grieved the Spirit and neglected Christ for trifles small matters of the world c. And did net Jonah do so For a little credit to run away from God and for a little ease to be so angry as he was were not these trifles And this was Martha's fault to neglect hearing Christ for these outward things being cumbred about businesses And this was Aarons and Miriams sin in murmuring against Moses because of their estimation a poor busines And Aarons sin in making the golden Calf a trifling Idol to grieve the Spirit of God both in himself and others Causes of this And let me tell you there may be other causes of this distemper and not because thou art not truly converted 1. Because security may seiz upon the spirit sometimes desire to be at rest and ease Cant. 5. I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now she neglects Christ and yet his Spouse 2. Because the things of the world are such bewitching alluring things and the Divel is ready to present them to thee in the gloriousest shew as may be as he did to Christ Therefore Christ for the present is neglected 3. For want of a clear and more full manifestation of the Excellency of Jesus Christ As Paul before he had a clear manifestation of Christ he trifled about legall priviledges and duties but afterwards he counts them loss for Christ Phil. 3.7.8 The last ground of fear 12. Thou complainest Thou hast found thy heart apt to take Liberty and to be loose when occasion and opportunity hath suited to thee when thou mightst be secret from the eye of man close in private Therefore thou concludest thy state is not right and thou art troubled This some of the servants of God have found As David when he saw Bathsheba washing her self how loose was his heart on a sudden in inordinate lust after her And saith he Ps 19. Cleanse me from my secret Sins such as never come into the sight of men And because of this I conceive there are such Caveats to shun the very baits and occasions to sin As a man inclined to whoredom and lust see the advertisment Prov. 5.7 c. Hear me now O ye children And depart not from the words of my mouth Remove thy way far from her that is the whorish woman and come not nigh the door of her house Lest thou give thine honour unto others c. and so he goes on to vers 14. To shew the danger of occasions to that sin So Prov. 23. Concerning Drunkenness vers 31. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red when it giveth his colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright Why Why thou mayst be catcht with it thy heart being loose And saith he At the last it bites like a Serpent and stings like an Adder Our Saviour knew how apt the hearts of his Disciples were to be loose Therefore saith he Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and the cares of this life And take heed and beware of covetousness And take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie And saith Solomon keep thy heart with all diligence Now what need all these Caveats if the hearts of Christians were not apt to run aside and be loose And this comes to passe oftentimes 1. Not for want of Grace because the man hath no grace but for want of watchfulness and diligent observance to give the heart to God and to walk in his wayes Prov. 23.26 33. My Son saith he give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my wayes And then he shewes if it be otherwise the Danger of whoredom and drunkenness And saith vers 33. Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things 2. Because the Devil is a cunning diligent Adversary to lay his baits to deceive at every turn 1 Pet. 5.8 Be sober be vigilant for your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lyon goes about continually seeking whom he may devour So that now I would have you to remember that Gods thoughts are not your thoughts nor Gods wayes your wayes If God had as low thoughts of poor Christians as they have of themselves many times there were good Reason they should be troubled But saith he As high as the Heavens are above the earth so high are my thoughts above your thoughts and my wayes above your wayes Isa 55. and howsoever you may cry out as Zion Isa 49.14 The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me yet consider what the Lord saith I know the thoughts I have towards you thoughts of peace and not of evil The Lord make his poor troubled people know them and then their hearts will settle FINIS In regard I was absent When my former Book was Printed there are many faults escaped in Printing and no notes of correction Printed And for some weighty reasons moving me thereto I desire here to note the chief of them that alter my sence of things which in the Sense they go in I shall not own The Title of the Book is A Way to Sion sought out and found for beleevers to walk in c. PAg. 62. lin 22. for resolved r. relieved p. 97. l. 16. f. all r. of p. 115. l. 34 f. all Christ r. after this p. 120. l. 32. f. glorified r. gloried p. 125. l. 1. after only add Then this ministring must be meant of Deacons only p. 128. l. 17. f. Original r. Organic p. ib. l 35. blot out but only and instead thereof r. And. p. 176. l. 28. f. dead r. weak There are many other faults but being more easily espied by the ingenuous Reader I here let them pass without giving notice of them
