and glad to think of their depaâ—tures and ends And truly it is one of the most grievous miseries that a holy heart can feel and I beseech the Lord of heaven and earth to keepe you and me and all his for ever while wee are here in our valley under the sense of such distempers as our greatest misery And therefore me thought it was a solemn sweet speech of an honest man to his friend who seeing him oppressed with such distempers as you mention and perceiving him to droop under them hee came chearefully to him and suddenly said unto him I can tell you good newes the best that ever you heard viz. Assoon as ever you are in Heaven you shall serve Christ without wearinesse Which words well thought on revived the man That which I would speak with as much tendernesse of compassion as I am able to you I refer to these things 1. That a child of God is never usually weary of the â—uty but rather of his vile heart to thinke of and to looke upon that in the duty Christs yoke is easie and his burthen light to him that takes it on his necke and puts his Soul under it The duty nakedly considered in it selfe is glorious in his eyes and sweet to his Soule and hence sometimes never well but when he considers his dead blinde barren and senselesse heart that he is to carry to the duty and that he feares and hath felt will abide with him in the duty Oh! this grieves here the Soule pincheth An Hypocrite is weary of the duty a childe of God rejoyceth in it but hee is weary of his sinne and unsavourinesse and wearinesse in the duty I perswade my selfe Sir that you may soone mistake your spirit herein you thinke you are unwilling to come to the duty and are weary of it when indeed it is your glory joy and love but it is because you feare you can doe it no better that troubles you that you have such a vile heart in it And if your trouble be from hence the good Lord increase it in you daily and withall blesse the Lord and say Lord though I am weary of my vile heart in these daies of humiliation in these Sabbaths yet I blesse thee the daies and duties themselves thou knowest are deare unto me It is not Lord because I am weary of thy word but because I can doe it no better I am weary of my selfe and this vile heart here is much love in such a spirit to the Lord And believe it Sir your love wants not its recompences and remember that the Lord respects you not according to your duties done but according to your love in them and to them And therefore those duties you are ashamed to owne the Lord will not be ashamed to crown 2. Consider you must and shall be baited with these distempers of heart sometimes more and sometimes lesse as long as you live It is part of Pauls body of death which hee must carry with him till he come to bury himselfe 3. Those means which may helpe you to be freed from them a little at least are these among many 1. Be but truly and really not by fits and darkly sensible of them men in deep miseries are not unwilling to be helped out 2. Judge ye not rigorously of God although he weâ—e a bloody austere God as he did of his master whose talent he had and hence never improved it but looke upon God as having a Fathers heart and affection towards you in the meanest and greatest performances which is double either to give you strength to do what you cannot I can do all things through Christ or having come to him for it to accept of what you would do for him as if it were done and this will make you joy in the poorest performance that though it be never so full of vilenesse yet the Lord out of his fatherly love accepts of it as glorious 3. Renew morning and evening by sad and solemne meditation the sense of Gods love to you in Christ and in every duty that he sets you about and love will love and like the yoke and make the commandements that they shall not be grievous to you Thus I have briefly done with your new troubles which you mention you say because you may not have the like opportunity of writing again It may be so and therefore I have desired to satisfie you which I beseech the Lord himself to do Next you come to reply to my first Letter of which I have kept no copy as I never did of any and hence may and doe forget what I writ then unto you So much light as your Letter lends me to bring things to mind I will gladly take and be more briefe in answer You finde the strength of grace to be got in you rather by argumentation then inward communication and influence arising from the union to Christ And this troubles you To which I answer these three things 1. That as the old sinnefull nature is communicated from Adam the first to us without any argumentation so the new nature which is the seed foundation and plot of all grace is diffused into us by the second Adam when we are united to him without argumentation It is onely by divine operation The Lord leave not me nor any friend I have to a naked Arminian illumination and perswasion 2. That to the increase of those habits and drawing out the acts of the new creature the Lord is pleased to use morall and rationall perswasions as in the instance you gave Christ died for us then hence the love of Christ constraines but remember withall It is not the bare meditation or strength of reason or perswasion that elicits such divine and noble acts in the heart and affection but it is the blood of Christ sprinkling these serious meditations that makes them worke such graces in the Soule which I might shew at large which blood is the salve though argumentation is the cloth or leather to which it sticks and by which it is applied but from such leather comes no vertue all of it is from the blood of christ which by argumentation heales the Soule For if it were nakedly in the argumentation to stir your heart and to worke strength of grace what should be the reason that some times you are no more moved by all your argumentations then a mountaine of brasse is by the windes why should the same truth affect you at one time and not at another when you are as fitly dispoto be affected as at the first Therefore consider it is not your reason and argumentation but Christs blood that doth all by as admirable and yet secret operation 3. Your union to Christ on your part is begun and partly wrought by the understanding and hence the good that you get by it at any time it is from your union or part of it at lest Againe you aske me whether Calvin doth not
