labour for the saving knowledge of God in Christ whom to know is life eternal Are you young Enquire after God betimes while your parts are fresh and memory strong before the throng of worldly cares divert you or lusts of youth debauch you The feet of those lusts which have buried millions of others in perdition stand ready to carry you the same way if preventing grace come not and deliver you out of their hands by seasoning your mindes with the knowledge of God This morning-draught may prevent thy being infected with the ill savours thou mayest receive from the corrupt examples of others Nay how long thy stay may be in the world thou knowest not see whether thou canst not finde graves of thy length in the burial place and if thou shouldest die ignorant of God and his Law what would then become of thee The small brush and the old logs young sinners and those that are withered with age meet and burn together Or if thou shouldest stay a while longer here may be because thou wilt not learn now God will not teach thee then Or if thou shouldest in thy old age get acquaintance with God yet 't is sad to be sowing thy seed when thou shouldest be reaping thy sheaves learning to know God when thou mightest be comforting thy self from the old acquaintance thou hast enjoyed with him Are you old and ignorant Alas poor creatures your life in the socket and this candle of the Lord not set up and lighted in your understanding your body bowing to the dust and nature tolling the passing bell as it were and you like one going into the dark know not whither death will lead you or leave you 'T is like the infirmities of age make you wish your bones were even laid at rest in the grave but if you should dye in this condition your poor soules would even wish they were here again with their old burdens on their back aches and diseases of old age are grievous but damned soules would thank God if he would blesse them with such a heaven as to lie in these paines to escape the torments of the other O bethink you before you go hence the lesse time you have the more diligence you must use to gain knowledge we need not be earnest one would think to bid the poor prisoner learne his book that cannot reade when he knows he shall be hang'd if he read not his neck-verse 'T is not indeed the bare knowing the truths of the Gospel saves but the grosse ignorance of them to be sure will damn soules Are you poor It is not your poverty is your sin or misery but your ignorance where the true treasure lies Were you Gods poor rich in knowledge and faith you were happy Eccles 4.13 Better is a poor and wise childe then a foolish King who will no more be admonish't yea so happy that did the Princes of the world understand themselves aright they would wish themselves in your clothes how ragged soever they are rather then be in their own robes there are better making for you in heaven which you shall put on when theirs shall be pull'd off to their shame It will not then trouble you that you were while in the world poor but it will torment them that they were so rich and great and so poore to God and beggarly in their soules Are you rich Labour for the knowledge of the most high Solomon had more of the worlds treasure then a thousand of you have and yet we finde him hard at prayer tugging with God for knowledge 1 Chron. 1.10 All these outward enjoyments are but vaginae bonorum as afflictions are vaginae malorum I am afraid many men think themselves priviledged by their worldly greatnesse from this duty as if God were bound to save them because rich Alas Sirs there are not so many of you like to come there I must confesse it would make one tremble to think what a small number those among the great ones that shall be saved are summed up into Not many great not many rich Why so few saved Because so few have saving knowledge O the Atheisme the ignorance the sottish barbarisme that is to be found even in those that the world applaud and even worship because of their lands and estates who yet are not able to give any account of their faith A poore leather-coat Christian will shame and catechize a hundred of them If heaven were to be purchased with house and lands then these would carry it away from the poore Disciples of Jesus Christ they have their hundreds and thousands ly by them for a purchase alwayes but this money is not currant in heavens exchange This is life eternall to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Quest But how may an ignorant soule attaine to knowledge Answ First Be deeply affected with the ignorance Some are blind as Laâ—dicea and know it not Rev. 3.17 As Ignorance blinds the minde so pride is a blind before their ignorance that they know it not These have such a high opinion of themselves that they take it ill any should suspect them as such these of all men are most out of the way to knowledge they are too good to learne of man as they think and too bad to be taught of God The gate into Christs Schoole is low and these cannot stoop The Master himselfe is so humble and lowly that he will not teach a proud Scholar Therefore first become a foole in thy owne eye A wiser man then thy selfe hath confessed as much Prov. 30.2 3. I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the Holy When thou art come to thy selfe to owne and blush at the brutish ignorance of thy minde thou art fit to be admitted into Christs School If they be ashamed then shew them the patterne of the house Ezek. 43.10 Secondly be faithful with that little knowledge thou hast Art thou convinced this is a sinne and that is a duty Follow the light close you know not what this little may grow to We use to set up our children with a little stock at first and as they use it so we adde The Kingdome of God comes of small beginnings God complains of Israel they were brutish in their knowledge Jer. 10.14 he doth not say brutish in their ignorance had they sinned because they did not know better this would have excused à tanto but they did that which was brutish and unreasonable as their worshiping graven images notwithstanding they knew to the contrary That man shall not excel in knowledge who prostitutes it to sinne Job 36.12 If they obey not they shall perish by the sword and shall die without knowledge A candle pent up close in a dark lanthorn swailes out apace and so doth light shut up in the conscience and not suffered to come forth in the conversation Those Heathens that are charged
