and is divided into four Sections The first Section contains five steps 1 THe hypocrite may bee one of a most sweet nature The good nature as the world calls it and the Divine nature as the Scripture calls it do differ 2 Pet. 1. 4. very much toto coelo differunt All men are not alike viciously disposed by nature as not all beasts there are gentle Lambs among the beasts as well as cruel Lions fierce Wolves Among the Fowls there are the innocent Dove the amorous Turtle the affectionate Stork and Pelican as there are the ravenous Vultur and mischievous Kite so among men all are not furious Lamechs dogged Doegs churlish Nabals There are some meliore luto as Titus the son of Vespatian who was called amor deliciae gener is humani Mans delight and man-kindes darling for his courtesie sweetness and affability who never sent any sad from his presence whatsoever his suit was but said It becomes not a Prince to let any go from his presence otherwise than rejoyeing and cheered But this is the lowest step Good nature 2 Hee may have very vertuous and religious Education to better nature Good nature and the best nurture may meet together But Education is one thing and Regeneration is quite another thing Education may make the Schollar Regeneration makes the Christian Education breeds the Gentleman but it is Regeneration which makes the Good man but the meanest new-born Good man is better than the High-born Nobleman or best bred Gentleman Education indeed may take a rough stone and polish it and make it useful for the building but it is a stone still Regeneration turneth the stone into flesh Education may make fit for humane society onely Regeneration fitteth for fellowship with God Education is a great blessing and may by Gods gracious concurrence turn to salvation How eminently gracious were Joshua and Elisha who Ministred to Moses and Elijah brought up by them But ordinarily it reacheth but the outer man it takes a Thorn out of the Garden or Vineyard and removes it sets it in the hedge where it is of use but it is a thorn still Grace and Regeneration graffe another Syen into it and it beareth other fruit then it is a thorn no longer Who questions but Ishmael and Esau had most Religious Education in Abrahams and Isaacks family yet what were they the better Joash trained up from his childehood under pious Jehoiada 2 Chron. 24. 2. Paul had a pious father 2 Tim. 1. 3. was after committed to a choice Tutor yet till hee was powerfully regenerated hee was not onely a rotten Pharisee and Hypocrite but a turbulent and bitter persecutor and might then justly bee called to the Church a pestilent fellow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act 24. 5. or a very Pest as Tertullus after called him falsely and maliciously 3 Hee may bee kept free from gross and scandalous sins even from his youth as that young man Matth. 19. who could say All these have I kept from my youth up hee could say more and in truth haply then many a true Saint and beleever before his conversion that hee had never disobeyed and rebelled against his parents c. So fair hee was that it is said Christ looked on him and loved him yet Mar. 10. 21. did he lack the main Negative righteousness is not enough Vaeetiam laudabili vitae said Austin 4 Hee may bee exact in all second Table-duties and morally righteous hee may give weight and measure to such as buy and sell with him keep his day and word with such as trust him Thus did the young man justifie himself This is indeed a part of religious righteousness but the second not the first part It was the whole Divinity and Religion of the Heathens it had need bee a part not the whole of Christians If this bee wanting Heathens will get into the Kingdome of God before us but if this bee all wee are as much without hope as they who were for Temperance Patience Justice Equity Moderation fidelity to friends love to their Country and Self-denial in respect of the Publick fit patterns even to Professors Aristides Regulus Cato Seneca and such others may shame many a Christian There may bee civility where there is no sanctity though no sanctity without civility Despise not civility said Mr. Perkins good conscience and good manners should go together Rest not in civility for civility and sanctity may bee far asunder 5 Hee may bee a great hearer of the word the three bad grounds high way stony thorny were all great hearers heard as much heard the same Ministers and were sown with the same seed with the good ground yet not two in a field one taken the other left but one taken and three left and it is well if of four sitting in the same Church pew there bee not one taken and three or four left The house built upon the sand was a great hearer too Matth. 7. 26. Not the hearers of the Law but the doers are justified Rom. 2. 13. saith the Apostle SECT 2. Containing five steps more 6 Hee may shew much external reverence and devotion in matters of Religion come diligently frequently and devoutly to see to into Gods presence hee may bee as constant a Church-man as any other in the Parish and yet live and dye a wicked man as Solomon observes Eccles 8. 10. I saw the wicked buried said hee who had come and gone many a time from the place of the holy They may come sit down and hear attentively as the best people use to do Ezek. 33. 31. Yea for matter of outward reverence and religious deportment in Geniculations composed countenances and comely behaviour outstripping many truly godly Thus did the young man spoken of in the Gospel hee came to our Saviour with more Cap and Knee with more Ceremony and Courtship with more expressions of reverence piety civility humility and obedience in words and gestures than ever did any mentioned in Scripture who came with better hearts and were sent away with more comfort Hee comes running and kneeling and saying Good Master c. Mark 10. 