an Hypocrite doth is for himself 2 The Hypocrite never hated every sin as he doth but hath still some Agag Rimmon or Delilah 3 That the Hypocrite never acted in duty from the bent and inclination of a new nature taking delight in heavenly imployment but is moved rather as a Clock by the weights and poises of some external motives and advantages 5. Conclude not you have no Grace because you grow not so sensibly as some other Christians do You may be divers ways mistaken about this 1 You may measure your growth by your desires and then it appears nothing for the Christian aims high and grasps at all 2 Or by comparing your selves with such as have larger capacities time and advantages than you 3 Or by comparing your Graces with other mens Gifts which you mistake for their Graces 4 Or by thinking that all growth is upward in joy peace and comfort whereas you may grow in mortification and humility which is as true a growth as the former Oh! take heed of these mistakes they have been very prejudicial to the peace of many Christians Lastly Rule 5 Decline not sufferings when God gives you a faâ—â— call to them Oh! the Christians suffering time is commonly his clearest and most comfortable time Then the Spirit of God and glory reâ—teth on them 1 Pet. 4.14 That which hath been in suspence for some years is decided and cleared in a suffering hour And thus I have shewed you how to attain this necessary qualification also CHAP. VIII Discovering the necessity of an improved faith for the right management of sufferings and directing to some special means for the improvement thereof THE next thing conducing to our actual readiness for Sufferings is the improvement of Faith to some considerable degree of strength This is the Grace that must do the main service in such an hour and hath the principal hand in supporting the Christian under every burden This is the Grace that crowns our heads with Victory in the day of battel Ephes 6.16 Above all taking the Shield of Faith It s true every Grace is of use and contributes assistance suffering Saints have heen beholding to them all But of this we may say as Solomon of the Vertuous Woman Though many Graces have done excellently yet this excels them all In this Grace ready Paul was eminent It was the life he daily lived Gal. 2.20 Oh it is a precious grace 2 Pet. 1.1 so precious that Christ who seldom admired at any thing yet wondred at this Mat. 8.10 A victorious Grace it is that overcomes all difficulties Mark 9.23 By this Sword it was that all those famous Heroes Heb. 11. atchieved all those glorious Conquests and in every distress it may say to the Soul as Christ to the Disciples John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing This is that Sword that hath obtained so many Victories over the World 1 John 5.4 and that trusty Shield that hath quenched so many deadly Darts of temptation as have been levelled at the very heart of the Christian in the day of battel By it a Christian lives when all outward sensible comforts die Hab. 2.4 It s the ground upon which the Christian fixes his foot and never fails under him 2 Cor. 1.24 The necessity of it will more clearly appear by considering how many ways it relieves the soul in trouble and disburthens the heart of all its sinking loads and pressures there are two things that sink a mans Spirit when under sufferings viz. The greatness of the troubles and the weakness of the soul to bear them against both which Faith relieves the soul viz. by making a weak soul strong and heavy troubles light First It makes a weak Soul strong and able to bear and this it doth divers ways 1. By purging out of the Soul those enfeebling weakning Distempers not only guilt in general which is to the Soul as a wound upon the bearing Shoulder Rom. 5.1 The removal whereof enables the Soul to bear any other burden Isa 33.24 But it also removes Fear that Tyrant Passion that cuts the Nerves of the Soul For as Faith comes in so Fear goes out Look in what degree the Fear of God is ascendant in the Soul proportionably the sinful fear of the Creature declines and vanisheth Esa 8.12 13. This fear extinguishes that as the Sun-shine puts out fire The Righteous is bold as a Lyon Prov. 28.1 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a young Lyon in his hot blood that knows no such thing as fear And look how much of the Soul is empty of Faith so much it s filled with fear Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Mat. 8.26 Certainly it 's a rare advantage to be freed from the common distraction in times of common destruction and this advantage the Soul hath by Faith 2. It strengthens the Soul to bear afflictions and hardships not only by purging out its weakning Distempers but by turning it self to Christ in whom all its strength lies and that suitably to the several Exigencies of the Soul in all its Distresses Doth Darkness like the shadow of Death overspread