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A57963 Christ dying and drawing sinners to himself, or, A survey of our Saviour in his soule-suffering, his lovelynesse in his death, and the efficacie thereof in which some cases of soule-trouble in weeke beleevers ... are opened ... delivered in sermons on the Evangel according to S. John Chap. XII, vers. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ... / by Samuel Rutherford. Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661. 1647 (1647) Wing R2373; ESTC R28117 628,133 674

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the Papists circle because workes to my sense and spirituall discerning may and doe adde evidence and light to faith and faith addeth evidence and light to works as wee prove the cause from the effect and the effect from the cause especially under desertion without the fault of circular arguing but Papists beleeve the Scripture to bee the word of God because the Church saith so else it should be no word of God to them more then the Turkes Alcaron and they beleeve that the Church saith that Scripture is the Word of God because the Scripture saith that the Church saith so This is no proof at all and a vaine consequence without Faith its unpossible to please God no worke can bee proved solidly Gods without faith but how then followeth it Ergo we cannot prove faith to bee true from good works Saltmarsh can make no Logicke out of this nothing followeth from this antecedent but ergo by hypocriticall works done without faith we cannot prove our faith to be true faith valeat totum the conclusion is not against us Wee acknowledge except good works carry the stampe and image of faith they are not good works but if they carry this stampe as we presuppose they do in this debate because works are more sensible to us then faith it followeth well then we may know our faith by our workes and a beleever doing workes in faith and out of warmenesse of love to Christ and a sincere sense of his debt he may bee ignorant that he doth them in faith but a coale of love to Christ smoaking in his soule and the sincere sense of the debt that love layeth on him to doe that yea and to swimme through hell to pleasure Christ are ordinarily more sensible then faith and led us to know there must be faith where these are 3. Nor are ours litigious and disputable marks except when our darknesse raiseth disputes more then the Gospel it selfe is litigious for men of corrupt minds raise doubts against the Gospel and weake beleevers sometime would argue themselves out of faith Christ out of imputed righteousnesse election of grace and effectuall calling yet are not these litigious points and say that the evidence of the Spirit be as light and evident as the Sunne light in it selfe so is the Gospel yet are we to seeke evidences for our faith and peace in such markes as the Holy Ghost has made way-markes to heaven by this we know c. but we build our knowledge and sense on these markes as on secondary pillars and helps which a divine and supernaturall certitude furnisheth though without the influence of the Spirit they shine not evidently to us but our faith resteth on the testimony of the Spirit witnessing to our hearts and this is not to bring a candle to give light to the Sunne but to adde the light of supernaturall sense to the light of divine faith else they may as well say that the confirming evidence that comes to our sense from the Sacraments addeth some thing to the Word which is a light and a Sunne-light to our eyes if we did confide in them as causes of our justification it were Pharisaicall but divine motives and secondary grounds though they bee mixed of themselves with sinnefull imperfections may be by divine Institution helps and confirmatory grounds of our faith and joy and the Scripture saith so as we heard alledged The question proposed by F. Cornewell I shall not father upon that learned and godly Divine Master Cotton Whether a man may evidence his justification by his Sanctification hee should have added whether he may evidence to himselfe or his owne conscience his justification for that so he may evidence i● in a conjecturall way to others no man doubts 2. The question is mistated as if Sanctification did formally evidence Justification as Justification in abstracto and Faith in its actuall working it s enough against Antinomians if it evidence to the sense of the person that he is in the state of justification and that hee hath faith to lay hold on Christs righteousnesse when he esteemes the Saints precious and placeth his delight in them Sanctification doth not as Libertines would imagine evidence justification as faith doth evidence it with such a sort of clearenesse as light evidenceth colours making them actually visible now light is no signe or evident marke of colours Love and workes of sanctification doe not so evidence justification as if justification were the object of good works that way faith doth evidence justification but sanctification doth evidence justification to be in the soule where sanctification is though it doth not render justification actually visible to the soule as light maketh colours to be actually visible or as faith by the light of the Spirit rendreth justification visible for even as smoake evidenceth there is fire there where smoake is though smoake render no fire visible to the eye and the moving o● the pulse evidenceth that there is yet life though the man be i● a swoone and no other acts of life doe appeare to the eye an● the morning starre in the East when its darke evidenceth