his voice to the great World and the Rocks rend Thunder is the voice of God to the great World and in what Majesty doth he express himself to all Creatures below in that voice As there be Thundrings without so there be Thundrings within In great Majesty doth Christ speak to the soul sometimes Ask your Consciences else ask Faelix the Jaylour and Cain else yea ask your Father Adam else what a case were all these in when Christ did but reason with them Yea I ask you Hypocrites if any here is not the way of Christ full of Majesty What means those loads that gather about your hearts and that fearfulness which surpriseth you Thou dost but touch the mountains and they smoke saith the Psalmist so God doth but touch your Consciences and they smoke he doth but whisper within and your spirits fly about every where into the fingers into the face and up into the head and the heart within beats for want of them ready to swoon away Ask wounded spirits whether Gods Word be not full of Majesty Twenty years time not enough to heal the wound of a word of Gods mouth Oh the Majesty of that word Look upon the whole Creation upon the Earth upon the Sea upon the Heavens do they not all-speak the Majesty of Christ God is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the Mighty waves of the Sea The tossings rollings and roarings of the Sea Do they not speak loudly the Majesty of Christ But ah sinner The tossings rollings and roarings of a troubled soul speak the Majesty of Christs word much more Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2. Kingdoms have Supremacy This is Basis Majestatis Christ is a great King over all as the Psalmist titles him Psal 29. God hath set Christ over all so should we as God hath set him so do you over all in all things Now self-denyal is an excellent means that Christ may Reign Thou must deny thy Kingdom that Christ may have his you must lay down your Crowns at his feet that he may wear his Crown upon his Head And this is a sweet Testimony of Grace in the heart if the heart can endure Tribulation that Christ may Reign If it can suffer all things that Christ may do all things if it can lye low that Christ may be exalted when we are most annihilated our Lord and his Mysteries are most admired Sixthly They know thankfully The beams of Knowledg that shine into them melt them into pangs of Thankfulness that they should have the Honour and Happiness to know those things that they know They would not be without Christ whom they know not for a thousand Worlds They would not be without the miracles of love and peace and pardon in Christ which they have and know for all the Worth of India They count themselves to have been no better than brutes and beasts all the time they were without the Knowledg of those Divine Rarities which now they lay up so close in their hearts They adore God that they should know and see those saving secrets which are hid from the eyes of so many round about them Seventhly The true Knowledg of spiritual things doth spiritualize True Knowledg of Religion makes a man Religious Religion in Scripture is called Godliness Without controversie great is the Mystcry of godliness that is The principles of 1 Tim. 3. 15. Christian Religion Godliness is great gain i. e. Christianity The Christian Religion is great gain Thus the Truths themselves are called Godliness Why so Because the true Knowledg of them begets an inward godliness As Religion it self is called Faith and the grace in the soul is also called Faith Why so To shew that Faith begets Faith that is the Truth revealed begets Faith and must be received by Faith Therefore one word includes both the Object the thing believed and likewise the Disposition of the soul to that Object So Religion is called Godliness because the true Knowledg of it begets Godliness Oh! See then what makes a true Christian What when a man nakedly believes Divine Truths When he knows the Principles of Faith doth that make him a true Christian No But when Religion makes him Religious when these Tit. 1. 1. Truths work Godliness for Religion is a truth according to godliness Where the Truths of Religion are embraced there is Godliness with them A man cannot embrace Religion in Truth but he must be godly because Religion is Godliness so it is called for that it tends to beget all Piety and Virtue and Godliness in the heart And therefore if the Mysteries of Heaven work not Godliness a man hath but an Humane Knowledg of Divine things When Lucius a bloody Persecutor offered to confess his Faith hoping thereby to gain an opinion that he was Orthodox Russin Hist Eccles l. 2. c. 6. Moses a Religious Monk refused to hear him saying The eye might sometimes judg of one's Faith as well as the Ear and that whosoever lived as Lucius did could not believe as a Christian ought A man knows no more of Christ than he is sanctified he knows no more of Divine things than he esteems and affects he knows no more of the Mysteries of Heaven than he brings the whole inward frame to be like the things He that saith 1 John 2. 4. I know God and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him No doubt but Hophni and Phineas being Priests had a literal Knowledg of God yet being prophane they are said expresly not to have known him They were sons of Belial they knew 1 Sam. 2. 12. not the Lord. Eighthly If we know God aright we know God in us for we come to know God savingly by Regeneration and so by little and little we come to know God in us knowing in our selves those Divine perfections which the Holy Ghost attributes to God We know the Holiness of God by the Beam of Holiness which he hath irradicated into our hearts We know the love of God by the working of love in us towards him and towards his Saints We know hatred of sin in God by knowing in our selves an hatred of sin we know the Mercy of God by finding in our selves an Image of his Mercy towards our Enemies As Christ saith Be ye merciful as your heavenly Fathers is merciful Luk 6. 36. And it is a clear case We could never know in God Truth Justice Goodness were we not in some measure true just and good it being natural for Man to judg of others according to that which he knows in himself The spirit makes me to know Omnipotency in God through the great Power which he shews in me mortifying me and making me alive The spirit makes me know Wisdom in God by the Wisdom which I get through his Holy Spirit he makes me know Justice in God because he justifieth me in Christ he makes me know Truth
we all fell so in Christs standing we all stand the Lord Jesus having stood they cannot fall because by virtue of his standing they have the eternal Presence of the Holy Ghost I say the ground is Christs standing for though there are many reasons why the Saints shall not fall from Christ as the immutable love of God the Covenant of Grace the spirit of Grace and the Intercession of Jesus Christ yet all these are bottomed upon Christs standing and fulfiling the first Covenant For therefore is the Covenant of grace unchangeable and the federal love of God to us in that Covenant immutable and the dwelling of the spirit eternal and the sealing of the spirit indelible because built upon the unchangeable Priesthood of Jesus Christ such a Priest as stood and finished the work so stood as to satisfie Justice and vanquish Satan And the Intercession of Jesus Christ in Heaven for us is built upon the standing and perseverance of Jesus Christ had not Christ stood his Intercession had not now been standing had he fell that had fell to the ground also had he fell the Holy Ghost had not been given Hence it is that the Covenant of grace reigns to life Rom. 5. 21. eternal Hence it is that they who receive Christ shall be sure to Vers 27. reign with him Hence it is that our Justification by Christ is not a tottering or fallible Justification that may be lost but a Justification Vers 18. unto life In a word hence it is that the Spirit when he comes he comes to dwell and abide in Believers Rom. 8. 11. He is called the spirit that abides for ever And now I am returned where I began Saints your perseverance is certain in it self though not perhaps to you because in Jesus Christ you have not only the graces of Christ but the spirit of Christ the spirit dwelling and abiding in you 1. The spirit knits the soul to the Lord and never suffers that Love-knot to be untied again This knot the spirit makes is stronger than the Gordian-knot which cannot only not be loosed but cannot be cut asunder The Gordian-knot Alexander the Great when he could not loose it cut it asunder but this knot whereby the Saints are tyed to Christ 't is such a knot as can neither be untied nor cut asunder 2. When the poor soul is careless of himself the spirit keeps him he sleeps and the spirit sits by him The wise virgins took a nap as well as the foolish they fell into a sleep of carnal security but the spirit watcht by them and awaked them 3. When the poor soul is weak the spirit helps him 4. When the froward soul offers to run from the Lord the Spirit follows him Jonah run from God but the Spirit follows him into the Sea and into the Whales belly and there he prayeth and looks again toward the holy Temple Is not this your wonder 5. When the unkind soul grieves the spirit yet the spirit still keeps the house and will not depart from him and so not suffer the soul wholly to depart from the Lord When David sinned and defiled himself he grieved the spirit he polluted the house and yet the spirit would not leave the house the spirit stai'd to keep grace alive in the embers and to blow it again into a new flame at Nathans Sermon Vse 10. You to whom God hath given grace the beginnings of grace here 's a great deal of work for you to do 1. Give the Lord the Honour of his grace And now the Lord knows I know not to whom I speak The Lord knows who are his Some that make the least appearance may have the greatest grace and some that cast the greatest lustre may have no grace a slight Impression upon the soul among men goeth for grace But you that have searched your hearts and found the pearl there give the Lord the Honour of his grace that ever he should plant such a flower in your bosoms For the last end of all the Elect is to admire and honour the riches of Gods grace Eph. 1. 