spirituall Arguments upon a renewed man as an Argument from a painted feather works upon a child more then an Argument from an inheritance which no doubt will work upon a man come to age and yet neither the one nor the other works upon a renewed mind to remove him off Christ his rock Hence it is 3. that Acts of Omnipotency are used as Morall Arguments also God works in you to will and to do therefore work out your salvation And choosing redeeming calling justifying quickening converting are brought in as causes in Scripture both reall and morall but they work morally on reason where there is an impression of faith and principle of life The Gospel works on an unrenewed man to perswade him almost to be a Christian Ye may perswade a youth to a course and get his word consent and write but because reason is green and young he falls off it again but a man of judgement shall stand to it yet if he be not renewed reason is also green and raw before a spirituall temptation Quest. What are the actings of a mortified man Ans. No actings 2. Slow actings and lent 3. Actings indifferent 4. Closing with contrair providences reproaches work not on mortification to fire the man Psal. 35.12 They speak mischievous things 13. But I as a deaf man heard not David feared to be the reproach of the foolish Such a case though from God would raise a cry in a child of this world Psal. 39.9 I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou did it A mortified man is dead to the voice of men-singers and women-singers and musicall instruments of all sorts Eccles. 2.8 and houses gardens vineyards orchards great possessions cattell treasures gold silver are all as musick to a dead man and repenting Solomon now mortified looks on them as a wise man upon experienced vanitie and vexation of spirit Will he sing and dance at a shadow Except a mad man none will do that 2. If any thing without a child of God work upon him they move him not much Psal. 131.2 Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned child Acts 20.24 None of these things move me I make not much reckoning of bands Peter 1 Pet. 4.12 will have the saints not to think burning quick strange graces motions are quiet slow modest there is not much fire in the spirit of a weaned child A mortified soul is as a sea that hath no winds nor low ebbings nor high spring tides Grace stirres leasurely and lentely toward all things except to God were there ten Paradices offered to it it cryes not a dying mans pulse beats weakly Grace shouts at nothing wonders at and admires nothing weeps slowly laughs slowly sings weakly eats slowly drinks not wantonly feasts and yet trembles and fears whether it be the outward or the inward man David sayes it well Ps. 62.2 He only is my Rock I shall not greatly be moved The beleevers sings and yet he is not wanton and weeps and yet is not sad dies and yet lives is fervent in the cause of God and yet stayed and composed in spirit 3. The actings of mortification are indifferent not fixedly bent upon any thing but God no not upon the Ark and spirituall comforts Weeping David 2 Sam. 16.25 saith to Zadok carry back the Ark of God into the City better I want my comfort then the Ark be taken if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation 26. But if he say I have no delight in thee here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him O how sweet when for God Moses can lay down his personall satisfaction in a share of life eternall What if he tramp upon my eternall Crown I should lay it down at his feet and is not this mortification Should he hide his face for eternity from me and I never see him in his manifestations so his glory shine in my everlasting sad desertion there is required an indifferency to all created things without no peremptory and absolute fixednesse of the affection to any good God excepted is good the contrair of this is an ingadging of the heart more then is right to any thing give me children or then I die there should be a contented living without children if God so will love the creature as if ye loved not the Lord would have us hungring for the creature and yet not eagerly desiring and thirsting and yet have a lent and well ordered appetite to drink love the child but let the heart cleave leasurely to the child Plowing and no heart-labouring buying and selling and no heart-ingadging to the bargain is best here 1 Cor. 7. They that have wives should be as if they had none 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not In the acting of affections toward the things of this life as father mother husband wife children houses gain beauty honour and new bought farme there would be a godly distance of the heart from the thing ye do Loving and no loving rejoicing and no rejoicing weeping and no weeping speaks most mortification We cannot do here except sinfully we over-doe and the out-goings of the heart to the creature must be fierie which is childish whereas mortification is a gracious well composed grave temper of the aged in Christ. There is a fire-edge and a fervour or feaver of affections even to spirituall objects that are created at the first conversion for mortification does not so soon begin as the new heart As for God love as one that loves desire and desire and when he hides himself weep as if you weeped so the weeping be terminated upon God not upon his dispensations to quarrell at and censure his wayes but let the out-goings of the heart to God and to Christ loved and longed for be with fire and full strength Cant. 3.1 2 3 4. Cant. 2.5 Ps. 42.1 2 3. Ps. 84.1 2. Joh. 20.13 Luk. 7.38 Rev. 1.17 4. It s mortification to have a heart closing with all providences Phil. 1.21 To me to live is Christ and to die is gain To live is good to die is good because the Lord so wills the Lords giving is to Job praising and the Lords taking away is to Job praising Phil. 4.12 I know both how to be abased and how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need If I die it is good if I live it is good if I be full and rich it is good if I be hungry and poor it is good if David be on the Throne it is good and he sings Psalms if he be chased barefooted and ashes on his