thee then he will come though these doors be shut and say Peace be to thee my dear childe feare not death or devils I stay to receive thy last breath and have here my Angels waiting that assoon as thy soule is breathed out of thy body they may carry and lay it in my bosome of love where I will nourish thee with those eternal joyes that my blood hath purchased and my love prepared for thee Fourthly earthly things are empty and unsatisfying We may have too much but never enough of them they oft breed loathing but never content and indeed how should they being so disproportionate to the vast desires of these immortal spirits that dwell in our bosomes A spirit hath not flesh and bones neither can it be fed with such and what hath the world but a few bones covered over with some fleshly delights to give it The lesse is blessed of the greater not the greater of the lesse These things therefore being so far inferiour to the nature of man he must look higher if he will be blessed even to God himself who is the Father of spirits God intended these things for our use not enjoyment and what folly is it to think we can squeaze that from them which God never put in them They are breasts that moderately drawn yield good milk sweet refreshing but wring them too hard and you will suck nothing but winde or blood from them We lose what they have by expecting to finde what they have not none find lesse sweetnesse and more dissatisfaction in these things then those who strive most to please themselves with them The cream of the creature floats a top and he that is not content to fleet it but thinks by drinking a deeper draught to finde yet more goes further to speed worse being sure by the disappointment he shall meet to pierce himself through with many sorrows But all these feares might happily be escaped if thou wouldest turn thy back on the creature and face about for heaven labour to get Christ and through him hopes of heaven and thou takest the right road to content thou shalt see it before thee and enjoy the prospect of it as thou goest yea finde that every step thou drawest nearer and nearer to it O what a sweet change wouldest thou finde As a sick man coming out of an impure unwholesome climate where he never was well when he gets into fresh aire or his native soile so wilt thou finde a cheering of thy spirits and reviving thy soule with unspeakable content and peace Having once closed with Christ first the guilt of all thy sinnes is gone and this spoil'd all thy mirth before all your dancing of a childe when some pin pricks it will not make it quiet or merry well now that pin is taken out which robbed thee of the joy of thy life Secondly thy nature is renewed and sanctified and when is a man at ease if not when he is in health and what is holinesse but the creature restored to his right temper in which God created him Thirdly thou becomest a childe of God and that cannot but please thee well I hope to be son or daughter to so great a King Fourthly thou hast a right to heavens glory whither thou shalt ere long be conducted to take and hold possession of that thy inheritance for ever and who can tell what that is Nicephorus tells us of one Agbarus a great man that hearing so much of Christs fame by reason of the miracles he wrought sent a Painter to take his picture and that the Painter when he came was not able to do it because of that radiancy and divine splendor which sate on Christs face Whether this be true or no I leave it but to be sure there is such a brightnesse on the face of Christ glorified and that happinesse which in heaven Saints shall have with him as forbids us that dwell in mortal flesh to conceive of it aright much more to expresse 't is best going thither to be informed and then we shall confesse we on earth heard not halfe of what we there finde yea that our present conceptions are no more like to that vision of glory we shall there have then the Sunne in the Painters table is to the Sunne it self in the Heavens And if all this be so why then do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not yea for that which keeps you from that which can satisfie Earthly things are like some trash which doth not only not nourish but take away the appetite from that which would Heaven and heavenly things are not relished by a soule vitiated with these Manna though for deliciousnesse called Angels food yet but light bread to an Egyptian palate But these spiritual things depend not on thy opinion O man whoever thou art as earthly things in a great measure do that the value of them should rise or fall as the worlds exchange doth and as vain man is pleased to rate them think gold dirt and it is so for all the royal stamp on it Count the swelling titles of worldly honour that proud dust brags so in vanity and they are such but have base thoughts of Christ and he is not the worse slight heaven as much as you will it will be heaven still and when thou comest so far to thy wits with the Prodigal as to know which is best fare husks or bread where best living among hogs in the field or in thy Fathers house then thou wilt know how to iudge of these heavenly things better till then go and make the best market thou canst of the world but look not to finde this pearle of price true satisfaction to thy soul in any of the creatures shops and were it not better to take it when thou mayest have it then after thou hast wearied thy self in vaine in following the creature to come back with shame and may be misse of it here also because thou wouldest not have it when it was offered VERSE 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand THe Apostle in these words re-assumes his former Exhortation mentioned verse 11. and presseth it with a new force from that more particular discovery which he gives of the enemy verse 12. where like a faithful Scout he makes a full report of Satans great power and malice and also discloseth what a dangerous design he hath upon the Saints no lesse then to despoil them of all that is heavenly from all which he gives them a second Alarm and bids them Arme arme Wherefore take unto you c. In the words consider First the exhortation with the inference Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God Secondly the argument with which he urgeth the exhortation and that ss double First That ye may be able to withstand in the evil
ch 4. v. 2 3 4. who had a minde to his Kinsman Elimelechs land and would have paid for the purchase but he liked not to have it by marrying Ruth and so missed of it Some seem very forward to have heaven and salvation if their own righteousnesse could procure the same all the good they do and duties they performe they lay up for this purchase but at last perish because they close not with Christ and take not heaven in his right A third sort are content to have it by Christ but their desires are so impotent and listlesse that they put them upon no vigourous use of means to obtain him and so like the sluggard they starve because they will not pull their hands out of their bosome of sloth to reach their food that is before them for the world they have mettal enough and too much they trudge far and near for that and when they have run themselves out of breath can stand and pant after the dust of the earth as the Prophet phraseth it Amos 2.7 But for Christ and obtaining interest in him O how key-cold are they there is a kinde of cramp invades all the powers of their soules when they should pray hear examine their hearts draw out their affections in hungrings and thirstings after his grace and Spirit 'T is strange to see how they even now went full soop to the world are suddenly becalm'd not a breath of winde stirring to any purpose in their soules after these things and is it any wonder that Christ and Heaven should be denied to them that have no more mind to them Lastly some have zeal enough to have Christ Heaven but it is when the Master of the house is risen and hath shut to the door and truly then they may stand long enough rapping before any come to