Soveraignty dispose of hearts to harden them but his outgoings of soveraignty are not always to destroy 2. Our great ones are so far above the bloud the cries and sufferings of the needy let the poor die in the pit they have an higher imployment then to lend their heart to lodge thoughts of compassion toward the afflicted Amos 6. 1 2 3 4. greatness dispises the desolation of the poor but Job 36. 5. Behold God is mighty and dispiseth not any saith Elihu Psal 69. 33. The Lord despiseth not his prisoners why and is he not above their tears yea 34. let Heaven and Earth praise him then must he be great and high above the mourners yet he owns their tears Psal 102. 19 20. 3. And the Lord's Soveraignty hinders him not to give a sort of reckoning of his doings Isa 5. Judge between me and my vineyard Mich. 6. 3. O my people what have I done to thee often pride hindereth sinful soveraigns to ease the heart of the oppressed with a reason of their deeds 2. What is Soveraignty its his superexcellent Highness by which his holy Will essentially wise and just is a Law and Rule to himself to doe what he pleaseth holily wisely most freely But why doth the Lord drive Cart-wheels over the bones of his people let alone he will not doe it always and say it were so This cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isa 28. 29. a godly heart is smitten with the wisdome and authority of holy soveraignty why is Jerusalem spoiled and why are the Nations at ease holy Soveraignty should meeken and silence all men Zech. 2. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord supreme Soveraignty cannot erre and the faith of this quiets the heart under all sufferings Hezekiah Isa 38. 15. What shall I say he hath spoken to me and himself hath done it Divels and Men are to be looked on as passive rods there is no principle of life in the Rod in the Sword to lift up themselves against us they are Wheels rolled about by holy Soveraignty Ah the Physician slew my child the wicked enemy slew the father and the son the malicious rail against me but not any of these dumb Rods did move themselves the Lord bids Shimei curse David the Lord sends the Assyrians against the Nation of his fury Consider the Copy holy Jesus Matth. 26. puts three Seals three Subscriptions to one blanck and sad bill of Wrath Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done How was he the formost in the journey to Jerusalem to suffer as willing that his Bloud be Ink and his Soul and Body sheets of Paper on which might be written as it were to be read by Men and Angels for all Eternity the Glory and Justice of spotless Soveraignty and he who said Amen to the Curse teacheth us if God should say I have no delight in thee to consent 2 Sam. 15. 26. and say here am I let him doe to me as seemeth good to him The wishes of Moses and Paul who desire their parts in the Book of Life and of Christ to be laid in pawn for the shining of the glory of the Lord in saving of many and that expression of David saith that a gracious submission to Soveraignty will bring the man to this Let him doe to me what seems good in his eyes if he say he hath no delight in me well let Angels and Men Read and Sing the Glory of the Lord in the flamings of the holy Soveraignty and spotless Justice of God in my torment and it becomes me consentingly to lay my soul as a threshing floor under his eternal smitings and to judge I owe a spirit to be eternal oyl and fire-wood to eternally revenging wrath The Children of God know how hardly Faith can command Sense to come up to the obligation of receiving in the bosome with kissing and adoring the firie indignation of the Lord. Yet are we to drink with Christ the Cup of sad absence and his holy withdrawings Heman hath come near this and David and Jonah all thy waves have gone over me thy wrath lies hard upon me and yet hear savoury prayers speaking the rejoycing and kissing of soveraignty and prayers comming out of the furnace of Hell Ps 88. 1. O Lord God of my salvation I cry day and night before thee What cries of Faith out of the bowels of a Sea of wrath Jonah 2. 2. Out of the belly of Hell I cryed saith Jonah and waves of wrath all the waves all the waves of thy wrath are gone over me saith David Psal 45. 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life O how sweet are these tormenting pain and godly patience pining pain and sweet praises and psalms of Saveraignty The tormented man sings his own Hell in a Psalm sounding up to Heaven Psal 6. Psal 42. Psal 38. God smites me and I love God Psal 42. 7. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me yet this Sea and all the waves of this Hell cannot quench heavenly love and the fire of thirsting after God v. 1. As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God When fiery wrath is in its outgoing the Lord sends out wrath and Arrows that stick fast in the soul but David prays to an angry God he roars and burns in wrath I pray Psal 38. he casts on me waves of Hell I send up tears and cries to him Psal 6 1 6. he breaks me with breach upon breach and sore vexes my soul I believe and trust in his salvation Psal 18. 4 5 6. Thus its possible for a Saint to love his own fiery hell and receive the coals of flaming wrath in his arms for his holy Soveraign and glorious Name who is pleased so to deal with him and upon the Consideration that so it seem good to the only wise and soveraign Lord. But oh how unlike are we to a people in the furnace adoring the Lord in the outgoings of soveraign Justice when the Lord smites some murmure others swear lie whore oppress many mock godliness and hate it all go on to break the marriage-faith of a Land once betrothed to God and ah if the watchmen had not been guides to these who highly wronged Jesus Christ From the former follows patient silence and an use of our submission to his Soveraignty who withdraws his influences from us so as sinning follows thereupon Hence there is a great abuse of repentance which is bastard-repentance We grieve at the fair work of the Lord 's holy permissive providence and are not humbled at our foul sinning resulting by our own fault from such a providence See a Copy of a Law-sorrow repentance I call it not in Adam before any Gospel was heard of Gen. 3. 12.
