicenesse of spirit that carries them on so unmoveable in their way 1. In other things they are as yeeldable as tractable as easie to bee perswaded as any men it is only in the matter of the Lord their God they are thus They can beare burthens upon their shoulders and cry out and resist as little as any if you will compell them to goe a mile they will be content if it may do good to goe two yea as far as the shooes of the preparation of the Gospell of peace will carry them who can beare wrongs and injuries from men better than they stubborne-spirited men cannot doe thus 2 Stubbornnesse is joyned with desire of revenge but in these dispositions there is all pity and compassion they pray for those who doe oppose them when they are reviled they revile not againe If sometimes their corruptions should bee stirred they are ashamed and confounded in their own thoughts for that they have done they mourne and lament in the bitternesse of their spirits for it Thirdly stubborne dispositions are not contracted on a sudden it is by degrees and continuance of time that alters nature but this disposition of being unmoveable in Gods wayes comes many times even of a sudden as soone as ever the heart is turned which is an evidence of a new principle put into it Fourthly stubborne hearts doe not use to seek God to uphold them to strengthen them to blesse them in that way they doe not blesse God for being with them helping of them to persist in their way as Gods servants doe they go to God to get strength to inable them to bee immoveable they give God the glory of it when they have found themselves inabled to withstand temptations Fiftly those who are of stubborn dispositions doe not use to bee most stubborne when the heart is most broken with afflictions stout hearts though in their prosperity are unyeeldable there is no dealing with them then their hearts are presently up if you move them to any thing they have no mind to their words are stout their answers are sierce but let afflictions come then as Es 29. 4. Their hearts are brought down and they speake as one out of the ground and their speech is low as one out of the dust then they are willing to heare what you say As the young Gallant that Salomon speakes of in Proverbs 5. there was no speaking to him in his prosperity but when his flesh and body were consumed then he mournes at the last and cries out How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproofe I have not obeyed the voyce of my Teachers c. But now those that are godly in their greatest afflictions when their hearts are most broken when God humbles them most even then they are most settled and unmoveable in that way they walked in before and it is then the greatest griefe of their soules that they walked no closer with God in it than they did Have other thoughts then of Gods people than you have had do not accuse that of stubbornnesse that you doe not understand thinke with your selves that there may be something in their spirits more than you know of Let those who have this excellent choice spirit encourage themselvs in this that surely it will inable them to follow God fully let them know First that though they be weak if their spirits bee right if of the right kind they shall certainly hold out That which Christ said for the comfort of the Church of Philadelphia Revel 3. 8 they may apply for theirs Thou hast a little strength saith Christ and hast kept my Word and hast not denyed my Name A little strength if it bee right if it bee the strength of a sound spirit it will carry on the soule to keepe
Gods Word and inable not to deny his Name Secondly therefore is Christ filled with all fulnesse of all grace that out of his sulnesse thou mayst receive grace for grace that Spirit by which he is so plentifully annoynted it is for thee But I am afraid my spirit is not this choice spirit and therfore I shall not hold out in following the Lord. First is it a broken humble spirit in sense of thy weakenesses and wants Secondly that which thou dost though but weakly is it upon divine grounds and hast thou divine ends Thirdly doth the sight of thy weaknesse make thee cling and cleave unto Jesus Christ Fourthly when thou losest God in following him art thou sensible of the want of his presence and doest thou never leave crying and seeking till thou enjoyest him again Certainly this is a true choyce spirit that will carry on fully in following the Lord when thousands of glorious Hypocrites shall vanish and come to nothing If it be this choicenesse of spirit that is the only thing that will fully carry after the Lord then let us learn to looke to our spirits Keepe thy heart with all diligence for out of it come the issues of life Doe not so much complain of teÌ„ptations oppositions troubles you meet withal but look to your spirits all is safe and wel If there be the spirit of love of a sound mind there will be the spirit of power for these are joyned together by the Apostle there need not be the spirit of feare for the spirit of a sound mind the spirit of feare are opposed one to another in the same place But wherein should we looke to our spirits First take heed to your judgmeÌ„ts keep your judgemeÌ„ts clear for God his truth as it is said Es 33 that wisdom and knowledge should be the stability of those times so true wisdome and knowledge preserving the judgments of men right sound are the stability of mens hearts Take heed your judgmeÌ„ts come not to be altered to thinke otherwise of Gods wayes than you did before to have other opinions of theÌ„ Though there may bee many weaknesses yet if the judgement be kept right all may doe well but if the Leprosie bee got into the head then the soule is in a dangerous condition as Lev. 13. 44. when the Priest shall looke upon a Leprous man and see the plague is got into his head the Text saith he shal pronouÌ„ce him utterly unclean for the Plague is in his head The Priest was to pronouÌ„ce none to be utterly unclean but such who had the plague in their heads Secondly labor to keep conscience clear take heed of pollution there take heed of a breach in thy spirit there for that will weaken it much conscience is the strong Tower of thy soule if the Truth of God be got out there the strength of the soule is gone Thirdly labour to keepe thy heart low and humble when the flesh swels it cannot beare any hard thing upon it though a member growes bigger when it swels yet it growes weaker so it is with the soule Fourthly labour to keepe the spirit heavenly mixture of drosse will weaken it convince thy soule that a little of the Creature will serve turne to carry thee thorow this thy Pilgrimage well enough One told a Philosopher If you will be content to please Dionysius you need not feed upon green hearbs The Philosopher answers him And if you will be content to feed upon greene hearbs you need not please Dionysius So if men would be content with a little in the World to be in a low and meane condition they need not flatter those things that draw others from following after the Lord would not move them at all Fiftly labour to keep thy spirit in a continuall trembling frame abiding in the feare of the Lord all the day long the feare of the Lord causeth men to depart from evill meditate the feare of the Lord continually Lastly keep thy spirit continually working many things have much power in them while they are in motion but weake when the motion ceaseth sinne is very strong while it is in motion but when affliction stops the motion the truths of God have more power over it so grace while it is acting it is strong but if it growes dull it growes weake and is soone turned aside Thus we looking to our spirits wee shall bee able to follow the Lord fully and finish our course in peace FINIS Sal. l. 4 de Gab. 1. Dei Nazian in Encom Athanas Bern. pag. 1010. Act. 21. 13 Heb. 11. â—xerâ—it 18◠§. 27 28. 1 Sam. 12. â—eh 6. 11. Ve. s 13. 17 Dan. 3. 18. * As Groasthead Bishop of Lincolne once answered the Pope See Act. and Mon. 2 Vol. p. 553. Stock See in his funerall Sermons Dan. 6. 10. Acts 13. 9. 10. Aug conf l. 11. Cap. 1. Obs 1 Cor. 7. 25 Quest Answ Abulensis 〈◊〉 54 55. Scrarius l. 1 Ios c. 8. q. 6 Lorinus in Numb 14. 24. Implevit sequi 1 1 〈…〉 1 Sapida â—â—iâ—â—tia Philo Iudaeus in his book intituled Om nis probus liber tâ—ls of the Pyâ—â— agereans that inter Sacrata praecepta this was a principall Per viam publicam ne ingredere Argumentâ— turâ—issimis 〈◊〉 turba sayes Seneca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eadem ratione hanc vita viam quaeri oportet qua in altoiter navibus quaeritur nisi aliquid cali lumen observent incertis cursibus vagantur quisquis rectum iter vitae tenere nititur non terr'd debet aspicere sed coeluâ—â— ut aâ—ertius loquar on hominem debet sequi sed Deum Lactant. l. 6. c. 8. 4 1 5 1 2 Cor. 4. â— Nos Imperator so a terrena militia tibi obstricti sumus in animas nullum tibi jus est illarum Deminus est solus Deus Coutzen aulâ— speculum pag 47. Non admittit status sidei allegati onem neces sitatis deliuouendi quibus una est necessitas non delinquendi Tertul. de Cor militis cap. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 T 〈…〉 1. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 Hem Germ ma illa bestia non 〈◊〉 auruÌ„ Melchior â—dâ—m in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nemo est dignus namine hominis qui unum diem vâ—lit esse in vo luptate lib. 2 de sinibus Platonis Phoedo p. 81. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 or sum et ad majora naturquà m vt mancipium sim corporis mei Sen. 〈◊〉 66. Valde protesta tus sum me nolle sic saâ—iari ab co Melchier Adam in vita Iuth Feciâ—â—i nos Domine prote â—â—qu etum est â—or n 〈…〉 do 〈…〉 veniat adte Luke 12. 19. Hern. de amore 〈◊〉 Sicut mea â—on tibi placent oblata nisi mecum sic bon rum tuorum contemp 〈…〉 io resiâ—â—t nos s 〈…〉 non sat at
where he had much gold a Lord came to him and wished him to go to his Chamber and not lie there his answer was I am well where I am so long as I can tarry for I am neare unto my friends meaning his Coffers and his gold What drossie corporall soules have such men The Gadarens drove Christ out of their Country they esteemed their Swine above a Saviour Demas embraceth the present world Ananias and Saphyra reserve a portion for themselves such spirits ever have been and will be in the world Spirits they are as much beneath common reason as those mentioned in this work are above it It is choyce not common spirits that will honour God in stormy times Had not a choyce and excellent spirit been in Nehemiah the plots and practices of enemies would have daunted him but take a view of his spirit Should such a man as I am flee and who is there that being as I am would go into the Temple to save his life I will not go in He had a good cause a good conscience a good God which advanced his spirit to such resolvednesse that hee would not take Sanctuary and disparage either of them by his feare or faint-heartednesse wheÌ„ he saw the Sabbath prophaned he hid not his eyes from it but contended with the Nobles about it What Divine spirits were in the three Children Could Nebuchanezars greatnesse mandates threats of the fiery Fornace force their spirits to false worship Be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods Here they did obediently disobey knowing that nothing pleases God but what hee hath commanded in his Word they would not deliberate in this case Wee are not carefull to answer thee say they When any enticements come to draw us from the pure worship of God wee should stop our eares charme the Charmers never so wisely Charles the Emperour and two great persons in this Kingdome solliciting King Edward the sixt to allow his sister the Lady Mary to have â—â—asse would not listen but bade them be conceâ—â—t for he would spend his life and all he had rather than agree and grant to that hee knew certainly to be against the truth the suit being yet pressed he brust out into bitter weeping and sobbing desiring them to desist The motioners seeing his zeale and constancy wept as fast as he and told one he had more Divinity in his little finger than they had in all their bodies What a choyce spirit was in that young Lord Harrington who was a man of prayer he prayed twice a day in secret twice with his servants in his chamber and joyned at appointed times with the family in prayer he would never be idle but alwaies well if not religiously imployed he meditated on 4. or 5. Sermons every day retaining five or six in his memory alwayes he kept an exact account of his life every day very conscientious of honouring God to purpose in publike and private on the Lords day he would repeat both the Sermons with his servants before supper and write them down in his night booke before hee slept and on the morning of that day he would as he made him ready repeat those Sermons hee had heard the Lords day before and for the Sacrament he received it very frequently and alwayes fasted the Saturday before spending the whole day in examination prayer and humbling himselfe that so he might be fitted to feast with Christ he gave away the tenth of his estate unto the poore pious uses besides his occasionall charity when he was abroad Here was a choyce spirit beautified with variety of graces not unfit for great mean to propound for their pattern Daniel in Babylon would not defile himselfe with the portion of the Kings meat nor with the wine which he dranke hee had rather eat pulse than defile his conscience When the writing was signed the Lions den threatned did he mussle up his Religion and shrink up his spirit he would not shut up his window nor diminish his prayers but thrice a day prayed and gave thankes unto his God as he did afore time here was a spirit for God and his wayes and not for the times Happily some temporizing politician will charge Daniel of indiscretion no it was the excellency of his spirit that in case of danger and that of life he would not separate external profession from inward faith when God should lose by it And what dost thou charge him with indiscretion whom the Scripture commends for his wisdome It was a proverbiall speech Wiser than Daniel Ezek. 32. 3. and his heart did not accuse him for that indiscretion when he was in the Lions den for he saith Innocency was found in him he was not ashamed of his godlinesse that had raised him and hee would maintaine the honour of it Such spirits have true excellency in them are not shie of the wayes or servants of God when the flouds of iniquity overflow threaten to beare down all Fearefulnesse to appeare in Gods cause is a part of the old man when God puts into his another a new spirit that wasts thy fearefulnes the more thou hast of Gods Spirit the more thy old timorous cowardly spirit is abated Mat. 9. 16. That is put in to fill up takes from the garment and when grace fils up a man it takes away from the old man the old basenesse feare and dastardlinesse in the cause of God and a holy undaunted resolution is begotteÌ„ in thee to justifie wisdom although thou daÌ„nifie thy self According to the fulnesse of mens spirits are their carriages with more or lesse confidence in their undertakings If Satan have filled the heart men will boldly serve him Acts 5. 3. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost Satan had filled his heart and therefore he feared not to lie unto God himselfe Dieu saith upon the place Implere cor alterius est audacem eum reddere he cites that place Hest 7. 5. Quis hic est qui implevit cor suum ad faciendum sic Who is he that hath filled his heart in our Translations That durst presume in his heart to doe so Hamans heart was filled with malice and that made him bold to attempt the destruction of all the Jewes And where godlinesse fils the heart there will be as venturous bold attempts for God Paul being filled with the Holy Ghost set his eyes on Elymas and so thundred and lightned against him that presently his proud malitious spirit was blasted When the heart of a man is filled with divine truths it is not the presence of men in highest place can daunt it Elisha had a double portion of the spirit of Elijah and did the greatnesse or wickednesse of Iehoram daunt him There appeared a Deity in his very speech and spirit 2 Kings 3. 14. As the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand surely were it
