speak of them in a farr other strain then another can doe See how Paul speaks of Agrippa and Bernice fitting in the judgement-seat on him Acts 25 23. And when Agrippa and Bernice were come with great pomp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great many phansies so looks Paul on all their pomp And on his external priviledges Phil. 3. as dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be casten to dogs And what ever account Egyptians made of Pharaohs treasures Moses saw them to be but the pleasures of sin that indured for a season Now when weights are thus discerned and thus they are by faith how easie is it to lay them aside Thirdly Faith possesses the soul with assurance of Gods care and provision of these things that often prove weights to us It is a remarkable word Heb. 13 v. 5. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee There is enough for faith to be content upon if it have He hath said Not that it destroyes necessary means Add to your faith vertue 2 Pet. 1 7. But when any thing becomes a weight to imped our running in our race the soul that beleeves can lay it aside and trust God for what may be convenient in that kind Again The life that I live in the flesh is by saith in the Son of God Gal. 2 vers 20. He loved me and gave himself for me and for temporal things I will live by faith in him Fourthly Faith puts the soul upon higher designes then these weights can amount to and so makes them easier to be undervalued Psal 39 6. See how David despyleth the intanglements of wordlings Surely man walketh in a vain shew they disquyet themselves in vain heaping up riches What is this a vain shew How cames the Psalmist to insert this paradoxe See him in the next verse see him on a higher designe And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee deliver me from all my transgressions I am said the great Alexander a King and not a merchant when Darius sen him ane offer of many talents to returne to Greece again He told Parmenio it might sute with him to take Darius offer but not with Alexander When a beleever confiders what ane inheritance what a marriage how excellent ane husband what sweetness of Communion what wonder these weights be easily laid aside and this is done by faith Lastly By saith the sprength of Christ is brought in to help to lay aside these weights And thus it becomes easie I know how to abound Philipp 4. and how to want I can doe all things through him that strengthens me As all these wayes shew how useful faith is for laying aside these weights so in then next place I shall shew that without faith it is impossible to lay them aside For First The inclination of our heart is so strong to these things that often prove weights that without faith it is impossible to subdue it and consequently to lay them aside All the light and strengt of natural induements could never bring Heathens to mortification of these weights Even Seneca who gave the most excellent precepts of any Heathen yet was eminently tained with earthly-mindedness Yea even such as have some measure yea a great measure of faith have work enough with it It is conceived by many learned that Satan tempted Christ with all the Kingdoms of the earth Matth. 4. because he knew it was ane allutment by which he prevailed with the most eminently Godly Secondly Without faith a man cannot put and thing better in the place of these weights and therefore cna hardly lay them aside Ane unbeleever of his riches must say as Micha of his Idols Ye have taken away me Gods and what have I more But a beleever if he lay aside these he can say as Alexander the Great did when he had devyded all his Kingdom among his followers and one asked him what he reserved for himselfe he answered Hope They have hope as ane anchor both sure and fast Yea not only hope but also something to rejoice in for the present Hab. 3 vers 17. Although the figg tree should not blossome and the wyne shold not yeeld her fruit and the labour of the olive should fail yet I will rejoice in God I will joy in the God of my salvation Thirdly Corrupt reason in man is no small friend to the retaining of these weights prone to suggest even in a Peter Master pity thy selfe The remarkable History of Francis Spira written by Sleidan and others is very remarkable to this purpose who being allured by his relationes and possessiones did renounce the faith he had formerly owned and how tragical his end was all know Now when reason appears such a friend to the retaining of these weights if there be not faith to counter-ballance who can lay them aside Application See the way then and the only way how to get these weights layd aside even the same that influenced Noahs building of the Ark and Abrahams forsaking of his country Many purpose and resolve against these weights but as without faith it is impossible to please God so to lay these weights aside 2dly Look well to thy faith which in this case I may say as the Apostle sayes in ane other case Eph. 6. thou art above all things to take to thee And in order to this I shall only press these three things 1. Take heed thy faith be not counterfite For 1st There is nothing keeps one further off from the truth of faith then the counterfite of it As the counterfite Religion Jeroboam set up as ane engyn to keep the ten trybs from the true Religion which was at Jerusalem So Sathan sets up in many a counterfite faith which keeps them from seeking after the truth of it Beside if thy faith be counterfite all is but counterfite thy prayer thy hope thy praises Thy laying aside of weights will be but a seeming act it is with our faith as with a mariage if a woman be not maried all her children are bastards therefore look well to it that thy faith be not counterfite Secondly Be training and excercising thy faith We use to walk upon the credit of the promises as one beginning to walk upon the ice when first they set their foot on ay fearing it crack under us and we fall in whereas as if there were a training of ourselves to excercise faith on the promises on things of dayly occurrence as to be acting it for our meat for our rest at night and see what account God gives of us in the moring for our health for our inward peace we should come the more easily on the credit and faith of the promise to lay aside weights that imped us in our race Thirdly Put forth acts of faith on Christ not only for justification but for sanctisying graces Usually all
