mistakes of many sad Christians hereabouts The cure lieth in breaking off sinne to the utmost of your power This is the Achan that disquieteth all It is Gods great mercy that he disquieteth you in sinning and gives you not over to so deep a slumber and peace in sinne as might hinder your repentance and reformation The dangerous mistakes here are these two 1. Some do as the Lapwing cry loudest when they are furthest from the nest and complain of an aking tooth when the disease is in the head or heart They cry out O I have such wandring thoughts in prayer and such a bad memory and so hard a heart that I cannot weep for sinne or such doubts and fears and so little sense of the Love of God that I doubt I have no true Grace When they should rather say I have so proud a heart that God is fain by these sad means to humble me I am so high in my own eyes so wise in my own conceit and so tender of my own esteem and credit that God is fain to make me base in my own eyes and to abhorre my self I am so worldly and in love with earth that it draws away my thoughts from God duls my love and spoils all my duties I am so sensual that I venture sooner to displease my God then my flesh I have so little compassion on the infirmities of neighbours and servants and other brethren and deal so censoriously churlishly and unmercifully with them that God is fain to hide his mercy from me and speak to me as in anger and vex me as in sore displeasure I am so froward peevish quarrelsome unpeaceable and hard to be pleased that it is no wonder if I have no peace with God or in my own conscience and if I have so little quietness who love and seek it no more Many have more reason I say to turn their complaints into this tune 2. Another most common unhappy miscarriage of sad Christians lieth here that They will rather continue complaining and self-tormenting then give over sinning so farre as they might give it over if they would I beseech you in the Name of God to know and consider what it is that God requireth of you He doth not desire your vexation but your reformation No further doth he desire the trouble of your minde then as it tendeth to the avoiding of that sinne which is the cause of it God would have you less in your fears and troubles and more in your obedience Obey more and disquiet your minde less Will you take this counsel presently and see whether it will not do you more good then all the complaints and doubtings of your whole life have done Set your self with all your might against your pride worldliness and sensuality your unpeaceableness and want of love and tenderness to your brethren and whatever other sin your conscience is acquainted with I pray you tell me If you had gravell in your shoe in your travel would it not be more wisdom to sit down and take off your shoe and cast it out then to stand still or go complaining and tell every one you meet of your soreness If you have a thorn in your foot will you go on halting and lamenting or will you pull it out Truly sinne is the thorn in your conscience and those that would not have such troubled consciences told of their sinnes for fear of increasing their distress are unskilfull comforters and will continue the trouble while the thorn is in As ever you would have peace then resolve against sinne to the utmost of your power Never excuse it or cherish it or favour it more Confess it freely Thank those that reprove you for it Desire those about you to watch over you and to tell you of it yea to tell you of all suspitious signes that they see of it though it be not evident And if you do not see so much Pride Worldliness Unpeaceableness or other sinnes in your self as your friends think they see in you yet let their judgement make you jealous of your heart seeing self-love doth oft so blinde us that we cannot see that evil in our selves which others see in us nay which all the Town may take notice of And be sure to engage your friends that they shall not smooth over your faults or mince them and tell you of them in extenuating language which may hinder Conviction and Repentance much less silence them for fear of displeasing you but that they will deal freely and faithfully with you And see that you distast them not and discountenance not their plain dealing lest you discourage them and deprive your soul of so great a benefit Think best of those as your greatest friends who are least friends to your sinne and do most for your recovery very from it If you say Alas I am not able to mortifie my sinnes It is not in my power I answer 1. I speak not of a perfect conquest nor of a freedom from every passion or infirmity 2. Take heed of pretending disability when it is unwillingness If you were heartily willing you would be able to do much and God would strengthen you Cannot you resist Pride Worldliness and Sensuality if you be willing Cannot you forbear most of the actual sinnes you commit and perform the duties that you omit if you be Willing though not so well as you would perform them Yea let me say this much lest I endanger you by sparing you Many a miserable hypocrite doth live in trouble of minde and complaining and after all perish for their wilfull disobedience Did not the rich young man go farre before he would break off with Christ and when he did leave him he went away sorrowfull And what was the cause of his sorrow Why the matter was that he could not be saved without selling all and giving it to the poor when he had great Possessions It was not that he could not be rid of his sinne but that he could not have Christ and Heaven without forsaking the world This is the case of unsanctified persons that are enlightened to see the need of Christ but are not weaned from worldly profits honours and pleasures they are perhaps troubled in minde and I cannot blame them but it is not that they cannot leave sinning but that they cannot have Heaven without leaving their delights and contentments on earth Sin as sin they would willingly leave For no man can love evil as evil But their fleshly profits honours and pleasures they will not leave and there is the stop and this is the cause of their sorrows and fears For their own judgement cries out against them He that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him If ye live after the flesh ye shall die God resisteth the proud This is the voice of their informed understandings And conscience seconds it and saith Thou art the man But the flesh cries louder then both these Wilt thou leave
the party is right or wrong in the Discovery of these Wants I now meddle not Whether they Judge rightly or wrongly the Directions may be Usefull to them And though I purposely meddle not with the unhumbled that feel not the want of Christ and Mercy yet most that falls may be usefull to all that profess the Christian faith For I shall study so to avoid the extreames in my doctrinall Directions as may conduce to your escaping the desperate extremes of Vngrounded Comforts and Causless Terrours in your own spirit Of my Directions the first shall be only Generall and the rest more particular And in all of them I must intreat you 1. To observe the Order and Method as well as the Matter and that you would practise them in the same order as I place them 2. And to remember that it is not only Comfortable words but it is Directions for your own practice which here I prescribe you And therefore that it is not the bare Reading of them that will Cure you but if you mean to have the benefit of them you must bestow more time in Practising them then I have done in Penning them yea you must make it the work of your life And let not that startle you or seem tedious to you for it will be no more grievous a work to a well tempered soul then eating or drinking or sleep or recreation is to a healthfull Body and then it is to an honest woman to Love and Delight in her Husband and her Children which is no grievous task DIRECTION I. 1. Get as clear a discovery as you can of the true Cause of your Doubts and Troubles for if you should mistake in the Cause it would much frustrate the most excellent means for the Cure THe very same Doubts and Complaints may come from severall Causes in severall Persons and therefore admit not of the same way of Cure sometime the Cause begins in the body and thence proceedeth to the minde sometime it begins in the minde and thence distempereth the body sometime in the minde it is most or first from worldly crosses and thence proceedeth to spirituall things And of spirituall matters sometimes it begins upon scruples or differences in Religion or points of Doctrine sometimes and most commonly from the â—ense of our own Infirmities sometimes it is only from ordinary Infirmities sometimes from some extraordinary decayes of inward Grace sometime from the neglects of some weighty duty and sometimes from the deep wounds of some heynous secret or scandalous sin And sometimes it is meerly from the fresh discovery of that which before we never did discern And sometimes from the violent assault of extraordinary Temptations which of these is your own Case you must be carefull to finde out and to apply the means for Cure accordingly Even of true Christians the same means will not fit all The difference of Natures as well as of actuall Cases must be considered One hath need of that tender handling which would undo another and he again hath need of that rowsing which another cannot bear And therefore understand that when I have given you all the Directions that I can I must in the end hereof advise you to take the Counsel of a skilfull Minister in applying and making use of them For it is in this as in the Case of Physick When we have written the best Books of Receipts or for Methodicall Cures yet we must advise people to take heed how they use them without the advice of a learned and faithfull Physitian For Medicines must not be only fitted to Diseases but to Bodies That Medicine will kill one man which will cure another of the same distemper such difference there may be in their age strength complexion and other things So is it much in our present Case And therefore as when all the Physick Books in the world are written and all Receipts known yet will there be still a Necessity of Physitians so when all Discoveries and Directions are made in Divinity there will still be a Necessity of a constant standing Ministry And as ignorant Women and Emprikes do kill oft times more then they Cure though they have the best Receipts for want of Judgment and experience to use them aright so do ignorant Teachers and Guides by mens souls though they can say the same words as a Judicious Pastor and repeat the same Texts of Scripture Not that I mean that such can do no good Yes much no doubt if they will humbly compassionately and faithfully improve their Talents within the verge of their own Calling which if they go beyond ordinarily a remarkable Judgment followeth their best labours both to the Churches and particular souls that make use of them And therefore because if my conjectural prognisticks fail not as I daily pray they may we are like to be more tried and plagued this way then ever were any of our fore-fathers since Adams dayes till now and seeing this is the hour of our Temptation wherein God is purposely separating the chaff and discovering to the world the dangers of injudicious misguided Zeal I shall therefore both first and last