while with Paul but at last he for sooke him and embraced this present world Ninthly when a man is acted by his pride there is joyned with his sufferings a desire of revenge hee would if he could return evill for evill and doth as farre as hee dares The heart is enraged against those from whom they doe suffer but those who have Faith to be their principle they commit their cause to God though men curse they blesse they can heartily pray for their persecuters as Christ and Stephen did for theirs The Banner over a gracious heart in all the troubles that befall it is Love and therefore whatsoever the wrongs be that are offered to such there is still a Spirit of Love preserved in it Tenthly if vaine-glory be the principle hee loves to make his sufferings knowne and in the making of them knowne he will aggravate them with all the circumstances he can to make them appeare the more grievous that so hee in the suffering of them may appeare the more glorious It is a good observation that Master Brightman hath upon that expression of Saint John Rev. 1. 9. I was in the I le that is called Patmos he does not say I was banished into the I le by the wicked cruelty and malice of mine enemies No onely thus I was in the I le The humble man rather desires that his sufferings might make God knowne then that himselfe or any others should make his sufferings knowne he desires no further notice should bee taken of them then whereby God may bee glorified in them Lastly a proud man makes his boast of himselfe what he did and how hee answered and what successe hee had whereas the other makes his boast onely of God The boasting in our selves in regard of our services or sufferings makes both us and all that we doe or suffer to be vile and base in the eyes of God and man It is a notable witty expression of Luther by mens boasting of what they have done sayes he haec ego feci haec ego feci I have done this and I have done this they become nothing else but Feces that is dregges Thirdly a man may suffer much likewise from a Naturall conscience where there is no principle of Faith yet this is the best principle of all others next to that of Faith but it may be where there is true sanctifying and saving grace many of the Heathens suffered much in their way of Religion out of the principle of a naturall conscience As Socrates was condemned to be poisoned for opposing the multiplicity of Gods teaching that there was but one God In a way of justice the Naturall Conscience of Fabritius set him so strong against any opposition that it was said of him That you might sooner turne the course of the Sunne then Fabritius from the course of justice Now Naturall Conscience may put a man upon a way of suffering First by the strength of that conviction it hath of some Truths of God of the Equitie of them of that Divine Authoritie that there is in them of the dependance they have upon the prima veritas the first Truth which is God himselfe Secondly Naturall Conscience may be convinced of a greater good that there is in the enjoyment of the peace and quiet of the mind then in the enjoyment of all outward comforts whatsoever and a greater evill in the torment of spirit and miserie that will follow if any thing be done against that light it hath then there is in all evils that the world can inflict Thirdly Naturall Conscience may so urge Truths upon the Soule it may so follow it with importunitie casting feares and terrors into the heart that it will never suffer the Soule to be at quiet in a way of selfe-seeking in any way of providing for the flesh contrarie to that light that God hath set up in it Wherefore although there be not much naturall courage in a man nor seeking vaine-glory from men yet the losse of many comforts and many evils may be suffered out of the power of the light that there is in a Naturall Conscience But there is much difference betweene this kind of suffering and that which comes from a Principle of Faith as thus First where it is onely from a Naturall Conscience the Soule is urged and put on by force of a command but it is not encouraged by it receives not strength from it is not sweetened with the Promise it findes no Promise of the second Covenant at least no abilitie to close with any Promise from whence it receives helpe in the sufferings but where there is a Principle of Faith the Soule findes three sorts of Promises in the Gospel with which it closeth from which it findes much helpe As first the Promises of assistance secondly the Promises of acceptance thirdly the Promises of reward both here and eternally hereafter These Naturall Conscience hath no skill in it puts on a man to suffer but it gives no strength he goeth to it in his owne strength Conscience urgeth the Soule so as it dares not doe otherwise but it doth not assure it that God accepts either of person or performance it lookes to present quiet having nothing to perswade it that it shall at length attaine unto the glorious reward that God hath promised unto those who suffer out of faith for his Name sake Secondly Naturall Conscience doth not make a man glad of that light it hath and the power and activenesse that there is in it that it will not suffer him to be at quiet unlesse he doe denie himselfe in that which is deare unto him if he had not that light which he hath he might enjoy himselfe in his owne way without that trouble and vexation of spirit that now he feeles he therefore opposeth and seekes to extinguish his light rather then to use any meanes to maintaine and cherish it but where