confirmed Angels and holy as the Man Christ and brought them so to glory should he not have been God in that case and should he have lost his naturall dominion over men in that case 4. The dominion of God over men is not only in one particular of penall Laws it is in remunerative Laws also in giving predeterminating influences to obey and persevere in obedience in not leading into temptation in hyring and alluring us to serve God in terrifying men with examples of the Lords Judgements on others he spared not the Angels c. 2 Pet. 2.4 Jud. 6. and therefore to say that God falls from his naturall dominion over man and leaves off to be God except he impose penall Laws upon men is first an errour in Logick à negatione speciei ad negationem generis nulla est consequentia If God have not a dominion over man in one particular of penall Laws he falls from his whole dominion naturall in other things It is an undue inference 2. It cannot be but too darring to tye the blessed God-head and his essentiall dominion over man to only making of penall Laws it smells of Scripturelesse boldnesse with the most High and limits the Holy One that he cannot be God except he be God in our way And saith he hath no way to preserve his glory but by creating a Hell And therefore let that stand as an unproven position since it hath no probation The reason that is given is as weak as the weak conclusion Though water may bear up water yet it cannot support the earth For 1. it saith if man be created a reasonable creature under a Law he may sin intercidi potuit obedientiâ and he may be created under a Law with perfect morall dependence upon God Creator as the Elect Angels and the Man Christ and yet never sin and yet God falls not from his dominion and leaves not off to be God 2. This lookes somewhat the Arminian way that man cannot be under the subjection of properly so called Morall obedience except his will be indifferent as Adams was to stand or fall to run to Heaven or Hell which indeed saith that the most perfect obedience of Christ who was obedient to the death Phil. 2.8 and delighted to do the will of God Psal. 40.8 John 4.34 is no proper obedience that is perfect obedience is not proper obedience And that obedience of Elect Angels the samplar of our obedience Mat. 6.10 Isa. 6.2 3. Psal. 103.20 is not proper obedience 3. Whereas it is said if man sin his morall dependency cannot stand except God punish him but so not only God shall not be God nor have dominion over man except he impose a penall Law upon man but he shall not be God except he actually punish man or his surety Christ. But the same pen saith that the out-goings of justice are free that is to say it is free to God to punish sin and yet he falls from his naturall dominion over man and leaves off to be God if he punish not sin But we do deny that God falls from his naturall dominion over man though he never impose a penall Law upon him and never punish and desire that this may be proven nor is it imaginable how God by necessity of nature must punish sin And yet in the way measure and degree of punishment and in the time when he can use moderation Which is as good as to say the fire must by necessity of nature burn the Sun cast light But the fire hath free will to burn when it pleaseth and at this time and not at this time and the Sun must shine by necessity of nature but it is free to shine at ten hours of the day and not at twelve and it may shine as bright as the Sun or as dimme as the Moon Or God the Father loves himself but it is free to him to love himself to day not to morrow and to love himself so much not so much And so he may say God is so mercifull and just to day as he may be no merciful no just to morrow and God is infinitly mercifull and just and yet he is lesse mercifull and more mercifull essentially according to his good pleasure which are speaking contradictions Yea this is that which misjudging Suarez saith that the creature may do a reall injurie to God and take away from God jus Dei ad gloriam his right to glory but the truth is the creature by sin darkeneth or overcloudeth his declarative glory but can take away no essentiall glory nor any reall right or reall good from God so Elihu Job 39.6 If thou sinnest what dost thou against him If thy transgressions be multiplied what dost thou to him To take his declarative glory from God is no lose to him no more then it is lose to the Sun that ye hinder it to shine upon the wall when yet ye take no light from the Sun for it shines upon an interposed body Job 35.8 Thy wickednesse may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousnesse may profite the Son of man It is needfull say some that God preserve his own