that more foolish than common boast of a good heart when the tongue is foul and the life filthy For when smoak comes out of the chimney there must needs be fire on the hearth When the floods of wickedness come gushing out at thine hands and mouth thire must needs be a spring in thine heart which mantains them CHAP. VII WHerefore take heed of flattering or soothing thy self up with a vain and false hope which is much more common in the World than that which is sound and good even as bastard Pearls are more frequently worn then true Pearls are And in case thou wouldest be loosed from the chains of thy sins and delivered from the chains of plagues That thou wouldest have the same Christ with his precious blood to free thee that shall with his Word sentence others Then endeavour to become a true and real Christian and resolve so neer as thou canst to obey Christ in all that he commands And indeed if Christ be formed in any he destroyeth the devils power which formerly he had in them Heb. 2.14 15. and his wicked works 1 John 3.8 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Wherefore cease to do evil learn to do well Isa 1.16 17. For fruitfulness is the best argument that we are begotten anew Nor can it be denied but the signs of salvation are to be sought in our selves as the cause in Jesus Christ Our Justification is to be proved by the fruits of our Sanctification and though faith alone justifieth yet justifying faith is never alone but ever accompanied with spiritual graces the beauties of the soul and good works the beauty of graces Yea they are as inseparable as the root and the sap the sun and its light And as fire is to be discerned by heat and life by motion so a mans faith may be discerned by the fruits of it Wherefore fancy not thy self to be a Christian until thou beest one and when thou art so thou wilt by help from above endeavour to bring into captivity every thought and thing to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 1 Joh. 2.4 And indeed the very end of Gods electing and of Christs redeeming us was that we might be holy Ephes 1.4 Matth. 19.17 And therefore he binds it with an Oath that whomsoever he redeemeth out of the hands of our spiritual enemies they shall worship him in holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives Luke 1.70 to 76. 1 Pet. 2.24 They therefore that never came to be holy were never chosen never redeemed Other Scriptures to this purpose are many see onely Tit. 2.12 14. 1 Pet. 2.24 Mat. 19.17 Nor ought any indeed to call upon Christ or once to name him with their mouths except they depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 And take this for a rule If Christ be not our King to govern us he will neither be our Prophet to forewarn nor our Priest to expiate I speak this in hope that God may it to some one that shall read the same but for the generality It is as meer lost labor to preach unto men the things of God before they be truly humbled with the sight of their wants as it is to offer light to a blinde man to speak to a deaf man or to labor to make a bruit Beast wise as Cyprian hath it CHAP. VIII THus I have proved That all who walk contrary to the Gospel are so far from being Christians that they are the Devils servants who in the end will pay them their deserved wages I come now to shew who are Christians in appearance onely or almost Christians and what their reward will be the former I fear are two thirds of the Nation these in all probability are two thirds of the Residue And of this sort are first such as are meerly civil or moral because they take morality and restraining grace for piety and renewing grace conviction for conversion reformation for regeneration True morality and civility may commend us to men like our selves that see only the outside but not to God who knows the heart nor will it bring us to Heaven and Salvation They may suppose themselves in a good estate but except they be renewed renounce their own righteousness and seek to be justified onely by Faith in Christ and his righteousness Thieves and Harlots shall go before them into the Kingdom of Heaven as our Saviour told their brethren the Scribes and Pharisees who counted themselves just and trusted to their own merits Matth. 21.31 32. Luk. 18.10 11 12. Besides as nothing is more easily broken then that which is most hard so notorious offenders are nothing so hard to be convinced and converted as the civilly honest which also greatens their misery though their condition of it self is very deplorable For all such are to know that their very best services as praying and fasting and receiving and giving of alms c. because they are not done in faith and obedience to the Word and that God may be glorified thereby are no better in Gods account than if they had slain a man or cut off a dogs neck or offered swines blood or blessed an Idol as himself affirms Isai 66.3 Nor will God accept of any action except it flow from a pious and good heart sanctified by the Holy Ghost Yea civil honesty severed from true piety humility saving knowledg sincere love to God true obedience to his Word justifying faith a zeal of Gods glory and a desire to edifie and win others God will neither accept nor reward but account of their moral vertues as of shining or glistering sins because they spring from pride ignorance infidelity self-love and other the like carnal respects as many examples prove namely Cains sacrificing 1 Joh. 3.12 The Jews fasting Isa 58. those Reprobates preaching in Christs name and casting out Devils Matth. 7.22 23. and the like whose outward works were the same which the godly perform And what saith S. Austin most excellently There is no true Vertue where there is no true Religion and that conscience which is not directed by the Word even when it does best does ill because it doth it not in faith obedience and love Secondly let them know that being out of Christ they are bound to keep the whole Law Gal. 5.2 3. or stand liable to suffer the penalty thereof for not keeping it For though this be the condition of the New Covenant Believe and thou shalt be saved yet all that they have to trust unto is Do this and live Rom. 10.5 And cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 And I wish that they would seriously think of it and what need they have of Christ whom they rather persecute then obey his Gospel in love Indeed let them get a true lively and justifying faith Put ye off concerning the former conversation the Old man which is corrupted