common Catechisme which is the chiefe end of man but can tell it is to glorify God and enjoy him now if thou believes this for a principle and proposes it in the very entrie of thy Catechisme I shall say to thee as Samuel did to Saul when Saul told him he had fulfilled the command of the Lord against Amaleck what meaneth then said Samuel the Bleating of these Sheep If thou take this for a principle what meaneth First thy contentedness without communion with him not counting the want of it thy affliction and cross what account of his going and coming in his ordinances can it be thy chief happiness and yet thou content without it Secondly what meaneth so many steps of darkness in thy conversation by which thou art incapacitat for communion with him if we say to we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we deceave our selves sayes the Apostle John if we indeed believe this to be our chief happiness would there not be more care to be keeped in frame to intertain it then there is may I not then say to thee as the Apostle here to the Jewes Thou that sayes mans chief end is to enjoy God dare thou walk in darkness and art thou contended without it A Second principle we all lay in our religion is that there is an absolute necessity of the practice of Holiness in order to our attaining glory without it we all profess we believe none can sie God what ever difference there be in the Christian Church about the nature of Holiness yet that there is an absolute necessity about the practice of it is a thing wherein Papists Socinians Arminians Lutherians Antinomians and Anabaptists and all unit Now let us sie how this principle is contradicted 1. How exceeding little of that wherein the life and power of it consists mortification the exercises of faith love delight in God and such like possibly some care of some duties of the second table which being rightlie performed are acts of obedience to God but the far greater things neglected many in these be like a servant who being commanded by his master to sweep the house and look to his child is carefull to sweep the house but lets the child fall in the fire how would the master look on such a servant his obedience that is the case with many Beside Secondly what a great deal of Antipathie with the followers of Holiness Many amongst us are like to some who have such an Antipathie with some meat that not only they cannot eat of it themselves but cannot indure to sie it upon an others truncheor How much hatred of the Professors of holiness and yet all professing they believe the absolute necessity of it Yea Thirdly the holiness we professe to be so necessarie is a laborious painful work in the Scripture it is called a striving a fighting a running a working But the way that 's generally taken about it is as if it were a going to a dancing or some pastime thou that sayest that Holiliness is so necessary does thou so heartlesly follow it But let us come to a third principle all of us acknowledge that without a reall change of our estait our way and practice can never be acceptable to God That which is born of the flesh is flesh all our service to God while in the estait of nature is but the service of an enemy Rom. 7.4 Ye are married to another that ye may bring fruit to God if we be not married we are like to a woman that bears children and hath not a husband they are all bastards Now this is not minded in our way if services be done whither we be in a state of reconciliation or not all is one Hence all our services are never directed to a right end they proceed not from a right principle Bruits act not say Philosophers for an end because they act not from a principle of reason neither doe Christians for the honour of God because not from a principle of regeneration Hence also our hatred of sin is so servil we fear it as daming only like some that will not touch a coal because it is hot for fear it burne them but others will not touch it because it is black lest it defile them yea hence our services are fruitlesse we pray and are not heard they are the requests of one in a state of enemity Now thou that sayest regeneration is necessary that all thy worship may be accepted whence is it that it is so little minded does not thy practice herein contradict thy principle Lastly that I may come to a close it is one great principle of our religion that our great work ought to be the exalting of Christ This is it that we that are Ministers have especially in commission to preach He is an elect vessel to lift up my name before the Gentils said the Lord to Ananias of Paul Acts 9.15 this we are bound to by all the tyes of duety and gratitude this is the very scop of our religion but how exceedingly is it contradicted how little are we in conference of