it breeds discomfort and is terrible that way Again in death we leave those that cast their care upon us we leave oft times Wives and Children without Husband or Father those that had dependance upon us and this must needs work upon nature upon a right principle of nature indeed the excesse of it is with corruption alway Again in death there is great pain They say Births are with great pangs and so they are Now death is a birth the birth of immortality no wonder then if it have great pangs therefore nature fears it even for the pangs the concomitants that are joyned with it And then in death nature considers the state of the body presently after death that that goodly body that strength and vigour I enjoyed before must now be wormes-meat I must say to the worm Thou art my brother and to corruption Thou art my mother and the like as it is in Job That head that perhaps hath ruled the Common-wealth the place where I lived it must lie level with others and that body that others were inamoured with it must now be so forlorn that the sight of it will not be indured of our best friends Nature considers what the estate will be there that it shall turn to rottenesse ere long that the goodliest persons shall be turned to dust and lie rotting there till the day of the Resurrection Faith and Grace looks higher but because we have nature as long as we are men these and such like respects work upon nature and make death grievous But besides the glasse of nature and these things here in the World look upon it in the Law of God in that glasse and so nature trembles and quarrels at death Death what is it It is the wages of sin it is the end of all comfort and nature cannot see any comfort after that it is beyond nature Nature teacheth us not that there will be a Resurrection of the body nature teacheth not that the soul goes to God here must be a great deal of Grace and a great deal of Faith to convince the soul of this nature teacheth it not Now when besides this the Law of God comes and faith Death came in by sin and sin is the sting of death death is armed with sin and sin comes in with the evidences of Gods anger here unlesse there be Faith and Grace a man is either as Nabal a stone and a fot in death or as Judas and Cain swallowed up with despaire It is impossible for a man that is not a true Christian that is not a good man but that either he shouldbe as a stone or desperate in sicknesse and Death without Grace he must be one of them If he be a wise man he cannot but despair in the hour of Death For is it a matter to be dallied with or to be carried bravely out as your Roman spirits and Atheists think they account it a Glory to die bravely in a stout manner Is it the terrible of terribles so to be put off when all the comforts in this world shall end and all imployments cease when there is eternity before a man and after death hell and eternall damnation of body and soul Are these matters to be slighted it would make a man look about him if a man have not faith and Grace he must eitherr despaire or die like a stone none but a good Christian can carrie himself well in the hour of death nay a good Christian is sensible of death and till he see Gods time is come he labours to avoid it by all meanes as St. Paul doth here But St. Paul had another ground beyond nature to avoid Death He knew himself ordained for the service of the Church therefore he desired to escape that he might serve God a longer time for the good of his Church Are Gods Children sensible of Death and the danger of it and out of a principle of nature and Grace too How then should carnall wretched men look about them that have not made their accounts even with God the report of Death to them should be like the hand-writing upon the wall to Belteshazer it should make their knees beat together and make their countenance pale it should strike them with terrour and like Nabal make their hearts to die as a stone within them But it is a Use of comfort to poore deluded Christians they think alas can my estate be good I am afraid of Death I tremble and quake at the name of Death I cannot endure to hear of it but it most of all affects me to see it therefore I fear I have no Grace in me I fear I have no faith in me Be not discomforted whosoever thou art that sayest so if thou labour to strengthen thy faith and to keep a good conscience for thou mayest do thus out of a principle of nature nature trembles at Death A man may do two things from diverse principles from diverse respects both without sin For example in fasting nature without sin desireth meat or else fasting were not an afflicting of a mans body but Grace that hath another principle and that desires to hold out without sustenance to be afflicted so here is both a desire and not a desire and both good in their kind So a man in the time of sicknesse and death he may by all meanes desire to escape it and tremble at it out of a principle of nature but out of a higher principle he may triumph O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory and they that believe in Christ shall never die We are in heavenly places together with Christ we are as sure of heaven as if we were there So out of such kind of principles we may triumph over Death by Faith and Grace So let none be discouraged nature goes one way and faith and grace another a man may know when it is nature and when it is grace when grace subdues nature and subordinates it to a higher principle a man need not be much troubled Christ himself our head he was afraid of death when he looked on death as death but when he looked upon death as a service as a redemption as a sweet sacrifice to God so with a thirsting I have thirsted saith he he thirsted after death in that respect looking to his humane nature to the truth of his manhood then saith he Oh that this cup might passe from me but in another consideration he willingly gave his soul a sacrifice for sin to God The desire is as the objects are presented let heaven and happinesse be presented so death is a passage to it so death is the end of misery and the beginning of happinesse so Gods Children desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ as St. Paul did But look upon death otherwise as it is an enemy to nature as it is a stop of all imployment in this world and of all service
hearts and wayes and presently to apply the balme of comfort the promise of pardon take the present when we have searched the wound to get pardon and forgivenesse daily as we sin daily Christ bids us ask it daily This will make us fit for comfort by discerning the estate of our souls and the remainders of corruption That which sharpens appetite and makes the balme of God to be sweet indeed is the sence of and the keeping open of our wound a daily search into our wants and weaknesses a daily fresh sight of the body of sin in us and experience how it is fruitful in ill thoughts and desires and actions this will drive us to a necessity of daily comfort And certainly a fresh sight of our corruptions it is never without some fresh comfort We see St. Paul Rom. 7. he sets himself to this work to complain of his indisposition by reason of sin in him and how doth he end that sight and search into his own estate he ends in a triumphing manner Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus After he had complained Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this bodie of death There can be no danger in a deep search into our waies and hearts if this be laid as a ground before that there is more supplie and heavenly comfort in God and the promises of God then there can be ill in our souls then the more ill we find in our selves the more we are disposed to fetch grounds of comfort from God And together with this searching of our souls and asking daily pardon let us for the time to come renew our covenant with God that we may have the comfort of a good conscience to get pardon for our sins past and renew our resolutions for the time to come And withall that we may use an orderly course of comfort let us every day feed on Christ the food of life let us every day feed upon something in Christ consider the death of Christ the satisfaction he hath made by his death his intercession in Heaven his blood runs afresh that we may every day feed on it We may run every day into new offences against the law to new neglect of duty into new crosses let us feed upon Christ he came into the World to save sinners to make us happie with peace of conscience here and with Glorie afterward Let us feed on Christ daily as the bodie is fed with cordialls so this feeds and comforts and strengthens the soul. This is to live by faith to lead our lives by faith to feed on Christ every day And likewise if we will keep our souls in a perpetual temper of comfort let us every day meditate of some prerogatives of Christians that may raise our souls Let us single out some or other As for example that excellent prerogative to be the Sons of God What love saith the Apostle that we of Rebels and Traitors in Christ should be made the sons of God That of slaves we should be made Servants of servants sons of sons heires and of heires fellow-heires with Christ what prerogative is this that God should give his Son to mak us that were Rebels sons heires and fellow heires with Christ And to consider what follows upon this liberty that we have from the curse of the Law to goe to God boldly to go to the throne of Grace through Christ our elder brother by prayer to think of eternall life as our inheritance to think of God above as our Father Let us think of our prerogatives of Religion adoption and justification c. Upon necessity we are driven to it if we consider the grievances of this world together with our corruptions our corruptions and afflictions and temptations and desertions one thing or other will drive us to go out of our selves for comfort to feed on the benefits by Christ. And consider what he hath done it is for us the execution of his office and all for us what he is what he did what he suffered what procured all is for us The soul delighting it self in these prerogatives it will keep the soul in a perpetuall estate of comfort Therefore the Scripture sets forth Christ by all terms that may be comfortable he is the door to let us in He is the way the truth and the life the water and the bread c. In sinne he is our righteousness in death he is our life in our ignorance he is our way in spirituall hunger and thirst he is the bread and water of life he is all in all And if we cannot think of some prerogative of Christianity then think of some promise as I said before think of the Covenant of Grace there is a spring of comfort in that that God in Christ is our God to death and for ever and that promise I speak of that All things shall work for the best Let us every day think of these things and suggest them to our owne souls that our souls may be affected with them and digest them that our souls and they may be one as it were And every day stirre up our hearts to be thankfull a thankfull heart can never want comfort for it cannot be done without some comfort and chearefulness and when God receives any praise and glory he answers it with comfort a thankfull heart is alway comfortable And let us stirre up our hearts to be fruitfull in the holy actions the reward of a fruitfull life is a comfortable life besides Heaven God alway in this life gives a present reward to any good action it is rewarded with peace of conscience Besides it is a good foundation against the evil day every good action as the Apostle sayth to Timothie it layes up a good foundation The more good we do the more we are assured that our faith is not hypocritical but sound and good and will hold out in the time of tryall It will be a good foundation that we have had evidence before that we have a sound and fruitful faith What do wicked men carelesse sinful creatures that go on in a course of prophanenesse and blasphemie c they lay a ground of despaire a ground of discomfort to be swallowed up in the evil day then conscience will be awaked at the last and Satan will be ready to joyn with conscience and conscience will seal all the accusations that Satan layes against them and where is the poor soul then As it is with them so on the contrary the Christian soul that doth good besides the present comfort of a good conscience it layes a good foundation against the time to come for in the worst times it can reason with it self my faith is not fruitlesse I am not an hypocrite though the fruits of it be weak and mixed with corruptions yet there is truth in them this will comfort us when nothing
Spirit that raised and advanced him at the lowest that very spirit there being but one spirit in the head and members in our greatest abasement shall vouchsafe us the greatest advancement that we can look for to sit at the right hand of God to reigne with Christ for if we suffer with him we shall reign with him And hence you may have a reason likewise why Christians have no more comfort they doe not studie Christ enough they consider not Christ and the neernesse wherein Christ is to them and they to Christ that both make one Christ they doe not consider how Christ hath sweetned all he hath turned God and turned all to us he hath made God our Father and in him all things favourable unto us so that now the fire is our friend the Stone and the Gout and all diseases disgrace and temptation all are at peace and league with us all is turned in the use and issue to good to the help and comfort of Gods Children All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 2 Cor. 3. ult There is not the worst thing but it is at peace with us because the malignant power it hath in order to damnation is taken away now it doth not hurt us but there is a soveraigne curing power to turne it to good I confesse Gods Children are discomforted but then they wrong their principles they wrong their grounds their religion their Saviour they wrong all the comforts they have interest in because they do not improve them when occasion serves As Job is checked Hast thou forgot the consolations of the Almighty or why dost thou forget them so if we have consolations and forget them and dote and pore upon our grievance it is just with God to leave us comfortless not that we want any comfort but we flatter our grievance and forget our comfort Let us change our object and when we have looked upon our grievance and been humbled in the sight of our sins let us look upon the promises let us look upon Christ in glory and see our selves in Heaven triumphing with him What can terrifie a Soul not Death it self when it sees it self in Christ Triumphing Faith sees me as well Triumphing in Heaven and sitting at the Right Hand of God as it doth Christ for it knowes I am a Member of Christ and whatsoever is between me and that happiness that is reserved for me in Heaven I shall triumph over it Christ triumphed in his own person over death Hell sin the Grave the Devil and she will triumph in me his mysticall body what he hath done in himself he will doe in me This faith will overcome the world and the Devill and Hell and all that is between us and Heaven A Christian that sees himself sitting at the right hand of God with Christ triumphing with him he is discouraged at nothing for faith that makes things to come present it sees him conquering alreadie Let us be exhorted to joy Rejoyce and again I say rejoyce we have reason to do so if we look to our grounds but when we yield to Satan and our own flesh we robb God of his glory and our selves of comfort but we may thank our selves for it But I come to the sixth verse wherein the Apostle inlargeth himself by shewing the end of his sufferings in regard of them by setting downe both parts both affliction and comfort VERS VI. Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation IT is much in every thing how the mind is prepared to receive what is spoken the Apostle therefore to make way for himself in their hearts he removes therefore scandall from his sufferings and he shews that it was so farre that they should take offence at it that they ought to do as he did to bless God for it for as the sufferings of Christ abounded in him so his comfort abounded And because they should think themselves no way hurt by his sufferings and base usage in the world he tels them in the verse that all was for their good no man should be offended at his own good they had no reason to take scandall at that which was for their good but saith he if you think basely of me for my sufferings you think basely of your own comfort for my sufferings are for your good and my comforts are for your good whether I suffer or be comforted it is or you The crosse is a distastfull thing to us and likewise the crosse in others is a distastefull thing not onely distastfull and bitter to us but shamefull St. Paul knowing this because he would as I said work himself into their good conceit that he might prevaile with them for their good saith he you ought not to think a whit the worse of me for this for all is for you So you see the scope of the words Whether we be afflicted it is for your c. But first he speakes of affliction alone and then of comfort alone If we be afflicted it is for your good and if we be comforted it is for your good His reason is because sometimes afflictions appeare without comfort therefore he saith not If we be comforted onely it is for your good but if we be afflicted it is for your good Sometimes comfort is before our afflictions that we may indure it the better God cheares us to it Sometimes God sheds his Spirit in affliction that there is abundance of comfort in it but for the most part it comes after after we have waited but in it there is always such a measure of comfort that supports us that we sink not yet the speciall degree of comfort usually comes after therefore he speaks of affliction in the first place If I be afflicted it is for you c. The Point is easie that The afflictions of the Saints are for the good of others The afflictions of Gods Church are Gods peoples especially the afflictions of Pastors and Leaders of Gods Armie God singles out some to suffer for the good of others the good especially of consolation and salvation for these two goods How can this be that the afflictions of Gods people are for the consolation and salvation of others I answer many wayes as we shall see afterwards more particularly but onely now to make way Afflictions are for the good and comfort of others because we have their example in suffering to traine us up how to suffer Example is a forcible kinde of teaching therefore saith the Apostle our afflictions are for you to lead and teach you the way how to suffer Words are not enough especially in matter of suffering there must be some example therefore Christ from Heaven came not onely to redeem us but to teach us not onely by words but by example how to doe and suffer willingly and chearfully and stoutly in obedience to God as he