perswade me cause me to believe and in every thing to honour thee Lord I am contented gladly and joyfully to have thee doe therefore what thou wilt with me Just as a sicke man tells his Physician who comes not to him on thesetermes If you will make your self halfe whole then I will cure you and doe the rest for you but being utterly unable to cure or to know how to cure himselfe he tells his Physician I am content you should begin and perfect the cure and so honour your skill and love in me to be contented to take any thing if you will give it me and if I offer to resist that you should bind me and so do any thing with me 2. The second act is earnestly to long and come to Christ to cleave unto Jesus Christ by servent and ardent desire that he would make good those absolute promises to you seeing that they are made to some and that they doe not exclude you for when you ponder well and see what wonderfull great things the Lord promiseth to some whose heart cannot but be stirred up to say as that woman in another case Lord give me of that watè◠to drinke and as they in the fifth of John Lord evermore give us that bread Now doing this reflect upon this Second act and see if unto it no conditionall promise belongs and you shall find an affirmative answer from the word For what is this longing after the good not of some which many hypocrites do but of all the promises but that which the Scripture calls thirsting who are commanded to come and drink of the waters of life freely Isa. 55. 1 2. and hungring to which all good things are promised Mat. 5. 6. and which comming to Christ as I spake even now who hath given this as the â—irst fruit of eternall election and which kind of people he will never cast away Iohn 6. 37. Now when you see these promises belonging unto you why dare you not conclude but that all these absolute ones are yours also 3. The third act is this Seeing God hath promised absolutely such good things in the Second Covenant but hath not set downe the time when or how much grace he will give and seeing onely he can helpe therefore looke up and waite upon the Lord in the use of all knowne meanes untill he makes good what he hath promised to do and performe and worke for you Say as beggars that have but one doore to go to for bread if none heare or hearing help not lay themselves downe at the doore and say I will wait here I am sure I perish if I goe away or quarrell with them in the house because they helpe me not so soon as I would and therefore I will waite for it may be their compassions may move them as they passe by to helpe me So doe you Many a Soul comes and longs for the good of the promises but if the Lord doe not speedily help him he goes with discouragements fears and discontents or despair or sinne away and saith one of these two things either I shall never have helpe or I come not truly and hence I feel no helpe Oh remember that bread is only to be had at the doore to be distributed when the Lord seeth need not when we would or thinke wee have need and therefore wait here and say if I perish here I will at the feet of God and at the feet of the promises and covenant of God c. Now reflect upon this act and see if you may not finde some conditionall promise annexed unto it which surely you may and I will name you but two Isa. 40. 29 30 31. and Isa. 64. 4. and if the conditionall promise belongs to such a Soul you may easily conclude the absolute promises are your owne and the chiefest use you are to make of them when you know them that they are your owne is to presse God to make them good daily to you and to believe as verily and really as if you had the performance of them that they shall It may be you will aske me how shall I know whether I have these conditions truly in me I answer sincerity is a very witnessing grace the frequent meditation of the Scripture will give you much light to judge of the sincerity of them and that which Saint Paul speakes 1 Cor. 2. 12. I say unto you We have not received the spirit of the World but of God wherby we know or may know the things that are freely given to us of God 3. Thirdly If he be out of the covenant but yet God begins to worke with some common worke of his grace upon him all that I would say to him and all the use he can make of such absolute promises consists in these things 1. Let him consider the freenesâ—e of Gods promise whereby he may be stirred up to conceive some hope it may be made good to him in time For the promise is very free and large excluding none except those that sin unpardonably be their sinnes and natures never so vile before God and yet not including any by name for that is in the conditionall promise and hence such an one is to make this use of it who knowes but the Lord may have pitty upon me in time and so hang thy hope upon him 2. Let him consider the worth and price of Gods promise bought by blood and for which some men would give a thousand worlds for the benefit and comfort of and hereby raise up his heart as by the freenesse of it to hope so by the price of it to esteem of the thing promised above pearls and all the honour and pomp of the world 3. Let him consider the fulnesse of the promise which is a plaister as big as his sore just answerable to all his wants nay infinitely more large then his wants And surely these three things will draw his heart to long for the promise and then you know what is conditionally promised and bequeathed to them that thirst For similitude is the ground of love Now when the fulnesse of the promise is seen there will appeare such a suteablenesse and fitnesse of the promise to his soule that hee cannot but long for it Thus much for the fifth trouble Your sixth trouble set downe in two heads put into one for brevity viz. secret unwillingnesse to seeke God in the strictest solâ—mn services before you enter into them wearinesse of them while they last and glad when they are gone the reasons which you mention are partly feare of not using them aright together with melancholy and lastly the strictnesse of them It is very true there is abundance of wildnesse in our hearts which naturally seeke to have their liberty abroad and cannot endure to be pent in the narrow room of holy performances extraordinary duties c. no more then children can be pent up from their play And hence it is weary of them
