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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09970	The golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie by her marriage. And the Churches dutie in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekely fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne. By the late learned and reverend divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiesty, Mr. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and somtime preacher at Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1638 (1638)	STC 20227; ESTC S112474	187,142	312

goe and humble my selfe I will goe home to God and change my course and give up my selfe to him and serve him and this we shall finde in these examples mentioned before especially of the Prodigall Luk. 15. he came to this conclusion If I stay here I dye for hunger but in my fathers house there is bread enough here was hope that bred this resolution I will goe home and say to my father I have sinned against heaven and against thee c. here was that true humiliation we speake of So Manasses hee humbled himselfe greatly out of an hope of mercy for a man comes not to this active humiliation wherein he kindly humbleth himselfe unlesse hee hath hope of mercy and the beginning of faith is with a hope of mercy which sets a man a worke to goe to God and say Lord I have committed such and such sinnes but I will returne to them no more I am worthy of nothing Now there are foure severall compositions or foure paires of ingredients that have influence into this second kind of humiliation to cause us to humble our selves 1 Payr an hope of mercy as wel as a sence of misery that whereas before wee did looke upon God as a severe Judge we looke now on him as one willing to receive us both are requisite Sence of misery onely brings a man but to himselfe as the Prodigall first is said to come to himselfe but hope of mercy joyned with it drives a man home to God as it did also him without which sence of misery drives us from the LORD but hope of mercy being added to it causeth this active humiliation wee speake of whereby wee say I will goe and humble my selfe 2 Payre of ingredients are the sence of our own emptinesse together with an apprehension of that Alsufficiency that is in God which we also may see in the Prodigall when he said I shall starve and die if I stay here but in my fathers house is bread enough he lookt to that alsufficient fulnesse that was in God to supply his wants The creature whilst it findeth any thing in it selfe it will stand upon its owne bottome and not bee humbled but when it finds nothing in its selfe but emptinesse then it beginneth to seeke out for a bottome which it seeing to be in God alone it goes out to him for men will not be drawne off from their owne bottome till they see another bottome to stand upon 3 There must bee a sence of a mans owne sinfulnesse and the LORD JESUS his righteousnesse and so a light comes in that discovereth both thus when S. Paul was humbled there was a light shone about him which was an outward symbole of that new light which shone within him of Christ and his owne sinfulnesse A sence of the love of God and Christ joyned with the sence of a mans unkindnesse unto God whereby wee looke upon sinnes as injuries done to God and an unkindnesse shewne therein And now let us see the difference betwixt these two works or parts of humiliation that wee may further understand what it is to humble our selves And first they differ in the matter they are conversant about in that first a man is humbled properly but for the punishment a man indeed is humbled for sinne yet principally as it hath relation to punishment it is guilt works on him he is not humbled for sin as it is contrary to God and his holinesse but as contrary to himself and his own good and thus we are not humbled till we come to love God and to have a light discovering the holines and purity of his nature which one that is savingly humbled hath wrought in him They differ in their grounds and principles whence they arise The first ariseth but from selfe-love and is but a worke of nature though thus farre a worke of God to stirre up self-love by the sence of misery and to awaken it but so as any unreasonable creature if in danger useth to be sensible of it and what wonder then is it for a man when hee begins to have some sence of hel and death let into his conscience to be wounded and apprehensive of it but the other ariseth from the love of God kindled in the heart by hope of grace and mercy They differ in the instrumental causes that work them the one is wrought by the spirit of bondage by an enlightning meerly to see his bondage and the soule is as one that is in bondage fearing God as a master and he hath no further light than thus to see God as a Judge but this other is wrought by the spirit of adoption making the Gospell also effectuall discovering God as a father They differ in their effects as The one driveth a man from GOD but this latter causeth a man to goe to GOD and to seeke Christ it workes that affection to Christ that the Church in the Canticles had to him who would not give over seeking him till she had found him