to the Church that we can do God no longer service and so a man may desire to live still and be afraid of death if he look upon death in the glasse of nature and in the glasse of the Law likewise that it comes in as a punishment of sin so indeed it is terrible it is the King of fears But look upon it in another glass in the glass of the Gospel as it is sweetned and as it is disarmed by Christ and so it is comfortable Better is the day of death then the day of birth for in our birth we come into miserie in death we go from it So upon diverse considerations we may be diversly affected and have diverse rspects to things for the soul of man is framed so to be carried to the present object and therefore to a good man in some respects at sometime death is terrible he trembles at it which upon higher considerations and respects he imbraceth willingly Indeed it is a signe of a wise man to value life it is the opportunitie and advantage to honour God After death we are receivers and not doers then we receive our wages but while we are here we should desire even for the glory that is reserved for us to do all the good we can because the time of life is that blessed advantage of doing good and of taking good It is to be in heaven before our time to do others good and to get evidence of heaven for our selves This is the second thing that as Gods children are suffered to fall into extream dangers so they are very sensible of them especially in matter of death which is the last enemie there the Devil sets upon them indeed he knows that that is the last enemy and that there he must get all or lose all and he labours to make death more terrible then it is or should be The way not to fear death and not to let nature have over-much scope is to disarm death before hand to pluck out the sting of it by repentance weaken it before hand that it may not get the better Even as we doe with our enemies the way to overcome them is to weaken them to weaken their Forces to starve them if we can to intercept all their provision What makes death terrible and strong we put stings into it our sins our sins against conscience the time will come when conscience will awaken and it will be then if ever to our comfort and then our former sins will stare in our faces the sins of our youth the sins that we have before neglected soundly to repent for therefore let us labour this way to make death less terrible Again That we may not fear it over-much let us look upon it in the glasse of the Gospel as it is now in Christ as it is turned cleane another way Now it hath sweet names it is called a dissolution a departure a sleeping a going to our Fathers and such like God doth sweeten a bitter thing that it may enter into us with lesse terrour so it must be our wisdom to sweeten the meditation of it by Evangelicall considerations what it is now by Christ. And withall to meditate the two termes from whence and whither what a blessed change it is if we be in Christ it is a change for the better better company better imployment a better place all better Who would be grieved at and afraid of death Let us recal the promise of the presence of God he wil be with us to death and in death Blessed are those that die in the Lord. And especially faith in Christ wil make us that we shal not fear death when we shall see him our head in heaven before us ready to receive us when we come there and to see our selves in heaven already in him as verily in faith and in the promise as if we were there We are set in heavenly places with Christ already Let us have these and such like considerations to sweeten the thought of death But to touch this which is an Appendix to that formerly mentioned that Gods children are deceived concerning their death oft-times The time of death is uncertain St. Paul thought he should have dyed when he did not he was deceived There is a double errour about death sometimes we think we shall not dye when indeed we are dead men sometimes we receive the sentence of death we passe a censure upon our selves that we cannot live when God intends our escape so it is uncertain to us the houre of death sometime we are uncertain when it is certain sometime we think it certain when it falls not out so both wayes we are deceived Because God will have us while we live here to be at an uncertaintie for the very moment of death Our times are in his hand Our time of life is in his hand we came into the world when he thought good our time of living here is in his hands we live just as long as he will have us our time of death is in his hand The Prophet saith not only my time is in thy hands but my times my time of comming into the world my time of living in the world and my time of going out of the world shall be when thou shalt appoint me therefore he will have us uncertain of it our selves till the moment of death come St. Paul was deceived He received the sentence of death in himself but he dyed not at that time So that the manner and circumstances of death are uncertain whether it shall be violent or faire death it shall beby diseases or by casualties whether at home or abroad all the circumstances of death are hidden from us as well as death it selfe and the time of it And this is out of heavenly wisdome and love of God to us that we should at all times be provided and prepared for our dissolution change It is left at this uncertainty that we might make our estate certaine to be fitted to die at all times Let us make that use of it to provide every day oh it were a happy thing if we could make every day as it were another life a severall life and passe sentence upon our selves a possible and probable sentence it may be this day may be the last day And let us end every day as we would end our lives how would we end our lives we would end them with repentance for our sins past with commending our souls into the hands of God with resolution purpose to please God in all things with disposing all things wisely in this world Let us end our daies every day so as much as possible may be let us set every thing right let us set the state of our souls in order set all in order as much as may be every day it were a blessed course if we could do so And this is one part one main branch of our corruption wherein it shews it self
see our interest in his humiliation and exaltation in glory because he is the second Adam These things should raise up our thoughts wondrously to think of his humiliation and his exaltation and of the love and mercy of God in him And then think of what you will nothing is discouraging think of death of hell of the day of Judgment think of Satan of the curse of the Law they are terrible things I but think of the Son of God of Christ anointed of God the Father to satisfie the Law to satisfie his Justice to overcome Satan to crush his head to be our Saviour as well as our Judge at the day of Judgment these things will make all vanish Things that are most tetrible to the nature of man without the consideration of Jesus Christ the Son of God all are most comfortable when we think of him Now when we think of Satan we think of one crushed and trod under foot as he shall be ere long When we think of Judgment we think of a Saviour that shall be our Judge when we think of God we think of God reconciled in Christ. We have accesse by Christ to the Throne of grace he is now in heaven and makes intercession for us When we think of death we think of a passage to life where we shall be with him I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. So the things that are most uncomfortable yet bring the consideration of them to Christ exalted in heaven having triumphed over all these in our nature and sits at Gods right hand The thoughts of these things are comfortable meditations Nay think of that which is the most terrible of all the Justice of God his anger for sin it is a matter of comfort above all other God is just to punish and revenge sin what then because he is just he will not punish â—…hing twice but his justice is fully satisfied aad contented in his Son Christ Jesus whom he hath anointed and predestinate and sent himself and he must needs acknowledge that satisfaction that is done by him that he hath sent himself hereupon we come to think comfortably of Gods Justice God out of Christ is a consuming fire there is nothing more terrible then God without Christ but now in Christ we can think of the most terrible thing in God with comfort Therefore S. Paul makes it the main scope of his preaching and so should we of ours and you should make it your main desire in hearing and the main subject matter of your meditating something concerning Christ. Let us often think of our nature in him now exalted in heaven and that we shall follow him ere long our head is gone before and he will not suffer his body alwayes to rot in the earth let us think of his natures and his offices and all the blessed prerogatives that we have by him and all the enemies that are conquered by him that in him we have God reconciled and the Devil vanquished we have heaven opened and hell shut we have our sins pardoned and our imperfections by little and little cured in him we have all in all There are four things that the Apostle speaks of which includes all 1 Cor. 1. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made to us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Christ Jesus is all in all if we be ignorant he is our wisdome if we want righteousnesse and holinesse to stand before God he is ouâ—… righteousnesse we stand righteous being cloathed with his righteousnesse If we want Grace Of his fulnesse we receive Grace for Grace he is sanctification to us If we be miserable as we shall be to our sense our bodies shall be turned to rottennesse he is our redemption not onely of the soul but of the body he shall make our bodies like his glorious body as he makes our soules glorious by his Spirit conforming them to his own Image here he means here redemption of our bodies from corruption as well as of our soules from sin He is all in all in sin he is sanctification in death he is life in ignorance he is wisdome there is nothing ill in us but there is abundant satisfaction and remedy in Christ. I speak this the rather to shew what reason S. Paul had to stand on this That all his preaching was to bring Christ Jesus among them I go on The Son of God Jesus Christ preached among you All the good we have by Christ is conveyed by the Ministery Despise that and despise Christ himself Therefore whatsoever benefits we have by Christ they are attributed to preaching they are attributed to the Gospel as it is preached and unfolded therefore it is called the Gospel of the Kingdome The Word of reconciliation The Word of life The Word of faith all these are by Christ but it is no matter whatsoever we have by Christ we must have it by Jesus Christ unfolded in the Ministery of the Word despise the Ministery that is contemptible to flesh and blood and despise Christ himself despise the Kingdome and life and all for Christ preached is that we must relie on Christ unfolded the bread of life must be broken the sacrifice must be anatomized and laid open Christ Jesus the Son of God must be preached he profits not but as he is preached his riches must be unfolded The unsearchable riches of Christ. Therefore God that hath appointed us to be saved by Christ hath appointed and ordained preaching to lay open Jesus Christ among us But to come to the third Point why doth he bring in consent to help By me and Silvanus and Timotheus would not his own authority serve the turn I answer no it would not sometimes In it self it will but in regard of the weaknesse of men it is necessary to joyn the consent of others S. Paul was an Apostle of Christ but he knew that they were so weak that they would regard his testimony the more for the joynt testimony of Timotheus and Silvanus and the rest God considers not so much what is true in it self as how to stablish our faith in it As in the Sacrament would not God give Christ and his benefits is he not true of his Word Yes but he gives the Sacrament for us his promises are sure enough yet he condescends to our weaknesse to adde Sacrament and oath and all the props that may be So the men of God that are led by the Spirit of God though their own authority were sufficient yet they condescend to the weaknesse of others Therefore S. Paul alledgeth with himself Silvanus and Timotheus to strengthen them the better Then again consent is a lovely thing and proceeds from love how sweet a thing is it for brethren to dwell together in unity therefore we ought to stand much upon consent if it may perswade us But as Cyprian saith well it must be consent in the truth Consent that is not
Christ. Use. To study Christ. Why Christians are no more comfortable Job 15. 11. Doct. The afflictions of the Saints for the good of others 4. They gather assurance of the same assistance 5. It is Gods intent and their intent that suffer Use 1. To make use of examples of 〈◊〉 Simile Ground of patience Use 3. To communicate our estate to others The Popes treasurie Doct. The good we have by others afflictions is by stirring up grace in us Doct. We come to the possession of salvation by patience Patience helps salvateon 1 It cleares our evidence 2 By way of qualification Of the person 2 By removing hindrances 3 They strengthen graces 4 They whet our desire of heaven All Christians suffer 1. By sympathy 2 By scandals 3 The burthen of of our calling 4 Combat between flesh and spirit Doct. Gods Children do good in every Condition Use. To be content in all conditions God aymes at many things in the same affliction To obsâ—…rve Gods providence in our suffering Doctr. Gods Children partake of the sufferings of others 1. By sympathy 2. By proportion Indisposition Reas. The communion between Chrians 3. Vnions 1. Of Christ and our nature 2. Of Christ mystâ—…cal head and members 3. Of one member with another 1 Reas. There is some ill to be wrought out of us 2 Reas. To commend comfort to us Use 2 Terrour to those that will not suffer Doct. Those that suffer as they should are sure of comfort Those that partake in the sins shall in the judgment of others Certainty double Double efficacy in hope 1. In the party that hopes of another Doct. We may stedfastly hope for performance of divine truths Comfort to Christians Good men in affliction censured Object 1. Cor 10 13. Object Answ. Object Answ. Doct. God suffers his Children to fall into great extremity Reas. 1. Reas. 2. Reas. 3. Reas. 4. Reas. 5. Reas. 6. Use 1 Not to censure those that suffer Use 2. Not to be confident of earthly things Doct. Gods children sensible of afflictions Quest. Ans. Reas. 1. Death anenemy to nature and to natural comforts Reas. 2. It parts the best friends Reas. 3. Itcuts off all imployment Reas. 4. We leave those we had care of Reas. 5. Pain in death Reas. 6. The horror of the grave Reas. 7. Death the wages of sin Reas 8. St. Paul desired life to serve the Church Use 1. Terrour to wicked men Vse Comfort to Christians The way not to fear death Observ. Gods children are deceived in their death Gods end in St. Pauls sufferings Doct. Certaintie of death helps against self-confidence Physitian fault to flatter the sick Doct. Gods children are prone to self-confidence Reas. 1. The things of this life are useful Reas. 3. Sensuality besâ—…ts nature Use To justifie God dealing 1. In the falls of great Christians 2. Doing great things by weak means Use. To take heed of false confidence Signs of false confidence 1 When we are proud of these things 2. Too much grief in their losse Fretting at crosses 3. When we contemn others that want them 4. Security Doc. It is a dangerous estate to trust in our selves 1. In respect of God 1. It is Idolatry 2. It is Adultery 3. It is falshood 4. Ignorance 5. Rebellion 6. Impatience 2. To our selves It brings us under a curse Jer. 71. False trust breeds despairs We must not trust our own graces Not in the humanity of Christ. Not in the Saements Creatures may be trusted subordinately Worldlings trust creatures above God Against God How to cure false confidence Why God seldom works by great meanes Why God carries our salvation by contraries Learn to know our selves St. Paul to learn to trust in God Comfort for weak Christians Doct. God to make us trust in him casts us out of our selves Simile Reas. One contrary must be removed to make way for another Use. Not to murmure at Gods work Use 2. To examine what effect afflictions work Use 3. Not to judge amisse of the afflicted Vse 4. To lament our stubbornnesse of heart Doct. God in all outward things that are ill in tends the good of the soul. Reas. The soule the better part Obser. The soul must have somewhat to trust to The soul made for God Doct. God is the object of trust God in Christ the object of trust Use. To see the vanity of all other confidence A great favour that God will be trusted by us Doct. Trust in God is a main duty Tryals of trust in God 1. Seeking to him in extremity 2. To use the meanes 3. To be quiet upon use of meaâ—…s 4. Not to despair in want of meanes 5. To keep God our friend 6. To trust threatnings as well as promises 7. To trust God for all things Helpes to trust in God 3. The promises of God 1. Generall 2. Particular Outward things promised with condition Trust how exercised in great afflictions We are beaten from all other help 2. Put the promises in suit 1. The promises of presence 2. Of mitigotion Trust how exercised in the hour of death Use. Ground of patience and content Effect of afflictions To Gods children To the wicked To desire God to draw us neer him by crosses God to strengthen our trust hath given us 1. His promise 2. His seale 3. His oath 4. Earnest 5. A pawne 6. Seizon Object Answ. Meanes of trust to unbelievers Objectâ—… Prayer to God Doct. The resurrection an argument to strengthen faith Doct. God will raise from the dead Gods manner to work when there is no hope Use. To answer Gods worke with our faith Luther How to argue in extremity To extract contrary principles to Satan To carry our selves as expecting the resurrection Doct. 1. God doth not at the first deliver his children Reason 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Doct. 2. God delivers after he hath done his work Use. To wait Gods time Gods time to deliver is 1. When we are low 2. When we are inlarged to pray Grounds of waiting Doct. Gods Children alway need deliverance 2. Spiritually An inward guard God delivereth us from our selves Christians have deliverance in troubles Providnce what Use. To carry our selves reverently to God Doct. A Christian may rely on God for time to come 1. Upon the Name of God 2. His properties 3. His covenant 4. Experience of Gods Children 1. Tim 4. 18. Objct. Gods Children miscarry in afflictions Answ. God delivers them 1. So as they desire 2. He delivers them in afflictions Deliverance open secret Deliverance partial to all Deliverance by death Promises of outward things with reservation Doct It is a good argument from former experience to future deliverance Used by the head of the Church Of the Church Use. To lay up observations of Gods dealing 2. Consider the promises 3 To have sanctified memories to remember deliverances How to argue in spiritual troubles Wicked men cannot argue from former experience of deliverance Use. To be constant in our service to God The happinesse of a
in the Creation and in the Gospel his mercy therefore is above his own workes and above thy workes if thou come in Oyl is of a Kingly nature it swims above all other liquors so the mercy of God like oyl it swims above all other attributes in him and above all sin in thee if thou wilt receive it Father of Mercies In a corrupt estate the special mercy is forgiving mercy if it were not for forgiving mercies all other gifts and mercies were to little purpose for it were but a reserving of us to eternal Judgement but a feeding the Traitor to the day of Execution a giving him the liberty of the priison which is nothing unlesse his Treason be pardoned so the forgiving mercy leads to all the rest Now these forgiving mercies they are unlimitted mercies there is no bounds of them for he being the Father of Christ who is an infinite person and having received an infinite satisfaction from an infinite Person he may well be infinitely merciful and himself is an infinite God his mercies are like himself the satisfaction whereby he may be merciful is infinite hereupon it is that he may pardon and will pardon all sin without limitation if they be never so great never so many This I observe the rather to appease the conscience of a sinner when it is suppressed with terrour and fear of the greatnesse of his sins Consider how God hath set down himself and will be known and apprehended of us not onely as merciful but a Father of mercies and not of one mercy but of all mercies not only giving but forgiving especially Which forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thy infirmities Psal. 103. This I observe against a pronenesse in us to despair we are not now proner in the time of peace to presume then when conscience is awakened to despair we are prone to both alike For here is the poyson of mans corruption Is God so merciful surely I may go on in sin and cry God mercy and there is an end God is merciful nay the Father of mercies Now in the time of peace sin is nothing with us swearing is nothing rotten discourse is nothing going beyond others in our dealing and commerce is nothing getting an estate by fraud and deceit is nothing The bread of deceit is sweet loose licentious libertine life is nothing and those that do not follow the same excesse and are dissolute it is a strange matter with us they are strange people we think it strange that others do not so and if they be better then we it is but hypocrisie men measure all by themselves so all is nothing Great grosse swearing is nothing men glory in it and to make scruple of it it is thus and thus they have terms for it And what is the bawde for all this Oh! God is merciful and Christ he is wonderous merciful he took our nature that he might die for us c. It is true indeed but when the conscience is awakened then the conscience will tell thee another lesson the conscience will set God as just and Satan will help conscience with accusations and aggravations it is true it is too true the conscience will take part with God and with his word it is true thou hast done thus and thus these are thy sins and God is just And especially at the hour of death when earthly comforts fail and there is nothing but sin set before a mans eyes the comforts that are set before him can do him no good then the conscience will hardly receive any comfort especially the conscienconsciences of such as have gone on in a course of sin in spight of good meanes a conscience of such a man as either refuseth or rejects the meanes because it would favour it self in sin or a conscience that being under means having had it sins discovered to it that conscience will hardly admit of any comfort And there is none but they find it another manner of matter then they think it Sin is a blacker thing then they imagine their oathes that they trifle with and their dissolute and their rotten discourse when they should be better affected upon the sabbath and such like therefore we ought to look to it Well to presse this point of presumption a little further now I am in it We are wonderous prone to abuse this mercie to presumption and after to despaire I consider this before hand that however Gods mercy be unlimited as indeed it is in it self it is so unlimited to those that repent and to those that receive and embrace mercy and mercy in one kind as well as another it is so to those that repent of their sins for God is so the Father of Mercie as that He is the God of Vengeance too he is a just God too The conscience will tell you this well enough when the outward comforts that now you dally with and set as Gods in the room of God and drown your selves in sensuality and Idolatry with the creature and put them in the place of God when they are taken away conscience will tell you that God is merciful indeed but he is just to such that refuse mercies Therefore though his mercy be unlimited to such as are broken hearted to such as repent of their sins for he will glorifie his Mercy as he may glorifie his other attributs he is wisely merciful if he should be merciful to such as go on in sin he should not be wisely merciful Who among men if he be wise would be mercifull to a Child or Servant without acknowledgement of the fault Was not David over merciful to Absalom Yes it was his fault yet out of wisdome he would not admit him into his presence till he was humbled for his fault and made intercession though he doted upon him God is infinitely wise as he is Merciful therefore He will not be Merciful to him that goes on in wickednesse and sin This cannot be too often pressed for the most of the auditors wheresoever we speak the Divel hath them in this snare that God is merciful c. and doth he not know how to use it He is so indeed but it is to repentant souls that mean to break off their course of sin Otherwise if the Mercie of God work the other way hearken to thy doom He that blesseth himself saith God by Moses Denteronomy 29. 