CERTAIN SELECT CASES RESOLVED Specially tending to the right ordering of the heart that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular Callings BY THOMAS SHEPHARD Sometimes of Emanuel-Colledge in Cambridge Now Preacher of Gods Word in New-England LONDON Printed by W. H. for Iohn Rothwell at the Sun and Fountain in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door 1650. Imprimatur This Reverend Author hath other practicall peeces Viz. The Treatise of the Sabbath Sincere Convert Sound Beleever Ioseph Caryl To THE CHRISTIAN READER THis holy Letter of that ready Scribe of Christs Kingdom is so full of Grace and Truth that it needs no other Epistle commendatory then it self Yet seeing the Lot is unexpectedly fallen upon my pen to give it a Superscription that it may passe current from hand to hand I do heartily in the first place dedicate it to thee thou bleeding troubled-spirit as a choice cordiall friend an Interpreter one of a thousand that doth not onely speak thy heart but by the Comforter whom Christ hath promised to send to thy heart It may be this paper present is sent on Embassie from Heaven on purpose to set thy house in order to untie thy bosome knots to bind the strong man and cast him out of thy doores that thy heart may be once againe set at liberty to serve the Lord thy God in thy generall and particular Calling whose service is thy freedome What is here sent by this Ambassador of Christ who is now the voice of one crying in the wildernesse to a wearie and heavy laden soule in this Island I had rather it should appeare to thy judgement in the serious reading and to thy conscience in the â—ome application thereof than from my opinion of it Therefore I shall onely adde as the Contents of this letter certain select Cases proposed and resolved in the severall paragraphs thereof as they lie in order in the pages following viz. Page 3. Trouble of mind in civil affaires by the secret injection of religious thoughts Page 4. From what Spirit such suggestions do arise Page 8. How to entertain them when they crowd in Page 12. Concerning the not being humbled for sinnefull distractions that hinder and interrupt the spirituall performance of holy duties Page 16. How a Christian may be said to be under the Covenant of works Page 18. How to conceive aright of that Mystery of Mysteries the blessed Persons in the Trinity Page 22. The souls aptnesâ—e to go to God immediately in holy duties without taking Christ Jesus by the hand Page 26. How to apply absolute promises to thy selfe though they are made indefinitely without condition Page 38. A notable discovery of a secret unwillingnes in the soule to seek God in the strictest solemn services before it entreth into them Weariness of them while they last and a gladnesse when they are ended Page 42. A sound confutation of that Hereticaâ—l Arminian Tenet viz. That the strength of Grace is to be got rather by Argumentation then inward Communication and influence arising from union with Christ Page 44. The experiences of this tried servant of Christ who is the Pen-man hereof how he was cured of Atheisticall thoughts whether they did wear out or whether by the diâ—t of Arguments they were rationally overthrown Page 48. Lastly whether those changes which a child of God hath sometimes and those movings of the spirit are caused by a naturall temper or Gods Spirit All which select Cases and many more that collaterally issue from their sides are judicioâ—sly resolved with much perspicuity and bâ—â—vity in these few sheets by the onely judge of all Câ—ntroversies the two edged sword of the Spirit the Word of God Thus humbly beseeching thee to read over this Epistle of Christ to thee with the same Spirit of love and of a sound mind which indited every line in it I doe desire to leave thee at the Throne of Grace in the armes of Christ with the Father of all Coâ—fort that thou mâ—iâ—st receive the Peace of God which passeth all understanding and be crowned with joy unspeakable and full of Glory I subscribe my selfe Friend Thine in any Spirituall furtherance of thy Faith William Adderley Dated from Charterhouse in London Febr. 1. 1647. Deare Sir I Dare not multiply many words in acknowledging and professing my own unfitnesâ—e and insusficiency to yeeld your loving and most welcom Letter that satisfaction which both your Self desire and it deserves Neither yet will I be so unfaithfull to you seeing your expectation â—uts me to reply neither ought I I think be so unserviceable to Jesus Christ who in you and by you beckens to me to take this call to write to you and not to neglect so faâ—r a seaâ—on seeing especially it may be possible my dyâ—ng Letter to you before I depart from hence and returne to him as not knowing but our â—ast disasters and Sea-straits of which I wrote â—o you may be but preparations for the execuâ—ion of this next approaching voyage Yet our â—eies are to the hils and our desires are your â—rayers and at this time my endeavour shall be in respect of your self to break open that light to you and to prepare it to you with that brevity I may and with what plainenesse I am able beseeching the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who must be when all failes the wonderfull Counsellor to give you the spirit of revelation and that after you have suffered a while by these outward temptations doubts fears desertions distractions which the Letter mentions hee would make you perfect stablish strengthen and settle you And this I verily think will be the unexpected yet happy joyfull and most glorious end of them For since I have observed and seen the lamentable ruines of the soule and seeming graces of many men by being rockt a sleep in a quiet still calme easie performance of duties without such awaking temptations and tumults within which it self complaines of I say since I have observed what a deale of mud is in the bottom of such standing Pools and what a deale of â—ilth is in such Moats which are inwardly at ease and not emptied from vessell to vessell next unto the donation of the Lord Jesus to a man I have accounted such tumultuoâ—s heart-storms and uproars together with the fruitfull strange effects of them the second mercy For I never saw that man kept from secret putrefaction and corruption that was not usually salted with such temptations especially in a Christians first Apprentiship which usually preserve him entire till death And therefore Dear Sir faint not for Jesus Christ will raise a world of blessings out of your present Chaos and confusions But I make hast to answer Before your reply to my first Letter your complaints are many Your first trouble is concerning your disturbances in civill affairs by the secret injection of Religious thoughts so that you know not how to follow the one without hazard of grieving