the Earth and all the Lights of Earthly Comforts disappear then Faith supports the Heart by looking to the Lord Mic. 7.7 and this look of Faith exceedingly revives the Heart Psal 34.5 and enlightens the Soul Doth God pluck away all Earthly Props from under your feet and leave you nothing visible to rest upon in that Exigence Faith puts forth a suitable act viz. Resting or staying upon God Esa 26.3 and by this the Soul comes to be quieted and established Psal 125.1 Do Temptations strive to put off the Soul from Christ and discourage it from leaning upon the Promise then it puts forth an act of Resolution Job 13.15 and so breaks its way through that discouragement Or hath the Soul been long seeking God for deliverance out of trouble and still there is silence in Heaven no Answer comes but instead of an Answer comes a Temptation to throw up the Duty and seek to deliver it self Then Faith puts forth another act upon Christ suitable to this distress viz. An act of waiting Isa 49.23 which waiting is opposed to that sinful haste which the Soul is tempted to Isa 28.16 Or doth God at any time call the Soul forth to some difficult service against which the Flesh and Carnal Reason dispute and plead Now Faith helps the Soul by putting forth an act of obedience and that whilst Carnal Reason stands by dissatisfied Gal. 1.16 And hence it is that Obedience carries the name of Faith upon it to shew its descent Rom. 16.26 Faith encourages the Soul to obey not only by urging Gods Command but by giving it Gods Warrant for its Indempnity Heb. 11.24 25 26. Or doth a poor Believer find himself over-match'd by Troubles and Temptations and his own inherent strength begin to fail under the burden then Faith leads him to an Omnipotent God and so secures him from
Pompey when disswaded from a dangerous Voyage answered Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam It 's necessary that I go not that I live But this being fed only by a natural Spring can carry a man no higher than Nature and will flag at last If applause and the observation of the world supply it not it quickly ebbs and fails But as Grace raises men much higher so it maintains it even when there is nothing to encourage without when forsaken of all Creatures and visible supports 2 Tim. 4.10 and this it doth three ways 1 By giving him that hath it a view of far greater things which shrinks up all temporary things and makes them appear but trifles and small matters Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.18 By Grace a man rises with Christ Col. 3.1 It sets him upon his high places and thence he looks down upon things below as very poor and inconsiderable The great Cities of Campania seem but little spots to them that stand on the top of the Alps. 2 By teaching him to value and measure all things by another Rule than he was wont to do He did once measure life liberty riches honours by sense and time and then they seemed great things and it was hard to deny them or thus to slight them but now he values and measures all by Faith and Eternity and esteems nothing great and excellent but what hath a reference to the Glory of God and an influence into Eternity 3 Grace raises and enobles the Spirit thus because it is the Divine Nature 't is the Spirit of Christ infused into a poor Worm which makes a strange alteration on him transforms him into another manner of person as much difference betwixt his Spirit now and what it was as betwixt the Spirit of a Child that is filled with small matters and taken up with Toys and of a grave States-man that is daily imployed about the Grand Affairs of a Kingdom 3. A man can never suffer as a Christian till his will be subjected to the Will of God He that suffers involuntarily and out of necessity not out of choice shall neither have acceptance nor reward from God Of necessity the will must be subjected a man can never say Thy will be done till he can first say Not my will But it is Grace only that thus conquers and subjects the will of man to Gods Psal 110.3 This is it that which exalts Gods Authority in the Soul and makes the heart to stoop and tremble at his Commands 'T is this which makes our will to write its fiat at the foot of every Command and its placet under every Order it receives from God No sooner was Grace entred into the Soul of Paul but presently he crys out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.6 The Will is to the Soul what the Wheels are to the Chariot and Grace is to the Will what Oyl is to those Wheels When we receive the Spirit of Grace we are said to receive an Vnction from the Holy One 1 Joh. 2.20 and then the Soul is made as the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6.12 Non tardat uncta rota it runs freely after the Lord and chearfully addresseth it self to every Service 4. A man can never suffer as a Christian until his heart be composed fixed and determined to follow the Lord through