Creature which thus bewitches and insnares us 1. Do not smile upon it as being in deep friendship with it but draw a Veil over its false Artificial inticing Beauty Put the Creature into the very same Dress into which the Apostacy of the first Adam betrayed it This made it not to be valued and shall we not stand at a distance from it in its Temptations 2. Speak not kindly nor familiarly to your Lusts to renew their old Fondness and acquaintance The Nurse keeps a deep silence when she would wean off a Child from cleaving to her Chide away a Temptation when it whispers in your Ear as Satans Factor to decoy you Hanker not after your Lusts as David after Absolom but hew them in pieces as Samuel did Agag Have you betrayed the honour of Christ and the integrity of your Souls in cleaving to Vanity and will you yet countenance cocker and plead in defence of your Lusts 3. Sing to your hearts be quieting them in the Lord 's tender Faithfulness Compassion and Alsufficiency when you are under the severest Method and course of weaning Psal 101.1 David resolved that of Mercy and Judgment he would sing For all the ways of the Lord are Mercy and Truth to such who keep his Covenant The 32. of Deuteronomy which consists of Mercy and Judgment is called Moses weaning Song to reduce Israel from a pursuit of their Idols as lying Vanities and to reunite and knit them to the Lord. 4. Keep a Record of all you experiences how the Lord sustained you when your Spirits were sinking in your weaning distresses Isa 63.7 8 9 10 11 12. 5. Let your weaning Design be carryed on by degrees not with violence Judahs Reformation was not Lasting because it was set on foot by the rapid Motion and over-bearing Authority of Josiah only Jer. 3.3 4 10 11 19 21 22. 6. Use no severity which is not of Divine prescription 7. Withdraw out of sight the Fewel Baits and Provocatives of your Lusts 19. Again would you be weaned then Covet to be dissolved in Affection from Worldly Vanities before you be dissolved in Person Weaned Saints covet to dye but dissolute Epicures groan because they must dye as having not answered the end of their Being and placing their Portion and Felicity in sublunary Enjoyments They Carowse so long at the Devils Wassal-Bowl till being intoxicated with a Reprobate mind they meet their Eternal destruction with laughter in the Face Labour to be above the fond Love of Natural Life and the slavish Fear of Deaths Artificial Cruelty Life were not worth the accepting it is attended with so many miseries were it not to make Provision for Eternal Happiness Neither is Death to be dreaded by such who demonstrate the Temper and disposition of a Pilgrim Charles the fifth forbade Death to be named in his Court under the penalty of Death But Moses dyed at the mouth of God readily at his Command because he had long before put off his Shoes the servile fear of Death in casting away all defiling terrene Affections which cling about a Worldling and make Death unwelcome Saints may well bow the head in submission and covet to dye because then and not till then they are perfeclty weaned when the Lord kisses their Souls out of their Bodies as welcome Guests to Glory It was reported of Ottomans great Horse that wheresoever he set his Foot no Grass could grow in that place So soon as a Saint by Death sets his Foot within the Portal of Celestial Glory the Weeds of his Lusts dye at the very Roots the Pride of all Flesh is stain'd and vamshes Again take beed of being hardened in Sin by Antiquity of Custom or by the outward successes and prosperity of Sinners Jer. 44.15.16 17. The Prophet refutes this Plea at 20 21 22. Ps 73.1 to 15. Lastly Wisely and Faithfully Improve all the Lords weaning-strokes on your selves or others Let others who have been Thunder struck and blasted even while they have lain soaking at the Breasts of the World and have dyed lamenting their own Folly and the Worlds Treachery too late be your warning-Peals But we readily turn off the prognosticks yea the very Executive part of God's Wrath as if our selves were not concerned in the dreadfulness of either An instance of the former you have in Vespasian who when he saw a Blazing Comet and a gaping Sepulchre thought to wave his own destiny with this prophane Jest that the former portended only the Death of the King of Persia who at that time wore long Hair The latter the death of the old Empress Julia who having one Foot in the Grave must of necessity suddenly yield to the stroke of Fate Wherefore think you hath the Lord of late made such changes in overturning overturning overturning by Pestilence War and the desolating Conflagration of our City but only to awaken us out of that pleasing Dream of sensuality into which the pleasures and profits of the World had insensibly betrayed us And yet how sottishly stupid are Sinners bewitcht with the Sirene songs of Lusts and the Worlds Flatteries Though frequent Earthly disappointments sing out the Passing-Bell of our dying Comforts and write a mournful Epitaph over the withering Glory of Creature-Enjoyments Yet we mind it not but cross the Lords wise Holy and Gracious designs by our security and clinging faster to the Creature We still pursue the Vanites of the World little considering that they will prove our vexation or our Ruine Like dying persons we grasp the harder whatsoever Vanity takes us by the hand Like drowning Men we catch at straws though they sloat swiftly away upon an ebbing Stream Sinners will ye still proclaim your folly and Phrensy in cleaving to an Aguish Breast which is crackt and chapt with flaws of disappointment which can yield nothing but corrupt humors and windy crudities which will gripe and torment your Consciences which will inflame your Pride and sensuality to the certain Ruine of your Souls Wherefore hath the Lord stained the Glory of all human Pride but to bring us low upon our Knees that himself alone may be exalted in reigning over our hearts and affections in which he will indure no Corrival or Competitor Yet still we more eagerly Court lying Vanities by how much the Lord would Rend them from us as the Pillows of our Security and the Purveiors of our Lusts Let me therefore in the fear of God and Love of your Souls perswade you to sit Loose from the fancied felicity of the World It 's both our Curse and Folly that we make our Lives uncomfortable to gather only Fewel for our Lusts The World will deal as Treacherously with us as Absolom's Mule did by him when we have most need of relief it will run from under us and leave us hanging in despair 'twixt Heaven and Hell Labour therefore to be Divinely born of God then you will trample the World under your feet and become sick of Love to Christ so shall