you make the one to be a meanes to further the good of the other which such pious thoughts in some civill imployments doe it being no peece of Christian wisdome or honesty to turne round in worldly imployments so long till by giddinesse wee fall down but by secret steps ever and anon to look up to heaven and to behold the face of God to whom onely therein wee are to approve our selves But yet it seemes your thoughts are so far from being subservient the one to the other that you are distracted and molested and your peace interrupted and your Christian course made troublesom and an heavy burthen which surely can not be by the yoke of Jesus Christ therefore you must first bring your troubles in this particular to this issue either you may follow your Civill affaires and nourish these thoughts as helps to maintaine your peace and make you heavenly minded in them and if they serve sufficiently to such an end why are you troubled with them or els you cannot â—ollow God comfortably in civill actions unlesse you banish from you thoughts which doe so miserably distract you and then why doe you fear you shall grieve Gods Spirit if at the same time you do not give entertainment to them the unseasonablenesse of which speaks plainely they came not from the spirits suggestions besides their hinderance of comfortably walking with God which the imployments themselves can never hinder But you will say when is the season of nourishing such thoughts I answer Entertaine those thoughts as it may be you have done some friends who came to you at that time you have businesse with strangers whom you love not so well as your friends you have desired them to stay a while untill you have done with the other and then you have returned to your friend and when the other hath been shutâ—out of the doores the other hath had the welcom and hath lodged with you all night and thus you have grieved neither but pleased both It is so in this case Worldly employments are our strangers yet they must be spoke with Religious thoughts and practises are our friends these come unto us while God calls us to parley with the other you cannot speake with both at one time in one place without much perplexity take therefore this course make much of the good thoughts but parley not with them till your businesse is done with strangers and towards evening which is your season set some time apart every day for meditation and then make them welcome then consider and ponder well what was suggested to you in the day time and â—iâ—t every good thought to the bran for then is your season and after that let them sup and lodge with you all night and keep the house with you every day And surely when the Lord Jesus shall see what a friend you shall make of his Spirit and how wisely you walke therein you shall not need to feare any grieving of it or unseasonable times nay I say you will most fearefully grieve his Spirit if you parley with the conceived suggestions of it at unseasonable times What thou dost doe it with all thine heart saith Solomon Eccle. 9. Therefore when you are to pray confer or meditate do it with all your minde and all your thoughts and all your strength So when God calls you to worldly employments do them with all your mind and might and when the season of meditation comes take it which glorious ordinace of God although many Christiane use it occasionally and against some good time or when they have leisure meeting with them yet to set some time apart for it in a solemn manner every day and that in conscience as wee doe for prayer generally where is the man to be found that does thus Those men that thus neglect their season of musing and entring into parley with Gods Spirit dayly may be well said to grieve the Spirit through the neglect of which ordinance Gods Sâ—irit is as much grieved by Professors in England as by any course I know The Lord awaken us but I have run too farre already in this first part of my answer For the second meanes viz. how the soule is to carry it selfe in Civill employments that so you may not thinke you do for better when you listen to good thoughts as you mention I say but two things 1. Learne to follow them out of an awfull respect to the eye presence and command of Jesus Christ and to doe what you do in Civill businesses as the worke of Christ When you are riding or making up breaches between man and man then thinke I am now about the worke of Jesus Christ Secondly seeing your selfe thus working in worldly employments for him you may easily apprehend that for that time God calls you to them and you attend upon the worke of Jesus Christ in them that you honour God as much nay more by the meanest servile worldly act then if you should have spent all that time in meditation prayeâ— or any other spirituall employment to which you had no call at that time It is noted therefore by some of Pâ—ters wifes mother that when Christ had healed her of her Fevor she â—ate not downe at table with Christ in communion with him which no question was sweet but ministred at the Table and ran too and fro and so served him and acted for him wherein she shewed more love and gave him more honour viz. in that meane service and in acting for him then in having communion with him now if the Lord would out of his abundant goodnesse set the soule in such an acting frame for him and if if could do its worldly employments as the worke of Christ and see how greatly it honours Christ in attending on him Oh what peace should a Christian enjoy notwithstanding all his distractions every day And how easily would such devout thoughts you speak of be repell'd like darknesse before the light for the noblenesse of those good thoughts you speake of presenting themselves against the mean and base outsides of Civil affaires makes you ready to honour the one when you are call'd to serve the other but now by seeing you do the work of Christ Jesus in them you shall hereby see a glory in the meanest service you performe in Civill affaires and this will make you cleave unto them But I have said too much about repelling of good thoughts in these times wherin men have so few though it may be little enough to satisfie you Your second trouble is this viz that your heart is kept from being humbled for sinnefull distractions that hinder and interrupt the spirituall performance of holy duties and that for two reasons First Because they be involuntary and accidentall Secondly Because they cannot breake the Covenant between God and your soule being but inâ—irmities For the latter clause concerning breach of Covenant together with the other 1. I say not onely inâ—â—rmities