let them in There is no Gospel preached in another world but as for thee poor soul who art perswaded to renounce thy lusts throw away the conceit of thy own righteousnesse that thou mayest run with more speed to Christ and art so possest with the excellency of Christ thy own present need of him and salvation by him that thou pantest after him more then life it self In Gods Name go on and speed be of good comfort he calls thee by name to come unto him that thou mayest have rest for thy soul There is an office in the Word where thou mayest have thy soule and its eternal happinesse ensured to thee Those that come to him as he will himself in no wise cast away so not suffer any other to pluck them away This day saith Christ to Zaccheus salvation is come to thy house Luke 19.9 Salvation comes to thee poore soul that openest thy heart to receive Christ thou hast eternal life already as sure as if thou wert a glorified Saint now walking in that heavenly City O Sirs if there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies enough gold for all that went and a certainty of making a safe voyage who would stay at home But alas this can never be had all this and infinitely more may be said for heaven and yet how few leave their uncertain hopes of the world to trade for it what account can be gi-given for this but the desperate atheisme of mens hearts they are not yet fully perswaded whether the Scripture speaks true or not whether they may relie upon the discovery that God makes in his Word of this new-found land and those mines of spiritual treasure there to be had as certain God open the eyes of the unbelieving world as he did the Prophets servants that they may see these things to be realities and not fictions 't is faith only that gives a being to these things in our hearts By faith Moses saw him that was invisible Thirdly earthly things when we have them we are not sure of them like birds they hop up and down now on this hedge and anon upon that none can call them his own rich to day and poor to morrow In health when we lie down and arrested with pangs of death before midnight Joyful Parents one while solacing our selves with the hopes of our budding posterity and may be ere long knocks one of Jobs messengers at our door to tell us they are all dead now in honour but who knows whether we shall not live to see that butied in scorn and reproach The Scripture compares the multitude of people to waters the great ones of the world sit upon these waters as the ship floates upon the waves so do their honours upon the breath and favour of the multitude and bow long is he like to sit that is carried upon a wave one while they are mounted up to heaven as David speaks of the ship and then down again they fall into the deep We have ten parts in the King say the men of Israel 2 Sam. 19.45 and in the very next verse Sheba doth but sound a trumpet of sedition saying We have no part in David no inheritance in the son of Jesse and the winde is in another corner presently for it 's said Every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba Thus was David cried up and down and that almost in the same breath Unhappy man he that hath no surer portion then what this variable world will afford him The time of mourning for the departure of all earthly enjoyments is at hand we shall see them as Eglons servants did their Lord fallen down dead before us and weep because they are not What folly then is it to dandle this vaine world in our affections whose joy like the childes laughter on the mothers knee is sure to end in a cry at last and neglect heaven and heavenly things which endure for ever O remember Dives stirring up his pillow and composing himself to rest how he was call'd up with the tydings of death before he was warme in this his bed of ease and laid with sorrow on another which God had made for him in flames from whence we hear him roaring in the anguish of his conscience O soule couldest thou get but an interest in the heavenly things we are speaking of these would not thus slip from under thee heaven is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Christ an abiding portion his graces and comforts sure waters that faile not but spring up unto eternal life The quailes that were food for the Israelites lust soon ceased but the rock that was drink to their faith followed them this rock is Christ make sure of him and he will make sure of thee he 'll follow thee to thy sick-bed and lie in thy bosome chearing thy heart with his sweet comforts when worldly joyes lie cold upon thee as Davids cloathes on him and no warmth of comfort to be got from them When thy outward senses are lock't up that thou canst neither see the face of thy dear friends nor hear the counsel and comfort they would give
God yes they hope they are not infidels but what it is how they come by it or whether it will hold in an evil-day this never was put to the question in their hearts Thus thousands perish with a vain conceit they are arm'd against Satan death and judgment when they are miserable and naked yea worse on it then those who are more naked those I mean who have not a rag of civility to hide their shame from the worlds eye and that in a double respect First it is harder to work on such a soul savingly because he hath a forme though not the power and this affords him a plea. A soule purely naked nothing like the wedding garment on he is speechlesse the drunkard hath nothing to say for himself when you ask him why he lives so swinishly you may come up to him and get within him and turn the very mouth of his conscience upon him which will shoot conviction into him But come to deal with one that prayes and heares one that is a pretender to faith and hope in God here is a man in glistering armour he hath his weapon in his hand with which he will keep the Preacher and the Word he chargeth him with at armes length Who can say I am not a Saint what duty do I neglect here 's a breast-work he lies under which makes him not so faire a mark either to the observation or reproof of another his chief defect being within where mans eye comes not Again 't is harder to work on him because he hath been tamper'd with already and miscarried in the essay How comes such a one to he acquainted with such duties to make such a Profession was it ever thus No the Word hath been at work upon him his conscience hath scared him from his trade of wickednesse into a forme of Profession but taking in short of Christ for want of a through change it is harder to remove him then the other he is like a lock whose wards have been troubled which makes it harder to turn the Key then if never potter'd with 'T is better dealing with a wilde ragged cole never back't then one that in breaking hath took a wrong stroak A bone quite out of joynt then false set In a word such a one hath more to deny then a profane person the one hath but his lusts his whores his swill and draffe but the other hath his duties his seeming graces O how hard is it to perswade such a one to light and hold Christs stirrup while he and his duties are made Christs foot-stool Secondly such a one is deepest in condemnation None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven because they fall from the