have been no Saviour no Emanuel no declared free grace no gracious design in God to open experimentally to Men and Angels the wonder of Christ and free grace but that must come upon the Soveraign Lord by some bide-by design of nature and created free will 3. Were influences at our disposal we might make our prayers only to our own free will who only can by this way hear and help but we pray to God only for quickning determining leading and stirring up influences and for effectual teaching and influences are in a good hand when the matter is so 4. The unregenerate as in Shepherd's select Cases page 96. pag. 102. are not within the compass of any conditional promise though in Baxter's Append. to Aphor. to Obj. 10. 11. p. 28. he puts a note of censure on it for if the new heart were in the power of Cain and Judas and this were holden forth to all and every one of mankind run well and win the crown of conversion and of the life of grace and of glory For 1. You have sufficient grace to win it 2. You have the influences of grace at your own disposal and power be you Brasilian Indian or what else Then were all men made independent Lords of salvation and damnation and of the holy and deep decrees of Election and Reprobation And if so there were not such a thing as a decree of Reprobation but as a sort of over-birth and a decree of some after-wit in the holy Majesty of God after he were disappointed of his former Gospel-decree of choosing all to glory who wisely yea out of his manifold wisedom willed and decreed all to be saved so they would use the universal power and the influences of grace well as they might and could but unto what God should such make their prayers whether to God the Father of our Lord Jesus or to themselves I cannot divine 5. If so be influences be at mans disposal could he kisse the Mediator stoop to free grace and adore it praise and sing his glory who sits upon the Throne and commend the Lamb who redeemed sinners out from among lost sinners 6. In reason we can no more time and dispose of the measure manner and kind of our own comforts and of the kind and measure of the Lord's influences then the Earth can dispose of the quantity of rain and dew and herbs corn or growing trees can determine of the influences of the Sun Moon and Heavens The third Classe of Answers to the Lord 's restrained way of giving of grace and to him who says Had I more grace I should be more holy must be taken from the holy attributes of God for this quarrel why would not the Lord make me holier and let out richer influences of grace is a reproaching of his Soveraignty He makes not all the lumps of the great masse of clay vessels of honour that is true Nor have they all alike nearness to the Throne of glory or the like measure of glory that are in Heaven nor alike measure of gifts all are not Apostles nor alike measure of grace and holiness nor are they all equally poor or equally rich or equally wise and learned or equally believing in the same measure of assurance the same measure of joy For when Paul disputes thus he hath mercy on whom he will and hardens whom he will it comes to this Why doth he then find fault it is not in him that runs and wills if the Lord would effectually call us Jews we should run and will and obey as vigorously as the Gentiles doe But the Lord doth not so call us therefore he cannot rebuke us or find fault with us that we believe not and receive not the Messiah and the righteousnesse of God through faith which is the very Objection in hand 2. As the Objection is against the Soveraignty of God so it is against the infinite wisedom of God Why should the infinitely wise Lord knowing if Judas and all the disobedient refusers of Christ had the same grace and influences of grace bestowed upon them which he freely bestowed on his own they would have obeyed deny that grace and these influences he knowingly denies them After the Apostle in three Chapters hath discussed this Rom. 11. 33. he acknowledges there is a deep in it O the depth of the riches both of the wisedom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out No wonder it be a depth to me but there is no more deep in it if all have universal sufficient grace and if all have the influences of grace in their power then this is no depth He that believes shall be saved he that believes not shall be condemned and God rewards those who seek him I deny not there is a depth in all God's ways in the industry of a Pismire of a Coney of a Locust yea how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child But because the Apostle having discoursed of Election and Reprobation and of the Righteousness of Faith and of the Law Rom. cap. 9. c. 10. and of the casting off the Jews for a time and the incomming of the Gentiles Rom. 11. and then concludes ver 33. O the depth both of the riches and knowledge of God c. there must be another sort of profundity in the words to humane reason then that wisedom of God shining in the works of Creation and providence Rom. 1. 19 20. Psal 92. 5 6 7. Psal 107. 43. Psal 58. 10 11 c. Now the Doctors of universal grace and such as submit election and reprobation obedience to the call of God and disobedience and all the influences of grace to the determination of free will arise no higher then the depths of mans willing and nilling As also the Objector in this saith God might have more honour and service of me if so it had pleased him and what is this but God would be wiser should he bestow grace and the influences of grace on me and all mankind for even such Arminians who cannot deny but God foresees what motions and influences shall prevail with free will what not are burthened with this doubt as we are if mans carnal wisedom be judge 3. This is a complaining against the free grace of God there is a sort of grace of Creation and a Comet or a Star is here left to complain why made not the Lord me a shining Sun and the Thistle must challenge God why made he not me a Fig-tree or a Vine-tree are not here beggars at the Lord's door boasting the Lord because they get not an Almes of begged and borrowed being after their own carnal will So here what ebness of grace was this that the Lord would not bestow the same influences of grace on Beelzebub the prince of divels before he fell as upon the Angel Gabriel and the Seraphims who flie with wings to doe his will and cover
