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cause_n	good_a	grace_n	work_n	7,426	5	6.4759	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93277	Two books of Mr Sydrach Simpson, late master of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridg; and preacher of the Gospel in London. Viz. I. Of unbelief; or the want of readiness to lay hold on the comfort given by Christ. II. Not going to Christ for life and salvation is an exceeding great sin, yet it is pardonable. In the first book is shewed (besides many other things) 1 What unbelief it is that is here spoken of ... 7 Helps to attain readiness in beleeving. In the second book is shewed, 1 That unbelief is a great sin, and exceeding provoking unto God ... 7 God hath pardoned unbelief, and wil pardon it.	Simpson, Sidrach, 1600?-1655.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.; Loder, John, 1625 or 6-1673.	1658 (1658)	Wing S3827; Thomason E962_1-2; ESTC R203574	187,195	298

dog as I instanced before yet his meaning is that he is come for you though not in the first place yet in the second and if he gives you but crums yet he wil give you the Childrens Bread 2. Neither be discouraged in this act by the smalness of your receipt Although you have gotten but a little in the use of many ordinances many yeares For mark it If you get never so little you get by that a title to al you shal have al in Gods own time That litle is like the bunch of Grapes which interests you in al the land of promise There was a blessing left in the Berry though there was but here and there one left upon the Tree They that make often and quick returns although they get but little at a time yet they get much in the whol Lay therefore al thy gettings together I say al together consider not the returns sent in in one praier or one sermon or one ejaculation or casting your heart into Heaven but lay al together Beggars take any thing that is given them they are not chusers they will be contented with the smallest That money which is not currant with others will pass with them The smallest piece of silver you have is a kindness to them Such meat as is not of use in the family is dainties and of use with them Herein thou shalt shew thy self to be a receiver in that thou art contented to be at Gods allowance Beloved you are receivers and receivers of free Grace You have it not because you earned it but because God doth abound and is rich in good works And therefore although you have never so little you have cause to rejoyce Thou art but a receiver by faith and therefore thou hast no cause to murmur Thou hast al things of Grace and thou shalt have every thing if thou submittest unto God in every thing he doth as pleasing unto thee for him to do what he pleaseth 3. And as you have not cause to be discouraged at the smalness of your receipt So neither are you to be discouraged in your receiving by the greatness of your wants For the promise runs thus in Matth. 21.22 All things whatever ye ask in my name beleeving you shall receive If you want all things yet if you shall have whatever you shall ask then believe that there is nothing that the greatness of your wants can amount unto that should make you say within your selves that this cannot be nor that cannot be given The greater things you ask the sooner you shall have God gives blessings like himselfe The promise is indefinite And if you ask you shall receive 4. Be not discouraged in this act of faith by the greatness of your receipts For although you have received much yet look for more He gives liberally and upbraids not James 1.5 He doth not say I have given you this and that and so often and releeved you in so many wants and set you up when you have been bankrupts and set you up in the state wherein you were many a time There is this reason why the greatness of your receipts should not discourage you because the more you have received the more there is yet behind to receive I say there is more yet behind to receive To whomsoever much is given God looks for much from them Luke 12.48 He gives Grace for Grace as you heard John 1.16 If he gives much Grace he wil give more Grace in a like proportion We are ashamed to ask of them again whom we have received lately from But here you need not for God hath much to give and that which you have received is not in your own name but in the name of him that is the Lord of all even Jesus Christ God gives often that there may be a fruition and Communion between you and him He gives you but a little at a time that you may come oftner and he gives you often because you may know that whenever you come you are welcome to him Thirdly And as you ought not to be discouraged So especially I beseech you take heed of refusing what is offered to you There is nothing more opposite to receiving than refufing In Acts 13.46 47. saith the Text there They did reject put away from them the words they did judgthe mselves unworthy of eternall life Seeing you put it from you and judg your selves unworthy of eternal life That putting away is directly opposite to this receiving Whoever doth put away the gracethat Gods offers he doth by that act pass Judgment upon himself as one that is worthy to have destruction for his portion And they did put it away by contradicting blaspheming and by questioning without any kind of reasoning but meerly out of the enmity that was in their Spirits unto the Doctrine which the Apostle preached concerning free justification So much shal suffice to have spoken of the second Use CHAP. IV. By this property of Faith viz. to Receive try whether your