17 Behold 1. His forwardness hee came hee was neither called as all Christs Disciples were nor sent as Johns Disciples Matth. 11. 2. were but hee came of his own accord 2 Behold his haste hee came runing 3 His Devotion hee came and kneeled to him 4 His good Language Good Master what good thing c. Never did any come on better few went off worse That woman noted for a sinner Luke 7. 38. came indeed more penitently The woman in her bloody issue more beleevingly yet tremblingly Mar. 5. 28. The woman of Canaan more importunately Matth. 15. 22. The heathen Centurion more humbly Matth. 8. 8. The sad Father more dolefully and mournfully Mark 9. 24. All of them more successfully but never a one of them all so reverently to see to as hee Saul of whom it was said in three
mingles the blood of his sacrifice with the blood of Christ I have had Peace-offerings to day therefore I am absolved my duties have made mee whole nay his mouth runs over commonly and a Trumpet must bee sounded in Gods ear O God I thank thee I am not thus and thus yea it may bee the next man hee meets hee must bee told of it Come see my zeal The godly man is content to bee seen in secret and to bee in Occulto Judaeus a Jew within and is as humble after a duty as after a sin unprofitable servant that I am not to mee but to thy Name bee the glory Not I but the grace of God with mee The 1 Cor. 15. 10. Gleanings of Christs Intercession is better than all my Vintage I need that High Priest to take away the iniquities of my holy things as well as to cover Exod. 28. 38 my foulest miscarriages If the Lord should bate mee all my other sins and reckon onely for my duties woe to mee Hee hath learned with Luther to bee Cave etiam a bonis operibus afraid not onely of his evill deeds but his good deeds also with Paul not onely to part with his unrighteousness but his righteousness also The Duty Gift Phil 3. 8 9. Grace or Revelation that puffs thee up doth thee hurt that under and after which thou art most humble is best performed It is never so well said one as when Moses face shines and hee not aware of it But an hypocrite loseth the comfort of his duties by applauding himself and for making a holy perfume to smell to hee is cut off Exod. 30. 38. It fares with an hypocrite priding himself in his duties and looking for a reward for them as with that Souldier who cast himself into the Sea to take up Alexanders faln Crown and putting it on his own head while hee presented it to him or with the Amalekites who 2 Sam. 1. 15 4. 12. brought David Sauls Crown or Baanah and Rechab who brought Ishbosheths head they all expected great thanks and rewards but lost their lives Hee that will save his life shall lose it and hee that will bee saved by his duties will bee lost and undone by them Wee must neither make the Creed a prayer nor a prayer our Creed We read Lev. 16. 24. that the Priests were to wash after their sacrifice as well as before and wee need the blood of Christ to wash our prayers and tears as well as our sins Say none but Christ Wee read again Lev. 16. 20. That there was to bee a more solemn sanctifying and reconciling of the holy place the Tabernacle the Altar c. All which were reputed holy and might bee looked upon as what should cleanse and reconcile them so do wee need the blood of Christ to reconcile our Altar Tabernacle and Sabbath-services which wee are apt to think are of a reconciling and cleansing nature To conclude as Irenaeus said As it were better for a man to bee the most ignorant person in the world to know nothing in matters of Philosophy or in any controversie of Divinity so hee know Christ crucified rather than to have all knowledge and to bee ignorant of him So it were better for a man to have no duties or righteousness at all and have nothing but sense of sin and worthlesness and to flye to Christ with the Publican or with the Theef on the Cross than to have all duties and righteousness whatsoever without any sense of sin at all and to bee thereby kept from Christ CHAP. VI. How the Hypocrite fails most in point of true and saving Graces THirdly Hee is wanting in the choysest of Graces which are four 1 Preparative 2 Fundamental and Radical 3 Nutritive or Conservative 4 Consummative and perfective or crowning Graces There were four things wanting in the three bad grounds which had the good seed but fell short in fruit which answer to these four kindes of grace viz. a Plough Root Moysture and Sun The good ground had all The high-way ground wanted nothing but a Plough not Root Moysture or Sun had it been taken in well broken up and kept from the Passengers treading on and the birds picking up it might have proved good ground Sodome if it had been so dealt with might have proved as good ground as Capernaum The stony ground wanted not a Plough it was broken up Matth. 11. 23. deep enough it wanted no Sun neither it had too much it wanted Root within and Moysture from above and a good stone gatherer The Thorny ground wanted not the Plough nor Root nor Moysture onely wanted the Sun which the Thorns kept from the Corn that it could not ripen And as in a building there are four things to bee done or all labour is lost 1 Removing the Rubbish 2 Digging deep to lay the foundation 3 The Structure upon the foundation so laid 4 The Roof to keep all dry So it is in the Christian Fabrick 1 Rubbish must bee removed by preparatory Grace 2 The foundation must bee laid in fundamental Graces 3 The structure raised by conservative Graces 4 The roof set up and covered by consummative Graces 1 Hypocrites want the first Grace or Preparations to Grace The way of the Lord is to bee prepared The Law is to go before to remove Rubbish the rough wayes are to bee made smooth the hills to bee levelled the crooked made strait and then all flesh shall see the salvation of God Luke 3. 