engagements CHAP. II. BUt wo is me How few of us are the better for all Yea what eyes can but run over to see for the most part what lives men lead The Holy Ghost tells us in the Word and we hear the same daily That every man shall be judged according to his works be they good or evil Rev. 20.13 That we shall give an account at the day of judgment for every idle word we speak Matth. 12.36 That there needs no other cause of our last and heaviest Doom then ye have not given ye have not visited c. Matth. 25.41 to 46. That the righteous shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 That many shall seek to enter in at the strait gate and shall not be able Luke 13.24 That no unrighteous person shall inherit the Kingdom of God but shall have their part and portion in that Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 1. Cor. 6.9 10 Gal. 5.21 Revel 21.8 That except our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees who were no mean men for outward and formal performances we shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 4.20 And that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 Yet most men live as if the Gospel were quite contrary to the rule of the Law as if God were neither to be feared nor cared for as if they were neither beholding to him nor stood in awe of him both out of his debt and danger Yea as if there were no God to judge nor Hell to punish nor Heaven to reward I cannot think of it without astonishment Neither would men speak as they speak think as they think do as they do if they thought that their thoughts words and deeds should ever come to judgment Yea hear O heavens be astonished O earth and horribly afraid that such a Nation so blest and so long forborn should be so foolish and ingratefull as thus to requite the Lord. As consider with me God of his goodness hath bestowed so many and so great mercies upon us that it is not possible to express his bounty therein For if we look inward we finde our Creators mercies if we look upward his mercy reacheth unto the Heavens if downward the Earth is full of his goodness and so is the broad Sea if we look about us what is it that he hath not given us air to breathe in fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us fruits to refresh us yea delicates to please us beasts to serve us Angels to attend us Heaven to receive us and which is above all Himself and his own Son to be enjoyed of us Yea God of his goodness hath removed so many evils from us and conferred so many good things upon us that they are beyond thought or imagination For if the whole World were turned into a Book and all the Angels deputed Writers therein they could not set down all the good which Gods love in Christ hath done us And as much do we owe unto God for the dangers from which he delivers us As for the great wealth and dignities whereunto he hath always raised us Now we are infinitely bound to bless God for his external temporal inferior earthly perishing benefits How much more then should we praise him for the lasting fruits of his eternal love and mercy as that we are not at this present frying in Hell flames never to be freed that we have the offer of Heaven and eternal salvation How thankful should we strive to be Nor could we possibly be unthankful if we seriously thought upon what God gives and what he forgives And certainly if a friend had given us but a thousand part of what God hath we should heartily love him all our lives and think no thanks sufficient But that we may the better consider what God hath done for us observe that when man was in a most miserable and undone condition by reason of original and actual sin and of the curse due to both being liable to all miseries in this life and adjudged to suffer eternal torments in hell fire after death having no possibity to escape the fierce wrath of Almighty God who had already passed sentence upon him When neither Heaven Earth nor Hell could have yielded any satisfactory thing besides Christ that could have satisfied Gods justice and merited Heaven for us Then O then God in his infinite wisdom and goodness did not onely find out a way to satisfie his justice and the Law but even gave us his own Son out of his bosom and his Son gave himself to die even the most shameful painful and cursed death of the Cross to redeem us that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 A mercy bestowed and a way found out that may astonish all the sons of men on earth and Angels in Heaven Wherefore O wonder at this you that wonder at nothing that the eternal God should die to redeem our worse then lost souls that we might not die eternally and to bring salvation to us even against our wills 2 Cor. 8.9 O the deepness of Gods love O the unmeasurable measure of his bounty O Son of God who can sufficiently admire thy love or commend thy pity or extol thy praise It was a wonder that thou madest us for thy self more that thou madest thy self man for us but most of all that thou shouldest unmake thy self that thou shouldest die to save us But behold and stand amazed at the return we make of so many mercies For whereas God hath removed so many evils spiritual and corporal temporal and eternal from us and conferred so many good things upon us we by way of requital have striven to multiply offences against him and to make them as infinite in number as his blessings Loth I am to accuse my Nation but Conscience compels me for we are so far from loving and serving Christ for his unspeakable and unexpressible love towards us that what he commands we do the contrary Yea we have done nothing from our infancy but added sin unto sin as God hath added mercy to mercy There is no part power function or faculty either of our souls or bodies that is not become a ready instrument to dishonour their Maker Even every part dishonours Christ which yet would be glorified of him And as if we had contracted with the Devil that we would abuse all our heavenly Fathers gifts so fast as they come his blessings make us proud his riches covetous his peace wanton his meats intemperate his mercy secure and all his benefits serve us but as weapons to rebel against him As we have been fatted with Gods blessings we have spurned at his precepts Resembling the Leopard who wrongs him most that gives him most fodder O my brethren Englands unthankfulness hath striven ven with Gods goodness for the
