to the use And first it might be instruction and admonition to such of us as goe for the forwardest Christians Use 1. of Instruct Instruction first to teach us to adore the wisedome of our God in the administration of the times in which we live in The word seemes to have done working upon the consciences of the most few are gastred by the terrors thereof few sustained by the promises few are sensible active watchfull walkers I doubt not but God hath his jewells in corners his secret ones whose hearts and waies lye close to him in these degenerate times But for the body of hearers either to bee converted or in appearance converted already strange it is what a numbe palsey what a Laodicean temper of indifference ease and selfe-love hath covered us over scarce one in a long time gastred out of his neast of forme or profanenesse and such as are keepe their consciences at such loose termes that few can discerne them to be under the Banner or authority of any Soveraigne Now what doth the Lord Surely he is faine to lay men upon the bayard and to afflict them with one yoke or other either personall or generall straights Selfe-love hath over-growne all that except God stept out of his ordinary path of speaking to doing and did cause each face to waxe pale and each hand to be on the pained plat some by poverty others by debt or imprisonment or losses or reproach or pursuite of enemies malicious tongues unreasonable men desperate unfaithfulnesse treachery and injuriousnesse of such as they live with Sure it is the word would worke but little upon us Even the wise Virgines are all fallen asleep with the rest Matth. 25. How should the Lord search us what conscience truth and sincerity lyes at the bottome Surely now if ever we should rouze our selves and say the Philistins are upon thee Samson Judges 16.22 When the power and purenesse of worship when the substance and matter of religion growes questioned when men teach professe and walke so as if any profession would serve their turne yea many such as have seemed most zealous sincere and faithfull waxe cold maintainers of disorder in their places live in contention and jealousie with the best plucke in their former hornes of forwardnesse others play the Time-servers and leave God to shift for himselfe saying now see to thine owne house David Is it not time for the Lord to come with his sharpe triall among us to search what is in us To gaster the consciences of some who were never awakened by some outward straights hardnesse to live banqueruptnesse and ruine of estate beggery and misery others by searching trialls and extremities that either they must carry their lives and states gifts and hopes in their bosomes ready to let out or else they must prostitute their consciences to sinne and treachery yes surely or else he knowes if we might be let alone we would grow to the formality softnesse security commons and fulsomenesse of others who have no sparke of grace in them But now perhaps being searcht to the quicke and put to it we dare not for shame lay our names at the stake of perpetuall reproach by giving God quite over now perhaps we will shake our selves and say shall such an one as I betray God shall I pollute his worship shall I defile that truth which I have received incorrupt from others shall I helpe to destroy Gods lawe deface the power of goodnesse sort my selfe with such as are enemies separate my selfe from my brethren No sure I wish I had looked to it sooner yet better late then never At last I will give witnesse to God to his truth honor servants Sabbaths I will no longer give aime to the religion of these times their saplesse dead and powerlesse profession my soule loathes it I long to reprove and confute all Popish Pelagian superstitious and formall religion and therefore let parts let ease let liberty preferment honor gifts outward prosperity goe where they will my darling I will not lose I will not bite off that precious stone for which I am hunted and cast it to the hounds to save my life But I am resolved through mercy to my uttermost to justifie the power of truth both in my judgement and practice Oh it is the wisedome of God to send such straights and snares among us for the discovery of hypocrites and base counterfeits and for the exercise of that secret grace in his owne which else through ease and selfe-love would rust and cankerfret Vse 2 Secondly let it teach us to lay it sadly to heart that God is so crossed of his purpose both in generall and speciall by such as abuse his judgements and terrors in the world Admonition Lay to heart the little humiliation of the land under publique straights I will more sparily touch forraine nations and Churches French Dutch or other yet let it not passe us without notice that after all these hurliburlies and havocks of warre of persecution of famines pestilences and such miseries as scarce in any age have beene heard of the hearts of those nations remaine still as secure profane contemptuous of God blasphemous drunken contentious yea in the midst of their late victories so regardlesse of Gods honor either in abandoning Papists and Popery or in setling power and purity of worship but still as desperate the Ministery as saplesse and the people as fruitlesse as ever Oh how just were it with God for these evills to turne the wheele backe and to suffer Papists and heresie to encroach againe and make their second bondage as much deeper then the former as the loines are greater then the little fingers yea as their latter evills and abuse of Gods providence have exceeded the former But to leave them and come to our selves how doe we at home generally beare off all Gods straights and pressures with head and shoulders No man laying to heart any thing but as Esay 64. saith No man seekes after the Lord nor stirres up himselfe to lay hold upon him All lick themselves whole with false tongues every man taking thought how to save one Esay 64.6.7 none understanding the Lord in his way what he should meane by his wasting us by plagues consuming our people with poverty destroying our foules with cleannesse of teeth depriving us of the lives and labours and worthy services of so many Ministers Nobles Warriours good Governours and Christian professors of his truth few consider the scope of God in these differences that are between Prince and Subject Subject and Subject Complaints are in all mens mouthes sorrowes upon all states But whereas the Lords scope is hereby rather to unite all the Nation against the common adversary to draw all to an holy consent in seeking mercie for the Church and agreement between divided parties that by a generall humiliation and preparing to meet the Lord we might prevent ruine Alas when was there more powring out of
washing in Jorden The third gerall The third and last point out of this verse I will propound by answering a question briefly Object arising out of the former doctrine For it may bee demanded seeing that not the waters themselves were the cause of effecting this cure upon Naaman but the power of God onely in and by them To what end did the Prophet so presse upon him the washing in Jorden and why had it been so heynous a contempt for him to have neglected this charge Answ Why God useth outward means to convey grace viz. To stop mans devices The answer is double First in respect of the necessary concurrence of the water to the instrumentalnes of Gods working Secondly in respect of a signe or ratification of the promise in the heart of Naaman To open both these in a word For the former it is alway the course of God to worke by meanes and instruments sensible and bodily when hee hath to doe with us men of a bodily and sensible nature As in the duty of prayer though the worke thereof is properly spirituall and holy and the Lord can tell our hearts as well as our tongues yet it is his will that we offer it up by the instrument of outward speech orderly set sensible Take unto you words say Hosea 13.2 receive us graciously So though the power of regeneration stand not in speech but in the Holy Ghost yet the Lord will not so worke immediately but by the ministery of man to man hee hath ordained to convey his spirit into the heart And the reason is plain for else what a door should be set open to the fantasticall spirit of man to vent his owne speculations and conceits without any warrant from God Who would not frame to himselfe revelations of the Spirit and devise new inventions of serving God How doe Anabaptists boast of their owne fancies How doe they despise the ordinary calling of Ministers and preaching and thrust forth themselves by the instinct of their owne spirit as if they were some great persons How do Papists devise new worships as that Masse of theirs which is nothing else save a masse of many ingredients added by sundry of their Popes or masters of ceremonies and those many Sacraments of theirs whereof not one print of Gods appointing appeares in all the Scriptures If this be done by them against the expresse will of God what would they have attempted if they had been left unto themselves How infinite would they then have been Therfore the Lord wil have all that look for any worke of his Spirit to attend the means closely and reverently and only by through them to expect for blessing If God please to unite his