before and above God whereas the Rose warms not the Sun but the Sun warms and nourishes the Rose and the corn and herbs do not refresh the Heaven and the Clouds but Heaven and Clouds nourish and refresh the corn and grass and it must be untoward and froward divinity that the sick man heals the Physician It is the grace to speak so of the Lord 's free grace that the Lord prevents us not we him its impossible that nature can prevent grace Prop. 2. Though the Lord's promise and his free decree hath tyed himself in a manner to be prevented by a moral cause yet that moral cause even the praying man stirs not until God first prevent him to pray Hence the Lord moves and wheels about the heart and will of the man who is most free and most absolute among all the sons of men even the King Prov. 21. 1. and that not if the King will and say amen with his prior or former or collateral consent but whithersoever Jehovah will Hence our prayers that God would incline our hearts to his testimonies Psal 119. 36. Not incline the heart to any evil thing Psal 141. 4. Vnite the heart to fear his name Psal 86. 11. So Jacob prays the Lord would give his sons favour in the eyes of the Governour of Egypt a Heathen man as to him Esther and her maids pray for grace in the eyes of Ahasuerus see Gen. 43. 14. The Lord Almighty give you mercy before the man If God could not indecliuably bow the will to his own way side or end be it by antecedent predetermination or what way else you shall call it so the Lord be the more Master of willing and nilling then the creature but in so doing he should destroy free will we should in all such petitions pray for the destroying of free will where sure we pray for perfecting and the sanctified bowing of free will to obey God 2. If the dominion of free acts remain strongly in the creatures power we must in these suits incline my heart unto thy testimonies lead us not into temptation pray the Lord for that which is not in his power to give 3. If God do carry free will whithersoever he pleaseth then we must not defer the only praise of our obedience and of our victory over temptations to the grace of God but to free will which made the discriminating difference 1. Hence we are to commit our free will to the Lord's dominion of grace and not to believe that such a tottering Goddesse as free will which hath lost and destroyed Angels and the first man Adam can guide well enough Yea 2. we are to bless the Lord for that impotency if so it may be called that the soveraign Lord's heavenly influences are not in the creatures coffers to be husbanded by the creature how false is it that Christ hath bought free will to himself 3. How sweet is it that our head Christ and we in him are more masters of mens hatred and favour then they are themselves Prov. 3. 1 4. Psal 106. 46. for would enemies and haters shew us favour and love if they were absolute Masters and Lords of their own hatred and love not at all we must thank and blesse an higher hand then such men 4. Should we pray more we should be more rained upon in our withered condition by showrs of influences of grace Object By your way we cannot pray for influences except the Lord bestow on us other foregoing influences Answ What follows but that we are to pray that we may pray and that we are to pray for our own prayers that they may be steeled with faith and strength of grace And David prays for his own prayers Psal 5. 2. Psal 28. 2. Psal 88. 2. Psal 141. 2. 2. Would the Objector relish prayers without influences of grace can nature pray in the holy Ghost can Christ intercede for the accepting of natures work Prop. 3. Because God only is Lord and Master of free-will and of the actings of all creatures we are not to be idle and upon that account to act nothing for then should not the husband-man plow sow and labour for God only is Lord and Master of the actings of the husband-man and without the influences and blessing from on high the husband-mans labours from the beginning of the year to the end were no better then to plant Vine-trees in the bottom of the river Euphrates or to sow Barley or Wheat in the Ocean sea And so should the Sea-man never sayl for God only can create winds and tide and God only is Master of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea and of sayling and of right steering of the Vessel for since the Lord declares not his mind on the contrary by forbidding men to pray and others to plow and sayl 2. Since the Lord offers no positive violence to hinder these actings And 3. because he commandeth us to doe them it becomes us to set to work and to act with and under him and to commit the event and blessing to him Indeed if the Lord were so Lord of our actings as he did all and whole the work and we did act nothing at all in praying yea and in plowing but were meer dead and useless patients as Libertines dream something might follow to justifie our idleness but our corruption following Satan teacheth us either to sacrifice to our own net and say vainly either we doe all and God does nothing and so we darken his glory who works all our works in us and for us or then we say on the other extreme we doe nothing and God does all and therefore must we say let God pray labour the earth trade and sayl and put our hand in our bosome and sleep but the former is sacriledge and idolatry and robs the Lord of his glory and the latter is proclaimed disobedience Yea and whether the influence of God antecedently master the creatures actings or we joyntly and collaterally be mastered and determined by the creature we are in both cases to act and doe what is good and are not to make God's influence our rule of doing or not doing Prop. 4. Hence to have or not to have the influence of God is not commanded in the Word nor have we any physical power over the Lord's acts of Omnipotency for we do not formally love God and keep his Commandments in a way commendable if we speak of the moral cause of obedience because he works in us both to will and to doe but because he hath commanded us to love him and to keep his Commandments John 14. 15. Psal 119. 4 5 6. Hence 1. The Libertine is blasphemously wide the creature can doe says he nothing good or evil God worketh all sin all obedience immediately in us it s in vain to read pray hear the word meditate confer or go about works of reforming abuses in religion because all these are to no purpose without the
the disposition of the heart see what hearts ye can bring out before the Lord its true the repenting thief could not as Hezekiah say Lord I have walked before thee with a perfect heart or as Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith yet the crown is laid for love and such as love his appearance though all cannot wind up to be such fighting souldiers as Paul was the repenting thiefs flock was small his race short yet what he wanted of inherent grace that Hezekiah and Paul had he had it of free righteousness and Christ crucified was the gloriation of both David brings not out his fixed heart in his extream danger as building his peace on it the influence of works on justification and peace is not causative no more then the poor bride can say she hath put a debt upon the bride-groom to love her with marriage love because she wears his golden chains his bracelets and jewels it s the bridegrooms comliness that he puts upon her nor can roses and lillies say our Creator is our debtor oweth us love because we are subjects bearing his colours smell vertue and beauty of the Creator What would the rose be if the Creator should take all from it he gave to it We know such a rock to be covered with water therefore its full sea here is smoke therefore here is fire And ah what a heart in death can the unrenewed man bring forth before the Lord except he say Lord I was never in Christ Lord I never wept for sin Lord I never did a good work for Christ but all for my self Lord I prophesied in thy name but I was never born again but hated all those that were born again 2. How strongly may the believer argue who hath any heavenly fixedness of heart or any thing of Christ in him It s a sort of holy obligation with reverence that he shall bring forth to acting all his own holy dispositions it speaks an ingaging of holy unchangeableness that he shall perfect the good work he hath begun but be not ye