advise you as ever you would have a setled Peace of Conscience keep out of the hand of vagrant and seducing Mountebanks under what Names or Titles or pretences soever they may assault you Especially suspect all that bestow as much pains to win you to their party as to win you to Christ DIRECTION II. 2. Make as full a Discovery as you can how much of the trouble of your minde doth arise from your Melancholy and bodily distempers and how much from discontenting afflictions in your worldly Estate or Friends or Name And according to your Discovery make use of the Remedy I Put these two Causes of trouble here together in the beginning because I will presently dismiss them and apply the rest of these Directions only to those Troubles that are raised from sins and wants in Grace 1. For Melancholy I have by long experience found it to have so great and common a hand in the fears and troubles of minde that I meet not with one of many that live in great Troubles and fears for any long time together but Melancholy is the main seat of them Though they feel nothing in their body but all in their Minde I would have such persons make use of some able godly Phisitian and he will help them to discern how much of their Trouble comes from Melancholy Where this is the Cause usually the party is Fearfull of almost every thing a word or a sudden thought will disquiet them Sometime they are sad and scarce know why all Comforts are of no continuance with them but as soon as you have done comforting them they be never so well satisfied yet the trouble returns in a few dayes or hours as soon as the dark and troubled spirits return to their former force They are still addicted to musing and solitariness and thoughts will
of age of ignorance or of knowledge and those which proceed from your Legal unworthiness have all a present Remedy in the fullness and sufficiency of Christs satisfaction even for all the world so that no sin except the excepted sin is so great but it is fully satisfied for and though you are unworthy yet Christ is worthy and he came into the world to save only the unworthy in the strict and Legal sense 4. All your doubts and fears that arise from an apprehension of Gods unwillingness to shew you Mercy and to give you Christ and Life in him arise from the misapprehension of Christs unwillingness to be yours or at least from the uncertainty of his willingness these have all a sufficient Remedy in the general extent and tenour of the New Covenant Can you doubt whether God be willing to give you Christ and Life when he hath given them already even by a Deed of Guift under his hand and by a Law of Grace 1 Joh. 5.10 11 12. Object But yet all are not Pardoned nor possessed of Christ and so saved Answ I told you that is because they will not so that I pray you mark it well God hath in these four Means before mentioned given even to the Graceless so much Ground of Comfort that nothing but their unwillingness to have Christ is left to be their terror For though sin be not Actually Remitted to them yet is it Conditionally Remitted viz. if they will but accept of Christ offered them Will you remember this when your doubts are greatest and you conclude that certainly Christs is not yours because you have no true Grace Suppose it be true Yet still know that Christ may be yours if you will and when you will This Comfort you may have when you can finde no Evidences of true Grace in your self So much for that Direction DIRECTION VIII 8. The next thing that you have to do for building up a stable Comfort and setling your Conscience in a solid Peace is this Be sure to get and keep a right Understanding of the Nature of Saving Faith AS you must have right thoughts of the Covenant of Grace of which before the want whereof doth puzzle and confound very many Christians so you must be sure to have right thoughts of the Condition of the Covenant For indeed that Grace which causeth you to perform this Condition is your first special saving Grace which you may take as a certain evidence of your Justification And this Condition is the very link which conjoyneth all the General foregoing Grace to all the rest of the following special Grace The Scripture is so full and plain in Assuring pardon and salvation to all true Believers that if you can but be sure that you are a Believer you need not make any doubt of your interest in Christ and your salvation Seeing therefore that all the question will be Whether you have true Faith Whether you do perform the Condition of the new Covenant For all other doubts God hath given you sufficient ground to resolve as is said how much then doth it concern you to have a right understanding of the Nature of this Faith Which that you may have let me tell you briefly what it is Mans soul hath two faculties Understanding and Will Accordingly the Objects of mans soul all Beings which it is to Receive have two Modifications Truth and Goodness as those to be Avoided are Evil. Accordingly God 's Word or Gospel hath two parts the Revelation of Truth and the Offer and Promise of some Good This offered Good is principally and immediatly Christ himself to be joyned to us by Covenant as our head and husband The secondary consequential Good is Pardon Justification Reconciliation Adoption further Sanctification and Glorification which are all offered with Christ By this you may see what saving Faith is It is first a Believing that the Gospel is True and then an Accepting of Christ therein offered to us with his benefits or a consenting that he be ours and we be his which is nothing but a true willingness to have an offered Christ Remember this well that you may make use of it when you are in doubt of the truth of your Faith Thousands of poor souls have been in the dark and unable to see themselves to be Believers meerly for want of knowing what saving Faith is And it is a truth that cannot be hid that Divines who should have taught them better have been the great cause of their errour not well and cleerly understanding this themselves It is a shamefull confession but the world knoweth it already The Papists place almost all in the meer Assent of the Understanding Our great Reformers made it to be either an Assurance of the pardon of our own sins or a strong perswasion of their pardon excluding doubting or the moderatest a perswasion of our particular pardon though mixt with some doubting The Antinomians strike in with them and say the same Hence even the greatest of our Divines Chamier Polanus Twisse c. conclude that Justification and Remission go before faith a desperate errour because the Act doth alway suppose its object For they thought that Remission already past was the object of Justifying Faith supposing faith to be nothing else but a Belief that we are pardoned Yea ordinarily it hath been taught in the writings of our greatest refuters of the Papists That this Belief is properly a Divine faith or the Belief of a Divine Testimony as is the Believing of any Proposition written in the Scriture a foul error which I have confuted in my book of Rest Part. 3. Chap. 7. Most of late have come neerer the truth and affirmed Justifying Faith to consist in Affiance or Recumbency or Resting on Christ for salvation No doubt this is one Act of Justifying faith but not that which a poor troubled soul should first search after and try it self by except by Affiance any should mean as Amesius doth Election of Christ and then it is the same act which I am asserting but very unfitly exprest For 1. Affiance is not the Principal act nor that wherein the very life of Justifying faith doth consist but only an imperate following act and an effect of the vital act which is Consent or Willing or Accepting Christ offered for it lyeth mainly in that which we call the sensitive part or the Passions of the soul 2. It is therefore lesse constant and so unfitter to try by For many a poor soul that knowes it self unfeignedly willing to have Christ yet feeleth not a Resting on him or Trusting in him and therefore crys out O I cannot believe and think they have no Faith For Recumbency Affiance or Resting on Christ implieth that easing of themselves or casting off their fears or doubts or cares which true believers do not alwayes finde Many a poor soul complains O I cannot rest on Christ I cannot trust him who yet would have him to be their Lord and
places more though we must have no thoughts of a Legal Righteousness according to the Law of Works or Ceremonies in our selves They may as well say that a woman doth forsake her husband because she comforteth her self in this that she hath not forsaken him or been false and unchast thence gathering that he will not give her a bill of Divorce Or that a servant forsakes his Master or a subject his Prince or a Parent is forsaken by his childe because they comfort themselves in their Obedience and Loyalty gathering thence that they are not flat Rebels and shall not be used as Rebels Or that any that enter Covenant with Superiors do forsake them because they comfort themselves in their keeping Covenant as a sign that the Covenant shall be kept with them All these are as wise collections as to gather that a man forsakes Christ and his Righteousness and setteth up his own in stead of it because he looks at his not forsaking refusing and vilifying of Christ his Love and faithfull obedience to Christ as comfortable signes that Christ will not forsake and reject him Do these men think that a Rebell may have the love of his Prince and as much comfort from him as a Loyal subject or a whorish woman have as much love and comfort from her husband as a faithfull Wife or a stubborn rebellious son or servant have as much love and comfort from their Father or Master as the dutifull If there be so near a Relation as hitherto we have supposed between a Soveraign and subjection to him and a Husband and Marriage-faithfulness to him and a Master and service to him and a Father and loving obedience to him it is strange that men should suppose such a strange opposition as these men do Certainly God doth not so when he saith Mal. 1.6 If I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear And Isa 1.3 4. Hear O heavens and give ear O earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Ah sinfull Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger they are gone away backward And Jer. 3.19 Thou shalt call me my Father and shalt not depart away from me And 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knoweth who are his and let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity And Psal 66.18 If I delight in iniquity or regard it God will not hear my prayers saith David himself Doubtless Paul did not forsake Christs Righteousness by confidence in his own when he saith This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation among you 2 Cor. 1.12 with many the like which I before mentioned Nor doth the Lord Jesus at the day of Judgement turn men off from his Righteousness when he saith Well done good and faithfull servant because thou hast been faithfull in a very little I will make thee ruler over much Luke 19.17 Mat. 25.23 and cals them thereupon Righteous saying And the righteous shall go into life everlasting Mat. 25. last It remains now that I further acquaint you what use you should make of this observation concerning the dependance of Assurance upon actual obedience And 