our selves to trouble and need not We hope we are as honest as others and would be as loth in cold blood to prevaricate as others but being now snared we must provide for our selves as well as we can we must save our selves for better times and not betray our owne safety Our opinion is sound and our practice shall be honest howbeit if any command of men come betweene to try and compell us what would you have us to doe We can dispense so with our people that they shall not stumble at us we can so order it that we can confute that with one breath which we allow with another Oh! thou temporizing hypocrite is thy conscience kept in a box like those witches eyes to pull out and keep in at thy pleasure Doest thou I say not reject the paterne of Gods ancient and moderne Confessors and Martyrs Heb. 11.37 but the expresse charge of commands that thou shouldest dare to please men to dishonour God Exod. 32. Take therefore that famous example of Aaron that it may give thee thy belly full of thine equivocations and distinctions against a Command Moses being gone up into the Mount the people would needs have a Calfe and to that end would needs presse Aaron to make it for them they knew his authority would carry it through better then their owne and so urge him to bee active in it What should Aaron have done Surely abhorred the thought of it and clave to the second Command with many other to that purpose But here feare or flattery or infirmity steps in and makes him a Politician hee bethinkes himselfe of a witty trick to out-shoot the Divell in his owne bow for supposing they would not easily bring their Eare-rings and Jewels to be molten he tells them If they would have a Calfe it must be made of their costliest ornaments bring him them and they should heare more whereas hee should have checkt himselfe and said What if they bring them as indeed they did wil that discharge me No surely therefore I will put my life into Gods hands cease to colour against Command and abhorre their motion What came of this Alas he was taken in his owne snare and so was not able to goe backe but makes them a Calfe Had he not think we infinite many arguments to shift off his sinne Yes verily he feared their violence or was loath to crosse them too farre his conscience was honest in the maine and what should he doe What Should they rend him in peeces He knew Moses would curbe them afterward but he was not able But what of all these Could these shield him from Moses his bitter rebuke and Gods more bitter wrath Shouldest thou mine high Priest betray mine honour to the lust of rebells Was there none but Aaron to make the people naked Should their father their nurse expose them to wrath and vengeance Oh we see what it cost him Nay even Kings themselves have been such fearefull examples for their audaciousnesse Judg. 27.8 2 Chron. 24.17 Gedeon for his Ephod Ioash for hearkning to his Princes and their bribes Saul for sacrificing without Samuel And shall wee venture to violate the Soveraignty of Gods commands Beware lest if we dare to doe it wee pay for it as they When those Princes of Samaria heard Iehu's challenge for the children of Ahab 2 King 10.4 what said they Behold two Kings could not stand before him and shall we venture No doubtlesse we will send in their heads rather So say I let not any feare or favour of man embolden you to try conclusions with God to remove his landmarkes to descant upon his Statutes for if Prophets Priests Kings have not beene able to stand it out how much lesse you Transgresse who dare or will but bring you the heads in baskets to Iehu tender you close obedience to God The more ye are pursued for conscience the more sticke to it Cast not that away to the hunters As they say the Bezor whose stone we prize understands she is hunted for nothing save her stone therefore if the hounds put her hard to it she bites them off and saves her life Doe not you so lest the misery of a lost conscience prove more fearefull then all the gaine of your ease and ends can prove sweet And to adde another item to inferiours 2. Branch Inferiors follow not the example of superiours in the breaking of Gods commands If others will be so base as to betray us to make us naked let us winde our cloake the closer about us trust God and save the darling of our peace entire If our Ministers will defend usury petty oathes jeastings riots abusing of the Sabboth let us be so much the more resolved against them and for the Sabbath to keepe it holy not only as a day of voluntary devotion at our pleasure for so wee may grow to sanctifie one of tenne or twelve aswell as seven but the eight day and Lords day consecrated by himselfe doubtlesse by intimation to his Apostles and by their practice to the honour of his rest from the worke of redemption Note And howsoever so expresse a text for the change and prorogation of the seventh to the eight as we might wish be not found yet were not our sinfull hearts prejudiced against the power of godlinesse wee might rather conclude that by this silence God tries our honesty then provokes our treachery Epecially the command of the Sabbath If the Lord Jesus purposely would defile and abdicate the seventh day Sabbath of the Jew by lying in the grave that whole day and no other else that he might early rise upon the next morrow after the light appeared whereas else he might have lien that day too To this end that as the first Sabbath was devoted to the honour of Gods rest from his creation so this second might much more be deputed to the honor of the finished redemption a far greater worke shall we quarrell with him and call it a wil-worship Christ Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath translated the rest of Creation to the rest of Redemption No verily but rather the more we see Gods Sabbaths and their morality opposed the closer let us cling to them let us know that although the meditation of Gods creation and providence be not abandoned by the eight day yet there is added a more forcible one for us to chew upon To wit the excellency of the Evangelicall Sabbath serving to magnifie the power of the resurrection which as it gave our Saviour a rest from his worke of satisfaction so it gave us the full accomplishment of the merit thereof for what had his death and grave beene worth to us without his victory And what lesse fruit can we reape thereby then the clearenesse of our justification Rom. 4. ult As he shewed himselfe the sonne of man in dying so doth he shew himselfe the Sonne of God by the power of his rising
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 haâ—d 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
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
conceale this way of his from many for speciall cause we must say Knowne unto the Lord are all his wayes and workes from the beginning Act. 15.18 Hebrew Greeke and Latine are things easie and familiar to some children but they who never had training Judge not rashly either of Gods publicke never come to know them they are theirs whose lot it was to have good education It s the lot of some Countries to have plentifull Mines of gold and silver and it s no hard matter for such to dig it out of the earth Act. 17.38 But they whose lot it is to have no such priviledge know not what the ease thereof meanes Therefore the wofull forsaking of them and passing by those times of ignorance must not make us thinke that those to whom the Lord reveales it finde it to be a difficulty It s easie onely to such as the Lord makes it so Whom he will he shewes mercy unto and whom he will he hardneth Such secrets as these must be trembled at and adored not descanted rather those whose portion it is to bee so mildly and easily drawne home to God should applaud and magnifie his goodnesse to them as a peculiar priviledge and say He hath not done thus to every Nation neither have all knowne his wayes That which hath beene impossible for some to reach unto we have beene borne unto as free men and have found it easie and sweet unto us Secondly let not us judge the estates of such Or private administrations as whom the Lord hath exercised with long difficulties in this point of beleeving I need not instance It s well knowne to all that observe Gods government how different it is in this kinde how sweetly and safely the Lord hath drawne and carryed on the course of some of his servants with ease and comfort And yet how many others not inferior in grace unto them have beene brought through a thicket to heaven Paradise and Purgatory are not more contrary notions then the estates of these two How many holy men Preachers and others have led wearisome dayes nights and yeares in their conflict and continuall combat of their unbeleefe How intricate hath Satan and Melancholy made their conditions that they have thought it as impossible for them to beleeve as to climbe up to the clouds The Lord knowes why he suffers such holy humble and hungry soules to be so long tozed and disquieted without ease some to see sinne more bitter in the crosse and curse of Christ then in all legall terrors and some to dye so Phil. 3. not to teach us to judge them for no doubt they are comprehended of him whom they comprehend not but to tremble and adore the Soveraignty of God who will as it were step out of his course when he pleaseth and is bound to none and hath it in his owne hands how and by what way hee will bring his to heaven So much for this fifth Use Lastly this should be Encouragement and Comfort That although the helpes and meanes under which they live are poore their wits silly Vse 6 their memories weake their courage small their feares great Comfort and encouragement to poore soules by this ease the Divell mighty to beat them off their friends ready to discourage and above all their own hearts most ready to dismay and give them the slip yet the Lord having drawn them truly to seek him he can make the way easie and can fight as well with few as with many He can make a way through Euphrates for his remnant to returne by as Esay saith His bare word speaking causeth the light to appeare 2 Cor. 4.6 and one word of his mouth will cause the light of grace to shine in the heart and scatter all darkenesse at once Oh! how shalt thou hold up thine head before the Lord when he hath made thy way easie if thou by thy base sloth and presumption or stoutnesse and rebellion or by the minding of other trash shalt make thy selfe uncapable of it When the Lord promises to carry thine Arke above all rocks and mountaines and to set it downe at length in safety upon dry land that yet thou wilt not betrust thy selfe to it nor resigne up thy feares unto him Oh thou shalt be speechlesse when the Lord comes against thee Therefore to finish the point beare thy selfe upon this sweet priviledge of ease and enjoy it was not Ruth willing to enjoy the favour of easie gleaning Did she reject the ease which Boaz his favour allowed her Ruth 2.16 3.13 in suffering the eares of corne to be scattered before her by handfulls No surely she and her mother both tooke it as from God Say thus I thinke it was thy good will and pleasure Lord to have it thus else it should never have beene thou meantest love to me else I should have made no such earnings of it But seeing thou wilt have it so shall I reject it No but rather draw others by thine experience to seeke the like 2 King 7. Ease makes men very ready to talke The two lepers having found such an easie booty could not bee quiet till they had declared it to the Kings house declare it thou to thy wife to thy poore children let it be as a loadstone to pull their hearts to the promise Come my child I see thou fearest thou shalt never get any thing but looke not thou at thine owne awcknesse looke at the Lords ease I looked to have met with as hard a bargaine of it as ever did any but no sooner had the Lord tired me with mine owne wrastlings and humbled me under the hope of his sweet ease but my chiefe worke was over Even so get downe thy heart subdue it to Gods promise and all shall be sweet and easie If a Lady being sued too by a King to be his wife should answer were I a Queene I would soone hearken but alas I am a poore Lady Would the King affect her No surely the marrying of a King will make a Queen of it selfe 1 Sam. 25. Abigail hearing that David had sent for her to be his wife made a great matter of it but seeing he would needs have it so rejected it not though she was not meet to wash the feet of his servants 1 Sam. 18.23 And David though he said Seems it an easie thing unto you to be the Kings sonne in law Yet refused not finally to bee so when it was put upon but accepted it with gladnesse No man willingly stands in the light of his owne lawfull preferment save a foole And so much for this last Use and for the whole Doctrine grounded upon this first Argument of the Servants The second argument of the servants Naamans love and respect to Elisha Now I proceed to the second And that is the love esteeme and repute wherein their Master formerly had had the Prophet They saw it now to bee weakened through
power of godlinesse wanze and perish Lastly hypocrites corrupt the authority of Gods commands by excepting and cavilling against the strictnesse thereof 7. By cavilling at the strictnesse of them with carnall probabilities reasons of their owne Flesh inclines to liberty and when once that can be establisht each pretence running in the streame of flesh makes it seeme to be reasonable There is no command of God but admits some colour and objection of a carnall heart to gainsay it But of this in the next Branch But to apply this Branch also with Terror consider Oh ye hypocrites who have so many wayes to crosse Gods commands and to nible off here one peece thereof there another till you have quite overthrowne all Application of this second whether I say ever any prevailed against God who contended with him about the soveraignty of his Prerogative Shall he not most righteously condemne all such Esay 54. ult Was there ever any that resisted God and prospered Shall not this be the condemnation of the world John 3.19 that light came but they hid themselves from it and all because their workes are evill Is it not just that those who winke with their eyes and will not see should be left to themselves to be stone blinde Act. 28. That their hearts should bee as hard as brawne so that they should be senselesse of the wrath which hangs over them Doe we thinke all those woes denounced against pharisees and hypocrites shall rot in the skie Such as by their owne traditions have destroyed the Law of God and neither will enter themselves nor suffer them that would to goe to Heaven Who hate with deadly feud all such as resist their inventions and would not only draw bloud from them but even shed their heart bloud and bowells to the earth if they could Shall not all the bloud of them which they have spilt from the bloud of Abel to this day be required of them Shall not the Lord turne backe upon them all those obtruded worships of theirs Matth. 23. ult as fulsome Shall not all their labours be forfeit What a terror should this be to all Popish pharisees that when they looke for deepe thanke from God for the high service they have thought to have done hee shall choke them with their owne morsells and grudge them therewith till they come out at their nostrills What is so fearfull as to lay heaps upon heaps and dye of thirst To hear God answer them say Who requireth these things at your hands Let them who set you on worke pay you your wages To lose the day at Law is some sorrow But to lose the day in the solemne judgement of God and to he sent to those Idolls inventions and devotions which they set up in Gods roome which cannot helpe them how fearefull will it be When the Lord shall say Bring me but the entire obedience of heart to one of my Commands to my Sabbaths to my Sacraments prove but this one thing that you have walked humbly and meekly with God that you have kept your selves unspotted of the world served your time and generation wisely abstained from fleshly lusts abhorred form clave to the power of godlinesse and I will save you But alas not one drop or dram of such obedience can be brought forth Tell me how just and righteous shall ye your selves confesse your condemnation to be Surely you shall be speechlesse Here you confound others with your terrors and make them so but there your selves shall be so confounded that you shall be strucke dumbe and not be able to gainsay nay you shall subscribe to your owne doome But I must remember my selfe and here breake off though abruptly leaving the third ground of Terror and Application of it with other Uses to the next Lecture THE NINETEENTH LECTVRE continued upon the 14. VERSE VERSE XIV Then he went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden and his flesh came againe unto him as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane TO proceed Brethren where we left last 3. Branch The cunning and colours of hypocrites to shift off Commands and to conclude this Use of Terror let us also in the third place observe by what shifts and cunning these hypocrites elude Gods Commands even with Arguments suggested by their carnall reason which is as a spring never drawne dry affoording them still one pretence after another in all parts and points of duty occasioned unto them Take but two or three examples in this kinde First 1 Sam. 13.8 14. 1. Instance those two acts of Saul recorded in the thirteenth and fifteenth Chapters of the first of Samuel Then that other of Ieroboam about the thirteenth of the first of Kings For the former God commands Saul not to meddle with sacrificing or sanctifying the battell till Samuel came For the more deep triall what honesty was in his heart the Lord detaines Samuel longer then the dayes appointed and what doth Saul Surely he falles to offer sacrifice himselfe When Samuel comes hee askes him what hee had done Hee telles him he had given the adventure to breake the charge but he was moved thereto by weighty motives First Samuel came not within the limited space and that seemed to license him to offer sacrifice and to release the charge Then secondly Samuel was but a subject a man unskilfull in the affaires and seasons of warre himselfe was a Martiall man of great wisedome in that kinde and therefore in so doubtfull a case fitter to determine what was to be done Thirdly the Philistines were now come upon him and he was unprepared so that had he not bestir'd him they might in likelihood have suddenly surprized him Fourthly the souldiers that hee had were slipt away from him upon Samuels delay and so hee was in perill to be deserted and to lacke strength Fifthly hee was very religious and devout in that he would not suffer the Sacrifice and Prayer to be neglected notwithstanding the danger Sixthly it seemed to crosse some other commands of God to desist from sacrificing at that instant and not to hasten it For why The staying upon Samuels comming had been to preferre Sacrifice before Mercy to mens lives Seventhly it seemed to crosse Providence when God had offered an opportunity of fight upon better conditions to neglect it and to venture upon more unequall termes afterward These and many more cavils hee pretended But none of them could notwithstanding the colourablenesse thereof prevaile against an expresse command and therefore Samuel denounceth against him that in all these passages of his carnall wisedome he was but afoole and should bee stript of his Kingdome God knew well enough what straits he was in yet knew also that he had experience sufficient of Gods power in all these straits if he had not had a base heart of treachery which could have stood between him and his feares so that he should not
you should sinne But now you that so strained out a Gnat can swallow a Camell Some of you dare grind the faces of such as you are to deale with and no money is sweeter to you then that which you get by an hard bargaine Once if you be remembred you tooke thought how you should subsist from weeke to weeke for lack of the Word Now you can passe weekes and moneths and never come at a powerfull Sermon and which is worse whereas the least offence in this or any other kind would smite you like the sting of an Adder now you are so brawned that it never troubles you awhit The time hath beene wherein the sorrowes and sufferings of Gods servants went so neere you that they made them deerer to you then ever Now no peny no Pater-noster as the Proverb saith and let them sinke or swimme what care you Once you could forfeit your names your states your paines your liberties for the truth of God Heb. 10. and professe that it was better then ten thousand of your lives Now alas the least stirring of a Mouse behind the painted cloth is enough to make you tremble like an aspen leafe Oh! you love to sleep in a whole skinne and the notion of a persecutor an enemy a prison or a fine is hideous unto you Rather had you to spend five pound to quit your selves of such a feare with a crasie conscience to please a timorous and degenerate spirit then five shillings to hold out the Profession the Resolution for that truth which once was dearer then your lives The dayes have bin when Novices and first Converts Zeale of first converts described were very scrupulous of their fashions in attire their companies their liberties games and recreations both for kind and measure both for for feare of sin and also of scandall marvellous loth to incurre the least suspition of a carnall spirit in these or any kind as jarring with the tendernesse of heart which the first sense of mercy wrought in them Now every man fals to his dispensations and swallowes downe all these as if there were nothing either within them to checke or without them to stumble at Once the manner was to enquire after the closest strictest course of worshipping and walking with God as thinking no cost too much for God Now the fashion is to aske what is the least degree of true faith that if they can make themselves beleeve they have that there they may set downe their staffe Now the first question is What liberty may a godly life admit how may we be religious with least adoe how may we save our selves best and goe neere the wind without too much note for precisenesse or trouble for our profession Iudg. 9. The fatnesse of the Olive and sweetnesse of the Vine was wont to be so precious with most of us that wee abhorred to exalt our selves above the trees with the forfeit thereof But alas those dayes are out of date now each Christian thinkes it no bargaine except he may jolly it out in some carnall manner and live with reputation in the world above his fellowes and with note among them that are carnall if they cannot brave it out with great shewes fine cloaths matches for their children raking up heapes that they may bestow upon the pride of life that which they were wont to bestow upon God good persons and causes it savours not in their nostrils Once they troubled them most who suffered them not to bee godly fast enough now these are no eye-sores they can beare them well enough but they trouble them most who will not let them be rich fast enough who mourne to see that money and pleasures and vanities steale away their hearts they could smite such Numb 22.27 as Balaam did his poore Asse who thus trumpe in their way and stop their pace in that which they cannot seeke fast enough Oh poore wretches Went not the spirit of Grace out with you to stop you also What had you laid this sweet babe in the Cradle to sleepe while you thus play your parts Is there thinke you no dinne to awake this sleepy spirit no crosse to sting you as fire in your flesh and so to recover your temper Take heed then you cozen not your selves at last as you have deceived the hope of others for sure if you be or ever were right there must be a way to let out this Pleurisie Brethren I can scarce tell to whom I speake I scarce beleeve mine owne eyes If I may are there not some here who counted it a marke of their true tendernesse to shunne the least appearance of evill 1 Thes 5. But where is this become Shew me the man whose jealous heart can prove that he hath not by nibbling at smaller evils so imbezzeled his peace and gull'd down the Sea-wals of his feare and conscience that now he is waxen hardned by the deceitfulnesse of sinne What shall we say in these cases Surely either Gods Word and the worke of Grace admits a change with the time or else these are those sadde dayes wherein men have gotten the start of this spirit of Grace and gotten more wit then our Predecessors have had to wit to joyne Religion with the liberty of our owne wils Such dispensations doubtles the Church of God never knew but rather in the loosest times counted it their eare-marke to be closest Christians Those who now nourish tendernesse are made scornes and by-words as fooles who know not their liberties It was once a marke of the true spirit of Grace to make conscience of the Sabbath day as a morall charge although changed by the speciall instinct of the Lord Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the eighth But where shall we come now where every man speakes not his owne words if not prophane yet common and ordinary in all mixt discourses about personall matters or else newes and novelties Who curbs his spirit to the talke of a Sabbath ruling his thoughts affections or converse so as at night he might lie downe in peace Truly Christians shall not have need of enemies to bring in a forme of godlinesse for ought I see themselves even in their distasting it outwardly love it too well inwardly all love a Religion of ease and breadths and owne ends This is that Viper which threatens to eate through the bowels of Religion and to bring it to nought Ah! little doe we thinke that this temper of ours doth lie heavie upon Gods stomach till he spue us out How just is it with the Lord for such a deserting and revolt from the first spirit of our conversion and falling to the mixture of Sardis Ephesus and Laodicea that is a dead a decayed and luke-warme temper to remove the Candlesticke out of his place Revel 2.5 3 18. to take his flight not from the Cherubims to the threshold but from the Temple into a Wildernesse there to gather
in Gods nostrils pag. 396 Conversion hath many steppes and degrees ere it bee fully wrought though the act of it bee at one time and why Sundry instances of the point 443. And reasons why God takes this course ibid. Mâ—rkes by which the soule may know whether conversion shall be perfected ibid. to pag. 452 Censure neither our selves nor others touching our finall estates pag. 454 Cleare and justifie God in his delay of grace pag. 457 Consolation to all who have found God in the worke of conversion pag. 458 Christians of crabbed peevish and stubborne hearts wrong their souls of faith pag. 467 All such as are under the condition of mercy may and ought to beleeve 470. Reasons of it five or six what the condition of faith is viz. no procuring but a signâ—fying thing Why this condition is requisite Who is the worker of it It is a middle thing between meer corruption grace ibid. The steppes of it foure or five ibid. To cast the soule upon the promise what it is and wherein it consists pag. 504 The Commands of God are sad and solemne things 516. explication of it Reasons of it sundry 1. They were first given in a solemne manner 2. They borrow their nature from him and his greatnes whom they come from 3. From the proportion of the Commands of earthly Princes 4. The rewards which God crownes obedience withall are solemne and great 5. Because whatsoever is in God is eminently so and therefore his soveraignty in commanding 6. Else the subjects of God his Kingdome might give him Law rather then take Law from him 7. The Lord hath power to disanull and frustrate the strongest Lawes therefore â—lso to make Lawes sad and solemne ibid. to 521. Christ Iesus the Lord of the Sabbath translated the rest of the creation to the rest of Redemption pag. 527 The cunning and colours of hypocrites to shift off commands 533. Two instances thereof ibid. Christ at his comming will wash off all the colours of hypocrites pag. 536 Close obeyers of God in loose times shall have close comfort in Troubles pag. 549 The command of the Gospel to beleeve in Christ is to bee obeyed above all commands 559 All other commands issue from this pag. 560 Churches judgement must guide us but not principle us in the truths of Scripture pag. 576 Charmes and spells of good Witches what to be thought of pag. 590 Such as charge God for breaking of promises which hee never made very sinfull pag. 610 Claymers of performances of promises and yet want a promise sinfull ibid. How men deceive themselves herein three or foure wayes ibid. 1. By Gods forbearance 2. Their abstinence from open sinnes 3. By outward blessings 4. By their Religion ibid. Christ makes the soile of promises rich pag. 617 Each true Cure hath the spirit of the cure attending upon it 856. What is meant by the Spirit of the cure Explication of it with an illustration historicall Proofes of it and reasons six 1. For the manifestation of Gods worke in the soule 2. For their heartning against all future difficulties 3. To make them objects of observation in the world 4. From the irresistable power of grace in the soule 5. Because God is the God of Order 6. For the future convincement of the soule if she decline pag. 862 Counterfeit cures of soule common in the world but true ones rare pag. 363 Caveats against declining in sundry particulars pag. 874 Some carriages of an unsound heart discovered pag. 883 Consolation to all such as have gotten the spirit of conversion and stand fast therein pag. 891 D. Despised and meanes ones if godly may comfort themselves upon good grounds pag. 73 God Delayes the perfecting of grace in his people for speciall causes 1. To try all which is in their heart 2. To begin with them as he meanes to proceed 3 To teach them the price of his grace 4. To discerne them from such as are not of his number pag. 88. 89. 90. 91 Difficulties which Gods poore Novices meet with to their conversion manifold some eight or ten of them mentioned pag. 92. 93. 95 Degenerate basenesse of our nature discovered pag. 103 Duties of Devotion and Religion how prejudiciall to Christ pag. 116 What Degrees in Religion a man may attaine unto To how small purpose 117. Wherein they faile seaven or eight particulars ibid. Admonition against it ibid. Deniall of Selfe urged 119. Vpon what respects Many dangerous lets to hinder it ibid. and counsels to further it 162. Exhortation to it in two things 1. To doe all for God 2. Suffer all for him ibid. To dispute for God and the promise against seeming objections is great grace pag. 194 Despise carnall reasons double dealing as fast as she despises the simplicity of grace pag. 208 Deny self ease for Gods ease pag. 368 Deserters and dâ—scouragers of such Ministers of God as they are bound to are blameable 389. All partiall lovers passionate lovers indirect lovers vain glorious lovers false-hearted lovers second hand and pinching lovers of the Minister to be taxed ibid. Such as are at defiance and hatred of their Ministers are odious pag. 399 Dalliers with the Gospel or attenders upon it for a season reproved pag. 489 Delight in obeying the sad Commands of God affords solid comfort pag. 550 Dispensation against the power of truths is a great sin of our times 553. Sundry instances mentioned ibid Declining of the temper of our times in zeale to the Gospel justly to bee bewailed pag. 884 E. Earthinesse of our mould and nature one cause why God fills the Scriptures with strange and rare wonders pag. 2 One errour in a weighty businesse being admitted brings on many 248. Reasons and instances to clear the point ibid. One a pritch taken against the minister 2 Vnquietnesse in marriage 3. Neglect of debts at first 4. The not curbing of the tongue Objection against it and answer thereto ibid. Speciall errours to bee avoided pag. 255 The ease of grace how it is wrought and to whom it belongs Vide Obeying the Gospel The Ease of the first mercy ought not to beget slighting of it 370. But rather to binde the heart to God ibid. The Ease of mercy should for ever make Gods yoke seem easie ibid. And teach us experience for time to come pag. 372 Esteeme of Gods Minister ought to bee pretious Reasons of it 1. It is Gods charge 2. Both the message which hee brings and woâ—ke hee performes 3. Because hee is the pledge of publicke peace 379. Wherein this love and esteeme stands ibid. viz. in honour seâ—le of Ministery service Maintenance pag. 383 Examples of such as having long lyen under distresse of conscience yet at last were comforted pag. 459 Evangelicall preparations to faith of two sorts Negative or Positive Both of them treated of pag. 478 Exhortation to obey and consent to the command and promise of God by beleeving ibid. Extent of a command wherein it stands in
unperswaded or halfe perswaded of the truth Hebâ— 2.2.3.4 Saint Paul to the Hebrewes Cap. 2. tells us if they who despised Moses Law upon two or three witnesses were condemned what shall become of them who despise so great salvation who still distrust that truth of God which was first spoken by the Lord of heaven and earth comming in the flesh Miracles serve to convince the soule of the truth sealed thereby afterward confirmed by such as heard him by miracles and the power of the word in those who were converted So may I say here this very text of Naaman shall stand up and convince all that maintaine selfe and selfe-love carnall and corrupt reason against the truth and power of the promise yea this miracle whereby the word was strengthned with all those miracles by which any truth of Christ hath since been justified shall rise up and convince all unbeleevers I meane such as live under meanes in that day For why Though they saw none of these miracles yet hearing the word beholding the seales receiving them into all our sences I say such a word as hath beene ratified by all the wonders of the Old and New Testament serving to beare down a base heart of unbeliefe about the truth power love al-sufficiency of God if they beleeve not by all these they shall be condemned justly by that authority which they have despised yea the very frame of the Scriptures and the expressions of so many strange and admirable passages serving to raise up a base and crawling spirit to heaven if we shall be found unbeleevers in that great day of Christ shall be brought forth as a witnesse against us for our horrible insensiblenesse and stupor of minde and heart Unbeleefe of Scripture and Truth of God after so many miracles very damnable For by these the Lord hath as it were striven to engraven in our spirits as with the pen of a Diamond the truthes of God and mystery of Christ If then our soules shall be found so hard and flinty that this point hath not pierced them if wee be still unconvinced and this instrument of gold hath no more left impression upon us then if a straw or rotten sticke had beene used to write in our tables of stone oh how fearefull shall our condemnation be If any man shall step in here and demand Quest Miracles how far ceased hard to say hath God so sufficiently confirmed his truth by miracles that there shall neede no more I answer I know its the opinion of many that they are wholly ceased and that because the use of them is ceased Answ For that spirit which attends the Ministry of the word carries a conviction of the truth into the mind according to all that is in the truth Now if it be so then that spirit perswades the soule of all the truth aswell in respect of the confirmation of it by miracles as otherwise but as I stagger much about this opinion so yet I am loth to affirme that the Church hath any warrant under faith to looke for the gift of miracles to be assuredly vouchsafed her although the ends thereof may seeme very weighty Who can or dare deny but that the calling of those Americans to the knowledge of the truth may seeme a weighty occasion to expect from God the gift of miracles partly by reason of their language almost impossible to be attained except by either a miraculous or at least a marveilous gift partly because there be poore inducements to draw such imperswasible and brutish spirits to cast so much as their eyes upon any meanes to induce them to beleeve In both which respects I dare not deny but that as Satan by lying wonders prevailes much with such as perish so the Lord may vouchsafe this spirit of miracles to his Church when his time is come to effect the conversion of such Only I adde that when his time is come he will grant his Church an instinct of spirit to aske it and joyne seriously in the meanes to attaine it which else he will not incline them unto his time not being come For wee must weigh the ends of our travell into remote parts whither for our owne ends or for publique If our owne respects be chiefe we have no cause to looke for miracles But I chuse rather to leave the thing in Gods dispose Vse 4 Lastly let it exhort us both generally and specially first to sue earnestly to the Lord Jesus our Prophet Exhortation the Word of the Father and the first inditer of all Scripture Spirit of acknowledgement of God in his word is to be sought by prayer the contriver of all the passages thereof the worker of all wonders and the Author of all grace and wisedome that he would vouchsafe us the spirit of revelation and acknowledgement of him as Saint Paul speakes Ephes 1.18 That we being enlightned in our mindes may conceive aright of the true scope and intent of the Spirit in the Scriptures Branch 1. generall and that he would intimate our hearts with the purpose thereof which is that our soules might be captivated under the power and authority of the speaker That we rest not in the outside of miracles wonders parables similitudes which we heare or read but considering their aime be carried downe the streame of the thing spoken yea the power To rest in the barke of the word or of miracles Parables Similitudes is dangerous soveraignty and faithfulnesse of the speaker Not only thereby conceiving more cleerely in our mindes of the Lord his Attributes and the truths revealed but much more ravished in our affections towards him for the good things whereof we have tasted Many chuse patheticall texts histories and accidents actions and speeches of speciall note to read and please themselves in some delight to read of the building of the Temple others of the passion of Christ others other parcells of Scripture to provoke admiration and discourse even as they might read any other booke of tales and wonders some also read texts of devotion and holinesse as the Psalmes or wise sentences as the Proverbs with a morrall spirit and scope only but never muse of the severall ends of such places nor the spirit of grace therein save onely to amuse their mindes and stirre up pangs of affection But by these to come neerer to know their owne base hearts or to close with the examples of such grace to feare the judgements of God the more deepely to beleeve the promises better to subject themselves more to the commands of God and in all to see his foote-steps and to adore the speaker few attaine it Therefore let us read these texts with prayer to God for sence and savor of their meaning and scope that we may attaine the spiritualnesse of them Else we shall answer heavily to God for making the solemne and reverend truths of God an occasion to nourish and maintaine that corrupt disposition