Christs excellency in our meetings together Our discourses are like Pharaohs to Jacob how old art thou and what is thy occupation who would have thought but something would have come from Pharaoh concerning the God of Abraham who was famous amongst the Heathen even at this time yet nothing of this If our discours of him be little our meditation is lesse our delight lest of all our hearts are little in Boyling as the words in the first language Psal 45.1 imports this good Master though all his garments smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia yet our distemper is such as this smell relishes not All these and a great many more principles we openly own are as openly contradicted in our conversation and how great matter of Humiliation there is in this will appear in these things 1 we not only not walk by principles we professe but by principles we all disown none will defend drunkennesse swearing Sabboth-breaking or such like all even the most prophane disown them and yet as if there were a law for them so are they practised Now how lamentable is this that not only these things which God hath made principles to us are disowned but these things that he hath forbidden are practised as if they were principles Secondly if our principles were not sure our contradiction to them were the lesse deplorable But so sure principles having all the witt of man can imagin to confirm them Many popish principles are pretended to be no higher then some Pop's decrees But these named proceed from him who laid the foundations of the great earth and streatched out the heavens as a curtain who weighs the mountains in ballances and holds the watters in the hollow of his hand and that they are proceeded from him we have all the security reason can require or imagin Now that such principles should be contradicted
can not change who is one and the same yesterday and the day and for ever Secondly Christ his becoming our strength for duties suits well to the great designe of the Gospel which is the advancing of his own glory For 1. This tends to keep up his peoples dependence upon him This makes a thick court of supplicants which is much for the honour of a Prince If we had a stock of grace in our hand we would readily say as Israel did We are Lords and will come no more near thee He that hath riches enough of his own despyseth begging and he that hath health enough seeks not after a phisitian It is true there is inherent grace given in ef\fectual calling to beleevers But it is as ane spark of fyre in greenwood which if it be not continually blown upon it would dye out whither Adam needed the influences of assisting grace notwithstanding of all his inherent grace is to me beyond controversy Neither did it derogat from the perfection of his estat But that we constantly need it and ought to be still dependent for it who will deny 2dly As this dependence is honourable for God so by putting our strength for duties in Christs hand his people hes still fresh and new matter of praises Every new enlargement of heart for any performance affoords thee subject of a new songe and thus He is still glorified by them Thirdly our strength being in the hand of Christ tends not only to advance the honour of Christ but our obedience in the great duties which are eminently advanced by puting our strength in Christs hand Faith and self-denyal 1 This way makes a great deal of work for faith especially as we live by faith a lyfe of sanctification every branch of holyness calls for ane new act of faith not only is faith to be acted in order to the acceptation of our duty but for strength to performe and this eminently promoves self-denyalâ— when there is most inlargement of heart in duties we must remember it is dereived from ane-other there is a remarkable word Deuter. 8. He fed them in the wilderness with Manna which thy Fathers knew not that he might humble them How could this humble them Was it not Angels food But it was food He behoved to give them dayly and this tended to humble them How excellent soever the influences of grace from Christ be yet since there is fresh need of them dayly this tends to humble thee Fourthly This putting our strength in Christs hand makes Christs yoke both easier and sweeter to his people then if their strength were in their own hand 1. It makes it easier If a Father shall undertake to pay his sons expence at every taverne he comes to it s more easy nor if he had given him money in his purse to pay for himselfe We have no more to doe now but ask and it will be given us and knock and it shall be opened unto us Israel had more ease in getting their food in the wilderness nor they had when they tilled and sowed for it in their owâ— possessions they had here no more to do but gather what was rained down to them It makes his yoake also sweeter then if our strength were in our hand My beloved put in his hand a the hole of the door and his fingers dropped myrrhe that which drops from his fingers it hath to his spouse the relish of myrrhe that he as our nurse must pout our meat in our mouth and that we are to be strong iâ— the grace that is in Jesus Christ is the sweetesâ— ingredient in our performances It were very pertinent with the point to enter here with Pelagians who of old did talk so much of mans being able by the power of natural qualifications to prevent God and merit the first graces from God by a merit of congruity against whom Augustin among the Fathers and profound Bradwardin in his Book De causa Dei have written at great length the Patrons of universal grace Papists Arminians who also are at best