a Warriour should now bee subdued by a few followers who had so stouted it out with the Prophet himselfe But as the Lord used this course to abase his pride so hee effected that which hee sought and now makes him a tame Captive to meane Conquerours The poynt then is An humble heart will not scorne the counsell and help of the meanest The proud give great words and scorne meane ones thinking it a disgrace to be dealt with by such But it must be a poore thing indeed which an humble soule will despise in the way of God Rom. 12.13 and his souls welfare This is that which Paul Rom. 12. urgeth at the hands of Christians That they condiscend to them low degree and thinke themselves equall unto them And yet see how Apollo that learned and eloquent man Acts 18.26 disdain'd not to learne the way of God more perfectly even from Aquila and Priscilla Tent-makers See how Paul consorts himselfe with young Timothy 1 Thess 1.1 and calles him his fellow-labourer how honourably hee speakes of private men and craves the prayers of poore Christians Our Lord Jesus how did hee in his agony Matth. 26.37 seek the help and prayers of poore sleepy Disciples But I will adde a few reasons Reason 1 First it must be so because humblenes is a reall grace and discerns between shadowes and substance and esteemes it selfe not by the latter but the former A fooles eyes are bleared with any thing that hee is better bred hath more money in his purse hath a braver stomacke then his fellow nay if he have a little more gold in his Hat-band or a longer lock of haire at his eares then another But he that hath grace is purged from such scurfe of vanity hee knowes that God esteemes no such stuffe but judges by the inner man and the vertues of the soule which if an inferiour doe excell him in he neither despises him for his meannesse nor exalts himselfe for his complements Both are of one seed one flesh from one maker Acts 17.26 tending to the same death and dust Counters in a summe differ not save in opinion although the one stand for an hundred pound the other but an half-peny Secondly by this equalling himselfe to a lower degree an humble Reason 2 man shewes the soundnesse of his humility Many will seem humble enough among their Peeres and equals though their hearts be proud because all colours of pride are removed But hee who is humble to the meane hath cast off all covers of shame and pretexts of pride and shewes himself to be truly humble indeed because he might be proud under a defence Each grace of God covets to expresse it selfe in her naked hue without hypocrisie and so humility abhorres all contrariety to her selfe not onely open scorne and blustering but even that secret queasinesse and coynesse of heart which is as I may say the relique and staine of corruption in this kinde Thirdly by this meanes it concurres with Gods wisedome and Reason 3 stoops to his Arguments For the Lord himselfe to humble proud man sends him to the most base and contemptible creature and doth oftentimes arme it to foyle mans pride Now then to disdain a meane one being in the image of God as wel as thy self how insolent a pride were it both against Man and God himselfe But to hearken to the meanest is to learne humblenesse of our Father who sends us to that Schoole for the purpose that he might tame us Prov. 6.6 Goe thou sluggard to the Pismire Fourthly by this meanes we imitate the Lord himselfe who hath Reason 4 abased himselfe even to the lowest degree of basenesse in this kinde Philip. 2 8. emptying hiâself that hee might bee equall to them of greatest basenesse nay more might be baser then thousands of them who yet had been extreamly base if he had been the sonne of an Empresse So the Lord himselfe Esay 57.17 though that holy one and inhabiting eternity yet lookes downe upon the poore and lowly that he might dwell with them and be strong with them The use to be briefe is first to all inferiours either Ministers or others Vse 1 in inferiour place Inferiors must not pull backe their service from their betters if God call them not to withdraw their service in this kind from their superiours I say when God calles them to advise rebuke exhort not to pull back their neck out of the Collar through indirect and sinister conceits It is the sinne of the inferiour and the misery of the superiour to be so handled I ascribe the horrible debauchednes of great ones at this day and their sinfull unlimited courses next to their owne natures to the desperate basenesse of such as being set in place of Ministery or attendance neglect their duty toward such being eye-witnesse of their sinne What saith one shall I one of the puny Chaplaines speake to my Patrone or great Lord of his uncleane courses then hee might cast my boldnesse in my teeth when ancienter learneder wiser and more experienced feare his displeasure distrust their owne strength shall I begin Truly the very servants of Heathen great ones shall rise up against such as stay not their Masters in their riots but connive and correspond with them Alexander himself had one lover of Alexander though most were lovers of the King And are we onely lovers of mens greatnesse for our owne ends and not of their soules So men that have others but a little above them in place Ministers having Gentlemen in their Townes dare not speake for feare of them I shall doe them no good and my selfe much hurt Perswasions to it say they by speaking and so for lack of the service they shall rot in their sinne For why First why shouldst thou distrust God If thy heart be not false cannot that God who hath given thee a wise and loving tongue to reproove give him also a wise and inclining eare to heare When Moses answeâed the Lord Send whom thou shouldst to Pharaoh Exod. 4.12 for I am a man of a stammering tongue doth not God answer him Who made the tongue or ear have not I Cannot I give thee gifts for mine owne worke and him the grace of hearkning But put case wee prevaile not No more did Ieremy Jerem. 1.18 whose face yet God made as brasse to speake to a rebellious house But then saith God thou hast saved thy soule their bloud shall rest upon their owne head So then to end this doe thou thy duty O inferiour and trust God for successe If Naamans servants had now neglected their duây what had become of their Master Be encouraged by their successe Vse 2 Secondly this is admonition Admonition to all sorts to lay aside that pride and prejudice that coynesse and statelinesse of spirit which fore-stalles it from learning of the meane and inferours It is the phrase of proud Ajax in the Poet He that
the Lord workes great matters by them Or if they have other complements of authority in carriage awfulnesse experience and wisedome in the world yet being humble also and abhorring pride state and jollitie as all Gods Ministers ought to do they are mean in the eye of the world whatsoever inward excellencies they have for the world esteems them so much as they esteem themselves by the greatnesse of their stomacke Now it is not their skill knowledge which can hinder their humblenesse in their own eyes no more then ignorance can cause humilitie Nay I dare say Gifts and graces doe no more cause pride then ignorance causeth humility that if the number of proud ones were surveyed we shall finde more of them proud through ignorance and for lack of a bottome then of their knowledge though neither without speciall grace can be humble As then I would have none mistake me in this point so by the way I would admonish all bold ignorant and raw novices and young Ministers of whom the world is full who no sooner are crept out of the shell but thinke themselves fit enough for the Ministery being yet wholly untrain'd in the way thereof and very prone to fall into the condemnation of the Divell I doe admonish all such to looke to themselves and beware lest through a pearking and ventrous spirit and a desire after their owne ends gaine and living they dishonour God bring his ordinances into contempt and by their running and shifting from place to place for meanes they snare their consciences so farre that they can scarce get out againe when they would Runnagate idle unlearned Curates and Hirelings are a great bane to the Church Let them wait the time attend to reading deny themselves learne of their betters and ancients which few of them doe and trust God in due time for service and respect in the Church Further this point should minister exceeding consolation to poore Vse 2 ones in their owne eyes Consolation to despised ones in the eyes of men and silly and contemptible in the eyes of the world as indeed never was there a more scornfull age of those who are truly religious at the best but especially if they want parts wealth breed learning to commend them Oh! God doth great things in poore ones by poore ones for poore ones If the Lord hath humbled you truly and made you wise to salvation rejoyce although perhaps you are counted but poore politicians poore worldlings though perhaps your learning be not deep and a subtile fellow may circumvent your simplicity in a bargaine Oh! let not this discourage you James 2.5 For the Lord oft doth as much good to a poore creature by the want of some excesse of worldly wisedome as hee loses esteeme by it among men The Lord chuseth such often to be heires of salvation and their opposition to grace is commonly coÌmonly I say for somtimes the most silly are the most perverse a great deale lesse then theirs who are more deeply wise who frame to themselves many objections and stumble at many offences As these poore ones have not the reach which many have nor the depth so neither do they meet with such reall lets from within Alas they are not so curious so proud selfe-loving but they are glad to stoop to the conditions of the Gospell they have little within them to cast downe and little without them to forfet they are little ones in understanding wealth honour and reputation and therefore they are fit to make Gods little ones They are glad to be accepted of God they are lost to the world they stinke before great ones therefore if God will esteeme them they are thankfull their hearts are low broken and ready to wonder that the Lord should cast an eye of respect to such Matth. 11.6 Therefore Matth. 11. the poore soon receive the Gospell Oh! little doe such thinke what rubs the Lord hath taken out of their way Besides when that grace shall be seen in such silly ones which great and wise ones cannot purchase with all their wisedome and learning when the Lord shall make them shine in holy example love and zeale to Gods glory tender of offending innocent humble nay when the gifts of rare holy wisedome of prayer conference judgement and discerning of things and persons shall appeare in them who wonders not how such should come by such gifts God worketh a great thing by them when he ordaineth praise by such to himself As the Lord Jesus had no beauty in him Matth. 21.16 Joh. 7. unlearned and yet so able to pose the Doctors and to stall his most potent enemies And his Disciples Acts 4. when they stuck so to Christ that they daunted the Elders Oh! how it drew admiration from the people and glory to God! So Ioh. 9. those who had knowne the blinde beggar sitting by the way and now heard with what a new tongue he convinced the Pharisees they glorified God That poore Martyr Alice Driver in the presence of many hundreds did so silence Popish Bishops that she and all blessed God that the proudest of them could not resist the Spirit in a silly woman so I say to thee Out of the mouth of Babes and sucklings will God be honoured Even thou silly worme shalt honor him when it shall appeare what God hath done for thee what lusts he hath mortified and what graces he hath granted thee which those that are wiser then thou fret to see in thee Oh! be thankful John 1.50 The Lord can yet do greater things for thee if thou wilt trust him he can carry thee upon Eagles wings enable thee to bear suffer strong affliction for him to persevere to the end to live by faith and to finish thy course with joy Oh! in that he hath made thee low in heart thy other lownesse shall be so much the more honour to thee Do not all as much and more wonder at Gods rare workmanship in the Ant the poorest bugge that creeps as in the biggest Elephant That so many parts and limbes should be united in such a little space that so poore a creature should provide in the Summer time her Winter food Who sees not as much of God in a Bee as in a greater creature Alas in a great body we looke for great abilities and wonder not Therefore to conclude seeing God hath clothed thy uncomly parts with the more honour blesse God and beare thy basenesse more equally thy greatest glory is yet to come that when the wise of the world have rejected the counsell of God thou hast with those poore Publicanes and Souldiers magnified the Ministery of the Gospell Luke 1.5 surely the Lord also 1 Thess 1. will bee admired in thee a poore silly creature that ever thou wert made wise to salvation and beleevest in that day Be still poor in thine owne eyes and the Lord will make thy proudest scornfull enemies to worship at thy feet Rev.
To teach us the price of grace which of us would ever thinke grace to be such a thing as it is which of us would not wax wanton with God and forget our former condition which of us would pââse mercy and conversion as the inestimable free gift of a gracious God who might have left us at large to the corruptions of the world and the depth of the Divell But when we see how the Lord crosseth us what blocks are in our way and how hard it is to be vessels prepared for mercy to be clensed from our evill savour which would defile the grace of God then we wonder that ever the Lord should bestow any mercy upon us at all And so we walke in the sense and savour of it more humbly and thankfully afterward we suspect our base hearts we are jealous of forgoing it earnest to pursue it glad of the least dram of it and why we know the price and worth of it In this frailty and corruption of nature we can beare no great measures of grace by good experience of that it cost us to compasse it Where is there a man who is meet to enjoy any great matter from God either outward blessing or spirituall favour without pride and swelling So that the Lord is faint alway to be much in preparing such as he intends to bestow any great matter upon How long was David in preparing by the Lord See 1 Sam. from chap. 15. to the end of the book ere he came to the kingdome Between his first anointing and his Crowning how many turn againes and pursuits had he Surely as the Merchant of the East Indies who ventures for rich wares and pretious commodities hath an hard taske of it goes through strange hazards by pirates by tempests by winds by rocks and by continuall feare both going for them and comming home with them and all to teach him the price of them that he may after enjoy them more soberly so is it here The Lord is faine to prolong the day of his mercy and pardon and to bring the soul through many adventures to teach it to enjoy mercy without wantonnesse giddinesse lightnesse and boasting A drunken man can beare strong drinke or wine with his weake braine aswell as our slight hearts can entertaine grace we wax vaine and frothy idle and empty as not knowing what we have received from God nor how sober and wise we ought to be in the use of it 2 Cor. 1.2.3 So Paul the Lord meant to betrust him with deep revelations But before that how was he faine to buffet him what bitter greetings had he of his vile heart and how was he abased in his owne feeling And why Surely to teach him to walke humbly not to swell nor disdaine others but to distinguish the excellency of Gods grace from the basenesse of his owne spirit As we see it to fall out in the disposition of seasons and weather Simil. while the winter season is in her setling and height although there be a generall coldnesse of the aire yet it is mixed with some calmnesse and moderation But when once the spring tide is approaching we see what inequality of weather there is winds raines tempests and blustering all to purge the sky and to bring down the winterly distempers of it that the coast being cleare the sweet season of the spring and summer may succeed Just so it is with the soule perhaps while it lies under the winter of her owne desolation she makes a shift and hath no great chaines upon her as being under the hatches of misery But if once the Lord cause the spring time of life and conversion to approach strange it is what tempests clouds and weather arise the heart growes full of feares corruption rebells by occasion of the Law and selfe rises up in armes by occasion of the Gospel a marvailous change appeares in the soule through terrors bondage doubtings resistings cavellings and distempers of a base heart loth to leave that hell of hers which by custome became her heaven But all this is but as it should be the Lord proceeds gradually and by steps delayes the worke of grace and all that the coast may be somewhat cleared before hand and the soule prepared to welcome the season of mercy with calmenes humblenesse and modesty To conclude the Lord is Reason 4 most wise in thus trying his owne servants before he convert them To discerne them from such as are not his owne to the end that he may discerne them from such as are not of his number For why when hypocrites once come to see the conditions of grace what attendance upon means what knowledge and sense of sin what deep convincing of conscience is required how humble hungry painfull earnest the Lord lookes the soule should be that desires grace how plain-hearted in her aimes and prising it above all liberties how willing to sell all and glad it may to buy this pearle lo their rotten carnall hearts fly off and abhorre to stoop so low upon any hopes They thought heaven might be compassed with small adoe and that they might have it and their owne wills too But when they see it will not be nay more that many a poore honest soule is faine to waite long at Gods gate till he see it a fit season to bestow his grace upon it alas poore wretches they never were either so pinched with sinne nor affected with mercy as to bestow halfe the cost for it although they might be sure of it and therefore they fall off either altogether and so turne backe to their lusts or else if light and compulsion of conscience scare them from that they still abide as they are in a saplesse fulsome and dead course But it is not so with the others Gods true Merchants of the best pearles who know the true worth of them will not be beaten off by such discouragements but but with Naaman in the verses following rather then they will forfet all their hopes and carry back their lepers skin With them See Mat. 13.44 they will put their lives in their hands or rather themselves in the Lords to deale with them as he please and whatsoever difficulties or delayes they meet with they will beare them seeing they are for the best all shall end well By waiting the Lord will appeare at last but by giving him over they are sure to perish Oh! there is great use of this course how many desperate hypocrites doth the Lord trie hereby discovering their basenesse rage and discontent and how doth he comfort his owne faithfull poore servants that have waited upon his salvation assuring them it was his owne grace that sustained them in such delayes and difficulties to hold on Vse Instruction admonition to all Novices in grace not to be dismaid for difficulties The use whereof should be instruction and admonition to all Naamans and novices in regeneration and the worke of
NAAMAN THE SYRIAN HIS DISEASE AND CVRE Discovering lively to the Reader the spirituall Leprosie of Sinne and Selfe-love Together with the Remedies viz. Selfe-deniall and Faith Besides sundry other remarkable points of great use as you may finde them after the Epistle to the Reader With an Alphabeticall TABLE very necessary for the Readers understanding to finde each severall thing contained in this Booke By Daniel Rogers B. in Divinity and Minister of Gods Word at Wethersf in Essex LONDON Printed by TH HARPER for PHILIP NEVIL and are be sold at his Shop in Ivy Lane at the Signe of the Gun MDCXLII TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE Lady CECIL Countesse of Winchelsey late Wife and now Widow to the Right Honourable THOMAS Earle of Winchelsey deceased GRACE and PEACE Right Honourable THE graces of Selfe-deniall and Faith are like those two pillars of Iachin and Boaz 2 Chron. 3.17 erected at the beautifull entrance into the Temple for all men to cast their eyes upon and that worthily for most costly and pretious was their matter and most curious and artificiall was their workemanship For as those two Pillars led the way into a glorious Temple yet made with hands so doe these two stand in the porch of a better Temple even that of Grace here and Glory eternall in the heavens And as they so stood neare the gate of entrance that no man could enter in save by them although themselves never went in but alway staid without so these graces though they shall leave the soule in Heaven because she should not need them yet they shall not forsake her while she abides in the porch but shut heaven doore upon her ere they take their leave Moreover as the contriver and erecter of the former was that famous and cunning Artist Hyram of Tyre so 1 King 7.13 no lesse an artificer then Hyram nay a greater then Hyram is here I say the Spirit of the Lord Iesus is the framer and setter up of these in the Soules of Gods Elect. And these two graces good Madam with the discovery thereof are the chiefe frame of these my ensuing Lectures in which both when I preached them and now I write them I aime at this marke to withdraw the soule from the life of it owne hand to the life of the Lord Iesus Esay 57.9 and from an empty Religion to be acquainted with the mysteries of the Gospell the only manuduction to true godlinesse All profession being nothing else save a shadow and bottomlesse building which is not grounded and quickned with Selfe-deniall and Faith And indeed Right Honourable if ever any age of the Church did then doth this in which we live in my judgement require that the labours of us Ministers be improved about the urging of these whether we looke upon the times or turne our eyes to God himselfe in his administration and government we shall observe the former excessively overgrowne with an outward and formall Religion and for the latter when did the Lord so estrange himself from us and dwell as it were in the midst of a thicke cloud So that except by the lively practice of these two graces we do not stir up our selves to take hould of him how can our lives chuze but be sad and comfortlesse Surely if ever we had now need to prease upon more familiar acquaintance with God in all his graces and as David did to view his Temple well True it is that the old Iew had little knowledge of God save by the name of Iehova Alsufficient and a generall aime at the promise of a Messia the blessed seed to come Doubtlesse they lived at poore termes It was enough for them to cast an eye upon Gods Temple as Daniel in captivity and Iona in the Whales belly might do Dan. 6.10 Jona 2 7. Strange and deep was that mercy which would so far off behold such as so far off beheld him but now we the Church of the New Testament are come nearer to God Heb. 12.24 we are come to mount Sion to the heavenly Ierusalem to the Church of the first born to Iesus himself the Mediator of the Covenant and the bloud of sprinkling which speakes better things then that of Abel We are come now beyond the Porch and Sanctuary even to the Holy of Holies through his flesh that hath broken downe the vaile of seperation So that now we are past viewing of the Temple well for we had need become this Temple our selves 2 Cor. 3.18 Whose corner stone is precious Iesus and wee precious stones built upon him and rising up daily to a more lively and well proportioned building 2 Pet. 1.4.5 A little taste of the gift of God a few good reaches and affections after holinesse are not enough for us but to be grounded upon these foundations of Selfe-deniall and Faith 2 Pet. 11.1 which promise us an open entrance into that eternall Temple According therefore to those talents of Wisdome and Knowledge which the Lord hath long imparted to us by the blessed lights of his Ministers who sometimes shined in our Sphere but now in glory it is expected at our hands That we comprehend with all Saints that depth and breadth of love which is in Christ Eph. 3.17 18. that he may dwell in our hearts by faith Heb. 6.1 that forgetting our first elements we strive toward perfection so far as in this vaile of misery its possible to reach to I know your Honour hath long made this your marke and that leaving things behinde you have long looked forward to the prize of the high calling of God Phil 3.13 and to that end have I sent you this Booke that it may affoord you some succour and direction hereto in your private condition and sad widowhood These thirty yeares I have wholly intermitted any converse with your Ladiship an error scarce pardonable except your so farre distant dwelling from the place of your first nativity and education did plead some pardon for me being one whose age and occasions admit no travell to remote places Yet have I not wholy been unacquainted with your course and conversation in Gods waies nay I know through how many combats and fights of affliction God hath brought your Honor into the condition wherin you stand And besides Heb. 10.32 I may say of you as the Lord once said of Iehoshua Zach. 3 2. Is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire Hath not the Lord taken you as a dry branch and planted you in the Courts of his owne house to grow wel-liking and flourishing in goodnesse Sometimes the Lord abhorred a female out of that flecke which had a male Mal. 1.14 But now the males of your flocke are all gone the Lord hath left you as a female hope of recovering the honour of a collapsed family A great honour for to say the truth who hath beheld so deep an eclipse of such as have beene neare
novelty carnall admiration jangling and unprofitablenesse which the Scripture especially serves to mortifie in us To give a taste of my meaning in an instance An instance of the exhort let that be the miracle recorded 2 King 7. to wit the Prophet Elisha his causing of the Iron to swimme when it was fallen into the water he that reads it as a bare miracle will onely vanish in a wondering humor but he that reads it with faith and reverence will behold the power of God over-ruling the creatures quality and causing the waighty body of iron to float like a chip contrary to the nature of it And what will such a meditation picke out of it Surely a sweet consolation in the power of God viz. to over-rule a worse nature in a worse subject even the dulnesse and lumpishnesse of an heavy heart in matters of God and cause it to mount up from this base dunghill whereunto t is fixed unto heaven and holy thoughts yea to change this hard heart more hard then a flint or iron and make it a soft and fleshy heart to write his covenant in it and cause it to walke in his Commandements where from t is as farre as iron from swimming If then the casting in of a sticke could worke such an effect if the bare power of God onely for a witnesse that the worke then intended was from God without any respect to the iron it selfe could doe this great thing what shall be the power of God working in and by the bloodshed and intercession of the Lord Jesus upon an heart of heavier frame and harder which thereby shall be much the better in it selfe besides the infinite honour which the worker of this miraculous change shall purchase to himselfe by it although to carnall reason it may seeme impossible And in particular 2. Branch particular let this exhort us all to be more studious and zealous observers of this text in hand Our Saviour could set a speciall marke upon it as containing peculiar instruction for us to cast down those strong forts and high thoughts in us Naamans story and the passages thereof very remarkable which doe destroy the simplicity of selfe-deniall faith and the obedience of Christ Surely if strange things will affect us as who now adaies affect not Athenian wise new and strange reports and accidents to heare and to tell them though emptily and as passages for present talke this text hath cause and may plead to be specially marked above many Which containes the cure of the onely leper to whom above all them in Israel Elisha was sent Naaman a stranger and Heathen Aramite sutable whereto are all the circumstances making toward it The very roote and first occasion of it was strange Particulars of it summed up by a poore damosell and captive yet one that had taken notice of Elisha to very good purpose The disease strange an incurable leprosie the cure strange by the applying of common water to his flesh to reason incredible The course by Naaman strange in mistaking an Idolatrous King for his Physitian in steed of an holy Prophet the redresse of the error strange by an intimation from God to fetch him the right way to the Prophet his carriage strange in humble sliding before a poore Prophets doore and to come neerer the text the message uncouth and strange for a Prophet not to vouchsafe to come to the doore to a petitioning Prince but to send an aloofe message Naamans enterteining it strange and promising but a sinister successe for what likelyhood is it that a patient raging at his Physitian should be cured The perswasion strange even by servants not likely either to perswade aright or to prevaile by perswading But above all the effect of this counsell strange that he should obey his servants who cavelled against the Prophet the successe of his obeying strange to recover his flesh as the flesh of a child And to conclude the consequents of the successe strange both his spirituall cure of Soule-leprosie the extraordinary zeale and resolution to renounce Idols for the true God and the most sincere detestation of that most predominant and beloved lust which before had prevailed to wit to worship Rimmon himself be his Masters leaning stock in that worship So many strange concurrences might I say justly force our attention to this story and yet the chiefe thing contained in it is no stranger thing then that which we daily carry about us I mean self and carnall reason But so intricated and wrapped about us so deeply seated and hidden in our spirits that without the great goodnesse of God we shall behold it read it over and over wonder at it in Naaman but see none of it in our selves and so leave the perusall of this Treatise with as small fruit as we began it Which penalty the Lord keep from us and so meet with us and match us in our reading hereof by the inspiration of his spirit that this story may be a looking glasse in which this great blur of selfe may so be discerned that the promise and word of God may present a better image unto our soules and transforme us into it from glory to glory that he that boasteth may not boast in himselfe but in the Lord. A second generall of the whole text The person of Naaman the Subject of it A second generall as equally concerning the whole text and mixed through it as the former is the subject of this whole text the person of chiefe note Naaman the leper The words used by our Saviour do occasion me to touch upon this point it s of no small importance To wit that the Lord passing by all other lepers in Israel neerer hand and liker to make use of the Prophets helpe then one a far off who onely by a report of a silly wench at second hand had intelligence of him should out of his meer grace send him to this Naaman and Naaman to him which phrase imports a sending of spirituall efficacy to conversion and make him a marke of greater mercy then his owne people yea an upbraiding to them in all succeeding generations Many lepers saith Christ there were in the daies of Elisha but to none of them all was he sent save only to Naaman the Syrian Whether no other lepers at all were healed by Elisha it s heard to say and me thinkes as hard to imagine that all lepers should so scape his hands Perhaps they did not and partly the Damosells report evinces it for how else should she so readily point at Elisha for the cure of Naamans disease if she had never heard of his healing others in that kinde Howbeit I affirme nothing she might speake from a generall honour she bare to the Prophets worth but this is sure although some lepers might come to Elisha yet he was sent to none save to Naaman that is the Lord used him not to the spirituall good and salvation of any other
rather their desire to oppose then any sound reason The latter is condâtionâll How free The second Call is conditionall And that concernes such as are inlightned and that is also soveraignly free and meerely gracious For why this condition is Faith which is a second free gift to the elect following the former freedome of visiting with light Now this condion is not all mens lot All men have not faith 2 Thess 3.2 nay it is a flower growing in few gardens This floweth from Election So many as the Lord our God shall call Acts 2.39 and so many as were to be saved beleeved This condition of faith is not in our freedome of will but the Lords It s he who of his good pleasure workes both the will and the deed 2 Thess 3.2 Act. 2.39 47. Phil 2.13 John 3.8 Object and without his spirits breath which bloweth where it will nothing is done Now this condition of the Gospell Faith I meane being so few mens portion how can it otherwise be but where it is its free grace But here it s objected That this were to translate a crime upon God needlesly which may lye upon man I answer No still the crime lyes upon man God is free Answ If the Lord having man now sunke from his former integrity at a deepe yea infinite advantage which in Adam he had him not at shall worke out greater glory to his name and attributes then formerly he could have done shall any man grudge him this prerogative or count him cruell or tye him to his owne tether Matth. 20.13.14 Is it not free for him to doe what he pleases with his owne Is it not in his power to release or not to release his owne advantage Againe Object wheras the cause of this difference is cast upon mans owne default for not receiving that grace which he hath freedome to receive or refuse I answer Answ True it is that condemnation shall never want a just merit thereof viz. from mans rejecting of grace but this proves not a freedome in man to accept it of himselfe if he please for he rejects not grace by the actuall defect of any thing which he had power or free-will in himselfe to doe seeing that is meerely from the soveraignty of the caller but from his actuall contempt Object And whereas some alledge God will not be wanting to any who are not wanting to themselves I answer First Answ if this have any truth in it it is not from hence that ought in mans concurring with grace can further the worke of it But because first it is sure that those who walke not in Gods way are seldome converted and secondly because usually the Lord is mercifull to such as doe humbly subject themselves to his way not opposing and slighting him in it purposely and thirdly because we ought not to discourage any from close attendance upon the meanes But to affirme that God is in the least manner obliged to doe for all such as are not wanting to themselves if yet any can be said to be so it s unwarranted yea and more then so The Lord to shew his absolutenesse herein doth oft times communicate himselfe to such as seeke him not Esay 65.1 and hide himselfe from such as seeke him in some sort and forsakes the morall the pharisaicall the vertuous and cals the vicious the publicans and sinners That where sin abounded Rom. 5.20 grace might abound much more Many ungodly ones being convinced of their owne wofull incompliablenesse to the grace of God offred are called that they might magnifie the freedome of it and many more civill and morally disposed who might seeme faire for it yet are prone to joyne themselves purchasers with God in this great worke are defeated that he who will boast might boast of the Lord 1 Cor. 1.30 and all might stand as guilty and abominable before God But here some will object True it is All being fallen from the grace of Creation stand at Gods curtesie for he may condemne them Object and none can say What dost thou And againe whomsoever God saves they confesse that he saves them of his free and meere grace But yet they adde This grace is an universall one answering to the universality of corruption and therefore by vertue hereof all may if they will and doe not put a barre to themselves receive this grace but if they doe not the cause say they is not from any defect in the sufficiency of grace or from any soveraignty in Gods dispensing it to some more then others for say they as he ought it to none at all so when he offers it freely he offers it to some one with the same freedome and efficacy with which he offers it to any one and the difference of the accepting by one and the not accepting by another flowes from the different dispositions and free-will of him that nilleth or willeth but not say they from any diversity of disposition in God Besides the reason why they affirme grace must be universall is this because else say they God should deale hardly with the creature to urge it to such a condition of grace as he doth not allow him sufficient strength to performe and yet punish him for the not performing thereof more deeply then if such grace had never bin offred yea to urge it to performe such a condition as he never was able in his best integrity to performe I answer God doth not exact any such condition at mans hand Answ as he gave him not sufficient strength to performe For man had at the first strength enough to performe not onely whatsoever God did then require But also whatsoever he might require which included a power to obey universally And therefore man having lost that power by his fall stands justly guilty before God of his impotency to beleeve the promise But they still urge Adam could not possibly have the power to beleeve Instan in his innocency since that presupposes a thing which Adam Answ 1 then was not guilty of viz. Disobedience I answer Adam could not beleeve the pardon of that whereof he was not guilty But Adam could and did beleeve in generall by an holy trust or confidence upon Gods supporting him during his obeying which trust though it had another object in speciall then our faith hath yet in generall hath the same That looked at the alsufficient goodnesse of Creation this of Redemption yet both behold God as the same object still of infinite good in severall regards and fidelity to his creature Secondly I answer That is false and inconsequent to affirme that Answ 2 because God condemned all mankinde for the losse of that grace of creation which he gave in Adam to the whole nature of man Therefore he must needs bestow an universall grace of redemption in Christ upon the same mankinde before he can justly punish them for refusing it I say this followes not except it be first proved that
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 Maât 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
and despised yet he shall be precious who can heale him he will not starve for lacke of plate or silver to eat or drinke out of but he will stoop to any Physitian as Naaman here did And to conclude he is now meet Reason 11 to accept of a remedy upon the termes of his Physitian which though Naaman was not yet because not tawed throughly yet he is in preparation to it He is content upon any conditions to have ease to renounce his owne mony and price as Naaman to accept it of free gift to be as bare and beggarly as if he had not one brasse farthing and to make his best requitall to be only this a free acknowledgement of the meere naked entire and superabundant bounty of love and good will in him who cured him I say when a man is throughly begirt and put to it the Lord workes thus by it as by this example I confesse where the soule is but in halfe a distresse Exception Straights make hypocrites but to counterfeit while they are on the racke or in a straight without God attending it with the spirit of grace there is no other worke effected save violent and constrained which comes to nothing for the soule under a pressure is like a man on the racke who to avoide the paine will say any thing though it be a lye But when the feare is over then they returne to their old byas againe Examples whereof we have of all sorts Pharoah by name and the Israelites For the former during those ten plagues oppressing him and his people what promises would he not make how did he tremble and send for Moses Exod. 6.7 8 9. cap. and resolve to dismisse Israel but no sooner was he at liberty but he hardned his heart worse and would not suffer them to goe Touching the latter the booke of Judges is a sufficient witnesse while they were under cruell Lords who vexed them how importunate were they time after time to be delivered what humiliations did they professe Judge 10. end with 11.1 c. and shewes of repentance and no doubt selfe meant as it spake but the heart being still it selfe deceived it selfe and mocked God and being rid of the straight became worse Idolaters then before Oh what will not the deepe deceitfull heart pretend for her owne ends Simile They say the Fox being in a snare will gnaw off her leg to quit her selfe of the perill and goe upon three legges so the vile heart will doe any thing for the present that so after she may enjoy her selfe either wholly or in part But if the Lord himselfe make the yoke of set purpose to catch a wilde wretched sinner and stop him in his course that he might turne him home not only the straight but the word also shall worke upon conscience aswell as the outward man and whatsoever the lets are as subtilty pride rebellion the Lord will conquer and subdue them to the obedience of faith Explication of the point To open this a little conceive it thus It is with the spirituall man enlightned as with the carnall A corrupt appetite alway seekes to it selfe some object of false happinesse Some compting knowledge to bee an happinesse seeke that others honor and preferment others their ease and welfare others jollity and the pride of life others reputation and name among men others long life and prosperity If they attaine their desires they are pitcht as they would be and enjoy happinesse in their attainements But if God crosse them of their intents as for example if he deny the first capacity and ability of parts to compasse his aimes if he defeat another by denying them promotion and preferring others if he crosse a third with the losse of health and perfect sences that he tastes no pleasure in his games and pastimes or old age removes him for them if a fourth bee followed with the disdaine and ill opinion of the multitude if a fifth be afflicted with diseases and be in perill of death alas what is their life worth being robbed of their whelpes their life is but wearisome they are at a set joylesse and out of heart As a mizer having lost his treasure or an ambitious favorit out of his Princes favor are like Nabals their hearts dye like a stone in them Onely by this they can helpe themselves that as it was their misery to chuse such base objects so it is their subtilty when they are defeated of the one they turne to another As if learning faile then runne to preferment if that faile to ease to pleasure to mony or the like and all because the soule loaths a straight So is it with him who is enlightned and convinced in conscience When once the Lord by his law or terrors convicts a man that although he attaine whatsoever his heart desires yet he hath gotten but a fading Paradise hee hath no more then an hel-hound may have he hath nothing which can quiet the appetite of the soule which is immortall I say when such a light comes into the soule telling him the misery of all he hath and the happinesse of a man that hath that which he wants Christ and pardon grace heaven how can it be but such a man lying thus convinced must needs be as a man stabd slaine bereft of all his fooles Paradise at once But if such anone hearing of a better happinesse will play the hypocrite dissemble a kinde of religion make himselfe demure and holy precise and zealous in the worship of God and yet still hold his former erronious happinesse coloured over with some devotion destitute of any better principle to settle upon what is this but to get out of his pressure by a false indirect way and so deprive himselfe of the true end of his conviction which is to cast out his old principle and bottome himselfe upon an new But to what tends all this The summe of all is that a straight and pressure when the Lord is the maker of it and the holder of it on is a speciall meanes to pul down the heart before God to force it to seek conditions of peace upon Gods owne termes be they never so difficult and that to avoide a greater incombrance For why The Lord is able by this meane not only to subdue corrupt selfe by his law but also religious selfe erronious and deluded selfe by his Gospell and so to translate the soule meerely from a false bottome to a sound whatsoever it cost him But where the Lord and the Spirit of the Word attends not such straights although in an extremity the heart is beset and straighted yet afterward it will slip the collar and in the meane time will use all trickes and shifts as the poore creature hard hunted and in danger to avoide the trouble yea it will turne it selfe into a thousand guises and devices rather then leave her old trade and cleave to a promise I come
to himselfe and make his yoke easie oh then love maintaines the soule in grace with sweet and content Beg then of the Lord that thy pressure may not be remooved till it have left the print of mercy behinde it and brought thee so under graces command that thou maiest wholly be the Lords Princes arrest their subjects for some debts fines forfeits or services due to themselves which being paid the party is at his owne liberty But the Lord doth not so hee arrests not a man to bring him upon his knees to wring from him some tearmes of homage but to subdue the whole man and the principle of the minde will and frame to himselfe Concurre with this end of good and prosper But if it be thus the effects will shew it for then Effects of change will shew it not onely the stoutnesse of the heart and the rebellion of it are held under by strong hand for a time but the subtilty thereof is truly turned to simplicity the ease sloth of it into diligence the indifferency of it into earnestnesse the wearisomnesse of it into restlessenesse and diligence the inconstancy of it into stablenesse the acts and pangs of it into habits and principles the violence into liberty and holy delight to submit it selfe both to the way of beleeving and the fruite of subjection and deniall of it selfe both in legall and evangelicall respects And so much for this doctrine so far as the scope of it will beare I might enter into further matter both to discover the infinite tricks of a false heart to nouzle it selfe in a corrupt estate and the trialls and waies whereby the Lord sets such an heart at liberty But I foresee that the points following will better occasion these things and therefore I onely make this doctrine a preparative to them Now I proceed to the second doctrine out of these words Doct. Whom God meanes to convert them he first prevents by occasions and means That Naaman comes and stands at the doore of Elisha And that is this That whomsoever the Lord intends to bring home and convert to himselfe he will order all meanes most sweetly and agreeingly to that purpose We see Naaman and his retinue brought to the doore of Elisha But how surely by the providence of the same God who had purposed his conversion he is brought to the meanes to waite and expect the season of it And all things we see fall out and concurre aptly to it First Naaman is infected with a loathsome disease that under the hope of curing that hee might make an errand to the Prophet whom he had not else visited Secondly a maide must be taken and the Aramites must fight and take her place her with Naamans wife the maide must know Passages of Gods prevention in Naamans case and be able to report of Elisha to her mistrisse Naaman must ascribe credit to her and all these must concurre that he might hearken after Elisha Thirdly letters must be eroneously sent to Iehoram that Elisha might thereby correct an errour and turne him to himselfe which else had not bin And lastly Naaman hearing of the Prophet must forthwith repaire unto him and not expect till Elisha tend upon him else he had missed of his cure All these occurrents God most wisely orders and rules for the ends he intended so that the one could no more be defeated then the other if any one had failed the effect might have ceased The like may be said of the conversion of Onesimus Proofes of the point Epist to Philem who had plaid the thiefe to his Master Philemon God meant he should bee converted by Pauls Ministery Lo how doth the Lord order the meanes unto it He doth not instill falshood and flight into him but he orders it He over-rules him in his journey that hee might not peake aside into this corner or that but goe to Paul and lighting upon him might by some direct and seasonable speech from him be turned from his falshood to God So in the case of Cornelius Acts 10. The Lord meant to settle him being a good Proselite in the faith of the Lord Jesus The instrument by whom was Peter How should he know of him or where to come by him The Lord in a vision intimates it to Cornelius and he sends to Joppe to Simon But Peter was armed with a minde to reject their errand because he was a Jew and Cornelius a Gentile True But immediately before their comming the Lord rectifies Peter and frames him to goe by a vision of all crawling vermin in a cleane sheet which Peter was bidden to eate and refusing to doe so was commanded not to esteeme that uncleane which the Lord had made cleane No sooner is Peter rectified but they knock and he is prepared to goe with them comes findes all ready and converts Cornelius To conclude thus it is with the Eunuch of Candace He passing by that way Acts 8. where Philip preached the Spirit prompts him to joyne himselfe to that Charet When he comes he findes him reading in Esay a peece of a Prophecie cap. 53. concerning Christs generation and not knowing the sense askes Philip who takes occasion thereby to open to him the whole mystery of Christ and convinces him of the truth whereupon he is converted I heape up no more examples Reade the passages of Acts 9. Acts 9. in Saul Reasons 1 There be many reasons of the point 1. As the Lord is the first mover of the vast frame of this world and the maine changes of whole States Churches and Kingdomes their stablenesse and prosperity their decay and ruine the great affaires of warre peace and government so especially he sits at the sterne of his Church If he meane to punish it he acts and animates the wayes to bring it to passe and the instruments of his wrath Though the King of Ashur Reade Esay 10.7 meant no other but to spoile and make wreck yet God used him onely as his rod of vengeance And as he meant to scatter those ten Tribes for their horrible idolatry 1 King 12.13 so he orders the whole frame of premises tending thereto He divides the Kingdomes of Rehoboam and Ieroboam He suffers that snare of Division to cut off the tenne Tribes from Juda and her worship Temple and sacrifices To devise an idolatrous worship of Calves He plagues them with a succession of 3 or 4 cursed families and their of-spring Ieroboam Baasha Omri Iehu and after them left them to a most desperate government of Usurpers Shallum and the rest till the whole nation was carried away into perpetuall Captivity And when it pleased him to redeeme his Church he also acted the spirits of those instruments of deliverance as after the 70 yeares Captivity 2 Chr. 36.22 Ezra 1.2 Ezra 6.6 he stirred up the spirit of Darius Assuerus Cyrus and others to begin and perfect his project Nay not onely so but there is no
act concerning the welfare of his but he orders it He foreseeing the family of Iacob must els perish for food long before layes to prevent it in the antecedents of it Gen. 35.5 25. Gen. 45.7 Gen. 41.14 Suffers Ioseph to dreame an odious dreame his brethren to sell him to Putiphar his wife to attempt accuse and imprison him the two prisoners to propound their dreames and receive satisfaction Pharao in the distresse of his spirit to heare of him in that respect to consult with and resolve himselfe by him to promote him to be chiefe in the Kingdome under him causes Ioseph to prepare and store up corne and so relieves Iacob and his sons All this whole frame hee himselfe confesses to be from God you saith he intended evill to me but the Lord intended greater things even to preserve the lives of his Church That great worke of Redemption by the Lord Jesus had one main passage in it Luke 2.1 That Christ must be borne at Bethlehem Mary was now big and dwelt at Nazaret But the Lord causes Augustus Caesar to taxe all the world and to command all the Jewes to repaire to the City of their nativity and family This charge being exact poore Mary must carry her bigge body thither and there travaile of Christ Nothing could hinder Saul must be the King whom in wrath God appoints over discontented Israel To this end the Asses must goe astray he must seeke them be in a strait goe to Samuel and he warned of God must meet him 1 Sam 9.2 19. there Saul receives the message and is anointed Now marke the reason If the Lord be thus in all those events which concerne his Church in the gânerall and the externall onely how much more shall he appeare to bee active in the most excellent part of all other viz. his drawing home all such to himselfe as belong to his Election Surely as the act is the most eminent peece of all other Providence so God his activenesse and powerfull concurrence thereto in swaying all premises to inferre the conclusion of his Purpose must be most eminently seene in that above all others Secondly if the effecting of the substance of their conversion whom Reason 2 he hath elected must flow from his grace and power then much more the accommodating of all such antecedents as conduce thereto must be from his direction But so it is the substance of the meanes is from him he calls home all whom he hath elected Rom. 8. The enlightning of them by the word the humbling the breaking of heart the perswading of them to beleeve is from him How much more the ordering and preparing of circumstances according of occasions accidents times persons and the like must also be ascribed to his most divine dispensation Thirdly if the Lord should leave his owne ends at randon to be ordered Reason 3 by the will and arbitrement of instruments occasions left to their owne pleasure and choice then should the infallible purpose of God hang upon the mutable and casuall actions of such instruments and the rash concourse of livelesse occasions which cannot act or bring together themselves to produce any such effect And by consequent such effects should faile Which because it is impossible therefore of necessity must both be subject to the over-ruling power of the Purposer determining some and conjoyning others wills I meane of men or accidentall occasions to the infallible effecting of the conversion of such as hee hath chosen Fourthly we know the end being once set downe in the minde ordereth Reason 4 and directeth the whole frame of those things which make toward it if a man have propounded to himselfe a purpose to marry to build to travell the Idea of these ends still enliveth the observation of all occasions and opportunities which a man meets with and draweth all to the attainment of such ends Where such ends are not proposed the minde is quiet and ordereth no occasions tending that way Thus it is with the Lord The end once being determined that stirreth and ordereth his wisedome and providence to fore-lay all meanes which tend thereto I meane the conversion of the poore soule I do not make Gods and mans intentions like in all points but illustrate the one by the other The difference between them is large for first mens ends are before their enterprises and they are successive also here one meane offers it selfe to promote their end there another Not so in the Lord who perfectly and at once though orderly doth both determine his ends and contrive his meanes Gods forefight mans differ much and beholds the effecting of the one in the other necessarily and unfallibly Gods meanes never faile him in his projects whereas man for lacke of sufficient fore-cast and provision is disappointed farre oftner then he succeeds Men may so concurre to their owne ends in their preparations as to use sinfull instruments sinfully partaking with them in their evils But the Lord although he oft use sinfull occasions and accidents and instruments to compasse his ends yet hee concurres not to their sinne but onely disposeth and over-ruleth it to good As the Lord used Ieroboam and Iehu's ambitious desires to effect the overthrow of the houses of Rehoboam and Ahab 1 Kings 13. Acts 9.1 So he used the sinne of Saul to bee an occasion of his deeper humiliation Acts 2.39 Acts 18. and the sinne of the Jewes Acts 2. who murthered the Lord of life to prick and break their hearts the more easily by Peters Sermon So the Jaylors desperatenesse cruelty and rage against the Apostles to convince him the more deeply convincing him afterwards So much for reasons Quest But here a question may be asked In what sort the Lord may bee said to act and accord all meanes which may serve to compasse his end in this kinde Answ I answer It is hard to set downe the variety of wayes by which the Lord worketh yet some few of the most usuall I may mention First and especially this Gods preventions wherein they stand and in what particulars The first branch God over-rules diverts our intents to serve his That the Lord over-rules and diverts and alters the intentions of men that whenas they intend one thing hee intends another either crossing their owne to effect his or wrapping in theirs within his owne as most prevailing and chiefe Thus did the Lord here in Naamans case He dreamt of nothing lesse then any cure of soule yet the Lord intends it as chiefe and casts him in the other as an over-plus Thus Paul discoursing of his conversion to Agrippa Acts 26. Acts 26. tells him hee was going like a Pursivant with a Bouget of Letters to Damascus to apprehend the Saints there But the Lord who had separated him to a farre other end even to be a chosen vessell of grace and an Apostle to carry his Name to the Gentiles cast him downe from his Palfrey smote
him to the ground and amazed him till hee had throughly subdued him under his owne will and government Herein shewing himselfe to bee as Paul Eph. 3. Epes 3.15 calles him the Father of all the families of the Earth For as the Master of a family over-rules his servants will and businesse and when he intends one worke in an ordinary course of service his Master hath some other businesse of greater consequence to send him about and so the servant is acted by his master to forbeare the one and dispatch the other so is it here in the great worke of salvation Many a man useth to make an ordinary worke of going to a place where the Word is preached hee aimes at businesse or company or novelties or perhaps cavilling at the Minister The Lord aimes at fetching him within his net that hee may divert his purpose and draw him to conversion Not onely as Esay saith Cap. 65.1 The Lord is found of such as sought him not that is prevents the thoughts which were roving helward worldward and sinward Job 33. Esay 65.1 to thinke of matters of greater consequence even heaven and happinesse But which is more when they perhaps purposed to crosse with God as Paul did the Lords intents overrule mans and turne him the way which himselfe intends As old Eli overrules Samuels feelinesse and saith if he call againe say speake for thy servant heareth Secondly the Lord where he meanes to convert will mightily over-power the soule from stumbling at such discouragements Overpowers the soule from stumbling at discouragements and obstacles Branch 2 that stand in the way This argues God specially present and to have a finger in the worke When another shall be a divell to himselfe to disswade himselfe from God by casting the difficulties alleadging farmes oxen and wife to hold him off and by framing to himselfe many Lions in the way so that if he goes yet it is as a Beare to the stake to heare the word if he heares once he neglects oft lo when God stirs his heart he shall feel such a strong perpetuall moover within him that these are nothing with him he beats them off as flies he feeles such a fire of purpose and bent in his heart to seeke after God as if he thought some pearle were there to be had he cannot finde in his heart to leave off hearing praying musing questioning and using all helpes which are in his power till he have felt the worke of them in himselfe Naaman heere had his dismaiments yet the Lord by a secret hand of his owne held him on asswaged his rage and set his servants on worke Gal. 1.17 Act. 9 till he had effected the cure When the Lord had Paul on the hooke once he suffered him not to slug out the worke till he had finished it Act. 9. Thirdly the Lord disposes of all outward occasions He disposes of all outward occasions both remooving them which let and framing them which helpe which lead to Branch 3 his ends and both remooves the opposites and accomodates unites and chaines together the meanes that the end be not frustrated Notable is that I noted Act. 10. of Peter who was no way like to goe with the servants to Cornelius as being an heathen what doth the Lord workes Peters heart from that objection and so from unwillingnesse nay more he doth make the one privy to the others want and as in a vision Paul saw Ananias comming toward him to open his eies so on the other side Ananias in a vision is informed of Pauls praying and waiting upon the Lord for remedy God brings both together and sutes the one with willingnesse to be holpen and the other with readinesse to helpe so they were mutually fitted to do and receive good each to and from other So in Pauls case when he was to go to Ananias how unwilling was he to be the instrument of settling satisfying him Therefore the Lord steps in and remooves that let and tells him he is a speciall man for his own use So oftimes when parents friends Minister himselfe are discouragements to a poore novice how doth the Lord foreseeing such a blur turne the eies of Crocodiles to Doves eyes alleniate and draw the hearts of fathers to the children what faire way doth he open Againe how doth the Lord dispose of such requisite circumstances as concurre to the ends without which it could not have been effected Sometime by bringing a man into such a place or Towne where a faithfull Ministry resideth sometimes into some such family where the name of God is called upon faithfully sometime preparing for a man such a dwelling as is compassed about with good neighbours whose example and helpe may be a loadstone unto him John 4. as the woman of Samaria being her selfe first drawne from her scoffing to beleeving drew all her kindred So oftentimes the Lord by shaking one maine Pillar-stone in an house causes many little stones to rattle downe after So many a young Scholler by a godly Tutor many a young youth or maid by a religious Master or Mistresse many an ignorant novice by marrying a good wife or husband and into a godly family growes to be religious All these are gracious preventions And from the same preventing mercy it is that the Chaine and Coherence of the meanes one after another is so united and so continued by the Lord that whereas the breaking off of any one might split and marre the frame the Lord holds all together for the effecting thereof As here except all the foure premises had held Naaman might have beene easily defeated of his issue But the Lord suffers no one linke of the chaine to breake Fourthly the Lord most aptly and fitly accommodates all circumstances Branch 4 by his providence to consort and combine to such ends disposing of apt condition Accommodates all circumstances fittly to the end age season person place and other opportunities If Naaman being so great had not beene made little by the condition of a leper could he have stooped so low as the Prophet All are not so fit to bee dealt with by every instrument some more are drawne by a still and softly voice others by the thundring of terror the Lord suits meet persons to meet objects that so the worke might goe forward Not alway the same person is apt to bee wrought upon by all occasions As when the minde is filled with businesse all that is spoken is as it were spoken in a mans cast Luke 10.40 Martha being cumbred with much serving was as a full vessell for the time all which had beene put into her had run over Therefore Mary whose minde was free and empty was fitter to sit at Christs feet and profit All places are not alike to all sorts While children live under their Parents wing at ease and liberty they minde nothing that good is perhaps being abroad and being put to it marked and noted
