Now that word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will do with us as one that is Covetous The meaning is this Look as a Covetous man doth desire to be possessed of that which he hath not so doth the Devil lie at the Catch that he may seiz upon any spirit That which I bring it for is this That the Holy Ghost sets out al the devices and evill waies of Satan by this name of Coveting Because a man is as pat to sin as the Devill is to tempt And a man is made as covetous by sinning as the Devil is in his unsatisfied spirit So the greatness of the sin appears in this that it is the root of all sin and because of that it is the Cause of all sin It 's a sin that never goes alone but ingenders many others In whatever person it is it doth so If Covetousness fals upon Soldiers then in Luke 3.14 When they are not content with their wages they do violence and accuse falsly If Covetousness fals upon a Magistrate it makes him that he is partiall by Covetousness And therefore the mark of a good Magistrate is That he must fear God and have Covetousness Because Bribes blind the Eyes the Judgment If Covetousness fals upon Ministers it will in 1 Tim. 6.5 make them fall into perverse disputings for they suppose that Gain is Godliness If it fals upon an ordinary Christian there you shal find that it goes not alone neither for in Matth. 13.22 together with the deceitfulness of riches there goes the Cares as the Text saith of this life He that received seed among the thornes is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choak the word and he becometh unfruitfull In Luke 8.14 there is another sin ariseth from it besides unfruitfulness and that is that men take pleasure in the things of this life That which fel among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choaked with Cares and Riches and pleasures of this life And that you may see how strong a vertue there is in Covetousness to bring forth these sins mark the Text. When they have heard the word they go forth that is all the reason why the word of God and all the allurements of the word of God are not able to stay the heart from these Courses A Sin may be said to bring forth or to be the cause of sin divers waies 1. As it is the Cause of Gods withdrawing Grace from a man which should keep him from future sins And Covetousness doth this In Isaiah 57.17 For the Iniquity of his Covetousness I was wroth with him and he went on in the way of his own heart He went on A speech in the Hebrew which is taken from the speech of Cain in Gen. 4.14 I shall go wandring up and down saith he and have none to protect me and therefore shall be exposed to the wrath of al men and Creatures So saith God from their Covetousness it came to pass that they went and did what they would And how came this for the Iniquity of his Covetousness I hid my self from him Gods hiding did go before their doing what they would And Gods hiding was caused by their Covetousness 2. One sin may be the cause of another because it inclines the heart to another sin And in this respect Covetousness is the root of al sin because the Divel doth graft upon such a heart what temptations he pleaseth He observed Cain was covetous and that he had a mind to be building He therefore makes him neglect the means of reconciling himself unto God for his sin against his Brother Judas was covetous and he suggests to him to betray his master Demas was an Apostate and he fel away by the meanes of covetousness as appeares by the third Ground where the seed was sowen among thornes that is the covetous heart As wood that is dry is on fire as soon as a sparkle is put to it In such a temper is the soul when it is ful of the love of earthly things I shal speak more to that afterward 3. One sin may be the cause of another because it administers matter unto another And so covetousness breeds envying and strife or dissention with others But it is said to be the root of al sin in another and higher sense and that is 4. Because it is both a Parent and a ruler of other sins It s a Parent to them Out of the bowels of Covetousness comes pride 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded And unbeleife But trust in the living God And neglect of religion for Covetousness is Idolatry And fraud and deceit and unquietness and hardness of heart Take heed least your hearts be hardned through the deceitfulness of riches Pharoah you know was made by nothing so stout and stubborn against the commandement of God to let the people of Israel go as by this That his profit should go he should loose the labor of so many men and so many vassals And as Covetousness is a Parent to sin So it s a Prince and Ruler over them Those sins that do respect the self same and are ruled by one another Now because that the end of Covetousness is to get to a mans self abundance Therefore Covetousness sets on work the tongue to lie the hand to defraud the understanding to plot the Judgment to suspect and doubt of God The wil to make much of al advantages of Gain Do but reckon up the children and the childrens children do but reckon up the subjects that are under this Prince Covetousness and you shal find that al the whole Catalogue of sins that can be named are one way or other either descended from or allyed unto it In 2 Cor. 2.7 Saith the Apostle Comfort them least they be swallowed up by Satan of sorrow for if you do not comfort them saith he Satan wil take advantage of us as it is translated but the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we be not Covetous or used by Satan or Satan do with us as with Covetous men What is that saith he he leads them into al kind of sin and so he would us To deny ordinances and meanes of Grace and so we should fil up our iniquity To lay down but one thing more wherein the sinfulness of it may appear And that is 5. In the baseness of it There is not a lust that doth more debase a man then Covetousness doth Therefore it s said that a man is a servant to Mammon You cannot serve God and Mammon It debaseth the soul in its nature for God Made it to look after things not seen It debaseth a mans body in its posture for God hath made it tread upon the earth out of whose bowels it came Look how unnatural it is for fowles to live in the earth So it s for the soul