4 5. The Plough must go before the Seeds-man or all is cast away The Lord prepares the heart opens the heart breaks up the fallow ground by strong convictions deep humiliations whereby the Lords Husbandmen plough upon the heart of their hearers and make long furrows Then is the seed sown in tears Then is the word received in much assurance when in much affliction 1 Thess 1. 5 6. Thus were Johns hearers brought in being warned to flye from the wrath to come Mat. 3. 10. Thus were Peters hearers brought in Act. 2 37. They were pricked in their hearts and cryed out what shall wee do Thus the Jaylor Act. 16. 30. Sirs what must I do to bee saved Thus Paul himself was stricken down and cryed Lord Act. 9. 6 what wilt thou have mee to do These held out These brought down to hell at first are lifted up to heaven and into heaven at last As the Ball the harder it is stricken down to the ground the higher it rebounds God gives to such whom hee intends to use as principal engines and battering peeces against Satans Kingdome a full charge and gives fire and there is a hideous noyse and smoak but these are tryed peeces Though I confess some may dye and perish in these where there is not the following as some Peeces fall all a peeces in the first charge It is not the Plough alone makes fruitful the seed must follow Therefore rest not here It is
pray thee or thy manners either cease to bee a Coward and continue to bee called by my name or cease to bee called Alexander and continue a Coward so say I or the Lord rather to thee Oh Professor either bee sincere and bee called by the name of Christ or call thy self by some other name if thou wilt not bee sincere otherwise know as the Romans dealt with a degenerate and vicious son of that famous Scipio Affricanus whom they so much renowned that they would not suffer him to wear his Fathers Ring on his hand which had his Fathers effigies engraven on it because hee had nothing like his Father but his name so will Christ deale with thee if thou have nothing more of his but the bare name degrade thee of thy profession and if thou wert as the Signet of his right hand hee would pull thee off thence Jo. Sheffield The Contents of this BOOK Chap. 1. The words of the Text opened and some points observed page 1 Chap. 2. The main Doctrine propounded viz. That an Hypocrite may go very far c. yet at last fearfully miscarry p. 12 The Doctrine cleared and proved by sundry instances and examples p. 15 Chap. 3. The Doctrine further confirmed by reasons p. 20 Chap. 4. Contains three other general reasons whereof the first that the Hypocrite falls short in point of his state p. 26 Several states which an Hypocrite may be out of yet not out of a bad state ibid. Several states hee may bee in yet not in any good state p. 27 Chap. 5. How the Hypocrite falls short in point of Duties and herein p. 29 1 What duties hee is defective in ibid. 2 Wherein hee fails in the manner of performing his duties p. 38 Chap. 6. The Hypocrite fails most in point of Graces p. 52 Five kindes of Grace wherein hee fails 1 Preparative 2 Fundamental 3 Nutritive 4 Perfective 5 Privative ibid. 1 How hee fails in Preparatory graces p. 54 Chap. 7. How hee fails in Fundamental or Radical graces p. 56 Three Radical graces 1 Humility ibid. 2 Self-denial p. 61 3 Repentance p. 62 Chap. 8. How hee fails in Nutritive graces p. 65. These are 1 Faith ibid. 2 Love p. 69 3 Hope p. 73 4 Heavenly-mindedness p. 74 Chap. 9. The Crowning or Perfective graces hee fails in which are three p. 77 1 Integrity p. 78 2 Integrality p. 79 3 Perseverance p. 81 How the Hypocrite wants Privative or Expulsive grace p. 82 Chap 10. The Application 1 Terror to unsound Professors p. 84 Chap. 11. The paucity of such as shall bee saved p. 91 Chap. 12. The Grand Use how far an Hypocrite may go and perish p. 101 Chap. 13. Contains the first Ladder of twenty Rounds and is divided into four Sections 1 Sect. Contains five steps p. 107 2 Sect. Five other steps p. 111 3. Sect. Five steps more p. 120 4. Sect. Five steps also p. 126 Chap. 14. The second Ladder whereof Sect. 1. contains five steps p. 132 Sect. 2. Five steps p. 139 Sect. 3. Five steps p. 143 Sect. 4. Five steps p. 150 Chap. 15. The third Ladder whereof Sect. 1. Five steps p. 160 Sect. 2. Five steps p. 165 Sect. 3. Five steps p. 174 Sect. 4. Five steps p. 179 Chap. 16. The Hypocrites Looking-glass divided into four Sections p. 196 Sect. 1. Contains divers marks of Hypocrisie p. 201 Sect. 2. Divers other marks p. 211 Sect. 3. Five Glasses of Christ to discover an Hypocrite p. 217 Sect. 4. The last Glass discovering an Hypocrite made up of his contradictions p. 222 And Divisions p. 225 Chap. 17. The Sincere mans Glass wherein the truth of Grace is discovered p. 229 Chap. 18. An Use of Exhortation backed with sundry Motives and Directions p. 242 Chap. 19. The Conclusion with an Use of Consolation p. 266 THE Hypocrites Ladder OR LOOKING-GLASSE Matth. 11. 23. And thou Capernaum which art exalted unto Heaven shalt bee brought down to Hell c. CHAP. I. The words opened and some points noted I Could say of this Scripture as Daniel of that Dream of Nebuchadnezzar before hee came to the opening and interpretation of it My brethren The Dream bee to them that hate you or rather the Name of Christ and the interpretation to your or rather Dan. 4. 