favour and grace of great persons alway And as the favourable aspect of the heavens upon inferiour bodies promiseth good things and men promise themselves from that favour and good so the favour and grace of God enlarge the soul with joy and comfort And there is that measure of joy in those that are in the free favour of God that they will honour God freely to cast themselves upon his mercy And it is with a disesteem of all things in the World besides it is such a joy as works in the soul a base esteem of all things else St. Paul esteemed all drosse in comparison of the knowledge of Christ and the favour of God in Christ. So in Psal. 4. David saith of some There be many that will say who will shew us any good any good it is no matter but saith the Holy Spirit in David Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon me He goes to prayer he saith not who will shew us any good it is no matter what or how we come by it any earthly good worldly men desire No saith he Lord shew us the light of thy countenance he desires that above all things So he saith Psal. 3. The loving kindnesse of the Lord is better then life it self Life is a sweet thing the sweetest thing in the World but the grace and favour of God is better then that For in this when all comforts fail the Children of God have assurance that neither life nor death nor things present nor things to come nor any thing can separate us from the love of God in Christ which shews it self better then life it self When life fails this favour shall never fail Nothing shall be able to separate us from the favour of God in Christ it is an everlasting favour and therefore everlasting because it is free if it were Originally in us it would fail when we fail but it is an everlasting favour because it is free God hath founded the cause of love to us in himself so much for that Grace be unto you And peace All that I will say of peace in this place is this to shew That True peace issues from Grace It is to be had thence Peace we take here for that sweet peace with God and peace of conscience and likewise peace with all things when all things are peaceable to us when there is a sweet successe in all businesse with a security in a good estate It is a blessed thing when we know that all will be well with us This quiet and peaceable estate issues from grace peace of conscience especially I observe it the rather It hath been the errour of the world to seek peace where it is not to seek peace in Sanctification to seek it in the work of Grace within a man Not to speak of worldly men that seek peace in outward contentments in recreations in friends and the like alas it is a poore peace But I speak of Religious persons that are of a higher straine they have sought peace but not high enough True peace must be selected from Grace the free favour in Christ. This will quiet and still the clamours of an accusing conscience God reconciled in Christ will pacifie the conscience nothing else will do it For if our chief peace were fetched from sanctification as many fetch it thence in error of judgment alas the conscience would be dismaid and alwaies doubt whether it had sanctification enough or no. Indeed sanctication and grace within is required as a qualification to shew that we are not Hypocrites but are in the state and covenant of Grace it is not required as a foundation of comfort but as a qualification of the persons to whom comfort belongs Therefore David and St. Paul and the rest that knew the true power and efficacy of the Gospel they sought for peace in the grace and free favour of God Let us lay it up to put it in practise in the time of dissolution in the time of spiritual conflict in the time when our consciences shall be awakened and perhaps upon the rack and Satan will be busie to trouble our peace that we may shut our eyes to all things below and see God shining on in Christ that we may see the favour of God in Christ by whose death and passion he is reconciled to us and in the Grace and free favour of God in Ghrist we shall see peace enough It is true likewise besides peace of conscience of all other peace peace of successe and peace of state that all creatures and all conditions are peacable to us whence is it It is from Grace for God being reconciled he reconciles all when God himself is ours all is ours when he is turned all is turned with him when he becomes our father in Christ and is at peace with us all are at peace besides so that all conditions all estates all creatures they work for our good It is from hence when God is turned all are turned with him He being the God of the creature that sustaines and upholds the creature in whom the creature hath his being and working he must needs therefore turn it for the good of them that are in covenant with him All that are joyned in covenant with him he fills them with peace because they are in Grace with him This should stir up our hearts above all things in the world to pray for Grace to get Grace to empty our selves of self-confidence that we may be vessels for Grace to make Grace our plea to magnifie the Grace of God We must never look in this world for a peace altogether absolute that is reserved for heaven our peace here is a troubled peace God will have a distinction between heaven and earth But when our peace is interrupted when the waters are come into our souls what must be our course when we would have peace go to Grace go to the free promise of Grace in Christ. Grace and Peace From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The spring of Grace and peace are here mentioned After the Preface he comes to the Argument which he intends and begins with blessing One part of the scope of this blessed Apostle is to avoid the scandall of his sufferings for he was a man of sorrows if ever man was next Christ who was a true man of sorrow the blessed Apostle was a man of miseries and sorrow Now weake shallow Christians thought him to be a man diserted of God they thought it was impossible for God to regard a man so forlorn so despicable as this man was What doth he before he comes to other matters he wipes away this imputation and cleers this scandal You lay my crosses and sufferings and disgraces in the world to my shame it is your weakness that which you account my shame is a matter of praise I am so farre from being disheartned or discouraged from what I suffer that Blessed be God the Father of