feares him Psal 103. and thy smoaking flax shall not be put out nor thy bruised reed be broken through thy conflict with the drudgery of thy distrustfull heart Maâ—t 12. Reach only at this strength as able to save thee and as belonging to thee and nothing shall come betweene cup and lip to defeat thee Death it selfe shall but hasten the promise for thee when the fruit is come to the birth this strength of the promise shall bring it forth Wait thou quietly and be doing good and thy judgement shall breake out into victory Whatsoever thy weake beginnings were thy encreases shall be great Believe it and rest thy selfe for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Job 8.7 Branch 9 Lastly to end remember that in beleeving this promise thou dost not dishonour the Lord Faith is the greatest glory that the soule can yeeld to God but glorifie him above whatsoever else thou canst doe for him It s his scope to shut thee up under this soveraignty of his justice and shew thee his uttermost advantage that he may trie thee whether the sense thereof will draw thee to his ends or no That is when thou hearest of a free grace above and beyond this justice purchased by his deare Sonne that they who beleeve it may glorifie all his whole excellent union of Attributes in one and confesse him to be most just wise powerfull and gracious in his way of redemption above the grace of creation I say he doth trie thee whether thou wilt give him that excellent glory which he hath sought to himselfe by occasion of thy ruine If thine heart then can freely beteame him this glory and more fully empty it self in the glorifying of him then in thy own escaping the former advantage know it thou shalt honour him above all other honour in thy beleeving And by thy distrust and sealing up thy heart under the darkenesse bondage and feare of thy former guilt whatsoever Satan and unbeleefe tell thee sure it is thou goest the next way to crosse God of his purposed intention to glorifie himself marveilously in thy pardon and salvation 2 Thess 1.8 And therefore instead of his being admired in thee because thou beleevest he justly will be admired in thy double vengeance because it was not enough for thee once to sinne in Adam but thou addest drunkennesse to thirst in denying that grace which would have taken occasion by thy sinne to settle an infinite glory upon himself and far better estate upon thee then Adams innocency could have done And so much for this second use of exhortation Secondly this point should be humiliation to all sorts because the Vse 2 Lord hath even the best at sundry petty advantages in each particuler concerning this fraile life Humliation to all sorts in respect of Gods having us at so infinite advantage Although he have released the maine advantage by forgiving us yet so long as sinne and this body of death abideth so long all the penalties abide incident to our nature our Lord Jesus himselfe all the daies of his abasement and flesh endured them and we much more must stoop under them that we might be conformed to his sufferings How should it pull downe our carnall presumption and jollity to consider that even while we are hearing the word the Lord might stop our breath as the breath of one almost was while this point was in handling being a sleepe at the sermon which of us stand not at Gods curtesie for somewhat which others are deprived of How is our fraile life on the sudden intercepted how many are choked with their meate nay have bin choked with a Fly or a raison stone how many make their beds their graves in the midst of their feasting their mirth talke and company arrested with the stroke of Gods hand how many have made their feasting cheare to be the cheare for their funerall how many are slaine by the high way by the fall of their horse others have their eie lasht out by a twig in their travaile Absolon is snatcht up by his long head locks by a shrag of an oake when we are secure of our children lo one is scald with water another drowned in it another burnt with fire other come to other sad casualties All to teach us to humble our soules each day before God and confesse the many just advantages he hath us at us I say and ours and that salvation is from the Lord we take it for granted if we have tilled our grounds we shall have a sowing season at our pleasure if we have sowne our seed and waited our time we shall have our crop and if we have carried it into our barne we shall thresh and eat of our travaile and so ordinarily we doe through mercy yet we are still at Gods advantage in all by wet by drought by fire and vermine and an hundred waies all to teach us God is not so tyed to us or to the meanes and husbandry we use God is not tyed to us in outward protection alwaies no nor to his promise neither but that our presumption infidelity and unthankefulnesse may provokâ— him to use his prerogative and to destroy all that so we may walke with more awe and feare before this our God who is a consuming fire and teach us daily and nightly to shut up our selves and ours in the Arke of his protection to arise up to dresse our selves to eat to worke Deut. 33.11 to walke to converse to lye downe with an humble thankefull heart neither as slaves nor yet as presumers but as those whom the Lord hath at a perpetuall advantage and may use it if hee will and if hee should say as he might better say it 1 King 20.1.3 then that boasting Benhadad did All thy wives children are m ne all thy gold and silver is mine thy treasures also and all thy wealth is mine yea if he should lay his hand upon all or any as which of them is not subject to casualty thy mends were in thine owne hands Oh! with how narrow an eye and foot and how soberly would we use each blessing if we were bound in a statute to a creditor to surrender all at an houres warning and stood at his curtesie for the bread we eat Would we then take our fill or the uttermost liberty of our commodities Even so let us walke humbly before God who is our Soveraigne and hath our lives wealth and persons at command in a moment to surprize us Let us daily take all as lent us from his hand let us use all humbly and purely as if we used them not let us count out selves daily to be in jeopardy and bid adiew daily to all comforts here below yea life it selfe As an holy man being asked over night whether he would goe to such a place to morrow or no answered I thanke God Note I have known no morrow these twenty yeares A signe
God when the famine pinched him and to kill the Prophet and yet to goe no further then himselfe confuting himselfe when hee and Iehoshaphat and a third King went against the King of Moab Cap. 3. and was at a straight like to perish for lacke of water both he and the Armies behold what a change it wrought on the sudden For then he seekes to the Prophet and bemones the straight in which the Army was making no other account but that God might justly suffer them all to perish And when Elisha disdained to looke at him yet his fiery spirit held it selfe in by compulsion from any misdemeanor So that he must bee a monster of men whom a deepe straight will not subdue and tame unto the stooping to any conditions I grant this may sometime prove only an act of policy or of carnall feare and so cease We read of a royall spirited Emperour Henry the fourth of Germany who being wearied with the tyranny of sundry Popes and of Alexander by name was at last by his roaring Bulls and excommunications which in those daies scared the greatest brought to such an exigent that he with his Empresse and their young son were faine to stand 3. daies barefoot at the proud Popes gate And being after admitted to his presence when he was urged to lye prostrate before him the Pope treading upon his necke and spurning off his Crowne with his foot although the spirit of the Emperour could have rebelled and beganne to disdaine it yet for policy sake he was compelled to desist It s noted in Judges that when the Ammonites oppressed Israel the Elders of Gilead and brethren of Iptha who before had thrust him out for a bastard being in a straight for a Captaine Judg. 10. were compelled to goe to Iptha to crave his returne and to undertake the warre and when he cast them in the teeth with their former injurious casting him out yet the extremity they were in humbled them and kept them downe so that they were glad to take shame to themselves and to begge aide even of that bastard when they saw their welfare lay bleeding at the stake and none fit to helpe them but himselfe These are but common naturall instances yet they lay forth the point thus farre that the naturall spirit of the hautiest and most disdainefull man toward such as himselfe will abate and come downe when an exigent is upon them And the like may be said of man toward God when they are laid upon his bayard and when he hath them upon the hip by any deepe and straight sore and extremity Yea it is true even of Gods owne deare people already in Covenant with him whose slavish hearts have often been compelled by Gods Chaines upon them to forget their jollity and sensuall appetite and to stoope to Gods power under their straights That which I formerly spake of the Soveraignty of Gods Nature I may here verifie of the outward extremities which he brings us into Both serve to bring downe the heart and to make it humble and subject Iob was an holy man yet such naturall scurffe the Lord saw to lurke in his spirit that he was faine by the losse of all his substance children health of body the enmity of his friends the terrors upon his soule the admonition of Elihu and the Lords owne tawing of him by the view of all his power and the terror of Leviathan and Behemoth at last to wring this speech from him Cap. 42. I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes Hezekiah also was a godly King Job 42.3 but his treasures and wealth and elbow-roome made him so fledge and jolly that he forgat himselfe till the Lord smot him with the plague Esay 38.15 put him in feare of his life and urged him to say I will walke all the rest of my daies softly in the bitternesse of my soule in the midst of my house The Lord had him upon the hip and then he could crouch 1 King 19.12.13 Jonah 1. 2. 1 Sam. 24. Elija Iona David and Salomon all holy men yet till they were frayed with the thunder and earthquake cast into the Whales belly straighted betweene the choice of either famine warre or pestilence and the like saw not into the frowardnesse rebellion and stoutnesse of their spirit But of all others it is truest of such spirits as the Lord subdues to himselfe and drawes out of a cursed sinfull course Such as this patterne in our text resembles Naaman I meane for although as yet he was not privy to Gods purpose towards him in this abasing of his stout heart yet he was in Gods dispensation now in the way unto it and by this as a step came to the other The prodigall who is a true mirror in all points of a debaucht sinner and fugitive from God was faine to be pursued so narrowly by the hand of God Luk. 14.15.16 that till there was no possibility of subsistence for him any way he never thinkes of a father and lesse of returne and least of humbling himselfe But when hee was brought to an absolute straight and could no longer hold out his great stomacke and resolution never to see his father begins to quaile and then his father began to savor with him It is with the spirit of a sinfull Rebell against God as it is with a City besieged by a strong enemy but the City having both abundance of outworkes and strong forts raised up with plenty of provision within besides store of brave souldiers who will spend the last drop of their heart blood ere it be said they are cowards scorne to yeeld their City But when long time of assault the instance and unweariednesse of the besieging army hath battered downe all their forts Simile murdered all their Souldiers with the Canon beaten downe their Citie over their eares houses Temples walls and opened a wider breach for entrance then they can make up againe besides the exhausting of all come and victuall within and intercepting all succors from without Then perhaps when no remedy else from forraine aide appeares they will hang out the white flag and cry for conditions of surrender but before nothing but scorne and defiance will be admitted Even so is it with the unregenerate soule shee pleases her selfe with her false treasure the perswasion that she is rich and full and happy and yet perhaps remaines meerely ignorant or at least in a formall and dangerous estate insensible of wrath or danger This state she findes ease in and when the Lord would hunt her out of it she sits upon her Idolls securely and will not stirre The out-workes and forts of the soule against God She imbarkes her selfe in this error by the conceit of her wealth health youth outward contents want of crosses credit good successe how can God hate her giving her all these if the Lord drive her out of these outworkes yet she runs into stronger forts compares her selfe
abased him very farre to such an inferior as the Prophet was Now we see he receives an affront from him by him whom he so submitted himselfe unto being so far from healing him at the first that hee comes not out to salute him And why To teach him to cease his crouching to the Prophet and crouch to God another while Some might say alas poore man he had sorrow enough before but Object I answer spare your pitty This second winde shakes no corne It is not Answ in an outward crosse nor the power of it to subdue the heart to God it may handsome a man in his outside to manward and make him stoope to man but it cannot doe it to God Wherefore now the Lord puts a tongue into the word and Message of Elisha whereby he comes a little further to consider whom hee had directly to deale with even the Lord himselfe who suffers not the cure to proceed to the end that hee might looke better about him and see into his base heart which hindred it And wee must conceive that although this wrought not presently yet the Lord being with it it wrought somewhat at last Let it briefly teach us beloved thus much Bodily crosses can reach no further then bodily ends Job 33.13 no crosse nor bodily strait of it selfe can reach further then to a bodily end There must bee a word added to the workes of God before the heart will breake The Lord must as I noted before speak once and twice ere pride will be hidden and the soule humbled in kinde and then it stoopes Well said Habacuc Cap. 2. I heard thy voice and my lips quivered my limbes trembled and rottennesse entred into my bones that I might have peace in the day of trouble And Esay Cap. 28. asketh whom shall I cause to understand and whom shall I teach wisedome Heb. 4.12 even him that is weaned from the brests and who trembleth at my words The word and voice of God onely able to pierce the heart It is the voice of God which must pierce the heart till it tremble The voices of sicke mens repentance wanting a word vanish The reason is because the workes alone are a brute sound and have no tongue in them The word is all onely God hath blessed it and therefore other meanes are unblest The word must be the interpreter Nay many times under a crosse alone the heart waxeth more hardned and rebellious or at least wise it puts off God with confessions under the rack or else it windes out it selfe and counts it as a common accident befalling mortality It s my hard lot saith one God helpe me to be thus afflicted Even as blessings alone bring none to feele love from God of themselves being common things bestowed upon all sorts as it hits so is it with crosses Nay some blinde idiots imagine Popishly that their portion here in trouble and straits is a signe that they have their hell here and shall not therefore have it hereafter But however sure it is let a man have never so much sickenesse poverty reproach feare of death upon him none of these are blessed to search out his pride jollity carnall ease unsavorinesse Atheisme worldlinesse or the poyson of old Adam These all may lurke and abide under a crosse a man may still nouzell himselfe in his sensuality security rotten peace unbeleefe and hope that he is in Gods favour But when the word comes that dashes out all errours and false conceits Why so because it brings God into the soule as the Arke into the campe and causes the soule to behold herselfe in the glasse of his perfection the neerer it comes to God the more it loathes it selfe Job 42.2 I have now seene thee saith Iob therefore I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes Let it teach us never to rest till the Lord hath turned us out of our common path and brought us into a narrow way even to deale with himselfe His word will present him unto us as in a glasse wherein we may behold him in his excellent Attributes his Justice Wisedome revenge of his enemies a Judge of the wicked a rewarder of the righteous This sight will coole our courage as it did Naamans here stop us in our headlong courses make our owne conceits and errours odious teach us to wait upon God till he shall hearken to us till he shall humble convince and perswade us Doubtlesse when wee come closely to behold his face and to feele his authoritie over the conscience how severe an avenger he is of all our pride rebellion and that he whom we have to deal with beholds our inward man and all the corruption thereof nothing is hidden to his eye but all things are naked and manifest before him then all our heat of spirit Heb 4.13 confidence of our happy condition disdaine of others pleasing our selves in our carnall hopes applauding our parts our duties performances will vanish as a private mans lands and livelihoods vanish in a great Mappe of the world Then our plumes quaile and we say depart from us O Lord sinfull wretches In the sight of this Sunne all our darkenesse and unrighteousnesse Luke 5.7 become irkesome and all our corruption is swallowed up in this sea of his perfection So much for this The third and last short meditation from this ground is this The last meditation that as the Lord began before to humble Naaman in part so he holds him still close to the worke of humiliation and enlarges him not Proud nature of man quickly forgets humilition till he had brought him to sound humbling of soule It shewes us what our nature is in this behalfe We are like to light Corke which will floate aloft and except a man hold it under by strong hand will pearke up to the top When we are downe and low one would thinke it should be a great worke to raise us up to any cheere againe But no sooner is the stone blown upon by a little puffe of winde although it have been steept in water a whole night but it waxes dry againe presently as if never wetted The hard and stony heart of proud man can never sufficiently be battered and tamed but it wil returne to her course againe instantly And the truth is These dayes especially and why the dayes we live in have a peculiar disease in this kinde above former dayes Gods wrath revenging our former contempt of his law and terrors of conscience and our dallying with them and shaking them off through a base heart weary of trouble To be abased and low when and while the Lord will have us so for our own good and to think well of it is a rare grace We are a kin to Ionah Jona 3. and 4. who was no sooner out of the Whales belly but contrary to vow and covenant pearkes up again presently and quarrells with God for converting Ninivee and for his slaine gourd
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 Dâ—n 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
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 cōmonly 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.
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
and feares Selfe opens the doore and betrayes the soule to them But now to discerne the nature the sorts and the markes of this enemy requires some wisedome for the which worke although the wisest is most insufficient and my selfe unfittest of all yet the necessity of the point laying this taske upon mee I shall adventure to say so much as at least may provoke others to consider of the matter more seriously to consult and give sentence Selfe is to say truth nothing else but the very spirit of corruption Selfe what it is in the root viz. the inst nct of old Adam and the instinct of old Adam in an unregenerate heart discovering it selfe in all other kindes but most eminently for slinesse and contrarinesse in resisting the worke of conversion And it may be distinguished into these two branches either selfe of opposition to Christ Selfe of two sorts either opposite selfe to Christ or mixt with him or selfe-mixture with Christ The former whereof hinders the soule from Christ by opposing and tendering to the soule a sufficiency of her owne without Christ the latter seemes to abhorre such prophanenesse and placeth onely sufficiency to make the soule blessed in Christ alone but in the point of applying and receiving thereof to it selfe mixeth her selfe with him and scrues her selfe and her owne wayes into the sufficiency of Christ The former of these is more carnall and grosse the latter more close and spirituall the former impugnes the sole-sufficiency the latter the all sufficiency of Christ the former the soule may sooner be driven from the latter she must be fired out of and as the Fox digged out of her burrow ere she will renounce them All Selfe is the spirit of corruption but this privy selfe is the quintessence of that poyson All selfe sets up it selfe against Christ Note but this is the secret privy-chamber wherein the unregenerate soule imbarkes her selfe For Simil. as it is in the defence of a City against a beleaguering enemy partly there be some out-workes halfe-moones and retrenchments to hold the enemy at larger distance and partly some neerer stronger bulwarkes and forts well manned and furnished with armour and Canons in which the chiefe hopes and force of the City consists it s no such difficulty perhaps to drive the Citizens out of the one but it s a matter of good importance to beat them out of the other So I say of these two branches of Selfe it s not so hard a taske to disswade the soule from the former but when the Soule runnes to her maine Fort and Castle Selfe mixt with Christ it s an hard thing to teach her to discerne it but almost impossible to fetch her out of it The onely wisedome and omnipotency of grace can effect that Though the latter be chiefly aimed at The former of thesâ— two occasionally entred upon Concerning the former of these two my Doctrine lesse aimes at because it takes for granted that a man so qualified as I have already spoken acknowledges himselfe insufficient of himselfe to get blessednesse My chiefe scope is to encounter the latter yet for light and distinction sake I will point at the severall kindes of the former that the Reader may not be unsatisfied about the object of the whole intended discourse For the former then which is more grosse this is of five sorts prophane selfe naturall selfe Five sorts of it 1. Prophane selfe 2. Naturall selfe 3. Carnall selfe 4. Creature selfe 5. Religious selfe carnall selfe selfe in the creature and religious selfe First of the first Fire we know is put out by pulling away the fewell but especially by casting on of water so all selfe opposes Christ but above all selfe-lusts or selfe resolved to live in any sin doth abandon and expell Christ who indeed came to destroy sinne and him that reigned thereby Therefore sinne and Sathan held and maintained doe most punctually destroy Christ True it is sinne alone and nakedly considered serves to magnifie grace for where sinne abounded grace exceeded and where sinne is out of measure sinfull grace is out of measure gracious but where sinne abides in the heart as in her center and element loved and lived in there Christ is quite shut out of doores Sinne is not alike dwelling in all 1. Prophane selfe what but in some men it dwels without a law ignorantly inconvincedly in others it rules against a law rebelliously and so the enmity of it to Christ doth differ in degree howbeit in all such as it dwels in it opposeth Christ in a direct kinde of contrariety Hence the Apostle demandeth what agreement betweene Christ and Beliall 2 Cor. 6.16 the beleever and the infidell light and darkenesse sinne and that grace that pardons and purges it Ioh. 3.19 And our Saviour They loved darknesse rather then light because their workes were evill Alas such come not at Chrst so much as in the remote meanes or Ordinances by their good will or at least for meere fashion much lesse to the promise of Christ to save them They are alive jolly merry well satisfied already give them their drinke their harlot their world and god Mammon their belly ease pleasures or like lusts they are well and for the rest they leave it to such as care for it as for themselves their hell is their heaven and Christ is not so sweet to a needing soule as that which Christ came to destroy is sweet to them till the Lord scare them and bid them goe to their al-sufficient lusts for salvation Either they know no better or love no better If Christ should come in the kingdome which the Divell hath set up and the scepter he swayeth in their soules by their prophanenesse breach of Sabbaths atheisme pride contention disdaine intemperancy incontinency swearing uncleannesse and the like must as that strong man be cast out by the stronger and spoiled And that were as sad and uncouth to them as the comming of those Danites and stealing away Mica's gods was irkesome to him his joy and strong hold al-sufficient treasure was stollen and poore wretch what should it boot one so woe begone to live The last and chiefe rest and content of a sinner being his lusts must needs cause Christ who comes to robbe the soule thereof to be accounted as he who robbes a Beare of her whelpes Sinne and lust to such a man is as the Lambe brought up in the bosome as Nathan saith and being as his darling his son Hence it is that the sufficiency of these lusts ause the sufficiency of Christ which stands in the setling of a soul upon a sufficiency in pardon peace and joy of conscience to be abhorred I would have no man mistake me as if I hereby did establish a doctrine of repentance before faith sundry mistaken Scriptures have deluded the erroneous judgements of some Divines to thinke Repentance goes not before faith that because sinne expels 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 sorrowâ—ull 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
as this that out of her owne doores an enemy should come forth even this Selfe lurking in the secret corners of the heart unmortified selfe in revenge in unmercifulnesse in deadnesse of spirit security and pride wantonnesse and unbeliefe which should dishonor that God and wound that Spirit of grace which hath so lovingly vouchsafed to rid us of our first guilt and feare of wrath that we might be his owne redeemed ones and not serve our selves Againe if Selfe be so dangerous as to hold off the unbeleeving soule from faith how dangerous is it in stopping the passages of our comfort dayly from the promise or in threatning us some mischiefe ere we finish our course with perseverance Could he that hath runne a long and faire race toward the prise and is well neere come to it endure one who should stand armed and by force stoppe him from getting the silver bell how should that enemy even this wicked Haman bee abhorred by us that should defeate us thus yea if it were but the making of that doore of heaven more narrow in the entrance then it need be 2 Pet. 1.11 whereas the Lord hath set it wide open to receive us after our poore pilgrimage is ended how odious should such an adversary be to us But I returne to other uses of the doctrine This may serve for both branches of Admonition A second use is Terror and that in two Branches First to all prophane Vse 2 ones and contemners of the Gospel and of the power of conversion Terror in two Branches 1. If Selfe in the most forward professors be so dangerous what shall become of the loose libertine and ungodly wretch Looke about ye and be affraid of your condition if such as are so fair for salvation and have passed through so many steps toward it who both in their judgements of others and perhaps in their owne deluded opinions are out of danger yet faile of their purposes because they strive unlawfully where shall such as you appeare Oh yee libertines joviall and merry companions who make Religion a vaile for your loosenesse and your civility an excuse for your ungodlinesse did yee never duly weigh this doctrine wofull creatures who care for no Religion but so farre as it wil stand with your lusts what face will ye behold the judge withall when ye shall see thousands of all sorts both Ministers who have preached Christ in the streets and cast out divells Matth. 7. Psal 12. others who have abode the heat of the day in Gods vineyard yet for lacke of self-deniall to lose all and yet you have hated the Gospel as a snake or a toade because it threatens your liberties yea sweare that yee will be curbed by none of these Preachers your tongues are your owne and no Lord shall controll you Tell me I pray you what confusion of thought shall cease upon you in that day you shall stand in the forlorne ranke of the battell and shall be as stubble for the fire irresistable you shall have the convincement within yee of a thousand witnesses and yeeld to damnation as speechlesse and hugge the divells and say to hell thou art my portion and to the damned you are our companions Job 21.33 As Iob speakes of the wicked who rejoyced in the earth the clouds of the valley are sweet to us so I say to these That which ye have sought shall bee your reward destruction shall be your end because you sought no better Oh! let me adde one word Oh that I could perswade you perhaps you will fight against me with mine owne doctrine Object and say if the painfull lose heaven they can but lose it who take no pains and why then besides should they lose so many lusts and worldly pleasures as they enjoy Answ I answer this is as if a Traitor should answer why should I be loyall when as yet I may be hanged for cutting a purse Doe neither what necessity is that ye should perish either way should one runne into a pest-house because he may die of a burning ague though he should shunne the plague Doe what lies in you both by physicke and diet to escape both But first you must take heed of wasting your conscience openly ere you can get a good and sound conscience void of selfe and self-love There must be a beginning and perhaps a prophane heart may sooner become an humbled one then an hollow heart which will see nothing amisse He that breaks off thy prophanesse may also grant thee sincerity in thine endeavour get but a seed of God into thee and thou shalt shunne both the right hand and the left hand evills I bid thee first to renounce the grosser lusts and then the smaller shall follow and Gods yoke may prove sweeter then both Be not dismaide because some have miscarried in a higher degree for better is he that crawles up the hill by little and little though a creeple then he who is neere the toppe and Branch 2 tumbling downeward of Terror Pharisees terrified Matth. 6. Rom. 12.1 So much for the first Branch Secondly this no lesse chokepeare for all pharisees and formall hypocrites whose Religion rests in their duties of these I have spoken in part before the lesse may serve here Except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of such ye shall certainly perish Selfe will destroy many that goe beyond you and their error must lye downe with them in the dust when all is done as Iob saith Chap. 21. It must be a reasonable a spirituall sacrifice of subjection to God which he will accept deale not with multiplication but subtraction keep your sheep sacrifices to your selves Psal 40. The Lords are the Sheepe of a thousand hills he needs none of such offerings say with the Prophet A body thou hast given me Lo heere I come but come without thy Selfe and confidence therein and cast out old enmity of corruption acknowledge and kisse the Sonne for his sea onely can sweep away thy dunghill and dregs away with thy morality and morall swasions bring them to the Spirit of Christ and he that shall drown them all in his sea Psal 2. ult and this shall breed thee more peâ—ce in one day then thine own course all the whole yeare which the longer thou tradest with it the sadder fruit it shall breed thee and at last the worst of all So much for Terror The third use of the point is instruction and that in sundry particulars Vse 3 First to teach us a true judgement of this enemy of our peace Instruction and Branch 1 what censure to passe of her Neither adultery murther oppression Selfe exceeds opâ—n evills in her delusion and â—â—fâ—ction nor any such lust can defeate us of our last hopes but this Self may and will Reckon up thine enemies perhaps thou wilt say thou hast many no man more then thou some that seeke thy shame some thy goods some thy life and
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 whâ—t 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
discovery of Grace in the effects of that discovery and the end of it For the first of these The Spirit of Grace is all for Grace in the discovery of the mystery of it the amplenesse largenesse height depth and length of it to the poore soule that it may appeare in all the excellency and fulnesse freedome bounty unchangeablenesse and wel be teamingnesse thereof that no corner of it may lie hidden from the heart of a sinner so farre as may further him in the bottoming of the soule in mercy This is a singular and peculiar act of the Spirit tending to this end that the soule may not stagger about the sufficiency of Grace which God offers unto her but may behold the power of the Priesthood of Christ once offering up himselfe as a compleat and spotlesse sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the elect needing no more to be offered able to procure from the Father endlesse wel pleasednesse and acceptance also a free offer of reconciliation and to create in the soule alone and of it selfe without any antecedent free will liking and cooperating of Selfe a most sufficient clearing of conscience from guilt and feare yesterday Heb. 10.3 Heb. 13.8 to day and for ever This cannot sinke into the heart of an hypocrite he cannot bee perswaded that there is enough in the Lord Jesus alone to discharge him in the Court of heaven the offer and promise are empty notions with him to sway all his strength upon neither dare hee rest thereupon with peace without a further addition of his owne feelings But the Spirit of Grace grounds the poore soule in this as the maine worke of all that so all the building may subsist thereon and makes sure retreat and refuge for her in the midst of her distresse that her foundation may not be shaken I wish that the method of that Epistle to the Hebrewes especially in the 7.8.9.10 Chap. might well be observed to the understanding of this act of the Spirit Secondly the Spirit of Grace doth not onely offer such a light to the soule but lets it in by her owne working into her setting the soule on worke to concurre with his revealing light and shewing it both that the Lord will conferre no lesse then all this Sufficiency upon a needing soule and therefore shee may without presumption take and partake them from his hand It sheweth her that it is the endlesse matchlesse Grace of God that he can find in his heart to pardon her yea to cast love upon her not only when she seems zealous and affectionate for Self can make her beleeve that but even when she is basest in her owne eies and under the conscience of her guilt when she is in her bloud when her originall loathsomenesse her actuall wickednes of thoughts of words of wrath hypocrisie and the like doe lye as a burthen upon her yet then even then marke what I say he hath love in a corner of his heart for such an one such as he will have herselfe confesse to be causlesse on her part yea such as if he had no more aime at being knowne to be loving then to love for any amiable thing in the object he would never shew to any Nay more lest the Spirit of Grace should leave any thing behinde him he doth offer to create the gift of faith in the soule Esay 5â— 19 to claspe upon this gift of mercy and includes this gift in the offer as knowing that it were in vaine to offer the one without working the other And hereby he causeth the soule to lay hold upon his strength and ablity to save as having received a ransome sufficient which is no other saving the writing of his covenant in the fleshy tables of her heart Esay 27 4.5 prepared by himselfe for the nonce And moreover that all this hee hath done of his owne free will and motion without any former principle acting him to intend it or concurring with him to create it I say he hath done it of himselfe as judging it meet for himselfe to doe whatsoever we bee and for the glory of his Name No entreaty of men or Angels no difficult tearmes of perswasion caused it but it flowed naturally from him as most honourable to his Majestie to doe Fifthly the Spirit of Grace stayes not here but proceedes to accommodate the soule to embrace this power of God for to what end should the Lord be willing to do it in her for her except she also felt sutable inclinations wrought in her soul towards it And therefore he moves her sadly to digest this grace offered to count it no light nor strange thing no nor yet beyond the soules apprehension but as on the one side hee causeth it to be most weighty pretious and to be highly valued so on the other side he makes it familiar sweet clear and evident not a thing above the clouds nor under the earth farre fetcht but neere the soule put into her bosome Rom. 10. belonging to her not to bee rejected or thrust away from her except she will perish These together with the infinite benefite of receiving it and the endlesse losse in forgoing it as being the onely remedy doe marvellously stablish the thoughts upon it and ravish the affections with it so that layes a most sad charge upon the poore soule upon paine of forfeiting her peace for ever not to passe it by slightly deadly and formally but to view and meditate of it savourly deep y unwâ—ariedly with admiration till by this mirrour of beholding the Lord with open face she be transformed to the gloriousnes of this gracâ— and carried 2 Cor. 3. end yea left in the streame thereof by the Spirit of the Lord. This for the first of the three particulars The second is the effect of this presenting worke of the Spirit And that is union The second worke the effect hereof viz. Union Whereby the Spirit of Grace shewes the soule into what a condition she is translated by faith in the promise That is she is made one with the Lord Jesus thereby and really partaker of all his good things true peace contentment in blessings crosses all conditions freedome from all former garboiles feares enemies joy in God and his salvation never to be divorced from him any more This causes the soule to shake off that wearisomenesse of Selfe never settled that bottomelessenesse never grounded that inconstancy and vanity never at rest and why Because it had no reall good to fasten upon and to determine those restlesse desires of hearts But now the Lord Jesus himselfe both in his present grace and hope of glory to come runues in her streame or rather turnes hers into his so that looke what Selfe was to her before emptily and barrenly now Christ is in her stead Christ is the Selfe of the soule he is all in all to her acts her comforts her staies her quickens her guides upholds