glory safe but if sin be without infliction of punishment it is impossible that he can defend his owâ— glory Ergo of necessity he must punish sin The proposition is out of controversie for all confesse that God must preserve his own glory 〈◊〉 by necessity of nature he must do so quoniam seipsum non potest non amare Because he cannot but love himself and he hath said my glory will I not give to another To this is answered the glory internall eternall and essentiall to God the Lord must defend and love as he loves himself by necâ—ssity of nature and if any say that the egressions and out-goings of God to defend and love his own essentiall Glory and his own holy Nature so as he may use moderation in the degrees and time of these and he may love himself and his own essentiall glory more or lesse and touching the time he may delay to love himself and he may love himself and his own essentiall glory to morrow not to day As the Author sayes the out-goings of revenging justice are moderated in punishing he speaks wonders and things unworthy of God The place Isa. 42. speaks not of this glory for no idol no creature can more take away from the Almighty this essentiall glory of God nor his blessed Nature can cease to be but there is a glory declarative of pardoning mercie as well as of revenging justice It must be a carnall conception and a new dream that God by necessity of nature loves himself as cloathed with revenging justice or as just and his own glory of revenging justice but that God loves himself as mercifull and ready to forgive or his own glory of pardoning mercie freely and by no necessity of nature Which the Author must say for the place Isa. 45.
should otherwise bear this sense my glory of revenging justice only I will not give to Idol gods and creatures But the place of Isa. ch 42.8 should not conclude but they might ascribe the glory of salvation and mercifull deliverances and victories over Judah the Temple the Sanctuary to their idol gods the contrair whereof is intended by the Prophet But if the Lord by necessity of nature love his declarative glory as he loves himself then he must love glory of one attribute as well as of another and so as his Nature not freedome or soveraignty puts him to it to defend the glory of justice when man sins Yea so as he cannot be God and essentially just except he vindicat his glory of justice Yea so he must love the glory of saving and pardoning mercy as himself for the one glory is no lesse essentiall to God if it be essentiall at all then the other And by this means God by necessity of nature to preserve safe the glory of saving mercie must send his Son and by the like necessity by which he loves himself he must redeem man Now the Lord does not love himself of free grace for he every way for the infinite excellency of his Nature is love-worthy and there is no interveening of freedome or free grace or soveraignty in the Lords loving of himself and his own essentiall glory There is a declarative glory which is not essentiall to God of which the Scripture Prov. 16.4 The Lord made all things for himself that is for his glory to be declared Eph. 1.6 He hath chosen us to the praise of the glory of his grace v. 11. In Christ we have obtained an inheritance 1â— That we should be to the praise of his glory Rom. 11.36 All things are to him to his glory Isa. 43.21 This people have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my praise All these are to be understood not of the essentiall glory of God but of the declarative glory of God that shines ad extra And this glory is not essentiall to God as so declared for he was infinitly glorious from eternity and should eternally be essentially glorious though neither world nor man nor Angel had been created And the meaning of that Isai. 42.8 is mistaken the length of the Heaven toto Coelo It is not this as I love my self so by necessity of nature I will and desire that my glory due to me as God be not given to idol gods and creatures 1. What by necessitie of nature God wills that certainly and by necessitie of nature is and existeth as he loveth himself and his Son by necessitie of nature and begets his Son by necessitie of nature so also by necessitie of nature God is loved and the Son of God is loved and the Son is by necessitie of nature begotten of the Father But it is most untrue that by necessitie of nature the Glory of God is not transferred to Idol gods and creatures The Scriptures cry the contrare When ever Idolatrie is committed Isa. 40. and 41. Isa. 46. Rom. 1. Acts 17. his Glory declarative is given most sinfully to another against his approving will 2. What ever sin God forbids he forbids the existence of it by his approving will not by necessitie of nature for if God essentially and by nature willed that sin and Idolatrie should never be he would efficaciouslie hinder it But what God wills by his commanding will we see he does not efficaciouslie hinder the existence thereof For then sin and Idolatrie should not be at all nor have any existence which is contrare to Scripture and experience And surely if God love his declarative Glory essentially as himself he must essentially no lesse love to keep this glory when Angels and men do obey him and to hinder the taking away of this Glory by sin then to revenge the taking away of this glory by punishment for every sin against a positive Law to eat of the tree of knowledge or for the Jews to eat swines