1. I advise you if your soul remain in doubts and troubles and you cannot enjoy God in any way of peace and comfort nor see any clear evidence of the sincerity of your faith take a serious view of your obedience and faithfully survey your heart and life and your daily carriage to God in both See whether there be nothing that provokes God to an unusual Jealousie If there be it is either the increase of some carnal interest in your heart or else the wilfull or negligent falling into some actual sinne of commission or omission In the making of this search you have need to be exceeding cautelous for if I have any acquaintance with the mystery of this business your peace or trouble comfort or discomfort will mainly depend on this And your care must lie in this point that you diligently avoid these two extreams First That you do not deal negligently and unfaithfully with your own soul as either unwilling to know the truth or unwilling to be at that labour which you must needs be at before you can know it Secondly That you do not either condemn your self when your conscience doth acquit you or vex your soul with needless scruples or make unavoidable or ordinary infirmities to seem such wilfull hainous sinnes as should quite break your setled peace O how narrow is the path between these two mistaken roads and how hard a thing and how rare is it to finde it and to keep in it For your self and all tender conscienc'd Christians that are heartily willing to be Ruled by Christ I would perswade you equally to beware of both these because some souls are as inclinable to the later extream as to the former during their troubles But for the most Christians in the world I would have them first and principally avoid the former and that with farre greater diligence then the later For 1. Naturally all mens hearts are farre proner to deal too remisly yea unfaithfully with themselves in searching after their sins then too scrupulously and tenderly The best men have so much pride and carnal self-love that it will strongly incline them to excuse or mince or hide their sinnes and to think farre lightlier and more favourably of it then they should do because it is theirs How was the case altered with Judah towards Thamar when he once saw it was his own act How was Davids zeal for Justice allaied as soon as he heard Thou art the man This is the most common cause why God is fain to hold our eyes on our transgressions by force because we are so loth to do it more voluntarily and why he openeth our sinne in such crimson and scarlet colours to us because we are so apt either to look on them as nothing or to shut our eyes and over-look them and why God doth hold us so long on the rack because we would still ease our selves by uningenuous excuses and extenuations and why God doth break the skin so oft and keep open our wounds because we are still healing them by such carnal shifts This proud sin-excusing distemper needs no other proof or discovery then our great tenderness and backwardness in submitting to reproofs How long do we excuse sinne and defend our pretended innocency as long we can finde a word to say for it Doth not daily experience of this sad distemper even in most of the godly discover fully to us that most men yea naturally all are farre
thy pleasures wilt thou undo thy self wilt thou be made a scorn or laughing stock to all Or rather it strongly draws and provoketh when it hath nothing to say No wonder if this poor sinner be here in a strait and live in distress of minde But as long as the flesh holds so fast that all this conviction and trouble will not cause it to lose its hold the poor soul is still in the bonds of iniquity The case of such an hypocrite or half-Christian is like the case of the poor Papist that having glutted himself with flesh in the Lent was in this strait that either he must vomit it up and so disclose his fault and undergo penance or else he must be sick of his furfeit and hazzard his life But he resolveth rather to venture on the danger then to bear the penance Or their case is like that of a proud woman that hath got on a strait garment or a pinching shoe and because she will not be out of the fashion she will rather choose to bear the pain though she halt or suffer at every step Or like the more impudent sort of them who will endure the cold and perhaps hazzard their lives by the nakedness of their necks and breasts and armes rather then they will controul their shameless pride What cure now should a wise man wish to such people as these Surely that the shoe might pinch yet a little harder till the pain might force them to cast it off And that they might catch some cold that would pay them for their folly so it would but spare their lives till it should force them to be ashamed of their pride and cover their nakedness Even so when disobedient hypocrites do complain that they are afraid they have no grace and afraid God doth not pardon them and will not save them I should tell them if I knew them that I am afraid so to and that it is not without cause and desire that their fears were such as might affright them from their disobedience and force them to cast away their wilfull sinning I have said the more on this point because I know if this advice do but help you to mortifie your sin the best and greatest work is done whether you get Assurance and comfort or no and withall that it is the most probable means to this Assurance and Comfort I should next have warned you of the other extream viz. needless scruples but I mean to make that a peculiar Direction by it self when I have first added a little more of this great means of Peace A sound Obedience DIRECTION XXIV 24. My next advice for the obtaining of a setled Peace and Comfort is this Take heed that you content not your self with a cheap course of Religion and such a serving of God as costeth you little or nothing But in your abstaining from sin in your rising out of sin and in your discharge of Duty incline most to that way which is most self-denying and displeasing to the flesh so you be sure it be a lawful way And when you are called out to any work which will stand you in extraordinary labour and cost you must be so far from shrinking and drawing your neck out of the yoke that you must look upon it as a special prize that is put into your hand a singular advantage opportunity for the increase of your comforts THIS Rule is like the rest of the Christian Doctrine which is not throughly understood by any way but experience Libertines and sensual Professors that never tryed it did never well understand it I could find in my heart to be large in explaining and applying it but that I have been so large beyond my first intentions in the former Directions that I will cut off the rest as short as â— well can Let none be so wickedly injurious to me as to say I speak or think of any Merit properly so called in any the costliest work of man Fasten not that on me which I both disclaim and desire the Reader to take heed of But I must tell you these two things 1. That a cheap Religion is a far more uncertain evidence of sincerity then a dear it will not discover so well to a mans own soul whether he prefer Christ before the world and whether he take him and his Benefits for his Portion and Treasure 2. That a cheap Religion is not usually accompanied with any notable degree of Comforts although the person be a sincere-hearted Christian Every Hypocrite can submit to a Religion that will cost him little much more which will get Reputation with men of greatest Wisdom and Piety Yea he may stick to it so it will not undo him in the world If a man have knowledge and gifts of utterance and strength of body it is no costly matter to speak many good words or to be earnest in opposing the sins of others and to preach zealously and frequently much more if he have double honour by it Reverent Obedience and Maintenance as Ministers of the Gospel have or ought to have It is hard to discern sincerity in such a course of Piety and Duty Wo to those Persecutors that shall put us to the Trial how far we can go in suffering for Christ but it should be a matter of Rejoycing to us when we are put upon it To be Patient in Tribulation is not enough but to Rejoyce in it is also the duty of a Saint Let those that think this draweth men to Rejoyce too much in themselves but hear what the Lord Jesus himself saith and his Spirit in his Apostles Mat. 5 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil sayings against you falsly for my names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Iam. 1.2 3 12. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations not inward temptations of the Devil and our Lust but trials by persecution knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him See Luk. 6.23 1 Pet. 4.13 Act. 5.41 2 Cor. 6.10 7.4 Col. 1.11 Heb. 10.34 2 Cor. 13.9 12.15 Oh how gloriously doth a tried faith shine to the comfort of the Believer and the admiration of the Beholders How easily may a Christian try himself at such a time when God is trying him One hours experience when we have found that our faith can endure the furnace and that we can hazard or let go all for Christ will more effectually resolve all our doubtings of our sincerity then many a months trial by meer questioning of our own deceitful hearts Object But you may say what if God call me not to
suffering or hazards must I cast my self upon it without a Call or must I be therefore without Comfort Answ No you shall not need to cast your self upon suffering nor yet to be without Comfort for want of it I know no man but may serve God at dearer rates to the flesh then most of us do without stepping out of the way of his duty Nay he must do it except he will avoyd his duty Never had the Church yet such times of prosperity but that faithful duty would hazard men and cause their trouble in the flesh Can you not nay ought you not to put your self to greater labour for mens souls If you should but go day after day among the poor ignorant people where you live and instruct them in the knowledge of God and bear with all their weakness and rudeness and continue thus with Patience this might cost you some labour and perhaps contempt from many of the unthankful and yet you should not do more then your duty if you have opportunity for it as most have or may have if they will If you should further hire them to learn Catechisms if you should extend your liberality to the utmost for relief of the poor this would cost you somewhat If you carry on every Just Cause with Resolution though never so many great friends would draw you to betray it this may cost you the loss of those friends If you will but deal plainly with the ungodly and against all sin as far as you have opportunity especially if it be the sins of Rulers and Gentlemen of name and power in the world it may cost you somewhat Nay though you were Embassadors of Christ whose office is to deal plainly and not to please men in evil upon pain of Christs displeasure you may perhaps turn your great friends to be your great enemies Go to such a Lord or such a Knight or such a Gentleman and tell him freely that God looketh for another manner of spending his time then in hunting and hawking and sporting and feasting and that this precious time must be dearly reckoned for Tell him that God looks he should be the most eminent in Holiness and in