impressions especially among the Romanists and within these few years have not many hundreds in this Nation fallen under the same woful delusions who are all for crying up a Light within and a Christ within c. And this you are seriously and Conscientiously to observe in opposition to the Papâ—sts who boldly and stoutly affirm That assurance of a mans Salvation can be had by no other means than by extraordinary Revelation Witness the Councel of Trent who have long since said That if any man say that he knoweth he shall certainly persevere or infallibly be assured of his Election except he have this by special Revelation let him be Anathema Without all peradventure God will one day cross and curse such a wicked Councel that curseth that Anathematizeth his people for asserting and maintaining that that may certainly be obtained in this life as I have sufficiently proved by ten Arguments in my Treatise called Heaven on Earth from page 1. to page 26. I think there is a great truth in that confession of Faith that saith that infallible Assurance doth not so belong to the essence of Faith 1 John 5.13 Isa 50.10 Mark 9 24. 1 Cor. 2.12 1 John 4.13 14. Heb. 6.11 12. Ephes 3.17 18 19. 2 Pet. 1.10 but that a true Believer may wait long and conflâ—ct with many difficulties before he be partaker of it yea being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God he may without any extraordinary revelation in the right use of ordinary means attain thereunto and therefore 't is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his Calling and Election sure But The Eleventh Maxim or Consideration ELeventhly Consider that probabilities of Grace of sincerity of an interest in Christ and of Salvation may be a very great stay and a singular support and a special cordial and comfort to abundance of precious Christians that want that sweet and blessed Assurance that their Souls do earnestly breath and long after There are doubtless many thousands of the precious Sons and Daughters of Zion comparable to fine Gold Lam. 4.2 that have not a clear and full Assurance of their interest in Christ nor of the saving work of God upon their Souls who yet are able to plead many probabilities of Grace and of an interest in Christ Now doubtless probabilities of Grace and of an interest in Christ may serve to keep off fears and doubts and darkness and sadness and all rash and peremptory conclusions against a mans own Soul and his everlasting welfare and may contribute very much to the keeping up of a great deal of peace comfort and quietness in his Soul The probable grounds that thou hast Grace and that God has begun to work powerfully and savingly upon thee are mercies more worth than ten thousand Worlds will you please seriously and frequently to dwell upon these ten particulars First That though many weak gracious souls don't enjoy communion with God in joy and delight yet they do enjoy communion with God in sorrow and tears Hos 12.4 Isa 38.3 Psal 51.17 A man may have communion wi h God in a heart humbling a heart melting and a heart abasing way when he hath not communion with God in a heart reviving a heart cheering and a heart comforting way T is a very great mistake among many weak tender spirited Christians to think that they have no communion with God in duties except they meet with God embracing and kissing cheering and comforting up their Souls And O that all such Christians would remember this once for all viz. That a Christian may have as real communion with God in a heart humbling way as he can have in a heart comforting way John 20 11-19 a Christian may have as choice communion with God when his eyes are full of tears as he can have when his heart is full of joy when a godly man upon his dying bed was askt which were his most joyful dayes either those before his Conversion or those since his Conversion upon which he cryed out O give me my mourning dayes again Give me my mourning dayes again for they were my joyfullest dayes Many times a poor Christian has never more joy in his heart than when his eyes are full of tears But Secondly Though many poor weak doubting trembling Christians dare not say that they do love the Lord Jesus Christ 'T was a famous saying of Austins he loves not Christ at all that loves not Christ above all yet they dare say that they would love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their hearts and with all their Souls and they dare say that if it were in their power they would even shed tears of blood because they cannot love Christ both as they would and as they should Blessed Bradford would sit and weep at Dinner till the tears fell on his Trencher because he could love God no more So the poor doubting trembling Christian mourns and laments because he can love Christ no more A man may love Gold and yet not have it but no man loveth God but he is sure to have God saith Augustine A good man once cryed out I had rather have one Christ than a thousand Worlds Thirdly Though many poor weak doubting trembling Christians dare not say that they have Grace yet they dare say that they prize the least dram of Grace above all the gold and silver of the Indies Cardan saith that every precious stone hath an egregious vertue in it The same we may say of every saving Grace were all the world a lump of gold and in their hands to dispose of it they would give it for Grace yea for a little Grace Now certainly no man can thus highly prize Grace but he that has Grace No man sees the worth and lustre of Grace no man sees a beauty and excellency in Grace nor no man can value Grace above the gold of Ophir but he whose heart has been changed and whose eyes has been opened by the Spirit of Grace Bâ—t Fourthly Though many poor doubting trembling Christians dare not say that their condition is good that their condition is safe and happy yet they dare say that they would not for ten thousand Worlds change their conditions with the vain and debauched men of the World who delight in sin who wallow in sin who make a sport of sin and who live under the Reign and Dominion of sin they had rather with Lazarus Luke 16. be full of sores and full of wants and live and dye in rags and after all be carried by Angels into Abrahams bosom than with Dives every day to fare sumptuously and be cloathed gloriously and perish eternally Though they are poor and wicked men Rich though they are debased and wicked men exalted though they are empty and wicked men full though they are low and wicked men high though they enjoy nothing and wicked men enjoy every thing yet they would
should make it our great business and work to come up to them and to imitate them to the life O friends the examples last cited should be very awakening very perswading very convincing and very encouraging because in them you may see that though abstinence from the appearance of evil be a difficult thing yet 't is a possible thing Shall we love to look upon the Pictures of our friends and shall we not much more love to look upon the holy examples of those eminent Saints that had the lively picture of Grace and the lovely Image of Christ fairly stampt upon their hearts and lives 'T is both our Mercy and our duty to eye the examples and to follow the footsteps of those Christians that have been most eminent in Grace as you may plainly see by comparing of these Scriptures together Prov. 2.20 Heb. 6.12 1 Thes 1.6 Phil. 4.9 2 Tim. 3.10 11 12. Heb. 12.1 Phil. 3.17 1 Cor. 11.1 Titus 2.7 He that would fain write a fair hand had need have his eye often upon his Copy and he that would fain abstain from all appearance of evil he had need often to eye the gracious examples of such who have made Conscience of abstaining from appearing evils as well as from apparent evils But Eighthly and lastly Consider what some refined Heathens and civilized Pagans have done in this very case There are stories of Heathens that would not look upon excellent Beauties lest they should be ensnared Dâ—mocritâ—â— pluckt out his own eyes to avoid the danger of uncleanness Socrates speaketh of two young men that flang away their Belts when being in an Idol-Temple the lustrating water fell upon them detesting saith the Historian the garment spotted by the Flesh Alexander would not see the woman after whom he might have lusted Scipio Africanus warring in Spain took New Carthage by storm Aure victor at which time a beautiful and noble Virgin fled to him for succour to preserve her Chastity he being four and twenty years old and so in the heat of youth hearing of it would not suffer her to come into his sight for fear of a temptation but caused her to be restored in safety to her Father So when Demâ—sthenes the Oratour was asked an excessive sum of money to behold the beautiful Lais he answered He would not buy repentance so dear neither was he so ill a Merchant as to sell eternals for temporals Nor Caesar would not search Pompeyes Cabinet lest he should find new matters of revenge Memorable is the story of the children of Samosâ—ta that would not touch their Ball but burnt it because it had touched the Toe of a wicked Heretical Bishop as they were tossing and playing with it Now shall some refined Heathens shall civilized Pagans abstain from the appearance of evil from occasions and temptations to sin and shall real Christians fall short of them Shall blind nature do more than Grace Shall men fallen in the first Adam do more than those that are raised and enlivened by the second Adam But to prevent all mistakes let me add though many Heathens have abstained from the appearance of some evil yet they have not abstained from the appearance of all evil neither have they abstained from the appearance of any evil out of a hatred of evil nor from any principles of saving light or life or love nor out of any regard to any Royal Law of God nor out of any regard to the honour or glory of God but either out of vain-glory and popular applause the Pole-stars by which they steered all their actions or out of Hypocrisy which set a tincture and Dy upon all their actions what Writer hath more golden Sentences than Seneca against the contempt of Gold yet if Tacitus and others of his contemporaries may be credited none more rich none more covetous than he as if out of design he had perswaded others to cast away their money that he himself might come and gather it up again c. And thus you see that there are very great reasons why every Christian should avoid the very shew suspition or appearance of evil c. But Eleventhly and lastly He that sets himself resolutely mostly habitually against his bosome sins his constitution sins Psal 18.26 his most prevalent sins c. he has certainly a saving work a powerful work of God upon his Soul True Grace will make a man stand stoutly and stedfastly on Gods side and work the heart to take part with him against the most darling sins though they be as right hands or as right eyes True Grace will lay hands upon a mans most beloved lusts and cry out to Heaven Lord Crucify them Crucify them down with them down with them even to the ground Lord do Justice do signal Justice do speedy Justice do exemplary Justice upon this Head-lust this Master-sin Lord hew down root and branch let the very stumps of this Dagon be broken all in pieces Lord curse this wild Fig-Tree that never more Fruit may grow thereon Certainly God and Christ is set up highest in that mans heart who bends most of his thoughts strength and endeavours against his constitution sins against the sins of his Place Calling condition and complexion 'T is very observable that the Jews after they had been in the Babilonish Furnace for Idolatry they ever hated and feared that sin as much as the burnt child dreads the Fire yea they would dye any death rather than admit an Idol Josephus tells us how stoutly they opposed Pilate and Petronius that would have set up Caesars Statue in their Temples offering their throats to the Swords of the Souldiers rather than they would endure that Idol in Gods house O when once the heart of a Christian comes thus to be set against all his Golden and Silver Idols then we may safely say Behold a true Israelite in whom there is no guile He that finds his lusts his bosome his darling lusts begin to fall before him 〈◊〉 6 1â— as Hâ—mâ—â— once begun to fall before Morâ—eoai he may safely and confidently conclude that he is of the seed of the Jews and that the seed of God abideth in him 1 John 3.9 But having discoursed so largely as I have concerning bosome sins darlâ—ng lusts head-corruptions in my other writings I need say no more at this time And thus you see that there are Eleven particulars in regard of sin and a Christians actâ—ngs about it that speaks out a true saving work of Grace to be in the Souls of the Saints But c. Secondly Where the constant ordinary standing and abiding purpose disposition frame and general bent of a mans heart soul spirit desires and endeavours are fixed and set for God for Grace for Holiness in heart and life there is a most sure and infallible work of God past upon that mans soul the constant bent and the setled purpose of a true child of God is for God for Grace for Holiness in heart
then his desire Luke 17.5 are most for faith you shall then find him with the Disciples crying out Lord increase our faith But now though a wicked mans heart rise against every grace yet it rises most strongly against those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts which are a wicked mans bosom lusts Mat. 26.8 9. his darling sins c. Hence the covetous heart rises and swells most against liberality as you see in Judas Rev. 3.15 16 17. Luke 19. What need this waste Flesh and bloud looks upon all as lost that is laid out upon Christ his servants and services And the luke-warm Christians heart rises and swells most against zeal and fervency and the griping Userers heart rises and swells most against restitution Job 21.14 15. and the adulterers heart rises and swells most against purity chastity continency and the ignorant mans heart rises and swells most against light and knowledge Eccles 7.10 the ignorant man is willing to go to hell in the dark and ready and bold enough to conclude that we never had such sad and bad times as we have had since there hath been so much preaching and so much hearing and so much fasting and so much praying and so much light and knowledge in the world But now it is quite otherwise with a true child of God Rom. 7.22 23. for his heart rises and swells most against the Toad or Toads that are in his own bosom and the daily and earnest desires of his soul are that God would make him eminent in every grace yea that God would make him most eminent in those particular graces which are most opposite and contrary to those particular lusts and corruptions which more peculiarly more especially he hath cause to call his iniquity Psal 49.5 or the iniquities of his heart and of his heels Look as we have some dirt more or less that will still cleave to our heels whilst we are in a dirty world so there is some defilements and pollutions that will still be cleaving to all our duties services wayes and walkings in this world which we may well call the iniquity of our heels Now a gracious heart rises most against these c. Thirteenthly No man can truly love grace in another but he that has true grace in his own soul 1 John 3.10 No man can love a Saint as a Saint but he that is a real Saint no man can love holiness in another but he that has holiness in his own soul no man can love a good man for goodness sake but he that is really good We know that we have passed from death to life 1 John 3.14 This Text you have opened in the first Maxim of this Book because we love the brethren Sincere love to the brethren is a most evident sign of a Christians being already passed or translated from death to life that is from a state of nature into a state of grace such a poor soul that dares not say that he has grace in his own heart yet dares say before the Lord that he loves delights and takes pleasure to see the holy graces of the Spirit sparkling and shining in the hearts lives and lips of other Saints secretly wishing in himself that his soul were but in their case and that dares say before the Lord Psal 15.1 4. Psal 16.3 He that loves his brother saith Augustine better knows his love wherewith he loves than his brother whom he loves that there are no men in all the world that are so precious so lovely so comely so excellent and so honourable in his account in his eye as those that have the Image of God of Christ of grace of holiness most clearly most fairly and most fully stampt upon them When a poor Christian can rejoyce in every light in every Sun that out-shines his own when he sees wisdom and knowledge shining in one Saint and faith and love shining in another Saint and humility and lowliness shining in another Saint and meekness and uprightness shining in another Saint and zeal and courage shining in another Saint and patience and constancy shining in another and then can make his retreat to his closet admiring blessing of the Lord for the various graces of his Spirit shining in his children and be frequent and earnest with God that those very graces might shine as so many Suns in his soul doubtless such a poor soul has true grace and is happy and will be happy to all eternity In Tertullian's time the Heathen would point out the Christians by this mark See how they love one another Now to prevent mistakes I shall shew you the several properties of sincere love to the Saints First True love to the Saints is spiritual it is a love for the Image of God that is stampt upon the soul 1 John 5.1 Every one that loveth him that begat 1 John 4.7 loveth him also that is begotten of him A soul that truly loves loves the father for his own sake and the children for the fathers sake If the Image of God be the load-stone that drawes out our love to the Saints then our love is real to them he that does not love the Saints as Saints he that does not love them under a spiritual notion he hath no true affection to them Naturally we hate God Gen. 3.15 1 John 3.12 because he is a holy God and his Law because it is an holy Law and his people because they are a holy people 'T is only the Spirit of God that can inable a man to love a Saint for the image of God that is in him many there are which love Christians for their goods not for their good they love them for the money that is in their purses but not for the grace that is in their hearts many like the Bohemian Cur fawn upon a good suit Love to the Saints for the Image of God stampt upon them is a flower that does not grow in natures garden No man can love grace in another mans heart but he that hath grace in his own men do not more naturally love their parents Prov. 29.10 Ezek. 25.15 and love their children and love themselves than they do naturally hate the image of God upon his people and wayes I have read of one who was so lusty and quarrelsom that he was ready to fight with his own image so often as he saw it in a glass O! how many are there in these dayes that are still a quarrelling and fighting with the image of God wherever they see it True love is for what of the divine nature for what of Christ and grace shines in a man it is one thing to love a godly man and anther thing to love him for godliness Many love godly men as they are Politicians or Potent or Learned or of a sweet nature or affable or related or as they have been kind to them
in a way of sin but the gracious soul sayes with Job Job 34.32 If I have done iniquity I will do it no more He laments over sin and leaves it he confesses it and forsakes it and he is as willing to forgo it as he is willing that God should forgive it Seventhly All and if you please I shall give you many things in one godly sorrow is the fruit and effect of Evangelical faith it flows from faith as the stream from the fountain the branch from the root and the effect from the cause Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born Look as all legal sorrow flows from a legal faith as you may see in Ahab's and the Ninevites so all Evangelical sorrow flows from an Evangelical faith They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn All gracious mourning flows from looking from believing nothing breaks the heart of a sinner like a look of faith all tears of godly sorrow drop from the eye of faith godly sorrow rises and falls as faith rises and falls faith and godly sorrow are like the fountain and the floud which rise and fall together The more a man is able by faith to look upon a pierced Christ the more his heart will mourn over all the dishonours that he has done to Christ the more deep and wide the wounds are that faith shews me in the heart and sides of Christ the more my heart will be wounded for sining against Christ Again godly sorrow is not an enemy but a friend to holy joy I have read of a holy man who lying upon his sick bed and being askt which were his joyfullest dayes that ever he had cryed out O give me my mourning dayes give me my mourning dayes again for they were the joyfullest dayes that ever I had The higher the springs of godly sorrow rise the higher the tydes of holy joy rise his graces will flourish most who Evangelically mourns most Grace alwayes thrives best in that garden that heart that is watered most with the tears of godly sorrow He that grieves most for sin will rejoyce most in God and he that rejoyces most in God will grieve most for sin Again the more a man apprehends of the love of God and of the love of Christ and the more a man tastes and is assured of the love of the Father and of the love of the Son the more that person will grieve and mourn that he has offended provoked and grieved such a Father and such a Son Remember this as a man's assurance of peace and reconciliation with God rises so his grief for sin rises the more clear and certain evidences a man has of the love and favour of God to his soul the more that man will grieve and mourn for sinning against such a God There is nothing that thaws and melts the heart that softens and breaks the heart like the warm beams of divine love as you may see in the case of Mary Magdalen Luk. 7. she loved much and she wept much for much was forgiven her a sight of the free grace and love of Christ towards her in an act of forgiveness broke her heart all in pieces A man can't stand under the shinings of divine love with a frozen heart nor yet with dry eyes the more a man sees of the love of Christ and the more a man tastes and enjoys of the love of Christ the more that man will grieve and mourn for all the dishonours that he has done to Christ The more an ingenious child sees and tastes and enjoys of his fathers love the more he grieves and mourns that ever he should offend such a father or provoke such a father who has been so loving and indulgent towards him Injuries done to a friend cut deep and the more near and dear and beloved a man's friend is to him the more a man is afflicted and troubled for any wrongs or injuries that are done to him and just so 't is between God and a gracious soul The free love and favour of God and his unspeakable goodness and mercy manifested in Jesus Christ to poor sinners is the very spring and fountain of all Evangelical sorrow nothing breaks the heart of a poor sinner like the sight of God's free love in a Redeemer A man can't seriously look upon the firstness the freeness the greatness the unchangeableness the everlastingness and the matchlessness of God's free favour and love in Christ with a hard heart or with dry eyes Ezek. 36.31 compared with vers 25 26. O! who is there that has but one spark of ingenuity that can read over that heart-breaking Scripture with dry eyes Isa 43.22 23 24. See Isa 57.17 18 19. But thou hast not called upon me O Jacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel thou hast not brought me the small cattel of thy burnt offerings neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with incense thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Now a man would think after all this horrid abuse put upon God this would certainly follow Therefore I will plague and punish thee therefore my wrath shall smoak against thee therefore my soul shall abhor thee therefore I will shut up my loving kindness in displeasure against thee therefore I will shew no more mercy towards thee therefore I will hide my face for ever from thee therefore I will take vengeance on thee therefore I will rain hell out of heaven upon thee c. O! but read and wonder read and admire read and stand amazed and astonished read and refrain from tears if thou canst ver 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins The Prophets expression in that Zech. 12.10 is very observable They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son Now 't is observable in a fathers mourning for an only son there is nothing but pure love sincere love hearty love but in a sons mourning for his father there may be and often is a great deal of self-love self-respect because the child may run and read in his father's death his own loss his own ruin his own undoing but in the father's mourning for an only son a man may run and read the integrity purity and ingenuity of the father's love and 't is only such a love as this as sets the soul a mourning and a lamenting over a crucified Christ The thoughts and fears of wrath of hell and of