tha● the Sunne shall shortly rise yet it maketh not the Sunne visibl● to the eye and the streames prove there is an head-spring whence these streames issue yet they shew not in what part of the earth the head-spring is so as to make it visible to the eye so doth Sanctification give evidence of Justification onely as markes signes and gracious effects giveth evidence of the cause as when I find love in my soule and a care to please God in all things and this I may know to bee in mee from the reflect light of the Spirit and from these I know there is faith in me and justification though I feele not the operation of faith in the meane time yet the effect and signe makes a report of the cause as acts of life eating and drinking and walking in me doth assure me that I have the life of nature So the vitall acts of the life of Faith doe as signes and effects give evidences of the cause and fountaine yet there is no necessity that with the same light by which I know the effect I know the cause because this is but a light of arguing and of heavenly Logick by which we know by the light of the Spirits arguing that we know God by the light of Faith because wee keep his Commandements and know arguitivè by Gods Logick that we are translated from death to life because wee love the Brethren in effect we know rather the person must bee justified in whom these gracious evidences are by heare-say report or consequence then we know or see justification it selfe in abstracto or faith it selfe but the light of faith the testimony of the Spirit by the operation of free Grace will cause us as it were with our eyes see justification and faith not by report but as we see the Sunne
Libertines doe us from which wee are as farre as the East from the West Propos. ● It is not our doctrine but the weakenesse of sinners and of the flesh that we should be shie to Christ and stand aloofe from the Physitian because of the desperate condition of our disease This is as if one should say it is not fit for the naked to goe to him who offereth white linnen to cloath him nor that the poore should goe to him who would be glad you would take his fine gold off his hand or to say set not a young plant but let it lye above earth till you see if it beare fruit Unworthinesse in the court of justice is a good plea why Christ should cast us off but unworthynesse felt though not savingly is as good a ground to cast your selfe on Christ as poverty want and weakenesse in place of a Statute and act of Parliament to beg though the letter of the Law forbid any to beg Propos. 4. Acting and doing thou●h neither savingly nor soundly is not merit of grace yet not contrary to grace to obey the law of nature to give almes is not against grace Libertines should not reject this though it be not all but a most poore All to engage Christ. Propos. 5. Faith is a morall condition of life eternall and wrought in us by the free grace of God I never saw a contradiction between a condition wrought by irresistible grace and the gift or free grace of life eternall for life eternall given in the law and Adams doing and performing by the irresistible acting and assisting of God are not contrary yet the former was never merit but grace the latter was Legall doing Propos. 6. We doe receive the promise of willing and doing wrought immediatly in us according to the good will and most free grace of Christ and yet we are agents and worke under Christ. Propos. 7. Luther for I could fill a booke with citations Calvine and all our Protestant Divines are for qualifications voyd of merit or promise before conversion and for gracious conditions after conversion under the Gospel Antinomians belie Luther Propos. 8. Antinomians yeeld the preaching of the Law and preparations before conversion and conditions after and peace from signes of sanctification c. yet they are to be reputed enemies to grace and holinesse and turne all sanctification in their imaginary faith and justification of which they are utterly ignorant Never Antinomian knew rightly what free justification is Propos. 9. Immediate resting on Christ for all wee doe and drawing of comfort from the testimony of a good conscience are not contrary Propos. 10. Holinesse idolized or trusted in is to make Christ the alone Saviour no Saviour Propos. 11. God is not provoked to reprobate whom hee elected from eternity by new sins yet is hee displeased with Davids adultery so farre as to correct him for it and Solomon for his back-sliding with the rod of men Propos. 12. Works before justification please not God but it followes not that God keeps not such an order as sense of sin though not saving should goe before pardon and conversion no more then because Adams sin pleased not God therefore it should not goe before the Sons taking on our flesh If we are not to doe nor act any thing before conversion neither to hea●e conferre know our sinfull condition nor be humbled for sin despaire of salvation in our selves because these are not merits before conversion nor can they procure conversion to us neither are wee after conversion to beleeve for beleeving cannot merit righteousness● and l●fe eternall nor are we to heare pray be patient rejoyce in tr●●●lation for not any of these can procure life eternall to us And why is not the doing of the one as w●ll as the other a seeking righteousnesse in our selves Propos. 13. The promise of Christs comming in the flesh 2. and of giving a new heart are absolute promises the former requireth no order of providence but that sin goe before redemption the latter requireth an order of providence not of any Gospel-promise or merit in any sort there n●ver was never can be merit betw●en a meere creature and God Propos. 