lazy and do not ye sleep and say God shall do of all his grace that is a strong argument that the man who habitually uses such logick hath nothing to do with Christ Ah the Spirit will do whether I will or not and in the mean time thou livest a sensual beast know that thou but foments lies of the holy Ghost Jude puts these two together v. 19. sensual not having the Spirit and before v. 8. Likewise all these filthy dreamers defile the flesh dreaming and filthiness are conjoyned Men dream the influences of grace shall go along with their dispositions for good and they are but natural dispositions at the best and the Lord never said he would perfect nature and finish works of nature that are begun in swinish dreamers woful secure dreaming destroys external professors men will not awake neither are they afraid of that condition but a trembling professor is the surest and safest professor Verse 7. I will sing and give praise V. 8. Awake my glory awake psaltery The fourth point in the text tells us what this fixedness of heart produced in David I will sing so we are led to the rest of the characters and properties of the heavenly disposition of fixedness for it brought forth holy actings as singing of praise and awaking of his gift and grace which flow from holy dispositions hence the second property of holy dispositions 1. Once grace brings forth another and so holy dispositions holy actings faith and trusting in God brings forth claiming of God as the mans own Psalm 16. 1. In thee do I put my trust Hence v. 2. O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord Thou art my Lord. The disposition of believing brings forth speaking Psalm 116. 10. I believed therefore I spake 2. A disposition of loving God brings forth praying Psalm 18. 1. I will love thee O Lord my strength 3. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised Hannah Jonah Hezekiah David the afflicted soul Psalm 102. graciously sad and heavy pray and call on God in that case 3. The disposition of felt mercy brings forth praises Psal 30. 5. O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave v. 3. Hence that Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness 4. David's joyful disposition to glory in the Lord brings forth his dancing before the Ark with all his might and his constancy therein to be yet more vile before the Lord what ever Michol said to the contrary and this is most sutable to the nature of heavenly dispositions motion comes kindly from the wheels when they are oyled the heavenly dispositions oyles and anoints the soul and renders the powers more active as they anointed wrestlers of old to make them more nimble and active in wrestling 2. The very intention apointment of God speaks so much God hath ordained heavenly dispositions for heavenly actings as he hath appointed the plant to be a tree the seed to be growing corn bread the Lord sends a praying disposition on David as a seed of praying a praising disposition that he must rise at midnight and praise Psalm 119. 62. and prevent the dawning and the night-watches to cry and pray v. 147 148. And an hoping disposition on Job that when he is dead bones lying in a bed he must profess his perswasion to see his living Redeemer stand the last man on the earth and desires his words were printed in a book and graven with a pen of iron and lead in the rock for ever Job 19. 24 25 26 27. And dispositions on Elihu to plead for the Lords Soveraignty so as if he should hold his tongue he should give up the ghost his belly should burst like new wine-bottles Job 32. 19. And Job must plead for God and for his own integrity that he was not an hypocrite as his friends slanderously said his disposition pressing him so as he saith Job 13. 19. Who is he that will plead with me for now if I hold my tongue I shall give up the ghost And the Lord gives such a disposition of zeal for God to Moses though he was a man of a meek disposition that he breaks the two Tables of stone containing the written law when he heard of the peoples worshipping of the golden calfe and such a heavenly self-denying disposition to prophecie on Jacob that in his testament he curses his two sons Simeon and Levi for their unjust anger against the Sichemites and there is such an impression of zeal and a feaver against Idolatry on Pauls spirit at Athens Acts 17. that he must dispute against their false gods Nor are we to think that holy dispositions are but as sailes to the ship and wings to the bird which adde no strength to the
I say not inherently or personally for Christ's satisfaction is not a meer dying nor meer suffering for beasts may die and suffer much But such a dying and such a suffering for 1. Christ's dying and satisfying hath an excellency from the subject God-man who dyed Act. 20. 28. 2. It hath an excellent qualification from the patience submission willingness of God-man the like wherof could be in no simple Man in no Angel in no Creature for the personal influence of God was in him his obedience As for the damned in Hell their satisfaction is of another nature different from Christ's is only satispassion and pure torment not holy willing suffering as the Law requires sinless sufferings as contradistinguished from active obedience How be it the Law moral doth require patient and submissive suffering without dispairing or blaspheming in any reasonable Creature for the holy Law cannot but condemn sin and blasphemy adhering either to our acting or suffering Nor 6. Let it be said to the undervaluing of the righteousness of God through faith that inherent righteousness is the full end of Christ's bloud when in the state of glory there shal be no more pardoning of sin but perfect inherent holiness For 1. that inherent holiness in the estate of glory is not perfect legal holiness nor the formal cause of our justification in glory because all the glorified once sinned and so for eternity are such as have violated the Law 2. Our righteousness from the time forward shall not only be inherent for the righteousness of God is an everlasting righteousness Dan. 9. 24. and how that robe of Christ's surety-righteousness shall in the state of glory be laid by as an old useless garment and the robe of inherent righteousness in lieu of it put on for ever The Scripture does not speak What men without Scripture speak we care not 3. Nor is our inherent righteousness only either the adequate end of Christ's bloud or of faith and labours as if God intended as his only end to make us eternally Law-righteous whereas he shall eternally delight in us and lead us in glory as those that are freely redeemed in the bloud of the Lamb for the Lamb shall be the everlasting righteousness of all crowned with glory Rev. 4. 8 9 10. Rev. 5. 11 12 13. Rev. 7. 14 15 16. 