Semi-pelagians in opposing the truth extolling man to the dishonour of Christ but how pextinent soever this were to the point the unsuitableness of it to the present occasion shall make me wave it and come to the practick application of the point Application Use 1. Is it so that our strength for duties is put in the hand of Christ in the first place take heed of making the wrong use of it as if no attempt were to be made at duties but when we had actual influences of strength from Christ how frequent is this Especially at Sacraments How can I sail without wind Or can such a lame ones as I walk If I be not borne To obviat this I shall offer these confiderations First Our obligation to duties remains though Christ should withdraw strengthening influences of grace our impotency is much acquired and God loseth not his right to require obedience though we have lost our strength to perform it a creditor hath sufficient right in law to crave his debt though the debitor hath deboshed away all his estat and thereby becomes incapacitat to pay him Secondly we may do much as to the substance of duties even under a desertion though the actual influences of grace be simply necessary for the gracious qualifications of them there is yet more in our power yea even suppose in an unregenerat estate farr more when only under a desertion and wanting assisting grace then we do yea usually assisting grace is given when we are active in exerting and stirring up inherent grace Psal 27. vers last Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He shall strengthen thy heart Thirdly The Lord often denyes assisting grace that his accepting grace may shyn thâ— brighter as he gave the poor woman but two myts yet he commended the two myts shâ— did cast into the treasury usually our praisâ— are loudest when we find him accepting thâ— duties that are mixed with manifest imper fections Psal 116. David sayes The Lord heart him when he cryed and gratiously inclyned hâ—â— eare when the cords of death took hold on him anâ— with all when he considers the faintness anâ— defects of his cry that it was then when hâ— was in hast saying all men are lyars that sucâ— a cry should be heard see how he is enlarged in praises I will call on the Lord whill I live 〈◊〉 love him what shall I render to him thy servant Lord thy servant If he give thee only to groane what if he commend that groane and look on it as the groand of a dear Child as he did on Ephraims bemoaning himself Jer. 31.18 Fourthly Christ sometimes gives strength for duties and it is not discerned Hosea 12â— v. 3 and 4. Jacob by his strength he prevailed with God and had power over the Angels the Angel wrestled all night with Jacob and yet gave Jacob even when he was wrestling with him the strength of a
by way of tryal and a tempting by way of seducement God tempted Abraham with the first kinde of tentation and James speaks of the second kinde of tentations that seduce and lead to sin as is evident first from the word used by the Apostle there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which usually is â—â—â—erstood of tentation to sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the proper word for the other tryals or tentations Thus the Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tempter Matth. 4. vers 3. and in the Lords prayer we pray that we may not be led 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into tentation Beside the Apostle in the Antithesis used in the verse saves God cannot be tempted with evil neither does be tempt must be relative to that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil before mentioned Now these tentations as they cannot proceed from God so for God to tempt by way of tryal is ordinary for him in all afflictions There is one observation from the words I purpose to insist most upon but shall name some few ere I come to it Observation I. That often great mercits are accompanied with great tentations and tryals So here after these things Abraham was tempted And the constant tract of providence from Adam to Christ proves the truth of it yea scarcely in Scripture one instance which is rare in providential actings against it For 1. Great mercies are often accompanied with great abuses and therefore no wonder followed with great tryals The Lord does sometymes to his vineyard till he come to say What can I do more and yet sour Graps Isai 5. What wonder then he pluck downe his hedge Beside all that receive mercies doe not receive them with the like integrity they fall sometimes as some drops of rain that only makes a thistle or weeds to grow and therefore need of winnowing by tentations Yea 2dly Usually those who are most in receiving mercies from God are most invyed by Sathan ye shall find him in Scripture choosing out Gods greatest favourits and following them most with his tentations such as Job David Asaph Christ and Peter I shall not dwell on this point only doe not think God is out of the road way of his providence when he does this whither to his Church or particular persons It is ane inlet to all apostasie to be pleased with nothing but mercies here away from God If thou hath at this Sacrament tasted of Abraham's manifestations it shall be strange if after these things it come not to pass that thou tast of Abraham's tentations Our rose here must have thornes beside it and therefore say thou shall we receive good of the hands of the Lord and not evil also And bless him in both Observ II. That it is very necessary when we remember or mention the tentations God exposes his people to to remember also the mercies