has bid Shimei curse and if Job lose all that he has though by the hand of creatures yet he saith The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away there is no evil in the city that the Lord has not done and therefore Christ saith Thou couldst have no power over me unless it were given thee from above Now as you look upon them as vain that worship an Idol and stand in fear of it though you know they do but bow down to the stock of a Tree yet a deceived heart has turned him aside c. that he cannot discern the deceit and say Is there not a lye in my right hand Esa 44.20 so when men fear creatures it is but as if a man feared an Idol that can do him no hurt and they can do you no good though every man seeks the face of the Ruler and they think that he is able to shew them much favour in judgment yet let him do what he can Prov. 29.26 Psal 33.15 and intend never so much good to you all that is good to you is from the Lord in his judgment He doth fashion the hearts of men and he considers all their ways c. they have the same apprehensions that he gives them and the same affections and intentions if they do thee any good it is because the Lord has assisted and touched their hearts for they have but such a fashion as he gives them therefore he is said to ascend and descend Prov. 30.2 3 4. it 's conceived by some to be an expression taken from Jacobs Ladder in which there were Angels ascending and descending as it is Joh. 1. ult but yet in all the administrations of the best of creatures it is he that ascends and descends for all the good of the creature is at his dispose and he must give the creature a commission to do good as well as to do us evil and will you flye unto that for sufficiency that can neither do good nor evil 4. Will you place your sufficiency in the creature when it cannot reach unto that which is best in the man Every holy man doth take a measure of all things as they relate unto his soul and that which doth his soul most good that he judges best for him and that which doth the soul most hurt that he judges worst for him for Saints measure all prosperity by that of the soul but all creature-comforts are but food that perishes and therefore we are exhorted not to labour for them for they will all die unto us Joh. 6.27 and therefore that men might not dote upon carrying them with them into another world consider we brought nothing into this world 1 Tim. 6.7 neither shall we carry any thing out of this world as soon as we have put off this Tabernacle all the necessary supports thereof will be of use to us no more for they are all in reference to the Tabernacle it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He only can cure the heart that formed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys de poenit hom 4. when God establishes the heart in peace no creature can move it 5. The creatures have no good in them but what is borrowed All the good that is in the creatures is either real or apparent 1 If there be any real good in any creature it is derived unto it from God they are all cyphers and they have no good in them of themselves but what is put into them if God will put much of his Spirit into a Magistrate as he did into Moses the abilities of many men shall be in that one man he shall rule his people with great success and if the Lord will afterward take it away and divide it amongst men it is as he will dispose of it whether to fill the vessel or empty it and if the Lord will create the fruit of the lips peace a Minister shall be able to speak peace and administer a word that shall be in season unto him that is weary but else though he speak with never so much eloquence it will be to no purpose there is no more in it than God puts into it 2 There is appearing good and that is put into the creatures by the subtilty of Satan and by the lusts of men 1 By the subtilty of Satan for he intending to make use of the creature to betray the soul of a man doth put a fair gloss upon it and a varnish as we see he did to Christ when he represented to him the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them in a moment of time so doth Satan represent the creatures to us in his own glass and deceives us with the apparent good that is in them 2 There is also something that the lusts of men do add and that is a conceit that there is some such excellency in it Prov. 18.11 it is a strong hold and a high wall it 's desirable for food and pleasant to the taste but it is but in his own conceit and all the pomp of the world is but fancy and all the great things of the world are not great in reality but only that great affection and the high apprehension that men have of them makes them seem so to be Psal 36.9 but with God only is the fountain of life by life is meant all good and it is in God originally as in a fountain it is in the creatures but derivatively as in a stream and therefore it 's the greatest folly for a man to leave the fountain to go to the streams and to forsake the Sun to take our light from the Moon and the Stars which shine only by a borrowed light and upon this ground the Saints are not much troubled at the miscarriages in creatures when they promise fair but by and by their hopes are nipt and it brings not the work to perfection therefore they regard it not and say it is but a bucket broken and a stream dried up a pipe stopped but there is as much water in the fountain still as ever and unto that he has immediate recourse 6. A man's retiring unto creatures in any of his straits is that which doth cause God to leave him for no man is to have a double dependence because that argues a double heart God will be all in all for supports and supplies as well as Christ will be all in all for righteousness and salvation 2 Chron. 26.15 and therefore it is said That Vzziah was helped till he was strong he was marvellously helped but then his heart withdrew from God unto his own supports and then the Lord left him to them which proved his overthrow for with him only the fatherless find mercy they that are truly so in their own esteem and account and have none to look to or make provision for them any more than fatherless children have it is in him that they shall find mercy but they that say unto
Gospel are committed unto them and the Lord doth lay them up in them as in a common Treasury 2 Cor. 4.7 We have this treasure in earthen vessels c. It is not committed to them for their own sakes or for their own use but it is for the good of the family and so Christ speaks unto his Disciples Mat. 13.52 they should be as a Scribe instructed unto the kingdom of God it was the office of the Scribes to teach the people the mysteries of the Word of God and to give the sense as Ezra the Scribe did and therefore Christ makes use of the word and applies it unto the Ministers of the Gospel and he must be endued with all sorts of knowledge he must have variety he must have old things which he has treasured up long for he is to be a Treasury of it the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge and also he must not be content with old things but he must seek after new discoveries new degrees of light he must grow in knowledge daily and therefore he must have new affections also and this he must not hide and reserve there but he must bring it forth it is what a godly man that is called by God to teach others should be affected with and afflicted for if he come short in any grace or gifts that some of his flock are eminent for Non quod ferre potes sed quod profers Cajet Esa 50.4 and all those that the Lord does call to this work he doth in some measure qualifie for God doth not send a Messenger and cut off his feet now all this is for the Churches for the Saints sake and for their good 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Let no man glory in man for all things are yours all for your sakes the highest offices and the greatest gifts and the greatest variety Paul Apollo and Cephas all is for your sake for your edification and salvation We preach not our selves but Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake we are not Lords of your faith but helpers of your joy c. Eph 4.11 12. he gave gifts unto men to qualifie them for their offices and all is for the perfecting of the Saints 3. He puts into them suitable affections and inward dispositions of heart towards them Paul says I was amongst you as a Nurse with much pains and unweariedness 1 Thess 2.7 and with much patience and forbearance bearing with your frowardness and the crookedness of your spirits and dispositions Phil. 1.8 I long for you all in the bowels of Christ Phil. 1.8 bowels you know do signifie the tenderest affections 1 such as are not natural but wrought in me by Christ for I had