between himselfe and himself himselfe as he is in Christ and so to joy and triumph and himselfe as hee is growing on his first root and so to sorrow and loath and condemn himself so that to wiâ—de up all that I have said looke upon your selfe as in Christ you may say these involuntary infirmities do not shall not condemn me But Lord it is grace Grace that it is not so and this is Evangelicall humiliation Look again upon your self as you stand on your own bottom and live in your owne nature and so you may say after the least infirmity I have now broken a most holy and righteous Law and therefore I am already condemned O woe is me I have already undone my selfe by mine iniquity and this is Legall humiliation which serves for mortification as the first for vification I know it is very difficult to bring the heart to acknowledge freely it deserves death after so â—mall an involuntary offence but when the Lord reveales two things First himself in his glory Secondly how the least sinne strikes him I perswade my selfe the vilest heart cannot but be forced to confesse how just God should be in his severest proceedings against him And withall consider the more involuntary any sinne is the more strong and naturall it is and the more naturall the more horrible as to be a naturall Thief is farre worse then to be a deliberat thiefe who sometimes steales and therefore good Sir take heed of looking no deeper nor seeing no further then the bare act and unvoluntarinesse and accidentalnesse and suddennesse of your infirmities for if you do you look through the wrong end of the glasâ—e and they will appear so small that you will find it a very tough work to bring your heart consentively to say if I may say and use your owne phrase It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them but look upon them as indeed they are in respect of that infinite glory you strike doing the greatest mischiefes to God by them and which makes them the viler as they are so strong you cannot remove them and so horrible as that it is naturall to you to commit them c. And surely you will not through grace finde such thoughts haunt you long not but that they wil be haply rising and tempting but never allway vexing and prevailing Satans ground reaching as far as the minds of Gods people and therefore so farre he may come and there he may walke for the came into the minde of innocent Adam nay Iesus Christ by his suggesting temptations but the heart is Christs peculiar posâ—ession and purchase and if he shall still there offer to come in and vex you and prevail against you and to lodge his suggestions this or any other way with you you have Law and Christ on your side by this little light now given you to cast him out The third thing that troubles you is the disranking of the Persons in the Trinity for though you thinke the holy Ghost is God yet you have not so high a repute of him as of the Father and the Sonne because the Sonne addresseth himselfe to God the Father in all his prayers and acknowledgements in a more immediate manner then unto the holy Ghost and therefore you would know if the word Father as in the Lords Prayer includes not the Unity in Trinity To this briefly consider three things 1. Without all question the same God which lies under that relative property of Father is the same God with the God-head of the Sonne and the God-head of the holy Ghost there being not three Gods and therefore the God-head of the Sonne and Spirit are not excluded but included in the Godhead of the Father when we looke upon the Father as God in the Lords Prayer or anywhere else 2. But secondly the Father as Father is never taken for the same holy Ghost in Scripture nor the Sonne as Sonne is taken for the Father nor the holy Ghost as holy Ghost is at any time taken for the Sonne For it is a rule in Theologie though the res subsâ—rata the thing that lies under the Relative property viz. the God-head of every person be common and communicated yet the same God-head considered as clothed with his Relative property as Father Son and Spirit it is not common but peculiar For the God-head of the Father as Father is not the God-head of the Son as Son c. 3. Hence it followes that when Christ addreâ—seth himselfe to the Father as Father in Scripture it is not because he is either a diverse or greater God then the holy Ghost but it is for two other reasons 1. Because the Father as Father received primarily the wrong that sinne did against his worke of creation For the Father being the first Person in order and creation the first transient act as election and reprobation were the first immanent hence this worke is attributed chiefly to God the Father in respect of our orderly apprehension and hence man sinning then when he was onely made this is chiefly attributed to be against the Father because his worke appeared to be chiefly there and not against the Son for his worke chiefly appeares in redemption hee being the second Person and this the second main and wonderfull work neither against the holy Ghost for his worke chiefly appeares to us in application being the third Person And this the third main act that ever God will do or show forth to the world in this life hence God the Father receiving to our apprehension the wrong in creation by sinne he is the Person that is to be satisfied and not the holy Ghost And hence Jesus Christ in all his prayers hath a most speciall eye to him and not to the holy Ghost as holy Ghost because he came into the world by his death and intercession and strong cries to satisfie God the Father and not God the holy Ghost as a third Person And hence it is said 1 John 2. 1. 2. If any man sinne we have an Advocate with God the Father not God the holy Ghost because he was to our apprehension the Person wronged and hence we are after sins committed chiefly to eye the Father in our prayers and to go to him for pardon with our advocate with us because to whom offence is chiefly offered from â—im chiefly pardon and reconciliation is to be expected 2. Therefore Christ addresseth himselfe chiefly in his prayers to God the Father because hee is the originall and first cause of all good because he is the first Person in order of subsisting and therefore first too in the manner of conveying I know the God-head is the originall of all good but consider the Persons one with another and so the father is ever the first in operation as the holy Ghost is the last in consummation for all good comes from the Father Iames 1. 17. through the Sonne by the holy Ghost And hence
