world and lose his soul Or what shall a man give in Exchange for his soul When such Texts as this is brought home to the conscience it doth so awaken where not willingly withstood that sins hold must needs fall Fifthly The Spirit furnisheth the Christian with spiritual Arguments bearing such force upon his heart as makes him able to break out with such replies as these First All the Devil hath to make an argument of is but present things and they suit not with my person for my person is made up of soul and body and all he offereth doth but respect and serve that body that shortly must be worms-meat and therefore it will not profit me to lose my soul for present things Secondly As all he hath to make an Argument of suits not with my person in like manner it suits not with my condition for if I have all that heart can wish it carries me but to the grave and there leaves me and wo be to me if such works follow me for alas I must be raised again and he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption Sixthly The holy Spirit helps in lending the immediate supplies of new strength proportionable to our straits and will not suffer those that wait on him to be tempted above what they are able to bear but will with the temptation make way to escape that they may be able 1 Cor. 10. 13. Seventhly The holy Spirit helps by striving with the heart to draw it after holy performances following the soul up and down with sweet visits and secret whispers prompting and inclining it God-ward preparing a season for the heart to draw nigh God and then preparing the heart for that season The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. May not all this teach us to put a high value upon the holy Spirits Help to the great work of Mortification by all means striving to please and not grieve this holy Spirit by which we are sealed to the day of Redemption Having now spoken of the holy Spirits help may not some from hence inquire what may be done to the obtaining not only its visits now and then as a wafaring man that tarrieth for a night but its constant company to abide with the soul Answ There may be three Directions laid down briefly for its obtaining with three Directions for its keeping First for its obtaining Get a deep sense of its want and worth Secondly Get longings of heart after its supply Thirdly Make humble supplications to the Father for it First Get a deep sense of its want and worth it s Jesus Christs own argument that the world cannot receive this Spirit because it seeth him not neither knoweth him John 14. 17. Now by personal examination of that souls barrenness where the holy Spirit either comes but seldome or stayes not long may some considerable sense of its want be discerned and consequently of its worth all those black sinful works acted by the sons of men are the effects of the holy Spirits absence and indeed to what degree a good man is a stranger here to that degree he is weak an unable either to make right judgment of the best things or to withstand the temptations and vexatious assaults of the evil one and although a man be thus destitute where the holy Spirit is wanting yet can there be no expectation of his company till a deep sense both of its want and worth affect the heart to the rendring the soul capable of setting a valuable estimation of its company Secondly for its obtaining Get longings of heart after its supply breathings and pantings from a sense of its want bastens its coming a foul that goeth sadly up and down all the day long sick as it were of love for its frequent visits to revive comfort and strength and to discover its own wants and the tempters wiles making the soul taller by head and shoulders than those temptations that frequently attend it saying with David As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for the living God when shall I come and appear before thee Or be filled with supplies from thee Psal 42. 1 2. Thirdly for its obtaining Make humble supplications to the Father for it not only sick of love with the Spouse but also panting and thirsting with David yet rests not here but is again and again upon its knees with humble hearty supplications to God even the Father like the thirsty traveller that going from Fountain to Fountain from means to means till he get what his soul travelleth after when Jesus Christ were about to leave the Disciples this was one of the last Legasies he gave them And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever John 14. 16. If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11. 13. In the second place we may offer three Directions in order to the sure keeping the holy Spirits company or holding constant fellowship and dear inward intimate familiarity with so happy a companion First A constant withstanding the beginnings of all evil Secondly A ready complyance with new motions to all good Thirdly A retaining in the heart a high value of its company First A constant withstanding the beginnings of all evil is that which will wonderfully engage the Spirits company when you crush sin in its least and first motion Now the dearest of Gods Children are lyable to temptation and it is not their sin to be tempted to sin Jesus Christ was tempted to sin their sin lyeth in closing with the temptation but if instead of closing with it you do in the Spirits strength constantly oppose it mistake me not here I pray you a constant opposing sin doth not intend less than these three things First A firm withstanding the very first least motion even a glance as it were at the eye ear or thought to sin Abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes 5. 22. Secondly As the first least motion so in all cases and conditions whether the temptation set upon you when ye are full or hungry sick or well strong or weak rich or poor in affliction or out of affliction it will be coming with new assaults in all conditions waiting to kill you by a Goliah or Bathshebah temptations more piercing or more pleasing Constant intends a withstanding here Thirdly Constant intends continual Blessed is the man that endureth temptation Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of life James 1. 12. Revel 2. 10. Secondly A second Help to retain the holy Spirit may be this A ready complyance with new motions to all good it