Faith be true or no. Objections answered USE III. IF Faith be a Receiving then by that property try whether your Faith be true or not What is the Spirit of it Is it a having and a craving and a longing appetite and desire in thee that can never be satisfied and contented Faith will make a man to live upon that he hath that is to take the comfort of it But it looks after more than it hath The just shall live by Faith saith the Text in Heb. 10.38 But what is that Faith A patient waiting that when you have done the will of God in one thing you may receive the promise in another And a patient waiting upon him as one that will not tarry long Faith makes a man to wait for far greater things than it hath already received This is the property of faith Give it but one thing that is good and you must give it all As he that commits one sin and commits it but once gets thereby a disposition unto every sin So he that doth excercise true faith once upon Christ must alwaies have from Christ As persons that long must have every thing they see else they are ready to die So faith looks for all from God and from none else It takes all that comes from God and looks for all that it knows God hath to give And hence it comes to pass that if one Beleever sees another in his party-colored coat as I may cal it alluding to that of the old Testament where the beloved child was so cloathed If a Beleever sees another cloathed with Peace and Joy through beleeving It works doubting in him and questioning whether he be a child of God because he hath not received those gifts or hath not received so much from God as others have Object It may be some will say unto me here I have cause to complain for I have not received And I have reason to complain because

That men may be brought to beleeve we teach them that the nature of God is good and kind and merciful But it is only to these ends and in this sense Partly to shew them that God is not moved by any thing out of himself But not to shew them that he were not God by nature unless he took their cause to heart And partly it is to shew them how his wil hath set his nature on work for them and of his grace he hath laid a law upon himself that as he is holy he should keep his word And as he would be acknowledged to be powerful so he should work for us and as he would have the glory of his Justice so he should save And therefore Christ useth these titles Father and Holy Father as it is in John 17.11.21 But this is the first thing When men wil beleeve no more then can be deduced out of those principles which they have of the knowledg of God in them by nature when as the things that God hath promised by Josus Christ are those things which his nature wil make good but they are those things only which his wil hath given to us II. And again Men do receive Jesus Christ into their reason only when as they wil beleeve no more then can be demonstrated and evidently concluded from the scriptures themselves Concluded from the scripture every thing must be demonstratively or by just consequence and it is beleeved savingly But though it must be concluded justly yet it is not necessary that it should be demonstrative unto our faith A conclusion is then demonstrative mark it when it is as clear and evident as the principle is whence it is drawn I say when it is as cleer As for example In 2 Cor. 5.15 Saith the Apostle If Christ died for al then were al dead This is the conclusion Then were al dead and this is as demonstrative and as cleer as this That Christ died For he died for them and in their stead and he needed not to die for them and in their stead if they had not been lyable to death themselves But al matters of faith al matters that shal be done for us by Jesus Christ shal not be thus cleerly demonstrated That is the thing in hand For the proofe of it Consider with your selves that it is the self same faith whereby a man doth beleeve his own Salvation and doth beleeve the truth of the promises The faith of assurance it is a divine faith as wel as the faith of assent is unto what God hath revealed A man that makes this discourse Mark 16.16 He that doth beleeve shal be saved takes that upon the word of God which cannot be denyed But I have true faith faith he and therefore I shal be saved This conclusion now is as divine because drawn from that proposition as that proposition is That he that beleeves shal be saved But it is not as demonstrative and cleere It is as true I say but not as cleere Then you see that more is to be beleeved then can be cleerly demonstrated The scriptures are like a treasure or womb which containe more things in them then the word at the first face and looking upon can make known unto the mind of a man I would but only instance in one thing more Math. 22.32 which I spake of just now Christ goes about to prove the resurrection of the dead from this that God said he wil be the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. That he wil be their God that is cleere From thence he concludes therefore that the dead shal rise This is as certaine but it is not so cleere unless God first explains what it is to be a God unto one It is required of Faith in this promise I will be thy God to expect as much as God can do for one though it be not expressed That is the thing that I aim at Matters of favors are to be alwaies inlarged and promises are to be interpreted in the extensivest and largest sense And you have this proof of it because when God saith he will be ones God and gives him this promise he is bound to beleeve that God will do as much for him as he