Jesus Christ in aboundance we should receive in aboundance You are to receive Grace according to the Grace that is in Christ So that by faith you may boldly say unto God that Christ hath this Grace and he hath it in abundance although I may not have it in his abundance yet in the abundance that I am capable of bestow it on me and send me not away without it And as we are thus to put our faith upon this act of receiving and receiving much So USE III. Thirdly Let nothing hinder or take you off from it There should be no interruption or hinderance to any obedience especially not in the obedience of faith Because faith feeds every Grace in the Soul and puts every faculty upon its work In 1 Pet. 1.13 Gird up the Loyns of your mind and trust perfectly Gird up the Loyns of your mind They were wont in those Eastern parts to wear long garments and to gird them up to their Loyns that they might not hang under their feet when they went to run The meaning of the Apostle is whatever may hinder faith from perfection or from doing its perfect work that put from you And in 1 Pet. 1.9 10 11 12 13. the Apostle speaks altogether of faith as receiving Receiving the end of your Faith the salvation of your Souls For he speaks of the Prophets of their looking to recoive what they did foretell And 〈◊〉 Angels did look to see what was revealed in the Churches Jam. 1.21 Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiâ—ness and receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your Souls Observe that word Lay aside and Receive the word that is ingrafted That a man should lay aside any thing that he may receive from Jesus Christ And if you compare that place with 1 Pet. 2.12 He exhorts them to put away every thing that may hinder their desires As James exhorts to put away all things that may hinder from receiving It comes to this As nothing should take away your hearts from desiring much so nothing should hinder you from receiving much First Let not sin hinder you Therefore mortifie every corruption because it keeps good things from you and takes away your heart and hinders the application of your selves to Christ Sin dâ—oh incapacitate the Soul that it can receive nothing else And it sils it as the stomack with wind that it can get nothing down Guilt infeebles and weakens the hopes of a man and makes him afraid to draw neer to God Yea beloved if you would mourn kindly and bitterly and heartily for your sins the best way is to receive from Jesus Christ For in Ezek. 36.31 when he had given them a new heart and purged them from all their Idols then saith the Text they shall abhor themselves in dust and ashes for all their doings that are not good Then that is especially then most kindly and most abundantly Against sin we ought to be carried with violence bitterness and indignation for this very reason because it keeps good things from us It hinders us of the gain we might make in believing Especially take heed of the pride of your hearts for that is immediatly opposite to receiving If any man withdraw himself my Soul shall have no pleasure in him If thou hast never so much yet it s nothing to what thou oughtest to receive Thou oughtest to receive not only what may help thee in thy work but what may shew forth the riches of Jesus Christ in thee It must be seen what he can give and what he hath to give and therefore when thou hast received pray for capacity to receive more Yea indeed if thou dost receive it will inlarge thy desires and affections after more Therefore take heed of pride which is opposite to faith as it is a receiving Take heed of that It shews it self divers waies Sometimes in this because a man refuseth to receive from Christ because he is unworthy Which in plain English and in the sense that it hath with God is as much as this that a man would have nothing from him nor be beholden to him for any thing but what he finds a suitableness and fitness in himself for As the spirits of some people are so stout that they had rather starve than ask It 's a shame to them to receive and a greater misery than to endure any thing that can be laid upon them So it is with our hearts We can complain and roare out because of our wants but we have no mind to receive although it be put to our lips just like men that are sick we shut our lips against it and cannot take it down Our hearts would willingly have something from God but as a reward and not meerly as a gift something for doing what he requires but not as an alms purely Faith even for this very reason is difficult to the Soul of a man because that it makes him to live dependantly and to have its good and happiness out of its self But if the pride of your hearts would suffer you to receive yet notwithstanding God will not give to them that are proud For God resists the proud and gives Grace to the humble Jam. 4.6 You ask and receive not because you would spend it on your lusts upon your envy in Jam. 4.3 whereas God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble Secondly And as you ought not to be hindred by sin So to be discouraged by nothing in this act of Faith If you look in Heb. 12.12 the Apostle hath these words Lift up the hand saith he the hand that hangs down and the feeble knees His meaning is this that it is the method cunning of Satan to hinder our faith by discouragements If he cannot kil destroy it directly and immediately then he doth what he can to cause the Acts of it to be weak and without strength Be not discouraged in your receiving by any thing 1. No not by Gods delays and denyals of you In Math. 15.23 to 28. You have to this purpose the example of the woman of Canaan that although Christ cals her a dog and had nothing for her yet she grows as the more humble to ask a dogs part so the more earnest to ask and beg and knock As a party that goes to receive mony if he cannot find the man he goes again and again till he finds him So although you have not at the first asking yet ask again The reason why you have it not at first is not because you shal not have it but that you may know you have it gratis for asking What though you receive not presently know that it is an almes and therefore you should waite And though you be importunate and God represents himself as one that is asleepe and that hath the door shut to him yet know that he wil arise and open to you as he speaks in the Gospel of Luke Though he cals you
