of most Christians that have the free use of Reason are fed by some sin ibid. The sins which Troubled Christians should most search after are 1. Contrary carnal Interest encroaching on Christs Interest 1. In the Understanding enumerated as against each Person in the Trinity 2. In the Will and Affections 1. Pride 2. Covetousness 3. Voluptuousness These are considered here as against God himself and so as against the first Commandment 286 2. Actual sins against the other Commandments Especially suspect 1. Unmercifulness and rigid censoriousness of others 2. Unpeaceableness in Family Neighbourhood Church c. 301 DIRECTION XXIV Content not your self with a cheap Religiousness and to serve God with that which cost you little or nothing And take every Call to costly duty or suffering for Christ as a prize put into your hand for advancing your Comforts 313 Remember this 1. In preventing sin 2. In rising from sin 3. In performance of Duty 325 DIRECTION XXV Study the great art of Doing Good and let it be your every-days contrivance care and business how to lay out all your Talents to the greatest advantage 332 Applyed to our Rulers and to Rich men 337 DIRECTION XXVI Trouble not your soul with needless scruples Nor make your self more work then God hath made you by feigning that unlawful which God hath not forbidden or by placing your Religion in Will-worship or overmuch rigour to your body c. 346 What it is to be Righteous Over-much The Question Answered Whether all Virtue be in the middle And Whether we can love or serve God too much 347 All Over-doing in Gods work is Un-doing The Devil is most zealous in Over-doing A sad instance how much the Devil hath got by Over-doing 1. In Doctrine against Hereticks by adding to the Creed and forsaking Scripture-phrase 2. In Discipline 3. In Government or Church-power 4. In Worship 5. In Reformation especially of late The Devil goes beyond Christ in all these when he once fals to work 354 DIRECTION XXVII When God hath discovered your sincerity to you fix it in your Memory that it may be useful for the time to come and leave not your soul open to new Apprehensions Except in case of notable declinings or gross sinning 376 Proved that in these excepted cases even the Justified may question their sincerity and Justification 377 DIRECTION XXVIII Beware of perplexing mis-interpretations of 1. Scriptures 2. Providences 3. Sermons And be willing that Ministers should preach most searchingly and rouzingly for the good of others without mis-applying it to your self 387 DIRECTION XXIX Distinguish carefully between causes of Doubting and causes of meer Humiliation and Amendment God calleth you very often to Humiliation when he calleth you not to Doubting 403 Twenty ordinary DOUBTS Resolved 1. About knowing the time and manner of Conversion 406 2. About Humiliation 411 3. Of receiving Religion by Education 417 4. About Deadness Hard-heartedness and not weeping for sin 423 5. About Backwardness to Duty and not Delighting in it 434 6. About doing all out of slavish fear 439 7. Not able to Believe 443 8. Strangeness to the Witness of the Spirit Joy in the Holy Ghost and Communion with God 444. 9. Want of the Spirit of Prayer 446 10. Unprofitableness through want of Gifts 450 11. Greatness of sin and unworthiness 452 A twofold Worthiness and Righteousness 453 12. Want of a deep Hatred to sin Fear lest stronger Temptation would overthrow us 456 13. Fear of committing the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost 459 14. Lest it be too late and the time of Grace be past Time of Grace past in a double sense 461 15. Sinning since Profession against Conscience on Deliberation 465 16. Not overcoming Corruptions and not Growing in Grace 469 17. Blasphemous and Unbelieving thoughts 476 18. Fears of Death 481 19. Heavy Afflictions 483 20. Not being Afflicted 484 DIRECTION XXX Carefully discern whether your Doubts are such as must be cured by the consideration of General or of Special Grace And be sure that when you lose the sight of Certain Evidence that you let not go Probabilities Or at the worst when you are beaten from both and judge your self Graceless yet lose not the Comforts of General Grace 489 DIRECTION XXXI In all pressing Necessities take the advice of your Pastors 1. Keep it not secret 2. In what Cases to seek advice 3. To what Ends. 4. Of what sort of Ministers and whom to avoyd 5. In what manner to open your Case Objections answered against confessing sin to Pastors Reasons why Ministers have not fully acquainted their People with the great duty of confessing and opening their Case to them 499 DIRECTION XXXII Understand that the height of Christian Life and the greatest part of your Duty lyeth in A loving Delight in God and a Thankful and Chearful Obedience to his Will which you must be still endeavouring and subordinate all other duties to these 523 Ministers and Christians should keep the Lords day as a day of Thanksgiving for the work of Redemption and spend more of it in Praises Psalms Hymns c. and less in Confessing c. 533 How Christians wrong Christ and Religion and contradict the main design of Grace by their sad dejected lives 536 Stand not Complaining and Doubting but Chearfully Amend and Obey 537 ERRATA PAg. 16. lin 3. for quit r. quiet p. 44. l. 22. before arise put or p. 67. l. 26 27. for define put explain p. 164. l. 5. after bad make a stop p. 174. l. 2. for given r. even p. 186. l. 10. for their r. the. p. 204. l. 21. for and r. are p. 259. l. 23. for nobility r. mobility p. 455. l. 17. for our faith r. one saith p. 482. l. 28. between the two it s put as p. 526. l. 27. r. Thankfully THE RIGHT METHOD For a setled PEACE OF CONSCIENCE and Spirituall COMFORT In XXXII DIRECTIONS IT must be understood that the Case here to be resolved is not How an unhumbled prophane sinner that never was Convinced of Sin and Misery should be brought to a setled Peace of Conscience Their Carnall Peace must first be broken and they must be so far humbled as to finde the want and worth of Mercy that Christ and his Consolations may not seem contemptible in their eyes It is none of my business now to give any advice for the furthering of this Conviction or Humiliation But the Case in hand is How a Sinner may attain to a setled Peace of Conscience and some competent measure of the Joy of the holy Ghost who hath been convinced of Sin and Misery and long made a Profession of Holiness but liveth in continuall doubtings of their sincerity and fears of Gods wrath because of an exceeding Deadness of spirit and a want of that Love to God and Delight in him and sweetness in Duty and witness of the Spirit and Communion with God and other the like Evidences which are found in the Saints How far