spiritual mysteries by carnal reason and fame among the Pharisees and he fasted and prayed and gave alms and paid tythes c. and yet a meer stranger to the new birth Regeneration was a paradox to him How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born This great Doctor was so great a Dunce that he understood no more of the doctrine of Regeneration than a meer child does the darkest precepts of Astronomy 1 Cor. 2.14 Look as water can rise no higher than the spring from whence it came so the natural man can rise no higher than nature An hypocrite may know much and pray much and hear much and fast much and give much and obey much and all to no purpose because he never manages any thing he does in a right manner he never carries on his work from inward principles of faith fervency life love delight c. Will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty Ans No he cannot delight himself in the Almighty Job 27.10 Job speaks of the hypocrite as is evident ver 8. 1. To delight in God is one of the highest acts of grace and how can an hypocrite put forth one of the highest acts of grace who hath no grace An hypocrite may know much of God and talk much of God and make a great profession of God and be verbally thankful to God but he can never love God nor trust in God nor delight in God nor take up his rest in God c. 2. An hypocrite knows not God and how then can he delight in that God whom he does not know An hypocrite has no inward saving transforming experimental affectionate practical knowledge of God and therefore he can never take any pleasure or delight in God 3. There is no sutableness between an hypocrite and God and how then can an hypocrite delight himself in God There is the greatest contrariety imaginable 'twixt God and an hypocrite God is light and the hypocrite is darkness 2 Cor. 6.15 16 God is holiness and he filthiness God is righteousness and he unrighteousness God is fulness and he emptiness Now what complacency can there be where there is such an utter contrariety 4. Every hypocrites heart is full of enmity against God and how then can he delight himself in God The carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8.7 To delight in God is Christianorum propria virtus saith Hierom. for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be The best part of an hypocrite is not only averse but utterly adverse to God and all goodness The Eagle saith the Philosopher hath a continual enmity with the Dragon and the Serpent And so an hypocrites heart is still full of enmity against the Lord and therefore he can never delight himself in the Lord. 5. The stream cream and strength of an hypocrites delight runs out to himself and to this lust or that to this relation or that to this creature-comfort or that to this worldly enjoyment or that or else to arts parts gifts priviledges c. and therefore how can he delight himself in the Almighty An Hypocrite alwayes terminates his delight in something on this side God Christ and Heaven Look as the Apricock-tree though it leans against the wall yet it is fast rooted in the earth so though an hypocrite may lean towards God and towards Christ and towards heaven yet his delight is still rooted fast in one creature-comfort or another c. Mark 6. God nor Christ is never the adequate object of an hypocrites delight An hypocrite is never principled to delight himself in a holy God neither can he cordially divinely habitually delight himself in holy duties An hypocrite may reform many evil things and he may do many good duties and yet all this while it is only his practises but not his heart or principles that are changed and altered Mark though an hypocrite hath nothing in him which is essential to a Christian as a Christian yet he may be the compleat resemblance of a Christian in all those things which are not essential to him An hypocrite in all the externals of Religion may be the compleat picture of a sincere Christian but then if you look to his principles and the manner of his managing of holy duties there you will find him lame and defective and as much unlike a sincere Christian 1 Sam. 19.13 16. as ever Michal's Image was unlike to David and this will prove the great crack the great break-neck of hypocrites at last O Sirs It is considerable that outward motives and natural principles have carried many Heathens to do many great and glorious things in the world Did not Sisera do as great things as Gideon the difference did only lye here that the great things which Gideon did he did from more spiritual principles and raised considerations than any Sisera was acted by Heb. 11. And did not Diogenes trample under his feet the great and glorious things of this world as well as Moses The difference did only ly in this that Moses trampled under his feet the gay and gallant things of this world from inward gracious principles viz. faith love c. and from high and glorious considerations viz. heaven the glory of God c. whereas Diogenes did only trample upon them from poor low prineiples and from meer outward carnal external considerations The favour of men the eye of men the commendations of men the applause of men and a great name among men were golden apples great things among the Philosophers The application is easie Mark A sincere Christian he looks to the manner as well as to the matter of his duties he acts and performs duties not only from strength of parts and acquired qualifications but from strength of grace and infused habits Rom. 11.24 Ezek. 36.25 Jer. 31.33 Rom. 3.5 2 Cor. 5.19 2 Pet. 1.4 Eph. 3.17 2 Cor. 13.5 he acts from God and for God he acts from a new heart he acts from the Law written in his heart he acts from the love of God shed abroad in his heart he acts from the divine nature communicated to him he acts from the spirits in-dwelling in his heart he acts from the fear of God establishing his heart These be the springs and principles of a sincere Christians spiritual life and actions and where they act and bear rule it is no wonder if such motions and performances as the world may admire but not imitate Sauls life after his conversion was a kind of constant miracle 2. Cor. 11. so much he did and so much he suffered and so much he denyed himself that if he lived in these dayes his life would be a miracle but yet if we consider the principles that he was acted by the great wonder will be not that he did so much but that he did no more Gal. 2.20 For saith he
This is made good by ten Arguments Page 60 to 65 Six considerable things about probabilities of grace Page 65 66 67 68 69 If a Christian can't say he has grace yet he should not say he has no grace for he may have grace and yet not know it Page 81 82 He that prizes the least dram of grace above ten thousand thousand worlds certainly that man has true grace in him Page 200 T is the wisdom and ought to be the work of every Christian to own the least measure of grace that is in him though it be mixed and mingled with many weaknesses infirmities Page 332 333 'T is the wisdom and should be the work of every Christian to look upon all his graces and gracious evidences as favours given him from above as gifts dropt out of heaven into his heart as flowers of Paradise stuck in his bosom by a divine hand Page 333 334 335 When you look upon your graces in the light of the spirit it highly concerns you to look narrowly to it that you don't renounce and reject your graces as weak and worthless evidences of your interest in Christ c. Page 335 336 337 The spirit does four things in respect of our graces Page 348 Christians may safely rejoyce in their graces Page 349 350 351 The more grace any man hath the more clear the more fair the more full the more sweet will his evidences be for heaven c. Page 378 379 380 381 382 When your graces are strongest and your evidences for heaven are clearest and your comforts rise-highest then in a special manner it concerns you to make it your great business and work to act faith afresh upon the free rich and glorious grace of God and upon the Lord Jesus Christ Page 382 383 384 385 H Of the hatred of sin An Hypocrite can't hate sin as sin Page 303 304 305 True hatred of sin includes six things Page 305 306 307 308 Of the heart and of keeping of it Where the constant standing frame of a mans heart desires and endeavâ—urs are set for God Christ Grace Holiness there is a most sure and infallible work of God upon that mans soul Page 127 128 129 130 131 132 A gracious heart is an uniform heart Page 161 162 163 164. A gracious heart sets himself most against his darling sin his bosom sin his constitution sin c. Page 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 He that has given up his heart and life to the Rule Authority and Government of Christ he has a saving work of God upon him Page 203 204 That man that will cleave to Christ with full purpose of heart that man shall certainly be saved Page 204 205 That man that makes it his principle care his main business his work of works to look to his heart to watch his heart to reform his heart that man doubtless hath a saving work of God upon his heart Page 205 206 207 208 209 210 Ten wayes shewing how men should keep their hearts Page 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 There are many that are great strangers to their own hearts Page 339 Of Hypocrites First an Hypocrites inside is never answerable to his outside An Hypocrites inside is one thing and his outside another thing Page 287 288 Secondly no Hypocrite under heaven is totally divorced from the love and liking of every known sin Page 288 289 290 291 Thirdly an Hypocrites heart is never throughly subdued to a willingness to perform all known duties Page 291 292 293 Fourthly There is never an Hypocrite in the world that makes God or Christ or holiness or his doing or receiving good in his Station Relation or Generation his grand end his highest end his ultimate end of living in this world Page 294 295 296 297 Fifthly no Hypocrite under heaven can live wholly and only upon the righteousness of Christ the satisfaction of Christ the merits of Christ for justification and salvation Page 297 298 299 300 Sixthly an Hypocrite never embraces a whole Christ he can never take up his full rest satisfaction and content in the person of Christ in the merits of Christ in the enjoyment of Christ alone Page 300 301 302 303 Seventhly an Hypocrite can't mourn for sin as sin nor grieve for sin as sin nor hate sin as sin nor make head against sin as sin Page 303 304 305 Eighthly no Hypocrite is habitually low or little in his own eyes no hypocrite has ordinarily mean thoughts of himself or a poor esteem of himself Page 308 309 310 311 312 Ninthly no Hypocrite will long hold out in the work and wayes of the Lord in the want of outward incouragements and in the face of outward discouragements Page 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 Tenthly no hypocrite ever makes it his business his work to bring his heart into religious duties and services Page 318 319 320 321 Eleventhly an hypocrite never performs religious duties from spiritual principles nor in a spiritual manner Page 321 322 323 324 325 Twelfthly no hypocrite in the world loves the Word or delights in the Word or prizes the Word as 't is a holy Word a spiritual Word a beautiful Word a pure Word a clean word Page 325 326 327 328 329 Thirteenthly and lastly an hypocrite can't endure to be tryed and searcht and laid open Page 329 330 331 I Of judging our selves We must not judge our selves Hypocrites by those things that â—he Scripture never makes a character of an Hypocrite Page 74 75 76 77. We must not judge our selves hypocrites for such things which being admitted and granted to be true would unavoidably prove the whole generation of the faithful to be Hypocrites Page 77 78 79 In judging of our spiritual estates and conditions we must alwayes have an eye to our natural tempers complexions c. Page 79 80 81 Of judgments Spiritual judgments are the worst of judgments Page 338 L Of love to the Saints No man can truly love grace in another but he that has true grace in his own soul Page 189 190 Six wayes whereby men may certainly know whether their love to the Saints be real or not Page 190 to 200 M Of singular manifestations Some Christians live under the singular manifestations of divine love Page 341 342 Of Melancholy The evil effects of Melancholy Page 72 73 74 Of merciful men Such as are truly and graciously merciful are blessed c. Page 34 35 36 Of true mourners Such as are true mourners are blessed Page 32 N Of Name and of a great Name Many Professors take up in a great Name Page 337 338. O Of Obedience If your obedience springs from faith then your estate is good then you have assuredly an infallible work of God upon your souls Page 132 Seven wayes to know when your obedience is the obedience of faith with the resolution of some considerable questions about obedience worthy of serious consideration Page 132 to 161 P Of the Promises The
though he cannot see all those signs in him there is no Saint but may perceive one sign in him when he cannot another Now he that can groundedly be perswaded of any one sign of grace he may safely conclude he hath all the rest though for the present he can neither see them nor feel them in himself But The fifth Maxim or Consideration FIfthly consider That the promises of God are a Christians Magna Charta his chiefest evidences for heaven divine promises are Gods Deed of Gift they are the only assurance which the Saints have to shew for their right and title to Christ to his bloud and to all the happiness and blessedness that comes by him Look Gen. 38 18-27 as Judah by pleading and bringing forth the signet the bracelets and the staff saved her life so we by believing pleading and bringing forth the promises must save our own souls the promises are not only the food of faith but also the very life and soul of faith they are a Mine of rich treasures a garden full of the choicest and sweetest flowers in them are wrapt up all celestial contentments and delights And this is most certain that all a Christians conclusions of interest in any of those choice and precious priviledges which flow from the bloud of Jesus Christ ought to be bottomed grounded and founded upon the rich and free promises of grace and mercy Quest But how may a person come to know whether he has a real and saving interest in the promises or no Now to this great Question I shall give these nine following Answers First A holy relyance a holy resting a holy staying of thy soul upon the promises makes the promises thine own yea it makes all the good and all the sweet and all the happiness and blessedness that is wrapt up in the promises thine even as thy staying relying and resting on Christ makes Christ thine and all that is in him and that comes by him thine so thy staying and resting upon the promises makes them thine Secondly If thy heart ordinarily habitually lyes under the word of command then the word of promise does assuredly belong to thy soul 'T was a good saying of Augustin Da quod jubes juhe quod vis Give what thou commandest and command what thou wilt To such a frame the promises belong Numb 13.28 to the end Psal 119.6 Act. 13.22 Luke 1.5 6. There is no soul under heaven that commonly lyes under the commanding power of the Word but that soul that has an interest in the word of Promise men that have no interest in the word of Promise commonly live in the neglect of the word of command if the word of command commonly carries thy soul then the word of promise without all peradventure belongs to thy soul Many deal with the commands of God as the Heathens dealt with the commands of their gods When their gods called for a man they offered a candle or as Hercules offered up a painted man instead of a living man Such as deal thus with the commands of God they have no interest in the promises of God flesh and bloud looks upon the commands of God as impossible to be obeyed like the unbelieving spies O we cannot conquer the Land but faith and love like Caleb and Joshua conclude the Land may be conquered the commands may be Evangelically obeyed and accordingly they readily â—ndertake it Now to such a frame of heart the promises are entail'd But Thirdly If in the face of all objections The longer said the Emperor's son the Cooks are preparing the meat the better chear I shall have His meaning was that the longer he staid for the Empire the better and greater it would be so the longer the soul waits for a mercy the better and greater it will be when it comes c. discouragements and difficulties thy soul be kept up in a waiting frame for the fulfilling of the promises as Abrahams was Rom. 4. then certainly the promises belong to thee There are some promâ—ses that relate to the subduing of sin as that Jer. 33.8 Ezek. 36.25 26 27. Mich. 7.19 Psal 65.3 And there are other precious promises that relate to a growth in grace as that Mal. 4.2 Job 17.9 Psal 92.12 13 14. Prov. 4.18 Hos 14.5 6 7. Now if thy heart be kept up in a waiting frame for the accomplishment of these promises then they do certainly belong to thee the same I may say of all other promises The waiting soul shall be sure to speed Psal 40.1 2 3. Isa 40.29 30 31. Isa 30.18 Heb. 6.12 c. God never did nor never will frustrate the expectations of the patient waiter c. But Fourthly He that hath those divine qualities or supernatural graces in him to which the promises are made as faith repentance love fear hope uprightness patience a waiting frame c. He has an undoubted interest in the promises he may lay his hand upon any promise and say this promise is mine and all the blessings the benefits the heavenly treasure that is laid up in it is mine But Fifthly He that lives upon the promises as his daily food he has an unquestionable interest in the promises wicked men may make use of promises as of physick in some cases as when they are under anguish of spirit or gripes of conscience or in fear of hell or else when they are under some outward wants or streights c. but he that lives upon them as his daily food he has a most assured interest in them our outward man lives not upon kickshaws though now and then we may taste of them but we live upon wholsom food so here no man lives upon the blessed promises as his appointed food but he that has a real interest in the promises Look as there is a nourishment proper to every Animal Spiders feed on flies Moles on worms the Horse on gâ—ass the Lion on flesh c. so there is food nourishment that is proper for mens souls viz. the precious promises and Christs flesh which is meat indeed and his bloud which is drink indeed Iohn 6. and he that daily feeds on this food will be happy for ever But Sixthly If you are united and married to Christ by faith then you have a real a saving interest in the promises Gal. 3.29 Gal. 4.28 Heb. 1.2 Rev. 21.7 And if you be Christs then are you Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise The promise is the Jointure and there is no way under heaven to enjoy the Jointure but by matching with the person of Christ And faith is the grace of graces by which the soul gives both its assent and consent to take the Lord Jesus Christ as he is tendered and offered in the Gospel and is therefore called sometimes a receiving of Christ Iohn 1.12 The only way to enjoy a Ladies Jointure is to marry her person and so the only way to enjoy the promise of Christ is
that have not the image of God the image of grace and holiness stampt upon them I pray God saith Mr. Marshal that many of God's people do not want these evidences If our souls saith another shall like of Christ for a Suiâ—or when we find no other jointure but the Cross Mr. Dod on the commandments page 313 314. we may be sure we are Christians A man may want the feeling of his faith and cry and call again and again for it and feel nothing all this while and yet nevertheless have true and sound faith For the feeling of and mourning for the want of faith and the earnest and constant desire of it is an infallible sign of faith For this is a sure Rule that so long as one feeleth himself sick he is not dead and the high estimation of faith joined with a vehement desire of it is a singular evidence that there is a sound and lively root of faith in our hearts 1. Pet. 1.2 Mr. Love his zealous Christian pag. 29. last part All the elect of God shall have the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the bloud of Christ upon their hearts sooner or later I do not press the having of these things gradually but sincerely an elect person may want many a degree of grace but if he have them in sincerity Dr. Sibbs his commentary on the first Chapter of the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians ver 22. pag. 491 492. though in the least measure it is a sufficient evidence of his election An earnest is little in regard of the whole perhaps we have but a shilling to secure us of many pounds so then the point is this That howsoever we may be assured of our estate in grace and likewise that we shall hold out yet the ground of this assurance is not from any great measure of grace but though t be little in quantity it may be great in assurance and security As we value an earnest not for the worth that is in it self but because it assures us of a great bargain we have an eye more to the consummation of the bargain than to the quantity of the earnest so it is here grace is but an earnest yet notwithstanding though it be little as an earnest is yet it is great in assurance and validity answerable to the relation of that it hath to assure us Though grace be little yet as little as it is seeing it is an earnest and the first fruits as the Apostle saith which were but little in regard of the whole harvest yet it is of the nature of the whole and thereupon it comes to secure A spark of fire is but little yet it is fire as well as the whole element of fire and a drop of water is but little yet it is water as well as the whole Ocean When a man is in a dark place put the case it be in a dungeon if he have but a â—ittle light shining into him from a little crevice that little light discovers that the day is broke that the Sun is risen Put the case there be but one grape on a Vine it shews that it is a Vine and that the Vine is not dead So put the case that there be but the appearance of a little grace in a Christian perhaps the Spirit of God appears but in one grace in him at that time yet that one grace sheweth that we are Vines and not thistles or thorns or base plants and it shews that there is life in the root Thus you see how fully this Reverend Doctor speaks to the case That friend that writes the life and death of Mr. John Marcol once Preacher of the Gospel at Dublin saith See his Treatise published by Mr. Winter Mr. Chambers Mr. Eaton Mr. Carryl and Mr. Mantou pag. 36 37. That in preparation for the Supper-Ordinance he would bring himself unto the Test and to say the truth was very clear in the discovering and making out his own condition being well acquainted with the way of Gods dealing with the soul and with the way of the souls closing with Christ Instance April 3. 1653. Upon search I find 1. My self an undone creature 2. That the Lord Jesus sufficiently satisfied as Mediator the Law for sin 3. That he is freely offered in the Gospel 4. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy heartily consent that he only shall be my Saviour not my works or duties which I do only in obedience to him 5. If I know my heart I would be ruled by his Word and Spirit Behold in a few words saith he that writes his life and death the sum and substance of the Gospel By these Instances we may see that some of the precious servants of God have found a great deal of comfort support rest content and some measure of assurance from a lower rank of evidences than those that many strong Christians do reach unto c. But The seventh Maxim or Consideration SEventhly consider That all men and women that are desirous to know how it will go with them in another world they must peremptorily resolve to be determined by Scripture in the great matters of their interest in Christ the blessed Scripture is the great uncontroverted Rule This we believe when we first begin to believe that we ought not to believe any thing beyond Scripture Tertullian and therefore if a person can prove from Scripture that his graces are true or that he is in a gracious estate or that he has an interest in Christ or that he has sayingly graciously stricken Covenant with God then he must resolutely and peremptorily resolve to grant so much as unchangably to acquiesce in it to stick fast to it and to hear nothing against it from the world the flesh or the devil God hath plainly told us in his blessed Word who shall be saved and who shall be damned though not by name yet by the qualifications by which they are described in the Bible there are the Statute-Laws of heaven and the standing Rule by which all must be tryed every man must stand or fall be eternally blessed or eternally miserable as his condition is consonant to or various from the infallible characters of saving grace contained in the holy Scripture witness that Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light or no morning in them So John 12.48 He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day Mat. 5.18 For verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass on jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled So John 10.35 And the Scripture cannot be broken or violated or made void but though this be an indispensable duty yet certainly there is especially in