not trouble for the cause of Christ finde thee so busied about doing for him that thou shouldest neglect the consideration of those weighty respects for which he calls thee to suffer also Many irresolute and staggering ones have done Christ as much dishonour as some libertines and timeservers Selfe-love and ease hath so blinded them on the one side that they can looke but one way As thou canst not deny but truth is pretious powerfull and prevailing So adde this thereto aske what is truth study it inquire into it the consequences which attend upon both the faithfull sticking to it against all enemies and the treacherous traducing it for fear or flattery or any sinister ends Remember that of Davids servants and apply it to truth thou art worth tenne thousand of us if we fall there be others to raise up in our stead but if thou fall how irrecoverable is thy losse And say not this truth or that I could suffer for but such and such I dare not for if thou honor not God in denying thy owne cavils and suffering for any truth perhaps thou shalt be so left to thy selfe-shifts and snared by thine owne treachery that either God will deny thee an heart or the honour to suffer in greater truths if occasion serve Thirdly know for certaine God will have a day to trie thee what cost thou wilt be at for him If he have brought thee through the pikes of the enemies of thy conversion trust to it he will have some triall or other to know all that is in thine heart God bestowes no great favours especially Christ himselfe but he will be sure to try thee throughly of what mettall thou art made and whether the experience of his first and greatest love have deserved at thine hands the fruit of thy faith to cling to him and be of more worth then thine owne ends and contents He rejoyceth to discover those who are firme to him and beare him hearty loyall affection from the hollow and false If Abraham Hezechia Ionah Peter wanted not their trialls of whom some stuck to God others warped shalt thou escape Nay if God would try Saul and Ieroboam and Iehu so deepely will he passe thee over No bee not such a foole as to thinke that thou shalt scape in a mist swimme alway in a calme sea and runne a smooth course for as verily as God is true thou shalt be tried yea perhaps many wayes one after another Resolve thy selfe it is no slight thing in Gods esteeme to try his if he should leave them without trialls whereof all sonnes are partakers they were bastards Heb. 12.8 it is drosse and no oare which is not worth the trying easie duties of praying hearing and worship are no trialls for Gods close people in these dayes he will have other trialls for them and although perhaps thou hadst scaped many windes and blasts yet he will have some direct and opposite winde to try thee to the quicke ere the Lord have done with thee Selfe had need have trialls as Gideons souldiers Upon these considerations apply this exhortation briefly to thy selfe Application of all in two duties Be for him that hath beene for thee even the Lord Jesus be for his glory and honour to thy uttermost I will commend but two passages to thee First in the feare of God my beloved be sure that you deny your selves for God in the point of doing for him Secondly 1. To doe all for God in the matter of suffering in both which thy whole obedience standeth I urge no exactnesse but such as the Gospel both promises and affords to a beleeving soule onely I exclude treachery and falshood For the former aime at God and deny thy selfe in thy doings and duties in thy worship and use of meanes in thy speciall calling and condition of life This will inure thee to the latter selfe-deniall in suffering Throughout thy whole conversation of life towards God and man thou shalt finde that from the center of selfe-love the Divell will teach thee to draw lines of crookednesse and obliquity warping from God and tending to it selfe The soule cannot endure to be under the authority of God either commanding promising or threatning it hath a bredth of her owne in the narrow of God See Hos 10.1 and where shee can fleece away ought from him and his ends to herselfe she is safe yea where the duties are strictest shee bewraies most a false heart which being pincht in the point of her owne ends is ready to cast all in the dirt In fasting what pleasure can the soule finde to herselfe instead of soule afflicting Esay 58.3.4 Much more then in ordinary duties she will dispence and seeke herselfe In mens buyings and sellings how doe they foist in a dreg of seeking themselves loath to lye close to the rule to doe as they would bee done too In preaching the solemne truthes of God what a deale of selfe-honour and men-pleasing creeps into the duty What duties meanes or graces are there which are void of this dead fly Witnesse the innumerable dispensations which this libertine age seekes to herselfe in all her wayes in fashions attires recreations worldly dealings lending letting hyring and borrowing In the duty of prayer how scanty seldome carnall are wee Looking sometime more at them that heare us or at the setnesse of our sentences edge of our owne affections then at Gods awfull presence our owne abasement or the speciall ends that concerne us What causes so little mourning and fasting for the sinnes and sorrowes that are upon us or hang over us Selfe-love every man lookes to his owne matters his owne griefes losses take up all his teares and desires What causes Magistrates to be so partiall and connivent at offenders at drunkards breakers of the Sabbath Selfe-love they are affraid to be noted to bee precizer then needs they seeke their owne bribes or ease men are loath to disquiet themselves for God or conscience Whence comes our murmuring under our crosses or our sottishnesse and insensiblenesse under them Both from selfe-love either tendernesse to our owne skin or loathnesse to be at any cost to search out the causes to humble the soule or to repent loathnesse I say to lay any thing to heart What is the cause of so many jarres and janglings among Christians for meere trifles to the dishonour of God and their communion Selfe-love that seekes her owne ease and profit little looking how others fare Christians in generall will professe selfe-deniall yet take pritches discontents Endlesse it were to mention all learne we to seeke God in all we doe and whatsoever we finde our conscience to accuse us of as an excrement and superfluity of our owne beware we nourish it not in our selves lest it poyson the carriage the bent and streame of our indeavours with singularity hypocrisie and selfe-love Shake off conceits rash surmizes tetches enmities sullen froward humors 2. In suffering Lastly
Reproofe in divers respects I have toucht some particulars by occasion before Practice of carnall reason reproved in all sorts I will adde a few more here I say it should convince the consciences of us all that are before the Lord this day for our arrerages of carnall reason We should say as Pharaohs butler Lord this day comes much of my sinne in this kind to my remembrance O Lord the branches of this stocke are infinite How oft hath my base heart stumbled at the purenesse the closenesse of thy waies desiring the doore were opener for my carnall ease liberty and breadth to goe in at How oft have I thought my fine wits and China-mettall'd understanding too dainty for thy matters to meddle with My parts too good to honour thee How little have I laboured to submit my wit to thy will with gladnesse How often have I stumbled at the simplicity of thy Ministers servants as too meanly gifted for my reach How much ado have I with my cursed heart to profit by them as not complying enough with my carnall expectation How oft have I measured good things by their successe Being ready rather to chuse sin with happinesse then vertue with defeat and ill consequence How weakely have I beene carried with partiality of heart towards the godly Affecting them who have beene close faithfull friendly usefull beneficiall welconceited of me tender and indulgent mercifull and bountifull rather then others who hath beene more estranged in affection more ready to reprove my faults How much adoe have I from restraining indignation from such as are aloofe from me and little esteeme me How seldome have I gone to heare publiquely or to take counsell but I have rather sodered my faults then desired that the righteous might smite me How prone am I to looke at the greatnesse of some religious ones and to make use of them in that kinde rather then their good examples and the savour of their grace How weake have I O Lord discovered my selfe to be both in doing and suffering In the one being carried more with outward incouragements hireling-wise then upon a promise If I have found my labours my services accepted with men credit countenance and maintenance following how trim have my wheeles gone If not how heavy In the sufferings I have had how doe I seeke rather to licke my self whole by outward helpes and remedies then by that hundred fold which thou hast promised to requite my losses withall And though I have not runne to good witches yet how have I clave to mine owne carnall reason And seeming to have shot a gulfe how have I beene drowned in a shallow Oh! when I have found unkinde unthankefull and base usage at the hands of them whom I have served in Ministry counsell or helpfulnesse how hardly yea bitterly have I taken it As if I had done it to bee thought well of and not as one who had learned to undergoe good and bad report How hath my arme shrunke it selfe in toward such As if I had served an ill master who will conceale the labour of my love Oh! yee Headburrowes and Officers of Townes let this truth of God convince yee how doe you looke at pleasing men shunning ill will aiming at serving your owne turnes and base ends rather then at discharging duty in punishing offenders both spirituall upon the Sabbath and morall at other times despisers of the ordinances swearers and drunkards Is not this carnall wisedome else know not I what is Alas where is Davids spirituall reason that blessed God for giving him an heart to build a Temple and prepare stuffe for it although it were the lot of Salomon to have the name of it So God had it how little cared he by whom So Christ were preached how little did Paul envie or care by whom And so againe what is the common speech of men If I had ever hurt him it would not have grieved me to bee ill spoken of or dealt with by him But alas thou hast more cause to blesse God for thy breast-plate of innocencie to shrowd thee from God his revenge Thou shouldst see God rather against thee for thy little respect to his Majesty in the sincerity of thy spirit then at man whom thou hast not offended So againe how oft have our carnall hearts intruded themselves upon Gods administrations to censure him for the long suffering of the bad and the crossing of his owne in their zeale and good cause Ah poore worme canst thou comprehend Gods ends in thy fist How doe wee Ministers murmure and complaine if wee doe no good Why are we above election or servants to it Is it well not that wee are a sweete savour in all And so I might bee endlesse Therefore I beseech you in Gods feare let this be a speciall meane to humble us all for this our base enterfeering with God in his holy wayes Application of it by our carnall reason Oh! you who have been so ready to be led from God by feare of parents displeasure losse of favour of betters repent and breake your hearts Ministers who have betraid the cause of God by base time-serving and pleasing men loathnesse to suffer Oh! repent of your carnall reason recover Gods losses ere ye dye Oh! you that have chosen to save your livings or lives rather then Gods honour consider how small your gaines have been in losing your soules for a mole-hill of earth Repent O carnall wretch who wouldest never bee brought to more religion then lay in the lap of thy carnall reason not cut off a locke for God not forgoe a petty oath for him not lose so much love of an husband a Landlord as is worth two strawes for him Repent and be humbled O thou that hast fleerd and laught in thy sleeve at the sincere Thou who hast made Gods worship and profession to serve thy turne and sold thy selfe by it to credit to custome in shop to good marriage by it thy selfe being bad Come out O thou hypocrite who like Absalon hast openly spread thy Tent for the attaining of thine owne ends Yee politicke projectors and cunning plotters for your owne gaines enhansing above others though with an ill conscience and oppressing of the silly humble your selves and be ashamed Take God and his people to witnesse this day by your teares and mourning that it is so You that have come and are still comming to the Sacrament with carnall hearts for custome and to prevent the Court or reproach rather then conscience who have your hearts on the left hand saying I see nothing there to be had it is no likely thing Abana can heale me and Jordan can cure my leprosie Me thinkes I feare I shall goe home as I come and lose my journey Oh! above all others repent yee of this carnall dispute Naman repented repent you yee have sinned with him repent with him on Gods name The Lord from heaven beloved showre downe blessing and convince your
spirits of these and all other declensionâ— of yours by carnall reason And to conclude Counsels added 1. Let not the conceit of your Religion deceive you lest yee should thinke any of you that your disease is incurable be staid with a word or two of counsell And first beware lest the conceit of your religion blind-fold your eyes that ye should not see how carnall yee are it is not that which can save you harmlesse The ground is nought and your blacke colour will take no other dye What boots it that now and then you heare the Word That will not alone mend you as long as this bosome Oratour lodges within which will in one night undoe as much as God hath done all the weeke Offers and wishes and prayers vanish where this Divell is harboured Judg. 20.8 Little Iether cannot kill Zeba and Zalmunna great Giants What is hail shot to shoot downe a Fort Or a speare to the scales of Leviathan As long as thou liest in this ship thy going up and downe stops not her motion thou art carried by it neverthelesse Carnall reason is no torrent soone up soone downe but a gulfe which onely the Spirit of God can exhaust and dry up Secondly consider well the nature of it it is enmity to God 2. Counsell Consider the nature of it Enmity to God and perpetually opposite to his matters The more spirituall the object the more contrary is this Till it be searcht to quick t is smooth and quiet but then it will flye in Gods face Gamaliel advised his fellowes Act. 5. to desist lest they should fight against God Carnall reason dares do it either at long sword or with a pocket dagger Bee afraid therefore lest God turne againe and fight against thee Acts 23.3.4 As Paul said to him that perverted the Law so I to thee Take heed God smite not thee thou painted wall that opposest his purenesse and spiritualnesse Acts 13.8 Paul seeing Elimas the Sorcerer bent himselfe against him and said Oh! thou full of all malice and subtilty how long wilt thou pervert Gods way Stoop therefore to God and prevent the wrath Thirdly 3. Counsell And the penalties attending the custome of this evill 1 Sam. 4.9 consider whether Gods hand be not upon thee by some either spirituall penalty of a dead hard impenitent scornfull spirit or else temporall judgement upon thee according as thy sin lieth When thou seest God really come against thee play not the Philistin to fight against him the second time God can vex thee even by them thou hast scorned He can force thee to consult with a poore Minister for ease scaring thy conscience If he doe so resist not God delights to resist the proud and by mean things to beat downe mighty Bee not as the Drunkard on the top of the mast who being beaten felt not God aimes by conquering of thy masterly carnall reason to pull downe twenty more jolly fellowes Once I knew one who was converted to God by an holy servant of his and his conversion brought the whole Towne into order under Gods becke For why as Ahabs childrens guardians trembled at Iehu when they saw two Kings could not stand so these seeing one tall Cedar fall and stoop with all his wisedome fell downe flat Oh envie not the Lord this honour 2 King 10.4 make him and thine owne soule this amends Entertaine but a suspition at least that God will bee revenged Brethren Gods market growes low this ware lieth upon our hand let us take some handsell this day of some of yee we will take any thing rather then sit still If I could but draw a jealousie and feare that all is not well with some of you I should goe home with gladnesse Oh! Doth God say 1 Cor. 1.12 Not many great learned and wise are called And doe not I tremble O Lord am I one of these few Say not if there bee but three at Church to day touched I will be one It stands not in boasting Oh! that this needle might draw the thread after it 4. Counsell Fourthly know that as hard as this leprosie is to be cured the Lord is able to doe it Looke upon Naaman in the 13. verse Yea by the despised remedy of preaching even a foolish way to flesh See those prophesies Esay 25. ult Hee shall pull away the cover of darknesse and pull downe the lofty ones So Esay 24. Read also Ezek. 28. Though Tyrus sate as a Queene thought herselfe wiser then Daniel having encreased her wealth and jewels yet God saith he would pull her downe Labour that this pulling downe may be in mercie But more of this in the use of exhortation and the means there prescribed Thus much for these fourth and fifth uses of Terror and Reproofe Vse 6 Now I proceed to the last use of Exhortation and of Comfort and Thankesgiving annexed thereto Exhortation and so conclude the Doctrine And Branch 1 therefore in the first place Give up our weapons of carnall Reason to God Job 42.2 I exhort all Gods people that if formerly carnall reason distrust and cavilling of heart have dogged them in matters of God they would now at last being thus convinced of the truth of God startle and shrugge at it and say with Iob in a like case I have once spoke but I will hold my peace and lay mine hand upon my mouth He had long jangled and cavilled with God alledged for his owne innocencie and seemed to call God to the Barre of his owne carnall reason And as his freinds one way had cavilled against his uprightnes by the misery that was upon him So he on the contrary cavilled against the justice of God by justifying himselfe But the Lord approved neither of both but sent Elihu to be a moderator between them And the Lord steps in him selfe and convinces them both till at last Iob yeelds with confusion of face and comes in with abhorring himselfe and silence Oh! this is up and downe our base spirit we have long lived in an habituall contradicting of God not onely in his crossing of us but in his ordinary walking toward us Oh! how should it humble tame us Oh! how should we abhorre our cavilling spirits The very Papist himselfe is not more carnall then our spirit is They cavill against a spirituall presence of Christ in the Sacrament and plead the words Hoc est corpus tooth and naile They cry Is it not the word the very Text They can cleave to the Text when it seemes to serve their turne but else they make it a nose of waxe And how eager are we against them for it calling them Capernaits and Carnall But meane time wee see not that carnall reason within our owne breasts which fights against Gods spirituall government and administrations We cavill saying If God were as hee promiseth wee should heare some reall voice from heaven or see some glimse of his presence in
and there the most refuse stuffe the most base opinions of the vulgar the errors of the wicked their own conjectures selfe sowne corne and the seed which growes upon their own soile will serve seeking out no further whence it comes to passe that their fruit their corne and their cattell prosper but their soules and consciences their spirituall peace and growth in grace comes to nought In other matters they finde no pudder onely in their estate to God-ward their feares and distempers are unspeakeable and for the most part remedilesse Oh! be choice then in your grounds and principles Search the Scriptures goe to the Law and Testimony get Gods heifer to plow with deny your selves and to conclude with this example of Naaman ascribe this honour to God that he is meetest to rule in his own element and therefore doe not forestall him in his owne way Thou wouldest hearken to each man in his owne element it is a maxime of experience as to a mariner in the judgement of the windes to a plowman about oxen to a souldier in point of battell and shall every one be preferred as a Counsellor for Religion and heaven before God and his word Pray and use all meanes for the spirit of thy great Prophet the Lord Jesus to advise thee how to passe all thy matters establishing all thy thoughts by his counsell that happy successe and blessing may follow thee in all thy waies Psal 119. and thou maiest be free from the miseries of error Advices for the well ordering of our course One word of advice and so an end It may be here demanded what principles should a man get for the managing of his course To which I answer It were needlesse here to number or instance in particulars It must be the habit of wisdome which must prompt the soule in such cases as fall out onely these three I would briefly commend to all who would cut off sorrow from their life The first concerning God himselfe the second touching men the third our selves yet all tending one way And these three are faith righteousnesse and contentation No three vices create so tedious a pudder in the course as distrust unrighteousnesse and discontent For the first see Heb. 13.5 1. Faith in God Let not your conversation be in covetousnesse for he hath said he will not faile I doe not give this rule to the poore onely but to the rich not onely this * Preached in the yeares 1630. 1631. deare yeare but alway Oh! this one error of distrust what a flood-gate of sorrowes doth it let in when charge of children debts deare prises unthankfull unmercifull world pinches a man then at the hardest to have this bond of the Lords in a corner to sue what a stay what boot in beame is it Oh! when a man can say my bond shall be as good as mony at all times I hold upon all sufficiency I have that I have from a fountaine alway running which shall hold when the deepest lake shall drie up But let a man want this bottome this center to draw lines of supply from it and what is a mans life but vexation causing the heart to bee endlesse in flinging about coasting and sherking every where and what then Indirect courses snares and endlesse unquietnesse defeat and disappointment of expectation and lying down in sorrow Oh! ye rich men in these hard times if God bee able to satisfie you as well in spending as sparing and provide you rest in the middest of other mens carking who thinke when all is done they shall dye beggars what shall ye lose by releeving the poore and starven ones Secondly righteousnesse is a brestplate armor of proofe 2. Righteousnesse to man to keep out darts and stinging vexation See Ephe. 6.14 As faith fences the inward man so doth this the outward Oh! goe out walke abroad in the world with this corslet and it shall repell all reproach and odious disdaine of men It will make a man shotfree as Charles the fifth rushing into the battell said a true Emperor was never shot with a bullet it will harnis thee against all feare what any man can cast in thy teeth whatsoever courses others take raking and scraping tooth and naile by hook or crook yet thou goest on quietly servest providence makest no more haste then good speed and hereby perhaps thou thrivest faster then great sticklers with all their irons in the fire But say thou shouldest not yet thou canst say that 1 Sam. 12.3 Acts 20.33 which they cannot with Samuel and Paul whose oxe have I taken whose silver have I coveted whose bloud have I sucked whose face have I ground Oh brethren This deare yeare I doubt may call the sinnes of many oppressors to remembrance The poore shall curse thee Oh thou regrater thou engrosser of corne and raiser of prises from seven to tenne shillings or a marke in the bushell And shall not the Lord heare them Will not the example of that corne cormorant who hanged himselfe the other day sting you A sad example will it not cause all thy false weights cut measures cheats tricks and cunning to vex thee then is the more behinde and one day this error of thine will gugge thee to the quicke and cause thee to cry out away with this mammon of deceit I am choked with it Thirdly contentation is a sweet ground to settle upon Phil. 4.6 Let your moderate minde be knowne to all men the Lord is at hand Bee content with your present state 3. Contentation in our selves as Heb. 13.5 Oh! what a world of sorrow doe they incurre who beginne their course with unsettled discontent Oh! the present is of all other most unpleasing They are going up the craggy hill looking at last to get to the toppe and there to finde a Paradise but they meet with a Purgatory A quiet minde sitting at the bottome of the hill is much better beside the trouble Get the ground of your content within for without you cannot it is safer to bring your mind to close with your meanes then make a coate for the Moone that is to draw them to an equipage with it for it is endlesse Oh! mens hopes and hurries are their life And what comes of it pudder and vexation The roote of the error is never amended in the progresse but growes worse as a fore that rankles House must be joyned to house land to land farme to farme trade to trade riches will not come in fast enough Alas to trade with a mans owne stocke is simple men must occupy with three parts of other mens stocks to a fourth of their owne They gape at their commings in but at their charges housekeeping servants toile of body and spirit ill debtors usurious payments they looke not They looke to cleare all and prove rich men But in the meane time their principle being bad corrupts their whole course and blasts their hopes For hee that
hee will save and some whom he will not Oh! we may well conceive what wrath and rage it worketh Reason 6 Lastly we know wrath is a short madnesse now mad men put no difference betweene any If a King should come in a mad mans way he would strike him as soone as a beggar So doth Selfe defeated She puts no difference between God and men She will sometime chuse men to whet herself on sometime God himself She curseth her luck and bad fortune the weather if too wet too dry too hot or too cold her ill lot and successe her ill market her enemies any thing that comes in her way what wonder then if she spare not Gods Minister yea God himselfe She lusteth after envy as Saint Iames saith and out of an ill custome and habit growes to be as old with God as with men if hee crosse her she knowes not she is not capable of subjection So much for reasons of the point Amplification The godly themselves so farre as led by Selfe rage if disappointed Nay more that which I have said of hypocrites may be verified in measure and with limitation even of the godly so farre as they are unmortified and led by this Spirit of Selfe though not totally yet in any particular case of error and delusion so farre as they forsake the promise and goe to worke by their owne conjectures and strength as in zeale and prayers wherein a good man may rest too much upon himselfe no doubt the Divell and their corruption feasts them but too much as one said he never seemed so zealous as before God mortified his owne spirit but after he found prayer another gates worke But when the Lord separates the pretious from the vile and shewes them the vanity and wanzingnesse of their owne principle it becomes as the very sting of an adder onely the the ods is an hypocrite is fretted with such a distemper Yet with difference from hypocrites as commonly makes him no better but the regenerate is wholesomely smitten by God to cause him with shame and sorrow to abhorre hmselfe and to crouch and runne under the wings of a better friend who can give him content from a better fountaine and of a more lasting nature Object But here comes an objection to be answered How comes it to passe then there being so many unsound and hollow ones in the world never more then now as appeares by their grosse and foule revolts how is it that we see them so joviall and merry still and heare of so few discontents and troubles in their lives or deaths Answ Selfe doth not rage till defeated To which I answer That the reason thereof is because they have no defeates Selfe in her quietnesse and jollity rages not but when shee meets with affronts either by disappointments or by terrors of the Law convincing and slaying the soul The soule in this case is abased and cast down either wholesomely as by a step to humiliation or else slavishly then she shifts and goes forward in a rotten course But Self rageth neverthelesse Or else recovers her selfe againe by her own subtility Note the difference In such as God will save the discovery of this Selfe and the subtilty thereof shall humble the conscience and worke a kindly change by degrees but yet Selfe and corruption will rage and rebell being loath to give place But as for the rest both Selfe and conscience together may not rage because the Law hath not put an enmity betweene them still they hold in together as body and members incorporate in each other and not divorced This by the way But marke The Lord doth not alway blesse the word to worke a defeat of Selfe in every hypocrite or unregenerate person neither doe all such meete with such defeats Ezek. 14. Rather the Lord suffers such justly to stumble at the blocks laid in their owne way by themselves As they chose error and delusion so the Lord leaves them to Satan to be more deluded 1 King 22. and so they fall as Ahab by his false Prophets because being taught the truth soundly they have preferred their owne ease and liberties to it Selfe may want defeats being given over by God to delusion and hardning Nay more the Lord suffers many such and it is a common thing in these declining dayes to be so farre from meeting with defeats that rather they are habited in their waies erring by necessity seeing no danger They are inchanted so with this cup of Selfe that it hath cast them into a deepe sleepe and they are as one asleepe in the toppe of the mast no buffetings will startle them out of their course And it were well with some that this were all For the uncleane spirit returnes into many Matth. 12. and imbarkes himselfe in them more strongly then before defiling them with such lusts as they lye open unto specially and bringing them into such a confused perplexity some by their uncleannesse some by intemperancy some by their open prophanenesse that they never outgrow it but goe on with wasted and seered consciences to their dying day without remorse Although such as belong to God shall return even by these unwelcome batterings for the Lord saw that else their fusty savour and taste would never have gone out So much for answer to this objection This doctrine falls point blanke upon many of us brethren to shame Vse 1 us for our distempers And first Terror let it bee Terror to all such as walke with this cursed heart of wrath impatience and discontent Wrathfull and discontented persons reproved daily and Branch 1 hourely carrying it as hot coales in their bosome and yet through habit never burnt not marking it in themselves Oh wofull creature Is Naaman here so blameworthy being an heathen and defeated of his will for his rage and distemper What shall become of thee then who art in continuall wrath and vexation Not in a fit as Paul calls it Ephe. 4.29 but as it were in a falling sicknesse Truly brethren Because raging in coole bloud I wrong Naaman to make him the text of such a commentary I tremble to thinke how many present themselves here duly at the worship of God who yet in their usuall course are never quiet neither in themselves nor with others They are as I may say steept in vinegar rarely shall you finde them other then froward waspish envious bitter and distempered and yet no defeat appeares to heat their bloud as here in Naaman they are so in very coole bloud out of the surquedry of their wickednesse they are alway distempered because wicked There is no peace saith my God to the wicked More like Nabals then Naamans Esay 57. ult of whom his owne servants could say he was so wicked that no man might speake to him As the Apostle in Rom. 1. describes those heathen Romans full of all wickednesse as a toad is full of
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
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