grace only to them ordinarily may it not well beseeme us to tye our attendance and observation of his power in and by them This is one cause why the Lord would not extraordinarily convey himselfe to the Eunuch to Cornelius Acts 8. Acts 10. Acts 9. to Saul at Damascus save by the intermediall instruments of Peter Philip and Ananias our spirit is alway in our extremities for either wee runne to our fancies conceits sloath and ease contemning the meanes or else when meanes must be used we fall to idolize them both which the holy Ghost abhorres Another reason is in respect of Naaman himselfe who was a novice Reason 2 It was the will of God to heale him by faith in a promise Why are signes sacraments used by the Lord for the effecting of spirituall things viz. to assure our weak faith Now because that was a difficult object for him to settle upon the Lord appoints him this outward and reall signe of the waters to prop up his faith by and to settle his inner spirit by the externall sense As if he should say Goe thy wayes I will heale thy leprosie beleeve me and if that be unlikely to thee loe I give thee a signe even the waters of Jorden that as verily as thou shalt drench thy selfe therein so verily will I by my spirit heale thee Occupy thy selfe in obeying of me and loe I will be present with thee to put thy weake heart out of doubt concerning thy cure This was alway the course which the Lord tooke with his old Church whensoever he promised any blessing or deliverance unto them Judg. 6. 7. 8. Thus Gedeâ—n a man inexpert in warre was faine to be strengthned by the fleece both dry and wet and by the dreame of a barley loafe by one of the Midianites yea the Lord never revealed any purpose of his to the Prophets concerning either the publique or any special person but he strengthned it by some outward signe suting the thing and affecting the sense Thus when the Lord meant to rend tenne Tribes from Rehoboam and give them to Ieroboam 2 King 12. Ahijah the Prophet is sent to teare his garment into twelve pieces and to give him tenne and keepe two A very reall resemblance And that young Prophet to strengthen his denunciation against the same Ieroboam Cap. 13. and his idoll at Bethel told him two signes one present viz. the falling out of the ashes from the broken Altar of sacrifice the other to come Iosiahs poluting those high places by burning the bones of the Priests upon them So Esay strengthens Hezekia in the newes of his recovery Esay 37. by that famous signe of the Sunnes going backe tenne degrees And so when Ahaz refused the signe Esay 8. the Prophet gave the Church one touching the deliverance from Rezin to wit the conceiving of a Virgin some two or three hundreds of yeares after even with a sonne whoâ—e name should be Emanuel Infinite it were to speake of Ezekiels bricke pourtraying the siege of Jerusalem the hole in the wall by which he convayed away his stuffe Ieremies basket of figges the best and worst that could be eaten to describe the difference betweene the Jewes in Babel and the rebels at Jerusalem The like was Agabus his taking Pauls girdle and the very false Prophets Zidkijah and Hananiah affected the like course in their hornes and yokes Even so the Lord did teach his people by many bodily ceremonies cleansing of leprosie by the Priest and washing by outward sacrifices and the like And by those many resemblances of the blood of the Paschall Lamb sprinkled and the flesh of it eaten as also by Manna the Rocke gushing forth with water Also by the cutting off the foreskin of the male he made the Lord Jesus and the power of his death and crosse to bee knowne sacramentally although but darkly in his Church And now under the New Testament although the worship be more spirituall Sacraments excell common signes yet the course is the same True it is Sacraments exceed signes in their efficacy yet agree with them in this generall kinde of outward signifying or strengthning the soule by signes For what else doth the Lord
and despised yet he shall be precious who can heale him he will not starve for lacke of plate or silver to eat or drinke out of but he will stoop to any Physitian as Naaman here did And to conclude he is now meet Reason 11 to accept of a remedy upon the termes of his Physitian which though Naaman was not yet because not tawed throughly yet he is in preparation to it He is content upon any conditions to have ease to renounce his owne mony and price as Naaman to accept it of free gift to be as bare and beggarly as if he had not one brasse farthing and to make his best requitall to be only this a free acknowledgement of the meere naked entire and superabundant bounty of love and good will in him who cured him I say when a man is throughly begirt and put to it the Lord workes thus by it as by this example I confesse where the soule is but in halfe a distresse Exception Straights make hypocrites but to counterfeit while they are on the racke or in a straight without God attending it with the spirit of grace there is no other worke effected save violent and constrained which comes to nothing for the soule under a pressure is like a man on the racke who to avoide the paine will say any thing though it be a lye But when the feare is over then they returne to their old byas againe Examples whereof we have of all sorts Pharoah by name and the Israelites For the former during those ten plagues oppressing him and his people what promises would he not make how did he tremble and send for Moses Exod. 6.7 8 9. cap. and resolve to dismisse Israel but no sooner was he at liberty but he hardned his heart worse and would not suffer them to goe Touching the latter the booke of Judges is a sufficient witnesse while they were under cruell Lords who vexed them how importunate were they time after time to be delivered what humiliations did they professe Judge 10. end with 11.1 c. and shewes of repentance and no doubt selfe meant as it spake but the heart being still it selfe deceived it selfe and mocked God and being rid of the straight became worse Idolaters then before Oh what will not the deepe deceitfull heart pretend for her owne ends Simile They say the Fox being in a snare will gnaw off her leg to quit her selfe of the perill and goe upon three legges so the vile heart will doe any thing for the present that so after she may enjoy her selfe either wholly or in part But if the Lord himselfe make the yoke of set purpose to catch a wilde wretched sinner and stop him in his course that he might turne him home not only the straight but the word also shall worke upon conscience aswell as the outward man and whatsoever the lets are as subtilty pride rebellion the Lord will conquer and subdue them to the obedience of faith Explication of the point To open this a little conceive it thus It is with the spirituall man enlightned as with the carnall A corrupt appetite alway seekes to it selfe some object of false happinesse Some compting knowledge to bee an happinesse seeke that others honor and preferment others their ease and welfare others jollity and the pride of life others reputation and name among men others long life and prosperity If they attaine their desires they are pitcht as they would be and enjoy happinesse in their attainements But if God crosse them of their intents as for example if he deny the first capacity and ability of parts to compasse his aimes if he defeat another by denying them promotion and preferring others if he crosse a third with the losse of health and perfect sences that he tastes no pleasure in his games and pastimes or old age removes him for them if a fourth bee followed with the disdaine and ill opinion of the multitude if a fifth be afflicted with diseases and be in perill of death alas what is their life worth being robbed of their whelpes their life is but wearisome they are at a set joylesse and out of heart As a mizer having lost his treasure or an ambitious favorit out of his Princes favor are like Nabals their hearts dye like a stone in them Onely by this they can helpe themselves that as it was their misery to chuse such base objects so it is their subtilty when they are defeated of the one they turne to another As if learning faile then runne to preferment if that faile to ease to pleasure to mony or the like and all because the soule loaths a straight So is it with him who is enlightned and convinced in conscience When once the Lord by his law or terrors convicts a man that although he attaine whatsoever his heart desires yet he hath gotten but a fading Paradise hee hath no more then an hel-hound may have he hath nothing which can quiet the appetite of the soule which is immortall I say when such a light comes into the soule telling him the misery of all he hath and the happinesse of a man that hath that which he wants Christ and pardon grace heaven how can it be but such a man lying thus convinced must needs be as a man stabd slaine bereft of all his fooles Paradise at once But if such anone hearing of a better happinesse will play the hypocrite dissemble a kinde of religion make himselfe demure and holy precise and zealous in the worship of God and yet still hold his former erronious happinesse coloured over with some devotion destitute of any better principle to settle upon what is this but to get out of his pressure by a false indirect way and so deprive himselfe of the true end of his conviction which is to cast out his old principle and bottome himselfe upon an new But to what tends all this The summe of all is that a straight and pressure when the Lord is the maker of it and the holder of it on is a speciall meanes to pul down the heart before God to force it to seek conditions of peace upon Gods owne termes be they never so difficult and that to avoide a greater incombrance For why The Lord is able by this meane not only to subdue corrupt selfe by his law but also religious selfe erronious and deluded selfe by his Gospell and so to translate the soule meerely from a false bottome to a sound whatsoever it cost him But where the Lord and the Spirit of the Word attends not such straights although in an extremity the heart is beset and straighted yet afterward it will slip the collar and in the meane time will use all trickes and shifts as the poore creature hard hunted and in danger to avoide the trouble yea it will turne it selfe into a thousand guises and devices rather then leave her old trade and cleave to a promise I come