3. Soveraignty challengeth submission to the will of God in doing and in suffering because it is his obliging will we fail not a little in the former when we pray because the Mast of the Ship is broken and death is at the bedside and we hear the Word because it is the fashion and abstain from fornication and from other works of darkness and put on a sort of holiness not because it is the will of God even our sanctification as for eating drinking sleeping waking they are spiritually minded who doe not these things for nature and lust but as wel-pleasing to the Lord and find a convincing and perswading reason in the holy commanding will of the Soveraign Lord why they ought to be done upon a spiritual account and the other is no less spiritual for many are sick and die many are poor and persecuted for weldoing because they cannot chuse but so it must be not because as Peter saith 1 Pet. 3 17. So is the well of God in a spiritual account to them for when holy Soveraignty hath laid on the necessity of dying of sickness and pain and a gracious spirit shall close with that this is spiritual patience 4. Because the Lord hath a dominion over second causes and as it were a strong lock upon all Creatures to open and sâ—ut at his pleasure and he puts a seal upon Sun and Stars Job 9. 7 8 9. that they cease and shine or shine not or go down we are to put our Amen and Seal to Soveraignties decrees I rise early and there is no bread ah Lord I lay in a soft bed and there is no sleep in the night but pain Say Amen Lord the Fig-tree blossoms not this year yet I will rejoyce in the Lord Hab. 3. 16 17. Soveraignty hath so appointed there is nothing but rolling of garments in bloud and captivity and spoils yet pray thy will be done in the Earth as it is done in the Heaven CHAP. VIII Divers Particulars in which Soveraignty appears 1. SOveraignty and the glorious liberty of God appears in 1. His Decrees 2. The Works of God especially 1. Of Creation 2. Of common Providence 3. Works of more special Providence 1. Works of Justice 2. Works of Free-grace The Soveraignty of his Decrees is 1. In these two solemn and celebrious Decrees of Election and Reprobation He loved Jacob and hated Esau before ever the children had done good or evil Rom. 9. this is a humbling thought to clay graciously disposed which dare not contradict the Soveraign potter The Lord might have appointed my chair before the Throne and my eternal crown to Judas and to Pharaoh and the same Lord might so have ordered as the furnace of the traitor Judas in Hell should have been my furnace in Hell 2. O what depth of love did the King chuse me or did he once name my name and write me for life eternal This is a hardning thought in the fallen Angels and reprobate men that they strive against and hate the providence permitting their fall and sin but doe neither strive against nor hate their permitted fall and sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doth he yet notwithstanding of his irresistible Decree find fault with our sin why doth he not blame his own Decree who hath resisted his will a graceless soul will flee upon eternal Decrees and Events that belong to God but is never humbled for sin and remission of duties The gracious soul is much upon these thoughts O the freedome of the eternal emanations of free grace and the depth of the outgoings of Soveraign justice and does mournfully complain of its own sinful actings Psal 51. 1 2 3 4 5. we are to say Amen to his way Soveraignty is not our Rule clay is not to watch over the Lord's acts of holy Soveraignty but in point of submitting to the opened and revealed Decrees but is to eye the rule watch over the heart in point of duties 2. All things to be and never to be are written in his book Psal 139. 16. the number of David's members all the hairs of the head are numbred Matth. 10. 30. all the piles of dust and sand all the drops of dew rain hail snow all the drops of the sea rivers lakes fountains of the Earth Isa 40. 12. Pro. 30. 4. all the ounces and dram weights of the hills and mountains are exactly weighed as in ballances and numbred by holy Soveraignty all the blasts of wind gathered in his fists Prov. 30. 4. he knows how many inches and spans are in the Earth from East to West and in the compass and circle of
it 's clear of the habit of grace John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall send you the Comforter Christ sends him the Father sends him in Christs name John 14. 26. he shall receive of mine and shew it to you Now the holy Spirit the Comforter dwells in the Children of God not personally though he be said to dwell in them and to speak in them 1. In the habit and divine power given to them to confess Christ before men Matth. 10. 19. Acts 4. 8. or in preaching working of miracles Acts 6. 8. or in praying Acts 6. 10 11. Acts 7. 55 56. 2. In actuating that power in giving grace actually to will and to do to confess prophesie Luke 1. 27 41 42. Luke 2. 27 28. to pray Acts 7. 55 56. as the Lord is said to thunder in the clouds to give rain not that he is personally united with the clouds but because he creats in the clouds the power of thunder and raining and doth actually determine the clouds to rain 5. Supernatural habits and supernatural dispositions are neer to other as the fire and the flaming of the fire the clouds and the rain the sea and the ebbing and flowing of the sea not that the disposition is the very operation and second act of the habit but because the diposition is a quality superadded to the habit or the neerer principle and power of spiritual acting Stephen and Peter and John were full of the holy Ghost habitu from the time that the holy Ghost was given them but when they are conveyed to answer before the rulers they are said to speak being full of the holy Ghost Acts 4. 8. Acts 7. 55 56. which is either an enlargement of the habit of grace or a new spring-tide of the same sea or a new infused disposition promised by our Saviour and given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 12. 11 12. Matth. 10. 19. Mark 13. 11. in that same hour And 3. There is much nearness of heavenly habits dispositions and heavenly influences and they are like other as life and breathing fire and the flaming of the fire get heavenly dispositions and influences of grace to pray to praise to believe almost connaturally follow When the tide of the Spirit flows Steven and the Apostles must preaâ—â— and boldly confess their precious Master Christ Jesus and this is great condescension of love that the spirit and the sinful believer are fellow-workers for the Spirit to act in the man Christ or in the elect Angels is not so much a wonder for they never â—inned influences upon us who have but a sort of obediential power as we are sinners such as is the power of swimming in iron is lowliness of love What is it for the Spirit of grace and glory to beat upon such broken and mistuned harps and to bring forth such excellent actings as praying praising confessing believing rejoycing in God in such unhandy tools What holy trembling is required in us that we offend not such an honourable and glorious help and that we neglect not to joyn his own habit to his own influences when he renders the work sweet and easie O let us lend our heart and give organs and a work-house to the Spirit who comes down to sigh in sinners He mourns like a dove and weeps like a father who hath lost his first-born in heirs of glory Q. But is not the habit of grace and spiritual dispositions all one and the same Answ They are not one For 1. The habit is the seed of God that remaines alwayes in us 1 John 3. 9. and the anointing that dwels in us 1 John 2. 20 27. but a disposition comes and goes ebbs and flowes A child of God will be under deadness and witheredness the soul cleaving to the dust dropping away for heaviness like a bottle in the smokâ— when the man with the habit of grace will pray like one sweating and rowing with oars against the tide and stream Why doth David pray so often to be quickened if he was ever in a lively disposition 2. Doth not experience teach that there be times when David saith 2 Sam. 7. 