5 6. Beloved This is Heavens work Oh! learn this song before you go thither which none learn but the redeemed and sealed Rev. 14. 3. of the Lord. The Lord in all his dealings with his people seeks lastly to bring about the glory of his grace 1. He leaves them a long time in their graves of sin before he gives them the resurrection of grace that they live like other men wallow in sin as other men which is strange that he that loved them so long should leave them so long to be as bad as any yet this he doth because it makes for the praise of his grace Eph. 2. 2 4 7 8 verses And this doth so confound Gods People that they wish not only Heaven but Earth and Ages to come may record this love 2. Out of men fallen he picks out usually the poorest and the vilest The younger Brother most despised and least respected in a Family and leaves the elder Jacob have I loved Rom. 9. 11 13. 1. Cor. 1. 26. Esau have I hated This is strange that the Lord should chuse thus but this he doth to blur the Glory of all the World 3. The Lord leaves many wants in his People under which they sit sighing and sometime very long Sometimes he takes away those feelings those enlargements they had hides his face from them that if ever he returns in love his grace may be the sweeter and last the longer 4. Sometimes he refuseth to hear their Prayers that when he doth answer them at last his free-grace may be adored and cryed up 5. Sometimes he humbleth them with vexing sins and pricking distempers and it is to advance grace 2. Cor. 12. 7 9. 6. In a word you shall find the Lord so strangely carrying on matters as if he did not love nor care for his people against the hair and grain of their desires and when all comes to winding up 't is to advance grace All a mans good days and bad days all Gods frowns and smiles all the Lords food and physick all God cares for works and plots for 't is to do his people no more hurt than this To advance his grace in them and by them All his hewings and hammerings of you his knocking you a pieces and new melting and new casting of you 't is that you may be vessels of his glorious grace that you may be able to live in the Air of Gods grace to suck in and breathe out grace and let all the powers of Hell seek to blur it yet grace shall conquer Who would not be under grace Oh poor creature Satan is tempting sin vexing yet grace must reign 2. Act for Jesus Christ Do the work of Christ and finish it Christ gives grace because he hath given work for grace to do Christ sets up a work in you that he may do work by you
in unto you to take off your thoughts from the present duty He will let your thoughts wander in Prayer upon good things that you may be never the better for that Prayer And he will raise up good and holy motions in you whilst you are hearing a Sermon that they might divert your thoughts from the present Sermon Here our deceitful hearts will be ready to think that those come from the Spirit of grace oh cunning Devil but the truth is they come from Satan for the Spirit of God hath no such office to draw away mens minds from hearing the word nor to trouble mens minds in prayer with thoughts impertinent 6. Satan makes choice of such instruments to tempt by as are likely to be most effectual Thus you know he did Gen 3. 6. 1 Reg. 21. Job 2. 9. overcome Adam by Eve his second self Again thus he tempted Ahab by Jezzabel a prevailing instrument And thus he tempted Job by his wife and thus he tempted Christ Matth. 16. 22. 23. by Peter and therefore said Christ to Peter Get thee behind me Satan Satan can make use of our friends to do us hurt by He tempts not only by himself but by instruments and not only by such as are at a distance from us but by those who are nearest in relation and by those most He can make a friend a child a wife instrumental for our ruine As Saul married his Daughter to David that she might be a snare to him 1 Sam. 18. 21. 6. Satan tempts us by our own selves He makes use of our own reason or understanding to deceive our selves he draws reason out of our own bowels to destroy us and here you have the first particular where you find how busie Satan is and how skilful an artist Satan is to undermine us he is a very intelligent creature 2. Satan is armed with malice against souls That 's a reason 2 Particular Psal 41. 7. that sets him upon devising devices against us As David saith All that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt And in another place While Psal 31. 13. they took counsel together against me they devised to take away my life So that hatred and malice is the root of plotting and evil devices against one When we hate one and bear him ill will then we set upon devices against him Now Satan is full of malice against God and then against the Church and People of God 1. His malice against God To tempt men is a pleasure to his malice thinking himself by this means somewhat revenged of God As he that defaceth the picture of his enemy when he cannot come at his person easeth his spleen a little so the Dog gnaws the stone that cannot reach the thrower so Satan makes it his work to raze Gods Image out of man because he cannot reach God himself 2. Satan is boundless in his malice against Gods People and against the Church of God Therefore saith Paul God is 1 Cor. 10. 13. faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted namely by Satan above that you are able As if he had said Satan would with all his heart lay more upon you than you are able to bear Satan would break your backs if he were let alone but God will not suffer it Observe here these four things 1. Satans extream malice is seen in tempting us against God and in tempting God against us He doth not only tempt us to sin against God that were malice enough but when we little think of it when we are asleep or in our business he is trying and tempting God against us O extream malice Thus God himself acknowledgeth in Job Thou movedst Job 2. 3. me against him to destroy him without cause Pure malice stirreth up Satan against the People of God though he always pretends somewhat in them yet the cause is in himself and therefore Satan hath two names in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tempter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slanderer or accuser noting his two special works Temptation Accusation He solicites good men to do evil against God hence he hath his name the tempter and he solicites God to conceive evil of good men and hence he hath his name the slanderer or accuser 2. When Satan cannot obtain against us by one means he endeavours it by another He will not give off for the loss of one game he is not wont to give his cause over for lost because he cannot carry it at first he will try and try again As it was with Balaak when he sent for Balaam to curse the Numb 23. 27. people and saw the business did not prosper Balaam could not curse them he brought him to another place Come faith he I pray thee I will bring thee to another place peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence though you could not do it in one place you may in another Satan if he cannot work his will one way will try a second or third and observe that when Satan tryeth a second means after a first he tryeth a way more probable and efficacious for his ends than the former 3. When a weaker will not do it he provides stronger means As God in punishing or chastising sinners when a lesser Judgment will not humble them he sends a greater God comes not only with another but with sorer Judgments I F ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me then I will punish ye seven Lev. 26. 18. times more for your sins So Satan if you will not hearken unto him in one temptation he will tempt you seven times more and seven times stronger as he did Job Job 2. 5. Job 1. 14 15 16 19. Before he got leave to touch Jobs cattel and goods and to touch Jobs Children Sons and Daughters here was one greater than the former for a mans children are more than all that he hath in the world besides A mans children are himself in every child is the Father multiplied the child is the Fathers bowels and therefore this affliction reached to the very bowels of Job Then after all this he gets leave to smite Jobs body Put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his Chap. 2. 5. flesh and he will curse thee to thy face And this is greater still than the former Jobs children were near to him but himself was nearer and therefore said Satan Touch his bone and his flesh that is afflict his body the bone and the flesh are the two chief parts the material parts of the body of them the whole Fabrick doth consist The bone is as the stone or Timber in this house and the flesh is as the Lime and Morter filling of it up Touch this faith Satan and here he aims at sore affliction for if he had said only thus Touch his flesh that might have been made affliction great enough But
stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate
received it granting him all the right that he had to dispose thereof to order it as he pleaseth that being so resigned to Jesus she may not have any thing more nor be any thing more but that he may be all have all and operate all in her This act puts the soul into a perfect denudation and makes her entirely dependent upon Christ to be led according to his will 1. Let us then acknowledg the Soveraignty of Jesus over all creatures and over us in particular Confessing that he is our King and Soveraign let us adore his Supream Authority it is life and happiness to know and to serve Jesus Christ 2. Let us submit actually to his Power not out of constraint or necessity as rebels or slaves but out of choice love and fidelity as our Prince and Jesus A Christian in this state looks upon himself only as a servant to Jesus and acts in all things only in the spirit of humility and subjection to him This state of service is proper and essential to the creature in regard of God the creature is essentially dependent and subject to the Creator It is an indispensable estate the creature may as soon cease to be as cease to depend on and be subject to the Creator It is essential also unto all Christians the first step of our entry into the Church and into Faith the first operation of grace upon our souls is to become servants to Jesus Christ This subjection is the first promise we make to God by a solemn publick profession in the Church by baptism there we devote our selves to Jesus Christ to belong to him to depend on him and we enter our selves into the state of servants and vow our selves to Jesus Christ as such So that by one and the same sacrament we are made the Children of God and received his servants and consequently we are in the house of God both as Sons and Servants yet so as that we are his Children by grace his Servants by nature The state of subjection is essential to the Creature and to the Christian so the same state is essential to the Piety of Christians and a godly life and therefore they who would establish themselves in Piety or Godliness must begin their establishment in this subjection for we must bear a relation of love and inclination to Jesus Christ as we do of purchase and necessity we are so much the more Gods and consequently the more perfect by how much we are the more abased and devested of our selves entirely depending and faithfully operating under the Power and Will of him who makes himself ours that we may be his and hath purchased us to himself at an inestimable rate In three points the soul of solid Piety and the perfection of Christianity consists 1. That we are united to Christ as our head and we his members 2. That in this Union we live by his Spirit 3. And follow his motions The soul then must resign and offer up to Christ her heart and will her understanding and power to the wisdom will and power of Jesus Christ in all matters of eternal salvation This resignation is the root and ground of all obedience and service by it we renounce all other Powers Lords Masters Teachers Redeemers and especially the Devil World and Flesh so as to account them our Enemies And seeing the person submitting is a guilty person this resignation cannot be performed without an inward acknowledgment of his own sin guilt baseness misery with godly sorrow a detestation of sin and a returning to obedience again And being guilty persons impotent and unable to help our selves in this resignation we renounce all confidence in our selves and all other things so as wholly to relye upon Gods mercy and Christs merit as without which we must perish everlastingly which so works upon us that by subjection we do gladly and willingly bind our selves to be his perpetual servants and vassals And therefore as according to law the slave is no more his own nor hath any right over any thing but is wholly left to the power and pleasure of his master so by this Obligation the Christian puts himself as nothing before Jesus Christ he gives place to all his rights of Nature and Grace to be only the subject of Christs Power and Divine Will And though we are all servants to Jesus Christ by right and purchase as we said before yet we will be such also out of good will and affection giving him a new power over us i. e. by our own voluntary consent and free choice to be so that we may be Captives to his love as well as to his Power and submit to the designs of the eternal Father who Col. 1. 13. did so graciously deliver us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son This this it is to be in Christ to be in Christ is to be in this subjection to Jesus Christ And now My Beloved we who say we have taken Christ and are in subjection to him let us weigh well what we say and consider with what sincerity and faithfulness we deal with the Son of God For seeing that we avouch that we leave our selves wholly to him in the quality of servants and make profession to have nothing which is not his and of him and that we yield up all to him even to the use of our own life and natural liberty What have we more to think of but sincerely and faithfully to accomplish what we profess What have we more to do but to make our life conformable to what we say i. e. to subject our selves in will and deed to the Greatness and Soveraignty of Jesus Christ I say in will and deed for it would avail but little to say it only with the mouth and have it in the thought if all our actions be full of our own will I say it were to little purpose to subject our selves by words to the Soveraignty of Jesus Christ to the conduct of his Spirit and motions if in the management of our life we follow the Spirit of the World and live in a continual desire to satisfie our selves and our own inclinations Let us mind this because so many deceive themselves in the godly life which they so easily profess contenting themselves with the superficies and eglect the rest Remember that he who says we must adore God in Spirit said also we must adore him in Truth 5. This expression in Christ Jesus All that will live godly in Christ Jesus speaks the end of a godly life Christ Jesus is the end of a godly life they that live in Christ Jesus do live to Christ Jesus to live in Christ Jesus is not only to live by the virtue of Jesus Christ but also to the glory of Jesus Christ to seek his praise and to have his honour in our eye the godly life is not only from Christ but for Christ And therefore they that
to profess and acknowledg their Ignorance Non Pudor est Nescire aliquid sed Discere Nolle Et Pudor Scelus est 4. The Saints are very desirous to know the Reason of Christs Actions Why speakest thou unto them in Parables 5. Beginnings of Grace and Knowledg are very earnest after more Good hearts are very Inquisitive and diligent to ask and understand the Mysteries of Heaven Dub. 1. And indeed it is a wonder that Christ who loved souls so dearly and thirsted after their Salvation who was sent into the world by his Father to Vnmask the way to Heaven and who had before Explained the Law and taken the Vizor off from the face of it and convinced the Proud and Preached so home to the heart that he Preacht with Authority He Preached plainly when he said Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand He preached plainly when he said Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven c. and now to cloathe his Sermons with such dark Parables it is a wonder Resp To this the Lord Jesus Answers That he therefore preached in Parables i. e. darkly and obscurely Because he preached in Judgment unto some that were present He preacht that they might not understand him Dub. 2. But why should his Disciples admire that he preached now in Parables seeing it was always his custom to do so And Parables do illustrate and clear things more to the understanding than plain phrases Resp Christ was wont to preach in Parables and therefore that is not the Disciples Query at least not the meaning of it why he did now use Parables for he did ordinarily use them but when he did use them he did Explain them Luk. 15. 4-7 and 16. 1-8 9. But now Christ did preach in Parables and not Explain them as he was wont to do And before we leave this Query of the Disciples Why speakest thou unto them in Parables Observe further First Their Charity Secondly Their Modesty 1. Their Charity and love to the souls of others Why speakest thou to them in Parables They understand thee not they first ask Christ why he spake to them in Parables before they ask him to Explain the Parables to them Obs Good hearts desire the Salvation of others as well as their own aeque though not aequaliter 2. Their Modesty towards Christ They do not question Christ's Doctrine or manner of Teaching in publick but ask him in private to Explain himself When he was alone Mar. 4. 10. and Mat. 13. 