have your heart elevated and lifted up to Jesus Christ and say I receive this and taste this from Jesus Christ Oh but this is but a taste of the hony-comb with the end of my rod and if this presence of Christs Spirit I feel now be so sweet what is himselfe then 3. Thirdly Labour for increase of love and familiarity with Jesus Christ by taking notice of him by comming often to him by musing daily on his love as on a fresh thing by banishing slavish false feares of his forgetfulnesse of you and want of everlasting love towards you and then you know love will carry you speedito him amor meus pondus meum nay grant that you have been a stranger to Christ yet restore the love of Christ to life againe in your Soul and when you come to his ordinances where he dwells your Soul will make its first enquiry for him neither will it be satisfied till it hath seen him as we do them wee love towards whom wee have been greatest strangers Your fifth trouble is you know not how to apply absolute promises to your selfe as in Heb. 8. because they are made indefinitely without condition Conditional promises you say you can if you can find the qualification that gives you right to the good of the promise within you This usefull fruitfull question how to apply absolute promises to ones particular deserves a larger time and answer then now in the midst of perplexities I am able yet willing to give For when the Lord saith absolutely without condition that hee will take away the stony heart and he will put his feare into his peoples hearts c. and these kind of promises are made to some not to all to those only whom the Lord will and in generall to his people Hereupon the Soulâ—s of many Christians especially such as question Gods love towards them are most in suspence and therefore when they complaine of the vilenesse of their hearts and strength of their lusts let any man tell them that the Lord hath undertaken in the Second Covenant to heal their backslidings and to subdue their iniquities they will hereupon reply it is true hee hath promised indeed to do thus for some absolutely though they have no good in them but I that feele so vile a heart so rebellious a nature will he do this for me or no and thus the Soule floats above water yet feares it shall sink at last notwithstanding all that God hath said I will answer therefore briefly these two things in generall 1. I shall shew you to what end and for what use and purpose God hath made absolute promises not onely to them that be for the present his people but to them that in respect of their estates and condition are not 2. I shall shew you how every Christian is to make use of them and how and when hee ought to apply them For the first of these 1. First I conceive that as in respect of God himselfe there are many ends which I shall not mention as being needlesse so in respect of man there are principally these two ends for which the Lord hath made absolute promises 1. To raise up the Soul of a helplesse sinnefull cursed lost sinner in his owne eyes to some hope at least of mercy and help from the Lord For thus usually every mans Soul is wrought to whom the Lord doth intend grace and merâ—y he first turnes his eyes inward and makes him to see he is stark naught and that he hath not one dram of grace in him who thought himself rich and wanting nothing before and consequently that hee is under the curse and wrath of God for the present and that if the Lord should but stop his breath and cover his face and take him away which he may easily do and is to be feared he will that he is undon for ever Hereupon the Soul is awakened and falls to his kitchin physick as I spake before prayes and hears and amends and strives to grow better and to stop up every hole and to amend it selfe of every sinne but finding it selfe to grow worse and worse and perceiving thereby that he doth but stirre and not clense the puddle and that it is not amending of nature that he must attain to but he must believe and make a long arme to Heaven and apprehend the Lord Jesus which so few know or ever shall enjoy and hereby quench the wrath of God I say finding he cannot do thus no nor no meanes of themselves can help him to this hereupon he is forâ—aken of all his self wisdome and of all his vaine hopes and now sits down like a desolate widdow comfortlesse and sorrowfull and thinks there is â—o way but death and hell and the wrath of a displeased God to be expected And if any come and tell this Soul of Gods mercy and pitty to sinners I saith he its true he is even infinitely mercifull unto them who are rent from their sinnes and that can believe but that I cannot do and am sure shall never be able for to do and therfore what cause have I but to lie downe in my sorrow and to expect my fatall stroke every moment Reply againe upon this Soul and tell him that though hee cannot believe or loosen his heart from sinne yet that the Lord hath promised to do it that he will subdue all his iniquity and he will pardon all his sinne and that he will cause men to walk in his waies c. True saith the Soul againe hee will doe thus for his owne people and for them he hath chosen but I never had dram of grace in my heart and there is no evidence that the Lord is mine owne or that I am his Here againe the Soul lies downe untill the Lord discovers to the Soul that he will doe these things for some that have no grace or never had grace for these promises were made to such Here upon the Soul thinkes thus These promises are made for some that are filthy for why should God poure cleane water upon them for some that be hard-hearted for why should hee promise to take away the stony heart from them c. and if unto some such and I being such a one why may not the Lord possibly intend and include me seeing hee hath not by his promise excluded nor shut me out Indeed I dare not say he will but yet how do I or men or Angells know but yet I may be one Hereupon Hope is raised to life againe seeing God hath undertaken the worke for the vilest it is possible he may doe it for me now when I am vile and can doe nothing for my selfe And thus you may see the first end and use of absolute promises to be as it were twigges to uphold the sinking Spirits of hopelesse helplesse distressed Souls 2. The Second End and Use of them is this To create and draw out faith in Jesus Christ in the promises