before they loved now they hate contra This is demonstrated 1. Because our sensual Hearts make great resistance to this Renovation in the Spirit It 's as Death to a Carnal heart because 't is no other than the dissolution of the Carnal-State of a Sinner Some are sooner weaned off with the very Nod and Beck of God But others must be fiercely dealt withal as Paul As the Voice of a Thunder-clap makes the Hinds to Calve and cast forth their young because they have very narrow passages in Nature So Sinners are averse from Spiritual weaning therefore usually the Spirit of Bondage Vshers it in by some Black Rod or Apparitor which makes the very shadow of Death to sit on our Eye-lids before our proud Spirits will be tamed and brought to hand by the shaking of an ordinary Rod over us Some the Lord weans by the soft gentle whispers of his Spirit convincing them of the vanity and emptiness of the whole Creation Thus the Lords Word stood for a Law with Levi who knew neither Father nor Mother so as to dispense the Divine Law with Carnalfondness and partiality of affection The powerful Charms of Divine Love and the Spiritual appearances of the Lord in the Lustre and Glory of his Alsufficiency and infinite Perfections prevail with some to fall off not only from the lank and Crude Breast of the Creature but from the fairest and plumpest of their Enjoyments Yet neither frowns nor smiles neither Blows nor Charms of Love can prevail with some soaking sensualists to quit the allurements of Lust and the World Jeshurun who carried the Title of Uprightness in their very Name could not be weaned from the Garlick and Flesh-pots of Egypt but keckt at Manna at Angels Food yea snarled at God himself because their Dog-like Appetite was not indulged with Quails They could not be made fond of their great Redeemer nor did they cleave to him though he broacht the Rock to satisfie them as with Streams of Honey rather they waxed Fat and kickt by how much the more they were pampered and indulged 2. The difficulty of Spiritual weaning farther appears from the frequent pains and strange methods which the Lord himself takes to imbitter the Creature using very sharp afflictions to draw off our fond affections from an Idolatrous doting on the World A strange dulness or rather perverseness possesses us that we must be lasht into our own Happiness and beaten into an ingenuous Liberty from the vassalage of our Lusts Lots Wife though she were fired out of Sodom yet left her heart behind for she lookt back she lookt and lookt again till she became sliff and stupid as a stone Thus Agrippina said of Nero Occidat modo Imperet Sinners care not if they be damned so they may not be damnified in their Worldly Interest They will adventure an Eternal Excision or cutting off from the priviledges of Eternal Life which is worse than a bare Circumcion in the sorest loss of their Temporalities before they will cleave to God himself rather than the Dinah of this inchanting World They will part with their Religion rather than not enjoy their Wealth and Honour without hazard or disturbance Thus we Adore the Creature and thereby force the Lord to put on the disguize of an Enemy to fright us into a weaned Frame The Candle of Prosperity must be put out yea the whole Heaven over us must mourn in Sackcloth the Lord must desert us and leave us to the amazement of a wounded Conscience before we will desist from nestling in the Bosome of that Creature which we Idolize Again Satan and the World when we seem to be weaned renew their acquaintance and insinuate their allurements afresh to reduce us to their imbraces Thus the Child hardly cleaves to the Parent when the Nurse studies and strives to regain the Childs fondness by presenting and tempting it with Toyes and Rattles But every Soul which would thorowly be weaned must resolve in the Lord's Strength not to listen to Satan's or the World's inticing Charms Reply Go Satan offer these petty Vanities to Children and Fools who know not what the worth of Christ or of an immortal Soul amount unto I am better disciplined in the severities of a Holy and Heavenly profession I am not so fondly in love with Vanity as to purchase it with the torment of a wounded Conscience by betraying of my Loyalty and the Chastity of my Soul to Christ It is just matter of wonder with what sinful Reverence sordid and absurd Zeal Popish Novices swear subjection to the perverting Rules of some superstitious Founder One devoted to the Commands of his Superintendent went barefoot three Miles thrice in the same day to fetch Water to pour out on a dry stick Yet let the Spirit of Jesus attempt to bring us out of Love with Worldly Vanities and the customs of phantastick sinners how do we cry out of this Compassionate Discipline as of an intolerable severity What pinching Fetters are Christ's Righteous Laws to the tender delicate Lusts of sensual Worldlings Let such consider how dangerous it is not to comply with the Lord's weaning Methods For as an angry Nuise throws the froward weanling out of her Aims to the Beds feet so the Lord will in tossing toss such is a Ball into a large and far Country where the severity of an Enemy shall insult over them to break their proud Spirits Isa 22.15 to 20. 7. Though weaning be a work of difficulty yet it must be carried thorow because 't is a State very necessary and not indifferent Those Children who suck long are not so witty nor so vigorous and active but more dull comparatively and effeminate because they have been made such fondlings The Apostle possibly alludes to the inconveniences of remaining too long in the State of Babeship in Christianity Heb. 5.12 13 14. As if he had said so great is your Spiritual sloth and dulness in not understanding the Mysteries of the Gospel that you have need be set to learn the very Principles of the Christian Institution But the weaned Christian can discover the Mystery of Iniquity the grand cheats of Satan and the World His faculties and affections have a Divine Gust or experimental apprehension of what is suitable to the State of a New Creature Such can cry out Poyson in the Cup when a temptation to sin though never so sweetly spiced is amicably presented to them 2. You cannot unless you have a weaned Spirit be in the least capacity of closing with Christ by Faith Till we be estranged from Creature-Dependencies we will not stoop to Glean after Christ in the Field of his Righteousness nor lie at his Feet as Ruth at Boaz's by an humble Self-denyal Such need not fear that their Love to Christ shall be despised for he will do all that they shall require when he observes that they have quitted all Corrivals and are heart-sick in affection toward himself by the solid preference of his