not that I regard the presence of Iehosaphat the King of Iudah I would not looke towards thee nor see thee Hee had a fulnesse of Gods Spirit in him that could speake thus to one of the gods on earth When a mans heart is filled with divine influence he feares not the enemies of goodnes neither is ashamed of ought accompanies godlinesse 2 Tim. 1. 7 8. God hath given us the spirit of power of love and of a sound mind be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony c. When the power of God is in a mans spirit he will not bee ashamed of the Crosse nor refuse to share in the afflictions of the Gospel It is the honour of Religion to have such Disciples as will own her and stand for her at all times and that with an undaunted courage Acts 4. 8 9 10 11 12. Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost and said Bee it knowne unto you all and all the people of Israel that by the Name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man here stand before you whole this is the stone which was set at nought of you builders c. And after when he and Iohn were commanded silence what said they Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than God judge yee for we cannot but speake the things we have seene and heard It is a brand upon Nicodemus that he came to Christ by night and so of the chiefe Rulers that beleeved on him but because of the Pharisees did not confesse him lest they should be put out of the Synagogues but it was Nicodemus praise for that he had got boldnesse to speak for Christ when vilified though himselfe suffered reproach for it this shewed some excellency and growth in his spirit that he could both speake and suffer for Christ So Ioseph of Arimathea was timerous at Ioh. 19. 38. but being filled with grace He went in boldly to Pilate and craved the body of Iesus Mark 15. 43. With what holy boldnesse did those men march through reproaches afflictions and persecutions for the truths sake Reader swallow thou this Booke as Ezekiel did his rowle and thou shalt be inabled to doe as much Principle and fill thy spirit with the pretious truths contained in this little Treatise and thou shalt find thy drooping spirit to receive a heavenly warmth to come upon thee and a holy boldnesse thrusting thee forward for God and godlinesse Wickednesse is too bold and godlinesse too shamefast it hath lost and suffered much through mens cowardlinesse Reade meditate and feast thy spirit with what thou herein findest and thou mayst walke bold as a Lion through the midst of a crooked and perverse generation thou shalt daunt wickednesse it selfe and make Religion truely beautifull and honourable If thou shouldest say This book might have been kept in there are too many already I answer thee There be many but few to purpose The Sea is full of water yet God addes daily to it by rivers and showers Many would read little if new bookes were not set forth daily Bookes do quicken up a drowsie age to the best purpose New bookes are like new fashions taken up at first with affection Notwithstanding all the Munition of the Kingdome there is new made daily Books are more needfull than Armes the one defends the body the other the soule If thy spirit be choice and right thou wilt acknowledge this worke solid spirituall and such as hitherto thou hast not met with many like it If trees be knowne by their fruit what other sentence may bee passed upon the Composer of it but that hee hath profited in the Schoole of Christ above thousands hath had a large operation of Gods Spirit in his own soule attained to a choicenesse and excellency of spirit himselfe that he hath clearly differenced betweene pretious and base spirits I shall appeale to thy selfe Christian Reader when thou hast perused this Booke whether thou wouldest have had it buried in the dark If he deserves a curse that withholds corne Prov. 11. 26. thou wilt blesse God for this corne the Authour hath sent to market God made him a fountaine not to bee sealed up but to slow for common good Veritatem celare est aurum sepelire In a fountaine sealed and treasures hid the Authour knew was little profit Hee hath let out himselfe to advantage thee taken this off from his owne spirit to put upon thine Doe thine endeavour to better thy selfe by it and if thou gettest any good give unto God glory if none suspect thy spirit and spare thy censures The Authours spirit is above them and counts it a very small thing to bee judged of mans judgement My prayers are that thou mayest profit much attaine true excellency of spirit and follow God fully all thy dayes that so thy end may bee comfortable and glorious Thy Christian friend W. Gr. A GRACIOVS SPIRIT A CHOYCE and a pretious SPIRIT Numb 14. 24. But my servant Caleb because he had an other spirit with him and hath followed me fully him will I bring into the land wherein he went and his seed shall possesse it CAP. I. What that other spirit is which a godly man hath differing from the world IN these words we have Gods approbation of Caleb accepting his faithfull service in the testimony hee gave of the good Land encouraging the hearts of his people to goe into it As for the other that were sent God determines against them they shall never see that good Land But my servant Caleb c. First Gods commendation of Caleb Secondly his blessing upon him For the first hee sayes three things of him 1 He is my servant 2 He hath another spirit 3 He hath followed me fully He is my servant It is a great honor to bee the servant of the blessed God and to bee acknowledged so by God himselfe We should not looke at our services to God only as duties injoyned but as high priviledges as dignities put upon us wee should glory in his service It was a great part of that glorious reward of those who came out of great tribulation who washed their Robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lambe that they should bee before the Lord and serve him night and day Apoc. 7. 14 15. My servant He hath shewed himselfe to bee my servant indeed I will for ever owne him what ever others did hee continued faithfull with me To bee a servant unto the Lord is an honour but to bee acknowledged faithfull that higher I have obtained mercy to be faithfull saith Saint Paul To be faithfull in service is not only a meanes of obtaining mercy but it is a great obtained mercy My servant Caleb Caleb is only mentioned here and so in the former Chap. verse 31. Why is not Ioshua mentioned likewise for surely hee followed the Lord fully
the compasse of its own nature and was to enjoy this and the fuller it doth enjoy it the more perfected it is Now then there are required principles of life accordingly to carry these creatures higher than their owne natures to have the fruitiō of that good they were made for and to bee blessed in the enjoyment of it Now these are the principles of Grace with which this other spirit is indued higher above the principles of reason than the principles of reason are above the principles of sense and thus it is another spirit Secondly it works by another rule every thing is guided to its end by some rule which is a beame of Gods wisedome no creature under the reasonable knowes either its end or rule but is acted by God to that it was made for but the reasonable creature is of such a nature as is capable of the knowledge of both and therefore cannot bee happy without the knowledge of both and working accordingly Now it is a great mercy not to mistake in the rule that leades to eternall life to see it and act by it most of the world mistake here their spirits are led by false rules they goe according to sense according to their own carnall apprehēsion of things accordings to their owne wils would have the rule of their actions from their own spirits or else according to the common course of the world as Eph. 2. 2. That which men blesse themselves in that they goe according to the common course is one of the most apparent arguments that is that yet they are strangers from the way of life but the godly they make the Word their rule they looke up to the minde of God to see the beame of Divine wisdome let down from heaven to guide them in their way they looke to it for direction give up themselves to it dare venture their comforts estates safeties soules upon it Thou shalt guide mee by thy counsell sayes David and so bring mee to thy glory Psalm 73. 24. A godly man thinkes it a most dishonorable thing to make the examples of men his rules it is for beasts to follow the Herd Examples of men cannot satisfie his conscience A godly man workes for eternity and therefore is carefull to worke by rule as a man when hee workes in a worke that concernes his life erects a frame that must be for continuance he makes sure of his rule layes often his rule to his worke When God erected the frame of the world which was to last but for a sew yeares hee made all by waight and measure The frame of mans actions here must be for eternity and therefore a godly man dares venture upon no other rule but that which is divine hee lookes at the Word not only at the notions of it and that excellency and beauty he sees in it shining a great way off but as a light to his feet a Lanterne to his steps holds it close to his feet to guide him in his going knowing that every step he goes is either to hell or to heaven and this doing he may look up with comfort for that blessing of God upon his servants 1 Sam. 2. 9. He keeps the feet of his Saints His way is like the way of the Mariner guided by the heavens 3. Thirdly another spirit that is imployed about other things it is not for meane base services but set on worke about high and honourable employments As men of place and dignity have or ought to have other spirits differing from ordinary spirits they cannot endure to be employed in mean and dishonorable workes no those fit for meane base spirits While other mens spirits are busied about low poore things and are content in these minding nothing higher they are busied about great affaires of State the high things of the Kingdome consultations about and transactions of the great businesses of the Common-wealth It was the basenesse and dishonor of Domitians spirit who though a great Emperor yet busied himselfe and spent great part of his time in catching of flies and so of Artaxerxes his spirit who spent a great deale of time in making hafts of knives of Boxe Thus godly men account it too mean a thing for their spirits to bee busied about low base employments while the spirits of other men are busied about meat drink clothes play money lust and are taken up in these poore things the spirits of the godly are taken up in contemplation of the glory of the blessed God the beauty and high excellency of Jesus Christ the great Counsels of God in the greatest worke that ever he did the worke of mans Redemption the great mysteries of the Gospell the glorious things of the Kingdome of Jesus Christ the great things of eternity the interest they have in all the good in God Christ Heaven about the setting out the glory of the blessed God in the World lifting up his Name working together with God in glorifying himselfe observing Gods wayes in his glorious workes of Creation and Providence preparing and fitting themselves for the glorious appearing of the great God joyning with those blessed creatures the Angels and Saints in heaven magnifying praising worshipping and adoring the Lord of all these are things fit for the spirits of the godly they are not suteable to the spirits of the world as Psal 92. 6. A brutish man knowes not neither doth a foole understand this A godly man sometimes may be busied in meane low things but his spirit not contented not taken up not satisfied in those things as adequate objects for him as the spirits of the world are they are objects adequate to any principles they have A man sometimes that is understanding may condescend to sport with children in low things but these take not up his spirit as adequate objects to what hee hath in him if indeed hee should take content and satisfaction in such things it would argue a childish spirit in him So here Fourthly this spirit is carried to other ends the spirit of the world looks at ease pleasure honour gaine and Selfe in all it is a low spirit in an ill sense subjecteth not only ordinary actions but the best things it doth even the duties of Gods worship to base low unworthy ends At the highest the most excellent of the Heathen who had the most brave spirits the World had in their time aimed no higher than to work according to reason to satisfie the dictates of rationall principles and a naturall conscience knew not what it was to honour God to aime at God in all they did but the spirit of the godly is a raised spirit looks at God and eternity in all it doth carries things up to the highest good restlesse till it gets through all creatures and closes with God it accounts the excellency of what it is and what it hath to be in order to God and directs what it doth to him and in this comes as neere the working of
life the more noble and excellent activenesse as sense more than the plants and the rationall life more than the sense and grace more than that and glory more than all the more spirituall the more active the more power the forme hath over the matter the more active the thing is and the more the forme is sunk as it were into the matter there the lesse activenesse as in the earth and all heavy bodies now where life is there the forme hath most power and the higher the life the greater the power Godly spirits therefore are not melancholy for melancholy makes dul but they are active and lively though they may bee heavy and sad if put to some imployment not sutable to their spirits but put them upon spirituall imployments and then you shall find them lively and active when they have to deale with God when drawing neare unto him in spirituall exercises then they are full of life they are fervent in spirit serving the Lord as Rom. 12. 11. Boyling in spirit so the word signifies when serving the Lord. The effectuall fervent prayer of the righteous availes much saith S. Iames 5. Chapter 16. verse The working prayer so the word signifies and such a working that notes the most liveliest activity that can bee Birds whose motion is on high fly swiftly when they are got up but slutter when they are below so the spirits of the godly when they are got up on high to God in spirituall exercises then they move lively but when they are busied in inferiour things they are oft-times dull and heavy Twelfthly the spirits of the godly are faithfull spirits faithfull to God and men such as will certainly stick to and will bee true to their principles you may know where to finde them if you know their principles which are sound good as before The righteous is as an everlasting foundation Prov. 10. 25. you may build upon him there is an evennesse in all his wayes a constancy an universality of truth and faithfulnesse for it proceeds from the holinesse of their spirits as the faithfulnesse of God proceeds from his holinesse and therfore those mercies that are called the sure mercies of David Esay 55. 3. they are called the holy sure things of David Acts 13. 34. Gods holinesse makes them sure being once promised There may bee a particular faithfulnesse in some things betweene man and man where but some common gifts and the spirit not this choice spirit but that faithfulnesse comes not from a holy frame and therefore there is not an universality in it These are the speciall qualifications of this other spirit these are the bright glistering Pearles with which a godly soule the Kings daughter the Spouse of Iesus Christ is beautifull within and enlightned free royall sublime humble sanctified publike heroicall serious active faithfull spirit this is another spirit indeed not the common ordinary spirit Sixtly another spirit it feeds upon other comforts differing from those that common spirits feed upon Every life draws to it things sutable to the nature of it and findes some kinde of content and comfort in the enjoyment of such things We account life no life except it hath the fillings of it with things sutable from whence it may have comfort according to the variety of severall principles whereby every creature that hath life lives such is the variety of comforts in the world So the life of this spirit must have comforts sutable to it and because it differs from the life of other spirits therefore the comforts of it are different it lives upon other comforts The life of a Dog is maintained by carrion of a Swine by swill of a Toade by poyson but what doth a man care for these though Carrion lie in the ditch though Swill bee in the kennell though poyson cast upon the dunghill he cares not for them for his life is maintained by and hee feeds upon other comforts Thus though the men of the world living by sense and lust have no other comforts to feed upon but such as are sutable to them but the godly having a life that hath higher and more noble principles they feed upon higher and more noble comforts While Nebuchadnezzar lived the life of a beast hee fed on grasse but after when he was restored to his Kingdome and began to live the life of a King he had other comforts to feed upon and delight himselfe in The joy of the spirits of the godly are like the light of the Sunne fed by heavenly influence but the joyes of other men are as the light of a Candle fed by base and stinking matter for so Solomon makes the comparison Prov. 4. 18. The righteous is as the Sunne that shines more and more unto the perfect day and the joyes of the wicked he compares to a Candle Prov. 24. 20. The Candle of the wicked shall be put out The men of the world have seduced spirits they seed upon ashes Esa 44. 20. The curse of the Serpent is upon them upon their bellies they goe dust they eate while they feed upon their Swill and Huskes the spirits of the Saints finde bread in their fathers house their comforts are inward A good man is satisfied from himselfe Prov. 13. 14. hee hath a spring within in his own brest he need not shark abroad Godlinesse with contentment is great gaine saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 6. Godlinesse with selfe-sufficiency so the word signifies When Oecolampadius lay sick his friends askt him whether the light did not offend him hee clapt his hand on his brest and said Hic sat lucis Here is light enough this is soirituall comfort that which arises from a right frame of spirit Hence the word in Saint Iames chap. 5. 13 translated merry is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rectitude of the minde noting that all true mirth must come from the right frame of the minde As for other mirth I have said of laughter it is mad and of mirth What dost thou As when the humours of the body are all in a right temper there is a sweet sensitive delight in the body much more in the spirit when the faculties and the frame of it are in a right temper Spirituall comforts are such as are above the soule and therefore put an excellency upon it the comforts that are in things beneath the faculty cannot but bee meane and doe debase it How much beneath the excellency of the spirit of a man is the flesh of beasts the juyce of the Grape or any vaine sports or whatsoever may give content to the sensitive part but there are comforts that are above the soule spirituall heavenly divine things and these this spirit feeds upon they are comforts that the spirit rejoyces in before the Lord That a sweet and blessed joy indeed that is enjoyed before the Lord and when the Lord most present most enjoyed Other vaine sensuall spirits have joy but not before the