there is a Principle of Faith that Soule loves that light it hath and blesseth God for it accounting of it a great mercie and therefore seekes by all meanes to maintaine and encrease it and joynes side with it all he can Thirdly where there is onely a Naturall Conscience such a one is very hardly brought to suffer any thing he seekes to put off the Truth as much as he can that he might not be convinced by it there must be wonderfull cleare evidence that he can by no meanes shift off or else he will never be convinced he will part with nothing unlesse it be wrung from him with great strength of undeniable evidence of the Truth it must so shine upon his face as that he cannot shut his eyes against it but where there is a Principle of Faith it is not so the Soule being willing and readie to yeeld up all it is or hath to God it is as willing to entertaine suffering Truths as any other Psal 18. 44. As soone
entertainment and commanded that all the former Edicts should be cancelled in his presence There is a notable relation that wee finde in Josephus concerning Agrippa that upon a time he invited Caius the Emperour to a supper and gave the Emperour great content in his entertainement whereupon the Emperour said unto him let mee gratifie thee by giving thee what thou wilt Agrippa asked although it were with the venture of the losse of all hee had as followeth Dread Prince since it is your good pleasure to thinke mee worthy to be honoured by your presence I beseech you to give commandement that the Statue which you have charged Petronius to erect in the Temple of the Jewes may never be advanced there this hee did although hee knew it was as much as his life was worth to aske any thing of Caius that was not answerable to his humour Many Christians would hardly goe so farre in venturing themselves either for Church or countrey as hee here did for the Jewes Theodoret likewise tells us of a Noble Spirit in one Terentius a Captaine of the Emperour Valens who being returned out of Armenia with a great victory the Emperour bad him aske a reward he asked onely that hee would be pleased to grant to those of the Orthodox Religion one publike Church in Antioch and although the Emperour were angry and tore his Petition and bade him aske something else yet hee persisted in this and refused any other reward for all the service hee had done And Eusebius relates a Noble example of a great Noble man Vetius Epagathus appearing in the cause of the Christians not being able to beare the unjust dealings hee saw against the Christians hee demanded that hee might be heard in defence of the Brethren but all that sate at the Tribunall being against it because hee was a Noble man the President asking him if hee were a Christian hee plainely and publikely confest it and so was taken in amongst the Martyrs being afterwards called The Advocate of Christians Where have wee Noble men now of such free and disingaged spirits to venture themselves in any publike cause for God and their people who should bee free to speake if not you Gallasius upon Exod. 22. 28. sayes of Augustus that he was wont to say that in a free Citie Tongues ought to be free Where should tongues or hearts be free if not in your honourable Assemblies If you would shew your Noble mindes shew the liberty of your spirits sayes Saint Chrysostome Liberty I say the same that that blessed Saint John had from whom Herod heard againe and againe It is not lawfull for you to take your brother Philips wife That liberty also that before him he had that said to Ahab It is not I but you and your Fathers house that troubles Israel Wherefore seeke to get that Nobility of minde which the Prophets had and Apostles had which such as serve riches cannot have for nothing takes away the liberty of the spirit so much as the desire of worldly things thus Chrysostome It is beneath true Noblenesse of spirit to aime at no higher pitch in your desires and endeavours then to provide for your owne ease and safety when publike causes for God and his people call you out to venture your selves Seneca in one of his Epistles speaking of a true raised excellent spirit describes it to be such a one as seekes where it may live most honestly and not most safely Nature hath brought us forth magnanimous sayes hee it hath given us a glorious and lofty spirit what is that seeking where it may live best not where it may be most secure What though you should suffer something it will bee your honour that while you suffer the Church and your Country prospers It was the honour of the Fabii and the Fabritii that they being poore themselves they made the Common-wealth rich Venture you your selves for God and his people and trust God with your honors estates and posterities doe not say you are alone you know not how many you may have to cleave to you if you have a heart to appeare howsoever desolate righteousnesse saith Jerome loseth not her comfort which hath God to be with it that is more then all It was a brave resolution of Luther which we finde in one of his Epistles to Staupitius wherein hee professeth that he had rather be accounted any thing then be accused of wicked silence in Gods cause Let mee be accounted sayes he proud covetous yea a murderer yea guilty of all vices so I bee not proved to be guilty of wicked silence while the Lord and his cause doe suffer And know that the more dishonoured and trampled upon any cause of God is the more he expects that you should appeare for it I have read that among the Persians the left hand is accounted