Heresies So as we are not to wonder if the things that have been still are whiles the state of the Church is yet militant we are not indeed to cause them or be the Authors or Abettors of them but neither are we to be discouraged or condemn Churches for them who may be comely though they have something of this blackness thus caused I shall shut up this discourse with a few words of Exhortation 1. To all such as own themselves Christians and glory in the name of the Sons and Daughters of the Church That they would answer that name and relation and not be a cause of the Spouses blackness or appearing blackness There are two ways by which we may be so 1. By a loose and scandalous conversation 2. By being angry with our Brethren By the first we make the Spouse black By the second we cause her to be reproached and called and counted black 1. Take heed of a loose and scandalous conversation This makes you spots in the Assemblies of Christians and declares you to be but presumptive Members Can a man be a Member of Christ and a Member of a Harlot Christs Companion and a Pot companion A Disciple of Christ who hath commanded us not to swear falsly idly or prophanely and yet being a common Swearer and Curter and Blasphemer Only let your conversation saith the Apostle he as becometh the Gospel of Christ Loose livers are the blots of any Church the Church is a body of called ones now you are not called to uncleanness or profaneness but unto purity and holiness It is for your sake that the name of Christ and the body of Christ is evil spoken of Consider that though it be the way of God to denominate his Church a parte meliori from the better part of it and therefore he calls the Church those that are called and sanctified in Christ Jesus though they all be not so that are Members of the visible Church yet it is the way of the World out of their hatred both to Christ and all that have relation to him to denominate them a parte deteriori from the worser part and to call all Professors of Religion by the name that belongeth only to the worser part of them But this is not so proper an application of this Proposition which speaks of the anger of false Brethren as the cause of the Spouses blackness 2. Therefore let me speak to you whose corruptions will not allow you to be so strict in your walking with God as others are whether in matters of Worship or your more ordinary conversation yet not to be angry with those who desire to walk more closely with God then you think needful and in some things dare not give themselves that liberty which you dare allow your selves I will offer three things to your consideration which may help you to abate your wrath 1. Consider first How little reason there is for you to be offended You all profess to be going the same journey aiming at the same end you all profess to be going towards the new Hierusalem Your dispute is only about the nearest way you are satisfied that this way of worshipping God this course of Religion will bring you to your journies end others cannot be so satisfied but take a straiter way what reason is there here for thy wrath who thinkest a broader will bring thee as well to thy Journies end how doth his walking more strictly prejudice thee Thou thinkest thou doest enough in the Service of God another thinks he can never do too much never do enough and therefore he heareth more and readeth more and prayeth oftner wherein art thou hereby prejudiced Hast thou not rather cause to bless God for the good example of others and to examine thy own ways and why another should not take up with those measures in duty with which another cannot be satisfied Thou thinkest that in the Worship of God thou mayest be guided and limited by the precepts and practices and traditions of other men others considering that it is but reasonable Worship being an Homage which the Soul payeth to God that God should prescribe his own Homage and considering that God hath declared himself to be a jealous God and affixed the declaration of this his jealousy to the second Commandment which concerneth his external Worship and that in the whole course of Scripture the revelations of Gods wrath appear more against sins relating to the Worship of God then any other sins they dare not in the matters of Divine Worship deviate from the Divine Rule wherein art thou by this prejudiced What reason is there for thine anger Surely they walk most safely that finding the Holy Scriptures a perfect rule able to furnish a man to every good work keep close to that and dare not in practice admit any thing but what they find there commanded or practised Thou ownest the Holy Scriptures as thy rule Why art thou offended that another keepeth closer to it then thou dost 2. Consider you are a great cause of the Spouses appearing black She is reproached for the contentious divisions and Schisms that are in it who are the cause of them those that keep to the rule of Gods Word or those that depart from it Surely the whiteness and purity of any Church lieth in its adherence to the Divine Rule the more a particular Christian or any society of Christians keep close to the pattern which Christ and his Apostles have set them and to the rule which God hath given them the more pure the more white and comely they are Their deviation from it is their blackness so are those contentions and divisions which arise in the Church because of those deviations it is a dreadful text 1 Cor. 3. 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy The Apostle is there speaking with reference to the Bodies of Professors which he had called the Temple of God But it is as true concerning the Church of God that is the Temple of God this is destroyed or defiled for the word may be translated by either of these words God saith the Apostle will destroy him who are they that defile the Church and indeed destroy it but those that are the cause of scandals in it either of its being black or of its appearing black unto the World 3. Lastly Let the words of our Saviour sink into your hearts Mat. 18. 7 Woe unto the World because of offences for it must needs be that offences must come but woe to that man by whom the offence â—ometh Luke repeating that passage ch 17. v. 1. addeth v. 2. It were better for him that a milstone were hung about his neck and he cast into the Sea then that he should offend one of these little ones Whoso considereth the Church as the only body of People in the World by whom God is spontaneously glorified and how God hath expressed his favour and love to it must dread the laying
not be to her a meer sound much less the savour of death unto death but the savour of life unto life Prop. The great desire of a gracious Soul is after an inward spiritual Communion with Christ in his Word ȧnd Ordinances This is a Point not so well generally understood by the croud of Professors suffer me therefore to spend a few words in the Explication of it All Communion importeth mutual and reciprocal Communication It is an action wherein two Persons do communicate themselves each to other Communion with God implieth God's communication of himself to his creature and the creature's communication of it self unto God To restrain my discourse to the present Subject I am about There is a more external Communion we have with God with reference to his Word in the reading it or hearing it read or Preacht or meditating in it God then communicates his Will to us by the help of Letters Words and Syllables by which we understand things or by the voice of his Ministers sent in his Name to open his mind and will unto us and we communicate with God giving him the homage of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and imaginations this I call a more external Communion And there is a more spiritual internal Communion which a Soul hath with God in it I call it a Communion because God in it doth communicate himself to the Soul and the Soul communicateth it self to God God speaketh by his Word to the heart and the heart receiveth the Divine Impressions and surrendreth up it self to the Will of God In the other there is no more than a communication of the Divine Will on God's part nor any more than the homage of our exterior senses our faculty of reading and hearing the service of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and power of Imagination and of our understanding receiving the notions of Truth In this Communion with God in his Word there is not only on God's part a communication of God's Will but also of God's Power by which the Soul is 1. Irradiated as to the understanding inabled to see things in another light more fully and clearly 2. Subdued as to the Will so as the man is made willing and obedient to the heavenly Revelation transformed into the likeness of the Word so convinced of the truth of it that it can no longer withstand it whether it be a word of Instruction which is the Object of our Faith or a word of Reproof for conviction of Sin or a word of Consolation for refreshing the Soul the Soul can no longer deny or dispute or doubt of the Proposition no longer stand out against the Precept no longer refuse to be comforted The Word of the Lord comes here to the inward part of the Soul 2. There is a further Communication on man's part of himself to God In the former Communion he only lends God his Eye to read his Will his Ear to hear it his imaginative power to think upon it his Passive Intellect or Power to receive Notions of Truth Here he communicates his whole Soul to God his Will and Affections his whole Man It is true here God speaks first we do only velle quum volumus agere quum agimur as Augustine expresseth it that is we only will when we are made willing and act when we are first moved and acted There are some who are great Patrons for the Power of Man's Will as to things spiritual that would elude those Texts about the Teachings of the Spirit and the Teachings of the Anointing spoken of by St. John by asserting That there is such a constant concomitancy of the holy Spirit with the Preaching of the Gospel that whosoever will may be willing and obedient and believe and repent and be obedient I should hearken much to this Notion if the Authors of it could give me a good account how it is then that of two persons hearing the same Sermon and sitting under the same ministration of the Spirit one man only hears it thinks upon it a little and receiveth some notions of it to fit his Tongue with discourse another hath his heart changed by it and transformed into the Image of God and wholly changed as to his Will and Affections and his whole Conversation That it is so is demonstrably true I would know whence it is unless they will make man a God unto himself that is the first cause of truly good and spiritual motions Now this internal Communion with God in his Word which in Scripture is called the Teaching of the Spirit and the Teaching of the Anointing being such as few are acquainted with is little known in the world and therefore some count it Canting and so unwarily blaspheme the Teacher and cannot understand any thing else by it than Ministerial Teaching Others again can understand no Teaching of the Spirit in and by Ordinances but dream that Souls under the Teachings of the Spirit must live above Duties and Ordinances and so turn it into meer Enthusiasm immediate impressions which they pretend to from the holy Spirit of God It may be therefore worth our while to understand it a little You read of it prophesied of old Isa 54. 