Questions his conversion 3. He hath Discovered new sins and corruptions which before he did not observe after a long time in the state of grace And finds new ones which he did not know of And he knows not but there may be more behind And so fear ariseth 4. He finds his heart many times loose in spirituall duties the thoughts thereof roaring and ranging this way and that way when his heart should be kept to God By-thoughts come thick upon him as motes in the Sun and he is as sure to be haunted with them as to find his shadow in the Sun And hence he is troubled 5. He doth not find that growth in the Inward marrow of Religion that should be in him answerable to his time and means of knowledge For though he grant he hath grown in Knowledge and some externall parts and gifts as utterance and the gifts of Prayer and Prophesie c. yet he finds not that he is grown in Spirit and inward acquaintance with Christ 6 He finds the exercise of his graces Faith Love Patience c. failing sometimes when he hath most need of them And that the Disposition of his heart in the cause of God sometimes fails comes short of that activity that should be in it And the exercises of his graces in putting forth are many-times stained 7. He cannot attain to something that he sees in other men that peradventure were after him in Christ and are inferior in gifts yet he cannot attain to that life of Grace he sees in them nor to that Humility nor Love nor desire nor resoluteness for truth nor self-deniall nor Heavenly-mindedness And hence he fears his condition 8. He finds he enjoyes God least many times when he sets himself the best about it and goes about to fit his Soul to entertain Christ as in fasting c. 9. He hath hurt the Cause of God when God hath brought him upon the stage to have done something for God perhaps to have suffered for God And upon this questions the truth of his grace 10. He hath oftentimes relapsed it into the same sin which formerly he hath pursued with particular sorrow and grief And prayed and resolved against it and this troubles him 11. He hath grieved the Spirit and neglected Christ for trifles for smal matters things of the world vain pleasures c. 12. Lastly He hath found his heart apt to take liberty and to be loose when Occasion and opportunity hath suited to him when he might be secret from the eye of man close and hath had an opportunity to enjoy his self-pleasure he hath found his heart loose And from such like grounds as these he is many-times cast into reasonings and Questioning the truth of his state whether his conversion were ever right and so he is troubled How to setle a man oppressed with this thought Now for the setling of a mans state that is thus incumbred And to cut of all Questions and disputes which the heart of man may breed What if there may be a shorter course taken for the setling of a mans heart then to stand weighing of a mans Graces and corruptions together for though the least piece of money hath some distinct stamp upon it that a man may know it from a Counter And every grace in a mans soul hath some mark of truth upon it Yet I say what if there be another course that a Christian may take when his own heart raiseth storms in this manner to take another course to clear it from such Rocks and Shelvs And that is Generall propositions tending to the peace of such a soul In these Cases And in all these Cases to go immediately to Christ by faith And to cast your selves upon him yea to cast away your selves upon him not so much as questioning what shall become of you but to go out immediately to him Yea I say though your hearts be full of deceit and Hypocrisie yet I would go out for all this and intrude upon Christ as I may say by an impudent kind of beleeving and say thus Lord If my graces give me no comfort Christ shall And say thus God hath laid in Sion for a Foundation a Stone a tryed stone a precious Corner stone a sure Foundation Isa 28.16 And he that beleeveth on him shall not be confounded 1 Pet. 2.6 Now there must be a course taken to keep the heart from wrangling For some may say what is this to beleeve in a Stone That is to be in and to be by faith built upon Christ And by faith to lie fast in the fast lieing of this Stone And in the fast levelling and laying of this stone would I lie fast Friends If your Graces yeeld you but a little comfort then presently flie to Christs person and personal offices I would have you flie from your sins to Christ and I would have you flie from your graces to Christ too For he is the Boat to receive you both from damning sins and imperfect graces for the Alsufficiency of Christ needs not thy graces to make it perfect as if he could not save thee without the perfection of thy graces Thus doing thou shalt honour Christ above and sweeten him more then thy own graces And if at any time thy heart wrangle thee out of thy graces yet let it never wrangle thee out of Christ If thy graces be a quagmire that thou shake upon them then Christ is a Stone lies firm A man may trust too much upon his graces but he cannot trust too much upon Christ A man may take too much hold upon the Mil sailes for a man may take so fast hold he may be turned about but not upon the mil-post Learn the use of Faith which is of singular use to carry thee out of thy sanctified self to live out of thy self to build out of thy self to carry thee by faith and hope out of thy self to Christ Gal. 2.20 The life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me See how Paul lives here not by any thing but faith in Christ I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live saith he yet not I Lest any should think he lived upon his graces and sanctification He addes But Christ liveth in me Now lest any should dream that there is no other Christ then the creature hath within in graces qualifications c. he explains himself And the life that I live in the flesh I live by the FAITH of the Son of God And truely If a mans heart will not be setled this way it will scarce be setled any way Four considerable things Now for the use of faith in this case there are four things considerable 1. Whensoever thou art thus puzled labour to lay Christ in the other end of the ballance against all objections that thy heart can make This is the shortest cut that a man can make to plead Christ yet