a Carnal man for he hath the presence of Gods Spirit to support him in some measure Therefore let us not be afraid before hand fear nothing saith the Apostle that thou shalt suffer And with Moses let us not be ashamed of the rebuke of Christ but Let us go out of the Campe with Christ learning our reproach And because we know not what God may call us to let us entertain presently a resolution to endure whatsoever in this world God calls us to to passe through thick and thin to passe through all kind of waies to the hope of our Glorious calling if by any way by any meanes saith St. Paul I may attain the resurrection of the dead If by any meanes I may come to heaven by fair death or by violent death he scorned reproach if by any means he might be happie And for others it is a wondrous quailing to the spirits of men that offer any wrong if it be but a disgrace a scoffe is a persecution to a Christian for a good cause when wicked men oppose a Christian in a good cause and course let us learn what they do they kick against the pricks Do they know what they do when they reproach Christians it is the reproach of Christ. What was Ishmaels scorning a persecution Christ is scorned in his members will he endure this at their hands When good causes are opposed Christ is opposed and Christ is scoffed This doth enable our suffering being an abasing of it self that Christ accounts it done to him Base men of the world they think when they scoffe at goodnesse and wrong the Image of God in his Children they think they deride and despise a companie of weak creatures that they scoffe at silly persons meaner then themselves but they are deceived they scoffe Christ in them and he takes it so Saul Saul why persecutest thou me The foot is trode on on the earth and the head speaks from heaven It is the reproach of Christ and it will be laid to thy charge at the day of judgment that thou hast scoffed and persecuted and reproached Christ in his members it will be a heavy indictment Men should not regard what they conceive of things but what he that must be their judge will conceive of things ere long and he interprets it as done to his own person It is true both of good and ill whatsoever good we do to a Christian as a Christian to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple Christ takes it as done to himself Matth. 25. In as much as you have done it to these you have done it to mee It should animate us to do good offices to those that are Christs what we do to them we do to Christ. Let us be willing to refresh the bowels of Christ in his members at home or abroad as occasion serves to maintain the quarrel of Christ as much as we can to relieve Christ he comes to us in the poore and asks relief he that shed his blood for us he that dyed for us he that hath given us all asks a little pittance for himself that we for his sake would be so good to him in his members as to do thus and thus that for Jonathans sake we would regard poore lame Mephibosheth his son Christ though he be gone he hath some Mephibosheths some poore weak members and what offices we do them he accounts done to himself it runs on his score he will be accountable for every good word we speak in his cause for every defence for every act of bountie It is a point of large meditation to consider that the Crosses and Afflictions of Christians they are the sufferings of Christ. Do but consider the spirit of God intended in this phrase to dignifie all disgraces and indignities that are put upon us in a good cause and quarrel could he have said more in few words he calls them not disgraces or losses or death but he puts such a comfortable title upon them that might make us in love with suffering any thing and set us on fire to endure any thing in a good cause they are the sufferings of Christ. As the sufferings of Christ abound so our consolations c. The third general point is That our consolations are proportionable to our sufferings Our consolations abound We suffer in this World that is hard I but they are the sufferings of Christ there is sweetnesse And then another degree is our consolations abound as our sufferings abound Consolation is as I shewed before in the unfolding of the word an inward support of the soul against trouble felt or feared and it must be stronger then the grievance or else the action of comfort will not follow There is a disproportion between the agent and the patient in all prevailing actions or else there is no prevailing if the comfort be not above the maladie it is no comfort And therefore no comforts but divine comforts will stand at length because in all other comforts sedet medecinum morbo the maladie is above the remedie they may make glorious pretences as the Philosophers do Plutarch and Seneca and the rest but they are as Apothecaries boxes they have goodly titles but there is nothing within Alas when there is trouble in the conscience awakned with the sight of sin and the displeasure of God what can all those precepts compose and frame the soul in petty troubles They have their place and surely the neglect of them many times is that that makes the crosse heavier but alas in divine troubles in terror of conscience it must be divine comfort it must be of like nature or else the effect of comfort will never follow and those be the comforts that he meanes here As our troubles and afflictions abound so our consolations our divine supports they abound the point is this that Our comforts are proportionable to our sufferings What did I say proportionable it is above all proportion of suffering As it is said Rom. 8. the afflictions of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed And indeed in this life the consolations abound as the sufferings abound For God keeps not all for the life to come he gives us a taste a grape of Canaan before we come to Canaan as the Israelites they sent for grapes to taste the goodnesse of the land and they had them brought to them by the spies by which they might guesse of the fruitfulnesse and sweetnesse of the land it self so the taste and relish that Gods Children have of that fulnesse which is reserved in another world it is answerable and proportionable to their sufferings and in the proportion the exceeding part is of comfort there is an exceeding if not for the present yet afterwards The Ark did rise together with the water and comforts rise together with matter of suffering But what is the reason of the proportion why the greatest comforts follow the greatest sufferings
