and the power and goodness of the promiser Love lives upon Faith we can love God no longer than we believe When the imaginary Faith of wicked men like a candle dyeth within them their supposed love to God goeth out with it also They hate him in Hell and can do no other we love God no longer than we have a good opinion of his love to us 't is Faith that seeds this Lamp with Oyl We love him because he first loved us And therefore when the spring of Faith is low the stream of Love is very ebb Prayer lives upon Faith we pray no longer than we believe Prayer shall be heard We knock no longer at Gods door than Faith seeth we are welcom When a man feels guilt of sin yet Faith seeth the Lord will pardon it for his own name-sake Who is a God like unto Mica 7. 18. thee that pardons iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage He will turn again he will have compassion on us he will subdue i. e. pardon our iniquities so the word signifies and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea When a man feels the strength of sin yet Faith seeth that the Lord will waste and subdue it and doth not this bear up grace from sinking With what courage doth grace fight against sin when Faith tells her God is on your side and you shall overcome Faith finds and feels rest in trouble Vnto the upright there Psal 112. 4. ariseth light in the darkness The life of a Christian is a life of Faith which is a life contrary to sense and reason when the Lord kills what Doth he intend then to save me yes that he doth saith Faith and therefore Though he kill me yet will I trust in him and thus is grace inlivened When the Lord binds me in Cords of misery doth he intend me any good Yes saith Faith he intends to teach thee and instruct thee Blessed is he whom thou chastenest O Lord Psal 94. 12. Vers 13. and teachest him out of thy law that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity WHILE the pit is digged for the wicked Faith informs the Soul that God is upon a good work whilst he is binding and breaking his people Oh! he is teaching them some high and holy lesson his corrections are their instructions He is preparing them for a day of prosperity As 't is in the next verse That thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity while the pit is digged for the wicked Where take notice of these two Things 1. While God is chastising his People he is preparing them for a day of smiles and felicities When he was breaking Job upon the wheel of Affliction he was but preparing him for a greater day of Honour and Prosperity 2. While God by chastisements is preparing his people for some greater happiness at that very time he is preparing a Gallows for the wicked he is digging their pit to bury them in That thou mayst give him rest from the day of adversity while the pit is digged for the wicked While the Jews were under a Cloud and God preparing deliverance for them he was at that very time preparing Hamans Gallows The wicked like condemned men are suffered to live till their Gallows and Grave be made ready Now Faith is well read in Divine Mysteries in Gods proceedings she acquaints the soul that God by chastising and touching the Body is teaching her that his strokes are not huntful Nocumenta sunt Documenta Secondly The Lord increaseth grace in his People by preserving a tenderness upon their Consciences 't is grace that makes the Conscience tender and that tenderness nurseth up grace with exquisite care in the soul The most tender hearted nurse is not more chary of her dear Babe to give it suck keep it clean preserve it from harms and see it come on and prosper than the tender Conscience is of her grace the sweet Babe of the Holy Ghost within her Blessed yea thrice blessed are they to whom God hath given a tender conscience As grace withers and shrinks up by an hardness coming upon the heart so grace improves mightily in a soft and tender soyl 1. The tender Conscience startles at secret sins as well as open sins to sin in the dark as well as in the light his Memento or if you please his Motto is Shall not God search this out Psal 44. 21. He fears Gods Eye more than all the Worlds eye The tender Conscience trembleth at your cunning arts and ways of sinning whereby in your bargains you can bring about your covetous desires under hand and no man discern you You call only those sins secret that are done in a corner but if in your publick dealings you can by your subtilties come over another Are not these secret sins too Tender conscience cannot swallow them And is not grace growing now 2. Tender conscience is quick and sensitive of small sins vain thoughts idle words lesser oaths wanton glances wishes and motions to sin He knows no duty small because there 's no Commandment small he calls no sin little because there 's no poyson little no death little no hell little and doth not this give strength to grace 3. The tender conscience smites the Saint after he hath sinned as oft as he sinneth After sin committed his heart gives him no rest till he hath made his peace with God If corrupt nature cannot but sin yet renewed conscience cannot but repent of sin it cannot but rise again if God be offended it cannot but meet him with humiliation if Man be wronged it cannot but make restitution or satisfaction as Zacheus did When David had sinned in numbring the people his heart smote him I have sinned greatly in that I have done Surely 2 Sam. 24. 