the more honorable place Xenophon reports of Cyrus that those whō he honoured most he placed at his left hand upon this ground because it was most subject to danger hee would have those who were most honourable to stand by him there where he was most weake and lyable to danger Thus where the cause of God is most opposed and most like to suffer there God would have the most noble spirits to stand and to appeare in that and to doe this is truely honourable indeed Who knowes whether you bee raised for such a time as this who knowes whether you have beene preserved from such and such dangers that you have beene in that you might bee reserved as a publike blessing for the Church of God and your Countrey I have read of Philip King of Spaine going from the Low-countries into Spaine by Sea there fell a grievous storme in which almost all the Fleete was wracked many men lost and himselfe hardly escaped he said he was delivered by the singular providence of God that he might live to roote out Lutheranisme which hee presently began to doe this evill use hee made of his great deliverance Some of you have been delivered from great dangers but for a better purpose that you might now be of use to roote out profanenesse Atheisme and superstition and happy are you and happy shall we be in you if it may appeare that you are reserved for this worke of the Lord. Thirdly let all goe rather then bee brought to commit any sinne we had better have all the world cast shame in our faces and upbraid us then that our consciences should cast dirt in them It is better to endure all the frownes and anger of the greatest of the earth then to have an angry conscience within our brest it is better to want all the pleasures that earth can afford then to lose the delights that a good conscience will bring in Oh let the bird in the brest alwayes be kept singing whatsoever we suffer for it it is better to lose all we have then to make ship-wracke of a
good conscience In this case you must be willing to lose all or else you are lost in the enjoyment of all If your greatnesse be enlarged and you will not bee willing to lose it when God will have you sayes Bernard you shall bee lost by it Wee have many examples of brave spirits manifesting themselves in this thing the example of Flavianus Clemens is famous in this hee was a Courtier in Domitians Court with whom the Emperour was exceeding familiar and delighted much in him he was so deare unto him as he intended to make his sonne to be his successor in his Empire but this blessed Flavianus rather then he would breake the peace of his conscience in the matter of his religion hee was content to beare the turning of the great love of the Emperour into as great hatred so as he hated him unto death and oppressed his whole house Saint Augustine hath a good speech to this purpose what doth it profit a man to have his chest full of goods and his conscience empty And now how happie wee if God would worke mens spirits to this who enjoy preferment delights and riches above other men you have power to doe much good use not your power against God but for God O that you had but so much liberty to your spirits as to bethinke your selves wherefore God hath raised you above others but reason and religion are usually drowned in these in their sensuall lusts they thinke they have enough in their honours and in their pleasures to commend them and make them happie but as for religion that is for private men who have nothing else to comfort themselves in Even Seneca a heathen had this complaint concerning their religion in their times Holinesse sayes he piety and faith are private good things It seemes that even then those that lived publikely in the world in their honours delights they thought their pompe and glory to bee sufficient and that they neede not the helpe of vertue to commend them It was likewise the complaint of Lucan Let him goe from the Court that intends to be pious vertue and great power cannot agree together But is not opportuity of service for God and his people as great a good as any you can have is not the excellency of any thing you have above others in this especially that you have opportunity to doe more good then others and what is a mans happinesse but his goodnesse That which Clemens Alexandrinus sayes concerning dwelling in magnificent houses is true of all other pompe and glory in the world How much more glorious sayes hee is it to doe good to many then to dwell magnificently who knowes what may bee done in godly courses if you will begin thē how may others be provoked likewise thereunto how ever it falls out it is no great matter that wee hazard what is my honour my pleasure my estate my liberty my life so God may be glorified There is more honour and there ought to be more pleasure and certainely there will be more pleasure and certainely there will be more profit in the service of God then in the enjoying all the world to my selfe and my posterity If Gods honour be not deare and precious in mine eyes how can I thinke that my honours and my comforts and my estate and my posterity should be deare and precious in his eyes If the publike good falls shall I thinke to enjoy my ease and my peace my estate and my honour upon good termes Cicero laughed at the folly of those men which in his time seemed to conceive such a windy hope that their fish ponds and places of delight should bee safe when the common-wealth was lost In publike calamities if your person should escape which you can have no security of yet you cannot