sad a thing is it that we should thus add to our own Afflictions and the heavier we judge the burden the more we lay on As if God had not done enough or would not sufficiently afflict us We may more comfortably bear that which God layeth on us then that which we immediately lay upon our selves Crosses are not great or small according to the bulk of the matter but according chiefly to the minde of the sufferer Or else how could holy men rejoyce in Tribulation and be exceeding glad that they are accounted worthy to suffer for Christ Reproaches wrongs losses are all without you unless you open them the door wilfully your self they cannot come in to the heart God hath not put the Joy or Grief of your Heart in any other mans power but in your own It is you therefore that do your selves the greatest mischief God afflicts your body or men wrong you in your state of name a small hurt if it go on further and therefore you will afflict your soul But a sadder thing yet is it to consider of that men fearing God should so highly value the things of the world They who in their Convenants with Christ are engaged to renounce the world the flesh and the devil They that have taken God in Christ for their Portion for their All and have resigned themselves and all that they have to Christs dispose whose very business in this world and their Christian life consisteth so much in resisting the devil mortifying the flesh and overcoming the world and it is Gods business in his inward works of Grace and his outward teachings and sharp afflictions and examples of others to convince them of the vanity and vexation of the world and throughly to wean them from it And yet that it should be so high in their estimation and sit so close to their hearts that they cannot bear the loss of it without such discontent disquiet and distraction of minde Yea though when all is gone they have their God left them they have their Christ still whom they took for their Treasure they have opportunities for their souls they have the sure promise of Glory yea and a promise that all things shall work together for their good yea and for that one thing that is taken from them they have yet a hundred outward Mercies remaining that yet even Believers should have so much unbelief and have their Faith to seek when they should use it and live by it and that God should seem so small in their eyes as not to satisfie or quit them unless they have the world with him and that the world should still seem so Amiable when God hath done so much to bring it into contempt Truly this and more shews that the work of Mortification is very imperfect in professors and that we bend not the force of our daily strivings and endeavours that way If Christians did bestow but as much time and pains in Mortifying the flesh and getting down the Interest of it in the soul that Christs Interest may be advanced as they do about Controversies external duties formalities tasks of devotion and self tormenting fears O what excellent Christians should we then be and how happily would most of our disquiet be removed Alas if we are so unfit to part with one outward comfort now upon the disposal of our fathers providence how should we forsake all for Christ or what shall we do at death when all must be parted with As ever therefore you would live in true Christian Peace set more by Christ and less by the world and all things in it and hold all that you possess so loosely that it may not be grievous to you when you must leave them So much for the Troubles that arise from your Body and outward state All the rest shall be directed for the Curing of those Troubles that arise immediatly from more Spiritual Causes DIRECTION III. 3. Be sure that you first lay sound apprehensions of Gods nature in your understanding and lay them deeply THis is the first Article of your Creed and the first part of Life Eternal to know God! His substance is quite past humane understanding therefore never make any attempt to reach the knowledge of it or to have any positive conceivings of it for they will be all but Idols or false conceptions but his Attributes are manifested to our understandings Well consider that even under the terrible Law when God proclaims to Moses his own Name and therein his Nature Exod. 34.6 7. the first and greatest part is The Lord God Mercifull and Gracious long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin And he hath sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he return and live Think not therefore of Gods Mercifulness with diminishing extenuating thoughts nor limit it by the bounds of our frail understandings for the heavens are not so far above the earth as his thoughts and wayes are above ours Still remember that you must have no low thoughts of Gods Goodness but apprehend it as bearing proportion with his Power As it is blasphemy to limit his Power so it is to limit his Goodness The advantages that your soul will get by this right knowledge and estimation of Gods Goodness will be these 1. This will make God appear more Amiable in your eyes and then you will Love him more readily and abundantly And Love 1. Is effectually consolatory in the very working so much Love usually so much Comfort I mean this Love of Complacency for a Love of Desire there may be without comfort 2. It will breed perswasions of Gods Love to you again and so Comfort 3. It will be an unquestionable evidence of true Grace and so Comfort The Affections follow the Understandings conceptions If you think of God as one that is glad of all advantages against you and delighteth in his Creatures misery it is impossible you should Love him The Love of our selves is so deeply rooted in nature that we cannot lay it by nor Love any thing that is Absolutely and directly against us We conceive of the devil as an Absolute Enemy to God and man and one that seeks our destruction and therefore we cannot Love him And the great Cause why troubled souls do Love God no more is because they represent him to themselves in an ugly odious shape To think of God as one that seeks and delighteth in mans ruine is to make him as the devil and then what wonder if in stead of Loving him and Delighting in him you tremble at the thoughts of him and fly from him As I have observed Children when they have seen the devil painted on a wall in an ugly shape they have partly feared and partly hated it If you do so by God in your fancy it is not putting the Name of God on him when you have done that will reconcile your Affections
mistakes of many sad Christians hereabouts The cure lieth in breaking off sinne to the utmost of your power This is the Achan that disquieteth all It is Gods great mercy that he disquieteth you in sinning and gives you not over to so deep a slumber and peace in sinne as might hinder your repentance and reformation The dangerous mistakes here are these two 1. Some do as the Lapwing cry loudest when they are furthest from the nest and complain of an aking tooth when the disease is in the head or heart They cry out O I have such wandring thoughts in prayer and such a bad memory and so hard a heart that I cannot weep for sinne or such doubts and fears and so little sense of the Love of God that I doubt I have no true Grace When they should rather say I have so proud a heart that God is fain by these sad means to humble me I am so high in my own eyes so wise in my own conceit and so tender of my own esteem and credit that God is fain to make me base in my own eyes and to abhorre my self I am so worldly and in love with earth that it draws away my thoughts from God duls my love and spoils all my duties I am so sensual that I venture sooner to displease my God then my flesh I have so little compassion on the infirmities of neighbours and servants and other brethren and deal so censoriously churlishly and unmercifully with them that God is fain to hide his mercy from me and speak to me as in anger and vex me as in sore displeasure I am so froward peevish quarrelsome unpeaceable and hard to be pleased that it is no wonder if I have no peace with God or in my own conscience and if I have so little quietness who love and seek it no more Many have more reason I say to turn their complaints into this tune 2. Another most common unhappy miscarriage of sad Christians lieth here that They will rather continue complaining and self-tormenting then give over sinning so farre as they might give it over if they would I beseech you in the Name of God to know and consider what it is that God requireth of you He doth not desire your vexation but your reformation No further doth he desire the trouble of your minde then as it tendeth to the avoiding of that sinne which is the cause of it God would have you less in your fears and troubles and more in your obedience Obey more and disquiet your minde less Will you take this counsel presently and see whether it will not do you more good then all the complaints and doubtings of your whole life have done Set your self with all your might against your pride worldliness and sensuality your unpeaceableness and want of love and tenderness to your brethren and whatever other sin your conscience is acquainted with I pray you tell me If you had gravell in your shoe in your travel would it not be more wisdom to sit down and take off your shoe and cast it out then to stand still or go complaining and tell every one you meet of your soreness If you have a thorn in your foot will you go on halting and lamenting or will you pull it out Truly sinne is the thorn in your conscience and those that would not have such troubled consciences told of their sinnes for fear of increasing their distress are unskilfull comforters and will continue the trouble while the thorn is in As ever you would have peace then resolve against sinne to the utmost of your power Never excuse it or cherish it or favour it more Confess it freely Thank those that reprove you for it Desire those about you to watch over you and to tell you of it yea to tell you of all suspitious signes that they see of it though it be not evident And if you do not see so much Pride Worldliness Unpeaceableness or other sinnes in your self as your friends think they see in you yet let their judgement make you jealous of your heart seeing self-love doth oft so blinde us that we cannot see that evil in our selves which others see in us nay which all the Town may take notice of And be sure to engage your friends that they shall not smooth over your faults or mince them and tell you of them in extenuating language which may hinder Conviction and Repentance much less silence them for fear of