36. Obs People ought not to question and move doubts against their Ministers Doctrine in publick but in private lest they should by their importunity create stirs and tumult and give to others occasion of doing any thing unseasonably and out of due time Therefore his Disciples move questions in private We shall now descend to the words of our Text To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance To you The word to you hath Emphasis in it Vobis vestri similibus To you and such as you 1. To you Elect for Christ speaks of the Elect under the Apostles Persons To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven 2. Vobis amantibus videlicet Sicientibusque veritatem To you Guilliandi who love and thirst after Truth to you that are godly and gracious the Spirit gives to you not only to hear and see these things but to know them and believe and feel them in your hearts And therefore these are no mysteries to you but Salvation and truth Revealed 'T is given that is it comes to pass 1. Not Casu by chance 2. Nor Necessitate by necessity 3. Nor Natura by nature or natural industry That you know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven But 't is given He discovers the gift and Grace of God For O man What hast thou which thou hast not received Obs The knowledg of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven is a Supernatural gift a gift from above None can understand the mysteries of Heaven but they to whom it is given The gifts of God are two-fold 1. The gifts of Nature 2. The gifts of Grace It was given them by Nature that they could hear or see But it was given them by Grace that they should hear the Gospel and see the Miracles and Face of Jesus Christ but more Grace yet that they could Receive the Gospel and Believe in Christ and know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven It was outward Grace to have the Gospel given them to hear it and Christ given them to see him It was inward Grace to have knowledg to see into the Mysteries of the Gospel and to have Faith to distinguish and apprehend Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory There 's the Gospel of Grace and the Grace of the Gospel To have the Gospel of Grace preached to them and to have Grace to receive the Gospel is a double Grace The mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Is a Periphrasis of the Gospel and of those things which lye hid in the Gospel Obs The Gospel is a mystery The Doctrines of the Gospel are mysteries Mysterium significat secretum aliquod quod remotum est ab oculis atque absconditum praecipuè vero in verbis ut cùm aliquid dicitur quod obscurum est intellectu difficile Solemus dicere hoc mysterium est Subest his verbis tectum aliquid abstrusum Mysterium sic enim consuevit appellare Scriptura quae praeter spem praeter humanam fiunt Opinionem Ecce mysterium vobis dico Omnes quidem c. Guilliandus in Loc. 1 Cor. 15. The mysteries of God therefore are Faith and the Gospel concerning Christ nay Christ himself is called a mystery because he is a Spiritual thing and remains hid and covered till the Spirit unvail him For whatever the Gospel preacheth they Mat. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 2. 6 7 8. are remote from sense and reason that the whole world cannot apprehend them till they are Revealed by the Spirit You shall see many preach and many hear that Christ was delivered for us to Redeem us but these words are only in ore in the mouth not in corde in the heart For 1. Neque ipsi suis verbis credunt neither do they themselves believe their own words 2. Neque gratiam hanc aliquatenus sentiunt neither do they feel the Grace of the Gospel But to them it is not given Luke hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark hath Luke 8. 10. Mark 4. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui for is sunt sive exteris To them that are without By which he understands not only them that are strangers all their time from the Kingdom of God as the Gentiles but also all those that have been for a time the children of the
which are wonderful Thy testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul Psal 119. 129. keep them There is peace that passeth all understanding joy unspeakable and full of glory There we have the ways of his Wisdom and his dealings with the Saints which are wonderful as Job saith Things too Job 42. 3. wonderful for me which I knew not To bring us to life by death to glory by shame to perfect his work in abasement to bring it low that he may raise after But how may we know these Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven 1. You must use all means you must read and hear and discourse you must study the things of God and converse with the Saints to whom God hath revealed these Mysteries The Ministry of the Word is the golden pipe through which these Divine Mysteries flow down into your Knowledg And then meditate of these things till the heart be warmed fasten your thoughts on them every day It is your Wisdom to spend consideration on them Oh that my people were wise that they would consider their latter end I say it is your wisdom to consider the Excellency of these Mysteries of Religion the Beauty of them in themselves the fruit and sweetness of them in this world and in the world to come An ingredient in the use of means after this Knowledg is that you must search for it The promise of finding Knowledg is only to such as search for Knowledg It is such a precious treasure that it lyeth deep in the bowels of Scripture Thou Prov. 2. 4. shalt find wisdom if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures There are two places two veins especially where wisdom is to be found there is the Book of Gods Word and the Book of Gods Works the Book of Scripture and the Book of Providence In these two Books we are to search and study out the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven The Word reveals them the hand of Providence doth dispense them The Word unfolds them Providence makes all things to further them in the soul And let me tell you One great means to irradiate your Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is to know that Mystery of sinfulness that is in you and that Mystery of misery that lieth upon you It is not to be conceived as Jeremy saith How deceitful the heart is and how desperately wickea what a depth of corruption lyeth there The cursed and woful state we are in by nature is not to be conceived Man's apprehension is too little to take in all the Dimensions of it to lye under the eternal wrath of God what head can comprehend it VVhat created soul can fathom in her widest thoughts the wrath of an infinite God Who can tell what Hell is And how hot the fire is which Gods Almighty wrath hath kindled to all eternity As eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those that love him so neither hath eye seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive those depths and treasures of misery that men are in by nature Here we may cry out Oh the depths Therefore the more transparent Knowledg we have of the Mystery of Corruption and of the dreadful misery we are in by sin the more we shall wonder at the unparalell'd goodness of God in the Mystery of our salvation the one will sharpen the appetite of the other Truly Sirs if you are yet in the state of sin consider how little there is between you and eternal Death you are ready to drop into Hell immediately and irrecoverably Did these things sit sadly and seriously upon your spirits how would it advance the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven 2. That you may know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven bring Humility and self-denial Humble reason and make her give place to Faith for the humility we here speak of is a Denial of our own Parts and Wits though they be never so capacious In this case the Intellectus must be rasa tabula I say the understanding must be as a Table scraped all the Writings and Notions of humane Wit and Reason must be scraped out It must be like the Wax that hath no Character that it may receive the Impression of the Seal That which reason should do in supernatural things is to stoop to Faith to believe the things of God upon the sole Authority of God Here it is the greatest reason to yield to Faith In Divine Mysteries Faith is the reason of reason and the highest reason is to yield to God that hath revealed them And therefore Faith stands with the greatest reason that can be for is it not the greatest reason in the world to believe him that is Truth it self Reason it self saith It is the greatest reason to believe God who is the first Truth 3. Wait upon the spirit Give the spirit that Honour to reveal these Mysteries to you For your eyes are blind you have an inward darkness upon you the Gospel takes away the Vail from the things but the spirit takes away the Vail from our souls The Jews had a Vail of types and shadows thrown over the things themselves now I say Our Gospel takes away the Vail from the things but the spirit must take away the Vail from our hearts In Nature there is need of a double light that we may behold Objects 1. A light someness upon the Object it self through the Medium and therefore men cannot see in the night because the air which is the Medium is dark 2. A light besides in the Organ that is the eye and therefore blind men cannot see in the day because though the Sun shines and things may be seen in themselves yet they want a light in the eye So though the former darkness which lay upon the Mysseries of Heaven be taken away those legal shadows and curtains are removed and the Sun of the Gospel shines full upon our faces yet we are blind within there lyeth an inward darkness upon our faculty and the spirit must open our eyes and give us a vital light to joyn with the outward light 4. Send up your prayers to Heaven The holy Vapours of Prayer ascending the spirit comes down in showres upon the soul The earth must send up Vapours before the Clouds can give down rain And therefore Paul prays for the Ephesians That God would give them the spirit of Wisdom and Revelation Eph. 1. 17 18. that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints 5. He that would find the knowledg of Divine Mysteries must seek it with a sanctified mind That which enables us to know and understand aright the things of God must be a living principle of Holiness in us As Plotinus saith The eye cannot behold