expect that your honours and riches should escape from being made a prey Platina hath a notable story for this when the citizens of Papia in Italy were at dissension by reason of the faction betweene the Guelphes and the Gibellines the Gibellines procured a favourer of theirs called Facinus Caius to assist them covenanting that hee should have the goods of the Guelphes for his labour but hee being once come into the citie and prevailing he spared the goods of neither of them whereupon the Gibellines complained saying that their goods also were spoyled hee answered them that indeed they themselves were Gibellines and should bee safe but their goods were Guelphes so it may fall out to others who have beene unfaithfull to God to religion though they themselves may prove to be Catholikes yet their goods and places of preferment may bee counted to bee Heretickes though they themselves may bee accounted to be good quiet honest men that cared not which way things went sobeit they might live in ease and peace for their time yet their estates and places of office are liable to bee made a prey Consider yet further your example is much many eyes are upon you every one is ready to follow your way Augustine in his confession saith that the devill drew men on cunningly to wickednesse by those poeticall fictions attributing filthy lusts and wicked uncleannesses to their supposed feigned gods that those which did such things might blesse themselves in this they did not imitate base men but the Celestiall gods thus the devill gets sinne countenanced in the world by the examples of the great ones and thinke themselves safe if they have you for their patterne God hath set you as starres in the firmament of honour upon your influences depend the whole course of the inferiour world the people are as the sea and you as the winde to raise or depresse them according to your motion As in evill your examples doe much hurt so in good they would do much good how might godlinesse bee honoured if men saw you to prize it so as to set it above all your honours many are offended at the poverty and meanenesse of those that professe religion you may in great part take away this offence In the Annalls wee reade in the historie of Charles the great that there was one Aygolandus a King of Africa of the Mohometane sect who had much warre with Charles the great and that he might better make peace with him he told him that hee desired to bee a Christian Charles being glad of that tooke him with him to the Court where this Aygolandus saw thirty poore people in meane habits lying on the ground eating without any cloath he asked Charles what they were who answered him they are the servants of God For Charles was wont to nourish poore people at his Court on purpose that he might have the object of poverty before him to behold that thereby hee might moderate his affections in his great fortunes Aygolandus answered and is it so that I see the servants of your God cloathed in such filthy cloathing and your servants shining
improved your power onely upon sinfull wayes to satisfie the lusts of your owne hearts when these shall be taken from you or you from them with what confidence can you looke up to God for mercy doth it not come from low thoughts of God and want of the feare of his great and dreadfull Name for you to thinke to spend such great talents upon your lusts which hee hath betrusted you withall for his honour and yet to thinke that you can easily do well enough in this matter between God and you that this holy great and dreadfull God will be pacified by a word or two If you had indeed ventured those things that you did enjoy and so had parted with them in the cause of God you might then after all had beene gone have beene able to looke up to God with much comfort and to have expected with confidence much mercy from him It is reported of Alphonsus King of Arragon when a Knight of his had consumed a great patrimony by lust and luxury and besides ran into debt and being to be laid into prison by his creditors his friends petitioned for him to the King the King answered if hee had spent so much money in the service of his Prince or for the good of his Countrey in relieving his kindred I would have hearkned but seeing hee hath spent so much upon his body it is fit his body should smart for it So when you come and looke up to God for mercy in your distresse when the comforts of the creature shall be gone God may justly answer if you had spent that abundance of the creature that I afforded to you in my service for the good of my people I would have heard you but now it is just you should be left in your distresse and that so much pleasure as you have had so much misery should follow Doe not your hearts tremble at that Text 1 Cor. 1. 