14. There is no faith no act of Christs coyn or of the right stamp before justification Propos. 15. Wee are justified in Christ virtually as in the publike Head when hee rose again and was justified in the Spirit 2. In Christ as h●s merits are 〈◊〉 cause of our justification 3. In Christ apprehended by fa●th form●lly in the Scriptures sense in the Epistle to the Romanes and Galathians not that faith is the formall cause or any merit in justification but because it lay●s ●old on imp●ted ri●●●eo●snesse which is the formall cause of our justi●●ca●ion 4. We are justified in our own sense and feeling not by faith 〈◊〉 because wee may beleeve and neither know that wee b●l●eve nor be sensible of our justification but as wee know that wee beleeve whether this knowledge result from the ligh● of faith or from signes as meanes of our knowledge 5. Ju●●i●ication by way of declaration to others is not so infallible as that the Scripture calls it justification properly so named Object 8. I was sixthly in hearing the word shined upon by a sweet witnessing of the Spirit But O how I did strive against this work I was called upon but I put away all promises of mercy from me I may justly say The Lord saved me whether I would or no. Sometimes I was dead and could not pray sometimes so quickened that me thought that I could have spent a whole night in prayer to God Answ. 1. If the faith of the eternall love of free election was his first conversion no wonder hee was shined upon with light But it was not Scripture-light but wild-fire for the method of Christs drawing in the Scripture is not Enthusiasticall up at secret election at first There is no doubt wee put Christ away from us after conversion Cant. 5.1 and that so Christ saves us against our will That the principle of saving is free grace 2. that free will is neither free nor willing till Christ first draw us till hee renew and work upon the will But I feare Antinomians will have free will a block to doe nothing at all If Christ will let me sinne say they let him look to it upon his honour be it And Faith justifies an unbeleever that is that faith that is in Christ justifieth me who have no faith in my selfe And It is legall to say wee act in the strength of Christ. And To take delight in the holy service of God is to goe a whoring from God And A man may not be exhorted to any duty because hee hath no power to doe it And The Spirit acts most in the Saints when they endeavour least And In the conversion of a sinner the faculties of the soule and working thereof are
destroyed and made to cease Yea saith the Bright Starre cap. ● pag. 20. The naked influence of God annihilates all the acts of the soule Cap. 4. pag. 28. Boyling desires after Christ savours too much of action hindereth the soule to be perfectly illuminated and to arise to the rosie kisses and chaste embraces of her Bridegrome See Theolog. German cap. 5. pag. 9 10. and In place of them the Holy Ghost works And this Author saith The Spirit of adoption works not freely when men are in bondage to some outward circumstances of worship as time place or persons that th●y cannot pray but at such houres or in such places c. Protestant Divines teach no such thing But his aime is to set on foot the Familists Doctrine That wee are not bound to keep a constant course of prayer in our Families or privately unlesse the Spirit stirre us up thereunto Saltmarsh saith hee thought hee could have spent a whole night in prayer but 1. whether hee did so or no hee expresseth not lest hee should contradict his Brethren the Familists of New-England who teach That to take delight in the service of God is to goe a whoring from God 2. It would be asked Whether this sit was on him before or after his conversion To say before would seeme a delusion or a preparation of eminency if after conversion it s to no purpose except to be a mark of a converted man And Antinomians have no stomack to Marks nor belongs it to the way of his conversion which hee relates It is true wee cannot tye the Spirit to our houres but then all the Lords-day-worship all set houres at morn or at night in private or in families set times and houres for the Churches praying preaching heating conference reading were unlawfull for wee cannot stint the Spirit to a set time nor are wee tyed to time except to the Christian Sabbath Some may say It s no charity to impute Familists errors of New-England to Antinomians here Answ. Seeing Saltmarsh and others here doe openly owne Antinomian Doctrine as the way of Free grace they are to be charged with all those till they cleare themselves or refute those blasphemies which they have never done to this day Object 9. I seldome desired pardon of sin till I were fitted for mercies but now I see wee are pardoned freely O rest not in your owne duties Answ. To desire pardon of sin before we be sitted for pardon by no Divinity is contrary to free pardon though such desires be fruitlesse as coming from no gracious principles Asser. 