But now saith the Apostle whereas you say it is not for you because you know not how to beleeve it and close with it saith he you have this both given to you that you shall imbrace it and confess it With the mouth man confesseth it and you shall with the heart submit to it With the heart man beleeves unto salvation Why do you say it is not for you You are in misery by the corruption and depravation of your understanding and will But saith Faith both shall be taken away If that be the meaning of the place as I conceive it is But if it be meant of doubting as some conceive Who shal escape the pit and therfore who shal ascend c. Faith tels a man Never be disquieted because of that for Christ came down and is ascended He came down and descended and revealed the will of his Father to us When the Soul is going towards Jesus Christ then this Faith perswades it so far as that it puts it into a resolution I said I would go said the Prodigall In 2 Cor. 5.15 We thus judg saith the Apostle A Judgment is a Sentence past after all is heard that can be said on both sides A Judgment is the last act of the understanding after which there is no appeal not debate Faith saith I will hear no more doubts nor assent to any doubts suspcions nor fears And when the Soul is ready to give over that work then the work of Faith saith If you withdraw your selves the Lord will have no pleasure in you Heb. 10.38 What though things go hard yet you may live by your Faith And as faith reveals the things that cannot be known by nature So as it is a Perswader it brings to mind such things which the Soul knew not before Such things which are suitable to its case and its present condition And that is the third thing whereby faith receives It doth perswade and invite and excite a man that seeing there is so much to be had in Christ that we would not suffer it to lie stil and to be unused There is another thing that the understanding doth Fourthly It keeps the thoughts of these things thus revealed It lets them not go out of mind but sets them continually before a mans face As the understanding doth put a man to go to Christ and to him only So it keeps Christ and the things of him in mind It 's as the Glass to set them alwaies before the face As David saith in Psal 51.3 that his sin was ever before him that is he could be in no Ordinance but his Conscience troubled him And he could be in no company but it administred cause of fear to him His sin was alwaies dogging him accusing him and opposing him So Faith sets Jesus Christ in his benefits before the soul in whatever condition a man is Therefore you shall find in the Scripture that it is all one to beleeve and to think upon God I thought upon thee in the night season and I set thy loving kindness alwaies before my face Psal 119.55 In Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator It 's not the bare having God in our memory but it is beleeving that will save us from wrath to come But beleeving is called Remembrance there And on the contrary side in Heb. 2.1 Unbelief is called a Letting escape Take heed least you let slip the things which you have heard And in Matth. 13.4 those that did not beleeve are said to have the word of God piekt up our of their heart As the Fowls of the Heavens do pick up the seed that is sowen by the hand of the sower and are not converted by the Word And Unbeleevers are called such as forget God Mark it There are Two waies of keeping things in mind One is by a Similitude or Image or Picture of it Now to keep Spiritual things in a mans mind thus is either but Natural Knowledg or Superstitious against the Second Commandment which forbids a man to make any graven Image of what God hath done thereby to keep a man in thoughts of what God hath required There is another way of keeping things in mind and that is by the presence of the things themselves Now this is the way by which Faith keeps a man and the things of Jesus Christ which is by way of Intuitive knowledg Or it keeps things in a mans knowledg by the presence of the things themselves And that is the ground why that Faith doth cause so firm an assent and is so strong a perswader because I say the things themselves are made present unto the soul In Psal 16.7 My Reins saith he instructs me in the night In the night when others sleep or in the night when I am free to consider and awaking then thy Promises saith he they come into my mind As Faith will not take any slight denial for answer but doth convince the false reasonings that are in us so it wil slip no time nor opportunity of winning us It doth continually beliege the Soul as I may say The strongest Fort may be taken in by a long Siege when the Enemies rise not from before it but are continually battering it Now Faith doth as it were batter the Unbelief and the Reasonings of our heart with continual arguments to the contrary Saith Faith to the Soul You say thus but hearken to what the Word saith you speak words of death but God speaks peace to his people And you shal find by experience which I shal leave as the proof of this point that that word which a man hath often times forgotten and which he seems to have lost the operation whereof is ceased yet a year or two yea seven years after it comes to work upon a man again and works him to that very thing which all this whil he stood against Especially when the time of a mans conversion is come it 's with him as it is with a Woman in her time of travell that one throw comes upon the neck of another until she be delivered and sees the Fruit of her womb So there comes one argument upon another And if one thought comes and saith This is not for me There comes another and bids him take heed that he puts not the loving kindness of God from him and so it leaves him not till he be conquered And that is the fourth thing to help a man to receive CHAP. VIII A fifth work of Faith as it is an Act of the Vnderstanding is to assure and certifie a man of the things already received Fifthly Faith helps a man to receive of Jesus Christ by making known to him the things freely given of God by making known and assuring and certifying him of the thing freely bestowed 1 Cor. 2. As Faith tels a man what Christ hath and what Christ will do So it informes a man what he hath received from Christ though that we come to know our particular state by experience We