it were not pride and statelinesse in the Prophet what cause was there why he should send to Naaman rather then come forth himselfe Was he not expected and might he not feare some aspersion to his person God and Religion by his aloofnesse Surely by the way these things ought much to curb our base passions Bishop Hooper that famous Martyr of Christ and man of tender conscience being of somwhat a more retired private spirit and carriage then usual did cause some Christian men and women who honoured his integrity and sought advice from him to wonder and to stumble at his austerity A defect which he could not easily amend in himselfe But it cost him sorrow afterward as some of his letters witnesse that he should grieve any good heart by such an offensive carriage Those letters are also extant wherein reverend Ridley craves pardon of his deere fellow-Martyrs Bradford and Sanders for his unbrotherlike passages in some cases a time there will be in which every one that feares God will mourne for the least misdemeanor in this kinde Gods glory is pretious and his peoples souls cost deare They must not be offended for our humours or trifles better a mill-stone were hang'd about our neckes and wee cast with it into the sea then to offend one little one This by the way Ministers must be tender of Gods glory and jealous of offence by their carriage I answer there had been in this case of Elisha some feare of this I mean of offence if God had not discharged him from it by a Supersedeas to his ordinary charge but having a warrant for it hee might trust God the better for preventing of hurt As the Prophets were extraordinary persons so the most of their actions bare a speciall reference towards God not themselves And so it was here Elisha was a man familiar enough in his owne case as appeares in his homely and courteous carriage towards the woman that set him up a Table 2 Kin. 4.12.13 Stoole and Candlesticke in his Chamber This was no great state nothing neere Naamans yet thankfully accepted But there is a season for all things to bee familiar with a poore Tradesman Eccle. 2.3.2 and to be strange to a Prince both lawfull Now the Lords worke was in doing and Elisha might not procure to himselfe the note of courtesie by breaking a command as that Prophet who to avoid discourtesie went backe to eate with the old Prophet 1 King 13.19 and lost his life When God discharges us by a closer-command its folly to affect the name of unseasonable obeying And by the way it is no small error in men to interpret Scriptures according to the letter without respect had to the scope and circumstances proper to the text The Letter of the Scripture not to be wrested against the sence for mens humours As the Papists who by this meanes snatch extraordinary facts of Moses and Christs fasting Matth. 4. Ebuds killing Eglon Judg. 4. Elijah's affronting Ahab 1 King 20.21 or the like to such ends of their owne as not God but themselves are the authors of Not the fact of burning the Passeover reliques Exod 12. and of robbing the Egyptians but the warrant of God over-ruling ordinary cases for speciall ends of his owne must be regarded Now I say the Lord had another end in withdrawing Elisha from going forth For why He saw he was more carnally adicted to the Prophet then he ought More specially of the cause he came full of carnall esteem of him as a man of great power to worke miracles 1. To prevent carnâll esteem of his person and the outward cure He looked also at the outward cure full he was of himself and his carnall hopes who but Elisha with him as a great Physitian with a patient for hope of cure This together with a confidence he had of his owne sufficiency to give him full content for his paines as if he had gone to an ordinary man and lookt to take and pay did wholly eclipse the honour of God who will not give his glory to another The Lord loved Elisha well and his reputation as we see Cap. 2. yet not so well as to part with his own 2 King 2.5.6 Esay 42.5.6 for his sake If God had intended only a bodily cure it had been enough to have come out and laid on hand upon the leprosie and so an end But the Lord who had a further scope even to acquaint Naaman with himselfe 2. To cast out his owne spirit his power love and mercy in healing his soule also saw that this could not be effected withour fetching a further compasse viz. by casting out the aime at bodily cure alone the confidence upon a Prophets skill 3. And to raise up his spirit to God the admiration of a mans person the fulnesse of Naamans carnall hopes all these justled aside the glory of God and the preparation of Naamans heart to entertaine the gift with a due respect to the giver And therefore the Lord thinkes it best to suspend Naaman a while longer and to traine him by degrees to a more spirituall heart in embracing such a double mercy Tne Lord strives with his spirit as Gen. 6.2 to drive out of it that same carnall savour hope content wherewith he had filled himself having heard that the Prophet could heale him As for spirituall cure he felt no disease nor knew any remedy of it But the Lord meant it and therefore meant that Naaman should in the meane season be secretly prepared for it As our saviour told Peter what I doe now John 13.7 thou knowest not but hereafter thou shalt The Lord therefore by this crossing his hopes doth desire to let in a further light into his minde then yet he had That he might consider that he was not now come to an ordinary person to heale his body but to the Lord and his Prophet to worke a divine cure here therefore he must looke up to God stand to his curtesie adore his power love goodnesse and mercy here is no marquet for money to beare mastery all must come from meer goodnesse and that not from a Prophet but from the Lord working by him Now therefore having to doe with him let his carnall savour and erroneous conceits ly by let him empty himselfe of a wordly heart and get an heavenly as having only to do with God and not man The ground affords many sweet meditations I wil briefly touch upon two or three and so proceed Thie first is this All the course which God takes in bringing home the soul to God is in a word but this one to subdue the carnality and unsavourinesse of the heart Gods way in converting any is chiefly to subdue carnall savour and the blindnesse and error of the minde to the obedience of Christ From first to last the Lord aimes at this if we marke it through all the preparations of
and the question might as well be made of any other period of number 3.4.5 as this of 7. Onely Popish superstition thinkes it hath never made her nose cleane save when it hath forced blood by wringing it too hard Forsooth they looke after mysteries in each corner and verse of the Scriptures and this period of seven is a very pretious number with them and hath a great deal of holinesse in it They say the holy Ghost useth it ordinarily both when he would determine an uncertaine number of many by a certaine Mat. 12. as seven spirits for many seven abominations for many and also when hee would set downe a voluntary period then he names seven as Elisha bids his servant goe looke upon the sky seven times 1 King 18.43 Jâsh 6.3.4 The number of 7. a great fancy with Papists the Lord bids Ioshua compasse Jerico seven times And it is true if in that respect they hold it a sacred number as used much by the holy Ghost I agree with them and I thinke the holy Ghost doth the rather use it because it is a modell and determining of the workes and rest of God after the creation of the world the circle whereof being the period of seven hath in likelihood occasioned this period of seven to become a stile of numbring with the holy Ghost yet when the seventh day was sanctified we reade not that the number was Number of 7. no holier then other numbers I passe by the favour which this number hath with Arithmeticians for the commodiousnesse and previledge of computation But as for esteeming of this number of seven to have any more holinesse in it then other numbers it is ridiculous and superstitious They must have theit seven sacraments for religion sake and their seven fold exorcisme and adjuration of Divells their seven Ave Maries their seven degrees of Angels seven penitentiall Psalmes and in a word wheresoever they goe they goe by sevens Seven deadly sinnes they will have and seven contrary vertues and seven steps to perfections as if they might go to heaven by a ladder of seven staires This number hath done them some pleasure for else they would no doubt have proceeded to sevenscore sacraments as well as to seven And seeing this number is more pretious to them then Gods two it is strange that they dip not the infant seven times instead of three counting it more holy then the Trinity we abhorre them and all their superstitious fopperies and mysteries more fit for inchanters and sorcerers to worke by then such as goe to worke on Gods name by the power of a word and ordinance See Joash his reproofe 2 King 13.19 The holy Ghost tyes not himselfe to this number as oft as he uses it but useth all other numbers as occasion offers it selfe indifferently As for Naaman here of the number of seven serves to teach any thing it teacheth the depth of infection in his body and much more in his spirit which needed such frequent washing one after another and all too little But as for any holinesse in the number as seven otherwise then the charge of God exactly required we put none at all in it We leave that superstitious holinesse to them who turned religion it selfe into a masse of superstitious judaicall pharisaicall heathenish and sorcerous vanities The true successors of Pharisees as our Saviour tells us That they put Gods service in washing pots and platters dishes and trenchers and sundry other toyes destroying substance for circumstance even so do these They place religion in old slippers shooes bootes and buskins rotten chips rotten garments in Crucifixes Images and rusty reliques and so in numbers yea asthe Pharisees would have the most holy sacrifices and Temple of God to borrow their holinesse from the gold of the Temple Mat. 23.16.17 and the altar of sacrifice so do these Forsooth the most holy Ordinance of preaching prayer sacraments if these Pharisees may bee beleeved must be holy because offered upon their altar or superaltar because made said or done in and upon their consecrated Temples Pulpits or Masse altars Oh ye fooles is the whether is the more holy the gold or the Temple Oh ye altar or sacrifice the Pulpit or the solemne ordinance of preaching the Church or the praier offered up A separation of place we acknowledge to be meet and fit common use for Gods but for inherent holinesse in it we abhor and renounce To conclude let us cleave to naked Scripture and not fancy to ourselves a Samuel wheresoever we see an old man in a mantle nor a mystery where there is no such matter and so leave the simplicity of truth for a novelty of superstition Ever since such scurfe tooke place in the Church substance decayed as the dog lost his flesh for the shadow such shells cost more the cracking then all the kirnell is worth The more we cleave to the sacred and pure truth of God the more we shall abhorre all such fooleries Give me one sacrament of Christs institution and let them take the seven One prayer made in faith and let them take their 7. Ave-maries one crosse and the power of one Christ and they their seven crossings and rowes of Beads And so much if not too much for this number of seaven The message it selfe The message it selfe followeth Naaman looked to be cured by great Elisha that worthy Prophet but the remedy which God makes use of is the washing of his flesh in Jorden seventimes A poore thing one would thinke to compasse such a great effect But so it is commonly the Lord effects those things which are of greatest consequence by poore and seely meanes such as the world would thinke most unlikely and contemptible Commonly I say so it is I say not alway For sometimes God useth to effect solemne things by see ly means the Lord chuseth great ones and wise ones and learned and valourous and experienced and in great esteem to be his instruments because he will be knowne in his owne gifts lest they should not be esteemed But when it is thus commonly the Lord shewes as great power in making such instruments great being of themselves before meane or despised at least he brings them low in their owne eyes and makes them rare patternes of humblenesse before he dare use them Esters hist cap. 2.3.7.8 c. 1 Sam. 16.12.13.14 2 Cron. 34.35 c. Ester was a great woman and effected a great deliverance But she was made so of a poore captive so that still God was as manifest in her another way So David yet made of a poore shepheard and therefore a mirror of as great providence Iosia effected great things but how Not by his greatnesse but by his extraordinary grace of melting and humblenesse If God use great ones either he makes them great of mean ones or mean of great ones And so many Preachers perhaps are used to doe God some glory But
if comparison be made not betweene them and other of meaner gifts but betweene them and the effects of conversion what is a base sinfull man with all his complements to God and put case that sometime the Lord doe use some men of great esteeme with some carnall persons for their excellent parts the better to winne their great stomackes to like of his truth yet this commonly is but a generall preparative to their conversion for the Lord will strike the maine stroke afterward rather by some other instrument of meaner worth All the Scriptures doe with one consent beare witnesse hereof both in doctrine and examples Our Lord Jesus his worke of salvation was the greatest worke that ever was done in the world And who was he that did it I confesse in himselfe Esay 53. 1 Cor. 1.20 the wisedome of God and the power of God but in the eyes of the world most base the stumbling-blocke of the Jew and foolishnesse to the Gentile By a sonne of a poore woman not an Empresse one borne in a stable and a cratch not in a Palace one that had not an hole to hide himselfe in one that rode upon an Asse and had a few silly men and women cry Hosanna to him who dyed as a malefactor upon a Crosse the most cursed death of all other By him the Lord effects this great worke Not that hee could not have used greater preparations but so it pleased him even to make him the corner stone whom the builders refused So the Apostles were used to preach Christ in the world to subdue and conquer it all to himself who were they No men of great breed birth Luke 5. training or learning but poore Fisher-men utterly unlearned So Paul a poore creature in shew a poore withered branch a man that affected no quaint phrase no elocution but was weak in speech 1 Cor. 3. is used to do more then any of the rest See 1 Cor. 1. Yee know brethren your calling how that not many learned noble or rich but the mean things of this world hath the Lord chosen What is a greater worke then conversion and calling And who are greater and more pretious objects then the called Who honour God more then such as beare his image and are partakers of his Divine Nature Now if God should chuse great ones and jolly wise and politick ones to such ends he should confute this point but he useth the poorest as Saint Iames saith and most base off all of this world to bee heires of salvation That so when his excellency shines through the elements of their basenesse the glory may bee his owne Reason 1 Reasons of the point are many First the Lord delights in casting down and treading under feet all the pride of flesh and conceit of man in beeing instrumentall to his worke So saith Paul 1 Cor. 1. Where is the Scribe where is the Law interpreter where is the wise God hath confounded the great things of the world by his owne seely things No wise man or Artist hath such delight to discover and shame a proud Mountebanke and emperick as the Lord hath to confound a proud person who thrusts himself into his solemne businesse God delights to confute great things by seely He scattereth the wise in the imaginations of their owne heart And the Lord knoweth the wisedome of the wise that it is but folly The weaknesse of God is stronger then man and the foolishnesse of God is wiser then man and therefore by his weaknesse and folly he delights to controll the strength and wisdome of man Those false Apostles gloried much in their parts and speech and skill But the Lord chose poor Paul with his weaknesse to do more good in the point of conversion then all of them They made a great boast to man ward and who but they But the Lord laught them to scorne and all their complements as enemies to the grace of Christ and they who could discerne at length perceived all their scope to be the setting up that trinity of Belly Ambition and Covetousnesse Phil. 3.18 and so beeing discovered they vanisht in the opinion of the Church as smoke Reason 2 Secondly the Lord is very jealous least hee should lose any honour through the glorious shewes and shaddowes of humane ostentation strength or sufficiency God is very jealous of his glory When he gave Jerico into Iosuas hand he was very jealous least Israel should ascribe too much to themselves and therefore befooled all their great courage and strength with a march about the City Josh 6. and blowing with trumpets of Rams-horns and thereby the City walls fell downe prostrate on the earth J âdg ... These could rob God of no honour they were safe instruments to use when Gedeon had a compleate number of souldiers ready for the battell they were an eye sore to the Lord he thought he should be a loser in point of honour and therefore he told him he should abandon all the rest of the Army and of those of the Army being yet too many he would trie who would lap water as a dog and who would take it into their hand to drinke these latter being many he sent away and the former being but three hundred he would use to get the victory The reason was because by them as no way proportionable to such an effect he could feare no treacherous robbing of his honour So true is that Esay 42. My glory is as my selfe deare to me I will not lose it upon any tearms nor give it to another Reason 3 Thirdly the Lord knowes that we are prone to Idolize the meanes more or lesse and to forsake him for our broken pits For either wee will beleeve no effect further then we see meanes for it We are prone to Idolize means or if we doe not so yet we cleave too much to meanes or if we set up God above them yet we would tie him to blesse them without faile Touching the first of these Jer. 2.13 we naturally goe to worke and weigh things in the ballances of our owne reason And that three waies The first and what they will afford we will yeeld the Lord but no more This age we live in excells in this carnall esteeme of instruments parts and abilities of men and smoother of all divine worke under these feathers As Samuel proportioned Eliab to a Crowne at first sight When great exploits bee done by such as are brave and jolly fellowes men wonder not but say Yea he was a brave man indeed It troubles our base eyes to looke beyond that which is next us and to see God in such effects As silver answeres all things in price so strength and parts answeres all effects in efficacie and working and so God is thrust out of doores As in a Market men lay downe money and take ware so in this Market of worldly wisedome men thinke to effect any thing if they bring
powder and shot to the battery The Lord therefore substitutes seely instruments in stead thereof and when mighty effects follow then is his might magnified For the second though wee deny not but the Lord is chiefe The 2. yet still we look at meanes and thinke God workes by them and why should wee not therefore embrace them Our base hearts fall short of God through lazinesse and distrust as well as by Atheisme And therefore even here also God layes a block in our way to stumble at and breake our shinnes to teach us to behold God more closly in the use of meanes both in matters of the World and of the Word he puts us off from our Elisha and sends us to wash in Jorden Thirdly if we goe a little further The 3. and set God up in his place above the meanes yet we take it for granted he must not faile us wee will tye him to over-rule and work by the meanes and thinke much if God satisfie us not accordingly Whereas wee should so look at God as an absolute soveraigne Agent who can work or not work by them above them against them without them Now I come to the use And first this is instruction in sundry kindes Vses 1 First Instruct to teach us why the Lord hath so stript our land and kingdome of Branch 1 so many worthy Lights and Instruments as he hath done some by death some by banishment others in warre others by other violence why hee hath so stript and bared us of many both in civill and Ecclesiasticall state Surely because we applauded our selves too much in their policie Wee have lost many worthy instruments because wee ascribed too much unto them their wisedome their learning experience and sufficiencie We have not looked upon God in their gifts zeale and labours wee have magnified our selves in our store and provision as if we should never be desolate as Tyrus did pride her self in her store of Jewels and pretious stones as Babel sate like a Queen and said she should never see sorrow and therefore was suddenly brought downe See Ezek. cap. 26.27 and 28. verse 13. Jer. 51.53 Lam. 1.9 John 5 35. and as Jerusalem thought her selfe the holy Mountaine and Citie of God the mirror of the world having the Ark of Gods presence his Temple and Priests his Ordinances and Prophets his Word and Oracles therefore Lam. 1. shee came downe wonderfully Even so hath it been with us No sooner hath the Lord planted in any place a faithfull Minister as a shining Light and burning Candle but the people have fallen to idolize him to rejoyce in his out-side to thinke themselves safe and happy in enjoying such Instruments ascribing all the effect of his labours to him little acknowledging the finger of God or the office which hee sustaines not honouring him for the worke sake which hee serves for to reconcile them to God to beget them to a lively hope by the Gospell This basenesse of our fleshly respects hath caused the Lord to rob us of them and to set mean ones in their roomes To teach men to lay to heart their former carnall ends How many have received Prophets to farre other ends then the Lord ever sent them To make them as tearmes of comparison between person and person some to hold upon Apollo 1 Cor. 3.3.4 some Cephas some Paul some others To censure to jangle and some to bring themselves and Townes into some credit in the countrey others to get good custome for their wares and shops others to make themselves wel reputed praised for their forwardnesse and zeal in profession whereas yet alas the meanes being gone and the sive taken out of the water they have proved as meere formall time-servers and as ignorant of their grounds as they who never made shew at all Others have securely rested in their labours never looking for any change of heart thereby but thinking the Prophets shall live for ever and when they are gone fretting at their precisenesse of conscience and unthankfully leaving them to sink or swim and shift as they can Is this beloved to honour God in his ordinance to cleave close to it as under God the mean of conversion Is this to count their feet beautifull and to adore the Lord in the varietie of his gifts and instruments Rom. 10.15 No no and therefore the Lord hath been fain to take them out of the way and leave us to our selves so that our supply was never so great as our defeat is strange All to teach us to looke at the simplicitie of Gods ends to serve God first and man with his leavings let the Lord have the heart set him up there in selfe-deniall humility faith sincerity and faithfulnesse and then let the instrument have the over-plus that honour and countenance which belongs to him for his service For God counts not himselfe robbed by that esteeme wherein we have his Minister under himselfe but that which he hath above himselfe And surely it is not for nothing that the renowned King lately slaine in the heat of his warres King of Sweden oft spake a little before his death that the Lord would not long suffer him to live because the people made him such an Idoll and robbed God of his due to magnifie him Papists worship a dead blocke for want of knowledge and we a living one for lacke of faith the one for a little carving and workmanship of gold and silver the other for a little varnish of gifts or excellencie or parts the one from man the other from God but both idolatrous because against the honour of the giver Branch 2 Another branch of instruction Instruction is to teach us why the Lord doth so defeat men of their purposes and projects which they frame to themselves when they goe to worke upon their owne heads in matters of God We have seen it with our eyes verified Eccles 9.11 which Salomon speakes That victory is not alway with the strong nor race with the swift nor wealth to the provident nor esteeme to the vain-glorious nor spirituall successe to the Minister though learned and rarely qualified because men have boasted of their strength swiftnesse policie experience providence and abilities more then the Lord. I am witnesse my selfe of some sad events in this kinde that men have spent themselves in their studie to perfect some speciall discourse and Master-peece of their owne braine either to beare downe the truth and broach schismaticall points or to win the spurres and get themselves the eternall repute of learned persons or some vaine applause of fantasticke auditors as if they sought a plaudite upon the stage a base prophanenesse both in them that seek it and them that offer it But the Lord hath so resisted their pride and struck off their wheeles brought them to such a reproachfull non-plus before all their auditors that they have verified the speech God resisteth the proud
Jam. 4.6 and some of them have got more grace when they became more humble Oh! what a terror it should be to all such as dare affront God in his owne element and covet to honour themselves with that which they sacrilegiously have stollen from God! If the Lord loath it in a meere politicke Atheist and in an heathen the one affecting the glory the other defiling the vessels of God Herod I mean and Belshazzar Dân 5.5 Act. 12.23 both which were fearfully plagued If I say this were done in the green tree what shall bee done in the dry how shall they escape who with more impudence and resistance of light shall dare God to his face A third branch of instruction is concerning the wisedome of God Branch 3 in his ordinances Instruct Wonder not why God chuseth seely instruments Wonder we not why the Lord should chuse such poor and seely meanes and instruments for the effecting so incomparable events of humbling of the soule and converting it to God as hee hath done To speake of some personall instruments first may it not be wondred at that the Lord should worke by such poore yea contrary meanes to reason as he hath done in casting downe the throne of Antichrist and rearing up the kingdome of the Lord Jesus By poore Luther a despised Monke to convince a great part of Europe of their many hundreth yeares error and to bring in by degrees the light of the Gospel into so many nations making the very pillars of Popery to shake and the foundations to tremble By such a poore seely creature as William Tindall to subdue our poore English Nation to the knowledge of Christ By a Prince who both in practice and writing professed himselfe the Defender of Popish faith and sate in person upon the lives of some of Christs Martyrs shedding their bloud to satisfie that Whore to doe a worke which if many Princes together had joyned to doe had been unlike to be accomplished that is to cast out the Pope out of his free-hold and possessions throughout the land were not these great things are they not the Lords workes and marvellous in our eyes By our Iosiah a childe of seven yeares old afterward to settle the Gospel throughout the Dominion abandoning the refuse and taile that remained By what meanes since Luther these sixe score yeares hath the Gospel been supported and that against the gates of hell and the policies of Papists every day more and more increasing and recovering the wound which they received Surely even by poore seely instruments which God raised up in sundry Nations armed onely by the weapons of a spirituall warfare that the glory might be Gods As Zachar. 4. the Lord speakes of those two great Olives Iehoshua and Zerubbabel despised men crope out of captivity assisted with a poore multitude of captives in the midst of most potent enemies that even these two should restore the ruines Jerusalem both the Civill and Ecclesiasticke state though to man-ward there were no strength in them yet by my Spirit and my strength saith the Lord even as the two Olives dropped oyle without any helpe or Art of man into the Lamps set under them by divine providence And touching the Ordinances what were the authority of a sinfull man of like passions to us toward the subduing of the conscience of rebels and traitors and converting them to God What strength of the greatest warriors or Rhetoricke of Orators or wit of Politicians could come neere it Onely the Lord hath chosen such poore conduits and conveyances that his own glory might sustaine no prejudice by mens leaving the Lord and committing idolatry with the meanes Why hath he cloathed his Sacraments so poorly and allowed us no sumptuous pomp and bravery in them save to deliver us from a Carnall and to recover us to a Spirituall worship As if a jealous man over an unchaste Spouse should purposely receive no servants into his house save meanly bred base and deformed that so hee might remove all colour and pretence from her to fall in love with any save himselfe What is so ordinary as to heare a poore man utter a few words or see him powre out a little wine or offer a morsell of bread No voice being heard no sight to be seen besides Yea why is it that all furniture of Jewish Temple Altars Worship those Ordinances of outward solemnity the Ephod the Garments Gold and pretious stones those carnall wayes of visions dreames apparitions miracles and fire from heaven Heb. 1.1 are all turned into one way Heb. 1.1 more spirituall that is Christ preached by men Surely that the Spirit convoy'd by them might appeare to be from God and not man But of this read more in my former Treatise of Sacraments Object Then pull downe Arts and Sciences Ere I come to any further use here is an objection offers it selfe viz. If God use so mean things to do the greatest workes Then may some say it may seeme the meaner and sillier the persons bee the fitter they are for God to use and honour himselfe by and then why pull wee not downe Students learned men in Tongues and Arts and set up Tradesmen in their roomes Answ No. To which I answer No. The Church of God hath alway joyned the porch of the Schoole to the Church and drawne thence into her service men sufficiently qualified for all knowledge and parts meet for the Ministery When the Master leads the hand of a Boy to write the lesse the Boy moves of himselfe the meeter he is to grace the skill of the leader But if any should inferre hereupon that the Boy were better want an hand altogether who would not say this were a ridiculous consequence It must bee presupposed that hee who is not qualified with gifts to teach is no organ or hand at all for the Lord to make use of Amos was an Heard-man and in that respect meane enough yet withall exceedingly qualified by extraordinary inspiration so the Apostles unlearned and men of trade howbeit very admirably gifted for the Ministery Otherwise they had been no instruments of any honour to God at all but rather of great reproach as if God should appoint men for the greatest uses and not be able to qualifie them with gifts conducing thereto Even so now Arts and Studies are come in the stead of extraordinary inspirings If men should want the furniture thereof how should they interpret the Scriptures order their speech utter their minde perswade the hearer The grace of the Spirit runnes in these as in a stream But my meaning is that men of like infirmities with others mean perhaps for breed for other carnall endowments policie greatnesse in the world yet the Lord having qualified them with abilities of wisedome grace and poverty of spirit useth them as mean as they are to his owne greatest ends conversion I meane and edification of soules Though in other outward respects they promise little yet
3.9 to confesse God hath done much for thee and wish thy portion when God shall visit them Vse 3 Also it is admonttion to worldly wise ones to such as commonly carry Branch 1 the repute of learned ones and the like That the Lord confuteth wise ones by simple ones Admonit It should cause such to tremble and seeke to bee as little in your owne eyes as they seeme great to others For otherwise those excellent accomplishments wherein they excell others may become snares Their priviledge may become their prejudice Wise ones must become fooles that they may bee wise in Gods matters A learneder man then any of us could tremble at this meditation The idiots and fooles rise up and snatch the Kingdome by violence from us and we with all our learning are thrust downe to hell Oh! how sad is this Once a Princesse beholding a learned Civilian lame of his feet said Thy deformity is our great enormity meaning that he was disabled to stand in her presence But when the Lord shall say to many wise and great ones your excellent parts are my detriment what a sad greeting will that be Oh! it had beene better for me if thou hadst beene poore lame an Idiot then great and jolly Surely thou mightst have honoured me more with meaner gifts thine heart being lowly then with all these thou being so proud The best use that many put their parts to being this to strengthen themselves and others in their profanenesse luxury ambition and tyranny Oh! therefore be a foole that thou maist be wise Let all thy parts stoop yea be too little for Christ to preach to professe to honour him And bee afraid lest otherwise the Lord shall overlooke thee and say Oh this man was too bigge too stout too stately to beleeve too great to get through such a strait gate as heaven is Camels cannot go through needles eyes Oh pray God to little thee to pare off thy superfluities Oh Lord take out this proud heart of mine puft up with gifts experience skill wisdome Oh cleanse them all make me humble and betrust me againe with them and then being shaven and washed all shall serve thee and I shall lose all my excellency in thy glory thou shalt eclipse all my parts that my humility may honour thee My deformity shall bee no detriment to thee but I shall give thee the glory in the treading of my best readings arts skill elocution and whatsoever humane perfection under thy feet Lord accept me and doe what thou wilt with me so thou keepe me from all sacriledge and robbing thee of thy due Tit. 1.15 To the pure all things shall be pure if thou hast purged my parts 2 Tim. 2.21 I shall be a vessell prepared for every good use and as fire and water are good servants but ill masters so when my spirit and streame shall be wholly carried in thine I shall be I may be trusted with thy gifts to honour the giver Oh that my words could reach to many Ministers of worthy parts and endowments of whom some vanish in the base abuse of their liberties Caveat to Ministers not to abuse their parts to ease and pampering of the flesh the creature of meat and drinke of recreations and pastimes of apparell and fashions maintaining themselves and their wives in pompe and pride of life to the destruction of soules Others fall to excesse in drinking base company lurking in their dens either in their Colledges or in the Country utterly unprofitable Cretians slow bellies evill beasts Tit. 1.12 as that Poet said filling their panches and surfetting upon pleasures Others insatiable of livings and ambitious of preferments Others setting up their gifts above Christ and chusing to preach ten words without understanding rather then one to the peoples reach Alas is this the fruit of your studies and parts your abilities and gifts that when you should in humility feed the flock of God you despise them and set them at naught 1 Pet. 5.2 and honour your selves with Gods spoyle Beware lest the Lord pursue you and make you regorge these unsavoury morsels of yours with horrour and detestation or else revenge himselfe of you for all your sacriledge when there shall bee no remedy Then shall you wish as some have done that you had beene as poore and silly ones as walke upon the earth so you were free of robbing God of his glory Greeke Ebrew Latine Fathers all learning is good But if it have lost her savour and be as the oyntment which stinkes by dead flyes Luke 14 34. ult what shall it be good for Surely to be cast into the streets and to be troden upon yea to bee made the just scorne of men who never made conscience to reserve to God the entire service of his gifts but fed and prided themselves with his colours 1 Sam. 2.14 Hophni and Phinees would thrust their forke into Gods kettle and steal his due but no sacrifice could satisfie for such sin the Lord sware he would receive no paiment for their ransomtil he utterly rooted them out Seek not therfore your selves set not up your names and parts to be idolized scorn not those whose diligence pains in the Church exceed yours learne of them disdaine them not God doth great things by poor means but seldome receives honour from such as seeke to get up into their owne saddle by Gods stirrop and by their preaching the sacred truth of God hoyse up their owne sayles and out-run the Lord by their owne pride wonder not nor fret that you lose the hearts of Gods people and that they turne from you John 10.27 for his sheepe heare his voice and not the voice of a stranger Alter the property of the unsanctified parts and let them be devoted to an humble service of his Sanctuary Exod. 35.23 and then your gold and blue silke shall be accepted else Goats haire and Badgers skins shall bee preferred before you And to end my counsell consider but this although you should repent before you dye yet you must bee saved as it were by fire 1 Cor. 3.13.15 God will not suffer any of your hay and stubble to cleave to his foundation of pearles This is the best of it your worke must burne by the censure of Gods purity but if your worke burne not by your repentance both your selves and your worke too shall burne through your impenitency Vse 3 Secondly let me adde one Caveat to such as make conscience to improve Branch 2 their parts and excellencies to the best ends in their Ministery and labours Godly Ministers must not onely use but also lay downe their parts and services if God so require I confesse it might beseeme my selfe to learne of some of them yet let me speake one word Beware my Brethren lest having seemed to escape a gulfe ye be drowned in a shallow Renounce even those gifts also by which you seeme to
by a weake man to bring our soules under the authoritie of God even as if hee himselfe spake Doe wee feele the power of an Ordinance as farre above man as heaven is above earth to awe and over-rule us It is a signe that God is preparing to worke somewhat more then ordinary in us if we suffer it not to slip from us 5 Mark Fifthly this shall be another signe to us if wee acknowledge a providence of speciall mercie in that the Lord will use poore meanes to convey his greatnesse and goodnesse into us For what proportion is there between the Majesty of God and our basenesse Or how should wee endure either to heare his voyce or the voyce of an Angell Therefore the familiaritie of the instrument and the weaknesse of the Ordinances is a great benefit unto our simplenesse And as those Israelites were not able to beare the terrors of God no nor so much as the face of Moses being armed and honoured with the extraordinary gifts of the spirit were faine to desire that Moses might speake Exod. 20. and that with a veyle upon his face to weaken the shining of his countenance So should wee turne our offence at the basenesse of Christ and the ordinances into admiration and thankes that thereby the excellency of God might bee accommodated the more easily to our weaknesse 6 Marke Sixtly another marke is when the sinfulnesse of the instrument abusing the ordinance by his ignorant rash confused and unprofitable handling of the word yea attempting the Sacraments with profane hands through the scandalousnesse of his life doth not weaken the esteeme of the ordinances themselves in our hearts nor cause us to stumble at them slight them ever the more Rather when our soules tremble at such impudence and boldnesse of man that they should dare with unskilfull or impure spirits to obtrude themselves upon Gods holy matters and looke up to God by prayer that either he would better and change or else cast them out of his Church that they may no longer darken and destroy the excellencie of truth by their sacriledge and audaciousnesse Mean time looking beyond the sin of the person let us behold the glory of that Ordinance in the nature thereof which yet wee see so sullied and eclipsed by the blindnesse and wickednesse of base usurpers Lastly 7 Mark when wee can fasten upon those great things which the Lord offers us by weake meanes and that by faith in a promise taking them out as our owne peculiar portion For as when the Lord cast downe the walls of Jerico by those Rams-hornes the chiefe active instrument of the miracle was the faith of the Church Heb. 11. as the Author of the Hebrewes tells us so the great things of God are conveyed by faith into the heart through the Conduit of a promise Looke what the Lord of the Ordinances Sabbath and Sacraments hath promised to work by them in the soule when there seemes least likelihood to man that the soule may and will expect from him thereby through faith Therefore try our selves in some of these This doctrine aimes not at discoursing of the severall workes of the Word yet so farre as the point will admit let us try our selves by some of them The promise of God assures us that the weapons of the Minister of God are mightie through God to cast downe strong Towers of a prejudicate rebellious stout proud heart and the high thoughts of man 2 Cor. 10.4 which resists the obedience of Christ Can we then speake it in truth that we have found this vertue go out from the Word into us that when wee went to the Word full of our selves yet we have returned thence emptie And as a Souldier out of an hot battell wherein he hath lost an hand a legge or received some deadly wound yea which is more lost his great stomacke so that hee sees himselfe to be a very foole and no body to that he seemed So have wee seen that in the Law which hath cooled our courage and made us affraid to set up our bristles any more Then a weak Ordinance hath wrought a strong worke in us for it hath mastered that which was our strong fort I meane the fervour of our jolly stomacks It was not the work of a poore instrument but the power of God which did it Againe it is the promise of God that the truth shall make us free Have we then felt that it hath unbound our soules from the chaines of our feare bondage and infidelitie Hath it so enlightned us with the glad tidings of Christ that it hath also piercied into our affections deeply to long and hunger after them for our selves Did we finde that after once we heard the truth as it is in Jesus wee could not lin nor give over till it conveyed the merit of his satisfaction and bloud into us to pacifie our conscience and to rid us of that feare of death Heb. 2.15 whereunto before wee were subject And so renew our soules by the efficacie of his death so that we have crucified our old man with the affections and lusts Ephes 4.18 and felt the bloud strength and marrow of the new Adam and quickning Spirit reviving our veines and bones Surely then poore meanes have done great things in us far above all which the power of weake man can reach unto Againe the Gospell serves to breed and beget the soule to the hope of immortality and life in us Doe wee then feele that as poore as the Preacher was 2 Tim. 1. yet the Lord over-ruled him so as by the power of the Spirit breathing in him the carnall savour of the creature the love of the world and a fading life here below is driven out of us and the breath and savour of Grace and Heaven is put into us Hath it cast out our lingring after an earthly Paradise irrecoverable and carried us into a Paradise of glory never to be cast out more Hath it filled us with heavenly desires even while we are upon earth Hath it set us in an estate of content and peace yea as it were in a rich veine of hope wherein wee are restlesse and ever digging deeper till we attaine full satisfaction in the fulnesse of the fountaine Surely if we can say this in any measure we may buy and sell upon it that the promise by faith hath been the mean of uniting us base flesh and sinfull dust and ashes to the Lord himselfe eternall and incomprehensible that is to say corrupt weake wretched man to God blessed for ever Nothing can doe such a worke but a divine ordinance by the power of a Mediator through a promise for what is weaker then a Minister to effect it or what more impossible and incompatible in reason then for a sinfull man to partake it This then bee said of this second thing collected out of this verse to wit the meanes of Naaman his healing the
conversion first that they make no other account before hand but to finde difficulties and affronts in their way although perhaps they set forward at first with faire winde and great hopes yet that both winde and tide may turne against them before they have done Let not him that puts on his harnis boast as he that puts them off Rather make account of the hardest before and be armed against it be not discouraged nor faint in the onset for I tell thee the worst of Gods way is easier then the best of thy former course of lust and ignorance the pathes whereof are pleasant yet going downe to hel And being warned thus it will be halfe an arming to thee it will coole thy carnall heat send thee to God for strength and make thee out of savor of thy selfe-attempts Secondly when thou shalt meet with such hardnesses in the way wonder not nor shrinke backe say thus I entred upon regeneration with this proviso and laboured to cast the hardest If easier termes be offred by Gods providence if Satan be kept off or corruption held under or the work made sweeter then I feared let me count it my gain and a portion which many of my brethren want But if I meet with brunts let me not desist and goe backe to Egypt but proceed on towards Canaan hoping that yet the issue shall be good Say thus now the Lord is trying of me of what mettle I am made even as he tryed those souldiers that sooped water Judg. 7. or lapped it now is the season for me to looke about me now let me abhorre to play the timeserver hypocrite staggerer and revolter from Gods way because I meet with offences in it If now I turne away and be distempered vowing that I will never goe on one step further nor strike one stroke more I shall shew my selfe and the mettle I am made of but if I shall meekely devour and digest these affronts then I shall shew a patient wayting heart upon God and one that esteemes grace above all my labour and a rich bargaine upon the price If Naaman had beene aware what God intended him before hand hee had said no lesse God tryes me by this delay God make me meek and keep me from rage But because he was yet ignorant therefore hee must bee conceived as one whose passions and anger the Lord meant to cover and pardon in due time and therefore now over-ruled for his good afterward Quest What difficulties are they which Gods travellers endure But some may aske what difficulties doe ye meane I answer such as these Many enter upon conversion upon great hopes and affections stirred up by the Gospell But after a while perhaps it pleases God to shew them their faces in such a glasse of terror and confusion that their hopes are turned into horror for some good space together Answ Manifold 1. Inward And in this condition they are tempted perhaps to avoide wounds of conscience by making away themselves if God staid them not Others feel a raging heart against the Law and Minister for searching their sores and convincing them so deeply if God turned it not to good after and thereby tawed them not more throughly by their owne corruption Others are in consult with themselves whether they were not better abandon all hearing and praying any longer and returne to their joviall company and pleasures of sinne againe that so they may shun this sharpe Schoolemaster by playing the trewants and so be at some ease except God shew them that this discipline as untoothsome as it is yet is wholesome Others stick long at this knot having a slavish sad melancholy spirit delighting in fullennesse and feare especially if sad crosses mixe themselves with inward heavinesse as ill marriage debts pursuits ill successe and the like They thinke God frownes more upon them then in the former daies of their ignorance Others are as much amazed on the other side because their terrors were never so great as others nor were their consciences so deepely affrighted with wrath and hell and therefore not duely humbled Others feele a great measure of unmortified lust and filth to dwell in them as wrath pride hollownesse revenge and to dog them so that they cannot thinke that such poyson and mercy to pardon can possibly stand together Others mistake the doctrine of preparation to faith thinking it to stand in the greatnesse of measure deepe sorrow breaking of heart deepe streights and being at a deepe losse great longings and thirstings after mercy and so of the rest It is long ere they come to see that there must bee a seed of the Gospell wrought ere these be or that they serve rather for marks of the spirit of grace then any furtherers of it from any thing in themselves Others feeling these wrought in them yet when they heare that faith only can put them into a safe estate they begin to feare that although they are prepared by the condition yet the Lord will not performe the effect of faith for them forgetting that Gods meaning in the one was to worke the other or at least thinke it will be a long time first and they shall be out of all heart ere then or they may dye ere the Lord make an end of his worke Others conceive amisse of the promise thinking it to be offred to such as can take hold of it by themselves not knowing that the strength is Gods and not theirs Esay 27.5.6 and that the offer comming froÌ the strength of a satisfaction to justice doth strengthen the Lord to make and tender it to a poore soule that needs it and concurs with that soule strongly to fasten it thereon as the due portion belonging to it Others are marvailously disquieted about their Election doubting that all their mournings and travailes are to no purpose because they strive against Gods will not remembring that secretes are for God not for for them and their surest markes come from the obeying of the revealed will Others when the fruit is come to the birth have no strength to bring forth it seemes impossible or hard or unlikely that such base ones should ever beleeve it were too good for so unworthy ones and in truth men looke wholly at their owne ends so much and so little at the glory which the Lord chiefly seekes to his grace that they little muse of the worke as becomming the omnipotency and free bounty of a reconciled God but of that scurffe they feele in themselves These are inward Others are outward affronts which meet with the soule 2. Outward some are molested grievously with sad motions and temptations and conflicts from Satan buffeting of them and stopping of their way by thoughts of feare injected into them as by Atheisme doubting of God of the truth of Scripture or with such qualmes and combats as doe arise up as sparkles from the over deepe terrors of conscience or the endlesse risings of their corrupt hearts
casting up mire and dirt in them and in the face of the truth and this irksomnes abides long if God see good to enlarge Satan according to his malice Others are discouraged through want of Ministry to follow on that little seed of grace which is cast into them which is ready to dye for lacke of quickning and advice and so living in desolate places and destitute of powerfull meanes are long ere they come to any setling and strength in a promise not knowing that where ordinary meanes faile God himselfe will not bee wanting to perfect what hee hath begunne Others meet with discouragements from such as should encourage them and so they fall the more sadly upon them When the Spouse had dallyed with her beloved through ease and carnalll tendernesse security and selfe-love lo in following after him she was met by the Watchmen Cant. 5.6.7 who buffetted her These should have encouraged her Even Ministers are oft great affronts in the way of poore soules rating and scorning them for their singularity especially when they through errour light upon such as thinking better of them So doe Parents Guardians Masters lay offences in the way of their children orphans servants some threatning to dis-inherit them or to disgrace them others by their snibbing and chiding or over-bearing them doe blast that bud which else would blossome and beare Others also hoping to see examples of many others as zealous as themselves to encourage them and finding that the Gospel prevails little in these dayes the Spirit growes straitned people wax dead and sottish and all their devotion stands in hearing Sermons Alas they quaile and pull in their horns like snails and are afraid they have been too forward and therfore wax as lazie and loose as others except God rouze them up by some sad crosse and make them to see that there must be more resolution in them if they look after salvation each tub must stand upon his own bottome Others resting upon their good duties and performances and thinking religion to consist therein chiefly when they feele small inward life from thence but ebbings and flowings grow at last to suspect their bottome but alas how long is it ere they can reforme their error and take a right course So that by these few instances it may appeare that the difficulties of many who begin fairly are very tedious so that they finde not the worke of conversion so easie as they expected Conclusion of all with admonition I conclude therefore as before let not such be dismaid nor give over the work of God but remember God is now trying them whether there bee soundnesse or no in them to continue and if they will wait meekly his leasure after hee hath taught them to deny themselves he will be found of them as here of Naaman and reveale himselfe to them at last more then at first Vses 2 Secondly this should also teach those who have obtained mercie already Instruction Christians must looke for difficulties as well in their progresse as in their entrance much lesse to wonder if they meet with sundry affronts in their course of Christianity For if this be done in the green tree how much more in the dry If novices who are so unfit for trials meet with so many rubs to keep them from faith how much more must they looke for them whose strength is greater Therefore consider I pray you and know God will try all upon whom he hath bestowed any speciall favours and blessings One way or other sooner or later the Lord will lay stops and blockes in your way to try what is in you and whether all that hee hath done for you can prevaile so farre with you as to think him worth the cleaving and clinging unto with faith and confidence Gen. 22.2 Esay 38. Job 1. Gen. 39.7 2 Sam. 16.5 25. Matth. 26.69 Abraham must be tried by Isaac Hezekiah by the Embassadours Iob by losse of all hee hath Ionah by the errand to Ninivee Ioseph by Putefârs wife David by Shemei by Nabal by Mephibosheth Peter by the Damosell and others of the Saints by other trialls whether God be above their carnall delights whether their hearts be lowly whether they can deny their wealth their will whether they be that in secret which they are openly what meeknesse patience equality of heart is in them Professors in their novicery looke not to meet with many troubles whether they bee sound and resolved to stick to God or no. None shall want their trials Alas many a poore soule entring upon profession lookes but from hand to mouth how he may hold fast the promise and live according to knowledge but lo in a short time after troubles arise in the married estate sicknesse losses enemies pursuits wrongs such as hee expected not On the other side A none of them the Lord perhaps armes some strong corruption to pinch and gall him which he knowes not how to be rid of or stings him by unthankfulnesse of such as owe most love by unfaithfulnesse and aloofnesse of such as have been greatest friends by the sad revolts and scandals of such as for their owne ease and private ends renounce that love to Gods cause and that zeale to the truth which they have testified Sometimes by false aspersions and reports staining them and unjustly depraving them behind their backes otherwhiles by bad times frowning upon them and turning their prosperity into affliction Againe perhaps the Lord tries others by some hard duty beset with great difficulties so that either they must forfeit conscience or else some desirable thing which they are loth to forgoe Oft-times the Lord tries some by company pleasure liberty occasions of sudden wrath distemper worldlinesse and infinite it were to mention all By these he would let men see all that is in their heart he will either discover their grace that he may trust them for ever after or else their halting self-ends hollownesse pride love of themselves strong poysons of heart breach of covenant and so humble them subdue their sinnes for them in due season that they may not deceive and destroy their owne soules And what wonder Doe wee thinke that God is willing to lose his cost or to harbour such under his roofe as he knowes not what to make of Such as under colour of Religion maintaine a great deale of loose scurfe within them Is it for the glory of God to owne such No surely he will put them to it one time or other that hee may by this meane separate the pretious from the vile and their owne hay and stubble from his owne Pearles and Jewels I grant we thinke otherwise and hope to escape in a mist and to carry our course even and faire God will try his to separate the pretious from the vile without any great trials or affronts and the rather because perhaps wee have long made a shift to goe on smoothly with praying in
to containe townes corners and Kingdomes in peace and order which being so extensive a good within her compasse must needs cause men to imagine some excellency therein Fourthly 4. The examples and opinion of men rarely vertuous the rare parts and endowments of such as are thus qualified excelling in shew the vertues of some such as are in an higher ranke of christianity and religion and blemishing their weaker qualities must needs reflect upon them more then ordinary esteeme among such as behold them especially when they shall bewray more bounty liberality compassion and mercy forbearance and patience with other usefull and admired vertues then they who claime the chiefe name goodnesse Fifthly when besides all these Civilities and Moralities 5. Some tincture of religion they adde some varnish and lustre from a tincture of Religion keeping their Church applauding a forme of serving God and discoursing of such matters which although they doe not for any perfiting of their vertues which they âount to be their strong hold but onely for complement and formality 6. Similitude with the godly yet hereby they stop the mouthes of any who might brand them with irreligion and prophanenesse Adde hereto the similitude which they seeme to hold with the godly for they also have their slips and errors sometime blemishes of note and vices of deepe dye and alas these have no more and therefore so long as outsides only may hold water there will seeme little difference There are none so bad and base None so bad but some shreds of good may be found in them 2 Sam. 12.27 1 Sam. 11.7 Gen. 27 41. And what use a civill person makes of it but have some shreds of goodnesse in them Ioab a vile cruell and bloody wretch yet a valiant Captaine who fought Gods battels and was usefull to the Church in destroying the enemies of it Saul a notorious hypocrite and self-lover yet adorned with abundance of heroicall martiall politique and morall vertues wisedome awe and authority courage and resolution equity and justice love to his followers till his spirituall treachery of heart quasht them Esau himself had his restraint of malice and so had Haman till their fitter opportunity And in a word as there are few so good but they have their tincture of some evill so neither are there any so bad but they have some morall reliques left in them of vertue and praise And this causeth them through a base heart balking God in his way of Christ to rest themselves satisfied in that sufficiency which they finde in these things as thinking they neede seeke no further for any superiour happinesse because they finde this to give them so abundant content both from within and from without feeling these feathers and colours of their owne both to heat and to adorne them And the truth is this selfe of morality and nature is so much the more dangerous by how much in shew it seemes so glorious for how vast a gulfe seemes to be betweene the former vicious forlorne caitiffe and this painted moralist Alas nothing is more apt to puffe up a naturall man then the abused privity to a former estate of excellency such and such they were bred and although they have lost all yet their breed and the reliques of their old ruines are enough to make them some body As we see it in them who having bin well bred Simil. and fallen to decay though they have nothing to take too yet even in the necessity of forced begging beg with indignation at the basenesse of it and will say good Sir shew some respect to a poore Gentleman putting on their hat instantly and scorning to bee as they are even so is it here That which should most abase us doth most pride us our very ruines seeme rarities unto us and nourish a sufficiency of our owne in us so that wee canâot resigne it up and throw it at the feete of Christ to purchase a better But then much more prone are we to be puft up if we thinke that wee have raised our fortunes to a pretty estate the second time by our owne improvements and industry None are prouder then such as being privy to their ruined estate of creation yet make themselves beleeve that by their owne worth they have raised themselves from it to a very faire competency of estate in morall and civil vertues others remaining still in their beggery of viciousnesse and base evills Use of the point Briefly then of this second sort this I adde Oh how lamentable is it that a man borne to bee a sonne of God and beautified with his owne image should become so disguised as having lost grace in the substance to rest in a meere shadow thereof destitute of a principle of divine life and goodnesse and to stay all such from their conceit of selfe-sufficiency herein A civill estate dangerous let me tell them first their vertue is copper coine and wants of the nature of gold as much as kennel water of the purenesse of spring water therefore their sufficiency is but a dreame a fruit of their ignorance and owlelight of discerning nay it is but a madnesse as he must be a foole who really can satisfie himselfe in counters as if they were peeces Secondly there is no safety herein for the error of their conceit may more harden them against Christ then the prophanesse of the wickedst if God vouchsafe them both equall light Thirdly if God leave them in this hardnesse of heart they may prove as desperate opposites and pursuers of all grace of Christ and Christians as the most horrible open swine yea worse as we see in Saul and Iulian. Therefore to conclude let all such know that till the Lord have lighted a torch by his word of a greater discovery of themselves then yet they have seene they are farre off from the embracing of Christ they are wedged already into so deepe a sufficiency of their owne that Christs is unsavory And therefore although I will not advise them to renounce the vertues themselves nor judge them as vile as open offenders yet I wish them to come under a better banner and cast their owne worth upon the dung-hill They are gone up to heaven by a ladder of their owne framing and setting But they must come downe each step thereof with more shame and confusion ere they can set one step towards Christs ladder in which respect I see not but he who stands upon the ground still and never went higher is somewhat nearer the bottome of Christs ladder then they And so much also of this second kinde of grosse selfe viz. selfe-naturall morality I come to the third The third carnality or flâshly savor Rom. 8.6 And that is carnality or fleshly savor of the which I spake somewhat in the tenth verse shall say more in verse twelve Here therefore I will onely touch the point and shew wherein this grosse selfe opposeth Christ