sin and suffer too by the one others do us wrong by the other we do our selves wrong St. Paul meets with some Christians in the Corinth Church under this Dying Sign 1 Cor. 7. 6. Brother goeth to Law with Brother and that before the unjust too He prescribes the Remedy that they rather take wrong though from Brethren and suffer themselves to be defrauded The Proverb is worth our heeding in this kind it will not countervail our cost better patiently take the wrong than with sinning seek our right I shall now come to two or three Causes of this Decay which being observed and avoyded may also serve as Remedies against this decay or dying Sign First the first Cause is want of Government over our own spirits Secondly Too high esteem of worldly Injoyments Thirdly Cumbring our selves with any business For the first viz. Want of government over our own spirit that is not being Lords over our own passions having them at our Christian beck when to be angry and to what degree Ignorance of our bounds here makes us Beast-like I were envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked saying I have washed my heart in vain and cleansed my hands in innocency Psal 73. So foolish and ignorant was I even as a Beast before thee He that hath no Rule over his own Spirit is like a City without walls and broken down Want of government over our own spirit makes us as naked or desolate as an unfortified City whose walls are broken down Prov. 25. 28. Secondly Too high esteem of worldly Injoyments He that will hardly be moved at a bigger thing will not easily be moved for a pin All offences are a kind of loss being something that crosseth the grain of our spirit now answerable to the estimation we have more or less of our loss will our offence taking be It is putting too high a value of earthly Injoyments as Husband Wife Children House or Land Gold or Silver that makes us so impatient at their loss or leaving Set your affection saith St. Paul on things above not on things below The time is short it remaineth that they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that buy as though they possessed not 1 Cor. 7. 29. The Apostle would have them to carry about with them their outward Injoyments as a Traveller carries his old Coat about with him every day thinking to throw it of and if he loose it or be robbed of it doth not much trouble himself for he sets little value upon it Would Christian Travellers seek to soar high in their affections how little would this little little worldly pelf seem to us in our getting or losing Thirdly A third Cause of our Impatience and a third Remedy against it is to avoyd much cumbring our selves with any business that is a filling our hands too full over-charging our selves taking more upon us than we are able to mannage with submission to better things and so hinder meditation and contemplation about those lasting things of heaven which occasions a freezing of the spirits and so we sin and fall at every little trouble that comes in our way whereas a joyful spirit that is inlarged and at liberty Bears all things believes all things endures all things is not easily provked as 2 Cor. 13. at large shews All this while a spirit cumbred is in bondage and quickly fretted like a scald head soon broken Take heed lest at any time your heart be over-charged Luke 21. 34. I would have you be without carefulness 1 Cor. 7. 32. Martha Martha thou art troubled and cumbrest thy self about many things but Mary hath made choice or busied her self about that good part that shall never be taken from her Luke 10. last Consider what you read and the good Lord give you understanding Amen CHAP. XVIII Proving those Christians to be almost dead that make it more their business to get the Form than the Power of Religion with its Causes and Remedies SIGN XVIII VVHen you are more careful to get the words of Christs People than the spirit of Christs People the Form than the Power That is the name and out-side of Reformation rather than the spirit and power of Reformation when the strength and bent of all thy care lies in trimming thy self to appear before men righteous or religious Persons may go very far in this with great self-security resting barely upon outside performances getting fine words and painted expressions making a great show of their worship Pharasaical like and at the same time live under the dominion of some base lust Isa 1. 11 12 13 14. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices to me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt Offerings of Rams and fat of fed Beasts I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or Lambs or Hee-goats When you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands to tread my Courts Your new Moons and appointed Feasts they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them for your hands are full of blood They were then under the guilt of sin or dominion or both and yet at the same time full of outward Services and mighty busie in their Worship Hear ye this ye men of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord Do not trust in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord for the Temple of the Lord is this If ye throughly amend your wayes and doings if you throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour and oppress not the poor fatherless or widdow in This I Delight Jer. 7. It is clear here also these rested meerly in outwards and lived under the dominion of very base lusts at the very time they seemed so zealous for the Lord. And it is very much to be feared many now adayes run in the same channel Ezek. 33. 31 32. Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord and they come before thee as my people come and sit before thee as my people do and with their mouth shew much love but mark that at the same time their heart runs after Covetousness These were Hypocrites in Zion that shelter themselves in the outside of Religion Covering Gods Altar with tears Mal. 2. 8 13. Yet he regards them not seeing such to be but nominal Christians and therefore abhors them exceedingly The Scripture seems to intimate this as a very common overspreading weed not rare to be found but rather rare to be avoided in professors Let us therefore all look to our selves prove our own work so shall we have rejoycing in our selves alone Mat. 23. 14 15. for a pretence make long prayers Rom. 2. 18 19 20. Behold thou art called a Jew restest in the Law makest thy boast of God being confident that thou thy self art a guide of the