flesh before Christ abolished such Lawes as well as sins against the Law of nature are contrare to the Glory of God and so contrare to that essentiall love that God hath to his Glory and to the Glory of the Lord the Law-giver himself Ergo by necessitie of nature because he cannot but love himself he should preserve his legislative Glory it is as properly and essentiallie the Glory of God which he requires of us in doing his will as the Glory of suffering punishment for sin committed is his Glory therefore by necessitie of nature because God cannot but love himself he should essentially hinder sin And if God absolve the guiltie where is the Glory of his justice True it should be lost so when God suffers the Angels to fall and Adam to sin where is the Glory of his legislative Majesty it is lost so far God is oblidged to defend the Glory of his Justice say and prove that he is oblidged by necessitie of nature to defend the Glory of his Justice more then by the same necessitie he must defend his legislative Glory 3. God must defend all his Glory with the same necessitie except the Scripture make some exception of some Glory which he must preserve as dearer to him then some other Glory which is unwarrantable to say and if God must by necessitie of nature and as God because naturally he loves himself and his own Glory defend his own Glory then by necessitie of nature he must defend the Glory of all his Attributes of Holinesse Graciousnesse Greatnâ—sse Omnipotencie Eternitie Infinite knowledge c. that the Glory of not one of these be taken from him by sin And because the Lord maketh and worketh all that he doth without himself in the creature for his own Glory Prov. 16.4 Rev. 4.11 Rom. 11.36 in all that he doth he must by necessitie of nature love his own Glory quoniam seipsum non potest non amare because he loves himself Ergo by this ground the Lord doth nothing freely without himself and so the Lord makes not the rain to fall the tree to bud the sea to ebbe the wind to blow the fowls to flee the fishes to swim for the declaration of the Glory of his goodnesse or his power or his mercy his holinesse with any freedome but all these he must do for Glory to himself by necessitie of nature which Glory he loves as himself for his Glory in all he doth without he loveth by necessitie of nature as he loves himself saith the Author And therefore as he cannot preserve the Glory of his Justice but by punishing sin and that by necessitie of nature so he cannot preserve the Glory of the rest of all his Attributes which Glory also he loves as himself but by doing all without himself in like maner by necessitie of nature which utterly destroyes the libertie and freedome of God in all his works of Providence and
his Son by necessity of love and mercy and free Grace So that he should not have been infinitly loving mercifull gracious if he had never sent him And it is as poor Logick to say because of grace and free-love he sent his Son and so might not have sent him as to say he loved where there was no need it is in vain to shew the glory of Justice saith the Author when God can take away sin out of free-pleasure and why should he expose his Son to shame death and a curse whereas he might have taken away sin freely because it is his pleasure This is the very thing that Socinians say there is no need of blood and satisfaction by blood if God out of his absolute Soveraignty can take sin away without blood and so there was no need of reall satisfaction This is against the Holy Ghost and we may hear it All the Scriptures cryes that out of free grace the Lord sent his Son and delivered him to death By the grace of God He tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Shall we infer there was then no necessity that he should die It is safest to say the only wise God decreed that sin should be 2. That the glory of his Justice should appear in taking away sin not in our way but in the way of God to wit in a way of justice of mercy of free grace in incomparable love of mighty power and in all these so acts the Lord as he should not leave off to be the Lord but acts most freely though he had not taken that course But far be it from the godly not to adore him in this as the admirable way beyond the thoughts of men and Angels It were safest to draw holy practises by way of use from this In all pactions between the Lord and man even in a Law-Conant there is some out-breakings of Grace It s true there was no Gospel-Grace that is a fruit of Christs merite in this Covenant But yet if grace be taken for undeserved goodnesse There are these respects of grace 1. That God might have given to Adam something inferiour to the glorious Image of God that consists in true righteousnesse knowledge of God and holinesse Gen 1.26 Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 It was a rich enough stock this holy Image to be so badly guided And who looks spiritually to their receipts It s either too much of grace and holinesse that another hath and too little that I have so arises virtuall sighing and grudging at the dispensation Or 2. a swelling that it is so much as if it were not receiving I am holier then thou Isa. 65.5 a miskenning of him that makes me to differ 1 Cor. 4.7 A blecking of others Luk. 18.11 A secret quarrelling at God as too strick and hard in his reckoning Mat. 25.24 And what pride is this because I am a meer patient under gifted holinesse to usurpe it as