them not of my self and so it notes causam efficientem 2 With great affections such as Christ their Saviour did bear to them having their names written in his heart even to lay down his life for them with such bowels do I long for you being willing to be sacrificed unto the service of your faith and so it notes causam exemplarem 2 Cor. 8.16 he put the same care into the heart of Titus Phil. 2.20 it is said of Timothy Phil. 2.20 he doth naturally care for your things ad animi sinceritatem refert Theodor. it is not from any outward respect or fleshly end but from a natural principle wrought in him by the Lord that he doth it naturally from an inward principle in nature as the natural affection of the father and mother is put into them for the good of the child so there is a natural principle put into them for the good of the Saints c. 4. He doth set them in their places stars they are and he doth appoint them their orbs where they shall shine for the seven Stars are the Angels of the Churches and are in the right hand of Christ are at his dispose who sends them to a people where they shall be fishers men do not know where the sholes of fish go for we fish under water but the Lord saith Go and speak to them for I have much people in this city and when he has gathered in the number of his Elect in any place then he takes away the Ministry from thence and when there are any to be gathered in then he doth bring them again This is the reason why he doth cause it to rain upon one city and not upon another also As he sets them in their stations so quoad protectionem he it is that doth preserve them from the rage of men which truly we know not how soon we may be exposed to for I fear the time draws near yet the witnesses shall not be killed till they have finished their testimony and it is not all the power of the enemy shall be able to remove them 5. He doth over-rule and order them in their Ministry for the good of his people sometimes the Spirit of the Lord comes upon them and they speak beyond their intentions or meditations Heb. 1.1 he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he orders their hearts and he doth over-rule their tongues he doth make discoveries unto them for the good of his people as sometimes he doth pour a darkness upon them for the sins of his people and sometimes God in judgment hides his truths from a Teacher because the people are not fitted to receive them It 's true not only of the Magistrates that the Lord gives them up to commit follies as he did David because he was provoked against Israel therefore he tempted David to number the people but also it is true of the Ministers Mic. 3.6 Pro divinatione erit caligo ye shall have darkness and the Lord will give no Visions unto the Prophets and though they seek it Esa 29.10 yet they shall have no answer from God he will pour out upon the Prophets and the seers the spirit of a deep sleep Now as the Lord doth sometimes hide his word from his Prophets and his Messengers of purpose in judgment unto the people that they that say to their Ministers Prophesie not the Lord says They shall not prophesie so he doth also give light unto them and answerable unto the good that he doth mean to do unto a people such is his presence and assistance with the Prophets that he doth imploy and all the discoveries of God in the Word shall be to them to whom he intends evil as the words of a sealed book that they shall say I cannot read it because it is sealed as the Lord opens the book in mercy to his people and to his Prophets so he doth seal it in judgment to other men that seeing they shall see and not perceive and hearing they shall hear and not understand Acts 18.5 Paul was pressed in spirit and testified unto the Jews pro violento impulsu ad solitum instinctum plus accessit fervoris Calv. There is sometimes a greater impulse upon the Ministers of
Woman accused And if she were guilty her belly should swell and her thigh rot and if guiltless she should conceive seed and become fruitful so that it was sometimes causless and yet a spirit of Jealousie might come upon a man A Wife made a Cross is the greatest cross and made a snare is the greatest snare and the most dangerous And when a man grows vile in the eyes of a Wife for any weakness in him either inward or outward as Nabal did His name is Nabal and folly is with him And Job said My breath is strange to my wife though I intreated for the childrens sake of my own body Job 19.17 Jealousie is the rage of a man it makes him bitter to her takes every thing in the worst sense not bearing with ordinary and common failings incident to persons in that state Bitterness in words sharp and piercing speechees and actions savouring of tartness and want of that tenderness and love that should be in a man towards his own flesh Gen. 3.16 Thy desire shall be subject to thy husband and he shall rule over thee The woman was created to be a help to the man and the woman created for the man and not the man for the woman and therefore a subordination and a kind of subjection there was before the fall but not such as now after the fall Indeed the Civilians say that Marriage is Perpetua quaedam servitus a constant servitude only before the fall as Austin says it was servitus dilectionis a servitude of love but since the fall it is servitus conditionis a servitude of condition Before the fall it was with much sweetness and love their wills never clashing they both joyned in the same good and will'd the same thing but now there is much opposition and much contrariety of will And yet it is the bondage that God has laid upon the Wife she must be subject to her Husband and have no will of her own but even her desire must be subject to him not only submit her actions but even her will also which is of all other the greatest subjection It 's said of Jacob though he was a holy man that God saw that Leah was hated by him which at best cannot be interpreted but of a less degree of love and that there was more sharpness in his carriage towards Leah than there was towards Rachel 2 When the Husband deserts and forsakes his Wife being ravish'd with a strange woman and imbracing the bosom of a stranger Prov. 5.20 And we read in Mal. 2.15 16. the great misery those poor women were subjected to for the Husband making use of that command of Moses which is not a toleration but a limitation not that putting away was lawful for the Lord hates putting away but for the hardness of their hearts seeing they did put them away for the womans discharge he was to give her a writing of Divorce But by this means their wives v. 13. cover'd the altar of God with tears so that when they came to offer Sacrifice that sin came up into remembrance before God that their Sacrifice could not ascend and the Altar was not cover'd with that but with the tears of their wives which they had in a cruel and wicked manner by their deserting them caused them to shed dealing treacherously with the wife of their youth she that is thy companion and the wife of thy Covenant They had great complaints against their wives and were able to find out many pretences to put them away when they had sinfully found out others that their lust carried them to and so they did cover violence with a garment But the Prophet bids them take heed to their spirits and look upon the falseness of their own hearts in it that they deal not treacherously and falsly and so break their Covenant with their wives even the Covenant of their God 3 By puting them upon occasions of sin and so they are made instruments to satisfie the lust of their Husbands What an occasion of sinning did Abraham put upon his beloved Sarah twice once before Pharaoh King of Egypt and another time before Abimelech King of Gerar by desiring her to say that she was his sister How was she drawn at his request to consent to a lye and to endanger her chastity amongst the Heathen In re illicita etiam consensus vitiosus est in an unlawful matter the very consent is unlawful The Apostle says 1 Cor. 7.34 The married woman takes care of the things of the world and how she may please her husband The Apostle does not only set this down as a duty what married persons should do in that condition to take care of the things of the family and how to please their Husband but as an ordinary temptation and corruption also that follows that state though as Calvin observes Hoc non est proprium conjugii malum sed ex hominum vitio provenire It is the common temptation and corruption that accompanies that state not only a moderate and a lawful but even an inordinate care also of the things of the world and how to please her Husband even with the neglect of the things of God and how to please him Ahab desires Naboths Vineyard and is