26. Not many rich not many noble it is enough to make a mans heart to tremble when he heares that of men few are saved but when salvation is straightned in a more narrow compasse and God saith of such a sort of men but few this hath more power in it to strike feare as if a company in a Church should heare that but few of them should goe out alive it would strike feare into all but when those who sit in the Chancell shall heare but few of those that sit in the Chancell shall goe out alive this strikes feare into such who sit there As Joshua when search was made for Achan amongst the Tribes he had cause to feare but when the Tribe of Judah was taken of which he was then much more but when the family of the Zarhites then much more So within the straighter compasse God hath said But few shall be saved if you be amongst them you have cause to feare the more and not to take more liberty then others but to be more diligent then others to make your calling and election sure It s a terrible speech that Chrysostome hath in his 34. Sermon upon the Hebr. you would thinke it so if it came from us it may be you will receive it better from him the speech is this I wonder saith hee if any Governour can be saved Howsoever conscience may be quiet and still now yet when it apprehends it selfe neere the giving up account to God it will speake it will sting then It is reported of Philip the third of Spaine although it is said of him that his life was free from grosse evils yea so as he professed he would rather lose all his Kingdomes then offend God knowingly But being in the agonie of death and considering more thorowly of his account hee was to give to God feare struck into him and these words brake from him Oh would to God I had never reigned Oh that those yeeres I have spent in my Kingdome I had lived a private life in the Wildernesse Oh that I had lived a solitarie life with God how much more securely should I now have dyed how much more confidently should I have gone to the Throne of God what does all my glory profit me but that I have so much the more torment in my death This storie Cornelius à Lapide hath upon the second of Hosea In the Bohemian Historie it is reported of one Hermanus a great Courtier who being to dye did most lamentably crie out That he had spent more time in the Palace then in the Temple and that he added to the Riotousnesse and Vices of the Court which he should have sought to have reformed and so dyed to the horror of those that were about him I confesse it is no little matter for you who have so much of the world to denie your selves in those things that give content to the flesh considering the corruption that is in the hearts of the children of men it is a hard thing and seldome hath successe to give rules for the ordering of life to men who are in great prosperitie in this world Hence Laertius reports of Plato who being desired by the Cyrenians that he would write down some Lawes for them and that hee would set the estate of their Common-wealth in some order he refused saying It was a very hard thing to make Lawes to bind men who were in great prosperity But the more hard any dutie is the more honourable is it to yeeld to it as Saint Hieronym writing to Pamachius hath this expression It is not a little thing for a Noble man for a rich man to withdraw himselfe from the companie of great ones to joyne with those that are meane and poore and to be made as a common man but the more low the more mean he is in doing this hee is the more sublime so much the higher in the esteeme of God and his people There are some who have beene in as faire a way of honours and worldly delights as any yet they have denyed themselves and they rejoyce in it and blesse God for it they finde all they were willing to part with made up abundantly to them they live most svveet and joyfull lives God hath made them honorable in his ovvne eyes and in the eyes of his people they are high and precious in the esteeme and hearts of the Saints Doe not feare trust your honours your Dignities and riches vvith God there vvas never any thing lost in a self-denying vvay for Iesus Christ nothing can make you more honorable then the vvaies of Godlinesse and nothing can cast that contempt and shame upon you as the vvaies of sinne doe it being the basest servitude that is both for your selves and all your estates and honours to bee under the povver of your lusts As you vvould account it a greater contempt and shame for you to bee made to serve in the meanest and basest worke that is then if an ordinary man should be forced to
of the thing as it is And againe it workes more strongly upon my heart if I see a toade a great way off my heart stirrs not but if I see it neere as Pharaoh saw the froggs crawling upon his bed then my heart rises with loathing of it If wee could but see things now as God hath told us they shall appeare to us hereafter how mightily would they worke upon the soule howsoever there are many things that shall be seene hereafter that yet were never revealed and those things faith cannot make as present but such things as God hath revealed in his word that they shall hereafter come to passe faith may and whē it is active doth make them as present to the soule workes them upon the heart as if they did now appeare The want of this worke of faith is the cause almost of all the evill in the world and the acting of faith in this her worke in the lively and constant worke of it would produce fruites even to admiration The reason why those threates of God did not worke upon the people to whom Ezekiel preached God himselfe gives in the 12. chap. Sonne of man they say thou prophesiest of things a farre off And so for the mercies of God and the things of eternall life because the choyce of them are things to come the world with her present delights prevailes against them If you could see that glory of God in Christ and those glorious treasures of mercies that shall bee communicated and are now revealed and those dreadful evills that are now threatned and shall then be fulfilled I say if you could see them with the same eyes that now is manifested you shall see them with hereafter they would draw the hardest heart that is and bring downe the stoutest spirit that lives If you had faith you would bee able to see them so and the reason is because faith sees things as the word makes them knowne it pitches upon the word in that way that it revealeth the mind of God now the word speakes of mercies that are to come as present things and of evills that God intends to bring herafter as if God were now in the execution of them as will appeare in these scriptures Isa 52. 