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A25470
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The Morning exercise [at] Cri[ppleg]ate, or, Several cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers, September 1661.
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Annesley, Samuel, 1620?-1696.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing A3232; ESTC R29591
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639,601
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676
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robbeth thee of thy Glory Thus also they who attribute their Riches Children Honours Victories Health Safety Knowledge c. to their Wits Labours Merits these are ingrateful robbers of God Thus they burnt Incense to their Drag and Yarn Thus Nebuchadnezzar gloried in the great Babel of his own building Thus the Assyrian also ranted and vaunted himself Isa 10 13 14 15. as if by his own great Wisdom and Valour he had conquered the Nations But mark the end of these men How the Lord took it and how he dealt with them for it He turned Nebuchadnezzar out to grass among the beasts He kindled a fire in the Assyrians Forrest and burnt it He struck Herod that he was eaten up with worms because he gave himself Act. 12.23 and not God the glory 3. Another sort of unthankful ones there is that seem to be very thankful but it is only complementally and with the lip These are like Apes that eat up the Kernel and leave God the shells they care not to go to the cost of a heart or a life-thankfulness they are cursed hypocrites they put him off with the blind and the lame in Sacrifice Mal. 1.14 and never once give him the Male of their Flock God will pay them in their own coyn they are thankful in jest and God will damn them in earnest Lact Instit c. 3. Non constare homini ratio pietatis potest c That man saith Lactantius cannot be a godly man that is unthankeful to his God * Materialiter per connotationem adhaerentiam And Aquinas saith That unthankefulness hath in it the root and matter of all sin For it denies or dissembles the goodness of God by which we live move and have our being yea and all our blessings the thankful acknowledgement whereof is our indispensable homage unto God Unthankfulness was a huge ingredient into Adams sin To sin against his Maker as soon as he was made Yea by whom he was so fearfully and wonderfully made little lower than the Angels Psal 139. Unthankfulness was the sin of Noah and Lot after their deliverances the one from water Gen. 9. Gen. 19. Deut. 32. Ezek. 16. per totum the other from fire The sin of Israel that forgat their Rock their husband that found them in the waste howling wilderness and when they lay in their bloud no eye pitying them cast out to the loathing of their persons The sin of David 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. The sin of Solomon 1 Kin. 11.9 The sin of Hezekiah 2 Chron. 31. Peremptoria res est ingratitudo hostis gratiae inimica salutis Bern. Serm 1. de 7 miser Ingratitudo est venius urens exsiccans fontem gratiae fluenta misericordiae Idem The great sin of the Gospel is unthankfulness by sinning against the light love free grace and rich patience of God in it this is to turn his grace into watonness to prefer darkness before light to neglect so great salvation not to come under Christs wing when he calls to us to despise his goodness and long-suffering leading to repentance not to come to him that we may have life to resist his Spirit and trample on his blood The sin of the greatest sinners in the Book of God is unthankfulness The sin of the Angels that kept not their first station The sin of Cain in his offering The sin of the Sodomites Quousque se diffundit gratia tò patet ingratitudo The sin of the Old World The sin of Saul The sin of Jeroboam the son of Nâ—bat The sin of Nabal The sin of Hanun The sin of Judas The sin of Julian And of Antichrist all is unthankfulness Exhort I shall conclude with a solemn exhortation to all that hear this word and profess the Lord Jesus and to be ruled by the Will of God in Christ Jesus revealed that they study and practice this great this comprehensive duty of thankefulness Consider that no People in the world have such cause of thankfulness as Christians Cresentibus donis crescunt donorum rationes Deut. 32.6 They have received more mercy than any therefore there is the more of them required therefore the Lord takes their unkinâ—ness the more unkindly Sins against mâ—rcy will turn mercy into cruelty and patience into fury To be unthankful to a bountiful God is for a froward child to beat his mothers breasts that gave him suck and to kick his Fathers bowels The Lord that he might upbraid his Peoples ingratitude compares them to a Bullock that was fatted in good pasture and then kicked Deut. 32.15 to Ver. 25. And what this cost you may read there When the Lord would preserve in his People the memorial of his mercies see how he orders them Deut. 26.1 to 10. Every man was to come with a basket of fruits and the Priest was to take it and set it down before the Lord and he that brought it was to make a solemn confession of his own poverty and wretchedness of Gods goodness and faithfulness to him and of his engagements to the Lord for the same Hereby the Lord let them know that they had all from him and held all at mercy and this was their homage that they paid him Oh what shall we then render to the Lord for all his benefits Who were Syrians ready to perish who with our staffe past this Jordan and now are two bands who have not only nether springs but upper also the Lord having opened a fountain and a treasure for us Think of this all you Male-contents and murmurers read over your mercies preserve a Catalogue of them compare them with what otheâ—s enjoy It is not with you as with Heathens you have the Gospel if it totters as if it were in a moving posture from you thank your unthankfulness for it You have had it with peace and plenty and if that hath glutted you and the Lord is now curing your surfet by a sparer diet thank your wantonness for it Yet consider Turks and Tartars are not in your bowels burning your houses ravishing wives and daughters killing old sick and infants carrying away the rest Captives drinking healths in your dead Nobles skulls digged out of their graves yet all this is done among the poor Protestants in Transilvania Sword Famine and Pestilence making havock in that flourishing Country not to speak of other places what is felt or feared is not this ground of thanks Consider yet again what we have had long and still have though the Land is ful of sin from one end to the other What we have deserved and yet do even to be stripped naked of all life and liberty peace and plenty to have our doors shut up our lights put out our Teachers all driven into corners the good Land to spue us our and the abomination that maketh desolate to enter in among us our Land to keep her Sabbaths because we prophaned the Lords Sabbaths the voice of