it to see an insufficiency in a thing which is the price of every thing Mony and wealth can build Churches pulpits buy all ornaments of a Church Bibles and Tables and Chalices and hire Preachers and maintaine the Gospel now why then should it not buy Christ too especially if alms good deeds and workes of charity accompany a profession of Christ and his religion and a verball depending upon him and his merits alone not any Popish works or Idolls for salvation Alas such profession of word and holding Christ in judgement may easily stand with living upon the creature and building the soules nest of joy content and sufficiency in the holes of this rocke How hardly then should such a rich man or such a selfe in the creature enter into heaven What an enemy it is to Christ It is easier for a Camell to goe through a needles eie The Lord Jesus the truth it selfe spake it of a yong man who thought himselfe past danger Matth. 19.23 who yet hearing of this sufficiency of Christ if he would sell all went away sorrowâull and why he had great possessions that is great possessions had him and filled him top full with another sufficiency which made Christ unsavory and the same I may say of these who were in the chase to get them when the sufficiency of Christ and all his dainties and fulnesse even a feast was offered them lo their answer was I am to goe see a farme I have bought oxen Luke 14. I am to marry a wife have us excused we have that which we like better we cannot come Farmes and oxen are joyned with wives to shew that selfe in any creature and carnall content sets the heart at rest and gives it a common wealth within so that it need not seeke out Matth. 13. So the third and last bad ground which had both some roote and some depth within yet without was so cumbred with these thorns of mony and pleasures living preferment great dependances favor and repute in the world that like a canker they fretted out the marrow and vigor of Christ and faith or neede of his sufficiency First How the creature forestalls Christ 1. It swells the soule with imagination that God loveth it 2. Prides it selfe in the ease and welfare which it feeles the fulnesse of the creature swells the soule up with a conceit that God loves it deerely that hee will entertaine it so richly thinking him to be as busie in heaven to make it a mansion as hee hath beene liberall in giving it one here not dreaming that the body may be full when the soule is leane and that riches are given for a snare of the owners as Micoll to betray David Secondly it prides the soule to thinke of her selfe according to the outward appearance and glee of wealth and welfare and that the soule is in as good case to God as worldward and though there bee infinite much in the world against it yet such is the bribing property of selfe in the creature that it perverts sound judgement not suffering the soule to thinke a thought against her owne worth conceiving that all should think her as she doth her selfe very good and in a safe condition Not remembring that for all the creature it may be blinde miserable and naked and go from a Paradise here to an hell hereafter as Dives did Thirdly it stiffens and hardens the heart against the words both of Law and Gospel 3. Stiffens the heart against the word preached the one including all the richest within wrath and driving them to a losse within themselves the other offering the eie-salve gold and robe of the Lord Jesus to supply that losse How shall that soul hearken to either which feeles no neede when the eare and heart is so bedulled and ingrossed with fulnesse and fatnesse of the creature that none of the Redeemers sufficiency can enter Now if it stumble at these two in the porch how should it ever enter into the secret the holy of holies in faith and regeneration This may be enough for the purpose of this discourse to open the truth save that this one reason may be added That selfe in welfare and wealth hath in it the spirit of scorning the Ministery of Christ With disdaine it bewrayed it selfe even when Christ himself preached for it is said That some who heard him scorned him for they were rich Luke 5. and the like humor possesses their successors And this property agrees well with them who make the creature their strong hold as I have heard of a City besieged which cast out loaves and victualls to the enemy in scorne and telling them that they were farre from starving As he said soule take thine ease thou hast laid up for many yeares Even for so many that the need of Christ will hardly be felt Therefore to conclude this branch also let mee admonish these persons that if ever the Lord will settle the alsufficiency of Christ upon them Admonitions to this sort he will first captivate this selfe in the creature and sub-ordaine it to himselfe he will cause the image of it to be despised yea cause the soule to cry out of her selfe and say what a foole yea a beast am I in thy sight Psal 73. the soule I say shall bee full of the creature even in a contrary sense that is stomacke sicke of it as a surfet The Lord shall rectifie the soules judgement about this selfe then the ranknesse of this pleurisie to be let out of the soule 1. See the vanity of the creature First by shewing it the vanity and insufficiency of it to helpe in the day of wrath how poore a fort it will prove in the day of affliction and feare It cannot rid the owner of an ague of the tooth ache of the least affront it hath no bloud in it to satisfie 2. Behold the image and face of God in the promise Secondly the Lord shall set the soule in a serious posture and meditation of that presence of his which shall make all the earth and the glory of it to vanish and melt and those who have beene formost in this creature-happinesse to come hindmost stand a far off from them who have chosen Christ to be their sufficiency then shall the glory of the one bee turned to confusion and the disdaine of the other to admiration Then shall all their worldly proppes become as broken staves the splinters of which shall pierce them much more then ever the care to get them could pierce them with sorrow 3. Behold the curse stamped upon the creature yea despaire The Lord will cause them to looke into the creature and to behold it as branded with a curse by sinne but doubly cursed when in stead of serving Christ it resists him and fights against him and makes Christ and the soule servants to it which is to renounce him who is blessed for ever
honour one of another and seeke not the honour of God onely Secret selfe will so serve God that shee will foist in her owne ends credit praise and respect even while shee seemes to seeke Gods and so while shee should save her owne stake shee loseth Gods shee aimes not at him and the glory of his grace onely and therefore not at all So much for pâoofes Reasons of this doctrine are many and may bee drawne from many heads as first from the nature of this corrupt selfe Secondly from other Reason 1 mens courses 3. The practice of Satan Fourthly the justâce of God From the nature of this selfe For the first we may consider the danger of mixt selfe from her owne corrupt quality both in respect of the first familiarity of it Secondly the generalnesse of it Thirdly the violence of it and Fourthly In 4 things the tenaciousnesse or continuance of it Touching the first bosome beloved 1. Familiarity or closenesse and inward corruptions doe most bleare the eie of discerning and pervert judgement because they goe in a streame least suspected A traitor who insinuates himselfe into a man so deeply as to comply and correspond with him in all his courses will deceive most dangerously So self runnes in the streame of nature and pleases it in every thing it is as a bribe in the hand prevailing wheresoever it goeth Prov. 17.8 As that naturall agreement and well pleasingnesse of Delila to the humor of Sampson forestalled all which was spoken against her so that he laid it not to heart but went forward so selfe hath a bewitching nature and will suffer no objection to prevaile For why All seemes to be as it should be the flesh is so tickled and inchanted with selfe-ease selfe-conceit selfe-duties and the like they do so delude the heart with an opinion that all is as it should bee that it detaines it in error habitually yea it can so incorporate it selfe into all the best religious duties that shee will very hardly be distinguished one would thinke the annointed of the Lord were before him that of the Apostle expresses it well it doth easily beset us Heb. 12.1 as a man whose loines are compassed about with a close girdle is as he would be If any doubt or scruple arise in the minde about a mans estate by and by selfe rocking the cradle stills the whimpering child and all is quiet and as it should be It s like a bad Courtier which watcheth as a cat the mouse that none whisper one wry word in the Princes eare or if he doe yet he is close at the elbow and suffers nothing to enter Secondly the Generalnesse Selfe is not as particular lusts as adultry 2. The generalnesse lying murder covetousnesse or the like but selfe is all corruption in one the very spirit and roote of bitternesse Heb. 12.15 which giveth joice and nourishment to all branches It s the Idoll of all speciall lusts to which all do homage and service it s the body of all those members I may rather call it the soule of all in which they live All their springs are in selfe now then if this be so generall and so overspreading an evill what wonder if the deceit thereof bee as generall and dangerous what may not the Prince doe and yet no man open his tongue against him what may not a Pope doe though he draw innumerable souls with him into perdition who may say what dost thou Such a Lord and Pope is Selfe and more universall Thirdly the violence of it Selfe is neer it selfe alway 3. The violence and desires such objects as are profitable but much more when the object promises a great contentment and advantage faith and grace and holy duties are subjects promising great reward even immortality Rom. 1. when therefore these are propounded to the soule though upon farre other tearmes yet how forward and eager is corrupt selfe to act her part and how doth she boast that she can put forth her selfe in so high matters what is so selfe putting forth as an handmaid affecting the place of her mistresse who can beare her insolency what is so negotious and eagerly busie as an usurping Absalon acting the part of an unlawfull Prince over subjects Prov. 30.23 2 Sam. 15.2 Such is selfe never so stirring and like her selfe as in Gods matters which promise the greatest gaine and good to selfe and what wonder then if so stirring and violent a thing doe deceive a man and hold him in an opinion of welfare 1 Kings 9. Acts 9. Iehu in his heat of selfe-zeale being warme in his geare Ananias and Saphira being in the heat of their great charity had no leasure to discerne that subtilty and self-ends which prevailed over their outward performances the one of murthering Ahabs posterity for a Crown for so it was the other the robbing of the Church for the saving of some mony 4. Tenaciousnesse Fourthly and lastly the Tenaciousnesse of selfe I meane when she is put hard to it rather then she will shrinke in her horns and lose all her labour she will hold close to her own tacklings and devour a great deale of difficulty For a mans desire he will seperate himselfe saith Salomon that is deny himselfe and go farre Prov. 18 1. 1 King 15.27 1 King 18.28 if need requires It was easie for Baasha to kill Ieroboam when it went in the streame of his owne ambition But not easie for Baals Priests when the case so required to wound and launce themselves or now for Papists to whip and mortifie their flesh or for those in Micha 6. Mica 6. to offer the Lord the first fruit of their bodies for the sin of their soules rivers of oyle and wine yet what will not selfe stand to within her possibility rather then resigne up her right Sleidan reports of a souldier cast out of the top of a castle among others appointed to be so slaine a marveilous height from the earth who yet by miraculous providence catching hold on the shrags of a mulbery tree saved his life Such a thing is this selfe rather then perish she will catch hold upon any thing be it never so above her in shew not onely hard duties but even sufferings and herein seene to amate and equall even true selfedeniall till shee be tried What wonder then in such achievements if she delude the soule dangerously and maintaine a false principle to overthrow it To forgoe a mans lusts so farre as that the uncleane spirit seems to be gone out of a man to suffer persecution as Alexander did with Paul Eph. 20. a terrible example for such a timeserver Luke 11. Acts 20. 2 Tim. 4.14 2 Tim. 4.14 to deny a mans credit ease health honour ends and life for profession sake is a signe of some holding out and yet selfe cannot hold out ever Thus much for the first Reason drawne from the
above them or her selfe above him all is one she examines nothing by the rule of right going to worke but rests in the deed done yea let what objections will come in their way they are at a point and returne to their owne bent thinking that the children of such prayers and duties cannot perish As those Jewes told Christ of the Master of the Synagogue he deserved he should heale his daughter for his good workes sake But if selfe were as she ought she should come in as that man did and tread himselfe in the dirt Master I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roofe so that in themselves they can feele somewhat to trust too though it be nothing but in the Lords promise bee it never so evident they feele nothing Thirdly the motion of Selfe is eager and violent she wants that inward moover of the spirit 3. Her Violence which should act her by the power of a sweet principle from within and put boote in beame as we say securing her of a good and safe issue of her labour For then she would not put forth her selfe so earnestly and violently by her owne strength but calmely and quietly rest her selfe well satisfied in the comfort of that spirit which can effect her desire and subject her owne endeavours and performances to the spirit of grace As the Prophet Esay telleth those Jewes who strove to overcome their enemies by the aide of forraine confederates Esay 30. your strength is to sit still follow not your own violent motion but trust to the Lord and let your streame runne in his runne softly as the waters of Silâe so I say to this violent selfe stand still behold the salvation of God and you shall see your enemies all scattered not by your strength or might but by the power of God We know what strife a man useth in his trade who hath no inward principle of skill to enable him in comparison of a skilfull workeman the one is more painfull then the other but the latter hath more ease in his worke And hence it is that selfe hath so continuall a toile to hold correspondence with grace as fast as corruption rebells shee falls to damming and stopping the course of it but the more she dammes up the passage the higher the waters swell and rise so that she must needs give them some way and course at last and grow weary of resistance whereas the poore soule whose heart is humbled and broken feeles the streame and torrent to be turned another way and so she needs not alway resist and dâmme it up because it s prevented by a stronger motion And in truth selfe-violence is no better then selfsloth in this respect for she findes as small fruit of her strife as of her ease neither are blessed when she is lazy she is snared with accusation and when she is satagent and busie shee is discouraged with ill successe the Lord aiming at this that so shee may be weary of her selfe There seemes I grant for the present while selfe keepes her motion a great deale of zeale in selfe performances as one said of himselfe that while he praied out of himselfe he praied with far more zeale passion and expression then when hee praied by the spirit of grace and supplication Selfe being very full and free in her owne element but barren and off the hookes if out of it And this violence may appeare further in the frequency and difficulty of selfe-performances for as wee see where there be fewest good and solid dishes of meate at a table there will bee the more slight ones with their covers upon them as if there were some great matter under so is it with Selfe the lesse substance she hath the more shews shadowes the more pompe and ostentation Mâtth 23. Mica 6. The Pharisees and those Hypocrites in Micah were fuller of their traditions washings and clensings offerings of costly and excessive services then the faithfull worshippers who rested rather in a little and good viz to walke humbly and righteously with God then in a world of drosse As a drunkard so long as he can use his tongue and his feete thinkes himselfe sober whereas the truly temperate suspects himselfe at every turne so here selfe lookes at her owne motion not how regular and orderly it is As a boy unskilfull in writing when his hand is led delights still to stir it and to move his hand of himselfe and so blurs and blots more then he writes so selfe will be stirring and doing full of her owne spirit in praying fasting hearing and the like no man can be zealous enough to please her Christ himselfe was not good enough for a selfe-pleasing hypocrite The Lord loves no double diligent ones but those who being led by the spirit of selfedeniall and grace rest themselves upon the power of a promise not to be idle but as abhorring to make more haste then good speed Lastly Self if she be defeated of what she would 4. Her disappointment is sore disquieted and unsetled The greater her heat and violence was in motion the deeper is her discontent if crossed Concerning which I shall have more occasion to speake in the next verse Here only it shall bee sufficient to give a touch of it When Selfe is held off and delaied she falls upon God Oh! what a wofull fruit of all my labour is this that God should so long keepe me from my desires and thus long crosse me hence come cavills against God as if he did them wrong thus to disappoint them selfe is querulous Esay 58. Esây 58. Mal. 3. full of tedious accusations and baskings of her selfe much like one that cannot swimme who yet will beat the waters and this comes partly from presumption and partly from bondage as thinking she should deserve better from God and yet feels all ill within whereas a poore soule being beaten off one way yet feeling a support within girds her selfe the more about and looking at the unchangeable faithfulnesse of God interprets his delaies no otherwise then the Syrophoenician did Christs answers not to be cordiall but trying her faith self-deniall O Lord saith she although thou beatest me off Matth. 15. thou meanest not to reject me for that were contrary to thy office to save the scattered ones of Israel Therefore O Lord here I lye at thy feete if thou kick me away and have no pleasure in me I can say nothing doe with me as thou wilt I am not at mine owne but thy dispose and if it seem good to thy wisdome to deferre me I shall thinke it meeter for the time present then to be satisfied since it s ever best for me to be as thou wilt have me knowing it shall be one day as thou hast promised And surely well may I adde this fourth marke to the former for as selfe hath no bounds of humility and modesty when she is pleased with her duties
all these thou complainest of no man need bid thee be revenged of them or watch them a shrewd turne but I tell thee an enemy within thy bosome counted thy darling and close friend one called Selfe is a more deadly enemy and can doe thee more hurt then all of them together hereafter raile not upon the evill world thy cruell Landlord thy false friend bankerupts who have runne away with thy goods or thy bad wife that stings thee with her tongue thy bad children ill neighbours thy persecutors not one of these but may set thee a steppe forward to heaven none can deprive thee of it but Selfe can and will world divell and his instruments could not hurt thee were it not for this traitor which sets open the doore unto them to tempt to defile thee See Naaman here in what a wildred case he is except the Lord had made him see his enemy and undoe all his crosse selfe-willednesse and waywardnesse and to stop to Gods way yea and glad to scape so too unto what a perplexity had he brought himselfe after besides his pudder for the present even so know thou that when thou hast runne into thy long error thou must come backe againe this way of selfe-deniall or else the further thou goest the worse will thy case bee Oh! it is a tugging crying sinne it wearies ten Preachers to denounce against it Oh! to what a sweete peace had the Lord brought many an hearer of the word had it not beene for this Beloved we have had some faithfull servants of Christ both living and happily dead among us who have confessed that by this Selfe and her meanes they have spent forty years ere they could come to beleeve and do we look to make it a short cut of forty daies therefore mutter not at thine enemies much lesse at the Lord but at thy selfe and say thy perdition is from thy selfe God is enlarged Hosea 13.9 but Selfe hath hidebound thee and straited thee in thine owne bowells count that Sermon which hath taught thee this lesson one of the best that ever thou heardest Luke 5. There were many lepers in the daies of Elisha but he was sent to none save to Naaman the Syrian and hee had beene sent to him also in vaine if Selfe might have borne sway A second Branch of Instruction is of Instruction Be not offended with crosses to stay that impatience of our spirits Branch 2 which usually falls from us under the visitations of God either upon our whole man or body soul and conscience state posterity or whatsoever For why should we murmur against him that by wounding our side should let out an impostume which would else kill us such an one as no other meane would have cured save this doubtlesse as Hezekia saith By this man liveth And Iob cap. 33. Elihu tells us Hereby even by the corrections which he hath sealed such as he there mentioneth consumptions Esay 3.8 fevers and diseases which take away stomack and the like the Lord hideth the pride of man which is selfe he brings to the pits brinke of the grave that he may keep the soule from hell even the nethermost pit Oh! when the bladder of Selfe and Pride and Presumption is prickt and the bubbling froath and windy puffing thereof is let out a man comes to see himselfe as hee is a forlorne creature then his duties affections hopes sorrowes desires and performances vanish no man can so basely thinke of him as he conceives of himselfe then hee is vile dust and ashes in his own eyes Who is more free from all arrogating to himselfe and his owne righteousnesse then one that lies all pale and consumed with paine and sicknesse When we doe meet with one except some desperate blinde Pharisee who in his extremity dare trust to himselfe where is then his vain-glory his boasting of devotions fasts prayers and alms Alas the image of them is despised the pride of life is crack't and the great stomacke is broken and then his high thoughts which exalted themselves against Christ and an humble heart quaile and come downe Crosses are great meanes to let out Selfe out of the Soule Then if an interpreter come one of a thousand to declare his righteousnesse how welcome is hee When the heart is empty of Selfe then doth the Lord commonly fill it with good things and when it despaireth of selfe-hope then the Lord saith Deliver him I have received a ransome Hence it is that Iob cap. 10.12 saith Thy visitations O Lord have preserved my spirit And the truth is it is well in these dead times if any thing will doe it As Paul Phil. 3. saith If by any meanes I may attain it The word without some afflictions upon mens spirits or name bodies or posterity and that in some stinging kinde pierces not the spirit is straitned Sometims after long struglings and wrastlings of men with this Selfe hoping to picke somewhat out of their owne strength they are tired and wearied in their way and their former feares come upon them a-fresh so that they can finde no rest in their bones Then they begin to consider seriously of it and conclude There is a pad in the straw still they crosse the worke of God in one kinde as fast as they further it another Surely they resolve an heart of hollownesse sloath unsoundnesse and loathnesse to renounce the creature or their stoutnesse and sullen heart or the warmth of their owne feathers their zealous affections These or the like oppose the nakednesse and simplicity of the promise and keep the conscience in snares and defilements and they cry out Miserable men who shall deliver us And sometimes by other affronts the Lord is faine to sharpen the point of his convincing ordinance that the Soule may think the Lord is in sad earnest when she findes him to hunt her out in every corner and give her no rest till she can be content to be saved any way so she may be saved A very Papist in his straits will disclaime himselfe and say It is safest for the avoyding of vain-glory to cleave onely to mercie and shall we that professe none but Christ come short of them To conclude then as we read Heb. 12. My son refuse not the chastening of the Lord Job 7.18 nor grudge at his visitations as Iob once murmured Why dost thou visit him every morning and try him every moment Why dost thou set mee as a marke against thee But in the issue of that great trouble he was of another mind saying cap. 9.31 My very cloathes defile me And cap. 42.4 Now have I seene thee therefore I abhorre my selfe Let us doe likewise and abhorre our owne murmurings at our crosses for although they are irksome to the flesh yet they are wholesome for the spirit as we say of the body that when the spleen is smallest that is best So the body of grace is at best when that Spirit in
God beseech him to helpe thee with faithfulnesse in the search else thou wilt end as thou beganst not to spare thy self but desiring that the spears point which pierced Christ sides might let out the thoughts of thy heart in this kinde or rather that the sword of conviction may open the bowells of it and shed them to the ground doe not this work when thou art otherwise occupied and hast other businesse to doe thou shalt finde this work enough alone if not too much for thee and doe it by frequent meditation which is nothing else save making the truth of God thine owne and that which thou canst not finde thy selfe guilty of at one time or perhaps capable of or able to lay to heart to abhorre or to finde sweetnesse in the doing of goe to it another goe on where thou leftst praying God thou maiest not be new to beginne and thou shalt finde that at another time the second or the third thou shalt obtaine it Thou shalt not repent thee of thy labour in thus preventing and cutting short that enemy which would else have prevented and cut thee off from grace only resolve of this that till the Lord hath grounded thee in the truth of this doctrine a principle of practicall Catechisme it is impossible for thee to thrive in grace or use of meanes Further pressing of the triall Say therefore thus to the Lord Thou knowest the paines of thy servant in the use of meanes thou knowest how poorly I have thriven under them how little my faith my comfort my obedience is how ready I am to deceive my selfe in that I seeme to have to take up my rest therein that so I may not be molested any longer but soke my selfe in the dregges of my ease and will not to stirre one inch off my owne ground Now Lord if thou wilt be pleased to shew me whât hath done me all this hurt I should infinitely blesse thee I am not so foolish I thanke thee as to trade for religion and yet crosse mine owne ends in wilfull holding any evill within my bosome which should deprive mee of my hopes I am willing to be informed and heare of the worst yea to unbottome my selfe of my old rotten mixtures and false grounds for the bettering of mine estate rather then to sleep in death and lie down with them in the dust Lord therefore now before my heart bee hardened in custome and security blesse mine examination to the true ends which it serves for Here I thought to have ended the use but there comes one objection to my minde Object Do all see this Selfe who are truly converted which must be answered For some will say You make a great discourse of this Self What think you Are there not many Christians truly converted to God who never discerned this disease as you have described it and yet are unfeigned and true converts and beleevers Answ 1 I answer you 2. or 3. wayes First hoping that their Quaere proceeds not from self-cavilling The grace of election working a greater measure of humiliation and tendernesse in some poore soules who want this knowledge supplies this want sweetly but from simplicity thus Many poor soules have through mercy obtained from the Lord a great measure of brokennesse of heart humblenesse of spirit more then the common sort of Professors either have or seek and by this means their helpes in both publique and private being few and their discouragements many the Lord beholding them in the grace of his election supplies all wants by his owne Spirit keepes them hungry abases them in the sense of their many infirmities puts in a spirit of perpetuall jealousie over themselves and works them to a marveilous plainnesse of heart to loath all falshood as they can discerne it and so perfects the work of faith in them secretly farre otherwise then in such poore creatures might bee expected of these I say that although perhaps they heare not so much discourse of the name and dangerous markes of Selfe yet they feele the realnesse of it within themselves and are better acquainted with it then many who heare more of it And these persons if it should please the Lord to bring that home in doctrine use and admonition unto them which I have spoken would be formost in acknowledging and blessing God for such truth and make better use of it then the most doe Answ 2 Secondly I answer Satan and corruption in these last daies doe conspire to withold many subtill wise and carnall worldlings from embracing the truth then ever and as all Arts so this art of Selfe serving into the truths of God by the counterfeiting and deceiving of men is grown rife and perfect Satan more prevailes with this subtill world then ever Ephes 4.14 therefore needs the more exact and carefull countermining Thirdly the Spirit of God under constant meanes workes leasurely and therefore corruption is not cast out all at once but by long discipline and discovery of it by the word and in the multitude of helpes such as Answ 3 God be thanked have beene enjoyed in sundry places much rankenesse hath growne as a canker in a faire apple in the spirits of many Professors as pride selfe-conceit and prejudice which the Lord hath justly punished as I noted in the reasons with a spirit of fulsomenesse and furfet hardnesse of heart and difficulty of perswasion so that in these daies that old tendernesse and selfe-deniall which possessed the spirits of most Christians is rare to finde Much need therefore of urging this doctrine in these our daies Much more need therefore there is of this doctrine to be urged in these dayes that such as are the Lords and yet held under this snare may be pulled out and saved and those who are not may be left therein because they would not receive the truth in the naked love of it Lastly to end this use this I adde That although the Lord should Answ 4 have called home many without any former knowledge of Selfe in any great measure yet I doubt not but when they do come to a better view of it they will both mend their former bottomes see cause to trust God and glorifie his grace in Christ more then ever before and also looke to themselves in the course of their sanctification the more watchfully lest this enemy should hurt them more in that then it did in the matter of their first conversion However I see no cause why the more cleare discovery of the will and way of God should seeme superfluous because God had his number when the light shined not so cleerly And so much for answer to this question We may discover it by these marks First by the true humbling of the soule A proud heart will have her will to die for it Because pride hath high thoughts and must be satisfied as Rabel with children or else shee dies And her daughters having lost their children by
of grace put into and dwelling in his soule moreover true grace and morall differ in this that the morall makes onely a change of accidents as the fire makes iron hot and burning but changeth not the iron from his nature but grace changeth the whole nature also for example it doth not onely make a man pray and be zealous but it turnes his worldly froward heart into an heavenly meek Lastly know it by this A true Christian moves toward God with a most kindly and inward instinct of spirit as the smoke moves upward and the stone downeward an hypocrite moves by a forced motive of passion feare or the like violence life alway hath a naturalnesse of moving as the ey-lid alway moves to keepe out dust so grace hath her instinct The Law of God is written in his heart with the penne of a Diamond therefore as onely nature teacheth Bees to flie home from a farre so Grace sends the soule to God in her revolts armes it against enemies succours it in troubles inclines it to good But not so in the other whence comes that deadnesse variablenesse dulnesse wearines and other disorder of spirit in all unregenerate ones Beloved these differences are weighty lin not till you can truly trie your selves by them that not Selfe but Sanctification is that true principle which workes in you Do not as common folke in a crowd who waite for the King they think each Officer and Courtier is the King but hee that knowes the King by face will not be decieved by his followers I deny not but all these particulars are good for followers so the King be chiefe All the peeces of silver are good which make up the summe but yet come short of good pay Christ is the life of the soule the treasury of it the strength of it The Angells could not foil Satan save by the strength of the Lamb. Leane your selves roll your selves upon him as the Spouse in the Cant. upon her beloved and so you shall not be gulled in your obedience by any false principle of Selfe And so much bee said touching this last Branch of this maine and principall doctrine of selfe one of the chiefe points intended in this my booke The Lord give a blessing to it for his names sake Vse 5 The fifth and last use is Exhortation and that in two respects First to all such as endeavour to bee converted to God Exhortation to two sorts Thelatter to such as are converted already The former of these I chiefely aime at in the doctrine though the latter be a necessary consequent upon the point of great importance 1. To such as are yet to be converted First then for the former of these and that standing of these two Branches One is that fithence this Selfe threatens the losse of so many mens endeavours for grace therefore let all who would save this losse and hold that which they have gotten adde this one duty to deny themselves and forfeit this Selfe which else will make them to forfeit heaven empty thy soule of it and turne it up side downe as one would doe a dish which he would make cleane within and without If any will be my Disciple saith our Lord Jesus let him cast the hardest before hand Matth. 16.25 Deniall of Selfe urged and not the easiest let him deny himsefe That which our Saviour there spake of one kinde of Selfe wealth and welfare health and life that in another kinde I say of this Selfe privy and inward deny and abandon it if thou meane to be Christs Disciple Let the obtaining of the Lord Jesus to forgivenesse of life make thee willing to part with and sell all which might hinder the bargaine Men sell bargaines for great summes of mony the Lord sells for no mony or price Silver answers all things in common markets but here it availes nothing emptinesse of Selfe is that onely condition which the Lord lookes after It is with this commodity as with the jewellers purchase of a pearle It is worth all he hath though he should set all to saile which he could rappe and rend his lands leases his monies moveables to the very cloathes off his backe all too little to make a summe of sufficient price Now then marke As it fares in the one with the jeweller so it fares in the other with the soule A foole that is but a common Goldsmith and wants deep skill when hee meets with such a choice pearle as cannot be bought without selling himselfe out of all shop and plate and bables shrugs at it Oh! saith he though it is like the pearle is somewhat worth yet for me to put my self out of stocke and custome and to sell all my ware wherewith I was wont to make such a faire shew to my chapmen for a little thing which I may put in a box and carry about me without feeling it not knowing what I shall make of it or how to put it off to my minde what a foole were I to doe it But when he hath refused the offer then comes it to a wise Merchant of jewells one that hath skill indeed in such a pearle what doth he Considers it apart duly weighes with himselfe what it is worth even Lordships and Manors and a whole Towne of land and wealth it is but the denying of his present humor and the conveniences of a present dwelling fine roomes and a pretty seat and contents and perhaps some old gold and jewels which his Ancestors left him for a remembrance The question is not with him what it will cost but what it is worth and what the regret of the forsaken offer will be money must bee had and paid presently the owner hath need of it and will not forgoe such a thing upon trust What followes upon this sad demurre Surely rather then hee will reject the offer he will sell all to his shirt but he will have it Here offers it selfe a fine Summer house with Orchards and Gardens there a delicate lot of ground Medow or Pasture and bids him sell not me His brave walkes and ground next his dwelling step forth saying Sell not us sell thy out-lying peeces such as are no eye-sore for thee to part with but part not with that which as soone as thou steppest out of thy doore thou goest into What a narrowing and straitning of thy self were that Then perhaps it comes to his minde Oh! if I sell off my livelihood the world will count me a bankrupt all will know what I sell but no body knowes what I have bought And perhaps some long kept Jewell will tempt him and say How canst thou part with me which thou so oft joyest thy selfe in So that here be le ts on every side and Selfe steppes in to marre all But the skill of the Merchant over-powers all hee tickles himselfe with the thoughts of this Pearle the lesse it is known the more it is worth and the greater is
speake one word unto them to praise the one and disgrace the other but presently their spirits rise with indignation and conceive so much the more content in the new by how much they hear the old commended Oh! they will make histories of their beloved which their heart is set upon there is elbow-roome and liberty no enemy to hurt no feare of prisons sutes pursutes at Law wrongs or discouragements no difficulties to conflict withall in comparison of the good things which they looke for The strength of the object carries them captives pulles downe all objections and subdues them under the authority of their owne desires and the excellent things there to be had As for Sea-faring by the eight or nine weeks together in danger ill diet attendance lodging and rest want of wife children old kindred and acquaintance pleasures pastimes tush all these shall make for their good and make their new English shore the more welcome to them they hope God will weane them hereby from all the superfluous liberties sensualities and carnall affections and as for the defects of the soile or of mony or other contents they will waite seeing that nothing can bee perfect at once and when they are come thither they will not returne to the Old England which they forsoke upon any tearmes which can be offered them Oh! brethren let me speake to you without offence shall a poore conjecturall fading and earthly object so possesse the soules of men that it sets them in an extasie and shall not the promise of God wash and be cleane be reconciled to God prevaile much more to ravish us and set us beyond all Selfe and selfe-love Yes surely when Christ shall thrust Selfe out of place and become Selfe and all within us and doe that and infinitely more then that for us really which Selfe promiseth us deceitfully But here a question may be asked Object What are the workes of the Spirit of grace And what meanes are there to compasse them I answer Answ 1 These that follow which I mention shortly and so finish this first generall Exhortation And least any should aske me what I meane by the Spirit of grace I answer the same which Zack Chap. 10.12 meanes to wit the Spirit and effectuall power of the Lord Jesus his satisfaction and intercession whereby the Ministery of the Gospel is inabled to perswade the hearts of the elect to beleeve and imbrace the promise of forgivenesse and life What this Spirit of Grace is This Spirit is contrary to that spirit of Selfe which resisteth grace the one from heaven pure savory and divine the other from earth carnall sensuall and divellish The first marke of the Spirit of grace is that it is against Self and that in sundry respects Markes of it 2. First Grace strives to inlarge if self to the uttermost of her graciousnesse Selfe strives to strengthen her selfe by the plentiousnesse of Grace waxes wanton through Grace so content to enlarge Grace that therewith shee will enhaunse her selfe and will get up by the stirrop of Grace into the seate of Christ aâd make her selfe checkmate with him as an ill Steward or Bayliffe to a great Lord will seeme to doe him great service and looke to his grounds and cattell but so as himselfe may have a stocke of cattell going upon the same grounds so that he seeks his owne and his Masters advantage both under one he cannot beteame to promote his Masters with the losse of his owne But the true sight of Grace throwes Selfe out of her owne possession and ends The fulnesse of Grace empties the soule to the bottome Aske thy selfe then hath the view of this Grace and of the truth as it is in Jesus emptied thee of all thy gifts duties and religious performances Then it is a true Spirit and destroies Selfe There is no true godly Spirit but it is the more humble lowly and vile in its owne eies by Grace Selfe gathers false courage to her selfe by the Grace which is offered growes conceited confident and full of her selfe she thinks she cannot want enough of it whereas all runnes over and leaves her barren The spirit of Grace so shewes the fulnesse of Grace that it exhaustes her owne fulnesse wholly as those sterven Egyptians beholding Iosephs store of corne were more abased for their beggery and the Queene of Sheba beholding the depth of Salmons wisedome became a foole all her owne spirit of questioning and cavilling sunke downe If thy spirit crouch and creepe to Grace and be quite battered in her selfe it is a good signe As the Spirit of grace arises from glory to glory so selfe falls from shame to shame Jer. 14.8 to set up Grace what shall I say to thee Oh thou Saviour of all flesh surely nothing be confounded and say who is a God like to our God! It is nothing but the spirit of presumption which prides and pearks up it selfe Mica ult but the Spirit of grace quailes the heart and causes it to fall low as Naaman after did even to snatch and catch at Grace as one sterven for want of it As Peter Luke 4. beholding Christs glory cried out depart from me a sinfull man There is a legall whining basenesse and unworthinesse aiming at this that she might be worthier But there is an holy sense of unworthinesse when the savor of Christs fulnesse drinks up the Spirit and leaves it empty As when a proud boy heares a good scholar talke his conceit of himselfe turnes to abasement Oh how his combe is cut what a fool and an idot he is in his own eies If the Grace ye seek doth humble ye and not puffe ye up it is as it should be I professe brethren it would make one tremble to thinke how little of this Spirit is stirring in the world I see but few poore ones among us by this plenty of the Gospel take heed the Lord let us not bloud of this pleurisie The truth is we doe but fat people by this pasture wee bring no leannesse into their soules As if Christ served for nothing save to make men their owne Saviours in part and give over his owne honour it would doe ones heart good to behold some few poore soules how humble their knowledge of Christ makes them they stand as an empty bucket by the well side but it would cut ones heart to see how many bold bog saucy ones there are instead of a few empty ones Oh! pull pull downe your peacocks feathers If Christ be a fountaine be you a channell dried up If he be a Magazine be you bare walls If he be so rich a dole come you to it as orphans bee fatherlesse and motherlesse Hos 13.3.4 that you may find mercy rest not in thy law humiliation to lose some of thy jollity onely but let fulnesse of grace cast out selfe and all to the bottome Every one cries out alas What have I to be proud of Note
doubtfull hearts and the Lord will not bee wanting to give you now and then such handsells of mercy as are meete to stay you and to assure you of better measures afterward But say the truth is there not within you a secret loathnesse to give up your owne bottome hopes and hold to the meere freedome of eternall mercy Or have you not kept a false measure within you that is to mixe your selves with mercy being loath to deny your selves your feelings zeale labours and devotions Have you cast these out and come under the power and authority of the Word I feare there is such a pad in the straw If there be not it is some sin against conscience which hath wasted you which must be abhorred but if it be as I have said alas poor soules then wonder not that God hath crossed you for it is for good even to fasten you to himselfe and above all meanes to acquaint you with his owne power who in the midst of these distempers of yours can forgive you can imbrace you with mercy and finde in his heart to love you even then when perhaps you could bite your tongues because you are so bad and this if you can beleeve it will carry meate in the mouth when all your own mixtures must vanish Try your selves by this marke whether the Spirit of Grace have so wildred you in the best and most pleasing waies of your own Esay 26. till he have driven you into your chambers to hide your selves there under the secret of the Almighty under that free infinite full covert of the promise till the evill be overpast Tell me brethren when you can feed and revive your spirits at this feast and warme your selves at this fire is it not high holy-day with you Finde you not a difference betweene this and your owne sparkes Bee content then resigne up your soules to this worke and say the Lord hath done you no wrong to weane you from your owne breasts that you might suck at his promises Seventhly and lastly the Spirit of Grace opposeth Selfe in all her errors and subtilties For the former Selfe is a great blinder of the eyes and causes the soule to sleep in a whole skin she doth so baffle her selfe with her owne shewes and forwardnesse that shee doubts not but her estate is good She saith with Iehu 2 Kings 9. Come and see the zeale which I have for the Lord of Hosts But the Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of discerning between errour and truth it seperates between the pretious and the vile gives clearnesse to the eyes of the simple Psal 19. causing them to judge according to the grounds of the word which cannot deceive to distrust her owne conjecturall and slight bottomes Truth is able to approve both her selfe and her contrary whereas error can comprehend neither truth nor her owne vanity And secondly she discovers those subtilties of Selfe It were endlesse to mention them by a few judge of the rest Sometime she is so slye that when her affections and duties forsake her she can recover her selfe by her whinings complaints and mutterings against her selfe as if she mourned because she attaines no better fruit of her labours Sometimes she will pretend that she desires grace really and is willing to be searched and that shee knowes not that evill which she would not gladly be rid of that she might attaine it But yet she deceives herselfe with dead wishes and will not ensue those meanes closely which tend thereto nor profit by the experience of her owne basenesse but her experience leaves her dead in the nest as it found her and she will not endure the triall nor set one foot forward to remove the stumbling-blocke of her iniquity from before her Ezek. 14. and her Idols from between her brest Therein she is as she was Againe a third subtilty is that she will spare her owne lazy skin and cut her selfe off from those more convincing ordinances and more pertinent and seasonable meanes for her owne good by putting herselfe upon such as are lawfull and good in their kinde as to avoid close attendance to reading of the word by singing of a Psalme also prayer by reading a Chapter instead of secret and private prayer she will chuse to pray with others or in family or upon a booke instead of extraordinary duties shee will content herselfe with her ordinary houres and all to shew that shee is glad to put off the Lord and save herselfe harmelesse with as small a pittance and as poore measures of spirit and courage as may be And commonly when Selfe pitches upon her course this is her property she is loose with God in the best meanes Againe she will so contrive her matters that for the shifting of some close duty of worship as meditation searching her corruptions repenting after falls or renewing covenant she will alway finde some occurrent or other duty of calling conversing with others needlesly or by some worke of mercy and duty of the second Table or any other fained pretence to rid herselfe of that which would stick to her spirit and discover her loose grounds Sometime which I would have marked when she is so hunted that she cannot shelter herselfe and is pressed to leave all for a promise she will turne presumptuous and professe that she hath cast herselfe upon that also and thereby hath put an end to all her former distempers purposing to cast about and fling out no more but settle herselfe upon the truth of God But alas this her fained cleaving to the word is nothing else save a dead relyance perhaps shee quashes her former feares and doubts But how Surely by a lazy and slothfull pretence of beleeving that she might be free from any callings upon reproofes or paines taking and delude her selfe with ease for why Come to the triall of her confidence alas it is without savor peace contentation or joy of heart saplesse barren and ventrous dissembling a selfe-deniall and calmnesse of heart but indeed a lethargy of the spirit willing to deceive herselfe No true desire to honour God in the fruit of a sound course or to purge out old distempers can appeare I say all the subtill and sly tricks of selfe-delusion the Spirit of Grace pierceth into and purgeth the soule of for looke what I have said of a few might be said of all the rest Although I deny not but many a poor soule hath some secret shreds of Selfe lying hid and unknowne yet I say the nature of the Spirit is to discover them if the soule be not wanting thereto And this be said touching the former generall head of the Spirits opposing Selfe Second generall How the Spirit of grace that it serves wholly for Grace In three things 1. In discovering the mystery of it Now for the second generall a second marke of the Spirit of Grace is That it serves wholly for Grace And that both in the
the whole Army of corrupt Arguments which both within and without beset the soule against the naked truth of the promise before ever he set them at liberty And the truth is onely the worke of regeneration is able both to drein away this spring and floud of contradiction and to dry up her streames that they may not so abundantly flow out to beare downe all the force of truth in us or perswade us to conversion And the same spirit it must be which must turne our streame to run another way and take off this rolling doore of our corruption from the old hinges to open and move a contrary way Onely Grace must consume all our base inventions which man hath found out against God as Eccles 7.29 Civils against Religion sundry of theâ named That this Sect of Religion is everywhere evill spoken of If once a Christian ever a slave a beggar a foole These Preachers tell us many tales of a tub against sinne and of the judgements of God but the best is wee see not thunder and lightning to follow upon every word they speake If all were so cursed whom they declaim against they would looke as blacke as foot there would bee no living among men but thankes be to God we see all things still continue as they were and men are as white in the face as they were wont buy and sell goe to markets and faires to Ale-houses and merry meetings their pleasures and good fellowships as free and fast as ever Therefore we see they would but rob us of our liberties and make us such fools as themselves which God forbid it were pitty that for their pleasures the world should be so turned Iopsie-turvie Others come in and backe themselves with this That your best Preachers are no better then they should be and in corners they are as other men Some thinke if religion once beare sway then their trades must be forsaken they must sell all and give it to good ââlke and Preachers not unlike to the Popish Jesuites who in their Sermons tell the people that English Protestants have long tailes and hornes in their foreheads and looke as grizely as Ghosts and some grinne like Dogges and the like Againe others cavill say These Christians are so sad and melancholick that I am afraid I should die of no other disease save of very thought and care Others come neerer and consider God would have their lusts and lewd qualities from them which are necessary evils to them they cannot part with them Religion is better to make shew of for mens ease as Machiavil said then to make us sound at heart and so cost us much paine Others cavill and say The best cannot tell whether they shall be saved and they can hope as well as others and so hope well and have well Others thinke it impossible to change their natures and to be converted They have assayed often but they finde little come of it and they love no worke which is never at an end nor then neither They love that religion which a man can tell what to make of and come to a point but as for that which is never content but first men must forgoe their lusts then their liberties then themselves beleeve repent and bee broken-hearted this is precise and curious not for their tooth Others say If yee heare the Preacher yee will lose your wits and drowne or fore-doe your selves Others yet come closer and cavill thus Wee see the more we are terrified for sinne the further we are from God God hath not appointed all to bee saved all cannot mourne or beleeve it is the gift of few we know not whom God hath chosen men may fall away after they have beleeved and if some say true the justified may revolt and be damned and they can be no worse though they never begin Many goe so farre as few can match them and yet for one cause or other they must prove hypocrites and lose their labour therefore they will save theirs altogether they had as good sit for nought as toyle for nought Others say their corruptions doe so weary them that they shall never get through them and others are afraid that they shall never persevere but at one time or other fall foully and dishonour their Religion therefore dare not give the on-set To conclude others have taken offence at the rigour of the Law and so run out to seek old liberties alledging that bondage to be most irksome And others who proceed further yet say This and such like doctrines of Selfe doe discourage them they feare that a man cannot be rid of it and they see it is hard even for the best to discerne the Spirit of God from a mans owne Endlesse it were to reckon up all cavils onely the Lord must change the heart ere it be rid of these her inventions To dispute for God is a great work of grace And much more must the Lord turne the streame a contrary way ere the soule wax resolute against all such objections and bee turned to dispute for God to hold close to the promise and to devise as many as strong and as witty reasons for her owns salvation as before shee did against it Some instances of disputing for God To argue thus is not common The Lord hath his number and will ever have and they are such as leaving his secrets cleave to his revealed will Such as are loaden with their corruptions mourne after ease not for ease onely of their feare and guilt but to take the yoke of Christ upon them in stead thereof Such if any may claime the promise And such an one through mercy I am Few indeed shall be saved but then as few lament after God till they finde him and many glorious lights fall away but then their light was in themselves they were not humble True it is the elect are knowne to God but yet such as will first beleeve shall in time know themselves to bee elect And why should I thinke my inducements to beleeve to bee so weake or few Nay rather why should not I if I be lead by the Spirit of Grace turne disswasives into perswasives and sway all objections to the naked promise Surely Caleb did so And Gods reasons are many and strong Num. 14.5.6 Mee thinkes it is a strong motive that the Lord will leave none but such as forsake him first His meaning seemes very cordiall unto me when he bids a sinner be reconciled For why There is bottomelesse patience in his heart to forbeare smiting hee hath mercy cut off his owne plea he hath neglected no meanes to satisfie his owne justice hee that would not refuse to forgoe his onely sonne will not lose his cost surely he meanes well to a poore wretch He hath received a ransome declares himselfe to be appeased wishes us to be so threatens us if wee refuse His Spirit is annexed to his offer he allureth draweth encourageth and yet