greatest height As it aggravates the torments of damned souls in this respect above devils they had a cord of mercy thrown out to them which devils had not so by how much God by his Spirit waits on pleads with and by both gains on a soul more then others by so much such a one if he perish will finde hell the hotter these adde to his sin and the rememberance of his sin in hell thus accented will adde to his torment None will have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half-way with him and then left him Therefore I beseech you look to your armour David would not fight in armour he had not tried though it was a Kings perhaps some thought him too nice What is not the Kings armour good enough for David Thus many will say Art thou so curious and precise such a great man doth thus and thus and hopes to come to heaven at last and darest not thou venture thy soule in his armour No Christian follow not the example of the greatest on earth 't is thy own soul thou venturest in battel therefore thou canst not be too choice of thy armour Bring thy heart to the Word as the only touch-stone of thy grace and furniture the Word I told you is the Tower of David from whence thy armour must be fetch 't if thou canst finde this Tower-stamp on it then 't is of God else not Try it therefore by this one Scripture-stamp Those weapons are mighty which God gives his Saints to fight his battels withal 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God The sword of the Spirit hath its point and edge whereby it makes its way into the heart and conscience through the impenitency of the one and stupidity of the other wherewith Satan as with buffe and coat of male armes the sinner against God and there cuts and slashes kills and mortifies lust in its own Castle where Satan thinks himself impregnable The Breast-plate which is of God doth not bend and break at every pat of temptation but is of such a divine temperament that it repels Satans motions with scorne on Satans teeth Should such a one as I sin as Nehemiah in another case and such are all the rest Now try whether your weapons be mighty or weak what can you do or suffer more for God then an hypocrite that is clad in fleshly armour I 'le tell you what the world faith and if you be Christians clear your selves and wipe off that dirt which they throw upon your glistering armour they say These Professors indeed have God more in their talk then we they are oftner in the mount of duty then we but when they come down into their shops relations and worldly employments then the best of them all is but like one of us they can throw the Tables of Gods Commandments out of their hands as well as we come from a Sermon and be as covetous and griping as peevish and passionate as the worst they shew as little love to Christ as others when it is matter of cost as to relieve a poor Saint or maintain the Gospel you may get more from a stranger an enemie then from a professing brother O Christians either vindicate the Name of Christ whose Ensign you seem to march after or throw away your seeming armour by which you have drawn the eyes of the world upon you If you will not Christ himself will cashiere you and that with shame enough ere long Never call that Armour of God which defends thee not against the power of Satan Take therefore the several pieces of your armour and try them as the souldier before he fights will set his helmet or head-piece as a mark at which he lets flie a brace of bullets and as he findes them so will weare them or leave them but be sure thou shootest Scripture-bullets Thou boastest of a breast-plate of righteousnesse ask thy soul Didst thou ever in thy life perform a duty to please God and not to accommodate thy self Thou hast prayed often against thy sin a great noise of these pieces have been heard coming from thee by others as if there were some hot fight between thee and thy corruption but canst thou
indeed shew one sin thou hast slain by all thy praying Joseph was alive though his coat was brought bloody to Jacob and so may thy sin be for all thy mortified look in duty and out cry thou makest against them If thou wouldest thus try every piece thy credulous heart would not so easily be cheated with Satans false ware Obj. But is all armour that is of God thus mighty we reade of weak grace little faith how can this then be a trial of our armour whether of God or not Answ I answer the weaknesse of grace is in respect of stronger grace but that weak grace is strong and mighty in comparison of counterfeit grace Now I do not bid thee try the truth of thy grace by such a power as is peculiar to stronger grace but by that power which will distinguish it from false true grace when weakest is stronger then false when strongest There is a principle of divine life in it which the other hath not Now life as it gives excellency a flea or fly by reason of its life is more excellent then the Sun in all its glory so it gives strength The slow motion of a living man though so feeble that he cannot go a furlong in a day yet coming from life imports more strength then is in a ship which though it sailes swiftly hath its motion from without Thus possibly an hypocrite may exceed the true Christian in the bulk and out-side of a duty yet because his strength is not from life but from some winde and tide abroad that carries him and the Christians is from an inward principle therefore the Christians weaknesse is stronger then the hypocrite in his greatest enlargements I shall name but two acts of grace when weakest whereby the Christian exceeds the hypocrite in all his best array You will say then grace is at a weak stay indeed when the Christian is perswaded to commit a sin a great sin such a one as possibly a carnal person would not have it said of him for a great matter so low may the tide of grace fall yet true grace at such an ebbe will appear of greater strength and force then the other First this principle of grace will never leave till the soule weeps bitterly with Peter that it hath offended so good a God Speak O ye hypocrites can ye shew one tear that ever you shed in earnest for a wrong done to God Possibly ye may weep to see the bed of sorrow which your sins are making for you in hell but ye never loved God so well as to mourne for the injury ye have done the Name of God It is a good glosse Augustine hath upon Esau's teares Heb. 12. Flevit quòd perdidit non quòd vendidit He wept that he lost the blessing not that he sold it Thus we see an excellency of the Saints sorrow above the hypocrites The Christian by his sorrow shews himself a Conquerour of that sin which even now overcame him while the hypocrite by his pride shews himself a slave to a worse lust then that he resists While the Christian commits a sin he hates it whereas the other loves it while he forbears it Secondly when true grace is under the foot of a temptation yet then it will stir up in the heart a vehement desire of revenge like a prisoner in his enemies hand who is thinking and plotting how to get out and what he will do when out waiting and longing every moment for his delivery that he may again take up armes O God remember me saith Samson this once I pray thee and strengthen me that I may be at once avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes Judg. 16.27 Thus prays the gracious soul that God would but spare him a little and strengthen him but once before he dies that he may be avenged on his pride unbelief and those sins whereby he hath most dishonoured his God but a false heart is so far from studying revenge that he rather swells like the sea against the Law which banks his lust in and is angry with God who hath made sin such a leap that he must hazard his soule if he will have it CHAP. IV. Of the entirenesse of our furniture It must be the whole Armour of God THe third Branch in the Saints furniture is the entirenesse thereof The whole Armour of God The Christians Armour must be compleat and that in a threefold respect SECT 1. First he must be armed in every part cap-a-pe soule and body the powers of the one and senses of the other not any part left naked A dart may flie in at a little hole like that which brought a message of death to Ahab through the joynts of his harnesse and Satan is such an Archer who can shoot at a penny breadth If all the man be armed and only the eye lest without Satan can soon shoot his fire-balls of lust in at that loop-hole which shall set the whole house on flame Eve look't but on the tree and a poisonous dare struck her to the heart If the eye be shut and the ear be open to corrupt communication Satan will soon wriggle in at this hole If all the outward senses be guarded and the heart not kept with all diligence he will soon by his own thoughts be betrayed into Satans hands Our enemies are on every side and so must our armour be on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.7 The Apostle calls sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enemy that surrounds us If there be any part of the line unguarded or weakly provided there Satan falls on we see the enemy often enter the city at one side while he is beat back on the other for want of care to keep the whole line Satan divides his temptations into several squadrons one he employes to assault here another to storme there We reade of fleshly wickednesse and spiritual wickednesse while thou repellest Satan tempting thee to fleshly wickednesse he may be entring thy city at the other gate of spiritual wickednesse Perhaps thou hast kept thy integrity in the practical part of thy life but what armour hast thou to defend thy head thy judgement If he surprise thee here corrupting that with some errour then thou wilt not long hold out in thy practice He that could not get thee to profane the Sabbath among Sensualists and Atheists will under the disguise of such a corrupt principle as Christian liberty prevail Thus we see what need we have of universal armour in regard of every part SECT II. Secondly the Christian must be in compleat armour in regard of the several pieces and weapons that make up the whole Armour of God Indeed there is a concatenation of graces they hang together like links in a chain stones in an arch members in the body prick one vein and the blood of the whole body may run out at that sluce neglect one duty and no other will do us good The
Satan knowes this too well and therefore as some thieves when they come to rob an house either gagge them in it or hold a pistol to their breast frighting them with death if they cry or speak Thus Satan that he may more freely rifle the soule of its peace and comfort over-awes it so that it dares not disclose his temptation O saith Satan if thy brethren or friends know such a thing by thee they 'l cast thee off others will hoote at thee Thus many a poor soul hath been kept long in its pangs by biting them in thou losest Christian a double help by keeping the devils secret the counsel and prayers of thy fellow-brethren and what an invaluable losse is this CHAP. VIII Of the Saints victory over their subtile enemy and whence it is that creatures so over-match't should be able to stand against Satans wiles THe second Branch of the Apostles Argument followes to excite them the more vigourously to their armes and that is from the possibility yea certainty of standing against this subtile enemie if thus arm'd That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil So that this gives the Apostles argument its due temperament for he meant not to scare them into a cowardly flight or sullen despaire of victory when he tells them their enemy is so subtile and politick but to excite them to a vigourous resistance from the assured hope of strength to stand in battel and victoriously after it which two I conceive are comprehended in that phrase standing against the wiles of Satan Sometimes to stand implies a fighting posture so verse 14. Sometimes a conquering posture Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth That earth which was the field where all the bloody battels were fought betwixt him and Satan on it shall he stand when not an enemy shall dare to shew his head So that taking both these in the Observation is Satan with all his wits and wiles shall never vanquish a soule arm'd with true grace nay he that hath this armour of God on shall vanquish him Look into the Word you shall not finde a Saint but hath been in the list with him sifted and winnowed more or lesse by this enemy yet at last we finde them all coming off with an honourable victory as in David Job Peter Paul who were the hardest put to it of any upon record and lest some should attribute their victory to the strength of their inherent grace above other of their weaker brethren you have the glory of their victories appropriated to God in whom the weak are as strong as the strongest We shall give a double Reason of this truth why the Christian who seemes to be so over-match't is yet so unconquerable First the curse that lies upon Satan and his cause Gods curse blasts whereever it comes The Canaanites with their neighbour-Nations were bread for Israel though people famous for warre and why They were cursed Nations The Egyptians a politick people Let us deal wisely say they yet being cursed of God this lay like a thorne at their heart and was at last their ruine yea let the Israelites themselves who carry the badge of Gods Covenant on their flesh by their sins once become the people of Gods curse and they are trampled like dirt under the Assyrians feet This made Balak beg so hard for a curse upon Israel Now there is an irrevokeable curse cleaves to Satan from Gen. 3.14 15. And the Lord said to the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed c. which place though partly meant of the literal serpent yet chiefly of the devil and the wicked his spiritual serpentine brood as appeares by the enmity pronounced against the Serpents seed and the womans which clearly holds forth the feud between Christ with his seed against the devil and his Now there are two things in that curse which may comfort the Saints First the curse prostrates Satan under their feet Vpon thy belly shalt thou go which is no more then is elsewhere promised that God will subdue Satan under our feet Now this prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil shall never lift his head that is his wily policy higher then the Saints heele He may make thee limp but not bereave thee of thy life and this bruise