27. Thy servant hath found his heart to pray this prayer Was not this so much as to say the heart and disposition to pray is lost sometimes and is away Psal 57. 7. My heart is fixed O Ood my heart is fixed or prepared 3. To say that spiritual dispositions are as permanent and constant as habits is to deny the going and coming of the Spirit in Christs love-visits Now certain it is the Spouse is not ever sick of love for Christ as Cant. 2. nor is there such a flaming of love dispositions as when the Spouse saith Cant. 1. 5. A bundle of myrrhe is my beloved to me he shall lodge all the night between my breasts When a sleepy drowsiness is on that she suffers the welbeloved to knock and stand and knock while his head is full of dew and his locks wet with the rain of the night and refuses to open yea positively gives a reason that she cannot lodge him in the house nor between her breasts I have put off my coat how shall I put it on Such a spiritual love-sicknesse is far off 4. When a contrary disposition to adultery is on and Davids hand at the pen writing a letter to contrive the killing of innocent Vriah and the unbelieving fear of losse of life is upon Peter so that he denieth his Lord there could not be an heavenly disposition to make spiritual songs to pray to praise to confess Christ before men on either the one or the other 5. If those heavenly disposition were ever in it it should speak much against the liberty of the blessed Spirit whose breathings and out-lettings are soveraignly free Now by this the work of grace should be like the work of nature we see the fountain alwayes casts out her streames the Sun ever gives light the work grace hath a day and a dark night and Sun-light and Moon-light that we are in a state of outlawry when he withdraws to be humbled to the dust for abused love-visits and may know what is Christs and what is ours the fire is ever alike disposed to cast heat a mill-stone if not hindered is alike disposed to fall to the earth or down the mounrain Q. Are not spiritual dispositions nothing else but the hearts affections Answ Dispositions heavenly are different from the affections much more then they are different from the habit of grace 1. The spiritual dispositions goe and come the heart and affections of love joy sorrow remain 2. The heart is one thing and the heavenly preparedness of the heart is another thing As the subject iron differs from the fierceness and heat in iron and the water differs from the cold and heat that goes and comes from and to the water so dispositions are spiritual qualities and the affections the subject the heart is
both and seeks with teares and stayes about the grave until she find her Lord. The Lord must be displeased with our narrowness How little a portion of him doe we see We are not straitned in the Lords heart but in our selves He calls for wider hearts Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal 81. 10. not the mouth but the heart our narrow heart and narrow faith is like the little hand of the child who hath not fingers to hold the large and great apple 2. The fool wants a heart Hos 7. 11. Prov. 9. 4. Then must the fooles of this world know little of an enlarged and wide heart as little as the horse or the mule that hath not the understanding of a man nor have they the heart of the new man Speak to the natural men of the fatness of the Lords house of all the fulness of God and the showers of influences of grace of the anointing of all wisedom and ye speak to new weaned children 3. Idlers and sleepers that run not in the way of Gods commandements but are hot as fire and mad and run as the Galatians in a wrong way are hence rebuked Many run and sleep little after their corn and wine and oyl after their vineyards honours but not with enlarged hearts in the Lords way They run to set up themselves and in place of Religion set up all the wicked religions of hell Toleration is high but he shall be laid hold on who prophecies and cries against the cursed Altar 4. There is a Spirit of deadness on many professors the judgment of the Church of Sardis Rev. 3. 1 2. and hardly can sleepers waken themselves we pray not as David Psal 119. Quicken me quicken me Unrenewed professors are painted men praying and hearing men risen out of the grave dead on their feet preaching praying hearing and yet dead CHAP. X. Of fixedness of heart 2. Prayer begets an heavenly disposition and an heavenly disposition again begetteth prayer 3. Holy acts beget holy acts and an heavenly disposition begets an holy disposition 4. The Lord so frames his precepts and his promises as our actings are suitably required to his influences 5. These three are to be differenced 1. The spiritual state 2. The spiritual temper or constitution 3. The spiritual condition 6. The reason of doubling of sentences and words Psal 57. v. 7. My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise 8. Awake up my glory awake psaltery and harp I my self will awake early MY heart is fixed Gen. My heart is prepared my heart is confirmed established The doubling of the word my heart is confirmed noteth the vehemency of affection 2. As also the speaking of it to God O God my heart is fixed declares the sincerity of it 3. The speaking to his tongue to awake it his calling it his glory as Psal 16. 9. My glory rejoyceth that is my tongue expresseth joy is an elegant fiction of a person as speaking to his soul Psal 103. 1. Psal 116. 7. Psal 42. 11. and noteth some dulness in tongue and heart to praise God his bidding his psaltery and harp awake is also an elegant prosopopeia as if the harp could sleep and wake And there is another figure the instrument of musick is put for the gift of musick he tacitely prayer God to waken up his gift and his grace of musick to praise and that God would awake himself to praise being under the sense of the Lords deliverance of him when he fled into the cave for fear of Saul and the Lord delivered him out of the hand of Saul and put Sauls life in his reverence The words contain 1. The disposition of fixedness of heart 2. His vehemency of affection in doubling the expression 3. His speaking of it prayer-wise O God my heart is fixed His sincerity 4. What the disposition wrought in him a fixed resolution to praise and a waking up of his gift of musick awake psaltery and of himself I my self will awake early The word my heart is fixed is rendred by Amsworth my heart is firmly prepared Diodati my heart is re-confirmed or re-assured Calvin in the French my heart is well disposed Geneva prepared Q. How got David this heavenly disposition 1. The occasion was 1 Sam. 24. as the title of the Psalm bears Saul with three thousand men-persons David in the rocks of the wild goats in the wilderness of Engedi Saul went into the cave to cover his feet and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave and David went in and cut the lap of Sauls garment and had in his power to kill Saul and his men counselled him so to doe but in stead of arfrighting Saul and his army the Lord suggests the fear and awe of God he durst not kill him 2. He trusted in God for deliverance another way then to put hands on the Prince as Psal 112. 