For as the Law begets terror so the promises beget Faith Now no conditionall promise firstly begets Faith because hee that is under any condition of the Gospel in that man there is a presupposed faith It s Gods absolute promise that firstly begets faith for faith is not assurance but the comming of the whole Soule to Christ in a promise Iohn 6. 35. And then the Soule believes in Christ when it comes to Christ now this God workes in the Gospel 1. The Soule is raised up by hope And being raised it Secondly comes to Christ which is faith by vehement unutterable desire And being come to him it 3. Embraceth Christ by love and thus the match is made and the everlasting knot is tied Now as you have heard the absolute promise workes hope of reliefe from Christ and if it workes hope it also workes a desire or comming to Christ by desire Oh! that thou Lord wouldst honour thy grace thy power thy love thy promise in helping me a poore cast-away And thus faith is created as it were by this absolute promise for it cannot but move the heart of any one that ever felt his want to cry mightily to the Lord for help if he hath any hope seeing the Lord hath promised to do it for some Oh saith the Soul that thou wouldst do it for me And surely were it not for this absolute promise of God no Soul would desire because he would have no hope to be saved or to seeke for any thing as from the hands of God And thus you see to what end God makes and to what use a Christian may put these absoluâ—e promises 2. For the second thing viz How and when a Christian may apply these promises I answer every Christian is either 1. Within Covenant with God and knowes it or 2. Within covenant with God and knows it not or 3. Out of covenant indeed for his present estate and condition yet he is in fieri or making towards it 1. If he be in Covenant and knowes it then you may easily perceive how and when he ought to apply promises unto himselfe for he may boldly conclude If God be his God then all the promises of God shall be made good unto him if he be a Sonne of God he may boldly challenge at all times at the hands of God nay if in some respects at the hands of Justice it selfe the fulfilling of God the Fathers will delivered in the severall Legacies of the promise bought by the blood and sealed by the same blood of Jesus Christ that they may and shall be made good unto him that is clear 2. Secondly If he be in covenant and knows it not and questions hence whether God is his or not and consequently whether the promises belong unto him then the rule is to be observed let him so sue and seeke for the good of the absolute promise untill by reflecting upon his own acts herein he perceive himselfe adorned and dignified with the qualification of some conditionall promise and then if he can finde the condition or qualification within himselfe then as you judge and write he may conclude that the conditionall promise belongs to him and if one promise then all Gods promises and therefore that absolute promises are his owne because at least one conditional promise is For no unregenerate man is within the compasse of any one conditionall promise of grace unlesse you will say he is under the everlasting love of God the promises of grace being but the mid-way between the eternall purpose and decree of love and the glorious certain execution of that love in time The promise being the breake day of Gods most glorious love which must shine out in time But here you will say is the difficulty viz. how I should to seeke for the good of absolute promises as therein to finde my self within the compasse of some conditionall one I answer It is done chiefly by three acts 1. By being humbly contented that seeing the Lord hath absolutely promised to work and doe all for the Soule he intends for to save even when it can doe nothing for it selfe and that he hath taken the worke into his owne hands so that it is his promise offer office and honour to doe all that therefore you lie downe not sluggishly but humbly at the feet of God and contented to have him to be your God and for ever to be disposed of in any thing by God if he will fulfill his covenant in you contented to part with any sinne if he will rend it from you contented to know any truth if he will reveale it to you contented to do any duty if he will enable you contented to shine bright with all his glorious graces if he will create and maintaine them in you contented to beare any evill if he will lay his hand under your head and thereunto strengthen you and so seeing the Lord promised to undertake the work for some put out the work and put over your Soule to him that he would fulfill the good that his covenant promiseth in your selfe Now when you do thus which no question you and many a Soul doth many times reflect upon this act and see if you cannot or may not finde your selfe by it under the condition of some conditionall promise and if you do then are you bound to believe all Gods promises are and will be Yea and Amen unto you Now that you do so by this act it selfe speake â—ainely for how many conditionall promises 〈◊〉 made to the meek Blessed are the meek Mat. 5. and to the humâ—ble whom god will raise up For this is not saving meekenesse to be quietly contented to be or to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me from mine owne strength and feeling but to be to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me if the Lord enable me Many a stout heart would gladly have Christ but if he cannot have him in his owne termes viz. Christ and his lusts Christ and the world too or by his owne strength and power he will have none of him but desperately casts him away and saith what shall I looke after him any more I cannot pray I cannot believe I cannot breake this vile and unruly will this stony adamant heart thus the pride of a mans heart workes Now he that is truly meekned and humbled he is contented gladly to have God his God and Christ his Redeemer and that upon Jesus Christ his owne termes First on his owne covenant now what is that why it is this I will give you the good and worke in you the condition too I will give you my selfe and therefore will not sticke to give you an eye to see and a heart to receive too This is the covenant now hereupon a humbled Soul accepts of Christ according to his covenant on his owne termes thus viz. upon that condition Lord that thou wilt humble me teach me
