if he cannot trip up so as to hinder his arrival in heaven yet at least to bruise it that he may go with more pain thither CHAP. II. Satans subtilty in managing his temptations where several stratagems used by him to deceive the Christian are laid down THe second way wherein Satan shews his tempting subtilty is in those stratagems he useth to deceive the Christian in the act of temptation First he hangs out false colours and comes up to the Christian in the disguise of a friend so that the gates are opened to him and his motions received with applause before either be discovered therfore he is said to transform himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 Of all plots 't is most dangerous when he appears in Samuels mantle and silvers his foul tongue with faire language Thus in point of errour he corrupts some in their judgements by commending his notions for precious Gospel-truths and like a cunning Chapman puts off his old ware errours I mean that have layen long upon his hand only turkening them a little after the mode of the times and they go for new light under the skirt of Christian liberty he conveys in Libertinisme by crying up the Spirit he decries and vilifies the Scripture by magnifying faith he labours to undermine repentance and blow up good works by bewailing the corruption of the Church in its administrations he drawes unstable souls from it and amuseth them till at last they fall into a vertigo and can see no Church at all in being And he prevails no lesse on the hearts and lives of men by this wile then on their judgements Under the notion of zeal he kindles sometimes a dangerous flame of passion and wrath in the heart which like a rash fire makes the Christians spirit boile over into unchristian desires of and prayers for revenge where he should forgive of which we have an instance in the disciples Luke 9.55 where two holy men are desiring that fire may come down from heaven Little did they think from whence they had their coal that did so heat them till Christ told them Ye know not what Spirit you are of Sometimes he pretends pity and natural affection which in some cases may be good counsel and all the while he desires to promote cowardise and sinful self-love whereby the Christian may be brought to flie from his colours shrink from the truth or decline some necessary duty of his calling this his wile Christ soon spied when he got Peter to be his spokesman saying Master pity thy self who stop't his mouth with that sharp rebuke Get thee behinde me Satan O what need have we to study the Scriptures our hearts and Satans wiles that we may not bid this enemy welcome and all the while think it's Christ that is our guest A second policie he useth is to get intelligence of the Saints affairs This is one great wheele in the Politicians clock to have Spies in all places by whom they are acquainted with the counsels and motions of their enemies and this gives them advantage as to disappoint their designes so more safely to compasse their own 'T is no hard matter for him to play his game well that sees his enemies hand David knew how the squares went at Court Jonathans arrowes carried him the newes and accordingly he removed his quarters and was too hard for his great enemy Saul Satan is the greatest Intelligencer in the world he makes it his businesse to enquire into the inclinations thoughts affections purposes of the creature that finding which humour abounds he may apply himself accordingly which way the stream goes that he may open the passage of temptation and cut the channel to the fall of the creatures affections and not force it against the torrent of nature Now if we consider but the piercing apprehension of the Angelical nature how quick he is to take the sent which way the game goes by a word drop't the cast of an eye or such a small matter signal enough to give him the alarm his experience in heart-anatomy having inspected and as it were dissected so many in his long practice whereby his knowledge is much perfected as also his great diligence to adde to both these being as close a Student as ever considering the Saints and studying how he may do them a mischief as we see in Jobs case whom he had so observed that he was able to give an answer ex tempore to God what Jobs state and present posture was and what might be the most probable means of obtaining his will of him and besides all this the correspondence that he hath with those in and about the Christian from whom he learnes much of his state as David by Hushai in Absaloms counsel all these considered 't is almost impossible for the creature to stir out of the closet of his heart but it will be known whither he enclines some corrupt passion or other will bewray the soule to him as they did David to Saul who told him where he might finde him in the wildernesse of Engedi Thus will these give intelligence to Satan and say If thou wouldest surprize such a one he is gone that way you shall have him in the wood of worldly employments over head and eares in the desires and cares of this life see where another sits under such a bower delighting himself in this childe or that gift endowment of mind or the like lay but the lime-twig there and you shall soon have him in it Now Satan having this intelligence lets him alone to act his part he sure cannot be at a losse himself when his scholars the Jesuites I mean have such agility of minde to wreath and cast themselves into any forme becoming the persons they would seduce Is ambition the lust the heart favours O the pleasing projects that he will put such upon how easily having first blown them up with vain hopes doth he draw them into horrid sins Thus Human that he may have a monopoly of his Princes favour is hurried into that bloody plot fatal at last to himself against the Jewes Is uncleannesse the lust after which the creatures eye wanders Now he 'll be the Pander to bring him and his Minion together Thus he finding Amnon sick of this disease sends Jonadah a deep-pated fellow to put this fine device into his head of feigning himself sick whereby his Sister fell into his snare Thirdly in his gradual approaches to the soul When he comes to tempt he is modest asks but a little he knows he may get that at many times which he should be denied if lie ask't all at once A few are let into a city when an army coming in a body would be shut out and therefore that he may beget no suspition he presents may be a few general propositions which do not discover the depth of his plot these like Scouts goe before while his whole body lies hid as it were in
in this case is to do with these motions as you use to serve those vagrants and rogues that come about the countrey whom though you cannot keep from passing through your town yet you look they settle not there but whip them and send them to their owne home Thus give these motions the Law in mourning for them resisting of them and they shall not be your charge yea 't is like you shall seldomer be troubled with such guests but if once you come to entertain them and be Satans nurse to them then the Law of God will cast them upon you SECT II. Secondly another wile of Satan as a troubler is in aggravating the Saints sins against which he hath a notable declamatory faculty not that he hates the sin but the Saint now in this his chief subtilty is so to lay his charge that it may seem to be the act of the holy Spirit he knowes an arrow out of Gods quiver wounds deep and therefore when he accuseth he comes in Gods Name as suppose a childe were conscious to himselfe of displeasing his father and one that owes him a spite to trouble him should counterfeit a letter from his father and cunningly conveyes it into the sons hand who receives it as from his father wherein he chargeth him with many heavy crimes disownes him and threatens he shall never come in his sight or have penny portion from him the poor son conscious to himself of many undutiful carriages and not knowing the plot takes on heavily and can neither eate nor sleep for grief here is a real trouble begot from a false and imaginary ground Thus Satan observes how the squares go between God and his children such a Saint he sees tardy in this duty faulty in that service and he knows the Christian is conscious of this and that the Spirit of God will also shew his distaste for these both which prompts Satan to draw a charge at length raking up all the bloody aggravations he can think of and give it in to the Saint as sent from God Thus he taught Jobs friends to pick up those infirmities which drop't from him in his distresse and shoot them back in his face as if indeed they had been sent from God to declare him an hypocrite and denounce his wrath for the same Quest But how should we know the false accusations of Satan from the rebukes of God and his Spirit Answ First if they crosse any former act or work of the Spirit in thy soule they are Satans not the Holy Spirits Now you shall observe Satans scope in accusing the Christian and aggravating his sin is to unsaint him and perswade him he is but an hypocrite O saith Satan now thou hast shewen what thou art see what a foule spot is on thy coat this is not the spot of a childe whoever that was a Saint commited such a sin after such a sort All thy comforts and confidence which thou hast bragg'd of were false I warrant you thus you see Satan at one blow dasheth all in pieces The whole fabrick of grace which God hath been rearing up many yeares in the soule must now at one puffe of his malicious mouth be blown down and all the sweet comforts with which the Holy Spirit hath seal'd up Gods love must be defaced with this one blot which Satan drawes over the faire copy of the Saints evidence Well soule for thy comfort know if ever the Spirit of God hath begun a sanctifying or comforting work causing thee to hope in his mercy he never is will or can be the messenger to bring contrary newes to thy soule his language is not yea and nay but Yea and Amen for ever Indeed when the Saint playes the wanton he can chide yea will frown and tell the soule roundly of its sin as he did David by Nathan Thou art the man this thou hast done and paints out his sin with such bloody colours as made Davids heart melt as it were into so many drops of water but that shall not serve his turn he tells him what a rod is steeping for him that shall smart to purpose one of his own house no other then his darling son shall rise up against him that he may the more fully conceive how ill God took the sin of him a childe a Saint when he shall know what it is to have his beloved childe traiterously invade his Crown and unnaturally hunt for his precious life yet not a word all this while is heard from Nathan teaching David to unsaint himself and call in question the work of God in his soule No he had no such commission from God he was sent to make him mourne for his sin not from his sin to question his state which God had so oft put out of doubt Secondly when they asperse the riches of Gods grace and so charge the Christian that withal they reflect upon the good Name of God then they are not of the Holy Spirit but from Satan When you finde your sins so represented and aggravated to you as exceeding either the mercy of Gods nature or the grace of his Covenant Hic se aperit diabolus this comes from that foule liar The Holy Spirit is Christs Spokesman to commend him to souls and to wooe sinners to embrace the grace of the Gospel and can such words drop from his sacred lips as should break the match and sink Christs esteem in the thoughts of the creature you may know where this was minted When you hear one commend another for a wise or good man and at last come in with a but that dasheth all you will easily think he is no friend to the man but some slie enemy that by seeming to commend desires to disgrace the more Thus when you finde God represented to you as merciful and gracious but not to such a great sinner as you to have power and strength but not able to save thee you may say Avant Satan thy speech bewrayeth thee SECT III. Thirdly another wile of Satan lies in cavilling at the Christians duties and performances by which he puts him to much toil and trouble He is at Church assoon as thou canst be Christian for thy heart yea he stands under thy closet-window and heares what thou sayest to God in secret all the while studying how he may commence a suit against thee from thy duty like those that come to Sermons to carp and catch at what the Preacher saith that they may make him an offender for some word or other mis-placed or like a cunning Opponent in the Schooles while his adversary is busie in reading his position he is studying to confute it and truly Satan hath such an Art at this that he is able to take our duties in pieces and so disfigure them that they shall appear formal though never so zealous hypocritical though enricht with much sincerity When thou hast done thy duty Christian then stands up this Sophister to ravel out thy work there
other works of God empty themselves as rivers into this sea losing their names or rather swelling into one of Redemption Had not Satan taken Gods Elect prisoners they would not have gone to heaven with such acclamations of triumph There are three expressions of a great joy in Scripture the joy of a woman after her travel the joy of harvest and the joy of him that divideth the spoil the exultaton of all these is wrought upon a sad ground many a paine and teare it costs the travelling woman many a feare the husbandman perils and wounds the souldier before they come at their joy but at last are paid for all the remembrance of their past sorrows feeding their present joyes Had Christ come and entered into affinity with our nature and return'd peaceably to heaven with his Spouse finding no resistance though this would have been admirable love and that would have afforded the joy of marriage yet this way of carrying his Saints to heaven will greaten the joy as it addes to the nuptial Song the triumph of a Conquerour who hath rescued his Bride out of the hands of Satan as he was leading her to the chambers of hell SECT III. Vse 1 Is Satan such a great Prince try whose subject thou art His Empire is large only a few priviledg'd who are translated into the Kingdome of Gods dear Son even in Christs own territories visible Church I mean where his Name is profest and the Scepter of his Gospel held forth there Satan hath his subjects As Christ had his Saints in Nero's Court so the devil his servants in the outward Court of his visible Church Thou must therefore have something more to exempt thee from his Government then living within the pale and giving an outward conformity to the Ordinances of Christ Satan will yield to this and be no loser As a King lets his Merchants trade to yea live in a forreign Kingdome and while they are there learn the language and observe the customes of the place this breaks not their allegiance nor all that thy loyalty to Satan When a Statute was made in Queen Elizabeths reign that all should come to Church the Papists sent to Rome to know the Popes pleasure he return'd them this answer as 't is said Bid the Catholicks in England give me their heart and let the Queen take the rest His subject thou art whom thou crownest in thy heart and not whom thou flatterest with thy lips But to bring the trial to an issue know thou belongest to one of these and but to one Christ and Satan divide the whole world Christ will bear no equal and Satan no Superiour and therefore hold in with both thou canst not Now if thou sayest Christ be thy Prince answer to these Interrogatories First how came he into the throne Satan had once the quiet possession of thy heart thou wast by birth as the rest of thy neighbours Satans vassal yea hast oft vouch't him in the course of thy life to be thy Liege Lord how then comes this great change Satan surely would not of his own accord resigne his Crown and Scepter to Christ and for thy self thou wert neither willing to renounce nor able to resist his power this then must only be the fruit of Christs victorious armes whom God hath exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour Asts 5.31 Speak therefore hath Christ come to thee as once Abraham to Lot when prisoner to Kederlaomer rescuing thee out of Satans hands as he was leading thee in chains of lust to hell Didst thou ever hear a voice from heaven in the Ministery of the Word calling out to thee as once to Saul so as to lay thee at Gods foot and make thee face about for heaven to strike thee blinde in thine own apprehension who before hadst a good opinion of thy state to tame and meeken thee so as how thou art willing to be led by the hand of a childe after Christ Did ever Christ come to thee as the Angel to Peter in prison rowsing thee up and not only causing the chaines of darknesse and stupidity to fall off thy minde and conscience but make thee obedient also that the iron gate of thy Will hath opened to Christ before he left thee then thou hast something to say for thy freedome But if in all this I be a Barbarian and the language I speak be strange thou knowest no such work to have passed upon thy spirit then thou art yet in thy old prison can there be a change of Government in a Nation by a Conquerour that invades it and the subjects not heare of this one King unthroned and another crowned in thy soule and thou hear no scuffle all this while The regenerating Spirit is compared to the winde John 3.8 His first attempts on the soule may be so secret that the creature knows not whence they come or whither they tend but before he hath done the sound will be heard throughout the soule so as it cannot but see a great change in it self and say I that was blinde now I see I that was as hard as ice now relenting for sin now my heart gives I can melt and mourne for it I that was well enough without a Christ yea did wonder what others saw in him to make such a do for him now have changed my note with the Daughters of Jerusalem and for what is your Beloved as I scornfully have ask't I have learn't to ask where he is that I might seek him with you O soul canst thou say 't is thus with thee thou mayest know who has been here no lesse then Christ who by his victorious Spirit hath translated thee from Satans power into his own sweet Kingdom Secondly whose law doest thou freely subject thy self unto the lawes of these Princes are as contrary as their natures the one a law of sin Rom. 8.2 the other a law of holinesse Rom. 7.12 and therefore if sin hath not so far bereav'd thee of thy wits as not to know sin from holinesse thou mayest except resolve to cheat thy own soul soon be resolved confesse therefore and give glory to God to which of these laws doth thy soule set its seal When Satan sendes out his Proclamation and bids sinner goe set thy foot upon such a command of God observe what is thy behaviour doest thou yield thy self as Paul phraseth it Rom. 6.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a metaphor from Princes servants or others who are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to present themselves before their Lord as ready and at hand to do their pleasure by which the Apostle elegantly describes the forwardnesse of the sinners heart to come to Satans foot when knock or call Now doth thy soule go out thus to meet thy lust as Aaron his brother glad to see its face in an occasion thou art not brought over to sin with much ado but thou likest the command Transgresse at Gilgal saith God this liketh you well Hos 4.5 As
of these then the other There is hardly a fleshly lust but hath some spiritual sinne analogical to it as they say there is no species of creatures on the land but may be pattern'd in the sea Thus the heart of man can produce spiritual sinnes answering carnal lusts for whoredom and uncleannesse of the flesh there is idolatry call'd in Scripture spiritual adultery from which the seat of Antichrist is call'd spiritual Sodom for sensual drunkennesse there is a drunkennesse of the minde intoxicating the judgement with errour a drunkennesse of the heart in cares and feares for carnal pride in beauty riches honour there is a spiritual pride of gifts graces c. Now Satan in an especial manner assaults the Christian with such as these it would require a larger discourse then I can allow to runne over the several kindes of them I shall of many pick out two or three As first Satan labours to corrupt the mind with erroneous principles he was at work at the very first plantation of the Gospel sowing his darnel assoon almost as Christ his wheate which sprung up in pernicious errours even in the Apostles times which made them take the weeding-hook into their hands and in all their Epistles labour to countermine Satan in this design Now Satan hath a double design in this his endeavour to corrupt the mindes of men especially Professours with errour SECT I. First he doth this in despite to God against whom he cannot vent his malice at a higher rate then by corrupting his truth which God hath so highly honoured Psal 138.2 Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Every creature bears the Name of God but in his Word and truth therein contained 't is writ at length and therefore he is more choice of this then of all his other works he cares not much what becomes of the world and all in it so he keeps his Word and saves his truth Ere long we shall see the world on a light flame the heavens and earth shall passe away but the Word of the Lord endures for ever When God will he can make more such worlds as this is but he cannot make another truth and therefore he will not lose one iota thereof Satan knowing this sets all his wits on work to deface this truth and disfigure it by unsound doctrine The Word is the glasse in which we see God and seeing him are changed into his likenesse by his Spirit If this glasse be crackt then our conceptions we have of God will mis-repesent him unto us whereas the Word in its native clearnesse sets him out in all his glory unto our eye Secondly he endeavours to draw into this spiritual sin of errour as the most subtil and effectual means to weaken if not destroy the power of godlinesse in them The Apostle joynes the Spirit of power and a sound minde together 2 Tim 1.7 Indeed the power of holinesse in practice depends much on the foundnesse of judgement Godlinesse is the childe of truth and it must be nurst if we will have it thrive with no other milk then of its own mother Therefore we are exhorted to desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow 1 Pet. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if this milk be but a little dash't with errour it is not so nutritive All errour how innocent soever any may seem like the Ivy draws away the strength of the souls love from holinesse Hosea tells us Whoredom and wine take away the heart now errour is spiritual adultery Paul speaks of his espousing them to Christ when a person receives an errour he takes a stranger into Christs bed and it is the nature of adulterous love to take away the wises heart from her true husband that she delights not in his company so much as of her adulterous lover and do we not see it at this day fulfill'd do not many shew more zeal in contending for one errour then for many truths how strangely are the hearts of many taken off from the wayes of God their love cool'd to the Ordinances and Messengers of Christ and all this occasioned by some corrupt principle got into their bosomes which controuls Christ and his truth as Hagar and her son did Sarah and her childe Indeed Christ will never enjoy true conjugal love from the soule till like Abraham he turns these out of doors Errour is not so innocent a thing as many think it it is as unwholesome food to the body that poisons the spirits and surfeits the whole body which seldom passeth away and not break out into sores As the knowledge of Christ carries a soule above the pollutions of the world so errour entangles and betrayes it to those lusts whose hands it had escaped Thirdly Satan in drawing a soule into this spiritual sin hath a designe to disturb the peace of the Church which is rent and shattered when this fire-ship comes among them I hear saith Paul there are divisions among you and I partly beleeve it for there must be heresies 1 Cor. 11.18 19. implying that divisions are the natural issue of heresie Errour cannot well agree with errour except it be against the truth then indeed like Pilate and Herod they are easily made friends but when truth seems to be overcome and the battel is over with that then they fall out among themselves and therefore it is no wonder if it be so troublesom a neighbour to truth O Sirs what a sweet silence and peace was there among Christians a dozen years ago me thinks the looking back to those blessed dayes in this respect though they had also another way their troubles yet not so uncomfortable because that storme united this scatters the Saints spirits is joyous to remember in what unity and love Christians walk't that the Persecutors of those times might have said as their Predecessours did of the Saints in primitive times See how they love one another but now alas they may jeere and say See how they that loved so dearly are ready to pluck one anothers throats out SECT II. The application of this shall be only in a word of exhortation to all especially you who bear the Name of Christ by a more eminent Profession of him O beware of this soul-infection this leprosie of the head I hope you do not think it needlesse for 't is the disease of the times This plague is begun yea spreads apace not a flock a Congregation hardly that hath not this scab among them Paul was a Preacher the best of us all may write after and he presseth this home upon the Saints yea in the constant course of his preaching it made a piece of his Sermon Acts 20.30 31. he sets us Preachers also on this work Take heed to your selves and to all the flock for I know this that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things therefore watch And then he presents his
winde himself out of his trouble by sordid flattery of or sinful compliance with the great ones of the times Some would have used any pick-lock to have opened a passage to their liberty and not scrupled so escape they might whether they got out at the door or window But this holy man was not so fond of liberty or life as to purchase them with the least hazard to the Gospel He knew too much of another world to bid so high for the enjoying of this and therefore he is at a point what his enemies can do with him well knowing he could go to heaven whether they would or no No the great care which lay upon him was for the Churches of Christ as a faithful Steward he labours to set this House of God in order before his departure We reade of no dispatches sent to Court to procure his liberty but many to the Churches to help them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free There is no such way to be even with the devil and his instruments for all their spite against us as by doing what good we can wherever we become The devil had as good have let Paul alone for he no sooner comes into prison but he falls a preaching at which the gates of Satans prison flie open and poor sinners come forth Happy for Onesimus that Paul was sent to Jaile God had an errand for Paul to do to him and others which the devil never dream't of Nay he doth not only preach in prison but that he may do the devil all the mischief he can he sends his Epistles to the Churches that tasting his Spirit in his afflictions and reading his faith now ready to be offered up they might much more be confirmed amongst which Ephesus was not least in his thoughts as you may perceive by his abode with them two yeares together Acts 19.10 as also by his sending for the Elders of this Church as far as Miletus in his last journey to Jerusalem Acts 20.17 to take his farewel of them as never to see their face in this world more And surely the sad impression which that heart-breaking departure left upon the spirits of these Elders yea the whole Church by them acquainted with this mournful newes might stir up Paul now in prison to write unto this Church that having so much of his Spirit yea of the Spirit of the Gospel left in their hands to converse with they might more patiently take the newes of his death In the former part of this Epistle he soares high in the mysteries of faith In the latter according to his usual method he descends to Application where we finde him contracting all those truths as beams together in a powerful exhortation the more to enkindle their hearts and powerfully perswade them to walk worthy of their vocation chap. 4.1 which then is done when the Christians life is transparent that the grace of the Gospel shines forth in the power of holinesse on every side and from all his relations as a candle in a Crystal glasse not in a dark Lanthorn lightsome one way and dark another and therefore he runs over the several relations of Husband Wife Parents Children Master and Servants and presseth the same in all these Now having set every one in his proper place about his particular duty as a wise General after he hath ranged his Army and drawn them forth into rank and file he makes this following speech at the head of this Ephesian Camp all in martial phrase as best suiting the Christians calling which is a continued warfare with the world and the Prince of the world The speech it self contains two parts First a short but sweet and powerful encouragement ver 10. Secondly the other part is spent in several directions for their managing this war the more succesfully with some motives here and there sprinkled among them To begin with the first 1. The word of encouragement to battel With this he begins his speech Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord the best way indeed to prepare them for the following directions A soul deeply possest with fear and disspirited with strong impressions of danger is in no posture for counsel As we see in an Army when put to the run with some sudden alarm and apprehensions of danger 't is hard rallying them into order while the scare and feare is over therefore the Apostle first raiseth up their spirits Be strong in the Lord as if he should say perhaps some drooping soules finde their hearts faile them while they see their enemies so strong and they so weak so numerous and they so few so well appointed and they so naked and unarmed so skilful and expert at armes but they green and raw souldiers Let not these or any other thoughts dismay you but with undaunted courage march on and be strong in the Lord on whose performance lies the stresse of the battel and not on your skill or strength It is not the least of a Ministers care and skill in dividing the Word so to presse the Christians duty as not to oppresse his Spirit with the weight of it by laying it on the creatures own shoulders and not on the Lords strength as here our Apostle teacheth us In this verse First here is a familiar Compellation My brethren Secondly here is the exhortation Be strong Thirdly here is a cautionary direction annexed to the exhortation In the Lord. Fourthly here is an encouraging amplification of the direction And in the power of his might or in his mighty power CHAP. I. Of Christian Courage and Resolution wherefore necessary and how obtained WE shall wave the Compellation and begin with the Exhortation Be strong that is be of good courage so commonly used in Scripture-phrase 2 Chron. 32.7 Be strong and couragious So Isa 35.4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong or unite all the powers of your souls and muster up your whole force you will have use of all you can make or get From whence the Point is this The Christian of all men needs courage and resolution Indeed there is nothing he doth as a Christian or can do but is an act of valour A cowardly spirit is beneath the lowest duty of a Christian Josh 1.7 Be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest what stand in battel against those warlike Nations No But that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee It requires more prowesse and greatnesse of spirit to obey God faithfully then to command an Army of men to be a Christian then to be a Captain What seems lesse then for a Christian to pray yet this cannot be performed aright without a Princely Spirit As Jacob is said to behave himself like a Prince when he did but pray for which he came out of the field Gods Bannarite Indeed if you call that prayer which a carnal person performes
an All-wise God that cannot be out-witted and therefore will in the end but pay the workmen in greater damnation The foolishnesse of God is wiser then men yea then the wisdome of men and devils that is the meanes and instruments which God opposeth Satan withal What weaker then a Sermon who sillier then the Saints in the account of the wise world yet God is wiser in a weak Sermon then Satan is in his deep plots wherein the State-heads of a whole Conclave of profound Cardinals are knock't together wiser in his simple ones then Satan in his Achitophels and Sanballats and truly God chooseth on purpose to defeat the policies of hell and earth by these that he may put such to greater shame 1 Cor. 1.21 How is the great Scholar ashamed to be baffled by a plain Countrey-mans argument thus God calls forth Job to wrestle with Satan and his Seconds for such his three friends shewed themselves in taking the devils part and sure he is not able to hold up the cudgels against the fencing-Master who is beaten by one of the scholars God sits laughing while hell and earth sit plotting Psal 2.4 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty he breaketh their studied thoughts and plots as the words import Job 5.12 in one moment pulling down the labours of many yeares policy Indeed as great men keep wilde beasts for game and sport as the fox the boare c. so doth God Satan and his instruments to manifest his wisdom in the taking of them It is observed that the very hunting of some beasts affords not only pleasure to the Hunter but also more sweetnesse to the eater Indeed God by displaying of his wisdome in the pursuit of the Saints enemies doth superadde a sweet relish to their deliverances at last He brake the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave him to be meat to his people After he had hunted Pharaoh out of all his formes and burrowes now he breaks the very braines of all his plots and serves him up to his people with the garnishment of his wisdom and power about CHAP. IX An Account is given how the All-wise God doth out-wit the devil in his tempting of Saints to sin wherein are laid down the ends Satan propounds and how he is prevented in them all with the gracious issue that God puts to these his temptations Quest But how doth God defeat Satan and out-wit his wiles in tempting his Saints Answ This God doth by accomplishing his own gracious ends for the good and comfort of his people out of those temptations from which Satan designes their ruine this is the noblest kinde of Conquest to beat back the devils weapon to the wounding of his own head yea to cut it off with the devils own sword thus God sets the devil to catch the devil and layes as it were his own counsels under Satans wings and makes him hatch them Thus the Patriarchs help't to fulfil Josephs dream while they are thinking to rid their hands of him To instance in a few particulars SECT I. First Satan by his temptations aimes at the defiling of the Christians conscience and disfiguring that beautiful face of Gods image which is engraven with holinesse in the Christians bosome he is an unclean spirit himself and would have them such that he might glory in their shame but God out-wits him for he turneth the temptations of Satan to sin to the purging them from sinne they are the black soap with which God washeth his Saints white First God useth the temptations of Satan to one sin as a preventive against another to Pauls thorn in the flesh to prevent his pride God sends Satan to assault Paul on that side where he is strong that in the mean time he may fortifie him where he is weak Thus Satan is befool'd as sometimes we see an army sitting down before a town where it wasts its strength to no purpose and in the mean time gives the enemy an advantage to recruit and all this by the counsel of some Hushai that is a secret friend to the contrary side God who is the Saints true friend sits in the devils Councel and over-rules proceedings there to the Saints advantage He suffers the devil to annoy the Christian with temptations to blasphemy atheisme and by these together with the troubles of spirit they produce the soule is driven to duty is humbled in the sense of these horrid apparitions in its imagination and secured from abundance of formality and pride which otherwise God saw invading him As in a family some businesse falls out which keeps the Master up later then ordinary and by this the thief who that night intended to rob him is disappointed had not such a soule had his spirit of prayer and diligence kept awake by those afflicting temptations 't is likely Satan might have come as a seducer and taken him napping in security Secondly God purgeth out the very sin Satan tempts to even by his tempting Peter never had such a conquest over his self-confidence never such an establishment of his faith as after his foule fall in the High Priests hall He that was so well perswaded of himself before as to say Though all were offended with Christ yet would not he how modest and humble was he in a few dayes become when he durst not say he loved Christ more then his fellow-brethren to whom before he had preferr'd himself what an undaunted Confessour of Christ and his Gospel doth he prove before Councels and Rulers who even now was dash't out of countenance by a filly maid and all this the product of Satans temptation sanctified unto him Indeed a Saint hath a discovery by his fall what is the prevailing corruption in him so that the temptation doth but stir the humour which the soul having found out hath the greater advantage to evacuate by applying those means and using those ingredients which do purge that malady cum delectu Now the soule sure will call all out against this destroyer Paul had not took such pains to buffet his body had he not found Satan knocking at that door Thirdly God useth these temptations for the advancing of the whole work of grace in the heart One spot occasions the whole garment to be washed David overcome with one sinne renewes his repentance for all Psal 51. A good husband when he seeth it rain in at one place sends for the Workman to look over all the house This indeed differenceth a sincere heart from an hypocrite whose repentance is partial soft in one plot and hard in another Judas cries out of his treason but not a word of his thievery and hypocrisie The hole was no wider in his conscience then where the bullet went in whereas true sorrow for one breaks the heart into shivers for others also SECT II. Secondly Satan by tempting one Saint hath a mischievous design against others either by encouraging them to sin by the example of such a one or discouraging them