and no wisedome would charme his folly So Hezekiah 2 Chron 32.25 after the like recovery of the plague and promise of humble carriage yet instantly bubbles up againe upon the comming of the Embassadours If this be done by the greene tree what is to be looked for in the dry What wonder then if Naaman may so ill be trusted with a cure at first under hope of humbling afterward No the Lord will hold him while he hath him and treads upon his heele still with new affronts to keep him at that bay till hee have throughly cast out his scurfe God makes cleare way before him It is the Lords course to doe his worke substantially and throughly hee will not sustaine any dishonour in his owne that he hath built them by halfes As for hypocrites they flye before they are halfe feathered and can doe him no discredit Hence it is that the Lord hath been faine to prolong affliction and abasement upon his servants that others beholding them might suspect themselves It might seeme else a superfluous thing to adde water to the sea and so long crosses to Iob a man already truly humble and fearing God But Job 1.1 1 Tim. 1.16 as Paul speakes of Gods grace towards him that it was for the example of more then himselfe so was Iobs humbling a paterne for all men to behold their owne base heart in this kinde and what an hidden depth of scurfe is in the chinkes and corners of it Verily in these dayes he or she may be as wonders and strange sights who walk duly in the sense of past and present corruption before God with humblenesse and privitie to themselves As the sive holds water while it is in the water Simile and no longer so doth our proud heart stoop while the yoke is upon us But few subdue their hearts to this safe demeanure daily That if another man should come and tell them Friend me thinkes your spirit is very light and inconstant not swayed to humblenesse 2 Kings 2. he might answere with Elisha I know it hold your peace for I blesse God I am under the aw of Gods greatnesse and my base heart is ever before me Psal 51. I walke continually in a jealousie of my proud and fickle spirit in this kinde Word workes little without afflictions in our times How few are there now-a-dayes cast downe by the Word alone without some powerfull addition of afflictions to set the Word on working When the Lord hath cut the veines and let out some ranke bloud by the Law how is he faine to set men in an hot bath of some other crosse to keep these veines in bleeding So that except God keep us very low and bare so ranke we are that we fall into a Pleurifie againe instantly Use of the point The use we should make of this branch is briefly this First that wee walke heavily under this body of death in us Counting the same our heavie burden mourning bitterly that our base spirits should be so weary of Gods yoke so light so frothy and inconstant Oh should wee say who hath more cause to walke humbly before God every houre then I being guilty of so many rebellions so deep-died of so long continuance hardly washt out so canker-fretted and yet Lord help me my teares are as the morning dew my spirit more fethery and giddy then any mans So prone to relapse to my old humours and to forget the sorrow which my sinnes cost me and all the vowes of humblesse and a broken hearted carriage Walke heavily under the misery of a slight giddy heart Truely this disease causeth a good soule to walke uncomfortably and the very best graces of God to affoord lesse savour and comfort And secondly it should teach us all especially Gods Ministers not to be over-forward to rest secure of our childrens estate or of others who at first gave good hope of true humiliation under the Law Charity is good let us charitably hope the best of all But yet let us eate some salt with them and wait some time to see what fruits will come of it whether they wax not weary Heb. 12.7 1 Tim. 5.11 Heb. 12. of Gods chastening and like those widowes who waxed wanton against Christ and weary of Church-service returning to their old vanities But yet too much credulity not meet for Gods people being dead while they were alive Particularly observe whether the Law be as welcome to them still as at first how they brook the discipline of such a School-master that they might get downe their base hearts and keep them under Mark them whether the pride of their spirit opinion of themselves jollity of the world warmth of their owne feathers and pride of life cause them not to forget their former humblings as if now they had learned a new lesson to bee lesse precise and more wise If we see such stuffe in them wee shall have little cause to repent that we suspected their beginnings And lastly for our selves count we it the onely safe estate that which promiseth soundest comfort most peace best safety and sweetest feelings of Christ when our hearts are kept within the bounds of feare and humility and awfulnesse And desire the Lord not to trust us over farre nor leave us long without some wholesome Items and buffetings rather then we should wax loose and run out of his blessing into our owne warme Sunne Blessed is hee that feareth alway and if God crosseth him not crosseth himselfe And so much also for this third branch and this first observation Now I come to the second the Message is Wash seven times in Iordan The second â—bservation out of this tenth verse and thou shalâ— be cleane Touching these words as they contain a charge and a promise annexed I shall speake more at large when I come to handle Naamans obedience in the verses following Here I onely touch a point or two generally flowing from the words and first the meane which God appointed him to use for his cure to wit the washing seven times in Jordan Ere I come to this point a Papist or Master of superstition would here make a stop as a traveller at a crosse in the high way and pick out a mystery out of the number of seven Why seven times saith a Papist Quest and not twice or five times There is surely some religion in this period and some mystery to be observed in it I answer Answ I know none except perhaps the Lord would have Naaman acquainted with the ceremonies of the lepers clensings Levit. 14.8 c. which yet I dare not affirm for then he might have sent him rather to the Priest at Jerusalem then to an extraordinary Prophet raised up in the absence of the ordinary Priest which now was expelled from the ten Tribes Therefore rather I answer That so it pleased the Lord to have it See 2 Cro. 16.3.4
no reason be given how a workeman could atchieve it or perfect it where say they are his tooles his leavers his hammers for the nonce Neither meane I the carnall reason of prophane Esau's and libertines whose belly backe pride and ease of the flesh wholly sway them and who have dashed out that dimme light of morall or naturall notions left in our decayed nature through the prevailing of their lusts Even professors of Râ—ligion but I meane them who ordinarily professe Religion whose knowledge of Religion added to their naturall light doth curbe and over-rule in good measure the excesse of carnall reason in her grossenesse For why Education training up to knowledge and observing of truthes taught in the word will easily moderate the basenesse of this carnality though grace and sanctification hath not yet subdued either their mindes to the true sense or their hearts to the savor of Gods matters as in the regenerate Nay further I would have all to conceive the doctrine in generall as belonging to all carnall reason without exception wheresoever it bee found insomuch that the very godly themselves so farre as unregenerate Yea the godly themselves in part and especially Satan by infidelity tempting them are carried this way dangerously as those many instances of Scripture of Moses of Samuel of Gedeon of Sarah of others witnesse who when they heard of 1 Sam. 16.6 Num. 20.10 c. or went about Gods messages or matters presently they cavilled by carnall reason saying Should all the flocks of the mountaines or heards of beasts be slaine to feed this people Should Sarah at this age give suck If the Lord be with us why are these things upon us Is not the Lords annointed Eliab before him