which he gives thee shall be rewarded with the breaking of his own head that is the utter ruine of him and his cause Secondly his food is here limited and appointed Satan shall not devoure whom he will The dust is his food which seems to restrain his power to the wicked who are of the earth earthy meere dust but for those who are of a heavenly extraction their graces are reserved for Christs food Cant. 7.13 and their souls surely are not a morsel for the devils tooth The second reason is taken from the wisdom of God who as he undertakes the ordering of the Christians way to heaven Ps 37.24 so especially this businesse of Satans temptations We finde Christ was not led of the evil spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted but of the Holy Spirit Mat. 4.1 Satan tempts not when he will but when God pleaseth and the same Holy Spirit which led Christ into the field brought him off with victory And therefore we finde him marching in the Power of the Spirit after he had repulsed Satan into Galilee Luke 4.14 When Satan tempts a Saint he is but Gods messenger 2 Cor. 12.7 There was given to me a thorne in the flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me So our Translation But rather as Beza who will have it in casu recto the Messenger Satan implying that he was sent of God to Paul And indeed the errand he came a was too good and gracious to be his own Lest I should be exalted above measure The devil never meant to do Paul such a good office but God sends him to Paul as David sent Vriah with letters to Joab neither knew the contents of their message The devil and his instruments both are Gods instruments therefore the wicked are called his sword his axe now let God alone to wield the one and handle the other He is but a bungler that hurts and hackles his own legs with his own axe which God should do if his children should be the worse for Satans temptations Let the devil choose his way God is for him at every weapon If he 'll try it by force of armes and assault the Saints by persecution as the Lord of Hostes he will oppose him If by policy and subtilty he is ready there also The devil and his whole counsel are but fooles to God Nay their wisdome foolishnesse Cunning and Art commend every thing but sinne The more artificial the watch the picture c. the better but the more wit and Art in sin the worse because it is employed against
people stand gazing as those who have lost the sight of their Preacher and at the end of the Sermon cannot tell what he would have Or those who preach only truths that are for the higher forme of Professours who have their senses well exercised excellent may be for the building up three or foure eminent Saints in the Congregation but in the mean time the weak ones in the family who should indeed chiefly be thought on because least able to guide themselves or carve for themselves these are forgotten He sure is an unwise builder that makes a Scaffold as high as Pauls steeple when his work is at the bottom and he is to lay the foundation whereas the Scaffold should rise as the building goes up So Paul advanceth in his doctrine as his hearers do in knowledge Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection Let us It is well indeed when the people can keep pace with the Preacher To preach truths and notions above the hearers capacity is like a Nurse that should go to feed the childe with a spoon too big to go into its mouth We may by such preaching please our selves and some of higher attainments but what shall poor ignorant ones do in the mean time He is the faithful steward that considers both The Preacher is as Paul saith of himself a debt or both to the Greek and to the Barbarian to the wise and to the unwise Rom. 1.14 to prepare truths suitable to the degree of his hearers Let the wise have their portion but let them be patient to see the weaker in the family served also Fourthly a Minister may be accessary to the ignorance of his people when through the scandal of his life he prejudiced his doctrine as a Cook who by his nastiness makes others afraid to eat what comes out of his foule fingers Or when through his supercilious carriage his poor people dare not come to him He that will do any good in the Ministers calling must be as careful as the Fisher that he doth nothing to scare soules away from him but all to allure and invite that they may be toll'd within the compasse of his net Vse 3 Is the ignorant soul such a slave to Satan Let this stirre you up that are ignorant from your seats of sloth whereon like the blinde Egyptians you sit in darknesse speedily come out of this darknesse or resolve to go down to utter darknesse The covering of Hamans face did tell him that he should not stay in the Kings presence If thou livest in ignorance it shews thou art in Gods black bill he puts this cover before their eyes in wrath whom he means to turne off into hell 2 Cor. 4. If our Gospel be hid it is to those that perish In one place sinners are threatened they shall die without knowledge in another place they shall die in their sinnes John 8. He indeed that dies without knowledge dies in his sinnes and what more fearful doome can the great God passe upon a creature then this better die in a prison die in a ditch then die in ones sinnes It thou die in thy sinnes thou shalt rise in thy sinnes as thou fallest asleep in the dust so thou awakest in the morning of the resurrection if an ignorant Christlesse wretch as such thou shalt be araigned and judged That God whom now sinners bid depart from them will then be worth their acquaintance themselves being Judges but alas then he will throw their own words in their teeth and bid them depart from him he desires not the knowledge of them O sinners you shall see at last God can better be without your company in heaven then you could without his knowledge on earth Yet yet 't is day draw your curtains and behold Christ shining upon your face with Gospel-light hear wisdome crying in the streets and Christ piping under your window in the voice of his Spirit and Messengers How long will ye simple ones love simplicity and fools hate knowledge Turne you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you and make known my words unto you What can you say sinners for your sottish ignorance Where is your cloak for this sinne the time hath been when the Word of the Lord was precious and there was no open vision not a Bible to be found in town or Countrey when the tree of knowledge was forbidden fruit and none might taste thereof without licence from the Pope happy he that could get a leaf or two of the Testament into a corner afraid to tell the wife of his bosome O how sweet were these waters when they were forced to steal them but you have the Word or may in your houses you have those that open them every Sabbath in your Assemblies many of you at least have the offers of your Ministers to take any paines with you in private passionately beseeching you to pitie your souls and receive instruction yea 't is the lamentation they generally take up you will not come unto them that you may receive light How long may a poor Minister sit in his study before any of the ignorant sort will come upon such an errand Lawyers have their