of destroying his faith which he aimes at he is the occasion of the refining of it and thereby adding to its strength Secondly the love of tempted Saints is enkindled to Christ by their temptations and foiles in their temptations Possibly in the fit there may seem a damp upon their love as when water is first sprinkled upon the fire but when the Conflict is a little over and the Christian comes to himself his love to Christ will break out like a vehement flame First the shame and sorrow which a gracious soule must needs feele in his bosome for his sinful miscarriage while under the temptation will provoke him to expresse his love to Christ above others as is sweetly set forth in the Spouse who when the cold fit of her distemper was off and the temptation over bestirs her to purpose her lazy sicknesse is turned to love-sicknesse she findes it as hard now to sit as she did before to rise she can rest in no place out of her Beloveds sight but runs and asks every one she meets for him and whence came all this vehemency of her zeale all occasioned by her undutiful carriage to her husband she parted so unkindly with him that bethinking what she had done away she goes to make her peace If sins committed in unregeneracy have such a force upon a gracious soule that the thought of them though pardoned will still break and melt the heart into sorrow as we see in Magdalen and prick on to shew zeal for God above others as in Paul how much more will the sins of a Saint who after sweet acquaintance with Jesus Christ lifts up the heel against that bosome where he hath layen affect yea dissolve the heart as into so many drops of water and that sorrow provoke him to serve God at a higher rate then others No childe so dutiful in all the family as he who is return'd from his rebellion Again secondly as his own shame so the experience which such a one hath of Christs love above others will encrease his love Christs love is fuel to ours Ex iisdem nutrimur quibus constamus as it gives its being so it affords growth It is both Mother and Nurse to our love The more Christ puts forth his love the more heat our love gets and next to Christs dying love none greater then his succouring love in temptation The Mother never hath such advantage to shew her affection to her childe as when in distresse sick poor or imprisoned so neither hath Christ to his children as when tempted yea worsted by temptation When his children lie in Satans prison bleeding under the wounds of their consciences this is the season he takes to give an experiment of his tender heart in pitying his faithfulnesse in praying for them his mindfulnesse in sending succour to them yea his dear love in visiting them by his comforting Spirit Now when the soul hath got off some great temptation and reades the whole history thereof together wherein he findes what his own weaknesse was to resist Satan nay his unfaithfulnesse in complying with Satan which might have provok't Christ to leave him to the fury of Satan now to see both his folly pardoned and ruine graciously prevented and that by no other hand but Christs coming in to his rescue as Abishai to David when that gyant thought to have flaine him This must needs exceedingly endear Christ to the soul At the reading of such records the Christian cannot but enquire as Ahashuerus concerning Mordecai who by discovering a treason had saved the Kings life what honour hath been done to his sweet Saviour for all this And thus Jesus Christ whom Satan thought to bring out of the soules favour and liking comes in the end to sit higher and surer in the Saints affections then ever CHAP. X. A brief Application of the Point in two Branches Vse 1 THis affords a reason why God suffers his dear children to fall into temptation because he is able to out-shoot Satan in his own bowe and in the thing wherein he thinks to out-wit the Christian to be above him God will not only be admired by his Saints in glory for his love in their salvation but for his wisdom in the way to it The love of God in saving them will be the sweet draught at the marriage-feast and the rare wisdom of God in effecting this as the curious workmanship with which the cup shall be enamel'd Now wisdom appears most in untying knots and wading through difficulties The more crosse wards there are in a businesse the more wisdome to fit a key to the lock to make choice of such means as shall meet with the several turnings in the same On purpose therefore doth God suffer such temptations to intervene that his wisdom may be the more admired in opening all these and leading his Saints that way to glory by which Satan thought to have brought them to hell The Israelites are bid remember all the way that God led them in the wildernesse for fourty yeares Deut. 8.2 The History of these warres Christian will be pleasant to reade in heaven though bloody to fight on earth Moses and Elias talk't with Christ on Tabor an Embleme of the sweet communion which shall passe between Christ and his Saints in glory and what was their talk Luke 9.30 but of his death and sufferings It seems a discourse of our sufferings and temptations are not too low a subject for that blisseful state Indeed this left out would make a blemish in the faire face of Heavens glory Could the damned forget the way they went into hell how oft the Spirit of God was wooing and how far they were overcome by the conviction of it in a word how many turnes and returnes there were in their journey forward and backward what possibilities yea probabilities they had for heaven when on earth were but some hand so kinde as to blot these tormenting passages out of their memories it would ease them wonderfully So were it possible glorified Saints could forget the way wherein they went to glory and the several dangers that interven'd from Satan and their own back-sliding hearts they and their God too would be losers by it I mean in regard of his manifestative glory What is the glory wherein God appears at Zions deliverance those royal garments of salvation that make him so admired of men and Angels but the celebration of all his Attributes according to what every one hath done towards their salvation Now wisdom being that which the creature chiefly glories in and chosen by Satan for his first bait who made Eve believe she should be like God in knowledge and wisdome therefore God to give Satan the more shameful fall gives him leave to use his wits and wiles in tempting and troubling his children in which lies his great advantage over the Saints that so the way to his own Throne where his Wisdome shall at last as well as his mercy sit in
undertaken to beare thy losse yea to pay thee a hundred fold and thou shalt not stay for it till another world Again thou ought'st not to feare flesh Our Saviour Mat. 10. thrice in the compasse of sixe verses commands us not to feare man if thy heart quailes at him how wilt thou behave thy self in the list against Satan whose little finger is heavier then mans loines The Romanes had arma praelusoria weapons rebated or cudgels which they were tried at before they came to the sharp If thou canst not beare a bruise in thy flesh from mans cudgel and blunt weapon what wilt thou do when thou shalt have Satans sword in thy side God counts himself reproached when his children feare a sorry man therefore we are bid Sanctifie the Lord and not to feare their feare Now if thou wouldest not feare man who is but flesh Labour First to mortifie thy own flesh Flesh only feares flesh when the soule degenerates into carnal desires and delights no wonder he falls into carnal feares Have a care Christian thou bring'st not thy self into bondage perhaps thy heart feeds on the applause of men this will make thee afraid to be evil spoken of as those who shuffled with Christ John 12.42 owning him in private when they durst not confesse him openly for they loved the praise of men David saith the mouth of the wicked is an open Sepulchre and in this grave hath many a Saints name been buried but if this fleshly desire were mortified thou would'st not passe to be judg'd by man and so of all carnal affections Some meat you observe is aguish if thou settest thy heart on any thing that is carnal wife childe estate c. these will incline thee to a base feare of man who may be Gods messenger to afflict thee in these Secondly set faith against flesh Faith fixeth the heart and a fixed heart is not readily afraid Physicians tell us we are never so subject to receive infection as when the spirits are low and therefore the antidotes they give are all cordials When the spirit is low through unbelief every threatening from man makes sad impression Let thy faith take but a deep draught of the Promises and thy courage will rise Fourthly comfort thy self Christian with this that as thou art flâ—sh so thy heavenly Father knows it and considers thee for it First in point of affliction Psal 103.14 He knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust Not like some unskilful Emperick who hath but one receipt for all strong or weak young or old but as a wise Physician considers his Patient and then writes his bill men and devils are but Gods Apothecaries they make not our physick but give what God prescribes Balaam loved Balâ—ks see well enough but could not go an hairs breadth beyond Gods Commission Indeed God is not so choice with the wicked Isa 27.7 Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote hâ—m In a Saints cup the poison of the affliction is corrected not so in the wickeds and therefore what is medicine to the one is ruine to the other Secondly in duty he knows you are but flesh and therefore pities and accepts thy weak service yea he makes apologies for thee The Spirit is willing saith Christ but the flesh is weak Thirdly in temptations he considers thou art flesh and proportions the temptation to so weak a nature 't is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a temptation as is common to man a moderate temptation as in the margin fitted for so fraile a creature Whenever the Christian begins to faint under the weight of it God makes as much haste to his succour as a tender mother would to her swooning childe therefore he is said to be nigh to revive such lest their spirits should faile SECT III. The second thing follows The conjuncture of the Saints enemies We have not to do with naked man but with man led on by Satan not with flesh and blood but Principalities and Powers acting in them There are two sorts of men the Christian wrestles with good men and bad Satan strikes in with both First the Christian wrestles with good men Many a sharp conflict there hath been betwixt Saint and Saint scuffling in the dark through mis-understanding of the truth and each other Abraham and Lot at strife Aaron and Miriam justled with Moses for the wall till God interposed and ended the quarrel by his immediate stroak on Miriam The Apostles even in the presence of their Master were at high words contesting who should be greatest Now in these Civil wars among Saints Satan is the great kindle-coale though little seen because like Ahab he fights in a disguise playing first on one side and then on the other aggravating every petty injury and thereupon provoking to wrath and revenge therefore the Apostle dehorting from anger useth this argument Give no place to the devil as if he had said Fall not out among your selves except you long for the devils company who is the true souldier of fortune as the common phrase is living by his sword and therefore hastes thither where there is any hope of war Gregory compares the Saints in their sad differences to two cocks which Satan the Master of the pit sets on fighting in hope when kill'd to sup with them at night Solomon saith Prov. 18.6 The mouth of the contentious man calls for stroakes Indeed we by our mutual strifes give the devil a staffe to beat us with he cannot well work without fire and therefore blows up these coales of contention which he useth as his forge to heat our spirits into wrath and then we are malleable easily hammer'd as he pleaseth Contention puts the soul into disorder and inter arma silent leges The Law of grace acts not freely when the Spirit is in a commotion Meek Moses provok't speaks unadvisedly Me thinks this if nothing else will should sound a retreat to our unhappy differences that this Joab hath a hand in them he sets this evil spirit betwixt brethren and what folly is it for us to bite and devoure one another to make hell sport we are prone to mistake our heat for zeal whereas commonly in strifes between Saints it is a fire-ship sent in by Satan to break their unity and order wherein while they stand they are an Armado invincible and Satan knows he hath no other way but this to shatter them when the Christians language which should be one begins to be confounded they are then neare a scattering 't is time for God to part his children when they cannot live in peace together Secondly the Christian wrestles with wicked men Because you are not of the world saith Christ the world hates you The Saints nature and life are Antipodes to the world fire and water heaven and hell may assoon be reconciled as they with it The Heretick is his enemy for truths sake the prophane for holinesse to both the Christian is an abomination
when meat is eaten and digested it is not to be found as it was received but the man is cheered and strengthened by it more able to walke and work then before by which you may know it is not lost so you may taste the truths the Christian heard in his spirit see them in his life Perhaps if you aske him what the particulars were the Minister had about faith mortification repentance and the like he cannot tell you yet this you may finde his heart is more broken for sin more enabled to rely on the promises and now weaned from the world As that good woman answered one that coming from Sermon ask't her what she remembred of the Sermon said she could not at present recal much but she heard that which should make her reforme some things as soon as she came home Secondly meditate on what thou hearest by this David got more wisdome then his teachers Observe what truth what Scripture is cleared to thee in the Sermon more then before take some time in secret to converse with it and make it thereby familiar to thy understanding Meditation to the Sermon is what the harrow is to the seed it covers those truths which else might have been pickt or washt away I am afraid there are many proofs turned down at a Sermon that are hardly turned up and lookt on any more when the Sermon is done and if so you make others believe you are greater traders for your souls then you are indeed as if one should come to a shop and lay by a great deal of rich ware and when he hath done goes away and never calls for it O take heed of such doings The hypocrite cheats himself worst at last Thirdly discharge thy memory of what is sinful We wipe our table-book and deface what is there scribled before we can write new There is such a contrariety betwixt the truths of God and all that is frothy and sinful that one puts out the other if you would retain the one you must let the other go CHAP. VI. Of the Spirituality of the devils nature and their extreme wickednesse Against spiritual wickednesse THese words are the fourth branch in the deseription Spiritual wickednesses and our contest or combate with them as such exprest by the adversative particle Against in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word Against the Spirituals of wickednesse which is say some against wicked spirits that is true but not all I conceive with many Interpreters not only the spiritual nature of the devil and the wickednesse thereof to be intended but also yea chiefly the nature and kinde of those sins which these wicked spirits do most usually and vigourously provoke the Saints unto and they are the spirituals of wickednesse not those grosse fleshly sinnes which the herd of beastly sinners like swine wallow in but sin spirituallized and this because it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not spirits but spirituals The words present us with these three doctrinal Conclusions First the devils are spirits Secondly the devils are spirits extremely wicked Thirdly these wicked spirits do chiefly annoy the Saints with and provoke them to spiritual wickednesses First of the first SECT I. First they are spirits Spirit is a word of various acception in Scripture Amongst other used often to set forth the essence and nature of Angels good and evil both which are called spirits The holy Angels Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring spirits The evil There came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him 1 Kings 22.21 that spirit was a devil How oft is the devil call'd the unclean spirit foule spirit lying spirit c. Sin did not alter their substance for then as one saith well that nature and substance which transgrest could not be punish't First the devil is a spirit that is his essence is immaterial and simple not compounded as corporal beings are of matter and forme Handle and see me saith Christ to his disciples that thought they had seen a Spirit a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luke 24.39 If they were not thus immaterial how could they enter into bodies and possesse them as the Scripture tells us they have even a legion into one man Luke 8.30 one body cannot thus enter into another Secondly the devils are spiritual substances not qualities or evil motions arising from us as some have absurdly conceived So the Sadduces and others following them deny any such being as Angel good or evil but this is so fond a conceit that we must both forfeit our reason and deny the Scriptures to maintain it where we finde their Creation related Col. 1.18 the fall of some from their first estate Jude 6. and the standing of others called the Elect Angels The happinesse of the one who behold Gods face and their employment are sent out to attend on the Saints as servants on their Masters heirs Heb. 1. The misery of the other reserved in chaines of darknesse unto the judgement of the great day and their present work which is to do mischief to the souls and bodies of men as far as they are permitted all which shew their subsistence plain enough But so immerst is sorry man in flesh that he will not easily beleeve what he sees not with his fleshly eyes upon the same account we may deny the being of God himself because invisible Thirdly they are entire spiritual substances which have every very one proper existence and thus they are distinguish't from the souls of men which are made to subsist in a humane body and together with it to make one perfect man so that the soule though when separated from the body it doth exist yet hath a tendency to union with its body again Fourthly they are though entire spiritual substances yet finite being but creatures God only is the uncreated infinite and absolutely simple Spirit yea Father of all other spirits Now from this spiritual nature of the devil we may further see what a dreadful enemy we have to grapple with First as spirits they are of vast intellectual abilities Sorry man while in this dark prison of the body hath not light enough to know what Angelical perfections are that they excel in knowledge all other creatures we know because as Spirits they come nearest by Creation to the Nature of God that made them the heavens are not lift higher from the earth then Angels by knowledge from man while on earth Man by Art hath leatn't to take the height of the stars of heaven but where is he that can tell how far in knowledge Angels exceed man 'T is true they have lost much of that knowledge they had even all their knowledge as holy Angels what now they know of God hath lost its savour and they have no power to use it for their own good What Jude saith of wicked men may be said of them What they
on the sweet priviledges thou art interessed in by thy marriage to him Doest thou not bewray some of this spiritual pride working in thee O if thou couldest pray without wandering walk without limping believe without wavering then thou couldest rejoyce and walk chearfully It seems soule thou stayest to bring the ground of thy comfort with thee and not to receive it purely from Christ O how much better were it if thou wouldest say with David Though my house my heart be not so with God yet he hath made with me a Covenant ordered in all things and sure and this is all my desire all my confidence Christ I oppose to all my sins Christ to all wants he is my all in all and all above all Indeed all those complaints of our wants and weaknesses so far as they withdraw our hearts from relying chearfully on Christ they are but the language of pride hankering after the Covenant of works O 't is hard to forget our mother-tongue which is so natural to us labour therefore to be sensible of it how grievous it is to the Spirit of Christ What would a husband say if his wife in stead of expressing her love to him and delight in him should day and night do nothing but weep and cry to think of her former husband that is dead The Law as a Covenant and Christ are compared to two husbands Rom. 7.4 Ye are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead Now thy sorrow for the defect of thy own righteousnesse when it hinders thy rejoycing in Christ is but a whining after thy other husband and this Christ cannot but take unkindely that thou art not as well pleased to lie in the bosome of Christ and have thy happinesse from him as with your old husband the Law Secondly a self applauding pride when the heart is secretly lift up so as to promise it self acceptation at Gods hands for any duty or act of obedience it performes and doth not when most assisted go out of his own actings to lay the weight of his expectation entirely upon Christ every such glance of the soules eye is adulterous yea idolatrous If thy heart Christian at any time he secretly enticed as Job saâ—th of another kinde of idolatry or thy mouth doth kisse thy hand that is dote so farre on thy own duties or righteousnesse as to give them this inward worship of thy confidence and trust this is a great iniquity indeed for in this thou deniest the God that is above who hath determined thy faith to another object Thou comest to open heaven-gate with the old key when God hath set on a new lock Doest thou not acknowledge tnat thy first entrance into thy justified state was of pure mercy thou wert justified freely by hit grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 7.24 And whom are thou beholden to now thou art reconciled for thy further acceptance in every duty or holy action to thy duty thy obedience thy self or Christ The same Apostle will tell you Rom. 5.2 By whom we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand If Christ should not lead thee in and all thou doest thou art sure to finde the door shut upon thee there is no more place for desert now thou art gracious then when thou wert gracelesse Rom. 1.17 The righteousnesse of God is revealed from faith to faith for the just shall live by faith We are not only made alive by Christ but we live by Christ faith sucks in continual pardoning assisting comforting mercy from him as the lungs suck in the aire Heaven way is paved with grace and mercy to the end Be exhorted above all to watch against this play of Satan beware thou restest not in thy own righteousnesse thou standest under a tottering wall the very cracks thou seest in thy graces and duties when best bid thee stand off except thou wouldest have them fall on thy head the greatest step to heaven is out of our own doors over our own threshold It hath cost many a man his life when his house on fire a gripplenesse to save some of the stufte which venturing among the flames to preserve they have perished themselves more have lost their soules by thinking to carry some of their own stuffe with them to heaven Such a good work or duty while they like lingring Lot have been loath to leave in point of confidence have themselves perish't O Sirs come out come out leave what is your own in the fire flie to Christ naked he hath cloathing for you better then your own poor to Christ and he hath gold not like thine which will consume and be found drossy in the fire but such as hath in the fiery trial past in Gods righteous judgment for pure and full weight you cannot be found in two places at once choose whether you will be found in your own righteousnesse or in Christs Those who have had more to shew then thy selfe have thrown away all and gone a begging to Christ Reade Pauls Inventory Phil. 3. what he had what he did yet all drosse and losse give him Christ and take the rest who will So Job as holy a man as trod on earth God himself being witnesse yet saith Though I were perfect yet would I not know my own soule I would despise my life He had acknowledged his imperfection before now he makes a supposition indeed quod non est supponendum If I were perfect yet would I not know my own soule I would not entertain any such thoughts as should puffe me up into such a confidence of my holinesse as to make it my plea with God like to our common phrase We say Such a one hath excellent parts but he knows it that is he is proud of it Take heed of knowing thy own grace in this sense thou canst not give a greater wound both to thy grace and comfort then by thus priding thy self in it SECT III. First thy grace cannot thrive so long as thou thus restest on it A legal spirit is no friend to grace nay a bitter enemy against it as appeared by the Pharisees in Christs time Grace comes not by the Law but by Christ thou mayest stand long enough by it before thou gettest any life of grace into thy soule or further life into thy grace If thou wouldest have this thou must set thy self under Christs wings by faith from his Spirit in the Gospel alone comes this kindly natural heat to hatch thy soul to the life of holinesse and increase what thou hast and thou canst not come under Christs wings till thou comest from under the shadow of the other by renouncing all expectation from thy own works and services You know Reubens curse that he should not excel because he went up into his fathers bed when other tribes encreased he stood at a little number By trusting in
ch 4. v. 2 3 4. who had a minde to his Kinsman Elimelechs land and would have paid for the purchase but he liked not to have it by marrying Ruth and so missed of it Some seem very forward to have heaven and salvation if their own righteousnesse could procure the same all the good they do and duties they performe they lay up for this purchase but at last perish because they close not with Christ and take not heaven in his right A third sort are content to have it by Christ but their desires are so impotent and listlesse that they put them upon no vigourous use of means to obtain him and so like the sluggard they starve because they will not pull their hands out of their bosome of sloth to reach their food that is before them for the world they have mettal enough and too much they trudge far and near for that and when they have run themselves out of breath can stand and pant after the dust of the earth as the Prophet phraseth it Amos 2.7 But for Christ and obtaining interest in him O how key-cold are they there is a kinde of cramp invades all the powers of their soules when they should pray hear examine their hearts draw out their affections in hungrings and thirstings after his grace and Spirit 'T is strange to see how they even now went full soop to the world are suddenly becalm'd not a breath of winde stirring to any purpose in their soules after these things and is it any wonder that Christ and Heaven should be denied to them that have no more mind to them Lastly some have zeal enough to have Christ Heaven but it is when the Master of the house is risen and hath shut to the door and truly then they may stand long enough rapping before any come to let them in There is no Gospel preached in another world but as for thee poor soul who art perswaded to renounce thy lusts throw away the conceit of thy own righteousnesse that thou mayest run with more speed to Christ and art so possest with the excellency of Christ thy own present need of him and salvation by him that thou pantest after him more then life it self In Gods Name go on and speed be of good comfort he calls thee by name to come unto him that thou mayest have rest for thy soul There is an office in the Word where thou mayest have thy soule and its eternal happinesse ensured to thee Those that come to him as he will himself in no wise cast away so not suffer any other to pluck them away This day saith Christ to Zaccheus salvation is come to thy house Luke 19.9 Salvation comes to thee poore soul that openest thy heart to receive Christ thou hast eternal life already as sure as if thou wert a glorified Saint now walking in that heavenly City O Sirs if there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies enough gold for all that went and a certainty of making a safe voyage who would stay at home But alas this can never be had all this and infinitely more may be said for heaven and yet how few leave their uncertain hopes of the world to trade for it what account can be gi-given for this but the desperate atheisme of mens hearts they are not yet fully perswaded whether the Scripture speaks true or not whether they may relie upon the discovery that God makes in his Word of this new-found land and those mines of spiritual treasure there to be had as certain God open the eyes of the unbelieving world as he did the Prophets servants that they may see these things to be realities and not fictions 't is faith only that gives a being to these things in our hearts By faith Moses saw him that was invisible Thirdly earthly things when we have them we are not sure of them like birds they hop up and down now on this hedge and anon upon that none can call them his own rich to day and poor to morrow In health when we lie down and arrested with pangs of death before midnight Joyful Parents one while solacing our selves with the hopes of our budding posterity and may be ere long knocks one of Jobs messengers at our door to tell us they are all dead now in honour but who knows whether we shall not live to see that butied in scorn and reproach The Scripture compares the multitude of people to waters the great ones of the world sit upon these waters as the ship floates upon the waves so do their honours upon the breath and favour of the multitude and bow long is he like to sit that is carried upon a wave one while they are mounted up to heaven as David speaks of the ship and then down again they fall into the deep We have ten parts in the King say the men of Israel 2 Sam. 19.45 and in the very next verse Sheba doth but sound a trumpet of sedition saying We have no part in David no inheritance in the son of Jesse and the winde is in another corner presently for it 's said Every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba Thus was David cried up and down and that almost in the same breath Unhappy man he that hath no surer portion then what this variable world will afford him The time of mourning for the departure of all earthly enjoyments is at hand we shall see them as Eglons servants did their Lord fallen down dead before us and weep because they are not What folly then is it to dandle this vaine world in our affections whose joy like the childes laughter on the mothers knee is sure to end in a cry at last and neglect heaven and heavenly things which endure for ever O remember Dives stirring up his pillow and composing himself to rest how he was call'd up with the tydings of death before he was warme in this his bed of ease and laid with sorrow on another which God had made for him in flames from whence we hear him roaring in the anguish of his conscience O soule couldest thou get but an interest in the heavenly things we are speaking of these would not thus slip from under thee heaven is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Christ an abiding portion his graces and comforts sure waters that faile not but spring up unto eternal life The quailes that were food for the Israelites lust soon ceased but the rock that was drink to their faith followed them this rock is Christ make sure of him and he will make sure of thee he 'll follow thee to thy sick-bed and lie in thy bosome chearing thy heart with his sweet comforts when worldly joyes lie cold upon thee as Davids cloathes on him and no warmth of comfort to be got from them When thy outward senses are lock't up that thou canst neither see the face of thy dear friends nor hear the counsel and comfort they would give
that needs be to have a soul sharp set even to a ravenous hunger after sin but chain'd up where it can come at nothing it would have to satisfie its lost for a proud wretch that could wish he might dominere over all the world yea over God himself if he would let him to be kept down in such a dungeon as hell is O how it will cut for the malicious sinner whose heart swells with rancour against God and his Saints that he could pluck them out of Gods bosome yea God out of his throne if he had power to finde his hands so manacled that he can do nothing against them he so hates O how this will torment Speak O you Saints whose partial victory over sin at present is so sweet to you that you would choose a thousand deaths sooner then return to your old bondage under your lusts how glorious then is that day in your eye when this shall be compleated in a full and eternal Conquest never to have any thing to do more with sin or Satan Secondly to stand is here to stand justified and acquitted at the great day of judgement The phrase is frequent in Scripture which sets out the solemn discharge they shall have then by standing in judgement Psal 1.5 The wicked shall not stand in the judgement that is they shall not be justified Psal 130.3 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand that is who shall be discharged The great God upon whose errand we come into the world hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ a solemn day it will be when all that ever lived on earth high and low good and bad shall meet in one Assembly to make their personal appearance before Christ and from his mouth to receive their eternal doom who shall in his Majestick robes of glory ascend the awful seat of Judicature attended with his illustrious traine and guard of Angels about him as so many officers ready to execute and perform his pleasure according to the definitive sentence that he shall pronounce either to conduct those blessed ones whom he shall justifie into his glorious Kingdome or binde them hand and foot to be cast into hells unquenchable flames whom he shall condemn I do not wonder that Pauls Sermon on this subject did make an earth-quake in Felix his conscience but rather that any should be so far gone in a lethargy and dedolent numbnesse of conscience as the thought of this day cannot recover them to their sense and feeling O Sirs do you not vote them happy men and women that shall speed well on this day are not your thoughts enquiring who those blessed soules are which shall be acquitted by the lively voice of Christ the Judge You need not ascend to search the rolls of election in heaven here you may know they are such as fight the Lords battels on earth against Satan in the Lords Armour and that to the end of their lives These having done all shall stand in judgement And were it but at a mans bar some Court-Martial where a souldier stood upon trial for his life either to be condemned as a Traitour to his Prince or clear'd as faithful in his trust O how such a one would listen to heare how it would go with him and be overjoyed when the Judge pronounces him innocent Well may such be bid to fall down on their knees thank God and the Judge that have saved their lives how much more ravishing will the sweet voice of Christ be in the Saints eares when he shall in the face of men and Angels make publike declaration of their righteousnesse O how confounded will Satan then be who was their accuser to God and their own consciences also ever threatening them with the terrour of that day How blank will the wicked world be to see the dirt that they had throwen by their calumnies and lying reports on the Saints faces wiped off with Christs own hand they from Christs mouth to be justified as sincere whom they had call'd hypocrites will not this O ye Saints be enough for all the scorne you were laden with from the world and conflict you endured with the Prince of the world But this is not all Therefore Thirdly to stand doth here also as the complement of their reward denote the Saints standing in heavens glory Princes when they would reward any of their subjects that in their wars have done eminent service to the crown as the utmost they can do for them do prefer them to Court there to enjoy their Princely favour and stand in some place of honourable service before them continually Solomon sets it out as the greatest reward of faithful subjects to stand before Kings Heaven is the royal city where the great God keeps his Court. The happiness of glorious Angels is to stand there before God I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God Luke 1.19 That is I am one of those heavenly spirits who wait on the great God and stand before his face as Courtiers do about their Prince Now such honour shall every faithful soul have Thus saith the Lord of hostes If thou wilt walk in my wayes and if thou wilt keep my charge I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by Zech. 3.7 He alludes to the Temple which had rooms joyning to it for the Priests that waited on the Lord in his holy service there Or to Courtiers that have stately galleries and lodgings becoming their place at Court allowed them in the Kings Palace they wait upon Thus all the Saints whose representative Joshua was shall after they have kept the Lords charge in a short lifes service on earth be called up to stand before God in heaven where with Angels they shall have their galleries and mansions of glory also O happy they who shall stand before the Lord in glory The greatest Peeres of a Realme such as Earles Marquesses and Dukes are count it greater honour to stand before their King though bare-headed and oft upon the knee then to live in the countrey where all bow and stand bare to them yea let but their Prince forbid them coming to Court and 't is not their great estates or respect they have where they live will content them 'T is better to wait in heaven then to reign on earth 'T is sweet standing before the Lord here in an Ordinance one day in the worship of God is better then many elsewhere O what then is it to stand before God in glory If the Saints spikenard sendeth forth so sweet a smell while the King sits at his table here in a Sermon or Sacrament O then what joy must needs flow from their near attendance on him as he sits at his table in heaven which when God first made it was intended by him to be that Chamber of presence in which he would present himself to be seen of and enjoyed by his Saints in