all hazards and difficulties As long as a man is hesitating and unresolved what to do whether to go forward or turn back again to the prosperous World when a man is at such a pause and stand in his way he is very unfit for sufferings All such Divisions do both weaken the Soul and strengthen the Temptation The Devils work is more than half done to his hands in such a Soul and he is now as unfit to endure hardship for Christ as a Ship is to ride out a Storm that hath neither Cable Anchor nor Ballast to hold and settle it but lies at the mercy of every Wave James 1.8 The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways But it 's Grace and nothing besides it that brings the heart to a fixed resolution and settlement to follow the Lord. 'T is Grace that establishes the heart Heb. 13.9 and unites it to fear the Name of God Psal 86.11 This gathers all the Streams into one Channel and then it runs with much strength and sweeps away all obstacles before it So that look as it is with a wicked man that hath sold himself to do wickedly if he be set upon any one design of sin he pours out his whole heart and strength in the prosecution of that Design which is the ground of that saying Liberet me Deus ab homine unius tantum negotii Let God deliver me from a man of one only Design He will do it to purpose So is it also in Grace if the heart be composed fixed and fully resolved for God nothing shall then stand before him And herein lies much of a Christians habitual fitness and ability to suffer 5. The necessity of Saving-grace in all Sufferers for Christ will farther appear from this consideration that he who will run all hazards for Christ had need of a continual supply of strength and refreshment from time to time He must not depend on any thing that is failable For what shall he do then when that Stock is spent and he hath no Provision left to live upon Now all natural qualifications yea all the common gifts of the Spirit are failable and short-lived things they are like a sweet Flower in the Bosom that is an Ornament for a little while but withers presently Or like a Pond or Brook occasioned by a great fall of Rain which quickly sinks and dries up because it is not fed by Springs in the bottom as other Fountain-waters are And hence it is they cannot continue and hold out when Sufferings come Mat. 13.21 because there is no Root to nourish and support The Hypocrite will not always call upon God Job 27.10 Though they may keep company with Christ a few miles in this dirty way yet they must turn back at last and shake hands eternally with him John 6.66 These Comets may seem to shine for a time among the Stars but when that Earthly matter is spent they must fall and lose their glory But now Grace is an Everlasting Principle it hath Springs in the bottom that never fail It shall be in him saith Christ a Well of water springing up into eternal life Joh. 4.14 The Spirit of God supplies it from time to time as need requires It hath daily Incomes from Heaven munimur quatenus unimur 2 Cor. 1.5 Phil. 4.13 Col. 1.11 So that it is our Union with Christ the Fountain by Grace that is the true ground of our constancy and long-suffering 6. And then lastly It will appear by this also that there is an absolute necessity of a real change by Grace on all that will suffer for Christ because
thing designed in this Chapter and is the result and issue of all that hath hitherto been said about this work of Grace Beloved can you imagine that God would imploy his infinite and glorious Power to produce this new Creature in such an excellent nature it being the Master-piece of all his Works of Wonder wrought upon man and not aim at some singular use and excellent end Every wise Agent designs some end and what God aims at he hath told us Isa 43.21 Ephes 2.20 And accordingly he expects singular things from such persons Mat. 5.47 If God had not aimed at some new service he need not have made a new Creature the old Creature was fit enough for the old use and service it was imployed in But God hath some choice service to be done wherein he will be glorified He will have his Name glorified even in this world by the active and passive obedience of his people But this being far above all the power of Nature God therefore brings them forth in a new and heavenly nature endowed with rare supernatural and divine qualities by which it is fitted and excellently prepared for any service of God by doing or by suffering which before he had no fitness or ability for The very Make and Constitution of this new Creature speaks its use and end As now if a man look upon a Sword or Knife supposing he had never seen either before yet I say by viewing the shape and properties of it he will say this was made to cut Even so here this new Creature was formed for some glorious and singular service for God to which it is exceedingly advantaged whether God put you upon doing or suffering