sinfull bashfulness partly for want of more beleeving lively apprehensions of our duty and our brothers danger and partly because we are loath to displease men and lose their favour it being grown so common for men to fall out with those if not hate them that deâ—l plainly and faithfully with them 4. Also to Take a Reproof as well as to Give it the heart is very backward Even godly men through the sad remainders of their sinfulness do too commonly frown and snarle and retort our reproofs and study presently how to excuse themselves and put it by or how to charge us with something that may stop our mouthes and make the reprover seem as bad as themselves Though they dare not tread our reproofs under feet and turn again and all to rent us yet they oft shew the remnants of a dogged nature though when they review their waies it costs them sorrow We must sugar and butter our words and make them liker to stroaking then striking liker an approving then a reproving them liker flattery then faithfull dealing and yet when we have all done they go down very hardly and that but half way even with many godly people when they are under a temptation 5. The like may be said of all those Duties which do pinch upon our credit or profit or tend to disgrace us or impoverish us in the world As the confessing of a Disgracefull fault the free Giving to the poor or sacred uses according to our estates the parting with our own Right or Gain for Peace the patient suffering of wrong and forgiving it heartily and loving bitter abusive enemies especially the running upon the stream of mens displeasure and incurring the danger of being utterly undone in our worldly state especially if men be rich who do therefore as hardly get to Heaven as a Camel through a needles eye and above all the laying down of our lives for Christ It cannot be expected that godly men should perform all these with perfect Willingness The flesh will play its part in pleading its own cause and will strive hard to maintain its own interest O the shifts the subtill arguments or at least the clamorous and importunate contradictions that all these Duties will meet with in the best so far as they are unrenewed and their Graces weak so that you may well hence conclude that you are a sinner but you may not conclude that you are Graceless because of a backwardness and some unwillingness to Duty Yet your Willingness must be greater then your unwillingness and so Christ must have the prevailing part of your will and from that the denomination is usually taken so that Scripture useth to affirm Gods people to be willing even when they fail in the execution So Paul Rom. 7.18 saith To will is present with me when how to do or perform he found not that is not to obey so perfectly as he would do not to love God so intensly and fervently not to subdue passions and lusts so throughly not to watch our thoughts and words and waies so narrowly and order them so exactly as the bent of his will did consent to And lest any Arminian should pretend as they do that Paul speaks here in the person of an unregenerate man as under the convictions of the Law and not as a man regenerate it is plain in the text that he speaks of himself in the state which he was then in and that state was a regenerate state He expresly saith It is thus and thus with me So then I my self with my minde do serve the Law of God but with my flesh the Law of sin ver 25. And to put it out of doubt the Apostle speaks the like of all Christians Gal. 5.17 For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the â—pirit against the flesh and these are contrary â—he one to the other so that ye cannot do the things â—hat ye would This is the plain exposition of Rom. 7. Here Scripture maketh the Godly Willing to do more then they do or can do â—ut yet it is not a perfect Willingness but it â—s the Prevailing Inclination and Choice of â—he Will and that gives the name 4. Observe further that I add your Actual performance of Duty because true hearty Willingness will shew it self in actions and endeavours It is but dissembling if I should say I am willing to perform the strictest holiest Duties and yet do not perform them To say I am willing to Pray and Pray not or to Give to the poor and yet Give not or to perform the most self-denying costly Duties and yet when it should come to the Practise I will not be perswaded or drawn to them I will not confess a disgracefull sin nor further a good Cause to my danger cost or trouble nor reprove nor submit to reproof nor turn from the way of temptations or the like Action must discover true Willingness The son that said to his father I go Sir but went not to labour in the vineyard was not Accepted or Justified If therefore you are in doubt whether your Willingness be sincere enquire into your practice and performance God commandeth you to Pray to instruct your family to be Mercifull to the poor to forgive those that wrong you c. The flesh and the Devil perswade you from these Do you perform them or do you not Though you may do it with backwardness and dullness and weakness yet do you Do it and desire you could do it better and lament your misdoing it and endeavour to Do it better then you have formerly done This shews then that the spirit prevaileth though the flesh do contradict it 5. Yet here you must carefully distinguish of Duties For God hath made some to be secondary parts of the condition of the Covenant and so of flat necessity for the continuance of our Justification and for the attaining of Glorification Such are confessing Christ before men when we are called to it confessing sin Praying shewing Mercy to the poor forgiving wrongs hearing and yielding to Gods Word c. still supposing that there be opportunity and necessaries for the performance of these But some dâ—ties there are that God hath not laid so great a stress or necessity on though yet the wâ—â—full resolved omission in ordinary of any known duty is contrary to the nature of true Obedience Also the Case may much differ with several persons places and seasons concerning Duty that may be a Duty to one man that iâ— not to another and in one place which is not in another and at one season which is not at another And that may be a greater duty and of indispensable necessity to one which to another is not so great It may stand with true Grace to omit that duty which men know not to be a duty or not to be so to them except where the duty is such as is it self of absolute neeessity to salvation but it cannot so stand with Grace in those