best grounded yet alas have many feares are very much unsettled and have never done in the proving of them to be sound Answ I answer They who stagger about their grounds may be to seeke and so remaine doubtfull But yet by their studious enquiry and serious deliberating at last they come to determine whereas the prophane carelesse and Atheisticall never are troubled at all and therefore remaine in their wofull condition Psal 17. And whereas some of them as Iob and the Psalmist speaks seeme to die in peace yet that peace is accursed for though they force to themselves a wilfull peace there is none to them they goe downe to the pit with such peace as a drunken prisoner goes to execution Esay 57. ult But this doth not infringe the doctrine because although some live and dye lawlesse and senslesse yet the case of the greater sort is otherwise They rush without due consideration upon their maters and accordingly meet with sorrow and repentance onely the godly who fix their eies upon Gods stable bottomes provide best for themselves hee that walketh soundly walketh safely and although through unbeleefe Esay 26.2 weaknesse or temptation they are often appalled it is to teach them to cleave better to their grounds But ordinarily they walke by rule and finde peace when trouble befalls them it comes not by their closing with but by warping from their rule and when they recover their grounds they recover their peace So much for answer to this objection Now the uses follow First Instruction to teach us the wonderfull Vse 1 wisdome of the art of Godlinesse Instruction Râligion is grounded upon most solid foundations It is grounded upon most weighty and materiall bottomes No man would suppose the Lord to be so infinitely wise as he is till he set himselfe seriously to try his conclusions Few men thinke there is any great matter in living by faith in shunning appearences of evill in cleaving to the company of the good in pitching the soule upon a truth of a promise threat or command But by that time they feele the sad fruit of their errors then they grow to looke backe and behold a most hidden excellencie in Gods principles when their peace is lost and themselves cast upon hideous sorrowes then they beginne to applaude them that goe to worke by knowledge and discerning of things that differ as Scholars never grow in love with an Artists principles till they have examined them and finde out their exactnesse then they behold the misery of an inartificiall and ungrounded course of study So is it here Art hath no enemies save idiots no more hath Religion Secondly it teaches us It is a singular favour of God to any when they are bottomed soundly how great a favour of God it is to any beginner Branch 2 in Christianity when as the Lord prevents them with wisdome in grounding themselves throughly both in point of faith and conversation Who can expresse the depth and height of that mercy which hath prevented so much sorrow Let it but appeare in this one principle That a poore soule though it have but a poore measure of grace yet is taught of God to deny herselfe and to captivate herselfe to the truth of the word not daring to goe on the right hand or left to the contrary Why This is in a sort the comprehension of all other graces the Lord herein hath laid a ground of many prevented a world of misery at once Look back into thy life past and aske who hath thus led me as a Shepherd leads his sheepe through a wildernesse Oh! Esay 63.14 the helpe of some one principle is as much as a mans soule is worth What a mercy then is it to be led on by knowledge in all our course To shunne all the snares of death Oh! be thankefull and say It is not my carnall wit Lord it is thy lore and word which hath made me wise to frame my course so that I doe now esteeme welfare not to stand in wealth or favour of men but in the losse of all these yea although persecution and the crosse should betide me for thy truth and name yet so long as conscience and peace abide and I am privy to it that thou hast lost no honour by me I count my state happy Looke upon the snares which the proud ambitious covetous flatterers and servers of the time pull upon themselves and then judge whether it be not a favour to be kept by a principle of truth from such sorrow and repentance The world boasts of her many tricks and policies but thy one is worth them all and shall preserve thee when they with all their inventions shall bee intercepted Vse 2 Secondly let it be use of Admonition to all that desire to see good dayes and a quiet life Admonition Be well grounded upon the unchangeable principles of truth 1 King 13. to ground themselves carefully upon the principles of God and to eschew all false waies and inventions Be earnest with God to remove far from thee all waies of error and to turn thee out of all crosse paths of deceit Remember still one error in the ground produces infinite many dangers in the sequell Rehoboam had better have given halfe his Kingdome then to have split himselfe so irrecoverably upon the rocke of his ill counsellers What sorrow did it worke him all his dayes Stript him of three parts of his Subjects at once What a misery did one error create to Saul to wit his owne carnall wisdome 1 Sam. 13. 15. rejecting Samuels charge What one quiet day had hee thirty yeares after in all his whole life but perpetuall vexation till he was faine to consult with a witch and to fall upon his owne sword Nay consider what Gods owne deare servants have purchased to themselves by one error and tricke put upon them by Satan As Davids lust what a world of sorrow did it procure So let it warne us to abhorre the incurring of such a premunire with God by embracing any principle of error or vanity as being once bred in the bone will never out of the flesh Beware we either of instilling or of drinking in any base error into any or from any of speciall note for parts learning or authority Let such as are men of place whose example if bad would like poyson pierce into the bowells of silly ignorant ones I say let such looke to themselves lest after in hell they cry out of them and say woe bee to such examples had not their authority beene stronger with me to draw me to formality to ambition to pleasures and lusts then the word to disswade I had never come here Beware of such offences Woe be to the world because of offences Matth. 18.7 both in laying blocks and stumbling at blocks It is just with God that one should destroy the other because neither cared for the truth nor to be principled upon
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
insomuch that that the people thought it had beene better if the onset had never beene made Now when they saw this the Elders come to Moses saying God be judge betweene us and you q.d. we pray God there be plaine dealing among you for you have made us stinke in the sight of Pharaoh all goes worse and worse through your mediation Exod. 5.20.21 who would have liked this contrariety Yet the Lord who could exalt himselfe above all these lets and over Pharaoh himselfe wrought to his people a deliverance even from hence and that which this tyrant would not permit willingly to be done lo the Lord by forcible breaking in upon him doth compell him to and in the way of saving Israel from him overthrowes himselfe Joh. 9.5.35.36 See Joh. 9. When the Lord Jesus had once prevented that poore blinde creature with love and the handsell of his cure presently in stead of good successe all falls out very foule for why The Pharisees to stoppe the glory of it swarme like hornets about this poore man disquieting him with questions and snaring him with their malice till at last for his loyall Apology for Christ they had cast him out by excommunication This might seeme an hard gobbet for so weake a stomacke to digest and rather a meane quite to discourage him But could all their railing upon him and Christ alienation of him from Christ estrangednesse of parents doe it No as poore as that seed was in him yet lively it was and held out forcibly against all enemies valiantly defending Christs honour and innocency till when the time came that the Lord Jesus saw good to strike up the bargaine a few words served the turne and in the meane while no discouragements could beat him off all wrought him closer and faster to Christ by that secret and hidden attendance of the Spirit upon the poore entrance which had beene begunne Rom. 8. All shall tend from the first to the last to their good whom God loveth not onely in sanctification but in vocation also both being subordinate to election though the former under a stronger promise Act. 9.1.6.7.8 c. Who also thirdly could have thought that Paul had beene neare his conversion when he breathed out threats against the Saints like a Lion at his nostrills Yet that could not keepe off Gods preventing mercy from casting him downe and taming him and being so cast downe and a breach made let the Lord slacken his worke Did he not assist it strongly When this poore prisoner instead of pursuant lay blinde and desolate yea when all were affraid to meddle with him as thinking the Lion to be couchant for a skill that he might be rampant after how doth the Lord breake through all difficulties and sends Ananas to open the eies both of his body and soule and make him a sound man And thus here this poore Naaman in shew further from cure then at first how doth the Lord strangely turne the winde out of the East of a distemper into the South of a calme Causing here poore servants to become prevalent with their Lord to yeeld to that which he had renounced Surely so it is the Lord can on the suddaine cause deliverance to appear as recovery out of a long quartaine ague even when all hope is past when doome is given of shipwracke Act. 27. God shall make Paul to stand up with a word of hope to poore wretches he can hasten salvation with wings when it seemes a farre off when misery is at the deepest then comes up the seed of light which was sowne for the righteous As when there is no strength to bring forth the Lord unlooked for enlarges birth for the fruit that is to come to the birth and as the tender nurse overcomes the poore froward child with love and mildnesse till she have brought it out of it humors so here Esay 38. the doctrine then stands firme upon her bottome If any here aske Quest how and which way the Lord goes to work in such a businesse I answer Answ Assistance of grace wherein it stands by accommodating himselfe in speciall to the condition of such a soule as doth sticke thus in the birth and staggers between Gods preventing and perfiting grace I say his assistance is alway according to the soules difficulty Here in this case of Naaman we may clearly see how he steppes in by the servants furnishing them with more understanding of his case and inabling them to ponder the same with the sad effects of it more then Naaman himselfe and hereby kindling in them a sparkle of divine counsell which enabled them to speake wisely feelingly pertinently and in due season according to his condition with speciall blessing succeeding the same and carrying it home to their Masters spirit how easily had the thing fallen out otherwise in every of these had not God assisted him By these instruments the Lord first stopped the precipitate minde of Naaman from so suddaine a departure weakened his strong conceit overthrew his carnall cavill abated his pride cooled his rage enlarged the promise the easinesse the probablenesse yea the divinenesse and certainty thereof till having beaten downe his high thoughts he is made a low valley and prepared for cure and conversion So in like manner doth the Lord worke in any soule which needs his seconding assistance towards the enjoying of salvation he will not suffer them to want any helpe which may further them For example Instances Doth the Lord see their discouragements to come from others He will arme them with strong courage of resistance and resolution as Joh. 9. Are they miscarried with strong error agâinst the way of the promise The Lord will send them counsell from heaven to rectifie and settle them Are they held under great infirmity and crasinesse of spirit not daring to beleeve The Lord will not breake the reed that is already brused nor quench the smoking flax Are they prejudicate against the Minister God will bring forth his light as here he did Elisha's and imbreed an holy opinion of him Doe friends oppose and become enemies God will turne them to friends and furtherers againe Are they froward and distempered in spirit so that they are as troubled waters and cannot see light of truth or make so much haste that they cannot waite The Lord will sweeten and moderate their spirits with meekenesse and forbearance Are their corruptions strong The Lord will beate them downe before them Briefly be their lack and ayle whatsoever it can be God will supply it he will enlighten sustaine perswade enlarge prepare them for his worke both by casting out that which is contrary and by encouraging that which is weakly begunne till the worke be finished If he meane that the businesse shall be depending longer then the lets shall be smaller and more tolerable if the objections and oppositions be more forcible hee will shorten the season Note and hasten his worke
His assistance shall be sufficient till judgement breake forth into victory Onely here may be a question why the Lord suffers such stops ignorances weaknesses feares and discouragements to abide in his poore servants so long Quest and yet lets them alone when he might remove them sooner Answ God hath speciall reason to delay his worke I answer The time is not yet come he will doe it after he hath well disciplined and yoked them to his owne way humbled them in the particular insight into their owne corruption basenesse and insufficiency of themselves and caused his power all that while to appeare to them which at the first could not so have appeared if he had prevented all such trouble at once But there is a time present for Gods sufficient grace to stay them from revolts and extremities and there is a time to come for Gods perfiting grace to set them free then shall they looke backe and see reason in all this way of God See Joh. 13.9.10 When Peter was averse to Christ in the offer of washing our Saviour tells him What I doe now thou knowest not but hereafter thou shalt 2 Cor. 12. A secret hand shall uphold thee the whilest but after shall discover the reason of all Now I come to some use briefly Vse 1 This first instructs Gods deare servants about the preciousnesse of their priviledges Instruction and that in two respects First it teacheth them what Branch 1 oddes there is betweene such as the Lord hath honoured with the grace of vocation above others Assisting grace of God the roote of manifold priviledges to a beleever Doth the Lord thus apply himselfe to such as are out of his covenant Doth he so prevent them at first or doth hee after so follow them up and downe as the nurses eie attends the feeble Infant for feare of shrewd turnes When their rebellious spirits cavill winde out of his armes and roll backe to their dungeon doth he clapse them more strongly Doth he take it to concerne him to doe so for his honour No surely and yet as the case stands with them he knowes they must sinke except he pitty them But he is free and bound to none save to whom he bindes himselfe therefore he speakes to the one and to the other very differently To his owne that golden promise belongs The Lord will dry up Euphrates to make a way for his scattered ones some thinke it concernes the returne of the Jewes miraculously as once through the red sea Esay 28. But to the other that fearefull speech There shall be a line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little Why That they may turn back spue fall and rise no more Blessings he meanes shall turne curses to enemies to condemne them But crosses and offences shall turne releases and eases to the other Oh! fearefull is the state then of the one happy of the other Well might it be said Luke 4. of Naaman There were many lepers in the dayes of Elisha but onely Naaman to whom he was so sent As Lysias told Paul he was faine to buy the liberty of a Citizen of Rome with a great summe which Paul was borne too for nothing Tell it thy soule in secret how few have I seene God compassionate and shew a tender heart unto when they have fought against mercy How hath he suffered them to roll to their dunghill Rev. ult His eie hath not pittied them but he hath said He that formed them will shew them no mercy let the wilfull be more wilfull and the caviller fulfill his measure let the carnall have is owne way stumble and fall and rise no more at the stumbling blocks of his owne iniquity Ezek. 14. If he will needs depart let him goe Joh. 6. Did our Saviour pull those time-servers which followed him for the loaves backe againe when they revolted and pickt a quarrell with him No surely he let them go But to his Disciples he said Will ye also go He was loath to part with them Oh! what should more prevaile to affect the hearts of al Gods people who have met with assisting grace then this experience Hath hee dealt so with all sorts as with you As Moses pressed the children of those Israelites that survived their fathers Did ever God so speake to man Deut. 4.33 as he hath to you and yet lived So say I Doth God no more for you then for all sorts Then account him but a God in common But hath hee even when you have beene at last cast suddenly caused light to appeare turned the low wheele uppermost brought light out of darkenesse and spread a table in a dry barren land This he hath not done for all If you have found the winde thus suddenly to turne Oh acknowledge it What if it had not beene so If God had not beene so on your side Surely the floods had prevailed and drowned you If he have made those waters walls to you Psal 123.5 which have beene gulfes to others is it no more then he ought you Or did you wade out of your owne strength Did your owne hand sustaine you Will yee play the Pelagians now in this kinde and ascribe this escape to the lot of your better judgement honesty labour and prevention then others Is there roome for such scurfe here Or may free will presume to bee named the same day with the assisting grace of God Those innumerable difficulties and dangers of shipwracke which thou hast avoided could thy owne wisdome and will shunne them No let thy soule breake out into admiration at this freedome of mercy now as at first and confesse Not to me Lord but to thy selfe give the glory Thou hast done it for thy name and to get thee glory else it had beene undone for ever they and I were digged out of one rocke Esay 63.3 and their prerogative was as great as mine Who am I that thou shouldest reveale thy selfe to me and not to the world That which put the difference was the grace that separated us being all of one rocke of one masse And secondly Assisting grace following prevention is a bottome of sound experience to a poore soule See Rom. 5.10 it should instruct Gods owne servants to gather experience Branch 2 from hence for all their life Is there such a golden firme chaine betweene one part of vocation and another Is assisting grace so tied to preventing and perfecting grace to both that nothing can sever them How much more then is sanctifying grace tyed to the grace of calling Tell me then poore soule hath the Lord done so great a favour as to make thee one of his own inspite of Selfe Satan and the world to redeeme reconcile and justifie thee to count thee his beloved his secret one Could nothing keepe thee from vocation and faith What then shall stoppe thee from heaven and life from perseverance and perfecting thy holinesse in the feare
unkindly affronts shall end well when thou art weary of hearing God shall revive thy spirit so that thou shalt heare a voice behinde thee saying heare still thou shalt not be able for thy heart to give over the ordinances thy sullen heart shall not be permitted to prevaile in thee against the promise do what thou canst some light or other shall appear to encourage thee to cast out thy prejudice cavills frowardnes when others are left to themselves to sinke in their owne peevish rebellions thou shalt finde pitty thy tender nurse shall use all his wisdome not against thee but for thee and shall not bee provoked to give thee over as thou dost him thou shalt see it and blesse those armes that comprehended thee when thou couldest not containe thy selfe those feet that followed thee those hands that laid hold on thee saying returne O Shulamite returne whither wilt thou goe Out of blessing into the warme Sunne What boot will that bee to thee What an occasion of endlesse repentance and regret will it bee to thee hereafter to leave God in a tetch to forsake cleare evident sure mercies upon a toy and conceit of thine owne against the promise of him that cannot lye Oh! consider better of it lay not the bottome of remedilesse woe betimes Thou shalt wish one day of the Sonne of man hereafter and that it were with thee as it hath beene but then the guilt of thy former contempt and fullennesse shall be a thousand witnesses against thee Thus the Lord shall even revive the spirit of Naamans servants in thy spirit to pull thee backe from the pit and prepare thee for mercy Onely beware thou yeeld not to thy temptations but waite upon the word A caution hereupon Suffer not this grace of God in thee to be slighted as it is by hypocrites or to be damped and eclipsed by wantonnesse wordlinesse and base lusts as it is by prophane wretches for these will rankle in thee and fret into thy bowels a as canker and then feare not but other annoyances shall cease in due time and turne to a sweet calme in thee when suddenly the Lord Jesus awaking out of his sleepe shall rebuke them as he did the storme and waves which threatned the ship wherein he lay for it is as possible that those should have overwhelmed him and his Disciples as these shall ovewhelme thee perhaps thou conflictest with boylings of corruptions and rebellings against the Law of faith and righteousnesse of the Lord Jesus but even these shall humble thee turn to great casting of Self out of thee perhaps thou art cast upon same unwelcome crosses losses sicknesse feare of death before thy peace be made be content the Lord doth not try thee in vaine they are to make sure worke of thy heart and to bring thee to a duer sight of thy selfe they are not to destroy thee although thou maiest thinke them sent to discourage thee God shall put more courage then so into thee hee hath the power of death in his hand and it shall not seize upon thee till the worke of God in thee be past danger The bed of thy sorrow and the racke of thy conscience and the clattering of thy bones and thy loathing of dainty meates and drawing neare to the grave shall not hurt thee for all shall end well Job 33. and turne thee from the pit and when thou art convinced thereof thy loathnesse shall be turned to readinesse as Peters was Joh. 13.9 and thou shalt say Doe what thou wilt Lord if for good I am ready to stoope perhaps thy owne parents wife in bosome best friends and companions turne enemies looke estrangedly lye at thee with threats taunts scornes for thy casting them off and looking another way But be quiet the Lord shall teach thy fingers to fight and thee to thinke that the more pretious for which the Divell so blusters against thee resolve to beare what thou canst but surrender not thy hopes perhaps when the Law hath laid thee open to the sight of thine owne conscience buffeting thee with guilt and horrors exceedingly thine estate seemes worse and worse thy old liberty in a sinfull course bubbles up within thee tempting thee to shake off chaines to returne to it again but God shall teach thee to preferre his chaines to the Divells freedome In a word Satan will disquiet thee with Atheisticall thoughts against God Providence Scriptures the threats the promises as if they were all but fables so the wicked world through error counts them but in all this confusion the Lord shall not leave thee and as I said before through this sea dried up he shall bring his scattered ones rather then they shall perish All shall give place be it never so opposite rather then Gods worke shall be defeated And so much for this point of coherence may serve Another thing there is to be noted here Ground of second point Gods continuing still to buffet and humble Naaman ere I come to the substance of the words And that is that this thirteenth verse wholly aimes at a third buffeting and subduing of Naamans spirit to the obedience of Gods command Twice already you have heard how the Lord crossed him once by the idle carriage of the King who rent his cloathes when hee thought he would have healed him Another time when he waited at Elisha's doore for an answer of reall cure without delay We see these did but incense the froward spirit of Naaman and set him on carping and cavilling and not onely so but upon a will and stomacke of his owne to turne away and give over all Therefore to take downe his high lookes and that the cure which now followed might not light upon so rebellious a peece Lo the Lord tames him this third time not by sending Elisha to shame him but by setting him to schoole to his poore servants and underlings such as commonly were glad to be at his becke Doe this and he doth it goe and he goeth come and he commeth But lo now the case is altered the Lord so honours them that rather hee is under their authority they bid him come backe and he commeth they exhort him to goe to Jorden and he goeth they bid him doe this Wash seven times and he doth it yea and he is a happier man by thus obeying then ever in all his dayes by commanding We know when a Parent will abase a proud sonne he will not vouchsafe to correct him himselfe but put him to his Ostler or to his Groome to be chastened and this takes downe the pride of his sonne So here The Lord keepes Elisha within doores and sets the servants of this great stout Champion to take him to taske so ordering it that they must be conquerors of him who yet had got so many victories Now they can charme and levell his spirit more then any other and now these poore fellowes of farre lesse wit policy and insight must yet be
inspired with more of Gods meaning then himselfe must be appointed as his teacher to doe him better service in this their superiority then ever they did before And it seemes to me Opening of the ground further that in these two respects the Lord would tame his spirits by his servants the one this That now he sees them convinced of that mystery of truth which lay hidden in the Prophets message and appeared not to himselfe he thinkes it high time to follow The second this That now his stomacke is left without any abettors his high spirit is left to it selfe from the Prophet he had that he could have and so now his servants turne abettors of the Prophet against him turne strong Counsellors against his rage and carnall distempers not one now of all his retinue that sticks to him or humor him now he is in a strait in a strange place he is like to goe home uncured alone if he will needs goe for not the poorest page of his company dare carry him home a leper all offer their best service to Jorden for a cure all are for God and for the end of providence sway'd as one man to the obedience of the charge not one offers his attendance to Aram The speech is woe to him that is alone Eccles 8. but here it is contrary happy is he who is left alone miserable while he was abetted happy being forsaken For why Now there is no remedy but Jorden all cry that way now hee is in a strait now servants and all are for it what should he thinke but the finger of God is in it to perswade hee can but venture to try there he may have helpe at home there is none what then should he now do but try Oh! what a turning of the streame beginnes here to be What a venture is now made upon this so long cavilled and scorned Jorden And with the entring of these thoughts lo more and more light entreth so that at last he obeyeth Out of both these passages brethren let me note somewhat and that but briefly and I will no longer hold you from the substance of the words themselves Doctrine The grace of inferiours a great helpe to superiours Joh. 13. From the former of these two I note this that when light and understanding is wrought in the inferiour it is a great convincement to the superiour to follow As the superiours eminency sometimes is a cracke to the pride of an inferior as Christ stooping to wash his Disciples feete Hath our Lord and Master denyed himselfe so farre and shall we bee prouder towards each other Amplification of the point So the judgement and wisdome of an inferiour is a checke to the conceitednesse of a superiour Surely I see that even he whom I disdained is wiser then my selfe it is time for me to be a foole that I may be wiser Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hath he ordained praise Matth. 21.16 saith the Psalmist Paul in one place Rom. 11.13.14 tells us that he magnified his Apostleship among the Gentiles that he might breed an emulation and shame in his Country-men that they were so backeward 1 Pet. 3.5 Saint Peter also tells the women that he would have them subject to their rude and churlish Nabals that so their conversation might become convincing when God should visite them Some indeed as Saint Iude saith are so base and perverse that they rather are moved to prich and disdaine by their inferiours forwardnesse calling them hastings soone ripe soone rotten ragged colts make the better horses and calling their zeale pride boldnesse singularity Much like that foolish Prophet Balaam reproved by his Asse which spyed the Angel of God standing in his way 2 Pet. 2.16 when he could not spy him himselfe and when she dasht his foote against the wall by starting he smote her But we see he is recorded as a notorious beast more brutish then the Asse and therefore convinced by the Asse herselfe But where there is but a dram of ingenuity and humblenesse the very thing it self speaketh When a poore silly woman of the inferiour and weaker sexe shall see that in the Ministery which her husband sees not who yet goes for a man of deeper understanding what a buffeting is it When a poore servant of meane esteeme and belonging to some base office about the house shall meet with the knowledge of Christ in the Gospel which the Master of the family wants what an upbraiding and humbling it ought to be Lo such a poore wretch hath that in him which I cannot reach who yet should be the fountaine wherefrom should flow all wisdome for the replenishing of the whole houshold committed unto me Oh how it troubles me A poore child a creeple to have more in it for true gracious revealing then all the fry of jolly children how doth it convince them God is in it of a truth Alas by this the Lord casts down the high things of mans wisdome when it sees it hath no more nay not so much as the basest worme and most contemptible of a thousand The great things lofty and stately the Lord laughs to scorne by the silly and meane things And then where is the Scribe and the wise man with all his depth Sure it is meere shallownesse and folly I have to this purpose spoken before The sluggard seeing that in an Ant which he wants may be humbled Therefore in a word let it speake first to the silly and simple and tell Vse 1 them if they were as they should be Instruction Meane silly ones if godly are not contemptible as base and despised as they deeme themselves God can cloath their uncomely parts with more honour and cause them to be terrible to the proudest to convince and humble them Small creatures as the Cocke is a terrible object to the Lion it selfe nature having so curbed that mighty creature Inferiours make themselves despised because there is little in them to honour them for if there were it is not their meannesse could do it Ah yee poore underlings in this assembly here is a portion for you for ye are of the family Matth. 12. and stewards must give each one his due me thinkes I pitty you to see how painfully some of ye drudge in the kitching others in the field others at your wheeles in your shops and meane occupations with poore maintenance God knowes and lesse countenance I pitty you serving men who upon small wages creepe into your Masters houses glad of meane vayles But alas that which makes you such pezants and poore sonnes of the earth is not your outward quality your poverty your service your meane attire and sordid worke for all these are for God Looke into the Scripture and ye shall meet with poore things which yet carry their marke of honour upon them 2 King 4.1 Marke 12.43 verse 3. Philem. 3.4 That poore Prophets widow left in debt
thou mightest wonder at how or whence he should come by any savour of Religion and yet thou takest no notice of it seekest not to me to droppe any mercy into thy soule to breake and convert it Oh! what a wofull item hast thou laid up what an accusation hast thou put into Gods mouth against thee Surely if such examples provoke not to thee jealousie of imitation they shall occasion God to burne against thee with the jealousie of indignation And so much for the coherence Now for the second branch of this coherence the ground whereof I have already laid downe that which I would say of it is this viz. The second branch of the point God will never lin with his till he have tamed their rebellion That the Lord doth still thus follow Naaman with new affronts that he might conquer his will and stout heart which had taken courage to it selfe and hardened it selfe in it owne way against God I say the Lord now intends a finall battery of it by setting his servants all of them with one consent to side with God and the Prophet none with him which no doubt was a great battering and stubbornesse And it teaches us that this selfe-will of ours is as desperate and tenacious an enemy as can bee in the matters of God worse then selfe-mindednesse and strength of opinion when one selfe-will comes to strengthen selfe-conceit that it hardens it selfe against God and will try masteries which shall carry the goale strange it is how invincible a fort it proves against him and all the way both of commands and promises But marke before that the Lord turne home the soule unto himself he will by one means or other though it be by a continuall opposing of the same so breake pull down and levell this wofull rebellion of heart and will in the soule that hee will let out the water and bloud of it and shed the bowells of it to the ground that it may never arise up any more to crosse him He will bring it so to the bent of his bow that it shall say Speake Lord for thy servant heares And with him Act. 9. What Lord wilt thou have me to doe And as I have noted already in the former affront of the message so now in this I note againe The Lords Kingdome is not set up nor his throne stablished save upon the ruines of selfe-will which hath her Kingdome and Scepter through Satan set up as altar against altar contrary to this Naaman now immediately before his cure and conversion must be the third time thus encountred both by the perswasions and by the finger of God in drawing of his servants to a contrary will to their Masters that so at last his opposite heart might fall down after all this encounter wonder not at the resolution of the wayward will of man against Gods it is the very bloud spirit marrow of the soul it is the fort which holds out longest against God til the Lord batter that there is no approach of grace Will quailes and failes as soone as the Lord enclines to doe the poore soule good be it never so unpleasing seem it never so harsh impossible by head and by hand the Lord will not be overcome by corruption he will make it cry out thou hast overcome Vse And good brethren seeing I long to be in the verse it selfe and must be briefe take it thus God will never leave thee whom he loves till he have thus wonne the day of thee and when he meanes truly to cure thee and to make thee his Disciple even at the very same time he will cause the way of thine owne will to stoope to his He will blocke thee up quite and famish thee till he have made thee surrender Object Sanctification I doe not here urge brethren nor repenting before beleeving Answ But I say this That base bent streame and our corrupt will disposition and instinct for that which pleases us Note well our ease our profits our pleasures or whatsoever lies in us contrary to Gods way either of salvation or government the Lord will have cast downe in us ere ever hee betrust us with grace 2 Cor. 10.4 at least in the vouchsafing of grace hee vouchsafes that a most meeke submission of soule a renouncing of that selfe-way and selfe-will in us which perpetually lusts against his Christ and obedience Yet repentance goes not before faith the choice the propensity of the soule which is the darling of all the Lord will carry downe before him with a stronger streame of his owne and turne it backe not onely in point of resistance but in point of concurrence Cardinall Wolsey is reported to have beene a man of so hauty a spirit that his stile was wont to be Ego Rex meus As I and the King please But God will admit no such Peere as our will to quarter armes with him he will have the stone of our heart broken and taken out and an heart of flesh put in He will not have us doe according to that seemes good in our eies Deut. 12.8 and either in beleeving or obeying It is not our flourishing about with duties when we are pleased that shall serve our turn A woman pleases not her husband in all her busie welcomming and feasting of strangers but in the resigning up of all her will to his So we please not God in doing some of his will but in having our owne will subdued to his implanted in it and abhorring to establish our selves with him in the throne of Majesty He will shew us what favour he pleaseth or we could desire but still as Pharaoh said to Ioseph I will be chiefe in the Kingdome thou shalt be under in that Gen. 41.40 To conclude therefore brethren looke into this cursed will and stomacke of ours both the roote and branches how crosse and contrary it hath ever beene to Gods how it hath ever fallen upon and chosen the worse way consider the deepnesse of the purposes of it how hidden secret close they have beene weigh the dangerousnesse of them that commonly they have beene most rebellious against those waies of God if any be weightier then other which have most touched upon his prerogative as the matter of imbracing the maine promise or the parting with some precious personall beloved lust also remember how dead and rotten this will of ours hath alway been in contradiction and walking contrary to God Levit. 26. Insomuch that after some seeming convincement and vow of subjection to Gods will in such and such cases yet when old occasions and objects have offered themselves we have forgot our covenants and are as ranke and rife in our self-willednesse and stiffeneckednesse as ever and made a very custome of it I say in Gods fear remember how it hath been a dead rotten will and heart we have nourished against the Lord And therefore let these and this example here breake this staffe of
Agents Gentlemens stewards and Auditors Accomptants some Prentices in the shoppe have the trust of their Masters counting bookes revenewes receits monies and the greater the trust the more dangerous the unfaithfulnesse As he who to provide for himselfe Luke 16.6 bids a debtor to his Master of an hundred pound to set downe fifty a speedy way to undoe his Master But yet all servants have temptations enough to be unfaithfull All therefore as well one as other must be faithfull yea write fidelity upon their fringes and borders palmes and shoulders as the high Priests Miter had Holinesse to the Lord. This is the first reason the honour of their condition requires it God hath disposed so that it cannot be well otherwise The second reason Fidelity was required even of slaves such as those Reason 2 servants were to whom Paul in his Epistles directs his exhortations 1 Tim. 6.1 and elsewhere Such as knew no God no Christ meere heathens bought and sold as sheepe in the Market such as if they had beene slaine outright could have beene in no worse condition then they were in and therefore one might looke for nothing from but desperatenesse Now if these were so urged to faithfulnesse what should ours doe who are ingenuous free partakers of the same commodity If they who had no encouragements how much more we Thirdly Fidelity is the prime vertue of a servant as subjection is of Reason 3 a wife dutifulnesse in a child justice in a Magistrate bounty in the rich c. All other properties in a servant serve this one gentlenesse skilfulnesse painfulnesse discretion cheerfulnesse good carriage stinke without faithfulnesse A good servant is digged out of the rocke of faithfulnesse If then this be the Cardinall vertue how should a servant faile of it but his failing must be great The light of the body is the eye if then that be darke how great must that darkenesse be Mat. 6.22.23 If that which gives strength to all the rest be wanting how shall they subsist Fourthly which is all in all the most wise God the authour of all Reason 4 ordinances the God of order and not of confusion God stands countable to good servants hath so appointed it that servants must be faithfull It is he who hath made himself the rewarder of them and stands betweene their Masters and them for wâges If they serve Masters who will conceale the labour and fidelity of their love yet they have a better string to their bow for they serve the Lord Christ and he will requite them to the uttermost Reason 5 Lastly faithfulnesse is the staffe and spoke which strengthens and inables the wheele of serviceablenesse Fâithfulnesse is the center whence all âhâ graces of a servant are derived As Christian conversation is strengthened with speciall vertues supporting it as faith and confidence in straits patience in crosses righteousnesse in earthly dealings subjection in hearing the word so in the speciall relations of life each one hath her supporting grace among the rest faithfulnesse is that vertue which affords life and sappe to each part of a servants employment As then the spokes or staves cannot be wanting to the wheele but of necessity the wheele will split and the motion thereof will be stopped So faithfulnesse cannot be wanting to a servant but of necessity the whole round of serviceablenesse must bee interrupted which must needs inferre a marvellous detriment to the family when so maine an instrument of the good and welfare thereof through whose hands so much of the affaires thereof must passe is disabled and perverted So much for reasons Proofes Heb. 3.5 Scriptures for the proofe of it are many When the holy Ghost doth but allude to servants he alway alludes to faithfulnesse as their main vertue Moses is alway stiled the servant of the Lord and therefore he is said to be faithfull in all the house of God When the Lord Jesus brings in the Master reckning for the talents he commends his servant thus Well done good and faithfull servant thou hast beene faithfull in a little c. Ahimelec being questioned about David 1 Sam. 14.22 and the sword which he gave him answers Saul And who is so faithfull among all the servants of Saul as David T it 2.10 So Paul to Titus not purloyning but shewing all good faithfulnesse that they may adorne the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things The point is not questioned common experience giveth sufficient proofe to it and is as a thousand witnesses Quest The greatest question here will be how this gift of faithfulnesse may be purchased All men cry out of the want of it and therefore it must be a speciall principle which must infuse it Answ 1. Servants can bee well bred only in the house of Christ I answer therefore as it is in all other relations Religion must be the first shaper of the wife to be subject the child to be dutifull so it must also fashion and mould the servant to be faithfull We use to covet servants for their good breed a servant well bred and brought up under such a choice governour or Mistresse taught and trayned to obedience and diligence is much desired But indeed the Lord Jesus that great Lord of all the families of the earth who yet himselfe was a servant to his father and faithfull as a sonne in all his house and in this forme of a servant obeyed yea denyed himselfe to the death to give his father content must be the shaper of all faithfull servants Phil. 3.7 Some bastard colours a servant may get by observation by trayning by experience of the world but these colours will wash off easily with weather when either peculiar temptations of Satan passions of his owne provocations by the Master be offered A morall servant is better then a rude and unbroken one but he will last no longer then his principle lasteth he will be faithfull except it be very much for his ends to be otherwise but no longer Then he may prove a filcher a theefe a fugitive then unfaithfull to Masters businesse wife children name and honour Except there be a barre put in the way to stoppe all these as occasion may serve a servant will leape over all these bounds And hence it is that we say thus of many servants which breake out on the suddaine some to uncleannesse with fellow servants dishonouring the family others to intemperance others to stealth and abandoning their Masters Oh! I never saw the the least fault in him he was so diligent gentle painfull and faithfull that I never suspected him lesse nor more Alas he was too subtill for you he was so while he saw his time and vantage But because these colours were never laid in a good ground and in oile therefore they washed off There must be a superiour principle which must cause faithfulnesse The element of service the Masters worke cannot teach it Servants must goe
out of Christs Schoole a true servant of Christ faithfull to him out of love for love for reconciliation for pardon for peace for grace will be faithfull for his sake to a Master be he good be he bad why Because the maine fidelity of heart to God will first bind him to the Lord Jesus in what charge soever he betrust him As if the Lord Jesus say to a Minister I have loved thee made thee faithfull and put thee into my service I now will have thee declare thy faithfulnesse to me in feeding my sheepe and lambes Joh. 21. A Minister will doe it for the love hee beares Christ So a wife for the love shee hath found from Christ will be subject a child will bee dutifull so a servant faithfull The influence which this love hath in it carrieth an instinct into the soule for every service let God appoint the worke the love of Christ shall be the compeller to faithfulnesse whether negative not to filch not to be uncleane not to answer againe not to be untrusty or affirmative viz. to be reverend chaste true painfull trusty I say out of the Schoole of Christ this must proceed Hence it was that Ioseph Gen. 39.9 sollicited to unchastenesse with his Mistresse presently had his hand upon this hilt How shall I doe this and sinne against God His Master was absent he might have abused him and he ignorant who hurt him but Ioseph had another tye he had conscience and peace to forfeit hee had another Masters worke to looke at and better wages to lose and therefore this peace ruled him and he durst not for his soule if all pleasure profit ease and rewards in the world had been offered have attempted such unfaithfulnesse Learne yee Masters in whom your greatest strength with servants lies not in your awe feares rewards or punishments all your succours must come from a deeper tye you must be beholding for all the faithfulnesse of servants to their God and their conscience Tye them there and you have them bound for bursting else a wet eele is as easily held by the tail as such servants when they see their opportunity Hence is that triumph of Paul about Onesimus Oh! faith he I have begotten him in my chaines and now I send him backe to thee Philem. 11. no filcher or fugitive but profitable to mee and thee one that now may be trusted This is the first main thing without this I would wish no Master to trust a servant further then he sees him let his shewes be never so great Secondly 2. Grace adds all qualifications to a servant this will produce sundry other qualifications in a servant tending to faithfulnesse Grace only puts wisdome into a servant and gives him a discerning eye to behold God in each ordinance he acknowledges a divinity a finger of providence in the severall relations of the family 1. Wisdome to consider the Lord as the ordainer of all relations for great and weighty ends A common servant makes wash way of his service lookes at his Master for his owne ends lookes at himselfe his abilities But he lookes not so farre as to see God the ordainer of relations For if he did this would infuse other principles as awe feare humility c. For why It is God who hath so ordered it for the good of a Kingdome Common-wealth Church that there should be superiours inferiours some meane ones to be trained for time to come to beare rule others superiours men of ability worldly employments trades dealings offices who also have need of inferiours to be their hands and instruments to act and manage for them those businesses which they cannot performe themselves And not onely so but also it is from God that the one is set over the other to conveigh infuse such skill art and knowledge of trades and services as the inferiour hath not that so by tradition these skills and gifts may be delivered from one to another and from the same God it is that the inferiour and ignorant should subject himselfe to that end with all dexterity diligence and faithfulnesse When once this is understood that it is God and not man who hath devised this course not onely in the greatest government of Princes or Magistrates for they have their servants and officers as he said to Christ Matth. 8.5.6 I my selfe though a Master of an hundred men am under the authority of the Lord President but even of meaner authority of ordinary Tradesmen whether publicke or private ingenuous or manuall civill or ecclesiasticall spirituall or bodily still the same God is the wise orderer and disposer of all Oh! this thought yokes and subdues the soule to a wise holy and subject esteeme of government and a setting it up in the spirit as an inviolable ordinance of God not to be dallied with or prophaned Rom. 1â 1.2 Prov. 8.15 Matth. 8 As the Apostle saith All authority lesse or more is from God By him Princes rule and by the same Officers obey Masters command doe goe come servants are subject and at their beck Why Because they discerne a Soveraignty in the ordinance in the superiour awing ruling subduing the spirits of inferiours in the other fearing adoring and reverencing God in man Hence David It is the Lord which maketh the people subject to me They rebelled often but the Lord not Davids armes nor Ioabs sword brought them backe to subjection So that he who disobeyes a Prince a Magistrate Minister Master disobeyeth not man but God and ye ought not to obey for terror and punishment Rom. 13.4.5 but for conscience The very brute creature is subjected to sinfull man by this ordinance and that causes the creature to forget his strength swiftnesse and stomacke and to take bit and bridle and to be subject else who should tame Lions Beares Elephants Horses if they knew their strength Even so this sense of divinenesse in mans government causeth the inferiours will to forget it selfe and to be subject to God in man So that now although both Master and servant be Religious both free men in Christ yet that is no occasion to flesh to withdraw duty and to turne inferiority to equality but to acknowledge God in the most loving familiar and curteous governour and if the Master be lewd and a divell to the servant who is godly yet he beholds in him that sacred hand of God who hath bound his spirit to awe and reverence not to a man for vantage but to God for conscience So much for the second Thirdly this produces a marvellous gift in a servant 3. It produces subjâction of spirit in an inferiour still more procuring faithfulnesse and that is subjection of spirit Divine authority creates subjection in the servants spirit and that consists of these two things First selfe-deniall Secondly serviceablenesse In two things 1. Selfe-deniall 2. Serviceablenesse For the first It is not the state of an inferiour which can
part to guide thee aright The instinct of subjection and faithfulnesse will teach thee to speake and doe that which thy Master himselfe cannot teach thee Occasions of providence will teach thee how to answer perswade prevent when thy Master is farre off Eliezer and Cornelius his servants might be trusted to say what they saw meete the one to Laban and Rebecca the other to Peter And when thou hast done all let thy conclusion be Remember me O Lord not for my goodnesse but in thy goodnesse and according to my faithfulnesse I shall account pardon my best reward because at the best I have but been an unprofitable servant This for the fifth use Vse 6 To which I adde Consolation to all faithfull servants Alas poore wretches Faithfull servants may be comforted Heb. 6.10 you thinke you tread a maze of confusion and worke and are cast into a corner to play the drudges As those Eunuches in Ieremy yee thinke your selves cut off from name memory or reward But God overlookes not the labour of your love Oh! It would not grieve you I say if you might have a good word countenance or acceptance Encour 1 But consider I pray you whom serve you A Nabal or the Lord Christ Therefore be cheerefull Your businesse is not the thing God lookes at be it never so poore in kitching or in a ditch the subjection and faithfulnesse of heart is all which God lookes at Thy scouring spits or ditching or dunging the fields with such an heart shall be more to the Lord then the worke of a Justice of peace carried by oppression and injustice And the Lord can plead thy wronged cause in due time against thy bad Master Be thou faithfull though borne downe by flatterers God will bring forth thy light in due time and thy vertue the whiles shall be thy exceeding reward God shall send thee a good Master to requite thee for all the wrong which a bad hath done thee Againe know it the Lord prises subjection above all qualities more Encour 2 then any man can And yet Philip the King of Spaine if he might be beleeved when he heard that his under generall of his fleet in eighty eight I mean the Duke of Medina should say had it not been for obedience to his Lord the great Duke of Parma who charged him to attend his comming he could have put England hard to it Answered it now grieves me not that I have lost that Kingdome I see I have one servant who knowes how to be subject whom I prise above it whatsoever he did the Lord prises thy obedience above a world of rebellious servants Encour 3 And againe be not drawne by feare or man pleasing to dishonour God For there shall bee no acceptance of persons It shall not boote Absalons servants in that day to alledge wee were dogged to it by our wicked Master The Lord most justly plagues base servants by their lot to bee so as those of Ahazia who came to fetch downe Elija from the toppe of the mount The Lord destroied them in their service King 7.8 Coloss 3.25 their mends was in their owne hand So saith Paul There shall bee no respect of persons with God but a punishment to him that hath done badly Gods eie shall not pitty him as a poore servant that did as he was bidden but smite him for an unfaithfull one who did that which was unlawfull as to breake the Sabbath or the like to please a wretched Master Even so I say on the other side If thou hast beene faithfull to God against a wofull Masters commands although hee can heere beare thee downe with person and greatnesse yet thou shalt be heard where person is not accepted but the cause and the Lord shall quit an innocent servant against an injurious Master Moses had a Law that no Judge should favour a poore bad man in a case of evill for his poverty but then much more he had another which forbad to accept the person of the mighty against the meane in case of unrighteousnesse Lastly the Lord will blesse thy righteousnesse of a servant with fidelity in thy servants when thou shalt governe And as Adonibezek said Judg. 1. the Lord had justly required him for his cruelty so many Masters ill servanted may say the Lord justly plagues them with lewd servants for since they were rude and unfaithfull they never repented Well is that sweet coherence of the Centurions speech to bee noted Matth. 8. I my selfe am under authority and am subject and what of that God hath blessed me with such as are obedient come goe doe as I bid them and are at my becke I might be endlesse there were comfort enough in this if there were no more that at the last day of reckning when all servants shall be called coram then shall that blessed and finall sentence be pronounced upon thee Come thou good and faithfull servant thou hast beene faithfull in a little be ruler over much enter into thy Masters joy God gives no lesse then a Kingdome for the poorest the least duty of the meanest of his servants Let thus much suffice for this use also and so for this whole Doctrine Now ere I come to the next point in the text Addition to the former doctrine I must not passe by the relation of Naaman to them having said somewhat of the servants towards him Relatives goe together in nature and therefore in handling Masters must be fathers to their servants And as these servants performed the faithfulnesse of sonnes So Naaman by their owne confession was a father to them rather then a Master Servants will be glad to heare me say somewhat of the fatherhood of Masters as well as of their faithfulnesse and it would not grieve any servant to be faithfull to a Master who is as a father I will bring things to as narrow a point as I may Masters then must be fathers to their servants Not onely so in point of superiority and reverence to procure honour to themselves but in point of tender respect care and love to the good of their servants both souls and bodies Eph. 6.9 The Apostle having given servants their charge lest their Masters should beginne to overcrow them presently comes in And ye Masters doe the same things uâto them forbearing threatning knowing that your Master is also in heaven and there is no respect of persons with him For why First they are under thy roofe and have betaken themselves under the Reason 1 covert and shrowd of thy wings they have left their parents under whose protection they lived that they might bee wholly under God for thee reason therefore that thou shouldest be as a patrone protector and father unto them A servant may in a sort say to his Master I am thine save me for all things looke for support from them to whom they belong Againe thy servants are children to thee their close fidelity and denying themselves for thy
good should draw thine affection to be for them True it is servants are not as children in point of naturalnesse and neerenesse for the child abides in the house for ever but the servant only for a time yet during that time he pleades for fatherhood and regard from thee so farre as is meet Quest But wherein stands this duty of Masters toward them Answ Briefly in these things First in a preparation Secondly in a performance 1. Preparation Behold God in thy servants duty Gen. 35.5 First for the former When thou seest that thy servants heart is subject unto thee and that there is a reall awe and Religious feare of spirit put into him by God for thine advantage and that as it is said of the Nations when Iaacob went to Luz the Lord smites a trembling at the ordinance of government Thy duty is to behold God in this worke to see thine owne basenesse and to say who am I that thou shouldest subject the wills of men unto so sinfull a creature as I am It is not my worth authority or carriage which could claime that esteeme and service which my servants tender unto me It is thou O Lord that subduest my people unto me In me there is nothing but might breed disdaine and despising as well as reverence But thou hast covered my uncomely parts by the honour of thine ordinance Oh! that this might draw my soule in subjection and awe under thee Eph. 3.15 who art the father of whom all the families of the earth are called Oh that I could tremble at thy greatnesse Oh! that as thou hidest from my cretaures their owne strength and parts that they might be wholly under mine authority so I might remember that I am under thee far more absolutely then a creature can be under mine Oh! that I might not feele mine owne parts strength wisdome welfare but feele thy feare upon mine heart as a bridle to awe and to restraine me from any boldnesse or loosenesse before thee Lord I never see awe and feare in my inferiours to me-ward but presently I conceive thou art in it to reflect a greater awe of my heart toward thy selfe For every Kingdome and rule in this world from a King to an housholder is under a greater Oh! let not my servant rise up in judgement and condemne me in that hee could behold that in a sinfull peece of flesh which could subdue him but I could never see that lustre and glory that mercy and love in thee which should draw and subdue my heart to thy selfe and set thee up so therein that my selfe might bee as nothing Psal 73.27 that I might say Whom have I in heaven but thee or in earth like thee By this meditation with praier prepare thy selfe first and then the duty will follow the better 2. Performance 1. Yeeld fatherly respect to thy servant Secondly having thus first given up thy selfe to God give thy selfe also to the duty of fatherly and due respect to thy servants and let not thine heart checke thee for any such wilfull neglect of them as might cause the Lord to punish it in thy selfe Even thy very diet lodging and care of the body must be good Thy horse thou wilt sometimes attend busily and carefully because thou wouldest have him serviceable and loath he should faile thee even so looke what thou wouldest have thy servant toward thy selfe that utter by the managing his spirit and framing of him for thy use The Masters eye makes the fat horse and his care the good servant This generall branch out to thy selfe in these particulars First be sure that as thou thy self lookest daily Tender to him his share in spirituall instruction for the bread of the day from God so tender thou as thy servants steward the demensum or portion due to thy servant daily let him share in thine instruction catechising and information in the Lord with correction and reproofe warnings and admonitions encouragements and promises let him not goe up and downe shifting and gracelesse give him such as the Lord hath given thee with praier for blessing daily and know that this is as meete for him as his daily food or wages better unfed then untaught Trust not thine owne wisdome but carry him in thine armes to God and pray the Lord to wash him shave off his locks and pare his nailes to make him faithfull to lay his hands upon him and blesse him that so thou maiest have a servant of the maker purged and made usefull for himselfe and thee When thou hast him tyed to thee by Gods cords he is safe This whet every day will be no let unto thee Secondly feed him not onely by the eare but by the eye Feed him by the eare and eye too pull not down that in practice by an humorous passionate base and ungracious carriage which thou hast set up in him by teaching for this will make him loath thee and despise it But tender unto him an holy grave and pure example walke before him so that Gods authority may appeare in thee Stand not so much upon thy superiority of fatherhood over him as wisdome and respect unto him Above all as Salomon saith over heare not thy servant when he speakes evill of thee that is let him see that thou art a man who can rule thy passions for thy selfe canst tell that thou hast oft offended God in that kinde This convincingnesse of thy carriage will breed invincible reverence and reflection of obedience toward thee againe See that thy servant despise thee not This will command reverence Contrarily the heart of a servant will suggest thus if thou walke basely what is matter how I serve such a Master What if I filch from him neglect his worke speake evill of him and dishonour him runne away from him It is good enough for him God is just But holy walking awes a servant overpowres his heart shames him makes him blush and puts him to silence This is powerfull not by violence but by perswasion both in sight and behinde thy back Thirdly Looke to thy authority 1. In charges bee carefull both of thy authority in commanding and in practising For the former impose nothing upon thy servant which the Lord hath not warranted thee by his word Bee not so vile as to digest any thing so thou maiest have thy worke and thy will done by him Be thou thy selfe also under authority and be a Master in the Lord. Thou hast enough to answer for thy selfe endanger not his soule also to make thine account more grievous Stretch not thy conscience to pervert his urge him not to breake Sabbaths send him not upon errands that day as if it were loose and might be spared fleece not from God presse him not to make a lye for thee to sweare or forsweare for thy sake and the like carry him not with the to base lewd companies pleasures lusts 2. For practise So for practice Ye