Clients and Physicians their Patients these are sought after and call'd up at midnight for counsel but alas the soule which is more worth then raiment and body too that is neglected and the Minister seldom thought on till both these be sent away Perhaps when the Physician gives them over for dead then we must come and close up those eyes with comfort which were never opened to see Christ in his truth or be counted cruel because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water and anoint them for the Kingdome of Heaven though they know not a step of the way which leads to it Ah poor wretches what comfort would you have us speak to those to whom God himself speaks terrour Is heaven ours to give to whom we please or is it in our power to alter the lawes of the most High and save those whom he condemns Do you not remember the curse that is to fall upon his head that maketh the blinde to wander out of the way Deut. 27.18 what curse then would be our portion if we should confirm such blinde soules that are quite out of the way to heaven encouraging you to go on and expect to reach heaven at last when God knows your feet stand in those paths that lead to eternal death No 't is written we cannot and God will not reverse it you may reade your very names among those damned soules which Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on who the Apostle tells us are such that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.8 And therefore in the feare of God let this provoke you of what age or sexe rank or condition soever in the world to
the most Saint-like conversation that ever any lived on earth yet if this be thy shelter against the evil day thou wilt perish No salvation when that flood comes but Christ yea being in Christ hanging on the out-side of the Ark by a specious Profession will not save Me thinks I see how those of the old world ran for their lives some to this hill and others to that high tree and how the waves pursued them till at last they were swept into the devouring flood Such will your end be that turn any other way for help then to Christ yet the Ark waits on you yea comes up close to your gate to take you in Noah did not put forth his hand more willingly to take in the dove then Christ doth to receive those who flie to him for refuge O reject not your own mercies for lying vanity Vse 3 Let it put thee upon the enquiry whoever thou art whether thou beest in a posture of defence for this evil day Ask thy soul soberly and solemnly Art thou provided for this day this evil day how couldest thou part with what that will take away and welcome what it will certainly bring Death comes with a voider to carry away all thy carnal enjoyments and to bring thee up a reckoning for them O canst thou take thy leave of the one and with peace and confidence reade the other will it not affright thee to have thy health and strength turn'd into faintnesse and feeblenesse thy sweet nights of rest into waking eyes and restlesse tossings up and down thy voice that has so often chanted to the viol to be now acquainted with no other tune but sighs and groans O how canst thou look upon thy sweet and dear relations with thoughts of removing from them yea behold the instrument as it were whetting that shall give the fatal stroke to sever soul and body think that thou wert now half dead in thy members that are most remote from the fountain of life and death to have but a few moments journey before it arrive to thy heart and so beat thy last breath out of thy body Possibly the inevitable necessity of these do make thee to harden thy self against them this might indeed in some Heathen that is not resolv'd whether there be another world or no help a little to blunt the edge of that terrour which otherwise would cut deeper in his amazed heart But if thou believest another world and that judgement which stands at deaths back ready to allot thee thy unchangeable state in blisse or misery surely thou canst not relieve thy awakened conscience with such a poor cordial O therefore think what answer thou meanest to give unto the great God at thy appearing before him when he shall ask thee what thou canst say why the sentence of eternal damnation should not then be pronounced against thee Truly we deale unfaithfully with our owne soules if we bring not our thoughts to this issue If now you should ask how you should provide against the evill day so that you may stand before that dreadful bar and live so in the mean time that you might not be under a slavish bondage through the fearful expectation of it Take it in a few directions First if ever you would have a blessed issue of this evil day so as to stand in judgement before the great God rest not till thou hast got into a Covenant-relation with Christ Dying Davids living comfort was drawn from the Covenant God had made with him this was all his desire and all his salvation how canst thou put thy head into the other world without horrour if thou hast not solid ground that Christ will own thee for his Heaven hath its proper heires and so hath hell The heires of heaven are such as are in Covenant with God The foundation of it was laid in a Covenant and all the mansions there are prepared for a people in Covenant with him Gather my Saints together that have made a Covenant with me But how mayest thou get into this Covenant-relation First break thy covenant with sin Thou art by nature a covenant-servant to sin and Satan may be thou hast not expresly in words and formally as witches seal'd this covenant yet virtually as thou hast done the work of Satan and been at the command of thy lusts accepting the reward of unrighteousnesse the pleasure and carnal advantages they have paid thee in for the same therein thou hast declared thy self to be so Now if ever thou wilt be taken into Covenant with God break this a Covenant with hell and heaven cannot stand together Secondly betroth thy self to Christ The Covenant of grace is the joynture which God settles only upon Christs Spouse Rebeccah had not the Jewels and costly raiment till she was promised to become Isaaks wife Gen. 24.53 All the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ If once thou receivest Christ with him thou receivest them He that owes the tree hath right to all the fruit that is on it Now that thou mayest not huddle up a marriage between Christ and thee so as to be disown'd of Christ and it prove a nullity at last it behooves thee to look to it that there be found in thee what Christ expects in every soul that he espouseth First therefore consider whether thou canst heartily love the person of Christ Look wishly on him again and again as he is set forth in all his spiritual excellencies are they such as thy heart can close with doth his holy nature and all those heavenly graces with which he is beautified render him desirable to thee or couldest thou like him better if he were not so precise and exactly holy yea is thy heart so inflamed with a desire of him that thou canst love him with a conjugal love A woman may love one as a friend whom she cannot love so as to make him her husband A friendly love may stand with a love of some other equal to it yea Superiour But a conjugal love is such as will bear neither canst thou finde in thy heart to forsake all other and cleave to Christ does thy heart speak thee ready and present thee willing to go with thy sweet Jesus though he carry thee from father and fathers house Is thy confidence such of his power to protect thee from all thy enemies sin wrath and hell that thou canst resolvedly put the life of thy soul into his hands to be saved by the sole vertue of his blood and strength of his omnipotent arme and of his care to provide for thee for this life and the other that rhou canst acquiesce in what he promiseth to do for thee In a word if thou hast Christ thou must not only love him but for his sake all thy new Kindred which by thy marriage to him thou shalt be allied unto How canst thou fadge to call the Saints thy brethren canst thou love them heartily and forget all the old grudges thou