Christian but an Hypocrite may do somewhat like it A man may attain to many gifts and seeming graces and make a great progress in Religion yea he may do all as to external duties and worship that a true Christian can do and yet be but almost a Christian As observe what God saith Isai 58. of that people They seek me daily They delight to know my way as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God They ask of me the Ordinances of Justice They take delight in approaching to God vers 2. yea in the next verse They were a people much in fasting and afflicting their souls Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest it not And yet for all this they were no better then a generation of Hypocrites as you may finde if you read the Chapter Some neither hear nor do as prophane sinners some both hear and do as true Believers some hear but do not as hypocritical Professors A man may believe all the truths of the Gospel all the promises all the threatnings all the Articles of the Creed to be true and yet perish for want of saving faith A man may be converted from a course of prophaneness to a form of godliness from a filthy conversation to a fair profession and yet be but almost a Christian A man may be outwardly reformed and yet not savingly renewed c. CHAP. XI BUt would you know who are indeed Christians as Saint Paul was and who but almost Christians as Agrippa was Or rather wouldst thou rightly know the sincerity of thine own heart of thy profession of thy Religion which as one would think should be the earnest desire of every ingenious soul then ask thy conscience these questions Art thou sensible how evil and wicked thou art Dost thou seriously lay to heart first the corruption of thy nature by reason of Original sin secondly thy manifold breach of Gods righteous Law by actual sinne thirdly the guilt and punishment due to thee for them both And in case thou art truly sensible of thy wretchednesse it is a good sign that thou art in some forwardnesse to be recovered And indeed the very first step to grace is to feel the want of grace and the necessity of a Redeemer And the next way to receive mercy is to see your self miserable Dost thou find that the Word and Spirit hath wrought an apparent change in thy judgment affections and actions to what they were formerly is Christ thy greatest joy sin thy greatest sorrow and grace the prime object of thy desires Art thou as conscientious alone and in private where God onely sees thee as if thy greatest enemy or all the World did behold thee Dost thou make conscience of evil thoughts grieve for thy unprofitableness under the means of grace for the evil which cleaves to thy very best actions and for sins of Omission Whatever thou enjoyest on this side Hell dost thou think thy self unworthy of it Dost thou more fear the want of grace then confide in what thou hast Dost thou endeavour to leave every sin and make conscience of every duty Dost thou make Gods glory the chief end of all thy actions and aims Dost thou desire the conversion of others Then my soul for thine thou art more then almost a Christian Again the love of grace in another is a good proof of the life of grace in our selves a child of God cannot love a sinner as a sinner Psal 15.4 Prov. 29.27 So a sinner cannot love a child of God as a child of God Briefly when a mans heart is throwly renewed by grace his mind savingly enlightned his conscience throwly convinced the will truly humbled and subdued the affections spiritually raised and sanctified and when mind and will and conscience and affections all join issue to help on with performance of duties commanded then is a man altogether a Christian But contrarily he that takes up with a form of Godliness hating or denying the power thereof is an Hypocrite ipso facto And let men take heed of that sin with two faces and whose reward is the deepest place in Hell as appears by Matth. 23. And the rather for that wickedness does most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled Besides the scab of Hypocrisie does not seldom break out into the plague sore of Apostacy Julian the Apostate was first Julian the Professor To conclude if thou findest not these notes of sincerity in thy self let it be the earnest desire of thy soul and thy principal endeavour to obtain the same Otherwise woe unto thee For outward profession where there is want of inward truth and real practice does but help to draw on and aggravate judgment The Scribes and Pharisees had not heard of so many woes but for their glorious pretences and had the Figtree in the Gospel been utterly bare and leafless it had in all probability escaped the curse Thus mistake through ignorance is one great cause of many mens falling short of their hopes and of their being but almost Christians while they think themselves Christians indeed CHAP. XII BUt Secondly Pride is another cause We are so proud by nature that we have an eye to see our beauty but not our deformity our parts but not our spots our seeming righteousness but not our real-naughtiness our spiritual wretchedness We have all for the most part a self righteousness Every man says Luther is born with a Pope in his belly But it must be the work of grace onely that will make us see our extream vileness and that will make us acceptable to God and it must be the work of grace that must shew a man his want of grace It is the Believers Motto The least of Saints the greatest of Sinners But the Carnal mans Motto is I thank God I am not as other men Eph. 3.8 1 Tim. 1.15 Luke 18.11 But the onely way to become good is first to believe that we are evil Thirdly Another cause is Laziness and the love of the World Almost thou perswadest me to become a Christian says Agrippa to Paul but he could not find in his heart to become one altogether for then he must live a more strict life and relinquish the worlds wicked customs So Balaam could be willing to die the death of the righteous but to part with his covetousness and live the life of the righteous he could not finde in his heart And therefore Christ profited him nothing Hell is to be had with ease but the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence Matth. 11.12 Many shall seek to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but shall not be able because they did not strive Luke 13.24 Yea many run well in the way of Christianity for a while but they do not hold out Gal. 5.7 But perseverance is the crown of all grace and Heaven the crown of perseverance It is said of the truly righteous he shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 And it