What indeed can harm you if God be for you and God will not be against you if you are followers of that which is good For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men to crush under his feet the prisoners of the earth Lam. 3. 33 34. Wherefore then may it be said Doth the living man complain the holy Spirit gives the answer For the punishment of his sin The joy of our heart is ceased our dance is turned into mourning the Crown is fallen from off our head Wo unto us for we have sinned Lam. 15. 16. A multitude of Scriptures might be urged further to prove both unwillingness in God to afflict and that the very Cause of all our Wo both temporal and eternal is our misdoing O that my people had hearkened to my voyce and walked in my wayes I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries Psal 81. 13 14. Now in reason were the Cause of Affliction considered to be only from our selves procured by our misdoing and sent with tendency to our mending we should surely pray more to have it sanctified than removed Secondly Ignorance of the Necessity of Affliction is a Cause of this Decay the very unwillingness of God to bring it and the creature to indure it fully proves that there is Necessity for it there cannot be more undelightfulness in the creature to undergo languishing than there is in God to put him under languishing How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Idma How shall I set thee as Zeboim My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Hos 11. 8. When he was come near and beheld the City he wept over it Luke 19. 41. Now Gods unwillingness proves the creature cannot live at any spiritual rate without it and indeed Experience proves the same Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word Psal 119. 67. David wandred from the Fould and were like to continue till Affliction spoke to him he forgot himself and what he was a doing The wicked saith the Psalmist are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued like other men therefore pride compasseth them about as a Chain violence covereth them as a garment and what use do they make of it they say how doth God know and is there knowledge in the most High This clearly notes that a condition freest from trouble or affliction generally is attended with carnallest behaviour God-ward When I had fed them to the full they then committed Adultery and assembled by troops into Harlots houses Jer. 5. 7. By all this it appears that it is from ignorance of Afflictions necessity if we pray more to have it removed than sanctified Thirdly Ignorance of the End of Affliction is a Cause of this Decay now the Cause being Sin and the Necessity being to humble the End is to save Now all Gods dealings are mercy whatsoever he doth to the creature is like himself and in it self is mercy if he give us all we desire and would have it is Mercy if he keep us without it it is Mercy Health from him is Mercy so is Sickness Plenty from him is Mercy so is Poverty Health Life Strength and such like Favours temporal every body will acknowledge to be Mercy but their contrary few or none will account Mercy yet this is Mercy also for this Checquer work the World is made of some at the same time are wringing their hands for sorrow while others are clapping their hands for joy some with straitâ— through Sickness and Poverty are Weeping others through Health and Plenty rejoycing Now the great difficulty is how to bring the heart to look upon the state of Weeping as truly Mercy as the state of Rejoycing For which end consider why we do account Health Plenty and such like Injoyments Mercy but because they have in them an esteeming and desirable good a seasonable and sutable good it is the same with the contrary they are as seasonable and as sutable could our frail hearts so receive them for they are as truly from the Lord as the other and as truly have the same end in them There are two great Ends in all God doth one is his Honour the other is our Salvation now if God give us what we would have his End is the same and if he give us the contrary his End is the same and Christians certainly misconstruing his End to be Mercy is the Cause they misconstrue his Actions to be Mercy That both are Mercy read Exod. 13 17. There God led them through the wilderness an unbeaten way where they wanted both bread and water and yet both End and Action Mercy to bring them to Canaan and deliver them from harm by the Philistines Remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years through that great and terrible wilderness wherein was fiery Serpents and Scorpions and Drought and no Water that he might humble thee and prove thee to the good at thy latter end It is too evident that Israel construed this hard dealing from God but it was great Mercy as the text fully proves Ignorance therefore of the End of Affliction is a Cause why we pray more to have it Removed than Sanctified CHAP. XXIV Containing in it six Seasons in which Christians ought to humble themselves by fasting proving those under great decay that in times of calamity can find no necessity for fasting SIGN XIV WHen under Gods Calamity you can neither find necessity nor excellency to humble your selves by fasting As prayer rightly put up to God is a way and means by which he many times is prevailed with both to remove judgments and sanctifie them even so fasting is Gods way in which he hath often been found and it is the more prevailing with him in so much as it hath in it a gratious tendency to abase and humble the soul and make it more fit to receive the kind impression of his precepts in opening of his promises together with the reverencing him because of his threatnings it being a season not only of laying the soul low in its own eyes at the sensible sight of his own vileness but a marvellous exalting the gratious and long-forbearance of God forcing the heart to cry out what manner of love is this that we should be called the Children of God who was before wallowers in the works of darkness that leads to the Chambers of death but now by his grace though once far off made nigh of an Alien made a home dweller All these things are brought to remembrance very fresh in fasting Seasons that being a time of calling to mind things past and though calamity be as truly Gods mercy as the contrary having in it the same design of Salvation good yet it is more properly sent in order to reducing from those straings it finds such persons
would be by way of change your hearts were wonderfully taken up with admiring this choyce that were not only of Gods preparing to Redeem you from the highest Wrath but to Redeem you to the highest Glory I fear your hearts now this change is not so new is unable to express what once though in the time you had less Knowledge you could have reported of this matter the sense of Wrath then at Gods unfolding your condition being so apparent and the necessity of a Saviour without which you must perish being so urgent put you upon that thoughtfulness of heart what to do that you might not Perish but be Saved and filled your hearts and hands so full of better Business that Husband Wife Children House Land Trade and whatsoever else till then had been dear to you now became strange in your esteem thus did you run well and of Christ Jesus were known well your fruit being sweet to his taste and love in each answered love with such delight that you could say with David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and whom in Earth in comparison of thee Was not then the light of his countenance life to you and his withdrawings your death none but Christ could satisfie you to be talking with him and walking with him and whether he is in the Garden or Wilderness or any Solitary place you must be with him nay rather could you not bleed with him than feast without him thus in nothing more happy than with your Beloved wondering greatly at this great Grace that in such a condition should find you and to such a condition bring you look back call to remembrance dayes