displeasing you but that they will deal freely and faithfully with you And see that you distast them not and discountenance not their plain dealing lest you discourage them and deprive your soul of so great a benefit Think best of those as your greatest friends who are least friends to your sinne and do most for your recovery very from it If you say Alas I am not able to mortifie my sinnes It is not in my power I answer 1. I speak not of a perfect conquest nor of a freedom from every passion or infirmity 2. Take heed of pretending disability when it is unwillingness If you were heartily willing you would be able to do much and God would strengthen you Cannot you resist Pride Worldliness and Sensuality if you be willing Cannot you forbear most of the actual sinnes you commit and perform the duties that you omit if you be Willing though not so well as you would perform them Yea let me say this much lest I endanger you by sparing you Many a miserable hypocrite doth live in trouble of minde and complaining and after all perish for their wilfull disobedience Did not the rich young man go farre before he would break off with Christ and when he did leave him he went away sorrowfull And what was the cause of his sorrow Why the matter was that he could not be saved without selling all and giving it to the poor when he had great Possessions It was not that he could not be rid of his sinne but that he could not have Christ and Heaven without forsaking the world This is the case of unsanctified persons that are enlightened to see the need of Christ but are not weaned from worldly profits honours and pleasures they are perhaps troubled in minde and I cannot blame them but it is not that they cannot leave sinning but that they cannot have Heaven without leaving their delights and contentments on earth Sin as sin they would willingly leave For no man can love evil as evil But their fleshly profits honours and pleasures they will not leave and there is the stop and this is the cause of their sorrows and fears For their own judgement cries out against them He that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him If ye live after the flesh ye shall die God resisteth the proud This is the voice of their informed understandings And conscience seconds it and saith Thou art the man But the flesh cries louder then both these Wilt thou leave
of age of ignorance or of knowledge and those which proceed from your Legal unworthiness have all a present Remedy in the fullness and sufficiency of Christs satisfaction even for all the world so that no sin except the excepted sin is so great but it is fully satisfied for and though you are unworthy yet Christ is worthy and he came into the world to save only the unworthy in the strict and Legal sense 4. All your doubts and fears that arise from an apprehension of Gods unwillingness to shew you Mercy and to give you Christ and Life in him arise from the misapprehension of Christs unwillingness to be yours or at least from the uncertainty of his willingness these have all a sufficient Remedy in the general extent and tenour of the New Covenant Can you doubt whether God be willing to give you Christ and Life when he hath given them already even by a Deed of Guift under his hand and by a Law of Grace 1 Joh. 5.10 11 12. Object But yet all are not Pardoned nor possessed of Christ and so saved Answ I told you that is because they will not so that I pray you mark it well God hath in these four Means before mentioned given even to the Graceless so much Ground of Comfort that nothing but their unwillingness to have Christ is left to be their terror For though sin be not Actually Remitted to them yet is it Conditionally Remitted viz. if they will but accept of Christ offered them Will you remember this when your doubts are greatest and you conclude that certainly Christs is not yours because you have no true Grace Suppose it be true Yet still know that Christ may be yours if you will and when you will This Comfort you may have when you can finde no Evidences of true Grace in your self So much for that Direction DIRECTION VIII 8. The next thing that you have to do for building up a stable Comfort and setling your Conscience in a solid Peace is this Be sure to get and keep a right Understanding of the Nature of Saving Faith AS you must have right thoughts of the Covenant of Grace of which before the want whereof doth puzzle and confound very many Christians so you must be sure to have right thoughts of the Condition of the Covenant For indeed that Grace which causeth you to perform this Condition is your first special saving Grace which you may take as a certain evidence of your Justification And this Condition is the very link which conjoyneth all the General foregoing Grace to all the rest of the following special Grace The Scripture is so full and plain in Assuring pardon and salvation to all true Believers that if you can but be sure that you are a Believer you need not make any doubt of your interest in Christ and your salvation Seeing therefore that all the question will be Whether you have true Faith Whether you do perform the Condition of the new Covenant For all other doubts God hath given you sufficient ground to resolve as is said how much then doth it concern you to have a right understanding of the Nature of this Faith Which that you may have let me tell you briefly what it is Mans soul hath two faculties Understanding and Will Accordingly the Objects of mans soul all Beings which it is to Receive have two Modifications Truth and Goodness as those to be Avoided are Evil. Accordingly God 's Word or Gospel hath two parts the Revelation of Truth and the Offer and Promise of some Good This offered Good is principally and immediatly Christ himself to be joyned to us by Covenant as our head and husband The secondary consequential Good is Pardon Justification Reconciliation Adoption further Sanctification and Glorification which are all offered with Christ By this you may see what saving Faith is It is first a Believing that the Gospel is True and then an Accepting of Christ therein offered to us with his benefits or a consenting that he be ours and we be his which is nothing but a true willingness to have an offered Christ Remember this well that you may make use of it when you are in doubt of the truth of your Faith Thousands of poor souls have been in the dark and unable to see themselves to be Believers meerly for want of knowing what saving Faith is And it is a truth that cannot be hid that Divines who should have taught them better have been the great cause of their errour not well and cleerly understanding this themselves It is a shamefull confession but the world knoweth it already The Papists place almost all in the meer Assent of the Understanding Our great Reformers made it to be either an Assurance of the pardon of our own sins or a strong perswasion of their pardon excluding doubting or the moderatest a perswasion of our particular pardon though mixt with some doubting The Antinomians strike in with them and say the same Hence even the greatest of our Divines Chamier Polanus Twisse c. conclude that Justification and Remission go before faith a desperate errour because the Act doth alway suppose its object For they thought that Remission already past was the object of Justifying Faith supposing faith to be nothing else but a Belief that we are pardoned Yea ordinarily it hath been taught in the writings of our greatest refuters of the Papists That this Belief is properly a Divine faith or the Belief of a Divine Testimony as is the Believing of any Proposition written in the Scriture a foul error which I have confuted in my book of Rest Part. 3. Chap. 7. Most of late have come neerer the truth and affirmed Justifying Faith to consist in Affiance or Recumbency or Resting on Christ for salvation No doubt this is one Act of Justifying faith but not that which a poor troubled soul should first search after and try it self by except by Affiance any should mean as Amesius doth Election of Christ and then it is the same act which I am asserting but very unfitly exprest For 1. Affiance is not the Principal act nor that wherein the very life of Justifying faith doth consist but only an imperate following act and an effect of the vital act which is Consent or Willing or Accepting Christ offered for it lyeth mainly in that which we call the sensitive part or the Passions of the soul 2. It is therefore lesse constant and so unfitter to try by For many a poor soul that knowes it self unfeignedly willing to have Christ yet feeleth not a Resting on him or Trusting in him and therefore crys out O I cannot believe and think they have no Faith For Recumbency Affiance or Resting on Christ implieth that easing of themselves or casting off their fears or doubts or cares which true believers do not alwayes finde Many a poor soul complains O I cannot rest on Christ I cannot trust him who yet would have him to be their Lord and
be drunk or may murder or commit adultery or steal or forswear himself and yet be a true Christian and be saved Or just so far a man may go in neglecting duty to God and man and in cherishing his flesh hiding his sin c. and yet be a true Believer and be saved This would 1. Embolden men in sinning and make them think I may yet venture for I stand on safe ground 2. And it would hinder Repentance Indeed it would be the way to rob God of his honour and multiply provocations against him and keep his children in disobedience and hinder their growth in holiness and cause a deformity in Christs body and a shame to his Religion and sacred name As for those that say Assurance never encourageth men in sin but tends to destroy it I answer It is true of Gods Assurance seasonably given to those that are fit for it and used by them accordingly But if God should have told all the world just how far they may sin and yet be certain of salvation this would have bred Assurance in those that were unfit for it and it would have been but the putting of new wine into old crackt bottles or a new piece into an old garment that would break them or make worse the rent I must therefore freely tell these objectors I am sorry that so many of my old acquaintance now harp so much on this Antinomian string that ignorance or error hath so blinded them that they have forgotten or know not 1. What an imperfect piece the best is in this life much more the worst true Christian 2. Nor what a subtil Devil we have to tempt us 3. Nor what an active thing corruption is and what advantage it will take on unseasonable Assurance 4. Nor what the