sick for it and lays him down upon the bed and will eat no meat Jezabel his Wife comes to him and says Dost thou now govern Israel is this becoming the greatness of thy state to bear such a denial and affront Is not all the Kings and do not his people enjoy what they have by his leave and favour as a boon from him and shall any subject dare deny his King what he requests of him This is not to reign over them buâ— to be under them Imperatoris est leges dare non accipere c. And thus she reproves him and becomes a very fit instrument for the Devil Pet. Martyr I will give thee the Vineyard of Naboth 1 King 21.7 4. Between Parents and Children 1. Children are curses to Parents Thou shalt be cursed in the fruit of thy body as well as in the fruit of thy land 1 By disesteem making them vile in a mans eyes Deut. 27.16 Cursed be he that sets light by father or mother and this proceeds further even to mocking and deriding Prov. 30.17 The eye that mockes at his father or mother the ravens of the vallies shall pick it out 2 By forsaking them 2 Tim. 3.3 without natural affections the word in the Greek is a similitude taken from a Stork which takes special care to provide for and maintain the Parent when it 's old But Mar. 7 11. they taught Children a way to cheat their Parents by dedicating their Estates to the Temple or the publick service and then when the Parent should stand in need of any part of it the child says it is Corban a thing dedicated and therefore he must not meddle with it and so do nothing for him 3 There is
is the act and the guilt the act with the pleasure of it is fading the pleasures of sin that are but for a season but there is an abiding guilt upon the spirit that is after a sort infinite being an offence against an infinite God a violation of an infinite Holiness and a contempt of infinite Majesty and Authority and it is also eternal and will remain upon the Creature for ever and nothing in the world but the Blood of Christ can take it away from the soul Gen. 4.7 being sprinkled upon the Conscience and this is the meaning of that Proverbial speech Gen. 4.7 Sin lies at the door it 's a speech taken from a dog or a fierce beast that lies at the door to watch and it teaches us three things 1 That though the act be past yet the guilt remains binding over the soul to punishment the sin lies there 2 That there is a time when sin in the guilt and punishment of it may lie still and be quiet and a man may ruffle it in the house within and never be troubled at that which lies at the door 3 Sin lying at the door will surely be awakened and it will be easily awakened Luther in loc ad fores somno minime aptus est locus ibi quiescit peccatum ubi diu quiescere non potest c. Sin lies asleep there where it can lie long asleep the door will surely open and the sin that seems sleepy now will awake and therefore it is a fearful thing talem habere janitorem to have such a porter Jer. 2.22 Though thou wash thy self with niter and fullers soap yet thy iniquity is markt before me it 's spoken of all the false glosses and pretences that men have to excuse themselves and to extenuate their sins There is a guilt upon the man before God Jer. 17.1 The iniquity of Judah is writ with a pen of iron c. It is to be referred both ad reatum culpam and it notes the indelible characters of it upon the soul that as the people of God have the Law of God writ upon their hearts so have ungodly men the guilt of sin and the law of sin their sin will find them out There are two things that men are terrified with Numb 32.23 and they look upon as enemies the word of God and the guilt of their own sins and therefore men do endeavour to fly from the one and to hide themselves from the other now the word follows them and will surely overtake them at last Zach. 1.6 and the guilt of sin that seeks the man and albeit he has many a hiding place yet sin both in the guilt and in the punishment of it also will at last find him out 3 Hence follows an evil Conscience Heb. 10.22 There are two things that make the Conscience evil it 's pollution by reason of the filth of sin and its accusation and condemnation by reason of the guilt of sin and though this indeed be mainly reserved to the last day Rom. 2.15 16. when the book of Conscience shall be opened and that faculty enlarged because then it is to give up its Viatory office and an account of the whole man that God has betrusted it with yet it doth in many men begin here according as the Lord is pleased to act it and doth bring into the soul an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.27 a receiving of judgment before-hand binding a man over unto wrath that the Creature is continually in expectation of it Heb. 2.15 Mat. 8. â—9 Art thou come to torment us before the time therefore an evil Conscience they have that tells them that there is a torment in a greater measure provided for them and that there is a time appointed when the extremity of this torment shall begin though as yet they knew the time was not come Hence comes that fear which does torment the soul 1 Joh. 4.18 that wrath will seize upon a man wheresoever he is as it was with Cain Gen. 4.14 Every one that meets me will slay me he lookt upon himself as Luther saith Tanquam excommunicatus spiritualiter corporaliter regnum amiserat ecclesiam as one who was excommunicated both spiritually and corporally c. And therefore he that was put out of the protection of God could look for no safety amongst the Creatures hence a man walks in the horrour of the shadow of death Felix trembles and Herod fear'd it was John Baptist that he had slain that was risen again There is fear on every side if he walks by the way he looks vengeance should come upon him and he shall never again visit his habitation and if he abide in his house there is a curse entered into the stones and the timber of it when he lies down at night he says it may be this night God will take away my soul and he is scared with dreams and terrified with visions that he is not able to stand under the imaginations and thoughts of his own heart if he attend upon the Word there is a savour of death unto death he sees the grave open and this is to him a testimony of a further death 2 Cor. 2.16 And hence is that shame and confusion of face that is in men looking upon themselves they abhor their own image and are not able to endure their own stink seeing how their souls do breed worms as Herod's body did they see that they are the loathsomest Creatures alive and hence there is a loathing of themselves and it comes at last to a revenge as we see in Judas And the reflections and reproaches of a mans own spirit he cannot bear and he has these dreadful desperate thoughts I shall never find mercy my glass is run my hope is past surely there is no mercy for me if there were as many windows in Heaven as there be Stars as many doors as there be souls yet there would be no entrance for me And the soul sinks down under his own burden for ever and says My iniquity is heavier than I can bear And this is properly the death of the soul it is eternal desperation it 's hell it self I had time and means and offers and intreaties and works and motions of the Spirit of God but the Lord has now forsaken me and the night is come upon me there is as much hope of the Devils as of me And this is much strengthned by the threatning and the Curse of the Law giving a man his portion Hos 6.5 and so Ministers are said to judge men Ezech. 20. â— and to torment them Rev. 11.10 and to kill them which is all barely by the words suggesting to an evil Conscience and the Conscience assisting thereunto and there is answerable to the Curse of the first Covenant a work of the Spirit of God upon a mans soul which is called a spirit of bondage and a spirit of fear Rom. 8.15 2 Tim. 1.7