of great wealth I shall dye a beggar Neither will fall to pillaging and breaking open granaries to serve my turne nor rise up against the rich as lately some did in some parts of this Country and were justly executed Conclusion of the Use Lastly in generall be we armed by this doctrine and admonition against the common sway of the age to beleeve as we see They say of the dampe in Colepits that if it come it will cause the candle to burne blue Simil. and thereby the workemen haste them to the mouth of the pit presently lest they be choaked This world is the Colepit this dampe is the carnall Religion of it the candle burning blue is the infection of mens understandings and wills when therefore we see this infection to have tainted most mens hearts and the power of goodnesse decaying then let us be warned looke to our lives ere we be choked with the error of the wicked and let us runne to the pits mouth and desire to bee haled up to the open aire let us goe to the Word and Testimony and as David did Psal 73. ere he was quite stifled let us goe into the Sanctuary and lay this carnall religion in the ballances of it and we shall find it too light and such as is reprobate silver for both weight and substance and then we shall cling to a more sure word of the Prophets and Apostles shining in a darke place 1 Pet. 1.20 which doing we shall doe well and so not bee reproved or rejected So much for this third Vse 4 Fourthly let this be Information to all who would shunne this bitter reproofe of God to bee well advised how they enter upon Religion with a sound judgement about the nature thereof Marke and learne this as all common thinges for the most part goe by sense and rationall grounds So Gods matters goe by contraries Logicke and Philosophy reach not comprehend not Gods mysteries Religion is not against sense or reason for then why should Paul 1 Cor. 15. urge the Atheist by similitudes of naturall things to grant spirituall convincing him of the resurrection by naturall experience of the corne rotting ere it live And so by others But it s above it and therefore resists it rules of art and reason faile here Reason saith of nothing comes nothing God saith I create the fruit of the lips peace even of nothing Yea of nothing comes every good thing He that denies himselfe and is nothing shall be my Disciple Other vertues goe by addition Gods by subtraction God counts the things that are not as if they were The principles of Divinity are not as sense is The Lord Jesus himselfe truly eternall yet truly mortall God cannot dye and yet they killed the Lord of life Christ a very man and no person but a nature By death to conquer death is a senslesse thing in reason Flesh consumed to dust yet shall bee made againe the selfe same body Reason attempts great things by great instruments The Lord uses the poorest and silliest Reason would say the richest make most rich Religion tells us As poor and yet making many rich As having nothing yet possessing all things That a poore company of fishermen should conquer the world which Alexanders army could not That Babes should understand mysteries which wise men cannot That the King of all the world should ride upon an Asse c. How absurd are these notions But to be principled in these senslesse truths irrationall principles what a wonderfull advantage is it to a poore soule in her first entrance upon Religion How will it prepare the heart to beare downe reason and flesh To thinke the better of truth by how much it crosses reason most To beare troubles and crosses meekely because by how much lesse they promise any happinesse by so much the rather they performe it So much for this use of Instruction Lastly let this point bee use of comfort to all Gods people who Vse 5 cleave to the word Consolation Close cleavers to Gods promise are in a blessed state or else soone recover their sliding foote from this common error For if carnall reason be so reproveable then is living by faith commendable The Lord shall one day cause thy light to breake forth poore soule who in all the forenamed respects lookest more to Paul then the Pilot to the word then the world and her Religion Thou livest here as a dispised creature as one of Gods fooles thrust up into a corner as a candlesticke throwne up and downe the house who wert wont to hold out the candle to the house of God Be of good cheere if thou be content to be as God will have thee and to teach thine owne soule in stead of teaching others if thou be one who wilt thrust thine eyes blindefold into Gods bosome and see no further then he hath light for thee take courage to thy selfe Mica 6 9. Psal 37. one day it shall be better and the Lord shall bring forth thy righteousnesse as noon day He shall take thee from among the crokt pots and restore thy doves silver wings as bright as before waite the whiles be doing the thing which is good When the Lord shall come in flaming fire against all that have set up their crest against him and bee a swift witnesse against them then shall he refine his Levy with this fire of triall Mal. 3.3.4 Reve. 3.14 2 Thes 1. Heb. 10.37 and by this day or night rather of tentation which he hath spread over the face of the earth if thou hold the word of his patience he shall bring thee forth of the Colepit And then shall hee be admired by them and in them that beleeve because abandoning themselves the word was received by them in that day I say cast not away thy confidence it hath great recompence of reward But what should I need to comfort thee who carriest the matter of comfort within thee So much for this use also and for the whole doctrine be spoken as also of the first thing which arises out of the attempt it selfe of these servants c. THE THIRTEENTH LECTVRE Still continued upon this thirteenth VERSE VERSE XIII And his servants came neere and said unto him Father if the Prophet had bid thee doe some great thing wouldest thou not have done it How much more then when he saith unto thee Wash and be clean VERSE 14. So he went downe c. 2 Kings I Have in the last Exercise Beloved as you may remember finisht the attempt of the servants being the second generall of the Verse Now we proceed in order to the third viz. The arguments which they use to perswade their Master to obey the message The third generall viz. The arguments The first whereof is the ease of obeying I told you there were foure of them I come to the first that is of greatest weight let us note it wel And that is that
and set a price upon the promise as a pearle above price 2. In divers points Secondly the Lord makes it an easie worke by setling the promise upon the soule and that by sundry workes For first it doth pull up all hedges and fences which stopt the soules course standing between the soule and her harmes he puts her out of feare and sets her out of danger removes Lions of supposed difficulty out of her way as malice of Satan dismaying error of the wicked deterring and selfe distempers which disquiet her with doubtings wee know if a man would goe the next way to a place and avoid dirt and bad way hee must have a guide to lead him by the fields to pull up gaps barres and stops which done the traveller hath great ease So the Lord deales for his he suffers them not to travell tediously to heaven that is the portion of hypocrites who undoe as fast as they doe and are ever new to beginne but to his owne he gives sweet ease in his way If a man should hold our enemy for us and binde him by strength it were as we say five of the seven we might easily beat him Thus our Lord Jesus bindes Satan and difficulties that the soule might get the better of him and goe forward without awcknesse Luke 12. selfe-love or hypocrisie Secondly the Lord makes the promise easie by presenting to her all the good things of it as Canaan was seene easily by Moses when the Lord shewed it unto him and so sets the soule in a sweet course Deut 34.1 2 3 4. Wee know by experience when once a man gets the savour and smack of an object he goes roundly A Tradesman having tasted the reall sweet of his returne and a scholar of his booke take small thought to goe through stitch Paul in that place to the Corinths tells us that the Lord hath diffused the savour of his truth into him and by him to others An hypocrite is puzling after it all his life time 2 Cor. 2.14 but is so poisoned with the more welcome savours of his pleasures gaine and lusts that he falls short of the grace of God and as it is Heb. 12. Esau came short of the blessing Iaacob came just in the way of it and failed not And this savour differs from the decaying and wanzing taste of temporaries it abides in the soule and causes it to be restlesse till it possesse what it savours It is as leven sowres the whole lumpe of minde will affections Thirdly and lastly it doth authorise enable and carry the soule as under a safe convoy into the promise So that without the toile of the wicked it holds on cheerfully in all those meanes which she must use as prayer meditation conference hearing so that she uses not these at had I wist hit they or misse they but as ordinances under the blessing of God which shall not returne in vaine As Esay speakes Esay 55.9.10 The snow and the raine returne not in vaine to him that sent them but cause the earth to bring forth corne to the eater and seed to the sower So shall my word saith the Lord not faile of its scope but to doe that for which I sent it And sithence the Lord Jesus speakes no words in vain but with the promise addes the performance therefore the soule heares it so takes and findes it so even as the command of Christ to the sicke of the palsey Be thou cleane clensed him forthwith So then if the Lord will have it so sweet and easie a worke who shall let it Who shall disanull it So much for the Reasons I proceed to the Use Vses Let this first teach us to put a difference between persons who professe to seeke heaven Whatsoever the world thinkes Instruct 1 that all are alike the matter is nothing so I may say of them as the holy Branch 2 Ghost speakes of the Jewes in Esters Ester 9.14 time when Hamans plot was broken Grace is easie to them that are bred for it that to the Jewes was a day of gladnesse and rest from all their troubles feasting and ease but to their enemies the contrary So I say to all plodding ones and hypocrites the Lord gives as much toile and more for hell as the godly for heaven it is their lot Eccles 2.26 and the portion of their cup They would never come within the condition or suburbes of mercy but the others lot is fallen into a goodly heritage Psal 16. It is with them Simil. as it is with two men carried into a field wherein there lies an hidden treasure The one is left to seeke to dig to harpe upon the place by conjecture and so findes it a bootlesse worke Matth. 13.44 The other is carried to the placâ pointed by the finger and there he digges and findes it A Scholar in the University that hath a generall wit for learning will thrive and get it although but poorely maintained when another kept there upon costy tearmes wanting such a spirit shall plod in vaine Matth. 13.11 It is only theirs to whom it is given to whom by covenant it belongs even such as renouncing themselves wholly resigne up themselves to him who can only make it easie and sweet The elder brother was as near his fathers elbow as could be and alwaies with him yet it was the lot of the yonger a prodigall turned to his father to eat of the fat calfe to have the ring robe and shooes put on him it was easie for him to be happy when his father would beteame it him as his lot Judg. 14. When Sampsons friends are kept from the riddle how hard is it in seven daies to hit upon it But when they plowed with his heifer how easily they finde it out and come to him saying What is more sweet then hony And what more strong then a Lion When the two Apostles Peter and Paul preached to the Jewes how they pressed upon them the offer of salvation because by vertue of the covenant they were to have the first refusall Read two places Act. 2. Peter tells them To you and to your children out of Gods free love the promise belongs and the powrings out of the spirit and to as many as the Lord our God shall call And so in the 13. of Acts To you brethren the Jewes at Antioch is preached by this man forgivenesse of sinnes It was a great honour though they had not the grace to see it And so much more to all under the condition of faith the promise belongs although to such as are under the condition of their own strength it shall be a meer toile and bondage So much for the first instruction Instruct 2 A second serves to untie a knot in the seeming contradiction of Scriptures Quest Grace is called by name of a yoake how then easie Some presenting unto us a marveilous ease in the yoke of
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. â9 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
thou hast dealt with thy servant in mercy thou hast not laid heavy taskes upon me I cannot accuse thee like an hypocrite that thou hast taken up where thou hast not strawed nor reaped where thou hast not sowne Rather I may say that others have laboured and I am entred into their labours that is found a sweet and easie work of beleeving Now as I blesse thee for this so yet be not angry with me if I have another request to make unto thee Matth. 25.24 and that is that thou wouldest still hold the like hand towards me in making the life of faith sweet unto me and the course of obedience most welcome and familiar Oh! let it be no harsh thing unto me to beleeve all thy other promises Gen. 18.30 concerning strength against tentations power against my lusts And breed experience for time to come Lord let not the difficulty of walking be as great as the ease of conversion was mercifull just it were with thee to make it so and to try me what soundnesse what uprightnesse were in me by hard trialls But oh lead me not into tentation do not suffer my corruptions to wax stronger then I can master nor Satan to be more fierce and fiery in his darts then I can resist or quench I doe not pray against crosses or assaults but that they may be according to man and that an issue may be given with them that I may say thou hast been afflicted with me in all my afflictions to make them tolerable Esay 63.9 by thy meekenesse confidence patience and courage put into me Let the Angel of thy presence save me and conduct me beare me up by thy hand continually and redeeme me out of them all at last in an happy manner give me O Lord both the upper and the nether springs enlarge my coast and be with me against those Cananites of the mountaines Judg. 1.15 who have iron chariots If thou shalt indeed blesse me as Iabez said thou shalt be my God 1 Chron. 4.10 Teach me mercy to the distressed patience in affliction faith in straits sobernesse in blessings faithfulnesse if a Minister subjection if a wife understanding if an husband dutifulnesse if a child trustinesse if a servant and let there be sweet ease in all these Lust is sweet Lord to my unmortified part but present thou such a prevailing sweetnesse in thy love by thy promise that it may bear down the corrupt pleasure of my sinne so that while thy love and the joy of thy countenance is present the image of such scurfe may bee despised and it may not be tedious to mee to reject the tentations to wrath revenge earthlinesse loosenesse in liberties pride vanity But all these may become bitter to mee thy grace making them so Oh brethren the Lord teach you to thinke of this Strange it is how many of us goe to worke with God in the way of our conversation especially if private solemne dangerous disgraced hard duties be urged wee finde our hearts so sullen weary hollow fickle carnall in any duty which concernes us as if God were highly beholding to us for our worke What then should be the pitch of our ambition with God save that still he would carry us upon Eagles wings hide all difficulty of Religion from us present it to us as a sweet object remove our waywardnesse of will and fill us with love that wee comprehending the length depth and height of it might be filled with his fulnesse and be carried on without any great rubs or sad offences that our heads may not be brought to our graves with sorrow but wee may finish our course with joy David in that Psalme 27.4 having found one mercy with God staies not there but laies in for a new What is that One thing I will aske of God that he will not deny me That I may walke and spend all my daies in his house continually A child findes it no trouble to him to walke in the presence of a loving father who pitties and provides for him So shouldest thou Mourne thus if ever any thing come between my soul and ease it will be this treacherous heart which will come to a point It s that which so manacles and pinions my soule that I cannot reach that liberty and joy which thy servants feele It s that Lord which makes me so darke so lowring discontent unfruitfull and sad Esay 38. Oh Lord ease me here these have oppressed me deliver me I doe not lay in for liberty to the lusts of the flesh to fulfill them Pray for five things to make Religion sweet I desire the curbing and destruction of them for ever and their wasting daily But till thy sweetnesse satisfie my soule and soake me to the rootes I shall never be as I would be nor can thy worke bee as it ought to be Accept therefore first the will for the deed a little for much that shall be one vantage Then againe cover and hide defects and looke upon my better part thine owne grace and not my corruption interpret me with favour to the uttermost Then thirdly betrust me with those principles of love and sincerity which will make a little goe a great way And then make my lusts to be my clogs and as Sauls armour upon Davids backe who could not goe with them And to conclude make the yoake of thine afflictions easie and enlarge me to runne the way of thy commandements with cheerfulnesse So much for this third Branch Branch 4 But there is yet a fourth branch of Exhortation behinde flowing more necessarily from this Doctrine Nourish not feares about the way of God then any of the former And that is this That seeing the people of God have an allowance from God of ease in beleeving Therefore let all poore soules set their hearts at rest and not nourish fears within themselves of a more tedious entrance into the Kingdome of Grace then the Lord hath promised Nay rather let them fasten upon this priviledge not looking at themselves but at him who hath all impossibilities at his becke and can turne them to ease In which respect Abraham is said to beleeve that although in shew Sara's wombe was to be barren yet because God was able to make good his word therefore from one who was as dead should issue thousands Thus faith gives glory to God and drownes her owne fears in his power True it is wee cannot beleeve that God will make his promise easie till we beleeve But one excellent argument to draw us to beleeve is the meditation of it as an easie worke and that the Lord can and will make it so As I noted before the cause why so many start and shrinke from the way of God is the conceit of the most noysome and tedious hardnesse of it The sluggard still cries A Lion is in the way Proverb I dare not goe Take we heed of this bondage Wee cannot dishonour God
with a love farre above whatsoever a friend an husband a father a guardian can affect the persons of their friends wives children or orphans If the love which they utter bee greater must not the duty of love be so which they owe them So then God will have the people to tender esteem and honour the Minister It s a charge which no time no prescription can alter Reason 2 Secondly as they are thus to embrace him for his very message sake and the honour of his calling So also in respect of the outward service he performeth as man to man Who goeth to warfare upon his owne charge Who can attend the word and the world too Should they that serve at the altar and attend to reading be compelled to forsake their places and play the drudges Plow and sow runnâ to mill with their sacks and to market with their wallets to get in their owne provision Shall Gods annointed ones upon whose head the oile of the consecration of their God hath beene laid and are separated from men to the use of God and the service of his Church returne to bee common worldlings trade and trafficke in earthly affaires all the weeke long and on the Sabbath with prophane hands attempt holy things Is is not meet that the be borne out of all other charges See Heb. 13.17 that they may closely attend to Gods worke unto which who is sufficient Yes verily Shall shepheards souldiers watchmen Embassadours all need their support for their travell and shall a Minister be left to his owne charge Were it for the Kings honour to send his Embassadour to Venice and there to leave him so destitute of meanes and provision that he should be compelled to turne Merchant or Factor to maintaine himselfe What basenesse were that Should hee worke with his own hands as Paul who therefore made tents because he needed neither study nor provision How dishonourable were it Read that choice Text for this Heb. 15.27 Thirdly the Minister of God his maine worke is the saving of the Reason 3 soules of those that heare him to turne people to the living God 1 Tim ult Act. 26.8 from their Idolls to beget them to God to convert them to travell of them a new till Christ be formed in them to marry them first and after to present them as a pure virgin to the Lord Jesus to beare them upon his shoulders to heale them of their diseases to keepe them from the Wolfe Lion and Beare to comfort them at the heart and to declare unto them their righteousnesse with a thousand such like spirituall offices and can any affection love cost maintenance equall that tender regard of a Minister of the eternall soules of Gods people No verily Nay not so only but they are sacred pledges of the peoples welfare Reason 4 that so long as they abide among them they carry them as under the safe conduct and banner of God The fire shall not burne them nor waters drowne them nor wrath of God consume them While Moses and Aaron were among the Israelites with their mediation betweene God and the people carrying Gods gifts downe to them and their prayers and sacrifices up to him how safe were they While Noah that Preacher of righteousnesse lived upon earth what waters could hurt it Was it drowned till hee was taken into the Arke They are even the hostages of safety to their people Those that stand in the gap and lye in ambush for them howling betweene porch and altar for them Spare thy people O Lord whom thou hast bought Joel 2. Numb 14.15.16 What shall the heathen say saith Moses if thou bring thy people into the wildernesse to destroy them Such advocates and impleaders are they at the barre of heaven for their welfare They are the Dogs of the great Shepherds flocke to shelter them from the wild beasts of Heresie Schisme Prophanenesse and Atheisme and from vengeance provoked thereby They with their Censors stand between the dead and the living to stay the plague They are the pillars to hold up and hold forth the truth of God and to preserve it incorrupt and unspotted till the comming of Christ They are the Swords and Axes of God to cut downe and destroy the wicked and enemies of the Church that mouth of Christ out of which the sword of two edges proceeds either to defend or destroy They are as Abrahams Iobs Samuels and Daniels great stakes props to uphold the great building and frame of the Church as they said to David Thou art worth tenne thousand of us So are these if they be such as they ought persons pickt out one of a thousand 2 Sâm 18.3 And shall not this honour of theirs procure them love and honour at their peoples hands deservedly Yes without question Not as though all they can returne can equall the cost and worth of the Ministers labours Philem. 8. for the worke of conversion deserves the returne of the soule in thanks but to declare the obedience of their heart to him that commands it and the thanks which they inwardly beare and would testifie in a far other kinde if it were in their power Psal 16.2 And lastly that the due which in deed wee owe to God save that our goodnesse cannot reach him may in the descent of it fall upon his Minister whom he hath made his instrument of doing good and his Attorney to receive our acknowledgement The reward is rather an honourable then an equall recompence So for Reasons Proofes Gal 6.6 1 Cor. 7.9 The Scripture is plentifull of proofs for it Let him saith Paul that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth him in all good things And the same Apostle purposely handling the point Doth any man plow and sow or plant and not looke to eat of the fruit thereof Doth not the Law meaning the perpetuall equity of it say Thou shalt not muzle the mouth of the oxe which treadeth out the corne And he that serveth at the Altar must live upon the Altar Doth God take care for oxen or saith he it altogether for our sakes Surely for ours that he who soweth in hope should thresh also and bee partaker of it If a man should sow wheat in his field would he not looke at least to reap a crop answerable to rye or barley If we sow spirituall things is it wonder if we receive carnall So also againe he implieth in Rom. 19 15. That they deserve speciall entertainment in a speciall kinde as one who brings news of an inheritance out of a far Country Beautifull are the feet of them that bring glad tidings though dirty and dusty yet deserve washing and annointing How much more they who bring the Gospel to the people of God and say to Zion Thy God raigneth And our Saviour addeth Matth. 10. The labourer is worthy his hire not welcome only but maintenance also He that receiveth you receiveth me and he
who receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet Verse ult receives a Prophets reward In the old Testament when the Priests and Levites neglected their service the Lord was fain to stir up extraordinary Prophets but who maintained them Was it not a custome that all who went unto them for advice offered them a gratification Were they left think we for the Ravens to feed ordinarily 1 Sam. 9.8 In a famine it was necessary I grant No witnesse that of Saul to his servant when he meant to go to Samuel heard him say what shall we bring to the man of God for the mony is spent I saith he have the fourth part of a shekel of silver that I will give him The like is that of the man of Baalshalisha 2 King 4.42 who is said to bring to the man of God bread of the first fruits even twenty loaves of barley and eares in the huske Heb. 13. Shall the Gospel be inferiour to the Law in this point So for assistance and encouragement Obey them that are set over you and submit to them grieve them not nor let them doe your worke with care and dismayment for that were smally for your benefit Let those Elders saith Paul who rule well be counted worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5.17 both of maintenance and countenance especially those that labour in the Word and Doctrine These are sufficient others perhaps may offer themselves in the processe of the point Quest But wherein may some say stands this love of the people to the Minister I answer in many offices I will mention two or three of the chiefe First in the justifying honouring and esteeming of the Minister For if that be once prejudiced in their hearts farewell all hope of successe upon his labours Ob. But the Minister himselfe must looke to that Answ Answ 3. Things 1. Honour I grant it in part viz. That no man is bound to magnifie him who dishonours himselfe by his sloth scandalous life tongue and manners and yet even of such I must say that to delight to deprave such or scorne them whom rather we should mourne to behold is sinfull And as for the infirmities of the wel-deserving we should cover them and carry a mantle backward that we may not see their nakednesse But I say there is oftentimes great desert of honour in the Minister which yet he cannot come by Therefore it s the duty of the people perpetually to seeke the credit and promote the esteeme of such For under Christ the Minister is that wisdome 1 Thes ult which all the children thereof must justifie Matth. 11.19 If he count them his honour and crowne what should they count him save their mutuall honour and best garland How should they beare up his name as the Lions of Salomon upheld his throne vindicating his person against all scorners cavillers upbraiders Not to be ashamed of him before any whether equalls betters or inferiours yea the whole congregation should backe him and strengthen his hands against all opposites that hee may without suspition or feare goe on in his course as wee read of the people to Joshua Cap. 1. Secondly 2. Sealing to their Ministry 2. Cor. it stands in the peoples sealing of his Ministry and labours in their owne soules and conversation That they may be an Epistle written in their hearts for the commendation of him without any other letters testimoniall and that the impression of his paines may bee seen upon them which is the reallest honour of a Minister in the world unto which is consequent the honour of their adherence Adherence and communion with him as the chiefe member thereof that he may be made privy to their profitings or decayings in understanding and grace that hee may mourne with them in their sorrowes and rejoice in their comforts as a tender father guardian and nurse that he may resolve their doubts ease their griefes and be all in all to them that no man may better know them then himselfe and they him and his voice as their Shepherd without estrangement or shinesse The third is their serviceablenes 3. Serviceablenesse Joh. 19.25 to him That they count themselves to stand charged with him as our Saviour charged Iohn with his mother To be provident for his supply and support by all meet preventing of affronts and offences at home abroad by procuring assistance favour and protection by their best endeavours travell friends counsell and mediation as acknowledging him to be theirs As once a Physitian bad his Minister looke to his soule and he should not want one that would looke to his body The like should each man Lawyer Justice Gentleman or meaner do within the compasse of their places Each one should have one shred of him or other Lastly allowance of a faire and comfortable competency of meanes 4. Maintenance to prevent carking or shifting courses or whatsoever might disable or dismay him in his Ministery or divert him from attendance to reading that so he may the more freely devote himselfe to his worke And this must not onely last while he is in the yoke and occupied but also if hee shall by any infirmity disease age decay become lesse fit for his service then formerly especially if wrong and opposition of enemies cause it that yet they take it in good part not adding sorrow to sorrow but sticking to him in his distresse So much for the Answer of this Question Vses Ministers must not be distrustfull of providencâ I proceed to the Uses of it And here first let this point be solemne Admonition Information and Instruction to the Minister of God Admonition first to beware lest through distrust and infidelity he suffer his spirit to consult with flesh and bloud for the matter of his encouragement and support in his Ministry Hath the Lord had such respect unto him as to charge his people solemnly with the sustenance and maintenance of such his faithfull Ministers as serve at his Altar Hath he engaged himselfe by promise to them to be their exceeding great reward and not to suffer them to want Hath hee betrusted his Church with their welfare that as they would looke for mercy and blessing from him so they honour and uphold the person state life and liberties of his servants the Ministers Oh! take this kindly at Gods hand trust him to make good his promise he who hath the hearts and affections the estates and purses of all at his controll and command he is able to encourage us and sustaine us in our painfull conscionable discharge of the taske imposed upon us to feed his lambs and his sheep to waâch over them to goe before them in an holy example Let us not shrinke from this worke nor shrug at the difficulty of it through feare opposition of men malice of enemies bad examples of those who favour their owne ease belly
for conscience sake though it were poore and that which was offered him was rich There came to his house a good gentleman who seeing him fare hardly with great content of minde instantly gave him some peeces to encourage him in his course Or the Lord hath given such a blessing upon a little that it shall goe a great way or if he have given a man meanes of his owne he shall willingly live upon them and spend them that God may have his work done the whiles and if men faile yet God shall cause the Ravens to feed us rather then we shall perish Children shall have portions education and meanes from unknowne friends and nothing shall be wanting to them that are not wanting to God 3. Branch Admonition Debauch not nor dishonour our selves Moreover it shall warne Gods Ministers to beware lest they deprive themselves of this promise by dishonouring and debauching their own persons names and estates by their misdemeanours They may long enough cry out of the despisednesse of the Clergy if themselves pull downe the house of honour and due respect with their owne hands Such have too much honour in that they hold their places Quit your selves therefore my brethren of all such indecency and vulgarnesse of carriage towards your people as might disparage you Be no common Proctors and Barretors among them seeke not theirs but them chiefly love them for the good which is planted in them teach them not the fashions of the world to be quarrellers contentious covetous side not with some against others mainâaine no factions and partialities bee no common companions with them in their bargaines and worldly trafficke hang not about their shop windows be no janglers and pratlers with them in common matters haunt not the Alehouse pot and pipe with them In a word be no joviall boone fellow with them in their meetings feasts games and pastimes Easily is such a one despised who discovers himselfe in such kindes and the like I may say in eager pursute of the uttermost of our dues grating upon them A sad time when the Ministers are not so countenanced as they ought and threatning them alway at Law and never satisfied rather buy peace and interest it in their soules to doe them good though by denying our selves aime not at great things esteeme of the poore with their two mites be not proud ambitious and disdainefull seeke not the account of the greatest onely Honour stands not in the self-esteeme of the honourer of himselfe but in the esteeme and account of others that honour us who commonly thinke the meanlier of us when we thinke highliest of our selves Honour being a shadow which flyes from the pursuer and pursues him that flyes from it Be not therefore lovers of honour inquisitive after the reputations of men it s a means to make us scorned rest content with the portion assigned us by God reach not after great matters lest God abase us to a meane condition Hold an holy mediocrity between covetousnesse and improvidence or expensivenesse betweene pride and contempt of our reputation betweene supercilious or disdainfull carriage and a common prophaneing of our persons with the basest maintaine the meane in holy contentment sobernesse and gravity which may uphold both our names in that credit and our estates in that sufficiency which is meet to encourage and support us in our Ministry with hope of profit and blessing And to conclude this first Use 4. Branch Be encouraged to feed Gods flock This provision which God hath made for the Minister of the Gospel should be encouragement unto him that setting apart all other matters hee apply himselfe to that one thing necessary for a Minister to looke to that is to feed and watch over the flocke of God betrusted him Alas what should it need that we busie our selves about the needlesse and neglect the essentiall thing of our Calling What is this save to taxe the Lord of improvidence and carelessenesse of us As if he would put us to all the worke and leave us to sinke in our owne charge As if hee had no respect to our travell and labour of love but put us to our shifts Shall he cloath the grasse of the field and the Lillies which neither labour nor spinne Shall his eye reach to the falling of a sparrow scarce worth a mite and shall we his Ministers fill our soules with distrust of his providence and aske who shall feed us or cloath us or save out of the hands of our potent enemies Are we not better then many sparrowes Shall wee then or can we fall without the notice of our Almighty Father Doth he not hold us in his right hand and walke in the midst of us What should we then doe but take more thought how we might walke in our course of life and Ministery inoffensively cheerfully and confidently As for other matters casting our care upon him who careth for us for whose honour it is that we be regarded encouraged backed assisted and supported to the uttermost of that which is meet for us and in deserting of us in this our worke he his name his glory his promise must needs suffer farre more then we poore wormes can doe It is our distrust not Gods unfaithfulnesse which leaves us to our shifts And what wonder then if we take his office out of his hands to carke and plod and be sicke of our owne discontents What wonder then if the great worke of our attendance upon reading watching admonishing and being instant in season and out of season lye by as an arme or bone out of joint unfit for use But certainly could we honour God in beleeving him to be that he is an alsufficient God and one to whom the Tribe of Levi is pretious and his peculiar portion wee should goe to worke as men set at liberty as they who are discharged from thought and care and therefore having but one thing to doe let us doe it to purpose leaving the rest to him who will secure us from feare wrong danger enemies and if he save us not quite from such yet will support us in them and more then that redeeme us in due time from all our sorrowes and wipe all teares away from our eyes Oh! live we by faith in this promise stand still and behold we this salvation of our God And as the Lord said to Ioshua so he saith to us Feare not I will neither faile nor forsake thee Only bee strong and of good courage So much for this first Use Vse 2 Secondly this is Terror and Reproofe to the people Terror first to all scorners and blasphemers of the person and function of the Minister Of Terror Scorners and reproachers of Gods Ministers reproved It was once thought to be an odious and black marke of a Jew to speak against the Priest as the Prophets words intimate But we have such as both speake and doe against the person and calling of the Minister
serve for a taste by the paw you may judge of the Lion Oh! that this Reproofe might so pierce them that they might fall upon themselves and reprove themselves bitterly for their more then heathenish unnaturall unthankefulnesse Papists may condâmne us for our disregard of our Ministers This blinde generation of Papists shall rise up in judgement and condemne us Protestants yea many of us noted for our zeale For what cost doe they refuse to be at to maintaine their Priests and Jesuits in their bravery nay what fines would they not be willing to pay for the liberty of their Religion But alas We who professe a better and seeme zealous for it have no such principle of love in us Our Religion must stand alone and defend her selfe or else she may sinke or swim for us It s the mercy of God to our Kingdome to keepe the hearts of our Qâeen and Kings of blessed memory and noblenesse of heart in the defence of the truth of God without toleration and imbezeling and long may the Lord so rule and dispose of their spirits For it s to be feared if they we were but brought to the triall who would give most for their Religion they for their Priests or we for our Ministers they would out-bid and outdrop us many of us even wealthy Gentlemen and others I will not tax all as much as Crownes or Royalls outbid brasse farthings The Lord shew us our disease and to what issue it would come if God prevented it not Vse 3 Thirdly this point is Exhortation to all who are convinced of this Truth People exhorted to honour and support the Minister That they practise this duty of love to the Minister of God If you would truly be free from all these aspersions as what good heart would not shake her lap of such dung Do not only abhor the treachery inconstancy basenesse and unthankfulnesse of hollow lovers Doe not onely abhorre the love of your selves lusts and appetites more then God or his Minister But especially learne this mystery of loving a Prophet for himselfe and in the name of a Prophet for his message sake Get an heart knit to him in a close band of amity which no sword can cut in two no time occasion or danger interrupt Let it not bee a love of teeth outward or outward signification but a child-like loyall reverend and sacred love without dissimulation Let the very joy of his message goe as dâepe into thy soule How that may be effected as these bad properties goe into the spirit of the contrary Lin not till the Minister of God have as well kindled a fire in thy heart of sound love and affection as set up a flashing light in thy mind of knowledge and understanding which may vanish though for a time thou seeme to rejoice in it Brethren if we desire your love pardon us this wrong for you shall fare the better If once this Epistle be written or engraven in thy heart with the pen of a Diamond the characters thereof will be indeleble It s no letter of inke and paper but written by an Adamant claw of the Spirit which knits you faster then Ionathan was knit to David This will make you close and faithfull and you will goe under a woods side into a wildernesse to renue your covenant No message can so pierce into your spirit as this If your Lawyer should by his skill and pleading win the day at Law for you if the Physitian should recover you of a deadly disease if your spokesman should prevaile in a great marriage of many thousands None would sticke so deepe nor deserve such love as the message of reconciliation and the cure of spirituall leprosie causing the flesh of thy soule to returne againe as the flesh of a little child This will make thee doe great things for the Prophet this will ingratiate and make him as one of a thousand unto thee Shall any thing now part him and me Act. 8. Thinke we that the Eunuch as speedily as Philip was snatcht from him carried him not away with him in his heart Should mony travell feare or danger ever have separated them Oh brthren let this example here of Naaman soke as oile into our spirits And before you depart hence beg it of God that he would teach you the obligation of a soule to his Minister And then we will give up our selves as Paul speakes first to the Lord and then to him in a league of faithfull amity Make but this sure that we have received his message Rom. 18. and then there needs no more That will be a principle within to dictate and direct the rest be the fruits greater or smaller so that love be the guide all shall be well The odds which Paul to Philemon speakes of Thou owest me thine owne soule And that which our Saviour speakes of To give a cup of cold water we know is very large and different yet where love is the roote both are accepted with God and all the steps which passe betweene Love may be trusted for the measure for shee hath an instinct which teacheth her what to doe shee can purge the heart of scantnesse and straitnesse and enlarge it with opennesse and freedome If Popish and ungrounded love be so full and free shall love truly rooted be barren Shall error bee more powerfull then truth No no The favour of love that comes from a soule redeemed with the pretious bloud of Christ excells all other respects whatsoever and carryes more demonstration with it And if love beare the sway a true Minister of Chrst will be as free to impart himselfe to the poorest and meanest of his congregation who can make him little requitall as to the richest and best yea although he be at some cost with them also as in some cases of distresse and visiting of the sicke it may be expected from him The loadstone which drawes his heart in pitty and compassion being the grace and necessity of the parties rather then his own advantage But to returne to the people in a word The duty urged give your hearts openly and freely next to God to his Minister for his worke sake Lately I read a story of the afflicted state of Belgia thralled under Philip of Spaine and Don Iohn of Austria his brother of whose tyranny the poore Province being weary they chose by common consent the Prince of Orange for their defendor and protector and meeting him in a solemne assembly at the Towne of Gaunt presented him with a golden heart opened with this Motto engâaven about it SINCERITY And truly brethren to apply this I say the true present of a soul won to God by the peace of reconciliation is an heart though not of gold yet more pretious even made of love and opennesse with sincerity of affection without this we cannot receive the Minister of Christ aright we may blear his eyes with false colours but God is not
mocked It behooves us to hope the best of all whom we cannot convince of the contrary But except this principle be ingrafted first all other shewes will vanish and a false heart must one way or other bewray her selfe This open sincere heart is the best present for a Preacher and that which will doe great things if need be as Naaman was here ready to do It saith to the Minister there is mine heart take that in pawn and the rest will follow But an iron close hollow heart is poison to a Minister The Jesuits begged of King Henry the fourth of France that he would bequeath them his heart in token of his esteeme which they keep in a golden cup in one of their Chappell 's Let us doe so to the Minister of Christ and as I said let not Fryers and Jesuits prevaile more with their votaries for their hearts then faithfull messengers from heaven with their people That which is well for the present among us brethren I commend If the Gospel had not some friends it could not be so well as it is onely take heed that bad times eclipse it not But I speake as I doe because daies of peace are not as daies of trouble among some good hearts of sincerity many are hollow and the best may amend and learne to bee confirmed to doe that they doe upon grounds of conscience And I desire the Lord that without prejudice wee might heare this truth and receive it Aske thine heart whence is it that my affections are so blunt and dead towards Gods Minister The more I am loved the lesse I love 2 Cor. 12.15 What Did his message never pierce my soule Did it never convince me to be a ranke enemy of God by nature That the wrath or favour of the Almighty was my life or death Did it never convince me of this that the Lord Jehovah hath in the bloud of his owne sonne devised offered sealed up a reconciliation and that for me Alas what wonder if the hearth of that Altar be cold whereon Gods fire was never kindled O Lord work the sense of the message of immortality and life in me by the Spirit of grace and then I shall behold the honour and worth of thy Minister with a spirituall eye and that common base judgement of the world shall vanish Then shall his feet be beautifull his face and voice pretious and his love above the love of any earthly object Job 33. Then shall I call him with Elihu one of a thousand For where one Minister cares for reconciliation himselfe or teacheth it to others some others doe not so they have the fleece what care they whether men sinke or swim Oh! Now I see it s a rare grace for a Minister to prise a soule to tremble at the losse of it to value it at the price of the bloud of the eternall God and the losse thereof as the spilling of the heart bloud of Christ Oh Lord Didst thou meane a poore soule so well as to give him a part in this bloud And to send me tidings thereof by the messenger of peace thy Minister sealing up that unto me on earth which in heaven thou hast granted me My goodnesse my thanks cannot reach thee but it shall fall upon thy Minister whose blessed voice thou hast caused to sound in mine eares and to convey thy love into my soule I hope I shall not forget such a Levite all my dayes So much for this Use Fourthly and lastly this point is for Instruction to teach us what duty Vse 4 we owe to God himselfe Instruction If we owe the Minister great things what owe we to God himselfe If to the Minister a poore mortall worm we owe such honour and reverence what then owe wee to God himselfe If we should doe great things for the instrument of our peace who is the messenger onely of glad tidings What then owe we to him that is the fountaine of it and him that sends it from heaven to us What should seeme great unto us for such kindnesse How should wee carry our lives liberties soules and selves in our bosomes ready to lay downe for him What cost what price is so great which should part the Lord and us Gen. 23.15 As Ephron said to Abraham touching the price of Machpelah its worth so many shekels of silver but what is that betweene me and thee So should we say Oh what is my best treasure worth Lord in respect of losing thy love and communion God will have his servants do some singular thing for him Some shreds I doubt not we should beteame him what great thing would we doe for him What vertue goes out of us What streames of our love and affection goe to him from whose springs all proceed unto us What singular thing doe we for him who gave his Sonne to save enemies and his Minister to bring us newes of it Servants who attend royall Benefactors love to seale their loyall love by some undeniable exploit and marke of extraordinary service As those worthies of David would breake through an hoast of enemies to fetch him water 2 Sam. 23.15 so great an hazard that David thought it a present meet for God And all to teach us that he whom great things do become to give deserves the greatest from us even the very neglect of life it self if he aske it When I read of the strange adventures of men for the pleasing of their Lords and Commanders methinks it shames us Christians It s recorded of the souldiers of Charles the fifth who hearing that he desired a way to be made for his army over a certaine broad River then beset with the ships of the enemy They put their swords in their mouthes and drew those ships surprised to the shore and conveied over the army in them What was this but for the pleasing of a mortall man But when as one day the soule shall be summoned before God and demanded by the Judge what singular thing hast thou done to put it out of question what love thou bearest to me What a wofull regret will it be when it can bethink it selfe of nothing save shreds and parings We could beteame that God should straine himselfe to a demonstration of some great thing for us If it were to make the Sunne stand still or goe backe ten degrees to worke some miracle or shew some signe from heaven of love to us that it might appeare how great we are in his bookes And we make small account of small blessings which others share in with us who are lesser then the least But what doe we picke out to resalute him withall How doe we curtall him of his ordinary dues rather Gen. 22.2 as thinking much of that The Lord bad Abraham do a great thing for him even kill his son and he was ready to do it and the Lord said Now I know that thou lovest me indeed But if he should put us to
and it shall not be restored Nay the Lord Jesus our great Prophet hath even stript and emptied himself of all his excellency and glory to make us rich and glorious Philip. 2.5 He craves nothing of us in all his counsells and dispensations but to beleeve and be saved he sought not to please himselfe but us even to be murthered for enemies if we obey him to be sure he hath deserved it doubtlesse for the base and ungodly none would dye But when we could not profit him but were traitors hee shed his bloud for us all to breake our hearts Give him but faith and obedience and take the fat of Rams to thy selfe he taskes thee not to the cost of Jewish worship or Popish wast Doe but maintaine his Ministers and poore Saints and there is all he tyes thee too Oh then if thou heare not the voice of this Prophet so faithfull in all his house who seeks thine ends in his owne how shalt thou be able to stand before him Oh! thou shouldest stoope and say Lord thine honour and ends shall be dearer to me then mine owne salvation And thy Ministers shall prevaile the rather for thy sake for they urge us to be reconciled in thy Name Vse 6 To draw therefore to an end let this be Instruction to all that enjoy the mercy of a sincere Minister and Counsellor 2. Branch Thinke not that God doth enjoine him to be faithfull and leave you to your liberty to bee hollow to looke between the fingers and to escape in a mist except you get an heart of candor and simplicity it will little boot him to teare his tongue to the stumps and kill his spirits in plaine reproofe and counsell No as I told you in the former Doctrine so now shortly I touch upon it and hasten to an end Doe as those Dutch did to their new elected Prince of Orange present a sincere Minister with a sincere heart better then that golden open heart which there I spake of as rich as it was A man may be faithfull and yet mistaken by unfaithfull hearers Therefore let people also be meet and apt tinder to take this sparkle People must be sincere and open to receive counsell 1 Pet. 2.1 and kindle by it let them bring all ingenuity and humblenesse of heart to embrace it that so it may be well bestowed else he doth well but thou shalt pay for it To this end take Saint Peters counsell Casting away all superfluity of maliciousnesse prejudice distemper and envy As new borne babes covet the sincere milke of the word that you may grow thereby Receive it as it is it is sincere and take it sincerely His similitude is very pithy Simil. A new borne babe looks simply and only at the milke that it may be nourished and grow Though it bee the child of a Prince and sucke the brest of a meane nurse yet it turnes not away in disdaine but takes the brest without any more adoe So I say to you Take heed of curiosity conceits partiality fulsomenesse if the milke and nurse be both cleer and sincere descant not but like a babe covet and embrace it to thrive and grow by it Alas what should it boot thee to conceit that the Minister means thee worse then he speaks Or what should it boot him to doe so If his words may beare a good as well as a bad construction why shouldest thou fasten a bad Is it not an heathenish sinne Rom. 1. to construe all in the worst part Ezek. 18. If he do ill and I take it well my bloud not be shed but if his counsells be sincere and I perverse my soule shall pay for it Rather thinke although he should not be sincere yet the reproofe is just rather then cavill against him being upright however if thou be sincere to thy head it shall be as balme for to snort in thy sinne were deadly Psal 141.5 And say that a Minister should erre on which side were it better for thee to erre whether in smiting thy impostume or smoothing thee Once an enemy wounded the side of another that fought with him and let out a sore which neither love nor money could doe Put case thou wert under the Ministery of a dawber and flatterer Poore peoplâ have a prâviledge above the rich in this that they be reproved were it not a plague It is not the priviledge that meane persons have above the noble the great and mighty that the former may have sincere counsell when the other cannot come by it It is not their commodity but thine though it were to be wisht to be theirs most of all but alas it is denied them They cannot say as forelorne Nero did have I neither foe nor friend to stab me For they have enemies to kill them by flattery but few friends to wound them in love As of late it appeared in a great man being in discontent who visited a Minister and desired counsell from him The Minister dealing very roundly and home with him the Gentleman wondred professing that no friend in the world had ever said so much to him and thanked him for it This argues that great ones meet with little plaine dealing If it be then the priviledge of the meaner sort to be sincerely counselled who should bee such a foole as to forfeit it by his frowardnesse Put case that sincerity see cause to deale more roughly and sharply with us then we expected and put some vinegar into our sores yet we know that milke sodden well ââough it run over is better then raw so it is better to be told of our ãâã too much then murthered with flattery say we therefore to a sincere Minister loving friend here is my heart hand and all I am as thou art and my horses as thine mine heart is as open to reproof and counsell as thine is to give it I dare not nourish a lowring heart against thee Lastly this affords Consolation to all sincere Counsellors For why Vse 7 Their counsell is not frothy and light in the ballance but weighty deserving audience ãâã to ãâã Counâââââââââb Let them therefore count it their requitall to themselves in that their vertue is in it self contentfull For why A faithfull counsellor shall be honoured at last more then a flatterer whose words goe downe into the bowells to rot them when as the other heale the inward parts What although sincerity is justled to the walls hated pursued to the death As Iohns plainnesse by Herod Micaja's by Ahab I doubt not but when the arrowes stucke in Ahabs sides Micaja was honoured first or last it will be so There is none so desperate but at a time they adore sincerity and call it a jewell Even our very enemies being Judges our faithfulnesse is honourable Let us therefore hold on our practice and not be discouraged Had these servants thinke we any cause to repent them of their counsell when they saw him cured
Publicans and vilest ones unprofitable servants whereas their building within rises up to a greater height of self-confidence by their outward castings downe for they thinke that not onely they may merit for themselves but for others and more then fulfill the Law and so by equalling themselves to Christ they overthrow the sole soveraignty of his satisfaction and merit But O ye âopish mortifiers of the flesh adde one thing more get the power of the word into you to divide betweene the bones and the marrow Heb. 4.12 to goe betweene your hearts and your corruption and to cast downe those high things of yours those imaginations which set up themselves against the simplicity of Christ and then so farre as the word warrants us wee will joyne with you in outward fruits wherein though many of us faile more then you yet this makes your Doctrine never the sounder nor justifies your defect in the great matter of Sincerity and Faithfulnesse Wofull hypocrites who straine out a gnat but swallow a Camel dare not eat an egge in Lent but dare kill your Prince And although wee will not wholly condemne all those patternes of humility whom you boast of for certainly many of your first Monks and Votaries were honester then your selves yet we know that their devotion had much wil-worship in it which cannot warrant yours much lesse can yours stand which hath neither honesty within nor warrant of the word without to maintaine it So much for this also Vse 3 Thirdly this serves to instruct us how to esteem of Gods administrations and dealings and how to dispute with our own soules in the case of our distrust and infidelity I remember the argument by which Elisha perswades that Iehoram and his company 2 King 3. to beleeve that God will give them water in that perill of drought This is a small thing saith he for the Lord to doe for you For why He will also deliver the Moabites into your hands a farre greater thing Sutable to which was that which the Lord would convince Ahaz of by Isaiah Esay 7. viz. the victory he should have of the Aramites Is it a small thing saith he for you to weary the Lord and to distrust his power Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and shall call his name Emanuel which is a greater thing then to give you victory To apply this Let us learne hence to summe up the mercies of God vouchsafed us already and let us weigh them in due ballance If wee have seene him feed seven thousand with a few loaves Gods faithfulnesse to us in the maine must make us trust him in the smaller things doe we distrust him to feed twelve Disciples Do we finde that he hath bestowed upon us the maine let us beware of distrusting him in the lesser For he holds this rule much more surely then we We will trust a friend that hath lent us an hundred pound for the lending us twenty shillings and shall we distrust God He that hath made our bodies and breathed in our soules will he deny us food and raiment Is not the belly better then meat and the body then cloathing Whence is then this our distrust If he hath given us his Sonne Matth. 6.25 will he not with him much more give us other things lesser matters If he have made us a feast in the mountaines will he not much more give us ordinary food in the valleyes Had it not beene a base distrust in them that came into Canaan to thinke that God might suffer them to starve in the midst of a land flowing with milke and hony having before by a miracle nourished them with manna quales and the following rocke of water in the desert Doth the Lord urge us sinfull wretches by a Law which himselfe will not observe If we be faithfull in the greater treasure will he trust us in the lesser and will not we trust him Let us boldly urge the argument upon him by faith and we shall prevaile Rom. 8.32 he himselfe hath put it into our mouth If it become weake Read a speciall place in Math. 16.8.9 it s because we have made it so by our unbeleefe and let it fall to the earth We deceive our selves in the fundamentall promise and then accuse him that he keeps not touch with us in the lesser But if we would deale substantially in matters of weight we should finde that other lesser things would follow our hand with ease and the great ship of the main promise would carry all our smaller vessells of our secondary supplies after it without our rowing or strife But oh how basely doe we deale herein with God and our selves We dare beleeve that God will save our soules but whether he will keep us from poverty or no or bring us out of debt or enable us to maintaine our charge we cannot tell we have not so cleer a word for that we say as for the other Nay rather we yeeld more to sense and carnall reason in this then in the other or else make our selves thinke we beleeve the former better then indeed we doe Alas if the greatest were beleeved it were easie to cast anchor upon the other If the mountaine be given us shall a molehill be denied us No but we are pinched more with unbeleefe in the lesser then the greater if we had the like pinch of heart about the chiefe point of favour and pardon would it not thinke we dash the other and make it nothing Save my soule Lord and for my body doe thou as thou wilt for thou canst not doe amisse thou art tyed by thy promise to the lesser How comes it to passe then that those who have tasted how sweet the Lord hath beene in easing us of a burthen which wee never lookt to be rid of that we distrust him for faith in petty cases As for the easing us of such a strait aiding us in such a crosse of bad wife subtill enemy helping us in the losse of a good Ministery or in the encumbrance of a bad unprofitable people or ill and unsavoury Minister or strengthning us against such a lust or enlarging in us such a grace or granting us such friends in our distresse of body or blessing in our trade or training up of children or saving us and them from the customes of this present evill world or giving us our daily bread Oh thou of little faith what wilt thou be heathenish Shall the Lord cloath the grasse and deck the lillies which labour not nor spinne and shall he leave thee naked Not if thou labour and spinne out the promise in speciall Other of Gods people have done so Habac. 3. 1 Sam. 17. Habacuc would not distrust God though no bullocke were in the stall no calfe or sheep in the fold David will not distrust God touching the Philistin having killed both Lion and Beare and concludes 1 Chron. 16. that God will not