past was it not thus with you and a thousand times more But how is it now you have seen some of the depth of Christs love and born the heat of the day in some measure Do you love him yet more and more Is Prayer Hearing Reading Weeping Watching Fasting Doing Suffering welcome still Doth the pulse of your Soul run this way stronger and stronger The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day Are ye able to speak in truth this to be your condition Or do you grow weary and faint in your mind thinking now Christs way too strait his work too great If it be come to this then it is a piece of the saddest news that ever came to thy Soul Yet God knows it is no new thing but an evil too too common among Professors who like Israel of old thought Manna while new most welcome yet in its continuance though Gods own Institution which was a reason sufficient why it still should be welcome they loath and term it light Bread thus were their goodness like a morning cloud or early dew that passeth away In like manner New Testament Churches that had fair and flourishing beginnings yet in time comes to hang down their heads and grow feeble and faint in their minds How were the Corinth Church that had been their Apostles glory and crown become his sorrow and grief what bitter messages doth God send to most of the Churches in Asia complaining that they had fallen from their first love threatning them with no less than to Unchurch and spew them out of his mouth such wild Grapes in time did this once flourishing Church bring forth and the very complaint of Jeremiah concerning Israel in them verified Chap 2. 21. Yet had I planted thee a noble Vine wholly a right Seed how then art thou turned into a degenerate Plant of a strange Vine to me My dear Brethren these are not the tyth of the sad instances that might be alledged of such as once were fair and flourishing yet in continuance of time to a sad degree left their standing and so incurred Gods sore displeasure and severity upon them all which premised proves it so far from being any of our happiness to begin well though at the rate here mentioned in our Espousal dayes that truly it will but prove an addition to our unhappiness if we shall not end well for better is the end of a thing than the beginning All which notes a Christians true good to consist as in a fair beginning so both to hold on well and above all to end well What Christian is he that will not tremble then to consider both old and new Testament Churches what fair beginnings they made and yet what dismal ends they came to as Jude complains Trees without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots The good Lord help you my Brethren and my self to lay this thing to heart that with fear and trembling we may work through our Salvation and from first to last avoyd that damning sin of carnal security that God knows doth too too much rock many Professors in our dayes into a deadly sleep who being once green and flourishing still retain a strong opinion of hereafter Glory though grown as dry and barren as the Fig-tree that Christ Jesus would not suffer to stand Thus considering with my self and musing in my mind what a fearful thing it would be for me and you that have had such like beginnings and have made as great promise of a good conclusion to fall into the hands of the living God who will strip us as naked of his Glory if here we are found wanting as ever we were born unless the falling of former Churches prove so our admonition as he that standeth takes heed lest he fall for which cause I have both for your benefit and mine own gathered together Thirty Symptomes of Growing and Thirty more of Decaying to Godliness in the first you may for present only read the Signs of Growth in the second you may read both the Signs of Decay to Godliness with the Causes and Remedies which with Gods blessing I humbly pray and hope may tend to your strengthening if Growing or to your speedy reducement if Declining Read therefore what now by the help of the Lord is brought to your eye with much seriousness and while you look upon the Book be still reflecting both upon the heart and life with this kind of searching language Is my case thus or is it thus However your own opinions may be of Growth or Decay they are your Highest Concernment Entertain therefore with all love my poor yet affectionate Dedication remembring the Marriage of the Lambe draweth nigh and his Bride must make her self ready Be sure then you be not found without your Wedding Garment but imagine your selves the very next door to Being compassed with the majesty of that day let the thoughts of it keep you company in Buying Selling Eating Drinking yea in the whole course of your Pilgrimage and follow God with incessant Prayers to fill your Souls brim full of the living Worth of hereafter Glory and the unsupportable weight of its contrary That to this great end these my poor Labours and such as these in the glory of their perfection may
Wilderness for there is no bread neither any water and our souls loath this light bread Here Gods own institution that once was welcome to them and being now they was mighty eager after it in so much that they could dispence with breaking a law to gather it as Exod. 16. at large proves where we read of its first institution this Manna that the Holy Ghost Psal 78. 25. calls Angels food they now loath and call light bread this Manna though Gods own appointment that fed them to the full and was to continue with them till they come to eat the old corne in the Land of promise Josh 5. 12. yet this they loath under its constant injoyment and wish for Egypts food again How zealous were persons in this age ten or twelve years ago when truth begun more clearly to break forth no cost or early pains mattered happy were they that could come soonest then were assemblies crouded good men incouraged to labor Gods name delightfully worshipped in so much that without wrong one might say since such dayes the Kingdome of Heaven have suffered violence and the violent take it by force is Gods hand shortned that such workings of heart are not now as was then is not now assemblies thin performances small seldome and late is it because God is a Wilderness to his people is it not because they surfeit under fulness Doth not many run too and fro that knowledge is increased and sons and daughters prophesie How then may this serve to rebuke that sloathful Spirit in any that are careless to assemble and calls on them to be restless with God till they are again restored to such a Spirit of zeal as they had in the dayes of their first Espousal lukewarmness here being that inlet sin to spiritual spoiling disappointing God of gratious opportunities to inrich them and thorow this neglectance offers daring occasion to the Devil to tempt them Doth not the holy Apostle Rom. 10. 14 15. plainly imply an impossibility of believing in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear saith he without a Preacher as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things doth not this saying in so many words declare the reason of perishing to be want of knowledge Hos 4. 6. And the cause of ignorance the want of preaching How doth this then commend Gods high approbation of assembling it being the proper season for preaching Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name In an evil time when many grew weary and said it is a vain thing to serve the Lord what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and walked mournfully before him then such as met often were high in Gods account Alas alas is not preaching though accompanied with never so much inward and outward pains-taking then matter of scorn to standers by who live vainly also a joy to the Devil our grand adversary when few attend it and of those most part flat low indisposed and weary having little spiritual life or vigor in them on whom common custome to assemble hath eaten out the spiritual relish that should be in them but I shall close this with Gods counsel Heb. 10. 