Meaning these things to reason seeme impossible therefore they are so or this or that seemes likely therefore it is so whereas when they speake as beleevers they looke at another principle thus or thus God will or will not have it therefore so it is and must be God will and can doe this or that therefore done it shall bee whatsoever flesh cavills to the contrary Ere I leave this first generall I will adde some instances of Gods matters Instance 1 Worship of God wherein carnall reason prejudicateth and hindreth the soule from conceiving and beleeving For although I might onely speake in generall and say it hinders in all both morall especially if truly understood as the hallowing of a Sabbath the ruling of the thoughts and affections in secret and especially mysteries revealed in Christ yet it will better satisfie the minde of you that heare beloved to name some speciall branches by which carnall reason may be guessed at in other kindes The instances are these First in matter of Religion and worship and the speciall wayes of God to us as in commands promises threats or our service to him in selfe-deniall faith mortification and the like For religion and worship how doth carnall reason judge Surely not according to the nature of it which is a powerfull uniting of the soul to God and restoring it to the integrity of nature according to creation But it conceives confusedly of it as a due which the creature owes to God that the inferior worship the superior never looking either at the right maner or true ends thereof And therefore although it grant a worship yet it judges of the frame thereof according to the patern of corrupt reason and thinkes that God is best pleased with a blindnesse of devotion a superstitious zeale such a worship as astonisheth the sense with some carnall abstinences rites or ceremonies of mans devising or some outward pompous rites and glorious shewes of Pietie in decking of Churches in golden and silver ornaments precious vestments costly Temples and rich furniture But as for spirit and truth of soule attending the Lord purely in those ordinances which himself hath invented altogether senselesse thereof As we see in Popery at this day to what point it hath brought the worship of God That worship which bites not the Spirit is most specious to the eye working upon the carnall part and putting it in hope that God will bee as well pleased with her service as she her selfe is that agrees best with carnall reason That preachers speake smooth quaint pleasing things tickle the eare displease not corruption That the Sermon be short and of quicke dispatch that we cope all our Sabbath devotion yea all our religion within the Church walls and savour little of it within our owne houses callings and government but live by comparison of our selves with the prophane who care for no worship at all this pleases flesh alife For Commands So for Commands so farre as they goe in reasons streame as to live and be painfull in our callings to beware of bringing our names into discredit by lewd company drinking swearing and pot-companionship to keep our state from decay to be no spend-thrifts and so become burdensome to our friends or the Towne These and the like commands because they borrow authority from carnall inconveniences please carnall reason well But to obey in suffering as well as doing with the losse of credit estate life to trust God in all these and live by faith that God will support us in our endevours this is foolishnesse to carnall reason A man who suffers for the safeguard of his conscience seemes a stark foole to a worldling Matth. 16.20 Tush say men hee may thanke himselfe this needed not to betide him For Promises So in the matter of promises carnall reason loves to heare that men shall fare well for their trusting God and obeying him But how They savour no spiritualnesse in a promise So their Cow may not cast her Calfe Psal 17. so their bellies may bee filled with the treasure hidden in the earth Deut. 33. enjoying the blessing and influence of the Sunne Moone and heavens that they may abound in Corne and Wine and Oyle and feele no lack in their health bodies names children so long I say they are for promises They can alledge that God hath promised no more to drowne the world Gen. 8.22 That Summer harvest seed time and harvest shall continue these they lot upon and snatch at but as for the promise to ease a loaden soule to restore to it life and immortality by the Gospel This and the like are gibbridge to them He that should presse them to get the favour of him that dwelt in the bush were as one that told them a tale of a tub Deut. 33.16 or spake in Hebrew and Greeke unto them So I may say of Gods threats Perhaps in terrible thunder and lightning they wil run into a hole But they behold no power nor Majesty of a just and revenging God in any of them For why Thier sinne lies deeply bundled up in them in the bottome of a deluded and secure conscience and therefore they feare nothing they are setled upon their
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
he might pitty and succour those who are tempted And surely wonderfull use there is of this grace For alas in these troubles many a poore soule though not wilfull yet is not her owne because it is overpowred with the violence hideousnesse and irkesome of temptations without feares and unsustained horrors within so that for the time it hath no power of fastning upon counsell be it never so strong nay the stronger it is the harder to enter It must be time and stanching the bloud and waiting by degrees putting in here a droppe a line a little and there a little into the soule which must winne such an one to some hope by degrees Some texts observe for this Elihu seeing Iobs state sore snarled by his prejudicate friends and by the self-love of his own heart that it was hard to reduce all to a mediocrity applies himselfe in the spirit of singular modesty and meeknesse to be a mediator between them Job 32. Behold saith he I will not deale harshly in misjudging thee but be unto thee as thine owne soule this was the next way to redresse his sorrowes So Paul to the Galathians when he had sharpely reproved them yet seeing many of their weake mindes entangled tells them My little children of whom I travell againe till Jesus Christ be formed in you They had fallen into the hands of false teachers who had made their state more dangerous Gal. 4.19 And what doth hee Meekely and lovingly he bestowes the paines to travell againe of them Simil. A woman hath enough of breeding her fruit once and bearing it once but wee should count her a very tender mother which should beare the paine twice and fellow-feele the infants strivings and wrastlings the second time rather then want her child So Paul here is content to beare the paine twice of travelling for these Galathians hee meanes not a second birth but a second travell to reduce them home to Christ from their errors and to sympathize them so far for their good till they felt Christ againe revived in themselves after a former miscarriage and false conception So in Gal. 6.1 The Apostle againe doth require those Galathians which were strong to restore in the spirit of meekenesse such as were fallen the word is set in joint Be meeke and worke in the bone with much oile that so it may returne againe into the socket with lesse paine And Ezekiel tells us Ezek. 34.16 that this is one peculiâ—r property of a true shepheard that hee seeke up the lost and suffer not the bitten or broken to perish but carry it home upon his shoulder tender it dresse it and binde it up againe These and the like places shew with what spirit the Lord wishes such to go to work even so be it with us in Gods fear limpe with the halting lispe with the stuttering sit still and be silent a while till deepe affliction can speake out helpe forth the words of the distressed which sticke in the passage be tender and pitifull till God draw the heart by these cords of a man Hosea 11.4.13.2 and be as the Master of the cattell who taketh off the yoke and layeth meat unto them yea as the Lord Jesus who would not breake the brused reed Matth. 