17. That the Children of the Church should be all taught of the Lord. You read in the New Testament of words which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2. 14. Yea it teacheth us not words only but things 1 John 2. 27. But the Anointing which you have received in him abideth in you and you need not that any man should teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lye Yea it was Christ's own Promise Joh. 14. 26. But the Comforter which the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance whatsoever you have heard from me So as that there is a Teaching of the Spirit is out of all doubt The only Questions are 1. Whether this be concomitant with Ministerial Teachings and superadded to them which we maintain against those who are for immediate Teachings in raptures and by immediate impressions or a thing separate from them and to which Ministerial Teachings are rather hinderances than any furtherance which is what we deny For though we limit not the Holy One of Israel but say that as he did of Old thus teach his Prophets and Apostles so he may by more immediate Impressions and Revelations teach his People still what they are to do or to avoid Yet we say that the Book of Scripture being finished and sealed no such Revelations are by any to be expected and if any man think he hath any such Impressions Revelations or extraordinary Teachings they must be proved by the Word with which if they do not agree they proceed not from the holy Spirit of God neither have they any Light in them Secondly 2. Whether the Teachings of the Spirit be any thing more than Ministerial Teachings in
Man 's but a shadow and a Picture is That shadow's shadow yet don't judge amiss Though here you onely on the shadow look What followes read The Substance is i' th' book THE INTERCOURSES OF DIVINE LOVE BETWIXT Christ and his Church OR The Particular Believing Soul Metaphorically expressed by Solomon in the first Chapter of the Canticles or Song of Songs Opened and Applied in several Sermons upon that whole Chapter In which the Excellencies of Christ the yernings of his bowels towards Believers under various circumstances the workings of their hearts towards and in communion with him with many other Gospel Propositions of great import to Souls are handled By John Collinges D. D. Solomon divinitus inspiratus Christi Ecclesiae laudes aeterni Connubii cecinit Sacramenta simulque expressit sanctae desiderium animae Epithalamii carmen exultans in spiritu jucundo composuit Elogio figurato tamen Nimirum velabat ipse instar Moysis faciem suam non minus forsitan in hâc parte fulgentem to quod illo adhuc in tempore nemo aut rarus erat qui revelatà facie gloriam illam speculari sufficeret Bernardus 1 Serm. in Cantica London Printed by T. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. To the Lady Ann Knightley Madam AMongst the many Spiritual mercies by which within these fifty years last past England hath been exalted to heaven as our Saviour said of Capernaum the plenty of good Books hath not been the least so as there is hardly any point in Divinity which hath not been judiciously handled both dogmatically polemically and practically and discourses upon it published in our own Tongue The things hid in times of Popery yea and for many years in the beginning of our Reformation have been made known the things covered have been revealed what was at first spoken in darkness hath been told in the light preached upon the house tops and so published that all those who would might read and understand Certainly no Nation under Heaven of which we have any record was ever blessed with the Means of Grace to that degree none ever had more judicious Interpretations of the Word of God nor more serious and faithful Applications of it to the Consciences of men and women so as if either the Doctrine or Duty of the Gospel be yet hid to any it is much to be feared that it is to such only who shall perish But of all good Books we have been exalted in none more than those which have bin wrote on practical Subjects Books of all others to be most highly valued as more immediately serving the great end of man in shewing him the way of Salvation directing his coming to Christ and walking with him of which we have had such plenty as indeed there would be no more need of writing on such Subjects if the Vanity of our Natures did not more incline us to a discourse upon the same Argument newly wrote than to what hath been written as well some years since by which means the multiplying of good Books doth not a little contribute to the much reading of good Books and that I am sure contributes much both to knowledge and practice the two great ends that every Preacher ought to aim at so as I cannot be of their mind who would have no more written of this nature because so much hath been already wrote any more than I can be of theirs who think there is now no such need of Preaching because formerly there hath been so much So long as there are any Souls in the World who know not Christ and live not up to the Rules of his Gospel there will be need both of the one and of the other nay were there none such there would be need of it to keep up the Grace of God bestowed upon men in its warm exercise Nor me thinks should there be one Preacher of the Gospel who should not publish the glad tidings of it and leave some Record to the Ages to come of his faithfulness in that work The Riches of Divine Grace can never be too much published we can never enough declare his love who for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich Such like thoughts as these Madam have brought these Discourses into a more publick light They were composed many years since soon after my entrance into the publick Ministry I am willing they should be a Testimony to the world what Doctrine I then Preached and see no cause yet to be ashamed of and what scope or design I have alwaies propounded to my self The Gospel of the Kingdom Christ The faithsul saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesâ—â— came into the world to save sinners 1. Tim. 1. 15. The Apostle Doctrine Acts 4. 12. That there is no Salvation in any other then in Christ for there is no other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved were the great things I took my self concerned as a Preacher to publish to the world Together with what our Saviour hath taught us That he who believeth him i not condemned But he that believeth not is condemned already shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 18. 36 and that Faith without works is dead These were the greaâ— things I had in my eye to open explain and apply to people My apprehension that I saw much of these things revealed in the Song of Solomon though clouded under Metaphorical expressions was that which led me to the study of that difficult portion of holy Writ than which undoubtedly there is no portion of the Old Testament more Evangelical according to the common Hypothesis agreed by the most valuable Divines in all Ages viz. That it contains a Dialogue between Christ and his Church or particular believing Souls in it If any think I might have chosen plainer Texts from which to discourse these things I freely yield it as to many of them But shall this excellent Book alwaies acknowledged a sacred portion of holy Writ by the wisest man upon earth stiled the Song os Songs that is the most excellent Song lie by us as the Vision of a Book that is sealed or be bound up in our Bibles for nothing Or can there be any work more worthy of a Divine than to attempt the clearing of so incomparable a piece of Divine Revelation from that darkness which it pleased God to cloath it with in a time when the most which he spake concerning Christ was in Types 〈◊〉 Prophecies or Metaphors Time together with the Sermons of â—hrist and his Apostles have expounded the Types and Prophecies of Christ Is it not a work worthy of us to explain the Metaphors that we might have a Christ wholly unveiled There 's no great fear of any dangerous erring in the case if he that explaineth taketh care that his Explication agreeth with plainer Revelations Madam I think I may