you my judgement before Sure I am that the sudden looseness of their lives answering their ignorant loose ungospel-like doctrine did certifie me that the Spirit of Comfort was not their Comforter For he is also a Spirit of Holiness and comforteth men by the means of a holy Gospel which hath precepts and threatnings as well as Promises 2. And as the experience of the state of Believers assureth us that few of them attain to Certainty so experience of the imperfection of their understandings shews us that few of them are immediatly capable of it For how few Believers be there that understand well what is a sound evidence and what not Nay how many Learned men have taught them That the least unfeigned Desire of Grace is the Grace it self as some say or at least a certain evidence of it as others say Whereas alas how many have unfeignedly desired many Graces and yet have Desired the Glory and Profits of the world so much more that they have miscarried and perished How many have taught them that the least unfeigned Love to God or to the Brethren is a certain Mark of saving Grace Whenas many a one hath unfeignedly loved God and the Brethren who yet have loved house land credit pleasure and life so much more that God hath been thrust as it were into a corner and hath had but the worlds leavings and the poor Saints have had little compassion or relief from them nor would be lookt on in times of danger and disgrace As Austin and the Schoolmen use to say Wicked men do Vti Deo frui creaturis Vse God and enjoy the creatures Godly men do Frui Deo uti creaturis Enjoy God and use the creatures The meaning is Both Regenerate and Unregenerate have some Will or Love both to God and to the Creature But the wicked do Will or Love the Creature as their chief Good with their chiefest Love and they only Love God as a Means to help them to the Creature with a Love subordinate to their Love to the Creature Whereas the Godly do Will or Love God as their chief Good with their chiefest Love or Complacency and Love the Creature but as a Means to God with an inferiour Love If then the Nature of Sincerity be so little known then Assurance of Sincerity cannot be very common More might be said to prove that Certainty of Salvation is not common among true Christians but that it is labour in vain as to them seeing experience and their own ready confession doth witness it Now what 's the use that I would have you make of this Why it is this If Assurance of Sincerity and Justification much more of Salvation be so rare among true Christians then you have no cause to think that the want of it proveth you to be no true Christian You see then that a man may be in a state of Salvation without it and that it is not Justifying Faith as some have imagined nor yet a necessary concomitant of that Faith You see that you were mistaken in thinking that you had not the Spirit of Adoption because you had no assuring witness within you effectively testifying to you that you are the childe of God All Gods children have the Spirit of Adoption For because they are sons therefore hath God sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts whereby they cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 But all Gods children have not Assurance of their Adoption therefore the Spirit of Adoption doth not alwaies assure those of their Adoption in whom it abideth It is alwaies a witness-bearer of their Adoption But that is only objectively by his Graces and operations in them as a Land-mark is a witness whose Land it is where it standeth or as your Sheep-mark witnesseth which be your Sheep or rather as a sensible Soul witnesseth a living Creature or a rational Soul witnesseth that we are Men But efficiently it doth not alwaies witness as a Land-mark or Sheep-mark is not alway discerned and a bruit knows not it self to be a bruit and a man is not alwaies actually knowing his own humanity nor can know it at all in the Womb in Infancy in Distraction in an Epilepsie Apoplexie or the like disease which depriveth him of the use of reason Besides it 's no doubt but the Apostle had some respect to the eminent gift of the Spirit for Tongues Prophecies Miracles and the like which was proper to that age though still as including the Spirit of Holiness You see then that you need not be alwaies in disquiet when you want Assurance For else how disquiet a life should most Christians live I shall shew you more anon that all a mans comforts depend not so on his Assurance but that he may live a comfortable life without it Trouble of minde may be overcome Conscience may be quieted True peace attained yea a man may have that Joy in the holy Ghost wherein the Kingdom of God is said to consist without Certainty of Salvation If there be any passage in my Book of Rest Part 3 d in pressing to get Assurance which seem contrary to this I desire that they may be reduced to this sense and no otherwise understood This shall be further opened anon and other grounds of comfort manifested besides Assurance DIRECTION XV. 15. Yea this much more I would here inform you of That Very many even of the stronger holier watchfull and obedient Christians are yet uncertain of their Salvation even then when they are Certain of their Justification and Sanctification and that because they are uncertain of their perseverance and overcoming For a mans Certainty of his Salvation can be no stronger than is his Certainty of enduring to the end and overcoming THat you may not misunderstand me in this observe 1. That I do not say Perseverance is a thing uncertain in it self 2. Nor that it is uncertain to all Christians 3. But that it is uncertain to many even strong and self-knowing Christians Divines use to distinguish of the Certainty of the Object and of the Subject and the former is either of the Object of Gods Knowledge or of mans I doubt not but God knows Certainly who shall be saved which with his Decree doth cause that which we call Certainty of the Object as to mans understanding But men themselves do not alwaies know it If a man have the fullest Certainty in the world that he is Gods child yet if he be uncertain whether he shall so continue to the end it is impossible that he should have a Certainty of his Salvation For it 's he only that endureth to the end that shall be saved Now that many eminent Christians of great knowledge and much zeal and obedience are uncertain of their Perseverance is proved by two Infallible Arguments 1. By experience If any should be so censorious as to think that none of all those Nations and Churches abroad that deny the Doctrine of Certain Perseverance of all Believers