19. his Enemies But if Jesus Christ shall go up to Mount Eball wee must not make dainty to follow him The Levites who were assigned to bless Israel Numb 6. 23. were also deputed to pronounce all those Curses Deut. 27. 14. And the Apostles whose hands were imployed in scattering the good seed of the Gospel of salvation upon the good ground their Feet also were to shake off the dust of condemnation upon the refusers and disobedient hearers of the word Some have compared the state Mr. Erigâ—â—man of the Church of England to Laodicea long agoe but I may say Whereunto shall I liken the men of this present Generation so fitly as to Capernaum A City exalted to Heaven a place frequently and extraordinarily honoured with our Saviours presence inlightened by his doctrine graced with many Miracles above all other places such are wee a people highly fed heavenly taught listed up above all others by Gods hand listed up also in all other mens eyes and which is onely to bee faulted lifted up in their own conceit and what are wee less Insomuch that other Nations sending hither their young Students and Candidates of Divinity upon their return say to them what have you seen and heard in Capernaum Stupor mundi Clerus Anglicus that let us see and hear in your own Country The Text is a dreadfull Commination and a terrible Thunder-clap and flash of lightning coming from the Lord to one of the most noted and eminent places in the world wherein you see the Exaltation and Humiliation of Capernaum the one indeed delightful the other dreadful to consider The Exaltation is Allegorical and Figurative But the Humiliation is Litteral The Exaltation is Hyperbolical and Excessive made higher than it was But the Humiliation is without any Hyperbole even so as it shall bee found true in the Letter And herein we have two things set down 1 The Sin 2 The Doom of Capernaum Both very sad And both set down 1 Positively 2 Comparatively 1 Their sin is set down Positively vers 20. They repented not 2 Comparatively vers 23. They were worse than Sodome the worst of men who were sinners before the Lord exceedingly and very wicked Gen. 3. 13. 2 Their Doom set down 1 Positively vers 23. They shall bee cast down to Hell 2 Comparatively vers 24. I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Sodome in the day of judgement than for thee And this Doom is elegantly amplified by taking the degree of Altitude and Elevation wherein they now stood the highest pitch and degree as high as heaven and measuring to that bottome and abysse whereunto they should fall not so low as Earth but Hell
power that is they should not know what death was nor feel the stroak of it so it is said Christ tasted of death Heb. 2. 9. Will any say hee had but a smack of it and a little sense of it hee found by woful experience how dreadful it was in all his attendances and circumstances his soul was heavy to death upon the thought Such a kinde of penetrating and heart-amazing experimental knowledge and application may an hypocrite have of those future things Death Heaven Hell Judgement and Eternity Here wee see at present a short Ladder of five steps wee shall shew longer afterwards of twenty rounds a peece whereon hypocrites are climbing up towards heaven but not as Jacobs Ladder whose Gen. 28. 12. top reached to heaven foot stood on earth the top of this is towards heaven the foot in hell there Angels ascended and descended here ascendunt Angeli decidunt Diaboli they ascend as Angels fall as Lucifer ascend as Lights fall down as Lightning you would think at their first appearance you saw the Witches apparition Gods ascending out of the earth but 1 Sam. 28. 13. they prove cursed ghosts and depart with horror they that fall from this fifth Loft are not like Eutichus taken up for dead and after recovered but are like them Act. 20 9. stricken in the fifth rib never recover if they fall away it is impossible to renew and fetch them again unto repentance the Apostle saith vers 6. CHAP. III. Many Reasons of the point SEcondly having cleared this Truth by many sad Instances wee shall come to shew the Reasons of it Reason 1. You may often finde as bad people at Capernaum as in any part of the world worse than at Sodome our Saviour tells us here The Sun that whitens the Cloath tans the Blackmore the Gospel to some the savour of life is to others the savour of death to death As by the Law so by the Gospel in this sense is the knowledge of sin it worketh wrath Law and Gospel enter to some place among Rom. 3 20. Rom. 4. 15. Rom. 5. 20. some persons that the offence might abound There was a Sodome found in Israel in 2 King 23. 7. 2 King 17. 9. Josiahs dayes The children of Israel did secretly the things that were evill There is many an Achan goes out with the Hoasts of Israel many a Satan presents himself before the Lord among the Sons of God Many a cursed Doeg detained before the Lord many a Judas with his hand in the same dish with Christ such as partake of the Lords Table and of the table of Devils Among my people are found wicked men the Lord complains Yea they Over-pass the deeds of the wicked none so bad as they Among great pretenders to extraordinary piety such as devoure widows houses and live in monstrous sins and prodigious lusts They are nigh God in their mouths far off in their reines Jer. 12. 2. They sit before mee as my people but their hearts goeth after their covetousness As once there was not found so great faith no not in Israel as in a heathen Captain so oft Matth. 8. not such unfaithfulness and horrid impieties in a heathen Nation as in Israel 1 Cor. 5. 