to be sure it will if you stupify your Souls and Caress them with sensual pleasures in the gratification of your Lusts What sinners will ye break away from the Worlds soft imbraces and prove Changelings in the profest Mystery of Iniquity to take up the severities of a mortified Conversation If there be any day of accompt for all your Vanities and Excesses yet you have time enough before you to be Pensive the Judg of Mankind is not yet upon his Circuit nor stands he yet before the door of your hearts as ready to depart that thereupon a Psalm of Mercy should be denied you as shut up under final impenitency and unbelief Thus Satan the World and sinners own sensual Hearts betray them to their Eternal Ruine But the Baits of Riches Honours and Pleasures become Fewel to Lusts rather than satisfie a humorsome Curiosity They become an Itch to the Pride of Life which we please oun selves to spread by rubbing They are not Restringent to our dropsical Intemperance of Covetousness nor any allay to the Tympany of an ambitious Pride Covetous Wretches who undermine others are like the blind Mole which spends its strength and Life in casting up Hillocks of purer Dust yet neither are made to discern their own Misery till the stroke of Death Irrecoverably seize upon them 4. Difference The Parent estranges the Child from the Brest out of self-ends To avoid the toyl of suckling or to take more liberty and Pleasure But the Lord weans every New-Born Christian for his proper advantage only to make him a farther partaker of his Holiness Heb. 12.9 10. The Child is froward because it knows not the Intention of the Mother But a Saint chearfully submits as Peter at last to have his Feet washt by Christ because he is assured that in Faithfulness the Lord corrects him for his instruction in the Mysteries of the Christian Institution O how Justly yet with a pitiful severity doth the Lord wean us to win us over to himself Would any one think of his Creator or make any serious provision for the Life to Come if the Breasts of the World were not imbittered by the disappointment of Carnal self-seeking designs To suffer a sinner to draw hard and long from a Lust is no real indulgence but an occasion of the sinners surfeiting and Induration Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone His sin shall become his punishment As that Pope said in sprinkling his supposed holy-water He who will be deceived let him be deceived So Sensualists suck Poyson and their own Eternal Ruine out of those harmless Creatures which to weaned Saints are sanctified sublimated and made truly comfortable Our folly will be inexcusable if after all Experiments of the Worlds Grand Cheats we shall contribute any Longer to our own vexation and self-wounding Why should we clog our affections these Dove-like Wings of the Soul with Mire and Dirt which should by Meditation lodg in the Bosom of God there to Caress us with pure Soul-satisfying Pleasures to all Eternity Why do we pant after the dust of the Earth which is the Serpents Curse Why do we in a restless Agony thirst after such empty Joys which end with a dulness and damp upon our Spirits 2. Difference The weaned Child pines and grows weak when taken from the Breast too soon but the earlier we forsake Sin and the World the better we thrive in our Spiritual Stock and Stature We obtain greater Vigor of Love and Zeal for God we become more Spiritual in our whole Conversation we experiment an increase of sweet Communion with the Father of our Spirits Enoch being weaned early from the corrupt examples of His Generation walked with God hand in hand as a great Favourite He soon grew a great Proficient in Grace therefore he commenced in Glory by a skip over the heads of the rest of the Patriarchs He lived only three hundred sixty five years as many as there are days in a year as if the perfection of Time as well as of Holiness were accomplisht in Him Therefore he was snatcht up to Heaven as being early ripe for it and lest the World should offer Violence to so flourishing a Plant of Paradise Weaned hearts whose Love keeps pace with Self-denial are less projecting for the World and most Officious to advance Christs Interest Satans Fondlings must lie at Ease and are rockt fast asleep in the Cradle of sinful sloth and security lest they should cry out of his Cruel Bondage A prosperous Estate proves very uneasie it pinnions all the Faculties of the Soul and makes them unwieldy that they cannot act vigorously nor chearfully in a Course of Righteousness Yet a weaned Saint mounts his head and heart above the Skies while his Feet stand upon the Earth as a Sea of Glass mixed with Fire He who fears the Lord shall dwell at ease as the Psalmist speaks or lodge in the Bosom of Divine Goodness where he may stretch out his affections in meditation upon the Immensity of Gods perfections to a full and Infinite Satisfaction Thus we save the Lord the Labour of acting terrible Tragedies upon us Yet commonly we are Active in increasing our own miseries when we become one Spirit with the defiling Vanities of the World As Rangeing-Deer if we prove Outlawries to Christ's Discipline and will not be weaned from such Temptations which dispirit us in his service we expose our selves to become the Mark of every Judgment and to be made a Prey to Satan Nor doth this weaned Frame fit us only to expedite all Christian Duties but it Steels us with Resolution and Fortitude in suffering for the Name and Testimony of Jesus Worldlings dread the very mention of the Cross much less are they Conformed unto it But every weaned Saint is a Cross-Bearer the greatest Tryals Difficulties and Severities of Mortification are Food to strengthen the Faith of such yea they are Trophies of their Self-denial Paul being weaned knew what it was to be emptied even while he abounded To be abased in Honour to be as sorrowing yet alway rejoycing in distress yet not in despair as Poor yet making many Rich as having nothing yet possessing all things Yea he protested that he delighted to die dayly to the Vigor of his Lusts and the Allurements of the World Herein Christ's Weanlings differ from Satans Sucklings or Hypocrites who pretend only to be weaned that the former have better tempered Eyes to behold inticing Objects unto sin and yet their Mouths not water Abraham might look on the Flames of Sodom which Indulgence was forbade to Lot lest that Prospect should make an Impression of Lusting on his heart toward his pleasant accommodations lest behind This was actually verified in his Wife Though she were fired thence yet she left her Heart behind therefore she lookt back with some regret she lookt and lookt again so long till she became as stiff and stupid as a Stone The Nazarites might drink Wine after they had in