hast had against them some of them thou wilt finde poor and persecuted yet Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren neither must thou If thou findest thy heart now in such a disposition as suits these Interrogatories I dare not deny the banes yea I dare not but pronounce Christ and thee Husband and Wife Go poor soul if I may call so glorious a Bride poor Go and comfort thy self with the expectation of thy Bridegrooms coming for thee and when the evil day approaches and death it self draws nigh look not now with terrour upon it but rather revive with old Jacob to see the chariot which shall carry thee over unto the embraces of thy husband whom thou hearest to be in so great Honour and Majesty in Heaven as may assure thee he is able to make thee welcome when thou comest there Amongst the all things which are ours by being Christs the Apostle forgets not to name this to be one Death is ours And well he did so or else we should never have look't upon it as a gift but rather as a judgement Now soul thou art out of any danger of hurt that the evil day can do thee Yet there remains something for thee to do that thou mayest walk in the comfortable expectation of the evil day We see that gracious persons may for want of a holy care fall into such distempers as may put a sting into their thoughts of the evil day David that at one time would not feare to walk in the valley of the shadow of death is so affrighted at another time when he is led towards it that he cries Spare me O Lord that I may recover my strength before I go hence Psal 39. The childe though he loves his father may do that which may make him afraid to go home Now Christian if thou wouldest live in a comfortable expectation of the evil day First labour to die to this life and the enjoyments of it every day more and more Death is not so strong to him whose natural strength has been wasted by long pining sicknesse as it is to him that lies but a few dayes and has strength of nature to make great resistance Truly thus it is here that Christian whose love to this life and the contents of it hath been for many years consuming and dying will with more facility part with them then he whose love is stronger to them All Christians are not mortified in the same degree to the world Paul tells us he died daily He was ever sending more and more of his heart out of the world so that by that time he came to die all his affections were pack't up and gone which made him the more ready to follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am ready to be offered up 2 Tim. 4.6 If it be but a tooth to pull out the faster it stands the more pain we have to draw it O loosen the roots of thy affections from the world and the tree will fall more easily Secondly be careful to approve thy self with diligence and faithfulnesse to God in thy place and calling The clearer thou standest in thy own thoughts concerning the uprightnesse of thy heart in the tenure of thy Christian course the more composure thou wilt have when the evil day comes I beseech thee O Lord saith good Hezekiah at the point of death as he thought remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight This cannot be our confidence but it will be a better companion then a scoulding conscience if the blood be bad the spirits will be tainted also the more our life has been corrupted with hypocrisie and unfaithfulnesse the weaker our faith will be in a dying houre There is great difference between two children that come home at night one from the field where he hath been diligent and faithful about his fathers work and another that hath played the Truant a great part of the day the former comes inconfidently to stand before his father the other sneaks to bed is afraid his father should see him or ask where he hath been O Sirs look to your walking These have been trying times as ever came to England It has required more care and courage to keep sincerity then formerly And that is the reason why it is so rare to finde Christians especially those whose place and calling hath been more in the winde of temptation go off the stage at death with such a Plaudite of inward peace in their bosomes Thirdly familiarize the thoughts of the evil day to thy soul Handle this serpent often walk daily in the serious meditations of if do not run from them because they are unpleasing to flesh that is the way to increase the terrour of it Do with your souls when shy of and scared with the thoughts of affliction or death as you use to do with your beast that is given to bogle and start as you ride on him When he flies back and starts at a thing you do not yield to his fear and go back that will make him worse another time but you ride him up close to that which he is afraid of and in time you break him of that quality The evil day is not such a scareful thing to thee that art a Christian as thou shouldest start for it Bring up thy heart close to it Shew thy soul what Christ hath done to take the sting out of it what the sweet promises are that are given on purpose to overcome the feare of it and what thy hopes are thou shalt get by it These will satisfie and compose thy Spirit whereas the shunning the thoughts of it will but increase thy feare and bring thee more into bondage to it CHAP. VIII The second Argument with which the Exhortation is pressed drawn from the assured victory which shall crown the soules conflict if in this Armour where several Points couched in the Argument are briefly handled WE come now to the second Argument the Apostle useth further to presse the exhortation and that is taken from the glorious victory which hovers over the heads of believers while in the fight and shall surely crown them in the end this is held forth in these words And having done all to stand The phrase is short but full SECT I. First observe Heaven is not won with good words and a fair Profession Having done all The doing Christian is the man that shall stand when the empty boaster of his faith shall fall The great talkers of Religion are oft the least doers His Religion is in vaine whose Profession brings not letters testimonial from a holy life Sacrifice without obedience is Sacriledge Such rob God of that which he makes most account of A great Captain once smote one of his souldiers for railing at his enemy saying that he called him not to raile on him but to fight against him and kill him 'T is