Lord the apprehension of the presence of the Lord damps all and therefore they desire not to have mention made of the Name of the Lord Amos 6. 10. So to rejoyce as to be able to blesse God for our joy so to rejoyce as to make the presence of God the chief matter of 〈…〉 joy indeed this 〈…〉 for the spirit to feed upon such comforts is a choyce blessing indeed They are spirituall comforts for they are administred to the soule by a speciall worke of the Holy Ghost it is the office that the Holy Ghost is designed to by the Father and the Sonne to bee the Comforter to bring in sutable comforts to the spirits of his setvants and surely the holy Ghost will not be failing in this worke of his as the Father and the Sonne have been full and glorious in all their workes so is the Holy Ghost in his and therefore such must be the comforts of the spirits of Gods servants as must manifest a glorious worke of the Holy Ghost in the discharge of that he is sent to doe by the Father and the Sonne No marvaile then though the Apostle called this joy unspeakeable and glorious Consider what a difference must there needes be betweene the comfort that a little meat and drinke and vaine sports afford and the comforts of the Holy Ghost which hee conveyes into the soules of the godly by the appointment of the Father and the Sonne Surely these must needs be soule-satisfying soule-ravishing consolations God is the God of all consolation therefore here are all consolations There is surely infinite good sweetnesse treasures of all excellency in God and what are they all for but to bee comforts for the spirits of his servants to rejoyce in these are not for common ordinary spirits they have meate the world knowes not of a stranger shall not intermeddle in these joyes men of ranke quality as they are in higher condition than others so their comforts and delights are much different from the delights of ordinary people As God hath raised the condition of his people higher than other men so he hath raised their comforts Childrens bread from the Lords owne table is provided for them while husks and swill serves worldly spirits Their comforts such as are the delights of God himselfe of Iesus Christ they partake with them in their joyes and surely such joyes as they come and joyne with them in must needs be sweet and glorious indeed I and my Father sayes Christ will come and sup with them and they shall sup with mee They have dainties which their spirits feed upon that are savoury even to the Father and the Lord Iesus Christ Surely the world mistakes who thinks the life of godlinesse not to be a comfortable life as if the most excellent and highest life should have the worst and lowest condition surely it is a grosse mistake to think that the spirits of the Saints should bee the most sad and melancholy spirits Gods Spirit witnesses of them that they are the children of the Light yea that they are light If they be sad it is because they meddle too much with things below it is when their spirits are down when they get up their spirits to heavenly things then they can rejoyce and sweetly delight themselves their hearts are inlarged their soules are filled with joy The Birds doe not use to sing when they are on the ground but when got up into the ayre when on the top of trees then they sing sweetly If they be sad and melancholy it is because they differ no more from the world than they doe because they retaine so much likenesse to your spirits stil in them were they freed altogether from the likenesse there remaines in them to your spirits they would never be sad more but their spirits would be filled with everlasting joy For the present they joy in things sutable to them and sutablenes is the thing that causes comfort in any creature If the Swine could expresse it self it would tell you that no such comfort as in Swill and Dung and wonders that any other creature can take comfort in any other thing like to this because this is the most sutable to their natures Thus worldly brutish spirits because these low vile things are so sutable to them they thinke there can bee no such comfort in any other thing these things they rejoyce in for they know no better but if their natures were changed their greatest comfort would be in the despising and vilifying such comforts S. Augustine before his conversion could not tell how hee should want those delights hee found so much contentment in but after when his nature was changed when hee had another spirit put into him then he sayes O how sweet is it to bee without those former sweet delights You thinke we have no comforts or at least not like yours know we can taste naturall comforts as well as you if the poyson of sinne bee not mixed with them and God gives us leave to reioyce in them God hath made these outward comforts for his setvants Surely God hath not made the flowers for Spiders and Frogges but rather for the Bee to suck honey out of them wee can taste another manner of sweetnesse in them than you can for we can taste the love of God through them we can taste them as the comforts that flow from that God in whom all comfort is we can taste them as fore-runners of eternall comforts A Bee can sucke her honey out of a flower that a Flie cannot doe But besides these there are other conveyances of comforts through which our spirits finde comforts to feed on namely the Ordinances where the Lord lets out himself in a blessed sweet manner to the soules of his servants and yet besides God communicates many comforts immediately 2 Thess 2. 16. Now our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe and GOD even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation Doe you thinke we have no comforts What did Iesus Christ come into the world suffer so many sorrowes and miseries die such a painfull death and all to bring us to a more sorrowfull estate than we had before Let us alone with our comforts wee envy not yours As Tertullian sayes in his Apologie against the Gentiles Wherein doe we offend you If we beleeve there are other pleasures if wee will not delight in our selves it is our own wrong wee reject those things that please you and you are not delighted with ours CAP. 11. Wherein the excellencie of this gracious spirit appeares THus they are men of another spirit and this is their excellencie A spirit thus differenced from the world where all this is found is an excellent spirit indeed Here is true worth all the bravery and glory of the world not worthy to be mentioned with this The soule is the excellencie of a man and this is the excellencie of the soule
a mans selfe is his soule Hence whereas in Matth. 16. 26. it is said What shall it profit a man if hee gaine the whole world and lose his soule it is said in another Evangelist Luke 9. 25. What shall it prosit a man if hee gain the world and lose himselfe Surely spirituall excellencies are the highest excellencies as First these spirituall excellencies have this propriety in them they make a man a better man wheresoever they are which bodily excellencies doe not nor all the riches nor honours in the world A man is not the better man because he hath money cloaths honours better dyet than others these are but outward things added to him no intrinsecall excellencies Secondly these spirituall excellencies are the beginnings of eternall lise the same life we shall have in heaven and hence the work of Gods Spirit in the soule is called The Earnest of the Spirit not a pawne but an Earnest for a pawne is to be returned againe but an Earnest is part of the whole summe that is to follow That which we have of Gods Spirit is part of the same glory we shall have fully in heaven it is not onely an evidence unto us that there is glory comming but it is a beginning of the glory the fulnesse whereof is to come afterward Such a spirit as hath this life lives a life farre above the common life of the world even the life of heaven the same life that Angels and Saints do live in heaven the life of those blessed spirirs there Wee mistake if wee thinke eternall life is only in heaven eternall life is in this world in the excellent frame of the spirits of Gods servants 1 Iohn 3. 15. Life is the chiefe excellency communicated to the Creature and the highest life the highest excellency There is more distance between the excellency of the meanest weakest godly man in the world and the most eminent man for parts common gifts onely than betweene the meanest and weakest godly soule and the most eminent glorified Saint in the highest heavens the weakest godly man excels him that is most eminent in common gifts more than the most eminent Saint in heaven excells him for the glorified Saint is onely higher in some degrees in the same excellency which in the principles yea and in some lustre the meanest Saint on earth hath hee hath that which will at last grow up to heavens glory but the distance betweene him and the man who onely hath the excellencies of parts learning common gifts it is essentiall All parts and common gifts in the world can never grow up to this Thirdly yea this is not onely the life of Angels the life of heaven but the life of God himselfe for so it is called by God himselfe Ephes 4. 11. Seneca sayes of Reason that it is part of the Divine Spirit in mans body it is much more true of Grace it enables the soul in some resemblance to come the nearest that can be to live as God lives to work as God works it represents God in his highest glory and therefore it is called The lynage of God This shewes more to the world what God is than all the frame of Gods creation besides It is not as an Image which hath only the dead lineaments drawne though there be some beauty in this but as the Image in a glasse which presents the motion as wel as the lineaments yea and not only so but as the sonne that beares the Image of the father and this represents the life or as if a glasse had life in it and so could enjoy the sweetnesse the good of that Image it represents unto it self This Spirit is such a living glasse of the blessed God that it enjoys the good and sweetnesse of that Image of God it hath in it Yea one degree higher it is called the very Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. as if it were nothing else but a sparkle of the Deity it selfe Seneca has a strong speech concerning mans soule What can we call the soule sayes he but God abiding in an humane bodie If a soule that hath only naturall excellencies comes so neare God how neare then comes it to him when raised by those spirituall and supernaturall excellencies we have spoke of Yea yet there is an higher degree than this It is called the glory of the Lord Rom. 〈◊〉 3. yea a higher degree than all the former the excellencie of this spirit is such as it is one spirit with God himselfe 2 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit It was the excellencie of Ioshua that hee had the spirit of Moses upon him of Elisha that hee had the spirit of Eliah what is it then to have the Spirit of God himselfe yea to be one spirit with him Put all these then together godlinesse by which this other spirit is raised higher than common spirits it is the life of God the Image of God the divine Nature the glory of God yea one spirit with God and is not here an high and glorious excellencie Fourthly this makes him wheresoever it is fit to glorifie God in the world and so the soule thus endued is not onely a glasse to represent a living glasse to enjoy the comfort of what it doth represent but as a glasse to reflect upō the face of God himself the glory of his own Image and that by a principle within it self Other glasses can reflect upon the thing whose image it hath if acted by a hand externally but this by an inward living principle and so gives God his glory actively which no other creature can doe but Angels and mens soules who have these spirituall excellencies in them Were it not for a few of these spirits what glory would God have in the world how little would he be minded or regarded But these are they who have high thoughts of God who have trembling frames before him who do reverence feare adore love cleave to trust in magnifie the Name of the great God in the world these sanctifie his Name in his worship they worship him as a God they worship him in spirit and truth and such worshippers God seeks Ioh. 4. 23. as these he highly esteemes of and much rejoyces in these take notice of him in all his creatures in the wayes of his providence and use the creatures for him from whom they are the glory of God is deare and pretious to these this is the excellencie of their spirits they are not sunke in the dregs of the world but being kept in some measure in their purity they worke up to God doe as it were naturally flow to God as to their Center Fiftly these are such as are fit to stand before the Lord to have converse and enjoy communion with him Dan. 1. 4. we reade that those that were judged fit to stand in the Kings pallace before King Nebuchadaezzar they must have no blemish they must
other succeeding Ages CAP. IV. The Reason why the men of the world and the Godly can never agree HEnce wee see the Reason why the men of the world and the godly can never agree they are men of another spirit Where there is difference of spirits there can be no agreement Water and oile cannot mingle no agreement betweene light and darknesse they looke at them as men whose lives are after another fashion That Apocryphall Authour in that book of Wisdome hath an excellent expression to this purpose Chap. 2. 12. he brings in wicked men saying of the godly He is cleane contrary to our doings he is grievous unto us to behold his life is not like other mens his wayes are of another fashion wee are esteemed of him as counterfeits he abstaineth from our wayes as from filthinesse he commendeth greatly the latter end of the just Verse 19. Let us examine him with rebukes and torments c. Let the relation and the ingagements be what they will yet so long as of different spirits they cannot close What a differeÌ„t spirit was there betweene Iacob and Esau who lay in the same wombe at the same time 〈◊〉 There may be outward peace fo 〈…〉 while betweene Gods people and some wicked men but inward closing of spirit there can never bee The spirit that is in you the world cannot receive sayes our Saviour Iohn 14. 17. Antipathies are irreconcileable no arguments no meanes ever used can cause an accord except there be a change in nature Nothing in the world puts mens spirits in such a distance as Grace when that comes and therefore where the most eminent grace there the greatest disagreement betweene them and wicked men How many wicked men cannot but be convinced of some godly who live with them that they are better than themselves that they are conscientious men whose Principles are truly godly and that they walke close to them they are not able to charge them with any ill carriage towards them they seeke to doe them all the good they can and yet their spirits cannot close but as they were wont to say in former times Caius Seius was a good man but hee was a Christian so now such are good men but they are too strict this enough to keepe a perpetuall breach betweene them CAP. V. Learne to have a right esteeme of such pretious spirited men IF the godly be of such excellent spirits learne wee then hence to have a right esteeme of them they surely are worthy of pretious account of most honorable esteem who are men of such excellent spirits Let them bee what they will in regard of their outward condition though never so meane and poore No matter what the Ring bee if the Pearle in it be pretious Many most pretious spirits have very mean outsides The Tabernacle was beaten Gold within but the out side covered with Badgers skines If the treasure be rich what though the vessell be earthen Surely these are the excellency of the earth the very light and beauty of the world the glory of Gods Creation they give a lustre to the places where they live to the families in which they are especially if they walke close and faithfully with God indeed manifesting the excellency of their spirits in their wayes so that when they are taken away the very places where they lived are darkened This other spirit of the godly makes a Iob scraping his soares on the dung-hill and a Ieremy sticking in the myrie dungeon more glorious than Kings and Princes sitting crowned upon their Thrones these are glorious within God is a Spirit and he looks on men to see what they are in their spirits and he esteems accordingly of them and so should we What doth brave cloathing what doth money what doe titles of honour raise the dignity what are these to the excellency of mans nature No certainly the excellency of man must bee that which mustmake the most excellent and noble part truly excellent which is the spirit of a man If a man would know the excellency of any thing as of a sword or of any other instrument he judges it not by the Hilt or the inferour part but by what excellency the principle part hath There is a spirit in man and the inspiration is from the Almighty a spirit inspired by the Almighty and beautified with his heavenly graces this innobles a man indeed it is the ornament of the hidden man of the heart the glorious cloathing of that which makes truely beautifull and glorious How did many of the Heathen highly prize those in whom they saw any naturall excellency of spirit differing from other men Those amongst the Romanes who were called the Curii and â—abritii they lived very poorly and meanly yet being perceived to have more excellent spirits than other men they were taken from their dinner of Turnips and Watercresses to lead the Romane Armie How much more should we honour men in whom we may see Divine spirits the lustre of heavenly graces shining in them But to shew more particularly that godly men are to be highly prized in regard of this other spirit as they have received a spirit differing from other men so they are to have esteem and honour differing from other men not to bee looked at as common men for First this difference of their spirits from other men is a certaine signe of the eternall love of God unto them it comes from the treasure of Gods everlasting love of that choyce speciall love of God from the bowels of Gods deepest mercies it is a most infallible argument that God hath set his heart upon them for good as for other favours a man may have them more than other men yet they are no such but may stand with Gods hatred and with his eternall wrath and this is a great difference betweene spirituall mercies and outward mercies which sets an exceeding high prize upon spirituall mercies aboue all others these are the distinguishing mercies which others are not But Secondly the spirit receiving these spirituall excellencies from Gods choyce everlasting love receives likewise all other mercies from the same fountaine though in their owne nature they bee common mercies yet where this other spirit is there they are received from another Fountaine than other men receive them which addes much sweetnesse and excellencie to the mercies we have they come as fruits of the common bounty and generall goodnesse of God to ordinary men but to men thus differenced from others they come out the spring of the rich treasures of Gods grace tending to the furtherance of eternall mercies Thirdly The Lord hath an especiall eye upon and delight to dwell with these who are of choice and excellent spirits Hee will dwell with the contrite heart to revive the spirit of the humble Esay 57-15 Hee hath a speciall care of these spirits that they doe not faile before him hee puts under his hand to support comfort revive