a Heavenly life and give an example thereof to all that are below him as God hath made him more eminent in worldly dignity and possessions Tell him that where much is given much is required and that a low profession and dull approbation of that which is good will serve no man much less such a man Tell him that his Riches must be expended to feed and cloath the poor and promote good uses and not meerly for himself and family or else he will make but a sad account and that he must freely engage his reputation estate and life and all for Christ and his Gospel when he cals him to it yea and forsake all for him if Christ put him to it or else he can be no Disciple of Christs and then what good will his Honours and Riches do him when his Soul shall be called for Try this course with Great men yea with Great men that seem religious and that no further then faithfulness and compassion to mens souls doth bind you and do it with all the wisdom you can that is not carnal and then tell me what it doth cost you Let those Ministers that are near them plainly and roundly tell both the Parliament-men and Commanders of the Army of their unquestionable transgressions and that according to their nature and wo to them if they do not and then let them tell me what it doth cost them Alas Sirs how great a number of Professors are base daubing self-seeking Hypocrites that cull out the safe the cheap the easy part of duty and leave all the rest And so ordinarily is this done that we have made us a new Christianity by it and the Religion of Christs own making the self-denying course prescribed by our Master is almost unknown and he that should practice it would be taken for a madman or some self-conceited Cynick or some saucy if not seditious fellow It is not therefore because Christ hath not prescribed us a more self-denying hazardous laborious way that men so commonly take up in the Cheapest Religion but it is through our false-heartedness to Christ and the strength of sensual carnal Interests in us which make us put false Interpretations on the plainest precepts of Christ which charge any unpleasing duty on us and Familistically turn them into Allegories or at least we will not yield to obey him And truly I think that our shifting off Christ in this unworthy manner and even altering that very frame and nature of Christian Religion by turning that into a flesh-pleasing Religion which is more against the flesh then all the Religions else in the world and dealing so reservedly superficially and unfaithfully in all his work is a great cause why Christ doth now appear no more openly for men and pour out no larger a measure of his Spirit in Gifts and Consolations When men appeared ordinarily in the most open manner for Christ in greatest dangers and sufferings then Christ appeared more openly and eminently for them yet is none more for meekness humility and love and against unmerciful or dividing zeal then Christ 2. And as you see that a cheap Religiousness doth not to discover sincerity so secondly it is not accompanied with that special blessing of God As God hath engaged himself in his Word that they shall not lose their Reward that give but a cup of water in his name so he hath more fully engaged himself to those that are most deeply engaged for him even that they that forsake all for him shall have manifold recompence in this life and in the world to come eternal life Let the experience of all the world of Christians be produced and all will attest the same truth That it is Gods usual course to give men larger Comforts in dearer duties then in cheap Nay seldom doth he give large Comforts in cheap duties and seldom doth he deny them in dearer sobeit they are not made dear by our own sin and foolish indiscretion but by his command and our faithfulness in obeying him Who knows not that the Consolation of Martyrs is usually above other mens who hath read of their sufferings and strange sustentations Christian do but try this by thy own experiences and tell me when thou hast most resolutely followed Christ in a good Cause when thou hast stood against the faces of the greatest for God when thou hast cast thy life thy family and estate upon Christ and run thy self into the most apparent hazards for his sake hast not thou come off with more inward peace and comfort then the cheaper part of thy Religion hath afforded thee When thou hast stood to the Truth and Gospel and hast done Good through the greatest opposition and lost thy greatest and dearest friends because thou wouldst not forsake Christ and his
he will move a scruple whether it were not too Good or too much You shall not cloath your self but he will move you to scruple the lawfulness of it You shall not come into any company but he will afterward vex you about every word you spoke lest you sinned The like I may say also about your condition but more of that anon DIRECTION XXVII 27. When God hath once shewed you a Certainty or but a strong probability of your sincerity and his special Love Labour to fix this so deep in your Apprehension and Memory that it may serve for the time to come and not onely for the present And leave not your soul too open to Changes upon every New Apprehension nor to question all that 's past upon every Jealousie Except when some Notable declining to the world and the flesh or a committing of Gross sins or a wilfulness or carelesness in other sins that you may avoyd do give you just Cause of questioning your sincerity and bringing your sâ—ul again to the bar and your estate to a more exact review SOme Antinomian Writers and Preachers you shall meet with who will perswade you whatsoever sin you fall into never more to question your Justification or Salvation I have said enough before to prove their doctrine detestable Their reason is Because God changeth not as we change and Justification is never lost To which I answer 1. God hated us while we were workers of Iniquity Psal 11.5 5.5 and was angry with us when we were Children of wrath Eph. 3.1 2 3. And afterward he laid by that Hatred and Wrath and all this without change If we cannot reach to apprehend how Gods unchangeableness can stand with the fullest and frequentest expressions of him in Scripture must we therefore deny what those expressions do contain As Austin saith Shall we deny that which is plain because we cannot reach that which is obscure and difficult 2. But if these men had well studied the Scriptures they might have known that the same man that was yesterday Hated as an Enemy may to Day be Reconciled and loved as a Son and that without any change in God even as it fals out within the reach of our Knowledge For God Ruleth the world by his Laws They are his Moral Instruments By them he Condemneth By them he Justifieth so far as he is said in this Life before the Judgement day to do it unless there be any other secret act of Justification with him which man is not able now to understand The change is therefore in our Relations and in the Moral Action of the Laws When we are Unbelievers and Impenitent we are Related to God as Enemies Rebels Unjustified and Unpardoned being such as Gods Law Condemneth and pronounceth Enemies and the Law of Grace doth not yet Justifie or pardon and so God is as it were in some sense obliged according to that Law which we are under to deal with us as Enemies by destroying us And this is Gods Hating Wrath c. When we Repent Return and Believe our Relation is changed The same Law that did Condemn us is Relaxed and Disabled and the Law of Grace doth now Acquit us it Pardoneth us it Justfieth us and God by it And so God is Reconciled to us when we are such as according to his own Law of Grace he is as it were Obliged to forgive and to do Good to and to use as sons Is not all this apparently without any change in God! Cannot he make a Law that shall change its Moral Action according to the change of the actions or inclinations of sinners and this without any change in God And so If it should so be that a Justified man should fall from God from Christ from sincere Faith or Obedience the Law would Condemn him again and the Law of Grace would Justifie him no more in that state and all this without any change in God 3. If this Antinomian Argument would prove any thing it would prove Justification before and so without Christs satisfaction because there is no change in God 4. The very point That no justified man shall ever fall from Christ is not so clear and fully revealed in Scripture and past all doubt from the assault of Objections as that a poor soul in such a Relapsed estate should venture his everlasting salvation wholly on this supposing that he were Certain that he was once sincere For my own part I am perswaded that no Rooted Believer that is Habitually and Groundedly Resolved for Christ and hath crucified the flesh and the world as all have that are throughly Christs do ever fall quite away from him afterwards But I dare not lay my salvation on this And if I were no surer of my salvation then I am of the truth of this my Judgement to speak freely my soul would be in a very sad Condition 5. But suppose it as certain and plain as any word in the Gospel that a Justified man is never quite Unjustified Yet as every new sin brings a new obligation to punishment or else they could not be pardoned as needing no pardon so must every sin have its particular pardon and consequently the sinner a particular Justification from the Guilt of that sin besides his first general pardon and Justification For to pardon sin before it is committed is to pardon sin that is no sin which is a Contradiction and Impossibility Now though for daily unavoydable Infirmities there be a pardon of Course upon the Title of our Habitual Faith and Repentance yet whether in case of Gross sin or more notable Defection this will prove a sufficient Title to particular pardon without the addition of actual Repentance and what Case the sinner is in till that actual Repentance and Faith as I told you before are so difficult questions it being ordered by Gods great wisdom that they should be so that it beseems no wise man to venture his salvation on his own opinion in these Nay it 's certain that if Gross sinners having opportunity and knowledge of their sins Repent not they shall perish And therefore I think a Justified man hath great Reason upon such fals to examine his particular Repentance as well as his former state and not to promise himself or presume upon a pardon without it 6. And besides all this though both the Continuance of Faith and non-intercision of Justification be never so certain yet when a mans obedience is so far overthrown his former Evidences and Perswasions of his Justification will be uncertain to him Though he have no Reason to think that God is changeable or Justification will be lost yet he hath Reason enough to question whether ever he were a true Believer and so were ever Justified For Faith worketh by Love and they that Love Christ will keep his Commandments Libertines and carnal men may talk their pleasure but when Satan maintains not their Peace sin will break it and Dr. Sibs words will be