16 saith these curses shall not come to me he that blesseth himself and saith Oh all shall be well God is Mercifull c. My wrath shall smoak against him and I will not be merciful to him that goes on in his sins God will wound the hairie scalp of him that goes on in Sin As the Apostle saith Romans 2. he that abuseth the bountie and patience of God that should lead him to repentance he treasureth up wrath against the day of wrath The Scripture is never in any case more terrible then this way In
shut but he keepes Court every day therefore Christ in the Gospel enjoynes us to go to God every day every day we say the Lords prayer forgive us our trespasses insinuating that the Court of mercy is kept every day to take out our pardon every day there is a pardon of course taken out At what time soever a sinner repents c. How shall we improve this mercy every day Do this when thou hast made a breach in thy conscience every day believe this that God is the Father of mercies and he may well be merciful now because he hath been sufficiently satisfied by the death of Christ He is the Father of Christ and the Father of mercies This do every day And withall consider our condition and estate is a state of dependance In him we live and move and have our being this will force us to mercie that he would hold us in the same estate we are in and go on with the work of grace that he would uphold us in health for that depends upon him that he would uphold us in peace for that depends upon him he is the God of peace that he would uphold us in comfort and strength to do good and resist evil we are in a dependant state and condition in all good of body and soul. He upholds the whole world and every particular let him take away his hand of merciful protection and susteining from us and we sink presently And every day consider how we are invironed with any danger remember we have compassing mercies as we have compassing dangers as it is Psal. 32. Mercy compasseth us round about Every day indeed we have need of mercie that is the way to have mercy here is a fountain of mercie the Father of mercy bowels opened the onely way to use it is to see what need we have of mercie and to flie to God to see what need we have in our souls and in regard of outward estate and to see that our condition is a dependant condition And lastly to make a use of thanfulnesse Blessed be God the Father of mercy we have the mercie of publick continued peace when others have war and their estates are consumed blessed be God the Father of mercie we sit under our own Vines and under our own figtrees If we have any personal mercies blessed be God the Father of mercies this way if he shew mercie to our souls and pardon our sins blessed be God the Father of mercies in this kind that he hath taken us and redeemed us out of that cursed estate that others walk in that are yet in their sins Oh it is a mercie and for this we should have inlarged hearts And withal consider the fearful estate of others that God doth not shew mercie to and this will make us thankfull As for instance if a man would be thankfull that hath a pardon let him see another executed that is broken upon the Wheele or the Rack or cut in pieces and tortured and then he will think I was in the same estate as this man is and I am pardoned Oh what a gratious Soveraign have I The consideration of the fearefull estate out of mercie what a fearefull estate those are in that live in sins against conscience that they are ready to drop into Hell when God strikes them with death if they dye so what a fearefull estate they are in and that God should give me pardon and grace to enter into another course of life that though I have not much grace yet I know it is true I am the child of God the consideration of the miserie of others in part in this world without repentance and especially what they shall suffer in Hell to consider the torment of the souls that are not in the state of Grace this will make us thankfull for mercies for pardoning and forgiving mercies for protecting mercies that God hath left thousands in the course of nature going on in a wilfull course of sinne This is that that the Apostle here practiseth Blessed be God the Father of mercies The other stile here is The God of all comfort The life of a Christian is a mysterie as in many respects so in this that whereas the flesh in him though he be not altogether flesh thinks him to be a man disconsolate the spirit finds matter of comfort and glory From whence the world begins discouragement and the flesh upbraiding from thence the spirit of God in holy Saint Paul begins matter of glory they thought him a man neglected of God because he was afflicted no saith he Blessed be the God of all comfort our comforts are above our discomforts As the wisdom of the flesh is enmitie to God and his spirit in all things so in this in the judgment of the cross for that which is bitterest to the flesh is sweetest to the spirit Saint Paul therefore opposeth his comforts spirituall to his disgraces outward and because it is unfit to mention any comfort any good from God without blessing of him that is the spring and fountain from whence we have all he takes occasion together with the mention of comfort to blesse God The God of all comfort The verse contains a wise prevention of scandall at the cross Saint Paul was a man of sorrows if ever any was next to Christ himselfe and that might prevent all scandall at his crosses and disgracefull afflicted usage he doth shew his comforts under the cross which he would not have wanted to have been without his cross therefore he begins here with praysing of God We praise God for favours and indeed the comforts he had in his crosses were more then the grievance he had by them therefore had cause to bless God Blessed be God c. The God of all comfort The God of comfort and the God of All comfort we must give Saint Paul leave to be thus large for his heart was full and a full heart a full expression And he speaks not out of books but from sense and feeling though he knew well enough that God was the Father of mercie God of all comfort that way yet these be wordsthat come from the heart come from feeling rather then from the tongue they came not from Saint Pauls pen onely his pen was first dipt in his heart and soule when he wrote this God is the Father of mercie and God of all comfort I feele him so he comforts me in all tribulations The God of all comfort To explaine the word a little Comfort is either the thing it selfe a comfortable outward thing a blessing of God wherein comfort is hid or else it is reasons because a man is an understanding creature reasons from which comfort is grounded or it is a real comfort inward and spirituall by the assistance and strength of the Spirit of God when perhaps there is no outward thing to comfort and perhaps reasons and discourse are not present at that time yet
phrase that puffs them up they are but Gods in a kind of sence and the other are but creatures in a kind of sence because perhaps they have nothing in them and in that sence deservedly creatures but it is proper to God to make somewhat of nothing and so he is the God of Comfort where there is no comfort at all he can raise comfort as he made the World of nothing by his very Word And which is more it is the property of God as God it is peculiar to God to make comfort out of that which is contrary therein he shews himself most to be a God of all he can raise comfort out of discomfort life out of death When Christ had been three dayes in the grave he raised him As it is with the head of comfort with the head of believers so it is with every particular Christian he raiseth them out of death those that sow in sorrow they reape in joy What cannot he do that can raise comfort out of discomfort and discomforts oftimes are the occasions of the greatest comforts Let a Christian go back to the former course of his life and he shall find that the greatest crosses that ever he suffered will yeeld him most comfort and who did this certainly it must be God that can raise all out of nothing and that can make comfort not only out of comfortable creatures that are ordained for comfort but he can draw honey out of the Lions belly Out of the eater came meat and out of the stronge câ—me sweetnesse saith Sampson in his Riddle When a hony combe shall câ—â—â— out of the Lions belly certainly this is a miracle this may well be a Riddle This is the Riddle of Christianity that God who is the God of comfort he raiseth comforts out of our chief discomforts he can create it out of that which is contrary Therefore Luthers speech is very good All things come from God to his Church especially in contraries as he is righteousnesse but it is in sin felt he is comfort but it is in misery he is life but it is in death we must die before we live indeed he is all but it is in nothing in the soul that feels it self to be nothing there is the foundation for God to work on Therefore the God of comfort can create comfort if none be he can make comfort if the contrary be he can raise contraries out of contraries he is the God of all comfort Every word hath Emphasis and strength in it The God of all Comfort Amongst divers other things that flow from hence mark the order he is the God and Father of Christ first and then the Father of mercy and the God of comfort Take him out of this order and think not of him as a God of comfort but as a Consuming fire but take the method of the text now he is the God of comfort after he is the Father of Christ. This being laid as a ground the text it self as a doctrine what subordinate truths arise hence First of all if God be God of all comfort there is this conclusion hence that Whatsoever the meanes of Comfort be God is the spring of it Christ is the Conduit next to God for he is close to God God is the God of Christ and the Holy Ghost is usually the stream The streams of comfort come through Christ the Conduit from God the Father the fountain by the graces of the Spirit But I speak of outward comforts Blessed be God the Father Son and Holy Ghost all are comforters God the father is the father of comfort the Holy Ghost is the comforter Christ Jesus likewise is the God of Comfort whatsoever the outward meanes be yet God the Father Son and Holy Ghost are the comforters take them together that is the conclusion hence I observe it the rather to cure a disposition to Atheisme in men that look bruitishly to the thing they look to the comfort and never look to the comforter even for outward comforts Wicked men their bellies are filled with the comforts of God but it is with things that are comfortable that are abstracted from the comforter they care not for the root the favour and mercy of God so they have the thing they care not Therefore they are not thankful to God nor in their wants they go not to the God of comfort why they think they have supply enough they have friends they have riches that are their strong hold and if they have outward necessaries to supply and comfort them that is all they care for as for the God of comfort they trouble not their hands with him A Christian whatsoever the comfort be if it be outward he knowes that the God of comfort sends it and that is the reason he is so thankful for all outward comforts if they be the necessaries for this life in meat he tasts the comfort of God in drink he tasts the comfort of God in the ornaments of this life he tasts the comfort of God It is God that heates him with fire it is God that cloaths him with garments it is God that feeds him with meat it is God that refresheth his senses in these comforts Therefore the Heathen out of their Ignorance they made every thing a God that was comfortable out of which they received comfort they made a God of the fire and of the water these are but instruments of the God of comfort but the Heathen made gods of them A Christian doth not so but he sees God in them and drives these streames from the fountain God is seen to be the God of Comfort in them all Again considering that God is The God of all comfort This should teach us as thankfulnesse to God so prayer in the want of any comfort that he would both give the thing and the comfort of the thing We may have the thing and the wrath of God with it but thou that art the God of comfort vouchsafe the outward comforts to us and vouchsafe comfort with them thou that art the God of every thing and of the comfort of the thing vouchsafe both Again if God be the God of all comfort whatsoever then here is a ground of diverse other truthes as for instance that if we look for any comfort from the things or from reasons and discourse or from God we should go to God in the use of the thing before the use after the use at all times before the use that God would suggest either by reading or hearing c. reasons of comfort in the use that he would settle and seal comfort to our souls Lord I hear many sweet things I read many comfortable things these would affect a stone almost yet unlesse thou set them on my soule they will never comfort me thou art the God of comfort the materials are from thee but except with revelation discovery thou joyne application all will not
conscience of those that are awakened and Satan useth that as a means to despair in every crosse Therefore let us search and try our souls for our sins for our chief discomfort are from sin for alas what are all other comforts and what are all other discomforts If a mans conscience be quiet what are all discomforts and if conscience be on the rack what are all comforts the disquiet and vexation of sin is the greatest of all because then we have to deal with God when sin is presented before us and the judgements of God and God as an angry judge and conscience is awaked and on the rack what in the world can take up the quarrel and appease conscience when we and God are at difference when the soul speaks nothing but discomfort In this case remember that God doth so far prevent objections in this kind from the accusations of conscience that he reasons that he will comfort us from that that cöscience reasons against comfort he doth this in the hearts of his children to whom he means to shew mercy as we see in the poor Publi Lord be merciful to me a sinner saith he God taught him that reasoning Nature would have taught him to reason as Peter did Lord depart from me I am a sinful man and therefore I have nothing to do with God So our Saviour Christ Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden they think of all people they ought to run from God they are so laden with sin they have nothing to do with God Oh come unto me saith Christ. Therefore when thy conscience is awakened with the sense of sin remember what is said in the Gospel Be of good comfort be calleth thee be thou of good comfort thou art one that Christ calls Come unto me ye that are we ary and heavy laden and Blessed are those that mourn That which thou and the Divel with thy conscience would move thee to use as an argument to run away our Saviour Christ in the Gospel useth as an argument to draw thee forward he comes for such to seek and to save the lost sinners This is a faithful saying saith St. Paul that Christ came to save sinners therefore believe not Satan he presents God to the soul that is humbled and terrified in the sight of sin as cruel as a terrible judge c. He hides the mercy of God from such to men that are in a sinful course he shewes nothing but mercy I but now there is nothing but comfort to thee that art cast down and afflicted in the sence of thy sins for all the comforts in the Gospel of forgivenesse of sins and all the comforts from Christs Incarnation the end of his coming in the flesh the end of his death and of all is to save sinners Look thou therefore to the throne of mercy and grace when thy conscience shall be awakened with the sence of sin and Satan shall use that as an argument to draw thee from God consider the Scripture useth this as an argument to drive me to God to allure me to him Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden And Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost Luther a man much exercised in Spiritual conflicts he confessed this was the Balme that did most refresh his soul God hath shut up all under sin that he might have mercy upon all He shut up all under sin as prisoners to see themselves under sin and under the curse that he might have mercy upon all upon all those that are convinced with the sence and sight of their sins he hath shut up all under sin that he might have mercy upon all those that belong to him This raised up that blessed man therefore let us not be much discomforted but be of good comfort Christ calls us For such as are sinners that are given to the sins of the tongue and of the life to rotten discourse to swearing and such like to such as mean to be so and think their case good oh God is the God of comfort To such as I said before I can speak no comfort nor the word of God speaks none they must have another Word and another Scripture for this word speaks no comfort to such that are sinful and wretched and will be so and justifie themselves to be so All the judgments in the Scripture are theirs hell and damnation and wrath that is their portion to drink We can speak no comfort to such nor the word of God that we unfold it hath not a drop of comfort for them God will not be merciful to such as go on in wicked rotten scandalous courses that because hell hath not yet taken them they may live long and so make a covenant with hell and death and blesse themselves Oh but thou hast made no covenant with God nor he hath made none with thee and hell and death have made no covenant with thee though thou hast made one with them but there are two words go to a covenant Death and Hell shall seize upon thee notwithstanding thy covenant Those that will live in sin in despight of the ministery in spight of afflictions there is no comfort to such I speak only to the broken heart which are fit vessels for comfort God is the God of comfort to such What shall we say then to such as after they have had some evidence of their good estate that they are Christians are fallen into sin is there any comfort for such Yes doth not St. Paul in 2 Cor. 5. desire such to be reconciled to God we are as Ambassadors of Christ desiring you to be reconciled if you have sinned so God hath comfort for those that have sinned Christ knew that we should every day run into sins unawares therefore he teaches us in the Lords prayer to say every day forgive us our debts our trespasses there is Balme in Gilead there is mercie in Israel for such daylie trespasses as we run into Therefore let none be discouraged but flie presently to the God of comfort and Father of mercies And think not that he is wearie of pardoning as man is for he is infinite in mercy And though he be the party offended yet he desires peace with us But yet notwithstanding that we shall not love to run into his Bookes he doth with giving the comfort of the pardon of sin when we fall into it add such sharpe crosses as we shall wish we had not given him occasion to correct us so sharpely we shall buy our comfort dear we had better not have given him occasion God forgave the sin of David after he had repented though he were a good man before but David bought the pleasure of his sin dear he wished a thousand times that he had never given occasion to God to raise good out of his evil to turn his sin to his comfort yet God will do this because God