nature of Grace and Sanctification is and how much of it lies in a godly jealousie of our selves and apprehension of our danger and that the fear of God is the beginning of wisedom See Heb. 4.1 Nay 5. They have forgotten what a man is and how inseparable from his nature is the Principle of self-preservation and how necessary the apprehension of danger and the fear of evil to himself is to the avoiding of that evil and so to his preservation 8. Yea if they knew but what a Commonwealth or a family is they would know that fear of evil and desire of self-preservation is the very motive to Associations and the groundwork of all Laws and Government and a great part of the life of all Obedience And thus I have fully proved to you That the smallest measure of Grace cannot help men to Assurance in Gods ordinary way Perhaps you will say What comfort is there in this to a poor weak Christian This is rather the way to put him quite out of heart and hope I answer No such matter I shall shew you the uses of this observation in the following Directions In the mean time I will say but this The expectations of unseasonable Assurance and out of Gods way is a very great cause of keeping many in languishing and distress and of causing others to turn Antinomians and snatch at comforts which God never gave them and to feign and frame an Assurance of their own making or build upon the delusions of the great Deceiver transforming himself into an Angel of Light DIRECTION XIII 13. From the last mentioned Observation there is one plain Consectary arising which I think you may do well to note by the way viz. That According to Gods ordinary way of giving Grace it cannot be expected that Christians should be able to know the very time of their first receiving or acting true saving Grace or just when they were Pardoned Justified Adopted and put into a state of Salvation THis must needs be undeniable if you grant the former Point That the least measure of Grace yieldeth not Assurance of its sincerity which is proved and withall if you grant this plain truth That it is Gods ordinary way to give a small measure of Grace at the first This I prove thus 1. Christ likeneth Gods Kingdom of Grace to a grain of mustard seed which is at first the least of all seeds but after cometh to a tree And to a little leaven which leaveneth the whole lump I will not deny but this may be applied to the visible progress of the Gospel and increase of the Church but it is plainly appliable also to the Kingdom of Christ within us 2. The Scripture oft calleth such young beginners Babes Children Novices c. 3. We are all commanded still to grow in Grace which implieth that we have our smallest measure at the first 4. Heb. 5.12 sheweth that strength of Grace should be according to time and means 5. Common experience is an invincible argument for this Men are at a distance from Christ when he first calleth them to come to him and many steps they have Toward him before they reach To him We are first so far enlightned as to see our sin and misery and the meaning and truth of the Gospel and so rowsed out of our security and made to look about us and see that we have souls to save or lose and that it is no jesting matter to be a Christian and so we come to understand the tenour of the Covenant and Christs termes of saving men But alas how long is it usually after this before we come sincerely to yield to his termes and take him as he is offered and Renounce the World Flesh and the Devil and Give up our selves to him in a faithfull Covenant We are long deliberating before we can get our backward hearts to Resolve How then should a man know just when he was past the highest step of common or preparative Grace and arived at the first step of special Grace Yet mark that I here speak only of Gods ordinary way of giving Grace For I doubt not but in some God may give a higher Degree of Grace at the first day of their conversion then some others do attain in many years And those may know the time of their true Conversion both because the effect was so discernable and because the suddenness makes the change more sensible and observable But this is not the ordinary course Ordinarily Convictions lye long on the soul before they come to a true Conversion Conscience is wounded and smarting long and long grudging against our sinfull and negligent courses and telling us of the Necessity of Christ and a holy life before we sincerely obey Conscience and give up our selves to Christ We seldom yield to the first conviction or perswasion The Flesh hath usually too long time given it to plead its own Cause and to say to the Soul Wilt thou forsake all thy pleasure and merry company and courses Wilt thou beggar thy self or make thy self a scorn and mocking stock to the world Art thou ever able to hold out in so strict a course and to be undone and to
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
or treasures of the earth If you had as you have an offer of God Christ Grace and Glory on one side and worldly prosperity in sin on the other side you would choose God and let go the other You dare not you would not give over Praying Hearing Reading and Christian company and give up your self to worldly fleshly pleasures yet you are not Assured of salvation because you finde not that Delight and Life in Duty and that Witness of the Spirit and that communion with God nor that tenderness of heart as you desire It is well that you desire them But though you be not Certain of Salvation do not you see a great likelihood a Probability in all this Is not your heart raised to a Hope that yet God is mercifull to you and means you good Doubtless this you might easily discern The second thing that I am to shew you is that there may much spiritual Comfort and Peace of Conscience be enjoyed without any Certainty of Salvation given upon these forementioned Probabilities Which I prove thus 1. No doubt but Adam in innocency had Peace of Conscience and Comfort and Communion with God and yet he had no Assurance of Salvation I mean either of continuing in Paradise or being translated to Glory For if he had either he was sure to persevere in Innocency and so to be glorified But that was not true or else he must foreknow both that he should fall and be raised again and saved by Christ But this he knew not at all 2. Experience tels us that the greatest part of Christians on earth do enjoy that Peace and Comfort which they have without any Certainty of their Salvation 3. The Nature of the thing telleth us that a likelihood of so great a mercy as everlasting Glory must needs be a ground of great Comfort If a poor condemned prisoner do but hear that there is Hopes of a pardon specially if very probable it will glad his heart Indeed if an Angel from Heaven were brought into this state it would be sad to him But if a devil or a condemned sinner have such Hope it must needs be glad news to them The devils have it not but we have 3. Let me next therefore intreat you to take the Comfort of your Probabilities of Grace and Salvation Your horse or dog knoweth not how you will use them Certainly yet will they lovingly follow you and put their heads to your hand and trust you with their lives without fear and love to be in your company because they have found you kinde to them and have tried that you do them no hurt but good yea though you do strike them sometimes yet they finde that they have their food from you and your favour doth sustain them Yea your little children have no Certainty how you will use them and yet finding that you have alwaies used them kindly and expressed Love to them though you whip them sometimes yet are glad of your company and desire to be in your lap and can trust themselves in your hands without tormenting themselves with such doubts as these I am uncertain how my mother will use me whether she will wound me or kill me or turn me out of doors and let me perish Nature perswades us not to be too distrustfull of those that have alwaies befriended us and especially whose Nature is Mercifull and Compassionate Nor to be too suspitious of evil from them that have alwaies done us good Every man knows that the Good will do good and the Evil will do evil and accordingly we expect that they should do to us Naturally we all fear a Toad a Serpent an Adder a mad Dog a wicked Man a mad Man a cruel blood thirsty Tyrant and the Devil But no one fears a Dove a Lamb a good Man a mercifull compassionate Governour except only the Rebels or notorious offenders that know he is bound in justice to destroy or punish them And none should fear distrustfully the wrath of a gracious God but they who Will not submit to his Mercy and Will not have Christ to reign over them and therefore may know that he is bound in Justice if they come not in to destroy them But for you that would be Obedient and Reformed and are troubled that you are no better and beg of God to make you better and have no sin but what you would be glad to be rid of may not you at least see a strong Probability that it shall go well with you O make use therefore of this Probability and if you have but Hopes that God will do you good rejoice in those Hopes till you can come to rejoyce in Assurance And here let me tell you that Probabilities are of divers Degrees according to their divers Grounds Where men have but a little Probability of their Sincerity and a greater Probability that they are not Sincere in the faith these men may be somewhat born up but it behoves them presently to search in fear and to amend that which is the cause of their fear Those that have more Probability of the Sincerity of their hearts then of the contrary may well have more peace then trouble of minde Those that have yet a higher Degree of Probability may live in more Joy and so according to the Degree of Probability may their Comforts still arise And observe also that it is but the highest Degree of this Probability here which we call a Certainty For it is a Moral Certainty and not that which is called a Certainty of Divine faith nor that which is called a Certainty of evidence in the strictest sense though yet evidence there is for it But it is the same evidences materially which are the ground of Probability and of Certainty Only sometime they differ Gradually one having more Grace and another less and sometime not so neither for he that hath more Grace may discern but a Probability in it through some other defect no more then he that hath less But when one man discerns his Graces and Sincerity but darkly he hath but a Probability of Salvation manifested by them and when another discerneth them more clearly he hath a stronger Probability and he that discerneth them most clearly if other necessaries concurre hath that which we call a Certainty Now I am perswaded that you frequently see a strong Probability of your Sincerity and may not that be a very great stay and comfort to your soul Nay may it not draw out your heart in Love Delight and Thankfulness Suppose that your name were written in a piece of paper and put among a hundred or fifty or but twenty other like papers into a Lottery and you were certain that you should be the owner of this whole Land except your name were drawn the first time and if it were drawn you should die Would your Joy or your Sorrow for this be the greater Nay if it were but ten to one or but two to one odds on