mine own As if a horse should kick and fling because he wears a borrowed sadle of silk for a day 2. Being and dominion over the creatures is of undeserved goodnesse Who looks to a borrowed body and a borrowed soul yea and to self and to that which is called I as to a thing that is freely gifted So that though thou be in an high opinion of self self is self and what it is from God And when thou rides whence is it that I am the rider and the wearied horse the carrier but from God 3. The Covenant of Works it self that God out of Soveraignty does not command is undeserved condescending that God bargains for hire do this and live whereas he may bide a Soveraign Law-giver and charge and command us is overcoming goodnesse Law is honeyed with love and hire it is mercy that for our penny of obedience so rich a wadge as communion with God is given 4. The influences to acts of obedience come under a twofold consideration 1. As congruous and suitable concurrences of God to Adams acts of obedience And so they were free gifts to Adam not promised as we shall hear in the New Covenant 2. As such influences by which the standing Elect Angels who were under this Covenant as well as Adam were differenced from the Angels that fell and were confirmed that they should not fall in this latter respect Absolute Soveraignty shines in Adams fall so if a Sparrow cannot stir its wing without God Mat. 10.29 nor a hair fall from our head ver 30. far lesse could Adam fall and all his without a singular providence And farre lesse could Adam go on and act without influences from God And if strong Adam and upright created in holinesse could not then stand his alone Shall our clay legs now under the fall bear us up What Godly trembling is required in us 5. The gift of Prophesie Gen. 2.23 seems to be freely given besides the Image of God and Adams knowledge Gen. 2.19 of every living creature according to their nature may be proven but it appears to be naturall and he is a lamentable example to us of abusing the Image of God and good gifts But no habite without the continued actings of God can keep us in a course of obedience There is no ground to make habits of grace our confidence 3. There can be no giving and taking between the creature and the Creator Elihu pleads well for him Job 35.7 If thou be righteous what gives thou to him Or what receiveth he of thy hand v. 1. Thy wickednesse may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousnesse may profite the Son of man Job 22.2 Can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Is it pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous Or is it a gain to him that thou makest thy wayes perfect So Eliphaz And David Psal. 16.2 My goodnesse extendeth not to thee Acts 17.25 Neither is the Lord worshipped with mens hands nor with their spirits as if he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life breath and all things What then is the glory of the creatures obedience to him It is some shining of the excellency of God upon men and Angels from the works of God and our obedience to him But suppose there were no creature to pay the rent of this glory to him is the Lord a loser therefore Hath he need of our songs of glory Or that creatures should be Heraulds of his praise Or needs he the workmanship or structure of Heaven Sun and Moon to be a Printed Book to spell and sound his glory If he need not the Book as he needeth nothing created Who sayeth I am the Lord Al-sufficient he needs not one letter nor any sense of the Contents of the Chapters of that Book There is a secret carnall notion of God in us when we act and suffer for God that brings a false peace and some calmes of mind
for I am â—rudent I removed the bounds of the people 14. And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people and as one gathereth â—ggs that are left so have I gathered all the earth and there was â—one that moved the wing or opened the mouth or peeped This 〈◊〉 the fool-axe boasting against him that heweth with it And anoâ—her fool said Make an agreement with me by a present and come out to me Isa. 36.16 And this mad-nothing is above God chap. 37.10 Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee The Tyrant of Egypt the great Dragon that lyeth in the midst of the river said My river is mine own and I have made it for my self Ezek. 29.3 God made the Sea and all the Rivers There be three Pronouns in the mouth of another proud Monarch Dan. 4.30 And the King spake and said Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and the honour of my Majesty So soon as there falls from the great Lord of being a chip or shadow of created being especially where being is rationall and under a Law there follows and results the Lord withdrawing a proud supposed I and a vain conceit of self and a dream of God-head comes in with borrowed being And therefore created sinlesse self is to be denyed Adam denyed not himself and thought in his sick imagination he should be like God knowing good and evill Gen. 3. Christ the more excellent Adam pleased not that noble self Rom. 15.