8. To beleeve and take Christ because I am a needy sinner is one thing and to beleeve because I am fitted for mercy and humbled is another thing This latter wee disclaime Preparations are no righteousnesse of ours nor is it our Doctrine to desire any to rest on preparations or to make them causes foundations or formalia media formall meanes of faith they hold forth the meere order and method of graces working not to desire pardon but in Gods way of fore-going humiliation is nothing contrary but sweetly subordinate to free pardon And to cure too suddenly wounds and to honey secure and proud sinners and sweeten and oyle a Pharisee and to reach the Mediators bloud to an unhumbled soule is but to turne the Gospel into a charme and when by Magick you have drawne all the bloud out of the sick mans veines then to mixe his bloud with sweet poyson and cause him drinke and swell and say you have made him healthie and fat Now Peter Act. 2. poured vin●ger and wine at first on the wounds of his hearers when hee said Yee murthered the Lord of glory and they were pricked in their heart This is the Law 's work Rom. 3. to condemne and stop the sinners mouth And you cannot say that Peter failed in curing too suddenly because hee preached first the Law to wound and prick them for that they crucified the Lord of glory before hee preached the Gospel of beleefe and Baptisme And the Lord rebuking Saul from heaven convincing him of persecution casting him downe to the ground striking him blind while hee trembled And the Lords dealing with the Jayler was fourer work then proposing and pouring the Gospel oyle and honey of fre●ly imputed righteousnesse in their wounds at the first and a close unbottoming them of their own righteousnesse And the Lords way of justifying Jews and Gentiles is a Law-way as touching the order Rom. 3. Having proved all to be under sin Vers. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. hee saith Vers. 19. Now wee know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God Indeed if they be convinced of sin by the Spirit and so converted and yet under trouble of mind a pound of the Gospel for one ounce weight of the Law is fit for them But Antinomians erre not knowing the Scriptures in dreaming that converted soules are so from under the Law that they have no more to doe with the Law no more then Angels and glorified Saints so as the letter of the Gospel doth not lead them but some immediate acting of the Spirit And that 2. there is no commandement under the Gospel but to beleeve onely That 3. mortification and new obedience as M. Town and others say is but faith in Christ and not abstinence from worldly lusts that warre against the soule 4. That the Gosp●l commandeth nothing but perswadeth rather that we may be Libertines and serve the flesh and beleeve and be saved 5. That God hath made no covenant with us under the Gospel the Gospel is all promise that wee shall be carried as meere patients to heaven in a chariot of love 6. That the way is not strait and narrow but Christ hath done all to our hands 7. That its Legall not Gospel-conversion to keep the soule so long under the Law for humiliation contrition and confession and then bring them to the Gospel whereas wee teach that the Law purely and unmixed without all Gospel is not to be used as a dyet-potion onely to purge never to let the unconverted heare one Gospel-promise It is true Peter preached not Law to Cornelius nor Philip to the Eunuch nor Ananias to Paul but these were all converted afore-hand Wee think the unconverted man knowes neither contrition nor confession aright But I was more confirmed that the way of Antinomians is for the flesh not for the Gospel when I read that M. Crispe expounding Confession 1. Joh. 1. maketh it no humble acknowledging that the sinner in person hath sinned and so is under wrath eternall if God should judge him but hee maketh it a part of faith by which a sinner beleeveth and confesseth that Christ payed for his sin and hee is pardoned in him Sure Confession in Scripture is no such thing
have a hundred enemies but as many millions of thoughts as in his wearisome nights escape him hee hath as many enemies yea as many creatures as many stones of the field as many beasts so many enemies Job 5.23 Hos. 2.8 Christ gave to the Father Propositions of peace and to the poore soule under sense of wrath they are nothing The feare of hell is a part of reall hell to the man who knowes no other thing but that hee is not reconciled to God Creatures behind him and before him heaven above and earth below and creatures on every side within and without stand with the weapons of heaven and of an angry God against him friends wife servants acquaintance have something of wrath and hell on them the man in his owne thought is an out-law to them all and the Leader of all these Archers is God God God is the chiefe party See Job 19.12 13 14 15 16 17. And there you see brethren acquaintance kinsfolke familiar friends man-servant maid-servant wife young children bone skin flesh are all to Job as coals of the fire of hell And Isai. 8.21 22. Men in this shall curse their king and their god Asser. 6. These being materially the same soule-troubles of deserted and tempted Saints and of plagued and cursed Reprobates doe differ formally and essentially according to Gods heart his dispensation and intentions his mercy and his justice regulating them So I shall speake of the difference betweene Christs troubled soule and the Saints trouble 2. Of some wayes of Gods dispensation in the soule-trouble of the Saints Touching the former there was in Christs soule-trouble 1. No mis-judging of God but a strong faith in that hee st●ll named God his Father and God 2. In that as this trouble came to a height and more fewell was added to the fire of divine wrath Luk. 22.44 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee prayed with more extension of body and spirit hee extended himselfe in fervour of praying And Heb. 5.7 Hee offered prayers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humble