Banks and saith Oh that I were there but knows not how to strike a stroak to swim thither or if he doth his stroak is too weak to withstand the Current and the strong stream of Temptation and Doubts and Fears that he meets withal Thou thinkest thou shalt have nothing because thou canst do nothing Thou canst not beleeve firmly thou canst not lay on any hand but that which is trembling on the Lord Jesus Christ Thou canst not look with any eye but that which is weak and feeble Now know that God looks not for much from thee but he intends much unto thee He hath given thee this Grace of Faith not because it should do great matters in thee but for thee It is only to take thee by the hand and if it can bring thee and Jesus Christ together it hath done enough for thee and as much as can be desired and as it is appointed unto All the rest of its acts are for thy comfort but this is for thy Salvation CHAP. XVII Faith considered in its lowest degree I. As in the Vnderstanding and so it is 1 Attention 2 Inquiry II. As in the Will and so 1 It is accompanied with much fear 2 It is careful and sollicitous for the things of this Life IT will not be amiss a little to consider or at leastwise to set down how little Faith a man may have or how little Faith God bestows upon men when yet he bestows Christ upon men withal 1. Take Faith as it is a Habit and Disposition so the lowest degree of Faith is in an inclination a yielding a laying aside the stoutness of the heart in some measure which he exercised before against God In some measure As the weather we say begins to change when there is some melting of the Snow and some yielding of the Ice though it be very hard still And as we say a man is inclined to peace when he will treat and hear arguments for it and doth not stand out in defiance The least Degree of an Habit is an inclination And you shal find in 2 Chron. 30.8 That Faith is so described to be no more a stiff-neckedness but a yielding themselves unto the Lord. As suppose a man that would not pay Taxes or Rates but wil let another come and take it quietly He will not give such a thing but if another will take it he wil not oppose In Acts 26. it is said of Lydia that her heart was opened to attend that is that whereas before she looked upon what was said by Paul as not worth the hearing and as that which did not concern her and which was not for her good and salvation her heart was set and prejudiced against it yet now she begins to have other thoughts It is as mean an act as possibly can be for one to give God the hearing to listen to the things that are spoken yet this the Scripture counts as a Work of God and as the Fruit of her Faith She attended to the things that were spoken That is one low degree of Faith for a man to be relenting and yielding a little towards Jesus Christ To come and mind and observe the things that are said of him as things that are of concernment and moment Again Secondly It is a low degree of Faith to ask after and enquire about the things which do belong unto Salvation And this you shal find in the Scripture that that enquiry when it is truly and duly made is saving too 1 Pet. 3.21 Baptism saves and the washing of the filth of the flesh But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that word signifies not only an Answer but a Question The questioning of a good Conscience how by the Right of Christs Resurrection it might come unto Salvation It 's one of the smallest acts of the Understanding to enquire and search after the knowledg of things That same act of the Understanding exercised about the things of God by Jesus Christ that is such as shall be accompanied with Salvation Baptisme saves the questioning of a good Conscience If indeed the Question that men ask comes out of curiosity and not out of Conscience If it comes only out of a Conscience that is good thus far Because it is awakened but not good thus far that it is willing to submit to and take the course which the Gospel enjoyns then it is no sign But if the Soul doth but lie before the Lord as the Resurrection of Christ is appointed as the way of Salvation so it saith Lord how shal I take that way which way may I come to be partaker of the power of it This also shal be accepted Look upon faith now as it is in the wil or as it acts there for I told you that faith acts both in the understanding and wil you see how it acts the understanding in attention and Inquiry See how it acts the wil. It acts the wil most weakly when the heart is filled with feare Fear doth distract the Soul and makes it to do al things dully and very imperfectly Why are yee afraid therefore saith Christ in Matth. 8. and 14. Chapters Oh ye of little faith A man through feare doth in beleeving as a man doth in going He takes a step and then withdraws his foot He goes another and then goes back again So a man with one thought is for Christ and in another thought there is no hope for him in Christ with one thought he gives up himself to him and with another it is but to give up a little straw to the flame when thy heart is thus divided it 's as displeasing as can be possibly yet this thought and this faith is not put out by the Lord Though it be distracted yet that faith shal save Again Secondly That faith is exceeding weak which is careful and solicitous for the things of this life What an absurd and weak thing is it for a man when he is dying to take care for cloathes And when his life is going from him to think of purchasing an inheritance For a man when he is ful of dolor and pain to think of increasing his riches and estate So is it a great weakness for a man to be careful for his body and the things of this life In Math. 6.30 Christ saith when they ask what they should eat and drink and put on He calls them people of little saith Yet even that faith also the Lord wil acknowledg I might go through divers other particulars As for example Our relying upon Christ which is the weakest and lowest degree That a man rather desires to be saved by Christ than any other but he finds a hankering after others but I say he had rather have Jesus Christ than any other He is troubled when he hath hopes not by Christ bestowed on him in the use of Ordinances When you know a man relies upon another the weakest confidence and reliance that he can put is this To expect rather