the poore widow with her two mites this poore wench in the beginning of this Chapter a Captive and servant poore Onesimus one good for nothing good for all things after Oh yee poor souls your sin makes your base outside out of measure base if that were clothed with honour it would afford so much the more beauty and esteem unto you in the eies of all men none so much your betters so much richer learneder nobler then you but should admire be in love with you if there were true humblenes faith grace in you who reads the story of poore Rhode Act. 12.13 but must needs affect that cordiall love of the Saints in her who for joy could not open the doore to Peter till shee had been the first messenger of his deliverance Therefore ye poore inferiors take heart to your selves think not those only to be esteemed with God who have greatnesse to commend them to the world No no the lesser you have here to take to the more covet that which may commend you truly and really in the sight of all that can judge Let none despise thee poor soul Thou wilt say it is not in thy power I answer thee Tit. 2.15 seek to him who as Hanna saith exalteth the lowly and meeke while men behold the poore and proud a drudge to the kitching and to thy lusts wonder not if thou be as the off-scouring of all men but assuredly thy base outside should not disgrace thee if there lodged any goodnesse any spark of Gods image in thee Truly brethren great rich men are too high for Religion and base poor folke thinke themselves under it But if you would seeke for knowledge humility and grace you should see whether it would not stoope to you And you servants that are butlers to Gentlemen or Stewards nay Ostlers and Bayliffes and Caters you should be honourable in the sight of your Masters As Obadiah to Ahab Ioseph to Pharaoh they should equall themselves with you yea be glad of you whatsoever their authority be otherwise if there appeared grace in you Vse 2 And againâ— to you superiours let me adde this Goe not against the edge with God like Balaam when you see the Lord goes about to convince your folly and backewardnesse Admonition Superiours must turne their indignation at the grace of inferiours into shame and emulation Smite not threaten not the Asse whose mouth God opened to reprove you Many of you husbands parents and masters when once you perceive your wives children and servants to grow zealouser then your selves are so farre from countenancing and holy emulation that rather you have them in continuall jealousie and hold them under so much the more Their Religion must be sure to bee their prejudice and incumbrance they can the hardlier please you you are the the more prone to picke quarrells you watch the time of crossing them in their lawfull liberties yea you joint them the more of their freedome for Gods worship within and without what is this but to play the taske-masters and to lye heavy upon them So that if God sustained them not by his power they should fall off And no doubt many are offended by such meanes but woe to such by whom the offence commeth Others there are who seeing Religion to have qualified their inferiours with faithfulnesse humility and peaceablenesse in marriage in their businesse and carriage are glad to see the change but why Not joying in their grace and good examples but because you make benefit thereof for you owne behoofe and content taking all ye can get out of them but acknowledging no mercy from God either to them or to your selves in them Nay perhaps ye slight them quip and mocke them Oh! these women must have their wills or else we shall have no peace and so the liberty they get hey must have with unequall conditions I doe not here speak of the vilest in this kinde how rather many provoke themselves to vexation brawling quarrelling and threatning of their inferiours as thinking their forwardnesse an inspersion to their base backewardnesse and therefore they behold them with the eies of Kites whom they should behold with Doves eies they shorten their wives of allowance give them discouraging affronts they beat and misuse their servants threaten their poore children to joynt them of this and that land or portion for their Puritanisme and forwardnesse And those that goe not so farre yet still keepe at one stay profit not by their inferiours if they doe not disdaine to learne of such as most are hardened thereby yet the best is that they give them their course and still remaine as base and barren as before Rom. 11.13 Whereas rather they should be provoked to jealousie by them Naaman here did so Doubtlesse the insight he saw his servants had in the will of God more then himself did smite an holy awe and authority into his spirit Doe these underlings see that which I cannot What lets me from it Surely some strong lust or humour blindefolds me What a shame is this that my retinue whom the businesse concerns not should perceive that which I cannot Surely it furthered the convincement exceedingly Oh! let us all in the feare of God be of his minde Wee shall not need to subject our selves and debase our selves for the matter But let us not blindefold our eies that we should not behold the light shining in at the least crevis We Ministers let us not disdaine the examples of private Christians either in their zeale of obeying or suffering but if we see secretly grace breaking forth from the poorest in more then common wisdome uprightnesse closenesse to the truth be so farre from snagging and nipping of such that rather we marke them for peculiar ones and although they know nothing what hinders why even from such we may not better our selves many waies Was not Apollo glad to learne of Aquila a Tradesman Act. 18.26 But especially you private persons observing such inferiours as exceed your selves doe not loutishly slight and put them off but say I perceive if I hold my peace the stones shall cry truly these cry aloud in mine eares me thinkes I consider if such poore ones get such knowledge what might not I get with paines Truly I will give the onset I shall else never looke upon my poore child but mine heart will throb and tell me he shall rise up in judgement one day against his will and condemne me when the Lord shall say I sent a poore daughter of mine to lye in thy bosome to see if her zeale could any whit warme thee but I see thou art cold as a stone still and as dead as a blocke I raised up out of thine owne loynes a child or children to feare my name that I might provoke thee by that meanes to jealousie but I see nothing prevailes Nay perhaps a poore drudge in thy kitching or rubbing thy horses heels such an one as
Exhortation but to bee faithfull not to have such and such parts but to have one worth them all subjection and faithfulnesse Learne here of Naamans servants What a shame is it that such poore heathens should come forth so suddenly under the anvile of this one present occasion formed and moulded and thou under all Gods discipline shouldest be no better Oh! you servants remember what a long race of unfaithfulnesse riot falshood stealth stomacke disobedience Bad servants must not think it too late for them to repent rebellion you have runne hitherto Oh! that I could but see one Onesimus here this day one fugitive one lewd and slothfull or wilfull wretch whom this my doctrine might convince and convert to God But truly brethren I see so few broken in peeces for their errors so few penitent and tender for their old pranks that I am afraid to put new wine of Exhortation into such old bottells for fear all should break be spilt I have met with some I thank God I see no cause why the Lord should not take some of ye napping in your service and the sins thereof as others in the way of their bad government marriage or childhood What have ye gone from service to service have ye left your rags behinde you and scattered your scurffe so in the places where yee have become that you think it now too late to repent Are you so sapped soked in your way that you begin to thinke there is no hope Beware of being so desperate Say thus Is it not enough Lord that I have beene so lazy so false fingered so bold so answering againe drunke at times loose in liberties not for my Masters ends but mine owne but now I must fulfill my measure adde drunkennesse to thirst and an hard heart to my other prankes No Lord this were not to bee an unfaithfull servant to a man which is bad but a desperate one and impenitent to thee which is cursed If Onesimus had not robbed his Master he had never met with Paul nor beene converted his perishing was his happinesse Thou hadst grace for him O Lord thou madest him faithfull to thy selfe purgest him of his basenesse as deeply seated in him for ought I know as mine is in me that thou mightest have the honour Thou madest him faithfull puttest him into thine own worke settest thy marke on him sendest him backe of a wretch good for naught good for all thinges Ah Lord This day my sinfull service comes to my remembrance Lord batter me breake and thaw mine heart put me in hope pardon my sin put me in to the Lord Jesus his Schoole cleanse me of all my cheats and prankes and make me a true Onesimus fit for thine use according to thine heart and I doubt not but out of thy forge mine heart shall bee framed and moulded to all subjection and faithfulnesse to man Beg it hard Lord teach me to adore thy wisdome in ordaining servants to their places and Masters to be their governours Lord discover thy soveraignty to me and shine thy selfe with thine authority upon my Master and Mistresse that I may see God in their government either because they are holy or else because they are governours If I see not such a Master as I would let me see mastership from thee and bee awed under it Lord take my will out of my bosome and put in thine Speak Lord thy servant heareth give me a will to be subject and bee as thou wilt and then command and spare not I will doe not onely what thy selfe but what man under thee commandeth And it shall be my heaven and happinesse to be under for conscience sake Give me also faith Lord to create all serviceable qualities in me to lythe to forme and to accommodate my spirit and members to all welpleasing without flattery and obedience Let me under a good Master bee subject and faithfull with thankefulnesse to a bad one for conscience not compulsion as serving the Lord Christ Sundry charges Lord thou givest by thine Apostles Paul and Peter Servants be subject to your Masters in all feare 1 Pet. 2.28 not onely to the good but also to the froward for this is thankeworthy if a man for conscience sake endure griefe wrongfully Coloss 3.22 Servants obey in all things your Masters not with eye-service as men pleasers but with singlenesse of heart fearing God Doing it heartily as unto God not unto men knowing that of him ye shall receive the inheritance for yee serve the Lord Christ And so in other places Lord write this Law of thine in mine inward parts Thou hast also in thy word not onely scattered the examples of vile servants Ziba Gehazi Iudas and others to tremble at and abhorre but also of faithfull ones Lord to follow and imitate Thou hast set forth Eliezers example that old trusty servant Gen. 24.10 1 Sam. 25. Mâ—tth 25. Acts 10.22 Texts alledged above to the good of his Masters sonne Those servants of Abigail to the life of her and her husband that of Ioseph to the chastity of his Mistresse that of Cornelius his servants to the soule of their Master those of the servants that occupied talents to the outward advantage of their Master that of Davids for the succour and reliefe of their Master in straits the Centurions to the content and businesse of their Master Rhode faithfull to Gods Ministers and so of others No one object of faithfulnesse but some patterne of it or other thou hast added to sweeten it to assure me of the possiblenesse of obeying it Oh! give to thy servant somewhat of all these that I may be all in one a cast peece without cracke or flaw in respect of unfaithfulnesse and the rest cover O Lord accept and pardon Be earnest I say with the Lord beg of him an understanding heart put not all over to thy Master say not looke you Master what you command for that concernes not me I must doe all you bid me No examine thy Masters commands ere thou obey them But if they be according to God scruple them not yea although they be not yet if but negatives onely forbeare for a time and provoke not by rebellion say not I will not forgoe such a Sermon such a duty of Gods worship But if it bee positively bad abhorre it Beg also the spirit and life of this faithfulnesse Put thy selfe forth by occasion for a good servant is never tried till he be put to it throughly be in one as another service wholly your Masters watch and bee upon wing for faithfulnesse picke out duties be ready for duties be unwearied Let the honour of thy Master the trust of thy Master absent or present the good of children whether abroad in fields at home working thy selfe overseeing others among fellow-servants at praier in family about a journey and message of weight about thy lawfull liberties Still let this soule of faithfulnesse be wholly in all and each
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 uâ—to 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
gatherings of Ephraim Oh this pleased them well and so their fiercenesse abated So David when he had the advantage of Saul twice 1 Sam. 24.4 both when hee was asleepe and tooke away the pot of water from him and his speare another time when he cut off the lap of his garment and came after him saying I could have slaine thee this day and instead of cutting thy lap cut thy throate but thy life was pretious to me This for the time shaked his fury and wildefire and although it could not wholly quench it yet his end was most desperate as commonly theirs is whose rage a calme answer and milde usage will not qualifie So Iaacob in his returne from Laban foreseeing Esau his old grudge Gen. 33.13 sets himselfe in an exquisite manner to appease him first by gifts then by great titles and humble carriage whereby he turned off that rage which else might have brake out if hee had opposed him by violence Oh! such Abigails Davids Gideons and Iaacobs are much wanting and almost out of the world 1 Sam. 25.18 Now men have justled out Divinity and made a mocke of it by their brave stomacks maintaining that a man shall bee so much reputed amongst others as he reputes himselfe and stands upon his tearmes and he that puts up one wrong or reproach provokes two And it is true if we be such indeed as stand to our owne and the worlds judgement and barre appealing from Christs we may take our course goe on without let till shame and repentance and perhaps meeting with our matches doe compell us But if Christs voice will prevaile and wee will stand to his tribunall hee hath told us plainly such cowards and white-livers we must bee and yet Christianity makes us rather as bold as Lions in a just defence if we will be his read Matth. 44.5 You heard them say of old marke revenge is the old Religion though in a new cut Thou shalt love thy friend and hate thine enemy eye for eye tooth for tooth wrath for rage But I say unto you marke the voice of the new Gospel of peace love your enemies doe for them that spite you and speake evill of you and hate you Turne the other cheeke to him that smites you on the one cheeke That thus you may be children of your father in heaven who lets his raine and sunne fall upon the ground of the bad as well as the good And this is the same with that of Paul Rom. 12. If thine enemy hunger thirst or be naked give him meate drinke and cloathing Rom. 12. thus heaping hot coales upon his head recompencing evill with good And lest ye should think there is one Divinity for plaine folke and another for Courtiers Gentlemen and brave sparkes of hot and noble bloud looke I pray upon Elisha's Divinity which hee brought to Ieroboams Court 2 King 6.21 when he had brought the Aramites blindefold to Samaria hee askes them My father shall I smite them But the Prophet answers No smite them whom thou takest in the warre kill not in coole bloud set bread and meate rather before them and feast them and so send them home to their Master and so he did and the bands of Aram came no more that yeare It was good policy and Religion too And no doubt but many of our braving and lofty stomacks when they have met with the affronts of them whom they have provoked as commonly boasters alway goe by the worse then they wish they had beene wiser and held in their stomack ill afterward But I doubt many of our challengers and duellers if they were put upon the enemy in a pitcht battell and in Gods way would prove like those sparkes spoken of in Judg. 9. I meane Gaall and his brethren who asked who is Abimelec But when they saw him their hearts fainted and they were beaten downe To conclude let this generall Instruction brethren reach to all states persons occasions Let the word dwell in us plentifully in all wisdome to guide us in our course The word is answer not a foole in his folly lest thou be like him The patient man is better then he who is hasty in his spirit and in his matters He that overcomes himselfe is better then he that overcomes a City Ecles 7.8 Rom. 12.19 Be slow to speake and slow to wrath Here be the rules If the former examples of Saints perswade not thereto let the practise of these heathen servants shame and upbraid us You husbands and wives remember Satan is alway at your elbow if he can dstemper you quickly will the whole house be distempered and out of frame and your examples will fret like a canker Doe therefore as wise Abigail did to drunken Nabal for drunkennesse and rage are both madnesse she gave way to him while hee was in his cups and in his jollity of feasting but next day when wine was out and wit in she told him of his base distemper and then he was tame So do not take your husbands or wives weapon out of their hand suddenly to wound him or her If one rage let the other pray and be innocent perhaps the Lord will do thee good for their wrath Consider each other the party in coole bloud consider of the other party as of a man in drink prevented by his passion that masters him Doe not now adde oile to the flame and drunkennesse to thirst But remember now God tries me These words are as stinging as fiery darts this tongue is set on fire by hell but now doth the Lord vex every veine in my heart to see what mettall I am made of If now I listen to my lust and outshoot the Divell I may set a marke upon my selfe and be ashamed but if I can possesse my soule with patience now and keepe my fort strong I shall shew my selfe a man or woman stronger then a conquerour Luke 21.11 I will deny my selfe therefore and take away anger from mine eyes Ecles 11.10 and distemper from my heart I will seasonably give over strife lest it become as a fire broken out or as the barres of a Palace Better so then let your shames breake out to others and so be faine to put your quarrells to arbitration and then your selves shall be the first that repent it The like I say to you all brethren in your worldly dealings and controversies or in those tetches which you take each at other Breake not out to open words of defiance upon meer conceits but weigh the reports perhaps they come from tale-bearers examine your grounds and although you finde truth in them yet see what construction they will beare Jam. 4 4. consider that the spirit that is in us lusts after envy If these reports will not beare a good censure yet coole your hearts first then debate the quarrells in coole bloud before witnesses if the fault be proved let it be sufficient that he is convinced
the old and new Testament For tell me why hath God so furnished his word with such stories of his power and greatnesse transcending our reason and our thoughts as much as the heavens doe the earth Esay 55.8 but that our soules might be filled with his excellency And thinke nothing too hard for such a God to doe If he have dried up the sea Jorden stopped mouthes of Lions raised up the dead and fed six hundred thousand men and women without corne or flesh of beasts made water gush twice out of a rocke give a woman of ninety years old power to conceive c. doth he not deserve to be set up above carnall reason Doth he not deserve at our hands more then a faint fulsome grant with Martha thou canst doe all things Doth he not deserve a peculiar faith for this and for that for raising this dead man now at this time For quickning this dead heart at this instant by this Sermon For softning this hard heart For converting this soule to God Oh! how justly reproveable must such a villany needs bee And surely this let me adde if it be so base an evill in respect of the dishonour to God must it needs bee so in respect of the mischiefe which it causes unto our selves Did ever any man hate his owne selfe doth he not love and cherish his owne flesh What an unnaturall evill then is this which chuseth rather here with Naaman to perish with the holding of a carnall will and conceit then by denying it and clasping to the word to be happy for ever Sure that which is so derogatory to God and so unnaturall to our selves must needs deserve sharpe reproofe Fourthly it must needs be a reproveable evill which doth so desperately Reason 4 trench upon all the Attributes of God Power Truth Mercy Justice Providence and Alsufficiency Which questions all cavills against all so that the doctrine before handled viz. That carnall reason is a maine enemy to all the matters of revealed truths is a full reason of this doctrine that it is justly reproveable Other sinnes seeme to undoe the acts of God as his morall commands But this undoes the Lord himselfe in a sort in those things wherein God is himselfe so that either God must not be God a promise must not be a promise Christ must be no Christ no satisfaction no redemption or else carnall sense must perish Both in strict tearmes cannot stand together God hath testified himselfe in his word admirable in this one attribute viz. Providence for his Churches good in the greatest straits Who reading the strange passages of that one deliverance in Esters time Esters story how God concurred just with each circumstance of time of occasion as then to cause the Kings sleepe to depart when Mordecai was in greatest perill and reproach Then when the banquet was prepared that all other opportunities should bee fore laid to oppresse Haman and to exalt Mordecai If a man would compile a story according to his owne wish for the demonstration of Providence could hee frame a more punctuall one Read Ezra's story Daniels Iosephs doth not a naked hand of God appear in them And yet carnall reason would say That if there were windowes in heaven God could not now save his Church as hee hath done in their times in Elija's Elisha's and others What is this but to limit the holy one of Israel to our owne measure of working And so I may say of all other his Attributes Nay carnall reason is such a deepe gulfe as is able to swallow downe the greatest evidence that ever God gave to the world of himselfe both his Godhead and Attributes which is the sending of the Lord Jesus in the flesh into the world to walke live suffer and dye for the salvation of the Elect What can so secure the soule of the truth of Gods nature persons and realnesse in all his promises as this to cause the eternall God to be personally one with our mortall flesh Might not the holy Ghost Heb. 1.1.2 say That this way of God hath greater demonstration in it to stablish a beleeving soule then all that ever were besides And yet what use makes carnall reason hereof Doth it not turne all to a meere story without any ground-worke of faith or perswasion We thinke that the exhibiting of Christ concerned the Jewes who saw him and if wee had lived with him as they we should have abhorred to distrust him as they Why Did not God give them full assurance of himselfe by his Sonne Read Act. 17.38 Had not they as cleere proofes out of the Prophets that he was and none save he could bee the Messia and yet their carnall reason did so abhorre him to be their Messia that they hated him to the death Justly then may I conclude that this sinne is a reproveable one So much also for reasons I proceed now to the Use If this evill be so reproveable it is pitty it Vse 1 should want her due and escape terror or reproofe Terror to sundry The first Neuters Atheists and Epicures and ignorant ones reproved Pitty that any should justifie the wicked against God! Let them therefore come in the dint of this reproofe who are grossest in this kinde Neuters and Atheists who if they do not obstinate their spirits to thinke of all Gods matters and the frame of Religion according to their carnall sence yet are as deeply careles of rejecting and bearing it down by the stream of the word as Gallio was carelesse of the Apostles and their opposites How many are there who like them in Peter mocke at the Scriptures threats and terrors of it 2 Pet. 3. saying Where is the promise of his comming Lo all things are still as they were wont to be the times seasons affaires of men and course of the world therefore wee thinke the world will endure alway Oh ye Atheists One yeare with God is as a thousand and a thousand are as one day Do ye judge the comming of Christ by that which befalls in the space of forty or fifty yeares of one mortall life Doe not all things decay and cannot the Lord shake the powers of heaven and restraine the influence of the upper bodies from the lower at his pleasure But of this saith Peter they make themselves wilfully ignorant that all things were made of nothing and shall returne to nothing they perswade themselves that they ever were and so shall continue Such a seminary there is and such a tale of scurfe here among us even of practicke Atheists who are led by sense as brute beasts that me thinkes I feele my spirit sinke and faile within me when I should scare them out of their dens These are those prophane Swine who although they rise not up openly to desie God and his word and threats yet like sensuall Epicures void of all understanding they live in a profession of infidelity onely differing from Pagans in that they carry
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
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
Judg. 15. lay heapes upon heapes and die of thirst Once get into the right way and undoe somewhat first which God would have you forgoe instead of your doings and this will cause unto you incredible ease and sweetnesse in your proceeding Remember that speech Esay 30. your strength shall be to sit still Sit still and bee quiet therefore in your hypocriticall devotions and bee stirring and working with God under the condition of his promise and your labour shall not be lost in the Lord. 1 Cor. 13. ult Else you shall suffer losse not onely of a part but of the principall you shall sinke in your sweat and the most despised fatherlesse creatures with their poore emptinesse scarce daring to lift up eies to heaven standing afar off shall go away better justified then you with all your supererogations Luke 18.13 And when you are thus defeated your mends shall be in your own hands So much for this second Vse 3 Thirdly this Doctrine reproves sundry sorts And first all such as having enjoyed the liberty of Gods Ordinances all their dayes Reproofe Sundry branches 1. The chiefe season of ease is at first yet never had the wisdome to discerne that spirituall season in which the Lord makes this worke of faith easie and welcome The ease of beleeving in Gods usuall method attends a peculiar opportunity of Gods owne vouchsafing in which he doth more readily worke then at all other times Commonly when the word is first sent to a congregation as a dainty as a rare and desired pearle an object of price Againe when the spirit of the hearer is carried with violence to carry the Kingdome away whatsoever paines and charge it cost them when also the Lord sends the Angel or Minister with a more then common spirit of zeale to stir the muddy poole to the bottome and to unsettle mens hearts frozen upon their dregs I say when as the Lord inspires him with the spirit of Eliah or Iohn Baptist with speciall love to the pretious soules of men with laboriousnesse and the spirit of convincing when as the Gospel drawes all sorts unto it by the fervency of affections and examples of such as make toward it then there is ease in beleeving Not when the Gospel is waxen stale in a Towne and Manna plentifull which commonly causes loathing and fulsomenesse Not when the hearers heart is sunke and dead in his brest indifferent whether he speed or no Not when the spirits of the Ministers of God wax dull as Moses hands with long holding up Not when the Spirit of grace of power melting drawing and perswading begins to flag And as Micah saith is straitned Mica 2.6 Not when the hearts of Ministers faint in them and turne another way Not when they are driven out from their places and are faine to seeke into remote Countries Not when the affections of people wax generally dead and carelesse which end goe forward rather minding their owne world will and ends then the matters of salvation When these markes fall out the shadowes of the mountaines wax long the wild Beasts goe out of their dennes to spoile and the labourers turne their backes upon their worke because the Sunne is downe Not in these seasons not in death deepe sicknesses crosses feares losses is there like to be found this ease I speake of And therefore Oh you my brethen who heare me this day who have long lived here under the meanes above fifty yeares thinke seriously of your estate If yet the worke of beleeving the promise be undone if you have outbidden and survived all these happy seasons wherein your owne soules know you felt such dampings of corruption raisings of heart thawings inclinings and movings of spirit to embrace the offer of salvation and have fallen to the world to pleasures to ease and as Cain did being cast out of Gods presence to goe and build Cities Let my words now pierce you if any tendernesse at roote remaine in you and take heed lest if ever you finde God gracious if he have not quite cast you off for your dallying you be put to toile and travell for it lest it cost you tenne times as much trouble as you might first have had it for The Lord is hardly drawne to returne to a particular man when he hath left a publique place I tell you if you have slighted such meanes and seasons as these it must be the unspeakeable patience of God which can pull you home at last It were strange if a man who hath lost his faire or market should come many daies after and meet with those commodities which hee wants then he might have stored himselfe with ease but after with much hazard and cost You have had your season your accepted time and day of salvation Speciall application to the present people many hundreds have beleeved and set seale to the grace offered and most of them are at rest with God If you bee those unhappy ones who have received it all this while in vaine Hard for long dalliers with God to recover him again at their pleasure or leasure I doubt whether ever any new appetite will be lent you and although it were I doubt whether the doores being shut you shall speed of your desire though you should runne from Barwicke to Dover from old England into new for it or be admitted to beleeve Oh! How shall I speake to this wofull place for the padling out of her season of ease God hath brought salvation to your doores as to the children of the Kingdome pind it on your sleeves I may truly and in a good time speake it The Gospel hath alway brought you more gaine then it hath cost you Pulpits have beene as it were set up in your streets by your houses so neere is the grace of God come unto you and when others have ridden and trotted five ten fifteene miles you have had it at home for stepping in at the doores floods of butter and oile have flowed downe in your brooks and streets and thousands have beene satisfied with your leavings You have been as free borne to the Gospel What in all the world shall you pretend for your selves if you have never had I say not the best portion but any part at all of it Oh! that I could teach you after all my pressing of the promise among you how to dispute for your selves But that exceeds my skill you have had a fee-simple an inheritance of the Gospel you have beene married to the Lord under long constant unwearied plaine and powerfull meanes long ere I came among you All mens gifts have served you Note you of the congregation you have entred into other mens labours I may adde this that you have possessed fields vineyards and orchards which you never knew the price of never bought tilled or planted For my selfe although I have long lived unprofitable yet if ever God lent me any fitnesse to doe you good
it hath beene since I came among you And yet some of you through lazinesse worldlinesse love of your shops formality neglect of meditation Others through a curst sullen heart snuffing at the Ministry stumbling at the stone of offence but the most from a cloy'd and surfeited stomacke with much food have never come to taste the ease of mercy If some few have truly either they have little else to take too or else God hath pickt them out as odde ones here and there and what may become of some of these when meanes shall faile God knoweth But now even at this last cast and farewell for Gods sake come in and dally no longer and breake through all your lusts for this promise It shall vex ye as fire one day to thinke of this how foolishly did I misse of heaven When I might have had it with ease then to lose it for a base lust a vanity which shall leave me empty Oh foole in kinde The Lord move your hearts So much for this first branch of Reproofe Branch 2 Secondly here is reproofe for all such as have forestalled this blessed ease of God Deny selfe-ease for Gods ease by leaning to their owne strength zeale and affections I have beat much upon this Now I say no more but this Wonder not if your lives bee full of complaints Oh ye saith Esay who kindle a fire of your rotten sticks Esay 50. ult and compasse your selves with your owne sparkles much good doe it you with your owne light and heate but you shall have this at mine hand you shall lye downe in sorrow Is it a small sinne that turnes Gods ease into misery Vers 10. No surely A viper shall come forth of your owne heat and sting you to death without repentance Who is he among you that feares the Lord and obeyes the voice of his servants that walkes in the darkenesse and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himselfe upon his God And so doing he will doe his worke for him Get once the slight of it as we say and then halfe the worke is at an end Lay downe rather your owne spirits and sparkles good deeds and affections rather then take them up to demerit God and resist his ease And so by denying your selves here on the left hand in your vices there on the right in your vertues and praises sucking out an humble heart out of the promise for alas what needed the cost of Christ if your cost could serve the turne you shall finde your selves to profit more by one Sermon then you have done by tenne So much for this second Branch Thirdly this reproves all such Ministers as turne this true and spirituall Branch 3 ease of God into a carnall liberty and smoothing their ignorant and prophane people Preachers of carnall ease who sow pillowes yea sowing pillowes of fleshly ease under their elbowes telling them they are in good ease and these Preachers scare them with false fires for Gods yoake is easie Christ came to destroy the hard Law c. And the ground of this practice is either idlenesse to spare themselves a labour or through prophanenesse or through Gods just judgement to give them teachers such as themselves are to cause them to stumble and fall and rise no more and all because they have rejected better meanes And others Pelagian wise teach that there is an universall sufficient grace offered in the Gospel which also is effectuall except men resist it and that they have free will to accept and embrace it As for the doctrine of Gods peculiar ease of perswading some more then others they cannot endure it They teach the people to say to God as those in Esay are brought in saying to one man doe but beare our name and owne us and we will be at our owne findings thou shalt not be troubled with our maintenance we will bee fed apparrelled and supported by our owne meanes and moneies Pelagian ease of selfe-conversion and of fre-will confuted So say these to Christ beare our name for fashion and obtaine a generall pardon by the merit of thy bloud and as for the application of it let us alone we will finde strength by our owne free concurrence with the grace offered to fasten upon and apply it to our selves And so if there fall out to be any defect herein it is no want of the accommodation of grace to us for that is equall to all but our accommodation to it in such a due season matter or other circumstances as if they had beene concurring might have produced a perswasion to receive the grace offered To all which I answer such ease as this in obeying the command of beleeving the orthodox Church of God know none The ease that is is on Gods part preventing assisting and perfecting and from none of ours To us the work is absolutely impossible So much for this third Branch and so for this third Use of Reproofe The fourth Use should be Exhortation and that many fold First Vse 4 to all Gods poore servants Exhortation In sundry Branches Such as have found ease in Gods way are thankfull who have found Gods way sweetned thus and eased by the Lord that they be very thankefull for this speciall favour Say thus who am I whom thou shouldest make that sweet and easie unto which to others thou sufferest to bee toilesome Thou mightest have brought mee as hardly to heaven as others there is not a prouder tougher moulded wretch of an hundred then I have beene Jer. 2.3.4 yet thy milde and gentle cords of allurement have been strange to me Thou hast pull'd me with the cords of a man made love to me even in the wildernesse forelaid my way sweetly brought me into the net ere I was aware concealed difficulties while afterward mittigated my horrors gone leasurely on with me drop upon drop line upon line not gugged me too deeply with my lusts not suffered me to revolt to my old courses thou hast laid no heavy burthens upon my shoulders required no toile of service thou hast given me an hope of successe from the beginning so that I have gone to worke with hope beene freed from excessive feares temptations crosses discouragements which many others are basked withall For my part I know no reason and I can but wonder that thou shouldest doe as thou hast which I cannot deny without lying to one so hollow inconstant and perverse as I know my selfe to be It pleases thee to hold me fast to those steps to which thou hast brought me and to try mee no deeplier then thou givest light and strength to resolve and revive mee againe Methinkes thou hast made the whole mystery of Christ sensible and lively to me in the ground of it the merit thy scope which is to magnifie thy selfe in the hearts of thine and my heart hath found some sweetnesse in it found it day by day more lightsome and sweet