will keep the World upon the Chase and turmoil hard in it till they have Feathered their Nest arrived to such a degree of Honour or Wealth and then they will surcease and commendably give way to youngsters who may grow up in their Lot of Trade Are such weaned in good earnest and not rather surprized with the spice of secret Atheism would they otherwise be such doting Projectors for their Worldly Interest Is it in their own power to be the Carvers of their own Prosperity while they thus strenuously lay and contrive the Scheme of it Cannot the Lords Countermining Providence change the scene and scotch the Wheels of all humane industry in defeating and blasting of such antedated hopes purposes and projects What ridiculous folly is this to walk in a vain show to strut our selves in a false scene of imaginary Happiness while we resolve to heap up Riches and know not who shall gather them Is not this like some silly Bird with great toyl every day to bring now a stick and then a straw now a little Moss and then a few Feathers to build our Nest as we conceit among the Stars and then to promise our selves that we shall snug therein waâ—m and secure from any hand of violence yet on a sudden either by death we and our Nest come tumbling down together Or how soon may we and our young ones be driven out of the possession of what we have laboured for with toil and anxiety of Spirit and yet neither we nor they shall dare to peep or move the Wing to make any sign of the least resistance or discontent Isa 10.14 Some think themselves weaned because they Grasp not the whole World in their aspiring thoughts though as Gehazi they anxiously project and design how to purchase by their stinted Talents Olive-yards and Vine-yards that they may promote a sensual and voluptuous Life To such I affirm that this Imagination is but a reserved and more modest Cheat of Coverousness which falsly promises to sit down contented and at Ease when the Estate shall amount to a Mans present wish or desire For no Man hath hitherto been contented with that Estate and Condition in which his own choice planted him meerly upon this mistake that it should fully satisfie him For the most prosperous Estate is like the fullest Sea Stormy Raging Unquiet and Unsafe Yea we admire what is out of our Reach and Possession yet loath the same fancied gilded felicities when they come under our Tryal and Enjoyment For Worldly-minded persons being sick with false Opinions of the worth of sublunary Objects with foolish hopes to derive happiness from them with impotent impatient restless desires after the grasping them and fond designs to heap up Vanity upon Vanity confirm rather than shake off their disease of mind This makes them complain of their present State when-as that they would exchange it for would not mend the matter but possibly may prove more uneasie and uncomfortable because such carry their disease rooted in themselves What a Cheat do such put on themselves who fancy that being Rich or Potent to such a degree they shall take up in a Station of Contentment For our luxuriant desires will not be bounded they will still fly out and get the Start of our injoyments So that if we arrive at a higher State we do not lose but only change our Cares and try all variety of Conditions rather than rest pleased with any Thus we may as well sit down content where we are as where we hope to be For that which is our Happiness and can only terminate our desires must be more Divine than our selves Otherwise it cannot perfect satisfie nor make us happy Indeed we cannot be made miserable but only by the consent of our own deluding Hopes or wild wanton foolish Fancies These they are which over-rate Worldly Conveniences while we prophanely degrade our Heaven-born Souls for very Vanity For this we part with our Freedom true Tranquillity and Generosity of Spirit yet finding our selves to be gulled by these erratick Fires we too late complain that they have exhausted the Divine Vigour of our Souls and misled us into the miry Bogs of sensual and destructive Pleasures Nay did we injoy the Creature purely and perfectly to our own desires yet the longer we injoy any thing the more insipid or distastful doth it prove we sooner suck Wind than Satisfaction from the Worlds delusive Breasts Nay we are not able to bear the constant sallies and extension of our affections on the most delightful Object in our own Possession Our Familiar Converse with it and reiterated injoyment of it tires out our Appetite and deceives our Hopes of Satisfaction The very quintessence of Pleasure without any Intermission proves an Oppression to our Spirits Nay suppose we were sure to obtain and grasp what we eagerly desire and much more yet consider that some Children with a flush of Milk on a sudden have been quackled and strangled So the flowing in of the Worlds prosperity hath proved the Death of the Soul Godward and stifled all real desires after the Life and Power of Religion However we are prone to be Rockt fast asleep in the Devils Cradle of security where we lie batt'ning and playing with the Paps of sensual abundance till Afflictions or Death awaken us Then the deluded neglected Soul finds it self hungerstarved nothing having been caress't but it 's fancy As a Dream when one awakes so O Lord thou wilt despise their Image Ps 73.20 The Representation which a Dream makes seems very brisk lively and pleasant yet when we reflect upon it with our waking thoughts we find it confused and impertinent to our eternal Happiness because nothing remains but the fiction of a Dream the shadow of a shadow Thus that most stately Representation of their Prosperity by which they conceit an Hope to be had in everlasting remembrance proves at most but as a fond foolish Puppet-Play 5. Another sort of persons pretendedly weaned from the World and the sensual pleasures of it are such who impose superstitious and unreasonable Severities upon themselves to palliate the secret Abominations of their Souls This cannot be lasting and effectual to Cure the Paroxysms of inward Lusting because 't is a Severity not of Divine prescription and therefore not under any Promise of success For as the Weapons of a Christians Warfare so the methods of his weaning should not be Carnals Such may as well hope to run at Tilt and defeat Satan with a Spear of Bulrushes If you run a young skittish Horse up a steep Hill to break his Mettal you may sooner make him broken-winded and unserviceable than expect thus to tame him The Body is the Souls Ass which will no longer be able to carry it than you allow it fitting Fodder There is an honour a due and just Debt to Nature in the harmless Constitution of it Though we are not Debtors to the Flesh to Pamper it lest it should