else will Therefore let us every day be setting our selves in some good way for comfort is in comfortable courses and not in ill courses in Gods waies we shall have Gods comforts In those waies let us exercise the spiritual strength we have let us pray to God and performe the exercise of Religion with strength shew some zeal in it let us shew some zeal against sin if occasion be if it be in Gods work in Gods way Let a man set himself upon a good worke especially when it is in opposition for the honour of God and the peace of his conscience presently there is comfort upon it And that we may not be discouraged with the imperfection of our performances one way of daily comfort is to consider the condition of the covenant of Grace between God and us In the covenant of Grace our performances if they be sincere they are accepted and it is the perfection of the Gospel sincerity Sincerity will look God in the face with comfort because he is with the upright so much truth in all our dealings so much comfort And with sincerity labour for growth to grow better and better God in the Gospel meanes to bring us to perfection in heaven by little and little In the law there was present perfection required but in the Gospel God requires that we should come to perfection by little and little as Christ by little and little satisfyed for our sins and not all at once In the condition of the covenant of Grace we must live and grow by grace by little and little and not all at once The condition of the covenant of grace is not to him that hath strength of grace in perfection but if we believe and labour to walke with God if there be truth of Grace truth goes for perfection in the covenant of Grace We should labour for sound knowledge of the covenant of Grace that now we are freed from the rigor as well as from the curse of the law that though we have imperfections yet God will be our father and in this condition of imperfection he will be a pardoning father and lookes on our obedience though it be feeble and weak and imperfect yet being the obedience of children in the covenant of grace and he accepts of what is his owne and pardons what is ours And every day labour to preserve the comforts of the spirit that we have not to grieve the spirit for comfort comes with the spirit of God as heat accompanies the fire As wheresoever fire is there is heat so wheresoever the spirit of God is there is comfort because the spirit of God is God and God is with comfort wheresoever comfort is God is and wheresoever God is there is comfort If we would have comfort continually every day let us carefully watch that we give way to the spirit of God by good actions and meditations and exercises And by no meanes grieve the spirit or resist the spirit for then we resist comfort If we speake any thing that is ill we lose our comfort for that time conscience will check us we have grieved the spirit If we heare any thing with applause and are not touched with it we lose our comfort conscience will tell us we are dead-hearted and not affected as we should be there is a great deal of flesh and corruption that is affected with such rotten discourse And so if we venture upon occasions we shall grieve the spirit either if we speak somewhat to satisfie others that are nought or if we hear somewhat that is ill from others Want of wisdome in this kind doth make us go without comfort many times want of wisdom to single out our companie or else if we be with such to do that that may please them and grieve the spirit and hinder our own comfort These and such like directions if we would observe we might walk in a course of comfort the God of comfort hath prescribed this in the book of comfort These are the courses for Gods children to walk in a comfortable way till they come to heaven More especially if we would at any time take a more full measure of comfort then take the book of God into your hand those are comforts that refresh the soul single out some speciall portion of scripture and there you shall have a world of comfort As for example let a man single out the epistle to the Romans if a man be in any grievance whatsoever what a world of comfort is there fitting for every maladie there is a method how to come to comfort There St. Paul in the beginning first strips all men of confidence of any thing in themselves and tells them that no man can be saved by works Jewes nor Gentiles but all by the righteousnesse of God in Christ All are deprived of the Glorie of God Jewes and Gentiles every bodie And when we are brought to Christ he tells us in the later end of the third Chapter that by Christ we have the forgivenesse of all our former sins whatsoever he is the propitiation for our sins In the 4. Chapter he comforts us by the example of Abraham and David that they were justified without works by faith not by works of their own but by laying hold of the promises of comfort and salvation meerly by Christ and all that saith St. Paul is written for us But in the first Chapter especially because all the miseries of this life come from the first Adam because we are Children of the first Adam death and miserie comes from that he opposeth the comfort in the second Adam and he shewes that there is more comfort by the second Adam then there is discomfort by the first Righteousnesse in the second Adam reigns to life everlasting and Glorie Sin and miserie came by the first but there is the pardon of all sin by the second Adam he doth excellently oppose them in the latter end of that Chapter In the begining of the fifth Chapter he shewes there the method and descent of joy Being justified by faith in Christ we have peace with God Considering that by the righteousnesse of Christ we are freed from sin We have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we have boldnesse to the Throne of Grace and we rejoyce in tribulation knowing that tribulation brings forth patience and patience experience and experience hope He sets himself there of purpose to comfort in all tribulation and he saith in these things we rejoyce We rejoyce in tribulation I but for our sins after our conversion after we are in the state of Grace what comfort is there for them there is excellent comfort in the fifth of the Romans If when we were enemies he gave his son for us if he saved us by the death of Christ when we were enemies much more Christ being alive and in heaven he will keep it for us and keep us to salvation now when we are
strongly that we live in an estate that we are ashamed to die in Come to some men and aske them how it is with you have you repented of your sins past have you renewed your purposes for the time to come Yes we doe it solemnly at the Communion but we should renew our repentance and renew our Covenants every day to please God that day Do you do so now If God should seize upon you now are you in the exercise of faith in the exercise of repentance in the exercise of holy purposes to please God are you in Gods wayes do you live as you would be content to dye But Satan and our own corruption bewitcheth us with a vaine hope of long life we promise our selves that that God doth not promise us we make that certain that God doth not make certain indeed we are certain of death but for the time and manner and circumstances we know them not sometimes we think we shall dye when we doe not and sometimes we dye when we think we shall not Oh will some say If I knew when I should dye I would be a prepared man I would be exact in my preparation Wouldest thou so thou art deceived Saul knew exactly he should die he took it for exact when the Witch in the shape of Samuel told him that he should dye by to morrow this time and yet he dyed desperately upon the swords point for all that he did not prepare himself It must be the Spirit of God that must prepare us for this if we knew never so much that we should die never so soon we cannot prepare our selves our preparation must be by the Spirit of God let us labour continually to be prepared for it And let no man resolve to take liberty a moment a minute of an houre to sinne God hath left it uncertain the day of death what if that moment and minute wherein thou resolvest to sin should be the moment of thy death and departure hence for it is but a minutes work to end thy dayes what if God should end thy dayes in that minute Let no man take liberty and time to sin when God gives him no liberty in sin If God should strike thee thou goest to Hell quick thou must sink from sin to Hell It is a pittifull case when as eternity depends upon our watchfulness in this world But to come to the end and issue why he was thus dealt with by God carrying him through these extremities That we might not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead Here is the end specified that God intended in suffering him to be brought so low even to deaths door that there was but a step between him and death the end is double That we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead It is set down negatively and positively First That we should not trust in our selves and then that we should trust in God And the method is excellent for we can never trust in God till we distrust our selves till our hearts be taken off from all confidence in our selves and in the creature and then when our hearts are taken off from false confidence they must have somewhat to relie on and that is God or nothing for else we shall fall into despaire The end of all this was that We might not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead The wisdom of heaven doth nothing without an end proportionable to that heavenly wisdom so all this sore affliction of the blessed Apostle what aimed it at To pull downe and to build up to pull downe selfe-confidence That we might not trust in our selves and to build up confidence and affiance in God but in God that raiseth the dead We being in a contrary state to grace and communion with God this order is necessary that God must use some way that we shall not trust in our selves and then to bring us to trust in him so these two are subordinate ends one to another We received the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves From the dependance this may be observed that The certain account of death is a meanes to weane us from our selves and to make us trust in God The sentence of death the assured knowledge that we must dye the certain expectation and looking for death is the way to wean us from the world and to fit us for God to prepare us for a better life you see it follows of necessity We received the sentence of death that we should not trust in our selves c. The looking for of death therefore takes away confidence in our selves and the creature Alas in death what can all the creatures help what can friends or physick or money help then honours and pleasures and all leave us then This the rather to note a corrupt Atheisticall course in those that are to deale with sick folk that are extreame sick that conceale their estate from them and feed them with false hopes of long life they deserve ill of persons in extremity to put them in hope of recoverie Physitians that are not Divines in some measure what doe they against their conscience and against their experience and against sense Oh I hope you shall doe well c. Alas what do they they hurt their souls they breed a false confidence it is a dangerous thing to trust upon long life when perhaps they are snatched suddenly away before they have made their accompts even with God before they have set their souls in that state they should doe Therefore the best way is to doe as good Isay did with Hezekiah set thy house in order for thou must dye that is in the disposition of second causes thou shalt have a disease that will bring thee to death and God had said so God had a reservation but it was more then Isay knew at that time Set thy house in order for thou must dye So they should begin with God to tell them as we say the worst first It is a pittifull thing that death should be accounted the worst but so it is by reason of our fearfulness deal plainly with them let them receive the sentence of death that so they may be driven out of themselves and the creature altogether and be driven to trust in God that raiseth the dead Put thy soul in order you are no man of this world lest they betray their souls for a little self-respect perhaps because they would not displease them It may be in some cases discreet to yield to make the means to work the better but where there is nothing but evident signs of death they ought to deale directly with them that they may receive the sentence of death It wrought with St. Paul this good effect I received the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead It is Gods just judgment upon Hypocrites and
the greatest excellencies are adds some imperfection to balance them Because they should not trust in themselves What is the reason that in the Church God chooseth men of meaner parts and sufficiencies the Disciples Fisher-men If they had been great men men would have said place had carried it if they had been Scholars men would have said that their learning had carried it if they had been witty men they would have said their wit had carried it it had been no marvell if they should win the world but when they saw they were mean men fisher-men sitters at the receit of custome and perhaps their parts were not great then they might attribute it to the divinenesse of the Gospel to the divinenesse of Gods truth and to Gods blessing upon it What is the reason that God suffers excellent men to fall foully sometimes St. Peter himself and David c. because they should not trust in themselves not trust in their grace not trust in any thing no not in the best things in themselves What is the reason that God goes by contraries in all the carriage of our salvation That we should not trust in our selves In our calling he calls men out of nothing He calls things that are not as if they were In Justification he justifies a sinner he that despaires of his own righteousness that no man should trust in any thing he hath or despaire if he want any perfection God justifies a sinner that despairs of himself In sanctification God sanctifies a man when he sees no goodness in himself most of all then he is a vessell fit to receive grace And he doth sanctifie him sometimes by his falls he makes him good by his slips which is a strange course to make a man better by Saith St. Austin I dare say and stand to it that it is profitable for some men to fall they grow more holy by their slips As Peter he grew stronger by his infirmitie this strange course God takes Why so That we should not trust in our selves In our calling in our justification from our sins that we should not trust in our selves nor despaire In Sanctification nay he takes a course that we shall grow better by our falls that we may be ashamed of them and be more cautelous and humble and more watchful for the time to come In glorification he will glorifie us but it shall be when we have been rotten in our graves before we must come to nothing So in every passage of salvation he goes by contraries and all to beate down confidence in our selves and that we should not distrust him in any extremity for then is the time for God to work his work most of all That we might not trust in our selves To help us further against this self-confidence let us labour to know our selves well what we are distinct from the new creature distinct from grace and glory Indeed in that respect we are something in God If we go out of our selves and see what we are in Christ we are some body for we are heires of heaven we are Kings and Rulers over all all things are subject to us hell and sinne and death we are some body there But in that wherein our nature is prone to put overmuch confidence what are we what are we as we are strong as we are rich as we are noble as we are in favour with great ones alas all is nothing because ere long it will be nothing What will all be in the houre of death when we must receive the sentence of death what will all favours do us good they will be gone What will all relations that we are stiled by this and that title what good will it do alas these end in death all earthly relations shall be laid in the dust All the honours in the earth all riches and contentments all the friends that we have what can they do nothing all shall leave us there And for us to trust in that which will faile us ere long and which being taken away we receive a great foile for he that leans to a thing if that be taken away down he falls what a shame will it be As the Heathen man said that great Emperour I have been all things and nothing doth me good now when he was to die indeed nothing could do him good Let not the rich man glorie in his riches nor the wise man glorie in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength saith the Prophet Jer. 9. 22. but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Consider what the best thing is that we have of inward things our wisdom wisdom if it be not spirituall it is onely a thing for the things of this life and we are oft times deceived in it It makes God to disappont us oft times to make us go out of our selves an excellent place for this we have in Isa. 50. the last verse Behold all ye that kindle a fire and compasse your selves about with sparkes walk in the light of your own fire c. It is a kind of Ironia and the sparks that you have kindled this you shall have of my hand ye shall lie down in sorrow Walk in the light of your own fire walk according to your own devises and projects this ye shall have at my hand ye shall lie down in sorrow God catcheth the wise in the imagination of their own hearts he disappoints the counsel and the projects of Achitophel God takes a glory in it to shame the policies and projects of those that will be wittie in a distinct way against God the best policie is to serve God and to walk uprightly That we should not trust in our selves But in God who raiseth the dead This is the other branch what we should trust in In God all this humbling of the blessed Apostle even to deaths door that he received the sentence of death it was first to subdue carnall confidence in himself he was prone to think himself stronger then he was or that he should be upheld that something or other should keep him from death that he might subdue carnal confidence and then that he might trust in God it was all for these two ends That we might not trust in our selves or in any means but in God that raiseth the dead VVas St. Paul to learn to trust in God that had been so long a Scholar in Christs School nay a Master in Israel was he to learn to trust in God Yes doubtlesse he was it is a lesson that is hardly learned and it is a lesson that we shall be learning all our life to go out of our selves and out of the creature and to go further into God to relie more and more upon him it is a lesson that we can never learn as we ought Therefore weak Christians ought not to be discouraged when they find defects and weaknesse in their trust our hearts are false and prone to trust