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He denyed himself as man as a gracious meer man to be God or more then a man And this self-deniall is in elect Angels who blush and are sinlesly ashâ—med of self and cover their faces with wings before shining Infinitnesse of Glory and proclaim him thrice Holy holy holy Isa. 6.2 3. And who knowes not we owne grace as our own my prayers my faith my holiness my tears as if grace had a relish from self not from God but Paul 1 Cor. 15.10 Not I but the grace of God not my grace in me that was with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. But is there no paction between GOD and the creature Surely we must say that the covenant between GOD and Adam is of another nature yea and promises also then these that are between man and man for there is proper giving and taking betwixt the creature 2. The proper covenants between man and man require that both parties be free and independent one of another there may interveen a jus a right and a debt upon the promissor to him to whom the promise is made Omne promissum ex ore fideli cadit in debitum Jurists say there is no proper binding Covenants between the father and the son the lord and the servant for the son and the servant are not lords of themselves nor sui juris The father by no paction can remove the foundation of the debt of nature that the son oweth to the father for impossible it is but if such a man be son to such a man but he owe to his father as to an instrument quod sit vivat being and living and the son can not satisfie by paying the father for that summe and the father can not cancell the band nor give him an acquittance Far lesse can any recompence the Lord for life and being The fallen Angels and damned in hell and all wicked men are in the Lords Compt-book everlasting debters to him for being But God who is more then a Father to whom men are but painted fathers may thus farre loose the bond as he may command the son to sacrifice the father as well as once he commanded the father Abraham to offer up his son to God But God cannot resigne his right that he hath over the creature to a creature because he cannot leave off to be Creator and so cannot lay aside or make over Creator-right jus Creatoris to any 2. Say that a creature had a jus or right over the Creator it is either an uncreated right or a created right so to pursue God by Law as to cause him do him justice it cannot be an uncreated right for that were near to blasphemie For no created head can bear the royall Crown of the King of Ages If it be a created right this created right must be under the dominion of him who is universall Lord of all then may the Lord make use of it at his pleasure then may not the man make use of it at his pleasure for an absolute dominion of one and the same thing cannot be in the hands of two absolute Lords who may have contradictory desires concerning the same thing such as the holy Lord and sinfull men often are Let us correct the bold pleadings and the daring charges that our vain hearts put upon the Lord Why dost thou strive against him saith Elihu Job 33.13 for he gives not account of any of his matters Men dare say when they are under the vengeance of ordinary sufferings The wayes of the Lord are not equal Ezek. 33.10 If our transgressions and our sins be upon us and we pine away in them how shall we then live But upon whom should sins and transgressions and the punishment thereof be if not upon the carcases of the Authors Will ye raise letters to summond him Where is the judge Where is the Tribunall But he promised so and so But this is not the Question of strict justice that saith something against the veracity and faithfulnesse of God but nothing against the justice But neither doth a promise as a promise raise a plea of unjustice against the holy and glorious Lord suppose he should not fulfill his promise For 1. A paction by promise creats no equality of justice between thing and thing between wage and work otherwise he that is called to the Vineyard and labours from the third hour hath a just plea for he should have more wages then a penny which he gets who labours but one hour But the Lord makes not the equality or proportion between much labouring for many hours and the quantity and degree of the wage his râ—le But the Lord pleads the free Covenant for his standing rule Mat. 20.13 Friend I do thee no worng didst thou not agree with me for a penny And vers 15. Is it not lawfull for me to do what I will with mine own Hence read our sickly queroulus nature 1. Naturally we argue from much working and would conclude God much running long sweaâ—ing and pains in keeping the Covenant of Works should binde God except he be unjust to give me as many ounces and pound weights of Glory everlasting as I have fasted moments and told over prayers upon beads and uttered sighs Wherefore have we fasted and thou seesâ— not We work and keep the Covenant of Works but God payes us not our wage Though
want of money mortifies a man to drunkennesse he drinks not excessively not because the heart will not dare to sin but because he cannot The Word backed with influences from the death of Christ strongly mortifies to all sins 8. And the soul is not easily deadned to an office or place of a Prince a Ruler a Master a Prophet a Teacher Abishai 2 Sam. 16.9 Why should this dead dog curse my lord the King Let me go over I pray thee and take off his head David standeth not much upon cursing the lord the King He is so mortified to that stile as he forgets it and v. 10. he saith Let him curse because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David He saith not the Lord hath bidden him curse the lord King David Answers thou the high Priest so It s a great word Christ was the Messiah that is a great office of King