1. sins not so much as named among the Gentiles were once found to their shame in a Christian Church Reas 2. All at Capernaum are not called The outward and inward Call go not alwayes together mans teaching and Gods Grace and the means of Grace The word of Grace and the work of Grace Ordinance and Obedience are oft great strangers They who are well acquainted with the grace of truth are utter strangers to the truth of Grace All are not called There is no universal Redemption for there is no universal Election no universal Vocation There was many a widow in Israel that Elias never was sent to but to one in Sarepta Many Lepers in Israel not cured by Elisha All among whom the Gospel is sent are not saved by it There are some that hear and do not understand as the high-way ground some that understand that do not beleeve like that blasphemous Pope Leo the Tenth that called the Gospel a profitable fiction many that beleeve that do not obey Now none are called effectually called according to the purpose but such as obey There may bee many in Capernaum who see more mighty works hear more powerfull preaching receive more Sacraments have Sabbaths better spent and joyn in many Fasts who know â—ear profess more than others yet what singular thing do they they repent not beleeve not obey not they are in heaven as to profession but in hell as to conversation as proud worldly prophane sensual brutish as any other therefore after this lifting up to heaven in a vain presumption follows a sad throwing down to hell in desperation 3 All that are called are not chosen as our Saviour often said Many are called few chosen Salvation and Election are of equall latipatency and extent salvation Rom. 8. 30. and effectual calling but not salvation and external calling All that are called are not called and chosen and faithful as Gods people are Rev. 17. 14. All that are among the Israelites are not of Israel as the mixt multitude called outwardly or moved inwardly yet not with right aims and principles all that are of Israel are not the Israel of God There is a Jew outwardly and a Jew inwardly And there is a Jew without who is a Samaritan within sworn enemies to the Church and people of God as those perfidious ones who were in confederacy Neh. 6. 18. with Tobiah against Nehemiah There are such who profess to know God more than others that in their lives deny him more than others Tit. 1. 16. such who have more of the form than many â—ho have less of the power of godliness than any other 2 Tim. 3. 3. Like Judas an Angel in his speech a Devil in his heart his expressions were heavenly his affections hellish 4 The case of such is worse than other mens because the greater mercies offered and means afforded if sleighted the greater Jo. 15. 22 24. is the sin and danger If I had not come amongst them they had had no sin The more light the more love the more strivings the more convictions the more offence what makes the sin against the Holy Ghost the unpardonable sin but because it is committed after so much light and love and conviction and experience committed against Law and Gospel and promises and is a pure despite of the Spirit of grace and a trampling under foot the blood and Covenant of Christ Sodome had no sin at all comparatively none To him that knoweth to do well and doth it not to him it is sin Sodomes brimstone burnt not so extreamly and is not so bad as Gospel dust What made the Angels fall irreparable Adams offence inexcusable Elies sons sin inexpiable The Talent-receivers neglect
not these Preparative works but Regeneration which makes the Saint as it is not the These are a wilderness that a man may dye in and never go to Canaan Mr. Burgess pain of Child-birth but the birth of the childe which makes the mother rejoyce many a woman dyes in the pangs that never lives to bee a mother so may you perish with your frights fears horrors griefs if you see not of the travel of your soul Christ formed in you But our new Converts that have found out an easier way to conversion before they travel they have brought forth before their Isa 66. 7 pain they are delivered of a childe these are not usually long lived as our untimely births these hold not out if you observe among those many unsound Professors that have so fearfully apostatized and turned aside into corrupt opinions you will finde here was the first error they were converted without convictions never were at Mount Sinai or Mount Ebal never heard the whirlewind or saw the fire or Earth-quake but the still voyce first While the world stands you will never finde another way of birth but by travel and crying out no other way of sowing but by breaking up the ground It is not dancing upon the ground will make it fit for the seed it may harden it it must bee ploughed and broken up Nor is it a Ministers dancing and leaping with a light and aiery preaching will bring in souls as Baals Priests danced and leaped about the Altar but down-right preaching the Law and hewing down stubborn sinners with the words of Gods mouth Hos 6. 5. CHAP. VII How the Hypocrite fails in fundamental Graces viz. Humility Self-denial and Repentance SEcondly They are wanting in the Radical and fundamental Graces and therefore miscarry The stony ground wanted root It wanted the root of these three Radical Graces 1 Humility 2 Self denial 3 Repentance Three Radical graces or Sin-mortification 1 The first Radical and Rooting Grace is Humility the first of Graces 1 Humility the lowest and least in mans account the highest in Gods It is not numbred among Philosophical vertues but hath a chief place assigned it among Theological Graces God saith to this Guest Come up higher and it ascends into heaven in a cloud Rev. 11. 