remaineth still Possible 2. Because the perfect certain knowledge of our Election and that we shall not fall away is proper to God only We have our selves but a Defective interrupted Assurance of it 3. The Covenant gives us salvation but on condition of our perseverance and perseverance on condition that we quench not the Spirit which we shall do if we lose the apprehension of our danger 4. Accordingly there is a connexion in our Assurance between all the several causes of our Salvation and necessaries thereto whereof the apprehension of danger is one We are sure we shall be saved if we be sure to Persevere else not We are sure to Persevere if we be sure faithfully to resist Temptations We can be no surer of faithfull resisting of Temptations then we are sure to be kept in an apprehension of our danger I still say therefore that the Doctrine of Antinomians is the most ready way to Apostacy and perdition and no wonder if it lead to the Licentiousness and Scandals which our eyes have seen to be its genuine fruits They cry down the weakness unbelief and folly of poor Christians that will apprehend themselves in danger of falling away and so live in fear after they are once Justified and that if they fall into sin as whoredom drunkenness murder Perjury destroying the Ministry and expelling the Gospel c. will presently question or fear their estates and their Justification Such like passages I lately read in some printed Sermons of one of my ancient acquaintance who would never have come to that pass that he is at now if his Judgement and Humility had been as great as his Zeal I intreat you therefore never to expect such an Assurance as shall extinguish all your apprehensions of danger He that sees not the danger is neerest it and likely to fall into it Only he that seeth and apprehendeth it is likely to avoid it He that seeth no danger of falling away is in greatest danger of it I doubt not but that 's the cause of the Seditions Scandals Heresies Bloodguiltiness Destroying of the Churches of Christ and most Horrid Apostacies Hypocrisie and wickedness which these late times have been guilty of that they apprehended not the danger of ever coming into such a state or ever doing such things but would have said Am I a Dog to him that should have foretold them what is come to pass Wonderfull that men should be so blinded by false doctrine as not to know that the apprehension of danger is made in the very fabrication of the nature of man to be the very engine to move his soul in all waies of self-preservation and salvation Yea it is that very supposed principle upon which all the Government of the world and the Laws and order of every Nation are grounded We could not keep the very Bruits from tearing us in pieces but for their own safety because they apprehend themselves to be in danger by it The fear of man is it that restraineth them But for this no mans life would be in any safety For every malicious man would be a murderer He that feareth not the loss of his own life is master of another mans Do these men think that the apprehension of bodily dangers may carry them on through all undertakings and be the potent spring of most of their actions and warrant all those courses that else would be unwarrantable so that they dare plead Necessity to warrant those fearfull things which by extenuating language like Sauls are called Irregularities And yet that it is unlawfull or unmeet for a Christian yea the weakest Christian to live in any apprehensions of danger to their souls either danger of sinning or falling away or perishing for ever No wonder if such do sin and fall away and perish Would these men have fought well by Sea or Land if they had apprehended no danger Would the earth have been so covered with carkasses and with blood yea even of Saints and the world filled with the dolefull calamities that accompanied and have followed if there had been no apprehensions of danger Would they take Physick when they are sick Would they avoid fire or water or thieves but through an apprehension of danger Let them talk what they please if ever they escape hell without a deep apprehension of the danger of it it must be in a way not known by Scripture or by Nature Sure I am Paul did tame his body and bring it in subjection through an apprehension of this danger lest when he had Preached to others himself should be a cast-away or reprobate 2 Cor. 9.27 And Christ himself when he biddeth us Fear not them that can kill the body whom yet these men think it lawfull to fear and fight against yet chargeth us with a double charge so Fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell yea I say unto you saith Christ fear him Luk. 12.5 What can be plainer and that to his Disciples My detestation of these destructive Antinomian Principles makes me to run out further against them then I intended Though it were easie more abundantly to manifest their hatefulness But my reasons are these 1. Because these Mountebanks are still thrusting in themselves and impudently proclaiming their own skill and the excellency of their remedies for the cure of wounded consciences and the setling of peace when indeed their receipts are rank poison guilded with the pretious name of Christ and free-Grace 2. Because I would not have your doubtings cured by the Devil for he will but cure one disease with another and a lesser with a far greater If he can so cure your fears and doubtings as to bring you into carnal security and presumption he will lose nothing by the cure and you will get nothing If he can turn a poor doubting troubled Christian to be a secure Antinomian he hath cured the smart of a cut finger by casting them into a Lethargy or stupefaction by his opium To go to Antinomian receipts to cure a troubled soul is as going to a Witch to cure the body 3. I would have you sensible of Gods goodness to you in these very troubles that you have so long lain under Your blessed Physician knew your disease and the temperature of your soul Perhaps he saw that you were in some danger of being carried away with the Honours Profits or Pleasures of this world and would have been entangled in either covetousness pride voluptuousness or some such desperate sinne And now by these constant and extraordinary apprehensions of your danger these sinnes have been much kept under temptations weakned and your danger prevented If you have found no such inclinations in your self yet God might find them Had it not been farre worse for you to have lain so many years in pride sensuality and forgetfulness of God and utter neglect of the 〈◊〉 of your soul then to have lain so long as you have done in apprehensions of your danger O
you would draw a block through the water but as men that must hold fast and be commanded and threatned to that end and therefore when they lose their hold it is the fear of drowning which they felt themselves near which shall cause them to hold faster the next time and this must needs be the fear of a possible danger And for those that perish they have none to blame but themselves They perish not for want of a Saviour but because they would not lay hold on him and follow him through the tempests and waves of trial Nor can they quarrel with him because he did more for others and did not as much for them as long as he offered them so sufficient help that only their own wilfull refusal was their ruine and their perdition was of themselves I conclude therefore That seeing our Salvation is laid by God upon our faithfull obedient holding fast to Christ through all trials and difficulties and our holy fear is the means of that holding fast Christ being still the principal cause of our safety therefore never look for such a Certainty of Salvation as shall put you above such fears and moderated apprehensions of danger For then it s ten to one you will lose your hold You read in Scripture very many warnings to take heed least we fall and threatnings to those that do fall away and draw back What are all these for but to excite in us those moderate fears and cares and holy diligence which may prevent our falling away And remember this that there can be no such holy fears and cares and diligence where there is no danger or possibility of falling away for there can be no Act without its proper Object And the Object of fear is A possible hurt at least in the apprehension of him that feareth it No man can fear that evil which he knoweth to be Impossible DIRECTION XXI 21. The next advice which I must give you is this Be thankfull if you can but reach to a setled Peace and composure of your minde and lay not too much on the high raptures and feelings of comfort which some do possess And if ever you enjoy such feeling Joyes expect not that they should be either long or often IT is the cause of miserable languishing to many a poor soul to have such importunate expectations of such passionate Joyes that they think without these they have no true comfort at all no witness of the Spirit no Spirit of Adoption no joy in the holy Ghost Some think that others have much of this though they have not and therefore 〈…〉 themselves because it is no◠〈…〉 as with others when alas they little 〈◊〉 how it goes with others Some 〈…〉 raptures sometimes themselves and therefore when they are gone they think they are forsaken and that all grace or peace at least is gone with them Take heed of these expectations And to satisfie you let me tell you these two or three things 1. A setled calm and peace of soul is a great Mercy and not to be undervalued and looked at as Nothing 2. The highest raptures and passionate feeling joyes are usually of most doubtfull sincerity Not that I would have any suspect the sincerity of them without cause but such passions are not so certain signes of Grace as the setled frame of the understanding and will nor can we so easily know that they are of the Spirit and