If you ask wherein this advantage of the new Creature to honour God either way lies I answer It principally consists in its heavenly inclination or natural tendency to God This is its great advantage For by vertue of this 1. If God call a man to any Duty there is a Principle within closing with the Command without and moving the Soul freely and spontaneously to duty Psal 27.8 If God say Seek my face such an heart ecchoes to the call Thy face Lord will I seek And this is it which is call'd The writing of Gods Law in the heart Jer. 31.33 and must needs be a mighty advantage for now its work is its delight and wages Psal 19.11 The Command to such a Soul is not grievous 1 John 5.3 And by this it 's kept from tiring in duty and being weary of its work as you see what pains Children can take at play how they will run and sweat and endure knocks and falls and take no notice of it put them upon any manual labour and they cannot endure half so much When our work is our delight we never faint nor tire at it This inclination to God is to the Soul as wings to a Bird or sails to a Ship This carries the Soul easily through every duty O there is a vast difference betwixt a man that works for wages and one whose work is wages to him And here you may at once see wherein the principal difference betwixt the Hypocrite and the real Christian lies in the performance of duty and also have a true account of the reason why one perseveres in his work to the end when the other flags Why here is the true account of both the one is moved to duty from a natural inclination to it the other is forced upon it by some external motives For the Hypocrite takes not delight in the spiritual and inward part of duty but is secretly weary of it Mal. 1.13 only his ambition and self-ends put him upon it as a task But now the upright heart goes to God as his joy Psal 43.4 and saith It is good for me to draw nigh to God Psal 73. ult When the Sabbath comes that Golden Spot of the Week oh how he longs to see the beauty of the Lord in his Ordinances Psal 27.4 and when ingaged in the Worship of God he cannot satisfie himself in bodily service or to serve God in the oldness of the letter He knoweth that this perswasion cometh not of him that called him Gal. 5.7 8. He labours to ingage his heart to approach to God Jer. 30.21 And hence those mountings of heart and violent sallies of the desires heaven-ward And thus you see one rare advantage to glorifie God actively flowing from the inclination of this new Creature 2. But then secondly Hence in like manner hath the Soul as great an advantage for sufferings For this new Creature having such a natural tendency to God will enable the Soul in which it is to break its way to God through all the interposing obstacles and discouragements What are persecutions what are reproaches what are the fears and frowns of enemies but so many blocks thrown in the Souls way to keep it from God and Duty And indeed where this Principle of Grace is wanting they prove inaccessible Mountains Graceless hearts are stalled and quite discouraged by them but now this tendency of the Soul to God enables the Christian to break his way through all You may say of him in such a case as the Historian doth of Hannibal who forced a way over the Alps with Fire and Vinegar either he will find a way or make a way Shall Sword or Famine or any other Creature separate me from Christ saith an upright Soul No no it will through all to him and that from this tendency of his new Nature You see in Nature every thing hath a tendency to its center Fire will up do what you can to suppress it Water will to the Sea if it meet with Dams yea Mountains in its way if it cannot bear them down it will creep about some other way and wind and turn to find a passage to the Sea God is the center of all gracious Spirits and Grace will carry the Soul through all to him This is Grace and this is your advantage by it in the most difficult part of your work It will carry you through all make the hardest work easie and pleasant 2 Cor. 12.10 And if great sufferings or temptations interpose betwixt you and your God it will break through all and enable you to withstand all as it did Paul in the Text who forced his way not only through the fury of Enemies but also through the entreaties and tears of Friends CHAP. VII In which the necessity of getting clear Evidences of this work of Grace in us in order to our readiness for sufferings is held forth the nature of that Evidence opened and divers things that cloud and obscure it removed out of the way I Have done with habitual readiness consisting in an inwrought work of Grace The following particulars are the things in which our actual readiness lies And of them that which comes next to be handled is the getting of clear Evidences in our own Souls that this work hath been wrought