that you may understand I lay down these two Propositions 1. God hath instituted means for the obtaining of supernatural grace 2. Where God gives grace in the use of means he gives it freely to whom God gives not grace he denies it justly 1. God hath instituted means for the obtaining of supernatural grace For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God The Lord hath set the stamp of Institution upon means wherein he will be found as hearing the word And when they heard this they were pricked at the heart Reading the Word Prayer and Meditation 2. Where God gives grace in the use of means he doth it freely and to whom God gives not grace he denieth it justly 1. Where God gives grace in the use of means he gives it freely Whether it be in the outward means or the inward preparatory work for he is not tyed by the means to us Some say Facienti quod in se est Deus dabit Gratiam ulteriorem To him that doth what he can do more shall be given him but though God should sometimes or always answer man in this kind where do we find that he hath bound himself by Promise to do so Now I must shew you That where God gives not grace he doth it justly Under the Gospel where God denieth grace he never doth it but justly God observes a distributive Justice in it For the Saints through grace use the means to gain more grace and Sinners they refuse all grace For 1. In the Church salvation according to Gods Promise is offered to all 2. In the Church the administration of grace is so high as that it is sufficient to convince all 3. Sinners perish and go without grace through their own fault For 1. They neglect the means of the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven 2. They despise the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven And this reason Christ renders of it at the 13th verse Therefore spake I to them in parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand As if he had said such Minds as they bring to hear such Sermons do I bring to them cloath'd with parables and obscurities They that will not understand things that are manifest to them I wrap up my Sermons in clouds and darkness They have eyes to see my manifest signs and miracles yet being blinded with envy they will not see what they see They have ears and hear the truth that is irresutable and yet in hearing they will not hear i. e. they will not receive it neither do they understand that is it is so clear that they may but they will not understand To speak more particularly 1. Some will hear the Word but not mind it so as to understand it their punishment is That as they will go no further with God so God will go no further with them but denieth unto them the spirit of Illumination leaves them blind as he found Math 13. 19. them and suffers Satan to take the word from them 2. Some receive the word so far as to understand it but are not willing to do it they cannot digest the holiness of it their lusts and its purity cannot stand together their punishment is That God will not make it further effectual to promote their spiritual happiness though they may receive the spirit of Illumination yet not of Conversion 3. Some receive the word so far into their hearts as to delight in it and to do something commanded and obey it in some degree They proceed to Profession and several measures thereof but advance not to sincerity and perfection their punishment is That the spirit of Sanctification and Adoption is denied unto them and for fear of Adversity or love of the World they deny the truth in a day of tryal Thus when we say The Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is given to some and not given to others to those to whom it is given it is given freely to those to whom it is not given it is denied justly For this denial is a punishment and therefore just sinners deserve it that it should be so The elect can speak of underserved-grace and the reprobate of deserved punishment God is so just that he doth not condemn any but for sin so gracious that he doth not condemn all that do sin Though God will save miserable men without their merits because he is good yet he will not damn any without their demerits because he is just But to give you a clearer Prospect of this Truth that the Divine Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is given to some not to others Observe First Sometimes God makes choice of an Alien an Heathen before his own people in Covenant with him As you may see in Jeremiah 38. 7 8. verses He gives an Ethiopian Jerem. 38. 7 8. grace which he gave not to many a Jew Ebedmelech was an Ethiopian yet a Saint a black Ethiopian but a white Saint V None speaks for the Prophet but he an Ethiopian saves the Prophet whom the Jews did persecute Where observe 1. How God picks one out of a whole Nation God makes choice of Ebedmelech above all the Nation of the Ethiopians The whole Nation of his Countrey-men lay under the black Vail of darkness and ignorance while he knew the Mysteries of Heaven 2. The wonder of Gods Providence how it brings about the Salvation of a person whom he means to save God brings Ebedmelech out of his own Countrey to make him a Saint how he came thither to live in the King of Judah's Court there 's no mention of it but this we know that he was brought thither upon the Wing of Providence to know God and to be saved 3. God gives grace to Ebedmelech and makes choice of him before many of his own people in Covenant with him Secondly He prefers the Servant before the Master All the Phil. 4. 22. saints salute you chiefly they that are of Caesars houshold This Caesar was Nero in whose palace Saint Paul's bonds were made Phil. 1. 13. manifest So that some of his Servants were made Christians who afterwards proved Martyrs namely Evellius and Torpetes if we may believe the Roman Martyrology here the Vassal receives the Gospel which the Emperor doth not The servants are made lambs while their Lord and Master remains a Lyon for so is he stiled in 2 Tim. 4. 17. Thirdly God prefers the poor before the rich a poor Lazarus before a rich Dives he drops his golden showres of grace upon a low shrub and over-looks the tall Cedar The truth of it is Dives was poor Lazarus was rich Lazarus had more gold in his Soul than Dives had in his Purse Hath not God chosen the poor in this world rich in faith Jam. 2. 5. i. e. to be rich in Faith and heirs of the Kingdom As we Jam. 2. 5. read it Hath not God chosen the poor in this world
and grace for grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one grace for another The latter for the former for having mentioned the fulness of Christ he saith That not one but many graces are drawn and derived from him not one but many graces the first whereof is the cause of the second the second of the third and the third of the fourth and so along always the latter is given for the former till all the gifts of grace being compleated beatitude it self is at last perfected Not as if more grace were given for the right use of grace for that were to take us off from Christ to our selves whereas 't is the Apostles scope to fix us wholly on Christ but the Condition and Nature of Saving-grace which is such Vt prima Trahat alteram that the first draws the second they are as it were so concatenated as one Ring in a chain draws another and for the former that is given the latter is given that is God because he hath given the one will give the other such is the Order and Method he observes he give grace for grace that is where he finds one grace he gives another and where he finds some he gives more Or Grace for Grace i. e. Gratiam super Gratiam grace upon grace i. e. abundance of grace having scarce received one but presently receive another and after that another which Musculus saith the Hebrews express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle shews it in Rom. 8. 30. From the fulness of Christ we have received the grace of our Calling and upon our calling the grace of Pardon and Justification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Justification the grace of Adoption and Sanctification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Adoption the grace of Glory and Salvation still grace upon grace as the Apostle expresseth it in Ephes 1. 3 4 c. We shall now give you the Reasons of the Point why it is that where there are beginnings of true grace though never so weak God makes rich additions of more grace And Reas 1. Because grace in a Saint is God's own child the infant grace is the Spirits little babe begot in the Womb of the soul by the Spirit the soul is the Mother of it and the Spirit is the Father of it Now you know a Father is very tender of his young babe he takes it up in his Arms and looks upon it he reads his own Image in it and puts it in his bosom he handles it as gently as ever he can and preserves it from the least harm So when the Infant-grace is born in the soul the Spirit is very tender of his young babe he makes wondrous much of it and is as Preservative of its life as ever he can As you may see in Paul he had been in sore pangs of Travel three days and three nights together and the child Grace was newly born and see what care the Spirit had of it said he to Annanias Arise do not stay saith he but Acts 9. 