Love that the Lord strikes and stroaks a Saint Thus his Faith can turn an Hell of deep disquietment in Sense into an Heaven of Joy and Triumph A weaned Saint highthens his contentment to a thankful Spirit for Afflictions as happy opportunities of Improving a Gracious Frame This thankfulness is conjoyned with a Resolution to hold fast his Integrity though the Lord smite him into the place of Dragons and cover him with the shaddow of Death Yea a weaned Saint is quickened to become more Active in Obedience by how much the more he is deprest in grievous exigencies and distresses Thus the Ball struck with the Racket rebounds the higher The Vine being pruned bleeds not to death but weeps it self into greater Fruitfulness Again a Saint Censures not the Lords weaning Methods before the Result and winding up of the design When the Lord fires him out of all his Earthly injoyments yet he knows that the good will of the Lord dwells in the Bush to make it flourish in the midst of the consuming Flames Therefore says he it is good to draw nigh to the Holy One when his Dispensations are most dreadful and severe Thus his Faith informs and assures him that he can as little want the Discipline of the Cross as an Heavenly Inheritance That by deep and heavy Tryals the Lord stamps a Badg of honour upon him accounting him to be his Champion and a resolute defender of the Faith of Christ Thus weaned Saints quiet themselves under all their distresses yea Triumph in the Cross of Christ as the top of their felicity and the Crest of their preferment 10. The tenth sort of Sinners not thorowly weaned are partial but not Repenting Reformadoes A Child withdrawn only from the Breast yet brought up by hand with the Bottle and the Spoon is not weaned in as proper strict Sence but only equivocally till it can acquiesce in a more Manly kind of Food So though Sinners lie not soaking at the Brests of the World by some accidental diversion from the more Usual and common ways of cherishing their Lusts yet if they find pleasures from some more Refined methods and secret contrivances in sinning which more sutably promote their present design they cannot be said to be weaned in any tolerable sence Lust is Lust whether it be maintained by secret immediate Self-Love in Acts of Self-seeking self-confidence and self-exalting or from the Bottle and Spoon of some forreign collateral succours which more visibly tend to the sensual gratification of our fleshly Appetite There is a strange kind of sinful metempsychosis the strength of concupiscence may pass out of one extreem into another Lesser Lusts may be intent upon feeding the main Spring as paying a Homage to it yet are they no Losers by this Officiousness for they are not starved hereby but strengthned Thus divers parts of the Body serve to convey nourishment to the Liver as the Fountain of Blood from whence they are moistned and supplied afterwards with an Addition of growth and strength So little are our hearts weaned from the Love and Reign of any sin while its proper operations are suspended to uphold the design or gratifie the Interest of some Capital Lust Every Breast doth not agree with the Constitution of every Child Nor doth every particular kind of sin suit the desire of every sinner Some as Romulus and Remus suck a Wolf in the Exercise of Oppressive Power Others though they live not on Rapine and sucking of Blood as Eagles yet as the Salamander they take delight to frisk in the Flames of Contention And as the Cameleon they pant and gasp after the pleasing yet fickle Air of popular applause The Epicure though he do not make the Wedg of Gold his Confidence yet he makes his Belly and sensual Pleasures his God As Cleopatra who at one draught exhausted as many dissolved Pearls as amounted to the value of a Kingdom Such dig their Graves with their Teeth and are buried Alive in their excessive Riots as Sardanapalus that Monster of Intemperance 11. The Eleventh sort of Sinners not really weaned are such who though they may comply with easier and plain commands yet remain partial in their Obedience and limp like a Badger with one Leg when Commands are difficult or lie cross to Carnal Reason personal Credit or Worldly Interest For the Former this is a deep tryal of self denial when an Injunction is put on a person the dutiful observance of which seems to Contradict Duty When the precept of tryal seems to thwart the setled Precept of ordinary Obedience Nay to justle and run counterwise against the Promise of God When a Man can hardly obey God but he must make him a Lyar. As in Abraham's Case he could not offer up his Son but he must violate that Command Thou shalt not kill yea if he had consulted Carnal Reason he must have offered some Violence to his Faith and seemingly to the Veracity of God that all Nations should be called and blest in Isaac Now different Obligations begetting cross apprehensions in the Soul do exceedingly puzzle oppress and distract it yea increase its tryals and troubles to a perplexing height Yet a Weaned Soul who is not selfconceited nor strives for the supremacy of his own Will can reconcile seeming contrariant Precepts in the Holy Vnity and simplicity of the Divine Nature For the very Command of the Lord stamps Holiness on that very Action which otherwise were unlawful You must know that other Actions which are only indifferent in their own nature yet become absolutely necessary upon a Divine positive Law injoyning them Some are commanded because precedently good in their own Nature as to love God for himself to hate sin as an unnatural Act to a Mans self Moral Duties are generally and universally known by the very Light of Nature and are grounded in their necessity and suitableness on the very notion of the Deity and his unchangeable Holiness But particular positive Duties which bind by express Revelation are good and necessary to be fulfilled because of the Wisdom and Authority of the Lawgiver though Carnal Reason cannot guess at their Equity usefulness or necessity Of this Nature were the Jewish Ceremonies which yet were punctually in every Circumstance observed by the Faithful Forefathers What Reason can be assigned why the Jews should be prohibited such and such sorts of Meats which were pallatable and wholsome yet they were tutored in their Bill of Fare and trained up to Self-denial in these severe restrictions Though I suppose some Moralities might lie couchant in them As they might not plough with an Ox and an Ass nor sow divers Seeds promiscuously in the same plat of Ground nor wear a Garment of Linsi-Woolsie to signifie how hatefull to God all impure mixtures are in his Service or any disagreeing Principles in Religion But if such Mysteries never were made known in these positive Laws yet the bare Authority of God is Reason sufficient and obliging why