to provoke to love and good works But how shall this be done See Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is But exhort one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching In our Fathers house there is bread enough and to spare Luk. 15. there is all varieties to be had that may be for thy growth Thou must be joynted into the building if thou wouldst grow Eph. 2.21 In whom all the building fitly framed TOGETHER groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord. Col. 3.19 All the body by JOYNTS and BANDS having nourishment ministred and KNIT TOGETHER increaseth with the increase of God The sixt ground of fear 6. Thou hast found the exercise of thy Graces failing sometimes when thou hast had most need of them and the disposition of thy heart in the Cause of God sometimes failing coming short of that activity that should be in it or the exercise of thy graces in putting forth stained Therefore thy condition is not right saist thou Doth that follow thinkest thou Did not the Disciples Faith fail them when they had need of it when they were tost upon the Sea Where 's your Faith saith Christ they had need of it then I think you will easily grant me that And they had not the exercise of it and therefore Mark reads it How is it that ye have no Faith Mar. 4.40 Luk. 8.25 Yea and Peter when he denyed Christ had he been stedfast in the faith he had not denyed but resisted Sathan And Peters Christian boldness and courage failed him too at that time Did not Moses faith fail him when God saith ye beleeved me not Num. 20. And for Love failing If ye loved me saith Christ ye would rejoyce Ioh. 14. So Jobs Christian wisdome faild him in his affliction in Challenging God as he did to dispute with him and in justifying himself too far Therefore God reproveth him in the close of the Book And so in the text why are ye troubled Their apprehensions failed them concerning Christ But now This doth not therefore follow that they were stark dead and breath gone and they out of the state of grace because of this Why Christians graces fail them sometimes when they have need of them But then what should be the Cause that Christians faith and other graces should be at so low an ebbe when they stand in need of them I Answer 1. Because Christ alone will be seen in the business to be all in all That we may see that he doth the whole work in us and for us Col. 3 11. Isa 26 12. As at his death all must forsake him and fly and Peter deny him that he may alone do all without being beholden to man for any thing So in casting out that Divel our of the mans Son spoken of Mar. 9. The Disciples unbelief disabled them from casting him out that the power of Christ alone might be seen in doing it 2. That the people of God might be humbled out of themselves and out of the pride of their own undertakings when they see how weak they are and their graces failing them And that God is all in the thing as Job 42. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes 3. Because many times they stand too much upon their own strength and live not clearly upon Jesus Christ as they ought to do and so they miscarry And that their confidence might be regulated Therefore Peter fell that he might see the misplacing of his trust So 2 Cor. 1. We had the sentence of death in our selves That we should learn not to trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead And in another place Phil. 4. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me That we might learn to live above our graces to have grace and all from Christ 4. That so thou mightest learn to deny thy self in thy Sanctified self as well as in carnal self in thy very graces and not rest upon them That so thou mayst account all thy Righteousnesses as filthy Rags Isa 64. And be for ever kept from boasting Rom. 3.27 The seventh ground of fear 7. Thou complainest thou canst not attain to something that thou seest in other men that peradventure were in Christ after thee and are inferiour in gifts Not to that humility c. Therefore thou fearest thy state that thou art not truly converted and hast no grace I Answer That doth not follow that therefore thou hast no grace Did not Elihu pass the three Ancients spoken of in Job in understanding and wisdome Job 42.7,8 And yet I conceive they had grace For God cals for their sacrifices which he would not have done had they been wicked men For the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Pro. 15.8 And did not Paul pass all the other Apostles in labour and sufferings and Revelations too 1 Cor. 15.10 2 Cor. 12. 2 Cor. 11. and they were in Christ before him And Mary went beyond Christs Disciples in affection to Christ for she could willingly spend the box of oyntment on Christ but his Disciples murmured at it yea not onely Judas but the rest also as appears Mat. 26.6,7,8,9,10 c. And did not Mary believe the Resurrection sooner then they and yet they were longer time with Christ then she Again consider God dispenceth his gifts differently according to his own pleasure 1 Cor. 12. To one a word of knowledge to another the word of wisdome to another Prophesie c. Now because thou hast not attained to the gift or measure of gift or enjoyment that others have wilt thou say thou hast no grace The eighth ground of fear 8. Thou complainest thou enjoyest God least many times when thou settest thy self the best about it and goest about to fit thy soul to entertain Christ or get down corruption as in fasting c. I Answ It may be so and yet thou mayst be one that hast grace too sometimes God delays to come in to his people and puts off for divers ends known to himself Hab. 1.2 O Lord saith he how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear yea cry out of violence and thou wilt not save and yet this man was Gods So Job cries out in the same words Job 19.7 Behold I cry out of wrong but I am not heard I cry aloud but there is no judgement So David also Psal 69.3 I am weary of my crying my heart is dryed my eys fail while I wait for my God And Job 23.8,9 Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he works but I cannot behold him he hides him self on the right hand that I cannot see him Here ye see he sets himself about it but could not