booty at the sacking of some town are spoil'd for fighting ever after CHAP. II. Of the Saints strength where it lies and wherefore laid up in God THe second Branch of the words followeth which contains a cautionary direction Having exhorted the Saints at Ephesus and in them all believers to a holy resolution and courage in their warfare lest this should be mistaken and beget in them an opinion of their own strength for the battel the Apostle leads them out of themselves for this strength even to the Lord Be strong in the Lord. From whence observe That the Christians strength lies in the Lord not in himself The strength of the General in other hostes lies in his troops he flâ—es as a great Commander once said to his souldiers upon their wings if their feathers be clipt their power broken he is lost but in the Army of Saints the strength of every Saint yea of the whole hoste of Saints lies in the Lord of hostes God can overcome his enemies without their hands but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arme It is one of Gods names The strength of Israel 1 Sam. 15.19 He was the strength of Davids heart without him this valiant Worthy that could when held up in his armes defie him that defied an whole Army behaves himself strangely for feare at a word or two that drop't from the Philistines mouth He was the strength of his hands He taught his fingers to fight and so he is the strength of all his Saints in their war against sin and Satan Some propound a question whether there be a sin committed in the world in which Satan hath not a part but if the question were whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring that is resolved John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing Thinking strength of God 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God We Apostles we Saints that have habitual grace yet this lies like water at the bottome of a Well which will not ascend with all our pumping till God poure in his exciting grace and then it comes To will is more then to think to exert our will into action more then both these are of God Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure He makes the heart new and having made it fit for heavenly motion setting every wheele as it were in its right place then he windes it up by his actuating grace and sets it on going the thoughts to stir the will to move and make towards the holy object presented yet here the chariot is set and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoulder to the wheele Rom. 7. To will is present with me but how to performe that which is good I finde not God is at the bottome of the ladder and at the top also the Author and Finisher yea helping and lifting the soule at every round in his ascent to any holy action Well now the Christian is set on work how long will he keep close to it Alas poor soul no longer then he is held up by the same hand that impowered him at first He hath soon wrought out the strength received and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment which David knew and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it and his people by their free-will-offering declared the same yet even then he prayes that God would keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people and establish their hearts to him 1 Chron. 29.18 He adored the mercy that made them willing and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them and tie a knot that these precious pearles newly strung on their hearts might not slip off The Christian when fullest of divine communications is buâ— a glasse without a foot he cannot stand or hold what he hath received any longer then God holds him in his strong hand Therefore Christ when bound for heaven and ready to take his leave of his children bespeaks his Fathers care of them in his absence Father keep them as if he had said they must not be left alone they are poor shiftlesse children that can neither stand nor go without help they will lose the grace I have given them and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them if they be out of thy eye or armes but one moment and therefore Father keep them Again Consider the Christian as addressing himself to any duty of Gods worship still his strength is in the Lord Would he pray where will he finde materials for his prayer alas he knows not what to pray for as he ought Let him alone and he will soon pray himself into some temptation or other and cry for that which were cruelty in God to give and therefore God puts words in our mouthes Take words with you and say Hos 14.2 Well now he hath words put into his mouth alas they will freeze in his very lips if he hath not some heart-heating affections to thaw the tap and where shall this fire be had not a spark to be found on his own hearth except it be some strange fire of natural desires which will not serve whence then must the fire come to thaw the icenesse of the heart but from heaven The Spirit he must stretch himself upon the soul as the Prophet on the childe and then the soule will come to some kindly warmth and heavenly heat in his affections the Spirit must groane and then the soul will groane he helps us to these sighs and groans which turne the sailes of prayer He dissolves the heart and then it bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips by heavenly Rhethorick out of the eyes as from a flood-gate with teares yet further now the creature is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer what will he get by all this suppose he be weak in grace is he able to pray himself strong or corruption weak no this is not to be found in prayer as an act of the creature this drops from heaven also In the day that I cried thou answeredst me and gavest me strength in my soul David received it in duty but had it not from his duty but from his God He did not pray himself strong but God strengthened him in his prayer Well cast your eye once more upon the Christian as engaging in another Ordinance of hearing the Word preach't The soules strength to heare the Word is from God he opens the heart to attend yea he opens the understanding of the Saint to receive the Word so as to conceive what it meant It is like Samsons riddle which we cannot unfold without
his Heifer He opens the wombe of the soule to conceive by it as the understanding to conceive of it that the barren soul becomes a joyful mother of children David sate for halfe a year under the publick Lectures of the Law and the wombe of his heart shut up till Nathan comes and God with him and now is the time of life he conceives presently yea and brings forth in the same day falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins which went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet Psalm 51. Why should this one word work more then all the former but that God now struck in with his Word which he did not before He is therefore said to teach his people to profit he sits in heaven that teacheth hearts When Gods Spirit who is the Head-master shall call a soul from his Usher to himselfe and say Soul you have not gone the way to thrive by hearing the Word thus and thus conceive of such a truth improve such a promise presently the eyes of his understanding open and his heart burnes within him while he speaks to him Thus you see the truth of this Point That the Christians strength is in the Lord. Now we shall give some demonstrations SECT I. Reason 1 The first Reason may be taken from the nature of the Saints and their grace both are creatures they and their grace also now Inesse est de esse creaturae 'T is in the very nature of the creature to depend on God its Maker both for being and operation Can you conceive an accident to be out of its subject whitenesse out of the wall or some other subject 't is as impossible that the creature should be or act without strength from God This to be act in and of himself is so incommunicable a property of the Deity that he cannot impart it to his creature God is and there is none besides him when God made the world it is said indeed he ended his work that is of Creation he made no new species and kindes of creatures more but to this day he hath not ended his work of Providence Hitherto my Father worketh saith Christ John 5.17 that is in preserving and empowering what he hath made with strength to be and act and therefore he is said to hold our souls in life Works of Art which man makes when finish't may stand some time without the Workmans help as the house when the Carpenter that made it is dead but Gods works both of nature and grace are never off his hand and therefore as the Father is said to work hitherto for the preservation of the works of nature so the Son to whom is committed the work of Redemption he tells us he worketh also Neither ended he his work when he rose again any otherways then his Father did in the work of Creation God made an end of making so Christ made an end of purchasing mercy grace and glory for believers by once dying and as God rested at the end of the Creation so he when he had wrought eternal Redemption and by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on High Heb. 1.3 But he ceaseth not to work by his intercession with God for us and by his Spirit in us for God whereby he upholds his Saints their graces and comforts in life without which they would run to ruine Thus we see as grace is a creature the Christian depends on God for his strength But further Reason 2 Secondly the Christians grace is not only a creature but a weak creature conflicting with enemies stronger then it selfe and therefore cannot keep the field without an auxiliary strength from Heaven The weakest goes to the wall if no succour comes in Grace in this life is but weak like a King in the Cradle which gives advantage to Satan to carry on his plots more strongly to the disturbance of this young Kings reigne in the soule yea he would soon make an end of the war in the ruine of the believers grace did not Heaven take the Christian into protection 'T is true indeed grace whereever it is hath a principle in it selfe that makes it desire and endeavour to preserve it self according to its strength but being over-powered must perish except assisted by God as fire in green wood which deads and damps the part kindled will in time go out except blown up or more fire put to that little so will grace in the heart God brings his grace into the heart by Conquest now as in a conquered City though some yield and become true subjects to the Conquerour yet others plot how they may shake off this yoke and therefore it requires the same power to keep as was to win it at first The Christian hath an unregenerate part that is discontented at this new change in the heart and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christs Scepter as the Sodomites that Lot should judge them What this fellow a Stranger controule us And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian so that if God should not continually re-inforce this his new-planted Colony in the heart the very natives I mean corruptions that are left would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath it would be as bread to these devourers Reason 3 A third demonstration may be taken from the grand designe which God propounds to himself in the Saints salvation yea in the transaction of it from first to last And that is two-fold First God would bring his Saints to heaven in such a way as might be most expressive of his deare love and mercy to them Secondly he would so expresse his mercy and love to them as might rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory possible Now how becoming this is to both that Saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven will soon appear First this way of communicating strength to Saints gives a double accent to Gods love and mercy First it distills a sweetnesse into all the believer hath or doth when he findes any comfort in his bosome any enlargement of heart in duty any support under temptations To consider whence came all these what friend sends them in they come not from my own cisterne or any creatures O 't is my God that hath been here and left this sweet perfume of comfort behinde him in my bosome my God that hath unawares to me fill'd my sailes with the gales of his Spirit and brought me off the flats of my own deadnesse where I lay a ground O 't is his sweet Spirit that held my head stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief How can this choose but endear God to a gracious soul his succours coming so
enlarged in duty most assisted in his Christian course Remember Christian when thou hast thy best suit on who made it who paid for it Thy grace thy comfort is neither the work of thy own hands nor the price of thy own desert be not for shame proud of anothers cost That assistance will not long stay which becomes a nurse to thy pride thou art not Lord of that assistance thou hast Thy Father is wise who when he alloweth thee most for thy spiritual maintenance even then keeps the Law in his own hands and can soon curb thee if thou growest wanton with his grace Walk humbly therefore before thy God and husband well that strength thou hast remembring that it is borrowed strength Nemo prodiget quod mendicat Who will waste what he begs or who will give that beggar that spends idly his almes when thou hast most thou canst not be long from thy God his door And how canst thou look him on the face for more who hast imbezell'd what thou hast received CHAP. III. Of acting our faith on the Almighty Power of God THe third Branch followeth which contains an encouraging Amplification annexed to the exhortation in these words And in the Power of his might where a twofold enquiry is requisite for the explication of the phrase First what these words import The Power of his might Secondly what it is to be strong in the Power of his might For the first the Power of his might It is an Hebraism imports nothing but his mighty Power like that phrase Eph. 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace that is to the praise of his glorious grace And his mighty Power imports no lesse then his Almighty Power sometimes the Lord is stiled mighty and strong as Ps 24.8 sometimes most mighty sometimes Almighty no lesse is meant in all then Gods infinite Almighty Power For the second to be strong in the mighty Power or Power of the Lords might implies these two acts of faith First a setled firme perswasion that the Lord is Almighty in Power Be strong in the Power of his might that is be strongly rooted in your faith concerning this one foundation-truth that God is Almighty Secondly it implies a further act of faith not only to believe that God is Almighty but also that this Almighty Power of God is engaged for its defence so as to bear up in the midst of all trials and temptations undauntedly leaning on the arme of God Almighty as if it were his own strength for that is the Apostles drift as to beat us off from leaning on our own strength so to encourage the Christian to make use of Gods Almighty Power as freely as if it were his own when ever assaulted by Satan in any kinde As a man set upon by a thief stirs up all the force and strength he hath in his whole body to defend himself and offend his adversary so the Apostle bids the Christian be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might that is Soul away to thy God whose mighty Power is all intended and devoted by God himself for thy succour and defence Go strengthen and entrench thy selfe in it by a stedfast faith as that which shall be laid out to the utmost for thy good From whence these two Notes I conceive will draw out the fatnesse of the words 1. That it should be the Christians great care and endeavour in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith on the Almighty Power of God 2. The Christians duty and care is not only to believe that God is Almighty but strongly by faith to rest on this Almighty Power of God as engaged for his help and succour in all his trials and temptations First it should be the Christians great care in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith on the Almighty Power of God When God holds forth himselfe as an object of the souls trust and confidence in any great strait or undertaking commonly this attribute of his Almighty power is presented in the promise as the surest hold fast for faith to lay hold on as a Father in rugged way gives his childe his arme to lay hold by so doth God usually reach forth his Almighty power for his Saints to exercise their faith on Abraham Isaac and Jacob whose faith God tried above most of his Saints before or since for not one of those great things which were promised to them did they live to see performed in their dayes and how doth God make known himself to them for their support but by displaying this Attribute Exod. 6.3 I appeared unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty This was all they had to keep house with all their dayes with which they lived comfortably and died triumphantly bequeathing the promise to their children not doubting because God Almighty had promised of the performance Thus Isa 26. where great mercies are promised to Judah and a Song penn'd before-hand to be sung on that gaudie day of their salvation yet because there was a sharp Winter of Captivity to come between the Promise and the Spring-time of the promise therefore to keep their faith alive in this space the Prophet calls them up to act their faith on God Almighty v. 4. Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength So when his Saints are going into the furnace of persecution what now doth he direct their faith to carry to prison to stake with them but this Almighty power 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer commit the keeping of their souls to him as to a faithful Creatour Creatour is a name of Almighty Power we shall now give some Reasons of the Point Reas 1 First because it is no easie work to make use of this truth how plain and clear soever it now appears in great plunges of temptation that God is Almighty To vindicate this Name of God from those evil reports which Satan and carnal Reason raise against it requires a strong faith indeed I confesse this principle is a piece of natural divinity That light which finds out a Deity will evince if followed close this God to be Almighty yet in a carnal heart it is like a rusty sword hardly drawn out of the scabbard and so of little or no use Such truths are so imprisoned in natural conscience that they seldome get a faire hearing in the sinners bosome till God gives them a Goal-delivery and brings them out of their house of bondage where they are shut up in unrighteousnesse with a high hand of his convincing Spirit Then and not till then the soule will believe God is holy merciful Almighty nay some of Gods peculiar people and not the meanest for grace amongst them have had their faith for a time set in this slough much ado to get over those difficulties and improbabilities which sense and Reason have objected so as to relie on the Almighty Power of
blesse God thou hast life Doest thou through feeblenesse often faile in duty and fall into temptation Mourne in the sense of these yet blesse God that thou doest not live in a total neglect of duty out of a prophane contempt thereof and that in stead of falling through weakness thou doest not lie in the mire of sin through the wickednesse of thy heart The unthankful soul may thank it self it thrives not better Thirdly art thou humble under the assistance and strength God hath given thee pride stops the conduit if the heart begin to swell it is time for God to hold his hand and turne the cock for all that is poured on such a soule runs over into self-applauding and so is as water spilt in regard of any good it doth the creature or any glory it brings to God A proud heart and a lofty mountain are never fruitful Now beside the common wayes that pride discovers it self as by under-valuing others and over-valuing it selfe and such like you shall observe two other symptomes of it First it appears in bold adventures when a person runs into the mouth of temptation bearing himself up on the confidence of his grace receiv'd This was Peters sin by which he was drawn to engage further then became an humble faith running into the devils-quarters and so became his prisoner for a while The good man when in his right temper had thoughts low enough of himself as when he ask't his Master Is it I but he that feared at one time lest he might be the traitour at another cannot think so ill of himself as to suspect he should be the denyer of his Master What he No though all the rest should forsake him yet he would stand to his colours Is this thy case Christian Possibly God hath given thee much of his minde thou art skilful in the Word of life and therefore thou darest venture to breath in corrupt aire as if only the weak spirits of lesse knowing Christians exposed them to be infected with the contagion of errour and heresie Thou hast a large portion of grace or at least thou thinkest so and venturest to go where an humble-minded Christian would fear his heels should slip under him Truly now thou temptest God to suffer thy lock to be cut when thou art so bold to lay thy head in the lap of a temptation Secondly pride appears in the neglect of those means whereby the Saints graces and comforts are to be fed when strongest May be Christian when thou art under feares and doubts then God hath thy company thou art oft with thy pitcher at his door but when thou hast got any measure of peace there growes presently some strangenesse between God and thee thy pitcher walks not as it was wont to these Wells of salvation No wonder if thou though rich in grace and comfort goest behinde-hand seeing thou spendest on the old stock and drivest no trade at present to bring in more Or if thou doest not thus neglect duty yet may be thou doest not perform it with that humility which formerly beautified the same then thou prayedst in the sense of thy weaknesse to get strength now thou prayest to shew thy strength that others may admire thee And if once like Hezekiah we call in Spectators to see our treasure and applaud us for our gifts and comfort then it is high time for God if he indeed love us to send some messengers to carry these away from us which carry our hearts from him Fourthly if thy heart doth not smite thee from what hath been said but thou hast sincerely waited on God and yet hast not received the strength thou desirest yet let it be thy resolution to live and die waiting on him God doth not tell us his time of coming and it were boldnesse to set on of our own heads Go saith Christ to his disciples Luke 24.49 Stay ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with Power from on High Thus he saith to thee stay at Jerusalem wait on him in the means he hath appointed till thou beest endued with further power to mortifie thy corruptions c. And for thy comfort know First thy thus persevering to wait on God will be an evidence of strong grace in thee the lesse encouragement thou hast to duty the more thy faith and obedience to bear thee up in duty He that can trade when times are so dead that all his ware lies upon his hand and yet drawes not in his hand but rather trades more and more sure his stock is great What no comfort in hearing no ease to thy spirit in praying and yet more greedy to heare and more-frequent in prayer O soul great is thy faith and patience Secondly assure thy self when thou art at the greatest pinch strength shall come They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength when the last handful of meale was dressing then is the Prophet sent to keep the Widows house When temptation is strong thy little strength even spent and thou ready to yield into the hands of thine enemies then expect succours from heaven to enable thee to hold out under the temptation Thus to Paul My grace is sufficient or power from heaven to raise the siege and drive away the tempter thus to Job when Satan had him at an advantage then God takes him off Like a wise Moderatour when the Respondent is hard put to it by a subtile Opponent takes him off when he would else run him down James 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy EPHESIANS 6.11 Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil THis verse is a Key to the former wherein the Apostle had exhorted believers to encourage and bear up their fainting spirits on the Lord and the power of his might Now in these words he explains himself and shewes how he would have them do this not presumptuously come into the field without that armour which God hath appointed to be worne by all his souldiers and yet with a bravado to trust in the power of God to save them That soule is sure to fall short of home heaven I mean who hath nothing but a carnal confidence on the Name of God blowen up by the ignorance of God and himself No he that would have his confidence duly placed on the Power of God must conscienciously use the means appointed for his defence and not rush naked into the battel like that fanatick spirit at Munster who would needs go forth and chase away the whole army then besieging that city with no other cannon then a few words charged with the Name of The Lord of hostes which he blasphemously made bold to use saying In the Name of the Lord of hostes depart But himself soon perished to learne others wisdom by what he paid for his folly What foolish
concerning some truth or promise but then hath a spiritual eye which the Christlesse person wants and so is darknesse And this darknesse cannot be enlightened but by its union with Christ which is exprest in the following phrase But now are ye light in the Lord. As the eye of the body once put out can never be restored by the creatures Art so neither can the spiritual eye lost by Adams sin be restored by the teaching of men or Angels It is one of the diseases which Christ came to cure Luke 4.18 'T is true there is a light of reason which is imparted to every man by nature but this light is darknesse compared with the Saints As the night is dark to the day even when the moon is in its full glory This night-light of Reason may save a person from some ditch or pond great and broad sins but it will never help him to escape the more secret corruptions which the Saint sees like atomes in the beams of spiritual knowledge There is such curious work the creature is to do which cannot be wrought by candle-light of natural knowledge Nay more where the common illumination of the Spirit is superadded to this light of nature yet that is darknesse compar'd with the sanctifying knowledge of a renewed soule which doth both discover spiritual truths and warme the heart at the same time with the love of truth having like the Sun a prolifical and quickening vertue which the other wants so that the heart lies under such common illuminations cold and dead He hath no more strength to resist Satan then if he knew not the command whereas the Christians knowledge even when taken Prisoner by a temptation pursues and brings back the soul as Abraham his Nephew out of the enemies hands which hints the third Thirdly the Christlesse state is a state of impotency Rom. 5. When we were without strength Christ came to die for the ungodly What can a disarm'd people that have not sword or gun do to shake off the yoke of a conquering enemie Such a power hath Satan over the soule Luke 11.21 he is call'd the strong man that keeps the soule as his Palace If he hath no disturbance from heaven he need feare no mutiny within he keeps all in peace there What the Spirit of God doth in a Saint that in a manner doth Satan in a sinner The Spirit fills the heart of his with love joy holy desires feares so Satan fills the sinners heart with pride lust lying Why hath Satan filled thy heart saith Peter And thus fill'd with Satan as the drunkard with wine he is not his own man but Satans slave Fourthly the state of unregeneracy is a state of friendship with sin and Satan If it be enmity against God as it is then friendship with Satan Now it will be hard to make that soule fight in earnest against his friend Is Satan divided will the devil within fight against the devil without Satan in the heart shut out Satan at the door sometimes indeed there appears a scuffle between Satan and a carnal heart but it is a meer cheat like the fighting of two fencers on a stage you would think at first they were in earnest but observing how wary they are where they hit one another you may soon know they do not mean to kill and that which puts all out of doubt when the prize is done you shall see them making merry together with what they have got of their Spectatours which was all they fought for when a carnal heart makes the greatest bussle against sin by complaining of it or praying against it follow him but off the stage of duty where he hath gained the reputation of a Saint the prize he fights for and you shall see them sit as friendly together in a corner as ever Vse 1 First this takes away the wonder of Satans great Conquests in the world when you look abroad and see his vast Empire and what a little spot of ground contains Christs subjects what heaps of precious souls lie prostrate under this foot of pride and what a little regiment of Saints march under Christs banner perhaps the strangenesse of the thing may make you ask Is hell stronger then heaven the armes of Satan more victorious then the Crosse of Christ No such matter Consider but this one thing and you will wonder that Christ hath any to follow him rather then that he hath so few Satan findes the world unarm'd when the Prince of the world comes he findes nothing to oppose the whole soule is in a disposition to yield at first summons and if Conscience Governour for God in the creature stands out a while all the other powers as will and affections are in a discontent like mutinous souldiers in a garrison who never rest till they have brought over conscience to yield or against its command set open the City gate to the enemie and so deliver traiterously their conscience prisoner to their lusts But when Christ comes to demand the soul he meets a scornful answer Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of the most High We will not have this man to reign over us With one consent they vote against him and rise up as the Philistines against Samson whom they call'd the Destroyer of the countrey Ye will not come unto me saith Christ O how true are poor sinners to the devils trust They will not deliver the Castle they hold for Satan till fired over their heads Pharaoh opposeth Moses on one hand and Israel cry out upon him on the other Such measure hath Christ both at Satans hand and the sinners That which lessened Alexanders Conquests was he overcame a people buried in barbarisme without armes or discipline of war and that which heightened Cesars though not so many he overcame a people more warlike and furnish't Satans victories are of poor ignorant gracelesse souls who have neither armes nor hands nor hearts to oppose but when he assaults a Saint then he sits down before a city with gates and bars and ever riseth with shame unable to take the weakest hold to pluck the weakest Saint out of Christs hands but Christ brings souls out of his dominion with a high hand in spite of all the force and fury of hell which like Pharaoh and his hoste pursue them Vse 2 Secondly this gives us a reason why the devil hath so great a spite against the Gospel Why because this opens a magazine of armes and furniture for the soule the Word is that Tower of David Cant. 4.4 built for an Armourie wherein there hang a thousand bucklers all the shields of mighty men Hence the Saints have ever had their armour and the preaching of the Gospel unlocks it As Gospel-light ascends so Satans shady Kingdom of darknesse vanisheth Rev. 14.6 there one Angel comes forth to preach the everlasting Gospel and another Angel followes at his back verse 8. crying Victoria Babylon is fallen is fallen The very first
God yes they hope they are not infidels but what it is how they come by it or whether it will hold in an evil-day this never was put to the question in their hearts Thus thousands perish with a vain conceit they are arm'd against Satan death and judgment when they are miserable and naked yea worse on it then those who are more naked those I mean who have not a rag of civility to hide their shame from the worlds eye and that in a double respect First it is harder to work on such a soul savingly because he hath a forme though not the power and this affords him a plea. A soule purely naked nothing like the wedding garment on he is speechlesse the drunkard hath nothing to say for himself when you ask him why he lives so swinishly you may come up to him and get within him and turn the very mouth of his conscience upon him which will shoot conviction into him But come to deal with one that prayes and heares one that is a pretender to faith and hope in God here is a man in glistering armour he hath his weapon in his hand with which he will keep the Preacher and the Word he chargeth him with at armes length Who can say I am not a Saint what duty do I neglect here 's a breast-work he lies under which makes him not so faire a mark either to the observation or reproof of another his chief defect being within where mans eye comes not Again 't is harder to work on him because he hath been tamper'd with already and miscarried in the essay How comes such a one to he acquainted with such duties to make such a Profession was it ever thus No the Word hath been at work upon him his conscience hath scared him from his trade of wickednesse into a forme of Profession but taking in short of Christ for want of a through change it is harder to remove him then the other he is like a lock whose wards have been troubled which makes it harder to turn the Key then if never potter'd with 'T is better dealing with a wilde ragged cole never back't then one that in breaking hath took a wrong stroak A bone quite out of joynt then false set In a word such a one hath more to deny then a profane person the one hath but his lusts his whores his swill and draffe but the other hath his duties his seeming graces O how hard is it to perswade such a one to light and hold Christs stirrup while he and his duties are made Christs foot-stool Secondly such a one is deepest in condemnation None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven because they fall from the greatest height As it aggravates the torments of damned souls in this respect above devils they had a cord of mercy thrown out to them which devils had not so by how much God by his Spirit waits on pleads with and by both gains on a soul more then others by so much such a one if he perish will finde hell the hotter these adde to his sin and the rememberance of his sin in hell thus accented will adde to his torment None will have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half-way with him and then left him Therefore I beseech you look to your armour David would not fight in armour he had not tried though it was a Kings perhaps some thought him too nice What is not the Kings armour good enough for David Thus many will say Art thou so curious and precise such a great man doth thus and thus and hopes to come to heaven at last and darest not thou venture thy soule in his armour No Christian follow not the example of the greatest on earth 't is thy own soul thou venturest in battel therefore thou canst not be too choice of thy armour Bring thy heart to the Word as the only touch-stone of thy grace and furniture the Word I told you is the Tower of David from whence thy armour must be fetch 't if thou canst finde this Tower-stamp on it then 't is of God else not Try it therefore by this one Scripture-stamp Those weapons are mighty which God gives his Saints to fight his battels withal 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God The sword of the Spirit hath its point and edge whereby it makes its way into the heart and conscience through the impenitency of the one and stupidity of the other wherewith Satan as with buffe and coat of male armes the sinner against God and there cuts and slashes kills and mortifies lust in its own Castle where Satan thinks himself impregnable The Breast-plate which is of God doth not bend and break at every pat of temptation but is of such a divine temperament that it repels Satans motions with scorne on Satans teeth Should such a one as I sin as Nehemiah in another case and such are all the rest Now try whether your weapons be mighty or weak what can you do or suffer more for God then an hypocrite that is clad in fleshly armour I 'le tell you what the world faith and if you be Christians clear your selves and wipe off that dirt which they throw upon your glistering armour they say These Professors indeed have God more in their talk then we they are oftner in the mount of duty then we but when they come down into their shops relations and worldly employments then the best of them all is but like one of us they can throw the Tables of Gods Commandments out of their hands as well as we come from a Sermon and be as covetous and griping as peevish and passionate as the worst they shew as little love to Christ as others when it is matter of cost as to relieve a poor Saint or maintain the Gospel you may get more from a stranger an enemie then from a professing brother O Christians either vindicate the Name of Christ whose Ensign you seem to march after or throw away your seeming armour by which you have drawn the eyes of the world upon you If you will not Christ himself will cashiere you and that with shame enough ere long Never call that Armour of God which defends thee not against the power of Satan Take therefore the several pieces of your armour and try them as the souldier before he fights will set his helmet or head-piece as a mark at which he lets flie a brace of bullets and as he findes them so will weare them or leave them but be sure thou shootest Scripture-bullets Thou boastest of a breast-plate of righteousnesse ask thy soul Didst thou ever in thy life perform a duty to please God and not to accommodate thy self Thou hast prayed often against thy sin a great noise of these pieces have been heard coming from thee by others as if there were some hot fight between thee and thy corruption but canst thou