one that hath a good Roof over his head when the Storm falls We glory in tribulation because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts Rom. 5.3 5. It is a Fountain of joy and comfort in the darkest and saddest hour Dem. 3 Hence the glorious triumphs of Saints in their afflictions Rom. 5.5 and in the Christians joy in the Lord lies much of his strength for sufferings Noh 8.10 If once the Spirit droop and sink the man is in a bad case to suffer holy joy it is the Oyl that makes the Chariot-wheels of the Soul free to follow the Lord Non tardat uncta rota To suffer with joyfulness for Christ is a qualification that Gods Eye is much upon in his suffering Servants Col. 1.11 How did the famous Worthies that went before us magnifie Christ and glorifie Religion by the holy triumphs of their faith and joy under tribulation One kiss'd the Apparator that brought him news of his Condemnation and was like a man transported with an excess of joy Another upon the pronouncing of the Sentence kneels down and with hands and eyes lifted up solemnly blesses God for such a day as that Oh how is Christ magnified by this And this cannot be until interest be cleared It 's true the faith of recumbency gives the Soul a secret support and enables the Christian to live but the faith of Evidence keeps him lively and prevents all those uncomfortable and uncomely sinkings and despondencies of spirit 2 Cor. 4.16 17. and therefore cannot but be of singular use to a Soul at such a time Lastly Dem. 4 It is of special use to a Christian under sufferings inasmuch as it enables him to repel the temptations that attend upon sufferings Nothing sets a keener edge upon his indignation against unworthy compliances than this Indeed a poor cloudy and dubious Christian will be apt to catch at deliverance though upon terms dishonourable to Christ but he that is clear in point of interest abhors compositions and capitulations upon unworthy terms and conditions Heb. 11.35 Heb. 10.34 He that sees the gain and reward of suffering will think he is offered to his loss when life and deliverance are set before him upon such hard terms as sin is And thus you see what influence it hath into a suffering condition 3. In the next place I promised to prescribe some Rules for the attaining of this Evidence and the dispelling of those doubts by which it is usually clouded in the Souls of Believers And oh that by the faithful use of them you may attain it against a suffering day come upon you And the first Rule I shall give you is this Rule 1 Make it your business to improve Grace more for the more vigorous it is the more evidential it must needs be 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Oh how much time have many Christians spent in enquiring after the lowest signs of sincerity and what may consist with Grace which had they spent in the diligent improvement of the means of Grace for the increasing of it they would have found it a shorter cut to peace and comfort by much Mistake not the Rule by which you are to try your selves lest you give a false judgment upon your selves Some are apt to make those things signs of Grace which are not and when the falseness of them is detected how is that poor Soul plunged into doubts and fears that leaned upon them As now If a man should conclude his sincerity from his diligence in attending on the Word preached this is but a Paralogism as the Apostle calls it Jam. 1.22 by which a man deceiveth his own Soul For that which is a note or mark must be proper to the thing notified and not common to any thing else There are divers sorts of marks some are exclusive the principal use of which is to convince bold Pretenders and discover Hypocrites Such is that 1 Cor. 9.9 It is a most certain sign where these are there is no Grace but yet it will not follow on the contrary that where these are not there is Grace See Luke 18.11 Others are inclusive the use of which is not so much for trying of the truth as the strength and degrees of Grace As now when Faith is described by the radiancy of it or by some of its heroick acts and promises made to some raised degrees and operations of it as that Ephes 3.12 c. Here a mistake is easily made Besides these or rather betwixt these are another sort of marks which are called positive marks and these agreeing to the lowest degree of Grace are for the tryal of the truth and sincerity of it Such are these 1 John 4.13 1 John 2.3 Matth. 5.3 Be sure to try by a proper mark Take heed of such sins as violate and wasteâ— the Conscience Rule 3 for these will quickly raise a Mist and involve the Soul in Clouds and darkness Psal 51.8 c. Such are sins against Light and the reclamations of Conscience Labour to shun those common mistakes that Christians make in judging of their state Rule 4 amongst which I shall select these five as principal ones 1. Call not your condition into question upon every failing and involuntary lapse into sin Iniquities prevail against me as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away Psal 65.3 In short thou needest not call thy condition into question provided thou find thy Spirit working as Paul's did under the surprizals of temptation viz. If 1 thou do approve of and delight in the Law though thou fall short of it in thy practice Rom. 7.12 14. 