find the Lord He lookt behind him before him on both hands but to no purpose And so the Church Cant. 3.1 2. By night on my bed I sought him whom my sould loveth I sought him but I found him not c. She 's industrious but finds him alone Causes why God keeps off What should be the reason may some say that the Lord should keep aloof off when a man sets himself so seriously about it I mean to find him 1. Because God would have the creature know that he is free in working He is not tied to come to preparations or qualifications of the creature but to his own preparations The preparations of the heart and the answer of the tougue is from the Lord saith Salomon Prov. 16.1 2. He would let his people know that he will be waited on to come in when he pleases yet the creature must do his duty Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Psal 105.5 Paul prayed thrice before he had an Answer of grace 2 Cor. 12. 3. Many times the people of God have too much self-ends in their duties and the Lord would have them to see it Zach. 7.5 Did you fast unto me even unto me saith the Lord. And did you not eat for your selves and drink for your selves It may be self-love may drive a man to it to obtain some blessing that he wants rather then to enjoy God himself And God would shew him this errour and take him off from it 4. That they may see their former Slothfulness and Negligence Cant. 5. When Christ had waited and called for admittance and could not have it he withdraws to let his Spouse see how he did distaste her Sloth and Neglect and Excuses 5. That he might be the sweeter to thee when he comes in again and that thou mightest stick the closer to him when thou hast found him again 6. To try thy Faith and Patience and Constancy whether thou wilt persevere in following him and wait upon him as the woman of Canaan did though thou have repulse after repulse and little hopes in reason yet to try if thy faith can conquer reason And that thy faith may be seen with the greater lustre when it is tried For God by delaying and putting off discovers to you the temper of your Spirits whether you will willingly wait the Lords leasure or whether you will fret and fume and wait no longer As we do sometimes by beggers put them off or give them no answer and if they be indeed in great wants and of meek spirits they will lament and weep and be thankful for a little when it comes But your stout sturdy beggers when they are not answered they will fall a reviling and cursing and give high words so that by delaying you may see their spirits So doth the Lord by this means shew you your spirits and temper of heart The ninth ground of fear 9. He complaines he hath hurt the cause of God when God hath brought him upon the stage to have done something for God perhaps to have suffered And so his Soul is wounded and he fears his condition And did not Peter do so Did not he fly off when all had forsaken Christ and break his word and resolution and shamefully deny his Master contrary to his former profession So Moses and Aaron Num. 20.12 Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eies of the children of Israel saith God Therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the Land c. These men hurt the cause of God and failed when they should have stuck to it and yet all real converts The 10. ground of fear 10. You cry out you have oftentimes relaps't into the same sins which formerly you have pursued with particular sorrow and grief and prayed and resolved against them and that makes you question the truth of your state This is indeed a sad condition But this doth not prove thy state naught for it hath been the case of the servants of God sometimes Therefore ye have this confession Our backslidings are many so that you see it was oftentimes again and again The Prophet Jonah relapsed into passion and discontent with God He was discontent with the work God set him about therefore he flieth to Tarshish Jonah 1.2.3 And sorrowes for it and confesseth Chap. 2.8 They that trust upon lying vanities forsake their own mercies yet see Chap. 3.1 When God had shewed mercy to Niniveh how discontent he was with the Lord again It displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry And when the Lord that might have confounded him reasons sweetly and mildly with him to take him off from his passion as appears Chap. 3.3.4 and provides for him what he wants yet upon a small occasion again the taking away of a gourd or shrub and the Lord had a gracious end in it too the convincing of him of his folly in being so waspish he breaks out again into the same passion or worse as if he had never seen the evill of i◠or been humbled for it Chap. 4.8.9 I am greatly angry Or I do well to be angry even unto death saith he See how often he relapsed into this sin and Peter denieth Christ not only once but again and again †And perhaps the prodigal sets out unto us a Christian relapst for he was a son before and with his Father and then went away from him and spent all And yet he was not quite undone but returned again And this comes to pass sometimes 1. To let you see your own weaknes that you can do nothing of your selves cannot withstand nor resist nor overcome that ye may be taken off of all false confidences and rest upon God and God alone for help That ye may resist stedfast in the faith 2. For the advancement of the praise and honour of the wisdome skill and goodness of God the Physitian of our souls that can and doth cure when the disease is more dangerous when thou art relaps't and it grows worse and worse as in curing the woman that had the bloody Issue that was worse and worse notwithstanding all the means she used till she came to Christ 3. This advanceth his Mercy the more that he doth not quite forsake thee when thou hast done what thou canst to drive him away as Micha 7.18.19 Who is a God like unto thee that pardons Iniquity that passeth by the trangression of the remnant of his heritage He retains not his anger for ever because he delights in mercy Oh but I have relaps't and driven him away saith the poor soul But mark now ver 19. He will turn again he will have compassion on us he will subdue our Iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the Sea And the prodigal saw the compassion of his Father the greater in receiving him again after he had run away from him The eleventh ground of fear 11. He hath