As the loadstone holds iron to it selfe so I have felt thy promise to draw me so that I cannot give it over nor forsake the meanes but they are daily sweeter and sweeter to me I have not felt such temptations to hideous thoughts lusts as some have done I am not disquieted so much about the measure of my preparations as some have been from my youth up thou hast by steps and degrees wrought that which thou art faine to worke in others by violence and with difficulties Nothing but excesse of clemency and mercy hath beene my portion and yet in all I have held some good testimony in my owne heart of sincere and plaine intentions although feeble yet faithfull Oh blesse the Lord Pitty such as get to heaven with difficulties As for others whose birth costs more travell and paines pitty them the rather and confesse thou owest them so much the more compassion by how much they come harder to heaven then thou dost We see an heire toiles not so much for all his inheritance as a poore labourer for a groat a day Doth the poore man murmure at him No but puts himselfe under providence which hath made some owners some tenants some to live at more ease others with more toile The Lord is the maker of both and perhaps foresees that if the poore had as the rich he would beare it worse and therefore his rough spirit must bee basked and held downe from pride and rebellion Let not such as meet with more hardship in their conversion accuse God for changing ease into toile Let them not murmure at Lydia at Zachee and such as have beene easily brought home but blesse God that he would trouble himselfe with such peeces as they rather then burne them as knotty logs scarce worth the hewing and bestow any cost upon them for his owne names sake rather then they should perish But let them be farre from cavilling at God that they have abode the heate of the day and others comming in at the eleventh houre have fared as well Matth. 20.15 Is thy penny the worse silver for theirs Or is thine eie evill because Gods is good wonder rather that ever that penny should come in thy purse then that others fare as well or that thou farest not better So much for this Branch Branch 2 Secondly let this be an admonition unto thee for the time to come that this ease of the first mercy Beware lest the ease of the first mercy cause thee after to slight it become not a snare unto thee afterward to cause thee to slight it and forget it Doe not as wanton heires who spend it as lightly and basely as it came easily Lest the Lord make your hearts ake for it and set you on the racke teaching you to repent and to keep within bounds Oh! abuse not this goodnesse slight it not walke not slackly sit not loose upon easie mercy devote thy selfe rather to God for so free sweet easie mercy with the most close faithfull heart thinking nothing too deare for him David could breake forth Psal 43. ult into great triumphs after a tedious conflict and combat with his fears doubts depth of heavines and say I will still praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God And shalt not thou say so much more who hast escaped many such scourings Doe not now thinke thou art safe thou maist heare pray receive the sacraments as loosely and formally as thou wilt because grace came easily No make the more precious account of it else thou art a slave and no Sonne An heire seeing himselfe stockt by his father with sweet dwelling rich grounds great revenues so that he needs not to carke and toile for a living What doth he Surely as the Lord bids the Israelites who came into a land flowing with milke and hony and that at the best vantage even in the harvest of all commodities But rather knit the heart to God Joshua 5.11 Beware lest now yee forget the Lord that hath thus endowed and furnished you Walke humbly and feare the Lord that it may goe well with you So should we doe we should say now all other things are done to mine hand there is but one thing to doe Lord teach me to do it well If I can be full and yet remember the Lord that made me and highly esteem the rocke of my salvation he will thinke them well bestowed Deut. 32.14 and confirme them to me else they shall be a snare Fall not to Adams and Eves sinne who in the abundance of all things being set in a Paradise could not digest their happinesse but fell to revolt and so were cast out Say not Soule eat drinke be merry cry not peace peace but let the ease of mercy keepe thy soul from all presuming and sensuall security John 5. Remember that bitter pill given by our Lord Jesus to a loose one whose cure cost him nothing so he began to play his parts Thou art healed now sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee and then thou wilt wish would I had lien lame by the poole still We are scarce able brethren to beare the ease of mercy but we wax wanton and that is the cause why so few finde it and so many complaine of such difficulties It is just with God to make us weare the chaine for it to teach us to walke before the Lord more humbly and soberly And so much for the second Branch of the Exhortation I should now have concluded the Use with the third and last Branch that we walke in the experience of this blessed ease to trust God forth on for the like goodnesse But the time is spent Let us cut off here and call upon God c. THE FOVRTEENTH 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 and dipped himselfe in Iorden seven times c. 2 Kings I Gave you an hint briefly beloved in our Saviour when I last ended the former Sermon what I would have proceeded with if time had permitted I have shewed you That the beleeving of Gods promise to such as are in case is an easie thing Sundry grounds and Scriptures I cleered the truth by and sundry Uses of Instruction of Terror of Reproofe and of Exhortation I have added And to this last wherein two branches were urged Branch 3 then belongs a third that is That all who have found this handfull of ease The ease of mercy should make Gods yoake light for ever after in beleeving pardon should be earnest with God for the ease and sweetnesse of an holy course that the yoake of God may become easie and his burthen light Say thus unto the Lord Hitherto
prejudice therefore they put him in minde of it and as in the next point we shall heare doe rectifie him in that error But for the present the argument coucht secretly is this â—f thou lovest and esteemest the Prophet really obey him and bee ruled by him thou wouldest have done any thing he should bid thee because of the honour thou barest him Doe so still if thou love him obey his counsell This their argument breakes it selfe into two parts First into a ground of reason Secondly into the reason following upon it The ground is Thou esteemest and honourest Gods Prophet The reason therefore take his loving counsell Of both these in order in handling this second argument if God will The cleering of the ground Touching this ground of Naamans esteeme of Elisha because I doubt not but many will cavill about it let me first cleere it and then come to the point Some will say then what wonder if so strange and miraculous a cure of a desperate disease as Naamans was did attract extraordinary affection and cause a desire of gratification But that 's nothing to our love to Gods Minister which if it be sound must arise upon better bottome But to that I answer two wayes First though Naaman of himselfe was carryed as an ordinary man yet the Lord having the ordering now of his whole course bred as well good affections to the Prophet and to God his owne glory and worship as it bred gladnesse of the cure So that even in this love of his being in the bud may be discovered a seed of that which after brake out when hee was healed We read of the like example Joh. 9. of a poore blinde creature who no sooner was healed by our Saviour of his blindenesse but his affections of love brake out strangely towards him shall we thinke that because the occasion hereof was his cure therefore there was no more in it save a meer carnall humour No if we read the 37. and 38. verses we shall see what fire this sparkle brought forth when our Lord Jesus had met him and enlarged him with more grounds to love him upon better reason But secondly I say it were well if even we having deeper and stronger bottomes to build our affections upon to Gods Minister were carryed with no lesse demonstration then he was of which more in the Use shall be spoken And whereas it s objected that now his servants rather tax him for his want of present love to the Prophet then commend him for the former I answer what wonder if so weake a man were so easily transported in his passion from his former affection First it was God who suffered it for his humiliation And secondly how many who thinke themselves to stand upon surer ground in their love to the Minister yet upon farre lesser occasion then Naamans even meer tetches and pritches very toyes and conceits can alienate their love from the Prophet of God and that both more deeply then Naaman and without repenting thereof which yet he presently did So that the truth is we have no such cause to cavill against this point nor to disdaine to take Naaman to bee our example rather it were well if wee would prove as good Scholars as hee is meete to set us to Schoole The point then is Doctrine The esteeme of Gods Minister ought to be precious The esteeme and love of heart wherewith wee embrace the Minister of God ought to be singular If the Prophet say they had bidden thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it Sure it must bee great affection which should so easily cause a man to doe great things Whether we understand their words in relation to his obedience to any charge which the Prophet should have put upon him for the cure of his disease or in relation to his readinesse to beteame the Prophet a deep gratification for his labour both must needs argue love and esteeme If the Prophet had told thee thou must goe barefoote on pilgrimage many miles or fought some battell of great hazard or the like wouldest not thou have adventured thy selfe to get thy disease cured If the Prophet should have required at thine hands some rich recompence talents of silver costly apparrel the most curious presents that could be wouldest not thou have freely granted them How much more then when he saith unto thee Wash and be cleane So then Naamans love wee see runnes in a strong streame a small thing should not part him and the Prophet he would doe great things for him rather then faile let but the Prophet command a taske or aske a reward and what would not hee doe Nay freely unasked unexpected So that the point is plaine That the affection which Gods Minister if the faithfull Minister of Christ deserves at our hands is and ought to be singular and pretious This point first I will prove by Reason then by Scripture and so come to Use The first Reason is the charge of God It s eternall and cannot be infringed I enter not now upon the strickt question of Tithes my Text reacheth onely to the singularity of loyalnesse and love and that other Reason 1 argument is at large handled by others but I say of the Ministers patrimony Note as of the Princes it is eternall and unalienable without horrible sacriledge God hath both in the old and new Testament most cautiously provided that the Minister should never be forsaken How frequent are those speeches with Moses Deut. and Josh 18.6 1 Cor. 9.12.13.14 Forsake not the Levite all thy dayes The Lord hath not given him a portion among his brethren but the Lord himselfe is his portion These Leviticall phrases are of eternall right Thou shalt not muzle the mouth of the oxe saith Paul out of Moses he that serveth at the altar must live upon it If we afford you spirituall things is it much if we reap your temporall Did those Ministers of God who were inspired with extraordinary gifts by the holy Ghost without their owne toile and industry speake thus who because they freely received might freely give and shall it not much more bee verified of them that serve at the altar of the Gospel whose labours cost a greater price of paines and charge to furnish And because these Texts do trench rather upon the fruits of love then the affection it self How were the Galathians affected to Paul Did they thinke their eyes too deare for him to pull out and give him Are not the very feet of them beautifull who bring glad tidings of peace and good things Did not those Galathians receive Paul as an Angel of God Gal. 4.15 Would not they have imparted to him not onely their goods but even their very soules And what wonder Are they not his joy and crowne Are they not as his wife Are not their soules dearer to him then the bodies of men can be to a Physitian Doth hee not love them
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
that in some cases there be not that God might try our honesty then in the next place consult with the practise of such as lived next them in the most incorrupt ages and prime dayes of the Church when truth was as a chrystall streame which might bee seen to the bottome Read the writings of them who lived not only in times of prosperity and glory three hundred or foure hundred yeares after Christ but in those times of purity and sincerity when as yet truth had received no mixtures no defilements by the pompe the excesse of them who lived in them Enquire of the dayes of old when men were hunted persecuted martyred for the cause of Christ They to whom truth was dearer then their lives who were farre from seeking great things for themselves but carryed their lives in their bosomes to be let out with their life bloud for Christ I deny not but they are much to be reputed who have lived since but with difference the more arguments there be for their sincerity the more they deserve credit the more they suffered lost or forwent or still are ready to lose forgo for him when they need not the more ordinarily they are to be trusted except just reason may be alledged against them to wit that their self-deniall is contrary to the word as Popish martyrs the like Look how they preacht look what tenets they held concerning the aptnesse of men for the Ministry look what manners they were of what contempt of the world of fashions of carnall pompe look what they judged fittest for the calling of Ministers the pure administration of sacraments prayer in the assemblies collection for the poor censures of offendors admonition of the unruly frequency of preaching that let us take counsell from them in If they kept the Lords day onely as an humane ordinance by the Apostles appointment arbitrary and Ecclesiastically constituted or as the Lord Jesus his Agents from divine instinct and as a day perpetually to be observed for the honour of our perfected redemption then let us doe so looke what Paul hath thought of free-will of election of rejection of the free grace of God and so those worthies who followed looke what those Martyrs ancient or moderne thought of justification whether by workes or faith of Purgatory the Masse Popish Martyrs against the Scripture not to be regarded or the adoring of Saints and Images that let us cleave too for they wanted those blindeings of eies which others had though honour must be given to some without prejudice to any and the reason is my Doctrine Sincerity in the counseller deserves that their counsell be regarded And the like rule holds still good that those to whom truths are more pretious then goods lives liberties or ends other things sutable are to be preferred in point of advice and conscience then those who are short of them in selfe-deniall because the more of Selfe abides the lesse Sincerity Secondly it may be a caveat unto us in our judgements Caveat how to judge of meet or unmeet Counsellors touching Vse 2 them whom God hath set a marke of exception upon why their counsell ought in no wise to be followed whether Writers Preachers or Professors To wit such as have in all their courses bewraid themselves to be flatterers timeservers and seekers of their owne ends setters up of themselves with the pulling downe of Christ and his Gospel And they are first of all the nation of Papists contrary to Iohn Baptist Joh. 3.30 whose saying was I must decrease but he must encrease But these contrarily we must grow and encrease decrease who so will Tell me what one thing belonging to their Kingdomes savors of sincerity Popish falshood in all their waye in particulars from the crowne of the Miter to the foote Nay what was not first grounded in counterfeit humility to catch silly soules and to strip them both of their bodily welfare and salvation Even as the Ivy creeps out of the earth upon the silly stocke of the tree but never lins till it have overtopped it and suckt out the sap and so destroied it Sure if onely sincerity plead for audience then may all good Christians say of them their doctrine their lives their miracles traditions ceremonies sacraments Priests preachings prayers Gen. 49.6 Into their counsell let not my soule come Their scopes are carnall to set up their owne pompe ease belly-cheere to destroy the doctrine of faith true selfe-deniall and mortification Under the pretext of chastity of poverty of fasting pennance confession sacraments what have they done but lived in odious uncleannesse raked the treasures of whole Kingdomes into their Cells devoured whole houses of their votaries puft up themselves in the opinion of more righteousnesse then the Law exacts dived into the secrets of Princes hidden most cruell murthers of lawfull Kings and enhansed themselves to such a pompe state as made the whole Christian world groane under their tyranny Is it like that such should ever bring home soules to God whose onely study is to bring sacks to their Popes mill As he once said of the Turkes horse that where he came no more grasse grew So I may say of them so farre are they from sincerity in seeking mens salvation and Gods glory that they waste and blast all and every branch and blossome that tends that way Nay their most seeming holy devotions what serve they for but to fulfill the flesh to puffe up the heart with a conceit of her owne goodnesse Their counsells of perfection what tend they unto but to pride them in a thought of greater righteousnesse then God commands Their excommunications and censures to what end doe they aime save to live upon the sinnes of the people to picke their purses and spoile their soules Who ever by any of their counsells grew more chaste devoute or temperate and not rather desperate as knowing that money will answer all And when they write books what intend they but to flatter their Idoll the Pope and tell him although he draw milions of souls to hell yet may no man aske him what dost thou The travells of those Jesuits attending the Spanish armies into the East-Indies what scope had they Surely in shew for enlarging the religion of the Pope but in effect the murthering of infinite thousands savages and that contrary to oaths vows that so they might fill their purses with their treasures and hoards of gold till they made all Religion stinke in the nostrills of such as they pretended to convert Luther after all his experience of their Religion professed it to be the cutthroate of the soule and the leaver thereof at the brinke of despaire Doe not their attires fares attendance Temples exceed all the wealth of Princes their treasures are outward bravery Are such like to save souls Those Monks which were sent for to wait upon Austin the Apostle as they stile him of England found him mounted upon
Nextly here is Terror and Reproofe for all that live under convincing Terror to all proud despisers of sincere Counsell sincere and faithfull counsell yea such as they cannot except against to proceed from unfaigned desire of their salvation conversion and repentance and yet still live in a stout and wilfull obstinacy and resolution to abide in their lusts and liberties without controll This is sure while men can pretend any sinister end in the Minister they thinke themselves to have buckler enough to beare off all blowes But even to you this I say that it shall not serve your turne to cast this blame upon your Minister for the power of the word ought more to convince you and scare you from your base courses then the Ministers insincerity to excuse you But when all this your plea is gone and cut off and you cannot deny but the evidence of the word goeth with the evidence of sincerity and you cannot for your eares deny but that your soules and selves have beene sought with the denying of our owne health gaine nay that you have had some Ministers who have robb'd themselves to teach you denyed many succours for your sake and been at their owne cost to study and preach unto you and yet the day is to come that one of many of you are wonne from your blindenesse Atheisme infidelity hollownesse pride worldlinesse or the like Oh what answer shall you make to the Lord when hee shall load you with this accusation Saul himselfe in a pang relented at Davids simplicity of heart in cutting off the lap when he might have cut his throat 1 Sam. 24.4 but such confession was yet never extorted from some of you I will not make all alike in this kinde God forbid But I wish all to looke about them Some are so cursed as those hearers of Christ who when he by the finger of God cast out Divells Matth. 12.31.32 yet enraged their hearts even against the very Spirit it selfe by which he wrought and preacht in an high degree whom he pronounced unpardonable It were enough to sin against any one doctrine promise or threat or command of the Spirit as thousands doe daily and many of you before me have done Speak before the Lord and answer for your selves what one sound reproofe what truth of Gods Spirit either of Law or Gospel hath pierced many here for their dead hearing tyring out the hearts of Gods Ministers for their drunkennesse uncleannesse base tongues lying and the like But some there are who have set themselves against the Spirit it selfe of truth and sincerity in the Preacher Witnesse this That the more faithfull he is the more they have raged against him and rebelled nay some have studied how to make the sincerity of the Preacher his snare entrapping him in those speeches wherein perhaps not with so much caution yet with as great sincerity as is possible for sinfull flesh he hath expressed himselfe for their good And if not so yet they wilfully have slept and lived in security under it As Nicodemus told Christ Joh. 3.2 that the Pharisees his fellowes knew him to be from God in their conscience but yet smothered their light Oh fearfull sinne How dare any of you provoke the wrath of God thus to smoke against you I remember that example of them who came to Christ and practised this treachery Matth. 16.22 Mark 11.31 Master say they we know thee to be from God and teachest the word sincerely not caring for the person of any Tell us then Is it lawfull to give tribute to Cesar or no As if they should say Thou preachest sincerely therefore wee come to cut thy throat with thine owne words Worse then Herod in this kinde who murthered Iohn halfe against his will Matth. 14.2 and afterward feared that he was risen and could have no peace because he had slaine so sincere a witnesse of God but these would shed the bloud of such and no whit blanke but thinke they doe God good service But say that all are not so vile Joh. 16.2 yet how many of us are there who being guilty in our owne conscience of our sinnes and of the sincerity of the reprover yet hold their owne and will not come in will not discerne a gift of God above any thing which man can reach unto but resist it Partly by their slightnesse partly that they are so full of their owne matters contentions with others covetous courses politicke principles and self-delusions with pride of heart stoutnesse and disdaine techinesse and reliques of some old bitter roote which is bred in the bone or such like evills and the love of them will not be drawne by any sincerity of the Minister to forsake these wayes which long custome hath hardned them in but rather become more pathed in their sinnes by much beâ—ting upon To whom I say will you never bethinke you Will it not be bitternesse in the end What will you deferre all till death And then as others have done cry out for the Minister and empty out your whole heart The misery of contemners and say Oh Sir I knew of a long time that you spoke unto me from God but what for one cause and what for another I contemned the love and compassion wherewith you spake dallyed with God and sinned against my owne soule and that tender honesty of your reproofes and admonitions Oh you have been patient long and borne with my frowardnesse Prov. 1.26 But now if I live I hope I shal see your affection honour your Ministery humble my selfe under your terrors beleeve the promises reforme my wayes Oh doe you delay till now But who can tell whether God will not leave you at such a time to the former hardnesse of your heart Or if not yet whether your humiliation will prove sincere or false as being on the racke Whether God will take you away in your dallyings or no ere that day It is not safe venturing But most wise and safe to yeeld to the sincerity of good counsell while it is given ere it be too late This know that wheresoever God hath a sincere Minister he shall never goe without honour although it be in the destruction and finall conviction of the gainsayers Take heed you be none of them whom this guilt ceazes upon Vse 6 Sixtly this is Instruction and that in two kindes The former this To judge by this rule 1. Brâ—nch Instâ—uction Gods counsells are most sincere Rom. 15.3 Rom. 5.7 what great reason God hath to presse us to obey all his offers counsels exhortations promises To be sure although we should say all men are lyars and seeke themselves yet the Lord is sincere faithfull he cannot seeke his owne ends to our hurt Hee cannot bee benefited by us his are the sheep upon a thousand mountaines Psal 50.10 he needs not our wealth but goodnesse reaches not to him Psal 16.2 Who hath given to him first
No they would not for a world have concealed it but now they were glad that they gave not place to their Masters madnesse or their own feare of his ill will and that by this craft of theirs even of sincerity they had conquered him Oh how many temptations we have within and without to lay downe our counsells and give all over thinking wee shall tire our selves and prevaile little purchase ill will for our love and hatred for our sincerity and that would grieve us Grive us nay it would have grieved us if we had beene hollow but there is no cause of griefe now whether our counsell take or not our labour is with God Sonne of man saith God to Ezek. 18. If thou seest the plague comming and shalt plainly tell them of it thou hast saved thine owne soule their bloud shall be upon their owne head if they beleeve not Here is the season of upbraiding by base Rebels for our plaine dealing But bee of good cheere hereafter will be the day in which wee shall be admired when the Lord shall arraigne all Sycophants for their flattery and spilling the bloud of soules and the bloud of Christ the price thereof then conscience shall rend them in peeces then all their owne ends of gaine or ambition shall vanish and then they will cry out Oh that we had beene faithfull Then shalt thou be comforted and they tormented yea let all such as have received good counsell rejoice and bee thankefull David having heard Abigails plaine counsell was rapt into praise unto God 1 Sam. 25. Oh saith she my Lord it will not grieve thee when thou shalt sit upon the throne that thou hast obeyed thine handmaid and not shed innocent bloud Grieve thee nay wonderfully glad thee that thou scapedst such a disaster Oh saith he blessed be the Lord and blessed be thy counsell which hath turned off my sword from this fact which else I had committed so shalt thou blesse God for a counsellor and for mercy to perswade thee by it and say it was ten to one that I tooke it I had as many temptations to reject it as Naaman had here which if I had I had gone on in my unbeleefe and pride to hell which gulfe I have now shot We need not aske whether Naaman comforted himselfe in following the advice of his Servants Concerning which the verses following entreat Thus much for this third argument of the Servants viz. the sincerity of Elisha his counsell There is yet one more which now I come to and so finish the whole Verse And that is in the last words How much more when he saith unto thee wash and be cleane It is taken from a comparison of unequalls Their fourth and last aâ—gument from comparison Thus thou pretendest great respect to the Prophet in greater things this is but a small one if thou meane as thou makest shew thou must needs obey in the lesser if thou meantst it in the greater else thou shouldest be but hollow and not to be trusted The point is He that is honest and upright Doctrine The faithfull in greater things will much more be so in smaller if he be faithfull in greater things will much more be so in smaller This point attends the former very fitly That called upon us for the brestplate of righteousnesse This puts upon us the belt or girdle of Truth Both are peeces of the Christian armor Ephes 6. and the summe of it is That where truth is there is proportion and equalnesse A man may know where to have an honest man if he shew forwardnesse in great things by good reason a man may expect readines to do smaller matters He is but a meer boaster and hypocrite who makes great shewes of doing this or that but being puâ— to the triall shrinkes his neck out of the collar even in trifles no man judges such a one to be any better then a gull But to speak a word or two in the Proofe and so breefly come to the Use Luke 16.11 The ground of it may be fetcht from that speech of our Saviour If you be unfaithfull in the lesser things the Mammon of this world who will trust you in the greater Treasure That is if you may not be trusted in the disbursing of a little pelfe and trash that perisheth for the good of the body and releefe of the poore who will trust you in the dispensing of heavenly treasure to the comfort of the soules of such as need it As if he had said The Law of equity supposes that if you were faithfull in a greater you might be well trusted with the lesser but if the lesser bewray you to be unfaithfull doubtlesse much more would you be so in the greater If I should betrust a man with twenty shillings to distribute it among poor folke the party should deceive me and rob the poor of it I durst hardly trust him to be my Executor to disburse a great summe to their use The reason is good and holds strong that basenesse of heart which hinders him from the lesse by reason of a trifle would assuredly much more withdraw him by a greater booty and try his falshood And so by contraries But I will adde a Reason or two First Religion agrees well with naturall principles and admits those consequences which reason allowes Now there is nothing more common Reason 1 in nature and reason then this That every whole must needs containe his parts and every general his particulars for why its greater and therefore includes his lesser Againe we have a rule issuing from hence That which availes in the greater much more availes in the lesser Whether greater in quantity the greater circle includes the lesse the perfectest figure as a circle comprehends a lesse perfect as a cube or in quality as a greater heat containes a lesser a greater light as the Sun containes the lesser as the Moone So in other degrees greater strength containes a lesse in numbers hundred comprehends scores oftnesse comprehends seldomenesse in notions the more unlikely comprehends the lesse the more difficult the more easie and arguments may easily be drawne from the one to the other to convince any that is guided by sound reason Therefore it must hold in Religion also Reason 2 Secondly God is the God of order and his off-spring is like him Religion is an orderly thing no confusion But if men might goe to worke as they list and goe out and in be off and on in greater matters conscionable in lesser carelesse bound to no rule where should wee have or finde men Religion being the seed of God acts and workes the heart to grace or duty by an infallible principle so that who so makes conscience of great things doth it upon a command of God and not only for observation sake or base respects Now he who is guided by a command considers it according to the extent of it and if he bee willing in cases
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
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
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
Oh they say its pitty such Ministers should live they serve for no other save to gaster and unsetle men who are in peace They have done that with their words which all their labour with both hands cannot undoe againe Oh wofull wretch Is the Minister able to goe beyond the Lord Is he not a servant of God to doe what he will use him for Esay 10.15 Rom. 9. Shall the axe exalt it selfe against him that cutteth therewith Or the clay say to the Potter why dost thou make no more haste to fashion me No it s enough that he shall heale whom he hath wounded and make up the breach he hath made when God will use him In the meane time perhaps thy cavilling at the meanes bindes Gods hand behinde him thou needest not wonder that he doth thy wife or child so little good rather cease thy rebelling as bootlesse and yeeld thy selfe to come into Gods order that he may worke upon thy heart as he hath done theirs And so let it by the way encourage the Minister of God who pleads for the glory of God and travells with a soule burthened and despairing of ever seeing good day Oh Lord saith many a such one Vse 3 it is for thee that I have so urged the conscience of my hearer to trust upon thy accomplishment of thy word If I have deceived the people Encouragement to the Ministers of God Ezek. 14.9 Rom. 3.7 thou hast deceived me Oh if I should leave any poore soule in the briars and never see the worke of faith finisht in him I should be accounted a liar for God! what a dishonour were this Lord put to thine hand helpe thy weake servant save thine owne name and my credit Disable me not from being beleeved leave me not a reproach to vile ones Alas They whom I have to deale with are a sturdy and a rebellious people cavillers and such as will disgrace me if thy word should not prove true honour me therefore and set thy seale to my poore labours that in my truth thy name may be glorified 2 Cor. 10.4 Esay 57.18 batter and pull down their high stomacks plunge them into horrors and then create the fruit of the lips in them and strengthen me to be an able Minister of reconciliation that so the mouthes of them who would traduce thy Messengers and Ordinances may bee stopped Even as the Lord Jesus Joh. 17. praied his Father to glorifie him for the sake of them whom he had given him so doe thou entreat also Oh in thy weldoing be not discouraged by such nor be too sollicitous for God! feare not Esay 42.8 he will not give his glory to another he will not be laught at as unable to goe through that which he hath begunne These poore servants of Naaman were weake instruments to speake of but yet made strong enough by the Lord to conquer their Master so thou shalt perhaps be the instrument to water that which others have planted Gal. 2. And what if others enter into thine If God may have a Temple built by Salomon 2 Chron. 28.14 David will lay in Timber and Cedars and willinglly forgoe the name thereof And therefore distrust not God nor faint in thy service Thirdly let this be use of Admonition to us that since God hath Vse 3 said it He will not alway contend but create peace Admonition Cleere and justifie God in his delay of grace therefore wee judge not amisse of God when we see the worke deferred as if he did deserve the blame but rather cleer him and say He cannot lie the fault lyes some where else The truth is we heare of few who honour God in the improvement of this promise though it be not the fault of all for many doe beare witnesse to God in this kinde But why Because they wilfully make it a long journey which God makes short And first they will not confesse that which God hath done They think faith to be such a sensible effectuall grace that none can have it but by and by they shall see the flame of it and so not discerning any excellency of effects they consult with their owne feelings and conclude there is nothing at all Alas poore soules the beginnings of faith are poore though the encreases may be great Job 8.7 Spirituall things in a carnall subject are as hardly discerned as a pearle among much dung that which is our owne appeares easily and dismaies us But that which is Gods is more secret Againe many looke more at their owne stirrings of the poole then at Gods I can speak it by experience that whereas one hath made complaint of his not clasping to a promise and mourned simply for unbeleefe ten have bemoaned their losse of the affections which they have had in hearing praier or conference A signe that their owne is nearer then Gods worke with them Faith is not alway a victorious sensible and reflecting grace upon the soule wherein it is But a casting of her selfe after all her fruitlesse wrastlings as being convinced of the insufficiency and invalidity of them all upon the streame of the word to carry her to the haven of peace If then you have lost your first feelings and zeale give not God over but still seek him for a further spirit of recovery and encrease upon the best grounds Naaman here had lost his first hopes yet you see he recovers them againe by better insight and perswasion and that ere he looked for it Pray earnestly O Lord thou hast power to set the Sunne ten degrees backe Lord set mine ten degrees forward Thou oh Lord hast all instruments meanes seasons perswasions blessings crosses in thy hand to worke by apply them Lord and suffer not my soule which is sunke into giddinesse ease worldlinesse discontent of spirit and dead sullennesse to lye still in that dungeon Drive me out of my carnall tracke into thy Royall Rode and if I must be delaid yet keepe me in thy way presse the Lord with his owne word and say Thou canst discover to me all my steppings out of thy way all my stops and lets Thou canst uncharme Satans spell Thou canst multiply perswasion and weaken disswasion Thou canst remove that utter unwillingnesse and uncouthnesse of the soule to this work and cause lythnesse and complying therewith Thou canst pull me out of those snares which enwrapt me in bondage as the weeds did Ionah No rocks shall split me with feare no Syrens shall inchant me with baites if thou assist Thou canst menage thy Spirit with so strong an arme Esay 55.8.9 that it shall prosper to doe what thou wilt and cause that no raine no snow shall returne in vaine but doe that for which thou sentest it Take heed give not God over trifle not out thy time improve fasting to cast out the Prince of Divells Unbeleefe and frequent the Sacrament as Gods sealing Ordinance and then know that he who hath begunne will finish