them When wee beate ordinary spices we heed not so much every dust but some flies out and falls on the ground But if Bezar-stone or some speciall choice costly spice bee beaten then there is care had of every dust that the least bee not lost So though God may afflict the choicest spirits of his servants yet hee is very carefull that their spirits faile not before him as for other common ordinary spirits hee cares not much to let them faile and sinke in their affliction but this is the mercifull care of God over those spirits whom he highly esteems of Fourthly The excellencies of this spirit are eternall excellencies they shall abide for ever not vanish not be taken away as common gifts and other mercies shall as Ezech. 46. 17. If a Prince give of his inheritance to one of his servants it is to bee his but for a time and to returne unto the Prince againe but his inheritance shall be to his sonnes for them for ever So when God gives any thing to common men who are but his servants at best it must returne againe GOD will call for all his mercies from them againe but these soule-mercies of his children shall be their inheritance for ever Hence God calls his Church an eternall Excellency Esay 60. 15. But fifthly and principally these other spirits are most honourable creatures indeed because they are reserved for other mercies GOD gives common mercies to common spirits but hee reserves his choice mercies for choice spirits With the pure thou wilt shew thy selfe pure saith David in the 2 Sam. 22. 27. The words are with the choice thou wilt shew thy selfe choice Abraham gave Ishmael and Hagar a bottle of water and a few raisins and sent them away but the inheritance was reserved for Isaac So God gives to other men a few ordinary mercies but his glorious mercies hee reserves for these peculiar ones and as it is said of Iehosaphat 2 Chron. 21. 3. he gave his other sonnes great gifts of silver gold precious things fenced Cities but the Kingdome he gave to Iehoram because he was the first borne So God gives these outward mercies to other men but the mercies of his Kingdome are reserved for these men of choice spirits who are the first borne the chiefe and most excellent of all Gods creatures in this world Now we are the sonnes of God saith S. Iohn but it appeares not what wee shall bee there is more to come hereafter they have not spirits that will be satisfied with the things of this world and therefore are not as ordinary men who have their portion in the things of this world God delights to fill the capacities of all his creatures with sutable good now these other spirits by that choice excellency of them are made capable of farre higher mercies than the world can afford they must be the good things of another world that can fill them and those are reserved for them The bodies of the Saints because they are joyned to such pretious soules shall be like the glory of the Sunne yea excell in glory How glorious then shall their souls be for whose sake their bodies shall bee thus glorious Wee look upon great heires who have great inheritances to come with high esteeme though they have little for the present These are the great heires of heaven Coheires with Iesus Christ himselfe these they are who are delivered from the wrath to come and to be made partakers of the glory that is to be revealed The Lord gives them no great matters in comparison now because hee hath reserved so much for them afterwards As nature is not very exquisite in her worke in inferiour things where she intends some higher excellency So the God of Nature intending such high and glorious things hereafter for his Saints doth no so much regard to give them these inferiour things for the present But what are those reserved mercies you speake of that God hath for these Not entending a Treatise of that glory that God hath for his choice ones onely take these five generals First These mercies are prepared mercies prepared before the foundations of the world were laid and againe prepared by Iesus Christ who is gone before to heaven to that end as hee tels us himselfe To prepare Mansions for us Iohn 14. 1. Now this is spoken after the manner of men who do not use to make long and great preparations but for some great worke in hand Surely these mercies must needs be great which the wisedome power and mercy of God hath been from all eternity preparing Secondly They are other mercies than Adam than Man-kinde should have had than they could have attained unto if he had stood in his innocencie Man indeed should then have beene for ever happy but not according to that height of happinesse and glory that now is provided for those who are the beloved of the Lord. Thirdly These reserved mercies are such as must set out Gods Magnanimity that God may shew to Angels and all his creatures what his infinite wisdome power and goodnesse can do for poore creatures to raise their conditions to a height of glory surely that glory must needs be high that is raised for that end If a King should doe any thing of purpose to shew his magnificence it must needs be some great thing it is not a common ordinary thing that can set forth the Magnificence of a King much lesse that can set forth the Magnificence of the great God When Ahasbuerus would make a feast and Nebuchadnezzar would build a Pallace to shew to their people their greatnesse they were great things so surely here that which must shew the greatnesse of the great God must needs be great indeed Fourthly These mercies must be such as may shew to Angels and all the world how infinitly well pleased God the Father is with the obedience of his Sonne in giving himself up to death for the purchase of mercy Surely that mercy thus purchased must needs be great If there had beene no higher good for man but to eat and drink and to have pleasure to the flesh certainly Christ would never have died to have purchased this but there were higher things then these which Christ look'd at these are but poore things for God to shew by them how infinitely he is well pleased with the obedience of his sonne to the death that which must demonstrate this cannot but bee very great what ever it bee and that yea the fulnesse of that is the mercy reserved for these choice ones Fiftly Other mercies in some respect higher than the very blessed Angels themselves have For 1 Mans nature is more highly advanced than theirs being hypostatically united to the Divine Nature 2 The righteousnesse whereby the Saints come to glory is a higher righteousnesse a more excellent righteousnesse than that of the Angels though theirs be perfect in its kinde theirs is the righteousnesse but of
meere creatures but the righteousnesse of the Saints is the righteousnesse of that Person which is both God and man 3 The sonneship of the Saints is founded in a higher right then that of the Angels namely in the Sonneship of the second Person in Trinity 4 They are the members of Jesus Christ and so in a nearer union with him then any other creature 5 They are the Spouse of the Lambe whereas the Angels are but ministring spirits as the servants of the Bridegroome but the Saints are the Bride Surely then the mercies reserved for these choice spirits are choice and glorious not onely other mercies then others have or they themselves have now but other mercies then they are able to imagine these therefore wee are to looke upon as most blessed and honourable creatures CAP. VI. A Rebuke to this vile world who have vile conceits of this spirit and abusemen of such excellent spirits IF the spirits of godly men bee thus pretious how vile then is this base world which hath such irrationall absurd conceits of this spirit and which so scornes and abuses men of such excellent spirits There are two branches of this use In the first the vile conceits that men of this world have of this spirit are rebuked For 1 they thinke godlinesse befooles men 2 They thinke it makes them cowards to bee men of no metall and valour poore spirited men 3 They thinke this spirit to bee a turbulent spirit as Ahab said of Elijah Art thou hee that troubles Irael Luther was called the trumpet of rebellion 4 And lastly They thinke them to be factious spirits For the first of these What more ordinary than to cast this aspersion upon Godlinesse that it makes men to be dull heavie stupid fooles not sit for the great and high things of the world and therefore they labour to stifle any beginnings of godlinesse in their children or in any neare to them for feare it should â—inder their parts and take away the quicknesse of their wits and bravenesse of their spirits Except you think that to be the only bravenesse of spirit to venture upon any thing that may further your owne ends not to feare sinne nor the displeasure of an infinite God to let out your hearts to the utmost to the satisfying your owne desires to examine nothing by rule but to doe whatsoever is good in your owne eyes to rejoyce in the wayes of sin and to blesse your selfe in the proud swellings of your owne heart to be able to scorne at conscience humiliation for sinne strictnesse in Gods wayes as too meane a thing for men of such qualitie of such birth as you are of such estates hopes preferments and designes as you have things fitter for poor snakes meaner people contemptible silly soules to looke after If this be the excellency of your spirits then godlinesse debases them indeed yea it debases them as low as hell it selfe it casts shame in the faces of and breaks in pieces such haughty swoln spirits as these are it brings them down to lie at Gods feet as poore contemptible creatures in their own eyes loathing and abhorring themselves as there is infinite cause they should and judging themselves worthy to bee destroyed but as for any true naturall excellency of spirit godlinesse doth not quench it but raises it and beautifies it and perfects it It is either grosse ignorance or desperate malice that causes these conceits of the worke of godlinesse in the spirits of men yea there is much blasphemy in them What shall the worke of Gods grace wherein the glory of God consists which is the life of God the Image of God the Divine Nature as hath been shewne shall it be the debasing the besotting the befooling of mens spirits What doth holinesse that makes God glorious make man contemptible and vile doth that which makes God so honourable in the eies of the blessed Angels and Saints make man a sott and a foole in the eyes of men Oh! that ever there should bee such malice in the hearts of men against the grace of God ever to have such vile conceits of it pray if it be possible that this thought of thy hart may be forgiven thee Did not malice blind men they might see that the Lord hath had and still hath some of his Saints as emineÌ„t in any outward true excellency as any in the world as great Schollers as brave Courtiers as any living as deepe in policie as profound in learning as compleat every way as any whosoever Who more eminent in learning than Moses who was learned in all the learning of the Aegyptians who ever had a higher straine of eloquence than Esay who ever more profound than S. Paul And in later times yea even in our dayes the Church hath not wanted worthy and glorious lights who have beene exceedingly eminent in all that naturall excellency could make them even their enemies being Judges What braver Courtiers ever lived than Ioseph Nehemiah and Daniel Could godlinesse in the power and life of it in the strictnesse of it stand with bravenesse of spirit naturall excellencies then and can it not do so now Though God choseth oft-times the poore in the world to bee rich in faith the foolish things in the world to confound the wise and weake things of the world to confound the strong and base things and things despised c. 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. Yet when men are godly their parts are not by their godlines debased but raised many poore weake men who before were of mean naturall abilities yet put them now upon spirituall things and what strength of parts doe they shew in prayer in conference about the mysteries of God in discerning the subtilities and wiles of Satan in finding out the corruptions of their owne hearts in wisely ordering their affaires for God and the furtherance of their owne eternall good Wise in the right choice of the highest end and prudent in the right disposing of the best meanes tending thereunto These things are not the works of fooles of poore silly simple men they require quicknesse of understanding depth of judgement There are five reasons why godlines must needs raise a mans parts 1 Because it purges from many lusts that darken and besot men in their parts 2 It imployes men in conversing with high spirituall and heavenly things 3 It makes men serious and so strengthens their judgements in the apprehension of things 4 It makes men make conscience to improve their time in the use of all meanes and helps they can to enable and fit themselves for service Fifthly it causeth to imploy their parts faithfully and so they come to have the blessing of God upon them for the encrease of them according to his promise To him that hath it shall bee given Againe Godlinesse doth not make men cowards surely it hinders not spirituall valour who ever were greater souldiers more eminent in true valour and fortitude then Ioshua
who know not wherein true worth and excellency consists Matth. 5. 12. Christ telling his Disciples how ill the world would use them he tels them they have as good use from it as the Prophets had before them How was Micaiah a man of a very sweet and excellent spirit contumeliously used hee was strucke on the mouth shut up in prison to be fed with water bread yea with the water and bread of affliction while 430 false Prophets most base spirited men were fed delicately at Iesabels table How was Ieremiah used hee was thrown into the dungeon stuck up almost to the eares in the myre the Word of the Lord was made a reproach unto him daily David before them a man in whom Gods soule delighted yet he complaines of himselfe that he was a reproach of men and despised of the people all that saw him laughed him to scorne they shot out the lip and shook their head at him Psal 22. 6 7. and Iob before him he was made a by-word of the people and as a Tabret unto them as he sayes of himselfe Chap. 17. 6. The same use had the blessed Apostles who were filled with the Spirit of God none more scorned persecuted cōtemned than they The most worthy and famous men in the Primitive times found no better use than these It were infinite to instance in particulars Ignatius Polycarpus Athanasius Chrysostome Basil and the rest reproached banished from their people persecuted and exceedingly contumeliously used In later times the more excellent the spirits of men were the worse use did they ever finde from the world Wee might instance in Wickliffe Hus Luther Zwinglius Musculus c. I cannot passe by that sad example of Musculus who was a man of as brave a spirit as any lived in his time and a very learned and godly man yet after he had much laboured in the work of the Lord in his publike Ministery was so ill used of the world that he was faine to get into a Weavers house and learne to weave that by it he might get himselfe and his family bread and within a while he was accounted unworthy of that preferment and was thrust out of the house by his Master the Weaver and then was forced to goe to the common ditch of the Town and worke with his spade to get his living Whose heart bleeds not to heare of these former examples and divers others men of most pretious spirits thus ill used by this unworthy world even such in whom Christ rejoyces that ever he shed his blood for them Esay 53. 11. such as hee will glory in before his Father and the blessed Angels yet thus are they abused by this wicked world The more eminently the spirit of Christ appeares in any the more is the rage of evill men against them As it is reported of Tygers that they rage when they smell the fragrancy of Spices the fragrancy of the Graces of Gods spirit in his people which are delightfull to God his Saints puts wicked men into a rage when as base spirited men have the world smile on them according to their hearts desire Oh the providence of God who suffers such indignities to bee offered to his most pretious and choice servants but by this meanes the excellency of their spirits appears in greater brightnes their graces shine in the more cleare lustre All Gods servants have his spirit in them but when any of them suffer reproach and ill use of the world then the Spirit of God and glory rests on them then the glorious Spirit of God is upon thē according to the promise of God unto them 1 Pèt. 4. 14. and they may in part perceive even while they are using them ill that they are men not of common not of ordinary spirits who are thus ill used by them they may see in that meeknesse that patience that humility selfe-denyall faith holy carriage requiting good for evill praying for doing all the good they can to those who use them worst that constancy spirituall chearfulnesse sweet contentednesse that holy boldnesse humble courage heavenly magnanimity that it is a wonder their conscience should not misgive them even while they are abusing of them that their conscience doth not tell them Surely these men we doe mistake in they are led by other principles than we know of they have something within that doth support them wee understand not It is a wonder men are not afraid to abuse them as they doe As Num. 1. 2. 8. The Lord said to Miriam and Aaron concerning Moses when they spoke against him Were you not afraid to speake against my servant Moses The words are very emphaticall in the Hebrew they are thus Were yee not afraid to speak against my servant against Moses Were hee onely my servant though he were not Moses were you not afraid but when my servant and Moses that is such an eminent servant of mine in whom so much of my Spirit appeared were you not afraid to speak against him Certainly the Lord will not alwayes suffer pretious choice-spirited men to be trampled under feet he lookes upō them in their lowest estate as his Jewels even while they are in the dirt but time wil come when he will make up his Jewels as Malac. 3. 17. and then there shall be seene a difference between the righteous and the wicked betweene him that serveth God and him that serveth him not verse 18. God will owne the excellency of the spirits of his servants to be the Image of himselfe and what confusion will this be to the ungodly of the world when the Lord before men and Angels shall own that for the lustre and beauty of his owne excellency which they when time was made matter of their scorn objects of their hatred when God shall come to them as Gideon to Zeba and Zalmana Iudges 8. 18. What manner of men were they sayes Gideon to them whom ye slew at Tabor They answered As thou art so were they each one resembled the Children of a King Then hee said They were my brethren the sonnes of my mother as the Lord liveth if you had saved them alive I would not have slaine you but now he sayes to Iether his first borne Vp and slay them So shall God hereafter say to the men of the world What were those men and what did they whom yee so hated and abused what were they some vile-spirited men how did they carry themselves Your consciences shall be forced then to answer O Lord we must confesse They were those who kept themselves from the common pollutions of the world they lived strictly in their wayes they walked unblameable in their course they were very forward in the duties of the worship and service of God The Lord shall then answer What these men they were my Saints this was my holinesse my image my glory these were not common ordinary men these were my choice ones men pretious in my eyes separated