6. In that its joy is full when it comes to know that it hath by Faith received Jesus Christ FOr the further discovery therefore of this joy and Faith wherein this willingness to beleeve and love of Christ appears I shall name these six particulars First Wherever there is true Faith in any measure the Soul doth love to hear the Doctrine of faith of Jesus Christ Of al truths that is most pleasing And most pleasing not only because it 's most profitable but because it 's most self-denying If so be the Soul would make its choice or call for any thing out of the Book of God before another it should be for somthing that laies open Christ and presseth beleeving on him How beautifull are the Feet of them that bring glad tidings Rom. 10.15 How beautifull that is they are as lovely as can be Nay so lovely as no words are able to express How beautifull The Apostle Paul did desire to know nothing among the Corinthians but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 that is he desired to make nothing else known And look what it was in him preaching so in every Beleever In Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his Death and the vertue of his Resurrection These things a man loves and he loves to hear spoken of and discoursed of Evil men therefore do love corrupt words and unsavory language Beleevers they love to hear of Jesus Christ His name is sweet and precious Not only to hear of him as a story but as a person whereof there is need and of whom there is use and absolute necessity unto salvation First I say the heart loves to hear of Jesus Christ Acts 13.42 When the Apostle had preached in the name of Christ all that were good came to him and prayed him to preach that over the next Sabbath day or as it is in some translations between this and the next Sabbath day as the word may well be rendred And he did as you may read there As in John 6. they cryed out ever more give us this bread so the poor Soul desires to hear of that again and again When Lidia heard Paul preach Jesus Christ she attended as one that would not lose a fillable nor a word of what was spoken concerning jesus Christ Acts 16.14 How heautifull as I said before are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of peace It is good to love the Law of God which teacheth a man his duty like one that is carefull to do his masters will Psal 1.2 He meditates therein day and night But it 's a better sign for a man to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ the glad tidings of him As I shal shew you if I come to it that there is not only as great honor given unto God thereby but thereby a man if more humbled and abased in himself and made nothing than by all that obedience which the Law requires or by all that sense of misery that the Law works in us because we have not done our duty A man hath meaner thoughts of himself when he thinks he must beleeve or he cannot be saved than he hath when he thinks if he be called to an account he must needs perish because he hath transgressed Gods Law The soul loves that law which shews its own face in a glass with al its spots upon it But it loves that glass better in which it beholds the face of God For thereby it is transformed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3. last Out of a spirit of indignation and wrath against a mans selfe and sin a man is glad to heare any thing that can be against himself and his sin But out of a love of Christ and out of the love of greater excellencies in Christ then is in a mans self a man is glad to heare rather of Christ then of himself his name is as ointment powred forth Cant. 1.3 There is nothing in the scripture but what is sweet and as hony But the Gospel is as the hony-comb The whole scripture is as a sugared cup But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is as the bottom of that cup. Secondly Where ever there is true faith there is a desire and longing after Faith and Jesus Christ As new borne babes as the Text saith in 1. Pet. 2.3 A desire formally O Lord said the Disciples unto Jesus Christ increase our faith O Lord that we may receive our sight For its faith alone that makes us see the things freely given us of God and to know the treasury of grace and mercy which doth and hath lain hid from eternity And so there is also a vertual desire after Christ in al beleevers They long after the meanes whereby faith is wrought If you have rasted how good the Lord is As new borne babes you wil desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby Though that a Child cannot distinguish rationally between the Milk of the breast and that which is sugared It cannot tel that this is the one and this is the other But it hath a tast by which it can and nothing pleaseth but the mothers breast The Child cannot ask for it nor describe it but you may know it loves it because it is stilled with it and quieted with it So may be the case of many a Christian He may not be able by reason or by discourse or argument to make out the desirableness of Jesus Christ above al other things the excellencies of Jesus Christ above al other waies There may be Rhetorick put upon al other things beyond al that which he can see through or put upon the things of Jesus Christ But you wil find his heart quieted with nothing but Jesus Christ Let him pray with never so much in largedness and affections let him hear with never so much understanding and live with never so much unblameableness in the world yet al this is nothing his heart is unquiet because it is not according to what the law requires And if he sees no fault in it yet there is fault which the pure eyes of God behold when he comes to look it through and through And he hath no peace but when he comes to beleeve in Jesus Christ and receive peace from him What is there in al the meanes of salvation which thou longest after What is it which thou wouldest carry home with thee Is it somthing that may draw Jesus Christ nearer to thee and make him more lovely to thee So much thou mayest conceive of hope of thy state of Salvation The Love of Jesus Chrst is described by this that nothing gives the heart so much quiet and in nothing is the heart so much taken up and contented as it is with this that Jesus Christ is the Mediator and undertaker and is the surety and doth al with the father And that It doth do al with the father by him The heart being pleased and contented argues