Treasure of the Gospel in Earthen Vessels in frail Bodies the very breaking of which by persecution caused the sound and same of their Constancy to scatter the darkness of Satans Kingdom and confound the rage of all their Enemies So strong and Victorious are Bulrushes in the hand of Omnipotency to gain a Conquest over the powers of Hell 12. The Twelth sort of sinners not truly weaned are Civilized Moralists who perch on their own Righteousness and Center there as a meritorious Title to claim Heaven by These despise the Infinite satisfaction of Christ even the whole undertaking of his Mediatory Righteousness and Obedience as also the conjunct inseparable Impressions of his Sanctifying Spirit Some Sinners think themselves thorowly weaned and estranged from their Lusts because they have quitted their sensual Excesses yet the Spirit of Satan may still Reign in them though it do not Rage to that degree of Bruitishness as before Thus some Bethelamites because they Rattle not their Chains as pleasing Musick Fancy they are thorowly recovered of their Phrensie yet the hidden distemper and Original cause Remains Because at present they Rave not because their Keeper hath indulged them to walk into fresh Ayr to put on better Cloaths which they tore of before and they are let out of their Denn to Converse with such who are possessors of right Reason as Masters over their passions These whimsical persons presently conceit that no spice of Phrensy lurks about them They think they need no longer the Inspection Care and Conduct of their Keeper Hence being over-confident of their Cure they relapse into the former Paronysms of Raving Madness I may apply this to all such sinners who are not convinc't of the absolute necessity of Christ's Imputed Righteousness to cover the shame of their nakedness Yet is not this sufficient to declare these Lunaticks fully setled in their right Minds unless by Self-denial they be made willing to sit at Jesus Feet and learn from his Spirit the Mystery of a Sanctified State which can only cure the craziness of their natural corrupted Faculties and the Phrensie of their Souls Justified persons united to God in Christ need the Judicious Guidance and Guardship of the Spirit of both to Sanctify and head the imbred hereditary Corruption of their Nature For pardon of Sin is but the half-State of Gospel-Salvation in restoring Sinners This alone cannot satisfy the mind of a Genuine Heaven-born Christian There must also be the Infusion of a loyal disposition to seal and manifest the Pardon even a renewed Frame of heart in this weaned Self-denying disposition to suit and and comply with all the serious most difficult duties of the Christian-State Sinners must not only be weaned from their Excesses in their Surfeits but must also be winnowed from the Chaffy Imperfections and defilement of their own best Righteousness Yea they must submit themselves to the Cure and Conduct of the Spirit of Sanctification In both which Respects he is stiled the Spirit of Judgment and of Burning to Consume all Self-Arrogance which trusts in and boasts of a Self-Righteousness as well as to purge out all the Reliques of sensual fond foolish Affections to defiling Lusts and the inordinate overvaluing of Creature-Comforts and Enjoyments Otherwise there is no true weaning by the Spirit of Holiness but only the sweeping and Garnishing of a rotten Sepulchre into which standing empty the unclean Spirit will re-enter and more confirm his Title without any Fear of a real dispossession Lusts by moral Convictions may be disturbed and not so often Rant and Rave as formerly by the present restraints of a civilized Temper and Disposition Such sober Phrensie as 't is less suspected so 't is more hardly cured because mistaken for the perfect Recovery of the Sinner to a right Frame of Mind How hard is it to Convince Pharisaical Spirits and Self-Justiciaries of the necessity of applying Christ's Righteousness to lead a true valid Title to Eternal Life Or to lay prostrate their Spiritual priding of themselves in the tinkling of their own Imaginary Excellencies It 's usual for Frantick sinners to please themselves in their Crazy Fancy and strongly to imagine that they Reign as Kings over their impetuous Lusts when-as they are deeper possest by and inslaved unto them That Hectick Fever which lurks within and preys upon the Vital Spirits is most dangerous So is formality the bane of sound Religion Slight Professors of Christianity sport themselves with their masquing Mock-showes in a pretended Reformation Such are not truely weaned from Lusts and the Love of the World to Christ Therefore at last their Surfeit breaks out to a loathing of the very form of Godliness because they despised and denied the power It is not a Cynical sullen Raillery at the Worlds Treachery and adulterate Beauty which can alienate our Hearts from an Amorous pursuit of it unless True Grace subdue our inclination to admire it Concupiscence cannot be extinguisht or overpoized but only by the Intenser flame of a Chast Love to God for himself as the Essence and perfection of our Happiness This is Real Evangelical weaning when the Pride of our Carnal Wisdom the stubbornness of our perverse Wills and the Exorbitancy of our wild humorsom Affections are deaded by the power of Christs Death and the Lovely Beauty of a Crucified Jesus Yea the Life of Jesus must be made manifest in our mortified Body to Eclipse all Creature-Excellencies that we may be quickned to a Life of Sole-dependency upon the Lord's Alsufficiency to influence the Soul in the Vigorous pursuit of all Relative Duties toward God and Man A truly weaned Frame is no other than the Judicious Elective State of every Regenerate Person This flows from Vnion with Christ by Faith This obliges to Heart-purity and Chastity not to cast the least wanton Glance toward the defiling Vanities of the World Besides the Vnction of Christ's Spirit works in truely-weaned Persons a Sanctified Judgment whereby they can make a right and due estimation of Persons and Things Therefore such cannot conform to the Dictates of Carnal Reason nor inebriate themselves with the Cares and Pleasures of a Sensual Life Such being Renewed by Gracious Principles their hearts and Affections are set Right the bent and poize of their desires is carried out to prove and delight only where God himself doth Saints are weaned because the Son of God hath made in their behalf a compleat Conquest over the World in all its dissembling Artifices affrighting Menaces bewitching Allurements and Temptations As he hath won it so he will Maintain it in all such who being Born of God aspire to a Divine Generosity and Ingenuity of Spirit to follow the steps and example of their great General and Redeemer For a truly-weaned Frame though it arise from Faith in Christ working Self-emptiness and Self-Abasement yet it grows up to a Holy-stateliness of Spirit whereby the renewed Soul grows coy to all Temptations which study to defile its Virgin-Chastity This