10. grace gets ground by this 4. Tender conscience trembles at the appearance of evil as some eyes cannot abide to look on the Picture or Image of a Toad that which looks like sin he abhors it it scares a holy soul from any enterprize if it be but male coloratum an ill aspect Every thing that might any way redound to the wounding of Religion or at which any offence might be taken he entertains it not and doth not this give nutriment to grace 5. Tender conscience is jealous of the appearance of good as it hates the appearance of evil so it dares not always trust every appearance of good The tender conscience as far as it hath light will try all things and hold fast only what is good not what seems so Satan deceives more easily and destroys more dangerously when he assumes the shape of an Angel of light That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination Luk. 16. 15. in the sight of God 6. Tender conscience takes heed of what he knows lawful He doth not only fly what appears evil and try what appears good but
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
though he damn'd the whole world and cast off Cain for ever Ninthly God makes some sharers in the same deliverance who share not in the same grace as the ten Lepers he gave them the same cure not the same grace he gave them all a cure only to one grace Were there not ten cleansed where are Luk. 17. 17. the nine There are not found that return'd to give glory to God save this stranger So the Sons of Noah were all saved in the same Ark and yet not all made partakers of the same Faith We shall now give you the Application of this Point And first Vse 1. See by what tenure the Saints hold and receive all their grace By gift 1. The first work of grace in the soul is a gift No man can come to me saith Christ except it were given him from John 6. 65. Rom. 5. 5. above and Romans 5. 5 All is given It is grace that we have grace the grace of God that we have grace from God 2. The addition and increase of grace is a gift every little degree of grace is a gift and when he gives more still it is more gift 3. Heaven it self is a gift The gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. 27. mark the whole verse The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Eternal death is a wages eternal life is a gift men deserve it when they are damn'd but they deserve it not when they are saved their sins are worthy of Death but their graces are not worthy of Life And the reason is 1. Because mens sins are their own and therefore deserve death As Christ speaking of the Devil saith When he speaketh a John 8. 44. lye he speaketh of his own Our lyes and our sins are our own works but our graces are not our own we are beholden to God in that we have grace when we serve him with our graces we serve him but with his own 2. Because our sins being perfectly sinful are worthy of death but our graces being not perfectly gracious are not worthy of life Vse 2. Is grace a free gift then serve God freely We cannot be too free in serving him from whom every thing is a free-gift I may rightly apply that Text to the Saints Freely ye Math. 10. 8. have received freely give I am sure you have freely received grace serve him freely with your grace And therefore a Servant is in Greek called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 15. 17. a reward because servants serve not their Master freely as his Sons do meerly because he is their Father but for reward What is it to serve God freely 1. To count it a greater good to serve God than to be saved not as if a man should not serve God with an eye to his salvation for 't were a sin if he should not because the recompence of reward is the great Promise and 't were a sin not to prize and eye and look up to any promise of God I say we are bound to serve God with an eye to the recompence of reward because it is the Promise of God now we are to make the best of every promise to improve the promise and to make the best advantage of it for the quickning of our graces and the cheering up of our spirits The promises are helps and we are bound to use all Gods Helps And therefore Heb. 12. 2. we may set our salvation befor us and aim at it But yet still this we should do and if we serve God freely will do it count it a greater good to serve God than to be saved to glorifie God than to be glorified Indeed the Lord saith Them that honour me I will honour This is his goodness yet Gods Honour is a greater good than our honour It is a greater good that God be glorified than that we should be glorified because the Glory of God is the good of the Creator but our glory is but the good of the Creature 2. To serve God freely is to serve him willingly As we say of a man that doth a thing willingly he doth it freely for that is the very essence of the Will that which is not done freely is not done with the Will Oh observe thy self Thou Professor it may be prayest in thy closet but if thou durst omit it thou wouldest not pray thou art not drunk but if thou durst for shame thou wouldest not be so temperate now thou dost not pray nor abstain from sin willingly and freely 3. To serve God freely is to serve him abundantly to be liberal in his service He that is no niggard but is liberal in his gifts we call him free So he that serves God freely is no niggard of his service he is very liberal of his service to God As we say of a man that 's liberal of his Fare and liberal in his House he is free he cares not what he spends upon his friends he provides bountifully for them he calls for his Wines and Sweet-meats about him and thinks nothing too much for them we say this man hath a free and noble spirit so the Saints that serve God freely think they can never do enough for him he makes abundant Provision to entertain Christ and sets a long Table full of Services like so many dishes before him When Christ said to Zachaeus To day I must abide at thy Luk. 19. 