you make the one to be a meanes to further the good of the other which such pious thoughts in some civill imployments doe it being no peece of Christian wisdome or honesty to turne round in worldly imployments so long till by giddinesse wee fall down but by secret steps ever and anon to look up to heaven and to behold the face of God to whom onely therein wee are to approve our selves But yet it seemes your thoughts are so far from being subservient the one to the other that you are distracted and molested and your peace interrupted and your Christian course made troublesom and an heavy burthen which surely can not be by the yoke of Jesus Christ therefore you must first bring your troubles in this particular to this issue either you may follow your Civill affaires and nourish these thoughts as helps to maintaine your peace and make you heavenly minded in them and if they serve sufficiently to such an end why are you troubled with them or els you cannot â—ollow God comfortably in civill actions unlesse you banish from you thoughts which doe so miserably distract you and then why doe you fear you shall grieve Gods Spirit if at the same time you do not give entertainment to them the unseasonablenesse of which speaks plainely they came not from the spirits suggestions besides their hinderance of comfortably walking with God which the imployments themselves can never hinder But you will say when is the season of nourishing such thoughts I answer Entertaine those thoughts as it may be you have done some friends who came to you at that time you have businesse with strangers whom you love not so well as your friends you have desired them to stay a while untill you have done with the other and then you have returned to your friend and when the other hath been shutâ—out of the doores the other hath had the welcom and hath lodged with you all night and thus you have grieved neither but pleased both It is so in this case Worldly employments are our strangers yet they must be spoke with Religious thoughts and practises are our friends these come unto us while God calls us to parley with the other you cannot speake with both at one time in one place without much perplexity take therefore this course make much of the good thoughts but parley not with them till your businesse is done with strangers and towards evening which is your season set some time apart every day for meditation and then make them welcome then consider and ponder well what was suggested to you in the day time and â—iâ—t every good thought to the bran for then is your season and after that let them sup and lodge with you all night and keep the house with you every day And surely when the Lord Jesus shall see what a friend you shall make of his Spirit and how wisely you walke therein you shall not need to feare any grieving of it or unseasonable times nay I say you will most fearefully grieve his Spirit if you parley with the conceived suggestions of it at unseasonable times What thou dost doe it with all thine heart saith Solomon Eccle. 9. Therefore when you are to pray confer or meditate do it with all your minde and all your thoughts and all your strength So when God calls you to worldly employments do them with all your mind and might and when the season of meditation comes take it which glorious ordinace of God although many Christiane use it occasionally and against some good time or when they have leisure meeting with them yet to set some time apart for it in a solemn manner every day and that in conscience as wee doe for prayer generally where is the man to be found that does thus Those men that thus neglect their season of musing and entring into parley with Gods Spirit dayly may be well said to grieve the Spirit through the neglect of which ordinance Gods Sâ—irit is as much grieved by Professors in England as by any course I know The Lord awaken us but I have run too farre already in this first part of my answer For the second meanes viz. how the soule is to carry it selfe in Civill employments that so you may not thinke you do for better when you listen to good thoughts as you mention I say but two things 1. Learne to follow them out of an awfull respect to the eye presence and command of Jesus Christ and to doe what you do in Civill businesses as the worke of Christ When you are riding or making up breaches between man and man then thinke I am now about the worke of Jesus Christ Secondly seeing your selfe thus working in worldly employments for him you may easily apprehend that for that time God calls you to them and you attend upon the worke of Jesus Christ in them that you honour God as much nay more by the meanest servile worldly act then if you should have spent all that time in meditation prayeâ— or any other spirituall employment to which you had no call at that time It is noted therefore by some of Pâ—ters wifes mother that when Christ had healed her of her Fevor she â—ate not downe at table with Christ in communion with him which no question was sweet but ministred at the Table and ran too and fro and so served him and acted for him wherein she shewed more love and gave him more honour viz. in that meane service and in acting for him then in having communion with him now if the Lord would out of his abundant goodnesse set the soule in such an acting frame for him and if if could do its worldly employments as the worke of Christ and see how greatly it honours Christ in attending on him Oh what peace should a Christian enjoy notwithstanding all his distractions every day And how easily would such devout thoughts you speak of be repell'd like darknesse before the light for the noblenesse of those good thoughts you speake of presenting themselves against the mean and base outsides of Civil affaires makes you ready to honour the one when you are call'd to serve the other but now by seeing you do the work of Christ Jesus in them you shall hereby see a glory in the meanest service you performe in Civill affaires and this will make you cleave unto them But I have said too much about repelling of good thoughts in these times wherin men have so few though it may be little enough to satisfie you Your second trouble is this viz that your heart is kept from being humbled for sinnefull distractions that hinder and interrupt the spirituall performance of holy duties and that for two reasons First Because they be involuntary and accidentall Secondly Because they cannot breake the Covenant between God and your soule being but inâ—irmities For the latter clause concerning breach of Covenant together with the other 1. I say not onely inâ—â—rmities