have any strong Christians among them yet we have had the knowledge of such at home 2. Besides the Difficulty of the Subject is a clear Argument that a strong Christian may be uncertain of it God hath made all those points plain in Scripture which must be Believed as of Necessity to Salvation But the Certainty of all Believers Perseverance is not a Point of flat Necessity to Salvation to be Believed Otherwise it would be a hard matter to prove that any considerable number were ever saved till of late or are yet saved but in a very few Countries It is a Point that the Churches never did put into their Creed where they summed up those Points that they held necessary to Salvation There are a great number of Texts of Scripture which seeming to intimate the contrary do make the Point of great Difficulty to many of the wisest And those Texts that are for it are not so express as fully to satisfie them Besides that the examples of these ten years last past have done more to stagger many sober wise Christians in this Point then all the Arguments that ever were used by Papists Arminians or any other To see what kinde of men in some places have fallen and how far as I am unwilling further to mention If you ask me what I think of this my self and consequently what Assurance I have of my own Salvation I will freely tell you both how far I am arrived in Assurance of Sincerity of Grace and Justification and how farre in the matter of Perseverance and so of Salvation I lay seven years under great Doubtings of the truth of my Sanctification especially for want of those Lively Affectionate Heart-melting effects which I desired to have found and for want of Deeper apprehensions of God Christ Glory Sin Misery Mercy Duty c. which made me still fear that all I had was but the meer effects of Education Reading and Speculative Knowledge and so that I had only a Notional Religion that touched my Phantasie and swom in my Brain but workt not throughly on my Heart for want of more Deep and Serious Believing of those holy Truths which should be operative Yet all this while Probabilities of Grace affording me that which we commonly call Hope did bear me up Now through the great unspeakable Mercy of my God I have attained to so strong a Probability of my Sincerity and Sanctification as in a large sense may be called Assurance or Certainty but not in the strictest sense much less is it a perfect Assurance I have so strong a perswasion of the truth of my Faith and so of the pardon of my sinnes as overcometh most doubtings and trouble of minde and keepeth me in quietness and peace of minde and some Joy in the holy Ghost and Delightfull thoughts of my everlasting Rest and gives me a Confidence in God and Access with boldness to the Throne of his Grace But yet I finde that carnal security hath a great hand in the alaying of my troubles though not in the raising of my Joyes And it is no unusual thing for a good Cause and a bad Faith Assurance and Carnal security to joyn together in one effect even in expelling trouble from the heart Yet dare I scarce say in the usual sense of the word that I am certain of my Sincerity and so of my Justification especially when Temptations have prevailed and the strength of the fleshes interest and the weakness of Christs interest in my Estimation and Will and Affections have appeared more then ordinary And when I have thought how much stronger Trials I may yet be put to which others daily undergo especially the Temptations of Prosperity do oftner make me fear then those of persecution and adversity I am sometimes afraid lest it be but the weakness of my Body and the distance of Objects and smalness of Temptations that makes them no more prevailing with me And that if I had as strong a body as others and were in that Dignity Wealth and Abundance of all things as some are whether Honors Carâ—al Pleasures Sports Delightfull Meats Drinks Beauty and such vanities might not carry me away as I see they do others that made as great a shew of Holiness Yet do not these doubts much affright or disquiet me because I finde God at present possessing me with those Resolutions to cast away all for Christ which I doubt not are the work of his own Grace and because I have experience of abundance of preventing and sustaining Grace and because I finde at the present that God enableth me to account all things loss and dross and dung for him and easily without much reluctancy to empty my purse for him and his poor and to lay out my time and strength for him and his Church and with some good success to resist Temptations and that I have no Desire in any activity or prevalency to be any higher in the world then I am but think God hath chosen out for me the best condition and station that I could have desired in all the world And then for Perseverance and Salvation this is my Case It is my strong opinion that no man who hath attained to a Rootedness in the Faith and so is throughly sanctified doth ever totally and finally fall away which Christ seemeth to intimate in saying that the Cause why men fall away in Tribulation and Persecution is because the seed had not deep Rooting Mat. 13. And I am yet more confident that none of the Elect shall ever fall away and perswaded that all the Rooted through-Christians are Elect. But yet I dare not say that I am Certain of this that all are elect to salvation and shall never fall away totally and finally who sincerely Believe and are Justified It is my opinion but I dare not put it into my Creed among either the Points of absolute Necessity or undoubted Verity I know how many Texts of Scripture seem to speak otherwise and I know how generally the Primitive Fathers thought otherwise if a man can know their mindes by their Writings I know that Austin himself the Mall of the Pelagians seems to be either unresolv'd or more against this Perseverance then for it I know how many Learned Godly men do differ from me and deny the Certainty of Perseverance I know how sad and shaking examples this age hath afforded And therefore I am not Certain properly strictly Certain of my Perseverance and so not fully strictly Certain of my Salvation Nor so near to a Certainty of my Salvation as I am to a Certainty of my Faith Justification Adoption and Sanctification Yet am I so strongly confident of it that I shall hold out and be saved that it doth not only calm and quiet my minde and overcome my troubles and fears but also enable me to Rejoyce in Hope of the Glory to come and to Desire Christs coming to Judgement and to think of Death with much more contentedness and