24 25. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin Doth not this dismall conclusion ver 26. proffer it self as the most probable end of such as cease to assemble and makes way for their fearful and inevitable ruine shall any dare then to content themselves with light excuses to hinder their assembling and not rather provoke and exhort one another to so good a work I shall conclude this first Sign of dying to Christ with offering briefly three Remedies how it may be removed where begun or prevented where like to come First consider and lay to heart That to assemble is a very weighty duty and requires all your heart Isa 35. 3. Encline your ear come unto me hear your souls shall live see Prov. 8. 34 35. Blessed is the man that heareth me watching dayly at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors for who so findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favour of the Lord. Plainly noting that diligent hearkning which cannot be without assembling is the way to life therefore not to be slightly looked at Acts 3. 23. Every soul that will not hear this Prophet shall be cut off from amongst the People Persons may think it a light thing to forbear hearing and an offence onely to the assembly but God will count it a despising him and the means he hath ordained The Chrildren of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of Battel they kept not Gods Covenant but refused to walk in his Law therefore the Lord heard this and a fire was kindled in his wrath against Jacob For their hearts was not right with God Let us take heed therefore that we refuse not him that spake from Heaven but as we must consider that it is a weighty duty to assemble so it requires that we come with all our hearts this God calls for and where it is wanting performances will not be acceptable This people draw nigh me with their mouths and honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me Isa 29. 13. it is Gods complaint by Jeremiah Juda hath not turned to me with her whole heart but fainedly with a heart and a heart a heart as much a contrary way as that way they were indifferent as willing not to turn as to turn this makes offerings to be abhord the contrary by Christians must be made at Blessed are they that seek him with their whole heart Psal 119. 25. Lesse then the whole heart begets jarring prevents harmony hinders the spiritual building A second Remedy is to consider that it is not possible to prevent this spirit of indifferency but by continuing as industruous to keep what ye have gained as you were to get it the prayers the teares the searchings of heart the attentive hearing and frequent assemblings that you in order to your first Espousal did diligently follow you must still hold on in that you may keep and increase the same for the promises run in no other channel Prov. 2. 4. If thou seek for wisdome as for silver and search for it as for hid treasure Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Hos 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the
Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come to us as the raine the latter and former raine unto the earth God will be to such as follow on to know him in his way as the former and latter raine is to the earth which without it is dry and barren but being refreshed therewith proves green and fruitfull Now alass persons when once they are gotten in Christs Fould think their work well nigh done but God knows it is but then begun their Labour before was but to come into the vineyard and there I am sure they must not be idle they are put there to work to be lights to others and shew forth Christs vertues and there God will prune them dresse them water them but it is that they may be fruitfull else they must be plucked up as cumberrers of the ground do not therefore think your work is now neer done for you are but now begun you are now entred into the warr listed under your Captain Christ Jesus and must till death continue fighting striving and overcoming that at last you may overcome therefore if you read prayed fasted watched weeped assembled much before now do it much more 2 Cor. 5. We labour or made a business of it to be accepted of God and saith the holy Apostle Peter writing to them which had obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God and Jesus Christ our Savour and had escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust exhorts them to give all diligence to add to their faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knewledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love for if these things be in you and abound they make you neither barren nor unfruitful But if they lack these things they are blind and cannot set a farr off but have forgotten they was purged from their old sins 2 Pet. 1. 2. One would think that persons that had gone thus farr as to obtain like precious faith with Gods elect and were purged from their old sins having escaped or were escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust might have well nigh done their work yet the holy Ghost here shews them that now their work is but begun and saith they must give All diligence so saint Paul to the Philipians Chap. 2. 12 My brethren as you have alwaies obeyed both in my presence absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling from all this we may learn that it s no being idle in Christs Vineyard if it cost us much diligence to get in it must cost us much more to keep in so I shall conclude this second Remedy with the holy Ghosts counsel to the Church of the Hebrews Chap. 6. 11 12. And we desire that every one of you marke it well do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that you be not sloathful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Thirdly a third Remedy may be this that you would humbly and constantly endeavour to profit something in every assembly make it your care to be still doing or geting good then you are about your daies work content not your selves to come together from day to day and wait under the ministry going a way without gain but come to the assembly with sensibility of many things you yet want this will quicken your zeal ripen your expectation and prepare way for God that delights to be rich in giving to give you richly You will profit little though you want never so much if you are little sensible of your wants and God will give you little because you will be but capable to improve little for where the sence of want is low there the pulse God-ward will beat faintly and nothing more doth occasion this indifferency to assemble then seeing it amount to little in the profit and advantage to persons that are frequent in attending it makes them count better stay at home than be never the better for their meeting together Mal. 3. 14. You have said it is a vain thing to serve the Lord and what profit is it that we have keept his ordinances and walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts They went not surely the right way to expect profit nor had their eye upon right profit but something they did propose to themselves in coming that they got not and so cries out it is in vain to serve him it is even thus among professors now if they see meetings come to little though the fault be only in themselves it ends to make them think lightly of assembling Who is there among you saith God Mal. 1. 