expresse fully my thoughts about our Spirituall union in his lib. 4. cap. 17. I answer I have forgot what he hath writ and my selfe have read long since out of him and for the present I have no bookes about me where I am and therefore cannot satisfie you in this neither know I when I shall seeke to finde out the booke and place If I have leisure I will either write to you or tell some of your friends before I am gone what he hath said or writ that way c. Againe thirdly You desire me to tell you how my selfe came to the cure of Atheisticall thoughts and whether they did weare out or whether they were rationally overthrown I answer at first they did wear out meeting with fruitlesse and dead-hearted company which was at the University 2. The Lord awakened me againâ— and bid me beware lest an old sore broke out again and this I found that strength of reason would commonly convince my understanding that there was a God but I felt it utterly insufficient to perswade my will of it unlesse it was by fits when as I thought Gods Spirit moved upon the Chaos of those horrible thoughts and this I thinke will be found a truth 3. I did groane under the bondage of those unbelieving thoughts looking up and sighing to the Lord that if he were as his workes and word declared him to be he would be pleased to reveale himselfe by his owne beames and perswade my heart by his owne Spirit of his Essence and being which if he would do I should account it the greatest mercy that ever he shewed me And after grievous and heavy perplexities when I was by them almost forced to make an end of my selfe and sinnefull life and to be mine owne Executioner the Lord came between the bridge and the water and set me out of anguish of spirit as she prayed for a child to pray unto him for light in the midst of so great darkenesse In which time he revealed himselfe manifested his love stilled all those raging thoughts gave returne in great measure of them so that though I could not read the Scripture without blasphemous thoughts before now I saw a glory a majesty a mistery a depth in it which fully perswaded and which light I desire to speake it to the glory of his free grace seeing you call me to it is not wholly put out but remaines while I desire to walk closely with him unto this day And thus the Lord opened mine eyes and cured me of this misery and if any such base thoughts come like beggers to my doore to my minde and put these scruples to me I use to send them away with this answer Why shall I question that Truth which I have both knowne and seen But you say this remedy is good viz. of prayer but that you cannot use it especially because you question the truth of God Yet deare Sir give not over this Trade you will doubtlesse finde it gainefull when it may be God hath laden you more with these thoughts and made you loath your selfe for them But the thing seemes strange to me if I mistake you not viz. that your heart will not be perswaded but that you must resolve your doubts concerning the perfection of Scripture not by seeking to hâ—rmonise those passages that seeme to crosse one another but by ascribing some humanity or error if I may interpret you to the pen-men seeing St. Paul saith We prophesy but in part and seeing one of the Evangelists leaves out the doxology in the Lords prayer Sir if you take these thoughts arising from these and the like grounds as your burden I do not blame you but pitty you in that respect but if your judgement indeed thinke so I am sorry you should harbour such thoughts one houre within doores for you know that holy men writ the Scriptures but so far they might erre but it is added as they were inspired or as the Originall hath it as they were moved or carried in the armes of the holy Ghost and so how could they erre how could God lie It is true Paul did prophesie but in part and is this an argument because he did not prophesie fully therefore in some things he did not prophesie truly I am perswaded you will say there are many things my poore thoughts have suggested to you as true and yet I am perswaded I doe in them prophesie if I may so say but in part The Spirit of God directed the foure Evangelists to write yet so as they did not all write what another writ but in great wisdome left some things doubtfull and short in one which are more cleare and full in another and hence the Doxologie is fully set downe in one and not in another and many reasons I could set you downe why but that it is needlesse I grant you ought not to put up all with a charitable opinion of Scripture but if you can by reason reading and comparing helpe your heart to a full perswasion this is Scripture but many things you cannot get satisfaction for by that way and meanes but still your Spirit will be left darke and doubtfull What course will you here take for resolution which is Scripture The Papists say it is so because the Church hath christned it for Scripture you say you will see reason for it that it is so or else you cannot be satisfied then I feare you wil never be satisfied I thinke In this case therefore these two things you are to do 1. To go to God by prayer to give you a resolution of all your doubts and by some meanes or other some light to see whether this is his word or not Secondly if this be his word that he would perswade your heart of it that it is so For the least resolution which is Scripture and which is not is made by the same perswasion and sole perswasion of the same Spirit that writ the Scripture Concerning the Angels that appeared to Mary see Gerard and he briefly I thinke will satisfie you In your answer to the particular scruples about the Scripture sense and the dissonancy of them Onely this I will adde to the last clause about these things that if the Scripture be inspired by the holy Ghost and that not in the sum and substance of it but to every word and sentence of it which I thinke you will not doubt of when you have considered it then I thinke it will undeniably follow that the same Spirit of truth is also a Spirit of order and hence the method of various penning of it is from the Spirit too which you say you sticke at Againe to your third thing concerning your spirit being burthened with involuntary infirmities as burdens but not as sinnes I say nothing now because I perceive by one part of your reply that the Lord hath done you some good by the first answer onely it is your griefe you cannot
the spirit and breaking your peace in not maintaining and nourishing the same time the other and hence being drawn to go two waies at the same time which you cannot wel do your heart is disquieted and your peace much interrupted This of yours puts me in mind of the complaint of an honest yet plain man to an able Minister once who in bewailing his condition to him among other miseries that was not the least viz. that he was exceedingly troubled with good thoughts so that he could not follow his place â—nlesâ—e very oft he did stand still and pray for fear of grieving the Spirit as he thought and lâ—â—ing his season of being heard in Heaven for said Conscience oâ—t unto him how dost thou know but this may be thy accepted time and if thou dost not take it it may be thou shalt never have it again I have forgot the Ministers answer but I am sure in these complaints you go not alone I have lately known one very able wise and godly put upon the Rack in these kind of thoughts by him that envying Gods peoples peace knowes how to change himselfe into an Angell of light For it being his usuall course in the time of his health to make a diary of his hourely life and finding much benefit by it hee was in Conscience prest by the power and delusion of Satan to make and take the same daily survay of his life in the time of his sicknesse by meanes of which he spent his enfeeblâ—d spirits cast on fuell to fire his sicknesse and had not a friend of his convinced him of his erronious coâ—science misâ—eading him at that time he had murdered his body out of conscience to save his soule and to preserve his grace and do you think these were the motions of Gods spirit which like those Locusts Rev. 9. 