11. arise and go into the street which is called Straight and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth The child Grace as soon as it was born began to cry and the Spirit presently takes care of it 1. The Spirit when the soul is brought to bed and safely delivered of her Man-child Grace sets the little babe to nurse and provides suck for it and gives it the Breasts of the Ordinances as the Apostle saith And I brethren could not speak 1 Cor. 3. 1 1 Pet. 2. 2. unto you as unto spiritual but as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk And in 1 Pet. 2 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby A babe when 't is new-born must have milk which is the most nutritive food in the world so must the little new creature when it is born it must have milk and therefore the Spirit provides it for him The Ordinances are the Breasts and the Ministers are the Nurses which give it suck As the Apostle saith We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth 1 Thes 2. 7. her children 2. The Spirit dades his little child Grace and teacheth it to go As God saith When Israel was a child I loved him Hos 11. 1. Verse 3. and called my son out of Egypt I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms And therefore are we said to be led by the spirit and to walk Rom. 8. 14. in the spirit 3. The Spirit teacheth his little child Grace to speak as a Father you know takes up his little one upon his knee and teacheth him to Articulate words and to call Dad so doth the Holy Spirit teach the child Grace to cry Abba Gal. 4. 6 Father Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Reas 2. Where there are beginnings of true grace God makes rich Additions of more grace because such is the Lords noble Nature that he loves to be giving To give is an Act Dare honestum quid est Recipere utile Dans exercet Actum Monestum Accipere utilem Agit ille hic patitur potius for a Prince rather for a God poor men receive rich men give Subjects receive Princes give Creatures receive the Creator gives The more noble and eminent natures are the more they give and the less they receive The heavenly bodies glance their light and dart their influences upon the Earth below but receive nothing from the Earth To give is an Act of perfection to receive is a note of imperfection were we not imperfect we need not be receiving He that gives imitates God who gives and receives not again because he wants not any thing And therefore it was a saying of Christ It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. It is a part of Gods Beatitude that he is all things and hath all things to give that he can give and not be beholden to receive that he is an overflowing Sea always pouring out his gifts and golden streams upon the Creature When he hath given thee grace he hath more grace still to give And being a God and not man he gives continually to give he makes his continued Act He 'l never cease giving to his Saints not only in this life but in the life to come he will be giving out unto his Saints eternally As the Sun is always giving out its heat and virtue to the World so will God be always giving out his sweetness to his Saints throughout Eternity So that he that hath grace shall have more grace he that hath it in the bud and in the beginning shall have it in the perfection fear not poor creature if thou art always wanting God will be always giving and being a God
refreshing and he will sit there and rest himself under it Men that have their feet or their arms scalded will put them into cold water which gives them ease though it gives them no cure yet because it gives them ease there they keep them So men whose Consciences are scalded with wrath Oh! now the Gospel and Justification by Faith in Christ is very sweet And so they are eased by it never cured by it and therefore you shall find them disclaim all works and cry up grace only when Christ is offered and general notice given them that there is Mercy and Hope for great Sinners this fills them with joy and peace But wherein doth these mens hypocrisie appear They receive Jesus Christ only for ease I say a false heart receives Christ only to ease him to ease him of the terrour of Conscience and to ease him of the work of Obedience And here prophane Sinners find great ease The weight of their guilty Consciences would press and sink them down but that they bear up upon the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Oh! he dyed for Sinners and paid our debt and now they are cheerful and easie they can sin and be easie follow their drunkenness and be easie swim in their uncleanness and be easie for they make the Righteousness of Christ their Bladder to swim upon and say what you will to them they will not sink If you ask one of these drunkards and haters of the Saints and railers at godliness I say if you ask them Do you believe in Christ yes say they Believe yea we believe exceedingly and so they do the truth is they believe beyond measure but they believe and rest upon Jesus Christ to ease themselves of sanctification they cannot but see the want of it and they cannot ease themselves but by pleading that Christ is holy and that though they have it not yet Christ hath it This is a great ease to their thoughts at the present and thus they receive Christ Oh Sirs that you would consider the sad condition of this man whose plagues shall be made wonderful whose Conscience suits him still for sin and then looks up to Christ and rests there and hears Sermons but then salves up all with the Righteousness of Christ and considers often that his ways are evil but never suspects his faith to be evil Then he is taken with Death and then looks up to Christ at last the snuff dyes and his Sun sets and darkness approacheth and then instead of heaven embraceth flames and what is it that hath deceived these men Oh! their Faith hath deceived them they believed they might have had Christ and Sin too and then in Hell they wish Oh! that I had considered and feared this before and will you not fear now I charge you then think not your Estates good because you rest on Christ and look for salvation by him only 2. There are others who receive Jesus Christ not only into their belief but into their bosoms not only into their heads but also into their hearts They have a great work upon them the Gospel doth not only Irradiate their minds but also in a great measure Captivate their Wills they have affections to Christ and sweet motions to holy things kindled in their hearts They receive the word with joy and delight Matth. 13. they fall into raptures of love to and admiration of Jesus Christ they do not only assent to the Doctrine of Justification by Christ but are made partakers of the Holy Ghost There is a change wrought in them they seem to be washed 2 Pet. 2 20. and sanctified in the blood of Christ having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And so they shine in the surface of their outward lives The hypocrisie of the heart springs from defect of light in the mind The want of saving Illumination in the understanding is the reason of the hypocrisie of the heart These two faculties the Vnderstanding and the Will live very near one another if they be not really the same some say they are but one and the same power or faculty of the soul and so there is a real Identity of the Will and Understanding saying that the Will is Intellectus extensus others affirm that they are faculties really distinct However it is by all concluded that there must in order of nature be light before choice knowledg before election the Intellectual creature must see before it can determine or resolve upon Now I say the imperfect and unsound resolution of the soul flows from defect of light The hypocrisie of the heart springs from the want of a saving Illumination in the Understanding This appears in the Parable of the Virgins of whom the Lord Christ saith That five were wise and five were foolish The vanity of the one sprang from their folly the provision of Oyl the others made sprang from their Wisdom You know it 's frequent in Solomons Proverbs to call the upright and godly man the wise man the sinner and hypocrite the fool the power of sin lyeth in the power of darkness The strength of a State in the Wisdom of its Council 1. The Understanding is the first inlet of Sin and Grace this is that which opens and shuts to all life and sin When Satan laid his Train and Powder-plot to blow up all the World by the sin of one man he first enters into dispute with Eve and as the Apostle saith deceived her The woman was deceived and so darkned her mind with a mist 1 Tim. 2. 14. the serpent crept into her heart through the door of her Vnderstanding There could no sin get into the Will were there not an error first in the Vnderstanding 2. And as the mind is the first inlet into sin so it is the first door that lets in grace Sanctifie them through thy truth thy John 17. 17. John 12. 35. word is truth Walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you Satan knew if light came in Christ would come in Matth. 13. 15. 3. Divine light is very powerful it hath a mighty influence to change and renew the heart We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord All Divine light of glory works strongly if hypocrites had it their hearts would be sincere Not that bare light can change the will but the Lord works by it When the Lord comes with life he comes with light Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5. 14. arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light When the spirit comes all his work is expressed by conviction of sin of righteousness and of judgment convince one effectually and you convert him You shall know the truth John 8. 32. saith Christ and it shall make you free that is from your bondage