he bestowes on them Abraham here God tempted him but it is after these things So the Church at length in the third of the Lamentations so Jacob so David Psalm 44. and there is good reason for it For 1. This tends to keep up honourable thoughts of God If there be nothing minded but the tentations we are ready to count of him as the man who had the one talent austere and rigorous Beside this tends to keep us from fainting under tentations as Psal 13 5. It may be often the Lords quarrel with us in tryals which he had with Israel at the red Sea Psal 106. They considered not the multitude of his mercies but at the Sea even the red Sea they provocked him The first tryal they met with they sorgat all the Lord had done for them in Aegypt Many pore only upon their discouragements especially in tryals or at Sacraments like one that would be broding himself with the bryar of his role and not smelling the rose itself Haman was a foole to quarrel that Mordecay bowed not his knee to him since he was so much in the Kings savour he might have despised Mordecayes What ever besal the Church of God or thyself still remember it is after these things Observ III. That tryals and afflictions are rightly looked upon by us when we look upon them as tentations Thus Abraham's tryal here called a tentation James 1 2. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall in divers tentations The Apostle means afflictions but thinks fitt to represent it to them under the notion of tentation So 1 Pet. 1 6. Though now for a season ye be in heaviness through manifold tentations It was the cross was on them but the Apostle calls them tentations And there are several reasons why afflictions are so called which are worthy to be remarked 1. Our tryals often are nothing but tentations our discouraged Spirits creates fears and then tosses them so that one in wrestling with their own thoughts will suffer more then another on whom the crosse is indeed inflicted And here by the way it is worthy to be noted how often we are in the wronge to God suspecting him for his providence when in the mean tyme it is but a conflict with our own apprehensions Like Hagar who was complaining for the want of water and yet close beside a fountain but her eyes were not opened to see it 2dly Trials are called tentations because of the principal and chief scope of affliction is to winnow and try That the tryal of your faith being more pretious then gold 1 Pet. 1 7. the Apostle points our their affliction there from the principal scop of it And here I would have you take notice of these three things 1. Though God know us well enough and though Saints try themselves yet we have need to be tryed by affliction There is a mystery of iniquity as well as there is a mystery of godliness oftentymes in affliction there is something discovered to us which for all our search of ourselves we could not have found out nor have beleeved had been in us like a pool troubled so are our hearts in affliction their comes up mud which we would not have thought to have been there Yea 2dly As the Lord delights in the graces of his Saints so he loves to have some occasion to commend them in his Saints He still retaineth his integrity though thou movest me without a cause against him See how he boasteth of Job as a Master when a good Scholler is examined Therefore he loves to try by affliction that He may have occasion to say O woman great is thy faith 3dly The Lord loves to discover his people to others For 1. By thy example others may be encouraged What is the end of the Lords recording the valorous acts of his Saints their reward is full without this but to incourage others Yea if thou faint in a tryal others may be bettered by it Why hath the Lord recorded in Scripture the failings of some of his Saints Is it that the Lord loves to blot their names when
of Deuteronomy allures and threatnes them to stedfastness in it appoynts them a successor to him and layes his hand on Josuae There are two acts we find performed by two eminent Saints in reference to the Church after their death and they that cannot doe the one to promove the good of it when they are gone may yet doe the other Moses leaves a written law to them to walk by Joseph acts faith on the promise I know the Lord will visit you and he will have them swear to carry up his bones If thou cannot writt books to be standing monuments of the Church's duties yet be with Joseph acting faith for the prosperity of it upon the promise and thus one way or another thou may promove the good of it when thou art gone But in the third place take a view of some consequences of Moses death I shall for brevities sake name but these three First The Lord takes the charge on him of burying his Servant Deut. last The Lord buried him in the plains of Moab His care of his Saints bodies ends not with their lives It is the Fathers will that he should lose nothing of what is given him but takes it up at the last day and gives it life eternal Mark it is not no man but no thing of any of them given him the body that did run and act and speak in his service he casts it not off at death as ane unprofitable old Servant but looks after it even though the bodies should be given to be food to the foules of Heaven Secondly This burial of Moses was so secret as no man knew of it the common and indeed the true reason was to prevent superstition which readily Israel would have fallen into with these precious relicts If the Lord ever had intended such a high esteem of the relicts of the Saints as some press he had never concealed the body of Moses We have reason