as of life and all the works of illumination humiliation seeming conversion and reformation do make them but the stronger enemies to God when they fall from them all they do but prepare a habitation for seven worse spirits for the dog to return to his vomit again as we read such a story of one Eustathius who was first an Arian and then afterwards was converted and subscribed the Articles of the Council of Nice and was a man imployed by the Church and endured a great Persecution with Basil and divers other godly men and yet afterward he turned again into the former Doctrine of Arianisme and never returned And so we read of Alexander in Act. 19.33 and afterwards of his Apostacy and these works do qualifie men for the sin against the Holy Ghost and make them more conformable to the Devil than otherwise they would be 7. There is a giving a man up to Spiritual judgments which are of all plagues the greatest Exod. 9.14 As spiritual sins are the greatest sins so are spiritual judgments the greatest plagues and there is no plague like that of the heart 1 King 8.38 and we have so much the more cause to observe them because God did formerly under the Old Testament punish with outward and temporal punishments but those that live under the Gospel are specially punished with Spiritual judgments as the mercies of the Gospel are more spiritual so are the punishments also and they are 1 a hard heart which implys three things 1 Insensibleness of sin and judgment 2 Taking no impression either from the Word or Spirit and the touches of both 3 Inflexible as an Adamant that you cannot bow nor break it and that heart that is a flint to God is wax to Satan no command nor judgment of God will break it for it 's possest with an iron sinew bray a fool in a mortar yet his folly will not depart 2 There is a spirit of slumber that a man is sensible of nothing no danger can wake him for sleep is the binding up of all the spiritual senses Their eyes are closed and they cannot see their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot hearken let them be smitten and they cannot feel it and nothing does awaken them neither the loudest cry of the Word nor the judgments of God a deep sleep is upon them and they fear no evil 3 A seared Conscience 1 Tim. 4.2 the word signifies to sear with a hot iron and to make insensible to have no feeling or else to cut off by searing so that men walk as if they had no Consciences left 4 An injudicious mind God gives them over to a reprobate mind Rom. 1.28 an injudicious mind is taken with envy error with every vanity and is able to judge aright of nothing 5 Vile affections the basest and most dishonourable lusts even sins that are below a man as brute beasts therein to corrupt themselves and that makes them hateful and abominable to all the world 6 A final impenitency a heart that cannot repent Heb. 6.4 and it 's impossible for them to be renewed again by repentance § 4. Having spoken of Temporal death and Spiritual death we should now come to consider Eternal death which as it is said of the Glory of the Saints Neither eye has seen nor ear has heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive c. it is as true of this Eternal death no ear has heard what it is it is called perdition and destruction the second death And as Heaven is set out by some resemblances of the glory of the things in this life so is Hell in respect of the miseries of this life but all these are but shadows of the one and of the other Psal 90.11 Who knows the power of thy wrath as is thy fear so is thy wrath that is the wrath of God in the dreadful effects of it is such that it passes knowledg and it passes fear The heart of man is able to conceive vast fears as it has vast desires but whatever we can fear there is something in the wrath of God answerable to all But having spoke of this more largely elsewhere I shall but touch upon it at present In this death there is something essential which befalls all that suffer these torments and is inseparable from it as they do fall upon such a subject the essential part of this death the Scripture makes to be of two parts there is punishment of Loss and punishment of Sense There is a loss and a separation of a man from all good things whatsoever there is no man but has some good thing in possession and he has something of which hope gives him a reversion but in this death he shall be separated from them both and this is the privative part This poena damni punishment of loss is double as Durandus has observed pag. 210. either in amissione boni habiti vel nondum habiti in the amission of some good possessed or hoped for Now by this death men shall be shut out from both First they shall be shut out of the presence vision and fruition of God for ever there shall pass upon him an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Divines did anciently call it an eternal excommunication or a non-communion as their spiritual death did consist in an estrangement from God in holiness so their eternal death shall consist in an eternal separation from God in happiness They shall be punished with eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes 1.9 and this was the great torment that Christ does complain of Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and yet it was only substractio visionis a substraction of vision And this is the great affliction of his people here on earth if the Lord hide his face David says Hide not thy face from me lest I be like to them that go down into the pit and yet this is but a hiding of his face as an Eclipse of the Sun for a day he will but hide his face for a little moment but he will have mercy on thee with everlasting loving kindness how much more when God shall cast a man off in wrath for ever and never have an eye upon him more and therefore the Fathers do generally say that the greatest torment of Hell is this of Loss Absentia Dei quoad visionem omnia alia tormenta superat Augustine and Chrysostom in Mat. 7. Mille Gehennae paenas and there is nothing so dreadful as to be separated from God and to be hated by him CHAP. II. How and why men naturally desire to be under the Law Galat. 4. 21 Tell me you that desire to be under the Law do you not hear the Law SECT I. How men naturally desire to be under the Law § 1. THis Text tells us how men are naturally affected with the Covenant under which they stand They still desire to be under it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
in it from restraining Grace or renewing Grace Whether we do serve God in the newness of the spirit Rom. 7.6 or the oldness of the letter It was before conversion but a dead letter to him and did only command duty but it did no way transform the soul in the inward man but there is in a man being regenerate the newness of spirit that is a mans inward man being renewed by the Holy Ghost c. Now the rules of Trial are these 1. Let a man by the Coaction of the Law be put upon duty never so much and never so often yet it will never assist him nay the more he doth duty the less strength he shall have to do it the weakness of his nature will increase by it as the longer he does abstain from sin the more the lust will spread and the stronger it will grow the more he does pray the less love he shall have to the duty and though he may get a dexterity in the outward performance yet the less he shall be able to perform it in a saving and spiritual manner whereas renewing Grace gives a man strength a mans heart is prepared to pray and the spirit of Grace is a spirit of supplication a man has an Unction from the Holy Ghost that flows from his union with Christ and from the Holy Ghost and he has a strength in duties the more he does them the stronger he grows in all the ways of God The righteous shall grow stronger and stronger and he that has clean hands shall hold on his way Job 17.9 and shine brighter and brighter and grow stronger and stronger the more he knows the more he does follow on to know the Lord. And whereas another man has done duty many years and is grown more weary of it and more formal in it but knows no more what does belong to the spiritual performance of it now than he did when he began it and he does possibly abstain from sin but it is not from an inward principle and power of holiness but from an external motive which only keeps it under in the course of his life and therefore although by abstaining the lust may seem weakned and to decay by degrees yet really it grows and they prove more desperately wicked as appears by men that the unclean spirit is gone out of and returns with seven worse spirits and they that have made great and goodly shews of Holiness yet afterwards fall into the sin against the Holy Ghost 2. A man that does duty from the Coaction of the Law is partial in it and takes notice only of those duties to which he is constrained and where the law of God lays a strong hand upon him but as for other things he is not at all solicitous Herod will do many things but other things that either the Law does not so immediately and earnestly press upon him or his lust will not dispense with those he will leave undone But renewing Grace makes a man to have respect unto all Gods Commandments and to hate every false way it sets a man against every sin but specially against a mans own iniquity and those sins that are spiritual that are from Satan per modum imaginis as part of his image wherein they are most like the Devil 3. All that a man does from the Coaction of the Law will never last a man may abstain from sin a while but if a man have the nature of a dog he will return to his vomit and as a Sow will wallow in the mire still wash her never so clean