whom her soule did love Though there bee twenty obstacles in the way yet the soule hath no rest as a stone hath no rest till it bee in its owne center so nor this soule thus humbled but in God and therfore gives not over seeking him though it hath never so many denyalls The first breeds death an acedia a deadnesse and listlesnesse it makes a man as a log that moves not to God in prayer So it wrought in Nabal and Achitophel it breeds such discouragement as often ends in death Of worldly sorrow and such is all sorrow whereof God is not the end commeth death but when it is right and true and kindly sorrow for sinne it doth that which an affection should doe it quickneth him to doe that which he ought to do so feare when it is right worketh and so all other affections which were put into the soule for that end that it might bee stirred up by them to that which it should doe for GOD and its owne good and therefore this affection of sorrow for sinne quickens a man to seeke out to God when it is right The first breeds a fiercenesse and turbulency in a mans spirit as we see often in men whose consciences are awakned to see their sinnes they are fiercer then they were before for guilt of sin vexeth their spirits and where there is no sence of mercy from God there is none to men but hee that is broken for sinne spends his anger upon himselfe frets chiefly for his owne vilenesse and unworthinesse and the Peace of God which his heart hath a sence of makes his spirit gentle and peaceable and easie to be entreated and perswaded bring him Scripture and a child may lead him and perswade him The rough wayes are made smooth the rough and froward dispositions of the heart and every Mountaine-like affection cast downe as it is said they were by Saint

Iohns ministery who came to humble men and prepare men for Christ. They differ in their continuance the former a lone proves but a passion and it comes but from flesh so as all the fruites of flesh are it is but as the flower of the grasse of the same fading nature the roote is from whence it comes though it comes like a violent torrent into the heart and swells above the bankes yet it is but as a land-floud but this latter is as a constant river that hath a spring which though it keepes within the bankes and doth not overflow so much as the other yet it runnes constantly and the further it runnes the greater it growes I will give you also some properties of that humiliation to which the promise is made here by which it may bee yet further knowne and differenced We will take those fruites of it wee finde in the text 1 It will make a man pray and 2. Seeke Gods face and turne from his evill wayes it hath alwayes these as the consequences of it To pray Iudas was humbled but hee had no minde to pray nor an ability to pray the spirit of prayer went not with it but hee that hath that true humiliation is able to poure forth his soule to God and indeed prayer is not the worke of the memory and wit but the proper worke of a broken heart Againe secondly to seeke Gods face this true humiliation cuts a man off from his owne roote and bottome and causeth him to seeke the Lord alone which seeking useth to be expressed in prayer that other will cause a man to seeke mercy but this to seeke Gods face that is if they have his favour it is enough they seeke God as sequestred from all things else though such a soule had assurance of being freed from hell it would not content him unlesse he saw Gods face That which Absalom counterfeited as knowing it to be a true straine of a loving and humbled child to a Father when he had his life given him though banished from the Court Let mee see my Fathers face though hee kill mee it is an humbled soule in truth towards God others as God sayes in Hosea Seeke mercy but they turned not to mee they sought not me True humiliation causeth a man to turne from his evill wayes the other makes a man but give them over for a time whilst he is sicke of them and then returnes againe as a Dog to his vomit 2 Chron. 33. 23. It is said Amon humbled not himselfe as Manasses his father had humbled himselfe but transgressed more and more which implies that when a man is humbled as hee should he transgresseth no more as hee had done and so Manasses did so humble himselfe as he transgressed no more It will make him become stronger against that sin he hath transgressed in as a bone that hath been broken is stronger when it is right set againe hee especially humbleth himselfe for and turnes from his beloved sin and with that from all the rest 2 Property is it makes a man to cleave fast to Christ and so draw nigh to him in all the duties of obedience to obey him constantly generally and throughly Men may have light wounds made in their hearts which do not drive them to the Physitian which awakeneth men a little but they fall asleepe againe but when God humbleth so as to save he so fastens the apprehension of his misery upon him as to bring him home to Christ he sets on the avenger of bloud to pursue him to the utmost and not for a mile or two but to follow him till he be driven into the Citty of refuge There is an humiliation which hath not this effect and consequent of it and therefore I