ever Jesus Christ comes he comes as a King he will be Lord or nothing As Kings when they come into private mens houses command all their servants as their own and use every roome as if they that owed them had nothing to do with them They take all power out of their hands for the present and use nothing but what they bring with them and that which is of their own providing So when Jesus Christ is come into the Soul he will have every thought after his mind and not give a man leave so much as to look after any other thing than himself Men look not for such a kind of thing as this is by Christ and therefore they are not able to endure it Men look for ease and not to be kept to their duty and they look for peace and not for to be under the reproof and corrections and instructions of the Lord. And men look to have their good will accepted and that Jesus Christ will be served with nothing of what is ours but of what he gives Or rather thus when Jesus Christ comes unto men he brings trouble Behold a Sword He changeth men from what they were and takes them off from the practises wherein they walked which they thought were good As when Jesus Christ came he nulled all the services of the Jews which they thought were exceeding Glorious Now Jesus Christ comes and sets the ax at the root of the Tree and saith If we will not bring forth Fruit we shall be cut down Now the Soul looks not for any such thing as this What are the expectations of men by Jesus Christ but only that Jesus Christ should be a Chariot that Jesus Christ should give him his hand to sit by him in Heaven Men look that Jesus Christ should come with his Arms ready to receive them and his Bosom to lay them in They look for nothing but what may make their lives more free and their Spirits more quiet than they were before You will be mistaken in receiving Christ If you have peace with him you shall have trouble You shall be a King and reign but he will be a King and reign over you He will be served by you but you shall take all from his Treasure that you may say only as David did Of thy own do I serve thee Now this being contrary to mens apprehensions they are not willing to it and being not willing to it they are not believing If Jesus Christ be not received according to that Glory which he hath and which doth belong to him Make as much of him as you will yet still it will not be salvation to you We saw his Glory saith the Apostle when he preached as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God John 1.14 As that is it was no other Glory and can be counted no other Glory but what belongs unto God himself Now as Jesus Christ is preached and known so he must be received by the hearers There is nothing that is worship and honor unto God nothing that will make us happy but what is done unto God and Christ as such The Apostle makes this in 1 Thes 2.13 to be a sign of the effectuall calling and conversion of the Thessalonians That they received the word not as the word of man but as it was indeed the word of God As the word must be received as Gods word indeed so must Jesus Christ be received as he is indeed Look therefore what Jesus Christ must be that he may be the Author of salvation you must receive him as such if your Faith be saving It was necessary if he would save us that he should be God and Man that he should be the head of al things that he should be holy and separate from sinners Do you now receive him by Faith as such a one Doth your Faith close with him gladly under these respects It is not enough to saving Faith that you do not deny him to be thus but he must be owned by you to be thus I say he must be owned by you A man may under one consideration be wonderfull kind and respectfull to a Person when under another consideration he will shew no respect to him As for example They said unto Lot that he came in among them to sojourn and would have Lorded it over them That is as if they should have said If Lot will live among us and take his being with us as an ordinary Person he may But if he thinks all things must be as he wil If he will trouble himself with our matters and order al things according to his Will and be our Governor we wil have nothing to do with him Therefore the Apostle faith of some men that they love him not as a Lord 1 Cor. 16.22 If a man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed They love him as Christ for so he is anointed and as Jesus for so he is a Savior But this Lord being added makes their hearts to rise against him and against the precious oinment and Graces that are in him And so you shal find in Jude 4. He saith there are some that do deny the Lord. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for a Lord is a Master of a family If Jesus Christ will come and he wil have all our time and strength and not only that but the things that are done must be after his order and according to his mind Our wisdome and reason must not direct us in the things that we do though they be materially good If so the Text saith They deny him that is They profess they will not have such a one to rule over them And thus if you compare it carefully in Luke 20. from 9. to 17. verse with Math. 21. where the same parable is repeated though those that had the Vineyards let out to them were angry with the servants yet they used them not so il as they used the Son And why did they use him so ill It was only because he was the heir and would have ruled over them We will not say they have this man rule over us And therefore as Persons are wont to enquire what the quality and disposition of those are with whom they desire to marry before they make any treaty or Covenant with them A wise Man or Woman first sits down and consider whether they can like a Man or Woman of such a Spirit and behavior Suppose him to be dull and harsh and contrary to her desire So first get the knowledg of Jesus Christ as he is one that saves and then examine your selves how you can submit unto him that you may judg whether your Faith be true or not Can you submit unto Christ as God having all things of himself and having an absolute dependance on him for all Can you receive him as your Lord and head and therefore say as John did he must increase but I must decrease he must reign and