except thou bee out of the way when the houre of performance is come Vse 4 But lastly and above all hearken to this all you to whom of right the Doctrine belongs Consolation to all who have found God in their conversion you who have long waited for this day behold it here even the day starre of consolation arising in you hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 I dare say for you you doe not gape after comfort to spend it upon your lusts but to heare what God will say That you returne no more to folly to your old distempers To you I apply this blessed truth to you I say whose big hearts are come downe and lye at the foot-stoole of mercy and marke what I say Come out of your ashes take unto you this white garment of joy and put it on your warfare is accomplished Oh that this day might be the time of your lifting up perhaps it may for ought I know take this handkercheife and wipe away all your teares with it let this Sun beame of comfort chase away all former mists and fogs of darkenesse and distrust and let it be as old Eli a voice from God to your sad spirits that with Hanna having received your answer you may be heavy no more 1 Sam. 1.17 1 Sam. 7.12 Set up your altar with Samuel and say Hitherto the Lord hath holpen us and adde moreover he will give me the hand and helpe me over the hill of difficulties that remaine Be so farre from distrusting this that you proceed and say He that hath thus fulfilled his word in one kinde he will doe it in all other set me beyond gun-shot of all corruptions temptations Divell opposition and malice of his instruments and keep mee till his comming and till I obtain full redemption Rather then the Lord would not accomplish that promise which was 4000. yeares old of sending the Lord Jesus hee would even strip himselfe and bee made sinne and shame of holinesse and honour Did hee so deny himselfe Galat. 4.4 and all to keep that maine promise and dare I distrust him in the rest and the smaller No surely Therefore poore soule that thou mayst be established come in and believe this maine one The night is past and the houre of darknesse is gone Now the Almond tree blossomes Cant. 2.11.12 and all the sad disasters of the Winter are passed Now in this Garden of God come meet thy beloved and let him give thee his love Henceforth say O my soule thou hast marched valiantly Thou art above all thy former feares and sorrowes Thou wert afraid lest death should prevent thee ere this day but that was impossible for then Gods word had been of no effect Say thus Now me thinkes in the comfort of this truth I could leap over a wall Oh that I should see it no sooner Now the time of God is come it is so cleare that I wonder I should ever stagger or distrust it I see it must bee wholly spun out of the Promise and not out of mine owne Bowels Gen. 28.16 Surely God was in this truth heretofore and yet till now I was never aware of it Now I am now I blesse God that ever I lived to this day that God should in such a comfortlesse world reveale such glad tidings unto me and make me to see his salvation Oft have I heard of him with mine eare but now I see him with mine eyes Now I can say Job 42.3.4 That which I have long sought I have found I have found him whom my soule loveth Why shouldst thou not say thus Psal 43.5 Why doth thy spirit fret within thee why art thou so sad when the Lord hath given thee the oyle of gladnes Doest thou not know that it hath been the portion of sundry Saints of God before thee Oh then climbe not up to heaven nor go downe into the deep to fetch Christ Thou shalt not need This day is come thy accepted time The promise is neere thee Rom. 10. even in thy heart to beleeve it As the Angell said to Peter Arise and follow me so doe thou and say Now of a truth I see the Lord hath indeed delivered me from Herod and the Jewes Acts 12.6 How went that Eunuch away from Philip rejoycing Acts 8. end What made Glover to speake when hee saw that Chariot of fire to carry him to heaven Oh! hee is come hee is come And another at the stake to take her leave not onely of her Husband Children and Countrey but of Faith and Hope saying Farewell you and welcome Love What a triumphant speech was it Speciall examples of soules deeply long loden yet at length comforted Another whose tendernesse over her children had not been ordinary and her feares great being very sicke to cry out I take no thought for them I leave them to my God and as for my distempers and temptations I have none I know I shall bee saved Another fearing hee should live in a great sicknesse asked Doe you thinke I should ever keep this assurance till another sicknesse and death come He was answered Yes and so foure yeares after at death he lay as before rapt and ravisht above world and all and being asked how he did said I am new out of a Trance I have had a doore opened and seene the glory of God and now the doore is clapt to but I peep at the crevis to keep the sight of it how loath am I to forgoe it To conclude another poore creature very weake to hold any thing all her life yet most constant in meanes till death when all thought her neere gone bade them weep no more for her nor take no thought for shee knew shee should doe well Oh the faith of these and hundreds more wee have seene and all to evidence this truth Oh! let us tread in their steps and follow their conversation and when thine end shall come Christ shall but stoop down and write upon thy heart 2 or 3 words Bee of good comfort Joh. 8.6 thy sinnes are forgiven but all thine accusers shall goe away and thy self be acquitted for ever Oh be thankfull to think of it and let no stranger world or lusts enter into this thy joy to defile it Thus much for this fourth and last use and for this doctrine Now I hasten to the next Doctrine And having ended the time when he obeyed we come now to the obedience it selfe True humilitie scornes not to learne of the meanest Hee went downe and washed himselfe in Jorden Wherein although the main thing which I intend is the Act of his faith yet one thing I must tell you of first viz. an amplifying of it by his humility that he was thus subdued by his servants and glad to yeeld at their instance counsell though their Master a great Prince An unusuall and unlikely thing that such a favourite to his Prince as hee was and so great
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 hiâ—self 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 answeâ—ed 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 duâ—y 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
persons disdained not to learne of so poore a counsellour what should such as wee doe who are yet as much more stout then they as they were wiser then wee are And so much for this poynt Doct. Another poynt offers it selfe from hence also and that from the order of his obeying The Text telles us Then hee went and dipped himselfe When I pray you Surely when his stomack was brought down and sunk in him then hee went dipped himselfe in Jorden when that which all this while letted was removed then did he obey believe and doe as he was bidden and that in a moment The poynt is very speciall to prepare us to the poynt following for it acquaints us with a main barre and stop which lies in the Preachers way and the Spirits way to wit a rebellious and selfe-conceited heart and with that which makes easie and sweet that is an heart convinced and yeelding to the Word No man I suppose will expect me to be large in much opening of this disease for I have spent many Sermons in the handling of Self Self-love carnall Reason Rebellion and coy Pride in Naaman when I went over the 11. verse Now I take all that for granted and from the issue of the Lords working thus long upon Naaman his humbling of him to the command Humility alway goes before grace compared with the effect of his obeying I would present unto your eye this poynt That alway when the Lord means to create faith in the soule he doth immediatly put an end to all that stoutnesse of spirit that hindred the same The poynt is cleare No sooner had the Lord emptied Naaman here of his opposing heart but immediatly followes his obeying the charge So true is that golden speech of Ieremy Jer. 31.18.19 I heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as an Heyfer unaccustomed to the yoke Surely after that I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed and confounded because I did beare the shame of my youth The summe of the words is That all the while that Ephraim was proud and wilfull no grace would enter into him But as soone as the Lord thawed his spirit and made him humble lo hee presently submitted and bare Gods yoke with meeknesse and obedience Prophets there were before who did beat upon him and tozed him with rebukes and terrors but alas they were but as the blowes of the Smith upon his Anvill which is the more hardned But at last God cast into his heart a secret thought of his long rebellion and how little good it had done him then by and by hee listned and smote upon his thigh and repented Even so all the day long sayth the Lord by Esay Chap. 52. ult have I stretched out mine arme to a people in vaine None hath beleeved my report the word of God is revealed to none Why Hee addes because it is a stiff-necked and a gain-saying people q. d. But for this they had beleeved long agoe This is that which elsewhere the Prophet foretels under the Gospell that such as should bee converted unto God Esay 2.4 Esay 2.12.17 should turne their Swords into Mattockes and their Speares into Sythes that is of warlicke and turbulent ones become peaceable Husband-men and Inhabitants The Aspe shall suffer the young childe to play at the hole of the Aspe and the Lyon shall feed with the Lamb and the Beare with the Bullocke meaning the savage and wilde dispositions of men should turn meek and tractable Iob in one place brings in the Lord asking this question Job 39.5 Wilt thou tye the Unicorne to the furrow or wilt thou make the wilde Asse feed at thy Crib q. d. No their nature is unbroken thy Oxe and thy Horse are fittest for that whom thou hast tamed to the worke Even so assure thy selfe the Divell and Christ Light and Darknesse may as soon comply as a stout rebellious heart and grace Rebellion and Unbeliefe yoke together so doe Selfe-deniall and meeknesse of Spirit with faith and obedience As while the sinewes of mans heart is of Iron the Lords heaven is Brasse so when the soul begins to melt the Lord begins to turne and convert it It is with the soule in this kinde contrary to that it was with them in Acts 27. If these goe out of the ship it must needs miscarry But if pride and rebellion abide in the heart no grace will grow the man must perish Ottomans horse they sayd wheresoever he became made the grasse that it could not grow so doth a stout heart keep grace from the heart There is a secret intelligence between hell and a proud spirit And contrarily there is an entercourse between an humble heart and heaven Hosee in one place tells us Hos 2.21 That the Lord would speake to the heavens and they should heare the earth with rains and then the earth should heare man with fruits So first heaven must grant the heart tendernesse and relenting and then that will heare the Lord commanding and promising The windes being very loud the aire is dry but if they be downe then presently we have store of raine See that 1. King 19.12 So is it here when the tempests and stormes of the heart bee up whether in morall sinnes against the Law or spirituall rebellion against the Gospell there is no obedience but if they be downe never so little the clouds will follow after raine that is faith and obedience will ensue Prov. 15. ult The feare of the Lord is instruction and wisedome And before honour goeth humility Whom shall I teach Doctrine Esay 28.7.8 Even him that is weaned from the Milke and drawne from the Breasts The sweet milke of the breasts of Selfe and carnall Wisedome are alway opposite to the wisedome of God Sacrifices thou wouldest not but an eare thou hast boared Why That I might doe thy will O God who before did mine owne Vse 1 For briefe use First it is instruction to put us out of question why an heart of unbeliefe hath so long pestered the most of our hearers Instruction Why the most hearers are pestered with unbeliefe Because the heart was never brought down and why the Lords perswasions have so little prevailed to make us believe Surely if you doubt as I feare few need to doe the enemy is this wicked Haman of a rebellious heart Perhaps some of you are of another minde because you can so colour and crust over this sore with courtesie and good words but the truth of it is There is an heart within big and high and stout This is the Camell which suffers not the soule to goe through the needles eye Somewhat is the cause why the felon upon the hand swells it is an humor which is not yet let out if that were out the felnesse would cease Enquire and consult either a cursed heart will keep some base lust
in as much as thou art become a sonne of Abraham Luke 19.7 Thy Regions are white unto harvest thy staffe stands next doore to grace and thy redemption is neer nay the day of the Lords redeemed is come Esay 63.4 Oh! thou mayst lift up thy heart unto God and say How is it that the Messenger of the Lord is come unto me Lo on the sudden I feele mine heart so strangely thawed and teachable over it was wont to be that I can give no reason of except the Lord meanes to save me I therefore interpret it as a signe of favour yea thou mayst be sure of it and therefore repent thee not of all thy paines which thou hast taken for it seeing thy reward will abundantly answer thy travaile And so much briefly may serve to have said of this use and of the Doctrine The chiefe doctrine of the whole verse opened at large I hasten now to the point it selfe of Naamans obedience The greatest and chiefest of all other which I aimed at in the handling of this Scripture Then saith the Text hee went and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden What was this A common act as others were No other then the former to come out of Aram to goe to the King of Israel or to stand at the doore of Elisha Oh yes those were his own this is Gods those he made no bones of but this was that which had made all this pudder it was the Lords owne way and device for the triall of his faith in the miracle and the subduing his heart to the naked obedience unto him And lo now his stomacke is come downe the let is removed and therefore he doth as he is bidden and goeth and washeth seven times in Jorden Marke the point it will cost us some time to handle Doctrine The point is Every one who is able to prove himselfe Every soule within the condition of mercy ought to beleeve within the condition of the promise may and ought to cast himselfe upon it obey the command of God and beleeve For the proofe of the point it will be expedient that first we cleare the ground of it out of the example of Naaman in generall and then by some evident texts of Scriptures with a briefe reason or two And having so done we will proceed to the explication of the contents of the Doctrine For the generall correspondence of Naamans case with this point some may doubt how it may be said of an Heathen in the point of curing of a bodily disease how he can be said to bee under the condition of a promise and so to believe For answer Answer whereof I say as before that although the worke of grace were a stranger unto him in respect of his owne feeling untill the time that the Lord wrought indeed grace in his heart yet forasmuch as the Lord over-ruled all the occurrents in the businesse by his owne hand for the effecting of that which he intended and swayed his heart to those preparations which were fit to lead to such an effect Therefore I do not see why on Gods behalfe those severall dispositions which were in Naaman may not be proportionable unto those which are wrought in such as are converted to God That Naaman was truly brought home to God besides the sequell in the Chapter mee thinkes this is sufficient that not onely God would chuse him as the onely Leper whom Elisha should heale but also would order the circumstances thereof in so set and solemne a manner that all men may behold a gracious worke as well as a miraculous For I demand what should need so many interruptions and defeats in the miracle such a trying and searching of a mans Spirit and such a purposed drawing of him to see more then an externall hand in the thing except more then an outward cure had beene intended by God A very small and short matter might else have been made of it if the Prophet had been used onely to heale his body and as Naaman thought the bare comming out and laying his hand on or speaking two or three words might have served the turne But now the Prophet must not bee seen Naamans weaknesse must be discovered to himselfe and hence it appeares that the Lord would have his Spirit and Soule acquainted with God as well as his outward man So much for the answer of the doubt And so I come to shew what conditions were wrought in Naaman before his cure and then how his obedience must be an act of faith issuing thereupon respiting proofes and reasons till the Doctrine be suted to the Text till which it will not be seasonable to settle it upon her bottome But this wee will referre to the next Lecture THE SEVENTEENTH LECTVRE upon the fourteenth 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 I Having shewed you beloved in the end of the former Exercise that Naamans example may wel yeeld us the consideration under our hand referred the particulars unto this Sermon Naaman then may be conceived under the condition of mercy in the purpose of God sundry wayes In respect of the order that God tooke with him both in preventing him and assisting him before the cure In the former we saw how the Lord by a bodily disease made him in the generall case of one needing ease for he abased his person in the midst of sundry other happinesses with the noysome disease of Leprosie which was in it selfe a marvellous yoke and as God guided it a very pinching one unto him burdening him more then in a common manner How Naaman was under the condition of of cure If this had not been the first ground of the worke had been removed Next hereto the Lord prevents him very sweetly with the newes of one who in such a desperate case is credibly reported unto him to be a man like to heale him and this comes to him by a speciall providence appointing a skirmish between Aram and Israel wherein a Damosell might be taken prisoner and such a one one of a thousand who had taken notice of Elishâ—'s worth in this kinde and this being by Naaman apprehended tooke off utter despaire of incurablenesse and put him into some hope of a possible cure Thirdly hereupon he slackens no time but addresses himselfe in the best manner to use the most apt and likely meanes for the commending of his businesse to the Prophet and for the bringing of him to the speech of the Prophet having no doubt a speciall desire to obtaine that really whereof hee saw possibility before Fourthly by his travell and furnishing himselfe with gifts attendance comming to the King of Israel with his message wherein he was greatly defeated he is by the Lord so mercifully assisted that he ceased not till by the Prophets owne intimation and further light and assurance not only
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
the promise Admonition Le ts of faith to be seriously shunned To take heed of such lets as might hinder this their holy resolution Somewhat I said about such lets in the first Doctrine upon this verse Some of more speciall marke in this kinde I have reserved to this place which I will summe up in few words First rest not in making many complaints touching thy backward and averse heart from casting thy selfe upon the word I doe not bid thee cease complaining for the Church hath none to moane her save him to whom she complaines Ieremy Cap. 3. brings in Iuda complaining but withall she returnes to God and faith Thou art the Lord our God and Ephraim complaines Jer. 31.33 but withall she is converted and the Lord calls her his first borne so Esay 63. The Church in Babell sadly mournes for the hiding of Gods face but shee is restlesse till 64.1 Esay 34. Ester 2.5 the Lord make the mountaines melt and flow downe that he may helpe her So doe thou and prosper Mourne like Hezechia like a Crane or Dove but joine his faith to it and say Hee hath said it and will doe it Mourne like Ester so thou doe as Ester goe into the King and touch the Scepter saying I will cast my selfe upon the promise if I persh there so be it But else as for many complaints to men who are like thy selfe for fashion fruitlessely and there rest without cleaving to the answer of thy complaints taking counsell I say bite them in and keepe them to the Lord and thy self in secret for they may puffe thee up with pride and false opinion of thy selfe defile thee and harden thee and hurt others Secondly beware of sloth and dalliance with the Lord but when the Lord comes neare thee doe not make thy selfe sure before thou hast it and so neglect the pursuit and accomplishment of it follow him close at the heeles and suffer him not to put thee off but let him see thou art minded to buy and not to cheapen all commodities have their peculiar season to get them in and so hath faith discerne this season of the Son of man thou canst not make it earlier or later then God makes it onely marke his day and houre and make sure of it then If the Lord see thee to be a pedling chapman either he will deny it thee wholy or cause thine ease to vex every veine in thy heart ere thou have it Thirdly take heed of filling thine heart and thoughts with earthly things the cares for earth will eat in so dangerously and winne upon thee as the sea tydes gull downe the bankes They will eat up cares of heaven as they say Eagles feathers will consume other feathers being mixed with them Be sure if thou lay in for faith come with an heart empty of other thoughts if thou wouldest cast thy self upon a promise throw not thy selfe upon the world and the contents of it I speake not of the corrupt world but of the most lawfull liberties they are apt to steale away thy spirit easiliest under that colour marke thy selfe if ever the promise were more favourlesse to thy taste then when the world is sweetest Be ashamed to plunge thy self into the creature when thou pretendest a desire to cast thy selfe upon the word for pardon and life Fourthly and above all let no bitter roote defile thine heart Heb. 12.15 and spring up to choake thy resolution this way It will over droppe all thy purposes and mar them Pride prejudice lust covetousnesse privy loosenesse which the heart will not bee beaten from any other naughtinesse will so appall and defile the pure gift of faith that it will not come neare where such haunt Take heed of suffering any lust to get head and overflow knowledge let not an hollow heart not throughly searched but presumed to be better then it is and returning againe after long violent suppression enter in to destroy all thy faire hopes for as sweet as it is in thy mouth it will prove gall to thee at last as Esau's prophanenesse did but too late Lastly beware of curiosity and self-willednesse in Gods way But humbly trade with him in it be content with the conditions of his market both for time and takings Be not offended at any affronts which befall thee but submit to his will from whom thou lookest for thy cure If Naaman had done thus he had cast himselfe upon Jorden without all this adoe But because thou wilt frame an Idea to thy selfe how thou wouldest proceed and canst abide no prolongings no crossings of thy course because thou art not alway alike in thy affections but sometime under hatches sometimes in the top sailes thou art impatient and comest short of thy desires Submit to him who tries all that is in thine heart that at last by thy oft defeats thou maiest know Deut. 8.2 Rom. 9.16 It is not in the willer nor runner but in him who sheweth mercy at whose curtesie its meet thou stand with all submission till he have subdued thee to himselfe and made thee with Naaman glad to obey and wash in the Jorden of the Promise Thus much of these like to which are many more but by these judge of the rest and cast off all if thou wouldst cast thy selfe upon the promise Fifthly this is Exhortation to all who are under the Condition Vse 5 first to obey the command of God Exhortation and to cast themselves fully upon the promise trying what the issue will be Doe as God bids thee Branch 1 Consult not with flesh Doe as Paul goe into Arabia the the desert To obey the command of faith and to consent to the promise goe not to Jerusalem to dispute the case when God hath declared his minde to be that thou resigne up thy soule to his word Goe not from Gods Nineveh to thine own Tarsus to thy cost and sorrow As those kine of the Philistims went straight on to Bethshemesh though lowing after their calves in token they were more acted by God then by nature so do thou not turning either to the right hand or the left There is no danger in this as we say leave is light Neither is there any other thing in the promise then seems There is neither hook nor crook in Gods pure intents Be thou to him as he to thee Come in cast thy self upon the word be eased be reconciled to God Faith is then bred when that is done which is said faith is the best Disciple and most dutifull hand-mâ—id that ever was better then those servants of the Centurion Gal. 1.17 Jona 1.3 1 Sam. 6.12 Matth. 8. which did as they were bidden came and went at command Cast the crowne of all thy rebellion at the feet of God Popish Emperours weary of the world and of all the victories pomp and state of it have laid downe their Crowne at an Idols shrine and turn'd votaries Do thou as a man weary
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 gâ—ves 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
how great shall the honour of beleevers be then when it shall be some addition to Gods own glory that he hath made them such Can God be admired in the choyce gifts of Bezaleel and Aholiab Exod. 36.1 but they must needs be glorious who enjoy them Oh! then it will be the chiefest honour to be a beleever then shall it not repent them of any pains they have taken that they have set to their seale that God is true Then shall they shine as the starres who have converted others Dan. 12.3 and have beene converted themselves Then shall it appeare who are Gods off-spring borne of God 1 Pet. 1. having his seed in them Kings and Priests to God His Jewels his peculiar ones and Favourites Doe yee not see how a Prince is admired who weares a Jewell of peerlesse price upon his hat or in his ring Shall a Jewell grace a man and shall not they bee glorious from whom God receives a kinde of grace Tell me whether it were better for us to be these persons or with the multitude of wicked ones to be dazled with their beauty in that day and to gnaw and bite their tongues for very anguish that they had not the grace to beleeve the word in season 4. Motive God shall come in vengeance against unbeleevers Fourthly then shall the Lord come in treble vengeance against all that know not God nor obeyed his Gospel who put away the Promise from them in a scorne and made a mocke at his threats who said to God Depart from us Where is now that tongue of yours which said 2 Pet. 3. Where is the promise of his comming Come let us see this day of the Lord. It shall be a blacke day to you and you shall wish it as farre off then as neere before For then shall the Lord set the true colours upon every sinne and the most terrible upon this No Thiefe no Harlot shall looke so grisely so gastly as an unbeliever Hell shall be heat thrice hotter then Nebuchadnezzars furnace for all such There the Sonne of God walked but here they suffer Amos 5.18 who have trod under foot the blood of the Covenant and counted it an unholy thing and unworthy of them The Gospell is hid to none Heb. 10.29 but such as perish This is that condemnation Joh. 3.19 They are condemned already and the wrath of God abides upon them in right but there it shall cease and take full possession They have despised the remedy and cast the potion of their recovery against the walles They shall not resist the quashing force of this rocke falling upon them Luke 20.17 and grinding them to powder This sinne opposes God in all that in which he sought honour to himselfe and therefore how terrible will hee bee in revenging himselfe How fearfull will it bee to see men condemned even by him who yet is the Judge of Gods Chancery God hath no quarrell with men like to the quarrell of his Covenant Levit. 26.25 When they goe contrary to God in this kinde hee will goe contrary to them and avenge them when hee avoucheth them to bee his redeemed ones in the blood of the Covenant Deut 26.17 and himselfe to bee their God all-sufficient and that freely being enemies and traytors and they shall disavow him and tell him to his face that he is a lyar 1 John 5 10. meaning nothing lesse and his Ministers to beare false witnesse of him when he bids them lay down their weapons and come in 1 Cor. 15.15 and hee will pardon their rebellions yet they wilfully persist in bearing Armes against him what possible way can there be of reconciliation When tender mercies are rejected what is to looked for but jealousie burning to hell Shall a second blood of God bee shed for such as have despised the former If they who despise Moses Law Heb. 2.2.3 are put to death under two or three witnesses how shall they escape who despise so great salvation Fifthly that is to bee highly esteemed and ensued 5. Motive Faith is a rare Jewell 2 Thess 3.2 which is so rare a commodity and to be found in so few hands a flower that growes in so few Gardens But Faith is such an one 2 Thess 3.2 Faith is not of all nay the portion of very few Every one seekes to ingrosse rich wares that they may raise the market at their pleasures for their owne gaine But the Royall Merchant of this Pearle beyond price may well goe alone for there bee few who will goe to the price of his Pearle Oh! if the paucity of Beleevers or rarity of Faith or scantnesse either of such as preach it or hearken after it might perswade this reason might strongly as a Load-stone draw us to beleeve Such as remaine not prophane yet rest themselves in a forme of godlinesse keep under the line and subsist in a dangerous degree to faith-ward but dare not resigne up themselves to the promise When it should come to this point they make sure of some faire retreat or other for themselves And when this fruit should come to the birth there is no strength to bring forth and so they faile of the grace of God and dye in that state All that is in request with men is how they may get to heaven with most ease Esay 37.3 and rid their hands of this trouble of selfe-deniall and selfe-resigning to God They will not put themselves out of their owne power nor clearly discharge themselves of all weights which hang on and presse downe in this kinde and therefore justly may that be mens ruine which they preferre before mercy that is vanity pleasure sloth and ease Let us then be of those few that beleeve and not of the world of unbeleevers 6. Motive No riddance of our distempers till we beleeve Lastly let this prevaile that untill thou beleevest and drownest thy distempers in the promise thou shalt never be rid of them Thy staggerings feares and disquietnesse of thoughts thine hard heart thine impatience thy old corruptions yea Satan with seven worse spirits will returne and enthrall thee more desperately then ever before Thou canst have no security from them otherwise but a truce onely which will end in worse warre All thy hearings prayers hopes duties will be forfeit and perish Matth. 12. And were not this lamentable Especially for such as have been so faire for faith swet for it as 2 Joh. 8. to lose their reward for adding a little more soundnesse of heart to their former knowledge and affections Is it not a sad sight to see one to make shipwrack in the haven Who would not pitty himselfe for such folly Who would lay egges in the sand to bee troden by beasts Job 39.14 except a foole bereft of understanding Satan will not give thee over but sift thee throughly If there be no faith in thee there is no difference betweene thee 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
thinke they shall so easily escape Matth. 12. Could the Lord Iesus in the dayes of his abasement take upon him so severely as to make a three stringed whip scourge out those buyers and sellers in the Temple to overthrow their Tables and to scatter their money about the ground and all for the violation of one Command and shall he not much more take upon him think we when he shall come not as a meeke Lambe not as riding upon an Asse colt but as the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda triumphantly riding upon the clouds of glory and decking himselfe with strength and revenge as with a garment Shall then these breakers of his commands carry it so smoothly away Shall they not flee from the presence of this terrible Judge Acts 5.5 Could Peter a seely man being armed with the authority of this Judge with one word of his mouth throw downe those two hypocrites Ananias and Sapphira and lay them dead upon the place and shall not the Judge himselfe comming in person much more with one frowne of his irefull face crush all such daring enemies of his glory as have made his solemne Commands idle scare-bugs and have turned them into shadowes Now whiles the consciences of men are inchanted with hopes of preferment with ease with the glistering shewes of pompe and state the examples of their betters and the common streame of carnall worshippers when they see the power of truth to be troden downe and the sincerity of Religion to be discarded it s an easie thing for them to beare downe commands and not to be troubled at it but when as the Lord shall open and enlarge conscience to the uttermost and bid her speake out and not be afraid to beare witnesse against all breakers of his solemne commands shall they then thinke we set up their hornes so high as now they doe Dan. 5.7 Shall not rather their knees knock together as Belshazzars did in the midst of his quaffing in the cups of the Temple When the terrible Judge shall not write onely upon the wall but thunder with his voice against all that have brake his cords Psal 2.5 and cast his chaines from them shall they be able to endure him when all their musters shall be pulled off from their faces and all things shall be naked in the sight of him that judgeth and conscience shall aske them questions without admitting any shuffles or equivocations shall they subsist and hold up their faces Then conscience shall put them to it Heb. 4.13 and say dost thou thinke in thy very soule that the Lords day are dayes to be prophaned with unlawfull games and pastimes with drinkings and dauncings Speake truth now dost thou thinke in conscience that those who walke closely with God maintaining the power of Religion in their lives are the worst men living Or dost thou thinke in thy conscience thou didst well in leaving thy flocke and charge at randon and spending thy time in dependances hopes of promotion ease pleasure and such like Dost thou thinke in thy conscience that any thing can purge out the defilement of Popish Idolatry and superstition Will scraping of the stones of the house fretted with a canker of incurable leprosie serve the turne Can any thing save onely pulling downe the house and making it a heape of rubbish make it cleane Speake as in conscience thou thinkest should man in his opposing Gods commands be obeyed before God himselfe or God before him If thou wert now to beginne againe durst thou breake the least of his commands and teach others to doe so Durst thou lend thine authority presence countenance tongue or pen to defend the breach of any command of mine Oh I say when conscience shall set thee thus upon the rack and stretch every joint of thy soule upon the wheele of Gods strict inquisition will there be any place for trickes and evasions No no. Thinke sadly then of the sadnesse of commands Oh all ye presumptuous hypocrites while there is season for it Now the Divell sets you upon a pinacle and shewes you all the glory of this sensuall and carnall world and offers you the greatest reward for your breaking of the most chiefe and sad commands it s now a merry world if it would last alway to breake commands Who rule the rost or carry matters more boldly or gaster other more terribly then such as cut off commands most desperately But lo there will be bitternesse in the end You shall not alway carry it at your pleasure none to gainsay you This Judge of all flesh one day shall turne your triumphs and scornes and insolencies into a most sad sorrowfull dejectednesse one day your hearts shall melt as water and your countenances shall fall downe as Cains did after God had convinced him of his cruelty and bloudshed Gen. 4.9 Heb. 12. ult Think of it betimes in Gods fear it s not for the honor of our God our consuming fire to suffer every bold breaker of the commands to lurke and lye safe in his den No God shall finde them out to be dissemblers The Lord Jesus shall not then flatter them but set their sinne in order before them therefore let the terrors of God pierce you now let rottennesse enter into your bones and let the voice of a commanding God cause the lips to quiver and your bellies to tremble Hab. 3. feare him that is the great commander of the world who hath chaines for Princes and can binde Kings in fetters of iron Psal 149.8 yea can cast soul and body into hell I say feare him 1 Sam. 15.16 If he were so terrible to Saul in the words of a weake Prophet Samuel if now hee be so potent in the voice of a convincing Preacher What shall hee then be in his owne voice and presence when the mountaines shall rend in sunder and the frame of things be disolved So much for the former Branch of this second Use 2. Branch Terror to all profane ones Psal 2. Psal 12. Iob 21.14 For the latter sort briefly if this point justly terrifie all hypocrites for blanching with God how much more then doth it condemne all profane and professed rebels who doe walke and trade without remorse in the open breaking of Commands Who say to God Depart from us who cast away his cords and breake his bands in sunder who say Our tongues are our owne wee will speake as we will and what Lord shall controll us Who proclaime their sin as Sodom and say If this be to be proud I will bee prouder more uncleane sweare ten to one breake all Sabbaths that evill I doe I will doe it and I care for none of these strict and severe urgers of Commands I will be the worse for them Well goe on you shall have your belly full in hell of your owne will There you shall sweare and curse and blaspheme God and pay for it all the while therefore if