did Again Afflictions doe good to others by ministring occasion to them to search deeper into the cause when they they see the people of God are so used they take occasion hereby to enquire what is the cause and so take occasion to be instructed deeply in matters of Religion for mans nature is inquisitive and grace takes the hint of any thing What is the matter that such and such indure such things Hereupon I say they come to be better grounded in the cause little occasions oft times are the beginnings of great matters by reason that the spirit as well as wit is of a working nature and will draw one thing from another We see what a great Tree riseth of a little seed how a little thing upon report worketh conversion Naaman the Assyrian had a Servant and she told him that there was a Prophet in Jurie that was a famous man that did great matters and if he would go to him he should be cured of his leprosie that little occasion being ministred Naaman comes to the Prophet and he was cured of a double leprosie both of soule and body and went home a good man so by way of ministring occasion of inquisition the sufferings of others doe good And then seeing the constant and resolute spirits of those that suffer it doth them good and comforts them for first it makes them conceive we of the cause certainly these men that suffer constantly and chearefully it is a good cause that they suffer for when they see the cause is such a resolution and courage in the sufferers And it makes them in love with and begin to think well of the persons when they can deny themselves surely these men care not for the pleasures and vanities of the world that can indure to suffer these So Justin Martyr saith when he saw Christians suffer he thought they were men that cared not for pleasures for if they had they would not suffer these things Besides They can gather from the presence of Gods spirit imboldening the sufferers what they may hope for themselves if they should suffer They may reason thus Is God by his spirit so full and so strong in these that are flesh and blood as we are is he so strong in women in young men in aged men that neither their yeares nor their sex nor their tenderness can any kind of way hinder them from these kind of abasements and sharp sufferings surely the same spirit of God will be as strong in me if I stand out in the same cause and carrie my self as they do and there is good reason for God is the same God the spirit is the same spirit the cause is the same cause therefore it is no false reasoning I may upon a good presumption hope for the presence and assistance of the Spirit of God to inable and strengthen me as he did them for the same Spirit of Godwill be strong in all And this is partly likewise in the intent of them that suffer There is a double intent it is the intent of God to single them out to suffer for the good of others and it is their intent to suffer that others may have good This is one reason why they are willing rather to suffer shame or bodily punishment then they will hinder others of the good they may take by their suffering So it is Gods end and their end It is for your consolation in Gods intent and in my intent and purpose and in the event it self Thus you see how afflictions suffered in good cause help for the consolation and salvation even of others the example of those that suffer flow into the mind and insinuate into the judgment and affection of the beholders many wayes And this the Factors of Antichrist know very well for if ever there be any persecution again we shall hardly have fire and fagor that they may not give example they will come to Gun-powder plots and Massacres and such violent courses to sweep away all They know if it come to matter of example once the grace of God in his children and the presence of his Spirit that shall appeare to others it is of a wondrous working force they are wise enough to know that the Devill teacheth them that wit when he hath been put by all his other shifts If it be so that the sufferings of Gods Children are for the good of others then to make some use of it Let us not take any offence at the cause of religion for suffering we ought not to have an ill conceit of a cause for suffering but rather think the better of it I speak it is in this regard we have many that will honour the Martyrs that are dead that are recorded in the book but if any suffer in the present view before their eyes they are disgracefull to them This should not be For first of all if the cause be good the end of good men by the help of the spirit of God is for thy good Was it not a cruell thing in Saul to strike at David when he played on his Harpe when he sought his good and easement To kill a Nightingale in singing it is a barbarous thing Gods Children by all that they suffer intend the good of others now to hurt and and maligne them in doing good to persecute them that indure ill for our good or that labour and do any thing for our good it is a barbarous savage thing All is for the Elect I suffer not for the Elects sake saith St. Paul in 2. Tim. so my sufferings are for you We may know we are elected of God if we take good by the sufferings of others if we take no scandall and offence and doe not add affliction to the afflicted for all is in Gods intent and in their intent for our good For instance a little to enlighten the point because it is not usually stood on and it is a notion that may help our conceits of the excellent estate of Gods Children Reprobation to go as high as we may it is for their good to shew mercy to them to set by and neglect so many and to single them out The creation of the World is for their sakes Gods providence directs all for their Good for why doth he suffer wicked men it is that they may be instruments to exercise them that are good it is by reflexion or some way for the cause of the good that the wicked are suffered to be upon the earth The administration of the world it is not for the Rebels that are in it it is for those that are Gods Children and he tosseth and tumbleth Empires and Monarchies the great men of the world they think they doe great matters but alas all this is for the exercise of the Church this is reductive to the Church by Gods providence All their attempts are for the little flock for a few that are a despised company that he meanes to save