the God of mercy such who shew most mercy to them to whom God shews most mercy these are blessed and shall obtain mercy Now mark to such who are thus graciously thus spiritually thus divinely merciful do these precious promises belong Psal 41.1 Blessed is the man that considereth the poor and needy Prov. 22.9 He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed for he giveth of his bread to the poor Prov. 14.21 He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth but he that hath mercy on the p or happy is he Prov. 11.25 The liberal soul shall be made fâ—t and â—he that watereth shall be watered also himself That 2 Cor. 9.8 is very remarkable And God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye alwayes having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work Behold how words are here heaped up to make grace and all grace and all grace to abound and who is it to unto the liberal man the merciful man Job 29.13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy Luke 6.38 Give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom Behold and wonder at the height of these expressions that you have in this Text we account it good measure when it is heaped up but when it is heaped up and pressed down that 's more but when it 's heaped up and pressed down and then heaped up and running over again this is as much as possible can be made this is as much as heart can wish O Sirs those that are of merciful spirits they shall have mercy heaped up pressed down and running over certainly that man must needs be in a happy and blessed condition that can be in no condition wherein he shall not have mercy yea mercy heaped up and running over to supply all his necessities Mat. 25.35 Come ye blessed of my father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world Come ye blessed that 's their estate receive the kingdom that 's the issue and reward and why so I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink c. But I am truly and graciously merciful therefore I am blessed and shall obtain mercy c. But Thirteenthly A godly man may argue thus They that are pure in heart are blessed and shall see God that is enjoy him and live for ever with him Mat. 5.8 But I am pure in heart therefore I am blessed and shall see God By the pure in heart here in the Text we may safely understand the sincere and single hearted Christian 1 Tim. 1.5 Jam. 1.8 1 Pet. 1.22 Prov. 20.6 Eccl. 2.21 1 John 1.8 James 10.3 John 3.2 Luke 1.5 6. in opposition to the double minded Christian as you may easily perceive by comparing the Scriptures in the margent together Mark purity is two-fold First simple and absolute and in this sense no man is pure in this life no not one Secondly respective and in part and that is the purity here meant A pure heart is a plain simple heart without fraud or guile like Nathaniel in whom there was no gâ—ile 't is a heart that is evangelically blameless and sincere But secondly purity is opposed to mixture purity consists in the immixedness of any thing inferior that metal we account pure metal which hath not any baser than it self mixed with it if you mix gold with silver the silver is not made impure by the mixture of gold but if you mix lead or tin with it it 's made impure Remember once for all viz. that a pure heart is such a one as hath cast off and cast out the love and allowance of every known sin and mingles not with it though never so small such a heart as hath renounced every known way of sin though there is corruption remaining in it c. yet it can solemnly and seriously appeal to God that there is no known way of sin but it hates and abhors and strives against and will upon no terms allow of This heart in the language of the Gospel is a pure heart yea 't is such a heart as dares venture upon the trial of God himself Psal 139.23 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me or any way of pain or of grief or of provocation as the Hebrew hath it or any course of sin that is grievous to God or man A gracious heart a pure heart can neither allow of any way of wickedness nor wallow in any way of wickedness nor make a trade of any way of wickedness nor give up it self to any way of wickedness Though sin may cleave to a pure heart as dross doth to silver yet a pure heart will not mix nor mingle with sin and lead me in the way everlasting or in the way of eternity or in the way of antiquity as the Hebrew hath it that is Jâ—r 6.16 that good old way that leads to peace and rest to heaven and happiness Evangelical purity of heart lies in this that it will not admit any known sin to mingle with the frame and purpose of the heart a pure heart like a pure fountain will still be a working and a casting out the mud and filth that is in it Though sin may cleave to a regenerate man as dross doth to the silver yet it mingles not with the regenerate part nor the regenerate part mingles not with it no more than oyl mingles with the water or water mingles with the oyl Now you know though the water and the oyl touch one another yet they do not mingle one with another so though grace and sin in a regenerate man may as it were touch one another yet they don't mingle one with another Dear hearts look as we truly say that that gold is pure gold that is digged out of the Mineral though much dross may hang about it and as we truly say that such and such an Air is pure Air though at times there be many fogs and mists within it and as we truly say that such and such springs are pure springs though mud and dirt and filth may be lying at the bottom of those springs and as we truly say that face is a fair face though it hath some freckles in it so we may as truly say that such and such a heart is a pure heart though there may be much sinful dross and filth cleaving to it The Jews report that when Noah sent forth his sons to people the world he delivered to every one of them some Reliques of old Adam it may be fabulous for the history but 't is true in the morality the Reliques of his sinful corruptions cleaves close to us all Beloved the best the wisest the holiest and the most mortified Christians on
earth Rom. 7.22 23. do carry about with them a body of sin and death they have in them a fountain of original corruption and from this fountain sin will still be arising bubling and a boyling up as the scum in a pot over the fire but mark as in wine or honey or water though scum and filth may arise yet the wine the honey the water will be still a purging and purifying it self and a working and casting it out so though sin though corruption though spiritual filth may and too often doth arise in a gracious heart yet there is a spring of grace a spring of living water in him John 4.14 All resistance of sin in a Scripture phrase is called conquest for in the resistance of it there is as much love shew'd to God as in the conquest of it though there be not so much power seen there is a holy cleansing and purifying disposition in a regenerate person that will still be a working and casting it out But now mark in men of impure hearts and lives the scum doth not only arise but it seeths and boyls in Ezek. 24.12 She wearied her self with lyes and her great scum went nâ—t f râ—h out of her notwithstanding all the threatnings of God and all the judgments of God upon her yet her scum and filthiness boyled in though God boyled Jerusâ—lem in the pot of his judgments yet her scum and filth stuck to every side of her wicked mens scum and filth doth not only arise but it also seeths and boyls in and mingles together with their spirits but so doth not the scum and filth that rises in a gracious heart a Sheep may fall into the mire but a Swine delights to wallow in the mire But Fourteenthly A godly man may argue thus Such as sin hath not a dominion over are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 But sin hath not a domiâ—ion over me therefore I am not under the Law but under grace Sin may rebel in a Saint but it shall never reign in a Saint Look as those beasts in that Dan. 7.12 had their dominion taken away though their lives were spared and prolonged for a season and a time so when Christ and grace enters into the soul they take away the dominion of sin though they do for a time spare the life of sin To prevent mistakes premise with me briefly these few things First Rom. 7. that in every regenerate man there are two men an old man and a new man or if you please flesh and spirit Secondly The old man the fleshly part will incline the soul and byass the soul as well to sins against the Gospel as to sins against the Law and to great sins as well as to small sins witness Noah's drunkenness Lot's incest Assur's oppression David's murder and adultery Solomon's idolatry and Peters blasphemy Thirdly The old man the fleshly part is as much in the will as in any other part of the regenerate man and therefore when he falls into hainous sins he may fall into them with consent delight and willingness so far as his will is unrenewed 1 Thes 5 22. Though a real Christian be chang'd in every part yet 't is but in part and imperfect Fourthly The old man the fleshly part is in a regenerate mans members as well as in his will and therefore they may be exercised and imployed in and about those sins they have consented unto Fifthly High sinnings do waste and wound the conscience of a regenerate man and lay him open to the sore rebukes of God and call for great repentance and fresh and frequent applications of the bloud of Christ These things being premised a Question may be propounded viz. Quest What does the dominion of sin import and wherein does it consist Now to this considerable question I shall give these eight following Answers First Sin is in dominion when it hath the absolute and soveraign commaâ—â— of the soul when it hath an uncontradicted power when it hath such an authority in the soul to command it as a King doth his subjects or as the Centurion did his servants Mat. 8.9 For I am a man under authority having soldiers under me and I say to this man go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doth it Now when sin has such a universal and easie authority and command over the whole man body and soul as that it can use them in the service of sin when and where and how it pleaseth then sin is in dominion where there is a peaceable Eph. 2.2 3. uncontrouled willing universal subjection of the whole man unto the commands of sin there sin reigns But Secondly Sin is in dominion when in a course when ordinarily there is a quiet free willing and total yielding of subjection to the authority Law and command of sin Mark 't is a full possession a plenary delight and a constant content in sin Rom. 6.13 14 15 16. that speaks out the reign and dominion of sin Dominion of sin imports a compleat and universal resignation of the whole will and man to the obedience of it That man that is wholly addicted and devoted to the wayes of sin that man is under the reign of sin that man whose whole heart is universally married to his lusts that man is under the dominion of his lusts when a man does as freely cheerfully universally and readily obey his lusts Eph. 2.3 1 King 21.25 Micah 7.3 A man may be subjects as a captive in this or that particular tyranny of sin who is not obedient as a servant to all the government of sin for that takes iâ— the whole will and an adequate submission thereof to the peaceable and uncontrouled power of sin Rom. 7.15 19 23 as a child does his father or a wife her husband or a servant his Master or a subject his Prince then sin is in dominion when a man sins with greediness when with Ahab he sells himself to work wickedness when he commits wickedness with both hands when he gives himself up or over to all uncleanness and filthiness when he freely and voluntarily resigns and surrenders up his body and soul to the obedience of sin then sin reigns then it keeps the throne where the dominion of sin is erected there it sits in the heart as a King in his Throne and gives forth its Laws and commands to the soul and body and those commands are listned and consented to approved and delighted in c. A subject can't in a course more freely willingly universally and cheerfully obey the commands of his Prince than a sinner doth in a course freely willingly universally and cheerfully obey the commands of his lasts and where ever this sad temper of spirit is there is sin in dominion But now mark The Apostle as Chrysostom and Theodoret observe on Rom. 6.12 doth not say Let not sin tyrannize for
to do worse than the Dâ—vils â—â—r they believe and tremble Though the word of the Lord desâ—rves the greatest credit that any mortals can give unto it he being truth it self that hath said it though it had no Oaths nor no Asseverations to be its surety yet God in his infinite condescending love to poor sinners that he may sink the truth of what he saith deeper into the hearts and minds of his people and leave the fairer and fuller print in our assents to the same he sets on the word of Promise with the weight of Asseverations and Oaths yea and to all these he hath annexed his Broad Seal the Lords Supper and the Privy Seal of his Spirit O unreasonable unbelief shall not the Oath of God silence all Disputes A man would never desire of any honest man so much as God hath condescended to for the confirmation of our Faith witness his Promises his Covenant his Oath and his Seals and therefore let us give glory to him by believing and quietly rest upon his faithfulness O Sirs that soul that dares not take his sanctification as an evidence yea as a choice and sure evidence of his interest in Christ and of the Lords precious love to him according to the Promises of his favour and Grace several of which hath been but now under consideration that Soul ought to acknowledg it as his sin yea as his great sin for which he deserves to be smartly rebuked as making God a loud Lyar. O my friends it is a spiritual peevishness and sinful crossness that keeps many good men and women long in a sad dark doubting perplexed and disconsolate condition and certainly 't is no small sin to set light by any work of the blessed Spirit and the joy comfort and peace that we might have by it ah how many are there that fear the Lord who quench grieve vex and provoke the holy Spirit by denying his work and by quarrelling against themselves and the blessed work of the Spirit in them Certainly 't is the duty of every Christian to hear as well what can be said for him as what can be said against him Many poor Psal 77.2 Psal 88. Job 15.11 chap. 16.8 9. weak and yet sincere Chr stians are often apt to be too sowre rigid and bitter against their own souls they love to practise a merciless severity against themselves they do not indifferently impartially consider how the case stands between God and their own souls It is in this case as Solomon speaks in another There is that maketh himself rich Prov. 13.7 Ever since man ceased to be what he should be he striveth to seem to be what he is not It is not the outward shew that shews what things are and yet hath nothing And there is that maketh himself poor and yet hath great Riches That is there be those in the world that pretend they are rich and make a shew before men as if they were men of great estates whereas indeed they are exceeding poor and needy There are not a few that stretch their wing beyond their nest that bear a port beyond their Estates that trick up themselves with other mens plumes laying it on above measure in cloaths in high entertainments in stately Buildings in great Attendance c. when not worth one groat in all the World but either they dye in Prison or lay the key under the door or compound for twelve pence in the pound c. And there are others again that are exceeding rich and wealthy and yet feign themselves and look upon themselves to be very poor and needy To apply this spiritually 'T is the damning sin of the self-flattering Hypocrite Rev. 3.17 to make himself rich to make himself significant to make his condition better than 't is And it is the vanity the folly of some sincere Christians to make their condition worse than indeed it is to make themselves more miserable and unhappy than indeed they are Ah Christians 't is sad with you tâ—s night with you when you read over the evidences of Gods love to your souls as a man does a Book which he intends to confute Is it not sad when Christians shall study hard to find evasions to wheel off all those comforts refreshings cheerings and supports that are tendered to them that are due to them and that they may upon Gospel-grounds justly claim as their portion as their inheritance And O that all such Christians would seriously and frequently lay to heart these eight things First that they highly dishonour the blessed God and the work of his Grace by denying that which he hath done for them and wrought in them Secondly they are spiritual Murderers they are self-Murderers they are soul-Murderers for by this means they stab and wound their own precious souls and Consciences through and through with many a deadly dart Now is there any Murder like to spiritual Murder to self-Murder to soul-Murder surely no. But Thirdly They are Thieves for by this means they rob their own precious souls of that joy peace comfort rest content assurance and satisfaction which otherwise they might enjoy Now there is no theft to spiritual theft and of all spiritual theft there is none to that which reaches the precious and immortal soul Mark all prevalent Disputes about our personal integrity they do hold off the Application and tasts of comfort though they do not disanul the title and right Even the good man will walk uncomfortably so long as he concludes and strongely fears that his Estate is sinful for sensible comfort riseth or falleth cometh on or goeth off according to the strength of our judgment and present apprehensions observe it is not what indeed our estate is but what we judg of it which breeds in us sensible comfort or discomfort a false heart may even break with a timpany of foolish joy upon an erring perswasion oâ— his estate and so may a sound sincere heart be very heavy and disconsolate upon an unsound misconstruction and judging of its true condition But Fourthly They bear false witness against Christ his Spirit their own Souls and the work of Grace that is wrought in them O how many dark doubting drooping Christians are there who if you could give them ten thousand worlds yet would never be brought to bear false witness against their poorest Neighbour Brother or Friend and that out of Conscience because of that Command Thou shalt not bear false witness c. who yet make no Conscience no bones of it frequently to bear witness against the Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious works upon their own hearts But Fifthly they joyn with Satan and his work and his suggestions and with that strong party he has in them against the Lord Jesus Christ and his work and his weak party in them See Mr. Dod on the Commandments p. 310 311. and p. 321 322 323 324. Sin is Satans work and Grace is Christs work Now how sad is it
honest thoughts such gracious thoughts of himself or of the goodness or happiness of his condition as he should entertain and as he would entertain if once he could but be too hard for the World the Flesh and the Devil O that you would remember this for ever viz. That the Lord never makes any Promises to support comfort cheer and encourage his people against their sadness darkness doubts and droopings but they shall support comfort cheer and encourage his poor people in that condition for otherwise the Lord should provide means for an end out of his infinite Wisdome love and tender care and compassion towards his people and yet they should never attain that end but thus to imagine is no small folly yea 't is little less than Blasphemy Well Sirs this is to be for ever remembred viz. That whatsoever gift or Grace of God in man brings him within the compass of Gods Promises of eternal favours and mercies that giâ—t that Grace must needs be an infallible sign or evidence of Salvation but such are the gifts and Graces specified in the fifteen particulars but now cited and therefore that Soul that really finds those gifts and Graces in himself or any of them shall certainly be saved But The Ninth Maxim or Consideration NInthly Consider this That in divers men there are divers degrees of Assurance and in one and the same gracious Soul there are different degrees of Assurance at divers times but there is in no man at any time in this life perfection of degrees for our understanding and knowledg in this Life is imperfect both as to the faculty and its acts 1 Cor. 13.12 For now we see through a glass darkly Gr. in a Riddle but then face to face Now I know in part but then shall I know even * As is not a note of equality but likeness so that the sense may be this look as God knoweth me after a manner agreeable to his infinite excellency so shall I know God according to my capacity not obscurely but perfectly as it were face to face as also I am known A clear distinct immediate full and perfect knowledg of God is desirable on earth but we shall never attain to it till we come to Heaven this Well is deep and for the most part we want a Bucket to draw withal the best of men can better tell what God is not than what he is the most acute and judicious in Divine knowledg have and must acknowledg their ignorance witness that great Apostle Paul who learned his Divinity among the Angels and had the Holy Ghost for his immediate Tutor yet he confesses that he knew but in part certainly there is no man under heaven that hath such a perfect compleat and full assurance of his Salvation in an ordinary way as that one degree cannot be added to the former Neither is there any repugnancy in asserting an infallible assurance and denying a perfect assurance for I infallibly know that there is a God and that this God is holy just and true and yet I have no perfect knowledg of a Deity nor of the holiness justice and truth of God for in this life the most knowing man knows but in part Dear friends in the Church of Christ there are Believers of several growths there are Fathers young men Children and Babes 1 John 1.13 14. 1 Pet. 2.2 And as in most families there are commonly more Children and Babes than grown men so in the Church of Christ there are commonly more weak staggering doubting Christians than there are strong ones grown up to a full assurance Some think that as soon as they be assured they must needs be void of all fears and filled with all joy in believing but this is a real mistake for glorious and ravishing joy is a separable accident from Assurance nor yet doth Assurance exclude all doubts and fears but only such doubts and fears as ariseth from infidelity and reigning hypocrisy But The Tenth Maxim or Consideration TEnthly Consider we have no ground from Scripture to expect that God should either by a Voice from Heaven or by sending an Angel from about his Throne or by any glorious apparitions or strong impressions or by any extraordinary way of Revelations assure us that we do believe or that our Grace is true or that our interest in God and Christ is certain or that our pardon is sealed in Heaven or that we are in a justified state and that we shall be at last undoubtedly saved O no! But we are to use all those blessed helps and means that are appointed by God and common to all Believers for the obtaining of a particular Assurance that we are Believers and that our state is good and that we have a special propriety in Christ and in all the fundamental good that comes by him Mark he that will receive no establishment no comfort no peace no assurance except it be administred by the hand of an Angel and witnessed to by some Voice from Heaven c. will certainly live and dye without establishment comfort peace or assurance Gregory tells us of a Religious Lady of the Empresses Bed-Chamber Vide Gregorii Epistolae á Lapide in 8. ad Rom. v. 16. whose name was Gregoria that being much troubled about her Salvation did write unto him That she should never cease importuning of him till he had sent her word that he had received a Revelation from Heaven that her sins were pardoned and that she was saved To whom he returned this Answer That it was a hard and altogether a useless matter which she required of him It was difficult for him to obtain as being unworthy to have the secret Counsels of God to be imparted to him and it was as unprofitable for her to know and that first because such a Revelation might make her too secure and secondly because it was impossible for him to demonstrate and make known unto her or any other the truth and infallibility of the Revelation which he had received to be from God so that should she afterwards call into question the truth of it as well she might her troubles and doubtings concerning her Salvation would have been as great as they were before O therefore let all Believers that would have sure establishment sound comfort lasting Peace and true and sweet assurance of the love of God and of their interest in Christ c. take heed of flying unto Revelations Visions or Voices from Heaven to assure them of their Salvation and of the love of God and of their interest in Christ c. If you who are advantaged to consult H story please to do it you will find upon Record that where one hath been mistaken about searching his own heart and trying his wayes and observing the frame and temper of his own spirit many hundreds have been eternally deceived and deluded by Voices Visions Apparitions Revelations 2 Thes 2.9 10 11 12. and strange impulses and strong