5. house How did Zachaeus entertain him Wondrous liberally saith he Behold Lord half of my goods I give to the poor Verse 8. and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him four-fold Zachaeus was wondrous free Christ Jesus might have any thing of him without speaking A Saint cares not what he spends upon Christ wilt thou have me give away one lust yea saith Christ there it is another saith Christ there it is Lord another yet saith Christ there 't is Lord nay all saith Christ take all then Veniat veniat Verbum Domini saith one Et submittemus ei sexcenta si nobis essent Colla Let the Word of the Lord come let it come and wee 'l submit six hundred necks to it if we had them Nay but not thy lusts only but thy life too saith Christ take it then saith St. Paul I am ready not to be bound only Acts 21. 13. but also to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Vse 3. Is grace a gift then count thy work a gift not a burden but a gift not a toyle but a gift look upon every labour and every service and obedience for God as a gift As a Woman though she travel in pain yet counts her Child a gift from God As the Text saith Lo Children are an heritage Psal 127. 3. of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward The mother counts her child a gift for who
refreshing and he will sit there and rest himself under it Men that have their feet or their arms scalded will put them into cold water which gives them ease though it gives them no cure yet because it gives them ease there they keep them So men whose Consciences are scalded with wrath Oh! now the Gospel and Justification by Faith in Christ is very sweet And so they are eased by it never cured by it and therefore you shall find them disclaim all works and cry up grace only when Christ is offered and general notice given them that there is Mercy and Hope for great Sinners this fills them with joy and peace But wherein doth these mens hypocrisie appear They receive Jesus Christ only for ease I say a false heart receives Christ only to ease him to ease him of the terrour of Conscience and to ease him of the work of Obedience And here prophane Sinners find great ease The weight of their guilty Consciences would press and sink them down but that they bear up upon the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Oh! he dyed for Sinners and paid our debt and now they are cheerful and easie they can sin and be easie follow their drunkenness and be easie swim in their uncleanness and be easie for they make the Righteousness of Christ their Bladder to swim upon and say what you will to them they will not sink If you ask one of these drunkards and haters of the Saints and railers at godliness I say if you ask them Do you believe in Christ yes say they Believe yea we believe exceedingly and so they do the truth is they believe beyond measure but they believe and rest upon Jesus Christ to ease themselves of sanctification they cannot but see the want of it and they cannot ease themselves but by pleading that Christ is holy and that though they have it not yet Christ hath it This is a great ease to their thoughts at the present and thus they receive Christ Oh Sirs that you would consider the sad condition of this man whose plagues shall be made wonderful whose Conscience suits him still for sin and then looks up to Christ and rests there and hears Sermons but then salves up all with the Righteousness of Christ and considers often that his ways are evil but never suspects his faith to be evil Then he is taken with Death and then looks up to Christ at last the snuff dyes and his Sun sets and darkness approacheth and then instead of heaven embraceth flames and what is it that hath deceived these men Oh! their Faith hath deceived them they believed they might have had Christ and Sin too and then in Hell they wish Oh! that I had considered and feared this before and will you not fear now I charge you then think not your Estates good because you rest on Christ and look for salvation by him only 2. There are others who receive Jesus Christ not only into their belief but into their bosoms not only into their heads but also into their hearts They have a great work upon them the Gospel doth not only Irradiate their minds but also in a great measure Captivate their Wills they have affections to Christ and sweet motions to holy things kindled in their hearts They receive the word with joy and delight Matth. 