when he may satisfie you more fully and that without doing hurt to others And consider what a strait Ministers are in that have so many of so different conditions inclinations and conversations to preach to DIRECTION XXIX 29. Be sure you forget not to distinguish between Causes of Doubting of your sincerity and causes of meer Humiliation Repentance and Amendment And do not raise Doubtings and Fears where God calleth you but to Humiliation Amendment and fresh recourse to Christ THis Rule is of so great moment to your peace that you will have daily use for it and can never maintain any true setled peace without the practice of it What more common then for poor Christians to pour out a multitude of complaints of their weaknesses and wants and miscarriages and never consider all the while that there may be cause of sorrow in these when yet there is no cause of doubting of their sincerity I have shewed before that in gross falls and great backslidings Doubtings will arise and sometime our fears and jealousies may not be without cause But it is not ordinary infirmities nor every sin which might have been avoided that is just cause of Doubting Nay your very Humiliation must no further be endeavored then it tends to your Recovery and to the honouring of mercy For it is possible that you may exceed in the measure of your Griefs You must therefore first be resolved wherein the Truth of saving Grace doth consist and then in all your failings and weaknesses first know whether they contradict sincerity it self and are such as may give just cause to question your sincerity If they be not as the ordinary infirmities of Believers are not then you may and must be humbled for them but you may not Doubt of your Salvation for them I told you before by what marks you may discern your sincerity that is wherein the nature of saving faith and holiness doth consist Keep that in your eye and as long as you finde that sure and clear let nothing make you doubt of your Right to Christ and Glory But alas how people do contradict the will of God in this when you have sinned God would have you bewail your folly and unkinde dealing and fly to mercy through Christ and this you will not do But he would not have you torment your self with fears of damnation and questioning his Love and yet this you will do You may discern by this that Humiliation and Reformation are sure of God mans heart is so backward to it and that vexations doubts and fears in true Christians that should be comfortable are not of God mans nature is so prone to them though the ungodly that should fear and doubt are as backward to it I think it will not be unseasonable here to lay down the particular Doubts that usually trouble sincere Believers and see how far they may be just and how far unjust and causeless and most of them shall be from my own former experience and such as I have been most troubled with my self and the rest such as are incident to true Christians and too usual with them DOUBT I. I Have oft heard and read in the best Divines that Grace is not born with us and therefore Satan hath always possession before Christ and keeps that possession in Peace till Christ come and binde him and cast him out and that this is so great a work that it cannot choose but be observed and for ever remembred by the soul where it is wrought yea the several steps and passages of it may be all observed first casting down and then lifting up first wounding and killing and then healing and reviving But I have not observed the distinct parts and pâ—sâ—â—ges of this change in me nay I know of no such sudden observable change at all I cannot remember that ever I was first killed and then revived Nor do I know by what Minister nor at what Sermon or other means that work which is upon me was wrought No nor what day or moneth or year it was begun I have slided insensibly into a Profession of Religion I know not how And therefore I fear that I am not sincere and the work of true Regeneration was never yet wrought upon my soul ANSWER I will lay down the full answer to this in these Propositions 1. It is true that Grace is not Natural to us or conveyed by Generation 2. Yet it is as true that Grace is given to our Children as well as to us That it may be so and is so with some all will grant who believe that Infants may be and are saved And that it is so with the Infants of Believers I have fully proved in my Book of Baptism But mark what Grace I mean The Grace of Remission of original sin the Children of all true Believers have at least a high probability of if not a full Certainty their parent Accepting it for himself and them and Dedicating them to Christ and engaging them in his Covenant so that he takes them for his People and they take him for their Lord and Saviour And for the Grace of inward Renewing of their Natures or Dispositions it is a secret to us utterly unknown whether God use to do it in Infants or no. 3. Gods first-ordained way for the working of inward holiness is by Parents Education of their Children and not by the publick Ministry of the Word of which more anon 4. All godly Parents do acquaint their Children with the doctrine of Christ in their Infancy as soon as they are capable of receiving it and do afterwards inculcate it on them more and more 5. These Instructions of Parents are usually seconded by the workings of the Spirit according to the capacity of the Child opening their understandings to receive it and making an impression thereby upon the heart 6. When these Instructions and the inward workings of the Spirit are just past the preparatory part and above the highest step of Common Grace and have attained to special saving Grace is ordinarily undiscernible therefore as I have shewed already in Gods usual way of working Grace men cannot know the just day or time when they began to be in the state of Grace And though men that have long lived in Prophaness and are changed suddenly may conjecture near at the time yet those that God hath been working on early in their youth yea or afterwards by slow degrees cannot know the time of their first receiving the Spirit 8. The Memories of all men are so slippery and one thought so suddenly thrust out by another that many a thousand souls forget those particular workings which they have truly felt 9. The Memories of Children are far weaker then of others and therefore it is less probable that all the Spirits workings should by them be remembred 9. And the motions of Grace are so various sometimes stirring one Affection and sometimes another sometimes beginning with smaller motions and then moving more
harden their hearts or stiffen their necks and you will finde that the most usual meaning of the Holy Ghost is this They were an intractable disobedient obstinate people or as the Greek word in the New Testament signifieth which we often translate Vnbelieving they were an Vnperswadable people no saying would serve them They set light by Gods Commands Promises and severest Threatnings and Judgements themselves nothing would move them to forsake their sins and obey the voyce of God You shall finde that hardness of heart is seldom put for want of tears or a melting weeping disposition and never at all for the want of such tears where the will is tractable and obedient I pray you examine your self then according to this Rule God offereth his Love in Christ and Christ with all his benefits to you Are you willing to Accept them He commandeth you to worship him and use his ordinances and Love his people and others and to forsake your known Iniquities so far that they may not have dominion over you Are you Willing to this He commandeth you to take him for your God and Christ for your Redeemer and stick to him for better and worse and never forsake him Are you willing to do this If you have a stiff Rebellious heart and will not Accept of Christ and Grace and will rather let go Christ then the world and will not be perswaded from your known iniquities but are loth to leave them and love not to be reformed and will not set upon those duties as you are able which God requireth and you are fully convinced of then are you Hard-hearted in the Scripture sense But if you are glad to have Christ with all your heart upon the terms that he is offered to you in the Gospel and you do walk-daily in the way of duty as you can and are willing to Pray and willing to hear and wait on God in his Ordinances and willing to have all Gods Graces formed within you and willing to let go your profitablest and sweetest sins and it is your daily desires O that I could seek God and do his will more faithfully zealously and pleasingly then I do O that I were rid of this body of sin these carnal corrupt and worldly inclinations and that I were as holy as the best of Gods Saints on earth And if when it comes to practise whether you should obey or no though some unwillingness to duty and willingness to sin be in you you are offended at it and the greater bent of your Will is for God and it is but the lesser which is towards sin and therefore the world and flesh do not lead you captive and you live not wilfully in avoidable sins nor at all in gross sin I say if it be thus with you then you have the Blessing of a soft heart a heart of flesh a new heart for it is a Willing obedient tractable heart opposed to obstinacy in sin which Scripture calleth a soft heart And then for the Passionate part which consisteth in lively feelings of sin misery mercy c. and in weeping for sin I shall say but this 1. Many an unsanctified person hath very much of it which yet are desperately Hard-hearted sinners It dependeth far more on the temper of the body then of the Grace in the soul Women usually can weep easily and yet not all and children and old men Some complexions encline to it and others not Many can weep at a Passion-Sermon or any moving duty and yet will not be perswaded to obedience these are hard-hearted sinners for all their tears 2. Many a tender godly person cannot weep for sin partly through the temper of their minds which are more judicious and solid and less passionate but mostly from the temper of their bodies which dispose them not that way 3. Deepest sorrows seldom cause tears but deep thoughts of heart as greatest joys seldom cause laughter but inward pleasure I 'le tell you how you shall know whose heart is truly sorrowful for sin and tender He that would be at the greatest cost or pains to be rid of sin or that he had not sinned You cannot weep for sin but you would give all that you have to be rid of sin you could wish when you dishonoured God by sin that you had spent that time in suffering rather and if it were to do again on the same terms and inducements you would not do it Nay you would live a beggar condtendedly so you might fully please God and never sin against him and are content to pinch your flesh and deny your worldly interest for the time to come rather then wilfully disobey This is a truly tender heart On the other side another can weep to think of his sin and yet if you should ask him what wouldst thou give or what wouldst thou suffer so thou hadst not sinned or that thou mightest sin no more Alas very little For the next time that he is put to it he will rather venture on the sin then venture on a little loss or danger or disgrace in the world or deny his craving flesh its pleasures This is a hard-hearted sinner The more you would part with to be rid of sin or the greater cost you would be at for that end the more Repentance have you and true tenderness of heart Alas if men should go to Heaven according to their weeping what abundance of children and women would be there for one man I 'le speak truly my own Case This doubt lay heavy many a year on my own soul when yet I would have given all that I had to be rid of sin but I could not weep a tear for it Nor could I weep for the death of my dearest friends when yet I would have bought their lives had it been Gods will at a dearer rate then many that could weep for them ten times as much And now since my nature is decayed and my body languisheth in consuming weakness and my head more moistned and my veins filled with flegmatick watry blood now I can weep and yet I find never the more tender-heartedness in my self then before And yet to this day so much remains of my old disposition that I could wring all the money out of my purse easier then one tear out of my eyes to save a friend or rescue them from evil when I see divers that can weep for a dead friend that would have been at no great cost to save their lives 5. Besides as Dr. Sibs saith There is oft sorrow for sin in us when it doth not appear It wanteth but some quickening word to set it afoot It is the nature of Grief to break out into tears most when sorrow hath some vent either when we use some expostulating aggravating terms with our selves or when we are opening our hearts and case to a friend then sorrow will often shew it self that did not before 6. Yet do I not deny but that our want of Tears and