they are liable to more questioning and have in them a greater Possibility of deceit Doubtless it is very much that Phantasie and Melancholy and specially a natural weakness and moveable temper will do in such cases Mark whether it be not mostly these three sorts of people that have or pretend to have such extraordinary raptures and feelings of joy 1. Women and others that are most passionate 2. Melancholy People 3. Men that by erroneous opinions have lost almost all their understandings in their phantasies and live like men in a continual dream Yet I doubt not but solid men have oft high joyes and more we might all have if we did our duty And I would have no Christian content himself with a dull quietness of spirit but by all means possible to be much in labouring to rejoyce in God and raising their souls to heavenly delights O what lives do we lose which we might enjoy But my meaning is this Look at these joyes and delights as Duties and as Mercies but look not at them as Marks of trial so as to place more necessity in them then God hath done or to think them to be ordinary things If you do but feel such an high estimation of Christ and Heaven that you would not leave him for all the world take this for your surest Signe And if you have but so much Probability or Hope of your interest in him that you can think of God as one that loveth you and can be thankfull to Christ for Redeeming you and are gladder in these hopes of your interest in Christ and Glory then if you were owner of all the world take this for a happy Mercy and a high Consolation Yet I mean not that your joy in Christ will be alwaies so sensible as for worldly things but it will be more rational solid and deeper at the Heart And that you may know by this You would not for all the Pleasures Honours or Profits in the world be in the same case as once you were supposing that you were converted since you had the use of Reason and Memory or at least as you see the ungodly world still lye in 3. And let me adde this Commonly those that have the highest passionate joyes have the saddest lives for they have with all the most passionate fears and sorrows Mark it whether you finde not this prove true And it is partly from Gods will in his dispensations partly from their own necessities who after their exaltations do usually need a prick in the flesh and a messenger of Satan to buffet them lest they be exalted above measure and partly and most commonly it is from the temperature of their bodies Weak pastionate women of moveable spirits and strong affections when they Love they Love violently and when they Rejoyce especially in such cases they have most sensible joyes and when any fears arise they have most terrible sorrows I know it is not so with all of that sex but mark the same people usually that have the highest Joyes and see whether at other times they have not the greatest troubles This week they are as at the gates of Heaven and the next as at the doors of hell I am sure with many it is so Yet it need not be so if Christians would but look at these high joyes as Duties to be endeavoured and Mercies to be valued But when they will needs Judge of their state by them and think that God is gone from them or forsaken them when they have not such joyes then it leaves
willing of them and there is no more sin then there is will in it I answer 1. We were in Adam willing of that sin which caused them 2. We are in some degree inclining in our Wils to sin though God have that prevalent part and determination which in comparative cases doth denominate them 3. The Understanding and Will may be most hainously guilty where they do not consent in that they do not more strongly dissent and more potently and rulingly command all the subject Faculties And so a Negation of the Wils act or of such a Degree of it as is necessary to the Regiment of the sensual part is a deep guilt and great offence and it may be said that there is Will in this sin It is morally or reputatively voluntary though not naturally because the Will doth not its office when it should As a man is guilty of voluntary murder of his own childe that stands by and seeth his servant kill him and doth not do his best to hinder him I would this were better understood by some Divines For I think that the commonest guilt of the Reason and Will in our actual sinnes is by Omission of the exercise of their Authority to hinder it And that most sinnes are more bruitish as to the true efficient cause then many imagine and yet they are humane or moral Acts too and the soul nevertheless guilty because the commanded Faculties performed not their office and so are the Moral or Imputative causes and so the great culpable causes of the fact But I am drawn nearer to Philosophy and points beyond your reach then I intended a fault that I must be still resisting in all my Writings being upon every occurring difficulty carried to forget my subject and the capacity of the meanest to whom I write But what you understand not pass over and go to the next The second kinde of sinnes of Infirmity are The smaller sort of sinnes which we may forbear if we will that is If we be actually though not perfectly yet prevalently Willing or if our Wils be determined to forbear them or if the chief part of the Will actually be for such forbearance The first sort are called sinnes of Infirmity in an Absolute sense These last I call sinnes of Infirmity in both an Absolute and Comparative sense that is both as they proceed from our inward corruption which through the weakness of the soul having but little grace is not fully restrained and also as it is compared with gross sinnes And so we may call idle words and rash expressions in our hast and such like Sins of Infirmity in comparison of Murder Perjury or the like gross sinnes which we commonly call Crimes or Wickedness when the former we use to call but Faults These Infirmities are they which the Papists and some Learned Divines of our own as Rob. Baronius in his excellent Tractate de Peccat Mortali Veniali do call Venial sinnes Some of them in a fair and honest sense viz. Because they are such sinnes as a true Christian may live and die in though not unrepented or unresisted yet not subdued so farre as to forsake or cease from the practice of them and yet they are pardoned But other Papists call them Venial sinnes in a wicked sense as if they needed no pardon or deserved not eternal punishment And why should they call them Venial if they need not pardon A justified man liveth in the daily practice of some vain thoughts or the frequent commission of some other sinnes which by his utmost diligence he might restrain But he liveth not in the frequent practice of Adultery Drunkenness False-witnessing Slandering Hating his Brother c. Yet observe that though the forementioned lesser sinnes are called Infirmities in regard of the matter of them yet they may be so committed in regard of the end and manner of them as may make them crimes or gross sinnes As for example If one should use idle words wilfully resolvedly without restraint reluctancy or tenderness of conscience this were gross sinning or the neerer it comes to this and the more wilfulness or neglect or evil ends there is in the smallest forbidden action the worse it is and the grosser And observe of which more anon that the true bounds or difference between gross sinnes and those lesser faults which we call Infirmities cannot be given I think by any man I am sure not by me either as to the Act it self to say just what Acts are gross sins and what not or else as to the manner of committing them as to say Just how much of the Will must go to make a gross sinne or Just how farre a man may proceed in the degree of evil intents or how farre in the frequency of sinning before it must be called a gross sinne 3. The third sort of sinnes which may be called Sins of Infirmity are these last mentioned gross sinnes themselves so far as they are found in the Regenerate These are gross sinnes put in opposition to the former sort of Infirmities but our Divines use to call them all Sins of Infirmity in opposition to the sinnes of Unbelievers who are utterly unholy And they call them Sins of Infirmity 1. Because the person that committeth them is not dead in sinnes as the Unregenerate are but only diseased wounded and infirm 2. Because that they are not committed with so full consent of Will as those of the Unregenerate are but only after much striving or at least contrary to Habitual Resolutions though not against Actual Here we are in very great Difficulties and full of Controversies Some say that these gross sinnes do extinguish true Grace and are inconsistent with it and that David and Peter were out of the 〈◊〉 of Grace till they did again Repent Others say that they were in the state of Grace and not at al so liable to condemnation but that if they had died in the Act they had been saved because There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus and that therefore all the sins of Believers are alike sins of Infirmity pardoned on the same terms and therefore as a rash word may be pardoned without a particular repentance so possibly may these gross sins To others this seems dangerous and contrary to Scripture and therefore they would fain finde out a way between both But how to do it clearly and satisfactorily is not easie at least to me who have been long upon it but am yet much in the dark in it I think it is plain that such persons are not totally unsanctified by their sin I believe that Christs interest is Habitually more in their Wils then is the interest of the flesh or world at that very time when they are sinning and so Christs interest is least as to their Actual Willing And so sinne prevaileth for that time against the Act of their Faith and Love but not wholly against the prevalent part of the Habit. And therefore
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
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