command which bids us do good to all May not we Ministers be charged with the want of this when the straine of our preaching is solely directed to the Saints and no paines taken in rescuing poor captived soules yet uncall'd out of the devils clutches who may hale them to hell without any disturbance while we are comforting the Saints and preaching their priviledges but in the mean time let the ignorant be ignorant still and the profane profane still for want of a compassionate charity to their soules which would excite us to the reproving and exhorting of them that they might also be brought in to the way of life as well as the Saints encouraged who are walking therein We are stewards to provide bread for the Lords house the greatest part of our hearers cannot must not have the childrens bread and shall we therefore give them no portion at all Christs charity pitied the multitude to whom in his publike preaching he made special application as in that famous Sermon most part of which is spent in rowsing up the sleepy consciences of the hypocritical Pharisees by those thunderclaps of woes and curses so often denounced against them Mat. 23. Again how great advantage hath Satan from the want of this charity in our families Is it not observ'd how little care is taken by professing Governours of such Societies for the instructing their youth Nay 't is a principle which some have drunk in that 't is not their duty O where is their charity in the mean time when they can see Satan come within their own walls and let him drive a childe a servant in their ignorance and profanenesse to hell and not so much as sally out upon this enemy by a word of reproof or instruction to rescue these silly souls out of the murtherers hand We must leave them to their liberty forsooth and that is as faire play as we can give the devil give but corrupt nature enough of this rope and it will soon strangle the very principles of God and Religion in their tender yeares SECT III. Thirdly the entirenesse of the Saints armour may be taken not only for every part and piece of the Saints furniture but for the compleatnesse and perfection of every piece As the Christian is to endeavour after every grace so is he to presse after the advance and increase of every grace even to perfection itself as he is to adde to his faith vertue so he is to adde faith to faith he is ever to be compleating of his grace It is that which is frequently prest upon believers Mat. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect And purifie your selves as God is pure Where we have an exact copy set not as if we could equallize that purity and perfection which is in God but to make us strive the more when we shall see how infinitely short we fall of our copy when we write the fairest hand So James 1.3 Let patience have its perfect work that you may be entire wanting nothing or wanting in nothing Thou who makest a hard shift to carry a little burden with thy little patience wouldest sink under a greater therefore there is need that patience should be ever perfecting lest at last we meet a burden too heavy for our weak shoulders Take a few reasons why the Christian should thus be compleating of his grace First because grace is subject to decayes and therefore ever needs compleating as in an army especially which often engageth in battel their armes are batter'd and broken one man hath his helmet bent another his sword gap't a third his pistol unfix't and therefore recruits are ever necessary In one temptation the Christian hath his helmet of hope beaten off his head in another his patience hard put to it The Christian had need have an Armourers shop at hand to make up his losse and that speedily for Satan is most like to fall on when the Christian is least prepared to receive his charge Simon Simon Satan hath desired to sift you he knew they were at that time weakly provided Christ their Captain now to be taken from the head of their troop discontents among themselves striving who should be greatest and their recruits of stronger grace which the Spirit was to bring not yet come Now he hath a design to surprise them and therefore Christ carefully to prevent him promiseth speedily to dispatch his Spirit for their supply and in the mean time sends them to Jerusalem to stand as it were in a body in their joynt supplications upon their guard while he comes to their relief shewing us in the weaknesse of our graces what to do and whither to go for supply Secondly because Satan is compleating his skill and wrath 'T is not for nought that he is call'd the old Serpent subtil by nature but more by experience wrathful by nature yet every day more and more enraged like a bull the longer he is baited the more fury he shewes And therefore we who are to grapple with him now his time is so short had need come well appointed into the field Thirdly it is the end of all Gods dispensations to compleat his Saints in their graces and comforts Wherefore doth he lop and prune by afflictions but to purge that they may bring forth more fruit that is fuller and fairer Tribulation works patience 'T is Gods appointment for that end It works that is it encreaseth the Saints patience it enrageth indeed the wicked but meekens the Saints 'T is his design in the Gospel preached to carry on his Saints from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 And accordingly he hath furnished his Church with instruments and those with gifts for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the body of Christ Eph. 4.14 Wherefore doth the Scaffold stand and the Workman on it if the building go not up For us not to advance under such means is to make void the counsel of God Therefore the Apostle blames the Christian Jewes Heb. 5.12 for their non-proficiency in the School of Christ When for the time ye ought to be teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God O how few are there who endeavour thus to promove in their spiritual state and labour to perfect what is yet lacking in their knowledge patience and the rest First tell some of adding faith to faith one degree of grace to another and you shall finde they have more minde to joyne house to house and lay field to field their souls are athirst ever gaping for more but of what not of Christ or Heaven It is earth earth they never think they have enough of till death comes and stops their mouth with a shovel-full digg'd out of their own grave What a tormenting life must they needs have who are alwayes crying for more weight and yet cannot presse their covetous desires to death O Sirs the only way if
up in a dead stock and none to be the better or can you say that he is wanting to you in his love and mercy are they not ever in exercise for your good Is the eye of providence ever shut No he slumbers not that keeps thee or is it one moment off thee No The eye of the Lord is upon the righteous He hath fixed it for ever and with infinite delight pleaseth himself in the object When was his eare shut or his hand either from receiving thy cries or supplying thy wants nay doth not thy condition take up the thoughts of God and are they any other then thoughts of peace which he entertains A few drops of this oyle will keep the wheel in motion That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil THese words present us with the reason why the Christian souldier is to be thus compleatly arm'd That he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil The strength of which argument lies in these two particulars First the danger if unarm'd the enemy is no mean contemptible one no lesse then the devil set out as a cunâ—ing Engineer by his wiles and stratagems Secondly the certainty of standing against all his wits and wiles if we be thus arm'd That ye may be able to stand As no standing without armour so no feare of falling into the fiends hands if arm'd To begin with the first the Saints enemy the devil described by his wiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly the methods of Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies that Art and order one observes in handling a point we say such a one is methodical Now because it shews ingenuity and acutenesse of wit so to compose a discourse therefore it is transferr'd to expresse the subtilty of Satan in laying of his plots and stratagems in his warlike preparations against the Christian Indeed the expert souldier hath his order as well as the scholar there is method in forming of an army as well as framing an argument The Note which lies before us is The devil is a very subtile enemy The Christian is endangered most by his policy and craft he is call'd the old Serpent The serpent subtil above other creatures an old Serpent above other serpents Satan was too crafty for man in his perfection much more now in his maimed estate having never recovered that first crack he got in his understanding by the fall of Adam And as man hath lost so Satan hath gained more and more experience he lost his wisdome indeed assoon as he became a devil but ever since he hath increast his craft though he hath not wisdom enough to do himself good yet subtilty enough to do others hurt God shewes us where his strength lies when he promiseth he will bruise the head of the Serpent his head crush't and he dies presently Now in handling this Point of Satans subtilty we shall consider him in his two main designes and therein shew you his wiles and policies His first main design is to draw into sin The second is to accuse vex and trouble the Saint for sinne First let us consider the devil as a tempter to sin and there he shews his wily subtilty in three things First in choosing the most advantagious season for tempting Secondly in managing his temptations laying them in such a method and forme as shews his craft Thirdly in pitching on fit instruments for his turne to carry on his design CHAP. I. Of Satans subtilty to choose the most advantagious seasons for tempting FIrst he shews his subtilty in choosing the most proper and advantagious seasons for tempting To every thing there is a season Solomon saith Eccl. 3.1 that is a nick of time which taken gives facility and speedy dispatch to a businesse And therefore the same Wise man gives this reason why man miscarries so frequently and is disappointed in his enterprizes because he knowes not his time Eccl. 9.11 He comes when the bird is flowen A hundred souldiers at one time may turn a battel save an army when thousands will not do at another Satan knowes when to make his approaches when if at any time he is most likely to be entertained As Christ hath the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season of counsel and comfort to a doubting drooping soule so Satan shews his black Art and hellish skill in speaking words of seduction and temptation in season and a word in season is a word on its wheels I shall give you a view of his subtilty in special seasons which he chooseth to tempt in The first season he takes to tempt in is when newly converted No sooner is this childe of grace the new creature borne but this Dragon poures a flood of temptation after it He learnt the Egyptians but some of his own craft when he taught them that bloody and cruel baptisme which they exercised upon the Israelitish babes in throwing them into the river assoon as they were borne The first cry of the new creature gives all the legions of hell an alarm they are as much troubled at it as Herod and Jerusalem were when Christ was borne and now they sit in Councel to take away the life of this new born King The Apostles met with more opposition and persecution in their latter dayes when endued with larger portions of the Spirit but with temptations from Satan in their former when young Converts as you may observe in the several passages recorded of them Satan knew grace within was but weak and their supplies promised at the Spirits coming not landed and when is an enemy more like to carry the town then in such a low condition and therefore he tries them all Indeed the advantages are so many that we may wonder how the young Convert escapes with his life knowledge weak and so soon led into an errour especially in divided times when many wayes are held forth one saying Here is Christ another There is Christ and the Christian ready to think every one means honestly that comes with good words as a little childe who hath lost his way to his fathers house is prone to follow any that offer him their conduct Experience of what he knows little and if Adam whose knowledge so perfect yet was soon cheated being assaulted before he was well warme in his new possessions how much more advantage hath Satan of the new Convert in whom he findes every grace in so great an indisposition to make resistance both from its own weaknesse and the strength of the contrary corruption which commonly in such is much unmortified which makes it act with more difficulty and mixture as in a fire newly kindled where the smoke is more then the flame or like beer newly tunn'd which runs thick so that though there appear more strength of affection in such that it works over into a greater abundance of duty then in others yet with more
dregs of carnal passions which Satan knows and therefore chooseth to stir what he sees troubled already Secondly when the Saint is beset with some great affliction This is as some blinde lane or solitary place fit for this thief to call for his purse in An expert Captain first labours to make a breach in the wall and then falls on instorming the City Satan first got power from God to weaken Job in his estate children health and other comforts he had and now tempts him to impatience and what not he le ts Christ fast fourty dayes before he comes and then he falls to his work as an army stayes till a Castle be pinch't for provision within and then sends a parley never more likely to be embraced then in such a strait A temptation comes strong when the way to relief seems to lie through the sin that Satan is wooing to when one is poor and Satan comes What wilt starve rather then step over the hedge and steal for thy supply this is enough to put flesh and blood to the stand Thirdly when the Christian is about some notable enterprize for Gods glory then Satan will lie like a Serpent in the way an Adder in the path that biteth his horse-heels so that his Rider shall fall backward Thus he stood at Joshua's right hand to resist him The right hand is the working hand and his standing there implies his desire to hinder him in his enterprize Indeed the devil was never friend to Temple-work and therefore that work is so long a doing What a handsom excuse doth he help the Jews unto The time is not come Gods time was come but not the devils and therefore he helps them to this poor shift perverting the sense of Providence as if it were not time because they were so poor whereas they thrive no better because they went no sooner about the work as God tells them plainly Paul and Barnabas had a holy design in their thoughts to go visit the brethren in every City and strengthen their faith the devil knew what a blow this might give to his Kingdome their visiting might hinder him in his Circuit and he stirs up an unhappy difference between these two holy men who grow so hot that they part in this storme Acts 15.30 There were two remarkable periods of Christs life his Intrat and Exit his entrance into his publick Ministery at his Baptisme and his finishing it at his passion and at both we have the devil fiercely encountring him The more publick thy place Christian and the more eminent thy service for God the more thou must look that the devil will have some more dangerous design or other against thee and therefore if every private souldier needs armour against Satans bullets of temptation then the Commanders and Officers who stand in the front of the battel much more Fourthly when he hath the presence of some object to enforce his temptation Thus he takes Eve when she is near the tree and had it in her eye while he should make the motion that assaulting two Ports at once it might be the harder for her to hinder the landing of his temptation and if Eves eye did so soon affect her heart with an inordinate desire then much more now is it easie for him by the presence of the object to excite and actuate that lust which lies dormant in the heart As Naomi sent her daughter to lie at Boaz his feet knowing well if he endured her there there were hope he might take her into his bed at last If the Christian can let the object come so near Satan will promise himself his suit may in time be granted Therefore it should be our care if we would not yield to the sin not to walk by or sit at the door of the occasion Look not on that beauty with a wandring eye by which thou wouldest not be taken Prisoner parley not with that in thy thoughts which thou meanest not to let into thy heart conversation begets affection some by this have been brought to marry those whom at first they thought they could not have liked Fifthly after great manifestations of Gods love then the Tempter comes Such is the weak constitution of grace that it can neither well bear smiles or frowns from God without a snare As one said of our English Nation Totam nec pati potest libertatem nec servitutem It cannot well bear liberty nor bondage in the height So neither can the soule if God smile and opens himself a little familiarly to us then we are prone to grow high and wanton if he frown then we sink as much in our faith thus the one like faire weather and warme gleams bring up the weeds of corruption and the other lâ—ke sharp frosts nip and even kill the flowers of grace the Christian is in danger on both hands therefore Satan takes this advantage when the Christian is flush of comfort even as a cheater who strikes in with some young heire when he hath newly received his rents and never leaves till he hath eased him of his money thus Satan lies upon the catch then to inveigle a Saint into one sin or other which he knows will soon leak out his joy Had ever any a larger testimony from Heaven then Peter Matth. 16.17 where Christ pronounceth him blessed and puts a singular honour upon him making him the Representative for all his Saints No doubt this favour to Peter stirred up the envious spirit the sooner to fall upon him If Josephs party-coloured coat made the Patriarchs to plot against him their brother no wonder malice should prompt Satan to shew his spite where Christ had set such a mark of love and honour and therefore we finde him soon at Peters elbowe making him his instrument to tempt his Master who soon espied his cloven foot and rebukes Peter with a Get thee behinde me Satan He that seem'd a Rock even now through Satans policy is laid as a stone of offence for Christ to stumble at So David when he had received such wonderful mercies setled in his throne with the ruine of his enemies yea pardoned for his bloody sin now ready to lay down his head with peace in the dust Satan chops in to cloud his clear evening and tempts him to number the people so ambitious is Satan then chiefly to throw the Saint into the mire of sin when his coat is cleanest Sixthly at the houre of death when the Saint is down and prostrate in his bodily strength now this coward falls upon him 't is the last cast indeed he hath for the game now or never overcome him now and ever as they say of the natural serpent Nunquam nisi moriens producitur in longum he never is seen at his length till dying so this mystical serpent never strains his wits and wiles more then when his time is thus short The Saint is even stepping into eternity and now he treads upon his heele which
Gods creature so God cannot but know him He that makes the Watch knowes every pin in it He formed this crooked Serpent though not the crookednesse of this Serpent and though Satans way in tempting is as wonderful as the way of a Serpent on a rock yet God traceth him yea knowes all his thoughts together Hell it self is naked before him and this destroyer hath no covering Again consider him as Gods Prisoner who hath him fast in chaines and so the Lord who is his Keeper must needs know whither his Prisoner goes who cannot stir without his leave Lastly consider him as his messenger for so he is An evil spirit from the Lord vexed Saul and he that gives him his errand is able to tell thee what it is Go then and plough with Gods heifer improve thy interest in Christ who knows what his Father knows and is ready to reveal all that concernes thee to thee Joh. 15.15 It was he who descried the devil coming against Peter and the rest of the Apostles and faithfully revealed it to them Luke 22. before they thought of any such matter Through Christs hands passe all that is transacted in heaven and hell We live in dayes of great actions deep counsels and plots on all sides and only a few that stand on the upper end of the world know these mysteries of State all the rest know little more then Pamphlet-Intelligence Thus it is in regard of those plots which Satan in his infernal Conclave is laying against the soules of men they are but a few that know any thing to purpose of Satans designes against them and those are the Saints from whom God cannot hide his own counsels of love but sends his Spirit to reveal unto them here what he hath prepared for them in heaven 1 Cor. 2.10 and therefore much lesse will he conceal any destructive plot of Satan from them Be intimately acquainted with thy own heart and thou wilt the better know his design against thee who takes his method of tempting from the inclination and posture of thy heart As a General walks about the City and viewes it well and then raiseth his Batteries where he hath the greatest advantage So doth Satan compasse and consider the Christian in every part before he tempts Lastly be careful to reade the Word of God with observation In it thou hast the History of the most remarkable battels that have been fought by the most eminent Worthies in Christs Army of Saints with this great Warriour Satan Here thou mayest see how Satan hath foiled them and how they have recovered their lost ground Here you have his Cabinet-counsels opened there is not a lust which you are in danger of but you have it descried not a temptation which the Word doth not arme you against It is reported that a certain Jew should have poisoned Luther but was happily prevented by his picture which was sent to Luther with a warning from a faithful friend that he should take heed of such a man when he saw him by which he knew the Murderer and escaped his hands The Word shewes thee O Christian the face of those lusts which Satan employes to butcher thy precious soule By them is thy servant warned saith David Psal 19.11 CHAP. V. Wherein is shewed the subtilty of Satan as a Troubler and an Accuser for sin where many of his wiles and policies to disquiet the Saints spirits are discovered THe second General in which Satan appears such a subtile enemy is in molesting the Saints peace and disquieting the Saints spirit As this holy Spirits work is not only to be a Sanctifier but also a Comforter whose fruits are righteousnesse and peace so the evil spirit Satan is both a seducer unto sin and an accuser for sin a Tempter and a Troubler and indeed in the same order As the Holy Ghost is first a Sanctifier and then a Comforter so Satan first a Tempter then a Troubler Josephs Mistresse first tries to draw him to gratifie her lust that string breaking she hath another to trounce him and charge him and for a plea she hath his coat to cover her malice nor is it hard for Satan to pick some hole in the Saints coat when he walks most circumspectly The proper seat of sin is the Will of comfort the Conscience Satan hath not absolute knowledge of or power over these being lock't up from any other but God and therefore what he doth either in defiling temptations or disquieting is by wiles more then by open force and he is not inferiour in troubling to himself in tempting Satan hath as the Serpent away by himself other beasts their motion is direct right on but the Serpent goes a skue as we say winding and wreathing its body that when you see a serpent creeping along you can hardly discerne which way it tends thus Satan in his vexing temptations hath many intricate policies turning this way and that way the better to conceale his designe from the Saint which will appear in these following methods SECT I. First he vexeth the Christian by laying his brats at the Saints door and charging him with that which is his own creature and here he hath such a notable Art that many dear Saints of God are wofully hampered and dejected as if they were the vilest blasphemers and veriest Atheists in the world whereas indeed the cup is of his own putting into the sack but so slily conveyed into the Saints bosome that the Christian though amazed and frighted at the sight of them yet being jealous of his own heart and unacquainted with Satans tricks of this kind cannot conceive how such motions should come there if not bred in and vomited out by his own naughty heart and so bears the blame of the sin himself because he cannot finde the right father mourning as one that is forlorn and cast off by God or else saith he I should never have such vermine of hell creeping in my bosome and here Satan hath his end he proposeth for he is not so silly as to hope he should have welcome with such a horrid crue of blasphemous and atheistical thoughts in that soul where he hath been denied when he came in an enticing way no but his designe is by way of revenge because the soul will not prostitute it selt to his lust otherways therfore to haunt it and scare it with those imps of blasphemy As he served Luther to whom he appeared and when repulsed by him went away and left a noisome stinch behinde him in the room Thus when the Christian hath worsted Satan in his more pleasing temptations being madded he belcheth forth this stinch of blasphemous motions to annoy and affright him that from them the Christian may draw some sad conclusion or other and indeed the Christians sin lies commonly more in the conclusion which he draws from them as that he is not a child of God then in the motions themselves All the counsel therefore I shall give thee
presently indeed as the loud windes do blow away the raine so these terrours do keep off the soule from this Gospel-sorrow While the creature is making an out-cry 't is damn'd 't is damn'd it is taken up so much with the feare of hell that sin as sin which is the proper object of godly sorrow is little look't on or mourned for A Murderer condemned to die is so possest with the feare of death and thought of the gallowes that there lies the slaine body it may be before him unlamented by him but when his pardon is brought then he can bestow his teares freely on his murdered friend They shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourne Faith is the eye this eye beholding its sin piercing Christ and Christ pardoning its sin affects the heart the heart affected sighes these inward clouds melt and run from the eye of faith in tears and all this is done when there is no tempest of terrour upon the spirit but a sweet serenity of love and peace and therefore Christian see how Satan abuseth thee when he would perswade thee thou art not humbled enough because thy sorrow is not attended with these legal sorrowes CHAP. VI. A brief Application of the second Branch of the Point viz. Of Satans subtilty as a Troubler and Accuser for sin Vse 1 IS Satan so subtile to trouble the Saints peace this proves them to be the children of Satan who shew the same Art and subtilty in vexing the spirits of the Saints as doth their infernal father not to speak of bloody Persecutors who are the devils slaughter-slaves to butcher the Saints but of those who more slily trouble and molest the Saints peace First such as rake up the Saints old sins which God hath forgiven and forgotten meerly to grieve their spirits and bespatter their names these shew their divellish malice indeed who can take such pains to travel many yeares back that they may finde a handful of dirt to throw on the Saints face Thus Shimei twitted David Come out thou bloody man When you that feare God meet with such reproaches answer them as Beza did the Papists who for want of other matter charged him for some wanton Poems penn'd by him in his youth Hi homunciones invident mihi gratiam Dei These men said he grudge me the pardoning mercy of God Secondly such as watch for the Saints halting and catch at every infirmity to make them odious and themselves merry 'T is a dreadful curse such bring upon themselves though they little think of it no lesse then Amaleks the remembrance of whose name God threatened to blot from under heaven why what had Amalek done to deserve this they smote the hindermost those that were feeble and could not march with the rest And was it so great a cruelty to do this much more to smite with the edge of a mocking tongue the feeble in grace Thirdly such who father their sins upon the Saints thus Ahab calls the Prophet the Troubler of Israel when it was himself and his fathers house What a grief was it think you to Moses his spirit for the Israelites to lay the blood of those that died in the wildernesse at his door whereas God knows he was their constant Baile when at any time Gods hand was up to destroy them and this is the charge which the best of Gods servants in this crooked generation of ours lie under We may thank them say the profane for all our late miseries in the Nation we were well enough till they would reforme us O for shame blame not the good Physick that was administred but the corrupt body of the Nation that could not bear it Fourthly such as will themselves sin meerly to trouble the Saints spirit Thus Rabshakeh blasphemed and when desired to speak in another language he goes on the more to grieve them Sometimes you shall have a profane wretch knowing one to be consciencious and cannot brook to hear the Name of God taken in vain or the ways of God flouted will on purpose fall upon such discourse as shall grate his chaste eares and trouble his gracious spirit such a one strikes father and childe at one blow think it not enough to dishonour God except the Saint stands by to see and heare the wrong done to his heavenly Father Vse 2 Secondly This may afford matter of admiration and thankfulnesse to any of you O ye Saints who are not at this day under Satans hatches Is he so subtile to disquiet and hast thou any peace in thy conscience To whom art thou beholden for that serenity that is on thy spirit to none but thy God under whose wing thou sittest to warme and safe Is there not combustible matter enough in thy conscience for his sparks to kindle Perhaps thou hast not committed such bloody sins as others that 's not the reason of thy peace for the least is big enough to damne much more to trouble thee Thou hast not grossely fallen may be since Conversion that 's rare if thou beest of long standing yet the ghosts of thy unregenerate sins might walk in thy conscience thou hast had many testimonies of Gods favour hast thou not who more then David yet he at a losse sometimes learning to spell his evidences as if he could never have read them The sense of Gods love comes and goes with the present tast He that is in the dark while there sees not the more for former light O bless God for that light which shines in at thy window Satan is plotting to undermine thy comfort every day This Thief sees thy pleasant fruits as they hang and his teeth water at them but the wall is too high for him to climbe thy God keeps this Serpent out of thy Paradise 'T is not the grace of God in thee but the favour of God as a shield about thee defends thee from the wicked one Vse 3 Thirdly let Satans subtilty to molest your peace make thee O Christian more wise and wary thou hast not a fool to deale with but one that hath wit enough to spill thy comfort and spoil thy joy if not narrowly watch't this is the dainty bit he gapes for 't is not harder to keep the flies out of your Cup-boards in Summer from tainting your provision then Satan out of your consciences many a sweet meal hath he robbed the Saints of and sent them supperlesse to bed take heed therefore that he roams not thine away also CHAP. VII Containing some Directions tending to entrench and fortifie the Christian against the assaults and wiles of the devil as a Troubler of the soules Peace Quest HOw shall I stand in a defensive posture may the Christian say against these wiles of Satan as a Troubler SECT I. First if thou wouldest be guarded from him as a Troubler take heed of him as a seducer The hast of Satans hatchet with which he lies chopping at the root of the Christians comfort is