2 If thy failings be involuntary and against the resolution and bent of thy Soul vers 25 18 19. 3 If it be the load and burden of thy Soul vers 24. 4 If the thoughts of deliverance comfort thee vers 25. 2. Question not the truth of thy Grace because it was not wrought in the same way and manner in thee as in others For there is great variety as to the circumstances of time and manner betwixt the Spirits operations upon one and another Compare the History of Paul's Conversion with that of the Jaylor Zacheus or Lydia and see the variety of circumstances 3. Conclude not that you have no Grace because you feel not those transportations and ravishing joys that other Christians speak of If thou canst not say as Paul doth Rom. 8.38 yet bless God if thou canst but breath forth such language as that Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief 4. Say not thou hast no Grace because of the high attainments of some Hypocrites who in some things may excel thee When some persons read the sixth Chapter to the Hebrews they are startled to see to what a glorious height the Hypocrite may soar not considering that there are these three things wherein they excel the most glorious Hypocrite in the world 1 That Self was never dethroned in Hypocrites as it is in them All that
that you grieve not the Spirit on whose influences and assistances you so intirely depend Even as much as a Ship doth upon the Gales of Wind for its motion 3. By honouring the Spirit which enables you to pray and that especially two ways 1 By dependances on him go not forth in your own strength to the Duty trust not upon your own promptness or preparations 2 By returning and with thankfulness ascribing the praise of all to him Be humble under all Enlargements Say Not I but Grace 4. By searching your own Hearts and examining your Necessities and Wants when you draw nigh to God this will be a Fountain of Matter and give you a deep Resentment of the worth of Mercies pray'd for 5. Lastly By looking more at the exercise of Graces and less at the discovery of Parts by labouring for Impressions more and pumping for Expressions less And thus I have briefly shewed you how to furnish your selves with this needful Qualification also CHAP. XIII Wherein is shewed the necessity of going out of our selves even when our habitual and actual Preparations are at the greatest height and depending as constantly and intirely upon the Spirit who is Lord of all gracious Influences as if we had done nothing Together with the means of working the Heart to such a frame THus you have seen your habitual and actual readiness for Sufferings and blessed is the Soul that gives diligence to this work But now lest all that I have said and you have wrought should be in vain I must let you know that all this will not secure you unless you can by Humility Faith and Self-denial go out of your selves to Christ and live upon him daily for supplie of Grace as much as if you had none of all this Furniture and Provision for Sufferings I confess Grace is a very beautiful and lovely Creature and it 's hard for a man to look upon his own Graces and not doat upon them But yet know that if you had all these excellent preparations that have been mentioned yea and all Angelical Perfections superadded yet are you not compleat without this dependance upon Christ Col. 2.10 When ever you go forth to suffer for Christ you should say in the Head of all your excellent Graces Duties and Preparations as Jehosaphat did when in the head of a puissant and mighty Army 2 Coron 20.12 O Lord I have no might nor strength but my Eyes are unto thee This was one thing in which Paul excelled and was a special part of his readiness See 1 Cor. 15.10 What a poor Creature is the eminentedst Saint left to himself in an hour of trial the Hop the Ivy and the Woodbind are taught by Nature to cling about stronger Props and Supporters What they do by Nature we should do by Grace The necessity and great advantage of this will appear upon divers Considerations 1. Consid 1 The Christians own imbecility and insufficiency even in the strength and hieght of all his Acquirements and Preparations what are you to grapple with such an Adversary Certainly you are no Match for him that conquered Adam hand to hand in his state of integrity It is not your inherent strength that enables you to stand but what you receive and daily derive from Jesus Christ Joh. 15.5 Without me or never so little separated from me ye can do nothing all our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3.5 Upon this very consideration it was that the Apostle