13. they fall into raptures of love to and admiration of Jesus Christ they do not only assent to the Doctrine of Justification by Christ but are made partakers of the Holy Ghost There is a change wrought in them they seem to be washed 2 Pet. 2 20. and sanctified in the blood of Christ having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And so they shine in the surface of their outward lives The hypocrisie of the heart springs from defect of light in the mind The want of saving Illumination in the understanding is the reason of the hypocrisie of the heart These two faculties the Vnderstanding and the Will live very near one another if they be not really the same some say they are but one and the same power or faculty of the soul and so there is a real Identity of the Will and Understanding saying that the Will is Intellectus extensus others affirm that they are faculties really distinct However it is by all concluded that there must in order of nature be light before choice knowledg before election the Intellectual creature must see before it can determine or resolve upon Now I say the imperfect and unsound resolution of the soul flows from defect of light The hypocrisie of the heart springs from the want of a saving Illumination in the Understanding This appears in the Parable of the Virgins of whom the Lord Christ saith That five were wise and five were foolish The vanity of the one sprang from their folly the provision of Oyl the others made sprang from their Wisdom You know it 's frequent in Solomons Proverbs to call the upright and godly man the wise man the sinner and hypocrite the fool the power of sin lyeth in the power of darkness The strength of a State in the Wisdom of its Council 1. The Understanding is the first inlet of Sin and Grace this is that which opens and shuts to all life and sin When Satan laid his Train and Powder-plot to blow up all the World by the sin of one man he first enters into dispute with Eve and as the Apostle saith deceived her The woman was deceived and so darkned her mind with a mist 1 Tim. 2. 14. the serpent crept into her heart through the door of her Vnderstanding There could no sin get into the Will were there not an error first in the Vnderstanding 2. And as the mind is the first inlet into sin so it is the first door that lets in grace Sanctifie them through thy truth thy John 17. 17. John 12. 35. word is truth Walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you Satan knew if light came in Christ would come in Matth. 13. 15. 3. Divine light is very powerful it hath a mighty influence to change and renew the heart We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord All Divine light of glory works strongly if hypocrites had it their hearts would be sincere Not that bare light can change the will but the Lord works by it When the Lord comes with life he comes with light Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5. 14. arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light When the spirit comes all his work is expressed by conviction of sin of righteousness and of judgment convince one effectually and you convert him You shall know the truth John 8. 32. saith Christ and it shall make you free that is from your bondage
Saints that they may be more serious in their duties 2. The other evil in a slight and formal Communion with God in Duties is unthankfulness Duties of godliness are not only a debt to God but a reward to us Therefore in slightness there is not only unfaithfulness but unthankfulness Both the Majesty and Mercy of God is despised and can God be well pleased with such things 3. There is a third evil in a slight Communion with God in Duties and that is unfruitfulness we get nothing from God in duties we pray slightly and therefore get nothing by Prayer we hear the word slightly and therefore profit not by it Now that the Lord may cure his people of this slightness of heart and make their graces grow he useth this dispensation to leave them in want of assurance 6. God increaseth his Saints graces by terrors within he not only suspends their comforts but afflicts their souls he writes bitter things against them 1. These rowse them up to seek God They that see themselves lost will find a way to God They that have Hell-fire burning in them will value Heaven and pardon and the least drop of Gods love Oh! now promises are precious and Gods love neglected is now sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Now they cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly 2. These fright them out of their dreams and carnal slumbers as the cry made at midnight that the Bridegroom cometh awoke the virgins out of their sleep Among the other diseases of the soul Divine desertions cure deadness and dulness of heart Sometimes living men are in a lifeless state their hearts are so benummed that they seem to lye among the dead They can hear the word carelesly and sleep out whole Sermons there is no vigour nor activity in their graces at home and therefore the Lord hangs their souls over the mouth of Hell and makes them drink of that red wine the dregs whereof the wicked of the earth shall Psal 75. 