feare them nor condemn your selfe for them as damning sinnes For satisfaction of which I hope this reply to your second trouble will give you some satisfaction Againe to your fourth question to know whether these changes you have sometimes and these movings of the Spirit are not of naturall temper or Gods Spirit It seemes I did a little mistake the meaning because you meant not the maine worke of grace but occasional stirrings and movings of heart as by reading some paâ—heticall Letter your Spirit is moved with joy or sorrow which it may be will not be stirred at some other time as by drinking a cup of wine the spirit is made more chearfull and lively c. I answer these three things 1. First That it is very usuall for naturall affections to be raised by a naturall temper as by drinking eating noveltinesse of the Gospel Iohn's candle flies were ravished with the Gospel People are naturally moved sometimes by a thundering Minister yet never a whit the more grace c. and it is a good speech of Doctor Ames Arminian universall grace as they describe it may be the effect of a good dinner sometimes 2. That though the being of grace depends not upon the temper of the body yet the exercise of grace and many gifts of grace together with the feeling of it doth And hence a good dinner and sometimes wine to a sad melancholy if gracious heart may remove rem prohibentem that may keepe grace as joy and thankefullnesse from working and so take the grace and draw it out not create and diffuse the grace The Prophet called you know for a Minstril which some thinke and that upon good grounds was to raise up his heavy heart and make him chearfull and fit to speake the body is the instrument which if it be broken the best grace will hardly sound but if whole then they will 3. If you would know when these things onely draw out grace or make a thing like unâ—o grace in the Soul I answer by these two things chiefly 1. If it be true grace it ever makes you more humble and vile in your owne eyes and say Lord why dost thou give me any desire to thee any cheerfulnesse in serving thee c. 2. It makes you more thankefull and to blesse the Lord that he thus remembers you for this is a standing rule what ever comes from nature and a mans selfe it ever builds up it selfe and returnes to selfe againe what ever grace comes from Christ it drives a man out of himselfe by making him humble and draws him unto Christ that sent him by making him thankfull I thinke all grace and stirrings and movings that have not this double effect in some measure are to be suspected and if they have it is dangerous to doubt whether they are true or no 5. Again Your â—ifth thing about providence you say you cannot see a positive providence although you do see a negative providence in all your occasions and comforts and crosses you meet withall as namely you can thanke God for not taking away your life c. but you cannot see God giving it I answer 1. Consider what I writ to you at first about this question in generall 2. Ponder sadly whether any creature or appurtenance to it hath its being from it selfe or from the will and word of God viz. I will have such a man to be and such a memory to be c. I thinke you will say nothing can make it selfe therefore here is a positive providence in having life liberty c. 3. Consider whether the same will and word that gives it a being together with all the appurtenances to it doth not also give it act and motion That it is so I thus demonstrate it 1. Every creature is made for an end for no wise efficient but workes for some wise end 2. That no creature can lead it selfe to its end if sinnefull or irrationall 3. God must and doth lead it by its severall acts and movings to that end Hence 4. Every act is determined by God And although I grant some creatures move freely some necessarily yet it is from a positive will and providence that they move act and see Therefore you see what cause there is to see a positive providence in every thing Concerning the rest of your letter Oh that I had time and heart to write more yet I hope I have writ enough for this time and the Lord knowes whether evermore or no However I thanke you heartily for improving me this way of writing who have my mouth slopt from speaking I wish I had more such friends to deale thus with me and my selfe more time and a more fruitfull head and heart to improve my selfe this or any other like way for them For who knowes what breathings of Gods Spirit are lost for want of writing especially when there is no season of speaking Truly Sir I meet with few that are much troubled in that manner as your selfe but they goe on in an easie quiet and very dangerous way which troubles I perswade my selfe keep you awaking when other virgins are slumbring and after which I am perswaded the Lord intends to use you for more then common service if you wade well through them however as I said before be not discouraged or too much perplexed in sorrow for them For surely as farre as I can guesse the Lord is preparing you for himselfe by them I shall not forget you though I never saw you and I beseech you if you have any sparke of affection toward me kindled by these few lines remember when you are best able to pray for your selfe to remember to looke after me and mine and all that go with me on the mighty waters and then to looke up and sigh to Heaven for me that the Lord would out of his free grace but bring me to that good land and those glorious Ordinances and that there I may but behold the face of the Lord in his Temple though hee never delight to use me there though I and mine should possibly beg there and that if the Lord should call me to my solemne worke and service for the good of his Church and People and company that goe with me or are gone before me that then the â—ord Jesus would reveale his secrets to me and enable me the little time I have to live to befâ—uitfull to him and to have a larger heart then ever for him As for your selfe I shall desire the Lord to keep you blamelesse and unspotted in an evill world and that as he hath begun so he would perfect and crowne his divine graces and worke in you and that you may be preserved from nationall sins which shortly bring National and most heavy plagues And the presence of the Lord may abide with you and in you untill the Lord call for you Remember my kinde love to your Father whose name I have forgot and by whom I could not send these lines being then hindred by businesse Now the peace of Jesus Christ be with you and keepe you upright and blamelesse till death And if I never see you more till the last and great day then Farewell Farewel Yours in Iesus Christ T. S. Mr. Shepherd of New-England Two things to be considered about motionâ— How to try the motions of Gods Spirit 2 Meanes Quest 2. Answ. Object Answ. Answ. Quest 3. Answ. Quest 4. Answ. Quest 5. Answ. How to apply absolute promises Object Quest Answ. Quest 1. Answ. Quest 2. Answ. Quest 3. Answ. Object Answ. Answ. 2. Quest 4. Answ. Answ. 1.