7. A good man is not afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. This is the fixedness of faith opposite to fear and unbelief when another man would tremble being compassed with three thousand instruments of death as many men as many deaths yet his heart is fixed on God both to believe and to pray David by prayer Be merciful to me O God and by faith gets this confident disposition and this confident disposition brings forth acts of believing in stead of trembling and resolutions to praise and to sing and give thanks But if the question be moved how gets David grace to believe and grace to pray Certainly by influences of grace upon the occasion of the delivery So that here acts of praying bring forth holy dispositions to pray and to praise as is clear Be merciful unto me O God and God both delivered him and gives him fixedness of heart to pray and praise when a natural man would tremble at the sight and fear of so many deaths And again a disposition and fixedness of heart brings forth a resolution to praise and give thanks And 2. a stirring up of himself and his musick to praise yea and actual praising v. 11. Be thou exalted O God above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth As the herb brings forth the seed and the seed again brings forth the herb and so the herb brings forth the herb and the seed the seed and the apple brings forth the tree and the grape the vine tree and again the tree brings forth the apple and the vine-tree the grape the water is the maker of ice and ice is dissolved into water and again that water is turned into ice Q. What shall beget a holy disposition to pray A. Praying begets a holy disposition to pray When David goes up the mount of Olives fleeing from Absolom he weeps and prayes Psal 3. and that praying begets a fixedness to believe and a disposition to pray v. 6. I shall not be afraid of ten
cannot a soul filled with hellish and divelish sorrow such as was the case of wakened Judas receive influences of the Spirit to see a pierced Lord and to be in bitterness as one is for his only son Zech. 12. 10. but must despair and receive influences of hell for hardness and impenitency Obj. But we see the Church lament 3. very unbelievingly quarrelling with God v. 8. When I shout and cry he shutteth out my prayer 10. He was unto me as a Bear lying in wait and as a Lion in secret places And v. 18. I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Yet verse 24. The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him then doth not unbelief and sorrow of sad and half despairing so incapacitate and deaden the soul to receive influences of believing Answ There is a far other consideration of a soul under prevailing corruption that is either yet not converted and of a converted man under a strong prevailing temptation when two contrary champions the flesh and the spirit are standing in battel array in the fields each one enemy attending the motions of another as in the former consideration there is a great difference betwixt green timber dry withered fewel or betwixt dry fire-wood fewel though dry yet soaked some days in water in this ease influences of the spirit from heaven influences of the flesh from hell do not so quickly exchange lodgings and go and come to and from divers subjects neither an unrenewed man nor a David under prevailing lust are such fitly disposed fields for showres of influences as in a moment they can cast off deadness and put on a spiritual disposition to receive influences of grace though there be an active celerity on the Spirits part for he can go and come quickly and this is to be seen in a soul under spiritual exercise even now there is a sad complaining I said in my haste I am â—ast out from before thy face and yet with the same breath nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication Then under sense of being cast out of Gods favour there are also influences to pray and to pray in faith and when the Christian fainting saith My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Lam. 3. 18. she also saith The Lord is my portion saith my soul v. 24. It 's clear then that fainting and feeling are neer to other and so influences for the one and for the other are neer to other the quickness and celerity of influences is evident in the suddain ups and downs of the soul as the shining of the Sun in March and the showring of the clouds are so neer to other he comes in his shinings as a fire-flaught in the midst of our sad louring and dumpish deadness and when the Lord pleaseth his visits are speedy and swift CHAP. III. How the soul is under plenty of means and dispositions heavenly and yet under scarcity of influences 2. Praying and love to the word according to the will of precept all along through Psalm 119. 3. Delighting in the word reading and meditating thereon fetch heavenly influences 4. Hence 18. obstructions of influences 1. Hardness and blindness 2. Vnbelief 3. Deadness 4. Security 5. Irreligious prophaness and Atheism 6. Vnconstancy 7. Deceitfulness 8. Pride 9. Worldly-mindedness 10. Fiery preposterous zeal 11. Vncleanness 12. Malice and bitterness 13. Worldly sorrow 14. False joy 15. Self-love 16. Wilful ignorance of the Gospel and hatred of Christ 17. Impatient fretting against providences the contraries of all which help to fetch heavenly influences Lasty the Lords manner of contributing his influences makes us not passive lumps and blocks the word shews that God lays a holy necessity on our will so that we are most willing and free agents in spiritual actings 18. Vain and wanton thoughts obstruct influences THe heart as including will and mind and affections is the publick Inne and lodging that receives all influences 1. There is a sweet proportion betwixt the influences of the spirit and the new heart Quest How is it then that the soul is under sweet dispositions and plenty of means and yet wants influences Answ This is to shew the absolute freedom of grace as Cant. 1. the Spouse is in a sweet condition Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then wine 3. Because of the savour of thy good oyntments thy name is oyntment poured out therefore do the virgins love thee 4. The King brought me into his chambers yet she stands in need of a pull draw me v. 7. Tell thou me O thou whom my soul loves where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon-day Here is a soul in love longing to be embraced and kissed smelling Christs precious oyntments taken in to the Kings chamber yet the prayer to be drawn and to be instructed where to find him teacheth that some are at the well-head and yet thirsty and in Christs banqueting house and yet the praying of such to be drawn speaks want of influences and hunger for more except Christ intimately apply his influences to will and to do Cant. 2. 4. He brought me into his banqueting house his banner over me was love 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me What is here wanting is not this paradise come down from heaven but the prayer v. 5. Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love is a strong evidence that the Spouse even in Christs arms and in his house of wine where are all the refreshments of heaven is not sick only but fallen into a deep swoon if Christ hold not up the head and stay the soul with quickning influences what then could you make of heaven it self and of Christs sweetest embracements if he teach not how to improve the fulness of this free love in sweetest actings of heavenly duties When John is in heaven and sees heavens glory yet if the present actings of the spirit go not betwixt him and Angel-worship he roves influences must then make Christ to be Christ and heaven to be heaven and the Spirit must open and let out upon the withered soul streams of the well of life otherwise there is the banqueting house of wine and there is yet the hungry and swooning Spouse there is heaven and fulness of glory and there is yet miscarrying John grace must make it self our grace and he will have us to know to whom we owe the thanks both of Christ and of the outletting and emanations of free grace and of the well of life and of the flowings and streamings of that fountain and so the created habit of grace is not to be rested on but Christ acting in his free grace is all in all 2. The Lord gives influences according to his will of pleasure but we must stir and pray and act according to
due to him Gracious influences are not due to a Judas nor such a guide as the Spirit to any reprobate man therefore they cannot misse such a gracious guide 2. It teaches us to be willing to be led as to 1. Deny our will and wisedome as the blind man should not contend with his leader and guide as if he did see better then his guide Slack your high-bended will and deny it and cavil not with the Spirit this way I must goe whether my guide will or not Let your will be as dead and no will at all and let the Spirit in his will and wisedome reign in you 2. Spread out the sails and give them to the wind resign the heart to the Spirit obey that My son give me thy heart Give Christ your loves as Cant. 7. 12. Keep none of your heart or love to your self but quit fully both to the leading Spirit of Jesus Your love and your heart according to the Gospel-dispensation is not your own or at your disposing whatever property naturall by law you have over your self for the law buyes you not We are less our own and more Christs by the Gospel and more our own by the Law Many profess themselves sons and so to be led by the Spirit yet they have not given eyes wisedome will and love to the Spirit they keep a great piece of their heart and their love to themselves and have an inward reluctancy and wrestling against the wayes of the Spirit as yet remaining debtors to the flesh to pay the debt of service to the flesh Rom. 8. 12 13 14. 5. This is comfortable that Christ makes it the travail of his soul Isa 53. 11. and his soul-satisfaction to see his seed and to bring many children to glory Heb. 2. 10. So his soules work is upon keeping such as are given to him and guiding on his flock John 10. 3 4. in going before his own sheep in calling them by name and in leading them 2. He keeps such as come and raiseth them up at the last day John 6. 37 40. 3. He guides them with prayers John 14. 16. intercedes for them to reduce them when they goe out of the way Heb. 5. 1 2. and all this with soul-satisfaction and delight to get all his off-spring and children which the Lord hath given to him fairly landed and set in the other side of the sea beyond temptations and hazards beyond sin and death as he hath a fellow-feeling and compassion his bowels being moved even now in heaven with our infirmities Heb. 4. 14 15. so far as is suitable to his glorified state as our great High-Priest which hath passed into the heavens So his other affections of desire as our head and natural and kindly care to have all his members guided safe in at the gates of heaven and he must have much soul delight and satisfaction that his own be led with his holy arm and gathered in Isa 40. 10 11. We have a loose faith the head shall care and watch for us though we sleep that is Christ is graciously careful to give influences whether we sleep or wake pray or pray not our care can adde nothing to his care if he will fail in his trust and sleep and let us perish let him see to his own glory two cares one in the head and another in the members are needless nay but his love and care as head sends down influences of godly fear and trembling to the members that they may work with him Jer. 32. 40. 2. Our weakness of faith errs in the other extremity Ah can my deadness and hardness be ever subdued If Christ once sighed for the hardness of sinners hearts and wept over the slain of Jerusalem and counted it meat and drink to bring in the Samaritans to the Gospel John 4. 34. Now when Christ is glorified and the affections of love compassion care are perfected in glory not destroyed should our unbelief say he now cares not for the hard heart and obstinacy of his redeemed ones If thy unbelief must take all the care off Christ and our unbelieving care must doe all let Christ sleep 3. There is a proportion betwixt head and members the soul-travel of the head in heaven and the soul-travel of the members on earth in the use of all meanes hearing praâ—ing praising goe together Awaking head and sleeping members are unsutable He watches prays and watch ye with him and pray FINIS Joan. Strangius de voluntate actionibus dei circa peccatum l. 2. c. 9. p. 211. Sequitur dari priorem actionem cur voluntas Adam elegerit primum actum vitiosum quecunque ille sit nempe quia deus cum praemovit ac praedeterminavit ad istam electionem aut Actionem c. See Rivetn in Cath. orthodoxo tom 2. Q 6. tract 4. n 33. Meratins tom 1. tract de bonitate mal hum acta dispu 11. sc 7. n. 4. Strangius Stranguis ib. Strangius de vol. Act. dei circa p. l. 2. Strangius ib. Strangius de voluntate actio dei circa peccata l. 2. c. 9. p. 214. 2 2. cedit tertia necessitas ex eorum sententia qui dicunt prius ratione nam Deus decreverit condere ante citra peccati eorum praevisioneÌ„ aut considerationem Deum ad manifestandam gloriam justitiae misericordiae craedestinasse ex angelis hominibus alios ad faelicitatem aeternam alios autem improbasse aeternis poenis adjudicandos non potuit fieri ut hoc decretum ex equeretur ex equitur enim Deus quicquid decrevit Non Potuit autem exequi si nullum fuisset peccatum hominum aut Angelorum omnio enim decreta dei samâ— libera sed ex hypothesi unius decreti fit ut aliud necessario ponendum sit ex vi ergo hujus decreti necesse erat ut homo angeli aliqui peccarent God intended that no man should be saved by the law True liberty Grace loves to be restrained from doing evil That the first Adam was to pray for perseverance is not clear Adam was to rely on God for perseverance but as promised by the covenant of works Our grace in the second Adam choicer then that in the first The Lords influences in all Divers write and assert there is not such a thing imaginable as the Lord 's invincible predetermination of second causes but it s but a simple denial of the conclusion Let any man show me how the Lord 's soveraign dominion in procuring all the actings of Angels and Men and of natural causes to be or not to be as pleaseth the Soveraign Lord who doth what he will in Heaven and Earth can stand unhurt and stand it must if ye remove the Lords insuperable predeterminating thereof or some act like this by which all must come to passe or not come to passe as holy Soveraignity will and I shall be silent the arguments for his Dominion being