saith What will it avail thee Tho. a Kempis to dispute profoundly of the Trinity if thou be void of grace and displease the Trinity High words surely make a man neither holy nor just but grace makes him dear to God It is vanity to seek after fading riches it is vanity to gape after withering honours vanity it is to wish to live long and to be careless to live well But now many will say grace doth increase in us we do reach after more grace and this many false hearts say they do My Beloved false grace may grow and doth lengthen out in desires and dimensions many that are Hypocrites glory in this that their graces grow I must therefore shew you the difference between the increase of true grace and counterfeit grace 1. The Hypocrite grows out of Emulation The true Saint grows out of love to goodness The Hypocrite is grieved that others go beyond him and over-match him not love to grace but a spirit of envy makes him to advance The true Saint grows out of Duty to God to bring in more glory to his Name The growth of others is matter of his joy not of his repining He is glad that God is better served though it be by another his only grief is that himself can serve him no better 2. The Hypocrite another sort of them groweth in Parts but not in the Power of godliness in gifts and curiosities but not in vital and Divine quicknings In Knowledg and Speculations but not in strength against sin and temptations Judas by conversing with Christ could not but grow in Knowledg but being not incorporate into Christ never grew in grace But the true Saint grows in his spiritual life in Union to Christ in Communion with God The Hypocrite may grow in quantity but not in quality the real Saint grows as much in quality as in quantity 3. The Hypocrite may grow more and more in hearing the word but the Saint grows in tasting the word and in tasting that most deliciously which is most spiritual The Hypocrite longs more after new truths but the Saint tastes old Promises with new affections and old truths with a new appetite The Knowledg of an Hypocrite may grow bigger but the Knowledg of a Saint grows more savoury and judicious The Hypocrite may know more Objects than he did before but the Saint relishes the things more sweetly which he knew before The Hypocrite may grow in enlargements and pour out longer Prayers but the Saint prays more spiritually The Hypocrites zeal may be a great fire but the Saints zeal is more heavenly and discreet there is more incense in his golden censer his love more solid and active more to God and less to himself and the world The hypocrite is like a tree that bears great Apples but they are sower but the Saint the fruit he bears it may be are not such big Apples but they are sweet Apples the juice is better that gives them a more pleasant relish in Gods palate There is a sweeter juice of love and kindness and godly sorrow and filial delight in God in a Saints duties and here the Saints growth chiefly lyes his fruit groweth more ripe and mellow and so more pleasant and sweet His Prayers are not bigger in quantity but better in quality he grows in choiceness of spirit he comes to the Throne of grace with a more precious esteem of Christ upon his heart He comes to the word with a dearer thirst upon his palate 't is the same Christ that is set still before him but he relisheth Christ more sweetly receiveth and tasteth the same promises more ravishingly trembleth at the same threatnings more tenderly and meltingly Whereas the hypocrite is cloyed with the word if it be not dish'd up to his palate but the Saints palate is spiritualized to the word The hypocrites tast of Sermons is flatted by reading of Books but the Saints taste is quickned by the sense of his wants For this is the true use of reading and the end of Knowledg To make VS more sensible of our wants and make Christ more excellent in our eyes Therefore in taking notes the hypocrite picks out matter here and there according to his nice and licquorish palate but the hungry Saint takes all and feeds upon all that comes before him feeling his need to be stirred up to consider what he knows Vse 9. Here 's a sweet ground to assure the Saints perseverance To him that hath grace he shall not lose it but more shall be given him he shall not lose what he hath but he shall have more than he hath he shall not fall away but stand faster They that fall away are those that have not truth of grace at all Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath But the poor Saint that hath To him shall be given and he shall have more abundance He shall be so far from losing grace that he shall have more grace Dub. But my grace is but little I cannot stand Sol. God shall make thee stand Rom. 14. 4. Where disputing of him that is weak in the faith Vers 1. saith he Vers 4. HE shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand The more weak thou art the more tender God will be over thee if thou canst not stand he will make thee stand thou shalt stand in his arms In Christ you have not only the graces of Christ but the spirit of Christ I pray you mark it 1. If Adam had stood how long we know not it may be had he stood the first shock of Satans temptation all his Posterity should have had that assistance of the Spirit that they should have never fallen as the Holy Angels that were contented with their first station and abode in the truth when the other Angels fell this was their Obedience that they were loyal in the day of their great Tryal when the others their Fellow angels rebelled and their reward was That they are confirmed in their happy condition and secured in it so if Adam hemself in whom we were all one man had stood I say if he therefore had stood it out to the last both he and all his Posterity should have had the continual and constant assistance of the Spirit and been confirmed so as never to have fallen And the ground is the rule of Justice for if he falling all his Posterity are forsaken of God and put under the Reign of Sin and Death and Satan then he standing all his Posterity should have had the perpetual Presence of Gods Spirit and been under the everlasting Reign of the Spirit of grace and life 2. But now Jesus Christ the second Adam who was the Head of the new seed and family he stood and therefore propagates to all his Posterity the perennious Presence and constant assistance of the Spirit whereby being once begotten of him they live for ever and abide in him As in Adams fall
when he saith Touch his bone and his flesh he aims at deep affliction Touch him so as that his very bones may shatter that the very pillars may shake Touch him so as that the pain and distemper may sink into his very bones into his marrow the bone it self is a part without feeling yet to touch the bone impotts the greatest pain that can be felt 4. Satan if he prevails at the first on-set in the beginning of a temptation he drives on furiously and takes advantage to rout the whole soul As a Troop of Horse that having once broke the rank goeth on fiercely hoping thereby to rout the whole body so doth Satan you may see it in the pitcht battel which he sought with Peter Peter you know goeth after Jesus to the high priests Palace there Peter unawares doth as it were draw out into the field Well the Devil resolves to enter into Battalia with him Simon Simon saith Christ Behold Satan hath desired to have you that Lnk. 22. 31. he may sift you as wheat And there he doth first skirmish with Peter and sends out a Damsel against him Thou also Matth. 26. 69. 70. wast with Jesus of Galilee but he denied before them all saying I know not what thou sayest Here she breaks the rank and gets in upon Peter and what doth Satan do now He drives on furiously takes the present advantage and sends another maid and she chargeth him more strongly for she saith to them that were there This Vers 71. fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth Mark ye this fellow and she saith it unto them that were there round about him A worse charge than the former And again he denieth with an oath But Satan follows on still and now draws up Vers 72. Vers 73. his whole body against Peter After a while came unto him they that stood by a stronger multitude still and said unto Peter Surely thou also art one of them for thy speech bewrayeth thee Vers 74. Then began he to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And now he routs Peter and disperseth all his forces for saith the Text He began to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And here you have a second particular Satan is armed with malice against souls Thirdly Satan is armed with pride As David saith The 3 Particular Psal 10. 2. wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor Let them be taken in the device they have imagined Fourthly and lastly Another reason that helps Satan on well 4 Particular in his devices is because he hath a large conscience Indeed he hath no conscience Satan hath conscience of sin but he makes no conscience of sin he hath conscience of sin that is smiting him with sense of guilt but he makes no conscience of sin and therefore can do any thing As a man that makes nothing of sin to swear nor lye he may carry on any design he may grow rich Now the Devil is such he will swear and dissemble and lye and therefore may carry any design on foot He did lye to Eve in paradise and he was a lying spirit in the mouth of Gen. 3. 