9 10. had faces like men but had tailes like Scorpions and stings in their tailes Your thoughts I know are not likely to produce the same effects although you have the same efficient and because you say your peace is hereby disturbed by ignorance as not knowing what to doe in the midst of these Civill actions and these religious thoughts I conceive that two thinâ—â— are to be sadly considered of for the cure of them First how to know when such religious pious thoughts come from Gods spirit and when from the devill transforming himself into an Angell of light or from a well-melted stirring conscience yet blind For when you know they come from Gods spirit you are bound to nourish them but when not you are bound not to embrace nor comply with them Secondly learn how your soul is to behave and carry it selfe in Civill employments For when you see how you doe and may honour God in following them your spirit will not be so unquiet if at any time you imbrace not the suggestions of the other 1. For the â—irst briefely all good motions and thoughts are not the spirits motioâ—s as may thus appear There be three things chiefly by which were may discerne the motions suggestions and thoughts which come from Gods spirit all which concurring together in a good action or thought or word not one alone will make discovery whether they are from Gods spirit or not 1. If it be suggested for Gods ends it s from Gods spirit to act so high as for a supernaturall end must arise from a supernaturall principle which only is Gods spirit Pharasaicall actions were for a double selfish end and hence not from Gods spirit but nature and their own spirit 1. To be seen of men 2. If they did any of them abhor this yet it was to purchase and gender in their own minds an opinion of holinesâ—e before God and hence Christ gives them this Item in giving Almes that they should not let the right hand know what their left hand doth for many men will doe good acts lest they should by the neglect of them thinke them hypocrites and so be troubled for them Christ would have us not to take notice of what we do for such an end If they be animated and quickned from Gods command for the higher measure of holinesse for glorious ends without a warrant from the Word is the more â—ordid superstition Christ healed the Lâ—per when he charged him with anger to tell no man he no question for a good end published the miracle the more this was a good motion but it was sinnefull in him being crosse to Christs command when Christ would have washed Peters feet he had many thoughts that came into his head concerning his owne vilenesse and Christs glory and had a good end and meaning in his answers yet his humility crossing Christs command the Lord professeth against it and him for it that he had no part in him if hee should goe on in it Gods Spirit sets a man on worke in due season for let the duty be commanded and rightly directed yet if it be not done in season it is not from Gods Spirit hence Psal. 1. The râ—ghteous bring forth fruit in its season and hence Solomon speakes of words spoken in season arâ—as apples of Gold and hence we read in Ecclesiaâ—tes of a time and season for â—very thing under the Suâ—ne and therefore when there is a season of Gods appointing for civill things or businesse it is not season now to be molested or perplexed in it by the injection and evocation of those thoughts which we thinke to proceed from the Spirit of God I know indeed that the Spirit of God doth enable a man to do whatever good he doth but as Grace makes Nature sometimes to serve so sinnefull Nature brings Grace into captivity which Paul complaines of Rom. 7. and makes Grace to serve it To exhort and reprove another for sinne is from Gods Spirit that it is done but to reprove at an unseasonable time it s from sinnefull corruption abusing Gods grace and makeing Sâ—â—â—son to grinde It s from the excellency of a 〈◊〉 to cut well but to cut my singer with it 〈◊〉 â— should be cutting of my meat with it 〈◊〉 not from the end of the knife nor from the intention of him that made it so to thinke of good things it is from the spirit I grant but to think of them in such a season that God sets you a worke to minde and follow other occasions it s from the enemy of Gods spirit and your owne peace for as it is a sinne to nourish worldly thoughts when God sets you a worke in spirituall heavenly imployments so it is in some respects as great a sin to suffer your self to be distracted by spirituall thoughts when God sets you on worke in Civill yet lawfull imployments such thoughts I conceive are but the leven of Monkish holinesse if they divert you from your lawfulfull affaires when the Lord calls you to follow them For the Lord never calls you to two divers imployments at the same time unlesse
do not but the greatest sinnes cannot make a breach of Covenant between God and the soul that is once really not rationally wrapt up in the Covenant of grace Indeed grosse scandalous sinnes nay infirmities when they are given way to and not resisted may keepe the soule from the fruition for a time of Gods Covenant but never from the eternal jus and right unto it for as the habit of Faith or Grace gives a man a constant right to the promise and Covenant which seed ever remaines which habit ever lasts Ier. 3. 9. so the act of Faith or Grace gives a man fruition of the Covenant and the benefit of the promise and hence by the acting and venting of some sinnes wherein there is included the neglect of the exercise of grace He that is really in covenant with God may be deprived of the fruition of it yet seeing the seed of God and the habit of grace ever remaines he cannot by any sin break his covenant for the covenant of grace is absolute wherein the Lord doth not onely promise the good but to begin and perfect and fulfill the condition absolutely without respect of sin ex parte creaturâ— Indeed if Gods covenant of Grace did as that of works depend upon man to fulfill the condition having sufficient grace to fulfill it then grosse sin might well breake the Covenant but seeing God hath undertaken to fulfill the Covenant absolutely notwithstanding all the evills and sins of the soul no sinne can possibly break that knot and covenant which so firme and resolute love hath once knit And therefore if this be a good argument Infirmities cannot break covenat What cause have I to be humbled for them so as to say It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them as you write you may upon the same ground say so If the Lord should desert you or you forsake the Lord and so fall into the foulest sinne which I suppose corrupt conscience dares not be so bold as to think or allow of Secondly I say the least sinnes or infirmities do break the first covenant of workes and hence you do not onely deserve but are under the sentence of death and curse of God immediately after the least hairs-breadth swarving from the Law by the smallest sinne and most involuntary accidentall infirmity According to the Tenor of the Law the soul that sinneth shall die and cursed is he that continueth not in all things of the Law Gal. 3. 