not for as many worlds as there be men in the world change conditions with them But Fifthly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that they don't sin because there is not a just man upon the earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles 7.20 And because no man can say I have made my heart clean 1 John 3.6 8 9 10. I am pure from my sin Prov. 20.9 And because in many things we offend all James 3.2 And because if we say We have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 John 1.8 yet they dare say that they would not willingly wilfully wickedly resolutely maliciously and habitually sin against the Lord to gain the whole World though they dare not say they don't sin yet they dare say if they might have their choice they would never dishonour God more nor Crucify the Lord of glory more nor grieve the Spirit of Grace more nor wound Conscience more nor cloud the face of God more nor darken their evidences for Heaven more nor interrupt their communion with God more c. But Sixthly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that God is their God or that Christ is their Redeemer or that the Spirit is their Comforter yet they dare say that if God and Christ and the Spirit and grace and glory and holiness and happiness were offered to them on the one hand and all the honours pleasures profits delights and carnal contents of the World were offered them on the other hand they had ten thousand times rather Cant. 5.10 Deut. 26.17 Psal 73.25 Phil. 3.6 7 8. they had infinitely rather choose God and Christ the Spirit grace holiness everlasting happiness than the contrary Look as Rachel cryed out Give me Water or I dye So these poor hearts are stil crying out O Lord give me thy self or I dye Give me thy Christ or I dye Give me thy Spirit and Grace or I dye Give me pardon of sin or I dye Lift up the light of thy Countenance upon me or I dye Bring me under the bond of the Covenant or I dye O Lord let all these things be done or I am undone and that for ever Lord let the men of this World take the World and divide it among themselves let me but enjoy thy self thy Christ thy love and I shall say my Lot is fallen to me in a pleasant place and verily I have a goodly heritage Psal 16.5 6. But Seventhly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that they have Grace in their own hearts yet they dare say that they dearly love Acts 11.23 Psal 15.4 Psal 16.3 Lam. 4.2 1 Thess 1.2 3. Heb. 11.38 and highly honour and greatly prize the Graces of the Spirit which they see sparkling and shining in the hearts and lives and lips of other Saints And they dare say that there are no men in all the world that are so precious so lovely so worthy and so honourable in their eyes or so high in their esteems as those who have the Image of God of Christ of holiness most clearly fairly and fully stampt upon them But Eighthly Though poor doubting trembling Christians dare not say that they have such strength and power against their sins as they would have or as they should have or as many of the dear Saints of God have who often lead Captivity Captive Psal 65.3 Gal. 5.14 yet they dare say that when the Lord is pleased now and then by his Spirit Power Word Grace c. to help them though it be but a little against their sins to help them in any measure to subdue their sins or to assist them to bring any one sin or another to an under or to arm them against any temptations occasions or provocations to sin there are no such times or seasons of joy comfort delight refreshing and content to their Souls as these are The language of their Souls in such a day as this is is this O that it might be alwayes thus with us O that every day we might lead Captivity Captive O that every day we might have our lusts at an under O that every day we might triumph over the old man O that every day one lust or another might fall before the power the Spirit the presence the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ But Ninthly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that they make so much advantage Psal 4.3 Psal 66.19 20. Psal 138.3 Lam. 3.55 56 57 58. so much earnings of the Sermons they hear or of the Prayers they make or of the Scriptures they read or of the communion of Saints that they enjoy as others do yet they dare say that they would not for all the World cast off Praying or Hearing or Reading or the Communion of Saints and give up themselves to the wayes of sin and Satan and the World But Tenthly and lastly Though poor doubting staggering trembling Christians dare not say that Christ is their Saviour yet they dare say that they desire and endeavour to honour Christ as their Lord though they cannot see Christ bestowing himself on them as their Redeemer John 20. â—8 yet they are willing to make a resignation of themselves up to him as their King they are willing to resign up their hearts and lives to the Government of Jesus Christ though they cannot find comfort yet they will oppose sin though they cannot comprehend Christ yet they will not willingly offend Christ though they cannot see their own propriety in Christ yet they desire nothing more than that Christ may claim a propriety in them though they cannot see Christ as a friend yet they can look upon sin as an enemy though they cannot close with the Promises yet they will close with the Precepts though they cannot close with the Priviledges of a Christian yet they will close with the Services of a Christian though they cannot share in the comforts of a Christian yet they will side with the duties of a Chrâ—stian though they cannot clear up their interest in Christ yet they are willing to yield subjection to Christ though they want strength to throw themselves into the arms of Christ to save them yet they will cast themselves at the feet of Christ to serve him though they want the light of comfort and consolation yet they will walk in the light of commands and directions Isa 50.10 All men will grant that these ten things are strong probabilit es of Grace but give me leave to say that they are withouâ— all controversy most sure sound solid and infallible evidences of true Grace and of an interest in Christ and Salvation and therefore all those poor doubting staggering and trembling Christians that find all these or any of these ten things in their own Souls they ought for ever to bless the Lord and speak well of his Name upon these accounts And therefore O
of Dispensations in his dealings with a man When God sets a man up before all the world as a mark to shoot at as he did Job Now a poor Christian is ready to doubt and conclude Job 7.20 c. 16.12 Surely the Lord has no regard of me he has no entire love for me his heart is not certainly towards me seeing all these sore tryals make so much against me but here the poor Christian is mistaken as Jacob once was Gen 42.36 And Jacob their Father said unto them Me have ye bereaved of my children Joseph is not and Simeon is not and ye will take Benjamin away all these things are against me Gen. 45.5 6 7 8 9. But Jacob was out for all those things made for him and for the preservation of the visible Church of God in the World Certainly all the afflictions that befall the people of God Rev. 3.19 Heb. 12.5 6. are but his love-tokens As many as I love I rebuke and chasten and therefore those Christians are miserably mistaken that take them for testimonies of his wrath and effects of his disfavour O Sirs what can be more absurd displeasing and provoking than for a Christian to make that an Argument of Gods hatred that he intends for an instance of his love and yeâ— Christians are apt thus to act It is observable the Apostle reckons affliction amongst Gods honoraries and tokens of respect Judg. 6.12 13. Exod. 17.7 Phil. 1.29 For to you t is given saith he not only to believe but also to suffer Which saith Father Latymer is the greatest promotion that God gives in this world Job 7.17 18. Job when he was himself could not but admire at it that God should make such an account of man and that he should so magnify him and dignify him as to think him worthy of a rod a whiping as to think him worth a melting Prov. 1.32 Psal 73.5 Eccles 9.1 2. and trying every morning yea every moment T is certain that great prosperity and worldly glory are no sure tokens of Gods love and t is as certain that great troubles and afflictions are no sure marks of Gods hatred and yet many poor Christians when the waters of affliction rise high and are ready to overflow them O how apt are they to conclude that God hates them and will revenge himself upon them and that they have nothing of God or Christ or the Spirit or Grace in them Or 5. Lam. 1.16 When the Spirit the Comforter stands afar off and witholds those special influences without which in a common ordinary way a Christian cannot divinely candidly clearly and impartially transact with God in order to his own peace comfort and settlement Or 6. When either a Christians evidences are not at hand or else they are so soiled darkned blotted and obscured as that he is not able to read them Psal 88. Job 33.10 It is an old saying that Melancholia est vehiculum Daemonum In the German proverb Luther sayes it goes for currant Caput Melancholicum diaboli Balneum The melancholy head is the Devils bathing place Or 7. When a Christian is extreamly opprest with melancholy Melancholy is a dark and dusky humor which disturbs both Soul and body and the cure of it belongs rather to the Physitian than to the Divine It is a most pestilent humor where it abounds one calls it Balneum Diaboli the Devils Bath t is a humor that unfits a man for all sorts of services but especially those that concern his soul his spiritual estate his everlasting condition The Melancholy person tyres the Physitian grieves the Minister wounds Relations and makes sport for the Devil There are 5 sorts of persons that the Devil makes his Ass to ride in triumph upon viz. the ignorant person the unbelieving person the proud person the hypocritical person and the Melancholy person Melancholy is a disease that works strange passions strange imaginations and strange conclusions It unmans a man it makes a man call good evil and evil good sweet bitter and bitter sweet light darkness and darkness light The distemper of the body oftentimes causeth distemper of soul for the Soul followeth the temper of the body A Melancholy spirit is a dumb spirit you can get nothing out of him Mat. 9.28 29. It is no more wonder to see a Melancholy man doubt and question his spiritual condition than it is to see a child cry when he is beaten or to hear a sick man groan or to hear a drowning man call out for a boat You may silence a Melancholy man when you are not able to comfort him Whilest Nebuchadnezzar was under the power of a deep Melancholy he could not tell whether he was a man or a Beast Melancholy is the mother of fears doubts disputes and discomforts and a deaf spirit you can get nothing into him Now of all the evil spirits we read of in the Gospel the dumb and the deaf were the worst darkness sadness solitariness heaviness mourning c. are the only sweet desirable and delightful companions of melancholy persons Melancholy makes every sweet bitter and every bitter seven times more bitter the melancholy person is marvellously prone to bid sleep farewel and joy farewel and meat farewel and friends farewel and Ordinances farewel and duties farewel and Promises farewel and Ministers farewel and his Calling farewel and t is well if he be not even ready to bid God farewel too Melancholy persons are like Idols that have eyes but see not and tongues but speak not and ears but hear not Melancholy turns truths into Fables and fables into truths it turns fancies into realities and realities into fancies Melancholy is a fire that burns inwards and is hard to quench Now if a Christian be under the power of natural or accidental Melancholy his work is not now to be a trying his estate or a casting up of his accounts to see what he is worth for another world but to use all such wayes and means as God hath prepared in a natural way for the cure of Melancholy for as the Soul is not cured by natural causes so the body is not cured by spiritual Remedies Now in the seven cases last mentioned a Christians work lyes rather in mourning self-judging self-loathing self-abhorring and in repenting and reforming and in fresh and frequent exercises of Faith on the Lord Jesus on his Blood on his Promises and on his free rich sovereign and glorious Grace â—hat is displayed and offered in the Gospel and in a patient waiting upon the Lord in the use of all holy and heavenly helps for deliverance out of his present straits tâ—yals and exercises then in falling upon that great work of casting up his spiritual accounts and of searching into the Records of glory to see whether his name be Registred in the Book of Life or no. O Sirs when poor Christians are bewildered their proper work is to cast themselves upon the
of an upright man is to depart from evil 't is possible for an upright man to step into a sinful path or to touch upon sinful facts but his main way his principal work and business is to depart from iniquity As a Bee may light upon a Thistle but her work is to be gathering at Flowers or as a Sheep may slip into the dirt but its work is to be grasing on the Mountains or in the Meadows Certainly there is no man in the world so abominable wicked but that he may now and then when he is in a good mood or when he is under distress of Conscience or bleeding under a smarting rod or beholding the hand-writing upon the Wall or under a sentence of death depart from evil but this is not his course this is not his business this is not his work this is not his highway Thieves do but now and then step into the Kings Highway to take a purse they do not keep the Kings Highway But now the upright mans Highway his common and ordinary course is to depart from evil and therefore he cannot allow himself liberty to walk in an evil way Titus 2.11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men without distinction of Nations Sex Age or condition teaching us that denying ungodlyness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Under the name of ungodliness he compriseth all the breaches of the first Table and under the name of worldly lusts he compriseth all inordinate desires against the second Table and those three words soberly righteously and godly have a threefold reference the first to our selves the second to our neighbour and the third to God We must live soberly in respect of our selves righteously in respect of our neighbours and godly in respect of God And this is the sum of a Christians whole duty Now if the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation teaches Saints to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts then certainly Saints that are taught by that Grace cannot live nor allow themselves in ungodliness or worldly lusts without all peradventure Heaven is for that man and that man is for Heaven that can appeal to Heaven that he allows not himself in the practice of any known sin Thus David did Search me O Lord sayes he and know my heart Psal 13â— 24 try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me 'T is a most sure sign that sin hath not gained a mans heart nor consent but committed a rape upon his Soul when he allows not himself in it but cryes out bitterly to God against it as Paul did Rom. 7. If the ravished Virgin under the Law cryed out she was guiltless Deut. 22.25 26 27. Certainly such as cry out of their sins and that would not for all the world allow themselves in a way of sin such are guiltless before the Lord. That which a Christian does not allow himself in that he does not do in divine account c. But now the whole Trade the whole life of formal and carnal Christians is nothing else but one continued web of wickedness there is no wicked unregenerate person in the world but lives in the daily practice of some known sin or other but allows himself in some Trade or way of wickedness or other as you may evidently see by comparing of these following Scriptures together Prov. 1.20 to 33. Jer. 5.3 Jer. 44.16 17 18 19. Jer. 9.3 4 5 6. Jer. 7.8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. Psal 50.16 17. Isa 66. 3. Matth. 7.23 Rom. 6.12 13 19. Rom. 8.5 Luke 13.27 Ephes 2.2 3. Phil. 4.19 Titus 3.3 2 Pet. 2.14 Sin is a sinners absolute work it is his main work and the sinner is besides himself besides his Calling as it were when he is besides his sin Fifthly He that conflicts most with heart-sins and is most affected with spiritual sins Psal 19.12 Psal 119.113 I hate vain thoughts Psal 30.6 7. Isa 64.7 and that laments and mourns most over secret sins invisible sins sins that lye most hid and remote from the eyes of the World he is certainly a gracious soul Grace in truth and grace in power will rise and conflict and make head against the most inward and secret vanities of the Soul as against secret self-self-love and secret hardness of heart Isa 63.17 and secret unbelief Mark 9.24 and secret carnal confidence and secret hypocrisie and secret envy and secret malice and secret vain-glory and secret fretting and murmuring and secret lustings and secret runnings out of the Soul after the meat that perisheth and secret pride hence Hezekiah humbles himself for the pride of his heart 2 Chron. 32.25 2 Sam. 24.10 Psal 42.11 and so David he humbles himself for the pride of his heart in numbring of the people And how does the same Prophet chide himself for sinful dejection of spirit Psal 73.22 Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquited in me And how does he at another time be-fool himself and be-beast himself for his secret grudging and fretting at the prosperity of the wicked So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee And so Paul was most affected and afflicted with a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind Inward pollutions and defilements did sit closest and sadest upon his spirits And the same Apostle in that 2 Cor. 7.1 is for keeping down the filthiness of the spirit as well as the filthiness of the flesh he is for inward cleansing as well as for outward cleansing Rom. 7.22 23 24. Having therefore these Promises dearly beloved let as cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God So Mr. Bradford was a man that had attained to so great and eminent a heighth of holiness that Doctor Taylor the Martyr calls him That Saint of God John Bradford and yet O how sadly does he bewail his secret hypocrisy True Grace makes opposition as well against the being of sin in a mans nature Col. 3.5 as against the breakings out of sin in a mans life True Grace will make head against the corruptions of the heart as well as against the excursions of the feet 't is as willing and desirous to be rid of a polluted heart as 't is willing and desirous to be rid of a polluted hand It would fain have not only sinful acts but also sinful dispositions and not only irregular actions but also inordinate affections mortified and subdued O friends heart-sins are root-sins they are the springs that set all the wheels a going the Fountain that sets all the streams a running the fire that sets the Furnace a smoaking the Bellows that sets the fire a burning Certainly a proud heart hath more of Satan in it than a proud look and a wanton heart is more vile than a wanton eye
Rev. 22.17 And let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Augustin Where there are sincere desires of grace there are the seeds of grace the conception of grace the buds of grace Sincere desires of grace are those holy seeds those divine beginnings of grace in the soul out of which grace springs and grows up to its measure and perfection O Sirs look as no man can sincerely seek God in vain so no man can sincerely desire grace in vain A man may love gold yet not have it but no man loveth God but is sure to have him Wealth a man may desire and yet be never the neerer for it but grace no man ever sincerely desired and missed it And why it is God that hath wrought this desire in the heart and he will never frustrate the desire that himself hath there wrought let no man say I have no faith no repentance no love no fear of God no sanctifying no saving grace in me Doth he see a want of those things in himself yes that is it which so grieves him that he cannot love God stand in awe of him trust in his mercy repent of sin as he should yea but doth he seriously and unfeignedly desire to do thus yes he desires it above all things in the world and would be willing as it were to buy even with a whole world the least measure or dram or drop only of such grace Now let me ask him who is it that hath wrought this desire in him Not the Devil for he would rather quench it than kindle it in him not his own corruption for that is naturally averse to every thing that is good it must needs then be the work of the Spirit of God who works in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure and who pronounceth all them blessed that thus desire after grace Kemnitius Ursini Catechis When I have a good desire saith one though it doth scarcely shew it self in some little slender sigh I must be assured that the Spirit of God is present and worketh his good work Wicked men do not desire the grace of the holy Spirit whereby they may resist sin and therefore they are justly deprived of it for he that earnestly desireth the holy Ghost hath it already because this desire of the spirit cannot be but from the Spirit Taffnies Book of the marks of Gods children Our faith saith another may be so small and weak as it doth not yet bring forth fruits that may be lively felt in us but if they which feel themselves in such an estate desire to have these feelings namely of God's favour and love if they ask them of God's hands by prayer this desire and prayer are testimonies that the Spirit of God is in them and that they have faith already for is such a desire a fruit of the flesh or of the Spirit it is of the holy Spirit who bringeth it forth only in such as he dwells in c. Then those holy desires and prayers being the motions of the holy Ghost in us are testimonies of our faith although they seem to us small and weak As the woman that feeleth the moving of a child in her body though very weak assureth her self that she hath conceived and that she goeth with a live child So if we have these motions these holy affections and desires before mentioned let us not doubt but that we have the holy Ghost who is the Author of them dwelling in us and consequently that we have also faith Again saith the same Author 1. If thou hast begun to hate and flie sin 2. If thou feelest that thou art displeased at thine infirmities and corruptions 3. If having offended God thou findest a grief and a sorrow for it 4. If thou desire to abstain from sin 5. If thou avoidest the occasions of sin 6. If thou doest thy endeavours against sin 7. If thou prayest to God to give thee grace all these holy affections proceeding from none other than from the Spirit of God Phil. 2.13 2 Cor. 8.10 12. ought to be as so many pledges and testimonies that he is in thee It is as impossible for us naturally to do the least good or to desire the least grace as 't is for a Toad to spit Cordials Sincere desires after God and Christ and Grace is sometimes the all that the people of God find in themselves This was all that Nehemiah could say of himself and the rest of his brethren Neh. 1.11 That they did desire to fear God's name And so the Church Isa 26.8 The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thy holiness And vers 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night So the Spouse Cant. 3.1 2 3. So David Psal 27.4 Psal 42.1 2. Psal 63.1 They must needs be sure of grace that have an unfeigned desire of it This is a Maxim that we must live and die with viz. That no man can truly desire grace but he that hath already grace certainly he that desireth grace hath grace to desire it It is an infallible sign that that man hath already some measure of grace that doth seriously desire to have it he would never seriously desire to fear God who stands not in some awe of him already nor he would never seriously desire to love God who has not in him some love to God already nor he would never seriously desire to believe who has not in him some faith already nor he would never seriously desire to repent that hath not repented already nor he would never seriously desire sanctifying grace whose heart in some measure is not already sanctified by the spirit of grace It is the very essence of righteousness saith one of the Ancients for a man to be willing to be righteous Angustine Pars magna bonitatis est vellâ— fieri boâ—um Sen. Ep. 34. And the poor Heathen could say It is a principal part of goodness for a man to be willing to be good It is natural for every one to desire his own natural good but to desire spiritual grace holiness sound sanctification faith unfeigned the true fear of God serious repentance c. is more than ever any natural man did or can do No man did ever desire to eat which had not eaten before nor no man did ever desire to believe that did not believe before all true desires after faith spring from faith as the root of them Certainly wicked men don't nor can't so much as desire saving grace Job 21.14 Isa 53.2 and that First Because grace is above the reach of nature 1 Cor. 2.14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned The water riseth no higher than the springs from whence it came so natural men can ascend no
higher than nature Spiritual things can neither be discerned nor desired but by those that are anointed with the eye-salve of the Spirit The natural man is dark and blind and he sees no beauty nor excellency in grace that he should desire it or be in love with it Man in his natural estate is without Eph. 2.12 There are five withou t s 1. Without Christ 2. Without the Church 3. Without the Promise 4. Without hope 5. Without God in the world Now every natural man being under these five withouts how is it possible that he should have any serious desires after grace Such is the corruption of our nature that if you propound any divine good to it it is entertained as fire by water or wet wood with hissing propound any evil then 't is like fire to straw 't is like the foolish Satyr that made hast to kiss the fire 't is like that unctious matter which Naturalists say sucks and snatches the fire to it with which it is consumed Rom. 8.7 The contrariety and enmity that is in every natural mans heart against God and Christ and grace and holiness may sufficiently satisfie us that the natural man is a meer stranger to serious and sincere desires after God or Christ or grace or the great things that belong to his everlasting peace Such sincere and serious desires as these Oh that Christ were mine Oh that I were married to his person Oh that I were cloathed with his righteousness Oh that my soul were adorned with his grace Oh that I was filled with his Spirit Oh that he would be my King to rule me and my Prophet to teach and instruct me and my Priest to make an atonement for me Oh that I might enjoy choice and high communion with him Oh that I might sin no more against him Oh that I may do nothing unworthy of him Oh that after death I might live for ever in the enjoyments of him c. I say such serious and sincere desires are not to be found in the natural mans breast Secondly Because grace is contrary to nature The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God Rom. 8.7 Fire cannot desire water nor water fire because they are contrary one expelling the other for either the water will quench the fire or else the fire will lick up the water So here nature would have a man love himself and seek himself and exalt himself but grace will have a man love God and seek God and exalt God c. Take nature when 't is most adorned enriched raised elevated c. yet then you shall find it at enmity with God and grace Ergo c. Thirdly Because grace is not only above nature and contrary to nature but it is even a hell to nature grace and holiness is a hell to a natural man See my Treatise on holiness page 64 65 66. Look as a glorified estate would be a hell to every wicked person Coelum est altera gehenna damnatorum saith one of the Ancients Heaven is another hell to the damned so would a gracious estate also Grace puts a man to take up the Cross of Christ to deny his natural self his sinful self his religious self his relative self and to give up a mans self to the strictest and exactest wayes of God and to crucifie his lusts and to pull out his right eye and to cut off his right hand c. And oh what hard work is this yea what a hell is this to nature c. Fourthly Wicked men don't nor can't so much as truly and seriously desire saving grace witness their daily withstanding and slighting the offers of grace Compare these Scriptures Prov. 1.20 ult Chap. 8.1 12. Ezek. 24.13 Mat. 23.37 Luke 19.41 42 c. Fifthly Wicked men don't nor can't so much as truly and seriously desire saving grace witness their common ordinary habitual provoking vexing quenching resisting and grieving of the spirit of grace Turn to these Scriptures Gen. 6.3 Isa 63.10 Act. 7.55 Eph. 4.30 Sixthly Wicked men don't nor can't truly and seriously desire saving grace witness that enmity hatred rage and madness that is in them against the Saints whose hearts and lives are enamel'd with grace Gen. 3.15 Psal 34.21 Psal 44.10 Job 31.29 Amos 5.10 c. I have read of a desperate wretch that when he came to die he gave good portions to all his children but one and to him he would give but twelve pence and being asked the reason of it he made answer he was a Puritan I have heard him say said his wretched father That he had a promise to live on let us now see whether a promise will maintain him or no. Certainly wherever there are true serious desires after grace there is a dear love to those upon whose hearts the work of grace is past Now by these short hints 't is evident enough that wicked men don't nor can't sincerely seriously desire grace certainly such that are poor in spirit and that mourn for their spiritual defects and that hunger and thirst after grace and holiness after a righteousness imparted and a righteousness imputed must confess themselves to be in a blessed estate and consequently in a state of grace for what true happiness is there out of it or else they must contradict our Saviour and charge truth it self with untruth who hath pronounced them blessed that are so qualified so affected Were this well weighed and seriously considered of how would it comfort refresh support and stay up many a troubled soul and what a well-spring of life would this be to many a wounded spirit Doubtless the greatest part of a Saints perfection in this life witness Pauls own ingenious confession after fourteen years conversion Rom. 7.15 18 19 21 22. say some and who ever went beyond him and how exceedingly do most fall short of him consisteth rather in will than in work and in desire and endeavour more than in deed There is so much good in good desires that it is the main that the godly have to speak of and to reckon of make an inventory of a Christians estate and search every room if you find not these you find nothing and if you set these down in the inventory you set down even all he is worth for another world Daniel is called a man of desires and so is every gracious man a man wholly made up of gracious desires Dan. 10 11. Mark God makes a judgment upon the sons of men according as their desires stand he that desires to steal he is a Thief in the account of God and he that desires to commit adultery he is an adulterer in the account of God and he that desires to oppress he is an oppressor in the account of God and he that desires to deceive he is a deceiver in the account of God and he that desires to persecute he is a persecutor in the account of God and he that desires to prophane the
magnificent ones noble ones glorious ones wonderful ones O Sirs there are some Saints that are magnificent in grace noble in grace glorious in grace wonderful in grace Now this is certain if grace be the true reason why we love any then the more excellent the more magnificent any are in grace Psal 15.4 the more highly we shall prize them and the more dearly we shall love them and the more abundantly in our hearts we shall honour them Look as grace rises higher and higher in the same person so we shall rise higher and higher in our love to the same person Dan. 9.23 John 21.20 Daniel was greatly beloved and Iohn was singularly beloved and why but because they were more eminently gracious than others were Where there is most grace there God is most honoured and there Christ is most exalted and there the Spirit is best pleased and there Religion is most adorned and there Satan is most dethroned and there the world is most conquered and there sin is most subdued and there duties are most exactly performed and therefore there the gracious soul can't but love best and most There are some that seem to love such and such godly men whose judgments are weak and light little and parts low and grace small who yet look with a squint eye an envious eye upon every Sun that outshines their own upon every ones graces and excellencies that are more sparkling than their own Though pride and envy have received their deaths-wound at the souls first conversion yet they are not quite slain in a believer there is an aptness even in real Saints Luk. 7.16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. to grudge and repine at those gifts graces and excellencies in others that outshine their own John's disciples muttered and murmured because Christ had more followers and admirers than John and that spirit that lived in John's disciples is still alive to this very day This is and this must be for a lamentation Well Sirs look as the fairest day hath its clouds the finest linnen its spots the richest jewels their flaws the sweetest fruits their worms so when many precious Christians are not themselves when they are in an hour of temptation when their corruptions are up and their graces down they may and too often do Num. 11.29 envy and repine at those graces excellencies and abilities that do over-cast cloud Heb. 12.15 darken and outshine their own The best of men are but men at the best and there is still those bitter roots of pride vain-glory self-self-love envy c. remaining in them that occasions their hearts to rise and swell yea sometimes to cast disgrace upon those excellencies in others that themselves want As that great man that could not write his own name Eusebius speaks of him in his Ecclesiastical Histâ—ry c. and yet called the liberal Arts A publick Poyson and Pestilence This spiritual disease is mostly to be found among Christians that are got into some of the highest forms in Christianity take your ordinary common Christians and they commonly rejoyce most where they see most grace And so do your Christians in a higher form too when they come to themselves and to make up their accounts and have wept over those cursed roots of bitterness that are so apt to be sprouting out Now there is no greater argument that our grace is true and that we do love others for grace sake than our loving them best that have most grace though they have but little of the world A pearl is rich if found on a dunghil though it may glister more when set in a ring of gold so many a poor believer is rich in grace and precious and glorious in the eye of Christ and should be so in ours though like Job he sits upon a dunghil though in the eyes of the world he may seem to glister most when adorned with riches honour and outward pomp If grace be the true reason why we love any person then the more grace that person hath the more we shall love him A godly man loves all that are godly but he loves them most that excel most in the power purity and practise of godliness c. But Sixthly and lastly True love to the Saints is constant 't is permanent John 13.1 15.12 c. 1 Cor. 13.8 Love never faileth Heb. 13.1 Let brotherly love continue 'T is a love like that of Christ's who loved his to the end 1 Joh. 4.16 He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Our love to our brother must not only lodge with us a night and away but we must dwell in brotherly love Look as our love must be sincere without hypocrisie so it must be constant without deficiency that love was never true that is not constant true love like the pulse will still be beating it will still be working and running out to the person beloved true love will not fawn upon a Christian when high and frown upon him when low it will not kiss him upon the throne and kick him upon the dunghil The grounds and causes of their love are constant viz. God's commands their spiritual relations and the truth of grace in their souls and therefore their love can't but be constant Prov. 17.17 Christian friendship makes such a knot that great Alexander cannot cut c. A friend saith Solomon loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity Euripides hit it when he said That a faithful friend in adversity is better than a calm Sea to a weather-beaten Mariner He that truly loves will love in adversity as well as in prosperity in storms as well as in calms in winter nights as well as in Summer dayes he that sincerely loves the Saints he will love them as well when men frown upon them as when they smile upon them as well when men strike them as when they stroke them as well when men cast them down as when they lift them up as well when men cry Crucifie them crucifie them as when they cry Hosanna Hosanna to them Consalvus a Spanish Bishop and Inquisitor wondred how the Christians had that Commandement Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self so indelibly printed in their hearts that no torture could blot it out and make them confess and betray one another or cease from loving one another Hieron I have read of one Ursinus a Christian Physician who being to suffer Martyrdom for the Gospel of Christ began to waver and faint which when Vitalis a holy man saw he stept to him and though he knew it would cost him his life yet he thus comforted and encouraged him saying What have ye been heretofore so industrious to preserve mens bodies and will you now shrink at the saving of your own soul Be couragious fear not c. For which faithful counsel he also was condemned to death and suffered accordingly Ruth 1. A true friend is neither
his confessions he appears before the Lord with ropes about his neck as Benhadad's servants and with tears in his eyes his confessions savour of contrition of heart and not of ostentation of spirit contrition of heart Levit. 23.27.28 and confusion of face is the common result of a penitential confession David waters his couch with his tears Psal 6.6 and he mingles his meat with his tears Psal 42.3 and Ezra and Daniel confess their sins with wet eyes and blushing cheeks Confession without contrition Ezra 9. Dan. 9. neither pleaseth God nor profiteth man confession is the language of the tongue contrition is the language of the heart and God looks for both Luke 18.13 The Publican does not only confess his sins but he smites also upon his breast as a man full of grief and sorrow lying in the dust and renting of garments and putting on sackcloath and ashes were of old required of those that confest their iniquities The spirit of repentance is a spirit of mourning Penitential confessions are commonly attended with grief in the heart Compare these Scriptures together Psal 51.17 Isa 61.1 57.15 Job 16.20 Psal 119.136 Jer. 9.1 Jer. 31.18 19. and with shame in the face Psal 38.18 For I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry for my sin He tels you not only that he will declare his iniquity but he tells you also that he will be sorry for his sin The same spirit you may find working in Jacob Hosea 12.4 yea he had power over the Angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication unto him The people of God in the day of their confession do not only say we have sinned but they also draw water and pour it out before the Lord in token of contrition 1 Sam. 7.6 Every sin is as a sword in a penitent mans bosom and therefore whilst confessions are in his mouth you shall mostly find either tears in his eyes or sorrow in his heart And indeed true confession of sin is many times rather a voice of mourning than a voice of words sometimes a penitent man's eyes will in some sort tell what his tongue can in no sort utter many times the penitent is better at weeping than he is at speaking Psal 39.12 Hold not thy peace at my tears Tears have a voice as well as bloud hath and are very prevalent Orators with God Psal 6.8 The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping Penitent tears are undeniable Ambassadors and they never return from the throne of grace without an answer of grace Tears are a kind of silent prayers which though they say nothing yet they obtain pardon they prevail for mercy and they carry the day with God as you may see in that great and clear instance of Peter he said nothing he confest nothing that we read of but went out and wept bitterly and obtained mercy That prescription that God gave to the Leper in the Law is worthy of your most serious consideration 't is in that Levit. 13.45 And the Leper in whom the plague is his cloaths shall be rent and his bead bare and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry unclean unclean In these words the Leper stands charged with four things 1. To go in rent or torn garments to note that there must be brokenness and sorrow of heart joyned with confession of sin 2. To go bare-headed and that partly that men might not mistake him but mainly to shew his humility under his present misery 3. To put a covering upon his upper lip Some read it upon his Mouchaches The Jews in their mournings used this Ceremony among the rest of covering their chin mouth Mouchaches all under the nose Now the use of this Ceremony in the Leper was partly to preserve others from being infected by his loathsom breath and partly to shew that God takes no pleasure nor delight in the breathings the prayers of spiritual Lepers of wicked men God loves not to hear good words drop from an ill mouth and partly to note that shame that must be mingled with his sorrow 4. Twice to proclaim his own uncleanness unclean unclean And thus you see that there was to be a closs connexion between the Lepers confession and his contrition and thus 't is with the true penitent he does not only cry out unclean unclean but he also rents and tears his garments that is he joyns contrition to his confession But to prevent mistakes and that I may not shoot an arrow instead of giving a cordial to the weak and weary soul let me only give you this short hint viz. That when the true penitent can't pour out his soul in heart-melting confessions before the Lord yet then he can mourn over his own hardness of heart when he is at worst he can grieve that he cannot grieve and mourn that he cannot mourn and melt that he cannot melt and break that he cannot break and he can bless God for every rod and every stroak and every word and every work and every Ordinance and every frown and every reproof and every cross and every comfort that has the least tendency to the melting and mollifying of his soul The true penitent alwayes sets a very high price and value upon a broken heart though he has not the happiness alwayes to have his heart broken I know that sometimes the penitent soul is so shut up that if he might have all the world he cannot mourn he can only sit down and sigh and groan nay if all the joys and delights of heaven were to be bought for one single tear he can't shed it and yet all this time he can grieve that he cannot grieve for sin and he can be sorry that he cannot be sorry for sin and without all peradventure this is in a measure true godly Gospel-sorrow for sin c. But now wicked men confess their sins but they never grieve for their sins they confess their sins but they are not ashamed of their sins Compare these Scriptures together Jer. 6.15 8.12 Zeph. 3.5 Isa 3.9 Isa 42.23 Heb. 6.6 Caligula used to say of himself that he loved nothing better in himself than that he could not be ashamâ—d c. Aug. confes lib. 2. cap. 3. they confess their sins but they can't blush for their sins Though men of good names and of good natures would be ashamed to be found doing of base things things that are below them that are not worthy of them yet the generality of sinners are so bold and base so ignorant arrogant and impudent so frontless and graceless c. that they are no wayes ashamed no not of those very sins that has put Christ to an open shame yea that has put the Sun and Moon to a blush Most sinners in these dayes have brows of brass and whores foreheads that cannot blush they are so far from being ashamed of their sins that they think it a shame and disgrace not to
God a lyar if we say we have not sinned he that says he has no sin he does no sin he does by consequence charge God with falshood who hath frequently told us in that word of grace that can't deceive us that all men are sinners and that they have all gone astray and that they all need pardoning and purging grace and that upon these very accounts he sent his beloved Son to lay down his dearest life Isa 53.3 Rom. 10.23 5.12 c. and to make himself an offering for sin Now from these Scriptures these two things are most evident First that sinful qualities do remain in the most sanctified persons Secondly that these sinful qualities are sometimes very prevalent over the most sanctified persons and therefore I shall answer the objection thus Ans viz. That a true penitential turning from all sin consists in these six things First In the alienation and inward aversation and drawing off of the soul from the love and liking of all sin and from all free and voluntary subjection unto sin the heart being filled with a loathing and detestation of all sin Psal 119.104 128. as that which is most contrary to all goodness and happiness Secondly In the wills detestation and hatred of all sin When the very bent and inclination of the will is set against all sin and opposes and crosses all sin and is set upon the ruin and destruction of all sin then the penitent is turned from all sin Rom. 7.15 19 21 23. Isa 30.20 Thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth thou shalt say unto it get thee hence Hosea 14.8 Ephraim shall say what have I to do any more with Idols When the will stands upon such terms of defiance with all sin as that it will never enter into a league of friendship with any sin then is the soul turned from every sin When the will is set upon avenging it self upon all sin and upon daily endeavours to mortifie and crucifie all sin then is the penitent turned from all his sins when those sins that were once to the will as Dalilah to Sampson are now to the will as Tamar to Amnon then is the soul turned from sin with a witness Thirdly In the judgments turning away from all sin by disapproving disallowing and condemning of it Rom. 7.15 For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. O saith the judgment of a Christian sin is the greatest evil in all the world 't is the only thing that God abhors and that brought Jesus Christ to the Cross that damns souls that shuts heaven and that has laid the foundations of hell O it is the pricking thorn in my eye the deadly arrow in my side the two-edged sword that hath wounded my conscience and slain my comforts and separated between God and my soul O it is that which hath hindred my prayers and imbittered my mercies and put a sting into all my crosses and therefore I can't but disapprove of it and disallow of it and condemn it to death yea to hell fâ—om whence it came I thus preach and thus think saith Chrysostom that it is more bitter to sin against Christ than to suffer the torments of hell Plutarch reports of Marcus Cato that he never declared his opinion in any matter in the Senate but he would close it with this passage Methinks still Carthage should be destroyed So when ever a penitent looks upon his sins in his judgment he is still saying Methinks these sins should be destroyed methinks this pride this unbelief this earthly-mindedness this hypocrisie this vain glory c. should be destroyed Fourthly In the purpose and resolution of the soul the soul sincerely purposing and resolving never willingly wilfully or wickedly to transgress any more The true penitent holds up his purposes and resolutions to keep off from sin and to keep closs with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make good his purposes and resolutions c. Psal 17.3 I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress The general purpose and resolution of my heart is not to transgress though particular failings may attend me yet my resolutions and purposes are firmly fixt against evil Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked are before me David highly resolves so to bridle and muzzle up his mouth that he would not break out into any impatient or unbeseeming speeches that might give the wicked any advantage to reproach Religion or to blaspheme the holy One of Israel c. Anselme was a man of a holy resolution I had rather saith he go to hell pure from sin than to heaven polluted with that filth And saith another I will rather leap into a bonfire than wilfully to sin against God When Valens the Emperor threatned Basil with imprisonment banishment death Threaten sayes he your Boyes with such fray-bugs and your purple Gallants that give themselves to their pleasures I am resolved neither menaces nor flatteries shall silence me or draw me to betray a good cause or a good conscience c. Fifthly In the earnest and unfeigned desires and careful endeavours of the soul to abandon all sin to forsake all sin to be rid of all sin Rom. 7.22 23. Now where God sees this frame of spirit there he will certainly pardon the failings and pass by the imperfections of his people and he will spare them as a man spareth his son that serveth him Mal. 3.17 Now you know when a prudent tender indulgent father sees his child to fail and come short in that which he enjoyns him to do yet knowing that his desires and endeavours is to please him and serve him he will not be harsh rigid sowre or severe towards him but will spare him and exercise much tenderness and indulgence towards him and will God will God whose mercies reach above the heavens and whose compassions are infinite and whose love is like himself carry it worse towards his children than men do carry it towards theirs surely no. God's fatherly indulgence accepts of the will for the work Heb. 13.18 2 Cor. 8.12 As a father will accept in his child the desire for the deed and if there be a blemish in his child he will pity it and cast a mantle of love over it A sick man is not more desirous to be rid of all his diseases nor a prisoner to be freed from all his bolts and chains than the true penitent is desirous to be rid of all his sins c. Sixthly and lastly In the ordinary declining shunning and avoiding of all known occasions temptations provocations inducements and inticements to sin c. That royal Law 1 Thes 5.22 Abstain from all appearance of evil is a Law that is very precious in a penitent man's eye See Jude 23.
of the heart Hypocrites are heartless in their cryes and therefore they cry and howl and howl and cry and all to no purpose they cry and murmur and they howl and repine they cry and blaspheme and they howl and rebel and therefore they meet with nothing from heaven but frowns and blows and disappointments Isa 29.13 Wherefore the Lord said for as much as this people draw neer me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me Ezek. 33.31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Though this people flocked to the Prophet in troops as men and women do to places of pleasure and though they carried it before the Prophet as if they were Saints as if they were the people of God as if they were affected with what they heard as if they were resolved to live out what the Prophet should make out to them yet their hearts run after their covetousness Though these hypocrites profest much love and kindness to the Prophet and paid him home with smooth words seemed to be much affected delighted ravished and taken with his person voice and doctrine yet they made no conscience of bringing their hearts into their duties An hypocrite may look at some outward easie ordinary duties of Religion but he never makes conscience of bringing his heart into any duties of Religion When did you ever see an hypocrite a searching of his heart or sitting in judgment upon the corruptions of his soul or lamenting and mourning over the vileness and wickedness of his spirit 'T is only the sincere Christian that is affected afflicted and wounded with the corruptions of his heart When one told blessed Bradford that he did all out of hypocrisie because he would have the people applaud him He answered It is true the seeds of hypocrisie and vain glory are in thee and me too and will be in us as long as we live in this world but I thank God it is that I mourn under and strive against How seriously and deeply did good Hezekiah humble himself for the pride of his heart 2 Chron. 32.25 out of the eater came meat out of his pride he gat humility O Sirs A sincere Christian makes it his great business to get his heart into all his Religious duties and services to get his heart into every way and work of God 2 Chron. 17.6 Psal 86.12 Jehoshaphats heart was lifted up in the wayes of the Lord. So David I 'le praise thee 2 Chron. 22.9 Cant. 3.1 2 3 4 5 6. It is reported that when the Tyrant Trajane commanded Ignatius to be ript unbowelled they found Jesus Christ written upon his heart in characters of gold here was a heart worth gold That 's the golden Christian indeed whose heart is writ upon all his duties and services O Lord with all my heart And so Psal 119.7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart Ver. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee So Jehoshaphat he sought the Lord with all his heart Isa 26.8 The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee Vers 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Lamen 3.41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens Rom. 1.9 For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son Pauls very spirit his very soul was in his service Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Ver. 25. With the mind I my self serve the Law of God A sincere Christian is alwayes best when his heart is in his work and when he can't get his heart into his duties Oh how does he sigh and groan and complain and mourn at the foot of God Lord my tongue has been at work and my head has been at work and my parts have been at work and my eyes and hands have been at work but where has my heart been this day Oh it is and must be for a sore and sad lamentation that I have had so little of my heart in that service that I have tendered to thee This is the daily language of an upright heart But now all the work of an hypocrite is to get his golden parts into his duties and his silver tongue into his duties and his nimble head into his duties but he never makes conscience of getting his heart into his duties If any beasts sacrificed by Heathens who ever lookt narrowly into the intrails was found without heart this was held ominous and construed as very prodigious to the person for whom it was offered as it fell out in the case of Julian Hypocrites are alwayes heartless in all the sacrifices they offer to God and this will one day prove ominous and prodigious to them But Eleventhly An hypocrite never performes religious duties from spiritual principles nor in a spiritual manner An hypocrite is never inclined moved and carried to God to Christ to holy duties by the power of a new and inward principle of grace working a sutableness between his heart and the things of God An hypocrite rests himself satisfied in the meer external acts of Religion though he never feels any thing of the power of Religion in his own soul An hypocrite looks to his words in prayer and to his voice in prayer and to his gestures in prayer but he never looks to the frame of his heart in prayer An hypocrites heart is never toucht with the words his tongue utters an hypocrites soul is never divinely affected delighted or graciously warmed with any duty he performs An hypocrites spiritual performances never flow from spiritual principles nor from a heart universally sanctified though his works may be new yet his heart remains old his new practises alwayes spring from old principles and this will prove the hypocrites bane Vide Isa 1.10 to 16. as you may see in that Isa 1.15 When you spread forth your hands to heaven I will hide my eyes and when you make many prayers when you abound in duty adding prayer to prayer as the Hebrew runs I will not hear your hands are full of blood These were unsanctified ones their practises were new Mat. 6. chap. 23 Luke 18. but their hearts were old still The same you may see in the Scribes and Pharisees who fasted prayed and gave alms but their hearts were not changed renewed sanctified nor principled from above and this proved their eternal bane Nicodemus was a man of great note name John 3.4 No man can understand
Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Fox Acts and Monum It was a great saying of blessed Bradford That he could not leave a duty till he had found communion with Christ in the duty till he had brought his heart into a duty-frame he could not leave confession till he had found his heart touched broken and humbled for sin nor petition till he had found his heart taken with the beauties of the things desired and carried out after them nor could he leave thanksgiving till he had found his spirit enlarged and his soul quickned in the return of praises And it was a great saying of another that he could never be quiet till he found God in every duty Nunquam abs te absque te â—ecedo Bern. Meditat and enjoyed communion with God in every prayer O Lord said he I never come to thee but by thee I never go from thee without thee A sincere Christian that is taken with Christ above all can't be satisfied nor contented with duties or ordinances without he enjoyes Christ in them who is the life soul and substance of them But now hypocrites they do duties but all they do is from common principles from natural principles and from an unsanctified heart and that marrs all Remigius a Judge of Lorraigne tells this story That the Devil in those parts did use to give money to Witches Preston's four Treatises which did appear to be good coyn it seemed to be currant at first but being laid up a while it then appeared to be nothing but leaves Hypocrites they make a great profession and are much in the outward actions of Religion they make a very fair shew they hear they read they pray they fast they sing Psalms and they give alms But these duties being not managed from a principle of divine love nor from a principle of spiritual life nor from a sanctified frame of heart turn all into leaves they are all lost and the Authors of them cast and undone for ever and ever But Twelfthly No hypocrite in the world loves the Word or delights in the Word or prizes the Word as 't is a holy Word a spiritual Word a beautiful Word a pure Word Luther said he would not live in Paradise if he might without the Word but with the Word he could live in hell it self a clean Word Psal 119.140 Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it There are no hearts but men after God's own heart that can love the Word and delight in the Word and embrace the Word for its holiness purity and spirituality witness Paul Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandement holy and just and good Well and what then why saith he Ver. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man But is this all No saith he Ver. 25. With the mind I my self serve the Law of God Holy Paul delights in the Law as holy and serves the Law as holy just and good A sincere heart is the only heart that is taken with the Word for its spirituality purity and heavenly beauty None can joy in the Word as it is a holy Word nor none can taste any sweetness in the Word as 't is a pure Word but sincere Christians Psal 19.8 9 10. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart These several Titles Law Statutes Testimony Commandements Judgments are used promiscuously for the whole Word of God commonly distinguished into Law and Gospel The commandements of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean that is the doctrine of the Word that teacheth the true fear of God enduring for ever The judgments of the Lâ—rd are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the honey comb or as the Hebrew hath it Sweeter than the droppings of honey combs The Word of God as it is a pure Word a spiritual Word a clean Word a holy Word so it rejoyces a sincere heart and so it is sweeter than the very droppings of honey combs The Word as it is a pure Word a holy Word is more sweet to a sincere Christian than those drops which drop immediately and naturally without any force or art which is counted the purest and sweetest honey There is no profit nor pleasure nor joy to that which the purity of the World yields to a sincere heart Psal 119.48 My hands will I lift up to thy commandements which I have loved Sometimes the lifting up of hands betokens admiration when men are astonished and ravished they lift up their hands I will lift up my hands to thy commandements that is I will admire the goodness spiritualness holiness righteousness purity and excellency of thy commandements Luther would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible he took such sweet pleasure and excellent delight in it Rabbi Chiia in the Jerusalem Talmud sayes That in his account all the world is not of equal value with one word out of the Law Mr. Fox The Martyrs would have given a load of Hay for a few Chapters of the Bible in English Some of them gave five marks for a Bible they were so delighted and taken with the Word as it was a holy Word a pure Word a spiritual Word Dolphins they say love musick and so do sincere Christians love the musick of the Word It 's upon record that Mary spent the third part of her time in reading the Word she was so affected and delighted with the holiness and purity of it King Edward the sixth being about to lay hold on something that was above the reach of his short arm one that stood by espying a boss'd Bible lying on the Table offered to lay that under his feet to heighten him Sir John Hayward in vita but the good young King disliked the motion and instead of treading it under his feet he laid it to his heart to express the joy and delight that he took in the holy Word But now neâ—er did any hypocrite since there was one in the world ever love God as a holy God or love his people as a holy people or love his wayes as holy wayes or love his word as a holy word There is no hypocrite in the world that can truly say with David Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it Saul could never say so nor Ahab could never say so nor Herod could never say so nor Judas could never say so nor Demas could never say so nor Simon Magus could never say so nor the Scribes and Pharisees could never say so nor the Stony ground could never say so nor Isaiah's hypocrites could never say so 'T is true Isa 58. some of these did rejoyce in the Word and
delight in the Word but not as it was a holy Word a pure Word for then they would have rejoyced and delighted themselves in the whole Word of God every part of God's Word being pure and holy Hypocrites are sometimes affected and delighted with the Word as it is drest up with fine high notions which are but mysterious nothings they are taken with the Word as it is cloathed with arts parts and elegancy of phrase they are pleased with the Word as it is apparelled with a spruce wit or with silken expressions or with some delicate elocution Ezek. 33.32 So thou art to them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument or as the Hebrew may be read Thou art as one that breaks jests These hypocrites lookt upon the solemnity and Majesty of the Word but as a dry jest the Prophet being eloquent and having a pleasing delivery they were much taken with it and it was as sweet and delightful to them as a fit of musick but they were not at all taken or delighted with the spirituality purity and holiness of the Word as is evident in ver 31. And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness It was a very smart reproof of Chrysostom Chrysost to his Hearers This is that saith he which is like to undo your souls you hear your Ministers as so many minstrels to please the ear not to pierce the conscience Augustin confesseth that the delight which he took before his conversion in Saint Ambroses Sermons was more for the eloquence of the words than the substance of the matter Hypocrites are taken more with the wit eloquence of speech action quickness of fancy smoothness of stile neatness of expression and rareness of notion than they are with the spirituality purity and holiness of the Word which they either hear or read These hypocrites are like those children who are more taken with the fine flowers that are strewed about the dish than they are with the meat that is in the dish and that are more taken with the red weeds and blew bottles that grow in the field than they are with the good corn that grows there But now look as the prudent Farmer is taken more with a few handfuls of sound corn than he is with all the gay weeds that be in the field so a sincere Christian is more taken with a few sound truths in a Sermon than he is taken with all the strong lines and high strains and flourishes of wit or than he is taken with some new coyned phrases or some quaint expressions or some seraphical notions with which a Sermon may be deckt or drest up Some are taken with the Word as the profession of it brings in customers into their Shops and keeps up their credits in the world others are taken with the Word as it seems to tickle their ears and please their fancies Some are affected with Sermons because of the elegancy of the stile delicacy of the words smoothness of the language and gracefulness of the delivery And these deal by Sermons as many do by their Nosegays that are made up of many pickt sweet flowers who after they have smelt to them a while cast them into a corner and never mind them more so these after they have commended a Sermon after they have highly applauded a Sermon they cast away the Sermon they smell to the Sermon if I may so speak and say it is sweet it is sweet and presently they throw it by as a Nosegay that is withered and of no further use But now a sincere heart savours the Word and relishes the Word and is affected and taken with the Word as it is a holy Word a spiritual Word a pure Word which the most refined hypocrite under heaven never was affected or taken with nor can be whilst hypocrisie keeps the throne in his soul But Thirteenthly and lastly An hypocrite can't endure to be tryed and searcht and laid open an hypocrite hates the light and had rather go to hell in the dark than come to be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary John 3.20 A soul-searching Ministry is to an hypocrite a tormenting Ministry that 's no man for his money that will never let his conscience alone he knows he is like a velvet saddle velvet without and straw within he knows he is like a whited supulcher Mat. 23.27 28. glorious without and dead bones within and therefore his heart rises and swells against such a man and such a Ministry that is all for the anatomizing and laying of him open to himself and to the world But now look as pure gold fears neither fire nor furnace neither test nor touchstone neither one ballance nor another so a sincere heart dares venture it self upon tryal yea upon the very tryal of God himself Psal 139.23 Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts A sincere Christian prayes his friends to search him and he prayes soul-searching Ministers to search him but above all he begs hard of God to search him See Job 31.5 6 Search me O God The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Imperat Kal he commands God to search him The original word signifies a strict curious diligent search A sincere Christian is very willing and desirous that God should throughly search him that God should search into every corner and cranny of his heart Psal 26.2 Examine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart Every word here has its weight Examine me O Lord. The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifiâ—s to melt and so to try which makes the most intrinsecal and eâ—act discovery O Lord let my heart and reins be melted that it may be known what metal they are made of whether gold or tin Prove me The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to view as when a man gets upon some high Tower or Hill to see all from thence Mount aloft O Lord take the high Tower take the Hill that thou mayest see what is in me try me and know my thoughts The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nasah which properly signifies to take away and is applied to Abrahams taking away of his son Gen. 22.1 Lord saith the Prophet if upon searching and examining of me thou shalt find any sin any creature any comfort any enjoyment that lyes in thy room take it away that thou mayest be all in all to me A sincere Christian knows that God never brings a pair of scales to weigh his graces but only a touch-stone to try the truth of his graces he knows if his gold his grace be true Mat. 12.20 though it be never so
tells you of some that speak evil of the things that they understood not they did reprehend that which they could not comprehend Ignorance is a breeding sin a mother sin all sins are seminally in ignorance ignorance is the mother of all the mistakes and of all the misrule in the world Christ told the Sadduces Mat. 22.29 That they did err not knowing the Scriptures and so I may say many err in crying down such signs and evidences of grace which are bottomed upon Scripture because they are ignorant of what the Scripture saith in the case But Fifthly The generality of Christians are but Lambs Babes and Children in grace Isa 40.11 2 Pet. 2.2 3. 1 John 2.1 the springs of grace runs low in them their fears frequently over-top their faith and their strong passions and corruptions do often raise such a dust and smoak in their souls that 〈◊〉 they might have all the world yea if their salvation lay upon it they were not able to discern the least measure of grace in their own souls A little grace is next to none small things are hardly discerned he had need to have a clear light and good eyes that is to discern a hair a mote or an atome A little grace is not discoverable but by a shining light from above There are none so full of fears and doubts and questions and disputes about the truth of their faith in Christ and the sincerity of their love to Christ as those that least believe and least love The Kingdom of God in most Christians Mark 4.30 31 32. is but as a grain of mustard-seed which is the least of all seeds and therefore 't is no wonder they see it not The root of the matter in most Christians is but small and that small root is often covered over with many sinful infirmities and weaknesses and therefore we are not to look upon it as a strange thing if we see such Christians not sensible of the root of the matter that is in them Weak habits put forth such faint actions and with so much interruption that it is not an easie thing to discern whether they are the products of special or of common grace Now most Christians having but small measures of grace holiness and sanctification in them and these small measures being much obscured and buried under the prevalency of fears doubts and unmortified lusts can speak but weakly and darkly for them upon this ground they are not fond of bringing in this witness of sanctification to speak for them In civil Courts men are not ambitious to bring such witnesses to the Bar as can witnes but weakly faintly in their case T is so here Sixthly Satan is a grand enemy to the peace joy comfort assurance settlement and satisfaction of every poor Christian and therefore he will leave no stone unturn'd nor no means unattempted Psal 77. Psal 88. whereby he may keep them in a low dark unsettled and uncomfortable condition When once a poor soul is brought over to Christ how does the Devil bestir himself to keep such a soul so under fears doubts and bondage as that it may not in the least have an eye to any thing that may have a proper tendency to its comfort joy assurance peace or quiet The Devil will do all he can to furnish such as arâ—â—egotten again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead with all sorts of deadly weapons one of his Armoury to fight against those Arguments and evidences which make for the peace and comfort of their own souls He that shall look seriously and impartially upon the subtile close strong 2 Sam. 2.19 and rhetorical arguings of many distressed Christians above their own natural parts against the peace rest comfort and settlement of their own souls may safely conclude that a hand of Joab a hand of Satan yea a strong hand of Satan has been with them He that shall please to read the life of Francis Spira though he be no great Philosopher yet he may easily discern with what subtilty and wonderful 2 Cor. 11.14 Sophistry Satan helpâ— him to argue against the pardonableness of his sins and the possibility of his salvation Satan knows how to transform himself into an Angel of light Satan does not alwayes appear in one and the same fashion but he appears in as many several shapes fashions and changes as Proteus did among the Poets To deceive some he has assumed a lightsom body as if he were an Angel of heaven as if he had been a holy one cloathed with the brightness of celestial glory To deceive others he has appeared as an Angel of light suggesting such things to them and injecting such things into them under fair and specious shews and pretences of Religion Piety Zeal and Holiness which have had a direct tendency to the dishonour of God the wounding of Christ the grieving of the Spirit the clouding or denying their evidences for heaven the strangling of their hopes and the death of all their comforts and joy But Seventhly and lastly Some Christians live under high enjoyments and singular manifestations of God's love to them they have God every day a shedding abroad of his love into their hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5.5 Psal 63.2 3 4. God is every day a filling their souls with life light love glory and liberty Mat. 17.4 Christ every day takes them up into the Mount and makes such discoveries of himself and his glory to them that they are ready frequently to cry out Bonum est esse hic Dan. 9.22 23 Cant. 2.6 It is good to be here Christ often whispers them in the ear with an O man O woman greatly beloved Christ's left hand is every day under their heads and his right hand doth embrace them they sit down every day under his shadow with great delight and his fruit is sweet unto their taste he makes out every day such sweet and clear manifestations of his admirable favour to their hearts Psal 63.2 3 4 5. that their souls are daily satisfied as with marrow and fatness There are some precious Christians I say not all Cant. 8. I say not most who live daily under singular glances of divine glory and who are daily under the sensible embracements of God and who daily lye in the bosom of the Father Cant. 1.13 and who every night have Christ as a bundle of myrrh lying betwixt their breasts Now these choice souls who live daily in the glorious manifestations of the Spirit and enjoy a little heaven on this side heaven these many times are so taken up with their high communion with God with their spiritual enjoyments and with their tastes of the glory of that other world that they do not much mind such evidences as we have had under our consideration And thus much for the Reasons why some cry down Scripture marks signs and evidences of grace of holiness of sanctification and
consolation doth as it were put his hand and seal to our receits Eph. 4.30 whence he is said to seal us up unto the day of redemption The graces of the Spirit are a real earnest of the Spirit yet they are not alwayes an evidential earnest therefore an earnest is often superadded to our graces For ever remember these few hints 1. That it is the work of the Spirit to plant grace in the soul 2. That it is the work of the Spirit to act and exercise the graces that he has planted there 3. That it is the work of the Spirit to shine upon those graces that he has planted in the soul and to cause the soul to see and feel what he has wrote 4. That it is the work of the Spirit to raise springs of comfort and joy in the soul upon the discovery of that grace which he has wrote in the soul O Christians till the Spirit of the Lord shine upon your graces Job 33. you will still be in the dark 'T is only God's own Interpreter that must shew a man his righteousness When the holy Ghost shines upon a Christians graces then a Christian finds the springs of comfort to rise in his soul and then he finds the greatest serenity and calmness in his spirit O Sirs no man can by any natural light or evidence in him come to be assured of the grace wrought in his soul Look as no man can see the Sun but in the light of the Sun so no man can see the graces of the Spirit but in the light of the Spirit 1 Joh. 5.13 A man may have grace and not see it he may be in a state of grace and not know it as the child lives in the womb but don't perceive it is heir to a crown but don't know it Isa 50.10 Rom. 8.13 O! till the Spirit shines upon his own work a child of light may walk in darkness and see no light Look as no man can subdue his sins but by the power of the Spirit so no man can see his graces but in the light of the Spirit The confidence that a believer hath of the truth of grace wrought in him springs more from the Spirits removing his slavish fears and answering his doubts and shining upon his graces and supporting his soul than it does from that excellency and beauty of grace which shines in him A man may read the promises over and over a thousand times and yet never be affected delighted or taken with them till the Spirit of the Lord set them home upon his soul And a man may read the threatnings over and over a thousand times and yet never startle nor tremble though he knows himself guilty of those very sins against which the threatnings are denounced till the Spirit of the Lord sets home the threatnings in power upon his conscience and then every threatning will be like the hand-writing upon the wall which will cause his countenance to be changed and his thoughts to be troubled Dan. 5.6 7. and his joynts to be loosed and his knees to be dashed one against another It is just so in the matter of our graces and gracious evidences till the holy Spirit shine upon them till in the light of the Spirit we come to see them they won't be witnessing comforting and refreshing to us and therefore let not the pious Reader think that by the strength of his natural light he shall ever attain to know the certainty of that grace which is in his soul but let him rather beg hard of God for his holy Spirit and that his Spirit may shine upon that good work which he hath begun in him that so he may be perswaded assured and comforted Without the light of the Spirit the work of the Spirit can't be seen no more than a book written in the fairest hand or print can be seen without light to see it or read it by But The ninth Proposition is this Sincere Christians may safely and groundedly rejoyce Most Christians by experience find that their assurance and joy rises and falls as grace and holiness and as the evidences of grace and holiness rise and fall in their souls delight and take comfort in those graces or in those divine qualities which in the light of the Spirit they see and know are wrote in their souls I don't say that a Christian should build the comfort of his justification upon his graces or that he should rest on his graces or trust to his graces or make a Saviour of his graces for this would be such a piece of Pharisaical Popery as is justly to be detested and abhorred by all that love Christ or are looking towards heaven But this I say a Christian may make several uses of his graces he may safly look upon his graces as so many evidences of Christ's dwelling in him and he may look upon his graces as so many heavenly bracelets or as so many love tokens from God in which he may safely rejoyce The gracious evidences that I have laid down in this Treatise are blessed symptoms of salvation and therefore to rejoyce in them can be no transgression of any royal Law of heaven He that can experimentally subscribe to any of the gracious evidences that are laid down in this Book has such a fair certificate to shew for heaven that no wicked man or hypocrite under heaven has the like to shew and why such a man should not rejoyce in such a certificate I can't at present see I may and ought to rejoyce in the works of Creation O! how much more then ought I to rejoyce in the work of Renovation in the work of sanctification which does so infinitely transcend the work of Creation I may and ought to rejoyce in my natural life health strength beauty and why then should I not rejoyce in grace and holiness which is the life health strength and beauty of my soul Cant. 4.9 Christ delights in the graces of his people Thou hast ravished my heart or thou hast behearted me as the Hebrew runs my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes or with one glance of thine eyes as some read it with one chain of thy neck The eye of faith say some the eye of love say others The chain of obedience say some the chain of spiritual graces say others ravished Christ's heart the one eye of faith the one chain of obedience unhearted Christ wounded Christ this one eye this one chain robbed Christ of his heart and laid the Spouse in the room of it Now shall Christ's heart be ravished with his childrens graces and shall not their hearts be ravished and delighted with those very graces that ravish Christ's own heart I may yea I ought to rejoyce in the graces of others 1 Thes 1 â— 3 4 5. 2 Thes 1.3 4. and why then not in my own I may yea I ought to rejoyce in others outward
with those who say it is an Hebraism the plural righteousnesses noting that most perfect compleat absolute righteousness which Christ is pleased to put upon his people Upon the account of this righteousness of Christ the Church is said to be without spot or wrinkle Eph. 5.27 and to be all fair Thou art all fair my love Cant. 4.7 Col. 2.10 there is no spot in thee And to be compleat And ye are compleat in him which is the head of all principality â—nd power Rev. 14.5 And to be without fault They are without fault before the throne of God And so Col. 1.21 And to present us holy and unblamable and unreprovable in the sight of God But Fourthly This righteousness of Christ will answer to all the fears doubts and objections of your souls How shall I look up to God the Answer is in the righteousness of Christ How shall I have any communion with a holy God in this world the Answer is in the righteousness of Christ How shall I find acceptance with God the Answer is in the righteousness of Christ How shall I dye the Answer is in the righteousness of Christ How shall I stand before a Judgment-seat the Answer is in the righteousness of Christ Your sure and only way under all temptations fears conflicts doubts and disputes is by faith to remember Christ That was a rare speech of Luther Ipsâ— videret ubi anima mea mansura sit qui pro ea sic solicitus fuit ut vitam pro ea posuerit let him see to it where my soul shall rest who took so much care for it as that he laid down his life for it and the sufferings of Christ as your Mediator and Surety and say O Christ thou art my sin in being made sin for me and thou art my curse in being made a curse for me or rather I am thy sin and thou art my righteousness I am thy curse and thou art my blessing I am thy death and thou art my life I am the wrath of God to thee and thou art the love of God to me I am thy hell and thou art my heaven O Sirs if you think of your sins and of God's wrath if you think of your guiltiness and of God's justice your hearts will fail you and sink into despair if you don't think of Christ if you don't rest and stay your souls upon the Mediatory righteousness of Christ But Fifthly and lastly The righteousness of Christ is the best title that you have to shew for a Kingdom that shakes not Heb. 12.28 1 Pet. 1.3 4 5. 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4. for riches that corrupt not for an inheritance that fadeth not away and for an house not made with hands but one eternal in the heavens The righteousness of Christ is your life your joy your comfort your crown your confidence your heaven your all and therefore whether your graces or gracious evidences do sparkle and shine or are clouded or blotted yet still keep a fixed eye and an awakned heart upon the Mediatory righteousness of Jesus Christ for that 's the righteousness by which you may happily live comfortably die and boldly appear before a Judgment-seat But The third Royal Fort that Christians should have their eyes their hearts fixed upon whether their graces or gracious evidences sparkle and shine or are obscured and clouded is the Covenant of grace The Covenant of grace is a new compact or agreement which God hath made with sinful man out of his own meer mercy and grace Deut. 4.23 Isa 55.3 54.7 8 9 10. Jer. 31.31 Psal 50.5 c. Hos 14.4 Tit. 3.6 Eph. 1.5 6 7. Chap. 2.5 7 8. Rom. 9.18 23. Jer. 32.38 39 40 41. Ezek. 36.25 26 27. wherein he undertakes both for himself and for faln man wherein he engages himself to make faln man everlastingly happy All mankind had been eternally lost and God had lost all the glory of his mercy for ever had he not of his own free-grace and mercy made such an agreement with sinful man This Covenant is called a Covenant of grace because it flows from the meer grace and mercy of God There was nothing out of God nor nothing in God but his meer mercy and grace that moved him to enter into Covenant with poor sinners In the Covenant of grace there are two things considerable First the Covenant that God makes for himself to us which consists of these Branches 1. That he will be our God 2. That he will give us a new heart a new spirit 3. That he will not turn away his face from us from doing of us good 4. That he will put his fear into our hearts 5. That he will cleanse us from all our filthiness and from all our Idols 6. That he will rejoyce over us to do us good Secondly here is the Covenant which God doth make for us to himself which consists in these things 1. That we shall be his people 2. That we shall fear him for ever 3. That we shall walk in his Statutes keep his Judgments and do them 4. That we shall not depart from him Upon many accounts I may not enlarge on these things but by these short hints 't is evident that the Covenant of grace is an entire Covenant made by God both for himself and for us O Sirs in the Covenant of grace God stands engaged to give whatsoever he requires 1 Chron. 28.9 First He requires us to know him and he has engaged himself that we shall know him Jer. 24.7 I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord. And Jer. 31.34 They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them Heb. 8.11 But Secondly The Lord frequently requires his people to trust in him Psal 62.8 Isa 26.4 2 Chron. 20.20 And he has engaged himself that his people shall trust in him Zeph. 3.12 I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. But Thirdly The Lord frequently commands his people to fear him Deut. 6.13 Chap. 8.6 And he has engaged himself that they shall fear him Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Hos 3.5 They shall fear the Lord and his goodness But Fourthly The Lord frequently commands his people to love him Deut. 11.1 Psal 31.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints And he has promised and engaged himself that his people shall love him Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul But Fifthly The Lord frequently commands his people to call upon him and to pray unto him Psal 50.15 1 Thes 5.17 c. And he has promised and engaged himself to pour upon them a spirit of prayer Zech. 12.10 I will pour upon the house of
that are in the soul faith is as the spring in the watch that moves the wheels not a grace stirs till faith sets it at work What is said of Solomons vertuous woman viz. Prov. 31.15 27 Heb. 11. Rom. 4.3 8.24 Zech. 12.10 That she sets all her Maidens to work is most true of faith faith sets all the graces in the soul at work We love as we believe and we obey as we believe and we hope as we believe and we joy as we believe and we mourn as we believe and we repent as we believe all graces keep time and pace with faith c. Now when your graces are most shining and your evidences for heaven are most sparkling O then give faith elbow-room give faith full scope to exercise it self upon the Lord Jesus Adams obedience to innocency was not more pleasing and delightful to God than the exercise of your faith on the Lord Jesus will be at such a time pleasing and delightful to him you are to look upon all your graces and gracious evidences as your highest encouragement to a lively cheerful 1 Joh. 5.13 Rom. 1.17 and resolute acting of faith upon the person of Christ the righteousness of Christ c. All a Christians graces and all his gracious evidences should be but as a golden bridge Gen. 45.19 21 27. or as Josephs wagons a means to pass his soul over to Christ afresh by a renewed exercise of faith When your graces and gracious evidences are most splendent then be sure that Christ be found lying as a bundle of myrrhe between your breasts and all is well and will be well Dear Christians Cant. 1.12 when your eyes are fixt upon inherent righteousness Plutarch in the life of Phocion tells us of a certain gentle-woman of Ionia who shewed the wife of Phocion all the rich jewels and precious stones she had She answered her again all my riches and jewels is my Husbands This is more applicable to Christ c. The precious stone Opalum is said to have the vertue of all stones the brightness of the Carbuncle the purple colour of the Amethist the amiable greenness of the Emerald but what are all these to Christ and upon your gracious evidences then let your hearts be firmly fixt upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his imputed righteousness Pauls eye was fixt upon his grace upon his better part Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Ver. 25. And with my mind I serve the Law of God And yet at the very same time his heart was set upon Christ and taken up with Christ Ver. 25. I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ Though Paul had an eye to his noble part his better part his regenerate part yet at the same time his heart was taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ as freeing of him from the curse of the Law the dominion of sin the damnatory power of sin and as translating of him into the glorious liberty of the sons of God I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ So in Col. 2.2 3. You have their eyes fixt upon grace and at the same time their hearts fixt upon Christ That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Their eyes were upon grace but their hearts were taken up with Christ So in Phil. 3.8 The Apostle had his eye upon the excellent knowledge of Christ But Ver. 9. his heart is taken up with the righteousness of Christ That I might be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Though Paul had his eye upon grace upon inherent righteousness yet in the very presence of his grace his heart was taken up with Christ and with his imputed righteousness as is evident in the Text. This is your glory Christians in the presence and sight of all your graces and gracious evidences to see the free grace of Christ and his infinite spotless matchless and glorious righteousness to be your surest sweetest highest and choicest comfort and refuge Look as Rebkekah was more taken with the person of Isaac than she was with his ear-rings Gen. 24.30 53 64 65 66 67. bracelets jewels of silver and jewels of gold So it becomes a Christian in the presence of his graces and gracious evidences which are Christs ear-rings bracelets and jewels to be more taken up with Christ than with them He that holds not wholly with Christ doth very shamefully neglect Christ Aut totum mecum tene aut totum omitte Grego Nazien Christ and his Mediatory righteousness should be more in a Christians eye and always lye nearer to a Christians heart than inherent righteousness Grace is a ring of gold and Christ is the sparkling diamond in that ring Now what 's the ring to the sparkling diamond 'T is not safe to pore more upon inherent righteousness than upon imputed righteousness 'T is not wisdom to have our thoughts and hearts more taken up with our gracious dispositions and gracious actings than with the person of Christ the righteousness of Christ the life of Christ the death of Christ the satisfaction of Christ c. Dear Christians was it Christ or was it your graces or your gracious evidences or your gracious dispositions or your gracious actings that trod the wine-press of your Fathers wrath that satisfied divine justice that pacified divine anger that did bear the curse that fulfill'd the Law that brought in an everlasting righteousness that discharged your debts that procured you pardon that made your peace and that brought you into a state of favour and friendship with God If you answer as you must none but Christ none but Christ O then let your thoughts and hearts be firstly mostly chiefly and lastly taken up with the Lord Jesus Though inherent grace be a glorious creature yet 't is but a creature Now when your thoughts and hearts are more taken up with inherent grace than they are with Christ the spring and fountain of all grace you make an idol of inherent grace John 1.16 Col. 2.2 3. and reflect dishonour upon the Lord Jesus A Christian may lawfully look upon his graces and his gracious evidences and a Christian ought to be much in blessing and praising of God for his graces and gracious evidences and a Christian may safely take comfort in his graces and gracious evidences as they are the fruits of God's eternal and unchangable love Isa 38.3 2 Cor. 1.12 but still his work should be to live upon Christ and to lift up Christ above all 'T is Christ 't is his Mediatory righteousness 't is free-grace that a Christian ought to make the
condemnation works unsound hearts to mourn but 't is the sight of a bleeding dying Saviour that sets ingenious gracious souls a mourning Eighthly and lastly Godly sorrow grief or mourning may be known by the inseparable concomitants or companions that attend it and wait on it 2 Cor. 7.11 and they are these seven First What carefulness or study 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Concomitant of godly sorrow the word notes the serious intention of the mind and the diligence and dexterity of the soul in shunning and avoiding sin and arming of the soul against all occasions and temptations thereunto The great care of the repenting soul is to leave all sin to shake off all sin to avoid all sin and to weaken and subdue and bring under all sin O! the care the caution the circumspection the vigilancy the strivings and the strugglings of the repenting soul against temptations and corruptions 2. Concomitant of godly sorrow Secondly Yea what clearing of your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apology or defence which is not done either by denying of sin or by excusing of sin committed but by confession of sin As the child makes his defence and apology to his father not by denying or defending his faults but by confessing and disclaiming of them so does the penitent soul carry it towards God and disliking of sin and bewailing of sin and by walking quite cross and contrary to the sin confessed disliked and bewailed as Zacheus did Luke 19.8 and as the Jailor did Acts 16.33 The true penitent has no ways to cleer himself but by arraigning judging and condemning of himself 1 Cor. 11.31 For if we would judge our selves we should not be judged When men judge themselves and condemn themselves God is prevented and the Devil defeated as having nothing to say against them but what they have said before ☞ when men acknowledge their sins and aggravate their sins and pass the sentence of condemnation upon themselves for their sins they shall find their acquittance from them fairly drawn in the bloud of Christ Repentance for sin takes off the guilt of sin and sin bewailed is as if it had never been committed and this becomes the soul's Apology Ezek. 18.21 22. 3. Concomitant of godly sorrow Thirdly Yea what indignation or stomack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrath unto grief it notes the very rising of the stomack with rage and a being angry unto fretting fuming and sickness Again it notes the very heighth of anger and rage The true penitent is not so exceeding angry with himself for any thing as he is angry with himself for his sins Indignation here imports the turning of all the passions of the soul wholly against sin There are no men in the world so hot and angry against themselves for their sins Isa 2.20 as penitents are witness those that polluted the Idols that they had perfumed Isa 30.22 witness David Psal 73.22 witness Ephraim Hosea 14.8 and witness Paul Rom. 7.22 23. There are none that fret and fume and chafe at themselves for sin as penitent souls do there are none that loath themselves that abhor themselves and that are weary of themselves upon the account of their sins like penitent souls 'T is not this thing nor that nor this enemy nor that nor this party nor that nor this design nor that but sin that is the main the grand object of a penitents hatred scorn wrath rage reproach disgrace and contempt c. He that would be angry and sin not must be angry at nothing but sin If some men would but spend more of their anger and indignation against their sins they would not be so angry as they are with their brethren that in disputable things differ from them Fourthly Yea what fear of God's displeasure 4. Concomitant of godly sorrow and of doing any more so wickedly before the Lord. Penitent souls are of all souls the most trembling souls the most timerous souls Prov. 28.14 Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes The penitent Christian has still a jealous eye upon his own heart words and wayes he is very apt to suspect a snake under every flower and to fear a snare in every creature-comfort The burnt child dreads the fire he that has been once stung hates a snake he that has been in danger of drowning trembles at the thoughts of going by water and he that has once broke his leg rides and walks with a fear of diligence and vigilancy all his life after I have read of the Dove that she is afraid of every feather that hath grown upon a Hawk the very sight of any of the Hawks feathers brings as much terror upon her as if she saw the Hawk her self such a native dread is it seems implanted in her that it detests and abhors the very sight of any such feather In every penitent God implants such a holy fear such a filial fear such a reverential fear such a fear of diligence and vigilancy that the penitent Christians heart rises detests and abhors not only gross sins but the least motions inclinations and temptations to sin They that have paid dear for past guilt that have known what an aking heart a wounded conscience and a bleeding soul means that have experienced what the frowns of God the threatnings of God and the wrath of God means will certainly beware of sin watch and war against it and fear to fall into it 5. Concomitant of godly sorrow Fifthly Yea what vehement desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies such a desire of fervency that can admit of no delay it notes such a desire as produces diligence activity and industry The true penitent is full of fervent and vehement desires to be rid of his sins Rachel was never more vehement and fervent in her desires after children nor David after the water of the well Bethlehem nor the hunted Hart after the water-brooks nor the betrothed Virgin for her marriage day nor the Apprentice for his freedom nor the Captive for his ransom nor the Soldier for the conquest nor the sick Man for his cure nor the condemned Man for his pardon than the true penitent is vehement and fervent in his desires to have his lusts subdued Rom. 7.22 23 24 mortified and destroyed Many a day have I sought death with tears said blessed Cowper not out of distrust impatience or perturbation but because I am weary of sin and fearful of falling into it If you ask the penitent why do you hear pray read and apply your self so seriously so frequently so unweariedly and so constantly to all sin-subduing administrations he will tell you 't is out of a vehement and fervent desire that he has to he rid of his sins If you ask him again why he is so much in complaining against sin in mourning over sin and in warring against sin c. he will tell you out of a vehement and earnest desire that he has to be fully and finally
hypocrites that won't receive him in every office 1 Cor. 1 1â— should have no benefit by any one of his offices Christ and his offices may be distinguished but Christ and his offices can never be divided whilst many have been a labouring to divide one office of Christ from another they have wholly stript themselves of any advantage or benefit by Christ Hypocrites love to share with Christ in his happiness but they don't love to share with Christ in his holiness they are willing to be redeemed by Christ but they are not cordially willing to submit to the Laws and Government of Christ they are willing to be saved by his bloud but they are not willing to submit to his Scepter Hypocrites love the priviledges of the Gospel but they don't love the services of the Gospel especially those that are most inward and spiritual But now a sincere Christian he owns Christ in all his offices 1 John 12. Mat. 2.6 Heb. 7.21 26. Acts 3.22 John 12.46 he receives Christ in all his offices and he closes with Christ in all his offices he accepts of him not only as a Christ Jesus but also as a Lord Jesus he imbraces him not only as a saving Christ but also as a ruling Christ The Colossians received him as Christ Jesus the Lord Col. 2.6 they received a Lord Christ as well as a saving Christ they received Christ as a King upon his throne 2 Cor. 4.5 as well as a sacrifice upon his Cross God the Father in the Gospel tenders a whole Christ We preach Christ Jesus the Lord Acts 5.31 and accordingly a sincere Christian receives a whole Christ he receives Christ Jesus the Lord he sayes with Thomas My Lord and my God John 20.28 he takes Christ for his wisdom as well as for his righteousness and he takes him for his sanctification as well as for his redemption An hypocrite is all for a saving Christ for a sin-pardoning Christ for a soul-glorifying Christ but regards not a ruling Christ a reigning Christ a commanding Christ a sanctifying Christ and this at last will prove his damning sin John 3.19 20. But Seventhly An Hypocrite can't mourn for sin as sin nor grieve for sin as sin nor hate sin as sin nor make head against sin as sin Mark to hate sin is not 1. Num. 22. Meerly to refrain from sin for so Balaam did even then when he was tempted to it 2. To hate sin is not meerly to confess sin Exod. 10.16 Mat. 27.4 for so Pharaoh and Judas did 3. To hate sin is not meerly to be afraid to sin for this may be where the hatred of sin is not 4. To hate sin is not meerly to mourn because of the dreadful effects and fruits that sin may produce for so Ahab did and the Ninivites did c. He that sears sin for hell Augustine fears not to sin but to burn but he hates sin indeed whoso hates sin as hell it self It was a saying of one of the Ancients Anselm That if hell and sin were before him he would rather fall into hell than fall into sin here was a true hatred of sin indeed An hypocrite may be troubled for sin as it blots his name and wounds his conscience and brings a scourge and destroys his soul shuts him out of heaven and throws him to hell but he is never troubled for sin he never mourns for sin he never hates sin because 't is contrary to the nature of God the being of God the Law of God the glory of God the design of God or because of the evil that is in the nature of sin or because of the defiling and polluting power of sin True hatred of sin is universal 't is of the whole kind he who hates a toad because it is a toad hates every toad and he who hates a man because he is holy hates every holy man and so he who hates sin because 't is sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Rhet. lib. 2. hates every sin Psal 119.128 I hate every false way True hatred is ever against the whole kind of a thing Every sincere Christian hath in him a general hatred of every false way and dares not allow himself in the least sin What I do I allow not Rom. 7.15 Rom. 12.9 Abhor that which is evil The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very significant Chrysost the simple Verb imports extream detestation which is aggravated by the composition Rom. 2.21 the word signifies to hate evil as hell it self Though an hypocrite may hate some sins Thou abhorrest Idols yet that is out of some peculiar and particular indisposition to a particular sin Doctor Sibs in his souls conflict makes the hatred of sin the surest and never failing character of a good soul page 340. but this hatred of thâ—s or that particular sin ariseth not from an inward nature or gracious principle as it doth in him that is a sincere Christian the reason is this because that contrariety to sin which is in a real Christian arising from this inward gracious nature is to the whole species or kind of sin and is irreconcilable to any sin whatsoever As contrarieties of nature are to the whole kind as light is contrary to all darkness and fire to all water so this contrariety to sin arising from the inward man is universal to all sin Though a sincere Christian has not a universal victory over all sin yet there is in him a universal contrariety to all sin Victory argues strength contrariety argues nature Hence it is that an hypocrite may hate one sin and love another because there is not a gracious nature in him which would be contrary to all The inward nature of a Christian is to be judged by the universal contrariety of his inward man to all sin Now this universal contrariety to all sin will beget a univeâ—sal conflict with all sin O Sirs remember this A universal contrariety to sin can be found in no man but he that is sincere and this universal contrariety to sin argues an inward nature of grace and this is that which differences a real Christian from an hypocrite who may oppose some sins out of other principles and reasons An hypocrite may be angry with this sin and that which brings the smarting rod and wounds his conscience and disturbs his peace and imbitters his mercies and strangles his comforts and that layes him open to wrath and that brings him even to the gates of hell but he can never hate sin as sin An hypocrite he hates some sins but likes others he loaths some but loves others he opposes some but practises others like the Angel of the Church of Ephesus that hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans but loved luke-warmness Rev. 2.5 6. Many men detest theft that love covetousness abhor whoredom that like irrereligiousness c. There is no hypocrite under heaven that can truly
say I hate every false way but a sincere Christian he hates all sinful wayes but his own first and most 1 Kings 5.18 an upright heart leaves no nest-egg for Satan to sit on but the hypocrite alwayes does Mark in true hatred there are six things observable First True hatred includes an extream detestation every dislike is not hatred but true hatred is an extream loathing Thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth Isa 30.22 thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence Chap. 2.20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats Their detestation should be so great that they should cast their most costly idols of silver and gold into the most dark nasty dusty corners to testifie the sincerity of their conversion to God they should hate and abhor abandon and abolish their gold and silver idols which they valued above all others Secondly True hatred includes an earnest separation He that hates his sin would fain be separated from his sin 2 Cor. 5.4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened A sincere Christian finds no burden to lay so heavy and weighty upon his spirit as sin and therefore he groans to be delivered from it In the Law Deut. 24.3 he that hated his Wife did sue out a bill of divorce from her He that truly hates sin puts in many a bill into the Court of Heaven that he may be for ever divorced from his sin Thirdly True hatred includes an irreconcilable alienation He that hates sin has his heart for ever alienated from sin he who hates sin can never be one with sin Two angry men may be made friends Lawyers often fall out at the Bar but are very well agreed when they meet at the Tavern but if two men hate each other all friendship is everlastingly broken betwixt them A man may be angry with sin and yet made friends with sin again but if once he comes to hate his sin then all friendship with sin is everlastingly broken When Christ and the soul comes to be really one then sin and the soul comes to be everlastingly two c. Fourthly True hatred includes a constant and perpetual conflict the flesh will be still lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal. 5.17 Rom. 7.22 23. Though sin and grace were not born together and though sin and grace shall never die together yet whilst a believer lives in this world they must live together and whilst sin and grace do cohabit together they will still be opposing and conflicting one with another That man that truly hates sin will everlastingly conflict with sin he will die fighting against his sins as one of the Dukes of Venice died fighting against his enemies with his weapons in his hand Well Christians remember this Though to be kept from sin brings most peace and comfort to us yet for us to oppose sin and for God to pardon sin that brings most glory to God 2 Cor. 12.7 8 9. Fifthly True hatred includes a deadly intention and destruction for nothing satisfies hatred but death and ruin Saul hated David 1 Sam. 26.19 20. 1 Sam. 23.23 Est 5.14 and sought his life he hunted him up and down as a Partridge in the mountains he left no stone unturn'd nor no means unattempted whereby he might revenge himself upon David Haman hated Mordecai and nothing would satisfie him but to bring him to a shameful death to see him hang'd on a gallows fifty cubits high which was design'd saith Lyra to put Mordecai to the greater shame for he hanging hâ—gh every one might see him and point to him Now when there was but one night betwixt Mordecai and a shameful death divine providence opportunely strook in and saved hâ—m from Haman's malice and caused the mischief which he had plotted against Mordecai suddenly to fall upon his own pate for he who was highly feasted with the King one day 2 Sam. 13.22 28 29 30 31 32 33. was made a feast for crows the next day Absalom hated Amnon and killed him Julian the Apostate hated the Christians with a deadly hatred he put many thousands of them to death and threatned and vowed that at his return from fighting against the Persians he would put all the Christians in his Empire to the sword but God prevented him by cutting him off in that expedition A Christian that hates sin can't be satisfied but in the death and destruction of it in all his duties the language of his soul is Lord let my sins be destroyed whoever escapes let not my sins escape the hand of thy revenging justice And in all Ordinances the language of his soul is O Lord when shall my sins be subdued and mortified when shall my cursed corruptions be brought to an under yea when shall they all be drowned in the Red-Sea of my Saviours bloud c. Sixthly True hatred includes an impartial aversation true hatred is of the whole kind but of this before To wind up all ask thy heart what is it that thou abhorrest as the superlative evil what is that which thou wouldst have separated as far from thee as heaven is from hell what is that thy heart will never renew league or friendship with any more what is that against which thy soul doth rise and with which as Israel with Amalek thou wilt have war for ever Exod. 17.16 what is that which thou wilt be avenged of and daily dost endeavour the mortifying and crucifying of what is that which thou settest thy heart against in the comprehensive latitude thereof whether great or little open or secret if it be sin if it be thy sins if it be all thy sins then assuredly here is a true hatred of sin and assuredly here is a most distinguishing character of a child of God of a sound conversion and of a saving change It was not wont to be thus with thee nor is this findable in any hypocrite Judg. 14.3 7. or in any unconverted person upon the face of the earth 2 Sam. 13.15 sin was once to thee as Dalilah to Sampson but now it is to thee as Tamar to Amnon Job 20.12 13. once it was a sweet morsel which thou heldst fast and wouldst not let it go Isa 30.22 but now it is the menstruous cloth which thou castest away Hos 14.8 saying Get thee hence Now with Ephraim thou cryest out What have I to do any more with Idols O if it be indeed thus with thee then thou hast cause for ever to be much in blessing and in admiring of the Lord for his distinguishing grace and favour towards thee O Sirs the world is full of baits snares and temptations but whilst the hatred of sin burns in your breasts you may cast up your caps and throw the Gantlet to the
by any fears or dangers on the other Sincere Christians have not taken up Religion on such slight grounds as to be either flattered or frighted out of it sincere Christians reckon upon afflictions Joh. 16. ult Acts 14.22 2 Tim. 4.8 temptations crosses losses reproaches on the one hand and they reckon upon a crown of life a crown of righteousness a crown of glory on the other hand Jer. 6.16 and hereupon they set up their staff fully resolving never to depart from the good old way wherein they have found rest to their souls Sincere Christians take Christ and his wayes for better for worse for richer for poorer in prosperity and adversity they resolve to stand or fall to suffer and reign to live and die with him When all outward incouragements from God shall fail yet a sincere Christian will keep closs to his God and closs to his duty Heb. 3.17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herds in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvaâ—ion When all necessary and delightful mercies fail yet he will not fail in his duty though God with-hold his blessings yet he will not with-hold his service in the want of a livelihood he will be lively in his duty when he hath nothing to subsist by yet then he will live upon his God and joy in his God and keep closs to this God Though war and want come yet he will not be wanting in his duty Mark there are three things in a sincere Christian that will strongly encline him to keep closs to the Lord and closs to his wayes in the want of all outward incouragements 2 Cor. 5.14 Phil. 4.12 13. Rom. 14.7 8. and in the face of all outward discouragements And the first is a forcible principle Divine Love the second is a mighty aid the Spirit of God and the third is a high aim the Glory of God Look as Ruth kept closs to her mother in the want of all outward incouragements and in the face of all outward discouragements And Ruth Ruth 1.16 17. said whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge and nothing but death shall part thee and 〈◊〉 So saith a sincere Christian I will take my lot with Christ were ever it falls I will keep closs to the Lord and closs to my duty in the want of all outward incouragements and in the face of all outward discouragements Though outward incouragements be sometimes as a side wind or as oyl or as chariot wheels means to move a Christian to go on more sweetly easily and comfortably in the wayes of God yet when this wind shall fail and these chariot wheels shall be knockt off a sincere Christian will keep closs to the Lord and his wayes All this is come upon us Psal 44.17 18 yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy wayes But what do they mean by saying All this is come upon us Why that you may see in the foregoing part of the Psalm Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame Vers 9 10 11 12 13 14. The Jews sold Christ for thirty peace and the Romans sold thirty of them for a penny as Josephus relates and goest not forth with our armies thou makest us turn back from the enemy and they which hate us spoyl for themselves thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat and hast scattered us among the heathen thou sellest thy people for nought and dost not increase thy wealth by their price thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us thou makest us a by-word among the heathen a shaking of the head among the people Antiochus Epiphanes lookt upon the Jews Religion as superstition his wrath and rage was exceeding great both against the Jews and against their Religion he practised all manner of cruelty upon the miserable Jews but yet there was a remnant among them who were faithful to the Lord and to his Covenant and to his Laws and to his wayes even to the death though in the time of the Maccabees many revolted to Paganism yet some maintained their constancy and integrity to the last That is a great word of the Prophet Micah Mich. 4.5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever This absolute and peremptory resolution to be really the Lord's and for ever the Lord's is of the essence of true conversion 'T is not the world's flatteries that can bribe off a sincere Christian from the wayes of God nor 't is not the worlds frowns that can beat off a sincere Christian from the wayes of God But an hypocrite will never an hypocrite can never hold it out to the end his ground-tackle will never hold when the storm beats strong upon him An hypocrite is hot at hand but soon tires and gives in But Tenthly No hypocrite ever makes it his business his work to bring his heart into religious duties and services he never makes conscience of bringing his heart into his work Mat. 15 8. â— Mark 7.6 An hypocrite is heartless in all he does Psal 78.34 When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God The Fox when caught in a gin looks pitifully but it is only to get out They worshipped the Lord as the Indians do the devil that he may do them no hurt Ver. 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed unto him with their tongues Ver. 37. For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfâ—st in his Covenant All lip-labour is but lost labour When mens hearts are not in their devotion their devotion is meer dissimulation These hypocrites sought God and enquired early after God but it was still with old hearts which are no hearts in the account of God They made lip work of it and head-work of it but their hearts not being in their work all was lost their seeking lost their enquiring lost their God lost their souls lost and eternity lost Hos 7.14 And they have not cried unto mâ— with their hearts when they howled upon their beds When mens hearts are not in their prayers all their praying is but as an hideous howling in the account of God As dogs bruit beasts and Indians do when they are hunger-bit The cry of the heart is the only cry that God likes loves and looks for he accepts of no cry he delights in no cry he rewards no cry but the cry