labour for the saving knowledge of God in Christ whom to know is life eternal Are you young Enquire after God betimes while your parts are fresh and memory strong before the throng of worldly cares divert you or lusts of youth debauch you The feet of those lusts which have buried millions of others in perdition stand ready to carry you the same way if preventing grace come not and deliver you out of their hands by seasoning your mindes with the knowledge of God This morning-draught may prevent thy being infected with the ill savours thou mayest receive from the corrupt examples of others Nay how long thy stay may be in the world thou knowest not see whether thou canst not finde graves of thy length in the burial place and if thou shouldest die ignorant of God and his Law what would then become of thee The small brush and the old logs young sinners and those that are withered with age meet and burn together Or if thou shouldest stay a while longer here may be because thou wilt not learn now God will not teach thee then Or if thou shouldest in thy old age get acquaintance with God yet 't is sad to be sowing thy seed when thou shouldest be reaping thy sheaves learning to know God when thou mightest be comforting thy self from the old acquaintance thou hast enjoyed with him Are you old and ignorant Alas poor creatures your life in the socket and this candle of the Lord not set up and lighted in your understanding your body bowing to the dust and nature tolling the passing bell as it were and you like one going into the dark know not whither death will lead you or leave you 'T is like the infirmities of age make you wish your bones were even laid at rest in the grave but if you should dye in this condition your poor soules would even wish they were here again with their old burdens on their back aches and diseases of old age are grievous but damned soules would thank God if he would blesse them with such a heaven as to lie in these paines to escape the torments of the other O bethink you before you go hence the lesse time you have the more diligence you must use to gain knowledge we need not be earnest one would think to bid the poor prisoner learne his book that cannot reade when he knows he shall be hang'd if he read not his neck-verse 'T is not indeed the bare knowing the truths of the Gospel saves but the grosse ignorance of them to be sure will damn soules Are you poor It is not your poverty is your sin or misery but your ignorance where the true treasure lies Were you Gods poor rich in knowledge and faith you were happy Eccles 4.13 Better is a poor and wise childe then a foolish King who will no more be admonish't yea so happy that did the Princes of the world understand themselves aright they would wish themselves in your clothes how ragged soever they are rather then be in their own robes there are better making for you in heaven which you shall put on when theirs shall be pull'd off to their shame It will not then trouble you that you were while in the world poor but it will torment them that they were so rich and great and so poore to God and beggarly in their soules Are you rich Labour for the knowledge of the most high Solomon had more of the worlds treasure then a thousand of you have and yet we finde him hard at prayer tugging with God for knowledge 1 Chron. 1.10 All these outward enjoyments are but vaginae bonorum as afflictions are vaginae malorum I am afraid many men think themselves priviledged by their worldly greatnesse from this duty as if God were bound to save them because rich Alas Sirs there are not so many of you like to come there I must confesse it would make one tremble to think what a small number those among the great ones that shall be saved are summed up into Not many great not many rich Why so few saved Because so few have saving knowledge O the Atheisme the ignorance the sottish barbarisme that is to be found even in those that the world applaud and even worship because of their lands and estates who yet are not able to give any account of their faith A poore leather-coat Christian will shame and catechize a hundred of them If heaven were to be purchased with house and lands then these would carry it away from the poore Disciples of Jesus Christ they have their hundreds and thousands ly by them for a purchase alwayes but this money is not currant in heavens exchange This is life eternall to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Quest But how may an ignorant soule attaine to knowledge Answ First Be deeply affected with the ignorance Some are blind as Laâ—dicea and know it not Rev. 3.17 As Ignorance blinds the minde so pride is a blind before their ignorance that they know it not These have such a high opinion of themselves that they take it ill any should suspect them as such these of all men are most out of the way to knowledge they are too good to learne of man as they think and too bad to be taught of God The gate into Christs Schoole is low and these cannot stoop The Master himselfe is so humble and lowly that he will not teach a proud Scholar Therefore first become a foole in thy owne eye A wiser man then thy selfe hath confessed as much Prov. 30.2 3. I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the Holy When thou art come to thy selfe to owne and blush at the brutish ignorance of thy minde thou art fit to be admitted into Christs School If they be ashamed then shew them the patterne of the house Ezek. 43.10 Secondly be faithful with that little knowledge thou hast Art thou convinced this is a sinne and that is a duty Follow the light close you know not what this little may grow to We use to set up our children with a little stock at first and as they use it so we adde The Kingdome of God comes of small beginnings God complains of Israel they were brutish in their knowledge Jer. 10.14 he doth not say brutish in their ignorance had they sinned because they did not know better this would have excused à tanto but they did that which was brutish and unreasonable as their worshiping graven images notwithstanding they knew to the contrary That man shall not excel in knowledge who prostitutes it to sinne Job 36.12 If they obey not they shall perish by the sword and shall die without knowledge A candle pent up close in a dark lanthorn swailes out apace and so doth light shut up in the conscience and not suffered to come forth in the conversation Those Heathens that are charged