supplications of the poore or oppressed that make their addresse to one who can help them hee put in to God an humble Petition and a Bill to his Father as an overwhelmed man and hee offered this Bill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an hideous cry and tears Revel 14.18 The Angel cryed with a loud voyce To cry with a full and lifted up voyce or with a shout so is the Verb used Joh. 18.40 When men cry and cast away their clothes and cast dust in the aire 3. His soule-trouble and death was satisfactory to divine justice for our sinnes hee being free of sin himselfe which can agree to no soule-trouble of the holiest Saint on earth But touching the second These Positions may speak somewhat to cleare the way of the soule-trouble of Saints 1. Position Conscience being a masse of knowledge and if there be any oyle to give light it s here it s then likest it self when it most beares witnesse of well and ill-doing Now we are more in sinning then obeying God and because of the corruption of nature the number of naturall consciences that are awake to see sin are but very few And when the renewed conscience is on the worke of feeling and discerning guiltinesse in its best temper The more life the more sense Sick ones in a swoon or dying persons that doe neither heare see nor speak are halfe-gate amongst the dead The conscience sick of over-feeling and so under over-sense of sin is in so farre in a feaver for often a feaver is from the exsuperancy of too much bloud and ranknesse of humours the vessels being too full and therefore it s like a river that cannot chuse but goe over banks the channell being a vessell too narrow to containe it all 2. Pos. Therefore often the time of some extreme dissertion and soule-trouble is when Christ hath been in the soule with a full high spring-tyde of divine manifestations of himselfe And if wee consider the efficient cause of dissertion which is Gods wise dispensation when Paul hath been in the third heaven on an hyperbole a great excesse of revelations God thinketh then good to exercise him with a messenger of Satan which by the weaknesse and spirituall infirmity hee was under wanted not a dissertion lesse or more what ever the messenger was as it seems to be fleshly lust after a spirituall vision Paul was ready to think himselfe an Angel not flesh and bloud and therefore 2 Cor. 12.7 hee saith twice in one Verse This befell me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That I should not be lifted up above ordinary Comets up among the starres But if wee consider the materiall cause it may be that extreme and high overflowing of Christs love brake our weake and narrow vessells Cant. 5.1 there is a rich and dainty feast of Christ I am come into my garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my myrrhe with my spices I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey I have drunk my wine with my milke eat O friends drinke yea drinke abundantly O beloved Yet in that Song the Spirit of God speaketh of a sad dissertion in the next words I sleep but mine heart waketh it is the voyce of my Beloved that knocketh c. There is not onely impiety but want of humanity that the Church had rather that wearied Jesus Christ should fall down and dye in the streets in a rainy and snowie night when his locks were wet with raine then that he should come in and lodge in the soule And let us not thinke that the threed and tract of the Scriptures coherence one Verse following on another as the Spirit of God hath ordered them is but a cast of chance or an humane thing When the Spouse rideth on the high places of Jacob and saith Isai. 49.13 Sing O heaven and be joyfull O earth and break forth into singing O mountaines for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted Yet this was nothing to the afflicted people Verse 14. But Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me When the Lord's Disciples Mat. 17. are in the sweetest life that ever they were in at the transfiguration of Christ when they saw his glory and Peter said Master it is good for us to be here even then they must appeare to be weak men and Christ must forbid and rebuke their faithlesse feare Vers. 6. They fell on their faces and were sore affraid I leave it to the experience of the godly if Jeremiah his singing of praise in one Verse Chap. 20.13 and his cursing of the day that hee was borne on in the next Verse vers 14. the order of Scripture being of divine inspiration doe not speak Gods dispensation in this to be such as to allay and temper the sweetnesse of the consolation of a feast of Gods high manifestation with a sad dissertion So John his
breath Natures weake leggs in walking up the Mount are good for the adding wind and tyde and high sailes to the praysing of Christ and free Grace Vtile est peccavisse noc●t p●ccare It is profitable that we have sinned that Grace may be extolled it is ill to sinne Even to the nature of man its good that hee hath dyed and hath beene in the grave yet it s not good but contrary to nature to die and to ly in the grave 6. It s our forgetfulnesse that wee see not the dearest to Christ hath beene kept lowest and most empty in their owne eyes hidden grace extolleth Christ. 