the cure of his soule as an overplus to the cure of his body The other is secret and yet manifest enough for now the Text would give us to understand That all his old wrath and conceits were vanisht all was now on the suddaine changed Jorden was an happy water to him but rather his faith for that scoured away all his distempers at once never to be heard of any more This for the analyse of this Verse Other second consequents there are not belonging to my purpose and scope in handling of this story and they lye in the three verses after We come to the first of these which as I noted the coherence of the verse with the former gives us to conceive of To wit that now at last seasonably even as apples of gold and pictures of silver comes in a calme after a great and long storme Who loves not to heare of rest after labour and joy after heavinesse Oh it s as dew to the grasse and as drinke to the thirsty Naaman was one whom God had a purpose to honour his grace upon at last and therefore lo so must it prove though it were long first even after many defeats and conflicts yet he obeyes the Prophet and is healed of his leprosie The point is God hath an appointed and set time for all his Doctrine God hath a time of accomplishing the worke of grace in his Elect. wherein after all their feares and distempers he will vouchsafe them an happy issue at the last No corruption within them no difficulty in the worke of faith no malice of Divell no discouragements by others nor the longsome delayes of grace and mercy shall finally deprive them of pardon and comfort But at the time appointed God shall bring forth judgement unto victory and in the meane season support the soule from utter sinking under her burthen Psal 97.11 There is light sowne for the righteous though it lye long in the moulds by reason of cold snuffes of weather yet a sweet day at last will come and a sunshine to fetch it up Proofes of Scripture are so many that I must cull out some few Heb. 4.9 That in the Hebrewes agrees well with this in the generall There is then a rest for the people of God a Sabbath of grace of pardon and peace after many unlikelihoods and a Sabbath of glory after all their combats and conflicts here That which Elizabeth tells Mary Luke 1. is true of all whom God hath by his Spirit conceived in the wombe of the Church there shall be given a performance to them of all the things which are promised from the Lord. A time there is for all things as of toile feare doubts resistance so of ease rest resolution and submission to the word Eccles 1.2 They shall be as glad of it as ever they were averse and aloofe from it God creates the fruit of the lips peace to them not onely who are neere and faire for it but far off and unlike to speed of it Esay 57.17 Heb 10.37 Mal. 3. Hos 12. He who commeth will come and not tarry and bring healing in his wings He will accomplish the warfare of his Sion and be as one that takes off the yoke from the jawes and lay meat unto them A most divine text is that of Esay I saw his concupisence and I will heale him for why He will not be angry nor contend for ever for then should flesh faile and the soules which he hath made The like whereto is that in his 54. Chap. For a moment in wrath I smote him I hid my selfe and was angry for a while Esay 54.7 for a short time But with everlasting compassions will I returne to him saith the the Lord thy redeemer Marke The dayes of peace shall not be as the time of trouble that 's but an houre of darkenesse but this a day of light And shall recompence the tribulation with a settled welfare Job ult As Iob when God turned his captivity enjoyed all comforts with continuance yea the Lord addes This is no casuall thing but certaine It is as the flood of Noah which the Lord sware should no more destroy the earth and his covenant is as the Rainbow which when we see we resolve there shall be no more such deluge Reason 1 Reasons also are many Not onely from Gods secret purpose who knowes his owne and therefore its impossible for any chaines to hold them from him They must one day feele the power of that election to call them to save them which first preordained them to grace But also from the course of Gods revealed will and dispensation For that grace which first prevents them afterward assists and followes them till at last it perfect the worke of faith in them Both the former I noted in this present example God prevented him by the message of the Prophets ablenesse to heale him by the Damsels meanes and brings him to the Prophet though after much error The same God assisted him there and raised up his servants to be his Counsellors though much pudder came betweene And now at last when the disease was ripe he lets out the impostume overthrowes Selfe and carnall reason melts and perswades his heart so that although he was more like to have gone from Jorden in a rage yet now he goes and washes himselfe in it and recovers And thus deales the Lord with us if he have savingly prevented graciously assisted he will powerfully finish his worke else should his power be questioned and men might say of him as they do of men who have laid a platform of a great building and begun the bottomes of it Luke 14.39.30 but cannot finish Now this were repugnant to the glory of his grace and the power of his might unto which nothing be it never so unlikely is impossible Luke 1. Reason 2 The second Reason may be taken from the absurdity and inconvenience which must follow if this were otherwise This I toucht out of Esay 57.16 before and God himself makes it a reason teaching us to alledge it If it could be otherwise then it were possible that the most excellent nature of God wherein he exceeds all his other attributes might be questioned I say then might that compassion and mercy in God receive a great foile and reproach Then should God seeme to take from man his righteousnesse which he is farre from Lam. 3.35 To rejoice in the misery of the creature then should he lose his name and honour with his people and not attaine his owne ends but faile of his purpose Then should the art of God in the way of conversion bee frustrate and prove uneffectuall as not being grounded upon certaine foundations then should his promises incur the blur of unfaithfulnesse and in a word the soule should become as one in a wood wandring and wildring it selfe untill at the last it lye downe in her owne sorrow and confusion utterly
with But therefore to judge others doe it not Say that their owne rebellion hath made an easie way to become hard to them what then if they be saved any way what skills it The harder it is and the more it cost the sweeter it will be and the harder to forgoe Looke rather to thy selfe that thy strivings be lawfull then judge them whose strifes are difficult for so it must be till God have brought a base heart to lye downe at his feet with shame Many a noise must pierce a dead heart ere it live many a terror and many a pang of selfe-love many a contradiction feare and hope must come in his way who arrives at heaven onely this is the comfort No enemy shall finally deprive such of their labour as are called to the hope of salvation unfeignedly Nay rather Rom. 14.13 if thou get thither more easily feare that there may be in thee many an old dreg which perhaps is purged out of others by sad medicines but how ever judge them not The end shall make all manifest 1 Cor. 4.5 judge not another mans servant he stands or falls to his owne Master Pitty such rather and pray that God would ease their travell And secondly much lesse condemne thy selfe 3. Branch Instruction Christians must beware of condemning themselves Esay 40.2 because thou findest the worke of grace to hang long in suspence and not to come off with such ease and haste as thou desirest Doe not entertaine base feares into thy heart nor tempt God by putting thy selfe amongst hypocrites and reading thine owne doome looke to those markes I set downe and then conclude it s not in thee but in the Lord to shorten thy travell and to determine thy warfare it is his work who can neither be shortned nor hastned by thee he onely knowes what corruption must be tamed what grace quickned hurt it shall doe thee none to be tried if thou be sure the worke was not of thine owne beginning but Gods know he is faithfull who hath begun who also will finish in due time Thou wouldest be loth thy wife should come before her time as much as thou longest for the fruit of her wombe but art desirous she should fulfill it And thou dost well Doe so here in thy owne case A thousand yeares is as one day with the Lord 2 Pet. 2. to teach thee some of his patience when his day is come it will seeme no whit too long And in the meane season who upholds thee from sinking Is it not the Lord But perhaps thou wilt say Thou feelest but small hope and much sadnesse and deadnesse of spirit I answer thee That may be thy discontent and impatience For why Although thou feelest no thrivings yet perhaps thou maiest thrive and grow nearer thy hopes then thou art aware The infant growes towards birth daily whether it be strong or weake None of Gods cost shall bee lost upon his no drop of his pretious seed can be spilt Though thy course seeme dead to thee yet if the Lord attend thy fruit within and ripen it forme and fashion it in thy heart by secret and unknowne degrees is it not well Thou dost not know how one bone or one joint is framed in the wombe Simil. yet they lose no day no houre of their appointed time Thou seest no haires bredth of growing in thy corne yet it encreaseth daily and even that winter life thereof which stands at a stay and seems dead yet gathers secret heart and strength at the roote which after in the spring makes it shoot and branch forth The Lord is now doing for thee that which thou knowest not of but shalt know hereafter That is Joh. 10.9 that grace cannot be wrought out with thy sweat and care but by his spirit and he is the Soveraigne God who will be adored by all that come to beleeve They must come to a low point in themselves and confesse that God hath them at the advantage to save or destroy which when it hath tamed them throughly under this mighty hand of his to be at his dispose then perhaps he will not take but release the vantage for the glory of his Grace yea truly although the Lord should respit his worke till thy death yet mutter not but know that he chuses that time because then commonly the soule is brought to the narrowest point and sees no props to support her nor helpes to cling to then being at the greatest strait either to trust to a promise or to perish it is put to it and forced to resigne all and to cast it selfe upon meer mercy which while shee walked at large in the world with many false props about her shee found it not so easie to doe Thus much for this Use Vse 2 This sweet Doctrine in the second place serves to reprove and confute the false imputation of many cavilling and slanderous spirits Reproofe and Confutation in their backbiting the Ministers of the Gospell and contrarily for the encouraging of the Minister in his course of painfull persisting in the worke of perswasion Quarrellers against the Ministers unablenesse to comfort the distressed most sinfull For the first of these There be many prophane ones of this sort in all places who cast reproach upon the Gospell and Ministery as unable to effect that which it pretends Oh say they when these Ministers first preach the Law they beare people in hands that it is the way to raise up their soules to hope but for ought we see such dejected spirits complaine every day that their condition is more and more heavy they see themselves further off then ever I had rather be as I was saith another for before I was quiet but now I see the gulfe in which I lye to be deep and terrible But oh poore wretch Is it thus with all Are not some daily raised through mercy as well as others cast down What Dost thou expect as soone a lifting up as thou feelest a consternation Art thou better then he that said Psal 85.8 He would hearken what the Lord would say for he would speake peace to his Saints Surely it s to bee feared thine humbling is but violent and then thou maiest cavill long enough for thou shalt revolt quickly to thine old vomit Gods matters are too hot Job 15.11 and too heavy for thee But say thou art no such yet tell me Are the consolations of God such vaine things with thee Is it not more eligible to be under the hands of a mercifull God who in his good time can perswade the unconvinced spirit and bring it to the bent of his bow then to be under that bondage for a time which the Law by sin hath brought upon thee The like speeches doe many use concerning others How doe base parents husbands wives and kindred cry out of the word when it hath begunne to ceaze upon their children wives and husbands or kinsfolke
encounters me let him thinke himselfe honoured that I will vouchsafe to foyle him Some are of so arrogant spirits that they scorne to receive a good turne from their inferiour But O proud foole who art thou Mayst not thou dye in thy nest for want of a meane helper As once a great woman âid who scorning the poor at the last being in her country house smitten with the plague was forsaken of all and then cried out that God was just I observe that it is the honour of brave Souldiers that when they are beaten almost out of their Castle yet they will capitulate for their honour to goe out of their harbour with their pikes traild their match light and in array or else they will dye ere they stirre That bravery is in most men they will lose their lives ere they lose their great stomacke I confesse in civill cases there is some reason in such things Alexander is commended that being chalenged by a meane fellow to run at Tilt with him hee scorn'd it and sayd Kings must runne with none but Kings for they can get no credit by victory but lose much by being foyled But in matters of God it is otherwise Be willing to be taught reproved by any be they never so meane if there be grace be there never such infirmities and contemptiblenesse It is a good Motto which he gave Not alwayes there is good in the great but alway there is great in the good Let the honour of the grace and the pretiousnesse of a Christian cover his outwards and discerne that which is within at a narrow crevis Be not of this minde I will heare none save the greatest Doctor and learnedest man in the Countrey such or such a man of fame and note As for these ordinary Preachers I slight them Those whom thou admirest are unwilling to take the paines and those who take the paines thou art unwilling to heare and so between both a proud heart bringeth to destruction That Heathen King Eglon when as Ehud a lame man came to him and told him he had a message from God arose off his Throne Judg. 3.20 and came downe to speake with him In base and common things wee disdaine not the basest Gentlemen will be haile fellow well met with base Jesters swearing Falconers or hang-byes if for their ends and Ladies will send their children to dance or sing or to learn fashions of base peasants and not disdaine it But to learne of a good man or woman the trade of God to heare any thing from them which might rectifie either their hearts or manners they despise it exceedingly Shall not their own practice confute them wofully If Religion were any of their ends would they not do as much abase themselves as low for that as for the learning of prick-song or the like And whereas thou wilt say I will not doe so meane a fellow such honour as to subdue my spirit or put my neck under his girdle I answer thee Looke thou at God not at him but if this defeat thee of cure thank thy selfe hee is but very little hungry or thirsty who will not doe a stone or leather pot or vessell the honour to quench his thirst nor eate any meate except out of plate with a silver forke Note They that will not honour others so much as to learne of them must be content to shame themselves so much as to perish Oh young man see thy face in a glasse how is sage Salomon faine to flatter him and to say My sonne Prov. 4.1.2 heare instruction let thine eare hearken to my counsell And all because a proud heart is wonderously averse from the counsell even of our betters yea of a King speaking for God How much more hard then to harken to meane persons when we are great Alas this is growne out of the world yet Nâaman had been a Leper but for meane ones It were better that the Lord did abase thee very low with some great crosse to pull downe thine haughty heart then suffer thy pride to usher thy destruction When Darius was pursued hard by enemies and very dry and thirsty he saw a puddle with a little water in it and having drank it said he never tasted sweeter in all his life So should the counsell of the meanest be to thee if stung in conscience or lying upon thy death bed But if thou despise them before who knowes whether God will so farre honour thee then Thirdly let this be examination Examination and triall of thee whether in truth Vse 3 God have humbled thee or no whether ever thou couldest discern aright between the pretious and the vile and both loath the greatest if base and honour the persons of the meanest and their counsell if really good David could abase himselfe thus even to hearken after the meanest and to make them of his house Psal 101. 1 Sam. 25. And poore Abigail was pretious to him and her counsell blessed though hee were heire apparant of a Crowne Let us note this for even in Religious persons this secret tang of basenesse may lurke as wee see in St. Iames James 2.3 who brings in rich Christians despising the poorer You say to them who have rings upon their fingers Come up hither but to the other Sit at my foot-stoole A signe that this base corruption is very closely lodged in us to underprize goodnesse and counsell because it dwells meanly A poore man was forgotten though wise saith Salomon and one that delivered the Citie by his wisedome Eccles 9.15 If thou doest so highly esteeme grace as to take it out of the poorest creature with a thankfull heart for as he said of Ministers that they were goldenest when the Chalices were of Wood so I say the man may have a Pearle in his bosome when he weares but a bare coat it is a signe of some humility Lastly let it be exhortation to us to beare humble mindes and lowly spirits not to disdaine to learne of the meanest Nay let us bee thus vile Esay 1. Psa 32.8.9 and if the world thinke us so let us bee more vile let us learne of the Pismire and the Lamb and the Storke and the Swallow and the Lillies yea the grasse for we are very ignorant even as the Horse the Mule and had need to be set to School to all Masters and yet learne but little The very bird that lives in a Cage foure inches square being naturally bred to flye abroad in the open Coast should teach us self-deniall contentment she can sing and make her prison a Paradise our base hearts disdain to be content or thankfull when as we abound in all mercies have the world at will An whole Councell once condescended to the judgement of one Paphnutius a meane person speaking from God chusing rather to hearken to a mean person then to persist in their errour If so many learned Bishops sage and ancient
or if it doe yet thou shalt alway be doubtfull The Word on the contrary saith Doe not desist nor revolt to thy former pleasure in sin for in that course there is no hope thou art then in a desperate case Proceed rather and goe to the promise for thereby its possible thou maist find some redresse What doth the soul in this strife She compares the argument of the word with the counsell of the flesh and findes it better then this because it is farre more safe to chuse a possible redresse of misery then to fall upon the assured pykes of certaine wo and despaire Here we see a fight but no victory no assurance only that rest which the soule hath is not from any thing she feeles within herselfe but without in the word Secondly here comes in a second doubt and therein Satan tells Quest 2 the soule it is true Thou chusest hope before despaire but what hast thou to doe with peace Or how knowest thou whether thou oughtest rather to chuse the one then the other or what right hast thou to ease and pardon Here againe steppes in the word and succours the soule telling her That she ought to fasten upon life and pardon and chuse it before sinne and death for God hath bred in her the condions of faith a longing mourning restlesse selfe-denying heart therefore to her and to no other this pardon and ease belongs and she may claime it God indeed hath no where said in his word I will pardon thee Iohn thee Thomas c. But he hath said such and such I will pardon so and so qualified Now she assumes this qualification to herselfe and therefore she concludes that to her it belongs This is another word of the Spirit which still drawes on a poore soule to bee willing to beleeve But now comes the nearest worke of the Spirit in the word and Quest 3 that answers a third objection which is this How shall I know in speciall its mine owne Perhaps it may belong unto such a one as I am but many things belong to men which yet they are by one meanes or other defeated of How shall I know that God will give it me in speciall and grant me the gift of faith to beleeve it In this the word grapples closely and nearly with the soule and brings it to the strict point of beleeving and tells the soule That all to whom the promise of pardon and life belongs by the allowance of God he will most undoubtedly bring it to passe for them and conferre it upon them yea and give them faith to cast themselves upon it For in saying Come unto me all you loaden ones and I will ease you he meanes not onely you may but you must come not only it belongs unto you to come but I will in my calling you enable you to come and put strength and power into you to come that is to beleeve and by beleeving ease you By this the word setles the soule upon the promise as being that which it seemes she sees God is willing she should beleeve and therefore will conferre it on her And in so doing the Spirit causeth the heart which is willing to become effectually willing that is takes away all feare of defeating and tells her she shall speed of her desire and therefore now she dares venture and cast herselfe upon the promise and if she perish so she is content for she dares jeopard her soule upon Gods Truth Now we see this casting and venturing upon the promise is the best of all these three acts of the word and yet here is no assurance for the soule in respect of herselfe is neverthelesse full of doubting all her bottome is this last word of the promiser that he will effect that in the soule which he hath promised By all these I inferre The act of faith is no assurance within but an evidence without resting upon the word which word the more evident it is made to the soule the better and stronger is the act of beleeving but the best of these is no assurance Quest It will bee demanded May not assurance be had at all I answer Answ yes it may be and is the portion of such as the Lord sees meet to enjoy it Eph. 1. Rom. 8. but that stands upon another bottome and that is the immediate evidence of the Spirit in the conscience of one who is already a beleever making her to know that she beleeves This is not by the word directly but the Spirit of the word which reflects that into the heart with knowledge and feeling which before she only had by the fidelity of the Promiser But this as I said is not faith for then none should have faith who want this which God forbid but an effect of faith in some speciall persons and not all that beleeve Thus much for the former question Now for the latter viz. how faith is wrought The sufficiency of a promise is the object of faith You see brethren it is evident that the nature and worke of saving faith stands not in any fulnesse of sailes or reflex knowledge and overpowring sweetnesse of perswasion But as I said in a grounded casting herself upon the word For by this only mean faith is wrought And I call it grounded because so weighty a matter as the resting and casting of the soule upon a thing requires that the thing bee a foundation of great warrant to beare up a soule from revolting againe Nay when the conscience is come thus farre as to fasten upon the word Oh! she hath thousand objections against the sincere meaning of God in his word Hence it is that the word is so full of places wherein this sufficiency of the promise to rest upon is urged Sometime the Lord contests with them that quarrell against it Is the Arme of the Lord shortned Hath he said it and it shall not come to passe Hezechia tells us Esay 38.15 He hath spoken himselfe unto us and he hath done it Heb. 13.5 For he hath said I will not faile nor forsake thee So againe The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Among men its called an unsure argument to prove a thing by authority because men are liars further then their truth will speake for them And yet some great persons have born such sway and authority in the hearts of their Disciples that their bare word hath carried assent with it But to be sure this is a sure argument God hath said it therefore it is true as in all the words which ever went out of his mouth so especially in his promise Phil. 4. 2 Cor. 1.20 that above all pleads certainty Faithfull is he who hath promised who also will effect it And Elizabeth Luke 1. tells Mary There shall bee a performance from the Lord to his handmaid of that which he hath promised All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus with a thousand more But
the revealing of it for who shall construe it otherwise who heares how many sweet invitations cords of perswasion arguments to enforce terrors against despisers he uses Esay 55.1 and 2. verses Read that Chapter and marke his offer Come all you that thirst drinke freely His contest verse 2. Why lay you out silver for no bread His compellation Incline thine eare hearken unto me and come c. He that concludes not hence that the Lord is willing to communicate his grace nay takes thought lest it should not be accepted and would rejoice if it might must needs call God a notorious dissembler which were hellish sacriledge And this a main point for all who confesse Gods power and are convict yet are not so of his will If thou wilt thou canst heal me Luke 5.12 1 Tim 1.17 Sixtly he is Wisdome it selfe 6. Wisdome When the Apostle had spoken of this mystery he concludes Now to the only wise God be honour c. Why so wise Because of all other waies he thought this the best he would in the best of his counsells finde out no other nay could not finde out any so good as this for then who is only wise would And the like I may say of the manner of publishing of it By men like our selves of like infirmity who might familiarly insinuate themselves By a promise rather then by any waies of old as visions miracles or voice of his immediately as more spirituall and effectuall So that the very Angellâ looke into it with admiration how much more should we cry out Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdome of God! Heb. 1.1 To all unbeleevers a stumbling blocke and foolishnesse Rom. 11.33 but to us that beleeve the wisdome and power of God Seventhly his faithfulnesse It is a principle 7 Faithfulnesse 1 Sam. 15. Luke 1. God is not a man that he should lye The strength of Israel cannot lye God will not be mocked therefore neither will he mocke any And therefore hee hath bound it with an oath to Abraham and his seed Surely in blessing I will blesse thee Therefore Simeon saith To performe the covenant which he sware to our father Abraham that he would give us They are called the sure mercies of David and Heb. 6.18 In the covenant and oath adde thereto the seale of his Sacraments which speake to each soule in particular in Baptisme thus I baptise thee in the Supper thus The body of Jesus broken for thee The bloud which was shed for thee And as himselfe is so is his word in each part Heaven and Earth shall passe but not one jot or tittle thereof shall passe Above all his promises cannot which are his first borne and carry with them the birthright of his faithfulnesse and therefore are a maine bottome to rest upon Lastly his unchangeablenesse His nature is so as Iob saith Job 23.13 8. Unchangeablenesse he decreeth and changeth not Farre above all decrees of Medes and Persians Although we read oft in Scripture that it repented God of some things yet of this he saith I have sworne and will not repent Thou shalt be a Priest after the order of Melchisedec If foure thousand yeares could have changed the minde of God Christ had never came And looke how the Lord was in the great promise Gal. 4.4 so is he in all that follow thereupon God willing to shew to the heires of his Promise the immutability of his Counsell and againe that by two immutable things wherein it was impossible God should lye we might have strong consolation in our taking refuge So that nothing can separate up from his love first nor last Thus in these few particulars I have shewd what bottomes faith may have to cleave to a word and to cast herselfe upon it for pardon and life And so much for the first Question Now I come to the second If any desire further light in this let him consult with my booke of Sacraments in the triall of faith And that is why faith is called Obedience and Consent This question arises from the ground of the Text For Naaman you see being convinced by his servants Quest Why faith is called Obedience and Consent obeyes and consents and doth as he is bidden Esay 1.19 If ye consent and obey you shall eat the good things of the land Hence I call faith by these names only observe that one and the same faith in divers relations hath divers names As it relates to a command of the Gospell so its obedience As to a perswasion so it is consent As Naaman then in one act both obeyed the command of the Prophet and consented to the promise or perswasion thereof so doth faith obey God commanding and consent to him promising or perswading This is the Commandement of God that you beleeve in his Sonne whom he hath sent Luke 5. As Peter to his Master so faith saith to this command At thy command Lord I will let downe my net although it seeme never so absurd As Abraham being commanded by God went downe right without looking at the absurdities or objections first he would kill him and then thinke of them and drownd them all in the charge so doth faith nakedly obey against all stops and then casts them upon him who set her on worke So againe shee consents to his promise and perswasions Gen. 24.28 Much like Rebecca having heard and seene Isaacs motion and tokens answered I will goe with the man She saw enough against it but the perswasions of Eliezer were more potent to overpoise her Spirit So doth faith she hath a thousand cavills and disswasives yet she breakes through and consents and then shee heares no more of them Thus Abraham hearing the promise of Isaac is said not to looke at Sara's wombe which was now withered but hee looked simply at the promise and cast them upon God So that this act of faith casting herselfe upon the word doth both obey nakedly the word of command and consents to the promise as Naaman here doth to both these words of the Prophet Goe wash and be cleane So much also for this second question Now it is time to come to the Vse 1 Uses Terror for all such as live prophanely and yet thinke themselves within a condition of mercy And first I will insist upon the condition of the promise First then here is Terror for all such as are so farre from the condition of faith that they utterly reject and cast it off And of these there are two sorts The one prophane the other schismatickes For the former They please themselves with this That God bids all sorts indifferently bee reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.20 be they never so base and lewd yet Christ came to save them if they can beleeve but as for this preparation they cannot tell what it meanes they will let God alone with that so they can beleeve they shall doe well And that they
betweene barke and tree to defeat your faith and conversion As once a noble man having his picture drawne faire wrote underneath One thing still remaines to dye well So say you Hitherto Lord thou hast holpen me and brought me under a condition of mercy now Lord give me thy perfecting grace too the upper and nether springs Judg. 1. as Caleb to Achsah suffer me not now in the haven to make shipwracke but give me thy hand helpe me well over this last hill that so I might be past all danger this one thing remaines to set the faire Crowne of faith upon the shoulders of the condition thereof and the worke is at an end But together with thy seeking of God for he will be sought for it Ezek. 36. end quicken up thy spirit to looke for it and lot upon it that he will doe it for thee If such a one as is under the condition of the promise may and ought to fasten upon the promise and cast himselfe upon it Plead hard for faith if once we be under the condition argue for thy selfe from this ground and plead for faith as thine owne portion The misery of the most hearers is this That they live in a perpetuall pudder uncertainty between these two rocks Whether they are under the condition or no or if so then whether they can beleeve or no. Therefore doe one thing at once First hold thy selfe close to the condition if thou be under it and let not the Divell nor thy own feares pull thee from it It is that portion which God hath alotted thee as a pledge of more These are the Suburbs of Hope to bring thee into the City Perhaps thou sayest Thou hast nothing at all wrought in thee As for the sorrow and desire which are in thee alas thou makest nothing of them but comparest thy selfe with them who have gotten beyond thee But learne to say It is mercy that I have any thing that I breathe in the aire that I am not in hell But much more to enjoy a desire after mercy I tell thee thou mayst plead for it For why Mourners for their sinne and thirsters for Gods favour have a promise to bee comforted and satisfied they want nothing save to beleeve it Oh then see thy priviledge and make use of it Do not say The Lord may yet leave me for I do not beleeve as yet I may dye ere that day Much lesse give place to thy sullennesse wearinesse and discontent It is said of Manoahs wife that when her husband abused the condition of a promise made unto them and said We shall dye She replied No husband If the Lord had meant to have slaine us he would never have appeared unto us thus and how should we have a sonne if he slay us So shouldst thou argue against thy feares because the Lord doth nothing in vaine therefore he will give me faith in deed Nay hold fast and close to the condition as thou wouldest reach the promise So did Elisha in another case 2 Kings 2.6 when Elija told him that he had asked an hard thing to have his Spirit doubled upon him yet if he saw him ascending he should have it what did he Did he breake the condition Did hee goe aside and leave his company No although hee were sollicited strongly to it yet hee sweares As the Lord liveth I will not leave thee till I must needs For why There lay a great issue upon it the forgoing or enjoying of a double Spirit of his Master Therefore to shew how hee closed with the charge at their parting he cryed My Father my Father Verse 16. and so obtained the Promise So doe thou hold that thou hast and let none pull it away but by the triall of what thou hast already got learne to trust God the better for that which still is wanting and suffer none of thy staggerings to bereave thee Eliah having tried Elisha three or foure times to leave him and not prevailing lo at last hee granted his desire Matth. 15. When that woman of Canaan had gotten a condition by the end viz. That Christ came to save the lost sheep of Israel whereof she although a Dogge in account tooke her selfe to bee one and would not be beaten off by all our Saviour his buffetings at last shee sped Since there is no remedy saith Christ but thou wilt have thy petition granted take it Sure it is the Lord will try thee of what metall thou art made if he meane to trust thee with faith If any thing will beat thee off or make thee subsist and stop ere faith bee wrought in thee soundly if onely a condition will serve thy turne and thou art content there to rest Judg. 6. thou art not fit for Gods battell Even as God tried the lappers of water from the soopers of it for Gedeon so will he try thee Be wise therefore and so hold the condition as yet understanding that the excellency thereof stands rather in her relation then in her selfe for if it could be that faith might be severed from desire or sorrow it were not possible for thee to be happy But to sever them in the elect it is not possible And thus much may serve to have spoken of the former part of the doctrine to wit the condition of a promise and the uses thereof Now the second and chiefe scope of the Doctrine and the uses thereof remaine viz. that such an one must cast himselfe upon the promise for pardon and life Of the uses hereof in order for this is the maine point 2 Part. Vse 1 And first since it is so This point of the duty of Faith the most spirituall grace and thing in the world Terror to all carnall ones that savour not the spiritualnesse of faith is strong terrour to all those who are so far from closing and casting themselves upon a Word that alas they are farre from so much as conceiving or reaching what manner of thing faith is or what it meanes to cleave and cast our selves upon the bare Word of God without any other mixture for salvation Alas they think they were as good cast away themselves altogether as to purpose it Tell us not say they of such spirituall matters as these they are above our reach and capacity wee are plaine folke commit not such riddles to us we forget them as fast we love such things as we see feele taste and handle If yee will tell us a tale or play a jigge or shew us a play and fine sights or sing sonnets in our eares if you will bring us to merry company or a feast if you will shew us some new fashion or if you will helpe us to a good bargaine where we may put out our money to use for eight in the hundred or tell us of a warme match for my Sonne or Daughter if you will shew us how we may get the day of our adversary or if
God must bee concealed to please our basenesse therefore to cast and resigne up the soule to God is neither more nor lesse then to lot upon the Lord in the promise to become that unto the Soule which before Selfe and the world was in the uttermost of her profits and pleasures lusts and vanities which gave her that satisfaction which she desired Oh good friends that neither I nor you might utter and heare that in a few sentences which perhaps all our life hath scarcely reacht unto For I tell you plainly such a speech as this might well set us both upon scanning how the case stands with us Wee all know what our owne ends what the world 1 Joh. 2.16 Matth. 18.9 the pleasures of it the lust of the heart the lust of the eye and the pride of life have been unto us Surely as our eye and right hand When as God is to the Soule that which formerly Selfe and sin were it is a signe of resignation to God Tell me now Are any of us so cast upon the word of God and those qualities of a promise before named faithfulnesse constancy lovingnesse freedome and the rest that wee can venture all our welfare thereon That God will so alsufficiently supply us that both all our former unlawfull liberties and contents shall bee as meere losse and dung to us and wee shall think our selves never the worse Againe that all meet and lawful contents shall be ministred unto us and that by a promise Lastly that if ought bee denied us which may seeme desirable wee shall therefore not thinke it meet because God gives it not for else his love could beteame it and if wee must want it yet even therein we shall abound because wee have his promise that it shall bee an hundred for one Yea and that wee shall esteeme the presence of God his favour peace of heart in forgoing a blessing or patience in bearing a crosse greater gaine by farre then to have had our wills in kinde Truly brethren to have God that unto us which before other things were is not lesse then I have spoken and yet so is God to that poore soule which hath cast her selfe upon him for pardon and life for hee who will not faile in the greatest will not faile in the smaller Marke then Faith in casting her selfe upon the promise is an hard grace but yet wise shee will lose nothing in the Hundred but shee will get in the Shire and she is warranted so to doe by the Lord who will have her know if she will be ruled by him and trust his word she shall be no loser but an infinite gainer yea and know it also to her great content though now and then mixt with some doubtings and weaknesse And by this meane the soule waxes confident upon God in the promise and by degrees growes to see this truth as well in other promises as in the maine of which I shall after say somewhat I say faith growes by experience to an holy complacence in God by his promise to be all one with him acquainted with his truth and bounty to venture herselfe and all her happinesse thereon and so to have such an affiance and trust in God as not easily to be unsettled by each delusion or conceit of Sathan or world or herselfe But still in all her seeming straits and difficulties to rely upon the promise and to picke out the true meaning thereof even the length and depth of it and seeing God cannot lye therefore to wait for resolution in all doubtfull cases rather then rashly to question the promise and to repent her of her choice This holy obedientiall affiance and trust upon God by a promise is that happinesse of a Christian soule and that true rest of heart which she should pitch herselfe upon as that portion which she counts best an fallen into a goodly ground It is a good illusion which Saloman or Batsheba hath Prov. 31.11 of the good wife That the heart of an husband rests in her hee is so linckt in love and affection to her so experienced in her fidelity chastity helpfulnesse and gracefulnesse that his heart rests upon her and trusts to her Be the businesse never so weighty be he never so farre distant from her let never such conceits and suspitions come in his minde all are washt off the trust which hee hath in her quits his minde and hee rests upon her without casting any scruples May it bee so betweene sinfull couples who may be and are in many things unfaithfull and shall not the Lord much more be trusted Yes doubtlesse A true beleeving soule goes not to worke by guesse casts not with herselfe what if God should faile her What if she should bee defeated But because the promise hath secured her of Gods unchangeable truth she takes it Simil. and as with a knife cuts in two all such cords of withdrawing feares and throwes herselfe upon it as the anchor is cast upon the bottome under water when once the Pilot hath by his plummet sounded it and there it sticks and holds the ship from tossing too and fro with winde and waves even so doth the soule which hath known the Lord and taken sure markes of him knit and fasten it selfe upon him and stands not to descant off and on this way and that but drownes it self once for all in the sea of his Attributes no more to be distempered by any of her objections That time which others spend in asking Shall I Shall I I could be content but may I safely doe it and shall I be welcome With the like stuffe shee spends in doing as she is bidden 1 Sam. 15. Esay 26.3 and hazarding all upon the faithfulnesse of him who is the everlasting strength of Israel and cannot lye Oh thou wouldest cast thy selfe upon the truth of a man whom thou hast found to keep touch in his promises and wouldst blush if such an one should cast thee in teeth that thou didst distrust his promise having never taken him tardy in any thing Should a sinfull man so engage thine heart and so ingratiate himselfe with thee and shall not the Lord much more deserve it of thee Gen. 8 9. If ever thou wilt have thy weary wings at rest fly to this Arke and settle there Buy and sell upon the promise set downe thy staffe there for this is the way to engage the Lord to thy selfe thou honourest him above all honouring by thy faith and he will for it requite thee and trust thee for ever and bind himselfe not to leave thee because he knowes thou makest full reckoning of his helpe thou hast cast off all other props of thine owne that he might be instead of them all unto thee Such a one shall not need to feare that it shall be disappointed So much for this Use Vse 4 I come in the next place to a briefe Use of Admonition to all that would cast themselves upon
of all thy former delights cast them all at Gods feet and thy selfe upon his promise But thou wilt aske me How shall I thus throw my selfe upon it To cast the soule upon the promise whaâ it is I answer doe these three things First take the due estimate of the promise and that is done by minding pondering familiarizing with it By minding it I meane a marking of it an heeding of it as a thing of no ordinary excellency Count it as thou wouldest the chaire of Estate which thou bowest unto as representing the Kings person So doth the promise it s the chamber of presence in which God discovers himselfe the royall Chaire which carries State in it when thou beholdest it behold in it the Majesty of God Esay 26.10 which no hypocrite can see in it It s hidden from his eye but to a beleever set by God in the clift of the rocke Exod. 34.6 thence to see the glory of God his graciousnesse and to heare all his good proclaimed to such an one the promise is of a most eminent excellency Deut. 32. end full of all the fulnesse of God Slight it not therefore but set thy marke upon it Secondly ponder it as Mary did weigh well the contents of it the blessed consequences of beleeving Take to consideration the worth of the pearle Luke 1.29 and treasure hid in the field as that wise Merchant did Matth. 12.44 It s as the applying of Ebed melecs rags under Ieremies armeholes Jer. 38.11 that he might be drawne out with ease Meditation is an heavenly trading of the soule in her thoughts and affections with Gods matters till the soule clapse with them Psal 119. Thirdly make the promise familiar by this means Draw thine heart to it make it thy familiar friend and counsellor to passe all thy matters for thee and in all thy doubts consult with it and let that give sentence And having received it esteem the words of the mouth of it as Iob did Job 23.12 above thy appointed food powre all into the bosome of it as thou wouldst powre out the symptomes of thy disease into the bosome of thy Physitian or a child all her griefes losses and sorrows into the lap of a tender mother Thou shalt fare better by a promise then they shall doe at their hands This is the first direction Secondly be under the authority and evidence of a promise and be convinced by it that it s thine that all before said of the strength wisdome other properties of a promise do belong to thee as really and are put into it by God that thou mightst have thy part in them See clearly as in a mirror that God intends all to thy selfe and as in the Covenant more generally so in the Seales more particularly As Laban seeing how strangely things went Gen. 24 50. said We can say neither more nor lesse but Gods finger is here it must be a match This is the work of the Spirit of the promise alway assisting it and telling the soule under the Condition Doubtlesse thou art the party whom God means to save Ester 6.6 As Haman said whom should the King mean save me So shalt thou say but much more warrantably If God had not indeed meant me well he would never have so convinced me and set me on ground that I should have nothing to gainsay The Judge on the bench saw not the theefe steale but by the sworne evidences of witnesses he is so convinced in himselfe that he reads sentence without question by this meanes the soule brings out Gods cloake staffe and signet as his pledges left in her hand to assure her of his good meaning toward her Gen. 38.25 Thirdly claspe unto and with the promise cleave unto it to bee rid of all thy annoyances at once Once convinced of the promise and ever fastned to it And this cleaving to it is that worke which immediately causeth the consent and obedience of the soule unto it to cast it self upon the promise open it thus The soule in the act of beleeving is sollicited by Satan and unbeleefe to give over and returne to folly But the promise pressing in perswades her to beleeve and renounce her old distempers The soule in this demurre consults with herselfe thus If I goe backward I perish irrecoverably If I go forward I see difficulty yet hope What then shall I doe Surely I cannot be worse then I am I must dye however in not beleeving but in beleeving I may live Therefore I will cast my self upon the promise and live A man will doe thus naturally though he have no promise Thus did those 9. lepers 2 King 3. only upon an hazard they cast themselves upon the army of the Aramites Why Because they were sure to dye in the City So the poore soule giving herselfe for dead puts her life in her hand and saith worse then dead I cannot be better I may be by a promise Nay if God be true I shall be and therefore I will venture my soule and jeopard all upon Gods faithfulnesse if I perish I perish in the armes of a promise not in Satans clawes and by my unbeleefe In this strife of the soule the Spirit doth lay in such strong weights of perswasion against the disswasives of corruption that the soule finally is overruled and so consents and obeyes to cast herselfe upon the sure bottome of a promise for pardon and life By these directions thou maist helpe thy selfe in this weighty worke but because the heart is dull upon the spurre Motives to Faith let me adde a few motives to quicken thee Let one be this Remember first that this will be the issue of Gods enquiry at his comming to judgement Secondly that by this resigning up the soule to God the greatest honour is done to him which by a mortall creature can be Thirdly that all such in the day of the Lord shall be most glorious Fourthly that the greatest wrath and vengeance shall light upon the heads of unbeleevers Fifthly that this being the rarest grace of all others in the world is therefore worth our chiefest endeavour Of these and the like I purpose God willing to treat of the next Lecture Now for the present having exceeded our ordinary bounds we will desist here Let us pray THE EIGHTEENTH LECTVRE continued upon the 14. VERSE VERSE XIV Then he went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden and his flesh came againe as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane AT the end of the last Exercise Brethren I began to finish the first and maine Branch of Exhortation raised from this act of Faith to cast the soule upon the promise To the which end I added to the directions for the duty certaine motives time giving leave onely to name such as came to minde I have referred the briefe touching of them in severall to this occasion Motive 1 Let the first if
you will be this That this selfe-resigning grace above all other Faith gâves most glory to God gives most glory to God therefore it is worth the ensuing while we have time I thinke none will deny but that which ascribes most to God and least to man is the most worthy grace to lay in for But such is this It is wholly for God concurres with him in this point of his honour above all All our obedience to the Morall Law at once considered glorifies not God so much as this no although we could performe it exactly as wee cannot Partly because this grace apprehends the perfection of Gods righteousnesse which no holinesse or righteousnesse can reach to Faith though weake yet apprehends the perfection of God and thereby conformes us to bee like him Now that 's a great honour to God to resemble his perfection and to be perfectly righteous which only faith in this life apprehends Partly also for that faith onely acknowledges God in all those Attributes of his whereby he sets forth himselfe in the saving of his elect God aimed at more glory in Redemption then in Creation And Adam did not so much honour God in his integrity as a beleever doth in the act of his faith For Adam honoured Goodnesse but not Justice nor Mercy which the Lord meant especially to set forth in Christ Read Read Rom. 3.25.26 Oh! you may easily conceive how acceptable this work of faith is to God by a resemblance For take an ambitious man who stands more upon his honour then gaine Who doth most please such a man Hee that sends him gifts No he seeks to have all men bound to him rather then to be obliged to any That man is for his tooth who in great meetings trumpets out his praise tells of his breed learning bounty and generousnesse And if any lessen his praise by comparison with others will chalenge him into the field and spend bloud in the defence of it Oh! how deare is such an one to a man who stands upon it Even such a man is hee who dare cast himselfe upon a promise for hee equals God in a sort in his ends let God propound to himselfe in what he will bee honoured and faith instantly concurres and faith True Lord it is meet be famous in thy justice satisfying it self upon Christ be honored in the wisedome of thy eternall purpose and thy revealing it in time receive glory from thy poore creature for that gracious mercy of thine that love that power and all that unsearchable riches of thine past our finding out Oh! be glorified in all at the hands of him who yet cannot reach it Rom. 11. ult 1 Tim. 1.1.19 To the King immortall invisible and only wise God be all dominion and praise Faith then enlarging it selfe to all such qualities as God seekes to bee great in doth exceedingly honour him and therefore is a grace so much the more to be sought All seeke the face of the Prince Prov. 26.29 because greatnesse delights in it David having but a conceit of the contrary in Mephibosheth was implacable Get this grace then that so thou mayst set up the Lord and make him glorious in thine own heart 2 Sam. 19.29 and in the hearts of all others as neere as thou canst Secondly let this move thee When Christ shall come to judge Motive 2 the issue of his enquiry will be Whether faith or no faith Christs last inquiry will be for faith 1 Cor. 3.13.14 Matth. 25. I deny not but he will also examine and try every mans worke by fire and purge the good workes of his from all drosse which cleaves to them It is cleare by that in Matth. 25. that hee will take account of all the Talents that he hath lent out But this shall bee the maine issue of all how the maine Talent of the Gospel hath been improved that is whether it have been beleeved or no It is plaine by Luk. 18.9 Thinke you saith Christ that when the Sonne of Man shall come to judge the world he shall finde faith upon the earth That then shall bee his inquisition And no doubt that shall be then in as great request as now it is in little Then a world if we had it for a drop of this oyle but the market is over Well let us then make it the great issue of our inquiry if we be wise while it is called to day If we lay one issue Heb. 3.15 and God lay another what a wofull losse of the day shall wee sustaine Who shall recompence our losse God askes for faith and we bring him in our many Sermons hearing or prayers making our duties doing or Lord Lord have we not done great things in thy Name Then shall he answer Depart from me Matth. 7.22 Will not this bee our hell ere wee come at it But Faith will passe for currant in that day Therefore use all diligence to make that sure now It will bee in vaine then to say Alas I was not aware of this issue if I had I would not have been to seeke Thirdly God having found out who these are will set them forth in that day to bee wondred at before Men and Angels This is that Motive 3 which Paul speakes 2 Thess 1.10 when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints God will be admired in all and onely such as beleeve and to be admired in all them that beleeve in that day because our testimony was beleeved What is it to be admired in all that beleeve Surely then God shall make fully knowne the infinite riches of his mercy which he hath discovered in saving his beleeving ones when a world of others shall be rejected How few behold God admirable in the conversion of any Men have other objects of admiration now to occupy their affections as who is the eminent rich man in the Countrey who get the Kings favour or bee the greatest for their preferment These men doe admire But as for that grace which hath chosen some to be beleevers leaving thousands of great note and parts alas it is slighted as a fancie and control'd as a falsity Nay who are so scorn'd as such But in that day those great rich ones and gallants shall be despised and then shall the Lord be admired in beleevers Here they lye by as wonderments But there they shall reflect a glory upon God who hath bestowed such favour upon them as to give them faith Oh! happy then those who have kissed the Sonne Psal 2. ult It seemes that beleevers shall then bee Master-peeces when as the Lord himselfe shall bee glorious in them for his love to them How shall they then bee glorious in the sight of the world Numb 10.17 If Moses and Aaron were so glorified in the sight of Israel by reason of the government and Priesthood which God put upon them and that when as Kora and his fellowes had sought to disgrace them
others Consider good friends what the Scripture speakes If yee will not beleeve you shall not be established Esay 7.9 Nothing but this Anchor will settle the ship nothing but Faith will overcome the world either within us or without us The heart being unpurified will bewray it selfe onely to faith is granted to weare the crowne of victory 1 Joh. 5.5 for this is that victory even our faith Oh! who would be alway unsetled and lye open to all mischiefe who might prevent it Zach. 12.10 Conclusion of the exhortation But I conclude this Use with the former Directions and Motives Pray to God for the Spirit of grace and supplication goe together that his spirit may perswade thy soule to both these to deny thy selfe and to resigne up thy selfe to the promise Say thus Lord thy workes are all perfect where thou beginst thou finishest It is beyond flesh to retaine this grace I have run I have laboured but except thou give me the hand to helpe me over this steep hill I shall fall back again to my old distempers the end will be worse then the beginning 1 Sam. 14.13 Oh therefore let me goe up the hill of faith as Ionathan did up the hill against the Philistines give mee a signe as thou gavest him and then all lets and oppositions shall fall before me all high things which set up themselves yea the worst that is the contrariety of heart to this thy way of beleeving shall be cast downe and then shall I submit nakedly to this obedience of faith The Lord grant it to us all for his Names sake This for the first and maine Use of Exhortation be spoken Branch 2 A second Branch of Exhortation is to all such as through mercie have cast themselves upon the promise already for pardon and life and that is that they still practise the same grace in the course of their life in all their straits crosses duties dangers and difficulties in all their temptations losses wrongs and pursuits at the hands of the unthankfull or unreasonable And in a word whether for things concerning this or a better life that they cast themselves upon the promises for salvation sustaining and full redeeming them from them all Know this brethren that as much adoe as faith costs us for pardon Plead the promise for sanctification as well as pardon Matth. 4.1 yet wee have not done there It is as great a grace to preserve the soule as it was to beget it at first enemies will not give us over as soone as wee are converted to God but rather assault us more forcibly as Christ himselfe was by Satan after his baptisme and unction to be Mediator Now then what helpe have we against all affronts save to cast our soules upon him for reliefe and redresse whom wee have already adventured upon for pardon and life What is our Charter save that of our Saviour Be of good courage I have overcome the world Joh. 16.33 14.1 Esay 26.3 Let not your hearts be troubled you beleeve in the Father beleeve also in me Cast your selves upon Jehova for he is eternall strength Here on the one side steps in feare and saith I shall never overcome such a corruption and lust of earthlinesse or pride or selfe-love or revenge or uncharitablenesse or I shall not grow in grace as others doe but alway stand at a stay or I feele no thriving by the meanes still after fasting Sacraments the old deadnesse of heart abides and I walke as the horse in the mill in one dead frame of heart and life Well deny thy selfe first and then resigne up thy selfe unto the promise Doest thou willingly yeeld thy selfe to any base corruption Or doest thou wilfully slight the meanes or defile thy conscience Then looke to thy selfe and lin not till thy pardon and peace be renewed But otherwise look not at thy distrust or unworthinesse but humble thy soule for thine unbeliefe and recover by the promise Say thus Lord when I was weake and without strength I cast my selfe upon thy word for pardon of sin and release of curse how much more may I doe it for supply of wants Plead the promise now as thou wert wont to cleave to it at first When Bathsheba was afraid her sonne Salomon should bee defeated of the Kingdome 1 King 1.15.22.26 she and Nathan plotted together to concurre with one Argument and came to David saying Did not my Lord the King say that Salomon should reigne How then is it that Adonija sits on the throne What did David He rouzes up his dying body and sweares As the Lord lives looke what I have said shall be accordingly done Thus by pleading they sped Plead thou the promise which once God gave thee and so shalt thou also Lord Didst not thou say Sinne shall not reigne Thine shall grow Thou wilt finish thy worke and they shall hold out to the end And now lo the Divel perswades me it shall be otherwise But O Lord had I first clave to sense and feeling I had never beleeved Therefore now teach mee to cast my selfe upon thy Word still and looke off from appearances Although I feele no great growth yet because thou hast said I shall and I doe not wilfully oppose it therefore I beleeve I doe In like manner steps in the malice of Satans instruments and they threaten my ruine and make me thinke I shall one day perish by them But I aske my soule Doest thou not side and sort with them by an ill conscience forsaking thine integrity Then cast thy selfe upon the promise Psal 73. end Call thy selfe a foole a beast for distrusting God Roll thy wayes upon him and say Was not I alwayes with thee Didst thou not promise to guide me by counsell till glory whom have I in heaven or earth like thee When Iehoshaphat in 2 Chron. 20.5 was beset with three armies what did he Cleave to sense and so despaire No he pleads a promise an old one made to Salomon at the dedication of the Temple Didst thou not say when enemies should besiege us and we looke up to thy throne thou wouldst looke downe Lo here is an object for thee Mount Seir and Moab and others What did God Instantly answered and scattered them all Alas brethren our faith forgets her plea and is weary of her worke God sets enemies about our eares to file off the rust of faith that shee may still honour him against feares and carnall reason We say we have cast anchor upon Gods bottome for pardon but how shall it appeare If we say so who shall gainsay us in a secret thing But shew it then in our course that secret grace may discover it selfe in straits and trialls that we may know all that is in our owne hearts either how weake they are that we may strengthen them or how strong that we may be thankfull But when sorrowes and feares beset thee on every side sicknesse debt losses of husband