you will bee filthy Rev. 22. be filthy still Adde to the number and fulfill the measure of your abominations goe forward you can but goe to hell therefore take your pleasure Know that hee who sets up Altar against Altar and his will against Gods a close following of his Justs his cups his harlots his oppression pride envy against Gods close Commands shall apply all his closest plagues and vengeance against such and who soever shall rise up against God in judgement Esa 54. Esay 54. Psal 50. him shall God most righteously condemne Oh thinke of it you that forget God! Shall not the hypocrites avoid everlasting burnings who doe but adulterate the purity of close Commands and you shall escape who disanull them You walke as the forlorne ranke in the face of the Canon and what wonder if you be shot all to pieces And all who will desperately follow your steps let them know they goe straight forward neither turning to left hand nor to right to the Bethshemesh of destruction It s terrible to heare of and see the present plagues of such even here some open defiers of the Sabbath to be struck mad others in their fencing upon that day to fall downe dead a third in shooting off his recoyling gun to be beaten to shivers the end of proud rebels is terrible in this world Iezabels Sauls Herods But the whole of their misery here is not the tenth of that hereafter the day is to come Esay 1. wherein the Lord will cry Aha I will be avenged of mine enemies I will laugh at their destruction I will make my blade fat with their bloud And when I have done I will take as little thought for their woe as they did for my Commands Oh tremble at this Vse 3 I proceed to the third use of the point and that is Examination Is it so Examination that the commands of God must be obey'd according to them that is their intent and extent and that they are so sad and close things Oh then in the feare of God try we our selves whether they be so to us or not It imports us exceedingly to doe it for if God be sad and we be slight if his issue be to enquire after close obeying but we onely looke at the surface and outsides of duty taking what wee please and sâ—umming off the fat and easie part leaving the leane and more unwelcome part to whose will we shall finde a wrong bargaine of it The eyes of God are piercing eyes and looke over the whole earth where he may finde close strict and sad obeyers of his voyce as he saith Esay 50. and there is his delight But as for him that with-drawes himselfe and secretly like that Iudas whips out from his fellowes for his owne ends Heb. 10.38 his soule shall have no delight in him Therefore in such bad times as these wherein every one will be religious but few or none close with the power of commands how imports it every of us Brethren to let loose stuffe goe to try our selves touching the soules concurrence wiâ—h God in this Soveraignty of his Commands And because me thinkes I see you to be desirous to try your selves about this but want direction how to do it aright therefore I will lay down some such rules of direction as through mercy may sweetly search every such heart as is willing to come to the touch-stone and leave it sound and sincere or if it shall discover it selfe to be otherwise then to looke to it selfe and to abhorre all such lets as it shall finde to hinder it from this closenesse and faithfulnesse in obeying commands First that soule which obeyes closely Trials of close obedience is very active and lively in Triall 1 her enquiring after the true and plaine intent and extent of Gods commands dare not flatter it selfe in her owne way and ease She is truly willing to know the uttermost of the truth but suspects her selfe still in her obedience that it is too loose too easie and too slight to be good She desires to goe downe right with Gods commands and having found out Rom. 12.2 what that good acceptable will of God is then nakedly she desires to close with it come what come will of it whereas the hypocrite is of a cleane contrary straine For why having a guilty conscience of withdrawing a part of the heart from God it is death for him to come to the triall 1 Sam. 15.12 Saul was as a Beare haled to the stake when he came to Samuels inquiry Acts 5.5 because he knew himselfe crazy So Ananias and Sapphira when they came under Peters inquisition Sold yee it indeed for so much Fell down dead Oh! the hollow heart shrugges and shrinkes at the extent of Commands cannot endure to thinke them larger then it selfe is willing to doe them If she should heare of a rule of more closenesse then she can admit she must needs bewray her selfe which she is loth to do Oh! how desirous a base heart is to get abatements of commands There is no man so forward to urge the uttermost allowance of the weight of gold that his light peeces might passe for currant as an hypocrite craves still for allowance to his slight obedience It kils his heart to heare of the strictnesse of a Sabbath what the rules of a lawful Fast are to prepare himselfe to the Sacrament to heare the Word to deny himselfe to be tied to doe or take good in company to walke unspotted of the world to oppresse none by fraud usury hardnesse Alas his Trade lies in this kinde take him off that you kill him See 1 King 22. Ahab being urged to call for a Prophet of God sent for him But as the Messenger went for him in his returne hee entreats him that his words might bee like the words of the foure hundred Prophets and that hee would not bee too strict But the closer obeyer is a close inquirer like Micaja who would not bee pulled to the right or left hand from God he is a willing person to bee informed about the nakednesse and simplicity of commands desirous to know the hardest Thus Iob cap. 34. and verse 32. saith If I faile that which I see not doe thou teach me Thus David Search me O Lord and try me if there be any way of evill in me Not that they have not much corruption and come farre short but yet they have no treacherous heart of withdrawing but rather an entire affection to be equall to Commands And as the heart of an hypocrite doth infinitely disobey So the soule of a beleever hath a boundlesse unlimited desire to obey a word according to a word in which regard it s called a perfect heart because it would be so and mournes that it cannot as a naturall childe is troubled that it cannot doe the fathers will to the full and therefore doth what it can to the uttermost
upon her so the streame and course of the world doth so inchant them that it is death to them to stirre an inch Men will to conclude run and ride till they tire themselves 7. Partiality to conferre with such as they thinke of their owne judgement such as will smooth and sow pillowes under their elbowes But if they might converse with others at the next doore who are of another judgement they shun them purposely And so to conclude wee all looke to buy by the largest Bushell from God but when we come to sell wee get the most scanty one that we can come by 8. Basenesse Looke among Papists and tell me what cost what extremities will they not endure rather then their Catholicke cause should goe down But among us where is there one of a thousand that cares for the cause of God the sinceriâ—y of truth or such as professe or suffer for it Oh! most unthankfull people Hath God taken all this paines to make his will familiar unto us to reveale himselfe to us in his narrowest truths to make his yoke sweet and his burden light and goe wee about to cast it off more desperately now then when our light was small Doe we thus requite the Lord like an unthankfull Nation Wee who should have been the closest and narrowest toward God and walked most uprightly and closely Deut. 32.13 doe wee kicke up the heele and plucke backe the shoulder Doe wee revolt and play the fugitives with Demas 2 Tim. 4.10 from the Banner and Colours of our Lord and Master Oh! that this day our sinnes might come to our remembrance The Lord shame us for it Brethren especially such of us as have buried our care and closenesse under a clod of carnall wisedome earthly affections feare of men love of our selves custome of the time examples of our betters The Lord I say gaster us off these Idols and teach us to leave off our correspondencies with hypocrites and to bee transformed in the spirits of our minds that we may approve what is that good acceptable and pretious will of his not onely in judgement but in power and life of obedience And so much for this Use Now I hasten to the last Vse 7 And that is Exhortation standing of sundry branches The first whereof is Exhortation Branches of â—t three 1. Mourne for them who have forsaken their closenessâ— of obedience That we mourne unfeignedly for the desperatenesse of others in this kinde Oh! If we be as ready to forgoe our Jewell and Câ—owne of close walking as this world is willing to robbe us thereof we are not like long to hold it Oh then if the world be so resolute to hold her own how should we learne to hold our owne by their example What a shame is it that the children of this world should in their generation be wiser then the children of light Should we then dare to prostitute our consciences to such If wee might have all the glory of this world for our worshipping this Idoll should we not abhor it Is it now a season to flye to stagger to betray Gods Commands No rather let us cleave the closer by their warping and as a chaste Matrone beholding a debauched strumpet closes more with sobernes then ever so let us doe with the obedience of Commands when we come before God in our most speciall devotions and praâ—ers let us not with those hypocrites feel a pleasure of our owne tickling us Esay 58. let not us seem to disavow the declining loosenesse hollownesse of others and in the meane time keepe false weights and measures within our selves let not us have a traitors heart to keepe our breadths in Gods narrow but come to the oath and covenant to come under the authority of God loathing all our slightnesse ease basenesse bondage bringing him so much the more close obedience by how much we seeme to detest the contrary And having so done learne we with David to prise the purity of Truths never the worse because others embase them when he had in the former part of the Psalme mourned for the manners of others he addes Psal 12.6 Gods word is as silver purged by fire from the drosse So should we be so farre from quailing of judgement or weakning in affection towards the commands of God because others vilifie them that rather that should provoke us to adore and admire the purity of them And not onely so but to cry out with him Helpe Lord for the godly men decay and hypocrites encrease Verse 1. Arise therefore quite thy cause deliver thy people set them at liberty that sticke to thy Name and bring forth their light out of darkenesse Psal 37.6 as the morning and their righteousnesse as the noone day Send forth O Lord raine downe grace and goodnesse and let it beare downe this streame of carnall liberty as the sea beares downe a brooke Bring thy Commands againe into honour and make all such as teach dispensations against them as odious as Monkes and Friars This is the first Another branch is 2. Branch Much more for our owne loosenesse in that kinde That all Gods people doe mourne and humble themselves for their owne playing fast and loose with Gods Commands What godly heart is there in the world that could not beteam God whole dayes nights in this lamentation Who should so poorly know his owne spirit in this kinde if he attend it at all but this work should be pretious Either to rid his soule of her base slightnesse or to fasten upon it the cords and chaines of God with more closenesse and delight Say thus to the Lord Oh I feel no power no girding of loines A forme of such a mournfull complaint no awe nor feare to lye upon my soule by thy commands I sit loose to prayer to watching to hearing to meditation I feele this day slipt from me without redeeming it to the best use in all my solitarinesse company liberties duties I have been as one in a dead sleep no vertue hath gone out of me this day either of living by faith in the promises or of compassion to the distressed of love to the Saints mourning for the afflictions of Ioseph I have met with objects of the world of impatience of uncharitablenesse and yet no chaines of thine have been upon my spirit but I have walked as one at his owne tearms Surely the cords of Gods Law have not bound my lusts as a sacrifice to his altar nor the loadstone of his love hath not sweetly drawne my soule to obey him with delight but I have beene mine owne man in all these My will hath not beene subject and as it were bound up in thine Matth. 8. I have not beene my selfe under thy authority as that Centurion was I looke that my will should bee done by all that are under me yea I looke that they should walke in all wel-pleasing toward a
thy ignorance and blindenesse may frustrate thy benefit but still the promise shall stand neverthelesse full of water of life Enlarge thy cord and plummet that thy slight heart deprive thee not of both the view and of the use of it Secondly having found out the bottome and depth of a promise 2. Draw out of this welspring of salvation bestow paines and draw waters plentifully out of this well of salvation bestow good labour and travell In fetching up water out of deep wells you shall see how many hands at once are at worke at the wheel or pully to get up the bucket This is the worke of faith alway to be tugging at the well with cable and armes to get out this water of life Esay 12.8 Say thus here it is put Lord by thy selfe and to be had I will therefore by thy strength handle a promise according to the uttermost of that which is in it I will draw and that with joy for there it is and thus it is to be had It s sad working hereat with the most but it should be a merry work we should sing at it and deceive our toil by the sense of our necessities and the variety of those ordinances meditation prayer and the like must be our hands and unweariednesse must be our instrument Take wee heed lest through sloath and a base heart we content our selves with scrappes and puddle water who might fill our selves with good things and with rivers of water springing up in us to eternall life 3. Give not over the promise though long held off Thirdly give not over a promise although the error of this wicked world and Satan together with the Lords delayes should weary us especially under our afflictions If our Lord Jesus his discouragements could have killed the courage of that poore woman of Canaan she had never obtained a cure Oh! our Saviour did what hee could to try whether she would be beaten from the promise viz. That Jesus the sonne of David came to save both the bodies and soules of all truly distressed ones Jewes and Gentiles But she had so farre extended the promise Matth. 15. which Christ seemed to restraine onely to the Jewes calling the rest Dogges that it was strange shee was not out of conceit as one mistaken But as if she had been in his bosome so doth she hold fast the promise Though he say nothing yet hee will doe somewhat I will still keep my right he meanes not Israel according to the flesh but the promise and such an one am I. Shee knew promises looked not at the worthinesse of man but at the mercy and faithfulnesse of God Surely I shall bee answered by and by for I have the scope and end of the promise on my side Faith had taken full measure of the promise by her owne want and therefore our Saviour sends her away with the admiration at her faith Oh! let us thus duly apply our soules to the seale of the promise and it shall leave behinde it the stamp of all that vertue and fulnesse which God hath put into it A base heart not concurring with God in this largenesse of his promises is as hard wax put under a faire seale Simile which takes no impression at all from it though clapt on never so hard But as the softned wax taketh all the counterfeit of the seale and expresseth them to the uttermost Even so an heart rightly prepared receives the print of the seale letter for letter face for face yea grace for grace Faith is both hand and hammer to drive the naile of the promise Eccles 12. given by one Pastor the Lord Jesus up to the head This for the former question Now I come to the latter Quest 2. How shall we practise this duty how this duty may be practised And for answer to that this I say Wee must know that the life of faith in all beleevers rests upon such promises as concerne their condition be it what it will be knowing that there are speciall ones given us by God as Peter speakes Chap. 1. and verse 3. of his second Epistle for our supply in all needs The soule then doth not foolishly misapply these but gathers them up stores them like a wise Steward both old and new that she may bring them forth in due season as a man would every morning put on the apparell of that day for his use and comfort And this is her putting on the Lord Jesus Rom. 13. ult who first hath taken measure of her needs and then offers himselfe in his promises and ordinances Word Sacrament Prayer and fasting and the like to fit her as her cloathes doe her body Some of these I have already toucht in one of the Uses before Ans diversly upon the Doctrine of Naamans obedience A few more I will adde now not pressing the use of them but barely presenting them to your view Sometime thy base heart feeles old guilt and accusation of conscience to returne after mercy tasted and hope of victory enjoyed But why is this Surely that hereby the work of Selfe-deniall might be perfected in thee 1. In the return of guilt strength of sin custome presence of it and sinne might be knowne to be out of measure sinfull that it might bee more abhorred and stronger faith in pardon and purging thereof improved Clasp upon the Word for it I am he who will heale all thy rebellions for my name sake both new and old It is according to a promise that the Lord should leave none of thy corruptions unsubdued Who is a God like unto our God who forgiveth iniquity transgression and sin Mica ult marke how many words he useth to include all sin whatsoever both of nature and course yea sinnes after the light of the Gospel embraced And I create the fruit of the lippes peace and I will heale him I have seene his rebellions and smote him hid me and was angry and he went on in the frowardnesse of his owne heart Esay 57. But I will heale him and restore comfort unto him Againe perhaps thy soule meets with some eclipse of Gods presence and forsakes me so that I live in darknesse and walke up and downe with a dead heart without feeling Well 2. In the deadnesse hardnesse of heart if it be by reason of some apparant sinne against conscience returne with a broken heart by a promise to God Jer. 3.1 A man having divorced an Adultresse will not returne to her But if thou wilt returne to me I will not reject thee Returne O yee backsliding people and I will have mercy upon you and heale all your iniquities But if the Lord bee departed otherwise know it is not to forsake forever For a moment I was angry Esay 54. But with everlasting compassion I will embrace thee And in the Psalme 55. The Lord will not leave his people for ever Sometime the soule is afraid she
his seed should be set free after it was a stranger in an heathen land for four hundred and thirty yeares and so it fell out Gen. 15.13 Exod. 12.42 when the time came that God delivered them what saith the Text That selfe same day of that terme expired the Lord brought forth Israel with her armies So in the Gospell marke how curious the Holy Ghost is in expressing of the faithfulnes of God in each passage of Christ his nativity his parentage his dwelling his person life betraying passion death buriall See throughout the Gospell Mat. 1.2 c. Forty severall times one or other of the Evangelists refer the passages that fell out to the promises themselves That it might be fulfilled which was said And thou Bethlem are not the least of the Cities of Juda That it might be fulfilled Rachel lamented for her children and would not be comforted c. That it might bee fulfilled Out of Egypt have I called my Sonne He that ate with me in the dish he betraied me And he was counted among transgressors Marke 15.28 And upon my vestures did they cast lots Matth. 27.35 And he shall make his grave with the rich And he shall be as one of no beauty like a withered branch with a great many more Not so much as his riding to Jerusalem is omitted Behold thy King commeth lowly and meeke riding upon an Asse the fole of an Asse Why is all this To let us to understand that he who would be so punctuall in all petty passages belonging to the great promise of the Messia Matth. 21.4 would be as faithfull in performing all other promises consequent upon his merit and satisfaction And the like speeches are used to this purpose in the personall promises made to the Patriarkes as to Abraham concerning Isaac to Rebecca concerning the elder serving the younger to Iacob that God would be with him in his journey and bring him backe and deliver him from Esau To the Church in the wildernesse concerning the possession of Canaan Ioshua tells them Josh 21.45 after the conquest nothing failed of any one particular promise which God had made concerning the giving of the land of Canaan to the seed of Iacob Infinite many more instances might be alledged as the fulfilling of the seventy yeares captivity and the returne of the Church backe againe to their City and Mountaine as Esay 57.13 All being pledges put into one bosome touching the maine fidelity of God in making good the promised Seed and Messiah so oft made and renewed to Adam Abraham David Ahaz and his people which though it were kept in the bowells of time for foure thousand yeares yet at last Gal. 4.4 When the fulnesse of time was come was accomplished And hence all other promises tooke their originall 2 Cor. 1.20 and derived their issue So saith the Apostle All the promises of God are in him Yea and Amen to the praise of his glory that is Luke 1.45 firme and inrepealable Thus saith Elizebth to Mary A performance shall be from the Lord of whatsoever hath beene said unto his handmaid Faithfull is he who hath promised who will also fulfill it The Lord is faithfull Heb. 6.10 and will not conceale the labour of your love 1 Tim. 5.15 This is a faithfull saying and by all meanes to be beleeved c. endlesse it were to reckon up all and as for the addition of the point that sometimes he fulfills them for the better we see what Paul saith Phil. 4.19 Our God is able to doe for us more then we can aske or think When Salomon chose to aske a wise and understanding heart to goe in and out 2 Kings 3.11 lo saith the Lord I have given thee it and moreover I have given thee such wealth honour and wisdome as never any had before nor shall have after thee Matth. 6.32 And so saith Christ Seek the Kingdome of Heaven and the righteousnesse of it and other things shall be cast in So that it was not Naamans case onely but by consent of Scripture we see that his particular case is made the case of each beleever more or lesse so farre as is meet This for proofes Reason 1 Reasons are First the name of Gods essence Jehovah argues that he performes all the promises which he makes Because he is Jehovah For as hee is an absolute and infinite being in himselfe giving to all other depending creatures their beings So by vertue hereof he vouchsafes a being to all his promises which are the most excellent parcells of all his Scriptures He gives the like substance and beeing to all his commands and threats to all other sorts of truths but especially to these being his chiefe truths Gen. 17.1 Exod. 6.3 And as he said to Moses I was not knowne to them before the flood nor to Abraham by any other name save El-shaddi alsufficient but not by the name of Iehovah this name is a more reall name and gives a reality to my promises and causes me to performe them So now may we say I was not knowne by the name of the Father of Christ Jesus in former times as I am now for in him I make good all my word he hath sealed up all my truthes my love in him is attended with all my other attributes wisdome justice and faithfulnesse all my strength and power assists that so that whatsoever I have promised I will performe for I can doe it I will doe it and I am true in promising therefore I must fulfill it God then is Jehovah the being of all his promises our God in Christ Second Reason God is faithfull in performances in respect of his Reason 2 owne honour For his owne honour He knowes that except he should keep touch with his Church and maintaine the glory of his keeping promise with her hee should destroy the credit of his Ministers the faith of his elect and in a word the hope of drawing any out of the common course of the world to the Kingdome of grace So that his unfaithfulnesse threatning utter ruine to the whole art and way of Religion either in faith or obedience and shaking the very pillars of the Churches confidence it must needs stand the Lord in hand to see his promises fulfilled Thirdly forasmuch as whatsoever is in God is eminently in him and Reason 3 by way of excellence as before I noted in the point of commands Because whatsoever is in God is eminently in him therefore his truth in fulfilling promises must also be singular and eminent It must become that excellency of his truth not onely to content himselfe with such a performing as the poore creature can expect and concur withall but such an one as is above whatsoever the soul can aske or imagine that is rather to be over then under his promises better rather then worse this makes much for the adoring of his faithfulnesse and the
beleeving of his promises Fourthly the Lord doth thus for the continuall strengthening of his Reason 4 poore servants in better and closer clasping to his promises For the strengthning of his servants 2 Tim. 1.12 and that by daily experience growing in the soule hereby it might come to this pitch to say I know in whose lappe or bosome I have put my pledge I know in whom I have beleeved I goe not upon had I wist but upon undeceivable grounds Thus as the wicked through unbeleefe withdraw themselves more and more to perdition so the faithfull follow faith to the preserving of the soule Heb. 10.38 they grow more and more rooted therein by such triall of faith they grow from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 Eph. 3.16.17 Matth. 11.29 rooted and established and not easily puft off by every winde of error feare temptation they grow from beleeving one to beleeve more from generall promises to speciall from spirituall to temporall from promises in peace to promises in and under crosses darke ones deep ones long ones so that no estate service occasion triall waxes strange to them but familiar and at last the yoke of God waxes easie and his burthen light Fifthly because the Lords performances or purposes at least to Reason 5 performe are the causes in a sort of his promises It s not so with men Because his promises come from purpose of doing good They promise apace but their spirit being backward in love and entire wel-wishing to the good of others come short of their owne promises Now the Lord in his intention or purpose to doe good to his Church and People doth thereby draw his heart to make promises that so the good things which he wisheth them may be presented to them before hand they may know that in meer faithfulnes he binds himself to them not to strengthen himselfe but their weaknesse rather in beleeving Now because the Lord out of an Idea and foresight of his owne free grace purposing to doe good to his doth breake into promises thence it is that promises are easie to performe with him Men are rashly drawne either by their owne suddaine pangs or by others motion to make promises not knowing their owne spirits and scantlings of affection and so in coole bloud they undoe that which in hot they made But because Gods purposes strong and firme caused him to promise therefore the same Spirit moves him also to performe Againe though men meane well in promising yet inability oftentimes causes them to breake against their wills whereas in God purpose of love and power of hand to performe are alway equall so that nothing can come between barke and tree nothing can set his promises and performances together by the eares Let the reader looke back into the point of Faith where I have mentioned abundance of excellent Attributes in God every of which are objects of Faith and means to strengthen it and especially his faithfulnesse Reason 6 Sixtly and lastly the Lord sometimes performes his promises rather with the better then otherwise Because he lookes not at us but his owne bounty because he promiseth not according to what the narrow necke or vessell of the soule is capable of but what his bountifull heart can beteame it Promises would prove but barren and bare matters if so be our bucket could reach their bottome But since the Lord promises according to the extent of his owne bounty therefore he performes so also whether the soule conceive so or not What heart can conceive the unspeakable good things prepared by God for such as love him Eye hath not seene eare hath not heard nor hath it entred into mans heart to contain them 1 Cor. 2.9 yet all these are inclosed in the promise and though the soule at first obtaining of pardon see not what God includes in it to be in time accomplished but is glad of a present supply of her need yet the Lord who gives his Christ the knot of promises all at once is content to keepe touch with the soule and in due time to reach her out all sorts of them according as her need calls for in duties in wants in temptation in conflict with her lusts 1 Cor. 1.30 or in affliction Then he makes Christ Righteousnesse to be Christ Wisdome Sanctification and Redemption The lesse the soule looked for it the welcommer it is when it comes It s not so with base men If the party promised unto conceive not the extent of the promiser the promiser thinkes he hath quit himselfe well in concurring with the expectation of the other although he shorten his owne intents But this base falshood of restraint is farre off from God and therefore he performes that which often is unexpected as well as what is And so much shall serve for Reasons Now to the Limitations Limitations of the point And they are sundry These three following may give a taste of the rest which because they availe much for the due qualifying of the Doctrine therefore I will mention them and the proper uses flowing from them and so proceed to the other uses belonging to the Doctrine The first limitation is That God though he alway performe his promise yet not alway in that very kinde which the soule perhaps seekes and claimes The soule lookes at one kinde the Lord lookes at another It is enough with him God performs promises alway yet not in that very kinde which the soule expects And why that he alway keeps touch in one kinde or other though he doe not fulfill it as the soule would And good reason since the scope of fulfilling a promise being the speciall good of the soule that beleeves it and the Lord himselfe being fitter to judge of that then the soule it selfe can Therefore it is meet that we leave it to him in what kinde he will heare and performe We in the meane time cannot be losers because the Lord doth not neglect to heare us in our kinde for lacke of love but through â—bundance of wisedome If wee can beleeve that the kinde which hee answeres us bee questionlesse best for the present condition in which the soule stands then may shee bee as well satisfied in Gods way as her owne For example There is a promise Psal 50.15 that if wee call upon God in the day of affliction he will heare us and we shall praise him Upon this the soule under any yoke of body or minde sues to God upon his promise to ease that yoke that she may praise him But the Lord being wiser then she holds on the yoke still howbeit he doth it not as forgetfull of his promise but because he sees there be other graces to be set on worke in the poore soule as breaking of heart patience further faith selfe-deniall which would not worke kindly if the yoke were off If he meant onely to exercise thankfulnesse in the soule he would deliver it but he judgeth the other
faithfull ones of Christ may easily fall with Ieremy Chap. 12.1 and David Psal 73.5 to distemper our selves to charge God foolishly and to call him to our owne barre as if he ordered not matters so wisely as wee would have him Alas Those are ever most confident who usurp most 2 Sam. 15.4 Eccles 7.10.15.16 Absolom thought his policie and wisedome above his fathers in ruling of subjects but it cost him sorrow and ruine Let us not cavill against our owne dayes as the worst nor our owne lot as the unhappiest Let us know its folly wrap up all our own discontents in the field of Providence and Wisedome For why should we be desolate or hasten our owne ruine rashly before the time Let it be enough for us that wee beare witnesse to Jesus to his truth and serve our time But let us not breake out of our compasse in which God hath set us Nor let us think long or tax God for seeming to stop his eare from our praiers nor give over our waiting and wax froward with him but remember our Rule Acts 1.7 That in publicke promises still the time must be left to him who is the Soveraigne orderer of all times and seasons It is enough for us that in the worst and most degenerate times of all God hath not left his Church as an Orphan or desolate each member hath her owne particular faith and patience to set on worke To keep the soule from rusting from either tedious impatience or desperate carelesnesse Matth. 25. Ocupy these till God come and these will so allay thy spirit and exercise thy meeknesse patience and humility that Gods time shall not seeme over long faith shall not make over much haste Hab. 3. I doe not counsell thee to give over faith in performances But to apply faith to such promises in the meane while as may sustaine the soule with patient hope till Gods time is accomplished See Psal 135.14 The rod of the wicked shall not alway ly upon the lot of the righteous lest they should put forth their hand to evill The Lord will not alway bee angry Psal 125.3 lest flesh should faile Rather then such extremities should come God will put an end and say The day of my redeemed ones is come Esay 63.3 But if the Lord sustaine the whilest and the burning bush consume not is it not as good as if it burnt not Enlarge thy short and hasty spirit by this that each day of Gods delay shortens the trouble And remember that a thousand years with the Lord is as one day 2 Pet. 3.8 and God is a pure act incomprehensible not ruled by time I doe not by these passages choke the zeale importunity clamors and expostulations of the Church No that were another extremity and as much as to quash the Spirit of adoption and to abridge the priviledges of the Saints in their holy boldnesse in prayer For why Read the moanes of the Church in Psal 40. and Esay 63. and 64. the variety of her holy complaints arguments wherewith she laboureth to draw God on her side against his sworne foes to perswade him to be no longer darke but to cause the mountaines to flow downe before his presence And so Psalm 12. she cryes out for help because all went to wrack All this is lawfull and to pray against implacable incorrigible enemies Plead thus Lord although to thee a thousand yeares are as one day yet it is not so with us five seaven yeares are somewhat to us Lord wee are feeble and faint Psal 110. ult Therefore tarry not long Lord. But in all these remember to ascribe to God the glory of faithfull performance in his owne time and say thus Thou hast afflicted us on every side Psal 119. yet have we not forsaken thy Covenant the whilest we have not exasperated our spirits against thy delayes but turn'd the edge of our complaints against our selves who by our treacherous unfruitfulnesse have deserved these scourges our worst enemy is within us That sin of ours hath vexed thee more then our crosses and thy delayes vexe us Purge them remove the barre and we doubt not but thy performances shall breake out as the light when once our righteousnesse shall appeare and our filthinesse shall be cleansed nothing shall let thy promises from being fulfilled This for the second Limitation the third God keeps promise with them only that live by faith The third and last limitation is this That the Lord keeps his promises faithfully but yet upon condition to such as not onely are his own servants for what have dogges to doe with the childrens bread but such of his owne as abide so and feare him live by faith and keep his Covenant The sum of the point is that which David Psal 25.10 expresseth thus All the wayes of the Lord are mercy and truth But to whom Surely to such onely as keep his Covenant Israel was the Lords peculiar above all the earth but it was not enough for them to hold their name onely but to keep close to the Lord If Israel would have walked in my wayes then it should goe well with them and with their children for ever 1 Chro. 17.13 It was the Lords speech to David of Salomon Hee shall be my sonne and I will call him Iedidijah the Lord loved him And if he transgresse against me I will chastise him with the Rods of men but my loving kindnesse will I never take from him Marke Brethren there is a promise which the Lord will performe to all that are in covenant with him that is he will not finally forsake them But yet in the mean time if they venture so much hereupon that they break their league play the harlots and forsake their husband he will make them feele to their costs 2 Chro. 16.3.4 that he can also break with them and forsake them and so will he goe on with them till he have wearied them and by some adversity or other within or without sent them home with sorrow and shame to their first husband Men must not looke to be loose with God and yet binde him to be close to them Excellent is that of Oded the Prophet to Asa speaking of the revolted ten Tribes Of a long time was Israel without God or a Law or a Priest And why Surely because they had forsaken his Temple and Worship his Arke and Mercy seat and therefore the Lord plagued them with all adversity And so will he doe to you if yee cleave to him he will cleave to you but if you warp from him so will he from you Consider I pray you brethren and God give us understanding The Lord will keep promise with his but then they must not play their parts with him For why Shall the Father spit in his Daughters face Num. 12.14 and shall she not be separate from him seven dayes It was the Lords speech to Moses touching Miriam