deliver me from every evill work and that is that which the Saints and Martyrs and all good people desire that God would deliver them that they may not sink in their minds that they despair not that they carry not themselves uncomely in troubles but so as is meet for the credit of the truth which they seal with their blood he hath delivered me and he will deliver me from every evill work and what saith he afterwards He shall preserve me to his Heavenly Kingdom He doth not say he shall preserve me from death he knew he should die but he shall preserve me to his heavenly Kingdom So put the case that God do not deliver from death yet he delivers by death There is a partial deliverance and a total deliverance there is a deliverance from this and that trouble and there is a deliverance from all troubles God delivers us most when we think he delivers least for we think how doth he deliver his Children when we see them taken away by death and oftimes are massacreed That is one way of delivering them God by death takes them from all miseries they are out of the reach of their enemies death delivers them from all miseries of this life both inward of sin and outward of trouble all are determined in death therefore God when he doth not deliver them from death he delivers them by death and takes them to his heavenly Kingdom God oft-times delivers his by not delivering them out of trouble for when he sees us in danger of some sin he delivers us into trouble to deliver us from some corruption Of all evills Gods Children desire to avoid the delivering up to themselves and to their own lusts to their own base earthly hearts to a dead heart he delivers them into trouble therefore to deliver them from themselves God will deliver us for the time to come so that we depend upon him and humble our selves and be like our selves When God delivereth us at the first it may be we are like our selves but perhaps afterward we grow prouder and self-confident and will not do that we formerly did therefore God sometimes though he put us in hope of deliverance yet he will not deliver us because we are not prepared we are not throughly humbled As we see in Judges 20. there the Israelites were to set on the Benjamits they go the first time and had the foile they go the second time and are foiled the third time they set on them with fasting and prayer and then they had the victory What was the reason they had it not at the first time they were not humbled enough they did not flee to God with fasting and prayer It may be there is some sin some affection unmortified of revenge and anger when God hath subdued that and brought it under and brought us to fasting and prayer then God will deliver us as at the third encounter they carried away the victory When we have not made our peace with God we may come the first and second time and not be delivered but when we are throughly humbled and brought low then God will deliver us And then we must know that alway these outward promises have a reservation to Gods glory and our eternal good God hath delivered me and he doth and will deliver me if it may stand with his glory and my good and therefore the soul saith to God with that reserved speech of him in the Gospell Lord If thou wilt thou canst heal me if thou wilt thou canst deliver me if it be for thy glorie and my eternall good or for the Churches good thou wilt do it and neither the Church nor the particular members of the Church desire deliverance upon any other termes but when it may be for the glory of God and for the Churches good when they may be instrumental by long life to serve God and to serve the Church and when it is for their own advantage to gather further assurance of their salvation then he hath and doth and will deliver still This is enough to build the confidence of Gods children upon for their deliverance for the time to come God will deliver his Church and Children and he will deliver them out of all he will deliver Israel out of all his troubles he will not leave a horn or a hoof as Moses said he will not leave one trouble he will deliver us at the last out of all and advance us to his heavenly Kingdom His bowels will melt over his Church and Children he is a Father and he hath the bowels of a Mother This may serve to answer all objections that will arise in our hearts as indeed we are ready to cavil against divine truthes and comforts especially in the time of trouble and temptation our hearts are full of complaints and disputes therefore I thought good to answer this But what is the argument of the Apostle here Especially experience he hath delivered he doth deliver and he will deliver me As God will deliver his Church for the time to come so this is one maine argument that he will do it experience of former favours and deliverances This Saint Paul useth familiarly 2 Tim. 4. 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord shall deliver me from every evill work and preserve me to his Heavenly Kingdom A blessed arguing So David argues God delivered me from the Bear and the Lyon and therefore he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine So Jacob pleads that God would deliver him from Esau he had had experience of Gods mercy till then and therefore he trusted that God would deliver him from Esau. It is a good argument to plead experience to move God to care for us for the time to come It was used by the head of the Church By the body the Church and by every member of the Church It was used by the head Psalme 22. which is a Psalme made of Christ I was cast on thee from my Mothers wombe therefore be not far from me It was Tipycally true of David and it was true of the Son of David So the Church pleads with God in diverse places in Isay 51. 2. God calls to his people to make use of former experience Look to Abraham your Father and to Sarah that bare you c. Look to former times to the rock whence you were hewen and to the hole of the pit whence you were digged he that was your God then is your God now Look to Abraham your Father and from thence reason till now So in Isay 63. 7. I will mention the loving kindnesse of the Lord and the praise of the Lord according to the great goodnesse of the Lord bestowed upon us In all their afflictions he was afflicted c he speaks of former experience In love he bare them and carried them all the daies of old So in Psalme 44. Our Fathers have told
because men are ready to trample upon and to rase out the writing of conscience but the Book of God they cannot therefore that is added to help conscience And God adds his Spirit to his Word to convince conscience and to make the witnesse of the Word more effectuall for although the Word say thus and thus yet till the Spirit convince the soul and set it down that it is thus till it convince it with a heavenly light conscience will not be fully convict That conscience therefore may be able to witnesse well Let us regard the notions of nature preserve them if we do not God will give us up to grosse sins Let us labour to have right principles and grounds to cherish principles of nature common with the Heathens and to lay up principles out of the Word of God to preserve the admonitions and directions and rules of the Word And especially the sweet motions of Gods blessed Spirit For conscience alway supposeth a rule the rule of nature the rule of the Word and the suggestions of the blessed Spirit with the Word Therefore to note by the way an Ignorant man can never have a good conscience especially a man that affects Ignorance because he hath no rule he labours to have none It is not meerly ignorance but likewise obstinacy with ignorance He will not know what he should lest conscience force him to doe what he knowes What a sottish thing is this It will be the heaviest sin that can be laid ro our charge at the day of judgment not that we were Ignorant but that we refused to know we refused to have our conscience rectified and instructed And those that avoid knowledg because they will not do what they know they shall know one day that their wilful Ignorance will be laid to their charge as a heavy sin Labour to have right principles and grounds What is the reason that commonly men have such bad consciences They have false principles they conclude may I not do what I list may I not make of my own what I will and every man for himself and God for us all diabolicall principles And so commonly if a man examine men that live in wickednesse they have false principles God sees not God regards not and it is time enough to repent The cause that men live wickedly is false principles therefore they have so vile consciences as they have their hearts deceive them and they deceive their hearts They have false principles put into them by others they are deceived and they deceive their hearts they force false principles upon themselves Many study for false grounds to live by for their advantage There are many that are Atheisticall that live even under the Gospell and what rule have they the example of them by whom they hope to rife they study their manners they square their lives by them that is all the rule they have And again the multitude they do as the most do and custom and other false rules These rules will not comfort us to say I did it by such an example I did as others among whom I live did or I did it because it was the custom of the times these things being alledged will comfort nothing For who gave you these rules doth God say any where in his Word you shall be judged by the example of others you shall be judged by the custom of the times you live in No you shall be judged by my Word The Word that Moses spake and the Word that I speak shall judge you at the last day They that have not the Word shall be judged by the Word written in their hearts Those that have sinned without the Law shall be judged by that without the Law of Moses God hath acquainted us with other rules We must take heed of this therefore thatwe get good rules take heed that they be not false rules for the want of these directions men come to have ill consciences Where there is no good rule there is a blind conscience where there is no application of the rule there is a prophane conscience And where there is a false rule there is an erroneous a scrupulous a wicked conscience A Papist because he hath a false rule he cannot have a good conscience The abomination of Popery is that they sin against conscience and conscience indeed is even with them for it overthrowes the most of their principles They sin against conscience many wayes I mean not against their own conscience but they sin against the conscience of others For what do they That they may rule in the consciences of men for that is the end of their great Prelate the Tyrant of souls they have false rules that the Pope cannot erre their rule is the authority and judgement of him that cannot erre and he for the most part is an unlearned man in Divinity that never read over the Scriptures in all his life and he must judge all controversies Where this is granted that the Pope cannot erre he fits in the conscience to do what he list And he makes divine Lawes and cursed is he saith the Councel of Trent that doth not equalize those traditions with the VVord of God From this false rule comes all even rebellion it self If he give dispensation from the oath of Allegiance because he cannot erre therefore they ought to obey him and rebell against their Governours All rebellion is from that rebellious rebellion that comes from false principles These men talk of conscience and they come not to Church for conscience sake what conscience can they have when they have false rules To equivocate and lie sins against nature And other rules that give liberty against the Word that children may disobey their Parents and get into a Cloyster c. The most of Popery though there were no VVord of God it is against nature against conscience which God hath planted in man as his deputy his tenant And as they sin against conscience so as I said conscience is even with them For let a man trust to his conscience and he can never be a sound Papist except he leave that and go upon base false grounds because other great men do it and because his predecessours have done it c. I appeal to their own consciences if any man at the day of death think to be saved by his merits doth not Bellarmine after long dispute of salvation by merits disclaime it doth he not put away merits for the uncertainty of his own righteousnesse So their own consciences do wring away the testimony of trusting to merits Again that Original sin is no great sin it is but the cause of sin and it is lesse then any venial sin Oh but when conscience is awaked to know what a corrupt estate it is it will draw from them that which it drew from Saint Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Conscience when it is awaked
estate is not good because it is not such an estate So foolish and as a beast was I before thee saith David because I regarded such things No marvell if men be uncomfortable that are led away by scandals Look to faith goe to the Word to the Sanctuarie I went to the Sanctuary saith he and there I saw the end of these men So conscience must be suffered to have its work to be led by a true rule Again conscience sometimes concludes not comfort when there is ground of comfort from the remainders of corruptions and infirmities whereas we should be driven by our infirmities to Christ. And conscisence sometimes in good men doth not exercise its work in good men it is drawn away with vain delights even in the best men And conscience of its owne unworthinesse and of the greatnesse of the things it lookes for being joyned together it makes a man that he joyes not when he hath cause As for instance when the soule sees that God in Christ hath pardoned all my sins and hath vouchsafed his Spirit to me and will give me heaven in the world to come to such a wretch as I am here being a conflict between the conscience and sense of its own unworthinesse and the greatnesse of 〈◊〉 good promised the heart begins to stagger and to doubt for want of sound faith Indeed if we look on our own unworthinesse and the greatnesse of the good things promised we may wonder but alas God is infinite in goodnesse he transcends our unworthinesse and in the Gospell the glorie of Gods mercy it triumphs over our unworthinesse and over our sins whatsoever our sin and unworthinesse is his goodnesse in the Gospel triumphs over all In Innocency God should have advanced an innocent man but the Gospel is more glorious for he comes to sinners to condemned persons by nature and yet God triumphs over their sins and unworthinesse he regards not what we deserve but what may stand with the glory of his mercy therefore we should banish those thoughts and enjoy our own priviledge the promises of heaven and happinesse and all comforts whatsoever so much for the answer of that objection Now if we would joy in the witnesse of a good conscience we must especially in the time of temptation live by faith and not by feeling not by what we feele for the present but as we see Christ in his greatest horrour My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he goes to my God still We must live by faith and not by sense And then if we would rejoyce in extremities remember that God works by contraries God will bring us to heaven but it must be by hell God will bring us to comfort but it must be by sense of our own unworthinesse He will forgive our sins but it must be by sight and sense of our sins he will bring us to life but it must be by death he will bring us to glorie but it must be by shame God works by contraries therefore in contraries believe contraries When we are in a state that hath no comfort yet we may joy in it if we believe in Christ he works by contraries As in the Creation he made all out of nothing order out of confusion So in the work of the new creation in the new creature he doth so likewise therefore be not dismayed Remember this rule likewise that in the covenant of Grace God requires truth and not measure thou art not under the law but under the covenant of Grace A little fire is true fire as well as the whole element of fire A drop of water is water as well as the whole Ocean so if it be true faith true grief for sins true hatred of them true desire of the favour of God and to grow better truth is respected in the covenant of Grace and not any set measure What saith the Covenant of Grace He that believes and repents shall be saved not he that hath a strong faith or he that hath perfect repentance So Saint Paul saith as we shall see after This is our rejoycing that in simplicity and sincerity we have had our conversation among you he doth not say that our conversation hath been perfect So if we would have joy in the testimony of conscience we must not abridge our selves of joy because we have not a perfect measure of Grace but rejoyce that God hath wrought any measure of Grace in such unclean and polluted hearts as ours are for he least measure of Grace is a pledge of perfection in the world to come This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience c. Hence we may gather clearly that A man may know his own estate in Grace I gather it from the place thus Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity c. Where there is joy and the ground of joy there is a knowledge of the estate but a Christian hath glorying and a ground of glorying in himself and he knowes it he hath that in him that witnesseth that estate he hath the witnesse of conscience therefore he may know and be assured of it If this testimony were not a true testimony it were something but all men naturally have a conscience and a Christian hath a sanctified conscience and where that is there is a true testimony and true joy from that testimony therefore he may be assured of his salvation and have true joy and comfort a Heaven upon Earth before he come to Heaven it self If conscience testifie of it self and from witnessing give cause of joy much more the Spirit of God comming into the conscience The Spirit beares witnesse with our spirits If our spirit and conscience bear witnesse to us of our conversation in simplicity and sincerity and from thence of our estate in grace much more by the witnesse of two By the witnesse of two or three every thing shall be confirmed but our spirits and conscience and the Spirit of God which every Child of God hath witnesseth that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sons of God Therefore a Christian may know his estate in Grace The spirit of a man knowes himself and the Spirit of God knowes him likewise and it knowes what is in the heart of God and when these two meet the Spirit of God that knowes the secrets of God and that knowes our secrets and our spirit that knowes our heart likewise what should hinder but that we may know our own estate It is the nature of conscience as I told you to reflect upon it self and upon the person in whom it is to know what is known by it and to judge and condemne and execute it self by inward fear and terrour in ill and in good by comfort and joy in a mans self It is the property that the soul hath above all creatures to return and recoyle upon it self If this be