them that gives them plums But 't is strange that a Saint should be at a losse for his afflicted state when he hath a Key to decipher Gods character Christian hath not God secretly instructed thee by his Spirit from the Word how to reade the short-hand of his Providence doest not thou know that the Saints afflictions stand for blessings Every son whom he loves he corrects and prosperity in a wicked state must it not be read a curse doth not God damne such to be rich honourable victorious in this world as well as to be tormented in another world God gives them more of these then they seem to desire sometimes and all to binde them faster up in a deep sleep of security as Jael served Sisera he shall have milk though he asked but water that she might naile him the surer to the ground Milk having a property as some write to encline to sleep SECT IV. Fourthly be careful to keep thy old receits which thou hast had from God for the pardon of thy sins There are some gaudy dayes and Jubilee-like Festivals when God comes forth clothed with the robes of his mercy and holds forth the Scepter of his grace more familiarly to his children then ordinary bearing witnesse to their faith sincerity c. and then the firmament is clear not a cloud to be seen to darken the Christians comfort Love and joy are the soules repast and pastime while this feast lasts Now when God withdrawes and this chear is taken off Satans work is how he may deface and weare off the remembrance of this testimony which the soule so triumphs in for its spiritual standing that he may not have it as an evidence when he shall bring about the suite again and put the soule to produce his writings for his spiritual state or renounce his claim It behoves thee therefore to lay them up safely such a testimony may serve to non-suit thy accuser many yeares hence one affirmative from Gods mouth for thy pardoned state carries more weight though of old date then a thousand negatives from Satans Davids Songs of old spring in with a light to his soule in his midnight-sorrowes Quest But what counsel would you give me saith the distressed soul who cannot fasten on my former comforts nor dare to vouch those evidences which once I thought true I finde indeed there have been some treaties of old between God and my soule some hopes I have had but these are now so defaced and interlined with back-slidings repentances and falls again that now I question all my evidences whether true or counterfeit what should one in this case do Answ First renew thy repentance as if thou hadst never repented Put forth fresh acts of faith as if thou hadst never believed This seriously done will stop Satans mouth with an unexpected answer Let him object against thy former actings as hypocritical what can he say against thy present repenting and beleeving which if true sets thee beyond his shot It will be harder for Satan to disprove the present workings of Gods gracious Spirit whilest the impressions thereof are fresh then to pick an hole in thy old deeds and evidences Acts are transient and as wicked men look at sins committed many yeares since as little or none by reason of that breadth of time which interposeth so the Christian upon the same account stands at great disadvantage to take the true aspect of those acts of grace which so long ago passed between God and him though sometimes even these are of great use As God can make a sinner possesse the sins of his youth as if they were newly acted to his terrour in his old age so God can present the comforts and evidences which of old the Saint received with those very thoughts he had then of them as if they were fresh and new And therefore secondly If yet he haunts thee with the feares of thy spiritual estate ply thee to the throne of grace and beg a new copy of thy old evidence which thou hast lost The Original is in the Pardon-Office in Heaven whereof Christ is Master if thou beest a Saint thy name is upon record in that Court make thy moane to God heare what newes from Heaven rather then listen to the tales which are brought by thine enemie from hell Did such reason lesse with Satan and pray over their feares more to God they might sooner be resolved Can you expect truth from a liar and comfort from an enemy Did he ever prophesie well of believers Was not Job the Devils hypocrite whom God vouch't for a non-such in holinesse and prov'd him so at last If he knew thou wert a Saint would he tell thee so if an hypocrite he would be as loath thou shouldest know it turn thy back therefore on him and go to thy God feare not but sooner or later he will give his hand again to thy Certificate But look thou doest not rashly passe a censure on thy self because a satisfactory answer is not presently sent at thy desire the Messenger may stay long and bring good newes at last Thirdly shun battel with thine enemy while thou art in a fitter posture and that thou mayest draw into thy trenches and make an honourable retreat into those fastnesses and strengths which Christ hath provided for his sick and wounded souldiers Now there are two places of advantage into which deserted souls may retire the Name of God and the absolute Promises of the Gospel these I may call the faire Havens which are then chiefly of use when the storme is so great that the ship cannot live at sea O saith Satan doest thou hope to see God none but the pure in heart shall be blest with that vision Think'st thou to have comfort that is the portion of the Mourners in spirit Now soule though thou canst not say in the hurry of temptation thou art the pure and the Mourner in spirit yet then say thou believest God is able to work these in thee yea hath promised such a mercy to poor sinners 't is his Covenant He will give a new heart a clean heart a soft heart and here I wait knowing as there was nothing in the creature to move the great God to make such Promises so there can be nothing in the creature to hinder the Almighty his performance of them where and when he pleaseth This act of faith accompanied with a longing desire after that grace thou canst not yet finde and an attendance on the meanes though it will not fully satisfie all thy doubts may be yet will keep thy head above water that thou despairest not and such a shore thou need'st in this case or the house falls Fourthly If yet Satan dogs thee call in help and keep not the devils counsel The very strength of some temptations lies in the concealing of them and the very revealing of them to some faithful friend like the opening and pricking of an imposthume gives the soule present ease
to do them good Surely God will have something for the sweat yea lives of his servants which were worne out in striving with such rebellious ones May be yet sinners your firmament is clear no cloud to be seen that portends a storme but know as you use to say winter does not rock in the clouds you shall have it at last every threatening which your faithful Ministers have denounced against you out of the Word God is bound to make good He confirmeth the Word of his servant and performeth the counsel of his messengers and that in judgement against sinners confirming the threatenings as well as in mercy performing the promises which they declare as the portion of his children But it will be time enough to ask such on a sick-bed or a dying houre whether the words of the Lord delivered by their faithful Preachers have not taken hold of them Some have confessed with horrour they have as the Jewes Zech. 1.6 Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us so hath he dealt with us Secondly the Spirit strives with men more immediately when he makes his inward approaches to the consciences of men debating in their own bosoms the case with them one while he shews them their sins in their bloody colours and whether they will surely bring them if not look't to timely which he doth so convincingly that the creature smells sometimes the very fire and brimstone about him and is at present in a temporary hell another while he falls a parlying and treating with them making gracious overtures to the sinner if he will return at his reproof presents the grace of the Gospel and opens a door of hope for his recovery yea falls a wooing and beseeching of him to throw down his rebellious armes and come to Christ for life whose heart is in a present disposition to receive and embrace the first motion the returning sinner makes for mercy Now when the Spirit of God follows the sinner from place to place and time to time suggesting such motions and renewing his old suit and the creature shall fling out of the Spirits hands thus striving with him re infectâ as far from renouncing his lusts or taking any liking to Christ as ever This is to resist the Spirit to his face and it carries so much malignity in it that even where it hath not been final poor humbled soules have been so over-set with the horrour of it that they could not for a long time be perswaded but that it was the unpardonable sin Take heed therefore sinners how you use the Spirit when he comes knocking at the door of your hearts Open at his knock and he will be your guest you shall have his sweet company repulse him and you have not a Promise hee 'll knock again And if once he leave striving with thee unhappy man thou art lost for ever thou liest like a ship cast up by the waves upon some high rock where the tide never comes to fetch it off Thou mayest come to the Word converse with other Ordinances but in vain 'T is the Spirit in them which is both tide and winde to set the soule afloat and carry it on or else it lies like a ship on dry ground which stirs not Secondly we wrestle against God when we wrestle with his Providence and that two wayes First when we are discontented with his providential disposure of us Gods carving for us doth not please us so but that we are objecting against his dealings towards us at least muttering something with the fool in our hearts which God heares as lightly as man our words God counts then we begin to quarrel with him when we do not acquiesce in and say Amen to his Providence whatever it is He calls it a contending with the Almighty Iob. 40.1 yea a reproving of God And he is a bold man sure that dare finde fault with God and article against heaven God challengeth him whoever he is that doth this to answer it at his peril He that reproveth God let him answer it v. 2. of the chapter fore-mentioned It was high time for Iob to have done when he heares what a sense God puts upon those unwary words which drop't from him in the anguish of his Spirit and paroxysme of his sufferings contend with the Almighty reprove God Good man how blank he is and cries out I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Let God but pardon what is past and he shall hear such language no more O Sirs take heed of this wrestling above all other Contention is uncomfortable with whomsoever it is we fall out Neighbours or friends wife or husband children or servants but worst of all with God If God cannot please thee but thy heart riseth against him what hopes are there of thy pleasing him who will take nothing kindly from that man who is angry with him And how can love to God be preserved in a discontented heart that is alwayes muttering against him Love cannot think any evil of God nor endure to heare anyspeak evil of him but it must take Gods part as Ionathan Davids when Saul spake basely of him and when it cannot be heard will like him arise and be gone When afflicted love can allow thee to groan but not to grumble If thou wilt ease thy incumbred spirit into Gods bosome by prayer and humbly wrestle with God on thy knees love is for thee and will help thee to the best arguments thou canst use to God But if thou wilt vent thy distempered passions and shew a mutinous spirit against God this stabs it to the heart Secondly we wrestle against Providence when uncorrigible under the various dispensations of God towards us Providence has a voice if we had an eare mercies should draw afflictions drive now when neither faire meanes nor foule do us good but we are impenitent under both this is to wrestle against God with both hands Either of these have their peculiar aggravations One is against love and so dis-ingenuous the other is against the smart of his rod and therein we slight his anger and are cruel to our selves in kicking against the pricks Mercy should make us ashamed wrath afraid to sin He that is not ashamed has not the spirit of a man He that is not afraid when smitten is worse then the beast who stands in aw of whip spur Sometimes mercy especially these outward mercies which have a pleasing relish to the carnal part in a Christian hath prov'd a snare to the best of men but then affliction useth to recover them but when affliction makes men worse and they harden themselves against God to sin more and more while the rod is on them what is like to reclaim them few are made better by prosperity whom afflictions make worse He that will sin though he goes in pain will much more if that once be gone But take heed of thus contesting with God
the world is it cannot peaceably hold the Saints and wicked together but his intent is to shew what a complicated enemy mans wrath and Satans interwoven together we have to deal with First for the first how meanly doth the Spirit of God speak of man calling him flesh and blood Man hath a Heaven-borne soule which makes him a kin to Angels yea to the God of them who is the Father of Spirits but this is passed by in silence as if God would not owne that which is tainted with sin and not the creature God at first made it or because the soul though of such noble extraction yet being so immerst in sensuality deserves no other name then flesh which part of man levels him with the beast and is here intended to expresse the weaknesse and frailty of mans nature 'T is the phrase which the Holy Ghost expresseth the weaknesse and impotency of a creature by Isa 31.3 They are men and their horses are flesh that is weak as on the contrary when he would set out the power and strength of a thing he opposeth it to flesh 2 Cor. 10.3 Our weapons are not carnal but mighty and so in the text not flesh and blood but Powers As if he should say Had you no other to feare but a weak sorry man it were not worth the providing armes or ammunition but you have enemies that neither are flesh nor are resisted with flesh so that here we see what a weak creature man is not only weaker then Angels as they are Spirit and he flesh but in some sense beneath the beasts as the flesh of man is frailer then the flesh of beasts therefore the Spirit of God compares man to the grasse which soon withers Isa 40.6 and his goodlinesse to the flower of the field Yea he is called vanity Psal 62.9 Men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie both alike vain only the rich and the great man his vanity is covered with honour wealth c. which are here called a lie because they are not what they seem and so worse then plain vanity which is known to be so and deceives not Vse 1 First Is man but fraile flesh let this humble thee O man in all thy excellency flesh is but one remove from filth and corruption thy soule is the salt that keeps thee sweet or else thou wouldest stink above ground Is it thy beauty thou pridest in flesh is grasse but beauty is the vanity of this vanity This goodlinesse is like the flower which lasts not so long as the grasse appears in its moneth and is gone yea like the beauty of the flower which fades while the flower stands How soon will times plough make furrowes in thy face yea one fit of an Ague so change thy countenance as shall make thy doting lovers afraid to look on thee Is it strength alas it is an arme of flesh which withers oft in the stretching forth ere long thy blood which is now warm will freeze in thy veines thy Spring crown'd with May-buds will tread on Decembers heel thy marrow dry in thy bones thy sinews shrink thy legs bow under the weight of thy body thy eye-strings crack thy tongue not able to call for help yea thy heart with thy flâ—sh shall faile and now thou who art such a giant take a turne if thou canst in thy chamber yea raise but thy head from thy pillow if thou art able or call back thy breath which is making haste to be gone out of thy nostrils never to return more and darest thou glory in that which so soon may be prostrate Is it wisdome the same grave rhat covers thy body shall bury all that the wisdome of thy flesh I mean all thy thoughts shall perish and goodly plots come to nothing Indeed if a Christian thy thoughts as such shall ascend with thee not one holy breathing of thy soule lost Is it thy blood and birth whoever thou art thou art base-borne till borne againe the same blood runs in thy veines with the beggar in the street Asts 17.26 All Nations there we finde made of the same blood in two things all are alike we come in and go out of the world alike as one is not made of finer earth so not resolved into purer dust Vse 2 Secondly Is man flesh trust not in man Cursed be he that makes flesh his arme Not the mighty man robes may hide and garnish they cannot change flesh Psal 146. Put not your trust in Princes alas they cannot keep their crownes on their own heads their heads on their own shoulders and lookest thou for that which they cannot give themselves Not in wise men whose designes recoile oft upon themselves that they cannot performe their enterprise Amphora coepit institui currente rot â cur urceus exit Mans carnal wisdome intends one thing but God turnes the wheele and brings forth another Trust not in holy men they have flesh and so their judgement not infallible yea their way sometimes doubtful His mistake may lead thee aside and though he returns thou mayest go on and perish Trust not in any man in all men no not in thy self thou artflesh He is a fool saith the Wise man that trusts his heart Not in the best thou art or doest the garment of thy righteousnesse is spotted with the flesh all is counted by Saint Paul confidence in the flesh besides our rejoycing in Christ Phil. 3.3 Vse 3 Thirdly feare not man he is but flesh This was Davids resolv Ps 56.4 I will not fear what flesh can do unto me thou need'st not thou ought'st not to fear Thou need'st not What not such a great man not such a number of men who have the keyes of all the prisons at their girdle who can kill or save alive no not these only look they be thy enemies for Righteousnesse sake Take heed thou makest not the least childe thine enemy by offering wrong to him God will right the wicked even upon the Saint If he offends he shall finde no shelter under Gods wing for his sin This made Jerome complain that the Christians sins made the armes of those barbarous Nations which invaded Christendome victorious Nostris peccatis fortes sunt barbari But if mans wrath findes thee in Gods way and his fury take fire at thy holinesse thou needest not feare though thy life be the prey he hunts for Flesh can only wound flesh he may kill thee but not hurt thee why shouldest thou feare to be stript of that which thou hast resign'd already to Christ 't is the first lesson thou learnest if a Christian to deny thy self take up thy crosse and follow thy Master so that the enemy comes too late thou hast no life to lose because thou hast given it already to Christ nor can man take away that without Gods leave all thou hast is ensured and though God hath not promised thee immunity from suffering in this kinde yet he hath
had he not been call'd to reside as our Ambassadour and Advocate in heaven with the Father and therefore in his bodily absence he hath intrusted thee and a few more to carry on the Treaty with sinners which when on earth himself began And what can you do more acceptable to him then to be faithful in it as a businesse on which he hath set his heart so much As ever you would see his sweet face with joy you that are his Ambassadours attend to your work and labour to bring this Treaty of Peace to a blessed issue between God and those you are sent to And then if sinners will not come off and seal the Articles of the Gospel you shall as Abraham said to his servant be cleare of your oath Though Israel he not gathered yet you shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord. And let not the private Christian say he is a dry tree and can do nothing for Christ his Prince because he may not bear the Magistrates fruit or Ministers Though thou hast not a commission to punish the sins of others with the sword of justice yet thou mayest shew thy zeal in mortifying thy own with the sword of the Spirit and mourne for theirs also though thou mayest not condemn them on the bench yet thou mayest yea oughtest by the power of a holy life to convince and judge them Such a Judge Lot was to the Sodomites Though thou art not sent to preach and baptize yet thou mayest be wonderful helpful to them who are The Christians prayers whet Magistrates and Ministers sword also O pray Christian and pray again that Christs Territories may be enlarged never go to heare the Word but pray Thy Kingdom come Loving Princes take great content in the acclamations and good wishes of their subjects as they passe by A vivat rex Long live the King coming from a loyal breath though poor is more worth then a subsidy from those who deny their hearts while they part with their money Thou servest a Prince Christian who knowes what all his subjects think of him and he counts it his honour not to have a multitude feinedly submit to him but to have a people that love him and cordially like his government who if they were to chuse their King and make their own lawes they should live under every day would desire no other then himself nor any other lawes then what they have already from his mouth It was no doubt great content to David that he had the hearts of his people so as Whatever the King did pleased them all And surely God took it as well that what he did pleased David for indeed David was as content under the rule and disposure of God as the people were under his witnesse the calmnesse of his Spirit in the greatest affliction that ever befell him 2 Sam. 15.26 Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Loyal soule he had rather live in exile with the good Will of God then have his throne if God will not say 't is good for him CHAP. IV. Of the great power Satan hath not only over the elementary and sensitive part of the world but intellectual also the soules of men SECT I. THis is the Second Branch of the Description wherein Satan is set forth by his might and Power This gives weight to the former were he a Prince and not able to raise a force that might dread the Saints the swelling name of Prince were contemptible but he hath power answerable to his dignity which in five particulars will appear First in his names Secondly his nature Thirdly his number Fourthly his order and unity Lastly the mighty works that are attributed to him First for the first he hath names of great power called the strong man Luke 11.21 so strong that he keeps his house in peace in defiance of all the sons of Adam none on earth being able to cope with this giant Christ must come from Heaven to destroy him and his works or the field is lost He is call'd the roaring lion which beast commands the whole forrest If he roares all tremble yea in such a manner as Pliny relates that he goes amongst them and they stand exanimated while he chooseth his prey without resistance such a lion is Satan who leads sinners captive at his will 2 Tim. 3.26 He takes them alive as the word is as the Fowler the bird which with a little scrap is enticed into the net or as the Conquerour his cowardly enemy who has no heart to fight but yields without contest Such cowards the devil finds sinners he no sooner appears in a motion but they yield They are but a very few noble spirits and those are the children of the most High God who dare valiantly oppose him and in striving against sin resist to blood He is call'd the great red dragon who with his taile wicked men his instruments sweeps down the third part of the stars of Heaven The Prince of the power of the aire because as a Prince can muster his subjects and draw them into the field for his service so the devil can raise the posse coeli aërii In a word he is call'd the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 because sinners give him a God-like worship feare him as the Saints do God himselfe Secondly the devils nature shewes his power 'T is Angelical Blesse the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength Psal 103.20 Strength is put for Angels Psal 78.25 They did eat Angels food Heb. the food of the mighty In two things the power of Angelical nature will appear In its Superiority and in its Spirituality First its Superiority Angels are the top of the Creation man himself made a little lower then the Angels Now in the works of Creation the Superiour hath a power over the Inferiour the beasts over the grasse and herb man over the beasts and Angels over man Secondly the Spirituality of their nature The weaknesse of man is from his flesh his soule made for great enterprizes but weighed down with a lump of flesh is forced to rowe with a strength suitable to its weak Partner but now the devils being Angels have no such incumbrance no sumes from a fleshly part to cloud their understanding which is clear and piercing no clog at their heele to retard their motion which for swiftnesse is set out by the winde and flame of fire Yea being spiritual they cannot be resisted with carnal force fire and sword hurt not them The Angel which appear'd to Manoah went up in the fire that consumed the sacrifice though such hath been the dotage and is at this day of superstitious ones that they think to charme the devil with their carnal exorcismes hence the Romish Reliques Crosse holy water yea and among the Jewes themselves in corrupter times who thought by their phylacteries and Circumcision to scare away the devil which made some of them expound that Cant.
lesse then a God like fear and dread of them by that power he puts forth through divine permission in smiting their goods beasts and bodies as among the Indians at this day Yea there are many among our selves plainly shew what a throne Satan hath in their hearts upon this account such who as if there were not a God in Israel go for help and cure to his Doctours wizzards I mean And truly had Satan no other way to work his will on the soules of men but by this vantage he takes from the body yet considering the degeneracy of mans state how low his soule is sunk beneath its primitive extraction how the body which was a lightsome house is now become a prisoner to it that which was its servant is now become its Master it is no wonder he is able to do so much But besides this he hath as a spirit a neerer way of accesse to the soule and as a superiour spirit yet more over man a lower creature And above all having got within the soule by mans fall he hath now far more power then before so that where he meets not resistance from God he carrries all before him As in the wicked whom he hath so at his devotion that he is in a sense said to do that in them which God doth in the Saints God works effectually in them Gal. 2.8 1 Thes 2.13 Satan worketh effectually in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word with the former places he is in a manner as efficacious with them as the holy Spirit with the other His delusions strong 2 Thes 2.11 They return not re infectâ The Spirit enlightens he blindes the mindes of those that believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 The Spirit fills the Saints Ephes 5.18 Why hath Satan filled thy heart saith Peter to Ananias Acts. 5.3 The Spirit fills with knowledge and the fruits of righteousnesse Satan fills with envy and all unrighteousnesse The holy Spirit fills with comfort Satan the wicked with terrours As in Saul vexed by an evil spirit and Iudas into whom 't is said he entered and when he had satisfied his lust upon him as Amnon on Tamar shuts the door of mercy upon him and makes him that was even now Traitour to his Master Hangman to himselfe And though Saints be not the proper subjects of his power yet they are the chief objects of his wrath his foot stands on the wickeds back but he wrestles with these and when God steps aside he is far above their match He hath sent the strongest among them home trembling and crying to their God with the blood running about their consciences He is mighty both as a tempter to and for sin knowing the state of the Christians affairs so wel able to throw his fire-bals so far into the inward senses whether they be of lust or horrour and to blow up these with such unwearied solicitations that if they at first meet not with some suitable dispositions in the Christian at which as from loose cornes of powder they may take fire which is most ordinary yet in time he may bring over the creature by the length of the siege and continued volleys of such motions to listen to a parley with them if not a yielding to them Thus many times he even wearies out the soule with importunity SECT II. Vse 1 First let this O man make the plumes of thy pride fall whoever thou art that gloriest in thy power hadst thou more then thou or any of the sons of Adam ever had yet what were all that to the power of these Angels Is it the strength of thy body thou gloriest in Alas what is the strength of frail flesh to the force of their spiritual nature thou art no more to these then a childe to a giant a worme to a man who could tear up the mountaines and hurle the world into a confusion if God would but suffer them Is it the strength of thy parts above others doest thou not see what fooles he makes of the wisest among men winding them about as a Sophister would do an Idiot making them believe light is dark bitter is sweet and sweet bitter were not the strength of his parts admirable could he make a rational creature as man is so absurdly throw away his scarlet and embrace dung I mean part with God and the glorious happinesse he hath in him in hope to mend himself by embracing sin Yet this he did when man had his best wits about him in innocency Is it the power of place and dignity got by warlike atchievement Grant thou wert able to subdue Nations and give lawes to the whole world yet even then without grace from above thou wouldest be his slave And he himselfe for all this his power is a cursed spirit the most miserable of all Gods creatures and the more because he hath so much power to do mischief had the devil lost all his Angelical abilities when he fell he had gained by his losse Therefore tremble O man at any power thou hast except thou usest it for God Art strong in body who hath thy strength God or thy lusts some are strong to drink strong to sin Thy bands shall therefore be stronger Isa 28.22 Hast thou power by thy place to do God and his Church service but no heart to lay it out for them but rather against them thou and the devil shall be tried at the same bar it seems thou meanest to go to hell for something thou wilt carry thy full lading thither No greater plague can befall a man then power without grace Such great ones in the world while here make a brave shew like chief Commanders and field-Officers at the head of their Regiments the common souldiers are poor creatures to them but when the Army is beaten and all taken prisoners then they fling off their scarfe and feather and would be glad to passe for the meanest in the army Happy would devils be Princes and great ones in the world be if then they could appear in the habit of some poor sneaks to receiv their sentence as such but then their titles and dignity and riches shall be read not for their honour but further shame and damnation Vs e 2 Secondly it shewes the folly of those that think it is such an easie matter to get heaven If the devil be so mighty and heavens way so full of them then sure it will cost hot water before we display our banners upon the walls of that new Ierusalem Yet it is plain many think otherwise by the provision they make for their march If you should see a man walking forth without a cloak or with a very thin one you will say Surely he fears no foule weather or one riding a long journey alone and without armes you will conclude he expects no thieves on the road All if you ask them will tell you they are on their way to heaven but how few care for
flowing from the same enlargement in duty and the like which Satan may for a time disturb yea deprive thee of but he cannot come to the rolls to blot thy name out of the book of life he cannot null thy faith make void thy relation dry up thy comfort in the Spring though dam up the stream nor hinder thee a happy issue of thy whole war with sinne though worst thee in a private skirmish these all are kept in Heaven among Gods own Crown-Jewels who is said to keep us by his power through faith unto salvation SECT III. The third boundary of the devils Principality is in regard of his subjects and they are described here to be the darknesse of this world that is such who are in darknesse This word is used sometimes to expresse the desolate condition of a creature in some great distresse Isa 150. He that walks in darknesse and sees no light sometimes to expresse the nature of all sin so Eph. 5.1 sin is called the work of darknesse sometimes the particular sin of ignorance often set out by the darknesse of the night blindnesse of the eye all these I conceive may be mean't but chiefly the latter for though Satan makes a foule stir in the soule that is in the dark of sorrow whether it be from outward crosses or inward desertions yet if the creature be not in the darknesse of sinne at the same time though he may disturb his peace as an enemy yet cannot be said to rule as a Prince Sin only sets Satan in the Throne so that I shall take the words in the two latter Interpretations First for the darknesse of sin in general Secondly for the darknesse of ignorance in special and the sense will be that the devils rule is over those that are in a state of sin and ignorance not over those who are sinful or ignorant so he would take hold of Saints as well as others but over those who are in a state of sin which is set out by the abstract Ruler of the darknesse the more to expresse the fulnesse of the sin and ignorance that possesseth Satans slaves and the Notes will be two First Every soul in a state of sin is under the rule of Satan Secondly Ignorance above other sins enslaves a soul to Satan and therefore all sins are set out by that which chiefly expresseth this viz. darknesse Every soule in a state of sin is under the rule of Satan under which point these two things must be enquired First the reason why sin is set out by darknesse Secondly how every one in such a state appears to be under the devils rule For the first First sin may be called darknesse because the spring and common cause of sin in man is darknesse The external cause Satan who is the great promoter of it he is a cursed spirit held in chaines of darknesse The internal is the blindnesse and darknesse of the soule we may say when any one sins he doth he knowes not what as Christ said of his murtherers Did the creature know the true worth of the soul which he now sells for a song the glorious amiable nature of God and his holy wayes the matchlesse love of God in Christ the poisonfull nature of sin and all these not by a sudden beam darted into the window at a Sermon and gone again like a flash of lightning but by an abiding light this would spoile the devils market and poor creatures would not readily take this toad into their bosomes sin goes in a disguise and so is welcome Secondly it is darknesse because it brings darknesse into the soul and that naturally and judicially First Naturally There is a noxious quality in sin offensive to the understanding which is to the soule what the eye and palate are to the body It discernes of things and distinguisheth true from false as the eye white from black It tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meats Now as there are some things bad for the sight and others bad for the palate vitiating it so that it shall not know sweet from bitter so here sin besots the creature and makes it injudicious that he who could see such a practice absurd and base in others before when once he hath drunk of this inchanting cup himself as one that hath for done his understanding is mad of it himself not able now to see the evil of it or use his reason against it Thus Saul before he had debauch't his conscience thinks the Witch worthy of death but after he had trodden his conscience hard with other foule sins goes to ask counsel of one himself Again sin brings darknesse judiciously such have been threatened whose eare God hath been trying to open and instruct and have run out of Gods school into the devils by rebelling against light that they shall die without knowledge Iob 36.10 12. What should the candle burn wast when the creature hath more minde to play then work Thirdly Sinne runs into darknesse Impostors bring in their damnable Heresies privily like those who sell bad ware loath to come to the Market where the Standard tries all but put it off in secret so in moral wickednesse sinners like beasts go out in the night for their prey loath to be seen afraid to come where they should be found out Nothing more terrible to sinners then light of truth John 3.19 because their deeds are evil Felix was so netled with what Paul spake that he could not sit out the Sermon but flings away in haste and adjourns the hearing of Paul till a convenient season but he never could finde one The Sun is not more troublesome in hot Countreys then truth is to those who sit under the powerful preaching of it and therefore as those seldome come abroad in the heat of the day and when they must have their devices over their heads to skreene them from the Sun so sinners shun as much as may be the preaching of the Word but if they must go to keep in with their relations or for other carnal advantages they if possible will keep off the power of truth either by sleeping the Sermon away or prating it away with any foolish imagination which Satan sends to beare them company and chat with them at such a time or by choosing such a coole Preacher to sit under whose toothlesse discourse shall rather flatter then trouble rather tickle their fancy then prick their consciences and then their sore eyes can look upon the light Froreseentem amant veritatem qui non redarguentem they dare handle and look on the sword with delight when in a rich scabbard who would run away to see it drawn Fourthly Sinne is darknesse for its uncomfortab'enesse and that in a threefold respect First Darknesse is uncomfortable as it shuts out of all imployment What could the Egyptians do under the plague of darknesse but sit still and this to an active spirit is trouble enough Thus in a state of sinne