to examine their Calling whether it be such as amounts to a Divine Drawing whether there be any thing wrought in your Souls which flesh and blood could not reveal to you any thing more than could be the effect of the will of the flesh or the will of man I have before enlarged upon this Theme shewing you how you may know whether your Faith be a Faith of the operation of God The work of God upon your Souls with power Whether what you take to be Holiness be the Sanctification of the Spirit You have heard that there is an Assent to the Gospel which may be given upon meer humane testimony or upon probable Arguments of Reason neither of which is true Faith that there may be a Moral Righteousness and a formal course of performing Religious Duties neither of which amount to the Sanctification of the Spirit or a running after Christ upon his drawings I shall here only add that there are two or three things which may draw men to some Reformation of life though Christ draweth not 1. The interests of mens bodily lives and healths and estates Temperance Sobriety Chastity are Virtues in the practice of which men are concerned as to these and though indeed lusts have so far fermented in some debaucht persons that these interests will not draw them to such a Reformation yet in many who have not been tainted by a vitious Education and in whom custom hath not begot a second nature these concerns will draw much as to which aactions Grace comes not in I mean special Graceâ— further than to direct men to do them from a Principle of Faith Love and Obedience to the Will of God and with an aim at glorifying God 2. The Examples of others especially such as are our Superiours whom we honour or reverence or our near friends and companions whom we love may have a great force upon us that we may please them or be like unto them to do many things It is of great concern with whom we converse Many persons in Religion write only by Copies and do acts because they see others do them whom they love admire or have in reverence These Examples alone will not only bring men to a conformity to them in a civil conversation but also to forms of Religion and Worship 3. The inter stâ—of mens credit and applause in the World will go a great way Saul begs of Samuel to honour him before the People The Pharisees sought the praise of men rather than that of God and indeed this is the general cause of Hypocrisie This happens more generally when Religion is in fashion and credit with the world I might instance in several other things but these are sufficient Try therefore and examine your Souls and rest not till you find what may evidence to you that you are indeed drawn by Christ Secondly This Doctrine calls to all the People of God for Humility indeed it evidenceth Humility a necessary ingredient into Saintship A proud Child of God is a contradiction Grace leaves the Soul nothing to boast in nothing to be proud of Is he come to Christ He had never come if the Father had not drawn him Doth he run after him faster than another he had never run if he had not been drawn There were some in the Church of Corinth who were puffed up who despised Paul and thought of themselves above what they ought to think they were full they were rich they had need of nothing Observe the Argument by which the Apostle humbleththem 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who hath made thee to differ from another Or What hast thou which thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Art thou come to Christ and is not thy neighbour What follows from hence but as the Apostle to the Romans saith that to thee God hath been more good to him more severe Hast thou come of thy self or in thy own strength Christ hoth told us That no man cometh to the Son but he whom the Father draweth Every one as he is learned and taught of the Father cometh unto the Son He who is not drawn is the object of thy pity and deserveth thy prayers thy good counsel and exhortations all the help thou canst give him but thou hast no reason to triumph or boast or glory over him had not the Lord drawn thee thou hadst been in the same circumstances that he as as much a stranger to Christ as he is It is grace special grace which alone maketh the difference betwixt thee and him Dost thou find thy self more strong and able than another to resist a motion to sin whether from the lusts of thy own heart or from the suggestions of of the Devil or from the World Thou standest when another is overcome and falleth Dost thou find more ability to spiritual duties more freedom and liveliness in the performance of them still all this is from grace Without Christ thou couldest do nothing thou hast no reason to glory because what thou hast is received what thou dost is by grace which thou hast received I live saith Paul Gul. 2. 20. yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God So as the Child of God hath nothing to glory in nothing to boast and triumph over his weaker Brother for if he differs it is grace alone makes him to differ Thirdly This notion calleth upon the People of God to bless the Lord if at any time they find their hearts more inabled to run after God Psal 18. 29. By thee saith David I have run or I have broken through a Troop and by my God have I leaped over a wall David owns there to God his Victory over his fleshly enemies but a Christian's Warfare is more spiritual against Principalities and Powers against spiritual Enemies mighty Temptations strong Motions to sin doth he at any time get a Victory against them certainly he is obliged to give God the glory for it is by him that he breaketh through the Troops of the Prince of darkness Hath he difficult duties to perform and hath he found a strength to perform them still the glory is due unto God for by him he leapeth over the wall It is an expression of David's Psal 87. 7. All my springs are in thee Our spiritual life is maintained from many springs A spring of pardoning grace because of our renewing guilt A spring of renewing and sanctifying grace because of the frequent lustings of the flesh against the Spirit and our being brought so often into a captivity to the Law of our members Springs of strengthening quickening comforting grace because of accidents which weaken our strength make us dull and heavy in the service of God and often to walk in the dark and see no light Now all our fresh springs are in Christ whither then but to God
God even the God of Israel only he desires that the Lord would be merciful to him as to his bowing down in the House of Rimmon They are neither uniform nor steady and constant in their service of God they seem to run in publick duties but follow them into their Families and Closets there they halt They appear like those that run in duties of more external communion with God but halt in duties of more secret heart communion with God Nor are they constant that of the Apostle to the Galatians is applicable to them Gal. 5. 7. You did run well who hindered you Heretofore one would have thought them in a great zeal for God but they are grown cold and remiss and are very careless of their conversations these never truly ran though they appeared to others to have ran at least they never ran so as to obtain It is said Isaiah 40. 12. That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like the Eagle they shall run and not be weary walk and not faint 3. How many more are there that seem to stand at a stay We cannot say they halt that they are not uniform or not constant they are not to be accused of any notorious lapses or goings backward but alas they are come yet but to a little pitch in religion their knowledge of the things of God is but little that of the Apostle Heb. 5. 12. is applicable to them Whereas for the time they might have been teachers of others they had need be themselves taught the first principles of Religioṅ and must be spoken to as Babes in Christ such as had need of milk and not of strong meat and truly this is much the fault of good People they do not grow in the knowledge of Christ we see something of heat in them in whom we want a great deal of light Others seem to be increased in light but to be decayed in heat and warmth for God sure we are we see a great decay of religion amongst Christians or at least but a small improvement they have in profession seem'd to be such as have walk'd with God a long time we do not see them running yet It is true some plants grow downward in the root when they do not grow upward into the air so as their growth is not so sensible and difcernable So it is possible there may be some such Christians who though their proficiency may not so much appear in their outward performances which requires a growth in gifts and parts yet they may be grown more in faith and love and hatred of sin and resolution for God c. and this is a good running in Grace they grow best who grow in the root not those who improve most in leaves and more exterior branches of Christian profession 2. If Christians cannot satisfy themselves that they run in any sense it would be enquired from whence they are hindered whether from some cause from within or from without 1. A man may be hindered in his bodily running by some inward obstructions bodily decay or weakness this must be cured or purged out Christians ought to search whether they have no secret lust no love to the world no greedy desire to be rich nothing of sensuality which weakens their Souls and keeps them from this running after Christ 2. As a man may be kept from running from some external cause So may a Christian also be hindered in his spiritual race from some ill company with which he is linked from some impressions of his grand adversary the Devil From the withdrawings of Divine Grace those measures of it I mean which are necessary to a Christians running though not to the upholding of the spiritual life If a Christian be hindred from such ill company as he cannot avoid or from some temptations of Sathan or from such divine desertions he is the object of our pity but not to be hastily censured or condemned but in the mean time he ought to lie under convictions of his duty to run though it be his misery that at present he cannot run Secondly We may from hence learn one great reason Why many move not at all after Gȯd and also of that uneven pace which is discernable even in the best of God's People The greater part of the World moveth not after Christ at all One Man runs after his sensual satisfactions anoher after sensible enjȯyments making hast to be rich few after Christ◠What is the reason The Scripture layeth the fault upon the immediate proximate cause that is Man 's perverse will he will not come to Christ that he might live but there is an higher cause for no more would any other Soul have done if the Lord had not drawn it and made it partaker of his powerful special Grace had it pleased the Lord to have done as much for those other Souls they would have come they would have run likewise But you will say then mens Damnation is from God and is not caused so much from their not running as from God's not drawing I have before spoken to this Objection but it comes again a cross me I will add but a word or two or rather repeat what I have already said in the case The Objection were indeed considerable if 1. God did not in some degree draw every Soul to whom the Gospel is preached 2. If the Sinner did to his utmost obey those drawings and God yet denied his further and more effectual Grace But as I have before shewed you there is no Soul that liveth under the preaching of the Gospel but is drawn drawn by Exhortations Arguments Promises of reward c. the proper Cords of a Man Nay there are none amongst the Heathens but are drawn by the Cords of common gracious Providence God saith the Apostle leaveth not them without witness Now though none of these Cords are sufficient to draw the Soul home to Christ yet they are sufficient with that power which is left in the will of Man to ingage him to many acts of Reformation and to the performance of many acts of moral discipline yea and of Religion too that part of it which lyeth in Bodily exercise if men will not do what they have a power to do how shall their destruction be from God for denying them his special grace Especially when we say That although the good use of common Grace meriteth nothing at the hand of God yet God doth never deny his special Grace but where common Grace is first wilfully abused and thus the destruction of Sinners lyeth at their own Doors not because that if they would they might repent believe and turn to God but because that if they would they might make such an use of the common Grace of God as in the use of it God would not be wanting to them in the giving them that further power to Spiritual acts which they have not of themselves But