10. that would shut the doors for naught or kindle a fire on my Altar for naught he that ploweth ploweth in hope he that soweth soweth in hope that is persons that do work expect and count upon fruit therefrom they will not do it for nothing and indeed it is but reasonable he that plants a vineyard should drink of the wine thereof great layings out preparing the heart for expectations of great returns and when persons do lay out count upon answerable returns as they righteously may God being pleased they should and this coming to pass tends much to their encouragement Object But some may say I have gone long to the assemblies and gone on purpose sensible of many wants and have counted upon to profit as here you direct me yet for al this I am ready to grow weary for I see it come to little I am still shalow in my understanding and weake in my memory Ans I shall answer this objection two ways first by praying you to enquire whether that little you do know and have learned you do put into practise What can ingage God more to teach you to know more than walking up to what you do know Oh thou that art named the house of Jacob is the spirit of the Lord straitned are these his doings Doth not my words do good to them that walks uprightly Mica 2. 7. see to it whether you live not much short of what you do know and if you find you do as some such defect must needs be the cause why you profit so little then you will see great reason God should not trust you with five Talents seeing you improve not two But secondly seeing you do profit little Be troubled much let it be your burthen while persons in assembling gain but little and are but little troubled they are not like to have their condition much mended To come often and profit little is very sad but to be unsensible of ones wants is much sadder Whereas on the contrary to be in want and so sensible of ones want that they go burthened up and down is the best way to get remedy when Joseph was in affliction some that were concerned to bear part
and others in one of these cases As for matter will they not reply it is such as I know already as well as the Minister can tell me otherwise it is but poor weak ordinary matter and as to the manner will they not reply either he speakes too high or too loud that they like not or in their account not high enough too low that they like not otherwise in their account too fast or too slow and all this they like not Now as to the man this being first premised he is one that hath ordinary approbation and seale from heaven to his Ministry in the working through grace sinners to conversion why as to such a man they dislike him and manifest their dislike yet being asked can give no reason nay it is probable to say truly they cannot tell why they dislike him but yet they do they are not free to hear such a man Is not this a silly weakeness got among some professors the good Lord undeceive and humble such surely it 's possible for some to show deslike in some or all these cases and as little cause for â—t as Corah and his company had to dislike as they did Moses and Aaron Numb 16. 3. They gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift ye up your selves above the congregation of the Lord. How causeless this carriage was from Corab Dathan Abiram with two hundred and fifty Princes the Lord from Heaven in a way not common discovers they that die die not the common death of all men as that Chapter fully shews so heinous was their sin in Gods account to murmur against his servants without a cause And is it then a new thing that such be in Churches now in this decaying Sign of dislâ—king matter manner or man was not this very Spirit got into the Corinth Church and bold even to shew it self against that holy man St. Paul that had begotten them to the faith 2 Epist 10 For his Letters say they are weighty and powerful but his bodily presence weak and his speech contemptible Here they was not sparing to vent themselves the small cause they had yea the unreasonableness of that their dislike let the considerate judge whose conscience is not asleep Again in 1 Cor. 4. such a like Spirit discovers it self after so ungratious a rate as that Wise-mans reply will evidence in vers 3. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or mans judgment they account the Apostles fools themselves wise the Apostles weak themselves strong by all this without adding what Scripaures more might be added it is very evident if we will take the holy Spirits testimony that such persons under this very Sign were in the Apostles dayes and doth not also the testimony of a good conscience say there are such even now Object But how comes this to pass Answ This defect seems to arise from this even selfe-conceitedness tall thoughts in some of their own great abilities comparing themselves with themselves and so think what they ought not of themselves But as a help against this disease I would remind what the Apostle writes to such like people or at least to prevent such a distemper Rom. 10. 3. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man which is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think But to think Soberly as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Clearly implying that God hath not dealt to every man the same measure or knowledg or reach in Gospel truths And least they be hasty to pass Judgment upon others he would have them think soberly of themselves And when they are ready to manifest dislike rather to account it their weakness than strength and so to be silent CHAP. V. Containing five Causes of deceit fully thinking we know enough with four marks to know when we are under that deceit SIGN V. VVHen you think you know enough The greatness of this defect and the danger of it may be seen if something be premised and considered When you think you know enough that is you are grown so tall in the knowledge of God and the Ordinances of his House the way to his Kingdome the strength of your adversaries the Flesh World and Devil and the plague of your own heart for all this must be premised as being in such persons as think they know enough if their thoughts be not gross deceit and then what need of Hearing or Assembling or crying after knowledge or lifting up the voyce for understanding Is not this gross deceit grown somewhat common but of dangerous tendency to knock both heart and hand from off the means God hath ordained to encrease and sanctifie Knowledg Is not such a conceit the road way to Atheisme Were it not gotten among some sleepy Christians in the Apostles time Doth not that saying 1 Cor. 8. 2 3. directly aim at such If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know But if any man love God the same is known of him As much as if the Apostle should say you think you know much truly if you know so much as that you love God you are known of him and if you know this you know what you can know in this life but if you know not this you know nothing yet as ye ought to know whatever you think of your selves and therefore look to it that you love God and dwell not about this or that tall conceit of your knowledge but if you or any man love him the same is known of him And this I shall humbly add if any man love God the same hath learned to think soberly or meanly of himself But the danger of this appears further if we consider that some for being under this Dying Sign were about to be spewed out of Gods mouth Revel 3. 17. Because thou saist I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of Nothing yet art so ignorant or knowest not that thou art wretched miserable poor blind and naked How doth the Holy Spirit illustrate to us the miserable estate of this People under this Dying Sign Wretched one would think that enough yet he adds Miserable and that is not enough to set it out but they are Poor Blind and naked in a word they are quite the contrary to what they think of themselves and what is in growing Christians Now I shall with Gods help show some Causes of this Deceit you may think you know enough First when you measure what you know by your own eyes or light you do think so not measuring what you know by the Rule of Knowledge the Word of God 1 Cor. 10. 12. For we dare not make our selves of the number or compare