prisoner I cannot shake off my fetters and set my self at liberty to come unto Christ Well poor soul canst thou groan heartily under thy bondage then for thy comfort know thy deliverance is at the door he that heard the cry of Israel in Egypt will hear thine also yea come and save thee out of the hands of thy lusts He will not as some who entangle thy affections by making love to thee and then give over the suit and come at thee no more If Christ has won thy heart he 'll be true to thee and be at all the cost to bring thee out of thy prison-house also yea take the paines to come for thee himselfe and bring with him these wedding-garments in which he will carry thee from thy prison to his Fathers house with joy where thou shalt live not only as a subject under his Law but as a Bride in the bosome of his love and what can be added to thy happinesse more when thy Prince is thy husband and that such a Prince to whom all other are vassals even the Prince of the world himself and yet so gracious that his Majesty hinders not his familiar converse with thee a poor creature but addes to the condescent thereof therefore God chooseth to mixe names of greatnesse and relation together the one to sweeten the other Thy Maker is thy husband thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel The God of the whole earth shall he be called Isa 54.5 And to usher in those promises with titles of greatest dread and terrour to the creature that hold forth the greatest condescensions of love How can God stoop lower then to come and dwell with a poor humble soule which is more then if he had said such a one should dwell with him for a beggar to live at Court is not so much as the King to dwell with him in this cottage Yet this promise is usher'd in with the most magnificent titles Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit Isa 57.15 and why such titles but to take away the feares which his Saints are prone to take up from them Will the high and lofty One saith the humble soule look on me a poor worme will the Holy God come near such an unclean creature saith the contrite one Isaiah himself cried he was undone at the sight of God and this attribute proclaim'd before him Isa 6. Now God prefixeth these that the creature may know his Majesty and holinesse which seems so terrible to us are no prejudice to his love yea so gracious a Prince is thy husband that he delights rather his Saints should call him by names of love then state Thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt no more call me Baali Hos 2.16 that is my Husband not my Lord. SECT IV. The second point follows Ignorance above other sins enslaves a soule to Satan a knowing man may be his slave but an ignorant one can be no other Knowledge doth not make the heart good but it is impossible that without knowledge it should be good There are some sins which an ignorant person cannot commit there are more which he cannot but commit Knowledge is the Key Luke 11.52 Christ the door John 15. Christ opens Heaven Knowledge opens Christ In three particulars the Point will appear more fully First ignorance opens a doore for sinne to enter Secondly as ignorance lets sin in so it locks it up in the soule and the soule in it Thirdly as it locks it up so it shuts all meanes of help out First Ignorance opens the door for Satan to enter in with his troops of lusts where the watch is blinde the City is soon taken an ignorant man sins and like drunken Lot he knowes not when the tempter comes nor when he goes he is like a man that walks in his sleep knowes not where he is nor what he does Father forgive them said Christ they know not what they do The Apostle 1 Cor. 15. having reproved the sensuality of some verse 32. who made the consideration of death by which others are awed from sinne a provocative to sinne Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die he gives an account of this absurd reasoning All have not the knowledge of God An ignorant person is a man in shape and a beast in heart There is no knowledge in the land saith the Prophet Hosea 4.2 and see what a regiment followes this blinde Captain swearing lying killing stealing and what not We reade 2 Tim. 3.5 of some laden with sins here are trees full of bitter fruit and what dung shall we finde at the root that makes them so fruitfull but ignorance silly women and such who never come to the knowledge of the truth Secondly ignorance as it lets sin in so it locks it up and the soule in it such a one lies in Satans inner dungeon where no light of conviction comes darknesse inclines to sleep a blinde minde and a drowsie conscience go together When the storme arose the mariners who were awake fell a praying to their God but the sleeper feares nothing Ignorance layes the soule asleep under the hatches of stupidity God hath planted in the beast a natural feare of that which threatens hurt to it Go to thrust a beast into a pit and it hangs back nature shewes its abhorrency Man being of a nobler nature and subject to more dangers God hath set a double guard on him as a natural feare of danger so a natural shame that covers the face at the doing of any unworthy action Now an ignorant man hath slipt from both these his Keepers he sins and blusheth not because he knowes not his guilt he wants that Magistrate within which should put him to shame neither is he afraid because he knowes not his danger and therefore he playes with his sin as the childe with the waves that by and by will swallow him up Conscience is Gods alarm to call the sinner up It doth not alwayes ring in his eare that hath knowledge being usually set by God to go off at some special houre when God is speaking in an Ordinance or striking in a Providence but in an ignorant soule this is silent The Clock cannot go when the weights are taken off Conscience is only a witnesse to what it knows Thirdly ignorance shuts out the means of recovery Friends and Ministers yea Christ himself stands without and cannot help the creature as such threatenings and promises all of no use he feares not the one he desires not the other because he knows neither Heaven-way cannot be found in the dark and therefore the first thing God doth is to spring in with a light and let the creature know where he is and what the way is to get out of his prison-house without which all attempts to escape are in vain There is some shimmering
them to win them home to God Vse 2 To the Ministers of the Gospel Let this stir up your bowels of compassion towards those many ignorant soules in your respective Congregations who know not the right hand from the left This this is the great destroyer of the countrey which Ministers should come forth against with all their care and strength More are swept to hell with this plague of spiritual darknesse then any other Where the light of knowledge and conviction is there commonly is a sense and pain that accompanies the sinner when he doth evil which forceth some now and then to enquire for a Physician and come in the distresse of their spirits to their Minister or others for counsel but the ignorant soul feels no such smart if the Minister stay till he sends for him to instruct him he may sooner hear the bell go for him then any messenger come for him you must seek them out and not expect that they will come to you These are a sort of people that are afraid more of their remedy then their disease and study more to hide their ignorance then how they may have it cured which should make us pity them the more because they can pity themselves so little I confesse it is no small unhappinesse to some of us who have to do with a multitude that we have neither time nor strength to make our addresses to every particular person in our Congregations and attend on them as their needs require and yet cannot well satisfie our consciences otherwise But let us look to it that though we cannot do to the height of what we would we be not found wanting in what we may Let not the difficulty of our Province make us like some who when they see they have more work upon their hands then they can well dispatch grow sick of it and sit down out of a lazy despondency and do just nothing He that hath a great house running to ruine and but a small purse 't is better for him to repair now a little and then a little then let all fall down because he cannot do it all at once Many Ministers may complain of their Predecessours that they left them their people more out of repair then their houses and this makes the work great indeed As the Jewes who were to revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish before they could build the wall yet it went up because the people had a minde to work Nehem. 4. O if once our hearts were but fill'd with zeal for God and compassion to our peoples souls we would up and be doing though we could but lay a brick a day and God would be with us May be you who finde a people rude and sottishly ignorant like stones in the quarry and trees unfell'd shall not bring the work to such perfection in your dayes as you desire yet as David did for Solomon thou mayest by thy paines in teaching and instructing them prepare materials for another who shall rear the Temple It s very ordinary for one Minister to enter into the labours of another to reap those by a work of Conversion in whom a former Minister hath cast the seed of knowledge and conviction And when God comes to reckon with his Workmen the Plough-man and Sower shall have his penny as well as the Harvest-man and Reaper O it s a blessed thing to be as Job saith he was eyes to the blinde much more to blinde soules such are the Ministers God himself calls Pastours after his own heart that feed his people with knowledge and understanding Jer. 3.15 But wo to those that are accessary to their peoples ignorance Now a Minister may be accessary to the ignorance of his people First by his own ignorance Knowledge is so fundamental to the work and calling of a Minister that he cannot be one without it Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy children Hos 4.6 The want of knowledge in a Minister is such a defect as cannot be supplied by any thing else be he never so meek patient bountiful unblameable if he hath not skill to divide the Word aright he is not cut out for a Minister Every thing is good as its good for the end it is appointed to a knife though it had a haft of diamonds yet if it will not cut 't is no knife A bell if not sound is no bell The great work of a Minister is to teach others his lips are to preserve knowledge he should be as conversant in the things of God as others in their particular trades Ministers are called Lights if the light then be darknesse how great is the darknesse of that people like to be I know these stars in Christs hands are not all of the same magnitude there is a greater glory of gifts and graces shines in some then others yet so much light is necessary to every Minister as was in the star the wise men saw at Christs birth to be able out of the Word to direct sinners the safe and true way to Christ and salvation O Sirs it is a sad way of getting a living by killing of men as some unskilful Physicians do but much more to get a temporal livelihood by ruining souls through our ignorance He is a cruel man to the poor Passengers who will undertake to be Pilot when he never so much as learn't his Compasse Secondly by his negligence It s all one if the Nurse hath no milk in her breasts or having drawes it not forth to her childe There is a wo to the Idol-shepherd Zech. 11. such as have mouthes but speak not lips but not to feed the people with knowledge It shall be the peoples sin if they feed not when bread is before them but wo to us if we give them not meat in due season O Sirs what shall we say to our Lord that trusts us if those abilities which he hath given us as market-money to buy bread for our people be found wrapt up in a napkin of sloth if that time wherein we should have been teaching and instructing them shall appear to be wasted in our pleasures or employed about our carnal profits That servant shall have but a sad welcome of his Master when he comes home that shall be found out of the way with the Key and the family starving in the mean time for want of provision Thirdly by his unedifying preaching when he preacheth unsound doctrine which doth not perfect the understanding but corrupt it Better he did leave them in simple ignorance then colour their mindes with a false die or when that he preacheth is frothy and flashy no more fit to feed their soules then husks the Prodigals belly which when they know they are little the wiser for their soules good Or when his discourses are so high flown that the poor
know naturally in these things they corrupt themselves They know the holinesse of God but love him not for it as the Elect Angels do and themselves by Creation did They know the evil of sin and love it not the lesse but though they are such fooles for themselves yet have subtilty too much for all the Saints on Earth if we had not a God to play our game for us Secondly as spirits they are invisible and their approaches also They come and you see not your enemy Indeed this makes him so little feared by the ignorant world whereas it is his greatest advantage if rightly weighed O if men have an apparition of the devil or heare a noise in the night they cry The devil the devil and are ready to runne out of their wits for feare but they carry him in their hearts and walk all the day long in his company and feare him not When thy proud heart is clambering up to the pinacle of honour in thy ambitious thoughts who sets thee there but the devil When thy adulterous heart is big with all manner of uncleannesse and filthinesse who but Satan hath been there begetting these brats on thy whorish spirit When thou art raging in thy passion throwing burning coales of wrath and fury about with thy inflamed tongue where was it set on fire but of hell When thou art hurried like the swine into the precipice and even choakt with thy own drunken vomit who but the devil rides thee Thirdly as spirits they are immortal Of other enemies you may hear news at last that they are dead which sought thy life as the Angel told Joseph of Herod Persecuting men walk a turne or two upon the stage and are call'd off by death and there is an end of all their plots but devils die not they will hunt thee to thy grave and when thou diest they will meet thee in another world to accuse and torment thee there also Fourthly they are unwearied in their motions When the fight is over among men the Conquerour must sit down and breathe and so loseth the chase because not able to pursue it in time Yea some have given over their Empires as glutted with the blood of men and weary of the work when they cannot have their will as they desired Thus Dioclesian because he saw he did but mowe a medow that grew the thicker for the cutting down as Tertullian speaks of the Christians martyred he throws away his Scepter in a pet Charles the fifth did the like some say upon the same reason because he could not root out the Lutherans But the devils spirit is never cowed nor he weary of doing mischief though he hath never stood still since first he began his walk to and fro the world O what would become of us if a God were not at our back who is infinitely more the devils odds then he ours SECT II. Secondly they are wicked spirits wicked in the abstract as in the Text and call'd by way of eminency in sin The wicked one Mat. 13.19 As God is called the holy one because none holy as the Lord. So the devil the wicked one because he is a none such in sinne In a few particulars let us endeavour to take the height of the devils sinne and the rather that we may judge of the degrees of sins and sinners among the sons of men the neerer God in holinesse the more holy the liker the devil the more wicked First these Apostate Angels are the inventers of sinne the first that sounded the Trumpet of rebellion against their Maker and led the dance to all that sinne which since hath filled the world Now what tongue can accent this sinne to its full for such a noble creature whom God had set on the top as it were of all the creation neerest to himself from whom God had kept nothing but his own royal diadem for this Peere and Favorite of the Court without any cause or solicitation from any other to make this bold and blasphemous attempt to snatch at Gods own Crown this paints the devil blacker then the thoughts of men and Angels can conceive He is called the father of lies as those who found out any Art are called the father of it Jubal the father of all such as handle the harp and organ he invented Musick and this is a dreadful aggravation because they sinned without a Tempter And though man is not in such a degree capable of this aggravation yet some men sinne after the very similitude of the devils transgression in this respect who as Saint Paul Rom. 1.30 stiles them are inventers of evil things Indeed sinne is an old trade found out to our hand but as in other trades and arts some famous men arise who adde to the inventions of others and make trades and arts as it wtre new so there ever are some infamous in their generation that make old sinnes new by superadding to the wickednesse of others Uncleannesse is an old sinne from the beginning but the Sodomites will be filthy in a new way and therefore it carries their name to this day Some invent new errrors others new oathes such as are of their own coyning hot out of the mint they scorne to sweare after the old fashion Others new devices of perseuting as Julian had a way by himself different from all before him and to the end of the world every age will exceed other in the degrees of sinning Ishmael and the mockers of the old world were but children and bunglers to the scoffers and cruel mockers of the last time Well take heed of shewing thy wit in inventing new sinnes lest thou stirre up God to invent new punishments Is not destruction to the wicked and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity Job 31.3 Sodom sinned after a new mode and God destroys them after a new way sends hell from above upon them Some have invented new opinions Monstrous errors and God hath suited their monstrous errors with births as monstrous of their own body Secondly they were not onely the inventers of sinne but are still the chief tempters to and promoters of sinne in the world therefore call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tempter and sinne called the work of the devil whoever commits it as the house goes by the name of the Master-workman though he useth his servants hands to build it O take heed of soliciting others to sinne thou takest the Devils office as I may say out of his hand let him do it himself if he will make not thy self so like him To tempt another is worse then to sinne thy self It speaks sinne to be of great growth in that man that doth it knowingly and willingly Herbs and flowers shed not their seed till ripe creatures propagate not till of stature and age What do those that tempt others but diffuse their wicked opinions and practices and as it were raise up seed to the devil thereby-to keep up the name of
the wickednesse of his heart in this glasse of the devils nature and he will see himself as a great debtor to the mercy of God as Manasses or the worst of sinners as in pardoning so in preventing the same cursed nature with theirs before it gave fire on God with those bloody sinnes which they committed That thou didst not act such outragious sinnes thou art beholden to Gods gracious surprize and not the goodnesse of thy nature which hath the devils stamp on it for which God might have crusht thee as we do the brood of Serpents before they sting knowing what they will do in time Who will say that Faux suffered unjustly because the Parliament was not blown up it was enough that the materials for that Massacre were provided and he taken there with match and fire about him ready to lay the traine and canst thou say when God first took hold on thee that thou had'st not those weapons of rebellion about thee a nature fully charged with enmity against God which in time would have made its own report of what for present lay like unfired ponder silent in thy bosome O Christian think of this and be humbled for thy villainous nature and say Blessed be God that sent his Spirit and grace so timely to stay thy hand as Abigail to David while thy nature meditated nothing but warre against God and his laws Vse 3 Again Thirdly are the devils so wickedly malicious against God himself O Sirs take the right notion of sinne and you will hate it The reason why we are so easily perswaded to sinne is because we understand not the bottome of his designe in drawing a creature to sinne It is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting Captains beat their drummes for Voluntiers and promise all that list pay and plunder and this makes them come trowling in but few consider what the ground of the Warre is against whom or for what Satan enticeth to sinne and give golden promises what they shall have in his service with which silly souls are won but how few ask their souls Whom do I sinne against what is the devils designe in drawing me to sinne Shall I tell thee dost thou think 't is thy pleasure or profit he desires in thy sinning alas he means nothing lesse he hath greater plots in his head then so He hath by his Apostasie proclaim'd warre against God and he brings thee by sinning to espouse his quarrel and to jeopard the life of thy soul in defence of his pride and lust which that he may do he cares no more for the damnation of thy soul then the great Turk doth to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his designe in a siege And darest thou venture to go into the field upon his quarrel against God O Earth tremble thou at the presence of the Lord. This bloody Joab sets thee where never any came off alive O stand not where Gods bullets fly throw down thy armes or thou art a dead man Whatever others do O ye Saints abhorre the thoughts of sinning willingly which when you do you help the devil against God and what more unnatural then for a childe to be seen in armes against his father CHAP. VII Of Satans plot to defile the Christians spirit with heart-sinnes The second Point followes THat these wicked Spirits do chiefly annoy the Saints with and provoke them to spiritual sinnes Sinnes may be called spiritual upon a double account either from the subject wherein they are acted or from the object about which they are conversant First in regard of the subject when the spirit or heart is the stage whereon sinne is acted this is a spiritual sinne such are all impure thoughts vile affections and desires though the object be fleshly lust yet are spiritual sinnes because they are purely acts of the soul and spirit and break not forth unto the outward man Secondly in regard of the object when that is spiritual and not carnal such as are idolatry errour spiritual pride unbelief c. both which Paul calls the filthinesse of the spirit and distinguisheth them from filthinesse of the flesh 2 Cor. 7.1 SECT I. First of the first Satan labours what he can to provoke the Christian to heart-sinnes to stirre up and foment these inward motions of sinne in the Christians bosome hence it is he can go about no duty but these his Impes I may call them haunt him one motion or other darts in to interrupt him as Paul tells us of himselfe When he would do good evil was present with him if a Christian should turne back when ever these crosse the way of him he should never go on his journey to heaven It is the chief game the devil hath left to play against the children of God now his field-army is broken and his commanding power taken away which he had over them to come out of these his holds where he lies sculking and fall upon their rear with these suggestions He knows his credit now is not so great with the soul as when it was his slave then no drudgery work was so base that it would not do at his command but now the soul is out of his bondage and he must not think to command anothers servant as his own No all he can do is to watch the fittest season when the Christian least suspects and then to present some sinful motion handsomely drest up to the eye of the soul that the Christian may before he is aware take this brat up and dandle it in his thoughts till at last he makes it his own by embracing it and this he knowes will defile the soul and may be this boy sent in at the window may open the door to let in a greater thief or if he should not so prevaile yet the guilt of these heart-sinnes yea their very neighbour-hood will be a sad vexation to a gracious heart whose nature is so pure that it abhorres all filthinesse so that to be haunted with such motions is as if a living man should be chain'd to a stinking carcase that where ever he goes he must draw that after him and whose love is so dear to Christ that it cannot bear the company of those thoughts without amazement and horrour which are so contrary and abusive to his beloved This makes Satan so desirous to be ever raking in the unregenerate part that as a dunghil stirr'd it may offend them both with the noisome streames which arise from it SECT II. Vse 1 First let this be for trial of thy spiritual state What entertainment findes Satan when he comes with these spirituals of wickednesse and solicites thee to dwell on them canst thou dispense with the filthinesse of thy spirit so thy hands be clean or dost thou wrestle against these heart-sinnes as well as others I do not ask whether such guests come within thy door for the worst of sinnes may be found in the
motions of them not only passing by the door of a Christian but looking in also as holy motions may be found stirring in the bosome of wicked men but I ask thee whether thou canst finde in thy heart to lodge these guests and bid them welcome 'T is like thou wouldst not be seen to walk in the street with such company not lead a whore by the hand through the Town not violently break open thy neighbours house to murder or rob him but canst thou not under thy own roofe in the withdrawing room of thy soul let thy thoughts hold up an unclean lust while thy heart commits speculative folly with it canst thou not draw thy neighbour into thy den and there rend him limb from limb by thy malice and thy heart not so much as cry murder murder In a word canst thou hide any one sinne in the vance roofe of thy heart there to save the life of it when enquired after by the Word and Spirit as Rahab hid the spies and sent the King of Jerichoes messengers to pursue them as if they had been gone Perhaps thou canst say the adulterer the murderer is not here thou hast sent these sinnes away long ago and all this while thou hidest them in the love of thy soul know it or thou shalt another day know it to thy cost thou art stark naught If there were a spark of the life of God or the love of Christ in thy bosome though thou couldst not hinder such motions in thy soul yet thou wouldst not conceale them much lesse nourish them in thy bosome when over-powered by them thou wouldst call in help from heaven against these destroyers of thy soul Vse 3 Secondly shew your loyalty O ye Saints to God by a vigorous resistance of and wrestling against these spirituals of wickednesse First consider Christian heart-sinnes are sinnes as well as any The thought of foolishnesse is sinne Prov. 24.9 Mercury is poison in the water distill'd as well as in the grosse body Uncleannesse covetousnesse murder are such in the heart as well as in the outward act every point of hell is hell Secondly consider thy spirit is the seat of the holy Spirit He takes up the whole heart for his lodging and 't is time for him to be gone when he sees his house let over his head Defile not thy spirit till thou art weary of his company Thirdly consider there may be more wickednesse in a sinne of the heart then of the hand and outward man for the aggravation of these is taken from the behaviour of the heart in the act The more of the heart and spirit is let out the more malignity is let in to any sinfull act To back-slide in heart is more then to back-slide 't is the comfort of a poor soul when tempted and troubled for his relapses that though his foot slides back yet his heart turnes not back but faceth Heaven and Christ at the same time so to erre in the heart is worse then to have an errour in the head therefore God aggravates Israels sinne with this They do alwayes erre in their heart Their hearts runne them upon the errour they liked idolatry and so were soon made to believe what pleased them best As on the contrary the more of the heart and spirit is in any holy service the more real goodnesse there is in it though it fâ—ll short of others in the outward expression The widowes two mites surpassed all the rest Christ himselfe being judge so in sinne though the internal acts of sinne in thoughts and affections seem light upon mans balance if compared with outward acts yet these may be so circumstanciated that they may exceed the other in Gods account Peter layes the accent of Magus his sinne on the wicked thought which his words betrayed to be in his heart Pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven Act. 8.22 Sauls sinne in sparing Agag and saving the best of the sheep and oxen which he was commanded to destroy was materially a farre lesse sinne then Davids adultery and murder yet it is made equal with a greater then both even witchcraft it selfe 1 Sam. 15.23 and whence receiv'd his sinne such a dye but from the wickednesse of his heart that was worse then Davids when deepest in the temptation Fourthly if Satan get into thy spirit and defile it O how hard wilt thou finde it to stay there thou hast already sipt of his broth and now art more likely to be overcome at last to sit down and make thy full meale of that which by tasting hath vitiated thy palate already It were strange if while thou art musing and thy heart hot with the thoughts of lust the fire should not break forth at thy lips or worse Quest But what help have we against this sort of Satans temptations Answ I suppose thee a Christian that makest this question and if thou dost it in the plainnesse of thy heart it proves thee one Who besides will or can desire in earnest to be eased of these guests even when a carnal heart prayes for deliverance from them he would be loath his prayer should be heard Not yet Lord the heart of such a one cries as Austin confessed of himself Sin is as truly the off-spring of the soule as children are of our bodies and it findes as much favour in our eyes yea more for the sinner can slay a son to save a sin alive Micah 6.7 and of all sinnes none are more made on then these heart sins First because they are the first-born of the sinful heart and the chiefest strength of the soule is laid out upon them Secondly because the heart hath more scope in them then in outward acts The proud man is staked down oft to a short state and cannot ruffle it in the world and appear to others in that pomp he would but within his own bosome he can set up a stage and in his own foolish heart present himself as great a Prince as he pleaseth The malicious can kill in his desires as many in a few minutes as the Angel smote in a night of Senacheribs host Nero thus could slay all Rome on the block at once Thirdly these sins stay with the soule when the other leave it when the sinner hath cripled his body with drunkennesse and filthinesse and proves miles emeritus cannot follow the devils campany longer in those wayes then these cursed lusts will entertain the sinner with stories of his old pranks and pleasures In a word these inward lusts of the heart have nothing but the conscience of a Deity to quell them Other sins put the sinner to shame before men and as some that believed on Christ durst not confesse him openly because they loved the praise of men so there are sinners who are kept from vouching their lusts openly for the same tendernesse to their reputation but here is no feare of that if they can but forget that heaven sees
them or perswade themselves there is no danger from thence the coast then is clear they may be as wicked as they please These make inward sins so hugg'd and embraced If thou therefore canst find thy heart set against these I may venture to call thee a Christian and for thy help against them First be earnest with God in prayer to move and order thy heart in its thoughts and desires If the tongue be such an unruly thing that few can tame O what is the heart where such a multitude of thoughts are flying forth as thick as bees from the hive and sparks from the furnace It is not in man not in the holiest on earth to do this without divine assistance Therefore we finde David so often crying out in this respect to order his steps in his Word to unite his heart to his feare to enâ—â—ine his heart to his testimonies As a servant when the childe he tends is troublesome and will not be ruled by him calls out to the father to come to him who no sooner speaks but all is whist with him No doubt holy David found his heart beyond his skill or power that makes him so oft do its errand to God Indeed God hath promised thus much to his children to order their steps for them Psal 37.22 only he looks they should bring their hearts to him for that end Commit thy work to the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Prov. 16.3 or ordered Art thou setting thy face towards an Ordinance where thou art sure to meet Satan who will be disturbing thee with worldly thoughts and may be worse Let God know from thy mouth whither thou art going and what thy feares are never doth the soule march in so goodly order as when it puts it self under the conduct of God Secondly set a strong guard about thy outward senses these are Satans landing places especially the eye and the eare Take heed what thou importest at these vaine discourse seldome passeth without leaving some tincture upon the heart as unwholesome aire inclines to putrefaction things sweet in themselves so unsavoury discourse to corrupt the minde that is pure look thou breathest therefore in a clear aire And for thy eye let it not wander wanton objects cause wanton thoughts Job knew his eye and his thoughts were like to go together and therefore to secure one he covenants with the other Job 31 1. Thirdly often reflect upon thy self in a day and observe what company is with thy heart A careful Master will ever and anon be looking into his work-house and see what his servants are doing and a wise Christian should do the same We may know by the noise in the school the Master is not there much of the mis-rule in our bosomes ariseth from the neglect of visiting our hearts Now when thou art parlying with thy soule make this threefold enquiry First whether that which thy heart is thinking on be good or evil If evil and wicked such as are proud unclean distrustful thoughts shew thy abhorrency of them and chide thy soul sharply for so much as holding conference with them of which nought can come but dishonour to God and mischief to thy own soul and stirre up thy heart to mourn for the evil neighbour-hood of them and by this thou shalt give a testimony of thy faithfulnesse to God When David mourn'd for Abner all Israel 't is said understood that day that it was not of the King to stay Abner Thy mourning for them will shew these thoughts are not so much of thee as of Satan Secondly if they be not broadly wicked enquire whether they be not empty frothy vaine imaginations that have no subserviency to the glory of God thy own good or others and if so leave not till thou hast made thy selfe apprehensive of Satans designe on thee in them though such are not for thy purpose yet they are for his they serve his turne to keep thee from better All the water is lost that runnes beside the mill and all thy thoughts are waste which help thee not to do Gods work withal in thy general or particular calling The Bee will not sit on a flower where no honey can be suckt neither should the Christian Why sittest thou here idle thou shouldest say to thy soul when thou hast so much to do for God and thy soul and so little time to dispatch it in Thirdly if thou findest they are good for matter thy heart is busied about then enquire whether they be good for time and manner which being wanting they degenerate First for the season that is good fruit which is brought forth in its season Christ liked the work his mother would have put him upon as well as her self John 2. but his time was not come Good thoughts and meditations misplaced are like some interpretations of Scripture good truths but bad expositions they fit not the place they are drawn from nor these the time To pray when we should hear or be musing on the Sermon when we should pray this is to rob God one way to pay him another Secondly tarefully observe the manner Thy heart may meditate a good matter and spoile it in the doing Thou art may be musing of thy sinnes and affecting thy heart into a sense of them but so that while thou art stirring up thy sorrow thou weakenest thy faith on the promise that is thy sinne He is a bad Chirurgion that in opening a veine goes so deep that he cuts an artery and lames the arme if not kills the man Or thou art thinking of thy family and providing for that this thou oughtest to do and wert worse then an infidel if thou neglectest but may be these thoughts are so distracting and distrustfull as if there were no promise no providence to relieve thee God takes this ill because it reflects upon his care of thee O how near doth our duty here stand to our sinne so much care is necessary ballast to the soul a little more sinks it under the waves of unbeliefe like some things very wholesome but one degree more of hot or cold would make them poison CHAP. VIII How Satan labours to corrupt the Christians minde with errour THe second sort of spiritual sinnes are such as are not only acted in the spirit but are conversant about spiritual objects proper to the soules nature that is a spirit and not laid out in carnal passions of fleshly lusts in which the soul acts but as a Pander for the body and partakes of their delights only by way of sympathy for as the soul feels the bodies pains no other way then by sympathy so neither doth it share in the pleasures of the flesh by any proper taste it hath of them but only from its neer neighbourhood with the body doth sympathize with its joy but in spiritual wickednesses that corrupt the minde here the soul moves in its own sphere with a delight proper to it selfe and there are no lesse