not come unto a period and put an end unto the dispute and debate of our Spirits whether we should beleeve or not That is the second thing that Delaies do argue unwillingness in the cases that you have heard CHAP. XXVII A Third sort of Persons not Receivers of Jesus Christ viz. Such as do not give Jesus Christ that place in their heart which is fitting for him There are I. Some that entertain Jesus Christ only in their Fancy Of these there are two sorts 1. Such as entertain Jesus Christ only under the Metaphors and Representations by which the Scriptures set him forth 2. Such as entertain him only as a chief point or Doctrine in Religion II. Some that entertain Jesus Christ only in their Vnderstandings and Reasonings III. Some that do indeed entertain him in their affections but not suitable to his excellency The Conclusion THirdly Let me speak to a third that do receive and beleeve presently They have no fault in their apprehension of Christ nor any fault in their puts off and delaies but they do not give Jesus Christ that place in their hearts that is fitting for him I say they give not Jesus Christ that place in their hearts that is fitting for him What greater unwillingness almost can one shew to entertain one than to lodg him in some mean room or in some out-house or with some base and vile company which he knows his Soul abhors To lay a noble man among the Swine Or to lay a man that is of tender sense where there are most noisome smels What greater proof of unwillingness can there be to take one into an house than such an entertainment 2 Cor. 1.6 We beseech you receive not the Grace of God in vain He intimates thereby that there is a vain that is a slight and neglectful receiving and entertaining of the Grace of God by Christ When Christ was born there was no room for him in the Inne but in the Stable and he was cradled in a Manger And so now do men deal with Jesus Christ in receiving him by beleeving There is a kind of beleeving which is a receiving after that sort As for example He is only taken into some mens mouths Men speak much of him but their hearts are far from him though they draw near to him with their lips Some men have Jesus Christ only in their Fancies and speculations only in their outward room and Fancy The Fancy is unto the Soul as the Porch or outward Court is unto the House Or it is as a Shop or a Ware-house wherein Commodities are set forth that so that those that pass by may be taken and allured by them This is the nature of the Fancy of a man Now Iesus Christ is admitted no further with many men That is The Knowledg which they have by Christ is only by the Metaphors and borrowed speeches which the Scripture useth and by which he is resembled and set forth in the Scripture Their knowledg of him is not proper but Metaphoricall and figurative For the better helping you in this you must know that there are two sorts of fanciful Faiths if I may use that expression two sorts of people that receive Iesus Christ only so far 1. Such as hearing or reading in the Scripture that Iesus Christ is Compared to a Rock and Bread and Water of life and unto a Tree of life and set out as one that stands at the door or Gate of Heaven taking and entertaining those that are received unto Glory The Scripture setting out Heaven as a City and fellowship with God as a Feast where Iesus Christ comes as the Master of it to see his Guests that they be welcome and want nothing but every way entertained according to the State and Fulness and Riches of his House Such reading that the Scripture sets out Heaven as a House and as a Paradice for pleasure and as a Kingdome that hath al kind of contentment in it and lives indepently they hereupon begin to think of the state of beleeving as a participation of such kind of things and their affections are taken much with them And now mens apprehension of a state of Grace and happiness it is formed up of these They contemplate of happiness under these resemblances This is that which the Scripture cals the form of Knowledg The form of Knowledg As in a Map or Globe al the kingdoms and places of the World are put that in one view they may be beheld So men have in their minds and head and thoughts what the Scripture hath thus set forth Heaven and Christ by and further then that their understanding goes not Of this sort of fanciful kind of Faith are Raptures wherein men have visions and think they see glorious sights both walking and sleeping and that they hear voices speaking unto them and comforting and calling them to that Glory and Honor which they imagine the state of Grace makes them Sharers in imagining themselves to be as upon thrones and in Gardens and in the midst of pleasures and treasures These are the meanest and lowest sort of this kind for those that have but little or no understanding and insight into the things of God have these visions and receptions in their minds and apprehensions most frequently Ignorant Persons they know not the mind of God And many sick dying men whose understandings are weakned or who have but little understanding all that is left them being but a disturbed fancy who have lived the life of man so far as understanding and fancy goes yet somtimes you shall find them speaking of their desires to be gone to be in Heaven to be gone to sit upon Thrones and going into arms and going to be partakers of riches and greatness and to be with their Savior where Glory is prepared and many such things And yet it is but a Fancy as is apparent if a man searcheth the bottom of it They are taken with their apparisions and resemblances of Glorious things and in them they are safe Metaphors or figurative speeches Let me speak that by the way are used by the Holy Ghost and of use to signifie excellent things and to win the mind to think of spiritual things The mind is brought to think of those Heavenly things by earthly things Even as Children are won to drink off a cup of Physick by the gayness of the Cup or some such thing as takes the Fancy But mark what I say There are no Metaphors that can set out the things of Jesus Christ or Jesus Christ as they are to be received by Faith No Metaphor can set them out Saith the Text Matth. 11.27 No man knows the Father but the Son and those to whom he reveals him And how doth he reveal him Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man that is Neither by the Eye nor by the Ear what God hath prepared for them that love him Therefore if you look into it