can though those words do not express it Therfore saith Christ in Math. 22.29 You err not knowing the Scripture and the power of God You think the Scriptures contain no more in them than what the words do at first sight and in their view tender to you You must saith he interpret the scripture according to Gods power and know where he hath said he will be a God unto a man there he hath ingaged all his power to do for a man or else you err You err not knowing the Scripture and the power of God However the words of scripture are used to direct and limit the sense of our Faith or the hope of our Faith yet they are not given to limit and bound the goodness of God The goodness of God and the love which he bears and the good that he will do is far greater because it is infinite than words taken from men can set forth There are some that go yet further in their entertainment of Jesus Christ and they put him into their affections They that hold that mans Will must have the casting voice in the matters of his conversion and salvation use this distinction They fay the Will may be wrought upon quo ad affectum but not quo ad effectum God by means doth effect the Will But that the Wil should be throughly effected and brought over unto the things that God would have it that ariseth from a mans own self The distinction is good and serviceable to the point in hand though it be applied by them But it hath this truth in it That a man may have his affections stirred and stirred under the means with the things which do belong unto eternal life and yet notwithstanding have his heart ful of lusts and his wil stand in the same firmness stiffness and stubborness against the things of Jesus Christ as if he had no such kind of affections Let me but instance in this one particular Suppose a man to be taken or delighted with a Jewel that is worth millions but the delight that he hath in it is but as the delight which belongs unto a thing worth but twenty pounds So there may be a delight in Jesus Christ but not suitable to the worth and excellencies of him Suppose yet further Suppose a man should make shew of love unto a man as I said in the beginning of the point but yet should lodg him among vile persons whom he loaths no man will say this mans affections are good So when as Jesus Christ shal be lodged with the Devil and with thy lusts and corruptions With one breath thou art for him and with another thou art for them When thy sins reign and live in thy heart taking their pleasures

the Faith that is unfeigned from that that is temporary and historicall And as the Children of God are distinguished by receiving so whatsoever a man gets if not by Faith it 's ill come by Yea he doth become guilty like goods gotten into a mans possession illegally Gal. 3.7 Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith putting them in mind that if that Spirit they thought they were of came to them by the hearing of the Law it were not the Spirit of the living God by which they could be saved Therfore try your selves by this Thou saiest thou hast Faith Is thy faith a receiving Quality Somthing that does enable thee to gape and gasp Does it open thy Soul too in reaching after the things of Christ In plain tearms Is thy Understanding greedy of knowing Art thou willing to give up thy reason to the testimony that God gives of his Son Art thou loth to let the thoughts of Christ pass from thee Is thy Wil inclining and tending to them Now for the making out of this and I beseech you mark it of some the Scripture saies barely thus much That they received not Christ They are shut up under that As in John 1.11 the verse before my text He came to his own and they received him not And The naturall man receives not the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 Some beleeve not and receive not but they are very neer it The fruit is neer their mouths the word as I may use it is not far from them Plainly thus There are some that are negative not privative Unbeleevers That is they are not Unbeleevers by way of opposition but by way of omission They have not denied and said they will not go out to Jesus Christ but they are about the matter and about the matter till the things of their peace be hidden from their Eyes Some Persons are neither free nor are they promised in marriage but are in treaty so as they cannot admit of another to come to them So there are some that hold Jesus Christ in hand cannot endure to think that Jesus Christ should leave them and yet they come not actually off to the closing with him and receiving him in to their hearts As there is a negative holiness the man can say I am not as this man So there is a negative unbelief when as it may be said of men they do not lay hold or receive but it cannot be said of them that they do reject or refuse Sometimes this doth arise from unsensibleness of the want of Jesus Christ Because we are not sensible of our need of Jesus Christ And that I take it was the case of the hearers who are compared to the high way upon whom the seed fell to whom the word of God came and they minded it not they gave it the hearing but they forgat it presently And somtimes it comes from being taken up with lawfull things as they in Matth. 