he had said I knew the time if Paul had been come to town and newes spread abroad in the City that Paul was to preach you would have flock't to hear him and blessed God for the season but then you were poor and empty now ye are full you have got to a higher attainment Paul is a plain fellow now he may carry his cheere to a hungry people if he will we are well apaid And when once the heart is come to this 't is easie to judge what will follow Secondly this trusting to the strength of grace will make the soule bold and venturous The humble Christian is the wary Christian he knows his weaknesse and this makes him afraid I have a weak head saith he I may be soon disputed into an errour and heresie and therefore I dare not come where such stuffe is broach't lest my weak head should be intoxicated the confident man he 'll sip of every cup he fears none no he is stablish't in the truth a whole team of hereticks shall not draw him aside I have a vain light heart saith the humble soule I dare not come among wicked debautch't company left I should at last bring the naughty man home with me but one trusting to the strength of his grace dares venture into the devils quarters Thus Peter into the rout of Christs enemies and how he came off you know there his faith had been slain on the place had not Christ founded a retreat by the seasonable look of love he gave him Indeed I have read of some bragging Philosophers who did not think it enough to be temperate except they had the object for intemperance present and therefore they would go into Taverns and Whore-houses as if they meant to beat the devil on his own ground but the Christian knows an enemy nearer then so which they were ignorant of and that he need not go over his own threshold to challenge the devils He hath lust in his bosome that will be hard enough for him all his dayes without giving it the vantage ground Christian I know no sin but thou mayest be left to commit it except one It was a bold speech of him and yet a good man as I have heard If Clapham die of the plague say Clapham had no faith and this made him boldly go among the infected If a Christian thou shalt not die of spiritual plagues yet such may have the plague-sores of grosse sins running on them for a time and is not this sad enough therefore walk humbly with thy God Thirdly this high conceit of the strength of thy grace will make thee cruel and churlish to thy weak brethren in their infirmities a sin that least becomes a Saint Gal. 6.1 If any one be overtaken you that be spiritual restore such a one with meeknesse but how shall a soul get such a meek spirit It follows considering thy self lest thou also be tempted What makes men hard to the poor they think they shall never be so themselves Why are many so sharp in their censures but because they trust too much to their grace as if they could never fall O you are in the body and the body of sin in you therefore feare Bernard used to say when he heard any scandalous sin of a Professour Hodie illi cras mihi He fell to day I may stumble tomorrow SECT II. The second way a soule may be proud of his grace is by resting on it for his acceptance with God The Scripture calls inherent grace our own righteousnesse though God indeed be the efficient of it and opposeth it to the righteousnesse of Christ which alone is called the Righteousnesse of God Rom. 10.1 Now to rest on any grace inherent is to exalt our own righteousnesse above the righteousnesse of God and what pride will this amount to If this ware so then a Saint when he comes to heaven might say This is Heaven which I have built my grace hath purchased and thus the God of Heaven should become tenant to his creature in Heaven No God hath cast the order of our salvation into another method of grace but not of grace in us but grace to us Inherent grace hath its place and office to accompany salvation Heb. 6.9 but not procure it This is Christs work not graces When Israel waited on the Lord at Mount Sinai they had their bounds not a man must come up besides Moses to treat with God no not touch the Mount lest they die thus all the graces of the Spirit wait on God but none come up to challenge any acceptance of God besides faith which is a grace that presents the soul not in its own garments But you will say what needs all this where is the man that trusts in his grace Alas where is the Christian that doth fully stand clear and freely come his off his own righteousnesse he is a rare Pilot indeed that can steere his faith in so direct a course as not now and then to knock upon this duty and run on ground upon that grace Abraham went in to Hagar and the children of Abrahams faith are not perfectly dead to the Law and may be found sometimes in Hagars armes witnesse the fluxe and refluxe of our faith according to the various aspect of our obedience when this seems full then our faith is at a spring-tide and covers all the mountains of our fears but let it seem to wain in any service or duty then the Jordan of our faith flies back and leaves the soule naked The devils spight is at Christ and therefore since he could not hinder his landing which he endeavoured all he could nor work his will on his person when he was come he goes now in a more refined way to darken the glory of his sufferings and the sufficiency of his righteousnesse by blending ours with his this doctrine of Justification by faith hath had more works and batteries made against it then any other in the Scripture Indeed many other errours were but his slie approaches to get nearer to undermine this and lastly when he connot hide this truth which now shines in the Church like the Sun in its strength then he labours to hinder the practical improvement of it that we if he can help it shall not live up to our own principles making us at the same time that in our judgement we professe acceptance only through Christ in our practice confute our selves Now there is a double pride in the soule he makes use of for this end the one I may call a mannerly pride the other a self-applauding pride First a mannerly pride which comes forth in the habit and guise of humility and that discovers it self either at the soules first coming to Christ and keeps him from closing with the promise or afterward in the daily course of a Christians walking with God which keeps him from comfortable living on Christ First when a poor soul is staved off the promise by the sense
of his own unworthinesse and great unrighteousnesse tell him of a pardon alas he is so wrapt up with the thoughts of his own vilenesse that you cannot fasten it upon him What will God ever take such a toad as he is into his bosome discount so many great abominations at once and receive him into his favour that hath been so long in rebellious armes against him he cannot beleeve it no though he heares what Christ hath done and suffered for sin he refuseth to be comforted Little doth the soule think what a bitter root such thoughts spring from thou thinkest thou doest well thus to declaim against thy self and aggravate thy sins indeed thou canst not paint them black enough or entertain too low and base thoughts of thy selfe for them But what wrong hath God and Christ done thee that thou shouldest so unworthily reflect upon the mercy of the one and merit of the other Mayest thou not do this and be tender of the good Name of God also Is there no way to shew thy sense of thy sin except thou asperse thy Saviour Canst thou not charge thy self but thou must condemn God and put Christ and his blood to shame before Satan who triumphs more in this then all thy other sins In a word though thou like a wretch hast undone thy self and damned thy soule by thy sins yet art thou not willing God should have the glory of pardoning them and Christ the honour of procuring the same or art thou like him in the Gospel Luke 16.3 who could not dig and to beg was ashamed Thou canst not earne heaven by thy own righteousnesse and is thy spirit so stout that thou wilt not beg it for Christs sake yea take it at Gods hands who in the Gospel comes a begging to thee and beseecheth thee to be reconciled to him Ah soule who would ever have thought there could have lien such pride under such a modest veile and yet none like it 'T is horrible pride for a beggar to starve rather then take an alms at a rich mans hands a malefactour rather to choose his halter then a pardon from his gracious Princes hand but here is one infinitely surpassing both a soule pining and perishing in sin and yet rejecting the mercy of God and the helpng hand of Christ to save him Though Abigail did not think her self worthy to be Davids wife yet she thought David was worthy of her and therefore she humbly accepted his offer and makes haste to go with the messengers That 's the sweet frame of heart indeed to lie low in the sense of your own vilenesse yet to believe to renounce all conceit of worthinesse in our selves yet not therefore to renounce all hope of mercy but the more speedily to make haste to Christ that wooes us All the pride and unmannerlinesse lies in making Christ stay for us who bids his messengers invite poor sinners to come and tell them all things are ready But may be thou wilt say still it is not pride that keeps thee off but thou canst not believe that ever God will entertain such as thou art Truly thou mendest the matter but little with this either thou keepest some lust in thy heart which thou wilt not part with to obtain the benefit of the promise and then thou art a notorious hypocrite who under such an out-cry for thy sins canst drive a secret trade with hell at the same time or if not so thou doest discover the more pride in that thou darest stand out when thou hast nothing to oppose against the many plain and clear promises of the Gospel but thy peremptory unbelief God bids the wicked forsake his wayes and turne to him and he will abundantly pardon him but thou sayest thou canst not believe this for thy own self Now who speaks the truth One of you two must be the liar either thou must take it with shame to thy self for what thou hast said against God and his promise and that is thy best course or thou must proudly yea blasphemously cast it upon God as every unbeliever doth 1 John 5.10 Nay thou makest him forsworn for God to give poor sinners the greater security in flying for refuge to Christ who is that hope set before them Heb. 6.17 18. hath sworn they should have strong consolation O beatos quorum causâ Deus jurat O miserrimos si nec juranti credamus Tertul. de poenit O happy we for whose sake God puts himself under an oath but O miserable we who will not believe God no not when he sweares Secondly when the soul hath shot the great gulfe and got into a slate of peace and life by closing with Christ yet this mannerly pride Satan makes use of in the Christians daily course of duty and obedience to disturb him and hinder his peace and comfort O how unchearfully yea joylesly do many precious soules passe their dayes If you enquire what is the cause you shall finde all their joy runs out at the crannies of their imperfect duties and weak graces they cannot pray as they would and walk as they desire with evennesse and constancy they see how short they fall of the holy rule in the Word and the patterne which others more eminent in grace do set before them and this though it doth not make them throw the Promises away and quite renounce all hope in Christ yet it begets many sad fears and suspitions yea makes them sit at the feast Christ hath provided and not know whether they may eat or not In a word as it robs them of their joy so Christ of that glory which he should receive from their rejoycing in him I do not say Christian thou oughtest not to mourn for those defects thou findest in thy graces and duties nay thou couldest not approve thy self to be sincere if thou didst not A gracious heart seeing how far short his renewed state forthe present falls of mans primitive holinesse by Creation cannot but weep and mourn as the Jewes to behold the second Temple yet Christian even while the tears are in thy eyes for thy imperfect graces for a soule riseth with his grave-clothes on thou shouldest rejoyce yea triumph over all these thy defects by faith in Christ in whom thou art compleat Col. 1.10 while imperfect in thy selfe Christs presence in the second Temple which the first had not made it though comparatively mean more glorious then the first Hag. 2.9 how much more doth his presence in this spiritual temple of a gracious heart imputing his righteousnesse to cover all its uncomelinesse make the soule glorious above man at first This is a garment for which as Christ saith of the lilie we neither spin nor toile yet Adam in all his created royalty was not so clad as the weakest believer is with this on his soul Now Christian consider well what thou doest while thou sittest languishing under the sense of thy own weaknesses and refusest to rejoyce in Christ and live comfortably
thy own works thou doest worse by Christ and shalt thou excel in grace Perhaps some of you have been long Professours and yet come to little growth in love to God humility heavenly-mindednesse mortification and 't is worth the digging to see what lies at the root of your Profession whether there be not a legal principle that hath too much acted you Have you not thought to carry all with God from your duties and services and too much laid up your hopes in your own actings Alas this is as so much dead earth which must be thrown out and Gospel-principles laid in the room thereof try but this course and see whether the spring of thy grace will not come on apace David gives an account how he came to stand and flourish when some that were rich and mighty on a sudden withered and came to nothing Lo saith he this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches But I am like a green olive-tree in the House of God I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever Psal 52.7 8. While others trust in the riches of their own righteousnesse and services and make not Christ their strength do thou renounce all and trust in the mercy of God in Christ and thou shalt be like a green olive when they fade and wither Secondly Christian you will not thrive in true comfort so long as you rest in any inherent work of grace and do not stand clear of your own actings and righteousnesse Gospel-comfort springs from a Gospel-root which is Christ Phil. 3.3 We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Now a soule that rests on any holinesse in himself he graffs his comfort upon himself not Christ he sucks his own breast not Christs and so makes Christ a dry nurse and what comfort can grow on that dry tree The Spirit is our Comforter as well as our Teacher and Counsellour Now as the Spirit when he teacheth comes not with any new or strange truth but takes of Christs owne what he findes in the Word so where he comforts he takes of Christs own his righteousnesse not our own Christ is the matter and ground of his comfort all cordials are but Christ distill'd and made up in several promises his acting not ours his suffering not ours his holinesse not ours he doth not say Soul rejoyce thou art holy but Soule triumph Christ is righteous and is the Lord thy righteousnesse Not Soul thou prayest sweetly feare not but thou hast an Advocate with the Father Christ the righteous so that the first step to the receiving of comfort from the Spirit is to send away all Comforters of our own As in learning of the Spirit he that will be taught by him must first become a fool that is no way lean to his own understanding so he that would be comforted must first be emptied of all self-supports must not lean to his owne comforts As a Physician first bids his Patient cast off all others he hath tampered with he asks what Physick he hath had from them takes off their plaisters throws away their Physick and goes about the work de novo So the Spirit when he comes to comfort a poor soul First perswades the soule to send away all its old Physicians O saith the soule I have been in the hand of such a duty such a course of obedience and have thought sure now I shall be well and have comfort now I do this duty set upon such a holy course Well saith the Spirit if you will have me do any thing these must all be dismist in point of confidence Now and not till how is the soule a subject fit to receive the Spirits comforts And therefore friends as you love your inward peace beware what vessel you draw your comfort from Grace is finite and so cannot afford much 'T is leaking and so cannot hold long thou drinkest in a riven dish that hast thy comfort from thy grace 'T is mixt and so weak and weak grace cannot give strong consolation and such thou needest especially in strong conflicts Nay lastly thy comfort which thou drawest from it is stollen thou doest not come honestly by it and stollen comforts will not thrive with thee Oh what folly is it for the childe to play the thief for that which he may have freely and more fully from his Father who gives and reproacheth not that comfort which thou wouldest filch out of thy own righteousnesse and duties behold it is laid up for thee in Christ from whose fulnesse thou mayest carry as much as thy faith can hold and none to check thee yea the more thou improvest Christ for thy comfort the more heartily welcome we are bid to open our mouth wide and he will fill it CHAP. XI The third kinde of spiritual Pride viz. Pride of Priviledges THe third kinde of pride spiritual pride I mean is pride of Priviledges with which these wicked spirits labour to blow up the Christian to name three First when God calls a person to some eminent place or useth him to do some special piece of service Secondly when God honours a Saint to suffer for his truth or cause Thirdly when God flowes in with more then ordinary manifestations of his love and fills the soule with joy and comfort These are Priviledges not equally dispensed to all and therefore where they are Satan takes the advantage of assaulting such with pride SECT I. First when God calls a person to some eminent place or useth him to do some special piece of service Indeed it requires a great measure of grace to keep the heart low when the man stands high The Apostle speaking how a Minister of the Gospel should be qualified 1 Tim. 3.6 saith he must not be a Novice or a young Convert lest he should be lift up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil as if he had said this calling is honourable if he be not well ballast with humility a little gust from Satan will tople him into this sin The Seventy that Christ first sent out to preach the Gospel and prevailed so miraculously over Satan even these while they trod on the Serpents head he turn'd again and had like to have stung them with pride which our Saviour perceived when they return'd in triumph and told what great miracles they had wrought and therfore he takes them off that glorying left it should degenerate into vain glory and bids them not rejoyce that devils were subjest to them but rather that their names were writ in Heaven As if he had said It is not the honour of your calling and successe of your Ministery will save you there shall be some cast to the devils who shall then say Lord Lord in thy name we have cast out devils and therefore value not your selves by that but rather evidence to your soules
others but most of all themselves such may be the worlds Saints but devils in Christs account Have not I chosen twelve one of you is a devil And truly of all devils none so bad as the professing devil the preaching praying devil O Sirs be plain-hearted Religion is as tender as your eye it will not be jested with Remember the vengeance which fell on Belshazzar while he carowsed in the bowles of the Sanctuary Religion and the duties of it are consecrated things not made for thee to drink thy lusts out of God hath remarkably appeared in discovering and confounding such as have prostituted sacred things to worldly ends Jezabel fasts and prayes the better to devoure Naboths vineyard but was devoured by it Absalom was as sick till he had ravish't his fathers Crown as his brother Amnon till he had done the like to his sister and to hide his treason he puts on a religious cloak and therefore begs leave to go and pay his vow in Hebron when he had another game in chase and did he not fall by the hand of his hypocrisie of all men their judgement is endorst with most speed who silver over worldly or wicked enterprises with heavenly semblances of this gang were those 2 Pet. 2.3 concerning whom the Apostle saith Their damnation slumbers not and those Ezek. 14.7 8. to whom God saith I the Lord will answer him by my selfe and I will set my face against that man and will make him a signe and a Proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Vse 2 Secondly try whether they be heavenly things or earthly thou chiefly pursuest certainly friends we need not be so ignorant of our soules state and affairs did we oftner converse with our thoughts and observe the haunts of our hearts we soon can tell what dish pleaseth our palate best and may you not tell whether heaven or earth be the most savoury meat to your souls and if you should ask how you might know whether heaven be the prize you chiefly desire I would put you only upon this double trial First art thou uniforme in thy pursuit Doest thou contend for heaven and that which leads to heaven also Earthly things God is pleased to retaile all have some none have all but in heavenly treasure he will not break the whole piece and cut it into remnants If thou wilt have heaven thou must have Christ if Christ thou must like his service as well as his sacrifice no holinesse no happinesse If God would cut off so much as would serve mens turnes he might have customers enough Balaam himself likes one end of the piece he would die like a righteous man though live like a wizzard as he was no God will not deal with such pedling Merchants that man alone is for God and God for him who will come roundly up to Gods offer and take all off his hands One fitly compares holinesse and happinesse to those two sisters Leah and Rachel Happinesse like Rachel seems the fairer even a carnal heart may fall in love with that but holinesse like Leah is the elder and beautiful also though in this life it appears with some disadvantage her eyes being blear'd with teares of repentance and her face furrowed with the works of mortification but this is the Law of that heavenly countrey that the younger Sister must not be bestowed before the elder We cannot enjoy faire Rachel Heaven and Happinesse except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah Holinesse with all her severe duties of repentance and mortification Now Sirs how like you this method Art thou content to marry Christ and his grace and then serving a hard Apprenticeship in temptations both of prosperity and adversity enduring the heat of the one and the cold of the other to wait till at last the other be given into thy bosome Secondly if indeed heaven and heavenly things be the prize thou wrestlest for thou wilt discover a heavenly deportment of heart even in earthly things whereever you meet a Christian he is going to Heaven Heaven is at the bottome of his lowest actions Now observe thy heart in three particulars In getting in using and in keeping earthly things whether it be after a heavenly manner First In getting earthly things If Heaven be thy chief prize then thou wilt be ruled by a heavenly Law in the gathering of these Take a carnal wretch and what his heart is set on he will have though it be by hook or crook A lie fits Gehazi's mouth well enough so he may fill his pockets by it Jezabel dares mock God and murder an innocent man for an acre or two of ground Absalom regnandi causâ what will he not do Gods fence is too low to keep a gracelesse heart in bounds when the game is before him but a soule that hath heaven in its eye is ruled by heavens law he dares not step out of heavens road to take up a crown as we see in Davids carriage towards Saul Indeed in so doing he should crosse himself in his own grand design which is the glory of God and the happinesse of his own soul in enjoying of him upon these very termes the servants of God have refused to be rich and great in the world when either of these lay at stake Moses threw his Court-preferment at his heels refusing to be call'd the son of Pharaohs daughter Abraham scorned to be made rich by the King of Sodom Gen. 14.22 that he might avoid the suspicion of covetousnesse and self-seeking it shall not be said another day that he came to enrich himself with the spoil more then to rescue his kinsmen Nehemiah would not take the taxe and tribute to maintain his state when he knew they were a poor peeled people because of the fear of the Lord. Doest thou walk by this rule wouldest thou gather no more estate or honour then thou mayest have with Gods leave and will stand with thy hopes of heaven Secondly doest thou discover a heavenly Spirit in using these things First the Saint improves his earthly things for an heavenly end where layest thou up thy treasure doest thou bestow it on thy voluptuous paunch thy hawks and thy hounds or lockest thou it up in the bosome of Christs poor members what use makest thou of thy honour and greatnesse to strengthen the hands of the godly or the wicked and so of all thy other temporal enjoyments A gracious heart improves them for God when a Saint prayes for these things he hath an eye to some heavenly end If David prayes for life it is not that he may live but live and praise God Psal 119 175. When he was driven from his regal throne by the rebellious armes of Absalom see what his desire was and hope 2 Sam. 15.25 The King said to Zadock Carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall-finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring
thee then he will come though these doors be shut and say Peace be to thee my dear childe feare not death or devils I stay to receive thy last breath and have here my Angels waiting that assoon as thy soule is breathed out of thy body they may carry and lay it in my bosome of love where I will nourish thee with those eternal joyes that my blood hath purchased and my love prepared for thee Fourthly earthly things are empty and unsatisfying We may have too much but never enough of them they oft breed loathing but never content and indeed how should they being so disproportionate to the vast desires of these immortal spirits that dwell in our bosomes A spirit hath not flesh and bones neither can it be fed with such and what hath the world but a few bones covered over with some fleshly delights to give it The lesse is blessed of the greater not the greater of the lesse These things therefore being so far inferiour to the nature of man he must look higher if he will be blessed even to God himself who is the Father of spirits God intended these things for our use not enjoyment and what folly is it to think we can squeaze that from them which God never put in them They are breasts that moderately drawn yield good milk sweet refreshing but wring them too hard and you will suck nothing but winde or blood from them We lose what they have by expecting to finde what they have not none find lesse sweetnesse and more dissatisfaction in these things then those who strive most to please themselves with them The cream of the creature floats a top and he that is not content to fleet it but thinks by drinking a deeper draught to finde yet more goes further to speed worse being sure by the disappointment he shall meet to pierce himself through with many sorrows But all these feares might happily be escaped if thou wouldest turn thy back on the creature and face about for heaven labour to get Christ and through him hopes of heaven and thou takest the right road to content thou shalt see it before thee and enjoy the prospect of it as thou goest yea finde that every step thou drawest nearer and nearer to it O what a sweet change wouldest thou finde As a sick man coming out of an impure unwholesome climate where he never was well when he gets into fresh aire or his native soile so wilt thou finde a cheering of thy spirits and reviving thy soule with unspeakable content and peace Having once closed with Christ first the guilt of all thy sinnes is gone and this spoil'd all thy mirth before all your dancing of a childe when some pin pricks it will not make it quiet or merry well now that pin is taken out which robbed thee of the joy of thy life Secondly thy nature is renewed and sanctified and when is a man at ease if not when he is in health and what is holinesse but the creature restored to his right temper in which God created him Thirdly thou becomest a childe of God and that cannot but please thee well I hope to be son or daughter to so great a King Fourthly thou hast a right to heavens glory whither thou shalt ere long be conducted to take and hold possession of that thy inheritance for ever and who can tell what that is Nicephorus tells us of one Agbarus a great man that hearing so much of Christs fame by reason of the miracles he wrought sent a Painter to take his picture and that the Painter when he came was not able to do it because of that radiancy and divine splendor which sate on Christs face Whether this be true or no I leave it but to be sure there is such a brightnesse on the face of Christ glorified and that happinesse which in heaven Saints shall have with him as forbids us that dwell in mortal flesh to conceive of it aright much more to expresse 't is best going thither to be informed and then we shall confesse we on earth heard not halfe of what we there finde yea that our present conceptions are no more like to that vision of glory we shall there have then the Sunne in the Painters table is to the Sunne it self in the Heavens And if all this be so why then do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not yea for that which keeps you from that which can satisfie Earthly things are like some trash which doth not only not nourish but take away the appetite from that which would Heaven and heavenly things are not relished by a soule vitiated with these Manna though for deliciousnesse called Angels food yet but light bread to an Egyptian palate But these spiritual things depend not on thy opinion O man whoever thou art as earthly things in a great measure do that the value of them should rise or fall as the worlds exchange doth and as vain man is pleased to rate them think gold dirt and it is so for all the royal stamp on it Count the swelling titles of worldly honour that proud dust brags so in vanity and they are such but have base thoughts of Christ and he is not the worse slight heaven as much as you will it will be heaven still and when thou comest so far to thy wits with the Prodigal as to know which is best fare husks or bread where best living among hogs in the field or in thy Fathers house then thou wilt know how to iudge of these heavenly things better till then go and make the best market thou canst of the world but look not to finde this pearle of price true satisfaction to thy soul in any of the creatures shops and were it not better to take it when thou mayest have it then after thou hast wearied thy self in vaine in following the creature to come back with shame and may be misse of it here also because thou wouldest not have it when it was offered VERSE 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand THe Apostle in these words re-assumes his former Exhortation mentioned verse 11. and presseth it with a new force from that more particular discovery which he gives of the enemy verse 12. where like a faithful Scout he makes a full report of Satans great power and malice and also discloseth what a dangerous design he hath upon the Saints no lesse then to despoil them of all that is heavenly from all which he gives them a second Alarm and bids them Arme arme Wherefore take unto you c. In the words consider First the exhortation with the inference Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God Secondly the argument with which he urgeth the exhortation and that ss double First That ye may be able to withstand in the evil
without any such a burden that therefore he was grown weaker you would soon tell him where his mistake lies Temptation lies not in the same heavinesse alway upon the Christians shoulder observe therefore whether Satan is not more then ordinary let loose to assault thee whether thy temptations come not with more force and violence then ever possibly though thou doest not with the same facility overcome these as thou hast done lesse yet grace may act stronger in conflicting with the greater then in overcoming the lesse The same ship that when lightly ballasted and favoured with the winde goes mounting at another time deeply laden and going against winde and tide may move with a slow pace and yet they in the ship take more pains to make it sail thus then they did when it went faster Secondly positively how thou mayest conclude that grace is declining and that in a threefold respect First in reference to temptations to sin Secondly in reference to the duties of Gods worship Thirdly the frame of thy heart in worldly employments First in reference to sin and that is threefold First when thou art not so wakeful to discover the encroachings of sin upon thee as formerly at one time we finde Davids heart smote him when he but rent the skirt of Sauls garment at another time when his eye glanced on Bathsheba he takes no such notice of the snare Satan had him in and so is led from one sin to another which plainly shewed that grace in him was heavy-eyed and his heart not in so holy a frame as it had been If an enemy comes up to the gates and the sentinel not so much as give an alarm to the City of his approach it shewes he is off his guard either fallen asleep or worse If grace were awake and thy conscience had not contracted some hardnesse it would do its office Secondly when a temptation to sin is discovered and thou findest thy heart shut up that thou doest not pray against it or not with that zeal and holy indignation as formerly upon such occasions it is a bad signe that lust hath got an advantage of thy grace that thou canst not readily betake thy selfe to thy armes Thy affections are bribed and this makes thee so cold a Suitour at the throne of grace for helpe against thine enemy Thirdly when the arguments prevailing most with thee to resist temptations to sin or to mourn for sin committed are more carnal and lesse Evangelical then formerly may be thou remembrest when thy love to Christ would have spit fire on the face of Satan tempting thee to such a sin but now that holy fire is so abated that if there were not some other carnal motives to make the vote full it would hazard to be carried for it rather then against it and so in mourning for a sin there is possibly now some slavish arguments like an onion in the eye which makes thee weep rather then pure ingenuity arising from love to God whom thou hast offended this speaks a sad decay and the more mixture there is of such carnal arguments either in the resisting of or mourning for sin the greater the declination of grace is Davids natural heat sure was much decayed when he needed so many cloathes to be laid on him and he yet feel so little heat the time was he would have sweat with fewer I am afraid many their love to Christ will be found in these declining times to have lost so much of its youthful vigour that what would formerly have put them into a holy fury and burning zeal against some sins such as Sabbath-breaking pride of apparel neglect of family-duties c. hath now much ado to keep any heat at all in them against the same Secondly in point of duties of worship First if thy heart doth not prompt thee with that forwardnesse and readinesse as formerly to hold communion with God in any duty possibly thou knowest the time when thy heart echoed back to the motions of Gods Spirit bidding thee Seek his face Thy face Lord will I seek yea thou didst long as much till a Sabbath or Sermon-season came as the carnal wretch doth till it be gone but now thy pulse doth not beat so quick a march to the Ordinances publick or secret nature cannot but decay if appetite to food go away a craving soule is the thriving soule such a childe that will not let his mother rest but is frequently crying for the breast Secondly when thou declinest in thy care to performe duties in a spiritual sort and to preserve the sense of those more inward failings which in duty none but thy self can check thee of It is not frequency of duty but spirituality in duty causeth thriving and therefore neglect in this point soon brings grace into a consumptive posture Possibly soul the time was thou wert not satisfied with praying but thou didst watch thy heart strictly as a man would every piece in a summe of money he payes lest he should wrong his friend with any brasse or uncurrant coin thou wouldest have God not only have duty but duty stamp't with that faith which makes it currant have that zeal and sincerity which makes it Gospel-weight but now thou art more careless and formal O look to it poor soul thou wilt if thou continue thus carelesse melt in thy spiritual estate apace Such dealings will spoil thy trade with heaven God will not take off these slighty duties at thy hands Thirdly when a Christian gets little spiritual nourishment from communion with God to what it hath done The time hath been may be thou couldest shew what came of thy praying hearing and fasting but now the case is altered There is a double strength communion with God imparts to a soule in a healthful disposition strength to faith and strength for our obediential walking doest thou hear and pray and get no more strength to hold by a promise no more power over or brokennesse of heart under thy usual corruptions what come down the Mount and break the Tables of Gods Law assoon as thou art off the place as deep in thy passion as uneven in thy course as before there is a sure decay of that inward heat which should and would if in its right temper suck some nourishment from these Thirdly by thy behaviour in thy worldly employments First when thy worldly occasions do not leave thee in so free and spiritual a disposition to return into the presence of God as formerly may be thou couldest have come from thy shop and family-employments to thy closet and finde that they have kept thee in frame yea may be delivered thee up in a better frame for those duties but now 't is otherwise thou canst not so shake them off but they cleave to thy spirit and give an earthly savour to thy praying and hearing thou hast reason to bewail it when nature decayes men go more stooping and 't is a signe some such decay is in thee