10. The least sinne being ex partâ— oâ—jectâ— in respect of God against whom it is committed as horrible and as great as the greatest For it being an infinite wrong being the dishonour of an infinite Majesty there can be no greater wrong then an infinite one unlesse you can imagine a thing greater then that which is infinite and therefore in this respect there is as much venome and mischiefe done against God in the least as in the greatest sinne And therefore it and whosoever commits it deserves death for it as if they had committed the foulest sinne in the world and therefore after the least and smallest infirmities you may from hence see what cause you have freely to be humbled and to confesse for them how worthy you are to be destroyed yea even to look upon your self as lying under the sentence of the Law and death immediately after the commission of them and so to mourne bitterly for them But you will say a Christian that is under the Covenant of grace is not within the Covenant of workes that Bond is cancelled the last will must stand and therefore he being out of that Covenant no sinnes of his can be said to breake the Covenant for no man can be said to breake that Law under which he is not and which he is not bound to keep I answer Every beleever hath a double being or standing and so there may be put upon him a double respect First he may be considered as united to and having a spirituall being on Christ and so it is true he is under grace and the Covenant of Grace and not under the Law nor the Covenant of workes and hence not being under the Law nor bound to keep it as a covenant of life though it be a rule of life no sinne can condemn him there being no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. But as Christ is above condemnation and law and death and curse so is he And this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians joy and peace and glory every day yet so as though sinne doth not condemne him yet he hath good reason to say it is mercy and meer mâ—rcy Lord that I am not consumed that I am condemned For sinne is the same nay grace and Gods love aggravates sinne for to sinne against the law deserves death without recovery but to sinne when grace hath received me and loved me when the blood of Christ hath bin shed abundantly to deliver me from sin Oh this makes the most secret silent sinne a crying one â— So that if you do consider this well you may see what little cause there is to have your heart rising against the deepest humiliation for the least sinne though you be in Christ and under grace For as Daniel when he was put into the Lions den had not he cause to wonder that he was not torne in pieces by them and why because it was not from any defect on their parts to teare him in pieces but from the omnipotent power and mercy and grace of his God that muzzell'd their mouths so though no Lion can teare though no sinnes can hurt or condemn a Christian as hee is considered in Christ yet hath noâ— he cause to confesse and wonder and say Lord it is thy meer grace and mercy that it is not so which is the act of humiliation you letter saith you can hardly come unto and why not because Gods grace puts any lesse evill in sinne but because it is meerely grace that keeps it from spitting that venome which otherwise it would Secondly A Christian may be considered in respect of his naturall being in himselfe and thus he is ever under the Law and as oft as hee sinneth under the sentence of death and as the Apostle speakes by nature even we justified quickned are the children of wrath as well as others And thus after the least involuntary accidentall siâ—ne you may easily see what cause you have to lie down deepely humbled mourning under the sentence of death and Gods eternall curse as a condemned man going to the execution to feel that fire that shall never go out looking upon your self as you are in your self a forlorn castaway every moment and this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians sorrow shame and confusion of face self-loathing self-forgetting selfâ—forsaking and condemning every day and believe it Sir it is no small piece of a Christians skill and work to put a difference
between himselfe and himself himselfe as he is in Christ and so to joy and triumph and himselfe as hee is growing on his first root and so to sorrow and loath and condemn himself so that to wiâ—de up all that I have said looke upon your selfe as in Christ you may say these involuntary infirmities do not shall not condemn me But Lord it is grace Grace that it is not so and this is Evangelicall humiliation Look again upon your self as you stand on your own bottom and live in your owne nature and so you may say after the least infirmity I have now broken a most holy and righteous Law and therefore I am already condemned O woe is me I have already undone my selfe by mine iniquity and this is Legall humiliation which serves for mortification as the first for vification I know it is very difficult to bring the heart to acknowledge freely it deserves death after so â—mall an involuntary offence but when the Lord reveales two things First himself in his glory Secondly how the least sinne strikes him I perswade my selfe the vilest heart cannot but be forced to confesse how just God should be in his severest proceedings against him And withall consider the more involuntary any sinne is the more strong and naturall it is and the more naturall the more horrible as to be a naturall Thief is farre worse then to be a deliberat thiefe who sometimes steales and therefore good Sir take heed of looking no deeper nor seeing no further then the bare act and unvoluntarinesse and accidentalnesse and suddennesse of your infirmities for if you do you look through the wrong end of the glasâ—e and they will appear so small that you will find it a very tough work to bring your heart consentively to say if I may say and use your owne phrase It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them but look upon them as indeed they are in respect of that infinite glory you strike doing the greatest mischiefes to God by them and which makes them the viler as they are so strong you cannot remove them and so horrible as that it is naturall to you to commit them c. And surely you will not through grace finde such thoughts haunt you long not but that they wil be haply rising and tempting but never allway vexing and prevailing Satans ground reaching as far as the minds of Gods people and therefore so farre he may come and there he may walke for the came into the minde of innocent Adam nay Iesus Christ by his suggesting temptations but the heart is Christs peculiar posâ—ession and purchase and if he shall still there offer to come in and vex you and prevail against you and to lodge his suggestions this or any other way with you you have Law and Christ on your side by this little light now given you to cast him out The third thing that troubles you is the disranking of the Persons in the Trinity for though you thinke the holy Ghost is God yet you have not so high a repute of him as of the Father and the Sonne because the Sonne addresseth himselfe to God the Father in all his prayers and acknowledgements in a more immediate manner then unto the holy Ghost and therefore you would know if the word Father as in the Lords Prayer includes not the Unity in Trinity To this briefly consider three things 1. Without all question the same God which lies under that relative property of