Christian he is now afflicted and now comforted not for his own sake onely but for the good of others and when he shall be afflicted and how long and what comfort he shall have how much he leaves it to the wisdom of God It is a blessed estate if we could think of it to be a Christian that we need to care for nothing but to serve God we need to care for nothing but study to keep a good conscience Let God alone with all our estate for God will inable us to want and to abound in our owne persons and likewise he will sanctifie our estate for the good of others And a Christian will be willling to be tossed and to be changed from vessel to vessell from state to state for the good of others If his afflictions may do good to the Church he is content that God should withdraw his blessings from him and humble him with crosses If his example may be good to others he is likewise joyfull when God gives him rest and causeth an inward comfort he knows that this is good for others he hath learned in his first entrance into Christianity self-denyall not to live to himself but for the glory of God and the good of others as much as he may We should labour therefore to content our selves in all conditions knowing that all is for the best not only to our selves and Gods glory but for the good of others God when he takes things from us and afflicts us and when he comforts us he intends the comfort of others So we should reason when we indure any thing and when we are comforted certainly God intends the good of others by this therefore I will have a speciall care in suffering to carrie it decently and exemplarily knowing that the eyes of many are upon me I wil carry my self so that God may have glory and others may have edification and comfort knowing that I am but Gods Steward to convey this to others that are of the same body with my self Therefore in our communion we have with others upon any good occasion we ought to express the blessed experience of the comfort of God upon us This is the practise of holy men in their meeting with others to shew them the comforts of God to their soules Come I will shew you what God hath done for my soule saith the Psalmist All are the better for a good man he doth good to all and therefore Solomon saith When a righteous man is advanced the Citie rejoyceth They have cause for he hath a publique mind nothing doth more characterise and is a better stamp of a true Christian then a publique mind A carnall man out of self love may grieve at his own sins and may labour to comfort himself but a Christian thinks others shall take good by me It is the mind of Christ and it is the mind of all the Members of Christ when a man thinks he hath nothing except he have it to improve for the good of others A dead sullen reserved spirit is not a Christians spirit if by nature we have such we must labour to help it with grace for grace is a diffusive communicating thing not onely in the Ministers of God but in every Christian grace will teach them to make savourie their conversation to others this way that whatsoever they are or whatsoever they can do or whatsoever they suffer they study to improve all to the good of others And marke the extent of the loving wisedom and providence of God how many things he doth at once for in the same affliction oft times he corrects some in his Children in the same affliction he tries some grace in the same affliction he witnesseth to his truth in them in the same affliction he doth good to others besides the good he doth to them In the same affliction that others inflict he hastneth the ruine of them that offer it at one time and in one action he hastneth the destruction of the one by hastning the good of the other he ripens grace in his Children making them exemplary to others and all in the same Action so large is the wise providence of God It should teach us likewise to follow that providence and to see how many wayes any thing we suffer any kind of way may extend that if one way will not comfort another may When we suffer and are grieved let us consider withall that he that doth the wrong he hastens his ruine and judgment As Pharaoh when he hastned the overthrow of the children of Israel he hastned his overthrow in the red Sea so a pit is digged for the wicked when they digg a pit for the godly And consider to comfort thy self thou hast some sinne in thee and God intends not onely to witnesse his truth but to correct some sinne in thee and thou must look to that thou hast some grace in thee and he intends the tryall of that Look to these things this shews strong heavenly mindedness when there is self-denyall Let us consider what God cals us to for God looks to many things in the same act wherefore doth God give us reason and discourse but to be able to follow him in his dealing as farre as we can reach to But I go on to the next verse VERS VII And our hope of you is stedfast knowing that as you are partakers of the suffering so you shall be also of the consolation THis verse is nothing but a strengthning of what he said before he had told them that whatsoever he suffered it was for their comfort too and now he repeats it again and sets a seal upon it Our hope of you is stedfast knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings so you shall also be of the consolation In these words he shews that they shall share in the good with him as well as in the ill that the Spirit of God in them should help them to take all the good they could both by his sufferings and by his comfort For as he by the help of the spirit of God intended the publique good intended their good and comfort in all whether he were afflicted or comforted so he saith here he was assured that as they were partakers of his sufferings so they should be of his comforts likewise Here is the truth And the seal of the truth The truth That they were partakers of his sufferings and should be partakers of his consolations And the Seal is in the manner of affirming these truths Our hope of you is stedfast And in this order I will speak of them First Gods Children are partakers of the sufferings of others The Corinthians were partakers of the sufferings of S. Paul Gods Children are partakers of the sufferings of others many wayes First by way of sympathy taking to heart the estate of the Church and Children of God abroad It grieved the Corinthians to hear that S. Paul was afflicted for