Old Man because it is the Festival of their Spiritual Liberty in their Conformity to Christ's Death and Resurrection therefore get a good Opinion of the Work and it will succeed accordingly For the Rod as Aarons often Blossoms and brings forth the precious Fruits of Righteousness Is not this more Eligible than for tasting only a little Hony in any unlawful delight without the allowance of your Heavenly Father as Jonathan to incur the Penalty of Death it self Therefore in the next place shut fast the Cinque-port of your Senses and clear up the Eye of your Faith to take a view of the Creatures Vanity in order to admiring God in Christ Watch your hearts if you would get them weaned Keep them with all Diligence Sobriety and Watchfulness must be conjoyned in Christs Nursery as well as in the Discipline of his Camp Labour to be well read in the Anatomy of your deceitful hearts to understand your Constitution Inclination and Disposition For Satan hath Snares of all sorts and sizes to suit and please the several humours of sensual Sinners He is a cunning Angler do not you nibble at his Temptations lest as those Fish which Frisk and Play in the fresh Waters of Jordan you unawares stream down into the dead Sea of Worldly corrupt examples 10. Take heed of the occasions of sin The Rechabites would not chew the Husk of a dry Grape lest they should be inticed to drink Wine Pray as St. Augustine that when thou hast a heart to sin thou mayest want a Temptation and when a Temptation is presented thou mayest want a heart to comply with it This is the very Dialect of the Devils Sophistry you may come within the smell of sin and yet not be infected but you cannot play on the hole of the Asp or Cockatrice and yet be safe or secure If Satan like Archimedes can but have so much scope in thy heart as to place there his Engine of temptation he will soon shake and dissolve the whole Frame of thy Integrity if it be meerly Moral Besides to venture on the occasion shews that there is a secret liking of that sin it leads to though we conceit our selves to be weaned from it Nor will the Lord ordinarily keep us from the sin if we keep not our selves from the temptation and then we are sure to fall 11. Let this weaning design be your daily work upon which you are most intent It 's dissicult and not rid off with lazy wishes Augustine while he prayed to be weaned from his youthful incontinency secretly wisht he might yet be spared in his vain excesses We say of every darling Lust let Reuben Live and not dye Indulge not therefore your flesh though it cry out in a render delicacy that you would pitty and indulge it You must not desist from the severity of this work for your hearts sullenness and frowardness That Parent who spares to correct the Child for its crying hardens and confirms it in its Rebellion Thus it proves the future grief and shame of the Parent as well as the present disquietment of the Family Be not slight and remiss in weaning-attempts If so you must begin again as the Nazarite who had transgrest against the strict Law of his scparation The work will prove more difficult uncertain and hazardous as to its happy Issue Carry thorow this weaning design begin not in the Spirit to end in the Flesh If a Man omit a stroke in swimming he is soon carried down the Stream 12. Improve the Christian Sabbath especially to promote this Design As 't is the fittest season so Satan most watches to render it unsuccesful He then uses the same stratagem which the Benjamites did Judg. 21.19 20 21. to snatch them up Wives from among the Daughters of Israel to inlarge their almost extinguished Tribe When Christians come forth in Spiritual Dances to celebrate this holy Festival to the Lord then Satan lies in Ambuscado behind the Vineyards of Worldly profits and pleasures Thence he sallies out with his Temptations to commit a Rape upon the Virgin-purity of our Souls which should be espoused only to the Lord. But do not drive on this Task of weaning only during the Sabbath-space How should Lusts which have been rooting all the Week nay possibly our Life-long be pluckt up in one hours formal attendance on the Ordinances 13. Therefore begin this weaning task betimes in Youth before you and your Lusts be grown into a strict familiarity hardly to be shaken off David complained that the Sons of Zerviah were too hard for him while he was newly entred on his regal power But do you execute your Lusts as the Jews did Christ early in the Morning You will otherwise by indulgence and connivence give them greater advantage against you It 's dissicult to pull up Weeds when the Garden is overgrown and they have spread their Roots by long neglect to clear the Ground So is it to break off a setled long confirmed habit in Vice Do not accustom your selves to lie soaking at the Breasts of Lusts and the World especially being prompted to it by a Natural Instinct Our corrupt Nature is not as green Wood which needs much help of Art to make it burn but as Touch-wood the least spark of Temptation which lights on us fires all that train of Corruption yea the Magazine of Hell which is stored up in our degenerate and wicked hearts Therefore improve the soaking Showres of Divine Mercy and Goodness to soften your hard hearts that you may more easily root up your Lusts Maintain also the Love of Christ shed abroad in your Souls This as a more intense Divine flame will overpower and extinguish the Fire-Balls of Lust and Temptations which Satan darts into your Spirits 14. Again go not out in the strength of your own Resolutions and Covenantings to Reform these without renewing Grace cannot work any estrangement from your Lusts Rather look up by Faith to a pierced crucifyed Jesus Fetch Life from his Death Be so sixt to his Cross by Meditation that if a Temptation pass by before you bow the head and Court you you may not be at leisure to observe it much less to descend and imbrace it Say as Nehemiah to Sanhallat Why should this Work of the Lord slack while I parle with Satan to neglect the Building up of my Soul in Holiness More earnestly implore the confirming Aid of Christ's Mortifying Spirit to superaded his anointing Grace to thy Baptismal Vow that thou mayest beincouraged to conflict more resolutely against the Temptations of Sin Statan and the World While the Lock of your Faith is growing and spreads in Prayer your strength to resist and Conquer your Philistin-Lusts will renew and not suffer you to be defeated of your Hopes of Triumph 15. Despise those Reproaches which sensual Sinners cast upon a weaned Frame It 's no more than you were forewarned of and fore-armed against when you first entred upon the Christian state They think