2. That often the Saints are kept in a condition of sayling with as much wind as blows with praying and beleeving 3. That yet prayer and the sweating of Faith cannot earne nor promerit the renewed sense of Christ so as Christ returneth to eate his honey-combe and his wine and milke and banquet with the soule rather at the presence of these acts then for them as some have said thou●h with no strength of reason that fire burneth not the Sunne enlighteneth not the ●arth doth not send forth floures and herbes but God at the naked presence of these causes doth produce all effects yet in this case it hath a truth that the sweating of all supernaturall industry cannot redeeme the least halfe glimpse of Gods presence in the sense of eternall love when God is pleased for trial● to hide himselfe 7 Our great fault heere is merit that we tye the flowings and inundations of Christs love to the becke of our desires whereas we may know 1. That the Sunne doth not shine nor the raine water the earth in order to merit 2. Wee should know that grace and all the acts of grace are almes not debt and that a rich Saviour giveth grace to us as beggars and payeth it not to hirelings as the due or as wages wee can crave for our worke but wee love peny-worth's better then free-gifts But for this cause came I to this houre Christs worke of redemption was a most rationall worke and was full of causes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this saith that to redeeme losed sinners was not a rash and reasonlesse worke 1. There was no cause compelling Love cannot be forced John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne c. Grace worketh more from an intrinsecall cause and more spontaneously then nature For Nature often is provoked by contraries for selfe-defence to worke as fire worketh on water as on a contrary the wolfe and the dogge pursue one another as enemies But Grace because grace hath abundance of causality and power in it selfe but hath no cause without it 2. Any necessitie of working from Goodnesse in the Agent as from such a principle is strong 1 Tim. 1.15 It s a true saying and by all meanes worthy to be received that Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners If the thing be worthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all receipt and embracing then it must bee good an Agent working from a Principle of goodnesse doth in his kind worke necessarily though he may also worke from another principle freely John 10.11 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheepe Luke 19.10 For the Sonne of man is come to seeke and to save that which is lost 3. God will seeke reasons or occasions without himselfe to be gracious to sinners When no reason or cause moveth a Physitian to cure but onely sicknesse and extreame misery wee know grace and compassion is the onely cause Ezech. 36.23 I will sanctifie my great name Why Which was prophaned among the heathen and which ye have prophaned in the midst of them then the true cause must bee expressed Vers. 22. Thus saith the Lord God I doe not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Names sake 4. The Lord taketh a cause from the end of his comming Math. 20.28 The Sonne of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransome for many Joh. 18.37 To this end was I borne and for this cause came into the world that I should beare witnesse to the truth Joh. 10.10 I am come that they might have life and have it in aboundance 5. Some thing yea very much of God is in the creation much of God in his common providence but most of all yea whole God in the redemption of man God manifested in the flesh is the matter and subject of it Grace the moving cause most of all his attributes working for the manifestation of the Glory of pardoning mercy revenging justice exact faithfulnesse and truth freest grace omnipotency over hell devils sinne the World patience longanimity to man cooperate as the formall and finall causes it is a peece so rationall and full of causes that as he is happy Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas who can know the causes of things so Angels delight to be Schollers to read and study this mysterious art of free Grace Eph. 3.10 1 Pet. 1.12 Works without reasons and causes are foolish The cause why we doe not submit to God is because we lye under blind and fatherlesse crosses its true Affliction springs not out of the dust and crosses considered without God are twise crosses Three materiall circumstances in crosses are very considerable Quis quare quomodo 1. Who for what cause and how doth God afflict us Who afflicts is worthy to be known Esai 42.24 Who gave Jaakob for a spoile and Israel to the robbers The highest cause of causes did it Did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth good to him 2. For what end God the Lord did this is a circumstance of comfort Why led the Lord Israel through a great and terrible wildernesse wherein were fiery Scorpions and Serpents and drought Deut. 8.16 That he might prove thee to doe thee good at thy latter end 3. And how the Lord correcteth is worthy to be known He correcteth Jaakob in measure Jer. 6.28 Mercy wrapped about the rod and a cup of gall and wormewood honeyed and oyled with free love and a piece of Christs heart and his stirred bowels mixed in with the cup is a mercifull little hell Psal. 6.1 Jer. 31.18 19 20. The Law saith A Bastard hath no father because his father is not knowne The Philistimes are plagued with Emerods but whether that ill was from the Lord or from Chance they know not The crosse to many is a bastard We suffer from Prelats because wee suffered Prelats to persecute the Saints Papists shed our bloud why Our fore-fathers burnt the witnesses of Christ and we never repented Christ and Anti-christ are at bloudy blowes in the camp Anti-christ hath killed many thousands in the three kingdomes for Religion that is the quarrell and