12. It is a grace which never goes alone or with a little grace but ever hath much grace accompanying it hee who gives the first grace to bee humble gives afterwards all grace to the humble The unsound Professor 1 Pet 5. 5. never was acquainted with this grace therefore holds not out Sincerity begins in humility ends in perseverance when hypocrisiebegins alway in pride and arrogancy and ends in Apostacy The Lord alwayes digs deep and layes his foundation low when hee intends to build an house to dwell in The highest heavens and the lowest heart do both Isa 57. 15. alike please the most high God Humilitas ab humo humility is that to the rooting of Grace that earth and mould is to the Corn there it thrives Austin being once asked what was the first Grace answered Humility What the second Humility What the third Humility Where lyes the heads of springs Where the Mines of gold but in the deeps of the earth The Spring and Mines of Grace lye low in the humble heart The Holy of Holies was 1 King 6. 2. 20 compared the lowest part of the Temple ten Cubits lower than the body of the Temple but there was nothing but pure gold to bee seen the very floor was overlaid with gold The Lord will hear the humble Psal 10. 17. Save the humble Job 22. 29. Give grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. Exalt the humble Luke 18. 14. Yea hee will revive the spirit of the humble Isa 57. 15. and dwell with the humble Hee that humbleth himself most is the greatest in the Kingdome of God Mat. 18. 4. Oh how fruitful are the Low Vallies the Psal 65. 13. Vallies are covered with Corn when the Mountains are covered with snow All the Rivers run among the Vallies the Mountains are ever more dry and barren Oh how safe is the weak Conie in the deep of the Rocks What sweet communion had Elias with God in the low Cave How sweet is the smell of the lowly Violet that hides his head above a hundred of your gaudy Tulips The lowly Christian is the lovely Christian There is no fear of an humble Christian that hee should ever bee hinderly and decay If Satan cannot get thee up to an high mountain and tempt thee with pride hee despaires This is his bait whereby hee draws the Novice and unsetled Christian 1 Tim. 3. 6. into his snare then hee hath him sure if hee can bee puffed up They are the high steeples that are usually fired with lightning when low Cottages escape The high Cedars are rent and torn with windes and tempests when the low shrubs are not touched God is not a God of the Mountains in this sense but of the Vallies The Devil is as was said of the Leviathan The King among all the Job 41. 34. children of pride Some think that the Ministers work is onely to build up Christians Oh that wee could tell how to pull them down many are too high in this age Some think our work and skill is to perfect children and bring them to bee men but our hardest work is to perfect men by bringing them to bee children Except yee bee Matth. 18. 3. converted and become as little children yee shall in no case enter the Kingdome of God Wee had not need say to many Professors as Jonathan to his Lad Haste thee run is it not beyond thee but to say come 1 Sam. 20. 37. back art not thou beyond it Chrysostome hath a remarkable saying of Humility Suppose a man were defiled with all manner of sin and enormity yet humble and another man inriched with gifts graces and duties yet proud the humble sinner were in a safer condition than this proud Saint And certain I am what ever wilde sense some have put upon that place of Daniel 2. 34. 35. 44. to the disturbing of the peace of Nations by dreaming of a Temporal Fifth Monarchy which shall destroy all former forms of Government Yet I say when Christ Jesus that stone cut out of the Mountain not the fifth and last but the first and last Monarch and the onely Potentate as hee is called 1 Tim. 6. 15. shall set up his Spiritual Kingdome in the soul to the disturbance of Satans peace and the dethroning of that Tyrant and this is properly the work and reign of Christ then hee shall smite the High Image on his feet casting down every imagination and exalted thought and shall not onely break the Clay the Iron and Brass but the Gold and Silver also all in peeces and make them all as the dust of the Summer-threshing-floor When the loftiness of man shall
another God is not called faith or Rom. 14. 22. hope but the God of them but hee is called Love hee is so Essentially There â— Joh. 4. 8. is little of this to bee found in the world much talk of faith little shew of love No unregenerate person doth love God hee may fear him c. doth not love him his minde is rather enmity no hypocrite can love God hee may beleeve in him cannot love him Many may fear God and perish beleeve and perish none can love and perish O yee of little faith Mat. 8. 25. 26. was the reproof of the weak Disciples once O yee of little love is the charge of the unsound Professors alwayes God hath three Churches or Families 1 The houshold of faith the Church visible wherein are hypocrites and sincere ones 2 The houshold of Truth the Church mystical wherein no hypocrite but all sincere though not perfect 3 The houshold of Love the Church Triumphant where onely sincere and perfected Saints inhabit They who have now truth of love shall triumph in love and become holy and unblameable before God in love Eph. 1. 4. Where their love made perfect shall not onely cast out fear and what hath torment but faith 1 Jo. 4 18. and hope and whatsoever implies a state of imperfection 2 This Love must bee a labouring not lazie love Labour of love once and again 1 Thess 1. 3. Heb. 6. 