12. nor quench the smoking flax till judgement brake forth into victory Iron and steele come not to an edge without much oile Thirdly 3. Branch apply counsell and remedies with all wisdome and seasonablenesse speake a word in due season Now here the maine worke lieth But some may aske and say how should I performe this duty I answer The variety and difference of estates admit no rules in generall onely to satisfie the desirous I will instance in a few kindes and shew what remedies most fitly agree with them Observe wisely and discerne the estate of the afflicted Rules for this and that will be a great helpe to tell a qualified counsellor how to judge both of the malady and medicine For as it is in bodily diseases each one hath his severall symptomes which are not easily concealed So it is here A wise man will discover the sore by the behaviour of the party both for the kinde the measure the continuance of it and accordingly apply himselfe First then let it be one caveat 1. Discerne and separate mixt sorrow from â—â—â—gle that we observe whether the dolor bee single and simple or mixt and compounded If it be simple the trouble is the lesse But if mixt that is partly temporall and that first and chiefe partly spirituall The way is first to separate the one from the other and not to multiply spirituall comforts to such a one for his disease admits none because the roote is carnall And although it have ceased also in part upon conscience yet at the second hand Here then labour to lessen and diminish carnall and worldly griefe if it can by any meanes be removed as if it be a crosse upon the name body or state see if that can be effected and then you shall see if there continue any sorrow if it doe not it was meerly carnall and no spirituall in it if that cannot be removed then labour to divert the heart from the outward to the spirituall and that thus First shewing that this without the other is fruitlesse That the soule may bee as miserable without it as with it That love or hatred stands not in it That it may easily deceive a man about his sorrow That God either sends it as a needle to draw the thred of godly sorrow after it by the stirring of the spirit or else to leave the soule worse and that if it vanish as it came it will be so That the nature of it is deadly for worldly sorrow causeth death If these motives scatter the carnall sorrow and the spirituall remaine then it is from God And then the counsell is strive not to remove it at first but to ground it well upon the word that it may seaze kindely and so deale with it accordingly as in the rules following 2. Rule Discerne diabolicall temptations from inward The next is discerne diabolicall injections and temptations from the troubles arising from our selves Here the counsell is strive by all means to resolve the party that the Divell shall pay for his own sin Suggestions terrifying the spirit from Satans malice are none of ours Judge them by the disproportion to the souls disposition their unwelcomenes their irkesomenesse desperatenesse and tenaciousnesse And if a poor soul can truly say they are none of hers although she cannot be rid of the insulting of this god of flies yet by praier for riddance constant detesting to have fellowship and consent with them whether thoughts against God his word the Ministry Heaven Hell Providence Religion or lusts and vile affections the Lord will weaken them and not suffer thee to bee held under temptation And to say truth violent externall causes
without satisfaction made which Divinity passes my skill and I thinke savours more of Socinianisme and Humanity then Divinity I returne In respect either of the Fathers cutting off his plea and finding out a mercy in the bottome of his brest exceeding justice and revenge or the consent of the Sonne to admit of those conditions of obeying and suffering for the purchase of peace and abolishing enmity Col. 1. it is most strange unlikely and difficult But considering that he to whom all things are easie would apply and bend himselfe with all his power wisdome and truth to bring his good pleasure of free saving to passe and would devoure all difficulties therefore nothing could be hard but all easie to such love so armed and attended God so loved the world saith Saint Joh. 3.12 that he gave his onely Sonne But otherwise in it selfe it was a great thing Iacobs toile in heat and frost was great though love made it sweet And so to end though it cost Christ an infinite price yet being freely offered to us it cost us nothing its easie Reason 4 Fourthly the dispensation is easie In respect whereof the Lord doth not restraine nor limit his grace In respect of the dispensation of it and the efficacy of this price I speake now of his revealed will not secret but offers it by the Ministry of the Gospel to all sorts without let or barre That whosoever will submit himselfe to his way and dispensation with humblenesse the Lord will be found ordinarily by such without putting difference He doth not sh oll out or discourage any as if hee did not intend it to them he doth not reject any who reject nor him nor forsake any conceive me rightly who forsake not him And their rejecting or forsaking proceeds not from his decree working it but from their malice and unbeleefe procuring it But as for the Lord 2 Cron. 16.4 hee doth not forestall or prejudicate the spirit of any man to his dispensation but freely generally and fully offers to all sorts of sinners the benefit of his grace and pardon who doe not basely and treacherously withdraw themselves and cavill against his simplicity The Lord doth not put difference in his offer saying to such or such an one I offer it to such and such I doe not he offers alike to all and although some conditions go before the actuall application of the promise yet those conditions are wrought in the soule by the offer in all who doe walke with God in the wâ—y of his Ordinances except they fight and resist the same So then whosoever doth not despise the counsell of God Luke 4. and thinke himself unworthy of salvation but shew himself of the number of them who are drawne and perswaded to accept it he shall assuredly partake it So much for the fourth Fifthly to come a little nearer that is to the reall efficacy of working Reason 5 grace and the obedience of faith that 's easie also For why The condition of faith is easie to such as belong to election When as the Lord hath brought the soule under the condition of faith partly by loading the same under her misery partly by the presenting to her the sweetnesse gainfulnesse and faithfulnesse of the promise and partly by removing all such barres and lets as might disswade the soul from it then hereby to such a one it becomes easie to beleeve And to say the truth to these its onely easie in the true kinde and proper sense of easinesse For why These are exempted from the common sort of hearers to whose thoughts the very conceit of faith is a difficult thing much more the enterprise For alas Naturally what in all the world is so harsh and unwelcome to our carnall disposition as to obey the Gospel Not to preach to heare to give away our wealth to sacrifice our children to keepe the Law are so hard as this But to such as the Lord hath brought under the authority love and conduct of the word and the Spirit of grace working thereby he makes it sweet and easie Others plod and take on make a bungling worke of it Esay 63.12 Psal 23.3 as we see untidy servants goe awkely about their businesse which neate and skilfull ones dispatch at once but the Lord conducts these as a shepheard leads his sheep into the greene pastures and as those Israelites were led by the pillar of fire and cloud through the wildernesse If a traveller be set right on his journey his ease is in his guide As Isaac seeing Iacob bring venison so soone asked him how he came so quickly by it Hee told him because the Lord thy God brought it to his hand So hee had no need of Esau his hunting Now briefly it shall not bee amisse to shew by what steps the Lord makes this worke easie and familiar to his people First Cernaine particulars of this holy ease The first as he giveth them a sweet view of this worke of obeying the Gospel that is a cleer familiar conceiving thereof so that it is not an intricate and wearisome object As Salomon describes the way of the fluggard to be an hedge of thornes which no man is willing to medle with So also the Lord brings the soule unto the doore of hope shewing it an entrance and a possiblenesse of escape working a knowledge of it and withall an hearty and close aime and sympathy to it Hosea 2. It so plants the soule under the promise that the droppings of Gods myrrhe oile and balme do not light beside it but right into it When a man hath got the promise of a lease he is sure of the next vacancy So men that lay in for an advouzon waite for the next avoidance It is a good ease for a poore Scholar in the University to be made a Probationer of the next Fellowship as in some Colledges they use for then hee waites in hope and is eased of the hazard of missing Such Probationers and Candidates of heaven doth the Lord first make his poore people that so having an inckling of his meaning they goe on with sweetnesse because heaven is theirs in the grant and reversion As once an holy man told mee that the Lord intimated his heart with this thought that if he would seeke him faithfully in the meanes he would save him A marveilous priviledge So that looke when any grace falls from God they are the parties whom it will light upon this takes off an exceeding deale of bondage and makes meanes sweet So it was to them of Ninivee Jona 3.7.8.9 Judg. 14. Jer. 4.3 who upon this hint from God applyed themselves to the meanes very carefully This causes the heart to plow with Gods heifer to finde out his riddle and to see into the mystery of the promise and therefore to plow indeed and fall to worke to rend up the fallow grounds of her proud rebellious nature selfe and scurffe to hunger after