22. would first of all go and do the works they had before them and they would then come to the Feast They did not say they would not come but they could not come then Or ' specially it comes from an unactiveness and slothfulness and listlessness of heart There is a kind of Condition of Soul that a man is like the Sea in a calme that you know not which way it goes A stillness there is or scarce any motion to that which is good Think on it Be it from what cause it will though it arise not from any dislike or opposition to the things of Jesus Christ yet it is a dangerous Condition A still liveless spirit is as well a spirit in a dangerous condition as that which is hurried and carried violently with strong temptations to sin In Matth. 21.30.31 One saies he wil go into the Vineyard he granted it to be his duty but he went not The Lord gives us thereby to understand that there are some who perish through not doing that which they have a purpose to do and that which they are convinced is best to be done by them He that said he would go and did not You are not to conceive him to be one that plaid the Hypocrite in promising to go and yet did not intend it but in this that he did not fulfill that which had gone out of his mouth There is hypocrisie when a man is convinced and does profess to do the good he does not Upon that account therefore you see there is a reason you should examine your selves But besides The Scripture does speak of some that contradict the Gospell and word of Faith In Act. 13.45 the Apostle exhorts them to receive with meekness the word ingrafted that should save their Souls That does imply that there is an aptness in men to be provoked at hearing the Gospell How many are there are wise to evade and exclude themselves from the compass of the promises that if any thing come neer them to comfort them by by some objection or other is made that so they may be stil in their doubts and stil in their fears In Act. 13.46 It is said they put away from them the Word of eternall life even as a sick man puts away the meat and saies he is not able to endure it So they say this is not for such as they are it is too holy for such dogs And as it was with Ammon when he had defiled his sister Thamar he thrust her out of doors and bolted the door against her So do men do with the things of Christ put them from them and bolt and bar their hearts against them with a resolution never to beleeve this while the World stands God opened the heart of Lidia Acts 16.14 she would not open it but he broke it open by his Spirit Yea lastly my Beloved There are that do trample under foot the things of Jesus Christ and instead of receiving of them count them vile and not worthy estimation Heb. 10.29 which by many is understood concerning the indisposition of heart that oft times does befall one that is saved afterward Now then seeing there are some that do not receive and some that do contradict and wil not receive but slight the things of Jesus Christ then try whether you have Faith or not by your receiving OBJECT But you have ranked me in my place You have set me in the place of those that have not Faith for I put away mercy from me Answ To that I answer A Godly man does oft times say nay to God when he wooes him to be saved and yet afterwards takes it Puts away the mercy which he is glad on with al his Soul even as a hungry man is of that food which when he was ful he laid by and would not meddle with When a godly man comes to see what he hath done in refusing and rejecting and disputing against the Grace of God then his heart breaks and then

it as an almes by Faith it is sweetest and you shal receive most The case stands thus Either you must yield to God or God to you It is fit you should yield to him Why should not the Cistern receive from the Fountain The Creature from the Creator It cannot stand with his honor to yield to you that is upon any other tearms to give you any thing but barely as an almes If you will not part with your honor as you must if you do beleeve know God will not part with his honor as he must if he gives any other way then by beleeving for Faith is a receiving And it is fit he should uphold his glory as the Fountain of all that good which the Creature hopes for CHAP. XV. Receiving denotes Passiveness This proved as to beleeving I. In that Faith is not of or from our selves II. In the very act of Faith whereunto we are inabled by God we act as little as possibly can be This appears if you consider 1. The opposition which is in us to beleeving 2. The Nature of Faith it self And that as it is an act either of 1. The understanding Or 2. The Will 3. Who are beleevers 4. Even the Saints are sensible of a power making them to beleeve I Have already as you may remember spoken of Faith as Receiving doth import and imply a getting an actual possession of that which God promised and gave unto us in the purpose of his Grace through Jesus Christ Election gives all The promises declare what is given and ingage God to make it good And Faith receives all In Election God resolves what to do for us The promise gives it under his hand And Faith puts it into our hands Of this I say I have largely spoken and shal repeate nothing but go on to what remains As Receiving implies and imports a getting into possession what was out of possession before So it denotes passiveness rather then action That is A powerful virtue in him that gives rather then any such thing in the receiver Such a passiveness Receiving hath in our ordinary speech As when we say an Army received the charge We mean they stood out and bore the force and strength of their adversary they did defend themselves So in the Scripture James 1.7 Let not such a man think he shall receive any thing from the Lord. In 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls In Heb. 6.7 The ground receiveth blessing from God In all these places Receiving is of passive signification noting