Father is the same God with the God-head of the Sonne and the God-head of the holy Ghost there being not three Gods and therefore the God-head of the Sonne and Spirit are not excluded but included in the Godhead of the Father when we looke upon the Father as God in the Lords Prayer or anywhere else 2. But secondly the Father as Father is never taken for the same holy Ghost in Scripture nor the Sonne as Sonne is taken for the Father nor the holy Ghost as holy Ghost is at any time taken for the Sonne For it is a rule in Theologie though the res subsâ—rata the thing that lies under the Relative property viz. the God-head of every person be common and communicated yet the same God-head considered as clothed with his Relative property as Father Son and Spirit it is not common but peculiar For the God-head of the Father as Father is not the God-head of the Son as Son c. 3. Hence it followes that when Christ addreâ—seth himselfe to the Father as Father in Scripture it is not because he is either a diverse or greater God then the holy Ghost but it is for two other reasons 1. Because the Father as Father received primarily the wrong that sinne did against his worke of creation For the Father being the first Person in order and creation the first transient act as election and reprobation were the first immanent hence this worke is attributed chiefly to God the Father in respect of our orderly apprehension and hence man sinning then when he was onely made this is chiefly attributed to be against the Father because his worke appeared to be chiefly there and not against the Son for his worke chiefly appeares in redemption hee being the second Person and this the second main and wonderfull work neither against the holy Ghost for his worke chiefly appeares to us in application being the third Person And this the third main act that ever God will do or show forth to the world in this life hence God the Father receiving to our apprehension the wrong in creation by sinne he is the Person that is to be satisfied and not the holy Ghost And hence Jesus Christ in all his prayers hath a most speciall eye to him and not to the holy Ghost as holy Ghost because he came into the world by his death and intercession and strong cries to satisfie God the Father and not God the holy Ghost as a third Person And hence it is said 1 John 2. 1. 2. If any man sinne we have an Advocate with God the Father not God the holy Ghost because he was to our apprehension the Person wronged and hence we are after sins committed chiefly to eye the Father in our prayers and to go to him for pardon with our advocate with us because to whom offence is chiefly offered from â—im chiefly pardon and reconciliation is to be expected 2. Therefore Christ addresseth himselfe chiefly in his prayers to God the Father because hee is the originall and first cause of all good because he is the first Person in order of subsisting and therefore first too in the manner of conveying I know the God-head is the originall of all good but consider the Persons one with another and so the father is ever the first in operation as the holy Ghost is the last in consummation for all good comes from the Father Iames 1. 17. through the Sonne by the holy Ghost And hence
For as the Law begets terror so the promises beget Faith Now no conditionall promise firstly begets Faith because hee that is under any condition of the Gospel in that man there is a presupposed faith It s Gods absolute promise that firstly begets faith for faith is not assurance but the comming of the whole Soule to Christ in a promise Iohn 6. 35. And then the Soule believes in Christ when it comes to Christ now this God workes in the Gospel 1. The Soule is raised up by hope And being raised it Secondly comes to Christ which is faith by vehement unutterable desire And being come to him it 3. Embraceth Christ by love and thus the match is made and the everlasting knot is tied Now as you have heard the absolute promise workes hope of reliefe from Christ and if it workes hope it also workes a desire or comming to Christ by desire Oh! that thou Lord wouldst honour thy grace thy power thy love thy promise in helping me a poore cast-away And thus faith is created as it were by this absolute promise for it cannot but move the heart of any one that ever felt his want to cry mightily to the Lord for help if he hath any hope seeing the Lord hath promised to do it for some Oh saith the Soul that thou wouldst do it for me And surely were it not for this absolute promise of God no Soul would desire because he would have no hope to be saved or to seeke for any thing as from the hands of God And thus you see to what end God makes and to what use a Christian may put these absoluâ—e promises 2. For the second thing viz How and when a Christian may apply these promises I answer every Christian is either 1. Within Covenant with God and knowes it or 2. Within covenant with God and knows it not or 3. Out of covenant indeed for his present estate and condition yet he is in fieri or making towards it 1. If he be in Covenant and knowes it then you may easily perceive how and when he ought to apply promises unto himselfe for he may boldly conclude If God be his God then all the promises of God shall be made good unto him if he be a Sonne of God he may boldly challenge at all times at the hands of God nay if in some respects at the hands of Justice it selfe the fulfilling of God the Fathers will delivered in the severall Legacies of the promise bought by the blood and sealed by the same blood of Jesus Christ that they may and shall be made good unto him that is clear 2. Secondly If he be in covenant and knows it not and questions hence whether God is his or not and consequently whether the promises belong unto him then the rule is to be observed let him so sue and seeke for the good of the absolute promise untill by reflecting upon his own acts herein he perceive himselfe adorned and dignified with the qualification of some conditionall promise and then if he can finde the condition or qualification within himselfe then as you judge and write he may conclude that the conditionall promise belongs to him and if one promise then all Gods promises and therefore that absolute promises are his owne because at least one conditional promise is For no unregenerate man is within the compasse of any one conditionall promise of grace unlesse you will say he is under the everlasting love of God the promises of grace being but the mid-way between the eternall purpose and decree of love and the glorious certain execution of that love in time The promise being the breake day of Gods most glorious love which must shine out in time But here you will say is the difficulty viz. how I should to seeke for the good of absolute promises as therein to finde my self within the compasse of some conditionall one I answer It is done chiefly by three acts 1. By being humbly contented that seeing the Lord hath absolutely promised to work and doe all for the Soule he intends for to save even when it can doe nothing for it selfe and that he hath taken the worke into his owne hands so that it is his promise offer office and honour to doe all that therefore you lie downe not sluggishly but humbly at the feet of God and contented to have him to be your God and for ever to be disposed