suffering or hazards must I cast my self upon it without a Call or must I be therefore without Comfort Answ No you shall not need to cast your self upon suffering nor yet to be without Comfort for want of it I know no man but may serve God at dearer rates to the flesh then most of us do without stepping out of the way of his duty Nay he must do it except he will avoyd his duty Never had the Church yet such times of prosperity but that faithful duty would hazard men and cause their trouble in the flesh Can you not nay ought you not to put your self to greater labour for mens souls If you should but go day after day among the poor ignorant people where you live and instruct them in the knowledge of God and bear with all their weakness and rudeness and continue thus with Patience this might cost you some labour and perhaps contempt from many of the unthankful and yet you should not do more then your duty if you have opportunity for it as most have or may have if they will If you should further hire them to learn Catechisms if you should extend your liberality to the utmost for relief of the poor this would cost you somewhat If you carry on every Just Cause with Resolution though never so many great friends would draw you to betray it this may cost you the loss of those friends If you will but deal plainly with the ungodly and against all sin as far as you have opportunity especially if it be the sins of Rulers and Gentlemen of name and power in the world it may cost you somewhat Nay though you were Embassadors of Christ whose office is to deal plainly and not to please men in evil upon pain of Christs displeasure you may perhaps turn your great friends to be your great enemies Go to such a Lord or such a Knight or such a Gentleman and tell him freely that God looketh for another manner of spending his time then in hunting and hawking and sporting and feasting and that this precious time must be dearly reckoned for Tell him that God looks he should be the most eminent in Holiness and in a Heavenly life and give an example thereof to all that are below him as God hath made him more eminent in worldly dignity and possessions Tell him that where much is given much is required and that a low profession and dull approbation of that which is good will serve no man much less such a man Tell him that his Riches must be expended to feed and cloath the poor and promote good uses and not meerly for himself and family or else he will make but a sad account and that he must freely engage his reputation estate and life and all for Christ and his Gospel when he cals him to it yea and forsake all for him if Christ put him to it or else he can be no Disciple of Christs and then what good will his Honours and Riches do him when his Soul shall be called for Try this course with Great men yea with Great men that seem religious and that no further then faithfulness and compassion to mens souls doth bind you and do it with all the wisdom you can that is not carnal and then tell me what it doth cost you Let those Ministers that are near them plainly and roundly tell both the Parliament-men and Commanders of the Army of their unquestionable transgressions and that according to their nature and wo to them if they do not and then let them tell me what it doth cost them Alas Sirs how great a number of Professors are base daubing self-seeking Hypocrites that cull out the safe the cheap the easy part of duty and leave all the rest And so ordinarily is this done that we have made us a new Christianity by it and the Religion of Christs own making the self-denying course prescribed by our Master is almost unknown and he that should practice it would be taken for a madman or some self-conceited Cynick or some saucy if not seditious fellow It is not therefore because Christ hath not prescribed us a more self-denying hazardous laborious way that men so commonly take up in the Cheapest Religion but it is through our false-heartedness to Christ and the strength of sensual carnal Interests in us which make us put false Interpretations on the plainest precepts of Christ which charge any unpleasing duty on us and Familistically turn them into Allegories or at least we will not yield to obey him And truly I think that our shifting off Christ in this unworthy manner and even altering that very frame and nature of Christian Religion by turning that into a flesh-pleasing Religion which is more against the flesh then all the Religions else in the world and dealing so reservedly superficially and unfaithfully in all his work is a great cause why Christ doth now appear no more openly for men and pour out no larger a measure of his Spirit in Gifts and Consolations When men appeared ordinarily in the most open manner for Christ in greatest dangers and sufferings then Christ appeared more openly and eminently for them yet is none more for meekness humility and love and against unmerciful or dividing zeal then Christ 2. And as you see that a cheap Religiousness doth not to discover sincerity so secondly it is not accompanied with that special blessing of God As God hath engaged himself in his Word that they shall not lose their Reward that give but a cup of water in his name so he hath more fully engaged himself to those that are most deeply engaged for him even that they that forsake all for him shall have manifold recompence in this life and in the world to come eternal life Let the experience of all the world of Christians be produced and all will attest the same truth That it is Gods usual course to give men larger Comforts in dearer duties then in cheap Nay seldom doth he give large Comforts in cheap duties and seldom doth he deny them in dearer sobeit they are not made dear by our own sin and foolish indiscretion but by his command and our faithfulness in obeying him Who knows not that the Consolation of Martyrs is usually above other mens who hath read of their sufferings and strange sustentations Christian do but try this by thy own experiences and tell me when thou hast most resolutely followed Christ in a good Cause when thou hast stood against the faces of the greatest for God when thou hast cast thy life thy family and estate upon Christ and run thy self into the most apparent hazards for his sake hast not thou come off with more inward peace and comfort then the cheaper part of thy Religion hath afforded thee When thou hast stood to the Truth and Gospel and hast done Good through the greatest opposition and lost thy greatest and dearest friends because thou wouldst not forsake Christ and his