mention it as a property of the true and this because of a defect that is in it in which respect though it come neare the true yet differs from it which is in the event seene in this that the true causeth to come to Christ and to cleave to him without separation That you may therefore see the difference betweene this and the other and wherein that other is defective marke how that which is true workes this in one who yet is not quite cut off but hangs by a thread as it were there being some secret Fibrae some veines and strings that are not cut in peeces which keepe life in the old man and a man remaineth still upon his old stocke and so long CHRIST comes not into the heart not untill a man be unbottomed of himselfe and sees he can no way be happy in himselfe or within his owne compasse but sees all is to bee had in and from the LORD JESUS untill then he will not goe out of himself nor cleave to or follow the LORD JESUS CHRIST fully Now then the other humiliation is defective in this in that it is not in this manner enough bottomed it cuts not a man wholly off from himselfe the foundation is not laid low enough there is wanting depth of earth there is indeed so much earth as shall bring forth a greene blade of profession and such a foundation as there may bee erected a slight building upon but it is not low enough to beare a substantiall building that shall stand out all windes and weathers This true humiliation hath these two things goe with it A man sees no bottome in himselfe Seeth a bottome out of himselfe to stand upon and so hee casts himselfe upon that clasps about CHRIST and wholly adhereth unto him and so draws all sap and life from him as the branch doth from the roote and thence comes that resolution and ability to cleave to the Lord and to please him in all things As the resolution to doe it so all his ability to goe through with it for being joyned to CHRIST there comes the spirit of grace cal'd the vertue of CHRISTS death because it workes a vertue like unto his death into the heart But when the heart is not yet in this manner broken many take up purposes and good desires but are not able to keepe them because they were bottomed on their owne strength whereas if the heart were broken from it selfe and engrafted into CHRIST such purposes made in his strength would thrive and grow there For if the soile bee made good and fit plants bee planted in it it is certaine they will thrive Now in a good heart those desires that bee planted there doe thrive and wither no more and though there may now and then waves arise and so they may be tossed to and fro yet substantially they doe not wither nor fall from the foundation Those therefore who have begun a good course for a yeare or a moneth and go not on in it it is a signe they want humbling Hee that is truly humbled falles backe no more Manasses did not nor Saint Paul Lord what wilt thou have

difficulty of it ●heir readinesse to offer sacrifice was alwayes acknowledged by God when their backwardnesse to this was still complained of Again we see it in experience Let a man who hath an evill and a wicked heart let him bee broken in a Morter lay affliction on affliction let him bee brought to deaths doore yet al this will not change him nay let God worke miracles not onely in his sight but upon him yet all is not enough to turne him As wee see in Ieroboam there was a miracle wrought upon him though he had his hand withered up and was by the Prophet reproved and his Kingdome was threatned to bee taken away from him yet this would not worke upon him he would not turne from his evil wayes he found such sweetnesse in that evill way whereby he kept his Kingdome and without which he thought he could not hold it if he left that So all the great wonders in Egypt would not soften Pharaoh his heart nor make him let the children of Israel goe because he thought it was for his profit to keepe them still The grounds of it are Because these evill wayes are so pleasant to us so suitable to all men according as mens severall fancies do pitch Now it is a rule in morality that those things are most difficult about which joyes and griefes are conversant and therfore the chief imployment and end and use of vertue is to order them and guide them a right Because they are rooted in nature and are agreeable to a mans naturall disposition and it is hard to stop the current of nature which way soever it takes especially running downe the hill And then besides education addes to nature and custome as another nature addeth strength to sinne and Sathan addes to all these For when lusts lie as sparkes under embers hee blowes them up And to all these ad the joyning of wicked men among whom we live and who live with us in the same courses Therefore in Ephes. 2. The course of the world and the Prince that rules in the children of disobedience are made there strong and potent and efficacious workers in us there is nothing so weake as water yet let much water be joyned together and nothing is stronger so though sin were weake of it selfe as yet it is not yet when multitudes joyne custome Sathan c. wee are carried with the streame and croud Because every evill way in us is backt by an inward Law of the members in us that makes it also hard Rom. 7. 