yea he will return with the greater greediness by reason of the former abstinence and so a man may perform duty a while but as Job says Will the hypocrite pray always For he is but as a flag that cannot grow without mire and if once the fleshly respects of setting upon duty be taken away his duties will wither For either praying will make a man leave sinning or sinning will make him leave praying or if not publickly yet will at least kill all his secret duties and make those that are publick degenerate wholly into a form 4. Whatsoever a man does by Coaction of the Law a man has no sweetness in it it is with no delight and complacency for things forced are not pleasant let a man do the least service that he is forced to and it is a burden whereas let the greatest works in the world and the most toilsome be done if a man undertake them willingly he can find pleasure in them as we see men do in recreations running and wrestling c. So to a Saint the yoke of Christ is a pleasing yoke and his burden light a soul can dance under it and the thoughts of his leaving sin is very pleasant to him and when he does duty he delights in it according to his inward man and his soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness he is then in his element when he is keeping the Commandments of God Set water over the fire and make it boil never so much yet take it off and it will return quickly into its former coldness and will be the colder for its former heating and so it is here it is not agreeable to nature and therefore can never be pleasing either for an unregenerate man to perform duty or for a regenerate man to commit sin 5. Whatever a man doth by the Coaction of the Law a man hath no communion with God thereby nor is he drawn nearer unto God A gracious heart is sensible of the want of God and therefore his end in all that he does is to seek God that he may find him and because in Ordinances God will be found and has there promised a special presence therefore he seeks him there and he labours to stir up his Graces in his approach to God and God does in mercy draw near unto him because what he does is from an inward principle of godliness but a man that does duty from a natural conscience only he does not draw near to God but his spirit draws back all the while and looks upon God as an enemy and therefore he has no fellowship with the Lord. The Law indeed puts him upon duty and as a task he doth it but he has no more experience of the approaches of God in it or his love or the power of his Grace the kisses of his mouth the stayings of God with flaggons and comforting with apples c. but a soul that does duties from a principle of godliness is sensible of his spiritual absence from God in duties and of his special presence and would not lose his communion with God in duties for a world but other men are satisfied in the duties meerly and their sinning and hearing is much alike to them and if they have done the duty conscience is satisfied and they have all they desire c. Vse 4 § 4. Here we see what a happiness it is to the
Covenant that by which all the elect should be saved 2 Sam. 23.5 This is all my hope and all my salvation says David c. Now there is no creature that is intrinsically unchangeable either in his being or working the best of the creatures the Angels are subject to change he is said to charge them with folly not with actual but with possible folly all of them for they be of themselves and in their own nature subject to change and so was man before his fall Therefore much more must he be so afterwards If the Lord should have received a satisfaction for his sin in Christ and afterwards left him in the hand of his own Counsels man would have immediately brought himself into the same condition and would have had great need of a new satisfaction and so Christ might have suffered often and have become as the beasts were a daily sacrifice therefore Christ is called the surety of the better Covenant Heb. 7.22 not only a surety of the old Covenant in paying our debt but of the better Covenant in undertaking our duty that by the one he may deliver us from sin and by the other he may confer upon us immortality and life And thus God could not looking upon man as fallen enter into a Covenant of Grace and reconciliation with him immediately without a surety for satisfaction to pay the debt he owed and therefore it must a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator and so the Lord enters into Covenant with Christ the surety and takes his word for both which we were never able to perform and so he doth sweeten the heart of man to draw near to God and in him we have access with boldness but not in our selves immediately Jer. 31.20 Ephes 3.12 3dly In him alone is the righteousness and the holiness of this Covenant laid up and therefore with him only must this Covenant be made and could be with none other 1 As to the righteousness of the Covenant we see with whomsoever the Lord made a Covenant the righteousness of the Covenant was laid up in him that he had an original power from God to perform the duties of that Covenant as God made a Covenant with the Angels and therefore their fall was a voluntary defection from the Law of their Covenant They abode not in the truth but left their first habitation But we find that all the Angels fell â—ot but only those that had a hand in and did consent to the transgression and from â—ence we do rightly conclude that the Covenant was made with every particular Angel for â—imself and not with any common head but that every one stood by his own righteousâ—ess but men being to come into the World successively in their several generations and 〈◊〉 have their being from another and not all at once therefore the Lord doth make a Coveâ—ant with them by a common head a publick person for them and in him the righteousâ—ess and grace of the Covenant must be deposited Rom. 41 11. and therefore God condemns man by impuâ—ation of anothers sin and he justifies man by imputation of anothers righteousness and therefore though the woman were first in the transgression yet mankind is not said to sin in her â—ut in Adam who was the common head Now unto man fallen there could not be a righteousness laid up in any other for 1 the righteousness of the second Covenant must be a perfect righteousness such as may make satisfaction not only for the sins of a few but of all the elect of God not only under the New-Testament but under the Old not only those that had been committed before but such as have been since those that are past and those also to come and this he could never do Rom. 3.25 Heb. 9. unless there were a dignity and worth in his person answerable to and beyond all the persons whom he did represent Therefore there must be a worth in Christs person above all the Saints and infinitely beyond theirs and if he stands in our stead he must make God amends and that is only as being God and Man by the hypostatical Union for the person being God-man he is most worthy Now all his sufferings and obedience became the sufferings and obedience of him that was God-man and thus he became a Son of righteousness Mal. 4.2 2 Cor. 5. last the righteousness of his humane nature being the righteousness of God not the essential righteousness of the Divine nature which is infinite and cannot be imputed to a creature but the righteousness wrought in his humane nature unto which the Godhead gave an efficacy and excellency and so he is a full and perfect fountain of righteousness as the Sun is a fountain of light to the World so is his righteousness to all the elect of God 2 The righteousness of the Covenant must be an everlasting righteousness or else the Covenant could never be an everlasting Covenant Dan. 9.24 for if the righteousness of the Covenant be broken the Covenant it self is made void as we see in the Covenant made with Adam and the Angels but such a righteousness could not be laid up in any meer creature which is in its nature subject to change therefore it 's said in Job God put no trust in the Angels even the Angels that fell not Job the election of God kept them from falling and they are now confirmed by Christ by whom as ministring Spirits they are imployed in the second Covenant and kept that they fall not he being the head of all principalities and powers 3 The righteousness of this Covenant must have a merit with it or else it will never answer Gods end nor our necessity for if Christ had paid the old debt and we had been restored into the primitive state this had not answered the riches of Gods Grace in the new Covenant nor mans necessity there is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a redemption price to be paid but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 1.14 a purchase to be made of an inheritance the adoption of Sons to be attained and a Glory to be bestowed Now this could not be in any of the creatures for they were all bound unto the Law and when they had done all that was commanded they were unprofitable servants it was no more than was due and for themselves only they had no righteousness to spare to another and if they had it would not answer this legal debt there is nothing of a sinner can give a legal merit this only can be from him the excellency of whose person doth exempt him from the Law unless by voluntary submission he be made under the Law and by his subjection is the Law glorified more than all the transgressions of the creature could abase it 2 The grace of the Covenant could be laid up in no other and God will not deal with man being a sinner immediately in any thing the