greatest torment to those that have had their wills most in the world the more their conscience is silenced and violenced in this world the more vocal it shall be at the hour of death and the day of judgement Therefore judge who are the most miserable men in the world although they have never so much regard in the world besides those that have consciences but will not suffer them to work but with sensuality within them and by pleasing flattering speech of those without them they keep it down and take order that neither conscience within nor none other without shall disturbe them if they do they shall be served as Ahab dealt with Micaia These men that are thus at peace in sinful courses of all men they are most miserable they enjoy their pleasure here for a little time but their conscience shall torment them for ever and shall say to them as Reuben said to his Brethren I told you this before but you would not hearken to me and now you shall be tormented Conscience is an evil beast it makes a man rise against himself therefore of all men those that be disordered in their courses that neglect conscience and neglect the means of salvation that should awaken conscience they are the most miserable for the longer they go on the more they sink in sin and the more they sink in sin the more they sink in terrour of conscience if not now yet they shall hereafter If we desire therefore to have joy and comfort at all times let us labour to have a good conscience that may witnesse well And therefore let us every day keep an audite within doors every day cast up our accounts every day draw the blood of Christ over our accounts every day beg forgivenesse of sins and the Spirit of Christ to lead us that so we may keep account every day that we may make our reckonings even every day that we may have the lesse to do in the time of sicknesse in the time of temptation and in the time of death when we have discharged our Consciences before by keeping session at home in our own hearts This should be the daily practice of a Christian and then he may lay himself down in peace He that sleeps with a conscience defiled is as he that sleeps among wild beasts among adders and toades that if his eyes were open to see them he would be out of his wits He that sleeps without a good conscience he is an unadvised man God may make his bed his grave he may smite him suddenly therefore let us every day labour to have a good conscience that so we may have matter of perpetual joy A good conscience especially is an Evangelicall conscience for a legall good conscience none have that is such a conscience as acquits a man that he hath obeyed the law in all things exactly A legall compleat good conscience none have except in some particular fact there is a good Conscience in fact As the Heathen could excuse themselves they were thus and thus and God ministreth much joy in that But an Evangelical good Conscience is that we must trust to that is such a Conscience that though it knowes it self guilty of sin yet it knowes that Christ hath shed his blood for sinners and such a Conscience as by meanes of faith is sprinkled with the blood of Christ and is cleared from the accusations of sin There is an Evangelicall Conscience when by faith wrought by the Spirit of God in the hearing of the Gospell we lay hold upon the obedience and righteousnesse of Christ. And such is the obedience and righteousnesse of Christ that it pacifieth the conscience which nothing else in the world will doe the conscience without a full obedience it will alway stagger And that is the reason that Conscience confounds and confutes the Popish way of salvation by works c. Because the conscience alway staggers and feares I have not done works enough I have not done them well enough those that I have done they have been corrupt and mixed and therefore I dare not bring them to the Judgement-seat of God to plead them meritorious Therefore they do well to hold uncertainty of salvation because holding merit they must needs be uncertaiu of their salvation A true Christian is certain of his salvation because his conscience layes hold on the blood of Christ because the obedience whereby he claimes heaven is a superabundant obedience it is the satisfaction of Christ as the Apostle saith in that excellent place Heb. 9. 24. The blood of Christ which offered himself by the eternall Spirit that is by the God-head shall cleanse your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The blood of Christ that offered himself his humane nature by his divine to God as a sacrifice it shall purge your consciences from dead works The blood of Christ that is the Sacrifice the obedience of Christ in offering himself fully pacified God and answered the punishment which we should have indured for he was our surety The blood of Christ speaks better then the blood of Abel It speaks better then our sins Our sins cry vengeance but the blood of Christ cries mercy The blood of Christ out-cries our sins the guilty conscience for sin cries Guiltie guiltie hell Damnation wrath and anguish but the blood of Christ cries I say mercy because it was shed by our surety in our behalf his obedience is a full satisfaction to God Now the way to have a good conscience is upon the accusations of an evill conscience by the law to come to Christ our surety and to get our consciences sprinked by faith in his blood to get a perswasion that he shed his blood for us and upon that to labour to be purged by the Spirit There are two purgers the blood of Christ from the guilt of sin and the Spirit of Christ from the stain of sin and upon that comes a compleat good conscience being justified by the blood of Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. Therefore Christ came not by blood alone or by water alone but by water and blood by blood in justification by water in sanctification and holinesse of life Why do we alleadge this now for the Sacrament We speak of a good conscience which is a continual feast How comes a good conscience to be such a continual feast An Evangelicall conscience is a feast indeed because it feeds on a higher feast it feeds on Christ he is the Passeover Lambe as the Apostle applies it 1. Cor. 5. he is the Passeover slain for us and there is represented in the Sacrament his body broken and his blood poured out for our sins he came to feast us and we shall feast with him Hereupon if we bring repentance for our sins past and faith whereby we are incorporate into Christ then our consciences speak peace and as it is in 1 Pet. 5. the conscience makes a
Redeemer and yet notwithstanding to need the help of other Mediatours and Intercessours here is yea and nay it is a contradiction That the Church of Rome is the Catholike Church if it be Roman it is not Catholike The universal Catholick Roman Church it is as much as the universal particular Church it is a contradiction one thing overturnes another The sacrifice of the Masse an unbloody sacrifice a sacrifice is the killing of a thing that was alive a sacrifice is with blood the offering of Christ in the bread is an unbloody sacrifice a sacrifice and not a sacrifice here is yea and nay a contradiction So that besides their thwarting of Scripture they thwart and contradict themselves in their fundamentall points they are yea and nay And then they are full of uncertainties they are not undoubtedly yea There is no Papist in the world would end his dayes so if he be not drunk if he be advised if he be not surprized with passion if he do not forget himself Come to a Papist and ask him what are the main points of Popery that you believe alwayes yea Can you say when you confesse your sins that you confesse all No can you then say then you have a perfect absolution that depends upon your confession No it is an uncertain thing What an absutd thing is Popish Religion it wracks the conscience of people Can you say that the Priest intends consecration in these words This is my body No and if the Priests intention be not there then Christ is not there and then you are Idolaters Can you tell certainly that Transubstantiation depends upon his consecration No how full of uncertainties and contradictions is Popery you cannot say the Points of Popery are alwaies yea Perhaps they are yea in life but are they yea in death It is yea in life that they merit salvation by works but is it yea in death No Bellarmine disclaimes it It is safe not to trust in our own merits for danger of vain-glory c. but to trust onely in the mercy of God in Christ. So their doctrine it is yea in life to sin by to live riotously by but then it is nay in death they reverse it if they belong to God they disclaim their works and other things and cleave onely to Christ and there is hope of them that have grace truly to do so So their doctrine is not yea that in life and death they can stick to To go on a little further to lay open the grossenesse of their tenents and the danger of their Religion We are better bottomed then they are which make the Word of God our rule and ground that is not yea and nay but yea The Canonization of Saints The Pope he makes Garnet a Traytor and Thomas of Becket Saints how can he know that these were Saints that he Canonizeth he that makes a Saint must know the hearts of men and search the heart for the truth of grace is there now it is the priviledge of God to know the heart So that Popery is full of uncertainties and pitifull perplexities Indeed they maintain the doctrine of doubting that we must doubt as if our nature were not sufficiently prone to doubt but we must get arguments to make us doubt as if it were needful to have infirmities to stablish grace in us Alas we are too prone to doubt and the Devil is ready to make us stagger in the time of temptation Again the Invocation of Saints it is a Point wondrous full of uncertainties Can they know and say certainly that the Saints hear them They cannot know that one Saint having a finite power should hear a hundred Petitions at once A finite creature hath but a finite power to hear one thing at one time distinctly how can they be perswaded that a finite Saint in heaven at one time distinctly should hear many thousands that put up their Petitions at once Can a man that is but a capable creature though glorified as Peter or Mary c. distinctly consider a thousand Petitions that are made they cannot how then can they think that a certain truth the Invocation of Saints The main ground of all their Religion is yea and nay the Pillar of it what is that The infallible judgment of the Pope but how can they tell when he speaks ex Cathedra for 9. or 10. exceptions and tricks they have when he speaks to be built on and when not how can poor soules know when he speaks so that the people may infallibly build on his judgment Because many times he is an illiterate man that knowes nothing in Divine things wherein he is to judge So the very foundation of Popery is yea and nay that is a most uncertain thing And then the ground of that that he is the Successour of Peter there is no place of Scripture for it neither dare they bring any It is but a Tradition It is somewhat uncertain whether ever Peter were at Rome that he was Bishop there is more uncertain but that the Pope should be his Successour is most uncertain and impossible of all So indeed the Religion of Popery is a rack to conscience especially to conscience that is awaked and knowes what Religion means at all Why is it a rack to them There is no certainty in it in the main Tenents of it It is not onely contrary to Gods yea but it is yea and nay uncertain in it self Now here the Apostle he frees his preaching from this imputation Our Word to you was not yea and nay and he calls God to record God is true and as he is true my Word to you was not yea and nay but was certainly yea Thus you see what use we are to make of it for confutation and conviction of our own judgments It may be moved by some perhaps How doth it appear how shall we know by what arguments that it is yea and not yea and nay I answer The testimony of S. Paul here is that it is so and his appeal to God with an asseveration As God is true But our own experience doth tell us that the Word of God is certain and true if we belong to God for we stand convict in judgment by many arguments which I will not now repeat But how shall any man certainly know it is yea the Word is the undoubted Word of God unchangeable wheresoever it is In a word you may know it is so he thinks it is so if he yield obedience to it as to such a Word absolute obedience to Gods truth without questioning when once a thing is clear to be agreeable to Gods truth he yields obedience to it then it is yea If it be a duty he must do it if it be a threatning he must avoid it by repentance if it be a promise he must believe it this is absolute obedience Likewise reverence in hearing it as Cornelius did Act. 10. To hear it as the
what he preached among them and we have in them these particulars briefly to be unfolded First That Christ Jesus in his nature and his offices is the chief and main object and subject matter of preaching Secondly That to make him profitable to us he must be preached Thirdly That consent of Divines and Preachers helps faith Fourthly That Jesus Christ being preached by the Apostles is an undoubted yea that is an undoubted ground and foundation to build on in all the uncertainties of this life in all the uncertainty of Religion Jesus Christ pteached by S. Paul and other holy men of those times was not yea and nay but yea First Christ Jesus is the main object of Preaching It were impertinent here to stand on particulars to shew you how Christ is the Son of God for he is brought in here as the object of preaching Onely in a word we must of necessity believe that Christ Jesus is the Son of God For how wondrously doth this stablish our faith when we believe in a Saviour that is God the Son of God Jesus Christ by eternal Generation In a word here are these prerogatives of Christs Generation from all other sons whatsoever Other fathers are before their sons this Son of God was eternal with his Father Other fathers have a distinct essence from their sons the father is one and the son another they have distinct existences but here there is one common essence to the Father and the Son Other fathers beget a son without them but this Father begets his Son within him it was an inward work So it is a mystical Divine Generation which indeed is a subject of admiration rather then of explication that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of man This was typified in the Ark the Ark was a type of Christâ—… the Aâ—… had wood and gold that covered that wood Christs humane nature was the wood and his Divine nature that contained it that is the gold But I should be too large besides the scope of the Text if I should unfold this Point I only touch it by the way Christ Jesus in his natures as he is God Man and in his offices as Jesus Christ that is anointed as King Priest and Prophet and in his estates of abasement and advancement is the main subject matter of preaching For what can we say but it must be reductive and brought to Christ If we open mens consciences by the Law and tell them what a terrible estate they are in what do we but drive them to the Physician what is the law but as John Baptist was to Christ to prepare the way to level the soul to pull down the high thoughts and imaginations to make way and passage for Christ And then in Christ when we preach Christ we preach his natures God and man and his Offices as King Priest and Prophet as he is predestinate and sealed and anointed by God the Father for that purpose that we may have a strong Saviour strong in himself and authorized by his Father And we preach his estates of abasement as he was crucified and suffered for our sins and his estate of exaltation as he arose and ascended into glory These things belong to the preaching of Christ. And then the benefits we have by him reconciliation to his Father by his death and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost and such like wondrous benefits we have by him And then our duty to him again which is faith and a conversation worthy To imbrace all that is offered by Christ that it be not lost for want of apprehending Christ Jesus is the subject matter of our preaching in his natures in his offices in the benefits we have by him in the duties we owe to him in the instrument of receiving all faith For in preaching that faith which we require to lay hold on Christ is wrought For preaching doth not onely manifest the benefits we have by Christ but is a potent instrument of the Spirit of God to work this qualification to make Christ profitable to us Now all that we preach of holy duties is either to humble us if we have them not to make us flye to Christ by faith or when we believe to make us walk answerable to our faith So whatsoever we preach is reductive to Christ either to prepare us or to furnish us to walk worthy of Christ. Indeed Jesus Christ is all in all in our preaching and he should be so in your hearing of all things you should desire to hear most of Christ. The apprehension of your sinfulnesse should drive you to Christ. The hearing of duties should be to make you adorn your Christian Religion you have taken on you Naturally men love to hear flashes witty conceits and moral points wittily unfolded but all these in the largest extent do but civilize men it must be Christ unfolded and Gods love and mercy and wisdome in him reconciling mercy and justice together The wondrous love of God in Christ and his justice and mercy and the love of Christ in undertaking to work our redemption and the benefits by Christ his offices estates and conditions these things work faith and love these things do us good All other things take them at the best they do but fashion our carriage a little but that which enlivens and quickens the soul is Jesus Christ. Therefore we should of all other things be desirous to hear of Jesus Christ. It is a point that the very Angels are students in For the Ark which I named before it had the Law and the Mercy-seat in it the mercy-seat to cover the Law Now Christ hath satisfied the Law and reconciled his Father he hath freed us from the curse of the Law and hath given full satisfaction to the Law he is the Mercy-seat by whom we have accesse to God the Father Now the Angels were upon the Mercy-seat interviewing one another and prying down upon the Mercy-seat insinuating that the reconciling of Gods Justice and Mercy by that infinite wisdome of God in Christ that our sins should be punished in him and yet he be merciful to us that he should punish our surety for us that he should joyn these attributes together that all the creatures in heaven and earth could not devise it is a matter for Angels to pry into the very frame of the Ark signified this and shall not we be students in those mysteries that the Angels themselves desire every day to behold If Christ be the main thing we are to stand on Let us labour more and more to understand Christ and him crucified let us see our nature in him advanced now in heaven to make us heavenly-minded let us see our nature in him punished let us see our sinful nature in him cleansed and purged by his death and abasement let us see our nature in him enriched Let us consider him as a publick person and
Covenant A Covenant is with condition with stipulation a Legacie is an absolute thing when a man gives a thing freely without any condition So though the promises be propounded by way of Covenant with stipulations to and fro in the passages of them as a Covenant yet in regard of Gods gracious performance to them that depend upon him all the promises are Legacies Therefore Gods promises and Gods Covenant they are called a Testament as well as Promises They are called a Will A Will shewing what God will give us freely in the use of means as well as what our duty is in the Covenant Therefore our estate is happy in Christ if we depend upon God in the use of means He will give us all things that are necessary that he hath promised nay he will give grace to fulfill the Covenant if we beg it If a man be carelesse and live in sinnes against the Covenant he cannot perform the Covenant and let him not alledge this that he cannot for God will give grace to them that are careful to fulfill it Let such a man as neglects the performance on his part expect no good from God while he is so let him expect vengeance for all the threatnings of God are Yea and Amen as well as his Promises to them that live in sins against conscience Those that will not expect grace to serve him for the time to come all the threatnings are Yea and Amen there is no comfort for such I beseech you therefore consider it is a terrible thing to live in a State without God and without Christ to have no care of the performance of that that we have bound our selves to God by the Sacrament and in our particular vowes for his threatnings are effectual as well as his promises In Zech. 1. 5. there he tells the Jewes of the Prophets that had threatened many things The Prophets are dead saith he that threatned your fathers but for all that the threatnings lighted on them The Prophets where are they They were but men but when they were gone the threatnings lighted on your fathers Jeremy dyed but the Captivity that he threatned it did not dye they were carried captive 70. years So we threaten the vengeance of God on obstinate sinners that will not come in to the Gospel we are not Yea and Amen in regard of our being we die but our threanings are Yea if they be not reversed by repentance the threatnings are Amen as well as the Promises It is an evidence therefore we do not believe if we have not care to make good the Covenant on our part Again another evidence of a Child of the promises of a man that believes the promises it is inward opposition of the flesh and hatred of fleshly men for as it is Gal. 4. The son of the bond-woman persecuted the son of the free-woman A true down-right Believer is a son of the free-woman a son of promise and the flesh in us opposeth it like Ishmael like Job's wife and like Sarah that laughed when the promise was made we have an Ishmael and a Sarah in us I can this Promise of life everlasting when I am rotten and this promise of forgivenesse of sins and that good will be good to me if I crack not my conscience if I take this and that course shall these promises be performed here is opposition We cannot believe the Promises without much opposition So carnal men they mock and deride the counsel of the poor as the Psalmist saith The children of the promise that depend upon Gods mercy in Christ they are persecuted by fleshly Justitiaries and they that look to be saved by themselves without a promise they will not be beholding to God so much their proud swelling hearts rise against Christians that honour God by trusting in his promises and will be saved by promises A proud Popish person his heart riseth against a holy Christian that is a son of the promise he scorns him You intend to be saved by the righteousnesse of another no we will not be so much beholding to God we will satisfie for our selves we will merit heaven our selves God shall not be beholding to us to trust in him we will bring somewhat our selves we will buy it out Can these men have humble hearts Nay can they have any other then malicious persecuting hearts against humble believing Christians that honour God by trusting in his promises You know Isaac was a son of the Promise how was he born not according to the course of nature Sarah's womb was dead Christ was the Son of the promise how was he born not according to the course of nature for his mother was a Virgin So a Christian is a son of the Promise he is begotten where there is nothing in the course of nature likely where there is breeding for sin no works no righteousnesse then he believes in Christ. Isaac was a notable type of Christ and a son of promise he was begotten besides the course of generation so a Christian is not begotten as a proud Justitiary by works but he shewes himself therein to be a true believer he is begotten against the course of nature when he sees a barren heart and sees as little disposition in his heart to be a Christian as was in the Virgins womb for Christ to be born How was the Promise made to the Virgin She could not conceive how this should be since she knew not man It was replied again The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee her heart closed with that speech and Christ was conceived then So the barren heart of a Christian if it can believe his sins shall he forgiven and he shall have life everlasting if he can honour God in believing that he will keep him in life and death let the heart close with these Promises and a Christian is begotten he is a son of the promise As for the proud Justitiary that will have something in himself to vaunt of and will persecute others that are true Christians he relies on no promise A Christian when he sees nothing to rely on but the promise he closeth with the promise and Christ is begotten in him at that very instant To name no more evidences you see how we may examine our selves whether we trust in and cast our selves upon the Promises of God or no if we do we shall find them Yea and Amen Consider it therefore and be glad of these Promises and when you have them go to God in Christ for the performance of them Take the counsel of that blessed man that in these latter times brought the glorious light of Religion to light Luther I mean to whom we are beholding for the doctrine of free grace more then any other Divine of later times Go to God in Christ in the Promises Christ is wrapped up in the Promises the Promises are the swadling cloathes wherein Christ is wrapped as he saith We must not think of