somthing of action and excellency in the behalf of the giver but little of the subject at the first hand In all the passiveness of understanding beings there is some kind of action For the Soul is not passive in the same manner that a tree is unto the Ax that hews it or as a stone is unto the instrument and hand that cuts and carves it Our Lord Jesus Christ is said to have suffered yet even in that suffering He laid down his Life you know the Text speaks and he was obedient A man is not converted unto God as a stock or as a stone Phil. 2.8 John 11 15. but assoon as any Grace is given and infused into him immediately at the very next apprehension or upon his receiving the Grace you must suppose the Soul acting and moving and stirring toward God So it is in beleeving Assoon as Faith is infused so soon doth the Soul move toward God in Jesus Christ So that when I speak of the passiveness of the Soul you are not to understand it as altogether without action But the Soul is said to be passive because it is first wrought upon before it can work any thing that is supernatural The act of the Soul is not of it self but from another And there is more for degree of the vertue of him that works upon the Soul then there is of any inward form and principle or habit in the Soul But I uppose the distinction of active and passive obedience is not specifical but gradual That is that could not be called obedience wherein there was not some though not so much willingness and subjectiveness as there is bearing Christ is said to suffer not because he was not active but because that the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him And at that time there was more displeasure shewed by the Father against Christ then there was put forth of the vertues of our Lord Jesus Christ For that was the vail both of the God-head and of the Man-hood Now according unto this sence beleeving is a receiving and notes passiveness The Soul doth go unto God through Christ but that going is more from the power of God then it is from the habit of Faith It is more from that spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ then it is from that created quality which we call Beleeving We do beleeve but we are made to beleeve 2 Cor. 5.5 He that hath wrought us hereunto is God Wrought us hereunto Even as the Clay is wrought by the Hand of the Potter into this or that form as is pleasing to him So in Philip. 3. The Apostle expressed his passiveness If by any means I may attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead And apprehend that for which I am apprehended But more especially in Gala. 4.9 The Apostle doth correct himself for saying so much as this That they knew God After that they knew God or rather were known of God By knowing of God he means beleeving By his knowledg shal my righteous Servant justiffe many saith the Prophet Isa 53.11 And yet we are justified by Faith When the Apostle had said they knew God as Faith indeed doth give a man an apprehension of him because this apprehension or knowledg of him is in the light of God God makes known himself and gives that whereby he is made known he corrects himself therefore and saith I should not have said that I know God but rather that I am known of God John 3.21 It is given in as the note and tryal of the Hypocritical work of the distinction between true Grace and that which is not true Grace but counterfeit that that which is true and good is wrought and wrought in God That is it is wrought by God As the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in is used in the Scripture So that is said to be wrought in God the power and vertue whereof comes from God All actions consist of their cause and objects and ends Now as God is to be the object and the end so also to be the cause and the worker of all our actions Wrought in God You all know that Faith it is a spiritual Life In Gala. 2.20 I live by the Faith of the Son of God You know that by Faith you convert and turn to God For it is our answer in our calling Now both our life and our motion to God is from God

But most plainly in 2 Cor. 4.13 The Apostle speaks to this purpose Having saith he the same Spirit of Faith according as it s written I beleeved therefore have I spoken we also beleeve and therefore speak As the Apostle saith in 1 Pet. 1.11 That whatsoever the Prophets spake the spirit spake in them It was not they that spake but the Spirit of the Father that spake in them So the Apostle gives the Reason why he did deliver that Doctrin to the Corinthians because saith he it was suggested unto me by Faith and if you ask him how he came by that Faith he saith he had it by the Spirit It was not so much the Grace of Faith as it was the spirit of Faith which made him both to beleeve and speak It is indeed we that do beleeve As the Prophets Mouth and Lips and understanding were all used by the Spirit of Prophecy But as what they spake was put into them So what we do when we do beleeve is from the Spirit of Faith Having the same Spirit of Faith We beleeve saith the Apostle and therefore speak Beleeving is our act but it s by his vertue And that I may open this more plainly to you I shal insist upon these three Particulars I. That that Faith whereby we do beleeve is not of or from our selves but we receive it II. That in that act whereunto we are inabled by God we act as little as can be but are acted We are rather Receivers then doers III. That though we do beleeve never so little yet the least degree of Faith will give us Jesus Christ and all his priviledges As many as received him had this dignity