him to have dyed and satisfied in vain you are a Jew and not a Christian and are one of those that Paul so much disputeth against that would be Justified by the Law Nay you must not to much as once imagine that all your own Works can be any part of this Legal Righteousness or Worthiness to you Only Christs Satisfaction and Merit is in stead of this our Legal Righteousness and Worthiness God never gave Christ and Mercy to any but the unworthy in this sense If you know not your self to be unworthy and unrighteous in the sense of the Law of Works you cannot know what Christs Righteousness is Did Christ come to save any but sinners and such as were lost what need you a Saviour if you were not Condemned and how come you to be condemned if you were not unrighteous and unworthy But then 2. there is an Evangelical personal Worthiness and Righteousness which is the Condition on which God bestows Christs Righteousness upon us and this all have that will be saved by Christ But what is that Why it hath two parts 1. The Condition and Worthiness required to your Union with Christ and pardon of all your sins past and your Adoption and Justification it is no more but your hearty thankful Acceptance of the Gift that is freely Given you of God by his Covenant-grant that is Christ and Life in him 1 John 5.10 11 12. There is no worthiness required in you before Faith as a Condition on which God will give you Faith but onely certain means you are appointed to use for the obtaining it And Faith it self is but the Acceptance of a free Gift God requireth you not to bring any other Worthiness or Price in your hands but that you consent unfeignedly to have Christ as he is offered and to the ends and uses that he is offered that is as one that hath satisfied for you by his blood and merits to put away your sins and as one that must illuminate and Teach you Sanctifie and Guide and Govern you by his Word and Spirit and as King and Judge will fully and finally Justifie you at the day of Judgement and give you the Crown of Glory Christ on his part 1. Hath merited your pardon by his satisfaction and not properly by his sanctifying you 2. And sanctifieth you by his Spirit and Ruleth you by his Laws and not directly by his bloodshed 3. And he will justifie you at Judgement as King and Judge and not as Satisfier or Sanctifier But the Condition on your part of obtaining Interest in Christ and his benefits is that our Faith which accepteth him in all these respects both as King Priest and Teacher and to all these ends conjunctly But then 2. The Condition and Worthyness required to the Continuation and Consummat on of your Pardon Justification and right to Glory is both the Continuance of your faith and your sincere obedience even your keeping the Baptismal Covenant that you made with Christ by your Parents and the Covenant which you in your own person made with him in your first true Believing These indeed are called Worthiness and Righteousness frequently in the Gospel but it is no worthiness consisting in any such works which make the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace of which Paul speaks but onely in faith and such Gospel works as James speaks of which make the Reward to be wholly of Grace and not of Debt Now if you say you are unworthy in this Evangelical sense then you must mean if you know what you say that you are an Infidel or Unbeliever or an Impenitent obstinate Rebel that would not have Christ to reign over him For the Gospel calleth none Unworthy as non-performers of its Conditions but only these But I hope you dare not charge your self with such Infidelity and wilful Rebellion DOUBT XII THough God hath kept me from Gross sins yet I finde such a searedness of Conscience and so little aversness from sin in my minde iâ— that I fear that I should Commit it if I lay under Temptations and also that I should not hold out in Tryal if I were called to suffer Death or any grievous Calamity And that obedience which endureth meerly for want of a Temptation is no true Obedience ANSWER 1. I Have fully answered this before If you can overcome the temptations of Prosperity you have no cause to doubt distrustfully whether you shall overcome the temptations of Adversity And if God give you Grace to avoid Temptations to sin and fly occasions as much as you can and to overcome them where you cannot avoid them you have little reason to distrust his preservation of you and your stedfastness thereby if you should be cast upon greater Temptations Indeed if you feel not such a Belief of the evil and danger of sinning as to possess you with some sensible hatred of it you have need to look to your heart for the strengthening of that Belief and Hatred and fear your heart with a godly preserving Jealousie but not with tormenting disquieting doubts Whatever your Passionate Hatred be if you have a settled well-grounded Resolution to walk in obedience to the death you may confidently comfortably trust him for your preservation who gave you those resolutions 2. And the last sentence of this Doubt had need of great Caution before you conclude it a certain Truth It s true that the Obedience which by an ordinary Temptation such as men may expect would be overthrown is not well grounded and rooted before it is overthrown But it s a great Doubt whether there be not Degrees of Temptation Possible which would overcome the Resolution and Grace of the most Holy having such assistance as the Spirit usually giveth Believers in Temptation And whether some Temptations which overcome not a strong Christian would not overcome a weak one who yet hath true Grace I conclude nothing of these Doubts But I would not have you trouble your self upon confident conclusions on so doubtful Grounds This I am certain of 1. That the strongest Christian should take heed of Temptations and not trust to the strength of his Graces nor presume on Gods preservation while he wilfully casteth himself in the mouth of dangers nor to be encouraged hereunto upon any perswasion of an Impossibility of his falling away O the falls the fearful falls that I have known alas how often the eminentest men for Godliness that ever I knew to be Guilty of by casting themselves upon Temptations I confess I will never be confident of that mans perseverance were he the best that I know on earth who casteth himself upon violent Temptations espeâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—mptations of Sensuality Prosperity and Seducement 2. I know God hath taught us daily to watch and pray that we enter not into Temptation and to pray Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil I never understood the necessity of that Petition feelingly till I saw the examples of these
seven or eight years last past This being so you must look that your perseverance should be by being preserved from Temptation and must rather examine Whether you have that Grace which will enable you to avoyd Temptations then whether you have Grace enough to overcome them if you rush into them But if God unavoydably cast you upon them keep up your Watch and Prayer and you have no Cause to trouble your self with distrustful fears DOUBT XIII I Am afraid lest I have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost and then there is no hope of my salvation ANSWER IT seems you know not what the sin against the Holy Ghost is It is this When a man is convinced that Christ and his Disciples did really work those glorious Miracles which are recorded in the Gospel and yet will not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and his Doctrine true though sealed with all those Miracles and other holy and wonderful works of the Spirit but do Blasphemously maintain that they were done by the Power of the Devil This is the sin against the Holy Ghost And dare you say that you are guilty of this If you be then you do not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Messiah and his Gospel true And then you will sure oppose him and maintain that he was a Deceiver and that the Devil was the Author of all the Miraculous and Gracious workings of his Spirit Then you will never fear his displeasure nor call him seriously either Lord or Saviour nor tender him any service any more then you do to Mahomet None but Infidels do commit the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Nor but few of them Unbelief is eminently called Sin in the Gospel and that Vnbelief which is maintained by Blaspheming the Glorious Works of the Holy Ghost which Christ and his Disciples through many years time did perform for a Testimony to his Truth that is called singularly The sin against the Holy Ghost You may meet with other Descriptions of this sin which may occasion your terrour but I am fully perswaded that this is the plain Truth DOUBT XIV BVT I greatly fear lest the time of Grace be past and lest I have out sit the day of mercy and now mercy hath wholly forsaken me For I have oft heard Ministers tell me from the Word Now is the Accepted time Now is the day of your visitation To day while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest God swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his Rest But I have stood out long after I have resisted and quenched the Spirit and now it is I fear departed from me ANSWER HEre is sufficient matter for Humiliation but the Doubting ariseth meerly from Ignorance The day of Grace may in two respects be said to be over The first and most properly so called is When God will not Accept of a sinner though he should Repent and Return This is never in this life for certain And he that imagineth any such thing as that it is too late while his soul is in his body to Repent and Accept of Christ and Mercy is meerly ignorant of the Tenour and sense of the Gospel For the New Law of Grace doth limit no time on earth for Gods Accepting of a Returning sinner True Faith and Repentance do as surely save at the last hour of the day as at the first God hath said that whosoever Believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life