indeed shew one sin thou hast slain by all thy praying Joseph was alive though his coat was brought bloody to Jacob and so may thy sin be for all thy mortified look in duty and out cry thou makest against them If thou wouldest thus try every piece thy credulous heart would not so easily be cheated with Satans false ware Obj. But is all armour that is of God thus mighty we reade of weak grace little faith how can this then be a trial of our armour whether of God or not Answ I answer the weaknesse of grace is in respect of stronger grace but that weak grace is strong and mighty in comparison of counterfeit grace Now I do not bid thee try the truth of thy grace by such a power as is peculiar to stronger grace but by that power which will distinguish it from false true grace when weakest is stronger then false when strongest There is a principle of divine life in it which the other hath not Now life as it gives excellency a flea or fly by reason of its life is more excellent then the Sun in all its glory so it gives strength The slow motion of a living man though so feeble that he cannot go a furlong in a day yet coming from life imports more strength then is in a ship which though it sailes swiftly hath its motion from without Thus possibly an hypocrite may exceed the true Christian in the bulk and out-side of a duty yet because his strength is not from life but from some winde and tide abroad that carries him and the Christians is from an inward principle therefore the Christians weaknesse is stronger then the hypocrite in his greatest enlargements I shall name but two acts of grace when weakest whereby the Christian exceeds the hypocrite in all his best array You will say then grace is at a weak stay indeed when the Christian is perswaded to commit a sin a great sin such a one as possibly a carnal person would not have it said of him for a great matter so low may the tide of grace fall yet true grace at such an ebbe will appear of greater strength and force then the other First this principle of grace will never leave till the soule weeps bitterly with Peter that it hath offended so good a God Speak O ye hypocrites can ye shew one tear that ever you shed in earnest for a wrong done to God Possibly ye may weep to see the bed of sorrow which your sins are making for you in hell but ye never loved God so well as to mourne for the injury ye have done the Name of God It is a good glosse Augustine hath upon Esau's teares Heb. 12. Flevit quòd perdidit non quòd vendidit He wept that he lost the blessing not that he sold it Thus we see an excellency of the Saints sorrow above the hypocrites The Christian by his sorrow shews himself a Conquerour of that sin which even now overcame him while the hypocrite by his pride shews himself a slave to a worse lust then that he resists While the Christian commits a sin he hates it whereas the other loves it while he forbears it Secondly when true grace is under the foot of a temptation yet then it will stir up in the heart a vehement desire of revenge like a prisoner in his enemies hand who is thinking and plotting how to get out and what he will do when out waiting and longing every moment for his delivery that he may again take up armes O God remember me saith Samson this once I pray thee and strengthen me that I may be at once avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes Judg. 16.27 Thus prays the gracious soul that God would but spare him a little and strengthen him but once before he dies that he may be avenged on his pride unbelief and those sins whereby he hath most dishonoured his God but a false heart is so far from studying revenge that he rather swells like the sea against the Law which banks his lust in and is angry with God who hath made sin such a leap that he must hazard his soule if he will have it CHAP. IV. Of the entirenesse of our furniture It must be the whole Armour of God THe third Branch in the Saints furniture is the entirenesse thereof The whole Armour of God The Christians Armour must be compleat and that in a threefold respect SECT 1. First he must be armed in every part cap-a-pe soule and body the powers of the one and senses of the other not any part left naked A dart may flie in at a little hole like that which brought a message of death to Ahab through the joynts of his harnesse and Satan is such an Archer who can shoot at a penny breadth If all the man be armed and only the eye lest without Satan can soon shoot his fire-balls of lust in at that loop-hole which shall set the whole house on flame Eve look't but on the tree and a poisonous dare struck her to the heart If the eye be shut and the ear be open to corrupt communication Satan will soon wriggle in at this hole If all the outward senses be guarded and the heart not kept with all diligence he will soon by his own thoughts be betrayed into Satans hands Our enemies are on every side and so must our armour be on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.7 The Apostle calls sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enemy that surrounds us If there be any part of the line unguarded or weakly provided there Satan falls on we see the enemy often enter the city at one side while he is beat back on the other for want of care to keep the whole line Satan divides his temptations into several squadrons one he employes to assault here another to storme there We reade of fleshly wickednesse and spiritual wickednesse while thou repellest Satan tempting thee to fleshly wickednesse he may be entring thy city at the other gate of spiritual wickednesse Perhaps thou hast kept thy integrity in the practical part of thy life but what armour hast thou to defend thy head thy judgement If he surprise thee here corrupting that with some errour then thou wilt not long hold out in thy practice He that could not get thee to profane the Sabbath among Sensualists and Atheists will under the disguise of such a corrupt principle as Christian liberty prevail Thus we see what need we have of universal armour in regard of every part SECT II. Secondly the Christian must be in compleat armour in regard of the several pieces and weapons that make up the whole Armour of God Indeed there is a concatenation of graces they hang together like links in a chain stones in an arch members in the body prick one vein and the blood of the whole body may run out at that sluce neglect one duty and no other will do us good The