Covenant with the Lord knowing the falseness and instability of my spirit the duties are many and it is impossible for me to observe them all Take these directions 1. Get a true heart Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with true heart a true heart is a heart perfect with God that 's the condition of the Covenant though your ways be party-coloured yet if you have the answer of a good Conscience i. e. when your heart doth inwardly answer to what you do profess and there is not a root of bitterness left in you that draws you back from the Lord this is a true heart It is called the Girdle of truth Ephes 6.14 Ephes 6.14 and that is as I should understand it not doctrinally but morally practically full of stedfastness and stability of soul in the discharge of all the ingagements wherein we stand bound unto God without shrinking or tergiversation as it is the sin in the practice of too many professors both to God and man there is a vein of dissimulation runs through their conversation they will dissemble love to persons behind whose backs they will accuse and represent them as persons blame-worthy and through the self-flattery that is in their spirits they will strive to lessen the excellencies and vertues that are in others that they may shine the more in the esteem of men and hereby they manifest they love the praise of men more than the praise of God and herein they may have their reward though it will bring in but little comfort when they come to dye or when they râ—flect upon this great condition of the Covenant which is to draw near to God with a true heart Isa 11.5 For this faithfulness is a noble girdle it was Christs and therefore it should be ours it is this truth in the inward parts that will keep the Covenant that it shall not be broken notwithstanding thy daily failings Heb. 13.9 Act. 11.23 Psal 86.11 2. Desire of God a stablished and a fixed heart To have the heart stablished with grace is a good thing and with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. And the Psalmists prayer is Vnite my heart to fear thy name my heart is fixed O God c. And there is not a greater spiritual judgment in this life than to be given up to a light vain and unstable soul that is moved with every wind of Doctrine or with every wind of temptation when a man is carried to and fro to have the heart still fluctuating and be sometimes fixt upon one thing and sometimes upon another and unsetled in the principles of Grace such as are unstable shall not excel 3. Exercise faith upon the Grace of God in this Covenant which is eternal love and have an eye unto the surety of the Covenant in whom only it remains sure for it is an ordered Covenant and therefore sure and for this cause Christ is called the Covenant it self Isa 49.6 he is given as a Covenant to the Nations to establish the earth because in him only all the stability of the Covenant is to be found Consider in the time of affliction what a sweet thing it will be and what boldness it will give a man before God when he is able to say Though thou hast smitten us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death Psal 44.17 yet have we not gone back from thee nor behaved our selves falsly in thy Covenant and when at death a man shall look over to the common-wealth of another World and shall be able to say Lord remember that I have walked before thee all my days with a perfect heart my heart hath stood to the Covenant and I have not chosen any other Lord though in many things my ways have not been answerable unto the rule of the Covenant Vse 3 § 3. Now having entered in this manner into Covenant with God it is our duty to have respect unto our Covenant and to improve our interest in it in all our ways The Covenant is to run through our whole life for it 's a Covenant for a mans life it being a Marriage Covenant and In matrimonio est perpetua quaedam servitus In matrimony there is a perpetual kind of servitude a Woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth Rom. 7.2 and David puts all his hope in the Covenant 2 Sam. 23.5 his happiness consisted in it and all his joy and delight his soul did run out upon this Covenant and from hence all his joy came in There are in Scripture several ways of sinning against this Covenant 1 There is transgressing the Covenant like Adam Hos 6.7 Hos 6.7 There have they dealt treacherously against me c. which is taken Two ways either as Adam they have broken the Covenant in which they bound themselves or else as Tremelius hath it they have broken the Covenant as if it were the Covenant of a man and as if they had to do with man in it and not with God 2 It is rejecting the Covenant 2 King 17.15 to despise it as a poor and unworthy thing not to be regarded by them 3 There is forsaking the Covenant as a thing that they are not bound by neither will they be bound by any longer Deut. 29.25 Mal. 2.8 10. And then 4 there is corrupting the Covenant and profaning it They have corrupted the Covenant of Levi that is the Covenant of life and peace which God made with him they have corrupted the Law and they have profaned the Covenant as if it were a common and ordinary thing for to profane is to make a thing common 5 There is a dealing falsly in the Covenant Psal 44.17 which signifies to lye to a man and deal treacherously with him in a Covenant made when a man pretends fair and doth the quite contrary there is no trust to him no hold upon him 6 There is Deut. 4.23 Deut. 4.23 forgeting the Covenant Take heed says Moses lest you forget the Covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you Now when a man in Scripture is said to forget a thing Verba sensus significant cum affectu effectu The words of sense signifie affects and effects God is said to forget men when he doth not appear for their help Psal 13.1 How long wilt thou forget me O Lord and hide thy face from my troubles We are said to forget God when we do not honour him as God and are not affected towards him as becomes a God and so men are said to forget the Covenant of God when they have not those affections as so great an ingagement doth require do not know and improve their interest in it as they ought to do do not make it as David did all their salvation and all their delight and therefore 't is said Psal 10.5 he is always mindful of his Covenant that is
a Covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us The end of his making the Covenant was to divert the Judgement And so we read also in the Book of Nehemiah and thus gracious is the Lord Nehem. 9.38 that when he doth send judgement for sin he doth not continue the judgement but till he doth see an humiliation and reformation in act let there be but the serious purpose of reformation and let the Covenant be renewed to ingage the soul thereunto and the Lord doth remove the judgement and when the will is in his people he doth accept it for the deed as David Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my sin unto the Lord and the Lord forgave me my sin and the prodigal Son doth but say I will go to my father and while he was yet a great way off the father met him 3. In a time of publick reformation when the foundations have been destroyed and all things out of course and a great deal of difficulty appears and even impossibility in carrying on the work yet the people of God looking upon it as a duty have set upon it with full resolution and purpose of heart and have covenanted to go through with the work notwithstanding all opposition Jehoiada made a Covenant between the Lord and the King and the people that they should be the Lords people here Religion was corrupted and Dominion was usurped and the Lord put it into the heart of Jehoiada the Priest to endeavour the reformation of both and therefore he brought forth the Kings Son to whom the government did rightly belong and did set him up in the Throne and deposed