not obeyed the commands which the Lord thy God commanded thee So much for Proofes Reason 1 For Reasons of this point they are many First the manner wherein the commands were given by God argued of what nature they were Their first making was solemne all that terror and awfulnesse which he cast upon the camp arraigning six hundred thousand men besides women children at his tribunall and not admitting them to come within the lists set at the foote of the mount besides those fearefull earthquakes thunders lightnings darkenesse and smoke which scared the beholders and made Moses himselfe to quake and rottennesse to enter into the bones of men shewed sufficiently that Gods commands were no nose of wax to be turned which way we list nor trifles to be dallied with but stedfast weighty and solemne things to be observed with sad and serious care of heart with great closenesse and narrownesse And surely if the Lord Jesus in his commands was so full of authority when hee was at such distance and so farre off how much more authority is he of in those commands of his published in the Gospell I meane the command of Faith and those morall commands of the Law which himselfe hath distinctly established and interpreted as we see it was his scope in those Sermons upon the Mount pressing that he came not to breake Matth. 5.17 but to strengthen them If a Princes Lawes made only by lawfully deputed Officers were so great what are they which in person and with his owne mouth he hath uttered And how great is the disobedience of them that resist Heb. 2.3.4 So much for the first Reason 2 Secondly the commands of God borrow their weight from his owne nature whence they proceed The will of God is the Idea of them They borrow their sadnesse from the nature of the Commander and they doe but argue and witnesse what that is Now we know the will of God is most soveraigne powerfull indispencible whether we speake of it as his nature and being or as the effect thereof in that transcendent and secret way and purpose thereof whereby he hath determined of the ends states of all men Now then are not those expressions of his will in his commands answerable thereto And are they not as closely to be observed as the other to be deeply adored Yes surely Men will bow to the chaire of Estate when the King is out of it for neare resemblance How much more shall we fall under the authority of commands wherein the Lord is so present as that he can never be separated And whereunto he hath annexed such sad penalties as no mortall creature can either avoid or undergoe So much for the second Reason 3 Thirdly this appeares by due proportion It is for the honour and Majesty of God to tye the conscience and inner man of his creature with as strong ties and to as narrow obedience as any mortall Prince can tye the outward man to closenesse and punctualnesse of duty The proportion of the lawes of earthly Princes doth prove it But we see Princes count it their chiefe honour to plant themselves in their subjects hearts in the uttermost and deepest awe of soveraigntie Although they be never so distant from their subjects yet they look that the influence of their Royall pleasure shall goe through their whole Kingdome That none should be so daring and presumptuous as once to mute or quetch if they once proclaime their will That must stand for a Law if any man enquire or dispute their prerogative they esteeme them Traytors so sacred and inviolable they looke that their Persons and Edicts should be that they will have them indisputable and unimpeached See it in Saul 1 Sam. 14.24 when it pleased him to enact a Law for the time of battell that no man should touch a bit or taste a drop of meat or drinke till the Philistines were overthrowne how did that Proclamation of his force the wils of his subjects to obey when as yet they were strongly provoked to break it Could an Edict of such rigor scarce just so prevaile and that in secret and shall not the Lords most righteous will much more Is it for the Kings honour to presse the subject not onely for civill homage but for conscience sake to obey him and is it not much more for the glory of our King invisible and immortall Yes sure it makes much for his renowne that all his people doe without all questioning and difficulty freely and nakedly close with his commands for that soveraignty and authority sake which himselfe hath conveyed into them Else we should make the Lord a weake King Fourthly wee must know that the Lord hath marvellous rewards Reason 4 for obeyers of his commands God hath great rewards for obeyers Psal 19.10.11 1 Sam. 22.7 and therefore well may hee require at our hands excellent obedience his pay is not common ordinary slight and generall but close and bountifull In obeying his Commands there is great reward Saul lookt that his servants should bee very close and faithfull to him in a sinfull case because of his rewards Can the sonne of Ishai give you Olives and Vineyards If a Master allow a speciall servant double wages he looks that his service should bee very close and his eye in every corner for his Masters advantage So here None give such wages as he therefore no worke should be done like his no commands ought to be so punctuall as his If a Master should make his servant his childe and give him his lands he gives him no more then he may lose nay then he must forgoe Princes allow some subjects rewards reaching to the halfe of their Kingdome But the Lord makes every servant of his a free borne childe and gives him a never fading inheritance of glory yea a whole an eternall kingdome for the least obedience they performe even for a Cup of cold water yea for every command they obey Matth. 10.42 And shall not they then bee punctuall close and serious in their obeying Fifthly whatsoever is in God is eminently so not onely in respect Reason 5 of influence and causing but of perfection and integrity Whatsoever is in God is eminent Psal 19. Now Gods will is himselfe and his Commands as I have said are the ingraven forme thereof Therefore they must bee eminently such as they are Are they righteous close sound pure Then must they also bee eminently so exceeding pure righteous soveraigne and solemne Nothing in God is common or vulgar therefore nothing of God or comming from such eminency Psal 19. can be otherwise And if the commands of God which are as the Seale are such then ought the stamp in the conscience spirit and practice of men be such which ought to be as the wax to the seale Reason 6 Sixthly if the Lord had not Law and Soveraignty sufficient in his owne hands to rule his subjects and
of Ivory or Gold But the Lord onely exalts himselfe in the spirit and conscience there he sits as Soveraigne and causes it to become his owne Recorder witnesse and Judge against the person himselfe so that the greatest selfe-love in the world cannot bribe the conscience to side with the sinner against him who is the Lord of conscience and can condemne both the one the other 1 John 3.20 Matth. 10.28 Feare not him who can kill the body onely but him who can cast body and soule into hell fire I say unto you feare him So then the Soveraignty of the commands of God stands much in the intents of God and that meaning of his to rule the spirits of his subjects and in all their obedience either negative or affirmative either in doing or suffering to cast a secret chaine upon the conscience to obey cheerfully equally uprightly wisely constantly For instance in the worship of a Sabbath the abhorring of oppression the suffering for the cause and truth of God the Lord lookes not at the externall act but the intent of the soule and the pure carriage of the heart towards himselfe as with what delight it keepes a Sabbath how cordially it preserves the spirit chaste and cleane for what ends it suffers the crosse whether for Gods or it owne Thus much for the former Quest 2. What is meant by the extent of a command The latter is what is meant by the extent of a command I answer The full reach of the command As for instance First the unlimitednesse of the command The Lord makes not some Lawes for great ones and some for small ones as if the great flye might get through the cobweb but the little ones must be taken but his nets as they are small enough to catch the small fish so they are strong enough to hold Whales and the mightest They reach to all sorts without limit rich and poore noble and simple high and low one and another Secondly their extent stands in their influence to all The Princes law reaches to all his Subjects as well as to his Chamber of London but yet the law-giver reacheth no further then his presence in absence and behinde his backe his Lawes are slighted But this Law-giver is omnipresent and assists his Lawes with immediate influence causing them to convince in secret as well as in publicke and is able to execute his owne Lawes to the uttermost so that for lacke of strength and reach of arme no sinner can goe unpunished Thirdly this breadth reaches in the affirmative command to the negative and in the negative to the affirmative as directly as if they had both been expressed In the narrow Lawes of men the sense and scope of the Law must bee limited to the words of the Statute which as the common speech is have no meaning in them beyond the tearmes thereof But the power of Gods commands stands in their insinuations and imply somewhat by necessity which they expresse not Fourthly their extent stands in the coherence thereof to wit that whatsoever maine good or evill the Lord commands or forbids by the same power hee forbids or commands whatsoever concernes that command the means tending thereto the occasions leading all circumstances attending whatsoever possibly the soule of man can apprehend directly or indirectly to make for that Law or to thwart or crosse that Law Fifthly it reaches to the quantity and measure of the duty urging not only sin to be shunned in the greatest degree but also in the smallest and so duty to be done not only in the main peeces but in the pettiest all proceeding from the same goodnesse and justice Sixthly it reaches to the measure of the principle of obeying urging it to obey not coldly deadly slackly formally but to put forth the uttermost affection strength wisdome will courage zeale reach and largenesse fruitfulnesse and extension of the inward and outward man to concurre with the meaning of the Commander which the Holy Ghost calls all welpleasing Col. 1.7 Seventhly it reacheth to an universality of time place occasions not to be limited straitened and circumscribed at our narrow will and pleasure but tyes us alway yesterday to day and ever to one obedience Heb. 13.8 not to vary with the time with the multitude by occasion of dangers feares losses enmity power of man not to be cast off in private in secret but to be enlarged according to it selfe generally to all circumstances This is a field of matter but I have already elsewhere walked in it in some sort as the reader hereof may perceive by that I have written in my practicall Catechisme part 3. in the article of the directive rule of our obedience the Law of God where I treat fully of the point So much for this second To these two questions a third may be added Object and answered ere we goe any further and that is that it may seem harsh to presse this point under the Gospell since that the liberty thereof takes off this strictnesse and limits commands from the old extent of them to the ease of the Gospell To the which I answer That the Gospell is so farre from that loosenesse that rather it establishes Answ extends and corroborates them then otherwise A great part of our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount is spent in confuting this conceit Matth. 5.6.7 not onely of Pharisaicall but of Antinomian abuse and dissolutenesse Paul also tells us Ro. 2. ult that faith setles the Law stronger upon her bottome then ever So that he is as well accursed now as ever who shall adde or detract Rev. 22. True it is that the terror rigor and the impossiblenesse of the Law is removed by our Lord Jesus The Law how far it s strengthened or weakned by the Gospell 1 Tim. 1.5.6 but looke what is taken off in that kinde is supplied in another for the spiritualnesse and purity of obeying is enlarged now rather then diminished only it is true that even in this enlargement the Lord Jesus hath made his yoke most sweet and easie to them who out of faith love and a good conscience seeke the end of the commandement as Paul speakes of which more shall be occasioned to speake after if God will in the use of Exhortation It s enough here to say That as the Lord Jesus hath removed that burdensomenesse tyranny and irkesome rigor of Lawes which was intollerable so he hath put another yoke upon the soule instead thereof which although love make sweet yet justice will not abate nor cut off Love made Iacobs labour welcome but still the frost was tedious and the heat wearisome Gen. 29.20 and the conditions hard enough to flesh and bloud So much for this and for the ground of the point Now in the third place I come to the use of the Doctrine And Vse 1 first let it be Instruction and Caveat to all superiours and men in dignity and authority as to acknowledge
faithfull will withdraw himselfe for feare as loth to be noted afraid of his betters willing to sleep in a whole skin Try our selves by this If wee obey closely wee will not strive to quench but to quicken up our selves to pick out the best services we can for God in our places As a good Justice will straine his authority and improve the Statute to the uttermost against Sabbath-breakers drunkards and glad that hee can thus expresse his heart Another will bite it in and conceale himselfe So Parents so Officers so rich ones doe that which others cannot not else alas what singular thing doe you Triall 15 To conclude an honest heart will not weare the Divels Irons nor bee dispensed with It is well principled shee hath a sound principle and is not like to hypocrites I may compare these to Children set to Schoole some onely to read write and cast account so farre onely as will serve them to keep their Shop-booke or make their reckonings straight Others to be Grammarians and so University Scholers to learne the Arts and Tongues that afterward their learning may principle and furnish them for all studies So is it with these The formall Professor if he can pray and tip his tongue with generall religion is at a point and lookes no further hee hath enough for the attaining of his owne ends and is never troubled about his course But the sound hearted Christian who strives to bring his whole heart and life under the Rule hath never done with himselfe but workes his generall principles into an infinite bredth of particulars How shall I delight in the Sabbath How shall I hold in my heart from giddinesse and loosnesse How shall I watch to God in my thoughts affections and conscience How shall I get strength against this secret lust and that defect in duty praying hearing How shall I use the world as if not or deny my selfe God sees these errours although man doth not Oh! the principle of grace exceeds the shifting skill of an hypocrite as much as heaven doth earth These are some among many others which may serve to try our hearts brethren about this waighty businesse Set we upon this work therefore and cease not till by all or by some of these trials thou canst although but weakly yet soundly judge thy selfe to be one that endeavours closely to obey And as thou shalt by these markes discover thy selfe to be so either bee comforted or admonished To the which ends the two uses following shall pertaine Thus much for the use of Examination Vse 4 Fourthly then let all such as can prove that they receive the word of Commands according thereto with all closenesse and faithfulnesse comfort Comfort themselves in their condition I have pressed the use in part before to wit in one of the Reasons To apply my selfe more particularly this I adde That thou who closest with Gods Commands maist be doubly encouraged In 2 respects The first First in respect of thy speciall serving of thy time Thou bearest witnesse to God and to his truths when thou seest the power of godlinesse borne downe in this base world know it that as the Lord will be slight with the slight so he will bee close with the close 1 Sam. 3. It is his promise That who honour him he will honour those that esteeme preciously of Commands and walke narrowly with him in their obedience he will esteem preciously of them they shall be of his Cabinet counsell they shall be privy to his secrets he will make knowne to them his waies Joh. 7.17 So that when he is aloofe to others they shall have familiar accesse yea if he give an account to any of his administrations they shall be sure to understand it Abraham was for no other cause called the friend of God If ye doe my will you shall be my friends more then my servants for friends know secrets Gen. 18.17.18 Read that Ezek 9. Where the Lord causes them that obeyed him but in one of his charges to mourne for the iniquity of the age to be marked with a penne and inke that he might know them for his jewells for his beloved ones And againe he tells that Church in Rev. 3.19 because she had kept the word of his patience that is clave to his truths in the times of danger Therefore he would save her from the temptation which should come upon the whole earth Close obeyers of God in loose times shall have close comfort in trouble They that stand out for God and will not oppose his glory to publicke sale and reproach hee will shrowd them in the day of trouble when others shall goe from chamber to chamber with terror to cover their heads from wrath A strange promise which we can hardly see how God should performe but yet God will doe it for such as preserve themselves unspotted in conscience and cleane from the infection of others In the meane time he will be found of them in their prayers close walkers with God shall have close audience close peace close comfort inward refreshings as Esay cap. 50. speakes read the 10. vers Who is he that feareth the Lord and obeyeth his voice Let him stay himself upon his God And therefore fearing God feare nothing else Although thou be scorned and pursued for this thy closenesse as a vile person yet let not this dismay thee for thou sufferest for God and as Saint Peter saith if for a good cause and cleaving to a word 1 Pet. 3.14 thou art faine to suffer take no thought in that behalfe let them who suffer for their misdeeds looke about them but as for thy part the Spirit of glory rests upon thee and although thy face shine not as an Angells like Stephens yet thou shalt as much convince thine enemies Act. 6. ult as hee did the same Spirit of courage and patience which upheld him shall sustaine thee till thou be redeemed fully from all adversity Heb. 10.37 Beare a while and he that commeth will come not tarry in the meane time side not with them who breake Commands and would have thee follow their examples But rather if this be to be vile be thou yet more vile and the more thou avilest thy selfe for God the more honourable he shall esteeme thee The like I may say of thy obeying commands in the generall practice of Christianity take comfort in this also Canst thou say The second Branch Rom. 7.22 that thou delightest in the law of God in thy spirit and inner man I tell thee thy estate is better then to be a Prince without it The Lord hath done great things for thee if it be thus and as Paul speakes even made thee for the very nonce 2 Cor. 5. Consider the dayes past Hath it alway beene thus with thee Couldest thou alway desire to be unclothed and clothed upon Couldest thou alway desire to dye daily through the rejoycing
thee The third examples Psal 16.2 Psal 119.4 Thirdly its excellent for us to turn our eyes off from all slighters and paltrers with God abhorring their declinings Psal 101. But to bend the eye of the soule towards them that are singular in grace and close obeying So David tells us That he set such before his eyes till hee was ravisht with them Doubtlesse saith he they goe not astray from any commands As if he should say oh that I were such an one With the base and formall a man should soon learne that trade But the watchfull the wakefull the close the conscionable will soone teach us their practise so that it will be a shame unto us to be otherwise and it will fixe the naile of commands deep into our hearts as with an hammer Eccles ult The fourth prayer Psal 119.27 The fourth is Prayer which is the constant helpe which Gods people have alway used to ease themselves by at this pinch David prayes God to teach him his Law graciously marke graciously that is in the sweetnesse ease delight and reward of it not in the toile and difficulty thereof Psal 119. So againe Oh that mine heart were directed to keepe thy commands They that feele the true weight of them will groane under their owne weaknesse and pray for strength Hence that holy prayer of Saint Augustine Give strength to doe what thou biddest and bid what thou wilt Turne all Gods promises and covenants into prayers for there is no one command urged upon the soule but it hath a promise annexed Oh Lord thou hast said thou wilt encline me to keep thy Law Thou hast promised to write it and engrave it in my fleshly tables to cause me to walke in all thy Statutes Oh doe it Lord Open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy Lawes their perfection and excellency then take the stone out of my heart and make it tender they may pierce into it with feare and awe Helpe Lord my fruit is come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth Fifthly get humblenesse of spirit and that will equall Gods righteousnesse Murmure not fret not at the closenesse of them for that satisfies not God But be as a worme before him The fifth rule Humility and tremble at his voice as we see the poore wormes come shaking and trembling out of the earth when they feele the feet of any treading the earth Esay hath this speech in one place You have made me to serve by your rebellions A proud heart makes God serve base flesh An humble heart which knowes it selfe serves God and is glad that it may be accepted In Psal 2.12 we see how base men take upon them But whence is it Oh pride makes them cast away all the cords of God from them Pride makes them to say Our tongues are our owne what Lord shall controll us A swelling proud heart will not endure any pinch of Law more then it selfe likes But the humble wil take Law at Gods hands gladly and concurre with him Hast thou O Lord bidden me deny my selfe Abstaine from fleshly lusts Possesse my soule with patience my vessell in holinesse and honour It s just Lord thy will is a rule I desire not to see beyond it Proud servants love a faire Livery and great wages better then close commands But the humble will take any worke upon them and say it s their object Beware then of a sullen queazy coy and proud heart Sixtly marke closely the threats of God against each rebellion The sixt rule Observe Gods Judgments and the verifying thereof in experience both in Scripture and daily This will cut the combe of presumption For who have offended God and prospered It s a maxime lot upon it whether thou see it so or not be sure it will be so As that old Prophet told his sonnes 1 Kings 13. Bury me in the grave of the man of God for all which hee hath said against this place shall surely come to passe To get a weighty heart under threats giving them a being in the soule through faith is the onely way for Commands to take effect For God hath fortified the one with the other if the fence be broken down the corne lieth open to the stroyance of all beasts Observe closely how God plagues drunkards swearers adulterers Sunday breakers and the like and adde the patternes of the Scripture oft pressed by Peter and Iude that wee may not thinke their damnation sleepes else we will bee Atheists 2 Pet. 3. Epist Jude Psal 50. and frame God like our selves But this will awe us Such and such ventured so and so but they paid sweetly for it if we be content to share with them wee may side with them but not else For Gods wrath will not rot in the sky Eccles 7. Deferring of judgement sets the heart of a sinner yea hardens it to rebellion but beleeving it workes feare and prevention as in Noah Heb. 11. Heb. 11. Seventhly deny thy selfe The seventh rule Selfe-deniall Selfe and God will runne in a stream a while as filthy dung and pure apples in a river till the one be scattered from the other So our own ends and Gods make a poor shift to go together a while till trouble and losses reproach and pursuit divide them but then they sever Sure it is That man who hath no other obedience for God save that which will goe in his owne streame of ease safety content quiet and welfare will abandon God when he is tried Therefore he that meanes to walk closely with God let him shake off such weights as these The like I may say of such Heb. 12. as dare adventure to suffer in Gods cause upon hope to lick themselves whole by carnall supplies No no All such build upon the sands of their owne false hopes the Lord will scatter them I deny not but that God is all-sufficient to all his and hath promised not to faile them yea to give them an hundred fold requitall But this is to them that walke uprightly Mal. 3. Gen. 17.1 not to hirelings who obtrude their service and know no requitals but carnall Such it is just with God to leave to their owne shifts 1. Pet. 3. even to cry a confederacy to feare the feares of the wicked and to put forth their hand unto evill because of their afflictions They will buy out the aire of a prison but their owne aire shall choke them onely they who can trust God in his promise and are content to take his pay in good worth what ever it bee such God will not forsake And such onely are meet persons to obey because they are armed 8. Rewards Lastly digest truly the reward of close obeying not onely in heaven when it shall be knowne to men and Angels who they are though unknowne to the world But even here alas Gods peoples right hand knowes not what
their left hand doth They acknowledge little to come from them Matth. 25. they keep all to themselves When did wee see thee naked and clothed thee Hungry and fed thee Sicke and in prison and visited thee Why are you such strangers to your owne duties Then shall others be strangers to your joy onely your selves shall enjoy the priviledge of your own close walking For be yee sure God will not conceale it close love shall never want close peace unknowne welfare and comfort of heart prosperity in grace growth and experience You that walke in the regeneration of obedience with Christ shall not only sit upon Thrones hereafter in stead of your dust and ashes here But in the meane while you shall fare as Christ fared he who made it his meat and drinke to doe his Fathers will had meat to eate which no man knew of Joh. 4. Nourish thou a mourning heart for sinne thine owne and others a close heart to obey and no man shall bee able to judge what thy joyes are Prov. 10.29 Thy worke is also thy wages and yet the Lord shall besides support thee otherwise so that neither spirituall nor earthly requitals shall bee wanting till at last that life of thine which was hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 shall breake out before all Men and Angels Then shall close obedience bee swallowed up into exceeding glory and the garments of joy shall bee added to thy secret consolations in the day wherein Christ himselfe shall appeare in glory And so much also may serve for this Use and for this Doctrine Whereto I wish from my heart a blessing from God upon the Reader The next Branch of Naamans obeying was his closing with the promise The second branch arising from hence is that Naaman washed seven times according to the word of Elisha in respect of the promise added to his washing and that was That he should recover his flesh againe and be cleane This point I told you is as materiall as the other one cannot well goe without the other they are as twins which live and dye together The point I collect from it is this Gods promises must be beleeved according to the scope of promises that is according to the intent and extent thereof I say againe and marke well promises must bee beleeved according to that which is in them and that which they import neither must they bee shortned or straitned stretched or enlarged neither made lesse nor more then is in them Doctrine Promises must be beleeved according to their extent More then they are no man shall need to make them for all the store and fulnesse of God is in them Lesse then they are none may dare to make them That which the holy Ghost speakes in the conclusion of Revel 22. Hee that shall adde any thing or dâminish from the words of this booke the Lord shall adde to him all the plagues in this booke and diminish his name from the booke of life That I may say of the promises Let none make them greater then they are Opening of the ground of the poâ nor yet lesser but let every one take understand and apply them to himselfe as they lye in the word not in the letter onely but in the spirituall meaning and purpose thereof Touching the ground of this point out of the Text it needs not many words to be spent about it It is evident that the obedience of Naaman in going to wash proceeded from no heat of sudden alteration of minde no pang or humour no blinde hope or had-I-wist as who say It 's but trying I will goe hit I or misse I it is but my journey No but as he was strongly held back before by a deep selfe-conceit so now hee is drawne forward by as deep an inspiration of God and a perswasion that the promise annexed to his washing was as certaine and undeceiveable as the charge was divine and absolute and therefore in obeying God commanding hee consents to God promising also in as full and absolute a degree and in all points and respects as the promise lay that is to say not that hee should perhaps be cured perhaps not but that the cure should bee whole and entire no manner of Leprosie should hereafter cleave to him any more but as now he was nasty and scurvie all over so then he should be healed by the healing of God better then if Elisha had laid his hand upon it that is as perfectly as if hee never had been Leper and his flesh should returne to him as the flesh of a little childe so clean should he become and return home and not repent him that he had beleeved the promise in the fulnesse thereof So much for the ground of the Text. Now as I noted in the former point here some may step in and object Object Why doe you ground a doctrine upon such a passage as this of Naaman Alas his washing was but an outward act and that occasionall and personall onely reaching to himselfe and determining with him Our case is otherwise and it must be a bottome of eternall truth which must ground a doctrine of this nature because it concerns the perpetuall practice of a poore soule in respect of pardon and sanctification To whom I answer in one word That the question is not here Answ what the particular of this promise to Naaman is or is not but what the nature of every promise requires whether it bee occasionall and temporall or spirituall and generall The point is this Every promise bee it what it will be whether for once and away or for adoe being from God requires an equall obedience and extent of faith to embrace it and cast the soule upon it as well as the moralest and generallest promise in the Word can doe The reason is plaine because in the one as well as the other is enclosed that power and truth of God which bindes the soule to an equall and uniforme obedience I speake now and marke well of such promises as require our faith for the performance for some promises are absolute in themselves and rest upon the naked word whether we beleeve them or not because they be universall Gen. 8.21 As that the rainebow shall be a sure signe of no more deluges That seasons of the yeare Summer and Winter sowing time and harvest shall continue That the Gospell shall bee preached to all Nations Mâtth 24.13 That there shall be a restoring of the Kingdome to Israel and Christ shall in this world bee knowne to bee Lord and King of his Church These promises though they deserve credit yet shall be performed howsoever being pitcht and appointed by God in their seasons But for personall promises not so That particular promise made to Abraham touching a sonne if yet it were particular or any other concerning a present mercy or deliverance Gen. 18.10 Esay 7.4 as that which was made to Ahaz of
a servant not as a God to put confidence in and then all is well Some report of that good King of Swedes that he thought his life was but short because men did so deifie him but that was not all much more I thinke should we with Elihu tremble to give titles of God to men lest our Maker should destroy us for Esay 42. Job 31. Jam. 5. He will not give his glory to another In a word to use Saint Iames his stile you ought to take God with you saying If God will blesse it it shall heale Alas it s but a patcht remedy when it is at best howbeit it s in Gods hands to blesse or crosse it Enough of this The like counsell take we from hence touching all other earthly creatures or contentments therein Our life it selfe our strength our wealth wit experience friends parts bravery in fare dwelling retinue and any other blessing either for necessity or comfort What one is there of all these but hath in it one way as great a misery as another way an happinesse So that setting aside the sobriety of heart making it as it is pure to the pure what good is in it which in some other respect is not requited as much with an evill As that great man who threw his Diademe or Kingly wreath on the ground saying If a Subject knew what was wrapt up in it he would not stoop to take it up to have it What carking care goeth with riches A poore Cobler very merry in his songs while poore having a bagge of money cast into his puy ceased to sing At last he that threw it him in came and askt him why he was so sad all on the sudden He suspecting who it was threw him back his bagge and bid him take it for he could never bee merry with it Doe I inferre hereby that Gods blessings are to bee despised No But that God hath left a cracke in the best of them in all of them to teach poore man to Idolize none of them but to set his heart upon better things Race is not alway to the swift nor wealth to the wise nor battell to the strong Eccles 9.11 saith Eccles How many mens wealth by their sinne is given them as the bane of them that have it What prophanenesse pride boasting scorne mischiefe doe they by it How many poore mens bodies know the diseases of full diet I might bee endlesse but I cease In Gods feare look upon the wormes that breed in our Manna behold the defect the sting the penalty the vanity of the creature loath excesse in it getting having forgoing Set thine heart solidly upon perfection those dainties that have no surfet that portion which hath no sorrow with it Grace and favour of God which hath no lacke that excellent cure of faith and the new creature which is Gods cure which restores the leprous soule to such a smoothnesse as it was first created with nay much better Every gift of God is perfect Jam. 1.16 saith Iames 1.6 like himselfe Be in love with Gods remedies a quiet humble patient heart under thy afflictions which are not onely not worse then the diseases but better then prosperity it selfe such as restore the soule to such a cure as is not subject to any future decay or relapse So much for this Another thing here I observe How marvellous and soveraigne an Branch 2 effect the Lord of this water of Jorden workes by the silly creature God over-rules the silly creature to bee the instrument of working great effects The flesh of Naaman saith the Text being washt in Jorden becomes as the flesh of a little childe Not surely by any inherent quality therein by nature but by the concurrence or rather over-ruling power of Almighty God using them to be instrumentall in this kinde for the setling Naamans faith thereby as by a signe q. d. As surely as thou in obedience of faith shalt wash so surely shalt thou be cleansed Means of an unproportioned strength to effect a supernaturall effect may yet be relied upon as Gods when any direct word is given us to warrant them Learne then first by the law of contraries that all meanes used by man without a warranting word are justly to be suspected as not proceeding from God but from another principle justly permitted by God to worke for the deluding of unbeleevers who will not embrace the truth revealed All Unproportioned meanes used by men without the Word for effecting of great workes are evill and to be abhorred but detaine it in unrighteousnesse And let the colours of men be never so holy in pretence of Religion yet God is not with them As well those Exorcists of the Jewes taking upon them the dispossessing of Divels without ground Acts 19.13 As the Mayd or Pythonisse that gather Masters great gaine by her divinations Acts 16.16 was from Satan Good Witches and bad differ in colour but not in Divellishnesse Papists their exorcismes and Spelles or charmes working by words of Saint Iohns Gospel or any devout prayers Popish Miracles and cures what to bee thought of or other sentencss of Scripture because they have in them no such naturall operation to produce such effects as to heale Agues or other like diseases nor yet are determined by any expresse word of God to any such use or end are as bad as the Medicines or Charmes applied by good Witches for the cure of man or beast For why Naturall things they are not Divinely supernaturall they are not Diabolicall therefore they must needs bee Charmes and spells of good Witches to bee condemned Wee must have a word for it to enable bare dead sentences of Scripture so and so by such at such a time in such a manner to such diseased men or cattell applied to effect such a cure on Gods name else though the words be good yet the Charme is never the better but much worse Better were it and lesse sinfull for such to use prophane gracelesse words then holy to so cursed an end And although the material end be good to cure a malady yet the meanes are Divellish limitations of unlikely agents must bee warranted else their device is from man by Satan Indeed men looke so much at the apparant supposed good of things to restore things lost or the like that it tickles and withdrawes them from the suspicion of the forked hooke which lies covered under the baite Oh! say they I warrant you the Divell is a murtherer from the beginniâg and doth no man good but hurt But there is a white Divell like an Angell of light as well as a blacke one with horns hooâs and the former of the two is the more sly and dangerous The Divell spake good truthes when he confessed Christ and the Apostles that he might overthrow him by his lying witnesse and conveighes double poison hereby which else he could not For what else doth he by such wiles and tricks
save draw the spirits of curious and distrustfull men to wofull Idolatry To put confidence in him under a Witch to expect successe from a cursed Principle to ascribe that glory which belongs to God alone to base means which all are reduced to the Divell their first mover Satan knowes he gaines more this way then he loseth by the truth he speaks or the good which followes He denies himselfe at no time save for wicked ends Beware therefore Dare not to confound those excellent wayes of God in his power providence and mercy to his creature with the Satanicall and Sorcerers courses of prophane beasts As for those miraculous operations of God in his Church throughout all ages of the Old Testament in the poole Siloam and the gift of ejecting Satan by some certaine persons there was enough to prove that they were from God John 5.4 Matth. 12.27 for the confirmation of Truth the strengthening of Faith the drawing of Proselites But as for all the other the Lord justly suffers Satan to deceive such as deceive themselves first and reject the truth as we see in Saul Esay 8.19 Should the living goe to the dead 1 Sam. 28.6.7 Jam. 3.15 and to them that whisper out oâ the earth Geomanticks No but to the Law and to the Testimony if that favour not there is no wisdome in them save that which Saint Iames calls from beneath and divelish A most wofull thing that in a land where the Gospell hath beene preached this eighty yeares such abominations should swarme and that with impunity yea in some cases which I name not with Apology God amend it So much for this Branch Secondly Goodnesse of God in using weake and poore things to effâct great is much to be admired hence acknowledge the infinite goodnesse of God in devising such aide and succour to poore creatures both their bodies and soules for the expressing of his tender mercies to us in this infirmity of our flesh That by a word speaking he should create the fruit of the lippes even peace Esay 57. by the Ministery of a sinfull man further off from power to convert a soule then Jorden to heale a leper and beget it to a lively hope and immortality and glory That thereby the word preached should carry with it the working of faith and regeneration As the Lord Jesus his own blessed words effected miracles in the speaking causing the dead to arise the lepers to be cleansed Marke ult the deafe to heare So the words of his Ministers by the same vertue from him should doe greater things then these even by instruments most weake how admirable is it To the end that our faith might not stand in man but in God! 2 Cor 4.7 That the deadly soule leprosie worse then Naamans bodily of infidelity pride hypocrisie selfe should be washt all away by the water of Baptisme through the word of the Covenant to which its annexed in all beleevers and these shall become sealing ordinances to ratifie the truth of regeneration to the soule and to confer the nourishing power of the Spirit unto life eternall how admirable is it It is the omnipotent power of God which causeth it which separates the silly creature of water bread and wine for the present from common use Sacraments how divinely appropriated to seale up to the soule strong assurance of salvation takes off the base outside of it casts an honourable mantle over it appropriates it to holy solemne and divine use and service unites the Lord Jesus himselfe with his whole merit and efficacy to it and all to effect this end to convey the Lord Jesus into the soule of the Beleever assuring it by vertue of this sealing ordinance that as verily as the body by vertue of appetite eates and drinkes the creatures so truly doth the soule take and eat the body and bloud of Christ to the souls nourishment by Gods command and promise This is a mystery and it should teach us that if God have assumed such poor creatures sacramentally into the partakership of himselfe therefore to take heed lest we vilifie the outward ordinance as pretending all the power to be from Christ but to acknowledge each part thereof to bee from him and one as true though not as effectuall a part as the other Ye parents make not Baptisme a common thing make not so solemne a thing to wait upon your leasure and complements when all your trinkets are ready then carry your childe to the Sacrament No let your bables attend it not it them Despise it not for the outside there is a blessing in it and under the basenesse of elements lies hidden a world of worth and honour Therefore not to be used as common things And you my brethren the people run not out from it so soon as the word is preached as if you discerned no Christ in and under it annexed to it for your owne speciall use and good I tell thee those silly creatures are essentiall parts of the Sacrament as well as the grace and ordinances of God to bee reverenced though I say not with our own invented yet with that esteeme with which God hath honoured them viz. to be channells and conveiors of that grace of the Lord Jesus for life and support else would he not have graced Sacraments with the like honor to Faith Except a man be borne of water and the Spirit John 3.3.4 Marke ult and He that beleeves and is baptised shall be saved God can worke without them when they cannot bee had but when they may he will have them share in point of honour with the graces sealed from which they cannot be severed nor may be rent So much for this second Use And lastly although I doe not here equall Jordens waters to a Sacrament Jordens waters a resemblance of baptisme nor dare I call it a type of Baptisme yet is there a cleere and lively resemblance thereof in it I speake not this to teach any to use their wits boldly to allegorize every thing as some have done In this its safest for us to captive our wisdome to God to bee no wiser then himselâe but where he pleases to expresse allusions there to follow with sobriety As in the allegory Gal. 3. end of Sina and Jerusalem to typifie the nature of bondage and of freedome So that of Noah's flood which Peter Epist 1. Cap. 3.21 tells us is semblable to Baptisme Else its best for us to forbeare types only we may make resemblances As here this healing of Naaman by Jorden and expressing of it by the flesh of a childe teaches us thus much That the Lord who occasionally used this water to such an end as to cure an incurable leprosie of an aliant and stranger from the Common-wealth of Israel doth assure us that much more by Baptisme as by an appointed and setled sealing way he is able to heale the fretting leprosie of sinne and curse in all his
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. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
in my Sabbaths whenas I could get mine heart to delight in them in my very crosses Lament 3.23 when I could be humble and be content to be as thou wouldst have me And shall not this experience strengthen mee for time to come Contrary misery of unbelief whiâh âaânot bâteam herselfe that largenesse which is in God Is there any shadow of change with thee if I could bee the same Thy base unbeliefe is to thy soule as the laying of a peny to thine eye close whereby thou art baffled so that thou canst see nothing though thou stoodst upon the top of the hill This causeth thee to say within thy selfe This day I am to goe to Gods Table Feast and surely I doubt I shall even come home as I go thither I cannot see how God should remove this brazen bolt of my old pride unbeliefe earthlinesse unkindnesse unmercifulnesse c. Doest thou not Why Hath he never done thee as great good as this comes to Yes But thy unbeliefe makes thee to seek Thou must learne to comprehend the Lord better Simil. by faith and experience I should play the foole to bid a little childe of three yeares old to bring me a great Church Bible I know he cannot grasp it in his arms or reach me a thing from the top of an high shelfe it is above his reach So is the length breadth of Gods promises beyond thine for lack of comprehension Oh poor soul who knows what riches is in a promise But what is it to thee that there is such a Mine of gold when thou walkest over it and art aware of no such matter God was here and thou wert not aware If all promises in him are Yea and Amen yea and hee glories in it that thou shouldst beleeve it and enjoy the benefit thereof why shouldest thou weare a chaine and fetters about thee when thou mightst bee free or make thy selfe equall to hypocrites and slaves when the Lord allowes thee to bee a free man of his company What is this save as Iob speakes wilfully to stint Gods hand to the end that thy selfe mightst be miserable Surely such a one shall not have the happy lot to drink of those floods of hony and butter Job 20.17 which are reserved for the portion of such as can lot and trust to the fulnesse of a promise Amplification of it When thou hast been earnest with God this day for pardon of thy failings for mercy for thy wife and family doest thou feele a checke within thy spirit from plying God further Doest thou think it enough Shalt thou not need him as much to morrow Are there not infinite many passages in thy life and in each day for thee to know thine old friend and to make use of him If God be but as man drawne dry with gifts what doest thou pretending to trust to him Jer. 2.13 If he be a fountaine why shouldst thou suspect him or thinke him sufficient to pardon such sin and no more to purge such corruption and no more to deliver from such a danger and no more What a straitning of unlimitednesse and All-sufficiencie is this If thy selfe shouldst sow thy Corne upon a well-tilld soile wouldst thou limit providence to so many bushels the Acre If thou shouldest have Isaac his increase Gen. 26.12 an hundred fold wouldst thou grudge it thy selfe No herein thou canst enlarge Providence beyond ordinary beyond reason and there is no end with thine appetite But tell me I pray thee upon what soile hath the Lord sowne his promises Upon thine or Christs If upon Christs 2 Cor. 1.20 as he saith all promises are Yea and Amen in him what seed comes amisse to his foile Hath not his blood made the soile of Promises rich Can any crop be reapt off this soile but plentifull No except thou suffer it to shale and to fall to the ground for lack of reaping 2 King 13.19 Look thou to thy faith that it hold on with the Lord and doe not smite the earth thrice when God intends thee six or seaven deliverances This gives life and heart to thine enemies within to the sworne adversaries of Gods truth and thy comfort without that thou canst not get breath enough to get up the hill of promises Christ makes the soile of promises rich Ruth 3.16 For if thou couldst thou shouldst bring down thine armfull of performances Every one that lookes on thee should count thee an happy man and wonder at thee as Naomi wondred at Ruths lapfull of corne Not thy gleanings but the Lords powrings out must make thee rich First learne to gleane and at last God will give thee full measures heaped up shaken and running over Every man applauds the rich Merchant for his happy Ventures and admires him for his richnesse in silkes velvets and other commodities of far countreyes But thou shalt be an happy man for richer wares Oh shall men say how rich is such an one become in performances How is he furnisht with all Gods cost What graces hath he not got What lusts hath he not subdued How hath God held him up by the chin in all his troubles to make him cheerfull meeke and patient in them How doe his enemies sinke and fall downe and worship at his feet How have his afflictions set a new hue upon him and made him a far more humble diligent and zealous Preacher and professor of the Gospel Brethren we are cast upon ill times and live in a hard world 2 Tim. 3.1 yet we are not so quite stript of examples in this kind but we might pick out some such if we could observe them Oh brethren All things are ours 1 Cor. 3. if wee in Christ All the crop of his rich soile is thine if thou have the capacity of faith to bestow the same in Paul Cephas Apollo all gifts of the Ministery all Ordinances of Word and Sacraments all the graces of the Saints their whole communion is thine to doe to suffer to persevere The heads of the enemies of Gods Church are all thine and shall be cast thee over the wall if thou wilt beleeve Gen 47. end and 48.11 The promises in Christ are a rich Lordship a nemo scit of wealth and welfare and thou shalt say with Iacob I have enough Lord I never looked to see thy face and lo now I see thy children brought upon my knees Happinesse it selfe could make me no happier then thy performances have done So much for this Lastly this should serve for encouragement thankes and consolation to all Vse 9 such as have tasted how good and gracious the Lord hath been unto them in the performance of promises Surely Consolat Gods people should be encouraged the publicke fulfillings of promises to the whole land and Church should deserve it at thy hands and much more those which thine owne soule knowes best thou standst bound unto him for Even this present mercy Brethren which
now we enjoy in the season of the yeare How many have fretted the soule of God all this Summer 1631. by their wofull unthankfulnesse because that wee have had sad wets and not without cause for our drunkards sakes therefore many of us say Wee shall lose our Harvest to yeare What Canst thou not trust God in that promise of seed-time harvest which is absolute and depends not upon thy faith Well Gen. 8.22 now at the last God hath heard us when he had us at the vantage and this might occasion the recording of many former deliverances What hath been the cause of Gods detecting so many traytors to our Prince State and giving us their necks save the faith of Gods people which hath noted his mercies Thankfull and comforted by the faithful performing of promises Why should he else just in the nick of our enemies insulting pride in 88. and since in this hellish treason of the Powder step in stop that fatall hand Since how many droughts famines rumors of wars pestilence bad seasons hath the Lord turned away from us Should we confine our thanks to one day in the yeare And put case that still many Popish enemies lie at our root to kill it and to endanger our liberties say that many sorrowes are still upon us is it not because we have made wash-way of all sorts of performances and made them common things How hath God magnified his arme in those publick fasts of ours lately solemnized besides our private extraordinary praiers by our selves When met we but the Lord gave us in some answer more or lesse And how have we requited him for it Were it not just with him to give us quite over as them Judg. 10.13 for our Idols our covetousnesse I meane formality and hypocrisie Might he not as Ps 80.4 be angry with our prayers Might he not laugh at our misery and leave us to cruell enemies and forraine invasions who have been so weary of his own yoke Also humbled for their provokings of God to the contrary Oh! let us humble our souls to the very dust that we have requited him so basely and deserved that he should change his performances into revenges and penalties you poor heare who ere now said you could not chuse but starve this deer year how fare you now the danger is overpast God hath performed as much corn as can stand on the ground to rid you of fears will you now forget him as formerly Remember your covenants Oh that our powder were not danke and our hearts unfit to take fire and to burne out with praises nay hath not God betrusted many of us here with more then ever we looked for such wives such children such patience in our revolts such addition of life when we lookt to have beene cut off by violent feavers consumptions yet restored to live 7. 10. 20. years after with unlooked for liberty in our Ministery and Profession may we not say with David 1 Chr. 29.14 It was little to thee to build me a sure house but thou wouldst also take in my posterity to covenant for two or three generations If a Gentleman should give his poor friend a ring of 20 s. and put it into a pearl of 20 li. that friend would thanke him though he saw nothing but the gold only but when he sees the jewell too doth he not stand and wonder Shouldest thou do lesse to the Lord for those unexpected favours given thee as an overplus to his Christ What shouldst thou do but take up the cup of salvation praise him thy worst day is better then the best of such Psal 116.10 as I say not want these blessings but such as have them cast in upon them as common casualties not as performances I had rather be the scullion in a great house with poor blessings from a fountaine from faith in a promise then the Noble man himself without the favour of the giver had not Obadiah a better portion then his Master let thine estate be never so mean 1 Kings 18.3 yet if the Lord have granted thee this entercourse and intelligence with heaven thou hast great cause of thankfulnesse And to conclude Psal 122 ult let us all say as David did at the foot of his song Our trust standeth in the name of the Lord. For time to come shal I ever cavill against thee O Lord who hast beene so faithfull Shall I call thee to my tribunall if at any time thou shouldst try me with some darknes of promises am I not bound for ever to wait both in mine own behalf and the behalf of the whole Church to trust thee as a God that keepst touch nay who hast oftimes performed promises whenas I have but poorly concurr'd with them by faith put case thou shouldst do as Iacob did to Iosephs brethren lay thine hands a crosse the right upon Ephraim Gen. 48.18 the left upon Manasse say thou shouldst in particular crosse my own contents delay my praiers and estrange thy selfe for a while from me in wonted performances is it not enough for the cleering of thy faithfulnesse that thou hast so long bin faithfull Is not my experience sufficient to binde me to thy faithfulnes for ever So much shall serve also for this last Use so for the whole Doctrine and for this time THE TWO AND TWENTIETH LECTVRE Continued upon this VERSE VERSE XIV Then Naaman went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iordan and behold his flesh came againe as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane THe last day Beloved as you may remember I made an end of the former Doctrine issuing out of the successe of Naamans washing To wit that Gods performances are alway as good as his promises if not better Now the last point of the whole verse and so of the third generall part of this text remaineth to be handled And that is grounded upon this That now after Naamans faith and fruition of the promised cure wee heare no more of his old distempers his cavils his rage and turning from the Prophet All is now quite changed with him as for sorrow and former trouble all is blowne away as if it had never been The point is of singular consequence and it is this The soule that can cast her selfe nakedly upon the bare promise of God may be sure thereby to lose all her distempers which under her unbeliefe assaulted her and to drowne them in the promise And this point I will first ground upon Scripture and reason Secondly answer a question or doubt Then come to some use For the ground of the text it is cleere For we see that according to the promise of Elisha so it came to passe After his washing himselfe we heare of no more distempers all are gone wee heare of the returne of his flesh as a childs we heare not of the remainder of his passions For other texts Take that place
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
the seed which causes the wombe to conceive Meditation and weighing of the promise is as the cleane beasts chewing of the end till it be almost made milke We are weary of the promise as they of Manna our soule loathes this dry Manna But as the Lord shames them for that by shewing how many wayes Manna might be dressed baked fryed parched it was good any way so may I shame us the promise may be taken up as a cup by many handles and that fitly whether we thinke of it as the fruit of Gods decree to save or of the Lord Jesus his death in which it is ratified or in the Fathers acceptation or in the Ministers fidelity or in the Lords prevention of us the wisedome and other properties even now named or our owne desolation without it or the Saints generall clasping about it or the universall ignorance unacquaintance of the world with so spirituall a subject surely every way wee might heale this disease of our little musing of it But above all if the freedome from all our old distempers did present it selfe to our minds How do men plod upon Purchases Pleasures Honours because thereby they imagine that they shall become new men and that they shall live no longer as they have done basely poorly mopishly So should the new happy life of faith no more to lead a sad dismall life affect us Nineveh could turne her thoughts from plodding feares and look up saying Jonah 3. Who knowes if he will turne from his fierce wrath and we perish not They mused of the happy ease which a secret hope would effect And are wee so farre from fastning these cords of direct promises about our armeholes It is a harsh worke to the flesh but sweet to the spirit and although the gains be slow yet if they be kept together they will make a heavy purse when as the neglect of this work wil leave the soule beggerly to her shifts Therfore wait upon those doores at those posts of Assemblies upon which the Proclamations of Heaven are fixed think thy self safe when those nayles given by the Master of them are driven fast to sticke in thy soule that they may not easily be unsettled So much for the second The third is estranging of our hearts from the promise and growing out of acquaintance with it so that we grow not more and more into a promise to know the worth and sweetnesse thereof Contrary to this is the welcomming and entertaining of the Promise The which phrase the Apostle uses in that place of Timothy This is a faithfull saying and worthy all entertainment the word there is taken from Inne-keepers who stand at their doores or gates of receit 1 Tim. 1.15 with both armes to welcome and lodge travellers Such a traveller the Promise is going up and downe seeking where it may be entertained Just it is with God to hold us to hard meat brethren and to straiten us in this point and I pray God it be not the lot of this place to be bereft of this traveller for these forty years hath he gone up and downe among us seeking who are good hoasts and finding few And because the Lord hath pind his promises upon our sleeves a great while wee waxe shie of them and thinke we may have too much of them But woe unto us if those pathes which have beene trodden bare by the feet of the Messengers of God become overgrowne and lye unoccupied as she speakes Judg. 5. for want of travell I tell you good guests finding bad hoasts are grieved and soone seeke them places of better resort and welcome So many as have received him among us have lost nothing save our distempers and corruptions which we were clogg'd with for this guest brings glad tidings and expels all sorrowes and old inmates which distempered the soule Let us therefore beware of this unhospitalnesse and grow glad entertainers of this guest the best which ever came within our doores Grow we as familiar and entire with the promises as the world is strange and aloofe from them Else our usuall distempers will be sure to haunt us whole mornings dayes and nights while they have tyred us But if the Promises be present and our doore stand ever open for them to enter and loath to leave them our old crochets will have small joy to salute us their roome will be better then their company The soule is carried along with delusions of selfe and molested either by false feares or false hopes as we read of Sisera's mother and her Ladies Judg. 5. Iudg 5. She was alwaies staggering betweene two rockes of feare and hope loth was she to thinke the worst and yet afraid of the worst she was willing to thinke that her husband would come and bring home his garments of divers colours captives and spoyle But then she thought his charet wheeles staid too long thus was she willing to beare her selfe in hand with the best both she and her false Ladies till the worst affronted her Oh brethren what a wofull life is this for such as may live a better Who would be a stranger to this Post from Heaven comming with swift wings and healing in them alway bringing found intelligence from thence Mal. 3. and supporting the soule with assurance that it is well betweene God and the soule Who would not do as David did I have made thy Word my Counseller to passe my matters Do Clients keepe themselves aloofe from their Counsellers Do Patients make strange to the Physitian or do friends alienate themselves from friends Oh! Hos 8. we count the Promise a strange thing which in truth by this time should have bin as sweete unto us as the honey and the honey combe as sweet and sweeter then ever our delusions were And we must thinke this will cost us good inuring and acquaintance Our old guests have the birthright and long have taken up the roome it will cost time to dislodge them againe Therefore to end this let us if we would shunne the surfet of our old distempers grow inward with the promise Esay 28. Esay 38. and as Job saith let us acquaint our selves with God Till he come and say This is your refreshing to give over your owne torrents and violent streames and to embrace the waters of Siloe which runne softly let us make the promise our Companion let it be both of our Court and counsell let us empty all our mind into the bosome thereof and hide nothing from it let us discover all our doubts and distempers unto it for it hath as Salom. is said to have the wisdome and treasures of God to supply us Marke it a Minister of the promises is as a scare-crow to the people they care not how little they acquaint with him And as scarce one of forty knowes a Minister or a Prophet in the name of one so few know or receive a promise in the name of a promise