be like thy self thou thinkest I hate those that thou hatest that are my dear Children therefore Herod presumed to go on and lay hold on Peter but the Church falls a praying and God smites Herod with a fearful death he was eaten up with lice with worms bred in his body So I say it is no good argument to say I have prospered in wicked courses I do prosper and therefore I shall prosper I have gotten a great deal of goods by ill means and I have kept such ill company and though some mislike my courses yet I hope to morrow shall be as to day c. Take heed blesse not thy self Gods wrath will smoak against such Treasure not up wrath unto thy self against the day of wrath argue not so upon Gods patience It is an argument for Gods Children he hath been my God he is my God and he will be my God it is a Sophisme else for others and as the Prophet Amos saith He that hath escaped the Lyon shall fall into the hands of the Bear so the wicked that escape one danger shall fall into another at length it is no good argument for them to hope for the like of that they have had Nay rather it is the worst outward sign in this world of a man in the state of reprobation of a man hated of God to prosper and have security in ill courses God blesseth him and lets him go on in smooth courses as the streames of Jordan go on smooth and still and then enter into the dead sea so many men live and go on in smooth easy courses and we see at length they either end in despair as Judas or in deadnesse of heart as Nabal So that of all estates it is the most miserable when a man lives in a naughtie course and God interrupts him not in his course with some outward judgment It is a reason onely for the Children of God to support themselves with in a good cause wherein they walk with a good conscience then they may say truly God that hath been my God till now will be my God to the end of my dayes Is God so constant to his Children in his love and in his fatherly care providence that whom he hath delivered he doth deliver and will deliver let us be constant in our service and love back again let us return the echo back again and say I have served God I do serve God and I will serve God because he hath loved me he doth love me and he will love me he hath delivered me he doth deliver me and he will deliver me as he is constant in love to me so will I be constant in respect in reverence and obedience to him Therefore we see the Saints of God as God loves them from everlasting to everlasting being Jehovah as he never alters in his nature so not in his love to them so they never alter in their love to him therefore it is a clause in Scripture expressed by holy men To whom be praise for ever as they knew that he was their God for ever and for ever so they purposed to be his people and to praise him for ever and for ever And because they cannot live here alway themselves they desire that there may be a Generation to praise him for ever and for ever and they lay a plot and ground so much as they can that Gods Name may be known that Religion may be propagated for ever They know God is their God for ever they know he is constant in love to them and they are constant in their love to him and for his glory To whom be glory for ever See here the happinesse of a true Christian that is in Covenant with God he can say I have had my happinesse and my portion I have it and I shall have it for ever Take a worldling can he say so he cannot God will confound his insolence if he should say so I have been rich I have prospered in my course I have attained to this and that means I yet thrive and I shall thrive I is it so No thou buildest upon the sands howsoever God hath done and howsoever he doth thou canst not secure thy self for the time to come Onely the Christian that makes God his rock and his fortress his shield and strong tower of defence he may say he hath had that which is certain he enjoyes that which is immutable and constant God is his portion his eternal portion he hath been good he is good and he will be good to eternity no man else that hath a severed happinesse out of God can say so A sound Christian take him in all references of time he is a happy man if he look back God hath delivered him from Satan from hell and damnation and many dangers If he look to the present he is compassed about with a guard of Angels and with the providence of God God doth deliver him he hath a guard about him that cannot be seen but with the eye of faith The Divel sees it well enough as we see in Job Thou hast hedged him about how can I come to him He looked about to see if he could come into Job to see if the hedg had any breach but there was none Gods providence compassed him about God hath and doth deliver And if he look to the time to come he will deliver he seeth that neither things present nor things to come shall be able to separate him from the love of God And this is not onely true of outward dangers but especially in spiritual God hath been gracious he hath given Christ How shall he not with him give us all things A Christian is in the favour of God now how shall he not be so for ever He hath eternity world without end to comfort himself in that God as long as he is God he hath comfort as long as he hath a soul so long Jehovah the living God will be his God both of his body and soul he is the God of Abraham therefore he will raise his body he is the God that raiseth the dead and he will for ever glorifie both body and soul in heaven Look which way he will a Christian hath cause of much comfort why should he be dismayed with any thing in the world why should he not serve God with all the encouragement that may be when he hath nothing to care for but to serve him As for matter of deliverance and protection it belongs not to us but to him let us do that that belongs to us and he will do that belongs to him if we commit our soules to him as to a faithful Creator in weldoing he hath delivered us he doth deliver us and he will deliver us and preserve us to his heavenly Kingdom VERS 11. You also helping together by prayer for us IN these words the holy Apostle sets down the subordinate means that God hath sanctified to continue