is so enflamed with zealous love and pitty to his suffering brother that he greatly suffers also The one is offended the other burns 2 Cor. 11. 29. When all the strength a poor tempted soul hath is engaged in hot fight with the Devil flesh and world then pitty from lookers on proves like a fresh recruit to a shattered Army it so suits with Gods will and with the tempteds want whereas on the contrary want of pitty in lookers on as it strengthens the hands of the Adversary and tempts the courage of the troubled to grow flat Now this sixth Mark is framed to that end if the Lord will that lookers on may not only know what frame of heart they are to be of in such a season but to provoke them to make haste to it in Amos 6. 4. there was neglect to this duty and it meets with a sad salute Wo to them that are at ease in Zion that lie upon beds of Ivory that drink Wine in Bowls but are not grieved for the Afflictions of Joseph No iniquity mark that so provokes God as to be preferred in punishment before this They must go into captivity with the first that go Captive Amos 1. 11. Numb 20. from the 14. to the 22. God will not bear such a pittiless heart in his very Enemies Isa 47. 6. I was wrath with my People and gave them into thy hands and upon the ancient very heavily hast thou laid thy yoak Therefore in one day shall come vpon thee loss of Children and Widdow-hood Remember therefore those that are in Bonds as bound with them and them that suffer Adversity as being also of the same Body Heb. 13. Read and consider and the good Lord give you understanding Amen CHAP. XXVII Shewing Satans way by which he Gets in our day most advantage upon Churches and a plain discovery of the first rise of the Quakers shewing also the great Law of Edification to be preferred in all Doctrine with Cautions to such as live out of all Church way SIGN XXVII VVHen you are mighty curious about the lesser matters of Gods Law and mighty careless about the weightier When Satan the grand Engine of beginning and perfecting a Christians ruin cannot at once knock his heart and hands from off the Ordinances of Gods House thereby to make him destitute of the very means to good He usually works this way where he finds meet subjects to be working upon viz. make some more curious by far than God would have them and so wholly taken up with the lesser matters of Gods Law that he may have the fairer opportunity to make them as careless in the weightier by this manner of dress he deceives far more than by his common known dress of visible prophaneness this being so far from the road of the rude ranting way that it shows yea and pretends to exceed even Christians in their right Saint-like way carrying with it profession of and contention for commands of God Which spirit meeting with ignorant and inconsiderate people makes a noise as though it would drive the World before it while the fairer surer Christian that carries on his matters temperately giving due respect to every command yet seems in their eye to burn so dim that they are ready to bid him stand further off they are holier than he This deceit is a wonderful mysterious one and without all doubt worketh mightily not only among the Churches but in and among the people called Quakers whose spirit is yet kept under by the wise God till a riper season from shewing it self in that Atheists dress that certainly it did rise from and certainly will end in They being of all people Pharasaical like out of all cry contenders foâ— that that comparatively is but the shell of Christianity and are so far from contending for that they set themselves even against the kernel or substance of Religion and the Church of God can truly witness this for from among themselves are some gone out with as fair pretences as can be of living more to God in the Spirit and power of holyness and yet quickly shewing themselves in the mystery of carrying on most abominable Atheisticall principles of denying both the Resurrection of the body from the grave of the earth and Judgment day to come And so bend their bow at the overthrowing the very foundation of godliness in the mystery of Egyptian darkness and yet under the highest pretences of Angel light It is clearly evident that the first rise of that spirit laid its beginning upon these very materials of being curious in the lesser and careless in the weightier making nothing secretly to act gross abomination as some can witness yet to publick view where they might have the fairer advantage to deceive the simple did make great show of tender respect to some lesser matters of Gods Law and indeed out-talk every body while God knows they did not thus plead out of true love to Gods Law that they had but because no bait would so fit their hook and carry on the business they designed like this Now Satan himself full well knows that it is in vain for him to expect the accomplishing any great design among the seperated Churches any other way for filthiness of flesh is so manifest that every body among them that knows but any thing knows they are redeemed from that but filthiness of the spirit which works secretly and yet ends carnally and mortally is his grand working way which doubtless the Apostle well knew when he gave this exhortation to the Corinth Church with this discription which I pray observe Chap. 7. 1. where he beseecheth them not only to cleansethemselves from all filthiness of the flesh but by way of distinction filthiness of Spirit also and that in order to their perfecting holyness in the fear of God Read also Isa 30. 21. And by this mysterious means he takes in some place and among some people by companies that most of them in their true Church standing were the carnallest mean ignorantest Christians having in them as little experience as could be of the power of Godliness so little that if they had any less would have had too little to be born by the Church yet intangling themselves with this spirit of deceit or filthiness of spirit have grown mighty confident bold and lifted up too wise for their teachers despising those far before them in grace yet far behind them in their account and very justly may and doth the Lord let such fall into spiritual deceit notwithstanding they plead for some of his own law they being most careless where he would have them most careful so renders their care in the lesser while careless in the gâ—eater of no account with him at all he taking no pleasure in such but greatly disdaining them Mat. 23. 23. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees for you pay tyth of mint Annise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law They are