The necessity of believing this is evidenced by the sad consequence of the contrary for denying Christ Jesus to be a fleshly substance and converting him into a Spirit any Spirit or every Spirit and so in truth deny the Christ of God And then blind injudicious men may form to themselves and world what they will fancy to call their Christ This premised I shall now speak of offences what they are and what offences are not to hinder There are three sorts of Offences First Offences given and taken Secondly Offences given and not taken Thirdly Offences taken and not given First Offences given and taken are such as when Nations or Persons when not provoked by invasion to defend yet by invadeing others will offend now they that defend defending here Offences are given and taken Secondly Offences given and not taken when we bless them that curse us do good to them that do hurt to us pray for them that despightfully use us Thridly Ofâ—â—nces taken and not given are when at a seeming and no real cause persons are moved and disquieted Christ Jesus coming in the dayes of his humiliation not as he will come after the dayes of his exaltation or at his second coming proved a seeming cause was no real cause for the Jews to stumble at him his visage was marred more than any mans when they looked for him to come and presently restore Israel Now such Offences taken and not given is the intent of this sixt Sign under the terme Small so that when persons give way to their passions and are so moved at something which seems to be a just Offence to them from brethren or any other without or before they had duly weighed not suspending all kind of dislike till in the ballance they have tryed whether it be really an Offence or but seemingly so is a sign of great weakness proving that such are under some spiritual decay marked out though upon another account by Christ Jesus Mat. 13. 20 21. But he that received the seed into stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it but when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word by and by be is offended Now persecution and tribulation is no real cause of Offences but rather an encouragement to hold fast the word being one common mark such are in the truth the Apostle Paul makes it an argument of this kind 1 Thes 3. 5. For this cause when I could no longer forbear I sent to know your faith least by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labour be in vain We would have no man moved by these afflictions for your selves know we are appointed thereto and instead of being offended we are commanded to glory in tribulation this may teach us to bemoan such and beg them be warn'd not to keep themselves from Christs Table because of this or that seeming or real miscarriage in others if in order to their reducement from it we have done our duty For any therefore to estrange themselves from Christs Table it being no less than a refusing the food he hath prepared because things go not just as they would have them doth greatly argue the stop to be in themseves though not by such heeded they being great wanderers abroad into the wayes of others perhaps more busying themselves than they ought and yet as great strangers at home to self-examination and due personal preparation which where ever it is is that indeed that so warrantably cals persons to come to Christ Jesus Feast of Bread and Wine purchased with his blood that negligence therein will prove no less than their great sin What is it therefore that should keep us from that service wherein by faith we are to feed as it were upon the flesh of the Son of God Whose flesh is meat indeed and whose blood is drink indeed Truly nothing but self-unworthiness or unpreparedness Surely surely the spiritual growing Christian whose hungrings and thirstings are after hourly communion with Jesus Christ can better forgo his natural food a thousand times than yeild to a stop from this performance Let us therefore examine our selves that we are meet subjects discerning the Lords Body and so let us eat that Bread and drink that Cup. Now the Causes of this decay or yeilding upon small Offences to absent from Christs Table may be these three First Too great Ignorance who are the Subjects Christ calls to this Service Secondly Too too great aptness to be easily provoked Thirdly Want of Love to Jesus Christ the Author of this Service First Too great Ignorance who are the Subjects Christ calls to this Service which consists in a misconstruing his general invitation to all penitent believing baptized Disciples who have had an orderly admittance thus far and by way of Precept are injoyned both to come to this Service and continue in it The same day were added to the Church three thousand souls and they continued stedfast in the Apostles doctrine fellowship breaking of Bread and prayer it is peculiarly unto such appointed and sanctified that they may keep in remembrance their Lord and Saviour So often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lords death till he come But I would not be mistaken here as that I mean the outward badge of these only makes right Subjects for Christs Call yet this outward must be but wo to it when it is alone The Kings daughter is to be all glorious within as well as her garment of pure gold The hungerer and thirster after his supply that sensibly sees all his springs to be in him and as the Hart panteth after the brooks of water hath his foul crying Oh when shall I come and appear before him negligence to be thus fitted causeth ignorance of Christs Call But Secondly Too too great aptness to be easily provoked Some Christians are so weak that they will be still forming discontent to themselves ill interpreting others actions and straining at every Gnat which generally comes through weakness in judgment and unaptness to be busying themselves with their high Calling the worth of Gods gracious priviledges afforded them by which means the inward man is too much raked or made raw and so apt to smart at every little touch as special care therefore must be had in Churches that none give just offence so that none upon too light account take offence for it doth but argue such Children or Babes in Christianity and greatly robs themselves of that spiritual refreshing strength that otherwise might be their present portion and fills their heart with disquieting thoughts to the hindring their spiritual appetite from taking in that rich refreshment Christ Jesus Table is furnisht with for every prepared guest But Thirdly Want of love to Jesus Christ the Author of this Service All those motives that provokes the heart to love Jesus Christ should be active now viz. The greatness of his love to purchase
sin and suffer too by the one others do us wrong by the other we do our selves wrong St. Paul meets with some Christians in the Corinth Church under this Dying Sign 1 Cor. 7. 6. Brother goeth to Law with Brother and that before the unjust too He prescribes the Remedy that they rather take wrong though from Brethren and suffer themselves to be defrauded The Proverb is worth our heeding in this kind it will not countervail our cost better patiently take the wrong than with sinning seek our right I shall now come to two or three Causes of this Decay which being observed and avoyded may also serve as Remedies against this decay or dying Sign First the first Cause is want of Government over our own spirits Secondly Too high esteem of worldly Injoyments Thirdly Cumbring our selves with any business For the first viz. Want of government over our own spirit that is not being Lords over our own passions having them at our Christian beck when to be angry and to what degree Ignorance of our bounds here makes us Beast-like I were envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked saying I have washed my heart in vain and cleansed my hands in innocency Psal 73. So foolish and ignorant was I even as a Beast before thee He that hath no Rule over his own Spirit is like a City without walls and broken down Want of government over our own spirit makes us as naked or desolate as an unfortified City whose walls are broken down Prov. 25. 