Priest and Prophet but he was willing to forget his office by way of taking much on him that he might fulfill his office by way of suffering As Rulers and such as are in place must so far be dead to their office and place as they must be willing to bear in their bosome the reproaches of all the mighty people and to have their footsteps even as Rulers reproached Psal. 89. v. 50 51. Places and office too often have an influence and strong enough on our unmortified hearts But there are some providentiall sufferings that befall Rulers as Rulers against which they should be hardned knowing that the Lord suffers in them 9. It should be our work to be deadned to pleasure I have married a wife and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I can not come This is the most lively lust There is a mortified eye Job 31.1 I have made a covenant with mine eye why then should I look on a maid Mortified eye-looks call for mortified heart-looks It s an old sin Gen. 3.6 And when the woman saw the tree that it was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes she did eat Mortified Joseph saw sin ingraven on pleasure Gen. 39.9 How then can I do this great wickednesse and sin against God 10. There must be a deadned heart to all the three to the world 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the world nor the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 16. For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world Jam. 4.4 There is some life between the friends of the world and the world and James doubteth not to call that enimity with God and the three great Idols of the world gain glory and pleasure cannot make any happy which Heathens Plutarch Cicero Seneca saw and therefore they pressed a contempt of the world For strength is the glory of the Elephant or the Bull rather then of man and plucked away by age and time And beauty is no lesse uncertain being made up of quantity and colour and the Rose and the Lilly hath more of it then man Riches have wings and render not the owner happy Nobility is a borrowed good and the Parents glory not ours And honour is the opinion and esteem of men and we yet cannot be dead to nothings to shadows to emptinesse and to vanity and fair buildings are well ordered dead stones 11. They are not rightly mortified who are not deadned to creature-comforts to father and mother for they forsake and the mother may forget the fruit of her own womb but the Lord cannot forget his own Psal. 27.10 Isa. 49.15 My friends Job 19.19 2. All my friends 3. All my inward and dearest friends 4. Abhorre me Forsaking is hard but abhorring is most sad Yea even in the Cause of God Paul is put to this 2 Tim. 4.16 At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me 2. So must the Church be dead to forraign forces Hos. 14.3 Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses and the people must be dead and sit still from help from Egypt Isai. 30.7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose therefore have I cryed concerning this Your strength is to sit still Sitting still is a ceasing from relying upon the Chariots and strength of Egypt as being dead to them For thus saith the Lord the holy One of Israel in returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietnesse and in confidence shall be your strength and ye would not And 4. his people must cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Isai. 2.22 and be dead to multitude for Psal. 33.16 No King is saved by an host a mighty man is not delivered by much strength 17. An horse is a vain thing for safety The help of the creature substitute in the room of God having the lustre of blue and purple or cloathed in scarlet riding upon horses Young men of desire Ezek. 23.23 doe easily dazle our eyes and when we are not renewed in the spirit of our mind unsanctified hearts are weak in apprehending and more weak in discerning of things 5. So must there be a deadning of the husband to the wife Job 19.17 to servants Job 15.16 to sons 2 Sam. 16. v. 11. of the mother to the daughter of the daughter in law to the mother in law Mic. 7.6 to blood-friends 12. All the godly and zealous Prophets said Amen to the word of the Lord even Christ with sighs and tears to the extream desolation and ruine of Jerusalem Luk. 19.41 Math. 23.37 38. and Jeremiah Ezekiel Isaiah Micah Hosea c. to the plowing of Zion as a field to the sword captivity to the laying wast of the land without inhabitants Isa. 5.9 Isa. 6.10 11 12. Jer. 9.1 2 3 4. Jer. 16.1 2 3. c. Mic. 3.12 Hos. 4.3 Hos. 5.6 9 c. There must be a deadning to our Country and Mother-Church that the glory of justice may shine yea to our fathers grave our own bed our own fireside 13. The Lord will have Isaiah and the godly dead to Lawes and Government to vision and prophecying when Judge and Prophet shall be taken away Isa. 3.2 and children shall be their Princes and babes shall rule over them v. 4. and the vineyard broken and the hedge spoiled And he will have the godly dead to King and Priest and Law 2 Chron. 15.3 Now for a long season Israel had been without the true GOD and without a teaching Priest and without law Hos. 3.4 Hos. 10.3 And now shall they say We have no King because we feared not the Lord what shall then a King do to us Hence we must be mortified to every thing created which the Lord may take from us 14. And upon this account there is required a deadning of our hearts to shipping and trading