rising from their sin It seems at present the interest of the flesh is actually predominant when no Reason or Conviction will perswade them to contradict it As ever you would have sound Comfort then in such a Case as this spare not the flesh When you have sinned you must rise again or perish If you cannot rise without fasting without free confessing without the utter shaming of your selves without restitution never stick at it This is your hour of Trial O yield not in the Conflict The dearer the Victory costeth you the greater will be your Peace Try it and if you find it not so I am mistaken Yet if you have sinned so that the opening of it may more discredit the Gospel then your Confession will honour it and yet your Conscience is unquiet and urgeth you to confess in such a case be first well informed and proceed warily and upon deliberation and first open the case to some faithful Minister or able Christian in secret that you may have good advice 3. The same counsel also would I give you in the performance of your duty A Magistrate is convinced he must punish sinners and put down Ale-houses and be true to every Just Cause but then he must steel his face against all mens reproaches and the solicitations of all friends A Minister is convinced that he must teach from house to house as well as publickly if he be able and that he must deal plainly with sinners according to their conditions yea and require the Church to avoyd Communion with them if they be obstinate in evill after other sufficient means But then he shall lose the Love of his People and be accounted Proud Precise Rigid Lordly and perhaps lose his maintenance Obey God now and the dearer it costeth you the more Peace and Protection and the larger blessing may you expect from God For you do as it were oblige God the more to stick to you as you will take your self obliged to own and bear out and reward those that hazard state and credit and life for you And if you cannot obey God in such a Trial it is a sad sign of a false-hearted Hypocrite except your fall be only in a temptation from which you rise with renewed Repentance and Resolutions which will conquer for the time to come As Peter who being left to himself for an example of humane frailty and that Christ might have no friend to stick by him when he suffered for our sin yet presently wept bitterly and afterward spent his strength and time in preaching Christ and laid down his life in Martyrdom for him So perhaps many a poor servant or hard labourer hath scarce any time except the Lords day to Pray or Read Let such pinch the flesh a little the more so they do not overthrow their health and either work the harder or fare the harder or be cloathed the more meanly or especially break a little of their sleep that they may find some time for these duties and try whether the Peace and Comfort will not Recompence it Never any man was a loser for God! So private Christians cannot conscionably discharge the great plain duty of Reproof and Exhortation lovingly yet plainly telling their friends and neighbours of their sins and danger and duty but they will turn friends into foes and possibly set all the Town on their heads But is it a Duty or is it not If it be then trust God with the Issue and do your work and see whether he will suffer you to be losers For my part I think that if Christians took Gods work before them and spared the flesh less and trusted themselves and all to Christ alone and did not balk all the troublesom costly part of Religion and that which most crosseth the interest of the flesh it would be more ordinary with them to be filled with the joys of the Holy Ghost and walk in that Peace of Conscience which is a Continual Feast and to have such full and frequent views both of the sincerity of their Evidencing Graces and of Gods Reconciled Face as would banish their doubts and fears and be a greater help to their certainty of salvation then much other labour doth prove If you flinch not the fiery furnace you shall have the company of the Son of God in it If you flinch not the Prison and Stocks you may be able to sing as Paul and Silas did If you refuse not to be stoned with Stephen you may perhaps see Heaven opened as he did If you think these Comforts so dear bought that you will rather venture without them let me tell you you may take your course but the end will convince you to the very heart of the folly of your choyce Never then complain for want of Comfort remember you might have had it and would not And let me give you this with you You will shortly find though worldly Pleasures Riches and Honours were some slight salves to your molested Conscience here yet there will no cure nor ease for it be found hereafter Your merry hours will then all be gone and your worldly Delights forsake you in Distress but these solid Comforts which you judged too dear would have ended in the Everlasting Joys of Glory When men do flinch God and his Truth in straits and juggle with their Consciences and will take out all the honourable easy cheap part of the work of Christ and make a Religion of that by it self leaving out all the disgraceful difficult chargeable self-denying part and hereupon call themselves Christians and make a great shew in the world with this kind of Religiousness and take themselves injured if men question their honesty and uprightness in the faith these men are notorious self-deceivers meer Hypocrites and in plain truth this is the very true description by which damnable Hypocrites are known from sound Christians The Lord open mens eyes to see it in time while it may be cured Yea and the nearer any true Christian doth come to this sin the more doth he dis-oblige God and quench the Spirit of Comfort and darken his own Evidences and destroy his Peace of Conscience and create unavoydable Troubles to his Spirit and estrangedness betwixt the Lord Jesus and his own soul Avoyd this therefore if ever you will have Peace DIRECTION XXV 25. My next Advice shall be somewhat near of kin to the former If you would learn the most expeditious way to Peace and setled Comfort Study well the Art of Doing Good let it be your every-days contrivance care and business how you may lay out all that God hath trusted you with to the greatest pleasing of God and to your most comfortable account STill remember lest any Antinomian should tell you that this savours of Popery and trusting for Peace to our own Works 1. That you must not think of giving any of Christs honour or office to your best works You must not dream that they can do any thing to