23. where the Apostle considering of the reason why sinne should so prevaile and leade him captive gives this I see sayes he another Law in my members rebelling against the law of my minde c. this is given as the reason why hee cannot do the good hee would and why he doth the sonne he hates And the reason why he had so much to do with it was because it was a law and it is called a law the law of sinne because it commands powerfully as a law A law implies a strong commanding inclination Lawes extort obedience and will have it done they come with authority and will not be denyed and so doth sin and therefore it is hard to resist it and forbids good to be done and a man cannot doe it So 2 Pet. 2. 14. We have it expressed eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sinne because as a law it is armed with punishments and rewards this being the definition of the law Praeceptum minus commixtum a naked Praeceptum is not called a law because it barely teacheth but when threatnings are joyned with it then it is called a law and such lawes are our lusts if we do resist them they threaten with some evill as when Ahab would have Naboths Vineyard his lust being not answered casts him upon his sicke bed as if it meant to be revenged on him till it were satisfied So did Aman his lust also And as it threatneth and punisheth so it promiseth rewards profit and pleasure if we will obey it Both which argue the difficulty to resist it As also that it is called the law of the members argues as much for it is so called First because it inclines not in a morall manner onely as when a man is perswaded by reason or motives to doe any thing that is evill but because it inclines us Physically as nature enclines us to meate and drinke A law so radicated in the soule if it inclines by way of nature as plummets hang upon wheeles and makes them goe as we say whether they will or no and reason may be put off and denyed but not a strong inclination of nature that will not be got off so easily Because it discovers it selfe though it be seated in the whole man and is most operative in the sensuall part as on the contrary the law of the minde is most exercised in the superior part though it sanctifies the whole man The meaning is this it appeares in the faculties of the minde when they are set about any action that is good and in the relation is called the law of the members because it is discerned in the use of the members as a man that hath the palsie it lyes undiscerned in the hand but when he comes to use it he findes it so the gout or sorenesse or lamenesse in the leg though it be there yet it is most discerned when a man goes to walke such a lamenesse or difficulty in our faculties appeares when we goe about any thing that is good In the last place this law of the members is said to rebell against the law of the mind and if we will consider its forces in this warre we shall find it difficult to resist and turne from them For first there is a strong faction of evill many members many lusts legions of lusts warring so the word implyes it is not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a single fight but of many there is never a good motion comes into the soule but they give their suffrage against it their voice against whatsoever is good no good intention but they are ready to gainesay it nor doe they meerely say it and tell us they dislike it but they will reason it out with many arguments and they are not able onely to give a voyce against what is good but likewise to doe somthing what is active They dampe and clogge and prohibite the spirit when it is about any good and therefore it is called flesh because the nature of it is to dampe the spirit as in the doings and proceedings of men there often comes a prohibition from Chauncery to stay the proceedings at the Common law so from the law of the members comes a prohibition often hindring us when we would pray and conferre c. As it is our part in warre to stop passages to take up the bridges to hinder the enemy from going whither they would so doe

the particulars first The utmost end is as the Rudder to the ship as the bridle to the horse which turnes all going about particulars only is as if one should set his shoulder to the side of the ship when one touch of the Rudder would doe it Therefore Rehoboam 2 Chron. 10. 14. erred because his heart was not prepared to seeke the Lord and his failing in that particular is ascribed to his want in the generall Iob 17. 