exhorts the Ephesians to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might i.e. not to depend upon their own stock and furniture but Divine Assistances and daily Communications for we wrestle not with flesh and bloud but Principalities and Powers Ephes 6.10 12. in his own strength shall no man prevail 2. Consi 2 It is the great design of God in the Gospel to exalt his Son and to have all glory attributed and ascribed to him That in all things he might have the preheminence Col. 1.13 That Christ might be all in all Col. 3.11 Hence no Saint must have a self-sufficiency or be trusted with a stock as Adam was but Christ being filled with all the fulness of God and made the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first Receptacle of all Grace For it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell all the Saints are therefore to go to him for supplies and of his fulness to receive John 1.16 This fulness being a Ministerial fulness like that of the Sun or of a Fountain intended to supply all our wants And hence is it that Faith a self-emptying and denying Grace is appointed to be the Instrument of fetching our supplies from Christ All must be derived from him that all the praise and glory may be ascribed to him Phil. 4.14 And this is a most wise and congruous Ordination of God for hereby not only are his People the better secured but by this also the reproach that lay upon Christ is rolled away He was reproached on earth as barren empty weak Can any good come out of Nazareth He was looked upon as a Root springing out of a dry ground but by this shall his Reproach be wiped away So that unless you will go about to cross the great design of God in the exaltation of his Christ you must go out of your selves and humbly and constantly rely upon supplies from Christ and his grace to help in the times of need 3. Consi 3 A Christ an is constantly to depend upon Christ notwithstanding all his own preparations and inherent qualifications because the activity even of inherent Grace depends upon him Inherent Grace is beholding to exciting and assisting Grace for all it is enabled to do You cannot act a Grace without his Spirit * 1 Cor 15.10 2 Cor. 3.5 John 15.5 It may be said of Grace in us as it was of the Land of Canaan Deut. 11.10 11 12. It is not as the Land of Egypt whence ye come out where thou sowedst thy seed and waterdst it with thy foot as a Garden of Herbs But a Land of Hills and Vallies drinking water of the Rain of Heaven a Land which the Lord thy God careth for his Eyes are always upon it from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year As the life and fragrancy of Vegetables depends on the Influences of Heaven so do our Graces upon Christ And hence he is called 1 a Root Isa 11.10 2 An Head Col. 1.18 3 A Sun Mal. 4 2. 4 A Fountain Zech. 13.1 all which Comparisons do fully carry this Truth in them 4. Consid Lastly In this life of dependance lies your security And indeed this is the great difference betwixt the two Covenants In the first Adam's stock was in his own hands and so his security or misery depended upon the unconstrained choice of his own mutable and self determining Will But now in the New Covenant all are to go to Christ to depend upon him for
although we may ingage our selves in sufferings without it yet we can never manage our sufferings like Christians without it They will neither be honourable or acceptable to God nor yet beneficial and comfortable to our selves or others except they be performed from this Principle of Grace For upon what Principle soever beside this any man is acted in Religion it will either cause him to decline sufferings for Christ or if he be ingaged in them yet he will little credit Religion by his Sufferings They will either be spoiled by an ill management or his own pride will devour the praise and glory of them I do not deny but a man that 's graceless may suffer many hard things upon the account of his Profession and suffer them all in vain as these Scriptures manifest See 1 Cor. 13.3 Gal. 3.4 And although you find many sweet Promises made to those that suffer for Christ yet you must consider that those pure and spiritual Ends and Motives by which men ought to be acted in their sufferings are always supposed and implyed in all those Promises that are made to the external action And sometimes it is exprest 1 Pet 4.16 to suffer as a Christian is to suffer from pure Christian Principles and in a Christian manner with Meekness Patience Self-denial c. and this only Grace can enable you to do So that by all this I suppose what I have undertaken in this Character viz. to evince the necessity of a Work of Grace to pass upon you before Sufferings for Religion come is by all this performed to satisfaction CHAP. VI. Wherein the Nature of this Work of Grace in which our habitual fitness for suffering lies is briefly opened and an account given of the great