6. Prize the society of the people of God that are acquainted with the workings of Gods Spirit upon their heaâ—ts Be much in communion with the Saints When they have been unfolding their doubts they have been in some good measure resolved this hath quickned their hearts when they have been dull and blown up the sparks of love in their souls to God that they have felt their hearts to burn within them s Luke 24.32 Psal 66.16 Mal 3.16 with love towards God 7. Direction 7. Keep a Record of all the experiences thou hast had of Gods goodness to thee and what thou hast formerly found t Psa 77.10 11. make it a means for the supporting of thy soul for the present and the future Such a time thou canst remember thou wast upon thy knees bemoaning thy self loathing thy self full oâ— sorrow and complaints and God took thee up in the arms of his love and spake like a friend words of peace and comfort to thy soul and bid thee be of good chear hee was reconciled to thy soul Hee filled thee full of sorrow and afterward filled thee full of joy hee cast thee down and raised thee up hee broke thy heart and bound it up hee came to thee as to Mary expostulating with thee sinner why weepest thou what aileth thee thou weepedst for thy Saviour and hee was by thee and shewed himself unto thee So much for the means to obtain this certain knowledge of eternal life but if by the use of these and the like directions the soul cannot get this assurance and though hee search and pray and grieve because hee hath not the light of Gods countenance shining upon him followeth the means and longs to know his estate and all things hee enjoyeth are lessened in his esteem because hee cannot see his interest in Christ whom hee doth most esteem To thee I will give these Directions Counsel to those that by these directions cannot yet obtain this assurance First Though thou canst not say thy condition is good yet do not say that thy condition is bad Though thou canst not affirm thou hast the faith of Evidence yet do not peremptorily say thou hast not the faith of Adherence though thou hast not the witness of the spirit for thee yet do not bear false witness against thy self canst not thou say thou art sure of Heaven yet do not say there is no hope of Heaven though thou canst not own Heaven as thine do not disown it if thou canst not prove it do not disclaim it It is strange yet ordinary to see many doubting Christians dispute against themselves and reason against their own comfort tell them of their longing after Christ their weeping and mourning for him they doubt it is not in truth if you say to them if you do not truly love him then let him alone and follow no more after him why do you grieve for him because you cannot finde him if you do not truly love him they will reply conscience will put a man on to do something when yet it may not bee done out of love to God if you aske can you take up with any thing short of Christ though indeed they cannot yet they will reply the heart is deceitful and they know not what they should do Frame not arguments against thy self when thou canst not frame them for thy self live by faith when thou canst not live by sense and comfort Take heed here of judging thy condition to bee bad by trying thy self by rules not so suitable to finde out the being and truth of grace as the growth and increase of grace And here 1. Say not thou hast no grace because thou hast not so much as thou seest others to have to take notice of the eminent degrees of grace in others to provoke our selves to labour after the same proportion is good but to argue for a nullity of grace because thou hast not such a quantity of grace as thou discernest in others is not rational Is there no water in the brook because there is not so much as in the river is there not light in a candle because there is not so much as in the sun wilt thou say thou art a begger because thou art not so rich as thy neighbours that have a full estate or that thou knowest nothing because thou knowest not so much as the greatest scholar Observe Peter in this case John 21.17 hee did not say when Christ asked him lovest thou mee more than these I love thee more than John or any of thy Disciples love thee but I love thee thou must love Christ more than thou lovest any thing in the woâ—ld besides or else thou dost not sincerely love him but thou must not conclude that except thou lovest him as much or more than others loâ—e him that thou hast no love at all unto him Yet this is ordinary I never was humbled so much as others have been I cannot mourn as others do enquire now after the truth rather than after the degrees and know thy humiliation is true First when thou art broken for and from thy sin so much bitterness upon the breast as weaneth the Châ—lde from it is sufficient Secondly that makes thee see a necessity of Christ and willing to close sincerely with him 2. Say not thou hast no grace because thou hast not grace proportionable to thy desires but rather hope thou hast it because thou hast such enlarged desires after it is not hee a froward unthankful Childe that saith his Father hath given him nothing because not so much as hee desireth 3. Say not thou hast no grace because thou seest corruption in thee more than before they were in thy heart before though thou didst not discern them the house is full of filth but while the shuts are up it is not perceived but take them down and you see it plainly not because there is more filth but because there is more light 4. Nor because of the indisposedness of thy heart to and dulness of thy affections sometimes in the time of holy duties Secondly When thou canst not get assurance make as much improvement of the grounds upon which thou mayest build u Psal 33.18 Psal 148.11 hopes of salvation The probable grounds thou hast thou wouldest not part with for all the world if thy heart is not full of joy through sense of Gods love yet thine eyes are full of tears and thy soul of sorrow through the sense of thy sin wouldâ—st thou change thy condition with any hypocrite whatsoever with the richest man that hath no grace I would not have thee rest satisfied with a probability but yet bless God for a probability of salvation is it nothing that one that hath disserved hell most certainly should have a probability that hee should escape it would not this bee a little ease to the torments of the damned if they had but a strong probability that they may bee saved but no hope