doest not go up to heaven and pry into Gods secrets but heaven comes down to thee and reveals them Again he will ask the Christian what was the time of his Conversion Art thou a Christian will he say and dost thou not know when thou commencedst now keep the Plains content thy self with this that thou seest the streams of grace though the time of thy Conversion be like the head of Nylus not to be found God oft comes betimes before grosse sins have deflowered the soule and steals into the creatures bosome without much noise In such a case Satan doth but abuse thee when he sends thee on this errand you may know the Sun is up though you did not observe when it rose Again what will become of thee saith Satan if God should bring thee into such an affliction on trial when thou must burn or turn or when all thy outward estate shall be rent from thee no meal in the barrel no money in the purse darest thou have so good an opinion of thy selfe as to think that thy faith will hold out in such an houre of temptation It thou hast but half an eye Christian thou mayest see what Satan drives at this is an ensnaring question by the feare of future troubles he labours to bring thee into a neglect of thy present duty and indispose thee also for such a stare whenever it falls If a man hath much businesse to do on the morrow 't is his wisdom to discharge his minde thereof when composing to sleep lest the thoughts thereof break his rest and make him the more unfit in the morning The lesse rest the soule hath in God and his promise concerning future events the lesse strength it will finde to beare them when the pinch comes When therefore thou art molested with such feares pacifie thy heart with these three plain Conclusions First every event is the product of Gods Providence not a sparrow much lesse a Saint falls to the ground by poverty sicknesse persecution c. but the hand of God is in it Secondly God hath put in caution he will never leave thee nor forsake thee He that enables thee in one condition will in another God learns his servants their whole trade Grace is an universal principle At the first moment of thy spiritual life suffering grace was infused as well as praying grace Thirdly God is wise to conceale the succours he intends in the several changes of thy life that so he may draw thy heart into an entire dependance on his faithful promise Thus to try the mettal of Abrahams faith he let him go on till his hand was stretch't forth and then he comes to his rescue Christ sends his disciples to sea but stayes behinde himself on a design to try their faith and shew his love Comfort thy self therefore with this though thou seest not thy God in the way yet thou shalt finde him in the end Secondly Satan perplexeth the tender consciences of doubting Christians with obscure Scriptures whose sense lies too deep for their weak and distempered judgements readily to finde out and with these he hampers poor soules exceedingly indeed as melancholy men delight in melancholy walks so doubting soules most frequent such places of Scripture in their musing thoughts as encrease their doubts how many have I known that have look't so long on those difficult places Heb. 6.7 Heb. 10.26 which passe the understanding as a swift stream the eye so that the sense is not perceived without great observation till their heads have turned round and they at last not able to untie the difficulties have fallen down into despairing thoughts and words of their own condition crying out O they have sinned against knowledge of the truth and therefore no mercy remains for them who if they would have refreshed their understandings by looking off these places whose engraving is too curious to be long pored on by a weak eye they might have found that in other Scriptures plainly exprest which would have enabled them as through a glasse more safely to have viewed these Therefore Christian keepe the Plaines thou mayest be sure 't is thine enemy that gives thee such stones to break thy teeth when thy condition calls rather for bread and wine such Scriptures I mean as are most apt to nourish thy faith and cheere thy drooping spirit When thou meetest such plain Scriptures which speak to thy case go over where it is fordable and do not venture beyond thy depth Art thou afraid because thou hast sinned since the knowledge of the truth and therefore no sacrifice remains for thee See David and Peters case how it patterns thine and left upon record that their recovery may be a Key in thine hand to open such places as these mayest thou not safely conclude from these this is not their meaning that none can be saved that sin after knowledge Indeed in both those places it is neither meant of the falls of such as ever had true grace nor of a falling away in some particular acts of sin but of a total universal falling away from the Faith the doctrine of it as well as seeming practice of it Now if the root of the matter were ever in thee other Scriptures will first comfort thee against those particular apostasies into which thou hast relapsed by sweet promises inviting such to return and Precedents of Saints who have had peace spoken to them after such folly and also they will satisfie thee against the other by giving full security to thy faith that thy little grace shall not die being immortal though not in its proper essence because but a creature yet by Covenant as it is a childe of Promise Thirdly Dark Providences From these Satan disputes against Gods love to and grace in a soule First he got a commission to plunder Job of his temporal estate and bereave him of his chilchildren and then labours to make him question his spiritual estate and sonship his wife would have him entertain hard thoughts of God saying Curse God and die and his friends as hard thoughts of himself as if he were an hypocrite and both upon the same mistake as if such an afflicted condition and a gracious state were inconsistent Now Christian keep the Plaines and neither from this charge God foolishly for thine enemy nor thy self as his Reade the saddest Providence with the Comment of the Word and thou canst not make such an harsh interpretation As God can make a streight line with a crooked stick be righteous when he useth wicked instruments so also gracious when he dispenseth harsh Providences Joseph kept his love when he spake roughly to his brethren I do not wonder that the wicked think they have Gods blessing because they are in the warme Sun Alas they are strangers to Gods counsels void of his Spirit and sensual judging of God and his Providence by the report their present feeling makes of them like little children who think every one loves