of in any thing by God if he will fulfill his covenant in you contented to part with any sinne if he will rend it from you contented to know any truth if he will reveale it to you contented to do any duty if he will enable you contented to shine bright with all his glorious graces if he will create and maintaine them in you contented to beare any evill if he will lay his hand under your head and thereunto strengthen you and so seeing the Lord promised to undertake the work for some put out the work and put over your Soule to him that he would fulfill the good that his covenant promiseth in your selfe Now when you do thus which no question you and many a Soul doth many times reflect upon this act and see if you cannot or may not finde your selfe by it under the condition of some conditionall promise and if you do then are you bound to believe all Gods promises are and will be Yea and Amen unto you Now that you do so by this act it selfe speake â—ainely for how many conditionall promises 〈◊〉 made to the meek Blessed are the meek Mat. 5. and to the humâ—ble whom god will raise up For this is not saving meekenesse to be quietly contented to be or to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me from mine owne strength and feeling but to be to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me if the Lord enable me Many a stout heart would gladly have Christ but if he cannot have him in his owne termes viz. Christ and his lusts Christ and the world too or by his owne strength and power he will have none of him but desperately casts him away and saith what shall I looke after him any more I cannot pray I cannot believe I cannot breake this vile and unruly will this stony adamant heart thus the pride of a mans heart workes Now he that is truly meekned and humbled he is contented gladly to have God his God and Christ his Redeemer and that upon Jesus Christ his owne termes First on his owne covenant now what is that why it is this I will give you the good and worke in you the condition too I will give you my selfe and therefore will not sticke to give you an eye to see and a heart to receive too This is the covenant now hereupon a humbled Soul accepts of Christ according to his covenant on his owne termes thus viz. upon that condition Lord that thou wilt humble me teach me
perswade me cause me to believe and in every thing to honour thee Lord I am contented gladly and joyfully to have thee doe therefore what thou wilt with me Just as a sicke man tells his Physician who comes not to him on thesetermes If you will make your self halfe whole then I will cure you and doe the rest for you but being utterly unable to cure or to know how to cure himselfe he tells his Physician I am content you should begin and perfect the cure and so honour your skill and love in me to be contented to take any thing if you will give it me and if I offer to resist that you should bind me and so do any thing with me 2. The second act is earnestly to long and come to Christ to cleave unto Jesus Christ by servent and ardent desire that he would make good those absolute promises to you seeing that they are made to some and that they doe not exclude you for when you ponder well and see what wonderfull great things the Lord promiseth to some whose heart cannot but be stirred up to say as that woman in another case Lord give me of that watè◠to drinke and as they in the fifth of John Lord evermore give us that bread Now doing this reflect upon this Second act and see if unto it no conditionall promise belongs and you shall find an affirmative answer from the word For what is this longing after the good not of some which many hypocrites do but of all the promises but that which the Scripture calls thirsting who are commanded to come and drink of the waters of life freely Isa. 55. 1 2. and hungring to which all good things are promised Mat. 5. 6. and which comming to Christ as I spake even now who hath given this as the â—irst fruit of eternall election and which kind of people he will never cast away Iohn 6. 37. Now when you see these promises belonging unto you why dare you not conclude but that all these absolute ones are yours also 3. The third act is this Seeing God hath promised absolutely such good things in the Second Covenant but hath not set downe the time when or how much grace he will give and seeing onely he can helpe therefore looke up and waite upon the Lord in the use of all knowne meanes untill he makes good what he hath promised to do and performe and worke for you Say as beggars that have but one doore to go to for bread if none heare or hearing help not lay themselves downe at the doore and say I will wait here I am sure I perish if I goe away or quarrell with them in the house because they helpe me not so soon as I would and therefore I will waite for it may be their compassions may move them as they passe by to helpe me So doe you Many a Soul comes and longs for the good of the promises but if the Lord doe not speedily help him he goes with discouragements fears and discontents or despair or sinne away and saith one of these two things either I shall never have helpe or I come not truly and hence I feel no helpe Oh remember that bread is only to be had at the doore to be distributed when the Lord seeth need not when we would or thinke wee have need and therefore wait here and say if I perish here I will at the feet of God and at the feet of the promises and covenant of God c. Now reflect upon this act and see if you may not finde some conditionall promise annexed unto it which surely you may and I will name you but two Isa. 40. 29 30 31. and Isa. 64. 4. and if the conditionall promise belongs to such a Soul you may easily conclude the absolute promises are your owne and the chiefest use you are to make of them when you know them that they are your owne is to presse God to make them good daily to you and to believe as verily and really as if you had the performance of them that they shall It may be you will aske me how shall I know whether I have these conditions truly in me I answer sincerity is a very witnessing grace the frequent meditation of the Scripture will give you much light to judge of the sincerity of them and that which Saint Paul speakes 1 Cor. 2. 