9. It is said the righteous shall hold on his way and he that is of pure hands shall waxe stronger and stronger he that hath his heart once changed holds on but till that is done all is in vaine to strive with particulars As put the case a Gardener takes paines to dresse a Thorne it may have as much paines taken with it in manuring and pruning it as any plant in the garden yet it remaines a Thorne still for all the mouldes put to it So though thou prayest and fastest and humblest thy selfe yet if thy nature be not changed all will doe no good Cast up a stone a thousand times it comes downe againe because it remaines a stone but if it were turned into a meteor c. or the like it would not Therefore get a generall change of thy heart and then a change in particular would follow Goe to CHRIST and beseech him to worke this chang in thee let this be more in your practise this wee formally confesse that the LORD only can change us yet it is not throughly considered When thy nature is strongly inclined to any evill way so as thou art almost out of hope to overcome yet goe to GOD. That place may encourage us Iames 4 5 6. doe you thinke the Scripture sayes in vaine The spirit that is in us lusteth after envie but he giveth more grace hee had told them vers 1. of lusts fighting in their members they might aske him how they should get the victory true saith the Apostle it is hard to overcome and indeed impossible to nature the spirit that is in us lusteth after envy and will doe so but consider the Scripture offers more grace then nature is able to doe it tells you not in vaine that the grace therein offered is able to heale though the disease be hereditary and is past natures cure yet it is not past the cure of grace Acts 10. 31. It is said of CHRIST Him hath God raised up to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes When lusts are too strong for a man Christ comes as a Prince and overcomes them for he gives repentance and the end of his comming was not onely to give salvation but repentance Though Physitians could not cure Naaman the Prophet could though the Disciples could not cast out Divells yet Christ could And therefore say not it is an hereditary lust and it hung long upon me and I have made many resolutions and yet I cannot overcome it Take a man that is borne blind hee is past all cure by man all Physitians will give him over and say he is borne blind yet remember that Christ did cure those that were borne blinde and lame This course Paul tooke 2 Cor. 1. 2. he had a strange lust which he could not overcome he beseecheth the Lord to remove for this I besought the Lord thrise that it might depart so David also Psal. 51. 10. finding the remainder of his old disease and sinfull dispositions he goes to GOD for a new heart when he could not make cleane his heart he prayes to the Lord Create a cleane heart in me So he in the Gospell I beseech thee helpe my unbeliefe Thinke not that all is done when thou hast taken up a resolution against thy sinne to take up a resolution belongs to thee but to cure it belongs alone to GOD Goe to him therfore for he hath undertaken to circumcise thy heart Ephes. 3. he having prayed v. 16. that they should be strengthened in the inward man c. then vers 20. concludes Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all wee are able to aske or thinke according to the power that worketh in us c. as if he had sayd you may finde many weaknesses in your selves and then doe as I doe for you goe to the Lord to heale them and know that he is able to doe above all thou canst thinke to subdue that lust which thou thoughtest could never have beene overcome But how will he do it According to that mighty power that worketh in us that power is as strong as Christ himselfe for it is the power of his death the power that raised him up from death to glory able to worke out all infirmities and to worke into you all the graces you want Give not over therfore have faith in the promises of Sanctification as well as in those of Iustification Is he not bound by promise to performe these to you that believe as well as the other Where ever God hath a mouth to speake faith hath an eare to heare an hand to lay hold as God sayd to Ioshua I will conquer those Gyants for thee I will pull downe those walls which they say are built up to heaven onely bee thou couragious and doe but trust mee bee not discouraged upon any occasion give not over saying it is a thing will never be done and had not Ioshua trusted the Lord he would quickly have set downe and given over So I say to you concerning your lusts be couragious and so none are but those that put their confidence in the LORD faint not nor be weary doe but believe thou shalt overcome and thou shalt see them all conquered in the end One word of his mouth was enough to still the raging windes and is as able to still thy lusts But here many will be ready to object I have striven long and praied long and taken much paines and I have not gotten the victory this must necessarily be answered for this is the case of many and it is the scope of Sathan to discourage men and therby to give over the combate First consider whether thy striving be right or no for there is a false resistance of sin and the promise is not made to that and then no wonder if they be not performed for example 1 First it may be it is not the sin thou strivest against but the disprofit the discredit in thy name and estate or sicknesse in thy body that followes upon it so as if these were removed thou shouldest be willing enough to keepe the sin This is not a right striving that will be accepted 2 It may be it is but a faint resistance and a faint denyall doth but make the begger the more importunate Balaam gave the messengers a denyall but it was a faint one they perceived his lingring which made them the more importunate It may be thou art content still to parly with