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
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-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
us flee for the Lord fighteth for them Whereas there be many now a dayes will rather give the honour of their discomfitures to Satan himself then acknowledge God in the businesse more ready to say the devil fought against them then God O you that have not yet worne off the impressions which the Almighty power of God hath at any time made upon your spirits beware of having any thing to do with that generation of men whoever they are Come not near their Tabernacle cast not thy lot in amongst them who are enemies to the Saints of the most High for they are men devoted to destruction God so loves his Saints that he makes nothing to give whole Nations for their ransome He rip 't open the very wombe of Egypt to save the life of Israel his childe Isa 43.3 Vse 2 Secondly this shews the dismal deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christ lesse state you have seen a rich mine open'd but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share a truth laden with incomparable comfort but it is bound for another coast it belongs to the Saints into whose bosome this truth unlades all her comfort see God shutting the door upon you when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties Esay 65.13 My servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty God hath his set number which he provides for He knows how many he hath in his family these and no more shall sit down One chief dish at the Saints board is the Almighty power of God This was set before Abraham and stands before all his Saints that they may eate to fulnesse of comfort on it But thou shalt be hungry He is Almighty to pardon but he will not use it for thee an impenitent sinner thou hast not a friend on the bench not an attribute in all Gods Name will speak for thee Mercy it self will sit and vote with the rest of its fellow-attributes for thy damnation God is able to save and help in a time of need but upon what acquaintance is it that thou art so bold with God as to expect his saving arme to be stretcht forth for thee Though a man will rise at midnight to let in a childe that cryes and knocks at his doore yet he will not take so much paines for a dog that lies howling there This presents thy condition sinner sad enough yet this is to tell thy story fairest for that Almighty power of God which is engaged for the beleevers salvation is as deeply obliged to bring thee to thy execution and damnation What greater tie then an oath God himself is under an oath to be the destruction of every impenitent soul That oath which God sware in his wrath against the unbeleeving Israelites that they should not enter into his rest concernes every unbeleever to the end of the world In the Name of God consider were it but the oath of a man or a company of men that like those in the Acts should sweare to be the death of such a one and thou wert the man would it not fill thee with feare and trembling night and day and take away the quiet of thy life till they were made friends What then are their pillows stuft with who can sleep so soundly without any horrour or amazement though they be told that the Almighty God is under an oath of damning them body and soul without timely repentance O bethink your selves sinners is it wisdome or valour to refuse termes of mercy from Gods hands whose Almighty power if rejected will soone bring you into the hands of justice and how fearful a thing that is to fall into the hands of Almighty God no tongue can expresse no not they who feel the weight of it Vse 3 Thirdly this speaks to you that are Saints indeed Be strong in the faith of this truth make it an Article of your Creed with the same faith that you beleeve there is a God beleeve also this Gods Almighty power is thy sure friend and then improve it to thy best advantage As First in agonies of conscience that arise from the greatnesse of thy sinnes flie for refuge into the Almighty power of God Truly Sirs when a mans sinnes are displayed in all their bloody colours and spread forth in their kâ—lling aggravations and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multiplying or magnifying glasse of a temptation they must needs surprize the creature with horror and amazement till the soul can say with the Prophet for all this huge hoast There is yet more with me then against me One Almighty is more then many Mighties All these mighty sinnes and devils make not one Almighty sinne or an Almighty devil Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them this onely attribute As the French Ambassadour once silenced the Spaniards pride in repeating his Masters many titles with one that drowned them all God himself Hosea 11.9 when he had aggravated his peoples sinnes to the height then to shew what a God can do breaks out into a sweet promise I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger and why not I am God and not man I will shew the Almightinesse of my mercy Something like our usual phrase when a childe or a woman strikes us I am a man and not a childe or woman therefore I will not strike again The very considering God to be God supposeth him Almighty to pardon as well as to avenge and this is some relief But then to consider it is Almighty power in bond and Covenant to pardon this is more As none can binde God but himself so none can break the bond himself makes and are they not his own words that he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. he will multiply to pardon as if he had said I 'le drop mercy with your sinne and spend all I have rather then let it be said my good is overcome of your evil It fares with the gracious soul in this case as with a Captaine that yields his Castle upon gracious termes of having his life spared and he safely convey'd to his house there to be setled peaceably in his estate and possessions for all which he hath the Generals hand and Seal on which he marcheth forth but the rude souldiers assault him and put him in feare of his life he appeals to the General whose honour now is engaged for him and is presently releeved and his enemies punisht Thou mayest poore soule when accused by Satan mollested by his terrours say It is God that justifies I have his hand to it that I should have my life given me assoon as I laid down my armes and submitted to him which I desire to do behold the gates of my heart are open to let the Prince of peace in and is not the Almighty able to performe his promise I commit my selfe to him as unto a