saith he to be the Sons of God though they did but receive him For the First of these I. We cannot of our selves beleeve or receive Christ Therefore Faith is said in Ephe. 2.8 To be the Gift of God Not of our selves but through Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God He laies no more upon Faith but only this that it was the means of our Salvation God was the cheif and principal and efficient cause ye are saved through Faith but even That you have not of your selves In Colos 2.12 It s called the Faith of the operation of God Even as the Heavens are said to be the work of his Hands and the Firmament in Psal 19.1 That is none could do and frame so glorious a thing besides himself We are not able to add one degree unto our Faith when we have gotten it and therefore we cannot obtain of our selves the least degree before we have it It is far more easie for a man to increase a stock then to get it In Lacke Luke 17 7. to the renth 17.5 The Disciples come and Fray Lord increase our Faith Our Lord tels them by and by a Parable that a Master doth not use to bid a Servant when ho comes from the feild to sit down but to waite upon him til he hath supped and he thinks not that the Servant hath any praise due unto him because he waites for his meat and waites at home as well as abroad And he makes this Conclusion of it when you have done all you can say you are unprofitable Servants This being spoken upon their desire of the Lords increasing of their Faith it holds forth thus much that Let us use al the means that we can for the getting and the increasing of our Graces yet that is a work which we shal never do of our selves We shal not move God to any thing nor do any thing that shal be an addition to what God hath done Now if we cannot add to the least degree of Faith then much less can we get the first degree of Faith I say beloved we cannot receive Jesus Christ For there is no room in our Hearts naturally for him All the faculties and places and capacities of our Souls being taken up with sin and self and with Satan In Rom. 1.29 We are naturally said to be filled with all unrighteousness We are born into the world as ful of sin as we can hold It is true we add to sin but it is because our capacity to sin is made greater by sin but as great as it is it is filled But we are ful of sin and therefore their is no room for Jesus Christ And if their were any room in our souls fit for Jesus Christ it being undefiled yet we have no Heart unto Jesus Christ He came to his own John 1.11 John 5.40 and his own received him not Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Yea We cannot naturally but refuse to let Jesus Christ reigne over us For naturally sin hath our affections and is unto us as our selves A second nature and nature labors to preserve its self and therefore cannot but oppose Jesus Christ For his work is to take away sin Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world There are some material preparations unto faith as they are called whereby divers things that hinder Faith are removed in some measure And these are in the power of Nature A man may be in his Natural condition and have knowledg and yet that knowledg doth remove away ignorance which is a great hindrance unto Faith A man in his Natural state may be troubled for his sin and yet that trouble for sin doth take away pleasure in sin and that pleasure in sin is a hindrance unto Faith A man while he is in his Natural Condition may be in fear of the Judgments of God and thereby have the boldness and confidence of his presumptuous spirit somwhat abated These preparations these preparations I say are in our power But for al these a man may never beleeve upon Jesus Christ he may for ever be a stranger to him These preparations are not unto Faith as degrees of heat are unto fire There is not a necessary connexion between these and beleeving for a man may have them and perish as you know Judas had Much less are they the last disposition which immediately goes before Faith and least of all are they those things which get any thing at the hand of God But that which indeed doth prepare unto Faith properly that comes from the Spirit of Faith alone And so it 's said in Acts 16.14 That the Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend unto the things which were spoken by Paul He opened her heart that is he opened her understanding to apprehend them he opened the things themselves that she might look into them he took away the prejudices that were in her thoughts against them She had by divers waies her heart shut up against the Apostles Doctrine even as a door in a Castle is barred that it must be broken open but the Lord broke al those bars Such thoughts as these were in her self That if she should receive such Doctrines she