God be more frequently conversant with it David tells us where he renewed his spiritual life and got his soul so oft into a heavenly heate when grace in him began to chill The Word he tells us quickened him This was the Sunny bank he fate under The Word draws forth the Christians grace by presenting every one with an object suitable to act upon this is of great power to rouse them up as the coming in of a friend makes us though sleepy before shake off all drowsinesse to enjoy his company Affections they are actuated when their object is before them if we love a person this is excited by sight of him or anything that mindes us of him if we hate one our blood riseth much more against him when before us Now the Word bring the Christian graces and their object together Here love may delight her self with the beholding Christ who is set out to life there in all his love and lovelinesse here the Christian may see his sins in a glasse that will not flatter him and can there any godly sorrow be in the heart any hatred of sin and not come forth while the man is reading what they cost Christ for him Secondly from the Word go to meditation this is as bellowes to the fire that grace which lies chosk't and eaten up for want of exercise will by this be cleared and break forth while thou art musing this fire will burne and thy heart grow hot within thee according to the nature of the subject thy thoughts dwell upon resolve therefore Christian to enclose some time from all worldly Suitours wherein thou mayest every day if possible at least take a view of the most remarkable occurrences that have past between God and thee First ask thy soul what takings it hath had that day what mercies heaven hath sent into thee and do not when thou hast askt the question like Pilate go out but stay till thy soul has made report of Gods gracious dealings to thee and if thou beest wise to observe and faithful to relate them thy conscience must tell thee that the cock was never turn'd the breast of mercy never put up all the day yea while thou art viewing these fresh mercies telling over this new coine hot out of the mint of Gods bounty ancient mercies they will come crowding in upon thee and call for a place in thy thoughts and tell thee what God hath done for thee moneths and years ago and indeed old debts should not be paid last give them Christian all a hearing one time or another and thou shalt see how they will work upon thy ingenious spirit It is with the Christian in this case as with some Merchants servant that keeps his Masters cash he tells his Master he hath a great summe of his by him and desires he would discharge him of it and see how his accounts stand but he can never finde him at leisure There is a great treasure of mercy alwayes in the Christians hands and conscience is oft calling the Christian to take the account and see what God has done for him but seldom it is he can finde time to tell his mercies over and is it any wonder that such should go behinde-hand in their spiritual estate who take no more notice what the gracious dealings of God are with them how can he be thankful that seldome thinks what he receives or patient when God afflicts that wants one of the most powerful arguments to pacifie a mutinous spirit in trouble and that is taken from the abundant good we receive at the hands of the Lord as well as a little evil how can such a soules love flame to God that is kept at such a distance from the mercies of God which are fuel to it and the like might be said of all the other graces Secondly reflect upon thy self and bestow a few serious thoughts upon thy own behaviour what it hath been towards God and man all along the day Ask thy soul as Elisha his servant Whence comest thou O my soul where hast thou been what hast thou done for God this day and how and when thou goest about this look that thou neither beest taken off from a through search as Jacob was by Rachels specious excuse nor be found to cocker thy self as Eli his sons when thou shalt upon enquiry take thy heart tardy in any part of thy duty take heed what thou doest for thou judgest for God who receives the wrong by thy sin and therefore will do himself justice if thou wilt not Thirdly from meditation go to prayer indeed a soul in meditation is on his way to prayer that duty leads the Christian has to this and this brings help to that when the Christian has done his utmost by meditation to excite his graces and chase his spirit into some divine heat he knows all this is but to lay the wood in order The fire must come from above to kindle and this must be fetch 't by prayer They say stars have greatest influences when they are in conjunction with the Sunne then sure the graces of a Saint should never work more powerfully then in prayer for then he is in the nearest conjunction and communion with God That Ordinance which hath such power with God must needs have a mighty influence on our selves It will not let God rest but raiseth him up to his peoples succour and is it any wonder if it be a means to rouse up and excite the Christians grace how oft do we see a dark cloud upon Davids spirit at the beginning of his prayer which by that time he is a little warme in his work begins to clear up and before he ends breaks forth into high actings of faith and acclamations of praise Only here Christian take heed of formal praying this is as baneful to grace as not praying A plaister though proper and of soveraign vertue yet if it be laid on cold may do more hurt then good Fourthly to all the former joyne fellowship and communion with the Saints thou lived amongst No wonder to hear a house is robb'd that stands far from neighbours he that walks in communion of Saints he travels in company he dwells in a City where one house keeps up another to which Jerusalem is compared 'T is observable concerning the house in whose ruines Jobs children were entombed that a winde came from the wildernesse and smote the foure corners of it it seems it stood alone the devil knowes what he does in hindering this great Ordinance of communion of Saints in doing this he hinders the progresse of grace yea brings that which Christians have into a declining wasting state The Apostle couples those two duties close together to hold fast our Profession and to consider one another and provoke unto love and to good works Heb. 10.23 24. Indeed it is a dangerous step to Apostasy to forsake the communion of Saints hence 't is said of Demas he hath left us and
hast had against them some of them thou wilt finde poor and persecuted yet Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren neither must thou If thou findest thy heart now in such a disposition as suits these Interrogatories I dare not deny the banes yea I dare not but pronounce Christ and thee Husband and Wife Go poor soul if I may call so glorious a Bride poor Go and comfort thy self with the expectation of thy Bridegrooms coming for thee and when the evil day approaches and death it self draws nigh look not now with terrour upon it but rather revive with old Jacob to see the chariot which shall carry thee over unto the embraces of thy husband whom thou hearest to be in so great Honour and Majesty in Heaven as may assure thee he is able to make thee welcome when thou comest there Amongst the all things which are ours by being Christs the Apostle forgets not to name this to be one Death is ours And well he did so or else we should never have look't upon it as a gift but rather as a judgement Now soul thou art out of any danger of hurt that the evil day can do thee Yet there remains something for thee to do that thou mayest walk in the comfortable expectation of the evil day We see that gracious persons may for want of a holy care fall into such distempers as may put a sting into their thoughts of the evil day David that at one time would not feare to walk in the valley of the shadow of death is so affrighted at another time when he is led towards it that he cries Spare me O Lord that I may recover my strength before I go hence Psal 39. The childe though he loves his father may do that which may make him afraid to go home Now Christian if thou wouldest live in a comfortable expectation of the evil day First labour to die to this life and the enjoyments of it every day more and more Death is not so strong to him whose natural strength has been wasted by long pining sicknesse as it is to him that lies but a few dayes and has strength of nature to make great resistance Truly thus it is here that Christian whose love to this life and the contents of it hath been for many years consuming and dying will with more facility part with them then he whose love is stronger to them All Christians are not mortified in the same degree to the world Paul tells us he died daily He was ever sending more and more of his heart out of the world so that by that time he came to die all his affections were pack't up and gone which made him the more ready to follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am ready to be offered up 2 Tim. 4.6 If it be but a tooth to pull out the faster it stands the more pain we have to draw it O loosen the roots of thy affections from the world and the tree will fall more easily Secondly be careful to approve thy self with diligence and faithfulnesse to God in thy place and calling The clearer thou standest in thy own thoughts concerning the uprightnesse of thy heart in the tenure of thy Christian course the more composure thou wilt have when the evil day comes I beseech thee O Lord saith good Hezekiah at the point of death as he thought remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight This cannot be our confidence but it will be a better companion then a scoulding conscience if the blood be bad the spirits will be tainted also the more our life has been corrupted with hypocrisie and unfaithfulnesse the weaker our faith will be in a dying houre There is great difference between two children that come home at night one from the field where he hath been diligent and faithful about his fathers work and another that hath played the Truant a great part of the day the former comes inconfidently to stand before his father the other sneaks to bed is afraid his father should see him or ask where he hath been O Sirs look to your walking These have been trying times as ever came to England It has required more care and courage to keep sincerity then formerly And that is the reason why it is so rare to finde Christians especially those whose place and calling hath been more in the winde of temptation go off the stage at death with such a Plaudite of inward peace in their bosomes Thirdly familiarize the thoughts of the evil day to thy soul Handle this serpent often walk daily in the serious meditations of if do not run from them because they are unpleasing to flesh that is the way to increase the terrour of it Do with your souls when shy of and scared with the thoughts of affliction or death as you use to do with your beast that is given to bogle and start as you ride on him When he flies back and starts at a thing you do not yield to his fear and go back that will make him worse another time but you ride him up close to that which he is afraid of and in time you break him of that quality The evil day is not such a scareful thing to thee that art a Christian as thou shouldest start for it Bring up thy heart close to it Shew thy soul what Christ hath done to take the sting out of it what the sweet promises are that are given on purpose to overcome the feare of it and what thy hopes are thou shalt get by it These will satisfie and compose thy Spirit whereas the shunning the thoughts of it will but increase thy feare and bring thee more into bondage to it CHAP. VIII The second Argument with which the Exhortation is pressed drawn from the assured victory which shall crown the soules conflict if in this Armour where several Points couched in the Argument are briefly handled WE come now to the second Argument the Apostle useth further to presse the exhortation and that is taken from the glorious victory which hovers over the heads of believers while in the fight and shall surely crown them in the end this is held forth in these words And having done all to stand The phrase is short but full SECT I. First observe Heaven is not won with good words and a fair Profession Having done all The doing Christian is the man that shall stand when the empty boaster of his faith shall fall The great talkers of Religion are oft the least doers His Religion is in vaine whose Profession brings not letters testimonial from a holy life Sacrifice without obedience is Sacriledge Such rob God of that which he makes most account of A great Captain once smote one of his souldiers for railing at his enemy saying that he called him not to raile on him but to fight against him and kill him 'T is
beautiful colours that were drawn on them but not laid in oyle and therefore soon wash't off again The foolish Virgins made as great a blaze with their lamps and did expect as good a day when Christ should come as the wise Virgins but alas their lamps are out before he appeared and as good never a whit as never the better The stony ground more forward then the best soile the seed comes up immediately as if a crop should soon have been reap't but a few nipping frosts turns its hue and the day of harvest proves a day of desperate sorrow All these instances and many more in Scripture do evince that nothing short of solid grace and a principle of divine life in the soul will persevere How forward soever Formalists and slighty Professours are to promise themselves hopes of reaching heaven they will finde it too long a step for their short-breathed souls to attain The reasons are First such want a principle of divine life to draw strength from Christ to persevere them in their course That by which the gracious soule it self perseveres is the continual supply it receives from Christ as the arme and foot is kept alive in the body by those vital spirits which they receive from the heart I live saith Paul yet not I but Christ in me that is I live but at Christs cost he holds as my soul so my grace in life Now the carnal person wanting this union must needs waste and consume in time He hath no root to stand on A carcase when once it begins to rot never recovers but every day grows worse till it runs all into putrefaction no salve or plaister will do it good but where there is a principle of life there when a member is wounded nature sends supplies of spirits and helps to work with the salve for a cure There is the same difference between a gracious person and an ungracious see them opposed in this respect Prov. 14.17 The righteous man falls seven times a day and riseth but the wicked falleth into mischief that is in falling he falls further and hath no power to recover himself When Cain sinned see how he falls further and further like a stone down a hill never stayes till he comes to the bottome of despair from envying his brother to malice from malice to murder from murder to impudent lying and brazen-fac't boldnesse to God himself and from that to despair so true is that 2 Tim. 3 13. Evill men shall waxe worse and worse But now when a Saint falls he riseth because when he falls he hath a principle of life to cry out to Christ and such an interest in Christ as stirs him up to help Lord save me said Peter when he began to sink and presently Christs hand is put forth he chides him for his unbelief but he helps him Secondly an unregenerate soul hath no assurance for the continuance of those common gifts of the Spirit he hath at present they come on the same termes that temporal enjoyments do to such a one A carnal person when he hath his table most sumptuously spread cannot shew any word of promise under Gods hand that he shall be provided for the next meal God gives these things to the wicked as we a crust or a nights lodging to a beggar in our barne 't is our bounty such a one could not sue us for denying the same so in the common gifts of the Spirit God was not bound to give them nor is he to continue them Thou hast some knowledge of the things of God thou mayest for all this die without knowledge at last thou art a sinner in chaines restraining grace keeps thee in this may be taken off and thou let loose to thy lusts as freely as ever And how can he persevere that in one day may from praying fall to cursing from a whining complaining conscience come to have a seared conscience Thirdly every unregenerate man when most busie with Profession hath those engagements lie upon him that will necessarily when put to it take him off one time or other One is engaged to the world and when he can come to a good market for that then he goes away he cannot have both and now he 'll make it appear which he loved best Demas hath forsaken us and embraced this present world Another is a slave to his lust and when this calls him he must go in spight of Profession conscience God and all Herod feared John and did many things but love is stronger then feare his love to Herodias overcomes his fear of John and makes him cut off at once the head of John and the hopeful buddings which appeared in the tendernesse of his conscience and begun Reformation One root of bitternesse or other will spring up in such a one If the complexion of the soul be profane it will at last come to it however for a while there may some religious colour appear in the mans face from some other external cause This shews us what is the root of all final apostasy and that is the want of a through change of the heart The Apostate doth not lose the grace he had but discovers he never had any and 't is no wonder to hear that he proves bankrupt that was worse then nought when he first set up Many take up their Saintship upon trust and trade in the duties of Religion with the credit they have gain'd from others opinion of them They believe themselves to be Christians because others hope them to be such and so their great businesse is by a zeal in those exercises of Religion that lie outmost to keep up the credit which they have abroad but do not look to get a stock of solid grace within which should maintain them in their Profession and this proves their undoing at last Let it therefore make us in the feare of God to consider upon what score we take up our Profession Is there that within which bears proportion to our outward zeal Have we laid a good bottome Is not the superstructive top heavy jetting too far beyond the weak foundation They say trees shoot as much in the root under ground as in the branches above and so doth true grace O remember what was the perishing of the seed in the stony ground it lacked root and why so but because it was stony Be willing the plough should go deep enough to humble thee for sin and rend thy heart from sinne The soul effectually brought out of the love of sin as sin will never be through friends with it again In a word be serious to finde out the great spring that sets all thy wheels on motion in thy religious trade Do as men that would know how much they are worth who set what they owe on one side and what stock they have on the other and then when they have laid out enough to discharge all debts and engagements what remaines to themselves they may call their
of Saints falling from grace gives a sad dash to the sweet wine of the Promises the soul-reviving comfort that sparkles in them ariseth from the sure conveyance with which they are in Christ made over to believers to have and to hold for ever Hence called the sure mercies of David Acts 13.34 mercies that shall never faile This this indeed is wine that makes glad the heart of a Saint though he may be whipt in the house when he sins yet he shall not be turned out of doores As God promised in the type to Davids seed Psal 89.33 Neverthelesse my loving kindnesse will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to faile and v. 36. His seed shall endure for ever Could any thing separate the believer from the love of God in Christ this would be as a hole at the bottome of his cup to leak out all his joy he might then feare every temptation or affliction he meets would slay him and so the wickeds curse would be the Saints portion His life would ever hang in doubt before him and the fearful expectation of his final miscarriage which he sees may befall him would eat up the joy of his present hope Now how contrary such a frame of heart is to the spirit of adoption and full assurance of hope which the grace of the new Covenant gives he that runs may reade in the Word Vse 2 This truth prepares a sovereign cordial to restore the fainting spirits of weak believers who are surprised with many feares concerning their persevering and holding out to the end of their warfare Be of good cheer poor soule God hath given Christ the life of every soule within the Ark of his Covenant Your eternal safety is provided for Whom he loves he loves to the end Jâ—h 13.1 Hath he made thee willing in the day of his power to march under his banner and espouse his quarrel against sin and hell the same power that overcame thy rebellious heart to himself will overcome all thy enemies within and without for thee say not thou art a bruised reed with this he will break Satans head and not cease till he hath brought forth judgement into compleat victory in thy soule He that can make a few wounded men rise up and take a strong city can make a wounded spirit triumph over sin and devils The Ark stood in the midst of Jordan till the whole Camp of Israel was safely got over into Canaan Josh 3. And so doth the Covenant which the Ark did but typifie yea Christ Covenant and all stand to secure the Saints a safe passage to Heaven If but one believer drownes the Covenant must drown with him Christ and the Saint are put together as co-heires of the same inheritance Rom. 8.17 If children then heires heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ. We cannot dispute against one but we question the firmnesse of the others title When you heare Christ is turn'd out of heaven or himself to be willing to sell his inheritance there then poore Christian feare thy coming thither and not till then Co-heires cannot sell the inheritance except both give up their right which Christ will never do nor suffer thee Vse 3 Thirdly this truth calls for a word or two of caution Though there is no feare of a Saints salling from grace yet there is great danger of others falling from the top of this comfortable doctrine into a carelesse security and presumptuous boldnesse and therefore a battlement is very necessary that from it we may with safety to our soules stand and view the pleasant prospect this truth presents to our eye That flower from which the Bee sucks honey the spider draws poison That which is a restorative to the Saints grace proves an incentive to the lust of a wicked man What Paul said of the Law we may truly of the Gospel Sin taking occasion from the grace of the Gospel and the sweet promises thereof deceives the carnal heart and works in him all manner of wickednesse Indeed sin seldome grows so rank any where as in those who water its roots with the grace of the Gospel Two wayes this doctrine may be abused First into a neglect of duty Secondly into a liberty to sin Take heed of both First beware of falling into a neglect of duty upon this score if a Christian thou canst not fall away from grace Take for an antidote against this three particulars First there are other arguments to invite yea that will constrain thee to a constant vigourous performing of duty though the feare of falling away should not come in or else thou art not a Christian what nothing make the childe diligent about his fathers businesse but feare of being disinherited and turned out of doors There is sure some better motive to duty in a Saints heart or else Religion is a melancholy work Speak for your selves O ye Saints is self-preservation all you pray for and heare for should a messenger come from Heaven and tell you Heaven were yours would this make you give over your spiritual trade and not care whether you had any more acquaintance with God till you came thither O how harsh doth this sound in your eares There are such principles engraven in the Christians bosome that will not suffer a strangenesse long to grow betwixt God and him He is under the Law of a new life which carries him naturally to desire communion with God as the childe doth to see the face of his deare father and every duty is a Mount wherein God presents himself to be seen and enjoyed by the Christian Secondly to neglect duty upon such a perswasion is contrary to Christs practice and counsel First his practice Though Christ never doubted of his Fathers love nor questioned the happy issue of all his temptations agonies and sufferings yet he prayes and prayes again more earnestly Luke 22.44 Secondly his counsel and command He told Peter that Satan had begg'd leave to have them to sift them But withal he comforts him who was to be hardest put to it with this But I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not Sure our Saviour by this provision made for him and the rest means to save them a labour that they need not watch or pray No such matter after this as you may see v. 40. He calls them up to duty Pray that ye enter not into temptation Christs praying for them was to strengthen their faith when they should themselves pray for the same mercy not to nourish their sloth that they needed not to pray Christs prayers in Heaven for his Saints are all heard already but the returne of them is reserved to be enclosed in the answer God sends to their own prayers The Christian cannot in faith expect to receive the mercies Christ prayes for in Heaven so long as he lives in the neglect of his duty on earth They stand ready against he shall call for them by the prayer of faith and
if they be not worth sending this messenger to Heaven truly they are worth little Thirdly consider that although the Christian be secured from a total and final apostasy yet he may fall sadly to the bruising of his conscience enfeebling his grace and reproach of the Gospel which sure are enough to keep the Christian upon his watch and the more because ordinarily the Saints back-slidings begin in their duties As it is with tradesmen in the world they first grow carelesse of their businesse often out of their shop and then they go behinde-hand in their estates So here first remisse in a duty and then fall into a decay of their graces and comforts yea sometimes into wayes that are scandalous A stuffe loseth its glosse before it weares The Christian the lustre of his grace in the lively exercise of duty and then the strength of it Secondly take heed of abusing this doctrine unto a liberty to sin shall we sin because grace abounds grow loose because we have God fast bound in his promise God forbid none but a Devil would teach us this Logick It was a great height of sin those wretched Jewes came to who could quaffe and carouse it while death look't in upon them at the windows Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die They discovered their Atheisme therein But what a prodigious stature in sin must that man be grown to that can sin under the protection of the promise and draw his encouragement to sin from the everlasting love of God Let us eat and drink for we are sure to live and be saved Grace cannot dwell in that heart which drawes such a cursed conclusion from the premisses of Gods grace The Saints have not so learn't Christ The inference the Apostle makes from the sweet priviledges we enjoy in the Covenant of grace is not to wallow in sin but having these promises to cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 'T is the nature of faith the grace that trades with Promises to purifie the heart Now the more certain report faith brings of Gods love from the promise to the soule the mote it purifies the heart because love by which faith works is thereby more inflamed to God and if once this affection takes fire the room becomes too hot for sin to stay there SECT VI. The fourth note and last is That it will abundantly recompence all the hardship and trouble the Christian endures in this war against sin and Satan that he shall be able when the war is ended to stand In mans wars all do not get by them that fight in them the gaines of these are commonly put into a few pockets The common souldiers endure most of the hardship but go away with little of the profit they fight to make a few that are great yet greater and are many times themselves turn'd off at last with what will hardly pay for the cure of their wounds or keep them from starving in a poor Hospital But in this war there is none loseth but he that runs away A glorious reward there is for every faithful souldier in Christs Camp and that is wrapt up in this phrase Having done all to stand Now in this place to stand imports three things which laid together will clear the point First to stand in this place is to stand Conquerours An Army when conquered is said to fall before their enemy and the Conquerour to stand Every Christian shall at the end of the war stand a Conquerour over his vanquish't lusts and Satan that headed them Many a sweet victory the Christian hath here over Satan But alas the joy of these Conquests is again interrupted with fresh alarms from his rallied enemy One day he hath the better and may be the next he is put to the hazard of another battel much ado he hath to keep what he hath got yea his very victories are such as send him bleeding out of the field Though he repulses the temptation at last yet the wounds his conscience gets in the fight do overcast the glory of the victory 'T is seldome the Christian comes off without some sad complaint of the treachery of his own heart which had like to have lost the day and betrayed him into his enemies hand But for thy eternal comfort Know poor Christian there is a blessed day coming which shall make a full and final decision of the quarrel betwixt thee and Satan Thou shalt see this enemies Camp quite broke up not a weapon left in his hand to lift up against thee Thou shalt tread upon his high places from which he hath made so many shots at thee Thou shalt see them all dismantled and demolished till there be not left standing any one corruption in thy bosome for a devil to hide and harbour himself in Satan at whose approach thou hast so trembled shall then be subdued under thy feet he that hath so oft bid thee bow down that he might go over thy soule and trample upon all thy glory shall now have his neck laid to be trodden on by thee Were there nothing else to be expected as the fruits of our watching and praying weeping mourning severe duties of mortification and self-denial with whatever else our Christian warfare puts us upon but this our labour sure would not be in vain in the Lord. Yea blessed watching and praying happy tears and wounds we meet with in this war may they out at last end in a full and eternal victory over sin and Satan Bondage is one of the worst of evils The baser an enemy is the more abhorred by noble spirits Saul feared to fail into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines and to be abused by their scornes and reproaches more then a bloody death Who baser then Satan what viler tyrant then sin Glorious then will the day be wherein we shall praise God for delivering us out of the hands of all our sins and from the hand of Satan But dismal to you sinners who at the same time wherein you shall see the Saints stand with crowns of victory on their heads must like fettered captives be dragg'd to hells dungeon there to have your eare bored unto an eternal bondage under your lusts And what more miserable sentence can God himself passe upon you Here sin is pleasure there it will be your torment Here a sweet bit and goes down glib but there it will stick in your throats Here you have suitable provision to entertain your lusts withal Palaces for pride to dwell and strut her self in Delicious fare for your wanton palates houses and lands with coffers of silver and gold for your covetous hearts by their self-pleasing thoughts to sit brooding upon but you will finde none of these there hell is a barren place nothing grows in that land of darknesse to solace and recreate the sinners minds You shal have your lusts but want the food they long for O what a torment must
all his glory I know nothing would have a more powerful yea universal operation upon a Saints spirit then the frequent and spiritual consideration of that blisseful state in heaven which shall at last crown all their sad conflicts here on earth None like this sword to cut the very sinews of temptation and behead those lusts which defie and out-brave whole troops of other Arguments It is almost impossible to sin with lively thoughts and hopes of that glory 'T is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christians sight and he knows not what is become of his hopes to that glorious place that he begins to set up some idol as Israel the Calfe in Moses his absence which he may dance before But let heaven come in sight and the Christians heart will be well-warm'd with the thoughts of it and you may as soon perswade a King to throw his royal Diademe into a sink and wallow with his robes in a kennel as a Saint to sin with the expectation of heavens glory Sin is a devils work not a Saints who is a Peer of heaven and waits every houre for the Writ that shall call him to stand with Angels and glorified Saints before the throne of God This would cheer the Christians heart and confirme him when the fight is hottest and the bullets flie thickest from men and devils to think 't is heaven all this is for where it 's worth having a place though we go through fire and water to it 'T is before the Lord said David to scoffing Michal that chose me before thy father and all his house therefore I will play before the Lord and I will yet be more vile then thus 2 Sam. 6.21 Thus Christian wouldest thou throw off the vipers of reproaches which from the fire of the wickeds malice flie upon thee 'T is for God that I pray hear mortifie my lust deny my self of my carnal sports profits and pleasures that God who hath passed by Kings and Princes to choose me a poor wretch to stand before him in glory therefore I will be yet more vile then thus O Sirs were there not another world to enjoy God in yet should we not while we have our being serve our Maker The heavens and the earth obey his Law that are capable of no reward for doing his Will Quench hell burn heaven said a holy man yet I will love and feare my God How much more when everlasting armes of mercy stand ready stretch't to carry you assoon as the fight is over into the blisseful presence of God You have servants of your own so ingenuous and observant that can follow your work hard abroad in all weathers and may they but when they come home weary and hungry at night obtain a kinde look from you and some tender care over them they are very thankful Yea saith one to shame the sluggish Christian how many hundred miles will the poor Spaniel run after his Master in a journey who gets nothing but a few crumbs or a bone from his Masters trencher In a word which is more the devils slaves what will they not do and venture at his command who hath not so much to give them as you to your dog not a crust not a drop of water to cool their tongue and shall not the joy of heaven which is set before the Christian into which he shall assuredly enter make him run his race endure a short scuffle of temptation and affliction yea sure and make him reckon also that these are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in him FINIS BOOKS lately printed by RALPH SMITH Master Dicksons Exposition on the whole Book of Psalmes in three Books Second Edition Mr. Hutcheson on all the twelve Small Prophets in three Volumns Mr. Cottons Exposition on Ecclesiastes Dr. Spurstowe of the Nature Preciousnesse and Usefulnesse of Gospel-Promises Mr. Rutherford on the Covenant of Grace are to be sold by Ralph Smith Also Mr. Bailies Appendix to the Hebrew Grammer AN ALPHABETICAL Table A. Ability ABilities of minde and body not to be gloried in 202 Accuser Satan an Accuser 116 How to know his accusations from the rebukes of Gods Spirit 117 Affliction Affliction a season Satan chooseth to tempt in 95 The day of affliction an evil day 351 How affliction is evil and how not 352 Afflictions discover the naughtinesse of the heart 354 Wicked men the worse for afflictions 356 Almighty Almightinesse given as the finest hold-fast for faith in straits 24 No easy matter to oppose Almighty Power against sense and reason 25 God very tender of the honour of this Attribute 27 28 A five-fold engagement on Gods Almighty Power for his Saints help 29 30 31 Answer How we put a stop to Gods Answers of prayer how not 47 48 Apostasie The Apostasie of false Christians must not discourage weake Saints 8 Lamentation for the Apostasie of these times 376 The root of final Apostasie is the want of a through change upon the heart 380 Armour What meant by Armour 53 The Saints Armour must be divine in institution 61 The slighty Armour used by Papists and carnal Protestants 62 Our armour must be of divine constitution 67 How to try our armour whether of God or not 69 The necessity of armour for every faculty and sense and why 73 Assurance Assurance lost by declining 336 Attribute Those Attributes of God which comfort Saints speak terrour to the wicked 38 B. Boldnesse The wickeds boldnesse and Saints cowardise alike uncomely 10 C. Christ What a Prince Christ is to his subjects 219 Covenant-relation with Christ See Covenant-relation Christian course Vprightnesse in our Christian course a comfort in the evil day 370 Church A cordial to our fainting faith for the afflicted Church 153 154 Comfort The Saints comfort ebbs or flows as he believes or questions his interest in the power of God 35 Conflict A soules conflict with sin an evidence of grace 169 Conquer Conquest Saints when most tempted cannot be conquered 138 The Saints Conquest at last makes amends for all 390 Conscience Sins against rebukes of conscience very dangerous 365 Contention The contention of Saint with Saint 179 The evil of it 180 Conversation The vanity of pretending to grace without a holy conversation discovered 89 Converts The advantage Satan hath on new Converts 94 Conversion Not necessary to know the time of Conversion 131 Covenant Gods Covenant sure 31 Covenant-relation with Christ How to get into Covenant-relation with Christ 367 Courage Courage necessary in a Saint 4 The want of this one cause of Apostasie 9 Corruption How to improve Gods power when corruption is too strong for us 4O Cunning. The folly of thinking to be too cunning for the devil and who do 112 Curse The curse that lies on the devil and his cause 139 This the cause why he prevailes not over Saints ib. D. Darknesse Sin called darknesse and why 213 Day See evil Death The houre of death