5. 1 King 22. 22. Ahabs Prophets Vse 1. The first Vse is this If Satan be so learned and exquisite an artist in the Trade of deceiving souls then let us not be ignorant of his devices as the Apostle saith but be fore-warn'd and fore-arm'd In the handling of this Vse I shall discover Satans plots and temptations Satan doth tempt men First Before conversion Secondly Satan tempts men in conversion And thirdly Satan tempts men after conversion 1. Satan tempts men before conversion that they may not be converted First To delay their repentance till they be sick When we are sick then we will repent Pain and weakness of body is no advantage to repentance and returning unto God it unfits the soul for action Hence observe what the Apostle James saith when he reckons up the several conditions of the Saints Is any among you afflicted let him pray he speaks Jam. 5. 13 14. that in general but saith he Is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he had said a sick man can hardly pray for himself Is any among you afflicted let him pray In afflictions a man can pray for himself But is any sick among you Let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he should say a sick man cannot pray for himself he hath enough to do to wrestle with his pain and conflict he hath need to call others to pray for him A diseased body unfits the mind for holy duties and therefore sick Hezekiah's praying Isa 38. 14. is called chattering like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter The pain of his body wrought such a disquietness and uncomposedness upon his spirit that he could not pray but chatter or like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter that is I Annotat. could not speak but sigh and groan or I was so full of pain that my Prayers were very quick and short not sentences but words not words but syllables not plain syllables but chatterings How pitiful then are they mistaken who put off repentance till their bodies be in pain till they are sick or weak They do it upon this ground because when the body is sick they think repentance is easie It is quite otherwise And therefore did Satan aim to make Job sick Satan was Job 2. 5. confident to trouble the mind of Job by casting Darts and Diseases into his body by making Job sick he hoped to make Job blaspheme and curse God Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face If Satan thought by pain and sickness to make Job blaspheme God Dost thou think that pain will be an advantage to thee to turn to God It is said in Revelations at the pouring out of the fourth Chap. 16. 9. vial when they were scorcht with great heat they blasphemed God and they repented not to give him glory Let wicked men be scorcht with a feaver or with a pestilence or sickness and 't is the way to make them blaspheme God and therefore 't is a woful thing to put off repentance to a pained body pain in its own nature fits us rather to blaspheme and fly upon God than fly to God Never think it is one thing what God may make use of but do you never think to have help for the cure of your souls by the diseases of your bodies Usually we find that either sick persons repent not or theirs is but a sickly repentance Indeed a long and lingering sickness may do much there is a time wherein the understanding may act deliberately and the work may be digested but a short sickness and a short repentance such as it is I
that is that Jam. 2. 19. there is one God and tremble Answ 2. And observe it in that the Devil tempts thee that there is no God should be a means and argument to thee to believe more certainly that there is a God Satan would keep you from believing that which he cannot but believe And this should be a strong argument to make us believe that there is a God for were there no God the Devil would never tempt to think that there is a God 3. Another temptation to men in conversion is this My heart is hard I cannot repent of sin I cannot be sorry for my sins Oh! you must venture your soul upon Jesus Christ for free pardon and justification you must take Christ and he will give you a soft heart he will give you repentance unto life Acts 5. 31. You must take Christ for pardon and for repentance also that you may be pardoned Quest But may I before I repent take hold of Christ for pardon May one that cannot repent lay holy and lean upon Christ Answ 1. There 's difference between one that cannot repent but would 2. And one that doth not repent and will not cares not to repent 1. He that doth not repent and will not he may not take hold of Christ nor lay claim to him 2. But he that cannot repent but would he may lay hold of Christ that he may repent and he will go to Christ nothing shall stave him off to fetch repentance from him I say he may go to Christ for repentance See how David did do so Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me There are two snares and nets which the Devil sets for people 1. One is that they hope to be saved by Christ and never care to be humbled nor to be sanctified and in this the prophane are caught 2. Another snare which Satan layeth is to make men labour for Humiliation Holiness Mortification Obedience and not labour to believe and in this well-meaning people are caught For the first First They that hope to be saved by Christ and never care First snare to be humbled nor to be sanctified these are sadly in Satans snare he holds them deadly for Faith which justifieth makes holy though it doth not justifie by its holiness Faith makes thee a new creature that Faith is none of Gods making that doth not make thee a new man And therefore it was the speech of Francis Spira in his desertion and anguish of spirit Pag. 114. I will not saith he derogate from the certainty of saving-faith and the promises of the Gospel for they are most sure but yet take heed of relying on that faith that works not a holy and unblamable life worthy of a Believer believe me quoth he it will fail I have tryed it and therefore he much commended to them the Epistles of Peter which press sanctity and chastity Secondly The other snare which Satan layeth is to make men Second snare dig and labour in the Mines of Humiliation and Holiness and subduing their sins and not take pains to believe 1. Here 's labour in vain for that which can never bring thee Christ nor salvation and that Satan knows and therefore puts men on it to make them spend time and pains to no purpose he puts them in a way where Christ is not that they may not find Christ where he is As Rahab sent the men of Josh 2. 5 6. Jericho away towards Jordan to seek for the spies when she hid them in the stalks of flax So Satan sends men a travelling after Christ over Hills and Dales over the hills of Duty and high strains of Holiness and days of Humiliation And therefore as Christ said to Martha so say I to these Ye are careful about many things how to subdue your sins and be humbled for them but one thing is needful that is to come to Christ and believe in him do this and you shall be saved 2. When ye have believed and received Christ then you shall be able to do all things then you shall have 1. Mortification and Victory over your lusts 2. Sanctification and Ability to duty and not before These be the Births of believing you must believe before you can have these As a woman must be married to a man before she can have lawful children by him Were it not a simple thing for a woman to expect children legitimate by a man and then she would marry him As absurd it is to expect First to have legitimate graces in the soul and then to believe to be sanctified and get victory over sin and then to believe in Christ for Faith which doth espouse thee to Christ is the cause of all true Mortification and Holiness as marriage is of children As the Apostle tells you Ye are married to another even to him who is raised from Rom. 7. 4. the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God Christ is as it were the Father of all our graces of him we received grace for grace and when he hath married us to himself he begets them in us Of his grace he conveys grace to us and he never doth it but by our Faith in him for it is by Faith that he lives in us and we in him and holiness is the means by which Christ after he is believed in brings them that believe in him to salvation And this removes that objection that troubles many repentance Act. 2. 38. and conversion is requited to pardon of sin Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost Again Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may Act 3. 19. be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Once more For him hath God exalted Act. 5. 31. with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins How then shall I believe his promise of mercy to the pardon of my sins that cannot clear my Conversion to my Conscience None can enter into the Kingdom of God except they be born again of the John 3. 3. Rom. 8. 13. spirit If I live after the slesh I shall dye Here are two questions consounded they must be distinguished and taken asunder 1. What manner of persons they be whom God admits into Heaven 2. What manner of persons may receive Christ unto Justification of life For the first 1. God indeed receives none into Heaven but those on whom he hath written the golden Characters of sanctification And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of Act. 20. 32. his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified For the second who may receive Christ 2. I say