to praise that we are not intoxicat with the poyson of those who adore the creature more then the Creator and delude the World with the forgeries of relicts which though true as they are not yet ought not to be committed Idolatry with the Lord did here as a wyse parcht take the knyfe out of the childs hand least he should cut his fingers with it Lastly This Moses though none knew what became of his body nor where it was layd yet we find him afterward appearing glorious on mount Tabor at the transfiguration It is in effect no matter what become of our bodies after death since the Saints may be assured one day to appear and be like his glorious body let Philosophers debeat where are they that are eaten by fish and these fish eaten by men and the bodies of these men turned into grasse and that grasse eaten by beasts c. though we can no more tell what is become of them nor Israel could tell what became of the body of Moses it is comfortable enough he will make them like his glorious body by the mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe This much for the things particularly observable in Moses death We come now in the second place to speak of death as a lot from which the most eminent servants cannot expect to be exeemed Observation That there are none how eminent soever in parts holyness or communion with God can expect to be exeemed from death Eminent was Moses in all these yet Moses is dead yea see through all the Scripture from Adam to Christ Enoch and Elijah excepted whose extraordinare translation supplied vicem mortis who are exeemed from it Neither need we insist on the reasons of this since it is decreed for all It is appointed for all men once to dy and after death to come to judgment Yea 2dly All are interested in Adams sin and so lyable to the punishment of it which in part is temporal death 3dly Actual sin influences this the wages whereof is death It is among the errors of Socinians to say death is only a natural fruit of the constitution of the body It is true it does indeed naturally follow on it but man being immortalized by Covenant before the fall the loss of that priviledge makes death to him a punishment and the wages of sin as the Apostle Rom. 6 last words it That which I shall insist a litle on is to answer this Question Why Christ hath not restored his Saints to ane exemption from death which by Adam's fall they have forfaulted Answer Though Christ hath not done this yet he hath done so much in reference to it that the Apostle is not afrayed to say he hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel We shall therefore insist a litle in opening the differences betwixt the death of the Saints through Christ and the death of others There be especially this threefold difference betwixt them 1. In respect of the persons dying 2dly In respect of death it self 3dly In respect of the consequences of it This Balaam observed when he said Let my end be as their end First In regard of the persons dying the difference is great especially in these three 1st The Servants of God though they dy yet they dy in Christ Revel 14 v. 13. Blessed are they that die in the Lord As they believed in the Lord and walked in the Lord and rejoiced in the Lord so they dy in the Lord death does not loose their union not so with others 2dly They dy in faith All these dy in faith Heb. 11. haveing a good report they dy in faith for themselves for the Church of God for their relations and in the faith of whatever promised not so others 3dly They die in obedience as Christ was obedient to the death so their very death is an act of obedience Goe up to mount Nebo and dy the doeing whereof was obedience as well as goe down to Aegypt goe in to Pharaoh or such like commands as Moses obeyed Not so others their soul is taken from them Secondly The difference is great in regard of death itselfe Mark especially these First Though the thing be a curse in it selfe it is a blessing to the man Blessed are they that dy in the Lord the curse is not only removed but converted it is now a priviledge 1 Cor. 3 last All things are yours and ye are Christs whither things present or things to come death or life Here death is theirs who are Christs as a Servant is his Masters Death is yours and ye are Christs 2dly The sting of death is removed 1 Cor. 15 55. It is now as a bee that cannot sting 2 Cor. 9 21. It may well bumb and make a noyse but sin and the hurtful sting of it is removed It is not so with others the sting and all remains 3dly The dominion of it is removed Rom. 5 14. there are some Psal 49. that death shall have dominion over not
that are not Papists know that they must be justified by faith alone but for sanctification a part whereof is the laying aside of weights we labour to wring it out of our own hearts as if Christ were not the author and finisher of it and as if we did beleeve with Arminians that Christ had not died to putchase faith to us but it were in the power of a mans will to beleeve or not beleeve accordingly as he used his natural induements but this being done the laying aside of weights becomes farr more easie yea and pleasant to us But I come now to consider this precept of laying aside weights as it relates to the words following Let us runn with patience in which consideration by ane allusion to the Olympick and Pithick games they contain ane introductory act to the running of the race 1st The weights must be layd aside and then run and thus they affoord this Observation That the example of a cloud of witnesses will not be sufficiens to influence our running our race with patience if