commonly made of the Christians wood First he tempts to sin and then for it Satan is but a creature and cannot work without tooles he can indeed make much of a little but not any thing of nothing as we see in his assaulting of Christ where he troubled himself to little purpose because he came and found nothing in him Though the devil throws the stone yet 't is the mud in us which royles our comforts 'T was in vaine for the Philistines to fall on Samson till his lock was cut take heed therefore of yielding to his enticing motions these are the stumbling block at which he hopes thou'lt break thy shins and bruise thy conscience which once done let him alone to spin out the cure Indeed a Saints flesh heals not so easily as others drink not of the devils wassel there is poison in the cup his wine is a mocker look not on it as it sparkles in the temptation what thou drinkest down with sweetnesse thou wilt be sure to bring up again as gall and wormwood Above all sins take heed of presumptuous ones thou art not out of the danger of such Sad stories we have of Saints falls and what follows then Take him Jailor saith God Deliver such a one unto Satan and if a Saint be the Prisoner and the devil the Keeper you may guesse how he shall be used O how he will teare and rend thy conscience Though that dreadful Ordinance is not used as it should be in the Church yet Gods Court sits and if he excommunicate a soule from his presence he falls presently into Satans clutches Well if through his subtilty thou hast been overtaken take heed thou stayest not in the devils quarters shake the viper off thy hand ply thee to thy Chirurgeon green wounds cure best but if thou neglectest and the winde get to it thy conscience will soon fester Ahab we read was wounded in battel and was loath to yield to it it is said he was held up in his chariot but he died for it when a soule hath received a wound committed a sin Satan labours to boulster him up with flattering hopes holds him up as it were in his chariot against God what yield for this afraid for a little scratch and lose the spoile of thy future pleasure for this O take heed of listening to such counsel the sooner thou yieldest the fairer quarter thou shalt have Every step in this way sets thee further from thy peace A rent garment is catch't by every naile and the rent made wider Renew therefore thy repentance speedily whereby this breach may be made up and worse prevented which else will befall thee SECT II. 2ly study that grand Gospel-truth of a souls justification before God acquaint thy self with this in all its causes the moving cause the free mercy of God Being justified freely by his grace the meritorious which is the blood of Christ and the instrumental faith with all the sweet priviledges that flow from it An effectual door once open'd to let the soul into this truth would not only spoil the Popes market as Gardner said but the devils also when Satan coms to disquiet the Christians peace for want of a right understanding here he is soon worsted by his enemy as the silly hare which might escape the dogs in some covert or burrough that is at hand but trusting to her heels is by the print of her owne feet and sent which she leaves behinde followed till at last weary and spent she falls into the mouth of them In all that a Christian doth there is a print of sinful infirmity and a sent by which Satan is enabled to trace and pursue him over hedge and ditch this grace and that duty till the soule not able to stand before the accusation of Satan is ready to fall down in despair at his feet whereas here 's a hiding place whither the enemy durst not come the clefts of the rock the hole of the staires which this truth leads unto When Satan chargeth thee for a sinner perhaps thou interposest thy repentance and reformation but soon art beaten out of those works when thou art shewen the sinful mixtures that are in them whereas this truth would choak all his bullets that thou believest on him who hath said Not unto him that worketh but unto him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Get therefore into this tower of the Gospel-Covenant and rowle this truth as she that stone on the head of Abimelech on the head of Satan SECT III. Thirdly be sure Christian thou keepest the Plains Take heed that Satan coop thee not up in some straits where thou canst neither well fight nor flie Such a trap the Egyptians hoped they had the Israelites in when they cried They are entangled they are entangled There are three kindes of straits wherein he labours to entrap the Christians Nice Questions obscure Scriptures and dark Providences First he labours to puzzle him with nice and scrupulous questions on purpose to retard the work and clog him in his motion that meeting with such intricacies in his Christian course which he cannot easily resolve thereby he may be made either to give over or go on heavily therefore we have particular charge not to trouble the weak heads of young Converts with doubtful disputations Sometimes Satan will be asking the soul how it knowes its election and where he findes one not so fully resolved as to dare to own the same he frames his Argument against such a ones closing with Christ and the promise as if it were presumption to assume that which is the only portion of the Elect before we know our selves of that number Now Christian keep the Plains and thou art safe 'T is plain we are not to make Election a ground for our faith but our faith and calling a medium or argument to prove our Election Election indeed is first in order of divine acting God chooseth before we beleeve yet faith is first in our acting We must believe before we can know we are elected yea by believing we know it The Husbandman knowes 't is Spring by the sprouting of the grasse though he hath no Astrology to know the Position of the Heavens thou mayest know thou art Elect as surely by a work of grace in thee as if thou hadst stood by Gods elbowe when he writ thy name in the book of life It had been presumption for David to have thought he should have been King till Samuel anointed him but then none at all when thou believest first and closest with Christ then is the Spirit of God sent to anoint thee to the Kingdom of Heaven this is that holy oyle which is poured upon none but heires of glory and 't is no presumption to reade what Gods gracious purpose was towards thee of old when he prints those his thoughts and makes them legible in thy effectual calling here thou