Athalia the usurping Queen and he doth make a double Covenant 1 A Covenant between God and the King and the People and in this Covenant the King and the people do make up but one party and they ingage themselves to be Gods people and the King to rule for God as under him 2 There is also a Covenant between the King and the People that he ruling for God and under God they will for Conscience sake obey Now my Covenant with any Magistrate must be understood as being a second and subordinate Covenant I am so to keep Covenant with them that I must also keep my Covenant with the Lord. Wherefore after they had thus strengthened themselves by a Covenant in the next verse they set upon the work of reformation effectually for all the people of the land went into the house of Baal and brake it down And so did Josiah he made a Covenant with the Lord To walk after the Lord and keep his Commandments with all his heart 2 King 23.3 4. and then he commanded them to bring out of the Temple of the Lord all the Vessels that were made for Baal c. and wrought the most glorious reformation that ever ' was by any of the Kings of Judah having his heart and hands strengthened by a Covenant with the Lord. 4. As a testimony of a mans Thankfulness for any great mercy or special deliverance or as an argument of faith that a man is to use unto God when he doth pray for and expect from God any special mercy 1 As an argument that a man should use unto God to obtain mercy it is that artificial way of praying that the Lord himself teaches his people Hosea 14.2 Take away our iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips Assur shall not save us we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands Ye are our Gods for in thee the fatherless find mercy c. And so Jacob also Gen. 28.20 22. he begged a blessing in his journey and he doth follow the prayers he had put up with a vow if the Lord will be with me he shall be my God and if he bring me to my Fathers house this Stone shall be Gods House and if the Lord bless me with an estate I will surely return him of his own I will give the tenth unto thee so punctual is this holy man to restipulate or return something unto God answerable unto the mercy that he doth beg of God If Hezekiah may be delivered from death Esay 38.20 and David from guilt Psal 51.14 they promise to sing aloud of so great a mercy and to teach transgressors the way of God also the Fathers to the Children shall declare his truth When a man in desiring the mercy doth it with a spiritual eye and doth not ask amiss he is truly careful to perform the duty that such a mercy calls for that he may return as well as receive for quantum à praeceptis tantum ab auribus Dei sumus Tertullian When there is no obedience to God there must be expected no audience by God And therefore one special argument that the people of God do use in their prayers to obtain mercy is a renewing their Covenant 2 It is to be done in testimony of thankfulness for mercy received and then doth a man indeed make a right use of a mercy when he is bound the closer unto God by such cords of Love and the more the Lord doth ingage him the more he is willing to ingage himself to God A great army of Ethiopians came against the King of Judah with an host of a thousand thousand men and the Lord delivered them into his hand now at their return they came to Jerusalem to give God the glory of the victory and they offered unto him of the spoil which they had taken and now they enter into Covenant with the Lord to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their hearts and with all their souls and so the renewing of the Covenant is their return made unto God for the mercy And so the Jews at their return out of Babylon Jer. 50.4 5. They come with weeping and seek the way to Sion with their faces thitherward and they say Let us bind our selves unto the Lord by a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten so that in receiving and attaining the mercy God calls for a Covenant as also in returning the mercy 5. When a man finds his heart bent to backsliding and he is unsteady and unstable in any good way Moses finding the people of Israel a very unsteady people and whose hearts were not stedfast with the Lord after that solemn Covenant with them upon Mount Sinai he renews it again a little before his death when they were come to the borders of the promised Land and inforceth it both with the wonders that God wrought upon Pharaoh and also the great miracles that he had wrought for them when he led them through the wilderness forty years And the same thing was the ground of Joshua's renewing his Covenant Josh 24. Josh 24. And Nehemiah finding that many of the Jews loved their strange Wives and the children that they had by them
his promises and thereby we put his bonds in suit before the Throne of his own grace so doth Jacob Lord this is that which thou hast said Return into thy own country and I will do thee good and so doth Nehemiah Neh. 1.8 This is that thou hast promised unto thy servant Moses A soul that can bring unto God his own promise and can plead it before God has a certain argument that it shall be fulfilled It 's the great ground of the prayer of Christ and of his Angels and Saints in Heaven for the Angels do pray and so do the Saints in Heaven the souls under the Altar cry Dan. 4.16 17. Zac. 1. How long Lord Rev. 6. and they have no ground to offer a prayer to God but meerly the promise of God and therefore all their prayers are prayers of faith to this day § 3. The promises of God in Scripture are of two sorts some are absolute some conditional and the grounds of these distinctions of promises are these 1. There is a twofold love of God unto the creature 1 antecedent Love that is set upon the creature for love sake and out of his own free choice and election Rom. 9.18 he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and upon this are grounded all absolute promises 2 there is a consequent Love as the Lord delights to crown the acts of his own Love in the creature having wrought his own image he doth love it and delight in it more than in all the rest of the works of his hands and this is the ground of all conditional promises 2. Absolute Promises are not formally made unto us though they be fulfilled in us but unto Christ for no promise can belong unto him that is not an heir of promise and though a man be so in the Election of God yet he is not actually so till he be united unto Christ and therefore it is unto him that all the absolute promises do belong If we look upon man in a state of Nature so there are absolute promises of grace for a mans conversion but look upon a man in a state of Grace and so there are conditional promises that do belong unto him for his consolation and salvation 3. In absolute promises the creature is meerly passive and there is no prerequired condition in the creature for the accomplishment of it it 's perfectly an act of Gods grace to the creature to promise him to be his God to pardon his sin and take away his heart of stone there is no concurrence of the endeavour of the creature in it for all the works of God in this kâ—l are a new creation but in conditional promises there is a condition prerequired in the creature and there is an actual concurrence of the creature to their performance without which God will never perform the condition he that converts thee without thee will not save thee without thee we must be built as living stones in the Church of God 4. There is a double state of Faith a state of Recumbency or Affiance and a state of Assurance and the promises of the Gospel are suited unto both these states A man that can see no grace in his own soul he comes to the promise for grace and resolves to cast himself upon it he does â—e to Christ that he may have life and casts himself upon the promise that his sins may be pardoned and the truth is in this doth properly the application of faith in a mans first conversion lye in leaving a mans soul with the promise that he may receive grace and pardon not in believing that Christ is mine but in relying upon him and giving up my self to him There is a kind of personal Application and that is direct and there is an axiomatical Application of faith when the soul being in Christ and having received grace is able to see and to conclude its own interest Unto faith of Recumbence the absolute promises do fitly suit But there is a state of Assurance when the soul looks into his own heart and finds the image of Christ written there and sees promises made to a broken and a believing heart one poor in spirit and he finds the condition in himself and now all the conditional promises come in with comfort to him who before could taste no