sinful Condition and some motions and strivings at your heart to get out of it Certainly though you should be one that hath yet no Grace to salvation yet these continued offers of Grace and strivings of the Spirit of Christ with your heart do shew that God hath not quite forsaken you and that your day of Grace and Visitation is not past DOUBT XV. BVt I have sinned since my Profession and that even against my Knowledge and Conscience I have had Temptations to sin and I have considered of the Evil and Danger and yet in the very soberest deliberations I have Resolved to sin And how can such a one have any true Grace or be saved ANSWER 1. IF you had not true Grace God is still offering it and ready to work it 2. Where do you finde in Scripture that none who have true Grace do sin knowingly or Deliberately Perhaps you will say in Heb. 10.24 If we sin willfully after the knowledge of the Truth there Remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of Judgement and fire which shall devour the adversaries Ans But you must know that it is not every wilful sin which is there mentioned but as even now I told you Vnbelief is peculiarly called Sin in the New Testament And the true meaning of the Text is If we utterly renounce Christ by Infidelity as not being the true Messiah after we have known his Truth then c. Indeed none sin more against knowledge then the Godly when they do sin For they know more for the most part then others do And Passion and Sensuality the remnant of it which yet remaineth will be working strongly in your very Deliberations against sin and either perverting the Judgement to doubt whether it be a sin or whether there be any such danger in it or whether it be not a very little sin Or else blinding it that it cannot see the Arguments against the sin in their full vigor Or at least prepossessing the Heart and Delight and so hindring our Reasons against sin from going down to the Heart and working on the Will and so from Commanding the Actions of the Body This may befal a godly man And moreover God may withdraw his Grace as he did from Peter and David in their sin and then our Considerations will work but faintly and sensuality and sinful Passion will work effectually It is scarce Possible I think that such a man as David could be so long about so horrid a sin and after contrive the murther of Vriah and all this without deliberation or any reasonings in himself to the contrary 3. The truth is though this be to good cause for any Repenting sinner to doubt of Salvation yet it is a very grievous aggravation of sin to commit it against Knowledge and Conscience and upon consideration And therefore I advise all that Love their Peace or Salvation to take heed of it For as they will finde that no sin doth deepâ—ier wound the Conscience and plunge the sinner into fearful perplexities which oft times hang on him very long so the oftner such Zeal and Passion But let me tell you that you may grow in these and not grow in the body of your Graces Doubtless Satan himself may do much to kindle your Zeal if he do but see it voyd of sound Knowledge as he did in Iames and Iohn when they would have called for Fire from Heaven but knew not what spirit they were of For the doleful Case of Christs Churches in this age hath put quite beyond dispute that none do the Devils work more effectually nor oppose the Kingdom of Christ more desperately then they that have the hottest Zeal with the weakest Judgements And as Fire is most excellent and necessary in the Chimney but in the thatch it is worse then the vilest dung so is Zeal most excellent when guided by sound Judgement but more destructive then prophane sensuality when it is let loose and misguided On the other side you may decay much in feeling and fervour of Affections and yet Grow in Grace if you do but grow in the Understanding and the Will And indeed this is the Common Growth which Christians have in their Age Examine therefore whether you have this or no. Do you not understand the things of the Spirit better then you formerly did Do you not value God Christ Glory and Grace at higher rates then formerly Are you not more fully Resolved to stick to Christ to the death then formerly you have been I do not think but it would be a harder work for Satan to draw you from Christ to the flesh then heretofore When the tree hath done growing in visible greatness it groweth in rootedness The fruit grows first in bulk and quantity and then in mellow sweetness Are not you less Censorious and more Peaceable then heretofore I tell you that is a more noble growth then a great deal of austere and bitter youthful censorious dividing Zeal of many will prove Mark most aged experienced Christians that walk uprightly and you will find that they quite outstrip the younger 1. In experience knowledge prudence and foundness of Judgement 2. In well-setled Resolutions for Christ his Truth and Cause 3. In a Love of Peace especially in the Church and a hatred of dissentions perverse contendings and divisions If you can shew this growth say not that you do not grow 3. But suppose you do not grow should you therefore deny the sincerity of your Grace I would not perswade any soul that they grow when they do not But if you do not be humbled for it and endeavour it for the future Make it your desire and daily business and spare not Lye not still complaining but rouse up your soul and see what 's amiss and set upon neglected duties and remove those Corruptions that hinder your Growth Converse with Growing Christians and under quickening means Endeavour the Good of other mens souls as well as your own and then you 'l find that growth which will silence this Doubt and do much more for you then that DOUBT XVII I Am troubled with such Blaspemous thoughts and Temptations to Vnbelief even against God and Christ and Scripture and the Life to come that I doubt I have no faith ANSWER TO be Tempted is no sign of Gracelesness but to yield to the Temptation nor every yielding neither but to be overcome of the Temptation Most Melancholy people especially that have any knowledge in Religion are frequently haunted with Blasphemous Temptations I have oft wondred that the Devil should have such a power and advantage in the predominancy of that distemper Scarce one person of ten who ever was with me in deep Melancholy either for the Cure of body or mind but hath been haunted with these Blasphemous thoughts and that so impetuously and violently set on and followed that it might appear to be from the Devil yea even many that never seemed Godly or to mind any such