12. I say unto you We have not received the spirit of the World but of God wherby we know or may know the things that are freely given to us of God 3. Thirdly If he be out of the covenant but yet God begins to worke with some common worke of his grace upon him all that I would say to him and all the use he can make of such absolute promises consists in these things 1. Let him consider the freenesâ—e of Gods promise whereby he may be stirred up to conceive some hope it may be made good to him in time For the promise is very free and large excluding none except those that sin unpardonably be their sinnes and natures never so vile before God and yet not including any by name for that is in the conditionall promise and hence such an one is to make this use of it who knowes but the Lord may have pitty upon me in time and so hang thy hope upon him 2. Let him consider the worth and price of Gods promise bought by blood and for which some men would give a thousand worlds for the benefit and comfort of and hereby raise up his heart as by the freenesse of it to hope so by the price of it to esteem of the thing promised above pearls and all the honour and pomp of the world 3. Let him consider the fulnesse of the promise which is a plaister as big as his sore just answerable to all his wants nay infinitely more large then his wants And surely these three things will draw his heart to long for the promise and then you know what is conditionally promised and bequeathed to them that thirst For similitude is the ground of love Now when the fulnesse of the promise is seen there will appeare such a suteablenesse and fitnesse of the promise to his soule that hee cannot but long for it Thus much for the fifth trouble Your sixth trouble set downe in two heads put into one for brevity viz. secret unwillingnesse to seeke God in the strictest solâ—mn services before you enter into them wearinesse of them while they last and glad when they are gone the reasons which you mention are partly feare of not using them aright together with melancholy and lastly the strictnesse of them It is very true there is abundance of wildnesse in our hearts which naturally seeke to have their liberty abroad and cannot endure to be pent in the narrow room of holy performances extraordinary duties c. no more then children can be pent up from their play And hence it is weary of them
and glad to think of their depaâ—tures and ends And truly it is one of the most grievous miseries that a holy heart can feel and I beseech the Lord of heaven and earth to keepe you and me and all his for ever while wee are here in our valley under the sense of such distempers as our greatest misery And therefore me thought it was a solemn sweet speech of an honest man to his friend who seeing him oppressed with such distempers as you mention and perceiving him to droop under them hee came chearefully to him and suddenly said unto him I can tell you good newes the best that ever you heard viz. Assoon as ever you are in Heaven you shall serve Christ without wearinesse Which words well thought on revived the man That which I would speak with as much tendernesse of compassion as I am able to you I refer to these things 1. That a child of God is never usually weary of the â—uty but rather of his vile heart to thinke of and to looke upon that in the duty Christs yoke is easie and his burthen light to him that takes it on his necke and puts his Soul under it The duty nakedly considered in it selfe is glorious in his eyes and sweet to his Soule and hence sometimes never well but when he considers his dead blinde barren and senselesse heart that he is to carry to the duty and that he feares and hath felt will abide with him in the duty Oh! this grieves here the Soule pincheth An Hypocrite is weary of the duty a childe of God rejoyceth in it but hee is weary of his sinne and unsavourinesse and wearinesse in the duty I perswade my selfe Sir that you may soone mistake your spirit herein you thinke you are unwilling to come to the duty and are weary of it when indeed it is your glory joy and love but it is because you feare you can doe it no better that troubles you that you have such a vile heart in it And if your trouble be from hence the good Lord increase it in you daily and withall blesse the Lord and say Lord though I am weary of my vile heart in these daies of humiliation in these Sabbaths yet I blesse thee the daies and duties themselves thou knowest are deare unto me It is not Lord because I am weary of thy word but because I can doe it no better I am weary of my selfe and this vile heart here is much love in such a spirit to the Lord And believe it Sir your love wants not its recompences and remember that the Lord respects you not according to your duties done but according to your love in them and to them And therefore those duties you are ashamed to owne the Lord will not be ashamed to crown 2. Consider you must and shall be baited with these distempers of heart sometimes more and sometimes lesse as long as you live It is part of Pauls body of death which hee must carry with him till he come to bury himselfe 3. Those means which may helpe you to be freed from them a little at least are these among many 1. Be but truly and really not by fits and darkly sensible of them men in deep miseries are not unwilling to be helped out 2. Judge ye not rigorously of God although he weâ—e a bloody austere God as he did of his master whose talent he had and hence never improved it but looke upon God as having a Fathers heart and affection towards you in the meanest and greatest performances which is double either to give you strength to do what you cannot I can do all things through Christ or having come to him for it to accept of what you would do for him as if it were done and this will make you joy in the poorest performance that though it be never so full of vilenesse yet the Lord out of his fatherly love accepts of it as glorious 3. Renew morning and evening by sad and solemne meditation the sense of Gods love to you in Christ and in every duty that he sets you about and love will love and like the yoke and make the commandements that they shall not be grievous to you Thus I have briefly done with your new troubles which you mention you say because you may not have the like opportunity of writing again It may be so and therefore I have desired to satisfie you which I beseech the Lord himself to do Next you come to reply to my first Letter of which I have kept no copy as I never did of any and hence may and doe forget what I writ then unto you So much light as your Letter lends me to bring things to mind I will gladly take and be more briefe in answer You finde the strength of grace to be got in you rather by argumentation then inward communication and influence arising from the union to Christ And this troubles you To which I answer these three things 1. That as the old sinnefull nature is communicated from Adam the first to us without any argumentation so the new nature which is the seed foundation and plot of all grace is diffused into us by the second Adam when we are united to him without argumentation It is onely by divine operation The Lord leave not me nor any friend I have to a naked Arminian illumination and perswasion 2. That to the increase of those habits and drawing out the acts of the new creature the Lord is pleased to use morall and rationall perswasions as in the instance you gave Christ died for us then hence the love of Christ constraines but remember withall It is not the bare meditation or strength of reason or perswasion that elicits such divine and noble acts in the heart and affection but it is the blood of Christ sprinkling these serious meditations that makes them worke such graces in the Soule which I might shew at large which blood is the salve though argumentation is the cloth or leather to which it sticks and by which it is applied but from such leather comes no vertue all of it is from the blood of christ which by argumentation heales the Soule For if it were nakedly in the argumentation to stir your heart and to worke strength of grace what should be the reason that some times you are no more moved by all your argumentations then a mountaine of brasse is by the windes why should the same truth affect you at one time and not at another when you are as fitly dispoto be affected as at the first Therefore consider it is not your reason and argumentation but Christs blood that doth all by as admirable and yet secret operation 3. Your union to Christ on your part is begun and partly wrought by the understanding and hence the good that you get by it at any time it is from your union or part of it at lest Againe you aske me whether Calvin doth not