28. Secondly Too high esteem of worldly Injoyments He that will hardly be moved at a bigger thing will not easily be moved for a pin All offences are a kind of loss being something that crosseth the grain of our spirit now answerable to the estimation we have more or less of our loss will our offence taking be It is putting too high a value of earthly Injoyments as Husband Wife Children House or Land Gold or Silver that makes us so impatient at their loss or leaving Set your affection saith St. Paul on things above not on things below The time is short it remaineth that they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that buy as though they possessed not 1 Cor. 7. 29. The Apostle would have them to carry about with them their outward Injoyments as a Traveller carries his old Coat about with him every day thinking to throw it of and if he loose it or be robbed of it doth not much trouble himself for he sets little value upon it Would Christian Travellers seek to soar high in their affections how little would this little little worldly pelf seem to us in our getting or losing Thirdly A third Cause of our Impatience and a third Remedy against it is to avoyd much cumbring our selves with any business that is a filling our hands too full over-charging our selves taking more upon us than we are able to mannage with submission to better things and so hinder meditation and contemplation about those lasting things of heaven which occasions a freezing of the spirits and so we sin and fall at every little trouble that comes in our way whereas a joyful spirit that is inlarged and at liberty Bears all things believes all things endures all things is not easily provked as 2 Cor. 13. at large shews All this while a spirit cumbred is in bondage and quickly fretted like a scald head soon broken Take heed lest at any time your heart be over-charged Luke 21. 34. I would have you be without carefulness 1 Cor. 7. 32. Martha Martha thou art troubled and cumbrest thy self about many things but Mary hath made choice or busied her self about that good part that shall never be taken from her Luke 10. last Consider what you read and the good Lord give you understanding Amen CHAP. XVIII Proving those Christians to be almost dead that make it more their business to get the Form than the Power of Religion with its Causes and Remedies SIGN XVIII VVHen you are more careful to get the words of Christs People than the spirit of Christs People the Form than the Power That is the name and out-side of Reformation rather than the spirit and power of Reformation when the strength and bent of all thy care lies in trimming thy self to appear before men righteous or religious Persons may go very far in this with great self-security resting barely upon outside performances getting fine words and painted expressions making a great show of their worship Pharasaical like and at the same time live under the dominion of some base lust Isa 1. 11 12 13 14. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices to me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt Offerings of Rams and fat of fed Beasts I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or Lambs or Hee-goats When you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands to tread my Courts Your new Moons and appointed Feasts they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them for your hands are full of blood They were then under the guilt of sin or dominion or both and yet at the same time full of outward Services and mighty busie in their Worship Hear ye this ye men of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord Do not trust in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord for the Temple of the Lord is this If ye throughly amend your wayes and doings if you throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour and oppress not the poor fatherless or widdow in This I Delight Jer. 7. It is clear here also these rested meerly in outwards and lived under the dominion of very base lusts at the very time they seemed so zealous for the Lord. And it is very much to be feared many now adayes run in the same channel Ezek. 33. 31 32. Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord and they come before thee as my people come and sit before thee as my people do and with their mouth shew much love but mark that at the same time their heart runs after Covetousness These were Hypocrites in Zion that shelter themselves in the outside of Religion Covering Gods Altar with tears Mal. 2. 8 13. Yet he regards them not seeing such to be but nominal Christians and therefore abhors them exceedingly The Scripture seems to intimate this as a very common overspreading weed not rare to be found but rather rare to be avoided in professors Let us therefore all look to our selves prove our own work so shall we have rejoycing in our selves alone Mat. 23. 14 15. for a pretence make long prayers Rom. 2. 18 19 20. Behold thou art called a Jew restest in the Law makest thy boast of God being confident that thou thy self art a guide of the
blind a light to them in darkness at the same time under the dominion of Sin But what may be the Causes of this that persons should take such pains in Religion and at the same time be but meer painted Sepulchres Answ First gross ignorance Secondly Carnal security First Gross ignorance that God did never institute Laws for Laws sake but for his Name sake and sinners saving never placing happiness in them but in him that is the Author of them O then what ignorance and madness is it for people to content themselves with flesh-circumcision God will punish such with the uncircumcised Jer. 9. last Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will punish the circumcised with or as truly as the uncircumcised for the one hath it not in the flesh and the other not in the heart Secondly Carnal security That is dream they shall be accepted because great Prayers great Preachers great goers to Church though this be good in it self yet this is filthy and bad when either it is alone or rested in When they shall say peace and safety then suddain destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5. 3. CHAP. XIX Containing in it a description of a decaying Christian by his light trouble at Miscarriages though known to Gods eye while kept from mans eye with two special Causes of this Decay SIGN XIX VVHen you are not much troubled at your own Miscarriages while they are kept from publick view By Miscarriages here I would be understood the failings and fallings of Gods Children not wilfully nor altogether willingly but through infirmity being overtaken or as it were insnared before they are aware yet truly privy to what they have done and not ignorant they have gone out of the way Nevertheless if their going thus far in sight and sense of uneven walking be found without much trouble it is most evident then their case is very sad Now who is he that lives and sins not 1 King 8. 46. And who is he that can hide what he doth from an All-seeing eye Psal 139. 7. And what is it that puts distinction between a good mans sinning and a bad mans sinning but that the one sins with all his will the other with scarce any of his will to the one what he doth is matter of delight to the other what he doth is his sickness though it is true he doth it yet his heart is grieved for it now the more or less a good man is troubled upon this score the more or less is his decay where the awful fight of Gods eye is much reverenced there all Miscarriages are soon discerned and much avoided but the lesser any man is beset with this grace lessens his fear to the greater and heightens his fear to the lesser that is Gods eye is not so much run from as mans eye one of the highest temptations to sin being secresie and one of the greatest seasons to try whether a man hath good will to do amiss or no it having in it no kind of let to touch his sensitive part with care or fear to eschew it because that visible shame that sin brings in all probability cannot come then Satan is at work mightily having the highest opportunity unless the Conscience be found very tender to strike the heart into a trembling sense of that piercing eye of the Almighty saying with Job Doth not he see my wayes and count all my steps chap. 31. 