all its Royalty may be paved with the sculls as I may so speak of devils Vse 2 Secondly this gives a strong cordial to our fainting faith in the behalf of the Church of Christ If all the devils wits and wiles will not serve him to overcome one single souldier in Christs Camp much lesse shall he ever ruine the whole Army These are dayes of great confusions in the Christian world and the chief feare of a gracious heart is for the Ark lest that should fall into the enemies hand and when this Palladium is taken the City of God his Church be trod under the feet of pride I confesse Satan seems to get ground daily he hath strangely wrigled into the bosomes and principles of many who by the fame of their Profession and zeal had obtained in the opinion of others to be reckoned among the chief of Christs Worthies in their generation He hath sadly corrupted the truths of Christ brought a dis-esteem on Ordinances that by this and as a judgment for this the wombe of the Gospel is become in a great measure barren and her children which hang upon her breasts thrive not in love and holinesse as of old when the milk was not so much nor that so spiritfull he hath had advantage by the divisions of the godly to harden those that are wicked into a further disdain of Religion and by the bloody wars of late yeares to boile up the wrath of the Popish and profane crue to a higher pitch of rage and fury against Christs little remnant then ever so that if ever God should suffer the sword to fall into their hand they are disciplin'd and fitted to play the bloody butchers on Christs sheep above their fore-fathers neither are they so crest-fallen but that they can hope for such a day yea take up some of those joyes upon trust afore-hand to solace themselves while the rest follow And now Christian may be their confidence together with the distracted state of Christs affaires in the world may discompose thy Spirit concerning the issue of these rolling Providences that are over our heads but be still poor heart and know that the contest is not between the Church and Satan but between Christ and him These are the two Champions Stand now O ye Army of Saints still by faith to see the All-wise God wrestle with a subtil devil If you live not to see the period of these great confusions yet generations after you shall behold the Almighty smite off this Geliah's head with his own sword and take this cunning hunter in the toile of his own policies that saith which ascribes greatnesse and wisdom to God will shrink up Satans subtilty into a nigrum nihil a thing of nothing Incredulitiment diabolum quasi leonem qui fide fortes despiciunt quasi vermiculum Bern. Unbelief feares Satan as a Lion faith trends on him as a worme Behold therefore thy God at work and promise thy self that what he is about will be an excellent piece None câ—n drive him from his work The Pilot is beaten from the helme and can do little in a storme but lets the ship go a drift The Architect cannot work when night drawes the curtaine yea is driven off the Scaffold with a storme of raine such Workmen are the wisest Counsellours and mightiest Princes on earth A pinch may come when it is as vain to say Help O King as Help O beggar mans wisdom may be level'd with folly but God is never interrupted All the plots of hell and commotions on earth have not so much as shak't Gods hand to spoile one letter or line that he hath been drawing The mysteriousnesse of his Providence may hang a curtain before his work that we cannot see what he is doing but then when darknesse is about him righteousnesse is the seat of his Throne for ever O. where 's our faith Sirs let God be wise and all men and devils fools What though thou seest a Babel more likely to go up then a Babylon to be pull'd down yet believe God is making his secret approaches and will clap his ladders on a sudden to the walls thereof Suppose truth were Prisoner with Joseph and errour the Courtier to have its head lift up by the favour of the times yet doest not remember that the way to truths preferment lies through the prison yea what though the Church were like Jonah in the Whales belly swallowed up to the eye of reason by the fury of men yet doest not remember the Whale had not power to digest the Prophet O be not too quick to bury the Church before she be dead Stay while Christ tries his skill before you give it over bring Christ by your prayers to its grave to speak a Resurrection-word Admirable hath the Saints faith been in such straits as Josephs who pawn'd his bones that God would visit his brethren willing them to lay him where he believ'd they should be brought Jeremiah purchaseth a field of his Uncle and payes down the money for it and this when the Caldean army quartered about Jerusalem ready to take the Cisy and carry him with the rest into Babylon And all this by Gods appointment Jer. 22.6 7 8. that he might shew the Jewes by this how undoubtedly he in that sad juncture of time did believe the performance of the Promise for their returne out of captivity Indeed God counts himself exceedingly disparaged in the thoughts of his people though at the lowest ebbe of his Churches affairs if his naked word and the single bond of his Promise will not be taken as sufficient security to their faith for its deliverance VERSE 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the darknesse of this world against spiritual wickednesse in high places THe words are coupled to the Precedent with that causal particle For which either referres to the two foregoing verses and then they are a further reason pressing the necessity of Christian fortitude in the tenth verse and furniture in the eleventh or else to the last words of the eleventh verse where the Apostle having descried the Saints grand enemie to be Satan and described him in one of his attributes his wily subtilty he in this further displayes him in his proper colours not to weaken the Saints hands but waken their care that seeing their enemy marching up in a full body they might stand in better order to receive his charge Where by the way we may observe the Apostles simplicity and plain dealing he doth not undervalue the strength of the enemy and represent him inconsiderable as Captains use to keep their souldiers together by slighting the power of their adversary no he tells them the worst at first If Satan had been to set out his own power he could have challeng'd no more then is here granted him See here the difference between Christ dealing with his followers and Satan with his Satan dares not let