hope they doe and had alway a good faith to God and a good meaning to men They confesse they breake out sometimes as others doe but so long as they cry God mercy they shall doe well for they understand that Christ was a loving Preacher kept company rather with the worser sort then the better many Publicans and sinners yea harlots and was the sinners friend And it was not they who put him to death but such as went for the devoutest and most precise in those times But oh yee deluded fooles Doe you thinke that when sinne hath incorporated herselfe so long and like a fretting leprosie seated it selfe in their bowells by long custome that all on the suddaine you should be changed by the conceit of their beleeving What Matth. 3.1.2 Are there no steps of calling to be observed Why then did Iohn Baptist goe before Christ in the Spirit of Elija Why did hee batter downe the rebellious spirits of men And why did hee cast downe every high hill and fill every valley Why did he prepare a way for Christ in the souls of people crying Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand Why did he plow up mens fallow grounds And turne the spears of men into mattocks and their swords into plowshares Oh take heed I will not say all your abstinence from sinne can save you but your jollity and boldnesse in it may so harden you and encrease your chaines through rebellion Esay 28. that you shall finde it an hard thing for mercy to pierce you Therefore take counsell thinke not that mercy can save you in the midst of your lewdnesse when you come steaming out of the stewes or from your alebenches or in the midst of your sports and pleasures What God can doe I aske not it s not safe for you to trust to that looke what he will doe Therefore let the point of the speare of the Law pierce your sides let it taw and breake your fierce spirits goe not on to sinne against light Defile not your consciences by wilfull rebellions covetous drunken contentious treacherous and voluptuous courses looke not that God should meet you in your cursed way when as he hath appointed you to meet him in his owne way Rather apply your selves to his word to prepare your spirits for mercy Repent that is breake off the custome and jollity of your sins the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand This counsell to suffer affliction and the spirit of bondage by the sense of guilt and wrath would bee an wholesome School-master to bring you to Christ Oh! A caveat Ministers should gaster prophane people out of their prophanenesse errors if you my brethren the Ministers would remit a little of your pleasures and liberties and apply your selves to a right order of preaching the Law and Christ and give them a view of the way of God to heaven you might the more hopefully leave them to God else how should blinde people laden with sinne stumble upon Gods preparations Will they not rather abuse the grace of God and wax insolent in turning it into wantonnesse making the remedy worse then the disease Oh! scare them out of their prophanenesse corrasive their festred sores sow not pillowes ferret them out of their dennes their starting-holes errors excuses and covers of shame Alas they have a thousand of such trickes to seduce them Base conceits of the Ministery the difficulty of faith of repenting and forsaking their lusts false opinion of the way of God of them who professe it they are poysoned so deeply by Satan and base customes in sinne so leavened with a conceit that either there is somewhat in themselves to demerit God their good meanings setting of their good deeds against their bad and such like or else thinking that Christ serves for no other end save to be their stalking-horse Rom. 4. under whom they may sin securely that grace may abound the more They dreame that because the World is hard therefore men are set here to heare the Word to keep them from theft to hold them in awe from out-rages and so if they can worke and pay their debts bring up their charge and get money they are well Oh! labour to season them with this salt of preparation that their faces may bee sharpned to looke heaven-ward and to breake off their lewd wayes that they may so come within the bounds of the Kingdome and not live like Salvages and Epicures or worldlings whose hope reaches no further then this life So much for this former sort 2 Branch Schismatickes who reject all steps marks of conversion cleaving to the spirit of free grace confuted Againe secondly this is for reproofe of such Sectaries as are lately risen up among us in sundry places who are so spirituall forsooth that the Doctrine of the condition of faith and casting of the Soule upon the promise are beggarly elements with them they esteeme them carnall matters and devices of mens braine They hold indeed there is use of a Law and Gospell to tame men first and then to comfort them But in this Gospell they have found out a new and more compendious course then others For they say there is a grace offered in the promise by such a Spirit of freedome that it will not endure any bondage of the letter nor suffer men to bee puzled and enthralled with these conditions of a Promise nor to tye themselves to a promise and the markes or signes of believing This they count base and unbeseeming such a Spirit of free grace as they have found out and therefore they scorn all those who busie their thoughts about such workes of preparations and tell them they will get more comfort in an houre by the Spirit of this their free grace then these lazy and leasurely beleevers can doe in seven yeares But oh you fantasticke and deluded ones where learne you in the Word that there is a Spirit which workes without a Word Or by what meanes come you to lay hold of this Spirit save by the Word If by the Word then of necessity by such markes and prints as the Word workes And although there is a Spirit spoken of in the Gospell which witnesseth to our Spirits that we are the Lords yet how doth it witnesse it save by the Word Is every hearer at the first dash so ripe and perfect that presently as a fledge bird flying out of her nest and leaving her Damme he can soare aloft in the sky and mount up to heaven by the Spirit of assurance So that he shall no more need any promise any conditions or markes to testifie the grace of God wrought in him Put case that God hath some speciall ones to whom after they have beleeved he hath given the Spirit to seale them to the assurance of salvation Is this the case of every novice as soon as hee heares that Christ freely forgives sinners to bee hoysed up with such a spirit of
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
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
novelty carnall admiration jangling and unprofitablenesse which the Scripture especially serves to mortifie in us To give a taste of my meaning in an instance An instance of the exhort let that be the miracle recorded 2 King 7. to wit the Prophet Elisha his causing of the Iron to swimme when it was fallen into the water he that reads it as a bare miracle will onely vanish in a wondering humor but he that reads it with faith and reverence will behold the power of God over-ruling the creatures quality and causing the waighty body of iron to float like a chip contrary to the nature of it And what will such a meditation picke out of it Surely a sweet consolation in the power of God viz. to over-rule a worse nature in a worse subject even the dulnesse and lumpishnesse of an heavy heart in matters of God and cause it to mount up from this base dunghill whereunto t is fixed unto heaven and holy thoughts yea to change this hard heart more hard then a flint or iron and make it a soft and fleshy heart to write his covenant in it and cause it to walke in his Commandements where from t is as farre as iron from swimming If then the casting in of a sticke could worke such an effect if the bare power of God onely for a witnesse that the worke then intended was from God without any respect to the iron it selfe could doe this great thing what shall be the power of God working in and by the bloodshed and intercession of the Lord Jesus upon an heart of heavier frame and harder which thereby shall be much the better in it selfe besides the infinite honour which the worker of this miraculous change shall purchase to himselfe by it although to carnall reason it may seeme impossible And in particular 2. Branch particular let this exhort us all to be more studious and zealous observers of this text in hand Our Saviour could set a speciall marke upon it as containing peculiar instruction for us to cast down those strong forts and high thoughts in us Naamans story and the passages thereof very remarkable which doe destroy the simplicity of selfe-deniall faith and the obedience of Christ Surely if strange things will affect us as who now adaies affect not Athenian wise new and strange reports and accidents to heare and to tell them though emptily and as passages for present talke this text hath cause and may plead to be specially marked above many Which containes the cure of the onely leper to whom above all them in Israel Elisha was sent Naaman a stranger and Heathen Aramite sutable whereto are all the circumstances making toward it The very roote and first occasion of it was strange Particulars of it summed up by a poore damosell and captive yet one that had taken notice of Elisha to very good purpose The disease strange an incurable leprosie the cure strange by the applying of common water to his flesh to reason incredible The course by Naaman strange in mistaking an Idolatrous King for his Physitian in steed of an holy Prophet the redresse of the error strange by an intimation from God to fetch him the right way to the Prophet his carriage