42. What else can hinder closing with temptation to a high degree now such misdoing as this of secret sinning found in any and they not much troubled because it is not made known let the sin they have committed be never so small in account yet a sin doth prove such very desolate of the grace of God Amnon one of Davids Sons being evil disposed towards Tamar his Sister is not thoughtful at all of Gods secret eye but careful how to avoid mans eye as this saying proves Have all men out from me 2 Sam 13. 9. none but Tamar must stay with him towards home he is wickedly designed running into Gods eye without all fear so he may run from mans eye It was not thus with good Joseph Jacobs son when he had as much if not more secresie and the temptation without very strong to have drawn him into high miscarriages at such a time in a resisting way gives this reply How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39. 9. In like manner Annanias and Saphira that sold their possessions under pretence of giving the price as a Free-will Offering to the Lords use but when required to speak the truth whether or no they kept any thing back in fear to mans eye rather than Gods eye sins at a high rate Lying as the Scripture gives it to the Holy Ghost Acts 5. 1 2 3 4. But as it is the practise of decaying Christians to be most careful to keep their miscarriages from mans eye in like manner their sorrow at the sight of sin is distinguishable to be different from the sorrow of the growing Christian though his miscarriage may be only known to God saying with David Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this wickedness in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest clear when thou judgest On the contrary as Jeremiah complains I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his evil saying what have I done every one turneth to his course as the Horse rusheth into the battail But I shall proceed to the Causes of this Decay Now the Causes of this which being avoyded may serve also as Remedies against this Dying Sign and they may be these two First want of fear to God Secondly want of love to God First want of fear to God he whose heart is possessed with the fear of God as knowing his greatness and his goodness his mighty power and arme to save or destroy though such a one wants no power or secresie to offend this God by committing actual evil a-against this God yet dare not cannot will not do it But were it not for the fear of God could and would do what they cannot nor dare not this held good Joseph Gen. 29. 7. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Nehem. 9. 15. But so did not I because of the fear of God these persons wanted neither power nor secresie to have complyed with the temptations before them yet they are held by this precious grace the fear of God Secondly want of love to God is a Cause of this decay did we so love him as we ought we would not so wound him by our sinning as we do Had they known him indeed it may be said had they loved him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 2 Cor. 2. 10. If any man love me he will keep my sayings and my father will love him
and we will make our abode with him John 14. 23. CHAP. XX. Shewing the heart very bad when under faults it cannot bear plain dealing with three Causes of this badness SIGN XX. VVHen you love least those Brethren that deal most faithfully with you in the opening your soars and tendering your Remedies It is a strong evidence of a bad Spirit when persons come to this pass either they must be unsensible of their bad state or else willing to continne in it through a hardned heart but may be easily discerned in a Church either by their itching at most plain soul-searching Doctrine or their estrangedness to the most zealous spiritual Brethren and if there be a luke-warm Christian in the Church a thousand to one but he is most of their society they may also be known by this they are greatest strangers to the difficultest duties 't is hard to bring them to early duties and as hard to hold them at late services in a word you may have their company but it must be at services most easie when some outward credit may accrue to them by their profession then none shall seem more apt and active than themselves and God that best knows this greatly abhors this and will chastise such Chruches as are not careful to remove and will also in due time make such persons by one means or other so manifest that he that runs may read them but as there are such that will not like them that deal faithfully with them even so there are some that out of personal respect to such and for fear to lose their favour will not tell them so nakedly of their sores but in love to their persons speak faintly of their sins and so hate their souls In shew these are a mans greatest friends but in truth his greatest enemies witness the false Prophets 1 Kings 22. 6. Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battel or shall I forbear and they said go up for the Lord hath delivered it to thy hand And when a Prophet of the Lord one Micaiah is called for vers 13. They would fain have seduced him to speak good words as they called it that is pleasant promises though they were lyes Thus we may see the property of false Prophets that for an angel will cry up a person as if he were almost an Angel it was even so in Jeremiahs time chap. 8. They have healed the hurt of the Daughter of my people slightly crying peace peace when there was no peace When God would not nor righteously could not speak peace but war because of their misdoings yet these false Prophets make promises of peace to them though in their sins that as God by the Prophet Ezekiel complains Chap. 13. Sow pillows under arm-holes for pieces of bread handfuls of barly Sparing what he would have destroyed and destroying what he would have spared it is a very great Judgment upon a Church or people to have such amongst them as will speak peace to any out of the way of peace it is as bad a judgment upon those persons that love not those that speak war to them when their impenitency speaks the same yet of such the Apostle St. Paul complains Gal. 4. 15 16. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth Doubtless these Galathians speaks in their hearts as much as others speak of the Prophet Amos Chap. 10. who say The land is not able to bear his words once this same Church could have pulled out their eyes if it had been possible to have done this same Apostle good Now counts him their enemy for telling them the truth But I shall briefly speak of two or three Causes of this Decay which being avoyded may serve as so many Remedies against this dying Sign First A first Cause is shaking hands again with our old sins falling in love with what once we loathed very burthensome to Israel was Moses when once they began to grow affected with the Fish the Cucumbers and the Mellons that they had in Egypt not only then good plain dealing Moses comes out of request but even Gods Manna though Angels food Numb 11. 5 6. We remember the Fish which we did eat in Egypt freely the Cucumbers and the Mellons and the Leeks and the Onyons and Garlick but now our soul is dryed away and there is nothing at all besides this Manna before our eyes and this we loath as light bread chap. 21. But Secondly a second Cause may be this a losing the relish we once had to heavenly things Jer. 2. 23. Iremember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the Wilderness in a Land that was not sown then thou wast holiness to the Lord and the first fruits of his increase but now be astonished Oh heavens at this and be horribly affraid yea very desolate saith the Lord for my people have forsaken the Fountain of living waters and hewn out to themselves broken Cisterns that can hold no water But I have a few things against thee because thou hast left thy first love Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen or else I will come and remove thy Candlestick except thou repent Revel 2. 