He hath no where excepted late Believers or Repenters Shew any such Exception if you can 2. The second sense in which it may be said that the day of Grace is over is this When a man hath so long resisted the Spirit that God hath given him over to wilful obstinate Refusals of Mercy and of Christs Government resolving that he will never give him the prevailing Grace of his Spirit Where note 1. That this same man might still have Grace as soon as any other if he were but Willing to Accept Christ and Grace in him 2. That no man can know of himself or any other that God hath thus finally forsaken him For God hath given us no sign to know it by at least who sin not against the Holy Ghost God hath not told us his secret intents concerning such 4. Yet some men have far greater cause to fear it then others especially those men who under the most searching lively Sermons do continue secure and wilful in known wickedness either hating godliness and godly persons and all that do Reprove them or at least being â—â—â—â—pified that they feel no more then a Post the force of Gods terrours or the sweetness of his promises but make a jest of sinning and think the life of godliness a needless thing Especially if they grow old in this course I confess such have great Cause to fear lest they are quite forsaken of God For very few such are ever recovered 5. And therefore it may well be said to all men To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts c. and This is the Acceptable time this is the day of salvation both as this life is called The day of salvation and because no man is certain to live another day that he may Repent nor yet to have Grace to Repent if he Live 6. But what 's all this to you that do Repent Can you have Cause to fear that your day of Grace is over that have Received Grace Why that is as foolish a thing as if a man should come to the Market and buy Corn and when he hath done go home lamenting that the Market was past before he came Or as a man should come and hear the Sermon and when he hath done lament that the Sermon was done before he came If your day of Grace be past tell me and do not wrong God Where had you the Grace of Repentance How came you by that Grace of holy Desâ—res Who made you Willing to have Christ for your Lord and Saviour So that you had rather have him and Gods favour and a Holy heart and life then all the glory of the World How came you to desire that you were such a one as God would have you to be and to desire that all your sins were dead and might never live in you more and that you were able to Love God and Delight in him and please him even in perfection and that you are so troubled that you cannot do it Are these signs that your day of Grace is over Doth Gods Spirit breath out Groans after Christ and Grace within you and yet is the day of Grace over Nay what if you had no Grace Do you not hear God daily offering you Christ and Grace doth he not intreat and Beseech you to be Reconciled unto him 2 Cor. 5.19 20. and would he not compel you to come in Mat. 22. Do you not feel some unquietness in your
sinful Condition and some motions and strivings at your heart to get out of it Certainly though you should be one that hath yet no Grace to salvation yet these continued offers of Grace and strivings of the Spirit of Christ with your heart do shew that God hath not quite forsaken you and that your day of Grace and Visitation is not past DOUBT XV. BVt I have sinned since my Profession and that even against my Knowledge and Conscience I have had Temptations to sin and I have considered of the Evil and Danger and yet in the very soberest deliberations I have Resolved to sin And how can such a one have any true Grace or be saved ANSWER 1. IF you had not true Grace God is still offering it and ready to work it 2. Where do you finde in Scripture that none who have true Grace do sin knowingly or Deliberately Perhaps you will say in Heb. 10.24 If we sin willfully after the knowledge of the Truth there Remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of Judgement and fire which shall devour the adversaries Ans But you must know that it is not every wilful sin which is there mentioned but as even now I told you Vnbelief is peculiarly called Sin in the New Testament And the true meaning of the Text is If we utterly renounce Christ by Infidelity as not being the true Messiah after we have known his Truth then c. Indeed none sin more against knowledge then the Godly when they do sin For they know more for the most part then others do And Passion and Sensuality the remnant of it which yet remaineth will be working strongly in your very Deliberations against sin and either perverting the Judgement to doubt whether it be a sin or whether there be any such danger in it or whether it be not a very little sin Or else blinding it that it cannot see the Arguments against the sin in their full vigor Or at least prepossessing the Heart and Delight and so hindring our Reasons against sin from going down to the Heart and working on the Will and so from Commanding the Actions of the Body This may befal a godly man And moreover God may withdraw his Grace as he did from Peter and David in their sin and then our Considerations will work but faintly and sensuality and sinful Passion will work effectually It is scarce Possible I think that such a man as David could be so long about so horrid a sin and after contrive the murther of Vriah and all this without deliberation or any reasonings in himself to the contrary 3. The truth is though this be to good cause for any Repenting sinner to doubt of Salvation yet it is a very grievous aggravation of sin to commit it against Knowledge and Conscience and upon consideration And therefore I advise all that Love their Peace or Salvation to take heed of it For as they will finde that no sin doth deepâ—ier wound the Conscience and plunge the sinner into fearful perplexities which oft times hang on him very long so the oftner such Zeal and Passion But let me tell you that you may grow in these and not grow in the body of your Graces Doubtless Satan himself may do much to kindle your Zeal if he do but see it voyd of sound Knowledge as he did in Iames and Iohn when they would have called for Fire from Heaven but knew not what spirit they were of For the doleful Case of Christs Churches in this age hath put quite beyond dispute that none do the Devils work more effectually nor oppose the Kingdom of Christ more desperately then they that have the hottest Zeal with the weakest Judgements And as Fire is most excellent and necessary in the Chimney but in the thatch it is worse then the vilest dung so is Zeal most excellent when guided by sound Judgement but more destructive then prophane sensuality when it is let loose and misguided On the other side you may decay much in feeling and fervour of Affections and yet Grow in Grace if you do but grow in the Understanding and the Will And indeed this is the Common Growth which Christians have in their Age Examine therefore whether you have this or no. Do you not understand the things of the Spirit better then you formerly did Do you not value God Christ Glory and Grace at higher rates then formerly Are you not more fully Resolved to stick to Christ to the death then formerly you have been I do not think but it would be a harder work for Satan to draw you from Christ to the flesh then heretofore When the tree hath done growing in visible greatness it groweth in rootedness The fruit grows first in bulk and quantity and then in mellow sweetness Are not you less Censorious and more Peaceable then heretofore I tell you that is a more noble growth then a great deal of austere and bitter youthful censorious dividing Zeal of many will prove Mark most aged experienced Christians that walk uprightly and you will find that they quite outstrip the younger 1. In experience knowledge prudence and foundness of Judgement 2. In well-setled Resolutions for Christ his Truth and Cause 3. In a Love of Peace especially in the Church and a hatred of dissentions perverse contendings and divisions If you can shew this growth say not that you do not grow 3. But suppose you do not grow should you therefore deny the sincerity of your Grace I would not perswade any soul that they grow when they do not But if you do not be humbled for it and endeavour it for the future Make it your desire and daily business and spare not Lye not still complaining but rouse up your soul and see what 's amiss and set upon neglected duties and remove those Corruptions that hinder your Growth Converse with Growing Christians and under quickening means Endeavour the Good of other mens souls as well as your own and then you 'l find that growth which will silence this Doubt and do much more for you then that DOUBT XVII I Am troubled with such Blaspemous thoughts and Temptations to Vnbelief even against God and Christ and Scripture and the Life to come that I doubt I have no faith ANSWER TO be Tempted is no sign of Gracelesness but to yield to the Temptation nor every yielding neither but to be overcome of the Temptation Most Melancholy people especially that have any knowledge in Religion are frequently haunted with Blasphemous Temptations I have oft wondred that the Devil should have such a power and advantage in the predominancy of that distemper Scarce one person of ten who ever was with me in deep Melancholy either for the Cure of body or mind but hath been haunted with these Blasphemous thoughts and that so impetuously and violently set on and followed that it might appear to be from the Devil yea even many that never seemed Godly or to mind any such
service or deal falsly in some Cause that he hath trusted thee in hast not thou come off with the blessing of Peace of Conscience Nay when thou hast denied thy most importunate Appetite and most crossed thy lusts and most humbled and abased thy self for God and denied thy credit and taken shame to thy self in a free confessing of thy faults or patiently put up the greatest abuses or humbled and tamed thy flesh by necessary abstinence or any way most displeased it by crossing its interest by bountiful giving laborious duty dangers or sufferings for the sake of the Lord Jesus his Truth and People hath it not been far better with thee in thy Peace and Comforts then before I know some will be ready to say That may be from Carnal Pride in our own doing or suffering I answer It may be so And therefore let all watch against that But I am certain that this is Gods ordinary dealing with his people and therefore we may ordinarily expect it It is for their encouragement in faithful duty and I may truly say for their Reward when himself cals that a Reward which he gives for a cup of water Lay well to heart that Example of Abraham for which he is so often extolled in the Scripture viz. his readiness to sacrifice his only Son This was a dear Obedience And saith God Because mark Because thou hast done this thing in blessing I will bless thee c. David would not offer to God that which cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24.24 1 Chron. 