that God is Reconciled to you and hath forgiven you for you are Justified before you were born if you are one of the Elect and can but Believe it 't is not any thing of your own by which you can be Justified Nor is it any sin of yours that can unjustifie It is the witness of the Spirit onely perswading you of your Justification and Adoption that can give you Assurance and fetching it from any thing in your self is but a resting on your own Righteousness and forsaking Christ When the Antinomian hath but sung this Ignorant Charm to a poor Soul as Ignorant as himself and prepared by terrours to entertain the Impression presently it oft takes and the sinner without a wonder of Mercy is undone This Doctrine which subverteth the very scope of the Gospel being entertained subverteth his Faith and Obedience and usually the Libertinism of his opinion is seen in his Liberty of Conscience and Licentious practises and his trouble of mind is cured as a burning feaver by opium which gives him such a sleep that he never awaketh till he be in another world Yet these errours are so gross and so fully against the express Texts of Scripture that if Ministers would condescendingly lovingly and familiarly deal with them and do their duty I should hope many well-meaning Souls might be recovered Thus you see the danger of rash interpreting and so misinterpreting Providences As such interpretations of prosperity and success deludeth not onely the Mahometan world and the Prophane world but many that seemed Godly so many such Interpretations of Adversity and Crosses do especially if the Seducer be but kind and liberal to relieve them in their Adversity he may do with many poor Souls almost what he please 3. The third Enemy to your peace here mentioned is Misinterpreting or misapplying the Passages of Preachers in their Sermons Writings or private Speeches A Minister cannot deal throughly or seriously with any sort of sinners but some fearful troubled souls apply all to themselves I must intreat you to avoid this fault or else you will turn Gods Ordinances and the daily food of your souls into bitterness and wormwood and all through your mistakes I think there is few Ministers so preach but you might perceive whom they mean and they so difference as to tell you who they speak to I confess it is a better sign of an honest heart and self-judging conscience to say He speaks now to me this is my case then to say He speaks now to such or such a one this is their case For it is the property of Hypocrites to have their eye most abroad and in every duty to be minding most the faults of others and you may much discern such in their prayers in that they will fill their confessions most with other mens sins and you may feel them all the while in the bosom of their neighbours when you may even feel a sincere man speaking his own heart and most opening his own bosom to God But though self-applying and self-searching be far the better sign yet must not any wise Christian do it mistakingly for that may breed abundance of very sad effects For besides the aforesaid embittering of Gods Ordinances to you and so discouraging you from them do but consider what a grief and a snare you may prove to your Minister A grief it must needs be to him who knows he should not make sad the soul of the innocent to think that he cannot avoid it without avoiding his duty When God hath put two several Messages in our mouthes Isa. 3.10 11. Say to the Râ—ghteous it shall be well with him and Say to the wicked it shall be ill with him He that believeth shall be saved He that believeth not shall be damned and we speak both will you take that as spoken to you which is spoken to the unbeliever and the wicked Alas how is it possible then for us to forbear troubling you If you will put your head under every stroke that we give against sin and sinners how can we help it if you smart what a sad case are we in by such misapplications We have but two Messages to deliver and both are usually lost by misapplication The wicked saith I am the Righteous and therefore it shâ—ll go well with me the Righteous saith I am the wicked and therefore it shall go ill with me The Unbeliever saith I am a Believer and therefore am justifâ—â—d The Believer saith I am 〈◊〉 Vnbeliever â—nd therefore am condemned nay it is not onely the loss of our preaching but we oft do them much harm for they are hardened that should be humbled and they are wounded more that should be healed A Minister now must needs tell them who he means by the Believer and who by the Unbeliever who by the Righteous and who by the wicked and yet when he hath done it as accurately and as cautelously as he can misapplying souls will wrong themselves by it so that because people cannot see the distinguishing line it therefore comes to pass that few are comforted but when Ministers preach nothing else but comfort and few humbled but where Ministers bend almost all their endeavors that way that people can feel almost nothing else from him But for him that equally would divide to each their portion each one snatcheth up the part of another and he oft misseth of profiting either And yet this is the course that we must take And what a snare is this to us as well as a grief what if we should he so moved with compassion of your troubles as to fit almost all our Doctrine and Application to you what a fearful guilt should we draw upon our own souls Nay what a snare may you thus prove to the greater part of the Congregation Alas we have seldom past one or two or three troubled Consciences in an Auditory and perhaps some of their troubles be the fruit of such wilful sinning that they have more need of greater humbling yet should we now neglect all the rest of these poor souls to preach only to you O how many an ignorant hard-hearted sinner comes before God every day Shall we let such go away as they came without ever a blow to awaken them and stir their hearts when alas all that ever we can do is too little when we preach you into tears and trembling we preach them asleep Could we speak swords it would scarce make them feel when you through misapplication have gone home with anguish and fears how few of all these have been pricked at the heart and said What shall we do to be saved Have you no Pity now on such stupid souls as these I fear this one distemper of yours that you cannot bear this rousing preaching doth bewray another and greater sin look to it I beseech you for I think I have spy'd out the cause of your trouble Are you not your self too great a stranger to poor stupid sinners and
when he may satisfie you more fully and that without doing hurt to others And consider what a strait Ministers are in that have so many of so different conditions inclinations and conversations to preach to DIRECTION XXIX 29. Be sure you forget not to distinguish between Causes of Doubting of your sincerity and causes of meer Humiliation Repentance and Amendment And do not raise Doubtings and Fears where God calleth you but to Humiliation Amendment and fresh recourse to Christ THis Rule is of so great moment to your peace that you will have daily use for it and can never maintain any true setled peace without the practice of it What more common then for poor Christians to pour out a multitude of complaints of their weaknesses and wants and miscarriages and never consider all the while that there may be cause of sorrow in these when yet there is no cause of doubting of their sincerity I have shewed before that in gross falls and great backslidings Doubtings will arise and sometime our fears and jealousies may not be without cause But it is not ordinary infirmities nor every sin which might have been avoided that is just cause of Doubting Nay your very Humiliation must no further be endeavored then it tends to your Recovery and to the honouring of mercy For it is possible that you may exceed in the measure of your Griefs You must therefore first be resolved wherein the Truth of saving Grace doth consist and then in all your failings and weaknesses first know whether they contradict sincerity it self and are such as may give just cause to question your sincerity If they be not as the ordinary infirmities of Believers are not then you may and must be humbled for them but you may not Doubt of your Salvation for them I told you before by what marks you may discern your sincerity that is wherein the nature of saving faith and holiness doth consist Keep that in your eye and as long as you finde that sure and clear let nothing make you doubt of your Right to Christ and Glory But alas how people do contradict the will of God in this when you have sinned God would have you bewail your folly and unkinde dealing and fly to mercy through Christ and this you will not do But he would not have you torment your self with fears of damnation and questioning his Love and yet this you will do You may discern by this that Humiliation and Reformation are sure of God mans heart is so backward to it and that vexations doubts and fears in true Christians that should be comfortable are not of God mans nature is so prone to them though the ungodly that should fear and doubt are as backward to it I think it will not be unseasonable here to lay down the particular Doubts that usually trouble sincere Believers and see how far they may be just and how far unjust and causeless and most of them shall be from my own former experience and such as I have been most troubled with my self and the rest such as are incident to true Christians and too usual with them DOUBT I. I Have oft heard and read in the best Divines that Grace is not born with us and therefore Satan hath always possession before Christ and keeps that possession in Peace till Christ come and binde him and cast him out and that this is so great a work that it cannot choose but be observed and for ever remembred by the soul where it is wrought yea the several steps and passages of it may be all observed first casting down and then lifting up first wounding and killing and then healing and reviving But I have not observed the distinct parts and pâ—sâ—â—ges of this change in me nay I know of no such sudden observable change at all I cannot remember that ever I was first killed and then revived Nor do I know by what Minister nor at what Sermon or other means that work which is upon me was wrought No nor what day or moneth or year it was begun I have slided insensibly into a Profession of Religion I know not how And therefore I fear that I am not sincere and the work of true Regeneration was never yet wrought upon my soul ANSWER I will lay down the full answer to this in these Propositions 1. It is true that Grace is not Natural to us or conveyed by Generation 2. Yet it is as true that Grace is given to our Children as well as to us That it may be so and is so with some all will grant who believe that Infants may be and are saved And that it is so with the Infants of Believers I have fully proved in my Book of Baptism But mark what Grace I mean The Grace of Remission of original sin the Children of all true Believers have at least a high probability of if not a full Certainty their parent Accepting it for himself and them and Dedicating them to Christ and engaging them in his Covenant so