8. wring out and drink them that by this strong potion he may rowse them up and quicken their dull and drowsy spirits 3. These terrors work them more closely to Christ And for this cause God gives his People sad visions of sin and wrath he shakes the soul with Earth-quakes that she may stand faster upon her true Basis and Foundation These storms make their hearts gather in to Christ That I may be found in him saith Paul The soul must have some dry land to stand upon and when the flood of Gods terrors overflow the soul then she flyeth to Christ as Noah's Dove to the ark 7thly The Lord increaseth grace in his Saints by afflictions he makes them by marring them Divine Wisdom works by contraries he makes them shine brighter by their Eclipses and clears up their light by darkness Schola crucis Schola lucis And truly It is the property of true-born grace to grow the greater by the cross As the laurel tree is not smitten Plin. Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 55. nor blasted with lightning no more is heaven-born grace hurt by any afflictions but much bettered by them 1. God increaseth his Saints graces by sharp sicknesses by diseases unto death i. e. this startles mightily Oh Lord thou didst surprize me unprovided and if thy hand had cut me off with that disease my soul had been cut off from heaven for ever This enters deep upon the soul and strikes terrour upon the heart the Lord I hope shall never find me so again This stirs up thankfulness to the Lord that hath not only in this tryal saved me from the grave but also from Hell 2. Sicknesses deaden the Saints to the world They that in sicknesses are always leaving the world learn to dye unto the world They have death always in their eye They see themselves still upon the borders of the grave They are ever and anon lanching in eternity and this makes grace grow 3. Sicknesses are searchers Thou enquirest after mine iniquity Job 10. 6. saith Job and searchest after my sin When God smites our bodies he searcheth our hearts and makes enquiry in our lives and now saith the soul Let us search and try Lam. 3. 40. our ways When God is searching VS it is high time for VS to search our selves and this also makes grace to grow 4. Sicknesses dig Wells of godly sorrows in the heart They are as it were Gods Mattocks and Spades whereby he delves deep into the center of the heart and digs Wells of repentance which send forth streams of confession of sin which before would not run because they had no vent being covered and stopt with the earth of lust and hardness and worldliness upon them but now they find a passage When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the Psal 32. 3. 4. 5. day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moysture is turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin 2. By poverty and narrowness of estate Many men must Aquilone maxime gaudent densiores ab afflatucjus laetioresque materiae firmioris Plin. Nat. Hist l. 17. c. 2. Jer. 6. 22. be kept short and bare that they may thrive in grace Pliny saith That trees generally like best that stand to the North-wind It causeth them to spread thick and more flourishing and makes the Timber more strong and solid The Lord threatneth the Jews with a people from the North-Countrey the Chaldean Army which should carry them captive into Babylon The North wind winnowed them and fanned all their Idolatry They flourished gallantly in Religion after the North wind had blown upon them 1. The cold blasts of poverty correct pride and moderate high thoughts Make a man poor and you make him humble Pride is an absolute enemy to grace and prosperity is the seminary of pride The North-wind of poverty cools the courage and tames the spirits of men and now they know God and themselves Their Plumes fall and now they will digest a reproof and sit upon even ground with the lower Saints When the world frowns upon them they seek the smiles of God before they were too high for him 2. Poverty teacheth them to pray they can now fall upon their knees those that never called upon God learn now to visit the Throne of grace and cry Lord Give us this day our daily bread Nay they long for the spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nay those that have prayed in their fulness now pray feelingly They can go to God in sense of wants before they did not hear nor feel their own Prayers In their prosperity they did not care what Prayers they put off God with Now they set the highest rate upon Prayer for they are fain to live upon Prayer An hungry belly makes a Saint hungry after Ordinances and after Gods Presence When a mans debts and poverty make
ever doubt of I say Satan tempts before Conversion namely to hinder us from entring the ways of grace and to keep us out of Christ For if we be once in Christ we are gone from him he can hurt us no more than he can Christ and you may see how far his malice can reach The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head that is his power The seed of the serpent shall bruise his heel that is his humanity When thou art once in Christ he can bruise but thy heel he may stir up affliction bring thee to thy grave but shall never bring thy soul to Hell At the best pain can but restrain your lusts it cannot heal them A disease can but abate the acts of sin it can never destroy the life of sin Death it self cannot kill sin the sins of wicked men live when they are dead The grave cannot consume them nor the fire of hell waste their strength the sins of unbelievers shall remain not only in their guilt but in their power to all eternity Quest But how does Satan hinder our conversion Answ By kindling a stronger love in us to sin There is in all men by nature a love to sin and Satan comes and blows that fire into a flame and so our love becomes predominant and afterwards it becomes a great work to un-love that sin 2. Satan tempts the unconverted these two ways 1. By inspiring his false Prophets and Ministers Thus he 1 King 22. 