nor regarded him And as you have it in Ezek. 18. I am punished for other folks sins God deales hardly with me and brings the sins of my fathers upon me and The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge God knowes the cankred disposition of man since the fall Satan lyes upon the disposition of man and broods upon it to make it like himself malicious even against God himself God as it were puts himself to his purgation even with no lesse then an oath As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner You think I am severe to you and men they will rather impute it to Gods severity then their own sin that is the pride of mans nature A sinner is wondrous proud till he cometo destruction it self and the book of conscience be opened Sin will have something to shelter it self with sin is a proud thing God purgeth himself by an oath As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner If you dye you may thank your own sins though you be so bad if you will repent I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he return and live Yet notwithstanding man to countenance himself in sin he-will fly perhaps to the decree of God God perhaps doth not delight in me whereas the rule of our life is He hath shewed thee O man what is good to do good and abstain from evil and then that question will be out of question whether thou be Gods or no. But man will force upon himself that God doth not regard him that he may sin with more freedom As the unfaithful servant I knew thou wert a hard Master that exactedst that that thou hadst not given and therefore I hid my talent The bad servant forceth upon himself hardnesse in his Master when he was not so that he might be idle So men force upon themselves somewhat in God to be hard Gods dealings to be so and so that they may take more liberty For if God be so loving and so gracious as he hath discovered himself to be their hearts would melt they would never live in such courses but rather put all to the venture then to clamour upon Gods Justice Therefore God himself purgeth himself from a disposition of unkindnesse and unmercifulnesse As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner fo his whole course is to shew that he loves us And what is our Saviour Christs whole course but to free men from suspition of want of love did he ever turn any back from him but those that went away of themselves did he not shed tears for those that shed his blood so merciful and gracious was he If so be that holy men of all times have laboured to clear themselves to others We ought not to rage against the ill dispositions of men If we were as good as God and as Christ men would have false suspitions of us It is no innocency in the world that will free a man from suspition the wicked poysonful disposition that the Devill stirres up against him Therefore rage not against it but bear it with a spirit of moderation And let us decline as much as we can and free the hearts of people from evil suspition and if we cannot avoid it yet to bear it without discontent considering it is the Lot of Gods childen to be suspected as we see here S. Paul was To spare you I came not to Corinth S. Paul besides his labouring to remove suspition he sets down here the true cause of his not coming to them it was not lightnesse and inconstancy it was to spare you They had many abuses among them and amended they must be that was a conclusion But the question is De modo whether by gentle means by writing an Epistle and staying a while or afterwards by coming and telling them their sin to their face and by being severe and terrible among them Now he concludes I came not among you for this very cause that I might not be so severe and terrible among you as by office I should have been if you had not amended before I came as indeed they did for they cast out the incestuous person and reformed other abuses comfortably They prevented S. Pauls severity with their reformation they had not at the first cast out the incestuous person and they had factions among them they had Atheists among them that doubted of the resurrection many abuses were crept in among them S. Paul wrote a former Epistle upon a desire to reform those and there was a blessed reformation wrought S. Paul did not delight in austerity therefore he deferred his coming that he might have more joy and contentment then sorrow To spare you I came not Before I come to the Points take this for a ground Sin must be judged and censured when it is committed It must be undone by repentance or by eternal punishments in hell it must be censured here or hereafter For it is against Gods nature and Gods Word The soul that sinneth shall dye It must be repented of of necessity or eternally punished in hell Censured it must be one way or other It is of such a contrary nature so opposite to the holinesse of God that is a ground Now this being laid as a ground the question is What is the best way to take away sin whether by gentle means or severe by gentle means if it may be if not then by severe S. Paul would not have spared them if he had come if they had not amended So the Points are two First of all That the best way for the redressing of sin is by gentle means if it may be Secondly if that will not then by severe if men would not have men damned I came not to spare you because I desired that gentler courses might prevail So I say the first Point is this That If gentler courses will prevail they ought especially and in the first place to be taken It should be the care both of Ministers and of all those that deal with others first of all to use mild and winning and gaining courses Now to prove this First they are more suitable to the nature of man for the nature of man is best wrought on by rational courses suitable to his nature suitable to his principle man is a reasonable creature therefore rationall courses will prevail with a rational man a course of perswasion and discovery A man that is not beast-like tell him but the danger of his sin tell him the peril of it in gentle words and he will amend if so be he be not hardened by God to destruction or if God do not reserve him to a more severe redresse Gentle courses ought first to be used because they are agreeable to the nature of man Again they suit most to Gods disposition for God is love and his course to man is
part of happinesse in this world and in the world to come Now the end of the Ministery is to set the peoples hearts into a gracious and blessed liberty to bring them into the Kingdome of grace here and to fit them for the Kingdome of glory to help forward their joy This is the end both of the Word and of the dispensation of the Word in the Ordinances of salvation in the Sacraments and all that our joy may be full as our blessed Saviour saith These things have I spoken that your joy may be full It is the end of all our communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost and with the Ministery and one with another as it is 1 Joh. 1. These things have I written that your joy may be full you have communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost and with us that your joy may be full all is for spiritual joy We are helpers of your joy The meaning is we are helpers of your faith from whence joy comes more especially for he doth not repeat the word again We have not dominion over your faith but are helpers of your faith but instead of that he names joy as that that doth accompany true faith The Points considerable in this clause are these That joy is the state of Christians that either they are in or should labour to be in because the Apostle names it for all happinesse here All that have given their names to Christ should labour to rejoyce either they do rejoyce or they should labour to come to it that is supposed as a ground I will be the shorter in it The second is That the Ministers are helpers of this blessed condition The third is They are but helpers they are helpers and but helpers they are not authours of joy but helpers We are but helpers of your joy saith the Apostle These three things I will speak of briefly out of these words First Joy is that frame and state of soul that all that have given their names to Christ either are in or should labour to be in For this Doctrine is fetched from the principle of nature We do all with joy all in our callings is done with joy What do men in their Trades but that they may have that that they may joy in when they have it It is an old Observation of S. Chrysostome We do all that we may joy Ask any man why he doth take so much pains and be a drudge in his place it is that he may get somewhat to rejoyce in in his old dayes So out of the principle of nature this ought to be the scope of all to joy Now those that are Christians God requires it at their hand as a duty Rejoyce alway again I say rejoyce And he doth prepare and give them matter enough of joy to those that are Christians For whether we consider the ills they are freed from the greatest ills of all they are freed from sin and the wrath of God they are freed from eternal damnation they are freed from the sting of death from the greatest and most terrible ills Or whether we regard the state that God brings them in by believing being in the favour of God they enjoy the fruits of that favour peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And then for the life to come they are under the hope of glory The state of a Christian is a state of joy every way whether I say we regard the ill he is freed from or the good he is in for the present or the hope of eternal good for the time to come A Christian which way soever he look hath matter of joy God the Father is his Christ is his the Holy Ghost is his Comforter the Angels are his all are his life or death things present or things to come all are his Therefore there is no question of this that every one that hath given his name to Christ is in a state of joy if he answer his calling or he should labour to be in it he wrongs his codition else Why should they labour to be in that state Among many Reasons one is That God that gives them such matter of joy may have glory from them For what should the life of a Christian be that is freed from the greatest ill and advanced to the greatest good his life should be a perpetual thanksgiving to God and how can a man be thankfull that is not joyful Joy is as it were the oyl the anointing it makes a man chearful it makes the countenance of his soul to be chearful it makes him active in good when he is anointed with the oyl of gladnesse Now every man should have a desire to be good to be diligent and expedite in all that is good Therefore we should labour for this spiritual anointing that we may be ready for every good work Vessels of mercy prepared for every good work And then for suffering we have many things to go through in this world how shall a man suffer those things that are between him and Heaven with joy unlesse he labour to bring himself to this temper of joy And then for others every man should labour to encourage others We are all fellow-passengers in the way to Heaven therefore even to bring on others more chearfully we ought to labour to be in a state of joy Those that do not rejoyce they bring an ill report upon the way of God as if it were a desolate disconsolate way As the Spies brought an ill report upon the Land of Canaan whereupon the people were disheartned from entring into it So those that labour not to bring their hearts to spiritual joy they bring an ill report on the wayes of God and dishearten others from entring into those wayes which way soever we look we have reasons to encourage us to joy That God may have more glory and that we may do him more service that we may endure afflictions better and encourage others and take away the reproach of Religion from those that think it a melancholy course of life which indeed do not understand what belongs to the state of a Christian for the state of a Christian is a state of joy And if a Christian do not joy it is not because he is a Christian but because he is not a Christian enough because he favours the worse principle in him he favours himself in some work of the flesh God in the Covenant of grace is all love and mercy he would have us in our pilgrimage to heaven to finish our course with joy and he knowes we can do nothing except we have some joy It is the oyl of the soul as I said to make it nimble and fit for all actions and for all sufferings It gives a lustre and grace to whatsoever we do Not onely God loves a chearfull performer of duties but it wins acceptance of all others and makes the worker himself wondrous
fall into sin from this very ground for why do men fall into sin because at that time they stand not upon the Word of God revealed by conscience to be the Word of God Ask them why they sweat if they did believe the truth the Word saith I will not hold them guilâ—…lesse that take my Name in vain But I am not convinced by the Spirit assuring my soul that it is the Word of God if men did believe it would men bring a curse upon themselves And so whoremongers the Word of God saith Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge would men if they did believe this truth live in these sins But they have only an opinion of these things I hear that these things are divine perhaps they are not so and the knowledge that we have is not divine faith is not mingled with the Spirit Then again from sin we fall into despair for sin at last why because our knowledge of divine truthes is not spiritual nor from inward grounds of Scripture felt by experience the Spirit sealing the Scripture to my heart by some spirituall experience and thereupon men fall into despair for sin at length For Satan plies them with temptations from their own guilty conscience the grounds of their fears are present and the grounds of their terrours are present to their soules for they are there as it were sealed and branded in their very soules but their comforts are overly the promises are overly the Word is not rooted in their hearts by faith it is not sealed there by the Spirit of God the sanctifying Spirit never brought the Word and their soules together Hereupon they fall into desperation when their terrours are present and their comforts are overly If a man have never so sound a foundation if he stand not but float upon it he may fall and sink if a man be never so weak if he lie on a rock the strength of the rock is his so in our temptations if we have a strong foundation if we do not rest on it the foundation will not uphold us Now how can those rest on it that stagger in it that were never convinced by the Spirit that these things are so and that have had no spiritual experience Satan drawes thousands of soules to perdition because their terrours are present and their comforts are overly they are not built upon divine truth by the Spirit of God Again for Apostasie in the times of the alteration of Religion why do men alter as the State alters they are ready to have every Moneth a new faith if the times and Goverment alter why because they were never convinced by the Spirit of God of divine truths They had it from forreign arguments The former State of things countenanced this way now another State countenanceth another opinion therefore I will be of the safest This is because the soul was never convinced of the truth Therefore I beseech you labour to have arguments from the experience of the power of the Word in your soules and arguments from the Spirit of God to your spirits that it is the Word of God I will stand to divine truth I find such a majesty such a humbling pacifying satisfying power in it to all my perplexities and doubts that it cannot but be the Word of God it stayes my soul in all oppositions in all temptations and corruptions it gives a stay and foundation to my soul that no truth in the world else can do When the soul is brought to such a frame such a soul will not fall into grosse sins while it is in such a frame much lesse will it despair for sin and if there be altering of Religion a thousand times it stands as a rock unmovable because it knowes from inward grounds from the Word of God it self sealed by the Spirit to my spirit that it is the Word of God such a soul will hold out and only such a soul. We should labour therefore by all means to have our faith strengthened and amongst other meanes by the use of the Sacrament whereby God sweetly conveys himself to us by way of a banquet strengthening our faith in Christ he presents Christ to us as the food of our soules to refresh us even as the bread and wine doth Our blessed Saviour is wiser then we he knowes what we stand in need of that we have need to strengthen our faith For we have need to strengthen that that must be our strength which is faith And what is the Ordinance of God to strengthen faith is it not the Sacrament The proper use of the Sacrament is to strengthen faith which the Sacrament doth being a visible Sermon to us for here we see in the outward things Christs body broken and his blood shed it is a lively representation a visible crucifying of Christ a breaking of his body and pouring out of his bloud And withall here is an offer of Christ to us in the elements sealing of what it represents to our soules if we come prepared God feeds us not with empty signes but together with the outward things themselves he gives the spiritual to the soul that is a worthy Receiver Therefore come with a humble stooping to Gods wisdom in appointing these Ordinances to this end to strengthen faith And come with a desire to have faith strengthened that will uphold us against all temptations to sin or to despair for sin Oh beloved if we knew what good our faith must do us ere long we would labour to have it strengthened by all means What will become of us in the hour of death and in great temptations we shall be as chaffe driven with the wind if we have no consistence and stability in divine truth if our soules be not built on that if we have not faith whereby our soules may be rooted in Christ we shall be but a prey for Satan Therefore considering that faith is of such wondrous consequence it is the root of all other graces whatsoever as the Apostle saith here By faith ye stand He doth not say By patience or by hope or the like they are drawn from faith Strengthen that and strengthen all other that are infused from it As a tree we cast not water on the branches but on the root all the branches are cherished by the root so strengthen faith we strengthen love and hope and all if we strengthen faith and assurance of Gods love in Christ. Thus I have at length gone over this fruitfull portion of Scripture FINIS AN Alphabetical Table DIRECTING The Reader to the Ready finding out the Principal Points and Matters handled in this Book A. Achaia AChaia the Countrey wherein Corinth was Page 5 Acknowledge Acknowledge or Acknowledgment what p. 316 331 To acknowledge Christ what pag. 331 Christ acknowledged in the Minister p. 331 333 How to know whether we acknowledge the Minister p. 331 332 333 Action Three sorts of Actions good ill indifferent p. 254