9. 10. Breake forth into joy sing together yee waste places of Ierusalem for the Lord hath comforted his people he hath redeemed Ierusalem the Lord hath made bare his holy arme in the eyes of all the nations thus the Prophet speakes of the deliverance of the Church from captivity as a thing done already which was not fulfilled many yeares after And David Psal 57. 2. even then when he fled from Saul in the cave hee lookes upon God as having performed all things for him the word is he hath perfected all things and that is observable that David uses the same expression of praising God here when hee was in the cave hiding himselfe to save his life as hee did when hee triumphed over his enemies Psal 6. and Psal 108. And 2 Chron. 20. from the 17. verse to the 22. as soone as Jehosaphat had received the promise he falls on praysing the Lord as if the mercy were already enjoyed praise ye the Lord for his mercy endures for ever Christ saith of Abraham John 8. 56. that he saw his day and rejoyced and was glad Christs day was unto him as if it had beene then And in the 13. verse of this chapter it is said of the godly who lived in former ages that though they saw the promises that were afarre off to be fulfilled yet the text sayes they imbraced them the word in the originall signifies they saluted them now salutations are not but betweene friends when they meet together To faith a thousand yeares are but as one day faith takes hold upon eternall life 1 Tim. 6. 19. It takes present possession of the glorious things of the kingdome of God it makes the soule to be in heaven conversing with God Christ his Saints and Angels already That which is promised faith accounts it given Gen. 35. 12. And the land which I gave to Abraham to thee will I give it it was onely promised to Abraham but Abrahams faith made it to him as given So for judgements and threatnings Esay 13. 6. Howle ye for the day of the Lord is at hand this is spoken of the destruction of Babylon which was a hundred and fifty yeares after but the word speakes of it as if it were now and so faith apprehends it the like wee may instance in many Scriptures you know it is ordinary and you who know the worke of faith you know it is as ordinary for it to looke at that which God saies as if it were now done things seene so work strongly What difference is there between mens thoughts and judgements of spirituall and eternall things in times of health in times of their sicknesse in the apprehension of death Aske them now what they thinke of grace of a good conscience of the pardon of sin of walking strictly with God Aske them now what their judgement is of Gods Saints Aske them what they thinke of eternal separation from God and the infinite wrath of a Deity for evermore now you shall finde their judgements otherwise then formerly and what is the reason of all but that things are judged now as present As despaire brings hell into the soule and puts the soule as it were into hell for the present the soule apprehends as if it were already there many in the horrour of their spirits have cryed out that they were in hell Francis Spira in the despaire of his soule cryed out verily desperation is hell it selfe So on the contrary faith brings heaven into the soule puts it as it were into heaven so that many of Gods people upon their sick beds when they have beene put in minde of heaven they have joyfully answered that they were in heaven already Faith likewise makes use of things past as if they were present as the ancient mercies of God shewed to our forefathers and Gods former dealings with our selves As Hosea 12. 4. the mercy of God to Iacob when he wrestled with him and prevailed the Church makes use of it as if it were a present mercy to themselves for so saith the text he had power over the Angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication unto him hee found him in Bethel and there hee spake with us not onely with Iacob but with us whatsoever mercy God shewed to him we make it ours as if God were speaking with us and Psal 66. 6. Hee turned the sea into dry land they went through the flood on foot there did we rejoyce in them the comfort of the mercies of God for many yeares past to their forefathers they make as theirs there did wee rejoyce So all the promises that God hath made to any of his people though never so long agoe faith fetches out the comfort of