to be set upon the world Because the Corrupted Gentiles did not like to retayne God in their knowledg Therefore he gave them up to Covetousness in Rom. 1.21 To shew you that its a lower step and degree of misery and sinfulness for a man to be Covetous Then it s for a man to be borne without the Image of God by nature It being made a spiritual Judgment It is therefore a worse condition then that men are in by sin naturally Now al this sinfulness of sin may be aggravated these two waies 1. That here naturally we are in a state wherein we have no reason to look after the world and the things of it We are Children of wrath And what should a reprieved condemned man do with purchasing or looking after estates and possessions For a man when he is dying to be gripple and having and saving For a man when he hath his Soul to look after and but a little time for that to be looking after things which he shal never have any use of argues a great profaneness of spirit Now that is our Condition 2. And as it is aggravated from that so from this That it is needless too Math. 6.32 After al these things your heavenly Father takes Care Christ saith the care of these outward things do lye upon God Not only as he is a Father but as a Creator Though we be sinners yet we are Creatures Therefore he that cares for the Lillyes in the fields and the fowles of the Ayre wil care for man In Mark 7.20.21 From the heart comes Covetousness It is not because a man wants nor because a man may want It is not for any thing in the world but because a man loves not God and spiritual things that a man is Covetous CHAP. III. The second reason is the danger●●●●●ss of this sin it being First Hardly to be avoid●● Secondly Difficulty Cured Some things in Scripturesaid to be easy to God Some things hard Some things that are but possible unto God IN the second Place As the sin is great so it is dangerous It is easily 1. Fallen into 2. And hardly Cured We are wont to take heed and to be afraid of such diseases as are hard to be avoyded as are easily gotten and when gotten not easily but hardly cured Now Covetousness hath both these evils in it First It is hardly to be avoyded We count that infection to be dangerous and very strong which kills lusty men and that in a night a day or in a moment Covetousness hath undone the most strong of men that are unregenerate And it hath spoyled the strongest of the regenerate You shal find it to be in al sorts of men more or less in al Ages In the heathen In Rom. 1.29 In the professors of Religion the Jewes in Jer. 8.20 In all sorts of Professors David was a mighty man against sin A man able to overthrow whol troops as I may say and yet this sin incounters him and and spoyls him Our Lord Jesus Christ was as much afraid of his Disciples because of Covetousness as he was of any sin because Godly men wil be over run with this sin if they look not to it Take beed saith Christ In Luke 21.34 unto his disciples That ye be not overcharged with the cares of this world As often as I have read that place it hath been a wonder to me why Christ should speake so unto them They were Godly people and through grace their hear 〈◊〉 made as soy I that would not easily bring forth much bitter fruit They were taken into Christs service upon these termes that they should look for nothing for their service but persecution The time that Christ bids them take heed of the cares of this life was a persecuting time when there was not only warre and rumors of warre but they were begirt by their enemies Who would think that in winter time any weeds should appeare If this weed should shew it self one would think that this cold blast would have been able to have nipt it But the disciples that were Saints The disciples that were brought up alwayes in persecution yet in persecution were very apt and nothing would keep that down When he would prepare them against the Judgment of the destruction of Jerusalem and when he would prepare them to stand out against the times that they should meet withal from the Apostate Jewes He bids them beware of Covetousness In Math. 13.7 There you shal find that the third ground went further then either the first or the second did That Ground signifys a sort of hearers that were not remiss and careless of what they heard as the first sort were nor fearful of Persecution as the second sort were They receiveied the word of God and suddenly upon a present apprehension as the second sort did but they did deliberate and judg that it was better to walk holily then to be at liberty that a man had better be in chaines for a good cause then to be at liberty for the denyal of it If you observe The Holy Ghost chargeth them with no sin almost But with lawful things And among them with the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches which did choak them and by which they did become unfruitful Demas was one of that sort for he stood with Paul when he was at Rome in his first tryal when al else forsook him The Epistle to the Colossians was written when Paul was in bonds so was the Epistle to Philemon for it was sent by the servant of Phylemon who waited upon Paul in the prison And in both those Epistles Paul recommends Demas Demas saith he salutes you and he is my fellow labourer No man stood by mee that is no man but Demas and no man but Luke When I came to answer it before the Emperour al my acquaintance were shy of me and al the professors at Rome would not know me but Luke and Demas stood it out And the doctrine that I proposed they defended and the reasons that I gave they stuck to and argued This he meanes by being a fellow labourer Yet this Demas that stood out one brunt Yet when Paul comes to a second he forsakes him And what is the reason He cleaves unto this present world in 2. Tim. 4.10 So that the best of regenerate and unregenerate men find it hard work to escape the power of this sin One is foyled and the other spoyled by it This sin doth prevail in formal professors of Religion in 2. Tim. 3.5 They have a forme of Godliness Why A mong other sins he saith they are covetous Men shal be lovers of themselves and Covetous Do but consider how this sin doth take men and you wil see it is very hard to be avoided You shal find what the Apostle saith of the whol body of sin In Eph. 4.22 That it doth corrupt men by deceit Put off the old man that is corrupt according to