that he takes them for his People and they take him for their Lord and Saviour And for the Grace of inward Renewing of their Natures or Dispositions it is a secret to us utterly unknown whether God use to do it in Infants or no. 3. Gods first-ordained way for the working of inward holiness is by Parents Education of their Children and not by the publick Ministry of the Word of which more anon 4. All godly Parents do acquaint their Children with the doctrine of Christ in their Infancy as soon as they are capable of receiving it and do afterwards inculcate it on them more and more 5. These Instructions of Parents are usually seconded by the workings of the Spirit according to the capacity of the Child opening their understandings to receive it and making an impression thereby upon the heart 6. When these Instructions and the inward workings of the Spirit are just past the preparatory part and above the highest step of Common Grace and have attained to special saving Grace is ordinarily undiscernible therefore as I have shewed already in Gods usual way of working Grace men cannot know the just day or time when they began to be in the state of Grace And though men that have long lived in Prophaness and are changed suddenly may conjecture near at the time yet those that God hath been working on early in their youth yea or afterwards by slow degrees cannot know the time of their first receiving the Spirit 8. The Memories of all men are so slippery and one thought so suddenly thrust out by another that many a thousand souls forget those particular workings which they have truly felt 9. The Memories of Children are far weaker then of others and therefore it is less probable that all the Spirits workings should by them be remembred 9. And the motions of Grace are so various sometimes stirring one Affection and sometimes another sometimes beginning with smaller motions and then moving more
harden their hearts or stiffen their necks and you will finde that the most usual meaning of the Holy Ghost is this They were an intractable disobedient obstinate people or as the Greek word in the New Testament signifieth which we often translate Vnbelieving they were an Vnperswadable people no saying would serve them They set light by Gods Commands Promises and severest Threatnings and Judgements themselves nothing would move them to forsake their sins and obey the voyce of God You shall finde that hardness of heart is seldom put for want of tears or a melting weeping disposition and never at all for the want of such tears where the will is tractable and obedient I pray you examine your self then according to this Rule God offereth his Love in Christ and Christ with all his benefits to you Are you willing to Accept them He commandeth you to worship him and use his ordinances and Love his people and others and to forsake your known Iniquities so far that they may not have dominion over you Are you Willing to this He commandeth you to take him for your God and Christ for your Redeemer and stick to him for better and worse and never forsake him Are you willing to do this If you have a stiff Rebellious heart and will not Accept of Christ and Grace and will rather let go Christ then the world and will not be perswaded from your known iniquities but are loth to leave them and love not to be reformed and will not set upon those duties as you are able which God requireth and you are fully convinced of then are you Hard-hearted in the Scripture sense But if you are glad to have Christ with all your heart upon the terms that he is offered to you in the Gospel and you do walk-daily in the way of duty as you can and are willing to Pray and willing to hear and wait on God in his Ordinances and willing to have all Gods Graces formed within you and willing to let go your profitablest and sweetest sins and it is your daily desires O that I could seek God and do his will more faithfully zealously and pleasingly then I do O that I were rid of this body of sin these carnal corrupt and worldly inclinations and that I were as holy as the best of Gods Saints on earth And if when it comes to practise whether you should obey or no though some unwillingness to duty and willingness to sin be in you you are offended at it and the greater bent of your Will is for God and it is but the lesser which is towards sin and therefore the world and flesh do not lead you captive and you live not wilfully in avoidable sins nor at all in gross sin I say if it be thus with you then you have the Blessing of a soft heart a heart of flesh a new heart for it is a Willing obedient tractable heart opposed to obstinacy in sin which Scripture calleth a soft heart And then for the Passionate part which consisteth in lively feelings of sin misery mercy c. and in weeping for sin I shall say but this 1. Many an unsanctified person hath very much of it which yet are desperately Hard-hearted sinners It dependeth far more on the temper of the body then of the Grace in the soul Women usually can weep easily and yet not all and children and old men Some complexions encline to it and others not Many can weep at a Passion-Sermon or any moving duty and yet will not be perswaded to obedience these are hard-hearted sinners for all their tears 2. Many a tender godly person cannot weep for sin partly through the temper of their minds which are more judicious and solid and less passionate but mostly from the temper of their bodies which dispose them not that way 3. Deepest sorrows seldom cause tears but deep thoughts of heart as greatest joys seldom cause laughter but inward pleasure I 'le tell you how you shall know whose heart is truly sorrowful for sin and tender He that would be at the greatest cost or pains to be rid of sin or that he had not sinned You cannot weep for sin but you would give all that you have to be rid of sin you could wish when you dishonoured God by sin that you had spent that time in suffering rather and if it were to do again on the same terms and inducements you would not do it Nay you would live a beggar condtendedly so you might fully please God and never sin against him and are content to pinch your flesh and deny your worldly interest for the time to come rather then wilfully disobey This is a truly tender heart On the other side another can weep to think of his sin and yet if you should ask him what wouldst thou give or what wouldst thou suffer so thou hadst not sinned or that thou mightest sin no more Alas very little For the next time that he is put to it he will rather venture on the sin then venture on a little loss or danger or disgrace in the world or deny his craving flesh its pleasures This is a hard-hearted sinner The more you would part with to be rid of sin or the greater cost you would be at for that end the more Repentance have you and true tenderness of heart Alas if men should go to Heaven according to their weeping what abundance of children and women would be there for one man I 'le speak truly my own Case This doubt lay heavy many a year on my own soul when yet I would have given all that I had to be rid of sin but I could not weep a tear for it Nor could I weep for the death of my dearest friends when yet I would have bought their lives had it been Gods will at a dearer rate then many that could weep for them ten times as much And now since my nature is decayed and my body languisheth in consuming weakness and my head more moistned and my veins filled with flegmatick watry blood now I can weep and yet I find never the more tender-heartedness in my self then before And yet to this day so much remains of my old disposition that I could wring all the money out of my purse easier then one tear out of my eyes to save a friend or rescue them from evil when I see divers that can weep for a dead friend that would have been at no great cost to save their lives 5. Besides as Dr. Sibs saith There is oft sorrow for sin in us when it doth not appear It wanteth but some quickening word to set it afoot It is the nature of Grief to break out into tears most when sorrow hath some vent either when we use some expostulating aggravating terms with our selves or when we are opening our hearts and case to a friend then sorrow will often shew it self that did not before 6. Yet do I not deny but that our want of Tears and
seven or eight years last past This being so you must look that your perseverance should be by being preserved from Temptation and must rather examine Whether you have that Grace which will enable you to avoyd Temptations then whether you have Grace enough to overcome them if you rush into them But if God unavoydably cast you upon them keep up your Watch and Prayer and you have no Cause to trouble your self with distrustful fears DOUBT XIII I Am afraid lest I have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost and then there is no hope of my salvation ANSWER IT seems you know not what the sin against the Holy Ghost is It is this When a man is convinced that Christ and his Disciples did really work those glorious Miracles which are recorded in the Gospel and yet will not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and his Doctrine true though sealed with all those Miracles and other holy and wonderful works of the Spirit but do Blasphemously maintain that they were done by the Power of the Devil This is the sin against the Holy Ghost And dare you say that you are guilty of this If you be then you do not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Messiah and his Gospel true And then you will sure oppose him and maintain that he was a Deceiver and that the Devil was the Author of all the Miraculous and Gracious workings of his Spirit Then you will never fear his displeasure nor call him seriously either Lord or Saviour nor tender him any service any more then you do to Mahomet None but Infidels do commit the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Nor but few of them Unbelief is eminently called Sin in the Gospel and that Vnbelief which is maintained by Blaspheming the Glorious Works of the Holy Ghost which Christ and his Disciples through many years time did perform for a Testimony to his Truth that is called singularly The sin against the Holy Ghost You may meet with other Descriptions of this sin which may occasion your terrour but I am fully perswaded that this is the plain Truth DOUBT XIV BVT I greatly fear lest the time of Grace be past and lest I have out sit the day of mercy and now mercy hath wholly forsaken me For I have oft heard Ministers tell me from the Word Now is the Accepted time Now is the day of your visitation To day