there be not mortifieation to both outward and inward impediments Both are comprehended under weights here and both must be mortified it being usual in Scripture to express mortification by this phrase of laying aside 1 Pet. 1 vers 2. Jam. 1 21. I shall briefly only prove the point and apply it For proofe of it Jam. 5 10. Take my Brethren the Prophets for ane example who spoke to you in the name of the Lord of patient sufferings But will this suffice No the Apostle thinks fitt to add be patient Brethren stablish your hearts grudge not Importing that if there be no more but examples though even of the Prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord it will not doe the turne if there be not some work upon the spirit of a man himselfe It is indeed ane undenyable truth examples are of excellent use in our Christian course sunt nonnulli said holy Bernard quos ad amorem patriae plus exempla quam praedicamenta succendunt But there are two things in the words to pass many other that I shall only make use of to evince this that beside the example there must be a mortifying and laying aside these impediments 1. They are weights 2. They are sins that easily and so easily besett us And in both the Apostle intends arguments to lay them aside First Consider them as weights so they are very unsuitable to a race if they be not mortified they produce two things very unsuitable for a race they weaken us and they intangle us 1st They weaken us Our strength how little soever it be must be devyded betwixt our journey our burdens It is not all to be spent upon our race Pcrerius thinks when Abraham was about to offer Isaack he did not tell Sarah for as strong as his faith was there was work eneough for it though Sarah were not ingadged against him Whereas he that layes aside these weights is not so overlayd nor hath he his strength devided It was a remarkable answer Erasmus reports in Apophthegms Diogenes on a time gave to Plato Plato had become somewhat less in reputatione because he had gone to Sicily to the Tyrant Dyonisius and received great gifts from him and on a day coming into Diogenes Cell he found hm dyning on roots whereupon Plato said to him if thou could'st please Dyonisius thou needed not eat roots Diogenes replyed If thou couldst eat roots thou needed not please Dyonisius Diogenes thought Plato weakned by this he could not eat roots He that is mortified to wordly pleasures hath his strength intire for his race Beside 2dly As they are weakning so they are exceedingly intangling no man that warreth sayeth the Apostle 2 Tim. 2 4. intangleth himselfe with the affairs of this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a word borrowed from a bird that is intangled in a net these weights are as a net round about us that by flightering we cannot winn out of So that it may be said of such a person as Pharaoh said of I sreal They are intangled they are intangled and how unsuitable is this for a race But let us take the Apostles other expression they doe easily beset us and in this two things I would open First Shew you that sin does easily beset 2dly What force is in this to press the laying it aside First That it easily besets is evident from these things 1. How easily does the tentations to it take in thee as sparks lighting among tinder Immediatly or straightway He went after her sayes Salomon of the young man and strange woman God must draw us we pull as it were against him But any tentation kindles us as it were in ane instant Beside 2dly sinful suggestions they seat so insensibly into the minde that even when we are in most spiritual duties ere we are awar we find ourselves overcharged by them As Junius complained that often when he was in prayer his mind was in the gallery he had seen in Rome Yea even after we have resolved and purposed against them yet like Hophni and Phinehas we are ready to commit uncleaness in the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation And it is no wonder there is no sin but it hath a party within us We cannot say as once our Captain did when we are to encounter tentations The Prince of this World cometh against me but he hath nothing within me It hath much within us and therefore no wonder it easily beset us Secondly Now there is a great deal of strength in his argument to press us to lay it aside For 1. That it besets us hath the force of ane argument into it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the old latin renders it circumstans Beza circumcingens It is as a belt round about us or as a wall standing about us If we look before us or behind us or what ever way we will we will find tentations from it in what ever part of our race we will find a weight from it Therefore mortify it otherwayes if called to active obedience or passive it will hing on for it besets us 2dly As it besets us so it easily besets us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this hath the force of another argument in it If we mortify not though our argument from examples were never so great we may conclude tentationes corruptiones will surely hinder us in our race for they beset us and easily beset us we have good reason of taking heed in casting sparks among flax since it so easily kindles And no less in laying aside and mortifying corruptione since in our race it so easily besets us being as a wall built round about us Application First it reproves those who in order to their encountering tryals labour for no mortification of weights and sins that easily beset them For 1. The want of this makes a man altogither unmeit for difficulties in his race 2