sweetness in them because he could not find in himself the condition 5. There are two ways of assurance answerable to the twofold witness of it there is a witness in Heaven and there is a witness also in the heart 1 There is an immediate testimony Rejoyce in this that your names are written in heaven saith our Lord again the Lord says to a man Be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee and thou art greatly beloved Such immediate testimonies there have been given to the Saints and surely the bowels of the Lord are not straitned 1 Joh. 5.7 Thus there is a testimony of the Spirit that is distinct from the witness of water and blood the Spirit is the seal in both but in the one he is the seal of his Office and in the other the seal of his Officers a particular seal and a privy signet in the one he testifies the love of all the persons and there is testified that his own love and the love of God is shed abroad in the heart there is illuminatio quaedam è montibus aeternis an illumination from the eternal mountains as Gerson speaks 2 There is an Assurance that comes from the witness of a mans own graces the Spirit of God witnessing with our spirits Now the first assurance is in an absolute promise I am thy God thou art greatly beloved thy sins are forgiven thee and the latter kind of assurance is in a conditional promise the Lord discovering to a man the signs of grace in his own soul and the glorious works of the Spirit of Christ upon his inward man conforming him to the image of Christ 6. The great difference between the first and second Covenant lay in this the promises of the first Covenant were all of them conditional being given unto grace received and did suppose grace in the person to whom they were made but there were no absolute promises to give grace that Covenant did suppose grace but it did not give grace But under the Gospel as there are promises of reward of grace received so there are promises of giving grace where there is no grace and herein lies the great glory of the promises of the new Covenant and the grace of them it gives grace and then it crowns grace and therefore they are said to be better promises 7. Absolute promises have their degrees of accomplishment as well as conditional though a man has a right to them all at once yet the Lord doth perform them by degrees to us there is no promise that is fully and perfectly accomplished till we come to Heaven our justification is not perfect
give better Rules to guide a mans life and bring him unto Happiness of governing of Estates and ordering the affairs of men than the Word doth lay down and so he cannot submit to it because he doth look upon it as a foolish thing and as that which hath no wisdom in it but a man must submit in point of wisdom and holiness to it 3. All fleshly Wisdom the Lord doth hate and look upon as Dâ—vilish Jam. 3.15 Jam. 3.15 that as spiritual wisdom is a Divine beam from the Father of Light so is carnal Wisdom a spark that ariseth out of Hell beneath it is a part of that wisdom that is in the Devil and answers unto it in all the ends intents and actings thereof that look what ends the Devil hath in his wicked plots such have they and look what means he useth such do they use also for it is that which their wisdom doth direct them unto so that take a man that hath a subtle and malitious heart and if you would see a picture of the Devil incarnate that is the man and as the wisdom which Satan hath as an Angel that remaining Stock doth make him the more perfectly a Devil so it is with this man also all that wisdom he has gotten by nature and by study and by experience and observation he becomes the more like unto the Devil by it and therefore this fleshly wisdom being so perfectly conformable unto the Devil and being inspired from Hell it is said to be devilish for there are the Devils lusts The Devil hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now which way to vent or to propagate them in the world immediately he knows not and they are much more propagated when they are acted than when they are suggested Now the ordinary sorts of sinners are able to act the Devils lusts but their plots are deep they are such depths that they must be wise men indeed that are able to understand them and for that cause as by his temptation he doth stirr up the one so he doth by his suggestion inspire the other and as there are Messengers of Satan immediate Lusts from Hell so there are immediate Plots from Hell and Satan fills the hearts of men with them as he did the heart of Judas in his betraying of Christ c. and upon this account â—or its original and for its resemblance it is called by God devilish wisdom 4. God doth seldom or never give Grace unto that man who is inspired with carnal Wisdom he doth seldom graft it upon such a Stock as this is 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many wise men not many noble are called and Math. 11.25 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto Babes c. But might it not have been much for the honour of the Gospel and the advancement of Religion if the wise men of the world did come as the wise men of the East did and bow down unto Christ and worship him would not Religion have the greater name and glory amongst men and would it not be freed from that scandal of Piscatoria simplicitas No they are only the poor of the world and the foolish and simple ones that embrace it and believe it God looks not as man looks he doth choose the poor of this world and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise c. and this is one of those depths of Gods Judgments which are unsearchable and his wayes that are past finding out for he will exalt free Grace alone And the Lord hath no need nor the Gospel of any such Subsidiaries he hath a wisdom that is able to carry on the Gospel of his Grace and it shall prevail though there be no wisdom in the Professors thereof that it may appear to be his work and that he doth alone promote it if men stand not by the Gospel yet God will and the Simplicity thereof shall overcome that as he will have the Power to be of God alone so the Wisdom shall be also of God alone that makes a man wise to salvation 5. This is the Man that commonly the Devil doth make use of There is nothing in an unregenerate man but what is or may be the Devils weapons Luk. 11.22 his Soul is the Devils house and the inward abilities of the man that 's the Armor of Satan now the greater any natural mans abilities are the stronger armour he has for Satan and the more use he will make of him and that because he is able to do him more service and as God doth use men according to their Graces for he will act the Graces that he has given so will Satan also use men according to their abilities they shall not lye idle he doth proportion the service a man can do him as God doth that men may be pares negotio They will also be an honour to their imployment because they are look'd upon as wise men by the rest of the world Cupit Diabolus abs te ornari as Austin saith of a young man of great gifts and abilities and so there is this Curse upon humane wisdom it is a servant unto Satan and yet it is a snare unto the man and a Curse upon his Soul And indeed Satans cause hath need of such instruments that shall lay deep plots and not carry things in simplicity because it is darkness and if it be seen and discovered it is for the most part clouded But with the Lord it is not so he doth all in the Light and loves so to do therefore he has no need of any such secret plots and hiding of Counsels as the wise men of the world are accustomed unto There is but one very worldly wise man namely Solomon that the Scripture doth speak of among all the godly men in it and the Scripture has recorded more of his falling and of Gods departing from him leaving him to himself and more of the madness and folly that he ran upon by his exercise of and his leaning upon his own wisdom and the use that the Devil made of him than of any other godly man that we read of in all the Scripture besides therefore surely they are dangerous instruments in Satans hand 6. Carnal wisdom is commonly used against the people of God the edge of it is commonly turned that way Psal 83.3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones there are a people which the Lord hath undertaken to hide and to protect for he is the Saviour of all men but especially of them that believe and there are a people that he doth lay up for himself as his peculiar treasure for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 19.5 signifies both these and against these are the plots of the wise men of the earth see it in Pharaoh Achitophel and Herod they all prospered till they turned their wisdom this way