while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest God swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his Rest But I have stood out long after I have resisted and quenched the Spirit and now it is I fear departed from me ANSWER HEre is sufficient matter for Humiliation but the Doubting ariseth meerly from Ignorance The day of Grace may in two respects be said to be over The first and most properly so called is When God will not Accept of a sinner though he should Repent and Return This is never in this life for certain And he that imagineth any such thing as that it is too late while his soul is in his body to Repent and Accept of Christ and Mercy is meerly ignorant of the Tenour and sense of the Gospel For the New Law of Grace doth limit no time on earth for Gods Accepting of a Returning sinner True Faith and Repentance do as surely save at the last hour of the day as at the first God hath said that whosoever Believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life He hath no where excepted late Believers or Repenters Shew any such Exception if you can 2. The second sense in which it may be said that the day of Grace is over is this When a man hath so long resisted the Spirit that God hath given him over to wilful obstinate Refusals of Mercy and of Christs Government resolving that he will never give him the prevailing Grace of his Spirit Where note 1. That this same man might still have Grace as soon as any other if he were but Willing to Accept Christ and Grace in him 2. That no man can know of himself or any other that God hath thus finally forsaken him For God hath given us no sign to know it by at least who sin not against the Holy Ghost God hath not told us his secret intents concerning such 4. Yet some men have far greater cause to fear it then others especially those men who under the most searching lively Sermons do continue secure and wilful in known wickedness either hating godliness and godly persons and all that do Reprove them or at least being â—â—â—â—pified that they feel no more then a Post the force of Gods terrours or the sweetness of his promises but make a jest of sinning and think the life of godliness a needless thing Especially if they grow old in this course I confess such have great Cause to fear lest they are quite forsaken of God For very few such are ever recovered 5. And therefore it may well be said to all men To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts c. and This is the Acceptable time this is the day of salvation both as this life is called The day of salvation and because no man is certain to live another day that he may Repent nor yet to have Grace to Repent if he Live 6. But what 's all this to you that do Repent Can you have Cause to fear that your day of Grace is over that have Received Grace Why that is as foolish a thing as if a man should come to the Market and buy Corn and when he hath done go home lamenting that the Market was past before he came Or as a man should come and hear the Sermon and when he hath done lament that the Sermon was done before he came If your day of Grace be past tell me and do not wrong God Where had you the Grace of Repentance How came you by that Grace of holy Desâ—res Who made you Willing to have Christ for your Lord and Saviour So that you had rather have him and Gods favour and a Holy heart and life then all the glory of the World How came you to desire that you were such a one as God would have you to be and to desire that all your sins were dead and might never live in you more and that you were able to Love God and Delight in him and please him even in perfection and that you are so troubled that you cannot do it Are these signs that your day of Grace is over Doth Gods Spirit breath out Groans after Christ and Grace within you and yet is the day of Grace over Nay what if you had no Grace Do you not hear God daily offering you Christ and Grace doth he not intreat and Beseech you to be Reconciled unto him 2 Cor. 5.19 20. and would he not compel you to come in Mat. 22. Do you not feel some unquietness in your
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
before some bashful or proud or tender Patients will open their disease The very opening of a mans grief to a faithful friend doth oft ease the heart of it self 2. And that this should be done to your Pastor I will shew you further anon 2. But you must understand well when this is your Duty 1. Not in every small infirmity which accompanies Christians in their daily most watchful Conversation Nor yet in every lesser Doubt which may be otherways resolved It is a folly and a wrong to Physitians to run to them for every cut finger or prick with a pin Every neighbour can help you in this 2. Nor except it be a weighty case indeed go not first to a Minister But first study the case your self and seek Gods direction If that will not serve open your case to your nearest bosom friend that is godly and judicious And in these two cases always go to your Pastor 1. In case privater means can do you no Good then God calls you to seek further If a cut finger so fester that ordinary means will not cure it you must go to the Physician 2. If the case be weighty and dangerous For then none but the more prudent advice is to be trusted If you be struck with a dangerous disease I would not have you delay so long nor wrong your self so much as to stay while you tamper with every womans medicine but go presently to the Physician So if you either fall into any grievous sin or any terrible pangs of Conscience or any great streights and difficulties about matters of Doctrine or Practice go presently to your Pastour for advice The Devil and Pride and Bashfulness will do their utmost to hinder you but see that they prevail not 3. Next consider to what End you must do this Not 1. either to expect that a Minister can of himself create Peace in you or that all your Doubts should vanish as soon as ever you have opened your mind Onely the great Peacemaker the Prince of Peace can create Peace in you Ascribe not to any the office of the Holy Ghost to be your effectual Comforter To expect more from man then belongs to man is the way to receive nothing from him but to cause God to blast to you the best endeavours 2. Nor must you resolve to take all meerly from the word of your Pastour as if he were Infallible Nor absolutely to Judge of your self as he Judgeth For he may be too rigorous or more commonly too charitable in his opinion of you There may be much of your disposition and conversation unknown to him which may hinder his right Judging But 1. You must use your Pastour as the ordained Instrument Messenger of the Lord Jesus his Spirit appointed to speak a word in season to the weary and to shew to man his Righteousness and to strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees yea and more to bind and loose on Earth as Christ doth bind and loose in Heaven As Christ and his Spirit do onely save in the principal place and yet Ministers save souls in subordination to them as his Instruments Act. 26.17 18. 1 Tim. 4.15 16. Jam. 5.20 So Christ and the Spirit are as Principal Causes the onely Comforters but his Ministers are Comforters under him 2. And that which you must expect from them is these two things 1. You must expect those fuller discoveries of Gods Will then you are able to make your self by which you may have assurance of your duty to God and of the sense of Scripture which expresseth how God will deal with you That so a clearer discovery of Gods mind may Resolve your Doubts 2. In the mean time till you can come to a full Resolution you may and must somewhat stay your self on the very Judgement of your Pastour Not as Infallible but as a discovery of the Probability of your Good or bad estate and so of your duty also Though you will not renounce your own understanding and believe any man when you know he is deceived or would deceive you yet you will so far suspect your own reason and value anothers as to have a special regard to every mans Judgement in his own Profession If the Physician tell you that your disease is not dangerous or the Lawyer that your Cause is good it will more Comfort you then if another man should say as much It may much stay your heart till you can reach to clear Evidences and Assurance to have a Pastor that is well acquainted with you and is faithful and Judicious to tell you that he verily thinks that you are in a safe Condition 3. But the chief use of his Advice is not so much to tell you what he thinks of you as to give you Directions how you may Judge of your self and come out of your trouble Besides the benefit of his Prayers to God for you 4. Next let me tell you what men you must choose to open your mind to And they must be 1. Men of Judgement and Knowledge and not the Ignorant be they never so honest Else they may deceive you not knowing what they do either for want of understanding the Scripture and the nature of Grace and Sin or for want of skill to deal with both weak Consciences and deep deceitful hearts 2. They must be truly fearing God and of experience in this great work For a Troubled soul is seldom well resolved and comforted meerly out of a Book but from the Book and Experience both together Carnal or formal men will but make a Jest at the Doubts of a Troubled Christian or at least will give you such formal Remedies as will prove no Cure Either they will perswade you as the Antinomians do that you should trust God with your soul and never Question your Faith Or that you do ill to trouble your self about such things Or they will direct you onely to the Comforts of General Grace and tell you onely that God is Merciful and Christ dyed for sinners which are the necessary Foundations of our Peace but will not answer particular Doubts of our own sincerity and of our Interest in Christ Or else they will make you believe that Holiness of heart and life which is the thing you look after is it that troubleth you and breeds all your scruples Or else with the Papists they will send you to your Merits for Comfort or to some Vindictive Penance in Fastings Pilgrimages or the like or to some Saint departed or Angel or to the Pardons or Indulgencies of the Pope or to a certain formal carnal Devotion to make God amends 3. They must be men of downright Faithfulness that will deal plainly and freely though not cruelly and not like those tender Surgeons that will leave the Cure undone for fear of hurting Meddle not with men-pleasers and daubers that will presently speak Comfort to you as Confidently as if they had known you twenty years when perhaps they know