from the common sort of the world for my praise If you had loved them prized them and honoured them as the choice of the earth if if you had followed their example I had not slain you but now you shall perish everlastingly CAP VII No dishonor to be singular Seven notes to discover that godly mens differing from other men proceeds not from proud humourous singularity but from the choicenesse and excellencie of their spirits IF godly men be men of another spirit and this be their commendation why then should any account it to be a dishonour to be singular from the world Singularity is cast upon Gods servants as their disgrace but certainly it is their glory they are singular and their wayes are singular it is true and they avouch it they rejoyce in it and blesse God for it it is impossible but that it should be so for they are of another spirit a peculiar people separated from the world set apart for God their separation is a wonderfull separation Exod. 33. 16. So shall we bee separated sayes Moses I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth the word is in the Originall We shall be wonderfully separated No marvell then though their singularity bee such as the world who knowes not their principles wonder at it Their wayes are different from other men I that is true indeed who can thinke otherwise Their principles their estates their dignites their hopes are raised higher then other mens Would Saul have been offended if his former acquaintance had complained Oh now Saul hee mindes other things goes on in other waies lives after another fashion then we doe I that is true indeed for his condition is altered his estate is raised higher then yours he hath an other spirit To complaine of Gods servants that they are singular from others is all one as if you should complaine of Pearles that they are more glistering than dirt and gravell Their way their lives are singular Why how would you have them live would you have them live according to the common course of the world they cannot for they have not received the spirit of the world but another spirit When the Spirit of God would set out the greatest misery of men when they are the children of wrath without God in the world without hope it is that they lived according to the common course of the world Ephes 2. 2. And those two are joyned together living according to the common couse of the world and according to that spirit that rules in the children of disobedience So long as they were acted by that spirit they did live so but now there is another spirit that they are acted by and would you have them live so still as they did before Certainly it cannot be You cry out of dissimulation and that justly But what is dissimulation if this be not where there is not a sutablenesse between the inward principles the inward frame and disposition of the spirit and the outward actions Now if Gods people should not live singular lives certainly their outward actions would not be agreeable to the inward principles frames and dispositions of their spirits for they are singular differing from other mens As there may be dissembling for a man to seeme better than he is so there may be dissembling to seeme worse than we are Is there not as much evill in a life differing from the spirit as in a spirit differing from the life If a man seemes to be godly and is not it is an argument the man is vile who will thus play the hypocrite but it is a commendation to godlinesse that men will account the very seeming of it to be honourable but if a man hath godlinesse in his heart and yet his life be no other than other mens this would argue that a man were ashamed of godlinesse it selfe here godlinesse it selfe would suffer as if it were such a dishonourable thing as would bring shame to a man if it did appeare as if though indeed it must be reserved in the heart for necessity sake yet it must be kept downe not suffered to appeare in the life for feare it be a disgrace to men Is not here then as great an evill in this way of dissimulation as in the other Better all the men of the world had shame cast upon them than that godlinesse should have the least staine Surely then where the spirits of men be other spirits singular choice spirits their lives ought and must needs be other lives singular from other men Their conscience witnesse to them that their spirits are changed that they are other from that they were yea and witnesses for them that their lives are other lives singular from other men and in this witnesse their soules rejoyce But is there not a proud phantasticall singularity may not pride sullennesse and fancie carry men on in singular wayes differing from other men conceiting themselves to be wiser than others loving to satisfie some odde humours of their own If it were any choicenesse or excellency of their spirits it were another matter we would not speake against them but it is this proud hypocriticall humorous singularity we speake against To this I answer If you indeed should do as they doe if you should live after a different manner from the common course of the world having no other principles than those you have it would certainly bee singularity pride hypocrisie and humour in you and thus your consciences would tell you and that because you had not principles to carry you out in this way you have not spirits sutable to it and you judging of others by that you seele in your selves this makes you to thinke the different wayes of Gods servants is onely from pride and humourous singularity yea and they themselves know that there was a time indeede where in if they should have done as now they doe it would have beene no other in them then that you now accuse them of namely when their spirits were as other mens spirits are but now they know they have other principles other qualifications of spirit then formerly they had But surely you doe not thinke indeed that their different lives doe come from proud and humourous singularitie for if you did why doe your consciences so well approve of them when you lie on your sicke beds when you apprehend your selves going before the great God then you could wish it were with you as it is with them But what say you if you thought it were not from this pride and conceitednesse you speake of then you would thinke it were well then you would joyne in justifying of them if you were sure it were from a choyce excellent spirit in them Well then let Gods servants rejoyce in this that they know it is not from pride that it is not from humour that they run not into excesse of riot as others doe but from the worke of
a great and sore evill Ninthly the eyes of many are upon you the Name of God the cause of God is engaged in you Tenthly you are appointed by God to be the Judges of other men 1 Cor. 6. 2. Doe you not know that the Saints shall judge the world yea Verse 3. Know you not that wee shall judge the Angels God will bring your lives and wayes before all the world to judge the world by and therefore they had need to bee very exact and to have something in them more than ordinary It is a shamefull way of reasoning for any man to reason for sinne by examples as it like a theese he would faine scape in the crowd but much more shamefull is it that any godly man should bee found to argue for sinne this way for this is an aggravation of sinne not a lessening of it as if I should say God hath dishonour by such and such and therefore why may he not have some more by me Sinne is a striking at God and every sinner strikes at him and thou commest running for thy stroake too What wilt thou have thy blow also at him and what thou for whom the Lord hath done such great things as Caesar said to Brutus when in the Senate-house tho Senators had wounded him with many sore wounds and Brutus hee comes also for his stroake whereupon Caesar lookes on him and sayes to him What and thou my sonne Brutus too Conceive as if thou sawest the Lord looking on thee and saying thus to thee when thou ventrest upon any sinfull way upon the example of others But in what particulars should we manifest this choicenes of our spirits in wayes differing from others Answ In these especially 1 In selfe deniall shew that you can deny your opiniōs your desires your wills though you have a strong mind to a thing though you have fit opportunities to enjoy your desires yet if you see God may have more honor any other way you can freely readily without disturbance without vexing yeeld and doe not deceive your selves in this be easily convinced in particulars which are for God against your selves the excellency of a mans spirit is much seen in this Many conceit an excellency of spirit to bee in selfe-willednesse in being passionate froward and boisterous Certainly this comes from weaknes of spirit no excellency is required for this every foole can bee thus but that is excellency to bee able to ovērcome to rule ones spirit to have command of ones spirit to subdue and bring in order passions and violent stirrings of spirits this is pretious and honourable in the eyes of God and man this is a well tempered spirit indeed that can be strong zealous full of courage unyeeldable in the cause of God and the Church but meeke quiet yeeldable selfedeniable in its own cause those who usually are the most boisterous and passionate for themselves are the poorest spirited men and the most basely yeelding when it comes to the cause of God 2 Shew the excellency of your spirits enabling you to doe that which others cannot doe by loving your enemies praying for them doing them all the good you can this is the speciall thing our Saviour commands to his Disciples in that 5. Mat. when he would have them doe more than others doe 3 Feare the least sinne more than the greatest suffering Morality raises the spirit highest next to Grace and yet a meere morall man accounts it foolishnes to be so nice as not to yeeld in little things for the avoyding of great sufferings but a gracious spirit thinks the least truth of God worthy to bee witnessed to by the losse of his dearest comforts and suffering the greatest evils yea he accounts suffering for small things the most honourable sufferings of all as testifying the greatest love as Davids Worthies shewed their dearest love to him in ventring their lives to get him a little water 4 Prize opportunities of service more than al outward contentments in the world a gracious heart thinks it honor enough that Gods imploies it he is not onely willing to goe on in his worke though outward contentments come not in but increase of service for God hee esteemes so great a good as hee accounts the want of outward things made up in it Though I get not so much by that I doe as others yet I blesse God I can goe on in my worke as chearefully as others for contentment is made up to mee in this that God will imploy mee in his service more than others 5 Make conscience of time this felv doe few regard the fillings up of their time their spirits having no excellencie in them they cannot make use of their time in any worthy employments for God to themselves or others but a man of an excellent spirit knows how to employ himself in things that are excellent and therfore prizes the time he hath to worke in and is conscientious in the spending of it 6 Make conscience of thoughts and secret workings of heart of secret sinnes to avoid them and secret duties to performe them a man that hath a pretious spirit doth not like to have it runne wast in extravagant thoughts and affections the thoughts of his minde are pretious the affections of his heart are pretious as his spirit is pretious Wee let water runne wast because wee put no price upon it we think it little worth and therefore we let it run to no use but if it were some pretious liquor some pretious oyle compounded of deare ingredients wee would not doe so but would be carefull to save every drop this is a pretious spirited man indeed who knowes how to lay out his thoughts and his affections at the best advantage and will not lavish them our to no purpose 7 Make conscience of the manner of performing holy duties as well as of the doing of them and looke after them what becomes of them when they are done this is not according to the common spirits of the world who thinke to put off God with flat poore and dead services A gracious spirit hath much of the excellency of his spirit acting in holy duties and therefore hee doth much mind them and lookes much after them but others have little of their spirits acting in them and therfore they are little regarded little looked after by them 8 Rejoyce in the good of others though it eclipses thy light though it makes thy parts thy abilities thy excellencies dimmer in the eyes of others were it not for the eminency of some above thee thy parts perhaps would shine bright and bee of high esteeme yet to rejoyce in this from the heart from the soule to blesse God for his gifts and graces in others that his Name may be glorified more by others than I can glorifie it my selfe to bee able truly to say Though I can do little yet blessed be God there are some who can doe more for God than
I and in this I doe and will rejoyce this is indeed to be able to doe much more than others this shewes a great eminencie of spirit All the parts gifts abilities that any man in the world hath where this is not come farre short of this excellencie to be able to doe this is more than to bee able to â—xcell others in any excellencie whatsoever if this bee wanting If God hath given thee this hee hath given thee that which is a thousand times more worth than strong parts and abilities in which thou might'st have been farre more eminent than thou now art or than others are 9 If thou wilt shew the excellency of this spirit in some choyce thing then labour to keep the heart low in prosperitie and man heavenly cheerefulnesse in adversitie not only contented but joyfull in a quiet sweet delightfull frame In the greatest difficulties and straits when you are put upon hard things go on in your way with what strength you can without vexing distracting thoughts let your spirits bee stayed on God quietly meekly committing your selves and cause to him as the people of God in the 26. Esay 8. They professe their willingnes in all quietnesse to wait upon God in the wayes of his judgements and they give the reason because the desire of their soule is to his Name and to the remembrance of him If in the times of our troubles the desires of our soules were to Gods Name and to the remembrance of him and not unto our own names and to the remembrance of our selves we should not have such sinking discouraged disquiet vexing spirits as we have The spirits of most men if any difficult thing befall them they are presently in a hurry so disquiet and tumultuous that all the peace and sweetnesse of them is lost and they hinder themselves exceedingly both in the businesse they are about adding much to the difficulty of it and in all other businesses that concerne them This notes much distemper of spirit like distempered flesh of a mans body if it be but toucht with the finger or the least aire come to it it presently festers and ranekies 10 Be more carefull to know the fountain from whence all your mercies come to have a sanctified use of them when you enjoy them than to have the possession of them or delight in them An ordinary spirit lookes at nothing but only to have the thing it desires is not solicitous about the fountaine from whence they spring nor carefull to attaine any sanctified end to which they tend looks not at them as from God neither uses them for GOD but where all these are here is the work of a choice pretious spirit indeed the peculiar work of it this is to do more than others and thus Gods servants must doe or else they can never live convincing lives While Pharaoh and his Magicians saw that Moses did no more than they could doe they were not convinced but when Moses did that which they could not doo then they acknowledged the finger of God So it is here while wicked men see those that are religious doe onely such things as they could doe if they would as going to Sermons speaking of good things they are never convinced by them but when they fee them do some thing which their consciences tell them they cannot do then they are forced to acknowledge that there is a reall excellencie in godlinesse which they have not as Christ said once If I had not done those things that no man did they had not had sinne Ioh. 15. 