and looke not that they should drop into thy bosome or be let downe in an engin all on the suddaine upon thee thou knowest not how quicken up thy faith daily else performances will prove but dead ware and according to thine unbeleefe 3. Murmuring so shall it be unto thee Thirdly murmure not when promises answer not thine expectation If crossed in our marriages in our children in the successe of our labours if debts pursue us if crosses follow us if wee be not presently answered in our fasting and prayers but still our hearts be obstinate and hardned then we fall to mutter against God as if he were unfaithfull but never enter into our selves to see how we warpe from the promise and go to worke with our owne tooles Ex. 14.2 4. Some grosse sin Fourthly lay no stumbling blocke of our owne iniquity in our owne way to stop the performing of promises Every loose common and hollow professor let him decline never so much from God in his course yet will boast as much of promises as others and will not be beaten off Judg. 19.20.21 ca. As those Israelites in fighting with the Benjamites would needs goe forward in the revenge of their sinne and lookt that God should assist them but never saw the sinne which still lay underneath their Idolls I mean which cost them the losse of forty thousand souldiers ere they got the victory Men think if they should be stript of Gods promises they were forlorne folk but in the mean time they walke not close with God keep not touch with him in their covenants dare play most unfaithfull parts with men in their practice and thus runne into arrearedges never dreaming that thereby they forfeit their right to performances but hold up their heads with boldnesse and think that as good bloud runnes still in their veines as in the best beleevers 5. Limiting of God Fifthly limit not God in his performances we care not how little we have for our money so we may have our humor pleased in some carnall content we can forgoe spirituall so we may have our turn served in some one promise we have enough and can give God over for a good while after and think much to hold on with Gods bounty because our strait hearts are pincht with the exercise of faith and therefore its just with God to punish our basenesse and unbeteaming spirits 6. Error of the wicked Sixtly beware of the error of the wicked who goe to worke by sense and esteeme Gods performances according to the outward meanes and possibilities which they have to compasse their ends God is but a formall notion upon point with them If thou looke upon the world thou losest the sight of God and wilt turne Atheist Seventhly beware of oversight and inobservance of promises God performes daily and hourely one or other to thee or thine to body or soule in blessings or in corrections yea more then hee is bound to But thou gapest after some greater or some other things 7. Unobservance so overseest and passest by such as are before thee and thereby stoppest the course of thanks and of blessings because thou seest not how many waies Gods performances lye Be quicke fighted in observing mercies and say with the Church Lam. 3.23 The compassions of the Lord are renued every morning great is thy faithfulnesse An observing heart encourages the Lord to performe more and he cannot abide an heart that pockets all and puts them into a bottomlesse purse Hag. 1.8 8. Curiosity and censure with others Eightly shunne curiosity and propensenesse to challenge the Lord when his publicke government and administrations please us not To these many moe might be added as sloth and ease worldlinesse formality in worship little meditation and such like They procure a dead life a barren heart an uncomfortable course Remember it must be an heart qualified for the nonce which must walke with God in his promises and performances It must be a cleare humble watchfull innocent and selfe-denying spirit not tainted with il custome and such shall have no cause to complaine of God nor be sent empty away So much for this Use Eightly this point is Exhortation to all beleevers and that in sundry particulars Vse 8 First that they revive in themselves the former Doctrine that is Exhortation that they take measure of Gods promises to the full that since God is so faithfull Branch 1 a performer of them all they may understand their owne liberty To take measure of promises and improve it Lose no performance for lacke of a promise God can enlarge Christ to every dimension of fulnesse height and depth So doe thou Those John 6.27 could beteame to follow Christ for loaves but they saw no further Say we thus Lord if thou heare me in this prayer thou shalt heare of me often I will ply thee with importunity for there is no measure no end nor bottome of thy goodnesse I will come to morrow next day continually For thou art yesterday to day and for ever the same Tell thy soule Heb. 13.8 heaven were not heaven if thou couldst reach all in it yet doe thine endeavour and pray with Paul Eph. 3.16 that thou maist see more in Christ then thou canst aske or thinke Mat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in the Lords Prayer thou art bidden to aske bread enough for the day and that which exceeds for so the word signifies As much more Lord as thy bounty can afford Oh brethren who would not know this Charter and Lease except he cared not whether God performed or no Lord I beleeve in that promise which reaches to all my life to my corruptions temptations straits feares to this and to a better life Secondly having so done learn to lot upon him for each performance Lot upon God for performance Ezra 8.21 especially when it goes hard Branch 2 with thee otherwise except God should sticke to thee Thus Ezra having obtained leave of the King for his journey and being now at a pinch for a sufficient convoy in so perillous a journey concluded he would not goe to the King for it lest he should upbraid him but he would goe to the promise for it by fasting and prayer and having so done was well appaid in himselfe lotting upon God that in such an extremity he would not faile him So do thou Thirdly to this end strengthen thy self by the plentifull experience of performances Branch 3 in time past get a calender of performances Strengthen thy self by thy experience at such a time I was heard for my wife for my childe answered in point of marriage estate gifts credit such a strong corruption was subdued such a grace enlarged so that I see it were not in vaine to waite upon thy promises if I had faith sufficient to equall and concurre with them Let me forget none of thy faithfulnesse in my receivings of the Sacraments
the cost I remember how one of the poore Martyrs encouraged his fellow the one being a blind man and the other a lame being at the stake Be of good cheere saith the one to the other we have a sharpe breakfast but we shall have a sweete supper my Lord of London Boner shall heale me of my blindnesse and thee of thy lamenesse in a short space Could a poore blind creature encourage himselfe against the fire for the hope of freedome from his blindnesse and count a bloudy wretch a good Physitian in that respect What shouldest thou doe then for the hope of riddance from those distempers which have hindred thine inward peace and have held thee downe all thy dayes till now Oh! how good a Physitian should he be and how blessed a medicine should that be that should ridde thee from them Secondly how should thy loynes blesse the Lord for this mercy How precious was Elisha to Naaman for his cure how beautifull should the feete of them be that bring glad tidings of peace But especially what experience should this worke in time to come in all such as the Sonne hath thus freed What Giant shouldest thou feare having overcome the Lion and the Beare What after births and paines should affright thee having escaped the chiefe paines of travell and birth it selfe It is sweete to thinke how strong the Saints of God have beene by this experience and with what triumph they speake of this deliverance As Paul in 2 Cor. 1. Who hath delivered from so great a death who doth deliver and I am perswaded will deliver And yet who had such after reckonings as he had So often in spirituall desertions in soule-buffetings in perils by land sea enemies he was much in labour in travell often stoned imprisoned persecuted yet saith he out of all these the Lord delivered me yea and still will to his glory till my worke be finished Thus the Church speakes Psal 123. That if God had not beene of her side the waves had swallowed her up and yet God had broken the snare and her soule was escaped And what then Our helpe saith she stands in the name of the Lord. The poore lame and blind man in the Gospel being bidde to come to Christ was heartned on by the standers by Be of good cheere say they the Master calleth thee So say I Be of good cheere If when thou wert yet weake and unable to helpe thy selfe yet the Lord bare thee through eased thee of all thy distempers when thou saidst It shall never goe well Oh! what speciall lets by infidelity feare and tentation what speciall risings up and bubblings up of corruption can he not suppresse in thee Now he hath given thee strength and experience by his promise why shouldest thou distrust him One saith What can seeme great to him to whom the greatnesse of the whole world is knowne So what can seeme tedious to him to overcome who hath got the victory over his horrors of conscience and pangs of a froward sullen heart through unbeliefe Let us nourish this experience lively and effectually in our selves against straits either by inward desertings or outward enemies Our Lord Jesus felt both upon the crosse that we might trust him for freedome from both That Crosse to which he nayled all Devils and men enemies to his grace shall also overcome all their second assaults and affronts and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against us if we cast not away our confidence Yea this our freedome shall be our earnest-peny of that peace which the Lord shall settle upon our consciences for time to come a pledge of that eternall rest which one day when he shall cleare the coast from all tempests and blasts of this world with full serenity and calmnesse the Lord shall translate us unto hereafter If this Angel stand by us although we were in as deepe distresse as Paul when no Sunne Moone or Starres appeared for fourteene dayes we shall leape up as he did among a rout of Ruffians and Souldiers saying I trust God that not one haire of our head shall fall to the ground Oh! how well-pleasing to God is it that we give not over our hold and cast not away our Shield and Sword when we have greatest need of it And so much may serve for this Use Lastly this may serve for instruction to teach us the just proceeding of God against all Hypocrites who reject his Word in this respect loving their distempers so well that they care not Use 7 for getting faith to be rid of them The soule that longs for faith Instruct longs for peace and riddance of such slavish companions but they who withdraw from God and will not beleeve it is just with God to leave them and their distempers together till they cannot be separated Ezekiel speaking of the people of his time compares them to a seething pot whose meat liquor and scum sod all together till they with the pot it selfe were burnt all together So it is just with God that they who would not have the precious separated from the vile should have their owne faith still and be left to their staggerings unquietnesses false case deceits and delusions and never be purged from their defilements Peter excellently speakes to this purpose Epist 1. Cap. 2.6.7 of such as will not accept the Lord Jesus to be their corner-stone of safety Surely they find him a stone of stumbling and offence So I say to these Since you cared not to trust in Christ to ridde you of your corruptions dead hearts vanities lusts earthlinesse your unbeliefe false hopes feares your owne affections and wayes it is just with God to leave you still to astonishment and anguish of heart to sinke and perish to fall and be destroyed Esa 28. by this Rocke of offence Christ is either a Rocke to save or to crush in pieces And I have noted that many Pharisees and Hypocrites refusing Christ have turned cavillers against the way of God complainers murmurers against it as base tedious and difficult if not scorners and enemies So much for this Doctrine and Lecture THE THREE AND TWENTIETH AND LAST LECTVRE Vpon the fifteenth VERSE and so forward VERSE XV. to the XIX And he returned to the man of God he and all his company and came and stood before him and said Behold now I know that there is no God in all the earth save in Israel Now therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant But he said As the Lord liveth before whom I stand I will receive none And he uâ—ged him to take it but he refused And Naaman said Shall there not then be given two Mules load of earth to thy servant c. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant c. To whom Elisha said Goe in peace Entrance upon this 4 generall ALthough Brethren at my first entry upon this text I propounded no more Verses of this Chapter to treat upon save what
questions Prayers confessions and the like who doth not wish himselfe in their case except it be some errant blocke who discovers his brutishnesse all are ravisht to see such early beginnings The Lord knowes the fittest way to worke upon men Sooner will a young novice by his active spirit of the cure stir up others then some solid and grave Disciples because the spirit of the one is more stirring active and drawing than the other Fourthly there is in the cure of the soule converted to God Reas 4 such an irresistible power and impotencie From that irresistible power of Grace in the soule especially in the first turning home of it that there is no choaking quenching or damping of it It resembles her originall Seed leaven mustard-seed are things of an active and encreasing nature Leaven in a little while will sowre all the lump Hence are those expressions of the Saints Thy Word was in mee as coales of fire in my bosome Can a man carry them there and not be burnt I would have kept in thy words saith David but such was the nature of them that they would not be concealed I had no rest nor peace till I had uttered them to Congregations Peter could not hold Christ in his bosome till he had uttered himselfe to Nathaniel That woman of Samaria had fire in her bosome when she went to tell her kindred citizens the news of Christs discourse The love of God workes in the breasts of his Saints as it first wrought in his owne he having conceived it once could not cease till it had discovered it selfe to poore sunken Adam and hee would rather chuse to make his onely Sonne a Masse shame then he would not expresse it Even such is the same love having once wrought in them it is as the new wine in the caske which must have vent or else it will breake It is like Josephs affection to Benjamin all must be had out from him Gen. 45.14 and he must utter himselfe to him and fall upon his neck with a kisse and teares The newer any thing is the more forcible So is it with love The Apostle hath a sweet word to expresse it The love of Christ constraines us 2 Cor. 5. The word signifies 2 Cor. 5.14 gathers us up together as a beast hemmed in a Pinfold hath an appetite after liberty so the spirit of love finds it selfe straitned till it breake out And 1 Cor. 13. love is bountifull and working 1 Cor. 5. full of affection hopeth all things endureth all things and the like The fifth God is the God of order and loves sutablenesse of Reas 5 Age and Temper youth naturally is hot and full of expressions God is the God of order it is comely for young ones to be so their lusts were so before grace therefore grace must be so also I restraine not this heat to meere youth for if God do convert elder ones as Naaman there is a spirituall youth or first age even in them also grace at the first is most operative be the yeares what they may be but especially when grace falls upon tender yeares as for the most part that is the season ere the soule be sapped in lewd customes then it quickens those hot spirits which it meets with to singular expressions Reas 6 Lastly by this spirit the Lord provides matter and argument of convincement For the due convincement of such as after may wax luke-warme and loose and inward checke for time to come if at any time his people shall revolt from this grace of first conversion The Lord knowes our mold and fashion just Psal 103. We seem at our first setting forth to the journey so trimme and so prepared that no troubles nor difficulties shall daunt our resolution But by that time wee have travelled a while what with the ill way what with ill weather bad successe and what with our owne weary and crazie spirits within we waxe unto ward and stagger whether we should goe forward or no. The Lord knowes how many waies this first spirit of the cure flagges and wanzes in us sometimes the abundance of iniquity causes the love of many to waxe cold this degenerate formall world is ready to quench our spirit the presidents of many zealous and painfull professors who are turned drunkards uncleane worldlings Epicures and sinfull wretches 2 Pet. 3. ult do shake us The errour of the wicked puls us from our stedfastnesse feare of some men flattery of others but especially a cursed heart on the one side giddie presuming venturous on the otherside slavish fearfull and distrustfull distempers us so that although we keep from grosse evils yet we are far from that frame of zeale closenesse and watching which we have found onely peace from Now when it falls out thus and that crosses debts ill marriage care of children and other disguisements come upon the necke of the other then is the Lord faine to step in and take us to taske to upbraid us and cast us in teeth with our first spirit of cure our early first love sweet affections covenants humble feare watchfull care diligent paines zealous spirit Luk. 23.31 What was this done in the greene tree and shall it not be done in the dry What shall first beginnings shame thee Didst thou begin in the spirit if yet thou didst so and wilt thou now end in the flesh Oh! is there not enough in that never dying spirit of an immortall hope of salvation to carry thee on in thy poore course with equalnesse of affection Say the edge be a little blunted what is metall gone too is the steele worne out of the backe That first spirit of sound joy in God should by this day have bred in thy belly a welspring of water flowing to eternall life Oh! for shame strengthen the weary hands Heb. 12.13 and feeble knees and correct the crooked that it turne not out of the way Thus the Lord charmes a declining spirit by an experiment of her owne and brings her backe with sorrow and shame to her former temper So much for Reasons Use 1 Now for Use first is the spirit of a true Convert thus zealous for God This then teacheth us a difference of cures and that all are not alike for there are many to be sure farre from this temper and frame of spirit Instruction with an item Not every cure hath such a stroake in the soule of a man thus to change qualifie and act his spirit to and for the Lord. And all to teach us to try our spirits and to be afraid to rest in any base counterfeit cures which afford none of this life and operation Who doth not now a dayes boast himselfe to have gotten this through cure Counterfeit cures very common in the world true cures rare If once baptized and professe the Gospell it is treason in these dayes to put a difference betweene men Alas yee poore wretches
yea to runne into some morall evills which yet were damnable then thus to play the hangbies upon Religion Prayer for healing of our times of this numbe palsie of spirit necessary Ier. 2.2 and to eate out the very heart and entralls of her by our wofull unsavorinesse and declension Oh that God would heale our back-slidings cancell our Bill of devorce and make new love to us as in old times As those Martyrs so pray we Once againe Lord the power and life of thy Gospell give unto us the skinne and bones of an empty profession to be fill'd up and beautified with flesh and colour with countenance and savour of grace Oh Lord thou who madest the spirit of man breath a second spirit of thy Word to inspire our dead Carcasses with a second and better life Thou who causedst that Sunne of the Heavens to go backe ten degrees Esay 38. cause this Sunne of Grace to goe forward tenne degrees for it is gone backward too many already Thou who by that happie wind of thine scattered upon the surface of the earth didst hazle and drie up the forlorne dregges and slime of Noahs deluge Gen. 8.13 cause a new face of zeale and grace to appeare upon our age drunken and soaked in ease and sensuality Lord help us to cast our Eagles bill Psal 103.5 pluck off our Snake skin and renue us as the flesh of Naaman after Jordan Oh command an heart spirit of first love courage thanks joy and esteem of thy pretious Truth and Christ to return into us let it be as new blood in our veines and marrow to our bones count those daies of our decay declinings death distemper as if they had never bin Impute not unto us our unfruitfull Ministry unprofitable hearings returning to our vomit lingring after Popery and her defilements contempt and disdaine of powerfull ordinances which have deserved that we should be stript and wasted of all meanes Malach. 4.2 and left to utter woe and ruine Come and bring healing in thy wings at last and pardon the sins of all sorts that might hasten further wrath for what can be such a marke and symptome of misery comming spuing out of thy mouth Revel 3.18 as this decay of our temper So many of us as cleave to God let us not give him over for this mercy for surely many of us here especially of the richer sort whose gaines come in merrily and live at ease in Sion do shrewdly leane to this disease of luke-warmenesse Amos 6.1 begge it I say of the Lord that he leave us not quite here in this corner and make us not an hissing to all our neighbours for our barrennesse and desolation of the meanes who have hitherto abounded and caused the borders of our Towne to be wetted with those streames which have overflowed among us So much for this Branch 3 Thirdly so many of us as hitherto have lurked in our dens of ease and unprofitablenesse looke up at last and endeavour after this spirit of Naamans clensing and cure Exhort Gen. 18.12 Exhortation to get the spirit of true conversion Alas perhaps we laugh as Sara did when she heard she could give suck to heare of this that such dead blockes and lowring louts as many of us have beene to this day surviving our owne hopes and outbidding all threats and feares of the Word by a carnall stupor of our owne savouring nothing save our lusts and humours I say we thinke it impossible that ever wee should become any other Should such as wee ever be healed of our ignorance hard hearts and senselesnesse Should we ever come to be quickned by the hope of the Gospell to be forgiven and saved Should we ever become savory humble tender and zealous ones Truly I must tell you considering how some of us in this place have snorted out seven times seven yeares of Sermons or well nigh and fatted our selves under the Gospell with nothing but sottishnesse and security me thinkes I am halfe afraid of it Now am I leaving of you but how many shall I leave as I found them if not farre worse and what is like to be their end if they should live under no meanes or unfruitfull who knowes if a good day have not mended them must not a bad needs paire them The Lord flaite many of you this day out of your holes and corners me thinkes I behold your face with horrour and feare of any good Esay 55.8 but seeing the long sufferings of God are bottomlesse and his love as farre above our thoughts as the heavens above earth therefore I leave Gods secrets unto himselfe and spread before you still even at this last farewell the cords of the Lord and beseech you to come in and be converted and get this spirit of grace into you ere you goe hence and be seene no more Psal 39.3 Gal. 1. ult Oh it would make the Angels rejoyce and the world to wonder as Paul saith Gal. 1. Those that having knowne mee a persecutor heard that I was become a Preacher of the Gospell they magnified God for mee so should praises be offered up by many for you if it should be thus Who can tell brethren long hath the Gospell been laid in three pecks of meale in some of you Mat. 13.33 if now it might at last breake out as leaven and season you throughout what a blessed parting should it be to you and mee As you are I grant most of you no other is to be looked for then hath beene earth at first earth still and earth hereafter But if earth earth earth will heare the Word of the Lord it shall be otherwise Naaman was as far off as you till hee washed in Jordan but afterward what a spirit of healing and conversion came he forth withall How doth he come backe to Elisha Who can stay him How is his lowring heart enlarged to the Prophet What is too deare for him hee loves the ground hee stands upon and would carry it away upon mules his heart is ravisht with God and his worship and much water cannot quench love Such might you bee if the Lord would send Elisha to you Elisha is gone and the comming and going death and departure of many both Elija's and Elishaes you have seene and now of mee a poore Minister of Christ What shall no fruit come of all I am now going to tell my Master what fruit of all these sixe yeares worke here and many more in other places and by other my Predecessours hath beene reaped What shall I be able to say nothing to comfort the heart of God and his people Oh sad thing Well I leave it to your thoughts it is as much as I can say That if God perswade you nothing was done upon Naaman but might be done upon you Many of your own number out of the stools wherin you sit some of your wives in your bosomes children and servants under your
and Divellish But as for nourishing this naughtinesse in your selves and stifnesse in it to keep your fashions attires to speake your owne words as if no Lord should controll you Oh! how horrible is it Shall God beare your name and be as your husband but you will eate your owne bread weare your owne cloath and be at your own hand and finding as those women in Esay speak Esay 4.1 Then surely you must bee content to live upon your own wages and so lâ—e downe in sorrow Vse 3 Thirdly This is terror Terror to all openly proud scornfull and prophane persons who proclaime their sinne as Sodome whose hearts cast up mire and dirt like the raging Sea Esay 57.21 Those carry themselves aloft and live at the full height of a bigge and high heart without any sense of their danger Such as maintaine this rotten principle It is good to be some body in the view of men because as a man thinkes of himselfe Jam. 4.7 so will others thinke of us Which as it is false for God resists the proud crosses them so what if it were true Surely so long as my doctrine continues good there is no possibilitie for thee to obtaine grace and obedience while this spirit lasts Naaman was a great one Proud hearts terâ—ified by Gods resisting might as much stand upon it as thou yet till his stomack came downe the word of his cure was not beleeved hee was a Leper still so art thou and worse in Gods sight so long as thy lofty heart dwells in thee thy high thoughts of thy selfe cause mean thoughts of God contempt of his word and disdaine to bee a captive to Gods truths Nay it takes away all capablenesse judicious discerning remembring affecting applying or practising of any thing thou hearest save to pride thy selfe in thy knowledge and to strengthen thy selfe in a rotten peace Jerem. 48.11.29 Alas as the Prophet describes Moab that she was very proud shee had not beene rolled about and therefore was setled upon her dregges her sent still abode in her so is it with every proud wretch his own savour is in him still he is as he was as you leave him so you finde him a proud wretch rolling up and down upon his own hinges As for suspecting all is not well or laying any thing to heart hee is farre from it No winde shakes his corne he applauds himselfe in his owne conceit and saith I shall have peace though I walke in the stubbornesse of mine owne heart Mark how carelesse pride is But what comes of it Doth he meet with any grace in such a condition No the Lord will set himselfe against such a sturdy wretch Deut. 29.15.16 breake his iron sinew and the staffe of his pride the wrath of God shall smoke against him and resist him till his heart feele it and desist from fighting against God And surely if such finde small favour with men save from teeth outward they finde much lesse from God Should not this scare every such man out of himselfe saying The more I magnifie my selfe the more God vilifies me I see it hard to curb pride but it is harder to endure wrath and to be cast out from God who counts none pretious but such as count themselves vile Beware of it then the sin it selfe is sad but that it should be the canker that should eate out the foyson of grace and destroy all my hearings and make my devotions as odious as the cutting off a dogges neck Oh! this consequence of the sin is worse then the sinne it selfe Many sinnes are worse in their fruit then in themselves and this is one of them And to touch the particular of Naamans sinne here which was blustering at the Prophet and cavilling against his message we see here how God abased this spirit in him ere ever he could obey But when that was gone then the other succeeded And so I say to all proud cavillers The terror urged here is terror for them While cavilling lasts no grace enters Looke upon this patterne all you cavillers and see God branding you with a gracelesse heart as long as this humour lasts I have noted the end of such as have vented their pride in cavilling and picking knots with the Minister and his doctrine such as cannot receive or stand under a solid and sad truth with a meek heart and I never saw such come to good God hath betrayed them to shame and ill report Their knowledge hath puft them up They have some growne Alehouse-Keepers and haunters embraced the world fallen out with their brethren and forsaken their fellowship been foully tainted with grosse evils uncleannes the world contention censoriousnesse uncharitablenesse Some have proved Brownists Poynters Schismatickes and Libertines and lost their honour with God and his Church If there bee any drop of humility in you let this affright you lay downe the bucklers and as you have been proud so now be humble Say not with Gardiner I revolted with Peter but I have not repented with Peter but with this poore Proselyte Naaman I have been as stout and proud as he and now behold I repent and am humble as he Lord give me grace as thou gavest him Oh! the servants of Naaman had little cause to repent them of their counsell when such an effect followed Neither should I of mine if I could prevaile as they did God grant you and mee this grace The fourth and last use shall be exhortation to us all Exhortation and comfort to humble soules to embrace this Vse 4 grace of a subject humble spirit Oh! it is the messenger of mercy and mercy followes her at the heeles Selfe-deniall and an humbled soule are speciall ingredients of this receit of Mercy and faith to apply it When the soule is full of her owne it is empty of Gods hee counts all grace put into such a soule as water put into a top-full vessell The empty the bare the naked and poore soule is that wherewith he will betrust his grace Jâ—mes 4.7 be earnest for this as you would have faith herselfe 1 Cor. 25. As Paul calles death the last enemy which must be subdued ere we have glory so may I say that a proud selfe-sufficient heart is the last enemy which must be cast out ere we can come by any grace It is the last brat of the house which goes out The onely vice which keepes possession for old Adam to keep out Christ When wee see Gods tokens Simile we count the plague incurable and when mercy cannot conquer a rebellious heart it is past all remedy And contrariwise here is comfort to all such as are thus tamed by God they are brought to the bent of his bow I may say to thee as Martha to her sister Mary Thy Lord is come and calleth for thee And as our Lord Jesus himselfe said to Zacheus This day salvation is come unto thy house
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
in our Lord Jesus Was thy soule alway under the authority of the commands both of Law and Gospell with sweetnesse and delight Was it not rather bitternesse and gall Who then hath made his yoake easie Surely hee who deserves unspeakable thankes at thy hands for it And therefore bee also truly joyfull in thy portion The time was when such a liberty of going in and out with the Lord would have made thee leape and shalt thou now carry it about thee Delight in obeying the sad commands of God affords solid comfort without savour or sensiblenesse Perhaps thou wilt say I have my load another way a deale of base corruption hanging upon me to coole my courage Oh! but the Lord hath onely tryed thee thereby whether thou wilt forsake his yoke or no for thine owne ease he doth but put a back-bias upon thee that he might weigh thy motion to himselfe thou art not hereby hurt one whit but much bettered kept in awe and humblenesse before God whereas else thou wouldst be puffed up But is this or ought this to be any cause of thy discontent ought it not rather to encrease thy comfort when thou seest the Lord hath provided against the vanishing of it to make it durable Oh! bestow but a few houres in a weeke to thinke what a priviledge it is for dust and ashes nay a dunghill of rebellion a depth of treachery to be so changed as to come under the line of God and to be under his authority with a willing heart to make the love of Christ thy banner and to bee subject to God thine heaven Oh! to have thy will captived to his and to desire to know feare love close with nothing save his will what is it but the suburbs of heaven to feele a veine of sweetnesse to overrule thy soule and to cure that light giddy and frothy emptinesse of it to sadden and settle it under this power and kingdome of the Command To cast out the law of the members the law of a proud a stout self-loving and self-seeking heart to bee above these above corruption so that as they stincke in thy nostrills so shouldest thou in theirs Oh doe not count this a common priviledge rather nourish it hugge it in thy bosome beware lest any steale away thy Crowne And rather then thou shouldest live to see that day wherein the commands of Faith and Love should wax stale and unsavoury chuse to be taken out of this world that thine eyes may never see the evill of a revolting heart Heb. 3.12 to depart away from the living God Vse 5 Fifthly if we feele by due examining that our hearts warpe from Gods Commands Admonition Le ts of close walking with God must be abhorred then let us be admonished to amend it betimes and to search and cast out all such lets as do hinder and forestall in us this closing with God As it fares with hypocrites of whom I have spake that they have an habituall contrariety so it often falls out with the people of God that they meet with many actuall rubbes which oppose this subjection of spirit Not onely that old Adam which is ever present and when they would doe good still suggests evill and when they would shake off evill still hinders good as Rom. 7.14 But also they meet with one or other actuall affront in whatsoever command the Lord tenders unto them which dogges and disquiets them from the entry upon the worke What they are to the upshot thereof There bee as many Let. 1 subtilties of heart or stops of incumbrance as there are commands one tricke or other still is put upon us If the command be to bee unspotted of the world then the Divell comes in with the necessity of following my calling of close attending our worke and trades he tells us the world is hard and he that labours not must not looke for meat we must have no more then we toile for we must therefore do as others doe and sell as the market wee must make the most of our commodities and spare for a hard time and yet perhaps we be rich have not a childe or kinsman to bestow it on and so under this cloake breakes in abundance of worldlinesse not only to keep us from unspottednesse but even to drowne us in the world So let the Lord but Let. 2 presse us to suffer for a truth rather then betray it perhaps we answer we would faine doe it but then throng in such a number of feares how shall we endure persecution How shall we beare reproach Insulting of enemies imprisoment threats fines hard handlings How shall I beare the losse of my gifts credit favour of the world company contents How shall wife children be maintained family and charges supported defraied in this unthankfull world Thus while the meer outside of things is looked at the crosse is terrible all suffering is tedious and thus is it in all other commands carnall reason ease remissenesse and slacknes of spirit vanity infidelity and such other scurfe breaks in and then comes in a marveilous wearinesse of resistance of our lets and so a willingnesse to be foiled to give up our weapons and to resist no more as if we despaired secretly in our base spirits of ever recovering and therefore must give our selves some intermission and ease Sutable hereto is a third let when we think our strength not yet Let. 3 growne to such maturity as to digest so strong and beare so weighty commands as Gods puts upon us and so assume the whiles a kinde of exemption and liberty to our selves for the present So also when we Let. 4 nourish not the Promise with the Command without the which who doubts but it is burthensome But are carried by the present sense of our spirit how that welcomes or distastes it and goe no further and so marre the worke by ill handling Otherwhiles defiling and abusing Let. 5 our selves by some truths which serve us not to hatch us up to lasinesse and ease but to encourage us in weakenesse As that God passes by the transgressions of his people our perfection here is the sight of our infirmities No perfection is here to bee looked for Againe Let. 6 looking at the common guise of the world their formall loose religion and yet how they carry it out God suffering them and men admiring them or at least looking at the looser sort of Christians what largenesse and breadth they allow themselves Sometimes also by ill custome in lesser evils not espying how the Let. 7 heart waxes degenerate and unsavoury losing ground of close obedience daily And this is not the least let of all that men will not give Let. 8 themselves leasure of thoughts to meditate and so to equal their hearts to the sadnesse and closenesse of Gods Commands but goe on in their course and run their round as blinde Sampson in his mill not considering what wash way they make of Gods Commands