therefore he is not constant Or if times do not fall out so crosse he is not constant in his disposition and God looks on him as he is in his disposition and so he will judge him at that day now being led with the flesh his disposition alters and varies How shall I know whether I consult according to the flesh or no In a word examine two things The ground and the aime of our actions whence they rise and what they aym at Spring they from self-love aym they at our self-contentment and private interest then a man is led with the flesh To use a familiar instance In Marriage when a man looks more to wealth then to Religion he adviseth according to the flesh And so for a Minister to respect his living more then any thing that might weigh with his conscience otherwise if he were good he is led with respects according to the flesh Those that leave their former good acquaintance and choose such as they only hope to gain by and forsake those acquaintance that they cannot gain by though they be never so good otherwise they are led according to the flesh How shall we know that we do not things and consult not of things according to the flesh Some men may know it easily as when men are of pregnant parts when the strength of their wit leads them one way and Religion leads them another way yet in the awe of God they do not go that way that politick respects would carry them they could be as errant Politicians as the best but they dare not here now is a man that is led by the Spirit when it is not for want of parts but out of conscience he doth not so miscarry by his enemy Many times an honest man could be rich by ill means as well as another he knowes the way it is not for want of wit but because he dares not the awe of conscience and the awe of God lead him to better rules and aymes so it is easily discerned in eminency of parts And likewise in fitnesse of opportunities if there be not parts when a man hath all outward advantages to satisfie the flesh to yield to it to have his aimes and yet he will not If a man have power and yet doth not revenge himself he consults not with flesh and blood for he might be revenged if he would So I say when there is something that might sway us another way and yet notwithstanding out of meer conscience and better rules we will not it is a sign we purpose not we advise not things according to the flesh but according to the Spirit we are led with better rules then the world is In strong suggestions a Joseph can say How shall I do this and offend against God Doth not God see it saith Job so a Christian in the strength of Temptations and solicitations and opportunities to do ill he considers Doth not God see How shall I do this and offend against God Shall I break the peace of my conscience for the gaining of this and this why no then a man is not led with Carnal wisdome Again we may know this that we are not led by the flesh and advised by the flesh when we are humble in all our consultations It is a perpetual concomitant of carnal wisdome to be proud knowledge mingled with corruption puffeth up But how shall we labour to overcome this because we have the flesh ready by us in all our consultations we have this counsellour alway ready at hand as S. Paul complains Rom. 7. That when we would do well evil is present it is present at our elbow nay it is nearer the flesh is mingled in all the powers of our soules and with heavenly wisdome there is a mixture of carnal wisdome how shall we do that we may not be tainted with it I will give a direction or two First of all have a prejudice of it Cave time c. saith the holy man S. Austin Take heed of the evil man thy self take heed of carnal reason be jealous of it it is an enemy and the issues of the wayes it adviseth to are death There is a way that seems good to a man in his own eyes the issues whereof are death not temporal onely but eternal death It is a deadly enemy have a prejudice of it and conceit of it to be as it is have a jealousie of it and of our own selves especially in things that concern our selves What is the reason that a man is an incompetent Judge in his own cause This because there is natural self-self-love and flesh that drawes all to it self Consult not with it therefore consult with higher rules and principles what may make most for the chief end for the glory of God for the assurance of our comfort while we live here and a better estate hereafter that which may make most for the common good let us labour to live by right rules and principles God will value us by that Put the case a man by passion be led another way what is his rule what is his aym his aym is not carnal he may fall by passion c. God judgeth not by passion but by the tenour of our life God esteems us not by a single particular exorbitant act that by passion or incogitancy a man falls into but by the tenour of our life Therefore let us labour to have our rules and aimes good though we fail in particular yet that our way may be good though we step awry yet our way may be good that when Judgment shall come when death shall come it may not find us in an ill way in an ill course Therefore let us consult with God consult with his Word consult with those that are led by the Spirit of God labour to be under the government of Gods blessed Spirit to be guided by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God This should be our care to labour that God would guide us by his good Spirit in those wayes that may lead to our comfort that of all other enemies in the world he would not give us up to our own flesh to guide us but that he would take the guidance of us to himself that as he hath right to us by his Covenant so he would take us into his government And desire Christ that as he is our Priest to die for us so likewise he would be our Prophet to instruct us to subdue all in us And let Divine truth be our counsellour to bring our inner man into subjection as it is 2 Cor. 10. The weapons of our warfare are mighty to bring all into captivity to subject all high devices and reasonings How shall I do this I shall misse of my ends I shall misse of my projects O but Religion when it comes and brings down all it makes not a man to cast away reason but brings reason under and brings