advantage the gracious person hath for any even the hardest work thereby HAving in the former Chapter plainly evinced the necessity of saving Grace to fit a man for sufferings it will be expected now that some account be given you of the nature of this Work and now it advantages a man for the discharge of the hardest services in Religion Both which I shall open in this Chapter by a distinct Explication of the parts of this description of it This work of Grace What Saving Grace is of which I am here to speak consists in the real change of the whole Man by the Spirit of God whereby he is prepared for every good work In which brief Description I shall open these four things to you 1. That it is a Change this is palpably evident both from Scripture and Experience 2 Cor. 5.17 Old things are past away behold all things are become new and it is so sensible a Change that it 's called a turning from darkness to light Act. 26.18 and a new Creature formed and brought forth But to be a little more distinct and particular there are several other Changes that pass upon men which must not be mistaken for this and therefore 1. It is not a meer change of the Judgment from Errour to Truth from Paganism to Christianity Such a Change Simon Magus had yet still remained in the gall of bitterness and fast bound in the bonds of iniquity Act. 8.23 2. Nor only of a mans practice from Prophaness to Civility this is common among such as live under the Light of the Gospel which breaking into mens Consciences thwarts their Lusts and over-awes them with the fears of Hell Which is no more than what the Gentiles had Rom. 2.15 3. Nor is it a change from meer Morality to meer Formality in Religion Thus Hypocrites are changed by the common gifts of the Spirit illuminating their Minds and slightly touching their Affections Heb. 6.4 5. 4. Nor is it such a Change as Justification makes which is relative and only alters the state and condition Rom. 5.1 2. 5. Lastly it is not a Change of the Essence of a Man he remains essentially the same person still But this Change consists in the infusion of New Habits of Grace into the Old Faculties which immediately depose Sin from its dominion over the Soul and deliver up the Soul into the Hands and Government of Christ so that it lives no more to it self but to Christ This is that Change whereof we speak And this Change 2 I assert to be real no phansie nor delusion not a groundless conceit but it is really existent extra mentem whether you conceit it or not Indeed the blind World would perswade us it is suppositious and phantastick and that there is no such real difference betwixt one man and another as we affirm Grace makes And hence it is that whoever professeth it is presently branded for a Phanatique and that Scripture Esa 56.5 Stand by thy self I am holier than thou c. clapt in their Teeth in their absurd and perverse sence of it But I shall briefly offer these seven things to your consideration which will abundantly evince the reality of it and at once both stop the slanderous mouths of ignorant men and silence those Atheistical Surmises which at any time Satan may inject into the hearts of Gods own people touching this matter And first let it be considered that the Spirit of God hath represented to us this Work of Grace under such Names and Notions in Scripture as if they had been chosen purposely to obviate this Calumny It 's called a Creature Gal. 6.15 a Man 1 Pet. 3.4 a New Birth Joh. 3.3 Christ formed in us Gal. 4.19 all which express its reality and that it is not a conceited thing 2. It appears to be real by the marvellous effects it hath upon a man turning him both in Judgment Will Affections and Practice quite counter to what he was before This is evident in that famous instance of Paul Gal. 1.23 which is abundantly attested and sealed by the constant experience of all gracious Souls that are Witnesses of the truth hereof 3. A Divine and Almighty Power goes forth to produce and work it and hence Faith is said to be of the Operation of God Col. 2.12 Yea that the same Power which raised Jesus Christ from the Dead goes to the production of it Ephes 1.19 20. And if so how much less than Blasphemy is it to call it a Conceit or Phansie Doth God set on work his infinite Power to beget a Phansie or raise an imagination 4. Conceits and Whimsies abound most in men of weak Reason Children and such as are crackt in their Understandings have most of them Strength of Reason banishes them as the Sun doth Mists and Vapours But now the more rational any gracious person is by so much the more he is fixed setled and satisfied in the Grounds of Religion Yea there is the highest and purest Reason in Religion and when this Change is wrought upon men it 's carried on in a rational way Esa 1.18 Joh. 16.9 The Spirit overpowrs the Urderstanding with clear Demonstrations and silences all Objections Pleas and Pretences to the contrary 5.