easily be gathered the reasonableness of this duty There are four things that call to us for it and make it our duty 1. The first is the honour and glory of God This is the great end of all our actions for this cause we were born for this cause we came into the World I have before told you that we have no other way to glorify God but by the predication or speaking of his greatness or goodness or some other of his attributes and by our holy life and conversation in obedience to his will Now of all Gods attributes there is none wherein he more delighteth then in shewing mercy and whoso tells of Gods acts of grace doth eminently glorify God for the riches of his grace and goodness are discovered in Christ and as in his giving of Christ for poor lost sinners so in the application of that purchased redemption to the Souls of his poor creatures Bless the Lord O my Soul saith David Psal 103. v. 1 2 3. and all that is within me bless his holy name Blessthe Lord O my Soul forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities healeth all thy diseases 2. The Second reason is the good of our Brother Next our immediate magnifying and glorifying of God there is nothing more our duty then the consulting the good of our Brethren and he is highly serviceable to God who is any way serviceable to the Souls of others either in winning them to God or advantaging them in their walking with God The Souls of Christians have often great advantages by hearing what God hath done for the Souls of others in their circumstances It incourageth them to make their applications to God to hope and trust in his mercy to wait untill he will be pleased in like manner to be gracious to them David Psal 69. 32. makes this as an argument with which he pleadeth with God for mercy for his Soul He promiseth first v. 30. That he would praise the Lord with a song and magnify him with thanksgiving then he addeth v. 32. The humble shall see this and be gladand your hearts shall live that seek God for the Lord heareth the poor and despiseth not his Prisoners By the humble is to be understood as in many other Texts of Scripture Persons in low mean and afflicted conditions It much conduceth to the raising up of the Spirits of a man under torments of bodily pain and affliction if one comes and tells him I was in the same condition and had the same pain yet I by such and such applications recovered and it is of no less usefulness to one of a poor and broken Spirit for one to come to him under his doubts and fears and despondency because of the guilt of sin when another Christian comes to him and tells him I also was a blasphemer a drunkard an injurious Person yet I obtained mercy I bless God my doubts are resolved my fears scattered and I am inabled through grace to hope in the frèe gerace and mercy of God through the Lord Jesus Christ Wher now such an opportunity as this is which is not very frequent there the good of our Brother calls to us for such a declaration what God hath done for our Souls 3. A third reason is the duty of a Christian so far as he may to avoid Scandal and Offence Offences and mutual dissatisfactions one in another destroy all the freedom and sweetness of Christians communion each with other and it is our duty so to walk as to give no offence to Jews or Gentiles much less to the Church of God 2. Cor 20. 32. There are two ways by which offence is given 1. By doing some actions as to which we are at a perfect liberty by which we cause our Brother to sin against God As to these the Apostle cautioneth Christians very largely both in his Epistle to the Romans and to the Corinthians But these kind of offences are not obviated by Christians declarations of what God hath done for their Souls as to the influences of saving grace but rather by the declaration of his knowledge and forbearing such actions as he hath a liberty to but no necessity that presseth him to the doing of them at least till his Brother be Satisfyed in the lawfulness of them 2. By some Scandalous actions these indeed are Scandala data Scandals that are given and such sores as a Christian ought by all means in his power to endeavour healing of and whether such things have been done before or after a change wrought in our hearts it is our duty to do what in us lyeth to remove the Scandal of them which I know not how it can at first be done without some declaration to the party or Church offended what God hath done for us what a change he hath wrought in us until by a contrary conversation which is a work of time the best evidence we can make it more really to appear to them 4. Lastly The Credit of our professions some times calls to us for it and this is the reason of the performance of this duty with reference to the men of the World who seek all advantages to reproach the good and right ways of the Lord. But this is enough to have spoken doctrinally upon this argument From hence in the first place we may observe That a Child of God may know that he or she is comely Indeed this is not the lot of every Child of God at all times and for them that do know it there are degrees of their knowledge Some have a more some a less certain knowledge but I say a good Christian may know it The Papists indeed make all a Christians faith to be languid and uncertain but Paul was perswaded that nothing should separate him from the Love of God The Spouse knew she was sick of Love and here that altho she was black yet she was also comely tho as the tents of Kedar yet as the Curtains of Solomon also Peter knew that he loved his Master so as he durst appeal to him and say Thou that knowest all things knowest that I Love thee and St. John giving us rules how we might know that we are translated from death to Life supposed that it might be known and if it had not been possible surely Peter would not have quickened us to the use of all diligence to make our calling and election sure That every good Christian doth not certainly know his Spiritual Estate is unquestionable That he who doth know it this day may fall into doubts and fears concerning it is also certain But it is as plain in Scripture that a Christian may walk in the sense and view of his own sincerity and uprightness he may know it by the more special influence of the holy Spirit which witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God and this is of all other the most certain and comfortable knowledge He may also
Word strict in their walking ready to exhort to reprove and admonish such as walk disorderly and not as becometh the Gospel Hypocrites and false Brethren are no more able to bear this then they are able to obtain of themselves to do like them Hence are their censures of them as Persons that are righteous overmuch needlesly strict and severe hence their envy and reproaches and their watchings for their haltings and taking all advantages to blazon their infirmities and to make them as odious and to look as black as they can 3. Another reason of it lyeth in the looseness of their principles both their principles of Doctrine and Faith and their practical principles directing their lives and conversations False brethren are alwaies looser in one or both these sorts of principles then the sincere Christian is The study of the Hypocrite is to form his faith and to interpret the law of God into a consistency with his lusts that he may keep his lusts and yet protect himself from the checks and reverberations of his conscience and flatter himself with hopes of Eternal Salvation and also keep up his credit and reputation with the world The sincere Christian hath no other design then to form his faith according to the revelations of truth in the Word and his conversation to the rule of life in the Word of God the Word is a lamp to his feet and a lanthorn to his paths and from that he dares not start when the false Prophets told Micajah that the Prophets had all with one mouth prophesied good to Ahab and suited his humour Micajah answers them As the Lord liveth whatsoever the Lord bids me speak that will I speak The same is the language of every true Christian whatsoever Propositions of truth I find spoken by Holy Men that were inspired by God in his Word that â—nd nothing but that shall be an article of my faith What way soeâ—â—r God hath prescribed me in his Word to Worship him in and by that will I do neither adding thereunto nor yet diminishing therefrom whatsoever rules God hath given me for the order of his Church to them I will adhere whatsoever laws God hath given me to guide my conversation to the observation of them I will keep thus he is in all things tied up to a divine rule But now the false Professor hath looser principles He dare allow the judgment of his own natural reason in determining of truth as the object of his faith and of the Traditions and Practice and Precepts of men as the rule of his Worship and the will of men as to the order and government of the Church and from one of these three causes most ordinarily proceeds that opposition which is given to the strict Servants of God from the anger of their Mothers Children I come to the second Member of the Proposition 2. This opposition is one great cause of the Spouses appearing black Both the opposition which the particular Christian hath from his own impetuous lusts and motions to sin and which that part of the Church which is alone the Spouse of Christ hath from false Brethren and the opposition given her by them are a great cause of the Churches blackness or appearing blackness The grounds of it are 1. Partly that trouble and sadness which usually attends those conflicts in the Spirits of Christians The time of War is a time of sadness in that part of the world which is the seat of it and the hour of this Spiritual War and Conflict is a sad time in the Soul Paul cryeth out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Hence are Christians sad and heavy walkings which the World counteth blackness 2. Partly from the prevailings of sin sometimes in the Soul David complained under the Old Testament that Iniquities prevailed against him and Paul complaineth under the New Testament not only of a War but of a Victory in some Skirmishes that the law of his Members got against the law of his Mind so that he was brought into a captivity to the law of Sin which was in his Members Rom. 7. 