comforted then it is most terrible at the hour of death we should have most comfort if we had any wisdom when earthly comforts shall be taken from us and at the day of judgment then an ill conscience look where it will it hath matter of terrour If it look up there is the Judge armed with vengeance if it look beneath there is hell ready to swallow it if it look on the one side there is the divell accusing and helping conscience if it look round about there is heaven and earth and all on a fire and within there is a hell where shall the sinner and ungodly appear If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and ungodly appear at that time O let us labour to have a good conscience and to exercise the reflect power of conscience in this world that is let us examine our selves admonish our selves judge our selves condemn our selves do all in our selves Let us keep court at home first let us keep the assizes there and then we shall have comfort at the great assizes Therefore God out of his love hath put conscience into the soule that we might keep a court at home Let conscience therefore do its worst now let it accuse let it judge and when it hath judged let it smite us and do execution upon us that having judged our selves we may not be condemned with the world If we suffer not conscience to have its full work now it will have it one day a sleepy conscience will not alway sleep if we do not suffer conscience to awake here it will awaken in hell where there is no remedy Therefore give conscience leave to speak what it will perhaps it will tell thee a tale in thine ear which thou wouldest be loath to hear it will pursue thee with terrours like a blood-hound and will not suffer thee to rest therefore as a bankrupt thou art loath to look in thy books because there is nothing but matter of terrour This is but a folly for at the last conscience will do its duty it will awaken either here or in hell Therefore we are to hope the best of them that have their consciences opened here there is hope that they will make their peace with God that they will agree with their adversary while they are in the way If thou suffer conscience to be sleepy and drowsie till it be awaked in hell wo unto thee for then thy estate is determined of it will be a barren repentance Now thy repentance may be fruitful it may force theeto make thy peace with God dost thou think it will alway be thus with thee Thou besottest thy conscience with sensualitie and sayest Go thy way and come another time as he said to St. Paul I will tell thee this peace will prove a tempest in the end Conscience of all things in the world deserves the greatest reverence more then any Monarch in the world for it is above all men it is next unto God and yet what do many men regard the honour 〈◊〉 their friends more then conscience that inward friend that shall accompany them to heaven that will go with them to death and to judgement and make them lift up their heads with joy when other friends cannot help them but must needs leave them in death Now for a man to follow the humours of men to follow the multitude and to stain conscience what a foolish wretch is he though such men think themselves never so wise it is the greatest folly in the world to stain conscience to please any man because conscience is above all men Again those that follow their own humours their own dispositions and are carried away with their own lusts it is a folly and madnesse for the time will come that that which their covetous base lust hath carried them to that shall be taken away as honours riches pleasures which is the fuel of that lust which makes them now neglect conscience all shall be taken away in sicknesse or in the time of despair when conscience shall be awaked Now what folly is it to please thy own lust which thou should'st mortifie and subdue and to displease conscience thy best friend and then when thy lust is fully satisfied all that hath been fuel to it that hath fed it shall be taken away at the hour of death or some special judgement and conscience shall be awaked and shall torment thee for giving liberty to thy base lusts and to thy self And those eyes of thy soul that thy offence delighted to shut up there shall some punishment come either in this life or in that to come that shall open those eyes As Adams eyes were opened after his sin why were they not open before he had such a strong desire to the apple he did not regard them but his punishment afterward opened those eyes which his inordinate desire shut So it shall be with every sinner therefore regard no man in the world more then thy conscience Regard nothing no pleasure no profit more then conscience reverence it more then any thing in the world Happie is that man that carries with him a good conscience that can witnesse that he hath said nor done nothing that may vex or grieve conscience if it be otherwise whatsoever a man gains he loseth in conscience and there is no comparison between those two One crack one flaw in conscience will prove more disadvantagious then the rest will be profitable Thou must cast up the rest again they are sweet bits downward but they shall be gravel in the belly We think when we have gained any thing when we have done any thing we shall hear no more of it as David said to Joab when he set him to make away Uriah Let not this trouble thee So let not this ill gain let not this ill speech or this ill carriage trouble thee thou shalt hear no more of this We take order to stop and silence conscience thinking never to hear more of it oh but remember conscience will have its work and the longer we defer the witnesse and work of conscience the more it will terrifie and accuse us afterward Therefore of all men be they never so great they are most miserable that follow their wills and their lusts most that never have any outward check or inward check of conscience but drown it with sensual pleasures As Charles the 9 th who at night when conscience hath the fittest time to work a man being retired then he would have his singing boyes after he had betreyed them in that horrible Massacre after which he never had peace and quiet And as Saul sent for Davids Harpe when the evil spirit was upon him So wicked men they look for forreign helps but it will not be for the greatest men with their forreign helps are most miserable The reason is because the more they sink in rebellion and sin against conscience the more they sink in terrours it shall be the
Adam Our estate in Christ better then Adams or the Angels why p. 438 445 Affliction Gods Children subject to Afflictions and why p. 47 60 74 126 Gods people are sensible of Afflictions and why p. 129 c. Good men lying under Afflictions and Crosses are subject to rash and hard censures p. 120 124 The Afflictions of the Saints are for the good of others how p. 102 103 The good we get by others Afflictions is by stirring up grace in us p. 109 God aimes at many things in the same Affliction p. 114 Effects of Afflictions to Gods Children and to the wicked p. 163 Affliction called Death p. 171 See more in Persecution Suffering Tribulation Aime Holy men work from holy Aimes and Ends p. 347 All. Christ is all in all to us p. 391 Alone The Devil set on Christ when he was alone p. 71 See Solitarinesse Amen Amen what and how taken pag. 401 A double Amen p. 440 All Promises in Christ Yea and Amen p. 401 c. 410 c. Anointing What kind of persons were formerly anointed p. 463 464 467 The order of our Anointing in Christ p. 464 467 468 The graces of the Spirit resembled to Anointing or Oynment why pag. 464 c. Antiquity Antiquity of our Church and Religion proved against the Papists p. 394 395 396 Popish Religion not ancient pag. 396 c. Apology Christians are often driven to their Apologie p. 215 Apostle The Priviledge of Apostles above ordinary Ministers and how they differ from them p. 2 S. Paul's Prerogative above other Apostles ibid. Apostles and Prophets how subject to erre and mistake and how not p. 374 Application Necessity of application of the Promises to our selves p. 441 Assent Four degrees or kinds of Assent pag. 541 542 Assurance A Christian ought and may be assured of his estate in grace p. 487 All Christians have not a like assurance nor at all times p. 488 Gods Children may be assured that they shall persevere to the end p 489 See Perseverance We may be assured from a little measure of grace that we are in the state of grace p. 491 Authority Why S. Paul alledged humane authority in his Epistles and in his dealing with men pag. 4 What power or authority the Church gives to the Scriptures p. 3 4 545 See Church Scripture B. Believe HOw hardly mans heart is brought to believe p. 48 486 Best A true Christian is best where he is best known p. 273 Blesse To blesse God what p. 17 How God blesseth us and how we blesse Gâ—…d ibid We adde noâ—…hing to God when we blesse him ibid. Whâ—… we ought to blesse God ibid. We ought to blesse God for Christ p. 21 Blessing what p. 9 The Popes blessing nothing worth ibid. See Praise Thankfulnesse Brother Timothy S. Paul's Brother how p. 4 All Christians or all Believers are Brethren ibid. C. Called MEn in Scripture are often called by that which they are led and ruled by p. 275 365 Censure Against censuring those that are under crosses and afflictions p. 124 150 Men are prone to censute mens callings for some particular actions p. 375 Sin must be censured and judged when it is committed p. 510 Certainty A double Certainty p. 120 440 How the Prophets and Apostles were certain and infallible and how not p. 374 Christ. Christ three wayes taken in Scripture p. 77 Christ is the main object of preaching p. 388 Christ is all in all to us p. 391 How to think of Christ p 390 Gods love to us founded in Christ p. 404 405 How to get into Christ p. 415 Christ a Prophet Priest and King p. 467 The Scripture sets forth Christ by all comfortable terms that may be p. 55 Christian. What is done to Christians is done to Christ p 81 A true Christian is best where he is best known p. 273 A sound Christian loves and values all Christians p. 450 Christians are Prophets Priests and Kings how p. 468 c. See Saint Church Whether the Church can give authority to the Word or Scripture p. 3 4 545 God hath a Church in most wicked places and among most wicked people p. 4 Every Christian ought to be a member of some particular Church or Congregation p. 6 The Church hath its name sometimes 1. From the mixture in it 2 From the better part of it ib. Churches not to be left or forsaken for some corruptions in them p. 339 Civil A meer civil man who p. 8 Comfort Consolation Comfort or Consolation what p. 39 8â—… God the God of comfort how p 39 40 What this Title attributed to God implies p. 42 Whatsoever the means of comfort be God is the Spring and Fountain of it p. 43 God can create comfort out of nothing p. 42 God can raise comfort out of contraries p 42 3 What use to be made of this that God is the God of comfort p. 43 44 c. Reasons or grounds why Christians are uncomfortable p. 45 God comforteth his people in all tribulation p. 46 48 Objection against this answered p. 47 69 God applyeth comfort answerable to all miseries in this life p. 48 To comfort wha p. 49 What use to be made of this that God is the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation p. 49 50 c. How to derive comfort from the God of comfort p. 50 No comfort for such as go on in sin p. 51 Comforts for those that are relapsed p. 52 General comforts should be had for all kind of maladies and grievances and which be they p. 52 53 Means for obtaining of comfort p. 52 to 60 69 To keep a daily course of comfort how p. 54 to 60 Christ in Scripture is set forth by all terms that may be comfortable p. 55 Means whereby we may be enabled to comfort others p. 60 61 64 65 All Gods Children have interest in divine comforts why p. 61 Divine comforts are not impaired by being communicated ibid. God conveyes comfort to men by men p. 62 63 We should be willing ready and able to comfort one another p. 62 63 64 70 71 Experience a great help to comfort others why p. 65 66 67 Objections of such as complain of want of comfort answered p. 69 Our comforts and consolations are proportionable to our sufferings pag. 82 Greatest comforts follow greatest sufferings why ibid. What hinders comfort in affliction p. 97 No comfort for wicked men p. 98 Comfort or consolation abounds by Christ p. 99 Why Christians are no more comfortable p. 100 Suffering a necessary precedent of comfort why p. 117 Those that suffer as they should are sure of comfort p. 118 Commendation A man may speak in commendation of himself and in what cases pag. 215 Communion Bond of Communion of Saints pag. 450 Companion Companions in sin shall be companions in suffering p. 119 Conceit We should have a good conceit of others p. 322 323 It's good to have a good conceit of others p. 344
See Hope Opinion Confidence Certain account of and looking for death is a not able means to draw us from self confidence p. 136 Gods Children prone to self confidence p. 137 See Trust. Conformity A threefold conformity with Christ p. 118 Conscience Conscience what p. 219 220 c. Three things joyned with Conscience p. 221 God hath set up a Court in man wherein Conscience is 1. Register 2. Witnesse 3. Accuser 4. Judge 5. Executioner p. 222 Conscience Gods Hall wherein he keeps his Assizes ibid. Judgment of Conscience a forerunner of the great and general Judgment ibid. Conscience beareth witnesse p. 223 What manner of witnesse Conscience is viz. 1. Faithful 2. Inward ibid. How to have Conscience witnesse well p. 224 227 An ignorant man cannot have a good Conscience p. 225 Why men have bad Consciences ibid. Papists cannot have a good conscience why p. 226 The witnesse of a good Conscience the ground of joy why p. 227 235 A good Conscience breeds joy 1. In life p. 228 to 232 2. In death 3. At the day of Judgment A good Conscience comforts in all estates and conditions whatsoever p. 228 229 230 Why a good Conscience doth not alwayes witnesse comfort p. 231 232 Means how to joy and rejoyce in the witnesse of Conscience p. 233 Nothing worse then a bad Conscience p. 236 237 238 239 Labour for a good Concience ibid. Commenâ—…atior of a good Conscience ibid. How to have a good Conscience p. 240 Gods Children have place in the Conscience of others p. 320 Contraries God is able to raise comfort out of contraries p. 42 43 God carries on the work of our salvation by contraries why p. 146 Conversation Conversation what p. 266 Christianity may stand with conversing abroad in the world p. 267 Keligion makes a man converse abroad in the world untainted ibid. A Christians Conversation is best where he is best known p. 273 Corinth Corinth a very wicked City yet ever there God hath a Church p. 4 What is now become of the Church of Corinth p. 5 Corinth the Metropolis or Mother-City of Achaia p. 6 See Achaia D. Danger God suffers his Children sometimes to fall into extream perils and dangers why p. 125 126 c. Day Christ hath a Day p. 339 There be two special dayes of Christ ibid. The measure of a Christians joy is as it will be esteemed at the day of Judgment p. 340 We should often think of the day of the Lord Jesus p. 341 See Judgment Death Gods Children are sometimes very sensible and much afraid of death why p. 130 131 How and in what respect the Saints desire death p. 133 Christ was afraid of death and yet thirsted after it how p. 132 133 Gods Children are often deceived concerning the time â—…f their death why p. 134 Death uncertain how ibid. The time of death uncertain why p. 134 135 Certain account of and looking for death is a means to draw us from self-confidence and from the world and to make us trust in God p 136 Physicians fault in flattering the sick and feeding them with false hopes â—…f long life at the point of death taxed ibid. Affliction called Death p. 171 Deliver God doth not deliver his children at the first but suffers them to be brought to a low ebbe to a very sad condition and why p. 171 172 God delivers after he hath done his work p. 172 Gods time to deliver when p. 173 Gods children alway stand in need of deliverance p. 175 God delivers both outwardly and inwrdly p. 176 180 Christians have deliverance from trouble p. 177 A double deliverance of God p. 178 Experience of Gods deliverance in time past a ground of confidence to expect the like for time to come p. 172 178 182 Objection against the Doctrine of Gods delivering his people from trouble answered p. 179 Deliverance various or manifold p. 180 God will deliver his people out of all trouble p. 181 Dispense No dispensing with Gods Law p. 399 Dissembling Dissimulation Grounds of Dissimulation p. 244 A threefold Dissimulation 1. Before the project p. 224 2. In 3. After Objection for dissembling answered pag. 247 Man naturally prone to dissemble p. 244 250 Dissembling to be avoided and declined p. 371 372 A Christian is no Dissembler p. 317 See Simulation Dominion No man hath dominion over anothers faith p. 519 What is no domineering over the faith of others p. 520 What is domineering over the faith of others ibid. Who are guilty of domineering over other mens faith p. 521 The Church of Rome guilty of domineering over the faith of others how and wherein ibid. Grounds from whence this domineering over other mens faith ariseth p. 527 Double Doubling a great sin p. 247 Man by nature is prone to double and the grounds of it p. 250 Some persons and callings are more prone to doubling then others ibid. A Christian is no doubler p. 317 E. Earnest VVHat the Spirit is an Earnest of p. 486 The Spirit resembled to an Earnest in fiv e particulars p. 486 487 How to know whether we have the Earnest of the Spirit p. 493 494 495 How to get this Earnest of the Spirit pag. 501 502 503 Motives to labour for this Earnest pag. 504 505 End Holy men work for holy Ends p. 347 Equivocation Popish Equivocation odious and abominable p. 246 372 516 Errour How Prophets and Apostles were subject to errours and mistakes and how not p. 374 See Infallible Mistake Experience Former Experience a ground to expect like mercies for the future p. 182 to 188 Extremity God sometimes suffers his children to fall into great extremities and why p. 126 127 Gods people are sensible of their extremity p. 129 See Afflictions Sufferings Tribulations F. Faith Difference between Faith and Presumption p. 441 A double act of Faith 1. Direct pag. 488 2. Reflect Of standing by Faith See Standing To have dominion over the Faith of others See Dominion The foundation of Faith must be out of a mans self p. 544 True Faith is built upon the Word or the Scriptures not upon unwritten Traditions p. 544 545 546 Popish Faith not built upon the Scriptures but upon Traditions p. 545 546 Faith sure and certain p. 546 True Faith will persevere and hold out to the end ibid. It 's by Faith that we stand and withstand all opposition whatsoever ibid. Faith a Christians victory by it he conquers all adversary powers ibid. The Sacrament a means of strengthen Faith p. 550 Falshood Falshood to be declined p. 371 372 Father God as the Father of Christ to be praised p. 21 See Praise God the Father of Christ our Father and the Father of mercies how pag. 21 22 Why God is called the Father of mercies p. 23 Why not the Father of mercy but of mercies ibid. Uses to be made of this Title of God The Father of mercies p. 25 26 27 28 29 30 See Mercy Flesh. Flesh what 276 364 Carnal wisdome why called