service or deal falsly in some Cause that he hath trusted thee in hast not thou come off with the blessing of Peace of Conscience Nay when thou hast denied thy most importunate Appetite and most crossed thy lusts and most humbled and abased thy self for God and denied thy credit and taken shame to thy self in a free confessing of thy faults or patiently put up the greatest abuses or humbled and tamed thy flesh by necessary abstinence or any way most displeased it by crossing its interest by bountiful giving laborious duty dangers or sufferings for the sake of the Lord Jesus his Truth and People hath it not been far better with thee in thy Peace and Comforts then before I know some will be ready to say That may be from Carnal Pride in our own doing or suffering I answer It may be so And therefore let all watch against that But I am certain that this is Gods ordinary dealing with his people and therefore we may ordinarily expect it It is for their encouragement in faithful duty and I may truly say for their Reward when himself cals that a Reward which he gives for a cup of water Lay well to heart that Example of Abraham for which he is so often extolled in the Scripture viz. his readiness to sacrifice his only Son This was a dear Obedience And saith God Because mark Because thou hast done this thing in blessing I will bless thee c. David would not offer to God that which cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24.24 1 Chron. 21.24 God will have the best of your hearts the best of your labours the best of your eâ—tates the best of all or he will not accept it Abels sacrifice was of the best and it was accepted And God saith to Cain If thou do well shalt not thou be accepted Seeing this is so let me advise you Take it not for a calamity but for a precious advantage when God cals thee to a hazardous costly service which is like to cost thee much of thy estate to cost thee the loss of thy chiefest friends the loss of thy credit the indignation of Great ones or the painfullest diligence and trouble of body Shift it not off but take this opportunity thankfully lest thou never have such another for the clearing of thy sincerity and the obtaining of more then ordinary Consolations from God Thou hast now a Prize in thy hand for spiritual riches if thou have but a heart to improve it I know all this is a paradox to the unbelieving world But here is the very excellency of the Christian Religion and the Glory of Faith It looks for its greatest spoyls and richest prizes from its Conquests of fleshly Interests It is not only able to do it but it expecteth its advancement and consolations by this way It is engaged in a war with the world and flesh and in this war it plays not the vapouring fencer that seems to do much but never strikes home as Hypocrites and carnal worldly Professors do but he lays it home and spares not as one that knows That the fleshes ruine must be his Rising and the fleshes thriving would be his Ruine In these things the true Christian alone is in good sadness and all the rest of the world but in jest The Lord pity poor deluded souls You may see by this one thing how rare a thing true Christianity is among the Multitude that take themselves for Christians and how certain therefore it is that few shall be saved Even this one point of true Mortification and self-denial is a stranger among the most of Professors Oh how sad a testimony of it are the actions of these late times wherein so much hath been done for self and safety and carnal interests and so little for Christ yea and that after the deepest engagements of Mercies and Vows that ever lay on a people in the world Insomuch that through the just judgement of God they are now given up to doubt whether it be the duty of Rulers to do any thing as Rulers for Christ or no or whether they should not let Christ alone to do it himself Well this which is such a mysterie to the unregenerate world is a thing that every genuine Christian is acquainted with for they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof and the world is dead to them and they to the world Gal. 6.11 Take this counsel therefore in all the several cases mentioned in the Direction 1. In your preventing sin and maintaining your Innocency if you cannot do it without denying your credit and exposing your self to disgrace or without the loss of friends or a breach in your estate do it nevertheless Yea if it would cost you your utter ruine in the world thank God that put such an opportunity into your hand for extraordinary Consolations For ordinarily the Martyrs Comforts exceed other mens as much as their burthen of duty and suffering doth Cyprian is fain to write for the comfort of some Christians in his times that at death were troubled that they mist of their hopes of Martyrdom So also if you cannot mortifie any lust without much pinching the flesh do it chearfully for the dearer the victory costeth you the sweeter will be the issue and review 2. The same counsel I give you also in your rising from sin It is the sad condition of those that yield to a Temptation and once put their foot within the dores of Satan that they ensnare themselves so that they must undergo thrice as great difficulties to draw back as they needed to have done before-hand for prevention and forbearance Sin unhappily engageth the sinner to go on and one sin doth make another seem necessary O how hard a thing is it for him that wrong'd another by stealing deceit over-reaching in bargaining or the like to confess his fault and ask him forgiveness and to the utmost of his ability to make restitution What abundance of difficulties will be in the way It will likely cost him the loss of his Credit besides the breach in his estate and perhaps lay him open to the rage of him that he hath wronged Rather he will be drawn to cover his sin with a Lye or at least by Excuses And so it is in many other sins Now in any of these Cases when men indulge the flesh and cannot find in their hearts to take that loss or shame to themselves which a through-Repentance doth require they do but feed the troubles of their soul and hide their wounds and sores and not ease them Usually such persons go on in a galled unpeaceable condition and reach not to solid Comfort I speak only of those to whom such Confession or Restitution is a duty And I cannot wonder at it For they have great cause to question the truth of that Repentance and consequently the soundness of that heart which will not bring them to a self-denying duty nor to Gods way of