feare them nor condemn your selfe for them as damning sinnes For satisfaction of which I hope this reply to your second trouble will give you some satisfaction Againe to your fourth question to know whether these changes you have sometimes and these movings of the Spirit are not of naturall temper or Gods Spirit It seemes I did a little mistake the meaning because you meant not the maine worke of grace but occasional stirrings and movings of heart as by reading some paâ—heticall Letter your Spirit is moved with joy or sorrow which it may be will not be stirred at some other time as by drinking a cup of wine the spirit is made more chearfull and lively c. I answer these three things 1. First That it is very usuall for naturall affections to be raised by a naturall temper as by drinking eating noveltinesse of the Gospel Iohn's candle flies were ravished with the Gospel People are naturally moved sometimes by a thundering Minister yet never a whit the more grace c. and it is a good speech of Doctor Ames Arminian universall grace as they describe it may be the effect of a good dinner sometimes 2. That though the being of grace depends not upon the temper of the body yet the exercise of grace and many gifts of grace together with the feeling of it doth And hence a good dinner and sometimes wine to a sad melancholy if gracious heart may remove rem prohibentem that may keepe grace as joy and thankefullnesse from working and so take the grace and draw it out not create and diffuse the grace The Prophet called you know for a Minstril which some thinke and that upon good grounds was to raise up his heavy heart and make him chearfull and fit to speake the body is the instrument which if it be broken the best grace will hardly sound but if whole then they will 3. If you would know when these things onely draw out grace or make a thing like unâ—o grace in the Soul I answer by these two things chiefly 1. If it be true grace it ever makes you more humble and vile in your owne eyes and say Lord why dost thou give me any desire to thee any cheerfulnesse in serving thee c. 2. It makes you more thankefull and to blesse the Lord that he thus remembers you for this is a standing rule what ever comes from nature and a mans selfe it ever builds up it selfe and returnes to selfe againe what ever grace comes from Christ it drives a man out of himselfe by making him humble and draws him unto Christ that sent him by making him thankfull I thinke all grace and stirrings and movings that have not this double effect in some measure are to be suspected and if they have it is dangerous to doubt whether they are true or no 5. Again Your â—ifth thing about providence you say you cannot see a positive providence although you do see a negative providence in all your occasions and comforts and crosses you meet withall as namely you can thanke God for not taking away your life c. but you cannot see God giving it I answer 1. Consider what I writ to you at first about this question in generall 2. Ponder sadly whether any creature or appurtenance to it hath its being from it selfe or from the will and word of God viz. I will have such a man to be and such a memory to be c. I thinke you will say nothing can make it selfe therefore here is a positive providence in having life liberty c. 3. Consider whether the same will and word that gives it a being together with all the appurtenances to it doth not also give it act and motion That it is so I thus demonstrate it 1. Every creature is made for an end for no wise efficient but workes for some wise end 2. That no creature can lead it selfe to its end if sinnefull or irrationall 3. God must and doth lead it by its severall acts and movings to that end Hence 4. Every act is determined by God And although I grant some creatures move freely some necessarily yet it is from a positive will and providence that they move act and see Therefore you see what cause there is to see a positive providence in every thing Concerning the rest of your letter Oh that I had time and heart to write more yet I hope I have writ enough for this time and the Lord knowes whether evermore or no However I thanke you heartily for improving me this way of writing who have my mouth slopt from speaking I wish I had more such friends to deale thus with me and my selfe more time and a more fruitfull head and heart to improve my selfe this or any other like way for them For who knowes what breathings of Gods Spirit are lost for want of writing especially when there is no season of speaking Truly Sir I meet with few that are much troubled in that manner as your selfe but they goe on in an easie quiet and very dangerous way which troubles I perswade my selfe keep you awaking when other virgins are slumbring and after which I am perswaded the Lord intends to use you for more then common service if you wade well through them however as I said before be not discouraged or too much perplexed in sorrow for them For surely as farre as I can guesse the Lord is preparing you for himselfe by them I shall not forget you though I never saw you and I beseech you if you have any sparke of affection toward me kindled by these few lines remember when you are best able to pray for your selfe to remember to looke after me and mine and all that go with me on the mighty waters and then to looke up and sigh to Heaven for me that the Lord would out of his free grace but bring me to that good land and those glorious Ordinances and that there I may but behold the face of the Lord in his Temple though hee never delight to use me there though I and mine should possibly beg there and that if the Lord should call me to my solemne worke and service for the good of his Church and People and company that goe with me or are gone before me that then the â—ord Jesus would reveale his secrets to me and enable me the little time I have to live to befâ—uitfull to him and to have a larger heart then ever for him As for your selfe I shall desire the Lord to keep you blamelesse and unspotted in an evill world and that as he hath begun so he would perfect and crowne his divine graces and worke in you and that you may be preserved from nationall sins which shortly bring National and most heavy plagues And the presence of the Lord may abide with you and in you untill the Lord call for you Remember my kinde love to your Father whose name I have forgot and by whom I could not send these lines being then hindred by businesse Now the peace of Jesus Christ be with you and keepe you upright and blamelesse till death And if I never see you more till the last and great day then Farewell Farewel Yours in Iesus Christ T. S. Mr. Shepherd of New-England Two things to be considered about motionâ— How to try the motions of Gods Spirit 2 Meanes Quest 2. Answ. Object Answ. Answ. Quest 3. Answ. Quest 4. Answ. Quest 5. Answ. How to apply absolute promises Object Quest Answ. Quest 1. Answ. Quest 2. Answ. Quest 3. Answ. Object Answ. Answ. 2. Quest 4. Answ. Answ. 1.