or else why did Christ ordain the Sacrament to strengthen and stablish our faith and to confirm us but that he knew our propensenesse to unbelief In the time of ease and prosperity it is easie to think God is merciful and Christ died but in the time of temptation all is little enough to shore and prop up the faith of a drooping Christian. Therefore God out of heavenly wisdome and love to us hath appointed these Ordinances for the strengthening of our faith And all is to no purpose unlesse our faith be strong in the Promises as Saint Paul takes an oath to build them on the Promises he taught them And so all is little enough oath and promises and seal c. Therefore we should with all reverence attend upon Gods Ordinances for the strengthening of our faith But to come to the words themselves As God is true our word to you was not yea and nay Take the words out of the form of an oath and the Proposition is That God is true and faithfull In this link of the sentence God is true First it is true that God is he is truly God his nature is true his properties true Likewise God is true and faithfull not onely in his nature and properties but in his free decrees in the things that freely come from him It was free for him to make promises of salvation or no as it was free for him to make a world or no and whether he would redeem mankind or no but when he had promised except he should deny himself and his truth he must send Christ. So in all the free promises of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting by Christ if we believe in him we say they are certainly true because God that is true hath promised God is true in his Nature and true in his free Promises and threatnings he is true in his works true in his Word every way true He is true in his nature all is true within him and without him if any thing could change him from within he were not himself he were not God And from without there is nothing can change him for there is nothing stronger then God God is true in all his purposes true in his free and voluntary decrees It was free for him to decree but having decreed there is a necessity of performing it is of the necessity of his nature as he is God He is true in his free decrees they are not free in regard of the event but in regard of the Original as I said he might have made a world at the first or no and have redeemed mankind or no but having made these decrees of necessity as he is God he must be true in his free decrees There is a subordination of truths whereof one is the cause of all the rest Now all depends upon this grand truth God is it is the first truth that ever was of all truths in the world in heaven and earth that there is a God that there is such a thing such an excellency as God the Authour of all things in nature the Authour of all things in grace and glory I shall not need to prove this fundamental truth this Truth of truths that God is It infers all other truths For grant this that God is and a man must needs grant that that followes upon it that God is as a God should be that is unchangeable eternal immutable almighty al-sufficient and all the blessed attributes that he is the authour of all good in the creature that must needs follow God is the first truth and then God is so and so as becomes a God And then this must follow in the next place that he is a God immutable and unchangeable he must be so in all the manifestations that come from him in his free decrees and in the outward manifestations by promises and threatnings and whatsoever and therefore God is true immutably and unchangeably true or else he were not God he cannot be otherwise and be God A man may say of a man he is a liar and yet he may be a man a man may be a man and a good man and yet be unconstant and changeable because he is a creature but to say a God and not to be true is to say a God and not a God of the necessity of his nature he must be true It is not of the necessity of the nature of man to be true he may be a man and be a liar Every man is a liar because it is not of the essence of man to be true but God is true out of the necessity of nature he cannot be God if he be not true because God cannot deny himself Man is changeable because he is a creature as Damascen's speech is All things created are mutable and man as a creature is changeable a man therefore may be alterable and false and be a man but God cannot be so and be God It will be objected that God hath threatned oft and hath not performed as we see in the Ninivetes and Hezekias in his sicknesse and so in many others But the answer is easie God is true in all these for Gods Promises that come from his truth they are either absolute or conditional The absolute are those that have nothing annexed to them but shall certainly be As God would have sent Christ without all conditions Christ should have come without all peradventure as we say But now some promises have conditions annexed to them if a Nation repent of their sins God will repent of the evill he hath threatned as it is in Jeremy Now those threatenings that are on condition of repentance if the condition be performed the sentence is reversed All the Promises are made with exception of the Crosse all must suffer before they come to heaven and be glorified Now all the Promises with the exception of the Crosse are conditional So God is true both in his absolute Promises that are made without condition and he is true in his conditional Promises because where he performs the condition he will perform likewise that that is tied to the condition he changeth his sentence sometimes and his threatening but not his decree for his purpose and decree is to forgive and reverse the sentence if we repent I say it is a clear truth that God is true unchangeably and immutably true And it is the prime truth of all truths that God is and God is true As we say of the heavens unlesse the heavens were moved there would be no motion in the earth For if the Sun had not a motion in the Zodiack up and down where were Summer and Winter If he had not his course where were night and day The vicissitude and entercourse of all earthly things If the heavenly motion were not nisi moverentur c. if those did not move we could not move because we depend upon that So unlesse it were true that God were