strange in humble sliding before a poore Prophets doore and to come neerer the text the message uncouth and strange for a Prophet not to vouchsafe to come to the doore to a petitioning Prince but to send an aloofe message Naamans enterteining it strange and promising but a sinister successe for what likelyhood is it that a patient raging at his Physitian should be cured The perswasion strange even by servants not likely either to perswade aright or to prevaile by perswading But above all the effect of this counsell strange that he should obey his servants who cavelled against the Prophet the successe of his obeying strange to recover his flesh as the flesh of a child And to conclude the consequents of the successe strange both his spirituall cure of Soule-leprosie the extraordinary zeale and resolution to renounce Idols for the true God and the most sincere detestation of that most predominant and beloved lust which before had prevailed to wit to worship Rimmon himself be his Masters leaning stock in that worship So many strange concurrences might I say justly force our attention to this story and yet the chiefe thing contained in it is no stranger thing then that which we daily carry about us I mean self and carnall reason But so intricated and wrapped about us so deeply seated and hidden in our spirits that without the great goodnesse of God we shall behold it read it over and over wonder at it in Naaman but see none of it in our selves and so leave the perusall of this Treatise with as small fruit as we began it Which penalty the Lord keep from us and so meet with us and match us in our reading hereof by the inspiration of his spirit that this story may be a looking glasse in which this great blur of selfe may so be discerned that the promise and word of God may present a better image unto our soules and transforme us into it from glory to glory that he that boasteth may not boast in himselfe but in the Lord. A second generall of the whole text The person of Naaman the Subject of it A second generall as equally concerning the whole text and mixed through it as the former is the subject of this whole text the person of chiefe note Naaman the leper The words used by our Saviour do occasion me to touch upon this point it s of no small importance To wit that the Lord passing by all other lepers in Israel neerer hand and liker to make use of the Prophets helpe then one a far off who onely by a report of a silly wench at second hand had intelligence of him should out of his meer grace send him to this Naaman and Naaman to him which phrase imports a sending of spirituall efficacy to conversion and make him a marke of greater mercy then his owne people yea an upbraiding to them in all succeeding generations Many lepers saith Christ there were in the daies of Elisha but to none of them all was he sent save only to Naaman the Syrian Whether no other lepers at all were healed by Elisha it s heard to say and me thinkes as hard to imagine that all lepers should so scape his hands Perhaps they did not and partly the Damosells report evinces it for how else should she so readily point at Elisha for the cure of Naamans disease if she had never heard of his healing others in that kinde Howbeit I affirme nothing she might speake from a generall honour she bare to the Prophets worth but this is sure although some lepers might come to Elisha yet he was sent to none save to Naaman that is the Lord used him not to the spirituall good and salvation of any other
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
with others worse then her selfe pleads her civility innocency of life good parts devotions and moralities if God ferret her out of this burrow she will annexe and apply her selfe to Christ after a fashion for aide and entrench her selfe within her duties teares good affections zealous performances good opinion of others if this fort be battered shee will still betake her selfe to her seeming selfe-deniall in many things forfeit of her will of sundry lusts pleasures bad company and redeeme selfe with some forfeit of selfe Shee will not bee pulled out of her Castle of selfe-conceit nor give up her counterfeit sufficiency and treasure within for any withour one bird in hand is worth two in the bush Till at length custome and confirmed error doe so harden her that she will sooner part with her life then her false happinesse or resigne up her bulwarkes and City to Christ and his besieging Army In such a case what must the Lord doe See Deut. 29.19 The siege of God to such a soule Surely either give her quite over as impregnable and raise his siege or else resolve to put her to the uttermost straights that can be Sometime by blasting her best blessings and with some deadly disease taking off the edge of worldly content making her soule to loath dainty meate or putting a surfet and fulsomenesse into all which she enjoyes that she cannot taste them or letting in a veine of vengeance into conscience convincing her that all is not well so that nothing can comfort her Job 33.14.15 she is Gods enemy an hypocrite an unbeleever wants the promise lives without God in the world never was humbled broken denyed her selfe never was lost nor forsaken and therefore never was out of her owne bottome to live in another stocke and roote of Christ When the Lord mixes himselfe really with crosses with terrors with law or Gospell to convince the soule either of sinne or righteousnesse then she begins to feele a straight and to be at a losse else she is merry and so long as she hath one ragge to cover her filthinesse one penny in her purse one crust to gnaw upon one shred to hang by Revel 3.18 she will be cloathed rich full and compleate Christ shall never heare of her It must be an hard besetting with a narrow straight which strips her and robbes her of her selfe-sufficiency Therfore Elihu Iob Cap. 33. under that one instance of sicknesse sweetly compares the state of an unregenerate person before straights come with the estate when they are upon him Before saith he God speakes once and twice by promises and by blessings but man heares like the Adder with a deafe eare she makes wash-way of patience word conscience and all But when the Lord afflicts both Conscience and body at once the one with terrours and affrightments in the night when men should sleepe the other with a consumption in his parts so that his bones sticke out and clatter his soule loathes dainty meat his moisture is spent and the buriers and mourners gape for him Then in this straight if an interpreter come and declare his righteousnesse and set him at liberty he shall be welcome Why Oh because God hath asswaged his pride and tamed him so that whereas before he was too high for any man to talke with now being on the rack you may have him at any termes and willing to come to any conditions Surely so it is in any other kinde of straight whereby the licentious spirit of man is subdued and scared while that lasteth the man is in a quite contrary frame to that he was in at liberty Reason 1 And what reason may be given hereof viz. Why the soule is best in case to deale withall under an exigent then otherwise I answer First a straight calls in and limits the spirit which before went at large and no compasse would hold it It brings the heart into bounds The sicke bed is narrrow the sicke conscience is upon strict termes with God whereas health and security make men wilde Job 39.9 like the Roe or wilde Asse Who shall yoake an Unicorne to the plow But the Lord having a man upon the hip can make him stoope to it The very she Asse when she is in her monthes may bee a taken in a pit Jerem. 2.14 cannot rise and runne away she is in a straight her big body will not suffer her to escape Now whomsoever the Lord converts he will narrow their course and bring them to a short Reason 2 account till then there is no talking with them Secondly by an extremity the Lord makes the creature understand his power over it and that it hath a superior to controll it whereas before it acknowledged Reason 3 no Lord or controller but it selfe Thirdly it abases and pulls downe the error of the heart and the selfe-love of it which presented all things in a false view to it and removed all feare and suspicion farre off so that as Paul without the law was jolly and alive so is this living without any bands or chaines Now under a straight it reflects upon it selfe some sad notions of feare sinne guilt wrath judgement so that the case is much changed Fourthly it abases the pride of the heart conceit of it Reason 4 selfe rebellion against God and makes it crouch as knowing there is no fighting against necessity This Elihu calls Gods hiding of our pride Straights will take away the bubbling and pride of a wretch and force him to an humblenesse yea they will hold downe the spirit to a patience and bearing long so that the Lord may take leasure to doe that which a free heart and jolly in sinne could not attend unto before a Sermon of an houre long was irkesome Now with Saul at Damascus gates it takes law and saith what wilt thou have me to doe Fiftly it bores an eare into Reason 5 the soule which before had none it pierces the heart and makes it apt to heare yea swift tractable and teachable saying speake Lord for thy servant heares Sixtly it provokes diligence painefullnesse and unweariednesse Reason 6 in using of meanes As Ninivee under Ionas arrest which before lay in a bed of ease sloth and sottish carelesnesse Seventhly it makes Reason 7 the heart glad of any one word of hope possibility of remedy and promise of mercy Eightly it breakes the heart and melts it to heare that Reason 8 the Lord will encline toward it being so low brought as it is Ninthly Reason 9 it causes a marveilous esteeme of mercy sets a wonderfull terrible hiew upon sinne and a precious marke upon forgivenesse causes the soule to forget all her vanities former objects in respect of that she would have Oh! Naamans disease seemed now hideous a cure precious all his honour and favour at home is forgotten for the time Tenthly it causes the Reason 10 soule to be glad of remedy from whomsoever be he never so base mean