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
God proclaims so much and would have the proud man know where-ever he meets him he will oppose him he resists the proud Great gifts are beautiful as Rachel but pride makes them also barren like her Either we must lay self aside or God will lay us aside Secondly pride of gifts hinders the receiving of good from others Pride fills the soule and a full soul will take nothing from God much lesse from man to do it good Such a one is very dainty It is not every Sermon though wholesom food nor every prayer though savoury will go down he must have a choice dish he thinks he hath better then this of his own and is such a one like to get good And truly we may see it that as the plain Plowman that can eate of any homely food if wholesome hath more health and is able to do more work in a day then many enjoy or can do in their whole life that are nice squeamish and courtly in their fare so the humble Christian that can feed on plain truths and Ordinances which have not so much of the Art of man to commend them to their palate enjoy more of God and can do more for God then the nicer sort of Professours who are all to be served in a lordly dish of rare gifts The Church of Corinth was famous for gifts above other Churches 1 Cor. 1. but not in grace none so charged for weaknesse in that 1 Cor. 3.2 he calls them carnal babes in Christ so weak as not able to digest mans meat I havé fed you saith Paul with milk and not with meat for hitherto ye were not able to beare it neither yet now are ye able Why what is the matter the reason lies verse 3. Ye are carnal there is among you envie and strife v. 4 One saith I am of Paul another I am of Apollos Pride makes them take parts and make sides one for this Preacher another for that as they fancied one to excel another And this is not the way to thrive Pride destroyes love and love wanting edification is lost The devil hath made foul work in the Church by this engine Zanchy tells of one in Geneva who being desired to go hear Viretus that preach't at the same time with Calvin answered his friend If Paul were to preach relicto Paulo Calvinum audirem I would leave Paul himself to heaâ— Calvin And will pride in the gifts of another so far transport even to the borders of blasphemy what work then will pride make when the gifts are a mans own SECT II. Vse 1 Doth Satan thus stir up Saints to this spiritual pride of gifts first here is a word to you that have mean gifts yet truth of grace be content with thy condition Perhaps when thou hearest others how enlargedly they pray how able to discourse of the truths of God and the like thou art ready to go into a corner and mourn to think how weak thy memory how dull thy apprehension how straitened thy spirit hardly able though in secret to utter and expresse thy minde to God in prayer O thou art ready to think those the happy men and women and almost murmur at thy condition well canst thou not say though I have not words I hope I have faith I cannot dispute for the truth but I am willing to suffer for it I cannot remember a Sermon but I never hear the Word but I hate sin and love Christ more then ever Lord thou knowest I love thee Truly Christian thou hast the better part thou little think'st what a mercy may be wrapt up even in the meannes of thy gifts or what temptations their gifts expose them to which God for ought I know may in mercy deny thee Josephs coat made him finer then his brethren but this caused all his trouble this set the Archers a shooting their arrows into his side thus great gifts lift a Saint up a little higher in the eyes of men but it occasions many temptations which thou meetest not with that art kept low what with envie from their brethren malice from Satan and pride in their own hearts I dare say none finde so hard a work to go to heaven as such much ado to bear up against those waves and windes while thou creepest along the shore under the winde to heaven It is with such as with some great Lord of little estate a meaner man oft hath money in his purse when he hath none and can lâ—nd his Lordship some at a need great gifts and parts are titles of honour among men but many such may come and borrow grace and comfort of a mean gifted brother possibly the Preacher of his poor neighbour O poor Christian do not murmur or envy them but rather pity and pray for them they need it more then others his gifts are thine thy grace is for thy self thou art like a Merchant that hath his Factour goes to sea but he hath his Adventure without hazard brought home Thou joynest with him in prayer hast the help of his gifts but not the temptation of his pride Vse 2 Secondly doth Satan labour thus to draw to pride of gifts this speaks a word to you to whom God hath given more gifts then ordinary beware of pride that is now your snare Satan is at work if possible he will turne your Artillery against your selfe thy safety lies in thy humility if this lock be cut the legions of hell are on thee Remember whom thou wrestlest with spiritual wickednesse and their play is to lift up that they may give the sorer fall Now the more to stir up thy heart against it I shall adde some soul-humbling considerations First consider these spiritual gifts are not thy own and wilt thou be proud of anothers bounty Is not God the Founder and can he not soon be the Confounder of thy gifts thou that art proud of thy gourd what wilt thou be when it is gone surely then thou wilt be peevish and angry and truly thou takest the course to be strip't of them Gifts come on other termes then grace God gives grace as a free-hold it hath the promise of this and another world but gifts come on liking though a father will not cast off his childe yet he may take away his fine coat and ornaments if proud of them Secondly gifts are not meerly for thy self As the light of the Sun is ministeriall it shines not for it self so all thy gifts are for others Gifts for the edifying of the body Suppose a man should leave a chest of money in your hands to be distributed to others what folly is it in this man to put this into his own Inventory and applaud himself that he hath so much money Poor soul thou art but Gods Executour and by that time thou hast paid all the Legacies thou wilt see little left for thee to brag and boast of Thirdly know Christian thou shalt be accountable for these talents now with what face