distinction is good faith looks to the Word of the thing and hope looks to the thing in the Word faith looks to the Word promising hope looks to the performance of the thing promised Faith is the evidence of things not seen because it sets the things that are absent as if they were present hope is for the accomplishment of that If there were no promise to hope what needed hope and where were a foundation for faith Now God being willing to exercise faith and hope feeds them both and satisfies both that we may be heavenly wise in trusting and believing and not foolish as men in the world Therefore God hath given us promises and sealed them with an oath as we shall see afterward Now all promises coming from love what love can there be in God to us since the fall but it must be grounded on a better foundation then our selves If God love us it must be in one that is first beloved hereupon comes the ground of the Promises to be Jesus Christ God-man For all intercourse between God and us it must be in him that is able to satisfie God God will so in the Covenant of Grace entertain covenant and league with us as that he will have his Justice have full content he will be satisfied and therefore he that will be the foundation of intercourse between God and us he must be God-man perfectly able to satisfie Divine Justice he must be a friend of Gods and a friend to us hereupon the Promises must come from Gods love in Jesus Christ and he must first receive all good for us and we must have it at the second hand from him Hereupon it is said here that All the Promises of God in him are Yea and Amen It is a rule The first in any kind is the cause of all the rest Now Christ is the first beloved thing therefore in Coloss. 1. 3. he is called the Sonne of Gods love Christ being the only begotten Son of God he looks on him first before he looks on any thing else and whatsoever is lovel y he looks on it as it is in him in whom his love is first because he being his onely begotten Son he is the first object of all the respect that God hath therefore whatsoever is beloved it is as it hath a consistence in Christ. Therefore Christ he must first be loved and then we in him Consider him as the Son of God Consider him as man he is the first beloved being a holy man above all other men for the nature of man hath a subsistence in the second person in Christ therefore Christ as man is beloved before all others having a subsistence in his Godhead which is first beloved he is the prime and most excellent creature as man God looks first upon Christ as his onely begotten Son and upon Christ as man secondarily Upon the Church in the third place as united to Christ and all other creatures in reference to the Church and therefore there was never any thing in the world nor shall be that ever was or shall be loved but in the first-beloved Christ Jesus Again Christ is first because Christ is the Mediatour between God and man by office Consider what relation he hath between God and man and we may easily see that God first respects him and us for him For Christ being God and man and Mediatour therefore between God and man he is loved of both he is a friend to both to bring both together he is first regarded as Mediatour and then we for whose cause he is Mediatour Then again Consider Christ not as he is between God and us but as he is to us so he is first beloved To God he is his first begotten to God and us a Mediatour To us a head to us a husband to us a brother a head from whence there is all influence of life and motion a husband from whence we have all riches he is all in all to us in the relations he stands in to us therefore he is first in all things as the Apostle saith In all things he must have the preheminence and it is fit it should be so Especially since the fall leave the consideration of Christ and this may be a reason consider us since the fall as we are in the masse of corruption are we fit objects for Gods love are we not fuel for consuming fire is not he a consuming fire and we stubble for his wrath is not our nature defiled and tainted and can it otherwise be amiable then considered as knit to him that is first amiable that is Christ it cannot be So look to Christ as the Son of Gods love whether as God or as man look to his Office as Mediatour look on him as in relation to us as our husband and head look on us without him you may see that Gods love is first founded in Christ and then in us I mean in regard of execution in the passages of our salvation For at first it was a free love that gave Christ to us and us to Christ So God loved the world that he gave his Son that was the first that set all the world in execution but in the execution from predestination to glorification before all worlds he loved us in Christ to everlasting from the everlasting in election to everlasting in glory all is in Christ in regard of execution We subsist in him we are sanctified in him we are justified in him his righteousnesse is ours we are glorified in him we are loved in him God blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in him Ephes. 1. 5 6. God hath made us accepted in his beloved In him who is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased not onely with whom but in whom in him and all his in him as mystical Christ head and members God now looks upon our nature as it is united to the person of his onely begotten Son and thereupon our nature is lovely in the eyes of God and enriched and honoured and advanced in Christ. Even as a base woman by marriage with a great person is advanced so our nature being mean of it self taking our nature when it was defiled with sin though that particular masse was sanctified by the Holy Ghost it was much advanced and ennobled by having a subsistence in the second person so God looks on us in Jesus Christ and loves us in him and bestowes all spiritual blessings in Christ. Therefore whatsoever we have Christ must have it first for us whatsoever is done to us must be done first to Christ. Christ is first predestinate as it is 1 Pet. 1. he is the predestinate Lamb of God he was ordained before all worlds to be a sacrifice for us and to be the head of his Church he was ordained before we were ordained Christ is first beloved and then we are beloved in his beloved He is well pleased in him and