as they heare of me they shall obey me It is a hard thing to convince a man of a suffering Truth if he hath not a suffering heart Many men will say if they were convinced that such a thing were a Truth that if it were a dutie that God requires of them they would yeeld unto it whatsoever became of them but yet they doe not see it to be so but the deceit of their hearts lies here that they knowing they dare not oppose it if they were convinced and that it will bring upon them much trouble if they be forced to yeeld to it therefore they are unwilling to be convinced they shut their eyes against the light arguments of lesse strength can prevaile to convince them in other things but here strong light will not doe it because they fore-see the haâ—d consequences that will follow but where there is a suffering heart a willingnesse to sacrifice all for the least Truth how soone how easily is such a one convinced of any Truth When the mind of the hearer is good it easily assents to the word of Truth sayes Chrysostome Fourthly a Naturall Conscience does not prize an opportunitie of suffering so as those doe who have a Principle of Faith they goe to it as a great mercie they account it as a great priviledge that God calls them forth unto and gives them opportunitie for the testifying of their love to his Name and the expressing the worke of their Grace for his prayse accounting of it the highest improvement that may be to lay downe all at Gods feet in a way of selfe-denyall the other may suffer the same thing but he lookes upon his sufferings as a great part of his miserie and at the way of Gods providence bringing of him thereunto as a great evill unto him Fifthly a Naturall Conscience rests in the thing done in the very worke of enduring troubles there doth not appeare the Grace of God in the manner of his sufferings in the carriage of his Soule in them there doth not appeare the Glory of God in the enabling of him to goe through them neither is he much sollicitous about that but onely how he may beare them and get thorow them but Faith sets on worke all the Graces of Gods Spirit by which the sufferings of one truly gracious are much beautified his Spirit is exceedingly savourie in them Psal 89. 17. It is said God is the glory of the strength of his servants Thou art the glory of their strength Now this was in a time of great trouble to the Church as appeares Verse 38. and so forward But thou hast cast off and abhorred thou hast beene wroth with thine anointed thou hast made void the Covenant of thy servant thou hast prophaned his Crowne by casting it to the ground thou hast broken downe all his hedges all that passe by the way spoyle him he is a reproach to his neighbours c. Yet even at this time God gives such strength to his people as that his Glory shines in it Therefore surely it is more then can be by any naturall worke Sixthly a naturall conscience may put a man upon the way of self-denyall but such a one accounts the wayes of God hard wayes because of the troubles he meets withall in them hee is brought out of love with Gods wayes and hee is weary of them he is even sorry that he came into them and could be content to with-draw himselfe from them if hee knew how to doe it but a beleever suffering in the wayes of God hee still likes well of them hee speakes good of them his heart cleaves close unto them Sufferings are esteemed the better because they are in the wayes of God and the wayes of God are not esteemed the worse because they are in the wayes of Suffering his Suffering confirmes him in them a crucified Christ and persecuted godlinesse are very lovely in his eyes Cant. 1. 13. A bundle of Myrrh is my beloved unto me hee shall lye all night betweene my brests Myrrh is a bitter thing although Christ bee as Myrrh yet he shall lye between my brests next to my heart as most lovely and delightfull to me where there is true godlinesse such a one whatsoever he meets withall in Gods wayes hee never opens his mouth againe to speake against them Ezek. 16. 63. and Psal 44. 17 18 19 20 c. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant our heart is not turned backe neither have our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death c. And Psal 89. from the 38. verse to the 52. we read of Ethan making a most lamentable complaint for the miseries of the Church and yet he concludes Blessed be the Lord for evermore and this not formally or slightly but earnestly with much affection and therefore he addes Amen and doubles it Amen Amen as if he should say let the troubles of the Church bee what they will yet God and his wayes shall be for ever blessed in mine eyes in my heart Seventhly where there is onely a naturall conscience such a soule is satisfied rather in its owne peace that it hath by yeelding to that which conscience puts him upon then in any glory that God hath by that which is suffered As he doth not aime at the glory of God but at the quieting of his conscience so he lookes not much after the glory of God that should come in by his sufferings Eighthly naturall conscience may put a man upon denying of the world and suffering hard things yet the heart is never by it crucified unto the world the inward lusts are not mortified there remaines still as much love to the world as ever there was there is yet a drossy uncleane spirit within the corruptions of the heart still remaine in the root howsoever they be kept in for a while by the power of conscience such a one would as gladly enjoy the delight of the world as ever but hee dares not but where Faith is the principle there the inward corruptions of the heart are mottified Faith crucifies the heart unto the world it does not onely enable to deny ones selfe in outward things but it changes the very frame and temper of the heart the inward disposition of the soule is not after any thing in the creature as it was before but it is sanctified it is made heavenly it is raised above any thing that is here below Ninthly where the principle is onely Naturall Conscience there comes in no new supply of strength in the time of suffering but all that is done is by the first strength that put him upon it hee is all the while spending his strength as an Armie that fights without any new succours But Faith brings in new supplies new succours continually strength growes