much lesse doe they make toward it Iohn 12.20 21. and use all meanes to scrue themselves into it as those Greekes John 12.21 who to get into Christs company sought first to Philip and he to Andrew and then both brought them to Jesus Such Mediation would help us to this Counsellor So much for this third To hasten another let is unconvincednesse of heart by the promise A fearfull sinne when men will not admit the Word to prevaile so farre with them as to debate the matter seriously with themselves till it have left a convincing evidence behind it that their estate is warrantable But suffer themselves to dance in a net and to lie in an ambiguous and doubtfull suspence and uncertainty when by taking paines and laying themselves in the ballance of the Sanctuary they might find themselves either not to have to doe with the promise and so amend their defects or else to be those to whom the promise pertaines and so rest satisfied and set their hearts at rest as convinced that it is theirs Oh! it 's a disease so naturall unto us that it is hardly rooted out viz. to please our selves with the conceit that all is well and our distempers shall cease but not to try our selves till wee bee convinced Give me leave to tell you brethren this dallying with a promise and not going through-stitch will breed you sorrow in the end Not long since the report of a strange accident came to mine eares of a certaine Gentleman who was in love with a Virgin of good ranke to whom he had long made love and thinking all cock-sure because she made very faire correspondence toward him he beganne to please himselfe in his fond humour and gave himselfe such content in his hopes without any sadde enquiry of her finall consent to marry him which might easily have beene had if he had followed it that he furceased as one that might have her at his command The Gentlewoman perceiving that he did not carry himselfe throughly in the businesse nor as one that resolved to come to an issue set her heart upon another lover of more ardent affection and resolution This mâssage being brought to the Gentleman as he was playing upon his Lute so smote him that he dashing his Lute and breaking it into fitters forthwith went out of his right wits The promise is like to this Virgin she serves to be married really and not alway to be dallied with She loves that the soule should make towards her with affection but when the season is come that the bargaine should be made up and that the soule be convinced of her good will to marry it she cannot endure any dalliance or paltring If then the season be neglected and the soule grow to take things for granted without any serious triall and conclusion she turnes another way and enclines to marry one who will bestow more hearty love upon her Beware good brethren of this dalliance they who desire to be eased of the distempers of the single estate and to live in a setled course must wisely take the opportunity and season which God offers and embrace it lest after their sorrowes returne double and treble and when they would faine proceed it be denied them We see single persons withstanding good offers lie by unregarded till they repent them Men love a staggering course whereas when they feele their necessities to pinch them and to send them to God for ease and not so onely but the Lord reveales the promise with a great deale of sweetnesse and delight to them so that their hearts grow very farre in love with it prize it and thinke no paines or cost too great for it then ought they to discerne the season of the Sonne of man and to apply themselves seriously and sadly to take the opportunity Then should they come to a point with the Lord and with all humblenesse and wisdome say thus O Lord thou hast said that a loaden wretch shall find ease in thee a fatherlesse creature left and forsaken of all proppes shall find mârcy with thee If I deny that thou hast made me such an one I should lie for I lie under a burden intolerable and the hearsay of thine ease hath drawne me after it with an unfeigned restlesse and hungry heart therefore what more can be said but it is of thee that I am the party What have I to say to the contrary Thy truth is without hooke or crooke none more needing none such a sinner as I none so faithfull as thou none such a God as thou to pardon and subdue sinne Thou hast therefore done this O Lord as I conceive because thy meaning is to save me and bind mine heart for ever to thee I can neither say more nor lesse but it is from the Lord and if he will doe it what is freer then his gift or stronger then his will I am content that my will be borne downe by it and bee as one bound both hands and feete unable to resist Thus the soule which desires to come to an issue with God discourses from point to point with it selfe till it grow convinced Even as Judah seeing the cloak signet and staffe brought forth acknowledged how the case stood and yeelded And Haman hearing that such and such an intent the King had to honour a favorite by and by laying things together grew to thinke Whom would the King sooner honour then my selfe That which he weakly and from the mutable favour of a man whose breath is in his nostrils concluded erroneously that doe thou gather infallibly from the mouth of a God whose love is unchangeable and so let thy soule be at quiet as Rebecca's was when it was agreed upon that she should marry Isaac there was no dallying admitted but instantly and undelayingly she goes to him and becomes his wife Oh brethren we are making the match off and on all our life long still asking shall I and shall I Oh I could beteame it and never come to an end and thereby come infinitely short of that comfort of our union and fellowship with God which else might be enjoyed To end therefore let us no more consult with our owne base dallying lasie spirits but begge that spirit which onely can convince the soule of righteousnesse and never lin till our gadding and vaine hearts be ballanced and perswaded to settle once for adoe upon the promise Iohn 16.9 a truly convinced that it is ours So much for this fourth The fifth is a cowardly heart that dares not venture nor cast it selfe upon God but chuses rather to lie frozen in her owne dregges then to venture her life and hazard her salvation upon the promise How can such a soule chuse but keepe her distempers still Whereas Gods poore servants have an heart of coârage given them to cast the hardest Brethren I feare many of us were never in Naamans case Doe but a little consider of it The case with him stood just
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 poânt 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 hooâd 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
embrace their gods Bacchus Venus and the rest more strongly then ever Enough wee have who are of the spirit of Caiphas his Hall and those that spited scorned and spit at Christ crying Crucifie him not many whose spirits are towards him tender to his glory to his mercy and grace to his poore Church and people Oh the spirit of ambition selfe-love is now all in all What should I say to such except they be accursed by Gods owne mouth that never any good should seaze upon them let this point in Gods feare scare them Me thinkes thou shouldst not heare of such a spirit of Grace and tendernesse as I speake of but thy soule shoâld tremble and thy heart throb in thy bosome to consider what a contrary spirit of corruption and hell thou walkest with Oh! if God should leave thee to this spirit of thine owne to be conceited of thy selfe to feare no danger to be carelesse what may betide thee and to adde drunkennesse unto thirst what shall become of thee what is wanting save hell it selfe to make up the woe of such a soule And yet I tell thee this is not farre off from thee Read Deut. 29. Deut 29.15 If any man hearing the words of this booke and the curses thereof shall yet say in his heart I shall have peace I shall fare well I feare nothing Especially if conceited of its owne welfare the wrath of God shall smoke out against such a man and God will not be entreated of him for why he is over head and eares in the spirit of gal bitternesse a thousand to one if ever he recover Therefore looke about thee in season As the Lord said to Elijah in the cave so say I to thee Up arise and goe forth for thou hast a great journey to goe ere thou come at the Horeb of God I wish thee to goe by mount Sinai and hath thy base spirit throughly with those terrours of God 1 Kings 19.7 which may gaster thee with some feeling of thy condition Sinne is got into thy spirit and hath seated it selfe deeply in the entrals of thy soule A great gulfe is set betweene thee and the spirit of grace therefore pull downe thy rebellious heart and as Peter said to Simon Magus try by all meanes whether this thy sinne may be forgiven thee The spirit of grace is joyned with the spirit of mourning Acts 8.22 Try whether God cannot bring thee out of one spirit of bitternesse into a contrary for he promiseth that all humbled ones shall be in bitternesse as a thing steept in vineger as he that is in bitternesse for the losse of his onely sonne Zach. 12.10 Bitternesse of a prophane and presumptuous heart must be turned into the bitternesse of a broken and subdued spirit Oh! that ever I should exalt folly so highly and disdaine mercy yea kill the Lord of life as I have done Read Acts 2. Acts 2. where this prophecy was fulfilled in such as crucified Christ himselfe and yet being pierced in heart for it the Lord powred the spirit of grace into them and annointed them with oyle of gladnesse and joy so that they who murthered him had the first hansell of life and pardon from him Oh blessed art thou if the like portion might befall thee who hast ventured as farre as they did So much for this Branch 2 Secondly it is terrour to all Neuters and Sceptiques whose spirit seemes not so ranke and cursed Indifferency Neutrality of spirit worse then prophanenesse Numb 23. 25. but yet is as deepe and dangerous because they maintaine a vile spirit of indifferency and mediocrity in stead of this spirit of grace They say as Balac did to Balaam Neither blesse nor curse In this respect they are worse then the former because they utterly abandon all sense of the Gospel and become fulsome Atheists upon point neither hot nor cold fish nor flesh They would seeme to hate open villanies But then they much more abhorre the spirit of the Gospel Their spirits are flat and flash whereas the spirit of the Gospel is tender Luke 14. ult zealous and powerfull Wofull ones hanging betweene Heaven and Earth cast downe from Heaven vomited up from the earth Salt which hath lost his savour good for nothing no not for the dunghill All their skill stands in selfe-concealments forsooth their religion and conscience may not be known What can you worke wonders can you carry coales in your bosomes and not be burnt Such have their Religion to chuse Doubtlesse the not burning of your bosomes by this fire argues that there is not one coale of the Altar fallen upon them you are Quench-coale no sparkle of grace can kindle upon your cold hearth you must needs be ashamed of the Gospel because the spirit of magnifying it and of justifying wisdome is not in you but rather an aloofe dead and Gallio-like spirit is in you Whether you serve Christ or Beliall whether you be Popish or Protestant who but God can judge And surely you lie fulsome upon his stomach Acts 18.15 as luke-warme water and that which makes you happy in your own conceit will prove you accursed in Gods It were better you were hot or cold then thus wambling and next to be vomited for ever out of the mouth of him Revel 3.19 who never returnes to his vomit Under pretext that thou darest not trust men thou betrayest God and the spirit of the Gospel a remedy worse then the disease To be as wise as a Serpent I disswade thee not But shall this destroy that naked simplicity and spirit of love to God and his truth which where it cannot goe will creepe and play at small game rather then sit out What Matth. 10. 2 Cor. 10.4 because we cannot expresse our selves in such acts and services as we would or have done shall we serve God with neither might spirit or courage at all Is that command dispensable and confined to this season or to that hath God no need of thee in dangerous times or because thou darest trust no man wilt thou therefore trust no God Shall the Gospel carry thee no further then ease and the serving of thine owne fleshly turne will concurre Wilt thou dare to doe any thing against the spirit of the Gospel because thou hast not elbow-roome sufficient to act that part as thou wouldest It is just with God to take it quite from thee because thou walkest contrary to it And to give thee over to a close spirit of thine owne that thou shouldest jeere and scorne the zealous as Micoll did David dancing with his Ephod before the Arke 2 Sam. 6.20 Was not the King a goodly foole to day How many of these Neutrall spirits have growne to it Let it gaster us from it and teach us to nourish such a spirit in our bosomes as the Gospel hath wrought if ever any such were wrought and to be farre from disdaining
he was intimated from God to reject it and that with a solemne oath by the life of God Not that rash oaths are to be admitted in every solemne or serious case of truth But partly for the settling of Naamans spirit that he might spare needlesse obtrusions and partly that he might know it came fâom no distast in the Prophet but it was God who barred it And why Doubtlesse the Lord would not that rewards comming from a Novice whose strength was small though his wealth great nor any bruite therof among Heathens who must have heard of the fees as well as the cure should disparage and prejudice the grace and freedome of so miraculous a worke as the conversion of a soule and the healing of a Leper And therefore he would have all such sinister constructions to be dasht Gods Prophets never stand in such deep needs that God must be dishonoured by their supply God scorned to be thought to send for Naaman to possesse his Treasure or enrich his Prophet Teaching us not to rake together boons and gifts from men or advantages to our selves counting all fish that comes to net But wisely to lay things together considering what our persons the cause of God the persons that give either unable or ungrounded or any other circumstances may admit for the warranting or disabling of the receit For some cases are too hot and too heavy to meddle with such matters tending to a snare and therefore let them perish rather then Religion should suffer thereby This latitude of giving and receiving is not easily restrained where Wisdome and Discretion holds not the reine And Naaman said Shall there not then be given two Mules load of earth to thy servant For thy servant will worship no other God c. A reply of Naaman to this refusall with his reason Jn the former he seemes to speake thus If thou onely aimest at my soules good and not thine owne hearken to my motion of two Mules load of earth that is so much as will serve me to worship upon for J heare that God will onely be worshipped in his holy Land or the bounds of his Church This argued his weaknesse for God might bee worshipped by true Proselytes any where though not in Sacrifices And it was not so farre from Aram to Ierusalem Wonder not therefore if the Prophet yeelded not For herein be shewed himselfe a Novice and no wonder Young beginners must be hatcht up and encouraged But for the thing which is to be noted it is this That in ignorant beginners there are many tolerable follies and infirmities inseparably mixed till better light and information ripen and rectifie them There must be a time alotted for every thing and the Disciples of Christ while he lived with them were extremely weake Christ being in his humility they were bare but after when he came to his Crowne he gave them gifts abundantly And we need not wonder if Popery after so long a soking in their dregges are so stale and settled in their superstitions when as even at and with the first onset upon Religion and creeping out of Paganisme this poore pilgrim here growes superstitious When are we free from evill Whiles drowned in prophanenesse we are on the left hand when brought to Religion then a right-handed enemy invades us Superstition as a Canker breeding in the fairest Apple of Devotion to defile it Religion cannot quit us from danger There is a white Devill as well as a blacke Ignorance and weaknesse being unable to avoyd many right-hand evils Yet better of the two that our milke seeth a little over then be eaten raw although both would be shunned What a world of scurffe brake into the Church of God after the first three hundred years since Christ Persecution ceasing and Christianity under Constantine beginning to prosper how did Satan hedged out one way creepe in worse another We say Out of the ashes of sinne sinne may spring up Out of those ashes of persecution arose undue honour to Martyrs Orations Sepulcres Prayers to God at their Tombes Censings and the like till Superstition without a word bred Idolatry against it and laid a nest egge for a world of Popish trash to ensue upon it The sad issue of it this day argues of what stamp it is Let us labour therefore to keepe devotion within due bounds lest else she which was at first legitimate after breed bastards for lack of knowledge And so much for this The other thing is his Reason Verse 17. fetcht from the integrity of his heart in point of the worship of his onely God who had converted him and no other It is the same which is said in vers 15. which gave occasion to the last Lecture proceeding from the spirit of his cure It is as I have said an instinct and inbred affection of all true converts to clasp and cling wholly to the God of mercy and to the truth of his worship who hath accepted them to favour And therefore the first reall consequent and formall adjunct of his conversion is wholly for ever to ejure Jdols So that all defiled Schismatickes and Heretickes Jdolaters justly question their true conversion Jnto their counsell let not our soules come Vers 18. In this the Lord be mercifull to thy servant c. As he is resolved touching the last terme and object of his worship so yet he sadly staggers about the circumstances Jt hath long possessed the spirits of most men that Naaman resolved upon the bowing before the Jdoll and craved pardon for it as a gainfull sinne and that which he was loath to forgoe But they are much deceived For the opening of his speech consider there is somewhat in it good somewhat doubtfull That which was good was this that out of a tender respect to preserve his purpose of sound worship he smites first upon his chiefest feare layes his hand upon the pained plat and is most solicitous for that sinne which had beene was like to be most difficult and offensive in his way This he takes most thought how to be rid of Fire alway consumes that matter which most opposes it so doth grace carry the soule with most jealâusie caâe and resolution against that sinne which hath beene beloved'st and thâeatens greatest resistance to a repentant course That which was doubtfull in his words is this That he desires to be pardoned in his bowing afterward for so J take the words to import not for time past but the opinion of most men concerning his resolution is very uncharitable He is now in his chiefe heat and zeale for God therefore to come in with a dispensation for a thing contrary to his vow in some kind were very absurd and unseasonable to imagine But wee must conceive this verse to containe the pith of all that had passed betwixt him and Elisha touching his complaint J take it thus therefore that here is a fight in Naaman viz. betwixt zeale on the one side and ignorance
and prophane way stopt her and changed her heart Paul to be sure did so 1 Tim. 1.17 having shewed how God found him a persecutor blasphemer and wronger of innocents yet abounded in mercy and called him home Oh! he cannot wonder enough at it tells it out to others and himselfe concludes Now to the immortall invisible olny wise God to sway all to his ends be all honour for ever yea and we should never cease to call upon ours aswell as our selves to doe it when I sent thee forth my child as Iacob to Laban the Lord did order thy journey for the best defeated thee of that thou wouldest and diverted thee to that which was farre safer and better for thee Dost thou not see how hee leaves others to themselves doth not prevent them with any softnesse and tendernesse provides not well suffers them to run wild and to tire themselves in their owne vanities Thus good Naomi perceiving that God had heard her prayers for poore Ruth a stranger Ruth 3. to rivet her into the Church and make her the mother of Davids grandfather provokes her to wonder saying who art thou my daughter And hearing her to entitle God to the worke she confirmes her to trust God for afterward Branch 2 And secondly it should stir up in us prayer for our selves and others that the good hand of our God may alway attend and overrule our intentions and waies for good Our prayers should succeed our prayses Gen. 24.12 Eliezer beleeving the Lord to be such a wise and powerfull disposer fell to prayer that when Rebecca should come out to draw water for the cattell and for himselfe the Lord would prevent her with such thoughts as might promote and succeed his enterprise So should we in our journeyes travailes attempts of weight changes of our estate going to the congregation meeting good company beseech him that his good haâd might appeare in all these and through all the occasions of the day for the furthering and not dismaying us in our holy course See Job 1. end Yea even for others we should earnestly beg and say Oh Lord this day my husband goeth to such a Sermon Thou knowest he lookes at nothing save his owne ends rests upon his smooth civill bottome that he is no grosse person his wordly wit ease and pleasure are the wheels to carry him on Oh Lord oft have I begd mercy for him to open his heart and change him Now prevent him Lord let thy Minister be in his bosome convince him lay some block of thine to stop him Ezek. 14.3 remoove the stumbling block of his owne iniquity send him home more humble then he went though thy spirit blow never so weakly yet let it blow and by little and little bring him home Let me be no let to him and thy worke My unquiet heart is ready to discontent my selfe and so the husbands to the wife when I see matters goe amisse and so give way to passions unkinde and unsavoury words But alas The worke is thy prevention So for others Lord when I send forth my children to the University or to service I hope all shall be well They shall meet thy good hand to prosper them they shall be brought nearer to thee in knowledge and thou wilt blesse studies tutor company to bring them to better passe But all is in thee I have hitherto been too confident they have miscarried and stumbled at base examples Lord now at last prevent them for good Gen. 43.13.14 and lay such hold upon them that they may not slip Iacob sending his sonne Benjamin to Egypt little thinking what God intended yet intreated God to blesse them and to send his Angel before them and to give them favour in the sight of the man The Lord heard him in that and added a further blessing for he so hampered them by Iosephs wise austerity and policy that their conscience began to check them for their selling him and so by degrees their sinne comming to light they could crie out God had found them all out in their basenesse Some of them incestuous as Reuben and Iuda others murtherers as Simon and Levi and the rest like them Cap. 45. but in likelihood this became the first step to their reclaiming Oh! so should we beg Lord we send them out into the wide world or wee are to goe to our long home and leave them behinde among Lions Beares and Wolves and Foxes Lord let them find favour with thy Majesty let thy good hand goe but with them All pray for wealth and prosperity for their children Psal 4.6.7 But Lord shew them thy countenance and that they are of thine Elect and therefore within thy Covenant wheresoever they become prevent them with grace let thy Ministers and people love them let all turne to their good their services their dwellings tradings marriages Ministery and let them see that none can finde out any thing after thee that thou art in all because things could not have any way framed better for them then they shall finde Stop all lets and crossings either from within their proud vain hearts or from without Satan his subtilty and the baites or snares of this world Adde so both these It should breed humiliation in our hearts It should hold us in an holy awe and reverence of God and teach us to set his Crowne upon his head when we see t is not all our counsells Ministery be it never so powerfull education thought and care which can prevent our owne hearts or the hearts of ours or others who belong to us with any goodnesse we may pray and commend them to God as Isaac and Rebecca did Iacob in that sad pilgrimage of his to Padan The Lord it must be who must succeed him Gen. 28.1.2.3 who must encourage him at Luz and set forward his journey with prospering So that this should abase us in all best attempts Salomon could not with all his wisedome foretell whether a foole or a wise man should inherit all his travailes I confesse it ought to stay us from discontent Eccle. 2.19 if God have not heard us for our children but suffered them to run riot if we have as Iob jealously offered sacrifice for them and commended them to the good hand of God but all this will not exempt us from greefe when we see them scapethrifts and unhappy ones when we doe not commend them to the word of his grace we may thanke our selves if they thrive not yet in our best and most solicitous desires wee must not rest satisfied in our endeavours but still humbly tremble under the power of that God whose prerogative it is to prevent them with mercy to accommodate all occasions to stop all obstacles and to succeed all helpes for their good Oh! the woefull ruine of thousands who have bin children of the choysest prayers teares cost and care should teach us to lie low before the Lord in this case
Monica was so carefull for her sonne Augustine that Ambrose told her the sonne of such prayers could not perish and as it fell out he was a true Prophet for never had any man greater and stranger preventions as may easily be seenâ in that life of his written by his Deacon to excellent good purpose as the lives of many other Worthies both ancient and moderne have bin for the setting forth of the blessed fruit of Gods preventing providence both for the salvation of the parties and unspeakable good of Gods Church by the labours of such instruments And for this use so much Vse 3 Thirdly this point should be a great consolation to all such as have had experience of such mercy preventing them Of Consolation It should comfort and Branch 1 encourage them from all those doubtfull distempers which arise up in their fearfull mindes Experience of former prevention should encourage us for time to come that God will leave them in the midst of his work unperfect and unfinished It is a wofull unthankfulnesse in many who having found God gracious to them and theirs beyond expectation in preventing much evill seasoning them betimes even in their tender years and stopping evill That yet they dare not trust him forth on especially if they perceive any staggering in themselves or delaying of their desires so that God proceeds not on with them and theirs according to their hopes Judg. 13.22.23 But let them learne of a woman Manoahs wife to correct their folly who hearing her husband to feare least God would slay them answered no for then God would never have freely discovered himselfe to them at all touching a Son which should save Israel Surely if those first free preventions and gales of grace were so prised and so thankefully entertained and observed by us wee should not dare to give over God so easily for the finishing of his worke Dallyance with Gods first preventions is the cause to change his course But it is commonly mens dalliance with the first grace of God and his early preventions of us and ours yea it is our presumption upon free mercy as if it were pinned to our sleeves which causes us to winde it about our fingers and carry it loose about us as a pearle in a loose pocket and which causes the Lord to blast us to change his first course with us to suffer us to wax pearke and sawcy with him and to venture upon such occasions companies and actions as at first we durst not thinke of And so the Lord frownes upon us and changes our first motions into cold qualmes and loose affections and the base fruit of our presumption to trie whether his grace be pretious or no and whether we will forsake our fatnesse and sweetnesse of first beginnings to exalt our selves our wits conceits and humours and through embracing of lying vanities forsake our mercy If we doe let us know the Lord prevented us rather to make our destruction inexcusable then to convert us But if it be otherwise then let it appear in our extraordinary humiliation and teares Jonah 2.8 repentance and recovery of our former workes and affections let not Satan stall us in our own mire of sinne nor oppresse us with distrustfull bondage and despondency of heart to drive us to despaire let all our vanity be vaine and all our stollen waters bitter our pride and new-found selfe-contents odious unto us in comparison of former old compassions let us bee zealous I say and amend rather then harden our hearts so far till the print of our first preventions tendernesse feare and conscience be quite worne out This by the way not impertinently But to returne if there have been a levell and even eye to walke according to our first Grace let us not warpe ungrounded feares out of unthankfull distrust to thinke like that wretch 2 King 3. God hath brought us to this point to forsake us or as tâây said to slay us in the wildernesse Read Jer. 2. and we see how the Lord speaks to such as cavilled against him Oh! saith he I remember the love I made toward thee in the wildernesse a barren drie land and the first love of thy youth when thou wert dainty to me and still I can beteame thee the same love if thou wert not weary of it A sweet place Could God finde in his heart to be so to Revolters to Idolaters such as had forsaken his fountaine and digged pits to themselves and shall he not much more poore soule of little faith remember thee Art thou of no more worth then so Oh! the Lord remembers his first love still its pretious to him he cannot forget it and is it not so to thee Put case his assisting and perfecting grace seemes not in thine eye so proportionall at the first May there not bee cause Is it not to teach thee to claspe about the first as the Ivy about the bow to suck out juice from it to support thee Doubt not but proceed He that prevented thee first perhaps when thou soughtst him not or soughtst him but formally he will not faile thee now he will sticke to thee by his assisting grace also uphold thee in thy zeale meanes using make the mystery of Christ more cleare and evident draw forth reall desires and hungers esteems and diligence yea he will not give thee over till he have also finished the worke of conversion and effectuall calling in thee by the worke of faith and by daily familiarising with thine heart by his promises create the fruit of the lips which is peace in thee Isaih 57.17 Onely suffer not thy selfe to wax lazy loose and dallying with him to give him over thy selfe and then lay the fault upon him That he was very forward to lay the foundation but was not able to finish his building None but hypocrites dare bring in such verdicts rather slanders upon God Luke 14.30 Be not thou the first And againe it may be consolation in a second regard to all such to Branch 2 wit that he who not being tied to them by promise yet called them of encouragement Rom. 5.8 will now much more sticke to them having a promise to plead Which I speake because many forgetting the old mercies of God by a worldly unthankfull and estranged heart make that part of their lives most sad which should be gladdest of all And that What to doe when feare of our corruptions masters us by distrusting God for the mercie consequent upon their calling They feare that God will never make them masters over some speciall corruptions of theirs pride world ease nor increase any grace to any fulnesse but onely leave them to a poore pittance nor yet uphold them in their outward wants and crosses of poverty or infamy Deut. 32.13.14 c. by his all-sufficiencie nor rid them out of their streights by unreasonable men nor recover them out of their revolts to their former
he might pitty and succour those who are tempted And surely wonderfull use there is of this grace For alas in these troubles many a poore soule though not wilfull yet is not her owne because it is overpowred with the violence hideousnesse and irkesome of temptations without feares and unsustained horrors within so that for the time it hath no power of fastning upon counsell be it never so strong nay the stronger it is the harder to enter It must be time and stanching the bloud and waiting by degrees putting in here a droppe a line a little and there a little into the soule which must winne such an one to some hope by degrees Some texts observe for this Elihu seeing Iobs state sore snarled by his prejudicate friends and by the self-love of his own heart that it was hard to reduce all to a mediocrity applies himselfe in the spirit of singular modesty and meeknesse to be a mediator between them Job 32. Behold saith he I will not deale harshly in misjudging thee but be unto thee as thine owne soule this was the next way to redresse his sorrowes So Paul to the Galathians when he had sharpely reproved them yet seeing many of their weake mindes entangled tells them My little children of whom I travell againe till Jesus Christ be formed in you They had fallen into the hands of false teachers who had made their state more dangerous Gal. 4.19 And what doth hee Meekely and lovingly he bestowes the paines to travell againe of them Simil. A woman hath enough of breeding her fruit once and bearing it once but wee should count her a very tender mother which should beare the paine twice and fellow-feele the infants strivings and wrastlings the second time rather then want her child So Paul here is content to beare the paine twice of travelling for these Galathians hee meanes not a second birth but a second travell to reduce them home to Christ from their errors and to sympathize them so far for their good till they felt Christ againe revived in themselves after a former miscarriage and false conception So in Gal. 6.1 The Apostle againe doth require those Galathians which were strong to restore in the spirit of meekenesse such as were fallen the word is set in joint Be meeke and worke in the bone with much oile that so it may returne againe into the socket with lesse paine And Ezekiel tells us Ezek. 34.16 that this is one peculiâr property of a true shepheard that hee seeke up the lost and suffer not the bitten or broken to perish but carry it home upon his shoulder tender it dresse it and binde it up againe These and the like places shew with what spirit the Lord wishes such to go to work even so be it with us in Gods fear limpe with the halting lispe with the stuttering sit still and be silent a while till deepe affliction can speake out helpe forth the words of the distressed which sticke in the passage be tender and pitifull till God draw the heart by these cords of a man Hosea 11.4.13.2 and be as the Master of the cattell who taketh off the yoke and layeth meat unto them yea as the Lord Jesus who would not breake the brused reed Matth. 12. nor quench the smoking flax till judgement brake forth into victory Iron and steele come not to an edge without much oile Thirdly 3. Branch apply counsell and remedies with all wisdome and seasonablenesse speake a word in due season Now here the maine worke lieth But some may aske and say how should I performe this duty I answer The variety and difference of estates admit no rules in generall onely to satisfie the desirous I will instance in a few kindes and shew what remedies most fitly agree with them Observe wisely and discerne the estate of the afflicted Rules for this and that will be a great helpe to tell a qualified counsellor how to judge both of the malady and medicine For as it is in bodily diseases each one hath his severall symptomes which are not easily concealed So it is here A wise man will discover the sore by the behaviour of the party both for the kinde the measure the continuance of it and accordingly apply himselfe First then let it be one caveat 1. Discerne and separate mixt sorrow from âââgle that we observe whether the dolor bee single and simple or mixt and compounded If it be simple the trouble is the lesse But if mixt that is partly temporall and that first and chiefe partly spirituall The way is first to separate the one from the other and not to multiply spirituall comforts to such a one for his disease admits none because the roote is carnall And although it have ceased also in part upon conscience yet at the second hand Here then labour to lessen and diminish carnall and worldly griefe if it can by any meanes be removed as if it be a crosse upon the name body or state see if that can be effected and then you shall see if there continue any sorrow if it doe not it was meerly carnall and no spirituall in it if that cannot be removed then labour to divert the heart from the outward to the spirituall and that thus First shewing that this without the other is fruitlesse That the soule may bee as miserable without it as with it That love or hatred stands not in it That it may easily deceive a man about his sorrow That God either sends it as a needle to draw the thred of godly sorrow after it by the stirring of the spirit or else to leave the soule worse and that if it vanish as it came it will be so That the nature of it is deadly for worldly sorrow causeth death If these motives scatter the carnall sorrow and the spirituall remaine then it is from God And then the counsell is strive not to remove it at first but to ground it well upon the word that it may seaze kindely and so deale with it accordingly as in the rules following 2. Rule Discerne diabolicall temptations from inward The next is discerne diabolicall injections and temptations from the troubles arising from our selves Here the counsell is strive by all means to resolve the party that the Divell shall pay for his own sin Suggestions terrifying the spirit from Satans malice are none of ours Judge them by the disproportion to the souls disposition their unwelcomenes their irkesomenesse desperatenesse and tenaciousnesse And if a poor soul can truly say they are none of hers although she cannot be rid of the insulting of this god of flies yet by praier for riddance constant detesting to have fellowship and consent with them whether thoughts against God his word the Ministry Heaven Hell Providence Religion or lusts and vile affections the Lord will weaken them and not suffer thee to bee held under temptation And to say truth violent externall causes
last not long The greatest danger is lest the heart being rid of them wax wanton and secure and bee not humbled for that corruption whence these have their welcome and fiery fiercenesse 3. Rule Oâserve the measure of the trouble The third rule is observe wisely of what measure the trouble and affliction is If it be moderate then proceed accordingly But if it be excessive so that extremities may be feared succour the fainting heart with some hope even at the first though perhaps the condition of it may bee farre from applying a promise Yet because the horror or trouble may threaten despaire or violence Shew such a one that the Lord delights in no such thing but in mercy to the oppressed and when the heart is eased then returne to such a method of counsell by degrees as their estate needeth Necessity as we say hath no law Much may be done to avert a present danger which else might stay longer The jaylor was to be staid for feare of selfe-murther 4. Rule Whether terror come from sin or feare of punishment Fourthly discerne wisely of terrors of conscience whether from sin as sin or as a mischiefe which cloggeth and loadeth the heart excessively Many a wretch and these dayes are full of such will roare and cry out of himselfe the horriblenesse of his sins their returns upon him after intermission not from any true abhorring of the evill of them but because God dogs his cursed heart delighting in those evills with shrewd terrors which although they are two extremities I meane great swinge and sweetnesse in sinne and great horrors for sinne yet nothing hinders why both may not be at once and yet the mediocrity farre off In such a case to beleeve such a wretch for his outcries and horrors when it is manifest he doth but seeke for hope and sodering and possibility of pardon that hee may returne to his vomit the more boldly were to adde oile to the flame The marke of such is this their object is that which presently pinches them you shall heare little or no aime at Christ and his sweetnesse for they regard it not The counsell is to hold them hard to the law that their soules may bee under bondage of sinne as sinne and not onely under present accusation If this prevaile not they will rush themselves quickly out of their horrors into prophanenesse more and more And had not comfort beene well bestowed upon such as need none Fifthly though thou perceive the soule to bee under bondage 5. Rule Consider whether the frame of the heart under conviction be tame or rebellious yet consider well of what frame the party is If the heart bee rebellious and that sinne doth wax more sinfull by that conviction then though it bee a good signe for time to come yet the Lord makes no haste to comfort such a one till his rebellion bee brought downe and then his heart will be doubly humbled both for guilt and rebellion also It is meete that some should lie and wait under their legall abasings because else commonly they returne to their old byas againe if they come not to see how out of measure sinfull sinne is in her nature I observe it in this age of ours that the law troubles few except some violent crosses attend it which argues that they will hardly hold humble when their troubles cease Be not too hasty therefore Sixtly when thou seest it a season to speak a word to a poore soule 6. Rule Observe due season deferre it not For there may be as great perill in delay as in rash haste And shew thy selfe as carefull and cordiall in pressing of a promise earnestly and effectually to a soule in case to receive it as thou wert backward in applying it till it was so A loaden soul is under the condition of the promise and therefore to delay such an one from it is to defraud it of her portion due to it which is a worse sinne then rashnesse even as despaire is worse then presumption To this end bee conversant with the promises and be able to apply variety of them not knowing which may prevaile If the affliction bee an holding downe of the soule from beleeving 7. Rule Whether under the condition or no what lets it or if so what hinders beleeving when as yet it is under the condition of the promise search out what the speciall stoppe of the soule is and accordingly apply remedies For instance if the soule be tossed too and fro between the condition and the performance labour to settle the heart upon the condition first proving it truly loaden and hold it there telling it that the Lord is willing that it hold that which it hath gotten and then it shall be more easie to finish the other worke If the glasse bee shaken who shall see his owne face rightly So againe if the feare be that it hath not the conditions of the Gospel or hath them not in such a measure as it ought resolve such a one that the Lord having wrought a true loading in the soule will also worke the same to the sight of ease by the promise which promise as it appeares more and more reall both in the meriter and the offerer so it must needs afford more hope more desires mournings and longings after it As for the measure of these God snares no poore soule with them Be it never so feeble and brused hee will not breake it So againe if the trouble be that it hath long waited and is weary that the heart is exceeding hard corruption very strong others are got before us we are afraid we be not elected wiih a hundred more apply the remedy thereafter And whereas the maine stoppe is Selfe and aiming at our owne ends and a dead heart to beleeve let the counsell be thereafter Subdue the base heart under meer mercy enlarge the glory of the promiser above the gaine of the beleeve Also bee well exercised in the thorow opening and urging of a promise on Gods part by enlarging the length and depth of the free full and faithfull heart of God infinitely above that which a soule can long after But if I should enter into particulars I should be endlesse 8. Rule What to doe in revolts Eightly if the trouble arise from revolts and breach of covenant after repentance first observe whether former experience of mercy have broken such an heart or no if not then endeavour to breake it and to raise up the soule from the present desertion wherein it seemes destitute of that grace which formerly it enjoyed Convince it that the Lord hath never cut off nor cast out any branch which was ever planted in him Also that by such desertions he labours to hold the heart at a deeper bay of humility Read for this Jer. 3.1 and Hosea ult when once it comes to outgrow the confusion of feare and horror which a guilty conscience hath snared it
simply What then Is thy speech to be commended No in no case For why Dost thou not go by the worlds rule it seems not to be so I cannot thinke it Is this enough to bury the truth of a word of the eternall God under Doe not still speake evill of the way of salvation because God makes it not so rationall as thou wouldest and will not sell thee heaven for thy praiers and devotions He askes no more then his word beleeved will give thee power to performe if thou reject it not by distrust Instan 2 Another Instance is this Beloved so long as Gods government in the Church Administrations of God must not be quarrelled or upon our selves pleases us while hee dandles us in his lap holds off enemies enlarges our abilities keepes under our corruptions tries us by no great temptations annoints our paths for us and gives us better gifts fruit of our labours and outward blessings then we expected Oh how we can cleave to him This drawes water out of a marble stone But let our sunne enter never so little into an eclipse or if God remove our strong holds from us leave us to enemies seem to smile upon them side with them suffer them to enjoy whatsoever their heart could wish Psal 80.4 Job 1. Mica 2.7 in having their wills on us But to frown upon us not onely while we sinne but when we repent and to disregard us even in our most frequent importunate praiers Do we then persist in our uprightnes Dowe then as Micah saith beleeve that still Gods word is as good as ever it was to such as walke uprightly When neither Moon nor Sun appears for many dayes do we abhor to suffer darkenesse to possesse us within because there is such a darkenesse without Can we fall to Pauls remedy Act. 27.20 Act. 27.20 Judg. 6. Mica 7.9.10 I beleeve God No no wee cavill and say If the Lord be with us how are all these evills upon us Why I beseech you Although hee hath promised to all beleeving soules to shew them light in darkenesse and after to turne their darkenesse into light yet did hee ever promise us to keepe this darkenesse quite from us Had Christs love so appeared if he had come and kept Lazaras from dying as it did by raising him up when hee was dead and beganne to stinke Bring me forth one word sounding that way that God would alway keepe one even tenor of outward peace and prosperity over his Church and then tell him hee is not as good as his word But this is a Religion better fitting Papists who know not what faith is then such as we Oh be warned This carnality of ours sits neere Gods heart loades him as the cart with sheaves is loaden Doe not give God over thus say there will be light for the righteous it is sown for them though not come up yet God is good to Israel to the upright in heart The eternall strength of God is a brasen pillar Psal 73.1 which the soul may swing all her strength upon in the greatest straits although heaven and earth goe together such shall have peace peace that is sure peace as Esay speaks and as for carnall reason she shall see it too Esay 26.2.3 2 King 7.3 but she shall not eat thereof it is a dainty onely serving for waiters and beleevers It is faith which must doe the worke of workes keepe fire from consuming the bush or burning the three children It is faith which must doe all these feats Heb. 11.35.36.37 Carnall reason never wrought one miracle but it hath marred many Faith and the power of God hath kept a venice glasse from being broken against the wall when it was cast with violence But carnall reason breakes all it throwes Therefore to conclude take heed of her and learne admonition to lot upon the word of truth for thy selfe for the Church in the promise of God in the providence and alsufficiency of God If he satisfie not thy desires know it is not because he is weaker or falser or lesse pitifull then he was but he hath other ends then thou seest hee aimes at purging out thy canker of Selfe and perhaps hath more universall ends for the manifesting of his vengeance upon a Nation not worthy to be beloved deserving a decree to come forth This is no season for carnall sense to lowre but for faith to fall to worke if not to save others yet to save each one himselfe and lay in as Iosia did for himselfe Jer. 45. 2 Kings 22.20 that he may have his life for a prey and he may not see the evills which shall come upon others And so also to lay in pledges of hope for posterity that when Gods winter is come downe and his people scoured and his old brasse and candlesticks melted he will make better vessels of our posterities even zealous ones and prepared for every good worke And againe a third Instance may be this The outward difficulty of Instance 3 the times is great the Lord having marveilously plagued our spirituall surfeting upon his bread of life not onely with a famine of it but even with cleannesse of teeth This hath beene a sore yeare for the poore and pinched the rich What doe you poore ones now For the rich may scape better Do ye fall to fears that you shall be starven Or your do ye solace your selves that still the word abides for a stay unto hearts in these hard times Tell me truly Doth lesse meat serve you because you trust God Doth faith and a cheerfull heart make a little goe a great way Or doe ye runne to the cursed phrase If windowes were in heaven it could not be holpen Truly I hope some of ye speake the truth when you say Gods word for man is not fed with bread only doth sustaine you It is a signe that flesh and sense doe not altogether beare rule I am glad it is no worse goe on and prosper and as the Lord hath hitherto holpen you so that the scarsity of other thevish savage poore hath not oppressed you so hee shall still finde mercy in mens hearts and purses to relieve and helpe you through this famine while plenty come onely learne by this experience to build your altar with Samuel and say Hitherto the Lord hath holpen us and so hee will he hath not kept us from a Beare and a Lion that a Giant 1 Sam. 7.12 a Dog should destroy us Say thus The Lord hath not yet put us so sharply upon the pikes of famine as that we should eate our owne children or mice dogs cats and rats as in former ages of Popery they have done in this Kingdome Therefore I will trust him still and although there shall be no Calfe left in the stall Habac. 3. nor Bullocke in the flocke yet the Lord shall be my salvation I will not as poore as I am say as a Carle lately did
to all the truth of God without neglect so especially to those maine truths which they most sticke at and come shortest of that their insight into Gods method and way may be more evident unto them As for novelties and fancies of men of unstable minds ready to carry them away from the simplicity of the Gospell whether erroneous opinions or things which have some truth but yet for the present are not pertinent or profitable but might under some pretence of zeale and devotion withdraw them from their grounds ere they be setled which I observe to be a notable trick of the Divell to disorder the course of a soule travelling towards heaven they are shy thereof and cannot close with it Let every one that desires to know himself to thrive to Godward well marke this whole Section So much for this third marke Another is That such a soule strives after that which makes most Marke 4 for her owne good and for the justifying of God Even that foolish modesty which holds many under the hatches that they will not open themselves to any but keepe the Divells counsell to their owne hindrance and thereby nourish unbeleefe the longer in themselves when they are convinced of it as its long ere many will be they abhor it using all means with Paul if by any they may attaine faith at last They doe not as Ahaz who being willed to aske a signe from God to confirme his promise refused it and let all goe at six and sevens pretending that he needed none but would leave it to God without such adoe Esay 7. But he is rebuked for greeving of God by such slightnesse who loves that his people should take order to resist their infidelity and hasten to beleeve using every ordinance each occasion for the atchieving of such a grace Such a restlesse spirit they are led by who keepe the price of the high calling of God in their eie loth to lose it Phil. 3. and preserving the tender care and inquiry after it in their soules as an object of greatest excellency A bottomlesse carelesse spirit to get and lose as fast and to spill that pretious liquor which God hath been long putting into them they loath and detest 2 Joh. 8. and still seek to make up a full reward to themselves and cannot be quiet till the Lord give into their bosomes measure heaped up and running over that they may be at rest If they have any bottomlessenesse it is for the world and the cares of it but as for grace they keep all they have and still are on the gaining hand till they attaine their desire Psalm 84. No faintnesse there shall be but from strength to strength they goe full fast till they appeare before God in Sion Fifthly as they are alway hastening the Lord and impatient in Marke 5 respect of their importunity of desire Psal 70.5 so yet they are patient in respect of discontent unweariedly waiting upon the Lord for the accomplishing of their petition They have learned that lesson of the Psalmist Blessed are they that wait upon him and of Ieremy Lamen 3.25 It is good to wait patiently upon the Lord. It s much to them that the Lord will come and bring healing in his wings at last requiting long delay as Malachi speakes with speed Mal. 3. and as for urging the particular time when he will come and how soone they leave it to him whose the seasons of mercy are by whom onely the day of sealing is appointed they must wait They attend upon a Soveraigne God who shewes mercy to whom and when he pleases Rom. 9. yet also his mercies are fare to them whom hee hath called to the hope thereof Therefore their part is to get the spirit of supplication alway attending the Spirit of grace Zach. 12.10 which will hold out with the Lord without fainting and concurre with him in his time of ease In which respect it makes not haste but considers that each day hastens Gods time For as it is in the second comming of our Lord Jesus Matth. 24. end so it is in his first None knowes whether he will come at noonetide or at the evening midnight or cockcrowing but come he will So whether in youth or middle yeares or old age thou knowest not whether in a short time or after a long season whether in thy hearing or at the sacrament or in prayer or at a fast or in some great crosse or at thy death its unknowne Thou hast a promise come he will and therefore wait upon him thou art not too good and when he comes thou shalt not repent thee Marke 6 Againe this is another marke That such a soule suffers not it selfe to be taken up so deeply with the common mercies of the earth that the mercy of pardon and salvation should lose her price and wax stale with her Oh she strives to put difference alway between the content which blessings of this life bring and those which the mercy of heaven affords Give Esau a messe of pottage and his longing is satisfied Give a child a bright counter Heb. 12. and he will forgoe a gold angell It pleases a foole as well to have his bable as a Kings Crowne why Because he is a fool and discernes not so a wretch that never came in the favour of mercy will equall it to any common thing fill his belly give him ease cloath his body fill his purse and you may rob him of his birthright So hee have content any way and for the present he is well Not so that soule that longs for mercy For why It compares one with other and makes as much difference as between gold and drosse holds firmly the esteem of mercy to herself and will not suffer the base vanishing creature to come between her and home and steale her heart away by such rattles and feathers as these are Zach. 12.10 It comes here to minde what Zachary speakes That the spirit of grace goes with the spirit of compassions There are such compassions towards the Lord in a poore soule as there are in the Lord towards it In the Lord there are tender mercies as that other Zachary speakes Luke 1. Through the tender mercies of our God mercies of tendernesse and compassion to a poore miserable lost sinner reaching to forgivenesse These are peculiar not common or such as he bestowes upon them whom he pitties not in their miserie Now therefore that soul that partakes these tender mercies is as tender of them and doth so prize and esteem them that no other mercy can steale away the affections of the soule therefrom nor stall the heart therein much lesse make tender mercies to wax stale and common but still the price thereof rises till the Lord fill her therewith Marke 7 Lastly note this out of Naamans example That a perpetuall and sure marke of a man who is grace and faithward is this that his old perversenesse
pride and stoutnesse begins to quaile and his great stomack comes downe That heart which before was the heart of Leviathan as Iob describes it hard as a stone now melts and becomes soft as wax This is a signe indeed of mercy drawing neare a poore soule that even as before all turned to gall and bitternesse Job 41.24 and like bad physick wrought by contraries so now the Lord purposing to perfect his work with power lo all goes right and the omnipotent arme of God subduing and casting downe all high things that before caused the heart to swell and bluster against the way of God now molifies the hard heart and thaws it as the frost by the southwind Oh what a strange alteration doth the rising Sun cause in the horizon Fogs and mists and darkenesse vanish and disperse themselves and all the coast is cleare againe as if there had never beene any such And marke it who will thus it fares with every soule which comes to God the nearer it drawes to the Sun of righteousnesse the more melting and humble it is all old quarrells and cavills all old rebellion and stoutnesse of spirit are scattered when Christ once arises to rebuke the boisterous rage of the sea for such is every wicked heart Esay 57. ult even foaming and casting up mire and dirt then on the suddaine all waxes mild and calme and the place where frowardnesse and distempers grew is no more found Thus much for the third question I come to the Uses of the point which are many fold First it instructs Vse 1 us about a difference betweene the hypocrite and the sound hearted seeker after God Instruction 1. Branch Hypocrites elect ones differ in their issues Matth. 12. There may seeme no great oddes in their paines and endeavours both may seeme earnest and longsome both heare much pray and live in the element of meanes constantly both have their terrors their hopes their flashings of light and comfort both have their ebbings and flowings sorrowes and joyes but the one hath not the issue which the other hath The end of the one is to goe out in darkenesse the other to overcome and breake forth into victory The end of the righteous marke it Psal 37. is alway peace though after long toile and hazard The righteous are saved though scarce and with much ado and at last they come to the haven They are like to them in the ship wherein Paul sailed Act. 27. though they had so toilesome a travell of it all the winter yet God gave to Paul all the soules that were with him and bid him be of good comfort for all should safely come to land at last The truth is there is an ods between them from first to last in their knowledge in the work of the Law their terrors and of the Gospell their sorrow their desire and the rest But that is not so easie for us to discerne God only sees that But in the upshot it is manifest For then it appeares that there was a different principle that acted them the one from himselfe to himselfe the other from the Spirit of grace for the honour of grace and the change of the heart As Saint Nazianzen once spake of one of the Councells that neither it began with God neither would end for him Looke well about you brethren for God helpe us the worke of faith seems to be perfected in few of us to any purpose preaching in and out of season we have long had and all follow it but to behold the sad and dead point which many of us doe and long have stood at would flait any honest heart to think of one would thinke those former trialls should exercise every one of us to see what at last will come of all our struglings and strifes I pray God we prove not of the baser sort that enter not but faile of Gods grace though it be long first yet if at last our successe answer our pains it will be well An item to these persons But it s not amisse for some of us to suppose the hardest and say what if I should not be of them who shall end in comfort All shall not If I be one what doe I running this round and treading this maze in vaine As neere at my death as at my entrance And like to one wildred all night and in the morning comming to the place he set out I beseech you looke over those markes above hurt it can doe you none God sets us not to this taske of hearing and profession for policy and to keep us occupied and from idlenesse No he sets us to heaven-ward if we see not his scope we may wander all our lives and never the nearer and what a sad woe would that bring with it Many poore soules are afraid that death will come ere grace bee perfected But I pray God it prove not the portion of many that feare it not but are confident that the upper milstone running upon the nether the corne will be grownd whereas alas they have no corne between the milstones their soules laâ not in for any such matter as to get their soules saved and broken Esau thought nothing when he dallied with his birthright but after it was gone all his howling could not recover it Be wise therefore looke still at the scope the end must pay for all be sure your growths to heavenward be sure though slow be sure your conception be good and that the seed of God is in you then shall all your combats and strifes be as Rebecca's whom God told she had twins So be sure there be a child a breeding and true life for that will beare you through and at your birth you shall forget your sorrow Otherwise as the unhappy woman who carries a mole orabortive in her hath many feares and saith either I goe with child or with my death so shall it fare with you So much for this first 2. Branch of Instruction Censure neither our selves nor othârs in the matter of Grace Againe it should teach us neither to censure others nor our selves in the passages of our endeavours strifes for heaven Not others To say thus and thus long they have beene striving and making towards salvation and yet they daily complaine as men that have got but little alway in their complaints doubts and conflicts Surely I feare there is little in them No say not so If they be the Lords the issue shall bee good Reasons why God justly permits it thus I gave before Now I adde that these rash censures are commonly theirs who are little acquainted with the trade of faith Alas you know not what the ventures of this Merchant and the toile of this husbandman are Thinke not sinisterly of grace for the paines and the severall troubles that it brings with it If it be more easie with some then with others blesse God you have avoided many a rock and hazard that others meet