22. 1 King 22. 4 5. devised Ahabs destruction I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets And again Ahab King of Israel asked Jehosaphat King of Judah who came to see him whether he would go with him to Battel to Ramoth Gilead Well the King of Judah promised the King of Israel and told him saying I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses Afterwards Jehosaphat said nnto the King of Israel enquire I pray thee at the word of the Lord to day Then the King of Israel gathered the prophets that is Vers 6. the false prophets inspired by Satan together about four hundred men and said unto them Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battel or shall I forbear and they said go up for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the King Consider it seriously They that admininister the Oracles of God are the greatest mercies or greatest curses When they drop from their lips nothing but Gods mind they are mercies if not they are curses 2. Satan tempts the unconverted by numbering more false prophets than true For when Satan cannot act for Truth on his side he will act by number He will weigh the balance by number when he cannot by truth he will disgrace truth by the greatness and multitude of number against it for he knows what will take among carnal and ignorant men they are carried with quantity more than quality What are you saith Satan that are but one or two wiser than so many Can truth sit upon the lips of so few If it were truth why should not others know it as well as you Why should so many be ignorant of it Thus he carried his device upon the wings of multitude against Ahab to hatch his design against 1 Reg. 22. 6. Ahab he did sit upon the spirits of four hundred prophets against one Micajah so there are many loose lives against one Christ though there be many now a days that teach men by their words and doings that men may live loosely yet Christ saith Broad is the way to destruction and narrow is the way to life So that the fewness of those that carry on the way to life is a Testimony of the truth of it 3. Satan tempts the unconverted by putting men out of conceit with the godly that they are proud and Hypocrites Secondly Satan tempts men in conversion He can play his part here also he is cunning everywhere to destroy if he cannot keep sinners from conversion he will hinder them in conversion Now Satan temps men in conversion 1. By putting hard thoughts of God himself into them and therefore no marvel if they have hard thoughts of godly men When such a soul is coming unto God he is by Satan way-laid with this namely that God will never pardon him he would repent but dares not he takes God for his Enemy Satan would fain make a poor soul that 's coming unto God think that God is his Enemy and will not save him it is one of his Master-pieces to bring the love and good-will of God into suspition Oh! saith he why should I repent I shall not be accepted and this is no small weapon And thus Satan deals with grown Saints and strong Christians and therefore surely the temptation is a strong Engine it hath more than ordinary strength in it He practised thus against Job 1. 16. Job The fire of God saith the messenger is fallen from heaven and hath burnt up the sheep Mark ye why did Satan consume Jobs sheep with fire He stirred up the Sabeans Vers 14 15. to take away his Oxen and Asses and why not the sheep why to provoke Job if he could to be passionate against God and for that was his great design to curse and blaspheme God to beget an opinion in Job that God was now his Enemy as well as Man The fire of God is fallen upon the sheep thou canst not put this off as thou mightst do the other and say this is but the malice or covetousness of the Sabeans that rob me of my goods no thou shalt see now that God himself is angry heaven frowns upon thee the fire of God consumes thee Turn over the Records of all antiquity and see whether ever God dealt thus with any but those cursed Sodomites upon whom God rained fire from heaven Was God their enemy in that punishment Behold he sends such an one upon thee though God hates nothing so much as sin yea nothing but sin yet he would fain save the sinner Now then bring your souls to this either I will be a natural man still or else I will get into Jesus Christ Sirs If you live in sin you will lose your souls if you throw away sin you shall be received into the bosom of Christs love 2. In conversion one device by which Satan tempts is when poor creatures are coming home to God to fright them with fearful blasphemies As for example he will first tempt or suggest to thee that there is no God and this temptation springs immediately from Satans hatred of God he would annihilate God But now to oppose Satan in this his device how shall I encounter him Thou must arm thy self against this temptation thus Answ 1. Tell him Satan thou knowest there is a God thou wouldst have me believe there is no God and yet thou knowest that there is a God The Devils also believe
stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate