faithfull ones of Christ may easily fall with Ieremy Chap. 12.1 and David Psal 73.5 to distemper our selves to charge God foolishly and to call him to our owne barre as if he ordered not matters so wisely as wee would have him Alas Those are ever most confident who usurp most 2 Sam. 15.4 Eccles 7.10.15.16 Absolom thought his policie and wisedome above his fathers in ruling of subjects but it cost him sorrow and ruine Let us not cavill against our owne dayes as the worst nor our owne lot as the unhappiest Let us know its folly wrap up all our own discontents in the field of Providence and Wisedome For why should we be desolate or hasten our owne ruine rashly before the time Let it be enough for us that wee beare witnesse to Jesus to his truth and serve our time But let us not breake out of our compasse in which God hath set us Nor let us think long or tax God for seeming to stop his eare from our praiers nor give over our waiting and wax froward with him but remember our Rule Acts 1.7 That in publicke promises still the time must be left to him who is the Soveraigne orderer of all times and seasons It is enough for us that in the worst and most degenerate times of all God hath not left his Church as an Orphan or desolate each member hath her owne particular faith and patience to set on worke To keep the soule from rusting from either tedious impatience or desperate carelesnesse Matth. 25. Ocupy these till God come and these will so allay thy spirit and exercise thy meeknesse patience and humility that Gods time shall not seeme over long faith shall not make over much haste Hab. 3. I doe not counsell thee to give over faith in performances But to apply faith to such promises in the meane while as may sustaine the soule with patient hope till Gods time is accomplished See Psal 135.14 The rod of the wicked shall not alway ly upon the lot of the righteous lest they should put forth their hand to evill The Lord will not alway bee angry Psal 125.3 lest flesh should faile Rather then such extremities should come God will put an end and say The day of my redeemed ones is come Esay 63.3 But if the Lord sustaine the whilest and the burning bush consume not is it not as good as if it burnt not Enlarge thy short and hasty spirit by this that each day of Gods delay shortens the trouble And remember that a thousand years with the Lord is as one day 2 Pet. 3.8 and God is a pure act incomprehensible not ruled by time I doe not by these passages choke the zeale importunity clamors and expostulations of the Church No that were another extremity and as much as to quash the Spirit of adoption and to abridge the priviledges of the Saints in their holy boldnesse in prayer For why Read the moanes of the Church in Psal 40. and Esay 63. and 64. the variety of her holy complaints arguments wherewith she laboureth to draw God on her side against his sworne foes to perswade him to be no longer darke but to cause the mountaines to flow downe before his presence And so Psalm 12. she cryes out for help because all went to wrack All this is lawfull and to pray against implacable incorrigible enemies Plead thus Lord although to thee a thousand yeares are as one day yet it is not so with us five seaven yeares are somewhat to us Lord wee are feeble and faint Psal 110. ult Therefore tarry not long Lord. But in all these remember to ascribe to God the glory of faithfull performance in his owne time and say thus Thou hast afflicted us on every side Psal 119. yet have we not forsaken thy Covenant the whilest we have not exasperated our spirits against thy delayes but turn'd the edge of our complaints against our selves who by our treacherous unfruitfulnesse have deserved these scourges our worst enemy is within us That sin of ours hath vexed thee more then our crosses and thy delayes vexe us Purge them remove the barre and we doubt not but thy performances shall breake out as the light when once our righteousnesse shall appeare and our filthinesse shall be cleansed nothing shall let thy promises from being fulfilled This for the second Limitation the third God keeps promise with them only that live by faith The third and last limitation is this That the Lord keeps his promises faithfully but yet upon condition to such as not onely are his own servants for what have dogges to doe with the childrens bread but such of his owne as abide so and feare him live by faith and keep his Covenant The sum of the point is that which David Psal 25.10 expresseth thus All the wayes of the Lord are mercy and truth But to whom Surely to such onely as keep his Covenant Israel was the Lords peculiar above all the earth but it was not enough for them to hold their name onely but to keep close to the Lord If Israel would have walked in my wayes then it should goe well with them and with their children for ever 1 Chro. 17.13 It was the Lords speech to David of Salomon Hee shall be my sonne and I will call him Iedidijah the Lord loved him And if he transgresse against me I will chastise him with the Rods of men but my loving kindnesse will I never take from him Marke Brethren there is a promise which the Lord will performe to all that are in covenant with him that is he will not finally forsake them But yet in the mean time if they venture so much hereupon that they break their league play the harlots and forsake their husband he will make them feele to their costs 2 Chro. 16.3.4 that he can also break with them and forsake them and so will he goe on with them till he have wearied them and by some adversity or other within or without sent them home with sorrow and shame to their first husband Men must not looke to be loose with God and yet binde him to be close to them Excellent is that of Oded the Prophet to Asa speaking of the revolted ten Tribes Of a long time was Israel without God or a Law or a Priest And why Surely because they had forsaken his Temple and Worship his Arke and Mercy seat and therefore the Lord plagued them with all adversity And so will he doe to you if yee cleave to him he will cleave to you but if you warp from him so will he from you Consider I pray you brethren and God give us understanding The Lord will keep promise with his but then they must not play their parts with him For why Shall the Father spit in his Daughters face Num. 12.14 and shall she not be separate from him seven dayes It was the Lords speech to Moses touching Miriam
feares him Psal 103. and thy smoaking flax shall not be put out nor thy bruised reed be broken through thy conflict with the drudgery of thy distrustfull heart Maâ—t 12. Reach only at this strength as able to save thee and as belonging to thee and nothing shall come betweene cup and lip to defeat thee Death it selfe shall but hasten the promise for thee when the fruit is come to the birth this strength of the promise shall bring it forth Wait thou quietly and be doing good and thy judgement shall breake out into victory Whatsoever thy weake beginnings were thy encreases shall be great Believe it and rest thy selfe for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Job 8.7 Branch 9 Lastly to end remember that in beleeving this promise thou dost not dishonour the Lord Faith is the greatest glory that the soule can yeeld to God but glorifie him above whatsoever else thou canst doe for him It s his scope to shut thee up under this soveraignty of his justice and shew thee his uttermost advantage that he may trie thee whether the sense thereof will draw thee to his ends or no That is when thou hearest of a free grace above and beyond this justice purchased by his deare Sonne that they who beleeve it may glorifie all his whole excellent union of Attributes in one and confesse him to be most just wise powerfull and gracious in his way of redemption above the grace of creation I say he doth trie thee whether thou wilt give him that excellent glory which he hath sought to himselfe by occasion of thy ruine If thine heart then can freely beteame him this glory and more fully empty it self in the glorifying of him then in thy own escaping the former advantage know it thou shalt honour him above all other honour in thy beleeving And by thy distrust and sealing up thy heart under the darkenesse bondage and feare of thy former guilt whatsoever Satan and unbeleefe tell thee sure it is thou goest the next way to crosse God of his purposed intention to glorifie himself marveilously in thy pardon and salvation 2 Thess 1.8 And therefore instead of his being admired in thee because thou beleevest he justly will be admired in thy double vengeance because it was not enough for thee once to sinne in Adam but thou addest drunkennesse to thirst in denying that grace which would have taken occasion by thy sinne to settle an infinite glory upon himself and far better estate upon thee then Adams innocency could have done And so much for this second use of exhortation Secondly this point should be humiliation to all sorts because the Vse 2 Lord hath even the best at sundry petty advantages in each particuler concerning this fraile life Humliation to all sorts in respect of Gods having us at so infinite advantage Although he have released the maine advantage by forgiving us yet so long as sinne and this body of death abideth so long all the penalties abide incident to our nature our Lord Jesus himselfe all the daies of his abasement and flesh endured them and we much more must stoop under them that we might be conformed to his sufferings How should it pull downe our carnall presumption and jollity to consider that even while we are hearing the word the Lord might stop our breath as the breath of one almost was while this point was in handling being a sleepe at the sermon which of us stand not at Gods curtesie for somewhat which others are deprived of How is our fraile life on the sudden intercepted how many are choked with their meate nay have bin choked with a Fly or a raison stone how many make their beds their graves in the midst of their feasting their mirth talke and company arrested with the stroke of Gods hand how many have made their feasting cheare to be the cheare for their funerall how many are slaine by the high way by the fall of their horse others have their eie lasht out by a twig in their travaile Absolon is snatcht up by his long head locks by a shrag of an oake when we are secure of our children lo one is scald with water another drowned in it another burnt with fire other come to other sad casualties All to teach us to humble our soules each day before God and confesse the many just advantages he hath us at us I say and ours and that salvation is from the Lord we take it for granted if we have tilled our grounds we shall have a sowing season at our pleasure if we have sowne our seed and waited our time we shall have our crop and if we have carried it into our barne we shall thresh and eat of our travaile and so ordinarily we doe through mercy yet we are still at Gods advantage in all by wet by drought by fire and vermine and an hundred waies all to teach us God is not so tyed to us or to the meanes and husbandry we use God is not tyed to us in outward protection alwaies no nor to his promise neither but that our presumption infidelity and unthankefulnesse may provokâ— him to use his prerogative and to destroy all that so we may walke with more awe and feare before this our God who is a consuming fire and teach us daily and nightly to shut up our selves and ours in the Arke of his protection to arise up to dresse our selves to eat to worke Deut. 33.11 to walke to converse to lye downe with an humble thankefull heart neither as slaves nor yet as presumers but as those whom the Lord hath at a perpetuall advantage and may use it if hee will and if hee should say as he might better say it 1 King 20.1.3 then that boasting Benhadad did All thy wives children are m ne all thy gold and silver is mine thy treasures also and all thy wealth is mine yea if he should lay his hand upon all or any as which of them is not subject to casualty thy mends were in thine owne hands Oh! with how narrow an eye and foot and how soberly would we use each blessing if we were bound in a statute to a creditor to surrender all at an houres warning and stood at his curtesie for the bread we eat Would we then take our fill or the uttermost liberty of our commodities Even so let us walke humbly before God who is our Soveraigne and hath our lives wealth and persons at command in a moment to surprize us Let us daily take all as lent us from his hand let us use all humbly and purely as if we used them not let us count out selves daily to be in jeopardy and bid adiew daily to all comforts here below yea life it selfe As an holy man being asked over night whether he would goe to such a place to morrow or no answered I thanke God Note I have known no morrow these twenty yeares A signe
they will ground themselves upon the wisedome of flesh and the preaching of such as seeke with curious and quaint oratory and the deceitfulnesse of man to entangle the minde or else they care not whether they heare any or no. But oh ye wise worldings know ye that God doth usually the greatest things by meanest instruments know ye not that flesh loves it selfe and that there is small hope of doing any great things by fleshly meanes should then flesh glory in her selfe and take away the glory from God by an unsanctified and unsavoury boasting of it owne strength Surely looke to it they who build their faith on man must rush their soules to destruction of necessitie And the wisedome of God hath chosen the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve If ever yee looke for this be wise intime and become fools that ye may be truly wise to salvation 1 Cor. 1.1.27 Of which I shall speake more fully in the next use Vse 5 Lastly therefore let it be use of examination to all sorts to try themselves about this issue Examin what great things God hath wrought in them by the poore and silly meanes of his Ordinances Try whether the Lord hath by them translated you from the kingdome of Satan and darknesse to the kingdome of his deare Sonne rid you out of the thraldome of your lusts and Idols to serve the living God Thinke not that the kingdome of Christ stands in a few trickes of wit or entising words of a frothy Mounteebankes tongue thinke not that fine sentences or strong lines or a jangling wit priding it selfe in a vaine-glorious Preacher will goe for pay when Christ shall come to judge Trials and markes of our fleshly wisedome subdued Luke 18.8 The great worke which hee will look for will be faith unfained a broken spirit love out of a pure heart a new creature Therefore take some markes hereof and try your selves First the Lord by poore meanes will cast downe that frame of carnall Triall 1 wisedome in you be it never so strongly setled and convince yee of your folly in that you should ever so besot your owne selves as to thinke that the way to heaven should lye in such a course as you have walked in Oh! shall you say if ever I goe to heaven God must turne a new leafe with mee flesh and bloud a curious humorous conceit will never inherit the kingdome of God The Lord I say will discover to your eye such an excellencie in his Ordinances even when they seeme weakest to your fancie that you shall fall downe and say The Lord is in you of a truth The scales of your carnall eye shall fall off Acts 9. Revel 3. Psal 119. and you shall bee annointed with eye salve to behold wonders in those poore instruments and ordinances which you have so long despised The old judgement of error and this foolish world shall be taken away and a new Spirit of discerning shall be given you to looke off from the base out-side of man of preaching of Sacraments and you shall see a divine power and majestie therein The Asse shall not seeme so base as the rider seemes glorious and you shall strew your clothes and bowes of trees in the way of Christ crying Hosanna and magnifying God that by such poore pipes and channels conveyes so great things to men Ask your selves did you ever perceive such a worke wrought in you If not you still abide in the gall of bitternesse and are pur-blinde seeing nothing a far off Secondly the Lord will make you so farre from your disdaine that he Triall 2 will make you crouch and be glad of the silliest Minister of God in all the countrey as those Acts 2. Acts 2.37 who came trembling about those same Apostles whom in the former Chapter they had flouted and mocked as drunken with new wine and said Men and brethren what shall wee doe to be saved So shall you doe such as you have jeered for zealous men of the Spirit you shall now be glad to bee admitted to aske them what course you may take to escape hell and surely try your selves in this point if still your disesteeme of Gods Ministers continue in you you are none of those in whom GOD hath wrought any great worke in Thirdly the Lord shall correct that corrupt selfe-love and partialitie in Triall 3 you whereby the affectation of some odde Minister whom you humored covered and darkened the graces gifts of God in others lesse reputed of by you Oh! now shall the Lord purge out your private judgment and put a publicke spirit of communion of Saints into you Alas you shall see all the Ministers of Christ one as well as another to bee the mutuall aiders of your faith and furtherers of your joy given by God not for this or that man but for the good of the whole body And accordingly you shall prize them even for the graces of God in them and for the use which they serve even the worke of the Ministerie 1 Cor. 3. Ephes 4. and the edifying of the Church in love Partialitie and private ends of your own shall stinke unto as knowing that if God convert you to himselfe hee makes you members of the body which beares you up not you it Not the meannesse of the vessell shall now offend you but the rich treasure in it shall ravish you now if your souls may be saved all other respects shall vanish 4 Triall Fourthly God will teach us to deny our selves in that base ease and sloth of our spirits which satisfies us in having in hearing a Minister and the sound of his words which contents us in that wee enjoy Sabbaths Sermons and Sacraments by course in a rolling succession without observing the power and savour which any of them leave in us This commonnesse and taking all for granted upon a custome blindes us even as a cloath hung before our eye hinders the action thereof and puts it out by degrees This ordinarie accustoming of our selves to that which is obvious casts a veile over our hearts so that we never come within the holinesse of the ordinances neither mark any great worke done by them either in our selves or others And by this meanes wee are hardned by them rather then wrought upon either by humbling quickning or renewing How hath the Lord then wrought in us have we after a long sleepy and drowsie hearing and receiving at last been pulld by the eare and jogged by the Spirit to stand up and be awakened to see the wonders hidden under the veile of humane infirmitie and the povertie of the Ordinances Doe we wax wearie of formall remembring of a few sentences or commending the Preacher talking of what we heard and doe our hearts begin to burne within us when the Word is opened through the evidence of that Spirit which speakes in the Word Luke 24. Doe we feel the weight of truth uttered
costes and be as nothing an unprofitable one when thou hast done all cast not God in teeth with them call not for them backe againe nor bring him his owne in a napking For these qualities poyson all thy labours Gods hearers will be at Gods dispose for blessing and drive the Lord further off rather then draw him nearer And when thou hast turned all thy selfe-defeated discontent into selfe-deniall and art willing that the Lord should doe with thee as he list then see how he will dispose of thee A little barley or an handfull of meale with a little oile shall make a more accepted meat offering to him with an heart willing to be at his dispose then all thy plenty of costly sacrifices without it Joel 2.13 Lastly it reproves all such as yet goe beyond these also and are content Branch 3 to submit humbly to all such waies as the Lord prescribes for the attaining of mercy but yet it mightily troubles them that God doth so delay his season and lets them goe so long without giving them their desire To whom I answer All yee have done hitherto is well Adde one thing more give all your humblenesse your labours your endeavours to God Waiting upon God necessary for such as looke to speed of grace and when you have waited upon him therein give him your waiting too for it is not too good for him perhaps there may be a Selfe in that also and sure it is the finer Selfe is spunne the more she will take pritch if she be defeated But be thou as Paul was 2 Cor. 12.9 who feeling no bottome in himselfe yet was content to be under that weaknesse and all to try what mercy could doe doubtlesse in such a case thou shalt finde that grace shall at least bee sufficient for thee if the Lord doe not also magnifie his power beyond expectation in thy infirmity And poore soule what gainest thou in the mean while by thy carking plodding and casting about with thy selfe If thou doe thy duty shall it not be well with thee And hast thou not a great recompence in this that thou art accepted and thy successe is with God Is it not much that a sinfull wretch who cannot lay claime to the aire earth water to breath in to tread upon and the like maist yet come and looke up to heaven with hope and come to the Lord as bound by his promise Alas his pay may be leasurely but it is sure the gaines may seeme small but still they are comming and will make a heavy purse at last And what Is there not some scurffe which the Lord must purge out thinke you Hath not a long course in evill hardned thee And may not a speedy course of thine owne hurt the more another way What if the Lord should leave thee to such corruption of thine owne as should cause thee to wax wanton were it not better prevented by longer delay And speake the truth to shame the Divell and thy slavish heart is it not better with thee at sometimes then at other If it be noâ— suspect thy selfe if it be suspend thy cavils cease thine enmity thine hard thoughts thine unbeteaming heart the Lord loves to be as freely thought of for his love as he deserves And for thy selfe if it be thy lot to lye longer under hope then others and to want the cheerings which some have yet sure it is if thou abide waiting in thine innocency not being tainted with shrewd dregs of thine owne stale and base heart the Lord will at length breake out so much the more in pitty to thy fainting soule by how much his delay hath made thee waite so long and it shall not then trouble thee that thou hast thus indured Mercy at last shall be sweetest to thee Esay 57.16 that thou faile not wholly Singularity of delay sometimes argueth an heart tainted with Selfe in more then a common manner And so much for the use of reproofe Vse 3 Lastly to finish this point and so draw to an end Let this be Admonition both speciall and generall Great men must submit their great spirits to God First speciall to such as are Naamans great ones in place renowne authority birth or any other worth above others viz. That their great stomacks rise not up in arms against God to quarrell with him when they are crossed in their owne hopes and expectations The truth is the streame of Selfe is ranke enough of it selfe though there be no oile added to the flame The poorest wretch could say though I am not so rich as thou yet I have as proud an heart as thou But yet when one streame meets another the flood is the greater Great men who thinke it a peece of their Noblenesse to take no affronts at any mans hand what ever it cost them had need deny themselves farre to get a subject heart even to God himselfe Their great bloud the repute of their owne eminency and parts exempts them in their owne opinion from the common lot as we read of him 2 King 6. who having first raged at Elisha as the supposed cause of the famine saying God doe so and so if his head stand on him this day after being greeted by him more discurteously then he looked for flew in Gods face too and said shall I attend on the Lord any longer Ver. ult As once a great Prince being crossed of his pastime by the weather told God swearingly he was a King too and he offered him ill measure so to defeat him Abner the pillar of Sauls house being but reproved by weake King Ishbosheth set up by himselfe for medling with his fathers concubines 2 Sam. 3.6 tooke it so hainously that he forth with revenges himselfe and betraies the Crowne to David Great men therefore swell easily if defeated and indeed these two were as bad as great but the best in this kinde take defeats heavily Let such consider that which Naaman if he had had the knowledge which they have would soone have noted viz. How desperate a thing it is to fight against God and to crosse him when he serves not our turne If God resist all proud ones especially great ones how much more proud resisters Pride being of it self a resistance Although your spirits rise up soon against men which yet I allow not beware ye be not found fighters against God Act. 5. Know that though men accept your persons yet God puts no difference especially in matter of salvation It is counted a great humility in a great one to be never so little humble But oh worme for what is the greatest flesh else if thou thinke it equall that a poore beggar should stoop to thee what shouldest thou do to God to whose eminency thine is as the drop of a bucket Take not upon thee though thou be the chiefe of the Parish the Lord of the Towne and Patron of the Minister to yoke him to any other
Christ and a lightnesse in his burthen Others a marveilous difficulty and such a thing as must be striven for and yet may be mist The answer is Heaven and Grace are both the most easie and the most difficult that can be Answ Grace is the hardest and the easiest thing of all Math. 19.26 both may well stand They are most easie to the soule which will bee taught of God and will not resist his method by attending their owne wisdome But to others they are matters of greatest difficulty To God all things are possible to flesh and bloud to the wit and will of man to the freedome of our owne choice nothing is so impossible I remember the answer of a Philosopher to a great Prince who had beene his scholar and was discontented at him for publishing his bookes be content saith hee and know my bookes of Philosophy are publisht and not published for none are ere the wiser for them save those to whom they were read and made evident So here The mystery of Christ is the most easie and the most hard easie only to such as in whom the Lord hath opened an eare Job 33.15 and revealed it to others hard So much for Instruction Vse 2 Secondly this is Terror to all such libertines and carnall Gospellers who make Religion Faith great works light and slight matters Terror to many running away with them as horses with empty waggons not through any Branch 1 ease they have by the Spirit but from the excesse and superfluity of their own blindenesse and presumption Slighters of the worke of grace abuse the doctrine of ease Others are blinde idiots tell them of Regeneration and Conversion and they run to their own strength they doe hope well that if they put their good will to Gods God will so far enable them as to get somewhat They hope men make more ado about matters then God himselfe God hath told them that faith in the promise is easie and none of these sowre Preachers shall pull this liberty from them what needs all this adoe If God be on our side we feare nothing as long as men walke even and faire harmelesse and devout bearing a good minde toward God keepe their Church and pay all men their dues and give to the poore for ought they see God is mercifull will not the death of a sinner is found of them that sought him not Esay 65.1 Matth. 11. â—9 Esay 57.17 His yoke is easie he saith he will not bee alway heavy upon men he knowes we be no Angels yea he saith that he hath seene the iniquity of mens covetousnesse and hee will heale them and make no more adoe It is for his glory to bee mercifull As for these Ministers who sticke so much at the truth of heart and faith unfaigned they say onely God knowes the heart and they trouble mens heads more then they doe them good making men unquiet and finding out new crotchets What is mans life say they if hee may not bee merry and cheerfull God loves it and Christ hath dearly bought it and its best to be merry eat and drinke and cast away care God say these hath made us of bodies as well as soules we be not all spirit nor shall be in this world we must tend Sermons so as we may tend our worke too our bodies must be made of for God and what skils it though we play and be good fellowes and drinke a cup or two so it be in the feare of God although we be none of these Puritans yet wee be not against them we hope by this meanes to spend out our short time having God afore our eies and to be in heaven ere we be aware Oh yee wofull creatures Doe you thus construe Gods ease I aske you Hath the Lord ever brought you under the bondage of spirit for all your cursed nature and impious prophanenesse Did it ever cut you off from your old stocke Did it ever bring yee under hope No doubtlesse Thinke not then to make faith an easie purchase upon your owne purse it will be one day in that your last night of death and darkenesse such a toilesome journey through tempest and foule weather dirt and wearinesse that you shall be quite tired and then shall true toile succeed false ease Hearken not to that lying spirit which beares you in hand all ease ease for it shall turne to extremity of anguish and to a desperate impossibility The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it The Lord indeed moderates the labour of his poore weary travellers to Zion Psal 84. So that they shall grow from strength and feele no faintnesse But no man shall goe up in a feather bed to heaven if it were ever an easie way it was never easie foolehardy stout travellers which boast of their limbes shall faint suddenly Matth. 15. Dogs must not come with poore children for Gods dole it belongs not unto them So much for the first Branch Others also there are whom this terror reacheth unto And they are Branch 2 base hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God Hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God are rejected devising painfull and tedious waies of their owne but shunning Gods easie way They will obtrude their whole rivers of oile and wine and whole barns of corne for the sinne of their soules whereas he askes onely a third part of an Hin and an handfull of flower for a meat offering A poore thing in Gods way is better excepted then all excesse of our owne Ye load mee saith God and pester me with your offerings I groane under the burthen of your sacrifices Honour me in mine owne way and I will make it easie and sweet to you But else the sand is not more heavy to mens shoulders then you to Gods you are out of Gods element therefore every thing is weighty you may complaine that you are not regarded but the Lord pitties no toile of hypocrites against his word Elija shall sooner consume the sacrifice with fire from heaven by standing still and praying in Gods way then all Baals Priests with their lancings and leapings upon the Altar Cost without wit is waste It s said of Ionathan that he had wrought with God that day on which he overcame those Philistins So I say Gods people work with God 1 King 18.28 with 37. 1 Sam. rather he with them but hypocrites work with themselves therefore they lay out their labour for that which profits not and mony for no bread They goe against the streame a Esau in his hunting for the blessing went another way with lesse adoe Esay 55.2 1 Sam. 14.45 2 Tim 3.7 As it s said in Timothy Alway hearing never comming to knowledge Oh the endlesse bootlesse toile of hypocrites You poore asses running the Divells round and grinding in his mill with your eyes blindfold at last be scared out of your trade You doe but as Sampson
perfected all at once But many things befall one in such an estate I say not alway but oftentimes which buffet and baske it shrewdly put it into sad demurres feares and suspitions that all will not prove well at last that she hath begunne at the wrong end and therefore not knowing what to make of it selfe sits in ashes and heavinesse a long time till God bring healing to her To mention some of these out of the experience of most mens ordinary complaints one may be this Answ That although they have been loaden with sin and desirous of ease Conversion hâ—th many preparations althougâ— the very act of it be at an instant yet by ignorance they are held downe so that they know not whether there be any ease for them to be had or no Satan so blindefolds their eyes that the way of God is hidden from their eyes their conscience is oppressed but they doe not feele that it it is a work of God preparing them to hearken after ease and remedy but rather esteeme it as a most unhappy condition fallen upon them to bring them to ruine for they judge themselves by others whom they heare of who make away themselves to be rid of their misery And indeed so it falls out to many burthened consciences who live in blinde places having neither Minister nor friend to succour them with counsel they dye in darkenesse and for lacke of light and so they grow to interpret the sense of their sinne to be a marke of vengeance upon them as if they were Cains and to be weary of their burthen till they have laid violent hands upon themselves All such I dare not simply condemne Sundry instances named But I may say their way is darke and they are blindefolded by Satan and by grosse ignorance so that the scope of God and the glorious Gospel of Christ should be hidden from them During which who wonders if they come short of comfort Sithence all hope of a possible remedy is taken from them A second sort there are who for the present doe not put difference betwixt the condition and the performance And therefore comparing their estate only with that which formerly they lay in ere they felt their sins to pinch them feeling now some hope by the promise they content themselves with that as affording them some distaste of sin and some touches of conscience some flashes of desire also they feel themselves loth to lose their good affections bred in them as sorrow and zeale and hope of growing better and therefore none can disswade them from hearing and prayer and ordinances because they feele these to nourish affection in them and thus their warmth tickles their hearts and hereby through self-love and ease they are held by the heele that they set downe their staffe making a damme to stop their rebellious lusts from breaking in upon them and beleeving that the meer absence thereof or restraint of their violence is a signe of true grace though they goe no further And were it not that their damme brake out often upon them and their corruptions betraid them to themselves and their affections forsooke them and left them to be dead and unsavoury as before at the worst doubtlesse they would wanze away as hypocrites and lye downe in sorrow onely the Lord will not suffer his to perish in this error but having manifested it makes them turne a new leafe and breake off their false confidence But in the meane time who wonders that they attaine no settling For alas Can their hearings duties affections or services take away the guilt of an ill conscience and give them any sound bottome No doubtlesse Thirdly others who are set to a sounder purpose yet oftentimes are so confounded in themselves that they forget what God hath done for them because that grace of faith which they covet is absent this so disquiets and perplexes their spirit that they unthankfully forget what God hath done for them nay they flatly but falsely affirme that God did never any thing for them at all They are so hooded by the Divell that whereas they heare the Lord will not forsake his owne worke but perfect it They will not confesse that ever he wrought any at all in them They that thinke so of them they say are deceived for their hearts are hardned senselesse carelesse empty of sorrow and desire and meanes using They never heard say they otherwise then as the common sort of hearers they were as good never have heard Whereas it is most evident that the word both of Law and Gospel have wrought many sweet preparations in them if they had power to see them save that a deep discontent of heart hath possessed them for the want of that they would have but are not wisely guided from extremities such as selfe-love may soon poison them withal So that as it is with a man who goes upon an hill over against which there is another in their eye that the vally lying betweene is quite hidden from them So is it with these till the Lord restore the sight of it againe But in the meane time wanting the sense of what God hath wrought already how can they gather hope that God will perfect it A fourth sort retaine the memory of that which is already wrought in them by the word But their let is that when once they move forward to the promise to fasten upon that they feele such a marvellous cold qualme come over their spirit that they feare they shall never reach it They think it so divine so spirituall a thing they see the grace thereof and the gaine so admirable so above them so beyond them that they thinke they shall never compasse it were too good for them to enjoy it belongs to other gates persons then they The Lord hath somewhat else to doe with his Christ then to bestow it upon such It belongs to some few choice ones and peculiar folke not to them they that can reach it may have it But as for them they deem it if not a thing impossible to come by yet exceeding unlikely a thousand to one and very difficult howsoever so that perhaps they may spend all their time and paines about it and yet come short too at last therefore they were as good spare their labour as spend it in vaine Thus as some thinke heaven easie and they looke to be one though there were but three saved So others are on the other side so slavish that they dare not looke at it And thus they would abide if the Lord by degrees cast not out this bondage which while it abides who wonders that they be far from this prosperity Another sort are much held under with the sense of present corruption prevailing in them abasing them and making them stinke in their owne nostrills so that although God have begunne to worke in them yet so long as the stinch of their lusts their ignorance unprofitablenesse hypocrisie inconstancy
sinfull wretch yea obey me punctually closely universally yea my very thoughts that he might be a servant according to mine owne heart and whether I give a reason or no of my charges I thinke it equall that my inferiour doe nothing at all swerve from my commands Oh! what shall become of me for my loose heart thoughts affections conscience What shall I answer for my dead hard lazy empty senselesse sensuall heart in point of a tender chearfull and upright walking with thee I see Sauls subjects being charged to fast 1 Sam. 14.30 trembled to see his owne sonne to touch a little hony so farre were they from tasting it and shall the awe of a man in a trifle saving the vow so absolutely surprise their wills and yet the eternall and righteous will of God not be able to prevaile over me O Lord I deceive all that know me when I doe the materiall part of a command the life of the duty is absent when I doe the morall part the spirituall is far off and although I see and know it thus I am so chained under the law of my corruptions that the integrity the scope the fruitfulnesse the large-heartednesse of my obedience is not to be seene Oh! I offer sacrifices halt and blinde wanting heart liver and reignes I am so fraut with my selfe Rom. 7.23 and the command of evill that good is seldome present A lust hath a principle in me causing mee to love it to serve it to use all means to fulfill it to shunne studiously whatsoever might crosse it But I feele not that spirit of grace which should cause me to obey from a principle of sweetnes still there is somewhat which me thinks I chuse rather to doe and to be swaied by then the law of love to God for his love to my soule Oh! herein the Lord my God be mercifull to mee that wheras I have found as much mercy as any yet I have bowed to this lust and that and worship my owne fancies and am as like to do still if the awe of God lie not more closely upon my soule Oh! that this fire might alway so burne upon mine altar as might consume my drosse and put some life and courage into into mee to get out of this Circle in which the Devill hath conjured mee to walke deadly and basely towards the Commands of God! Nay which is worse O Lord I am growne to this point even to lie as a beast in a slow groning under her burden so lie I in a fullen discontent of heart at the Lord himselfe that he enlarges mee no better when as yet I nourish my selfe all the while in my ease and carnall distaste of his streight Commands Oh! me thinks my cursed heart because it cannot have her will of him could even tell him to his face That he is an hard Master and gathers where he strawed not Alas I consider not that he hath mee at the vantage because I have lost the grace of my creation nay abused a better grace of Mercy and therfore may justly be punisht for the least Rebellion And not only thus but from this stubborne heart of mine it comes that I set my sayles abroad and commit my selfe to winde and weather am not smitten when I breake all cords in two as Samson I am loose in Sabbaths in the curbing of my passions my vaine thoughts have their through-fare and lodge in mee and yet I am not troubled I swallow every gobbet and let it go Once I could straine at a gnat but now I devoure Camels and heare no more of them Oh! Lord I picke quarrels with those lawes which have formerly been equall to mee And more then these Lord I am growne to this sad point that the sence of a bit and bridle is by custome of loosenes quite slipt out of my mouth I begin to frame God to be such an one as my base heart could be content he were even a God like to my selfe who will neither do good Psal 50. nor evill whose threats are as the clappes of thunder without any stroke following I hope to go on in a Round and way of easy Religion and doing of one duty after another successively without strayning of a joint But as for any sadnes of Commands to weigh downe my spirit to solid feare being thus accustomed to a slight and vaine course I feele it not God helpe mee In all these respects what shall a poore soule O Lord do Conclusion of this branch with it selfe What O my deer God shall bring me back againe after all these desperate revolts unto thee I wonder that I should not be wholy left to utter woe and open offences I know nothing in my selfe why Satan should not have mee at such a bay as to cause me to depart from God grossely and generally aswell as in these secret rebellions For I waxe weary of thy yoke and am content that others should abide the heate of thy worke and my selfe be released O Lord I am so farre from pleasing my selfe in this state that rather then I would be under the misery of my slightnesse I could wish thou woldst cast some other unpleasing chaines upon mee some stinging crosse some corrasive to eate out my dead flesh And as untoward as I am to suffer if I deceive not my selfe I could wish the sweet fruit or such a course with some pinch to my flesh rather then thus giddily to provoke thy Majesty by the transgression of thy Commands But thirdly and above all this is exhortation to all Gods people Branch 3 to sadden their hearts and to lie under the Authority of Commands for Conscience sake A most sollemne point above all that I can say to urgeit As before I spake when Iacob went to Luz God cast a feare upon the nations that they durst not stirre a joint against him Oh! Genes 35.5 such a feare shouldst thou beseech God to cast upon thy soule in secret Feare of God besetting the heart a great meane to keep close to God wheresoever thou becommest that it may hem in and compell thee to obey As it s sayd of the clowd which filled the Temple and caused the people to feare the presence of God who was in the midst therof so should this cloud alway lie upon thy soule to smite an awe into thy soule of offending Theris is a base spirit in us it is not love alone which can long hold us within bonds Heb. 12. end Therfore we had need as it is Heb. 12. end to hold fast such grace as may cause us to walke in reverence and holy feare Deut. 32.46 Moses summing up the contents of that Swans song of his in two words tells the people Set your hearts to all the words of this booke which I testifie to you this day that is the law of the covenant it s a sadde law sadly therfore set your hearts to it He whom wee have to do with
for this time Let us pray c. The end of the ninteenth Lecture THE TWENTIETH LECTVRE continued upon the 14. VERSE VERSE XIV Then he went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden and his flesh came againe unto him as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane WEE ended last time with some exhortation But brethren because mee thinkes I heare some say Were it a thing within my power to compasse there is nothing which I more wish then to delight in the law of God in my inner man Quest But I finde no power to it Tell me therefore how I might attaine it Answer For answere whereto I will finish the whole Doctrine with those Meanes which direct hereto Meanes dâ—â—ecting to obey 1. Faith The first and one mayne is get the Lord Jesus to be thy lawgiver Moses is a commander of rigorous impossible duties serving rather to convince the soule of that power of created righteousnes which we have lost then to enable us to obey But the Lord Iesus is a more mild and mercifull lawgiver who as he hath united God with flesh in his owne person so therein he hath broken downe that wall which stood up as a Tower impregnable Coloss 1.20 Eph. 3.15.16 between God and us he hath made all levell and easie and fastned the hand-writings of Morals and Ceremonials unto his Crosse that it might never appeare against us Nay more hee hath fulfilled all righteousnesse both of doing and suffering that wee in him might be clothed with it as a Robe from top to toe and might fulfill the Law by faith Practic Catech part 3. Art 5. I have at large opened this point elsewhere in the doctrine of it Let us here urge the necessity of faith upon our selves and close with the promise to make it our owne The truth is there is no command of God but Christ hath made it possible and sweet and by a promise he conveyes it to the soule saying Take my yoke upon you for is easie Mat. 11.29 and my burden for it is light Of our selves wee have another Law in our members leading us captives thereto a law of lust pride ambition sloth prophanenesse hypocrisie and selfe-love These naturally we take thought to fulfill as Paul saith Rom. 13. ult But the Lord Jesus hath destroyed this power in us of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Rom. 13. ult eased us of the impossiblenesse of obeying through the weaknesse of our flesh He hath quit us of being debtors to our flesh to fulfill it and redeemed us to himselfe Nothing remaines now save that wee put on the Lord Jesus by faith that wee renounce our old base bondage and slavery that we be willing to be free-men and that we close with the promise of sweet obedience by our beleeving it For this was his scope in easing us of one burden to put upon us another yet easie and sweet Let this then be the first Rule If thou wouldest fulfill the Law beleeve Faith hath united all the elect to Christ his Flesh and God-head who fulfilled all righteousnesse Rom. 10.4 and was made under the Law that he might be the end of the Law to righteousnesse for all that beleeve Fasten then upon this That the Lord Jesus never brake one Law performed all never preacht Sermon lesse then hee was bound to never did one miracle lesse then hee ought failed in nothing ground substance manner measure end of obeying but did all in perfection And none of this he did for himselfe sure I am not properly and purposely but for us wee were his scope for our sakes he did all And why Surely that we might partake it not onely in freedome from guilt and wrath but also in acceptation with God as his beloved and his righteous servants prepared for every good worke As the Lord offered us Christ to the former end so doth hee for this latter he is as faithfull in the one as the other Therefore 1 Thess 5.24 Rom. 12.2 Coloss 1.10 Philip. 4. sunder wee not those things which God hath joyned together but put wee on Christ in both to redeeme us from guilt and to make us Priests and Kings to offer up sacrifices of all well pleasing and obedience with holy delight and cheerfulnesse He is faithfull that hath promised who also will doe it He who hath him for his owne who hath done and suffered all hee whose Christ is by imputation of righteousnesse and by not imputation of sinne sinneth not fulfilleth the Law and is that which he is unto whom he is united by faith This for the first Secondly if thou wouldest obey commands closely 2. Meditation of the object then muse seriously of the sadnesse and solemnesse thereof and incorporate thy soule into it First muse of the spiritualnesse of them If Gods Candle search the bowels of the belly and pierce the soule bee convinced in thy meditations that the basenesse of thy hollow vaine worldly wandring heart upon the Sabboth vexes the Spirit of God as much as working or playing and so in other duties Secondly of the universality of them Muse therefore of this It is not my wealth or poverty my greatnesse or meannesse my learning or ignorance which can dispense with me with God there is no respect of persons No time no place no circumstances can prescribe against God he is one and the same object of feare in all places duties times occasions Thirdly muse of the indispensablenesse of Gods Commands Courts may dispense with mens offences Gods penalties cannot be bought off nor commuted Gods commands are unappealable comming from the highest Court of heaven Lower Courts cannot be appealed unto from the higher Fourthly they are his Commands who is infinite in wisdome righteousnesse and vengeance sees knowes and tries all obedience is present every where and strong enough to punish the breaches of any one no man can avoid his eye or escape his censure He backs all Commands with threats and pursues threats with revenges Fâ—fthly they are absolute no colours no distinctions will be admitted they are subject to no mans interpretation but to their owne They are both Text and Comment to themselves Other mens charges and statutes are yet subject to construction and interpretation so oft as any ambiguous questions fall out about them and by that means are often perverted quite and cleane from their sincere intentions But no Divell hereticke or prophane person could ever remove Gods limits or overthrow his meanings As they were so they still abide 1 Pet. 1. ult The word of God abideth for ever Such thoughts as these being setled by meditation upon the soule may be as powerfull to perswade closenesse in obeying as the thoughts of bad men upon the wrongs offered them provoke them to revenge If the Lord goe with the one as Satan goes with the other they must needs prosper Righteous O Lord are all thy judgemens therefore thy servant feareth
and looke not that they should drop into thy bosome or be let downe in an engin all on the suddaine upon thee thou knowest not how quicken up thy faith daily else performances will prove but dead ware and according to thine unbeleefe 3. Murmuring so shall it be unto thee Thirdly murmure not when promises answer not thine expectation If crossed in our marriages in our children in the successe of our labours if debts pursue us if crosses follow us if wee be not presently answered in our fasting and prayers but still our hearts be obstinate and hardned then we fall to mutter against God as if he were unfaithfull but never enter into our selves to see how we warpe from the promise and go to worke with our owne tooles Ex. 14.2 4. Some grosse sin Fourthly lay no stumbling blocke of our owne iniquity in our owne way to stop the performing of promises Every loose common and hollow professor let him decline never so much from God in his course yet will boast as much of promises as others and will not be beaten off Judg. 19.20.21 ca. As those Israelites in fighting with the Benjamites would needs goe forward in the revenge of their sinne and lookt that God should assist them but never saw the sinne which still lay underneath their Idolls I mean which cost them the losse of forty thousand souldiers ere they got the victory Men think if they should be stript of Gods promises they were forlorne folk but in the mean time they walke not close with God keep not touch with him in their covenants dare play most unfaithfull parts with men in their practice and thus runne into arrearedges never dreaming that thereby they forfeit their right to performances but hold up their heads with boldnesse and think that as good bloud runnes still in their veines as in the best beleevers 5. Limiting of God Fifthly limit not God in his performances we care not how little we have for our money so we may have our humor pleased in some carnall content we can forgoe spirituall so we may have our turn served in some one promise we have enough and can give God over for a good while after and think much to hold on with Gods bounty because our strait hearts are pincht with the exercise of faith and therefore its just with God to punish our basenesse and unbeteaming spirits 6. Error of the wicked Sixtly beware of the error of the wicked who goe to worke by sense and esteeme Gods performances according to the outward meanes and possibilities which they have to compasse their ends God is but a formall notion upon point with them If thou looke upon the world thou losest the sight of God and wilt turne Atheist Seventhly beware of oversight and inobservance of promises God performes daily and hourely one or other to thee or thine to body or soule in blessings or in corrections yea more then hee is bound to But thou gapest after some greater or some other things 7. Unobservance so overseest and passest by such as are before thee and thereby stoppest the course of thanks and of blessings because thou seest not how many waies Gods performances lye Be quicke fighted in observing mercies and say with the Church Lam. 3.23 The compassions of the Lord are renued every morning great is thy faithfulnesse An observing heart encourages the Lord to performe more and he cannot abide an heart that pockets all and puts them into a bottomlesse purse Hag. 1.8 8. Curiosity and censure with others Eightly shunne curiosity and propensenesse to challenge the Lord when his publicke government and administrations please us not To these many moe might be added as sloth and ease worldlinesse formality in worship little meditation and such like They procure a dead life a barren heart an uncomfortable course Remember it must be an heart qualified for the nonce which must walke with God in his promises and performances It must be a cleare humble watchfull innocent and selfe-denying spirit not tainted with il custome and such shall have no cause to complaine of God nor be sent empty away So much for this Use Eightly this point is Exhortation to all beleevers and that in sundry particulars Vse 8 First that they revive in themselves the former Doctrine that is Exhortation that they take measure of Gods promises to the full that since God is so faithfull Branch 1 a performer of them all they may understand their owne liberty To take measure of promises and improve it Lose no performance for lacke of a promise God can enlarge Christ to every dimension of fulnesse height and depth So doe thou Those John 6.27 could beteame to follow Christ for loaves but they saw no further Say we thus Lord if thou heare me in this prayer thou shalt heare of me often I will ply thee with importunity for there is no measure no end nor bottome of thy goodnesse I will come to morrow next day continually For thou art yesterday to day and for ever the same Tell thy soule Heb. 13.8 heaven were not heaven if thou couldst reach all in it yet doe thine endeavour and pray with Paul Eph. 3.16 that thou maist see more in Christ then thou canst aske or thinke Mat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in the Lords Prayer thou art bidden to aske bread enough for the day and that which exceeds for so the word signifies As much more Lord as thy bounty can afford Oh brethren who would not know this Charter and Lease except he cared not whether God performed or no Lord I beleeve in that promise which reaches to all my life to my corruptions temptations straits feares to this and to a better life Secondly having so done learn to lot upon him for each performance Lot upon God for performance Ezra 8.21 especially when it goes hard Branch 2 with thee otherwise except God should sticke to thee Thus Ezra having obtained leave of the King for his journey and being now at a pinch for a sufficient convoy in so perillous a journey concluded he would not goe to the King for it lest he should upbraid him but he would goe to the promise for it by fasting and prayer and having so done was well appaid in himselfe lotting upon God that in such an extremity he would not faile him So do thou Thirdly to this end strengthen thy self by the plentifull experience of performances Branch 3 in time past get a calender of performances Strengthen thy self by thy experience at such a time I was heard for my wife for my childe answered in point of marriage estate gifts credit such a strong corruption was subdued such a grace enlarged so that I see it were not in vaine to waite upon thy promises if I had faith sufficient to equall and concurre with them Let me forget none of thy faithfulnesse in my receivings of the Sacraments
if you have beleeved the Word of God indeed whence are those privie nips of your conscience which do so continually assault you Whence are those terrours of heart with which many of you are met with when you would faine be at peace When you are in the middest of your ease and jollity your liberties your sports and pleasures whence come those cold qualmes over your base spirits barring you out from peace and fastning terrours upon you stronger then you can resist Dare you pretend your selves beleevers when you feele still your old distempers to tosse and turmoile you and to hold you downe with strong hand in secret Joh. 8.30 If they whom the Sonne hath freed are free indeed whence is your slavery No no you do but set a good face on it you make faire weather outwardly but hatch inwardly such a viper as will fret your bowels and destroy you it is one thing to smother and choake your feares and beare downe your distempers another to drowne them in the sea of the promise you have other delights to fill your hearts withall the Lord would have set on the worke of the law more throughly and made you more to stinke in your owne nostrils and to prize the Word of God and the promise of ease if ever you had beene truly loaden But sithence you would have both your lusts and the promise too holding a wolfe by the eares which you are loath to forgoe and yet cannot well keep know that you deceive your selves in boasting that you hold close to the promise for they that do so may lose their distempers therein which you keepe still It is true That the Lord would have all his as Esay saith count it their strength to sit still But how not in a chaire of ease pretending a freedome which you never had and favouring your selves in any forbidden vanities of your owne envie lust pride revenge and the like But the strength of a poore soule is to sit still in respect of her cavillings and fightings against the truth of the promise Perhaps you will say you do so and feele no such matter in your selves but are quiet and secure But I answer your peace is not sound there is a crack in it as appeares by this That you walke not as Gods free-men do you are as close to God in your love in your tendernesse in your humble carriage as you would pretend to be in your beleeving No man can palpably discerne the Devils chaines upon the Lords free-men Wherefore to conclude I say to you as he to that messenger What hast thou to do with peace turne thee behind mee Oh these are the daies wherein the most vile and presumptuous hypocrites catch at a promise and beare downe their consciences But be not thou O Christian friend like to them for their disease wound is but healed deceitfully and shall breake out againe most deadly when they shall not be able to resist it except it please the Lord to send them upon better conditions to claime the promise So much shall serve for this Use Fifthly this bitter reproofe of all such who in the judgement Use 5 of Charity do beleeve and cleave to the Word yet will not be drawne from the bad custome of their former doubts conceits and distempers but suffer Beelzebub still to light upon their sore and to molest them and gall them still Oh! what a dishonour is this to the promise of God still to hold a secret correspondence with Satan and to nourish our old picking of knots and answering of feares by our owne blanching wit and devises yea spending houres and daies wearisomely in setting our owne wit and invention on worke to beat off our objections and thinking they have done themselves good service in the meane while Whence comes this surely by your weaknesse and relapsing from your former hold of the promise This self-wit and will is so naturall that we are prone and propense to revolt and roll backe unto it as fast as the Lord seems to settle us by his Word it is an inbred evill alway fighting against the law of faith as it is easie for a woman to go to a pond or pulke standing neere to her doore though the water be not so good rather then to goe to a fountaine of living water further off Ease and ill custome are inchanting enemies But remember that onely that blood of sprinkling hath in it a sure bottome of staying feares so that the soule may be quiet from the destroying Angell and the out-cries of Egypt Could they who never had the experience of such a thing before yet so confidently venture their lives upon the Word and shall such as have in likelihood approved this promise of God by experience and ventured themselves upon it and felt it a soveraigne remedy against their distempers returne to tread the maze of their old confused thoughts the second time As if the Word had suddenly lost her strength and virtue to sustaine them as formerly Shall forgetfulnesse melancholy temptation corruption ill custome be able to pull them from an assured hold of rest to assured vexation and distemper I speake it brethren upon knowledge It hath beene thus and is thus with many through a wearisomenesse of this spirituall trade of beleeving that men grow into a very falling sicknesse in this kind that is such a custome of wofull doubtfulnesse and distempers that they seem to delight in it Alas poore soule dost thou thinke that to be presumption in thee which the Lord himselfe calls confidence or because perhaps thou feelest the dregs of a bold heart still abiding in thee hast thou no other way to avoid a shallow save by running into a gulfe If the Lord be willing thou shouldst hold thy peace upon the naked termes of his offer and promise seemes it too good for thee or if it be must thou needes undervalue his grace by thy basenesse as if it were too great for him to bestow because it is too good for thee to enjoy Know it from the ground of this doctrine the Lord delights as little in this practise of thine as thou seemest to delight much in it And although I deny not but in respect of thy weaknesse there may be some place for pity yet there is more cause of sharpe reproofe For why Didst thou never beleeve the Word deceive thy selfe no longer and put away thy distrust from thee But hast thou beleeved for so thou didst pretend then trust the Lord still and say with him Why dost thou thus fret O my soule in my breast and recoyle against that which hath formerly satisfied thee Turne rather thy vexation into prayer and say Remove these unpleasing chaines Lord at last and set mee at liberty shew me this wisedome from above not onely barely to cling to it but also to improve it so as to feele the power of it to shut out my base distempers out of doores and there to hold
being convinced of their killing the Lord of Life were prickt in heart and filled with mourning and tendernesse it is called there a powring out because of that impotencie and unsatisfiednesse which was in it that it could not tel how to expresse it selfe enough to God or man and the holy Ghost uses words of the plurall number noting how frequent their prayers were at first conversion and how bitter those complaints and mournings were for their sinnes So wee know John Revel 2. Revel 2.3 touches the same poâ—nt when he checkes the Church of Ephesus for the losse of her first love we know how tender and ardent that love is which couples do beare each to other when they are first espoused together it may be a patterne all the life after Sometimes it s styled by the name of joy as it is said Matth. 13.44 Matt. 13.44 That when the Merchant had found that Pearle for joy thereof counting himselfe happy therein he went and sold all that he had and bought that Pearle And those in Acts 8. Act. 8.8.39 rejoyced greatly having beene converted by Philip as those who have found an hooâ—d of treasure who would not part with it againe for a world so the Eunuch went away rejoycing Sometime by the esteeme of the messenger Ro. 10. Rom. 10.15 How beautifull are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of peace As Eliezer Gen. 24.30 who brought Isaacs tokens and bracelets and newes of an husband was very welcome for his message sake Sometime it is described by the close fellowship and cleaving of the Saints of God together as Act. 2. Act. 2.44 45. where those that beleeved could not part with each other but sold their possessions and gave the price for the maintenance of their poore brethren Sometime it is noted by the dearnesse of the heart to the Ministers of God as Galat. 4.15 Galat. 4.15 For I beare you witnesse tha you would have pull'd out your very eyes and given to mee And much more by that prodigall spirit of suffering for God Heb. 10.37 as Heb. 10. Call to remembrance the dayes of old wherein you suffered willingly the spoyle of your goods were made a gazing-stocke both by reproaches and afflictions and chap. 11. were persecuted and tormented refusing to be delivered Many phrases are used in the Prophets to describe the strangenesse of this change as chap. 55. end The Thistle shall become a Myrtle tree Esay 55. ult and the Bramble shall become a Fig-tree that is things before uselesse should now put on a new hew and become profitable for all uses yea to describe the acceptablenesse thereof to God it is said That the wildernesse shall be as a flood Esay 35.2 3. and the desert as the garden of God Esay 41.10 and as the face of the earth after the winter is gone and the spring is come In the Canticles there is much to this purpose The winter is past the spring is come Cant. 2.11 12. the voice of the bird is heard the trees bud and the blossomes put forth what do all these phrases of well pleasingnesse intimate saving that savour which the soule brought home to God affords to him and the favour which shee finds in his eyes But what shall I need multiply over-many proofes It is harder to conceale them then to name them Others will offer themselves in the processe of the Doctrine Reas 1 Now for Reasons they are plentifull the first may be this God will have it so for the manifesting of his worke in the soules of Converts For the manifesting of his worke in the soule their course formerly having beene so contrary base and odious to God and man noysome to themselves barren and unprofitable themselves so insensible so dead hearted blockish and savourlesse of good what can be a more sensible marke of mercy to them then that the Lord hath wrought such a change such affections desire hunger love tendernesse closenesse to communion forgetting their dung-hill their pleasures lusts vanities companies What could be a sweeter marke to a rude savage Jaylor of conversion Act. 16.29 then to spring in to the Apostles wash their wounds make them great cheere and send them away from their chaines What could more comfort the heart of poore Lydia Ibid. then for a coy Dame now to hang upon the Apostles and to say If you have found me faithfull abide in my house So that the Lord in part doth it for the better contenting the hearts of such who if some such apparent change were not wrought would be ready to vanish in their feares and acknowledge no worke at all to be wrought Reas 2 The second Reason Because as in the early loves of the married For their heartning against their difficulties See Luk. 5.34 35 37. while they are together in the Bride-chamber all is festivall after-sorrowes must not be mentioned for those will come alone and too soone now it is honey-moone now all must sound of joy and gladnesse and to talke of debts children charge of house-keeping and crosses it is out of season so is it here The Lord foreseeing the many brunts damps eclipses and sorrows which his people must meet with gives them this wine of his flagons and these Apples and dainties to make merry with that they might forget care and endeare their hearts at first so deeply in himselfe that when troubles must come the remembrance of the love of their youth may encourage them to beare the more willingly and when they are growne stronger to beare then he conceales their first delights and allots them harder conditions suffers their feasting to be turn'd to fasting their mirth into mournings their songs into sorrow suffers them to be crockt among the pots hurried in the world dampt with hard conditions and files of their first edge that their inward metall and substance may grow better Thus he fits them for both conditions Reas 3 Thirdly he causes these expressions to come from them that they may not lie hid To make them objects of observation in the world like Saul in the stuffe but be objects of marke and observation in the eyes of others Sometimes God puls out Wisedome out of her corners and clothes her with all orient and beautifull colours that she might raise up admirable love of her selfe in such as behold her And when it is thus each man covets to have a share in her These admirable operations which God workes in his converted ones are so convincing and precious that even they who do not desire them for themselves will yet covet them for their beauty and comelinesse which they see in others Whose heart was not pierced in the Gaolers house to see such strange affections bred in him all of a sudden when the Lord comes into a family and discovers his worke in some one or two in tender sorrow in savory desires after the promise unwearied