because of the bitter effects of sin yet his heart is secretly espoused to it He may repent of his dissembled severity and wish that himself may die rather than that his corrupt inclination should be pinion'd or put into little ease Rather strive to break the heart of old Adam to kill the very Root of an Hellish-Nature seek the destruction of whatsoever is disgustive to the Constitution of the new Creature that there may be no more hope of reconciliation unto sin than of the meeting of Heaven and Hell together Lay not down your sins as Weapons at the Foot of God as a Conqueror when you can no longer naintain the fight but out of Loyalty execute them with your own hand Cast them not only away in a Fright upon the Hue and Cry of your Conscience but pursue them to the Horns of the Altar drag them thence where they expect Protection and Sacrifice them with chearfulness otherwise they will mar and defeat all your Religious Services and the hope of future Glory Formalists descend to Hell more unsuspectedly under the Garb of Religious Vows and severe threats against their Lusts Thus some Parents in a short Passion Rate their Children out of their sight when they have done a shrewd turn yet they can immediately turn their Faces aside and smile at their unlucky Wit or after a short time cocker them the more Satan as a cunning Spinster leaves on the Distaff of a depraved Nature such pretended good resolutions as a Lock of Wool as a Pledg or advantage of future returning to draw out the Web of Iniquity to a greater extension than before Thus many Sinners purchase the Infamous Title of Sceptical Futurists in Repentance as they prove themselves to be Platonick Lovers of Vertue only in speculation For their Vows of Reformation must be interpreted as we read the Hebrew Dialect altogether backward Thus the more they tamper with and strain the Rusty Wards of a dissembling heart with some false Key of slight Reformation the harder it will be to open to the Motions and convictions of Christs Spirit 7. Improve weaning-Considerations such as these That persons of strong and fond affections to Creature-enjoyments are usually persons of strange and deep afflictions It 's thought that Abraham was toying and sporting with Isaac a little before the Command came to Sacrifice him Usually we follow our Idolized Comforts to the Grave with Mourning as Phaltiel did Michal to Bahurim when Ishbosheth snatcht her from him When the Lord observes that we grow fond of Strangers and familiar with the Worlds Temptations he puts out the Candle of prosperity and Seals up the Star-Light of all Creature-Comforts with which we have wantoniz'd in our fond admiration that we may depend on Him Alone as the God of our Light Comfort and Salvation When a dark Night of Affliction Steals on us then we run home to nestle in the Bosome of Divine-Alsufficiency though we had our Vagaries before in Courting every forreign Creature-Comfort to support and gratify our fleshly sensuality I will go and return unto my place that is confine and shut up my self in Heaven I will get me out of sight and Call that their weaning being apprehended more grievous they may under the depth of their distress seek me more early and earnestly Hos 5.15 David the Man after God's heart was chastened every Morning because when the Lord came to feel his Pulse how his Love and delight beat towards him he found the Frame of his heart to vary and faulter His very flesh and heart failed that he might cling the closer in distress Then Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus Israel became Jezrael the scattered Flock and her weaning by Captivity was in order to her betrothing Some there are whom neither smiles nor frowns neither Blows nor Charms of Love will wean Yet it is more ingenuous to be estranged from our Lusts by the Gracious and Spiritual appearances of the Lord than by imbittering the Breasts of the Creature or forcing the Lord to put on the disguize of an Enemy to affright us Usually we will not be weaned till we observe the Image of Death to sit upon the Eye-lids of our dearest Comforts Make therefore a wise contemperament of Love and Fear in your own Souls be won by the former and awed by the latter Fear may enter as a rivetting Wedg the first contest with our darling Lusts but Love can only compleat the Conquest A Child is weaned rather by singing to it than by blows 8. Be convinc'd of the Lords Love and Compassion in weaning you then you will more chearfully comply with the severest method of estranging you from a fond nestling in the bosom of any Lust The Lord's End is that you may arrive to a masculine State and Spirit in your Christian course that you may be fitted for more eminent service Thus Covenant-afflictions which are the Lord's Graving-Tools whereby he polishes his Saints for Glory are to be preferred before common Mercies and Right-hand weaning strokes before Left-hand Comforts and enjoyments It is for our Spiritual advantage that the Lord thus instructs us with severity by desertions persecution of Worldly Men and the frequent Alarm of temptation Therefore we should suit our selves to him we should not be humorsome and discontented at this necessary though bitter work In measure will the Lord debate it with his people in such a season How doth he bear long with their froward manners as with Israel in the Wilderness Ephraim resisted the Lord's weaning-strokes yet he did not give him over to the hardness of his heart He rather pittyed healed and led him restoring Comfort to him when himself and others lookt upon his State as desperate The Lord applyed his Ear and when Ephraim bemoaned his youthful Pranks and Excesses then the Lord's Bowels were troubled for him and he had Mercy on him as a pleasant Child when himself was ashamed in bearing the Reproach of his Youth How doth the Lord sing to his Childrens hearts while he weans them in a dark night of Affliction Isa 66.13.14 As one whom his Mother Comforts so will I Comfort you And when you shall see this What The happy Effect and Issue of your Captivity that I weaned you from the enjoyments of your own Land for your Spiritual advantage your heart shall rejoyce and your Bones shall flourish like a green Herb though you despondingly said they were dry and scattered as Chips about a saw-pit Abraham made a Feast when he weaned Isaac so God and his Angels rejoyce to see a Nursling of Satan become a Weanling unto Christ Such are now Feasted with the hidden Manna of Divine Consolation in their Wilderness-distresses they are Beautified with the white-Stone of Absolution as a peculiar remark of favour and honoured with the new Name of the Lord's adopted Darlings yea themselves can now rejoyce to tear the Body of sin Limb from Limb and can sing Triumphantly in the Funeral of the