23 Now sin is that which maketh the Soul really black and where any of the People of God in the view of the world so discoloureth himself the world needeth no provocation to call them black The Eye that is directed by a Soul full of malice envy and hatred spies the least miscarriages in the Soul that is hated and aggravates them with the highest aggravations And as this is true concerning that opposition which the particular Soul findeth from its inbred lusts and corruptions that makes the believer black so it is as true that the opposition which that part of the Church which is the true Spouse of Christ meets with from false Brethren will make the Church appear black This will appear from the several unlovely consequences of such opposition 1. From hence are Errors and Heresies Schisms and Contentions in the Church of Christ of these you read in the Episties to the Romans Carinthians Galatians then which nothing make a Church appear more black in the Eyes of the World and they are more especially the reproaches of the Church of Christ by how much the Gospel which is their rule in which they are instructed and to the rules of which they profess a submission is a Gospel of peace and Christ Jesus which is their head and the Author of the Gospel is the Prince of Peace Errors rise up in the Church from men of corrupt principles The Apostle tells us of perverse disputingâ— by men of corrupt minds 1 Tim. 6. 5. and 2 Tim. 3. 8. you have it again men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith Hence also are Schisms and Contentions Only by Pride saith Solomon cometh contention The cause of 〈◊〉 is generally some corruption in Churches and deviation from that Order which Christ hath set and established which that part of the Church which keeps close to the Word as its rule cannot bear with Indeed sometimes they are caused from mens corrupt principles as to the faith and love of preheminâ—â—ce their rashness and want of Judgment how far Christians ought to preserve unity but I say generally they are caused by such as are â—â—lse Brethren who if they be not those who divide yet are those who give the cause of the division 2. From hence are â—â—srepresentations of the Servants of God 〈◊〉 Pharâ—â—â—â—ical generation that say unto others stand far from us we are 〈◊〉 then you such as would be too pure and righteous ovâ—â— much that make a shew of more then indeed thâ—yâ—ard Hypocrites Precisions that are over-nice c. Such kind of charges and imputations as these proceed ordinarily from Mothers Children saâ—e Professors and Brethren such as have a form of Godliness and deny the power of it such as are Mâ—mbers oâ— the Church but their hearts are not perfect with God 3. From hence Thirdly are
a foundation for those scandals which arise in it and are thrown upon it from which it appeareth black Lastly You that are the sincerer part of the Church and have heard that you must expect that your Mothers Children should be angry with you that there should be some bad fish in the drag-net with the good some Tares in Christs Field of Wheat some that will be spots in your Assemblies and that these if they do not make you black yet will make you appear black what remaineth but that you take care that neither the lusts of your own hearts which are in a sense your Mothers Children make you black nor the opposition that you will meet with from such as are false Brethren make you appear more black then indeed you are This care of yours must be shewed 1. In a watchfulness against your motions to sin especially such sins as are your proper lusts the sins which do most easily beset you 2. In a mortifying of your Members 3. In a care that you be not unwarrantably disturbed and unduly disquieted because of the opposition which you find srom the law of your Members 4. In a maintaining the Spiritual Combate c. 5. In an innocent and inoffensive carriage in your stations that those who would speak evil of you as evil doers may see your good works and glorify your heavenly Father for so saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 15. is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolishmen in avoiding unnecessary divisions and separations we ought to walk with all that own the name of Christ as far as the Shooes of the Gospel will carry us where we cannot walk with any who call themselves Christians and walk with Christ that is keep to the rule and law which he hath given us there we must part and the offence lieth on their parts who give the cause of it but otherwise we ought to keep Unity Finally in a peaceable and quiet departing from them with whom we cannot agree I know all this will not avoid the unreasonable anger of some of our Mothers Children but by doing this we shall remove the stumbling stone and rock of offence from our own doors they will be those by whom offences come and the woe pronounced by our Saviour will belong to them Sermon XXXIX Cant. 1. 6. They made me the Keeper of the Vineyards THE Spouse is yet apologizing for her Blackness of which she assigneth four Causes 1. Her afflictions The Sun saith she hath looked upon me 2. Her opposition both from within and without My mothers Children were angry with me These I have discoursed and come now to the third Cause assigned by her expressed in these words They made me the Keeper of the Vineyards They that is my Mothers Children before mentioned made me the Keeper of the Vineyards In my Explication of the Text I hinted a double sense of the words the one literal the other metaphorical In the former it signified her intanglement in secular affairs Keeping the Vineyards is a secular imployment a mean imployment and a laborious imployment Thence you read that the General of the Assyrian Army 2 King 25. 12. left of the poor of the Land to be the Dressers of the Vineyards and those in the Parable who had laboured in the Vineyard told their Lord that they had born the heat of the day Thus the sense is I have been too much intangled in secular affairs that hath been the cause of my blackness 2. Others understand the term Vineyard in a metaphorical sense God useth the term to signifie his Church Isa 5. 1 2 3. As God hath a Vineyard so Idolaters and superstitious persons had their Vineyards Most Heathen Nations having some notions of a God have had some Worship of a Deity and wanting the guidance of holy Writ grew vain in their own imaginations hence came Idolatry and Superstition the Israelites having lived many years in Egypt and in their passage through the Wilderness conversing with the Moabites and Midianites and not driving out all the Canaanites out of the promised Land by converse with them learned to know and to serve their gods as you shall read in their whole story in the Books of Kings and Chronicles there being a corrupt as well as a sincerer part in the Jewish Church the corrupter part imposed upon the whole the Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship and Rites of these Nations This is the sense into which the Chaldee Paraphrast interpreteth these words I am not apt to think this the sense but more incline to the former yetâ—â— shall not wholly pass it over partly because the Chaldee Paraphrast is a very antient Interpreter and partly because that sense carries a truth in it Hence arise two Propositions Prop. 1. That a submission to false Worship and Superstitious Rites in the Service of God will make the Spouse of Christ appear black Prop. 2. That great entanglements in secular affairs will make the Spouse of Christ black I shall speak shortly to the first and more largely to the second which I rather think to be the sense The Church of God hath three things committed to her trust the Doctrine of the Gospel the Ordinances of Worship The Rules of Discipline The admission of corruption in any of these maketh a Church black as it is a breach of trust and a deviation from the Divine Rule This is sufficiently proved by the message Christ sent to the seven Churches of Asia He let the Church of Ephesus know that he had something against her because she had left her first love Rev. 2. 4. v. 13. He reflecteth upon the Church of Pergamus because she had those in her who held the Doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans v. 20. He reflecteth on the Church of Thyatira for suffering the woman Jezabel to seduce the Servants of God to commit fornication and to eat things offered to Idols Nor is any thing plainer in the whole story of the Jewish Church than that the admission of corruption in the Worship and Order of that Church was that which made it black and defiled and look unlovely in the Eyes of God and was at last the cause of its ruine and destruction But because Christians may not so distinctly understand either wherein the Nature of Worship lies or wherein the difference lieth betwixt that which is true and false I shall in a few Conclusions lay down what I conceive to be truth in this case and then pass on to the handling of the Proposition arising from the other sense of the words 1. Worship is an homage performed to God immediately in consideration of his Excellency This is Aquinas's and other of the Schoolmens notion about Worship and it is a very good one 2. This homage is either the homage of the outward or inward man The homage of the inward man lieth in the exercises of our Faith Love Fear the exercise of