21.24 God will have the best of your hearts the best of your labours the best of your eâ—tates the best of all or he will not accept it Abels sacrifice was of the best and it was accepted And God saith to Cain If thou do well shalt not thou be accepted Seeing this is so let me advise you Take it not for a calamity but for a precious advantage when God cals thee to a hazardous costly service which is like to cost thee much of thy estate to cost thee the loss of thy chiefest friends the loss of thy credit the indignation of Great ones or the painfullest diligence and trouble of body Shift it not off but take this opportunity thankfully lest thou never have such another for the clearing of thy sincerity and the obtaining of more then ordinary Consolations from God Thou hast now a Prize in thy hand for spiritual riches if thou have but a heart to improve it I know all this is a paradox to the unbelieving world But here is the very excellency of the Christian Religion and the Glory of Faith It looks for its greatest spoyls and richest prizes from its Conquests of fleshly Interests It is not only able to do it but it expecteth its advancement and consolations by this way It is engaged in a war with the world and flesh and in this war it plays not the vapouring fencer that seems to do much but never strikes home as Hypocrites and carnal worldly Professors do but he lays it home and spares not as one that knows That the fleshes ruine must be his Rising and the fleshes thriving would be his Ruine In these things the true Christian alone is in good sadness and all the rest of the world but in jest The Lord pity poor deluded souls You may see by this one thing how rare a thing true Christianity is among the Multitude that take themselves for Christians and how certain therefore it is that few shall be saved Even this one point of true Mortification and self-denial is a stranger among the most of Professors Oh how sad a testimony of it are the actions of these late times wherein so much hath been done for self and safety and carnal interests and so little for Christ yea and that after the deepest engagements of Mercies and Vows that ever lay on a people in the world Insomuch that through the just judgement of God they are now given up to doubt whether it be the duty of Rulers to do any thing as Rulers for Christ or no or whether they should not let Christ alone to do it himself Well this which is such a mysterie to the unregenerate world is a thing that every genuine Christian is acquainted with for they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof and the world is dead to them and they to the world Gal. 6.11 Take this counsel therefore in all the several cases mentioned in the Direction 1. In your preventing sin and maintaining your Innocency if you cannot do it without denying your credit and exposing your self to disgrace or without the loss of friends or a breach in your estate do it nevertheless Yea if it would cost you your utter ruine in the world thank God that put such an opportunity into your hand for extraordinary Consolations For ordinarily the Martyrs Comforts exceed other mens as much as their burthen of duty and suffering doth Cyprian is fain to write for the comfort of some Christians in his times that at death were troubled that they mist of their hopes of Martyrdom So also if you cannot mortifie any lust without much pinching the flesh do it chearfully for the dearer the victory costeth you the sweeter will be the issue and review 2. The same counsel I give you also in your rising from sin It is the sad condition of those that yield to a Temptation and once put their foot within the dores of Satan that they ensnare themselves so that they must undergo thrice as great difficulties to draw back as they needed to have done before-hand for prevention and forbearance Sin unhappily engageth the sinner to go on and one sin doth make another seem necessary O how hard a thing is it for him that wrong'd another by stealing deceit over-reaching in bargaining or the like to confess his fault and ask him forgiveness and to the utmost of his ability to make restitution What abundance of difficulties will be in the way It will likely cost him the loss of his Credit besides the breach in his estate and perhaps lay him open to the rage of him that he hath wronged Rather he will be drawn to cover his sin with a Lye or at least by Excuses And so it is in many other sins Now in any of these Cases when men indulge the flesh and cannot find in their hearts to take that loss or shame to themselves which a through-Repentance doth require they do but feed the troubles of their soul and hide their wounds and sores and not ease them Usually such persons go on in a galled unpeaceable condition and reach not to solid Comfort I speak only of those to whom such Confession or Restitution is a duty And I cannot wonder at it For they have great cause to question the truth of that Repentance and consequently the soundness of that heart which will not bring them to a self-denying duty nor to Gods way of
rising from their sin It seems at present the interest of the flesh is actually predominant when no Reason or Conviction will perswade them to contradict it As ever you would have sound Comfort then in such a Case as this spare not the flesh When you have sinned you must rise again or perish If you cannot rise without fasting without free confessing without the utter shaming of your selves without restitution never stick at it This is your hour of Trial O yield not in the Conflict The dearer the Victory costeth you the greater will be your Peace Try it and if you find it not so I am mistaken Yet if you have sinned so that the opening of it may more discredit the Gospel then your Confession will honour it and yet your Conscience is unquiet and urgeth you to confess in such a case be first well informed and proceed warily and upon deliberation and first open the case to some faithful Minister or able Christian in secret that you may have good advice 3. The same counsel also would I give you in the performance of your duty A Magistrate is convinced he must punish sinners and put down Ale-houses and be true to every Just Cause but then he must steel his face against all mens reproaches and the solicitations of all friends A Minister is convinced that he must teach from house to house as well as publickly if he be able and that he must deal plainly with sinners according to their conditions yea and require the Church to avoyd Communion with them if they be obstinate in evill after other sufficient means But then he shall lose the Love of his People and be accounted Proud Precise Rigid Lordly and perhaps lose his maintenance Obey God now and the dearer it costeth you the more Peace and Protection and the larger blessing may you expect from God For you do as it were oblige God the more to stick to you as you will take your self obliged to own and bear out and reward those that hazard state and credit and life for you And if you cannot obey God in such a Trial it is a sad sign of a false-hearted Hypocrite except your fall be only in a temptation from which you rise with renewed Repentance and Resolutions which will conquer for the time to come As Peter who being left to himself for an example of humane frailty and that Christ might have no friend to stick by him when he suffered for our sin yet presently wept bitterly and afterward spent his strength and time in preaching Christ and laid down his life in Martyrdom for him So perhaps many a poor servant or hard labourer hath scarce any time except the Lords day to Pray or Read Let such pinch the flesh a little the more so they do not overthrow their health and either work the harder or fare the harder or be cloathed the more meanly or especially break a little of their sleep that they may find some time for these duties and try whether the Peace and Comfort will not Recompence it Never any man was a loser for God! So private Christians cannot conscionably discharge the great plain duty of Reproof and Exhortation lovingly yet plainly telling their friends and neighbours of their sins and danger and duty but they will turn friends into foes and possibly set all the Town on their heads But is it a Duty or is it not If it be then trust God with the Issue and do your work and see whether he will suffer you to be losers For my part I think that if Christians took Gods work before them and spared the flesh less and trusted themselves and all to Christ alone and did not balk all the troublesom costly part of Religion and that which most crosseth the interest of the flesh it would be more ordinary with them to be filled with the joys of the Holy Ghost and walk in that Peace of Conscience which is a Continual Feast and to have such full and frequent views both of the sincerity of their Evidencing Graces and of Gods Reconciled Face as would banish their doubts and fears and be a greater help to their certainty of salvation then much other labour doth prove If you flinch not the fiery furnace you shall have the company of the Son of God in it If you flinch not the Prison and Stocks you may be able to sing as Paul and Silas did If you refuse not to be stoned with Stephen you may perhaps see Heaven opened as he did If you think these Comforts so dear bought that you will rather venture without them let me tell you you may take your course but the end will convince you to the very heart of the folly of your choyce Never then complain for want of Comfort remember you might have had it and would not And let me give you this with you You will shortly find though worldly Pleasures Riches and Honours were some slight salves to your molested Conscience here yet there will no cure nor ease for it be found hereafter Your merry hours will then all be gone and your worldly Delights forsake you in Distress but these solid Comforts which you judged too dear would have ended in the Everlasting Joys of Glory When men do flinch God and his Truth in straits and juggle with their Consciences and will take out all the honourable easy cheap part of the work of Christ and make a Religion of that by it self leaving out all the disgraceful difficult chargeable self-denying part and hereupon call themselves Christians and make a great shew in the world with this kind of Religiousness and take themselves injured if men question their honesty and uprightness in the faith these men are notorious self-deceivers meer Hypocrites and in plain truth this is the very true description by which damnable Hypocrites are known from sound Christians The Lord open mens eyes to see it in time while it may be cured Yea and the nearer any true Christian doth come to this sin the more doth he dis-oblige God and quench the Spirit of Comfort and darken his own Evidences and destroy his Peace of Conscience and create unavoydable Troubles to his Spirit and estrangedness betwixt the Lord Jesus and his own soul Avoyd this therefore if ever you will have Peace DIRECTION XXV 25. My next Advice shall be somewhat near of kin to the former If you would learn the most expeditious way to Peace and setled Comfort Study well the Art of Doing Good let it be your every-days contrivance care and business how you may lay out all that God hath trusted you with to the greatest pleasing of God and to your most comfortable account STill remember lest any Antinomian should tell you that this savours of Popery and trusting for Peace to our own Works 1. That you must not think of giving any of Christs honour or office to your best works You must not dream that they can do any thing to