Let me speak to you that are rich Be unto all you have as a man is unto his meat who is sick having no desire at all to it Have such a stomach to riches as a man of a ful stomack hath to his meat Let it be al one to you whether you have or have not Though you have Estates let not your Estates have your affections You that are in the waies of gaining and getting that are in the spring of the world that have ful trades and great advantages Take what God gives you but take it as that which is to be laid by you not as your own but as that which you must lay up and lay out for God for the use he cals for and not as that which is given to make you great Use Riches as God appoints You that are poor be content and murmur not for riches are rather things to be feared than desired Beware of Covetousness Feed upon God and Christ and the hopes of another world If you have not enough to satisfie the outward man And that is no hard Counsel for if a covetous man can satisfie himself with a little by feeding upon the hopes of what he shal heap together either for an after day or for his posterity there is then a nourishment and a succor and a food much more in the feeding upon and thinking of Honor and Glory and Immortality and eternal life If you be content to want God will let you have If you be contented God will provide for you In Heb. 13.5 Let your Conversation be without Covetousness and be content with that you have for he hath said he will never leave nor forsake Feed upon God and Christ and the hopes of another world and the more you do so the less wil your condition be discontentful to you Yea my Beloved Let me speak to you that are Godly How uncomely a thing is it for you to mind earthly things Is your God your Belly Are your hopes and your treasures here The more Gospel Christians you are the more contented you will be with a little of the world For when God in the old Testament gave but little Grace then he gave much riches The Land of Canaan and their great and large inheritances were all of them but so many Ceremonies and shadows and Types of the large portion which the Saints are to have in spiritual things by Jesus Christ As the Apostle therfore said unto the Galatians when they were returning unto the Circumcision Have you begun in the Spirit and will you make an end in the Flesh So I say unto you you go back again unto Types and shadows You do so when God hath brought you to the land of true good if you return unto the desire after riches Cloaths that are too big for a man have neither warmth nor comliness in them If you desire more than God gives you have lost the comliness and the profit and health that may be by the blessing of God in Riches to you A word let me speak to you all Covetousness is the sin that now doth begin to sprout and bud And there is nothing that is a sadder presage of the wrath of God against us than the straightness of mens hearts It is reported there was a great deal of wealth in Constantinople when the Turk took it but he took all and brought them into slavery because they would not lay it forth to maintain a just war against him Of another place it is reported that it was lost not so much by the force of the adversary as by the Covetousness of those that should have provided opposition against the enemy If you do but lend you eares a little to men you shal find them murmuring at their Taxes you shal find them complaining at their not getting as they have done That they are willing to be any thing rather then further to be at charges To loose what they have taken in hunting rather then to be at the charge to dress and rost it As I may use that expression of the scripture In the beginning of these late troubles I wish it be not laid to our charge the charge of those who were so forward and free to lend in an animosity when that which they fought for is now brought to their doores is scarce worth acceptance A folly Like unto those who travel to the East-Indies to fetch home things that are not of a price and esteem Some indeed have been overcharged and burdened But it is better a great deal that a man should lay out much for God then a little God wil make good al that faith that you have had in him for the publique good If you should loose what men have promised you yet so far as it was for his name sake God wil become a debtor to you and pay you wel And I look upon the times when I heare men complain Truly I cannot tel how better to compare it Then as if an heire should grievously complaine that he is put to charges to take up the possession of his great inheritance Or as if a man should complain that hath laid out al the mony in his purse when he hath good commodities in the roome of it God hath begun to give you what you have fought and prayed for And let me say thus much that though some men cry out Persecution Persecution Yet is it any persecution for the servants to take their wages Is it any persecution to cal upon you for that which may prevent them that would bring about a warr and to keep those beasts that would devoure from being able to break in upon you Is it persecution for men to sit under their own vines and eate the fruit of their own fig trees In their houses and be quiet and none to make afraid Is this persecution for men to be free from oppression and to be called upon for nothing but that which is for publique use and charge Is this persecution When men have no enemies but because themselves would be great and over al and are not satisfied Is this persecution Conferre with the primitive times and tel them you are under persecution Such as they never felt for you dwel at peace and none molest you you are at a better allowance and maintenance then many have heretofore had for more work What rate would men have given some yeares agone for that which they now do injoy It is not therefore any just reason that men have to complain thus but only through the wretchedness of mens hearts who are also unsatisfyed because they know not wel what they would have therefore it is that there are such complaining in the streets It is not from persecution but from Covetousness because men have not al they would have The great sin of al is Covetousness because men are drawn nearer to the world and to themselves Men think al disswasions from the world to be but an art to