good and vertuous habits So as to the Church that Church doth not keep its own Vineyard that doth not besides purging itself of errors and scandals take care also that the truths of God be duly preached and published and the Ordinances of God purely administred This is now for the Spouse to keep or not to keep her own Vineyard now I say the Spouse of Christ whether the Individual Spouse which is every truly gracious Soul or the collective Spouse Which is the Church of God is very prone to neglect the keeping of its own Vineyard This needeth no other Evidence then the experience of all Christians and all Churches and that in all ages 1. I say first the Experience of particular Christians for who liveth and sinneth not against God The righteous falleth 7 times in a day now though it be true that many of the sins of Gods people are sins of pure infirmity Either through ignorance or impotency to resist the temptation yet both this ignorance and impotency are often occasioned through a neglect or not improvement of the means of knowledge and better information and through our not preparing our selves to the Spiritual fight putting on the whole Armor of God as we ought to have done Avoiding occasions to Sin abstaining from the appearances of Evil and giving no advantage to the adversary all which are our duties and enjoined us by the Apostle 2. Nor Secondly either is there or ever was any Church of God upon the Earth that kept its own Vineyard as it ought to have done The Church of the Jews was the only Church God had upon the Earth until the time of John the Baptist Whosoever readeth their story in the Books of Moses the Books of Kings and Chronicles or in the Writings of the Prophets will find that they did not keep their own Vineyard Never had any Church a trust more clearly committed to them they could have no long disputes about any thing of the revealed will of God if any question did arise they had an infallible rule Deut. 17. for the determination of it yet as I told you before as the ten Tribes made a total defection after the reigns of David and Solomon both whose reigns made up but 80 years in the latter part of which in Solomon's time towards the latter end of his Reign they also admitted very great corruptions so in the Kingdom of Judah they lost what was committed to their trust many times and seldom kept it 60 years together in any degrees of purity So that in Josiahs time the Book of the law was thrown about and hid in the rubbish and found by the repairers of the house of the Lord as you find in the story of the Book of the Kings Now that this was their most wilful neglect appeareth by their frequent reductions though not perfect to the Divine rule When Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Joash Josiah attempted it and the plain revelation which they had of the will of God both from the letter of the law their way for decision of doubts about it and the Prophets which God favoured them with all the while that Kingdom remained After that Church was destroyed and the Christian Church set up all the Apostolical Epistles give a proof of the proneness of Churches to neglect the keeping of their own Vineyards and of the Lords Watchmen to sleep while the Enemy sowed tares The same is also Evidenced by all Ecclesiastical history and from the History of all modern Churches their Deviations in Doctrine Worship Discipline c. testify it Nor is the reason of this aptness in us to neglect the keeping of our own Vineyards hard to be assigned 1. The first is the laboriousness of the work and the crosness of it to the genius of Flesh and blood For a Christian to keep his heart with all diligence is no easy work it lies much in a Christians denial of himself taking up the Cross mortifying his members as to which our flesh incessantly cries in the language of Peter Master spare thy self So that he who doth it rows as we say both against wind and tide It requires much knowledge and judgment to keep a mans self unspotted from errors but a great degree of self denial for any man to keep himself unspotted from the pollution of the World through lust upon this account it is that our Saviour compareth the way â—o heaven to a narrow way a strait gate And tells us that it is as easy for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle as for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God Our work is compared by our Saviour to a cutting off the right hand and plucking out of a right Eye In works of great labour and difficnlty we are very prone you know to be remiss and negligent 2. But this is not all The native corruption and inclination in mans heart to deviate from the holy and right ways of God is a great cause I must confess that as to the Churches keeping its Vineyard I cannot apprehend such a difficulty in it As to truth a man indeed cannot believe what he listeth but the Church notwithstanding this may keep the Doctrine of saith if particular Persons that are otherwise persuaded in some points then the rest of the Church is would but learn what the Apostle directs in that case Hast thou saith have it to thy self Rom. 14. and not think themselves obliged to publish to the disturbance of a Church what is their own particular opinion As to Ordinances relating to Worship and Government what difficulty can there be in keeping strictly to the Divine rule and doing that alone which Gods Word requireth the questions concerning that would be very few if men did not lay hold upon some general passages and apply them to their own fancies Were men but fixed in this to adhere to the Divine rule without diminishing it or without adding to it unless in cases where such additions are apparently necessary certainly this were all to be required in order to the Churches keeping its own Vineyard as to the Ordinances committed to it But the corruption of mans heart inclining him to interpret the will of God in a consistency to his own reason makes all the difficulty in the Churches keeping the Doctrine of faith And the wild humour that hath always possest men to Worship God according to their own fancies and to create decencies and matters of order according to their own pleasure and to conform their Altars to that of Damascus hath been all along in the story of the Church the cause of the Churches neglecting to keeps its proper Vineyard 3. Thirdly It is much caused from the mixture of the world in our conversation This is true both as to the neglect of the particular Christian as to the neglect of the Church also As to the particular Christian we are but flesh and have senses to be gratified with pleasures
profits honour c. as well as with the supply of our necessities We live in and converse with the world which is full of objects that gratifie our sensitive appetite in these things these are continual temptations to us to remit at least the care of our own souls to neglect our own Vineyards The Church also while it is militant here on Earth considered as Visible hath in it a great mixture of the world though not of the Pagen world there must be a profession of Christ in all the Members of the Visible Church yet of that world which lyeth in wickedness and it is this mixture of Hypocrites with such as are the sincere Servants of God that causeth the Church's neglect of its Vineyard All the remissness in a Church of its care as to the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of Christ proceedeth from this mixture of persons who are no more than Visible with such as are sincere and true Members of the Church of Christ 4. A fourth cause of this neglect is mens foolish presumptions that they are well enough The work of every particular Person in keeping the Vineyard of his own Soul is so contrary to the grain of flesh and blood that not only the natural man but even the Sanctified man in regard of that corruption which is yet in him is ready to take up with short measures of it and to think his Vineyard is well enough kept when indeed it is not men are loth to be righteous over much and are very apt to think that a little is enough We are very apt to think that we do enough duty and consider not the mark which we are to press after the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ It is something natural to us to think we may not only do but over-do what God requireth of us when alas when we have done all we can we are unprofitable servants servants so that what we do is but our duty unprofitable servants so that what we do cometh much short of our duty Perfection is what we are all bound to aim at and strive after but withal it is what no man attaineth not as though I had already attained or were already perfect saith the Apostle You know in works that are not naturally pleasing to us we are well pleased to think we have done enough Thus it is in the business of Religion and holiness they are things which please not flesh and blood so as we are well pleased when we can Satisfy our selves and think that we need do no more nor go any further and as it is with particular Christians so it is with Churches all which have not Pastors and Governours according to Gods own heart nor are all the members of them members of Christ Now those who are not so are no great lovers of nor zealous for the perfection of purity but can take up with measures short of those which Christ hath made and given Hence is that neglect of the keeping their own Vineyards which is but too obvious in all Churches and hence are those obvious declinations in that duty which men owe to God and in the purity of Churches every Age is still declining and growing worse then the former whiles a party in the Church still studyeth more and more to wriggle their neck out of the yoke of Christ and to get rid of some ingrateful things to flesh and blood which a former Age retained For as no particular Person at first runs up to the highest degree of wickedness so seldom doth any Church at first Apostatize to that degree but gradually declineth None shall need to enquire whence it is that this Neglect of our own Vineyards maketh us to appear thus black who but considereth that this Neglect is contrary to the Divine rule which obligeth us to keep our hearts with all diligence Prov. 423. to strive after perfection and to go on unto it and also obligeth all Churches to keep that which is committed to their trust to keep the Lords Word c. There is no medium in this case betwixt black and white The Whiteness beauty and glory of a Christian lyeth in his holding fast of his profession both of faith and holiness his keeping close to the divine rule and here in also lyeth the whiteness and beauty of those assemblyes of Christians which we call Churches and the more or less both of a Christians and of a Churches beauty and whiteness lyeth in his or their more or less conformity to the divine rule which being granted their neglect of this must necessarily render them black and make them to appear so to others This discourse may in the first place let us see the weakness of our faith in our different apprehensions of our worldly and spiritual concernments Certainly had we the same persuasions that we have Souls as that we have Bodies as quick apprehensions of the danger of our Souls miscarriage as we have of our bodily dangers had we but a firm persuasion of the excellency