10. Faith hath his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but love his Labor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this word which signifies Labor signifies Extream hard and painful Labour Nothing takes so much pains as Love and nothing makes pains seem so little as Love Diligentia comes of Diligo and our best diligence comes onely from Love That is best love which is expressed in diligence that is best diligence which flows from love The Lord calls not for sacrifice but obedience nor obedience so much as love To them that love mee and keep my Commandements in the Law And in the Gospel God calls for no works so much as for Faiths and no work of faith so much as that which worketh by love and for love no such love again as that which Gal. 5. 6. hath life and spirit in it and will take some pains in the work of God nothing is so active nothing so co-active as love The love of Christ constrains Fear may 2 Cor. 5. 14. restrain an hypocrite Love constrains onely the sincere Christian Force doth constrain an unwilling minde Love doth sweetly set afire the willing minde There needs no Law bee given to compel the Ant and Bee to labour or the voluptuous man to pursue pleasures the worldly minded man spares no pains to serve his Mammon Hee that loveth learning gets up early sits up late to get it But there is a great deal of lame obedience in the world because so much lazie love Wee love an easie Religion and the cheap Gospel and a salvation which costs nothing But how can wee say wee love God where there is so little labour Love to the world wee know love to pleasure or learning wee know but wee may say How delleth the love of God in us 1 Joh. 3. 17. How sad a charge is that of Christ to some hearers I know you that you have not the love of God in you Joh 5. 42. There are four things remarkable in the beloved Disciple above all the rest 1 That hee lay nearest to Christs bosome at the Table Jo. 13. 23. 2 Followed Christ closest to the High Priests Palace Jo. 18 16 3 And stood close to him at his Jo. 19. 26 Cross 4 To him Christ commended the Jo. 19. 27 care of his Virgin-mother The Disciple of love is the onely one who holds out and to whom the whole charge of Christ and honour of Religion is committed 3 The last Nutritive grace is Hope backt with patience patience of hope 1 Thes 1. 3. where these two meet all is safe Hope is our Anchor patience is the Cable that Heb. 6. 19. holds it Hope makes not ashamed but it Rom. 5. 5. is not the hope of the hypocrite tyed to a Spiders weâ— but held fast by the strong Job 8. 14. rope of patience The good ground in the Gospel was sown in hope mixed the word with faith received the truth in love and therefore brought forth fruit Luke 8. 15. with patience There are many storms to bee endured by the Christian which were it not for hope would break the heart and hope is long held in hand by delayes the hope is deferred which were it not for patience would give up the Job 11. 20. Ghost But hold fast hope and patience and heaven is yours you shall inherit the promises Wee have as much need of patience a passive grace as of faith love and other active graces saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 36. Bee not yee therefore slothful saith hee in the same Epistle but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6. 12. Thus wee see the three great Nutritive graces wherein every hypocrite is defective Faith Hope and Charity These three must not bee idle nor solitary but must bee attended with their three seconds Faith and Work Love and Labour Hope and Patience Faith must work by Love Love by Labour Labour must plow and sow in hope and hope must reap with patience I might adde to these a fourth incremental and growing grace viz. Heavenly-mindedness which where ever it takes root causeth the soâ—â— to shoot with the increase of God When trees root downward and shoot upward too then they grow indeed when wee are rooted in humility self-denial and mortification as wee said before and shoot upward in heavenly-mindedness Then wee grow indeed from children to men Wee reckon a childe grown a man when hee hath put away minding childish things and when wee put away the minding earthly things and betake our selves to the minding of heavenly we are men indeed men of God The Christian is therefore described by such characters Hee walks with God dwels on high rides upon the high places of the earth savours Gen. 6. Isa 13. 16. Isa 58 14. Col. 3. 2. Phil. 3. 20. things above hath his conversation in Heaven These never fear them they never miscarry But no hypocrite is heavenly minded hee may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 16. never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 super sapere not quae suprâ hee may bee high-minded and high languaged never heavenly-minded heavenly-mouthed may bee but never heavenly-hearted Heavenly-mindedness is our onely Theatre or Jehovah-jireh in this Mount the Lord Gen 22. 14. will bee seen on this Pisgah of Divine Contemplation the promised Canaan is Deut. 34. 1. descryed afar off In this Mountain of Heavenly-mindedness is the souls transfiguration made No man perisheth that Matth. 17. 1 2. is heavenly-minded In