24. It aggravated the sinne of the Jewes that they did not beleeve in Christ notwithstanding he did those works amongst them that no man ever did So if godly men did manifest the choicenesse of their spirits amongst the men of the world in doing such as none other can doe this if it did not convert them and bring them in love with Gods wayes it would certainly much aggravate their sinne and increase their condemnation It is therfore a most shamefull thing that those who make a great shew and profession of godlinesse should in their lives be no more than equall unto yea be lower than others who are meerly Morall lower than a Socrates than a Fabritius than others of the Heathen How many civill morall men goâ— beyond them who would be taken for godly they are more meeke and patient more courteous more faithfull and trusty more liberall and helpfull more ingenuous and candid Many servants who would seeme godly are not so obedient so diligent so humble and submissive so conscionable in their worke as others whom they judge meerly carnall So many wives not behaving themselves with that quietnesse respectivenesse love and obedience to their husbands as others whom they themselves judge to be onely civill In like manner many husbands and masters of families who professe godlinesse yet in their houses are more froward more dogged more churlish cruell and bitter to wife and servants than others whom they esteeme onely carnall So many children more stout to their parents and parents more negligent in the care they ought to have of their children than others What a shame is it saies S. Hierom that faith should not be able to doe that that infidelity hath done What not better fruit in the garden in the vineyard of the Lord then in the wildernesse What not better fruit grow upon the tree of life than upon the root of nature Where lies the power of godlinesse If it carries not men beyond these what is it to live godly in Christ Jesus in the vertue in the power and life of Christ Jesus if it doth not enable to go beyond others There needs no such vertue power life of Christ Jesus to enable one to dof that which others can doe What is godlinesse but a notion but a conceit that it will not carry men beyond the light of nature CAP. XI An Exhortation to labour to get this excellent spirit IT is an use of Exhortation let us labour to get this other spirit Every one desires to be eminent to be above others in estate in esteeme in naturall excellencies if we would faine be eminent let us labour to be eminent in spirituall blessings in getting our souls endued with higher spirituall excellencies than others have It is coÌ„mendable to strive to be as eminent here as we can especially you whom God hath raised higher than your brethren in other things in the Nobility of your births the eminency of your places the greatnesse of your estates Doe you labour to be as high above others in the excellencies of your spirits that as your birth is other your places other your estate other than coÌ„mon mens so your spirits may be other spirits What an excellent thing is it to have a spirit sutable to ones condition A great mind becomes a great fortune sayes Seneca He means greatnes of minde in the exercise of vertue
which only gives a true greatnesse to the mind I know this is a powerfull argument with you to make grace lovely desirable in your eies to tell you that it will raise your spirits that it will put beauty and glory upon them that it will adde greatnesse and excellency to them The world is much for brave and Noble spirits we desire your spirits may be so onely mistake not the true Noblenesse the true excellencie of spirit certainly it is inthat which may bring you nearest to God the highest excellencie You can no way be so honourable as by the raising of your spirits by grace Wisdome with an inheritance is good wisedome with birth and eminency of place is a great blessing indeed to be rich in goods and rich in goodnesse is a happy connexion You would account it a great disgrace not to have education somewhat sutable to your birth and qualitie what can be said more dishonourable of a man than this He hath left him indeed a great estate and is of a great house but he hath no breeding What is a competent measure of knowledge in tongues and Arts and other things sutable to your births and estates accounted a beauty and ornament to them and is not grace and godlinesse much more Doe these adde an excellencie to your quality and put an honour upon your dignities and will not godlinesse much more Shall Sea and Land be travelled over with much hazard soule-hazard and bodilyhazard with great expence of estate to get knowledge of fashions and a Gentile behaviour because you thinke they will be Ornaments to your great estates you are borne to and shall no labour be undertaken to get godlinesse to get your spirits raised by grace as an ornament to the greatnesse of your birth and eminencie of your estate How is this to sleight the very glory of God himselfe and to contemne the highest dignity men or Angels are capable of Are any places so fit for wisedome as the high places of the City Prov. 9. 1 3. Wisdome hath builded her house shee hath hewen out her seven Pillars she cryeth upon the highest places of the City How honourable doth godlinesse make those whose birth whose place is honorable in the eyes of God his Saints blessed Angels and in the consciences of all How well doth grace suite with the highest dignity as a bright shining Diamond in a golden Ring as the world is drawn more conspicuous and full in a large Mappe than in a small so the beauty and excellency of grace and godlinesse appeares more conspicuous and glorious in great men and honourable than in those who are of a meaner ranke First you had need of other spirits more need than others for the improvement of those great mercies that you have above others As some fowle that have great wings yet can flie but little so many men have great estates but not having spirits to improve them they are of little use Know that your estates are either mercies or miseries blessings or cursings to you according as you have hearts to improve them if they be improved for God as advantages to honour God by to doe good withall they are then great blessings indeed and that is as great an argument of the truth of grace as any to be as earnest with God for an heart to improve an estate or a place of dignitie for God as to rejoyce that you have such an estate for your selves or that you are in such an eminent place whereby you may get honour to your selves Where God gives not a more excellent spirit than others as well as an higher condition than others there an eminent estate is made but as fewell for a nourisher and maintainer of all manner of evill to afford opportunities for acting of sinne and is not this the excellencie that many account to be in their estates in that it is higher than others in that they can have their wils and satisfie their lusts more than others Secondly you had need of other spirits for the improving of the large opportunities of service for God and his Church that you have more than others these are as great blessings as your estates or any dignities you have above others God betrusts you with much in giving you such large opportunities of service for the honour of his great Name If your birth be high your estates high and your spirits indued with excellencie from on high how fit then are you to be used by God in high and honourable services Hence the conversion of a great man is of exceeding great consequence whereupon Saint Paul was so loath to lose the Conversion of the Deputy Sergius Paulus who began to listen to his preaching of whom we reade Acts 13. verse 7. and so on Therefore when Elymas withstood him in this work seeking to turne away the Deputie from the Faith the spirit of S. Paul rose against him with much indignation and being filled with the Holy Ghost hee set his eyes on him and said O full of all subtilty and all mischiefe thou childe of the devill thou enemy of righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt bee blind As if S. Paul should have said What will you hinder me in such a great work as this wherein God may have so much honour in the conversion of this Noble-man this man of publike and eminent place this indeed is to be full of all mischiefe to bee an enemie of all righteousnesse Thus you see how his spirit was stirred when he was put in feare of being hindred in such a notable prize as this As a man when likely to have a great draught there comes in one and disturbs him and is like to hinder him of it Surely S. Paul saw that it was a wonderfull great blessing to the Church to have great men to be brought in to the obedience of the faith and to be added to it And further it is observed that God going along with S. Paul and finishing the work of the conversion of this great man that upon this Saint Paul had his name Paul given him being changed from Saul and called Paulus from that notable worke of the conversion of this Paulus Sergius As many great Captains amongst the Heathen were wont to have their names changed upon their successe in some noble enterprize and great victories as Scipio Africanus hee was called Africanus from his Conquest of Africa 3 You who are in high and eminent dignities you are the earnest prayers of Gods servants in all places that God would raise you up with truely noble excellent and gracious spirits that you may bee instruments of his glory How blessed you if God fulfils the prayers of his servants upon you What great pity is it that such blessed opportunities of service of honouring God themselves and families as you have should be
hath raised above others in the excellencies of your parts and many excellent endowments of learning you have who are men of larger understandings of higher apprehensions than others and can looke upon ordinary men as low and meane in respect of the difference between your parts and theirs Do you labour yet to raise your spirits higher by grace and godlinesse that as you differ from them in naturall excellencies so you may differ from them much more in spirituall and divine How eminent would you be in grace if those parts and abilities of learning you have were sanctified for God What blessed instruments might you be of glory to God of comfort and encouragement to his people but otherwise your parts and gifts are poisoned a sinfull wicked heart will poison all It may be said of many as it was of Pope Eugenius the second he was a man of great Learning and great Eloquence with a mixture of great hypocrisie If it may bee thus said of any He is a man indeed of excellent parts very learned of strong abilities but he hath a corrupt spirit he is a man of a corrupt minde surely these parts are all poisoned no marvell then though such men swell so much by reason of them Parts unsanctified doe exceedingly enlarge mens spirits to be so much the more capable of spirituall wickednesse more than others of meaner and lower parts can be your parts will aggravate all your sinnes and increase your damnation It is a lamentable thing that such excellent parts and abilities as many have which might be of so great use for God and his Church yet that they should vanish into froth It was the great complaint of one Robertus Gallus a famous man an opposer of the corruptions of those times in which he lived which was in the 13. Century He compared the Schoole-Doctors to one having bread and good wine hanging on both his sides yet notwithstanding he was gnawing hungerly on a flint-stone Thus they leaving the wholesome food in the Scriptures busied themselves with subtile questions wherein there was no edification or comfort to the soule thus their excellent parts did all vanish into nothing Now if it be so grievous a thing for parts and learning to be imployed about meane and unworthy things how much more grievous is it when they are employed against God Oh what great cause have we then to pray for these men whose spirits are raised by naturall parts and how great cause have they themselves to seeke God and to use all meanes that their spirits might bee likewise raised by grace that that great blessing of parts and learning might be blessed to them by Gods bestowing upon them this other spirit Oh consider what an opprobrious thing it is to you that God should have more feare honour service from men of lower farre meaner weaker abilities That their hearts should close more with the wayes of godlinesse That their hearts should be more enlarged towards God than yours That they should enjoy more heavenly spirituall communion with God than you yea such communion with God as you are altogether unacquainted withall And that at length their soules should be saved and for ever blessed when yours shall be cast out as filth and an everlasting abhorring from the presence of the Lord What a grievous thing will it be to you when it shall appeare that your parts shall serve for no other and than to enlarge your soules to be more capable of the wrath of God than other men for be you assured that none are so filled with Gods wrath as knowing men It was the grievous complaint of S. Austin in his time The unlearned sayes he rise up and take heaven by force and we with all our learning are thrust down into hell It is a speech well knowne to Scholers of how great use might it be if God did settle it upon their hearts And S. Bernard hath a speech somewhat to the like purpose Let the wise of the world sayes he who minde high things and yet feeding upon the earth let them with their wisdome goe downe into hell And Luther hath a notable story which may be very usefull for this purpose It is in his writings upon the fourth Commandement which he makes the third It is to shew how the holinesse of the spirits of meane and unlearned men shall confound great understanding learned men where there is not the like godlinesse In the time of the Councel of Constance he tells us There were two Cardinalls riding to the Councell and in their journey they saw a shepherd in the field weeping one of them pitying him sayes that he could not passe by but he must needs go to yonder man and comfort him and comming neare to him hee asked him why he wept he was loath to tell him at first but being urged he told him saying I looking upon this Toad considered that I had never praised God as I ought for making mee such an excellent creature as a man comely and reasonable I have not blessed him that hee made not me such a deformed Toad as this When the Cardinall heard this hee was struck with it considering that hee had received greater mercies than this poore man and he was so struck as hee fell downe presently dead from his Mule his servants lifting him up and bringing him to the Citie hee came to life againe and then cried out Oh Saint Austine how truely didst thou say The unlearned rise and they take heaven and we with all our learning wallow in flesh and bloud You therefore whom God hath honoured with excellent parts that you may not be thus confounded another day before the Lord and his blessed Angels and Saints bee you restlesse in your spirits till you finde God hath added a further beautie to them even the beautie of holinesse the sanctifying graces of his Holy Spirit that may make you lovely in his eyes truely honourable before him and for ever blessed of him Take heed you rest not either in gifts of learning or in gifts of moralitie the gifts of moralitie are yet a further ornament to mens spirits but yet they come short of those divine excellencies of spirit that will make it blessed for ever Wee reade of many who were very eminent in morall excellencies and yet altogether strangers from the life of grace As for example Iosephus lib. 15. c. 8. reports of Herod the King that which would make one thinke hee was raised to very high morall excellencies once making a speech to his Army amongst other passages he hath this Perhaps some men will say that right and equitie is on our side but that the greater number of men and meanes are with the other but this their speech is unworthy of my followers for with those with whom justice is with those also God is and where God is