of our Souls above our Bodies we should have an equal if not a greater care to keep this Vineyard of our immortal Soul as we have to keep our Bodies but have we so It is true there are some in the World that are lazy and slothful as to their outward concerns they will rather steal or beg then work but these are but few in comparison of others God hath given men a body to look after with what diligence doth he keep that he riseth up early lyeth down late and eateth the bread of carefulness and all this for the keeping of his body but for this Vineyard of the Soul of man how few are they that look after it how little is the diligence that is used in keeping of that who attendeth the health of his Soul with that diligence that he attendeth his bodily health or the maintenance and food of his Soul with the same diligence that he attendeth his bodily food and sustenance or the adorning of his Soul with the same care and diligence that he attendeth the adorning of his body What doth this argue doth it not speak either that men have no great opinion that they have immortal Souls or that they have no great opinion of the price and value of them or that they do not think there is so much care necessary for the keeping of them We may observe from hence upon what the blackness of particular Souls and Churches is principally to be charged There may be some blame to be laid upon forrein causes Temptations from the World and the Devil but the greatest blame must be laid upon our selves Did we keep our watch so strictly as we might keep it Temptations could have no such power upon us as they have the Devil and the world can do no more then strike fire the tinder that receiveth it must be in our own box when the Prince of the World came to Christ
when the Soul that found in itself a strength before sufficient to grapple with its temptations and to perform the several duties and operations of a Spiritual life hath suffered itself to be overcome with motions and temptations to sin it finds itself weak falls before a temptation fails in its Spiritual duties it cannot believe hope meditate rejoice and delight in God c. Thus it was with Peter that had faith enough to walk upon the Sea at Christs command when he had sinned by too much confidence in himself he falls by the hand of a silly Damsel in the High Priests Hall hence it is oft-times that the liveliness and chearfulness of the Soul in its conversation also fails and it is at a loss where to find its beloved and how to enjoy its desired communion with him 2. Sometimes these dispensations are not so much founded in the Divine Justice and intended as the punishment of guilt in the Soul as in the Divine Wisdom designing to prove and to try his People and to make them to seek more after him Job was thus tried Though Job doubtless had guilt enough of sin to have justified God in such providences yet God himself saith of him Job 2. 3. That there was none like him in the Earth that he was a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil yet had he not been under some divine desertion and withdrawings of grace as well as more external Trials he had never fallen into those extravagant passions in which you find him ch 3 c. 3. On our part this loss and ignorance happeneth divers ways I shall instance in some more principal causes 1. The prevailing of sin and corruption in the Soul The guile of sin alwaies causeth weakness and blindness How weak is thine heart saith the Lord seeing thou dost all these things Zech. 16 30. Weakness is the cause of sin and it is the effe ct of sin it argueth weakness in a Soul to do those things which God hath forbidden and which will certainly end in the harm of the Soul It is a weak thing wilfully to sin against God and weakness is also the effect of sin this is caused from the sour reflections and reverberations of conscience when a man would medirate on God believe and hope joy rejoice and delight in God conscience throws his sin in his face and bringeth his iniquity to remembrance he remembreth God and is troubled he cannot tell how to believe how to hope how to joy and rejoice in God whom he now looketh upon as angry with him for the proof of this though I might fetch enough from Davids Poenitential Psalms yet I need no more then the experience of every good Christian who keepeth any watch upon his own heart and ways I appeal to any of your Souls when you are conscious of any wilful slips and failings in your life can you remember and think of God as at other times Can you believe and hope in his mercy Can you pray with that boldness and courage and confidence doth not shame cover your faces so as you know not how to look upward 2. Diabolical suggestions are another cause what strange and horrid impressions do the best of Gods people find some indeed of more strength and longer continuance then others but there is scarce any who doth not find them at some times and in some degree or other and although if they be mere impressions not consented to by the Soul but abhorred by it they are not the Souls guilt yet they must be the Souls disturbance so as under them the Soul will not know how to uphold and maintain a communion with God as at other times but its communion is broken and interrupted and imperfect though the Devil cannot stain the Soul without its own concurrence yet he can trouble the Soul if God permits him by his mere suggestions and impressions and therefore we had need pray every day Lead us not into temptation The Devil in this case can do as much to a Soul as a clamorous railing fellow can do to disturb our communion with our friends though we hearken not much to him and chide him away yet he can make a noise and disturb our communion 3. Severe outward afflictions may be a cause Though afflictions be not alwaies indications of Divine Wrath for the Apostle tells us that whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Child whom he receiveth yet oftentimes they are so and whether Gods end be to punish sin or no yet there is no Soul but is conscious of so much daily guilt as gives him cause to suspect they are the punishments of some guilt and I told you before how apprehensions of guilt very ordinarily make the Soul at a loss how to uphold and maintain its wonted communion with God Besides afflictions usually excite passions particularly those of fear and sorrow Both opposite to the exercises of faith and joy and delight in God both distracting the Soul in the sweet meditations of God To this may be added that the Soul in afflictions as it standeth in more need of the divine presence and influence so it is prone to expect more or to think it hath nothing Neither can the Soul under the roilings and prevailings of passion so well discern Christs communications of himself unto it and besides they hinder the Soul in its motions and communications of it self to Christ I am so troubled saith the Psalmist that I cannot Speak The Soul is so troubled that it cannot believe it cannot hope it cannot Pray c. 4. The last cause that I shall assign is distractions caused either from worldly cares and businesses or from some false guides A Soul overwhelmed with businesses and cares of the World will many times find it self at a loss how to maintain its communion with God there is such an opposition betwixt a communion with God and the World the first being wholly a Spiritual thing the other wholly of the Earth earthly that a man overwhelmed in the World will find the maintaining of this communion difficult and be more at a loss to it then another man more free from these incumbrances Besides in the World Christians are subject to distractions from false guides one saying loe Christ is here another saying loe he is there one telling us that the way to have communion with Christ is to cast off duties and ordinances another prescribing an attendance upon them as the onely means of such communion One telling them that there is no other communion with Christ then with Christ mystical having and keeping in the communion of his Church whereas many may do so if we mean the visible Church that have no communion with Christ at all Upon Christs floor there is Chaff as well as Wheat which when Christ cometh with his fan thoroughly to purge his floor shall be cast into unquenchable fire tares as well as wheat which must grow together untill
reputation and reason which were the principles of the Roman valour but these which I have shewed you 2. As to the Acts of it They are all lawful resistances of sin He will resist unto blood but it still is in striving against sin Heb. 1. 2. 4. And this he doth by a lawful resistance This in the description I called a governing himself according to the rules of Gods Word 2 Tim. 2 5. If a man strive for masteries yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully All sin is a transgression of the law of God No Christian fortitude can be shewen either in the encountring of a danger for not doing what he ought to do Or for the encountring of a danger rather then doing what God hath given him a freedom and liberty to do As to the first a man is not Gods Martyr but the Devils As to the Second he cannot be a Martyr for God but for his own humour God hath left him a liberty he need not suffer unless he will But now there may be several actions as to which a good man doth not see his liberty but lyeth under apprehensions that they are unlawful The Question is what a Christian is to do as to them And whether a Christian can shew any Christian fortitude in incountring dangers rather then doing them To which I shortly answer 1. That it is the duty of every good man as to such actions to use all the means he can as to a true information of his own conscience Reading the holy Scriptures and other good Books interpreting the Scriptures which may rightly inform him Keeping his ear open to all arguments on both sides to all instructions 2. If by no means he can receive Satisfaction as to the lawfulness of such actions the doing of them would be sin to him and he is bound to incounter any danger rather then do them and this is a piece of Christian fortitude The proximate Rule of our actions must be our own Conscience by which I mean our own practical judgment of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of things to be done according to the best information we have or can get concerning the will of God in his word the persuasions commands dictates or practice of others is no rule to us We must resist what our own Consciences tell us is sin and contrary to the will of God But it must be lawfully It must be such a resistance only as Gods Word doth allow us A private Person in the resistance of sin must not resist the power which is the Ordinance of God Rom. 13. 