11. Thirdly A third Cause may be this a too too much complying with the friendship of this World which in its latitude is enmity with God Gal. 5. 7. Ye did run well who did hinder you or as the margin reads drive you back that you should not obey the truth or hold on your way This perswasion comes not of him that calleth you If any come to me and hate not his Father and his Mother Wife Children Brothers Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple Luke 14. 26. Demas hath forsaken me and hath imbraced this present World Read and consider CHAP. XXI Proving the condition of the rich as well as the poor to be a condition of trouble and that whether it be common or more than ordinary to be answerable in prayer with a discription of the different kinds of trouble with profitable Objections answered SIGN XXI VVHen under more than ordnary trouble afflictions or straits you are not more than ordnary in Prayer For the opening of this Sign First what is meant by troubles it is something that in it self is not nor cannot be pleasant But something that opposeth and withstandeth the desire and delight of the mind and therefore in Scripture called a burthen Cast thy burthen upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee were trouble a matter of pleasure and profit in it self there would not be that proper need of prayer and calling for help from one that is stronger So that as the word is universal in an ordinary case it takes in those cares fears and sorrows in common that we are dayly incident to Job 5. 6 7. Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward That is it is as natural for man to meet with
he will take away the first born in Egypt that had not sinned and therein plagued Pharaoh and their Fathers that had sinned That this is mercy consider if David the sinner be cut off for his sin there was then no room left to manifest repentance either in David or the Egyptians yet death must come that God may be just and though nothing but Justice must take place yet in that he will be as merciful as possible to stand with Justice Therefore there is truly a Cause for God to impute death to Davids Child for Davids sin Object 2. The second Objection is grounded upon Job 2. 3. which seems also to complain against this Doctrine in these words Thou hast moved me against Job without a Cause he is a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and hateth evil Answ God goeth in this out of his ordinary way as in the case of St. Pauls conversion Acts 9. It will not be safe to imagin that others are unconverted because God meets not others so sometime God doth things to shew his Power and Majesty and greatness over all and his using instruments in an extraordinary case as his raising Lazarus from the grave and from death the widdows Son and others is no warrant for us to allude to cases ordinary Secondly here was a cause if not in Job and indeed necessity that this should come upon him if we consider Chap. 1. 9. There is none like Job saith God doth he serve thee for naught saith Satan put but forth thy hand he will curse thee to thy face Now that Job did not serve God just because God had dealt so well with him but would do it if God dealt other wayes with him shall now appear and the accuser of the brethren be put to the worst who complains against Job as envying his prosperity Thirdly in the strictest sense this carriage of God to Job can hardly be tearmed affliction but rather some gratious condition by God made with Job to this purpose Job thou art an upright man thou fearest me and hatest evil and Satan is still complaining on thee because he envies thy prosperity and tels me thou wouldst prove another man then I take thee to be if I should try thee by adversity and take from thee thy prosperity Now le ts stop the mouth of this great adversary and lend me thy Oxen and thy Asses thy servants and thy Cammels thy Children and all thy substance and thy body for my service I will pay thee with great advantage as appears by this following So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning for he had fourteen thousand sheep six thousand Cammels and a thousand yoak of Oxen and a thousand shee Asses and had also seven sons and three daughters so that the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before Job 42. 10 11 12. Object 3. The third Objection is grounded upon Isa 57. 1. The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart Good men here are taken away by death and no cause shewed they have the testimony of good men and yet taken away It will be granted they might have lived much longer for age the text implies it and the Objection is the stronger by it for it would be no matter of complaint had they lived till very age had took them away for then we know all must die Answ The time these good men lived in was a very evil time and God takes them away First in judgment to the People Secondly in mercy to themselves First in judgment Isa 5. 6 7 10. 11 12. He hath called upon them by the Righteous and warned them but it would do them no good now he will take away the Righteous from them to see if they will lay it to heart Secondly in mercy to themselves they are taken away First Because by long living with such they must needs be a weary even of their lives and their souls vexed from day to day Psal 120. 5. Wo is me that I dwell in the Tenis of Kedar So Jer. 4. 14. My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise within me because thou hast heard in Jerusalem the sound of the Trumpet the Alarm of war Secondly in mercy to them because the continuance of this temptation upon them may at last so weary them out as they may give up all as Solomon did 1 Kings 11. 4. When he was old his Wives turned away his heart after other gods So Mat. 24. 21 22. Then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world nor ever shall be except those dayes shall be shortned there could no flesh be saved but for the elects sake it shall be shortned Even as our Proverb is A continual dropping will wear a hole in the stone so a continual oppression may turn the wise man out of all see for this Jer. 20. 14 c. He curseth the day of his birth and the man that brought tidings to his Father wisheth his Mother had been alwayes great with him saying Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow and that my dayes should be consumed with shame Clearly noting that any zealous heart is sorely touched when all he can do will not keep God from dishonour O blot me saith Moses out of thy book By this it may appear that Gods afflicting men is for some cause or other in them Object 4. Fourthly another Scripture that seems to complain by way of Objection is John 9. 1 2 3. in these words Who did sin this man or his Father that he is born blind For answer to which Christ saith Neither this man nor his Father but that the power of God might appear yet it is clear the Disciples understood this affliction in common must come for sin and Jesus Christ in his reply notes the case more than common saying He was born for this purpose that the work of God should be manifested in him It was mercy he was born and he was born that a wonder of heaven might be shewed upon him therefore we must distinguish between a case that is extraordinary and one that is common Again from the unwillingness that is in God to afflict as a confirming Answer to all the Objections it appears that high provocations in us procure Afflictions to us for till Justice cals so loud that God cannot be just except he doth afflict though in compassion he mixeth all with abundance of mercy 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. The Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by his Prophets rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place That is he was very pittiful loath to grieve or afflict them till there was no remedy Justice called so long and loud for vengeance upon them as Psal 106. 54. They did not destroy the Nations but were mingled among them