bee saved one of a City two of a 2 Thess 3. 2 Jer. 3. 14 Family one near another far off as many as the Lord our God shall call The whole world taken largely is said to lye in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19. The whole world wondred after the Beast Rev. 13. 3. And the whole world is condemned 1 Cor. 11. 32. The world of the saved though their number bee great when gathered together of all Kindreds and Tongues such as cannot bee numbred compared with these is but a Microcosme but a little world in comparison a world in the world taken out of the world in gross it is but a small world God wot that went out after Christ a Rev. 79 Mundus parvua in mundo pravo mundus mundus inmundo immundo Joh. 12. 19 Io. 16. 8 small world or parcel of it that the Spirit is sent to convince of sin Righteousness and Judgement 2 There is but a few shall bee saved Which I speak not as intruding into what is secret or setting my self in Gods Tribunal to judge any thing before the time for I know it a great presumption to judge but one of my fellow-servants but I pronounce it out of the open Records and express words of Gods revealed will To let pass those expressions that the flock of Christ is but a little flock like a little flock of Kids when the other fills the world our Saviour Luke 12. 32 1 King 20. 27 tells us Strait is the gate narrow the way that leads to life and few finde it when bread is the gate and wide the way that leads to death and many go in thereat Mat 7. 13 14. Rom 9. 27. Of the four grounds not three taken and one left or two taken two left but one of the four taken three left of four sitting in the same pew or seat hearing the same word of life it were well if one of two were taken yea sometimes if one of four of many that run in a race not all not few but one receiveth the prize If the righteous 1 Cor. 9. 24 1 Pet. 4. 18 bee scarcely saved c. which I speak not to dash any mans hopes but the fools who rageth and is confident as to deaden any mans endeavours but to excite to all endeavours and to get that hope which may not bee ashamed That wee may so run that wee may obtain and fight not as those who beat the Rom. 55 1 Cor. 9. 16 air but work out our salvation with more fear and trembling Nor do I speak Phil. 2. 12 this to take away the key and shut up the Kingdome of heaven woe bee to them that so do and make sad the hearts of the godly whom God would not make sad but that you may not trust to a false key and bee deceived Lay but down this Maxime first That as out of the Ark so out of the Church is no salvation out of Paradise no tree of life which is a clear and undoubted truth and within how narrow a compass do wee at first clap inclose salvation Salvation is appropriated to the Church Salvation is of the Jews said our Saviour then when the Gentiles were yet Lo-Ammi and Lo-â—uhamah The day goes along with the Sun and the day of Grace and salvation with the Son of Righteousness for there is no salvation by any other means nor any Act. 4. 12. name under heaven wherein salvation is to bee had but by the Name of Christ 2 Then take away all unsound Christians Epicures worldlings Atheistical sensual ungodly prophane persons all ignorant unbeleeving misbeleeving erronious professors all hypocritical loose and unsincere professors how small a remnant is left wee may say with the Apostles Who then can be saved And how Matth. 19. 25 shall wee escape if c. If wee should see Ezekiels Vision All the hairs of a mans Ez. 5. 2 3 head which are numberless shaven off then weighed and divided into three parts whereof one third is cast into the fire and burnt presently a second third cut in peeces with a knife the third scattered in the wind and a sword sent after them too and a few of them in number gathered in ones skirt and of them again some cast into the fire And all this a type of Gods dealing with Israel should not wee be ready to say with Balaam Who shall live when God doth these things But so it is Num. 24 23 much after this manner If that Computation of learned Brerewood bee true as there is great probability for it that divides the world into Thirty parts the Christians part comes but to five Mahumetans have six and the Br. Enqu cap. 14. Idolatrous Pagans nineteen Suppose then if you should see thirty men shut up in a room together to bee examined arraigned and tried for their lives and first one ten cast and condemned at a clap and but twenty left then another ten called out and they also found guilty and condemned and but ten more left and of those ten five more cast out and of the last five but two or three to bee saved by casting of Lots for their lives were they not all in great danger shall wee think So here one third part of the world is Pagan and almost another third part Pagan too then of the remaining third part the greater half is Mahumetan and Jewish of that half third yet remaining the bigger part is Popish and Antichristian And in that small remainder a many Atheists and vitious Protestants as far off from the Kingdome of God as any other Is not the number at last so few that a childe may write them as Isa 10. 19. What a taking was Achan in may wee suppose when it came to fifting and searching First the Tribe was taken than the Family then the Houshold then the person Have not all the sinners in Sion like cause to bee afraid and may not like fears surprize the Hypocrite who among us shall escape or who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings and with the devouring fire Isa 33. 14. When Israel went up from Shiloh as one man flesht with confidence against the Benjamites and there fell in one day two and twenty thousand and next day eighteen thousand might they not well Iudg. 20. 21. 25 bee startled to think what should become of them So when wee see ten Thousands of Civill heathen fall on the left side and ten Thousand seeming Professors at the right and as Achan when first the Tribe was taken then the Family then the houshold then it comes nearer and nearer and takes the person take heed thou bee not the man or when the Benjamites in the fore-said Chapter after all their lifting up in security and success are cut off by eighteen Thousand at once and then there was gleaned of them five thousand more up Iudg. 20. 44. 45 and down and a few are left in a Cave