2. It is one thing to do what such powers command another thing by Arms to resist God hath not given the Sword into any private hand and such a Person drawing it shall perish with it we must strive against sin but we must strive lawfully not by ill Language or boisterous actions but by meek and patient Suffering 3. Lastly The End of Christian fortitude must be 1. The glory of God 2. The Salvation of our own Souls 'T is no Christian valour to be valiant for any thing but the truth the honour and glory of God the cause and concern of God in the World and in a matter where the Eternal Salvation of his own Soul is concerned Thus far I have opened to you the nature of this Christian courage and fortitude which I am calling to you for Let me in the next place offer something to you which may promove this excellent habit in your Souls A Natural courage cannot be given where any thing of a Moral fortitude may be promoved by rational arguments education and a due digestion of moral Principles But there must be some good natural foundation of courage for the Moralist in the managery of his disciple to build upon but it is not so as to this Christian fortitude Persons of the weakest sex of the lowest meanest weakest Spirits by nature have been made valiant as to the Spiritual fight from the dread of God the Love of God by saith in the Word of God and in the Lord Jesus Christ Now in order to this excellent habit and so necessary for these times 1. The first thing which I shall commend unto you in order to it is a Sound knowledge of the revealed will of God both concerning sin and concerning duty Knowledge is the foundation of saith It is that which giveth boldness to a man both in speaking and in acting A poor ignorant Person may be valiant but he cannot expect to be so he is Sometimes made valiant in an extraordinary manner by some special instinct and impression of God upon him as that Woman which told her Judges She could not dispute but she could dye for Christ A just knowledge of what I may or may not do of the Nature of God his promises and threatnings is most necessary to a true Christian courage and fortitude He fighteth more like a madman then a Christian that is not first fully Satisfyed in the goodness and justice of his cause 2. A knowing man may be cowardly if he be not rooted and grounded in the faith heartily and firmly believing what he hath the notion of Faith is the only shield that keepeth off the fiery darts of the wicked Now this is the gift of God and the way to obtain it is Prayer Beg of God his Spiritual armour and to make you valiant in the Spiritual fight Math. 26. 41. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation 3. Set as loose to the World and all your concerns and Relations in it as you can It is observed of great Cities that they seldom hold out long against an Enemy Their Riches their Wives and Children make them Cowards That Man or Woman that hath not learned to deny himself in all his worldly contentments can never be valiant 4. Lastly look unto Jesus the Author and the finisher of your saith who for the joy that was set before him indured the cross despised the shame and is set down on the throne of God consider him who indured such contradiction of sinners in himself lest you be wearied and saint in your minds It is the Apostles advice Heb. 12. 3. The valour and courage of a General oft times puts mettal and courage into his Souldiers retrieveth a day of battel when it is upon the point lost The eying of Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith is of mighty use to us to ingage us to go on to the Spiritual fight without fear or dread Let me press this upon you by a few arguments 1. The first shall be from the ton general decay of this gracious habit in the Spirits of Christians God of 'old complained by his Prophet Jer. 9. 3. That there was a generation of them who bent their tongues like bows for lies but there wâ—â— none valiant for the truth upon the Earth How few are there this day that are valiant for the truth There are
of Spiritual Life so he must be led by the Spirit If God did not excite the Grace bestowed on him it would be choaked by that body of death that lust and corruption which is in the best mens hearts What can the creature do when the Holy Spirit hath quickened his habits of Grace he cannot act and exercise them and put forth spiritual acts but doth he no more need the Influence of the Holy Spirit yes without Christ he can do nothing he must still have the Grace of God with him 1 Cor. 15. 10. Not I saith Paul but the Grace of God which was with me This is now cooperative and assisting Grace He cannot make the Wheel which must carry him in the waies of God working Grace must do that when it is made he cannot set it upon motion Exciting Grace must oil it Assisting Grace must keep it up move with it or he will never come to issue any good action A Believer indeed acteth for the habits of Grace from which he acteth are inherent in him he is not moved like a Machine or dead Engine but yet he is acted that is assisted and helped in his action He is nothing but what he hath received he doth nothing but while he is receiving Let not then the Natural man glory in the power and good inclinations of his own will he neither hath nor can have any power to do that which in a spiritual sense is good until it be given him from above Let not the renewed man glory in his infused habits of Grace for as he did not merit it nor any way purchase them so of himself he cannot use or exercise them But let him who glorieth glory in this that to him Christ is all in all that he liveth he acteth and bringeth a good action to an issue but yet not he but Christ that liveth in him acteth with him and worketh in him what he accepteth from him It is Christ who layeth the foundation-stone and then layeth the corner-stone who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith we have nothing to do but to cry Grace Grace when we see the work done In the mean time nothing hindereth but that the Soul may rejoyce and boast in the Lord while it walketh humbly with God mourning over the infirmity of its lapsed Nature for certainly man did not come out of God's hands in the day of Creation in this impotent state Let no man therefore despise those that labour under greater degrees of this impotency than he possibly doth but let him bless the Lord who hath further excited strengthened and assisted him to the operations of his Spiritual Life I shall shut up this discourse with a word or two of Exhortation to every Child of God to use his utmost diligence to keep the King sitting at his Table I mean to keep the presence of Christ as much as he can in and with his Soul that so his Spikenard may send forth the smell thereof I shall urge this by one argument and then offer you my advice in the case and so shâ—â— up this discourse 1. My argument shall be drawn from the high concerns of the Soul in its Spikenard sending forth its smell every Soul is concerned in it three ways 1. In point of duty as God thereby is glorifyed 2. In point of comfort as it will evidence its Spikenard to be such indeed 3. In point of honour as it brings the Soul to a repute in the World 1. I say first in point of duty as God is thereby glorifyed For this cause we are born for this cause is every man come into the World that he may bring honour and glory to his great Creator Herein saith our Saviour John 15. Is my Father glorifyed if you bring forth mach fruit and as the Lord is glorifyed by the vigorous exercise of its grace So is he also honoured by the predication of his grace by the sweet smell which our habits and exercises of grace have in the World That they may see your good works saith our Saviour Matth. 5. And glorify your Father which is in Heaven That they may see your good works saith the Apostle and glorify God in the day of their visitation no man so glorifyeth God as he who vigorously exerciseth his habits of grace The barren field is not that field which crediteth the husbandman the barren and unfruitful Soul is not that Soul which bringeth honour and glory to God It is the fruitful Soul whose smell is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed that bringeth honour to God and so eminently serveth the great end of his Creation 2. The Soul is not only concerned in it in point of duty but also as to its peace and comfort Indeed it cannot be but that comfort should result from the Souls performance of its duty for the fruit of righteousness shall be peace but yet first as he or she that hath a box of Spikenard or any other odoriferous unguent or perfume which casteth out a sweet savour to delight or refresh others doth first partake of it him or her self so it is with the Spouses Spikenard ordinarily its fruits of righteousness do not only affect others but first affect the Soul in which they are found hereby saith St. John we know that we are traâ—slated from death to life because we love the brethren Hezâ—kiah upon a message of death sent by God to him was refreshed with the smell of his own Spikenard 2 Kings 20. 3. I beseech thee O Lord saith he remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done what is right in thy fight When a Christian comes to lye upon a sick bed or a death-bed it will be no grief of heart unto him but a great pleasure and Satisfaction to consider that he hath with his Spirit served God and indeavoured by holiness in all manner of conversation to shew forth the grace of God bestowed on him not to have been received in vain 3. Lastly a Christian is concerned in point of honour A true Christian is an honourable Person born of God and he is bound to consult his honour and repute in the World It is the smell of a Christians grace that giveth him a name and honour a repute before men The World taketh no notice of our habits of grace while they lye dormant in the Soul but when they shew themselves in our conversations in the exercises of faith humility patience meekness obedience then hath a Christian honour before men Thus you see how a Christian is concerned to have his Spikenard send forth the smell thereof Now seeing so much dependeth upon this that a Christian should keep this glorious King sitting at his Table it followeth that this is of high concernment to every Soul But you will say what can we do toward it is not the Spirit of Christ free as the wind which bloweth where