thou canst then sollow the work of Gods grace make much of such beginnings give up thy selfe to the power of them turne the motions of Gods Spirit into purposes and those purposes into endevours and those endevours into performances and seeke that those performances may bee established Wee doe not know what we lose when at any time we lose the stirrings of Gods Spirit in our hearts Who knowes but that thy eternall estate may depend upon those sparkes that hee is now kindling in theé It is a great wickednes to stifle the child in the wombe when it is new conceived and is it not a great wickednes to stifle those blessed motions that are conceived by the worke of the Holy Ghost And for a conclusion of this point let thy spirit be for ever restlesse untill thou feelest God graciously comming in unto thee let no mercie satisfie thee till God gives thee soule-mercies and blesses thee with his choice spirituall blessings such as are peculiar to those who are good in his eyes A GRACIOVS SPIRIT FOLLOWS GOD FVLLY The second Part. Numb 14. 24. And hath followed me fully him will I bring into the land wherein he went and his seed shall possesse it CAP. 1. 〈…〉 t is for a man to follow God fully THe second Doctrine follows which is this It is the high praise of servants that they follow God fully This is their coâ—mendation that they have their hearts come fully off in the wayes of obedience to fulfill the good will of the Lord this is that perfect heart which God so often calls for in Scripture and for which so many of Gods servants are commended in the Word as Gen. 17. 1. Walke before me saith God to Abraham and be thou perfect Deut. 18. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God This Noah is commended for Gen. 6. 9. He was a just man and perfect in his generations so Iob Chap. 1. 1. He was perfect and upright The want of this was the staine and blot upon Salomon 1 King 11. 6. the Text there sayes he went not fully after the Lord as did David his father This likewise was the staine of the Church of Sardis Revel 3. 2. I have not found thy wayes perfect the woâ—ds are I have not found thy wayes 〈…〉 thou hast not filled up thy 〈…〉 following me somthing ind 〈…〉 ou hast done but thou hast not followed me fully To have a heart ful of goodnesse as S. Paul testifies of the Romanes Chap. 15. vers 14. and to have a life full of good workes as Acts 9. 33. is witnessed of Tabitha This is the excellencie of a godly man this is the true declaration of the excellencie of that spirit wherein this glory doth consist In this Argument we shall first shew what it is to follow God fully or what the frame of the spirit is in the following the Lord fully Secondly wherein the true excellencie of this lies Thirdly apply it For the first take this Caution premised When we speak of a fulnesse in following the Lord wee doe not mean a legall fulnesse such a fulnesse wherein there is no want or imperfection not to sinne is here onely our law in heaven it shall be our reward Buâ—â—here is a true following of the 〈…〉 that is even in this life to bâ—â—â—â—aâ—ned unto an Evangelicall fulnesse and that is the fulnesse that we are to speake of The Gospel requires perfection as well as the Law though in a different manner and this is First a fulnesse of all graces though not the degree of all graces yet the truth of every grace There is no grace wanting where this Evangelicall fulnesse is Secondly there is no want no not of any degree wherein the soule rests there is such a perfection as the soule takes no liberty to it selfe to faile in any thing Thirdly there are sincere aymes as in the sight of God to attain to the highest perfection the full measure of holinesse and Fourthly there is that uprightnesse of the soule as it doth not onely desire and endeavoure to attaine but doth indeed attaine to the truth of that I shall deliver First the heart is fully set and resolved for God there is fuln 〈…〉 of resolution so the Septuag 〈…〉 slates that place in Ioshuah 14. vers 8 where Caleb speakes of his following of God fully they turne it thus I decreed I determined to follow him The heart is fully taken off from shiftings from hankerings after other things from the ingagements that before it had from disputings reasonings for the wayes of the flesh it doth not hang betweene two as unsetled irresolved wavering but is truly and fully taken off and the resolutions are fully set upon and for the wayes of God Many have some coÌ„victions some stirrings some makings towards the wayes of God some approbation of them thinking with themselves it were well if wee could doe thus Surely they are the best men who can doe thus but still some ingagement holds them fast they have thoughts flitting up and downe they would and they would not they could like well were it not for this thing and that thing this inco 〈…〉 ience and the other trouble w 〈…〉 follow and so they delay and put off and think it may be they may hereafter doe better their good desires and inclinations they hope may serve turne for the present And thus they stand baffling with God and their owne soules they are as Seneca speakes of some alwayes about to live But this soule who fully followes God is fully broken off from former wayes the thoughts of it are come to a determinate issue it is resolved against them whatsoever becomes of it resolved to listen no more after the reasonings of flesh and blood as S. Paul sayes of himselfe Gal. 1. 15 16. that after it pleased God to call him by his grace and to reveale his Son in him immediately he conferred not with flesh and blood Many are a great while before they be thus fully taken off they are as Agrippa Acts 26. 28. almost perswaded to become Christians the truths of God doe move them but not throughly perswade them they strive with them but dâ— not throughly vanquish them The â—pirit of God leaves some in the very birth that there is never strength to bring forth but it is a most blessed thing when the heart comes off kindly and fully now it is not so ready to raise objections against the wayes of God nor to hearken to objections raised by others as it was before When the fire is fully kindled there is little smoke at the first the smoke rises thicke that we can see no fire The reason of so many arguings and objections of the flesh is because the heart is not fully taken off Tertullian hath a notable expression to this purpose How wise an Arguer sayes he doth the pride of man seeme to it selfe when it is
all rationall men approve of and if God would require a man to follow him in no other duties but these it were fine but there are some others that will make him to be observed some in which if he followes the Lord hee shall be reckoned amongst such kind of men of whose number hee doth not like to bee accounted one hee knowes they are discountenanced and despised and this hee cannot beare and therefore those are duties hee hath no minde unto and then thinketh with himselfe Why may not my obedience in other things serve the turne 3 And yet further one that is willing to follow God fully in all duties hee will follow him in those where he sees no reason but the â—are command of God it is enough to him that they are commanded of God it is not for the Lord to give account of his wayes to his creatures it is enough for us that hee bids us follow him absolute obedience is that which is our dutie there is alwayes reason enough in Gods will but whether we see it or see it not if we can but see the Commandement it is enough for us we take too much upon us to dispute about the reason of things with God wee must not be Judges of the Law but doers of it Saul could see no reason why he might not spare the best of the cattle especially when he did it to keep them for sacrifice but it cost him his Kingdome God rejected him for it and told him Obedience was better than sacrifice Luther saith He had rather obey than work miracles And Cassianus reports of one Iohannes Abbas who when hee was young was willing for a whole yeare together to fetch water every day neare two miles to water a drie sticke because hee was commanded so to doe hee thought it reason enough to doe things unreasonable to shew his obedience unto man whose will is many times unreasonable how much more reason is there then that we should shew our obedience to God in duties where through our weaknesse we cannot see the reason when we may be sure that there is alwayes reason enough if we were able to see it Fourthly and yet further the soule that is willing to follow God in all duties wil follow him in Commandements that are accounted little Commandements God expects faithfulnesse in little things God prizes every tittle of his Law more worth than heaven and earth howsoever wee may sleight many things in it and think them too small to put any great bond upon us Christ saith that Heaven and earth shall passe away but not one jot or tittle of his Word As if he should say If Heaven and earth were in one ballance and any jot or tittle of my Word in another and if one of them must needs perish I had rather that Heaven and earth should perish than that one jot or tittle of my Word should faile The Authority of Heaven puts weight on things that are never so little in themselves If mans authority doe this how much more Divine Man cannot beare disobedience in little things though the things be very small in themselves yet if commanded by Authority it is justly expected that they should be much regarded Shall mans authority make small things to be accounted great and shall Gods Authority doe nothing Obedience in small things is due to Magistrates much more to God Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Matth 22. 21. It is observable in that place the Article is twice repeated in the Greeke Text when hee speaks of God more than when he speakes of Caesar shewing that our especiall care should be to give God his due Fiftly and lastly not to instance in more particulars the soule that followes God fully in all duties is willing to follow him in duties wherein it must go alone it is willing to follow God in folitary paths Many men were it that they might have company in the way in following the Lord they would be content but to go all alone in such solitary wayes wherein they can see none goe before them wherein they can have none along with them few or none are like to follow after them this is tedious But a childe of God thinkes he hath enough in that he hath God with him that he walkes along with God this is company enough let the way be what it will be As David Psal 23. 4. Though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death yet thou art with me God promises that he will goe before his people that is enough though there be none else It is true company in Gods wayes is delightfull and it is a sad thing that there is so little a tract in Gods paths It was the complaint of Gods people Lam. 1. 4. that the wayes of Sion did mourne because none came in them But if company cannot be had it is enough we have the Lord. 2 Tim. 4. 16. At my first answer saith S. Paul no man stood with me but all men forsook me notwithstanding the Lord stood with me Elijah thought he was left alone he could see no man goe that way hee did yet he continues in his fervour and zeale following the Lord. Indeed we should the rather follow the Lord because we see so few follow him What shall he have none to follow him as Christ said to his Disciples when many forsook him Will you also forsake me Thus you see by these severall instances in difficult duties in discountenanced duties in duties wherein we can see no reason but a bare command in duties that seeme to be small and little and in duties wherein if we follow God we must follow him alone that the soule that followes God fully will follow him in these and so by the same reason in all other duties that God shall require to follow him in And this is that pretious choice spirit we spake of before which shewes it in this that it is thus willing to follow God fully You know it is requir'd of us to be perfect as God himself is perfect to bee holy as God is holy yea this the Gospell requires of us but how can that be Yes thus Gods perfection and holinesse is made known to us in his will in his Commandements now look how large they are set forth to us in these so large must our obedience be though we cannot attaine to the degree yet our hearts must inlarge theÌ„selves to the things to what ever part of Gods will God makes knowne his perfection and holinesse by Thy Commandement is very broad saith David yet godlinesse inlargeth the heart to every duty it cals for there is a grace within the soule sutable to every duty the law requires It may be this is indeed may some thinke in those who are eminent in grace upon whom God hath bestowed a great measure of his Spirit but is this in
they are sure of him for ever and indeed it is very seldome that ever such a one returns Bishop Latimer in a Sermon before King Edward tells of one who fell away from the knowne truth and after fell to mocking and scorning it and yet was after touched in conscience for it beware of this sin sayes Latimer for I have knowne no more but this one man that ever fell from the truth and afterwards repented I have known many fall but never any but this repent Now the breach betweene sinne and the soule in conversion is as great as betweene God and the soule in Apostacy yea greater for there is a possibility of reconciliation in the one but never in the other and therefore as the one because of this great breach betweene God and his soule doth follow the Devill and his destruction for ever so the other because of the breach betweene sinne and the soule doth follow the Lord and his salvation for ever as in the one the gifts of Gods Spirit are so cast out as usually they never returne againe so in the other the uncleane spirit is so cast out as it never comes back againe 2 A second Reason why that man that followes the Lord fully must needs follow him for ever is because at the first giving up himself to God hee was content to let goe all other holds and all other hopes in all creature-comforts whatsoever and so to venture himselfe upon God is to be content to be miserable for ever if he finde not enough in God to make him happie he hath so let all other things goe as if he should faile here hee hath nowhither to retire hee hath reserved no way no meanes for to helpe himselfe by if hee should miscarry here hee hath laid all the waight of all his comforts of all his hopes of all his happinesse upon the Lord he hath no other prop that he doth or can expect any support by there is a blessed necessity upon him to follow the Lord for ever and this necessity the soule is glad of and this is the reason why God in his first bringing a soule home to himselfe useth so much meanes to take it off from all other things namely that it might follow him for ever As it is reported of William the Conqueror when hee came to invade England and had landed his Souldiers he sent backe his ships that so they might have no hope of retreating back again and so they were put upon a necessity of fighting it out to the utmost Thus the Lord takes off the soul from all its former hopes and props that it may have no lingrings after any thing but himselfe but thorowly sight the good fight of faith with resolution hold on its course to the end But it is otherwise with a false unfound heart though such a one may follow God in many glorious performances yet it secretly reserves something in case of failing here when it enters upon Gods wayes it is enlightned so farre as it thinkes some good may be had here yea it hath a taste it may be of much sweetnesse in these wayes but dares not venture all upon them he would bee glad to have some thing to retire to in case he should faile here hee reserves a back doore that he might turne another way if this way should prove troublesome and dangerous hee enters upon Gods wayes not without some suspitions and jealousies that possibly hee may meet with such inconveniences as may make him to wish he had been more wise and not put himselfe in too farre he sees many others who being deeply ingaged and gone on so farre in those wayes wherein they meet with much trouble many sore and heavy afflictions and he thinkes they doe or at least may repent themselves and wish they had not ventured themselves so farre as that now they know not how to goe backe againe and if they were to begin againe he thinks they would bee wiser and hearken to grave advise for more moderation The King of Navarre told Beza he would launch no further into the Sea than he might be sure to return safe unto the Haven though hee shewed some countenance to Religion yet he would be sure to save himselfe Many thinke it wisedome not to venture all in one bottome It was once the speech of a deep politician that it was good to follow the truth but not to follow it too neare at the heeles lest it dasht out his braines Ananias and Saphira would bee Christians they would joyne with the Apostles they saw great things were done by them their possessions must be sold and the money laid at the Apostles feet but something must be reserved in case they should want afterwards and then repent them they had gone so farre when it should be too late and this is the very roote of Apostasie But it is otherwise with a sincere heart that followes God fully in such a one there is a holy kind of desperatnesse so to cast it selfe upon God and his wayes as never to expect any comfort any good but there and therefore this is that it must rest to for ever and follow after for ever 3 The soule that followes God fully will follow him for ever because in the full following of the Lord it findes so much ease peace joy satisfaction as it is for ever setled and confirmed in this way there is never â—ase sweetnesse and full contentment in Gods wayes untill the heart comes off fully till then it is distracted with jealousies feares doubts lingrings after some other way many temprations pestering the spirit continually but when it is fully come off then it goes on with ease it is satisfied and blesseth it selfe in the way wherein it is temptations vanish the soule is freed from much distraction and trouble As the ship that is part in the mud and part in the water is battered up and downe and beats up and downe so as in a little time it beates it selfe all in peeces but if it bee taken off from the mud and bee put into the full streame it goes with ease and safety Thus it is with a mans heart while it stickes partly in the mud of the World or filth of any lust and conviction of conscience strives to raise it but it is not fully taken off there is nothing but vexation and trouble in that soule but when it is taken off and gives up it selfe fully to God in his blessed and holy wayes Oh that sweet and blessed ease that now it findes When a man halts the way is tedious to him hee is soone weary and gives over but when hee is sound the way is easie he holds on his way to the end so when there is falsenesse in mens hearts they do but halt in the ways of God they quickly find them tedious but others who are of sound spirits they find them delightfull and go on with strength and