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
children of God and his lot is among the Saints therefore have we erred from the way of truth Wisd 5.4 5. The place is Apocryphal but sinners will finde the matter of it Canonical 'T is true indeed Saints are out-witted by the world in the things of the world and no marvel neither doth it impeach their wisdome any more then it doth a Scholars to be excell'd by the Cobler in his mean trade Nature where it intends higher excellencies is more carelesse in those things that are inferiour as we see in man who being made to excel the beasts in a rational soul is himself excelled by some beast or other in all his senses Thus the Christian may well be surpast in matters of worldly commerce because he hath a nobler object in his eye that makes him converse with the things of the world in a kinde of non-attendance he is not much careful in these matters if he can die well at last and be justified for a wise man at the day of the resurrection all is well he thinks it is not manners to be unwilling to stay so long for the clearing of his wisdom as God can wait for the vindicating of his own glorious Nature which will not appear in its glory till that day when he will convince the ungodly of their hard thoughts and speeches of him Then they shall till then they will not be convinced Secondly a wise man labours duly to time his care and endeavour for the attaining of what he proposeth 'T is the fool that comes when the market is done as the evil day is of great concernment in respect of its event so the placing of our care for it in the right season is of chief importance and that sure must be before it comes There are more doors then one at which the messenger may enter that brings evil tydings to us and at which he will knock we know not we know not where we shall be arrested whether at bed or board whether at home or in the field whether among our friends that will counsel and comfort us or among our enemies that will adde weight to our sorrow by their cruelty We know not when whether by day or night many of us not whether in the morning noon or evening of our age As he calls to work at all times of the day so he doth to bed may be while thou art praying or preaching and it would be sad to go away profaning them and the Name of God in them possibly when thou art about worse work death may strike thy quaffing cup out of thy hand while thou art sitting in the Alehouse with thy jovial mates or meet thee as thou art reeling home and make some ditch thy grave that as thou livedst like a beast so thou shouldest die like a beast In a word we know not the kinde of evil God will use as the instrument to stab us whether some bloody hand of violence shall do it or a disease out of our bowels and bodies whether some acute disease or some lingring sicknesse whether such a sicknesse as shall slay the man while the body is alive I meane take the head and deprive us of our reason or not whether such noisome troubles as shall make our friends afraid to let us breath on them or themselves look on us whether they shall be afflictions aggravated with Satans temptations and the terrours of our own affrighted consciences or not who knowes where when or what the evil day shall be therefore doth God conceal these that we should provide for all Cesar would never let his souldiers know when or whither he meant to march The knowing of these would torment us with distracting fear the not knowing them should awaken us to a providing care It is an ill time to calk the ship when at sea tumbling up and down in a storme This should have been look't to when on her seat in the harbour And as bad it is to begin to trim a soul for heaven when tossing upon a sick bed Things that are done in a hurry are seldome done well A man call'd out of his bed at midnight with a dismal fire on his house-top cannot stand to dresse himself in order as at another time but runs down with one stocking half on may be and the other not on at all Those poor creatures I am afraid go in as ill a dresse into another world who begin to provide for it when on a dying bed conscience calls them up with a cry of hell-fire in their bosomes But alas they must go though they have not time to put their armour on And so they are put to repent at leisure in hell of their shuffling up a repentance in haste here We come to the Application of the Point CHAP. VII The Application of the Point Vse 1 FIrst it reproves those that are so far from providing for the evil day that they will not suffer any thoughts of that day to stay with them they are as unwilling to be led into a discourse of this subject as a childe to be carried into the dark and there left It is a death to them to think of death or that which leads to it As some foolishly think they must needs die presently when they have made their Will so these think they hasten that sorrowful day by musing on it The meditation of it is no more welcome to them then the company of Moses was to Pharaoh Therefore they say to it as he to Moses Get thee from me and let me see thy face no more the seare of it makes them to butcher and make away all those thoughts which conscience stirs up concerning it And at last they get such a mastery of their consciences that they arrive to a kinde of Atheisme it is as rare to have them think or speak of such matters as to see a flie busie in Winter Nothing now but what is frolick and jocund is entertained by them If any such thoughts come as prophesie mirth and carnal content these as right with their hearts are taken up into the chariot to sit with them but all other are commanded to go behinde Alas poor-spirited wretches something might be said for you if this evil day of death and judgement were such entia rationis as had no foundation or being but what our fancies give them such troubles there are in the world which have all their evil from our thoughts when we are disquieted with the scorns and reproaches of men did we but not think of them they were nothing but thy banishing the thoughts of this evil day from thy mind will be a poor short relief Thou canst neither hinder its coming nor take away its sting when it comes by thy slighting it Thou art like a Passenger in a ship sleep or wake thou are going thy voyage Thou doest but like that silly bird who puts her head into a reed and then thinks she is safe from the