Galathians at the first they would have pluckt out their eyes for S. Paul their affections were so stirred by his Ministery they apprehended some great matters in the message of the Gospel that S. Paul brought but afterwards finding that those great and excellent things that the Gospel spake of were onely spirituall which their carnall hearts had little skill of and could not relish their affections were soon cooled they fell off from S. Paul Take heed therefore of resting to these flashy affections for if you do when these are gone your hearts will bee left in darkenesse Many examples are knowne of such who have proved to bee most vile Apostates yet time was wherein they have had many meltings much sudden strong joy so as they have professed that the joy they have found hath beene so great that if it had continued but a while they could not have lived but their spirits would haue expired A solid worke of the soule proceeding from an humble broken heart casting it selfe upon the faithfulnesse and freenesse of the grace of God in the promise for pardoning and sanctifying mercy and there resting so as willing to venture it selfe there for ever though it hath no present sense of joy yet it is farre more to be prized than the strongest of these sudden flashes of affection These flashy affections which have not principles to maintain them are like to Cōduits in the City running with wine at the Coronatiō of Princes or some other great triumph but it will not hold they are like Land-floods which seeme to bee a great sea but come to nothing in a day or two As there may be flashes of terrour and yet no true feare of God The Israelites were terrified when the Law was given and yet God saith Deut. 5. 29. Oh that there were a heart that they would feare me So there may bee flashes of joy desire sorrow and yet no true sanctified joy desire or sorrow at all There is much deceit in mens affections Affections not well principled not well grounded soone vanish time will weare them away The people of Israel at the giving of the Law had their affections much stirred so that one would have thought they had been engaged unto the Lord for ever and yet within fourty dayes their hearts were so taken off from God and his Law as if God had never made himselfe knowne unto them they call to Aaron to make them gods to goe before them and say to the Molten Calfe These be thy gods O Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egypt Another notable example wee have of people whose affections are strong for the present and yet worne away in a little time in the 13. of Hosea 1. When Ephraim spake trembling hee exalted himselfe in Israel but when he offended in Baal hee died When Ephraim spake that is when Ieroboam who was of the Tribe of Ephraim declared his purpose to alter the worship of God the people at the first were exceedingly affected with it they stood all trembling at such a strange thing as that was the very thought of it made their hearts to shake because they knew how jealous a God the Lord was But Ieroboam exalted himselfe in Israel hee went on resolutely in his way and would bring his purpose to effect then the people in a little time were brought to offend in Baal and then they died and they became a dead sottish heartlesse people fit to receive or do any thing though never so vile Fifthly others follow the Lord but they follow him in a dull heavy manner there is no spirit no heat no life in their following of him therefore they doe not follow him fully They rest themselves in a middle temper in a lukewarme course they like well of Religion and profession but what need men goe so farre what need they doe so much As Pharaoh said to the Israelites Exod. 8. 28. I will let you goe onely you shall not goe farre away The judgement of these men is for a middle way they are mixed spirited men like Ephraim Hosea 7. 8. mixed with the people as a cake not turned halfe baked and halfe dough they goe on in an ordinary track of performing the duties of Religion without any growth or any sensiblenesse of the want of growth they set upon some faire way of Religion which they perswade themselves is enough and that they meane to hold to they are content to make use of Christ and the profession of Religion so farre as may serve their owne turnes but to entertaine Christ and his truth as an absolute Lord to rule them that their spirits cannot beare in their converse there is no ribauldry no filthinesse so there is no warmth no heat to refresh and quicken any gratious spirit that hath to deale with them in all the Duties of Religion that they perform they take no paines with their hearts to work them to God Luther cals such kind of men Cainists that is such as Cain who offered to God the work done but do not offer themselves to God they content thēselues with generall hopes of Gods mercy upon weake and unexamined grounds they never trouble themselves in calling things into question about their conditions and their eternall estates they never lay to heart the miseries of Gods Church and the publike cause of God is not deare unto them they have not heat enough to cause a melting spirit for the dishonor that God hath by themselves much more is that heat wanting that should keepe their hearts melting for that dishonour which God hath from others Now this temper is so farre from following the Lord fully as it is loathsome and abominable to the Lord so loathsome as he threatens to spue such out of his mouth It is observable that of all the seven Churches we read of in the Revelation there is some good said every one is cōmended for somthing onely this Church of Laodicea excepted which was a luke-warme Church and of this there is no good at all said and yet none of the Churches had that high esteeme of it selfe as this had none of them conceited themselves to be rich and encreased with goods and to have need of nothing as this did No people doth so blesse themselves in their way as luke-warme people doe and yet no people more abominable to God than they What a dishonour is this luke-warme temper to God as if God were such a God as such flat sleight dead-hearted formall services as are performed by them were sufficient to honour his holy great dreadfull and infinite Majestie God pronouneeth a curse in Malac. 1. verse 14. against those who doe not offer the best that possibly they can in sacrifice to him and gives this Reason of it Because my Name is dreadfull and I am a great King saith the Lord As if he should say Therefore onely the most high and excellent things that can bee
performed by the creature are fit for to be tendred up to mee This luke-warme temper wrongs Iesus Christ exceedingly as if there were no other life and vertue in Iesus Christ than to inable a man to doe as they doe What hath Christ laid down his life shed his pretious blood for the renewing of Gods Image in man and is it nothing but this if Christ had never come into the world men might have done as much as this comes to It is a wrong to the Holy Spirit likewise for it is the special office of the Holy Ghost for to bee a Sanctifier to frame the heart to God to quicke the soul with the life of grace and holinesse and is this all it doth this were a poore worke if there were no other but this It dishonours holinesse which is the most glorious thing in the world the life of God the Divine Nature this makes it as if it were nothing but a morall livelesse dead-hearted empty thing this puts holinesse in subjection to humane reason to carnall wisedome it must bow to their discretion to the opinions and wayes of men and in truth to their base lusts though it be in a more cleanly way than in others Be convinced then that this is not that following the Lord fully which is the honour of Gods people in his eyes Sixthly some go beyond this dull luke-warme temper they are very forward in some things but in other things their hearts sticke they come not off fully in them Agrippa saith of himselfe that Paul had almost perswaded him the words are Thou perswadest mee a little The hearts of these men are divided as it is said of those in Hosea 10. 2. they will not let goe their profession but will keepe their corruption too As Camden reports of Redwald King of the East Saxons the first Prince of his Nation that was baptized yet in the same Church had one Altar for Christian Religion and another for Sacrifices unto Devills Thus these men joyne Religion and their lust together If they let out their hearts inordinately to any contentment and take liberty sometimes in satisfying some lusts they thinke to make up all againe by some forwardnesse and earnest devotion in some other thing as many who get surfets think they can sweat and purge them out again This division of heart the Lord cannot endure and therefore it followes in that place of Hosea They shall be found faulty or as the words are read by some Now shall they bee made desolate for in the Hebrew the word signifies both to bee guilty and to bee desolate It is too much boldnesse and presumptuousnesse in men to venture to take liberty to themselves to chuse wherein they will yeeld to God in some things but in others presume to satisfie themselves this is not to cast downe our soules before the Lord as poore condemned vile creatures to lie at his mercy in an humble faithfull resignation of our selves up to him in all wee are or have which is that honour that God expects from us and is infinitely due unto him While our hearts are thus divided betweene God and other things God doth not account himselfe obeyed or honoured at all in any thing all that we seeme to doe in truth is nothing at all Hence in Ierem. 32. 23. the Prophet chargeth the people with this that they neither walked in Gods Law and that they had done nothing of all that God had commanded them to doe and Ver. 30. he saith they had only done evill and in 2 Kings 17. the people are said to feare the Lord and serve their owne gods Verse 33. and yet in Verse 34. the Text sayes that they feared not the Lord shewing unto us that where the heart is divided betweene God and other things there God hath not the heart at all God is not feared he is not honoured at all If wee joyne the counsels of the flesh with the spirit we frustrate all Seventhly there are others who cannot bee so easily convinced in what particulars they forsake God in any of his wayes they seeme to have a generall forwardnesse in that which is good but the truth is they follow themselves and not God in all they rise no higher than Selfe in all they doe which their owne consciences upon search made will tell them the Commandement of God may be made the pretence but Selse is the chiefe Engine Selse is the great mover in all As Physitians putting in many operative ingredients into their Physick and they are the things that worke but besides they put in something to give a colour or a little taste which neither doth good nor hurt that hath no operation at all Thus it is in many mens Religion selfe-ends are the operative ingredients in that they doe and the shew of obedience to God is but that which gives the colour that that which they doe may have the better apperance It is impossible that a man which seekes himselfe should come up to this fulnesse of spirit that is required in this following of the Lord. Hos 10. 1. it is said That Israel is an empty Vine Why so he bringeth forth fruit unto himselfe hee brings forth fruit but yet is empty because hee bringeth it forth unto himselfe Where selfe-ends are the chiefe movers there is no further latitude or degree of godlinesse minded but such as may be serviceable unto them Now they cannot but bee low strait narrow in comparison of those who lift up God in all they do and therefore their profession must needs bee empty and scant not full and powerfull as it is in the other A selfe-seeking heart is alwayes an empty heart but a gracious heart is fruitfull in all manner of pleasant fruits new and old And what is the reason I have laid them up for thee O my beloved Cant. 7. v. last Observe the difference Israel is an empty Vine hee brings forth fruit to himselfe but the Church here brings forth all manner of pleasant fruit for shee layes them up for her Beloved shee brings them not forth for her selfe as Israel did Eightly others follow the Lord earnestly a while but afterwards they forsake him they turne Apostates they doe not fill up their worke they have begun but undoe all againe of whom it may be said as Lament 4. 8. They were whiter than Milke they were as Rubies and polished Saphires in regard of their glorious profession but now they are blacker than a Coale God may justly complaine of them as he did of his people Micah 2. 8. They who were my people yesterday are now risen up against me as an enemy it was far otherwise with them very lately than now it is Many are very hopefull at the first yet they prove exceeding vile afterwards yea the more forward in good at first the more vile after As water that hath once been heat and growes cold againe is colder than ever it was It
Verse to set forth the earnestnesse and fulnesse of the spirit of Idolaters towards their Idols Where have we five such expressions together to set out the fulnesse of the worke of mens spirits in following after the Lord It was said of Ahab that hee sold himselfe to work wickednesse what a fulnesse of spirit was there in him in doing wickednesse Ier. 23. 10. It is said there of the people that their course was evill and their force was not right That vis that strength and force that was in their spirits was not right it was not after God but after the wayes of sinne How many difficulties will men passe thorow for their lusts what cost will they bee at how great things will they suffer nothing is so deare unto them but they will be content to part with it for and bestow it upon their Idols How soon did the people Exodus 32. break off their golden Ear-rings from their Eares to make an Idoll withall and shall not then our hearts and lives bee more fully after the blessed God Wee see wicked men sticke close to their wicked principles they are bold they will not bee daunted they will goe thorow with the worke they have begun what ever come of it should not wee much more stick to our principles should not wee much more bee undaunted in our way and goe thorow with our worke I remember I haue read a passage in Saint Cyprian how he brings in the devil triumphing over Christ in this manner As for my followers I never dyed for them as Christ did for his I never promised them so great reward as Christ hath done to his and yet I have more followers than hee and they doe more for mee than his doth for him O let the thought of our giving the devil occasion thus to triumph over Christ in our slacknesse and negligence in following after him cause shame and confusion to cover our faces and yet to put on this Argument a little more close It may bee you your selves heretofore have followed sinne fully your hearts have beene strong after evill and your lives have beene fruitfull in it it may bee you have beene forward in putting forth your selves ring-leaders in that which was evill not onely stout and perverse your selves but maintainers encouragers of much evill in others you gave up yours members your estates and what you had to the service of sin much time was spent much sleepe broke in plotting and contriving wickednesse much paines taken in the execution of it and now your hearts and wayes seeme to bee for God and is a poore sleight scant dead-hearted service sufficient for him Oh bee ashamed and confounded in thy thoughts let Conscience judge betweene God and his Creature Doest thou thus requite the Lord is this thy kindnesse to him Is there not infinite reason that as you have yeelded your members servāts to uncleannes to iniquity unto iniquity even so you now should yeeld your members servants to righteousnesse unto holinesse Rom. 6. 19. Marke the opposition there there are three to 's in the expression of the service to sinne To uncleannesse To iniquitie Vnto iniquitie but in the service of God there are onely two To righteousnes Vnto holines It is true in this life there will never be that fulnesse of spirit in following after God as there was in following after sinne because there was nothing but sinne in the soule before no other streame to abate it but now there is somthing else besides grace a streame of corruption to oppose it but yet wee should bee ashamed that there should be such a difference the thought of it should cause a dejection of heart within us and we should judge it infinitely equall reasonable that we should indeavour to the utmost wee are able to follow God as fully now as ever wee followed sinne before Saint Paul Acts 26. 11. confesseth that in his former way he was madd in the persecution of Gods servants and when God turned the streame others judged him as mad in the other way 2 Corinth 5. 13. For whether we bee besides our selves it is to God the love of Christ constraineth us And hence we may observe that the same word that signifies to persecute he useth to set out his earnest pressing towards the Marke Phil. 3. 14. I presse towards the Marke for the price of the high calling of God The word that is there translated presse towards it is this same that signifies to persecute because the earnestnesse of his spirit in pressing towards the marke now is the same that it was in his persecution of those that pressed towards the marke before Sixthly the more fully we follow God the more full shall our present peace and joy and soule satisfying contentment be Psal 119. 130. The entrance of thy words giveth light the beginning of following God is sweet and good but the further wee doe goe on the more sweet we shall finde as they who walked toward Sion Psalm 84. 7. They went from strength to strength so they who walke after the Lord they goe from peace to peace from joy to joy frō one degree of comfort unto another for if the entrance into our way be so good and sweet what will it bee when wee come into the midst of it Prov. 8. 20. I lead in the way of righteousnesse in the midst of the pathes of judgement marke what followes there verse 21. That I might cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures Then doth the soule inherit substance indeed then are the treasures of it filled when wisedome leades it not onely in the way of righteousnesse but in the midst of the paths of judgement The way of the just is compared to the shining of the light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. The further hee goes on his way the more light hee hath the more glorious shine is upon him Psal 36. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied and they shall drinke of the River of pleasures Who are those that shal be thus abundantly satisfied and shall have this River of pleasures they are verse 10. the upright in heart That soule that walkes on before the Lord in the uprightnesse of it shall not want satisfaction shall not want pleasure Psal 119. 165. Great peace have they which love thy law It is more to love Gods law thē to do the thing that is commanded in it That soule which doth not onely submit to the Law but loves it will be abundant in duty for love is bountifull great peace hath such a soule that thus loves Gods Law Every good motion in the soule is as the budd of the Lord and that is beautifull and glorious but how excellent and glorious is the fruit of it then the good beginnings which are as the budding of the Pomegranate and the putting forth of the tender Vine are delightfull to God and