to himselfe and make his yoke easie oh then love maintaines the soule in grace with sweet and content Beg then of the Lord that thy pressure may not be remooved till it have left the print of mercy behinde it and brought thee so under graces command that thou maiest wholly be the Lords Princes arrest their subjects for some debts fines forfeits or services due to themselves which being paid the party is at his owne liberty But the Lord doth not so hee arrests not a man to bring him upon his knees to wring from him some tearmes of homage but to subdue the whole man and the principle of the minde will and frame to himselfe Concurre with this end of good and prosper But if it be thus the effects will shew it for then Effects of change will shew it not onely the stoutnesse of the heart and the rebellion of it are held under by strong hand for a time but the subtilty thereof is truly turned to simplicity the ease sloth of it into diligence the indifferency of it into earnestnesse the wearisomnesse of it into restlessenesse and diligence the inconstancy of it into stablenesse the acts and pangs of it into habits and principles the violence into liberty and holy delight to submit it selfe both to the way of beleeving and the fruite of subjection and deniall of it selfe both in legall and evangelicall respects And so much for this doctrine so far as the scope of it will beare I might enter into further matter both to discover the infinite tricks of a false heart to nouzle it selfe in a corrupt estate and the trialls and waies whereby the Lord sets such an heart at liberty But I foresee that the points following will better occasion these things and therefore I onely make this doctrine a preparative to them Now I proceed to the second doctrine out of these words Doct. Whom God meanes to convert them he first prevents by occasions and means That Naaman comes and stands at the doore of Elisha And that is this That whomsoever the Lord intends to bring home and convert to himselfe he will order all meanes most sweetly and agreeingly to that purpose We see Naaman and his retinue brought to the doore of Elisha But how surely by the providence of the same God who had purposed his conversion he is brought to the meanes to waite and expect the season of it And all things we see fall out and concurre aptly to it First Naaman is infected with a loathsome disease that under the hope of curing that hee might make an errand to the Prophet whom he had not else visited Secondly a maide must be taken and the Aramites must fight and take her place her with Naamans wife the maide must know Passages of Gods prevention in Naamans case and be able to report of Elisha to her mistrisse Naaman must ascribe credit to her and all these must concurre that he might hearken after Elisha Thirdly letters must be eroneously sent to Iehoram that Elisha might thereby correct an errour and turne him to himselfe which else had not bin And lastly Naaman hearing of the Prophet must forthwith repaire unto him and not expect till Elisha tend upon him else he had missed of his cure All these occurrents God most wisely orders and rules for the ends he intended so that the one could no more be defeated then the other if any one had failed the effect might have ceased The like may be said of the conversion of Onesimus Proofes of the point Epist to Philem who had plaid the thiefe to his Master Philemon God meant he should bee converted by Pauls Ministery Lo how doth the Lord order the meanes unto it He doth not instill falshood and flight into him but he orders it He over-rules him in his journey that hee might not peake aside into this corner or that but goe to Paul and lighting upon him might by some direct and seasonable speech from him be turned from his falshood to God So in the case of Cornelius Acts 10. The Lord meant to settle him being a good Proselite in the faith of the Lord Jesus The instrument by whom was Peter How should he know of him or where to come by him The Lord in a vision intimates it to Cornelius and he sends to Joppe to Simon But Peter was armed with a minde to reject their errand because he was a Jew and Cornelius a Gentile True But immediately before their comming the Lord rectifies Peter and frames him to goe by a vision of all crawling vermin in a cleane sheet which Peter was bidden to eate and refusing to doe so was commanded not to esteeme that uncleane which the Lord had made cleane No sooner is Peter rectified but they knock and he is prepared to goe with them comes findes all ready and converts Cornelius To conclude thus it is with the Eunuch of Candace He passing by that way Acts 8. where Philip preached the Spirit prompts him to joyne himselfe to that Charet When he comes he findes him reading in Esay a peece of a Prophecie cap. 53. concerning Christs generation and not knowing the sense askes Philip who takes occasion thereby to open to him the whole mystery of Christ and convinces him of the truth whereupon he is converted I heape up no more examples Reade the passages of Acts 9. Acts 9. in Saul Reasons 1 There be many reasons of the point 1. As the Lord is the first mover of the vast frame of this world and the maine changes of whole States Churches and Kingdomes their stablenesse and prosperity their decay and ruine the great affaires of warre peace and government so especially he sits at the sterne of his Church If he meane to punish it he acts and animates the wayes to bring it to passe and the instruments of his wrath Though the King of Ashur Reade Esay 10.7 meant no other but to spoile and make wreck yet God used him onely as his rod of vengeance And as he meant to scatter those ten Tribes for their horrible idolatry 1 King 12.13 so he orders the whole frame of premises tending thereto He divides the Kingdomes of Rehoboam and Ieroboam He suffers that snare of Division to cut off the tenne Tribes from Juda and her worship Temple and sacrifices To devise an idolatrous worship of Calves He plagues them with a succession of 3 or 4 cursed families and their of-spring Ieroboam Baasha Omri Iehu and after them left them to a most desperate government of Usurpers Shallum and the rest till the whole nation was carried away into perpetuall Captivity And when it pleased him to redeeme his Church he also acted the spirits of those instruments of deliverance as after the 70 yeares Captivity 2 Chr. 36.22 Ezra 1.2 Ezra 6.6 he stirred up the spirit of Darius Assuerus Cyrus and others to begin and perfect his project Nay not onely so but there is no
act concerning the welfare of his but he orders it He foreseeing the family of Iacob must els perish for food long before layes to prevent it in the antecedents of it Gen. 35.5 25. Gen. 45.7 Gen. 41.14 Suffers Ioseph to dreame an odious dreame his brethren to sell him to Putiphar his wife to attempt accuse and imprison him the two prisoners to propound their dreames and receive satisfaction Pharao in the distresse of his spirit to heare of him in that respect to consult with and resolve himselfe by him to promote him to be chiefe in the Kingdome under him causes Ioseph to prepare and store up corne and so relieves Iacob and his sons All this whole frame hee himselfe confesses to be from God you saith he intended evill to me but the Lord intended greater things even to preserve the lives of his Church That great worke of Redemption by the Lord Jesus had one main passage in it Luke 2.1 That Christ must be borne at Bethlehem Mary was now big and dwelt at Nazaret But the Lord causes Augustus Caesar to taxe all the world and to command all the Jewes to repaire to the City of their nativity and family This charge being exact poore Mary must carry her bigge body thither and there travaile of Christ Nothing could hinder Saul must be the King whom in wrath God appoints over discontented Israel To this end the Asses must goe astray he must seeke them be in a strait goe to Samuel and he warned of God must meet him 1 Sam 9.2 19. there Saul receives the message and is anointed Now marke the reason If the Lord be thus in all those events which concerne his Church in the gâ—nerall and the externall onely how much more shall he appeare to bee active in the most excellent part of all other viz. his drawing home all such to himselfe as belong to his Election Surely as the act is the most eminent peece of all other Providence so God his activenesse and powerfull concurrence thereto in swaying all premises to inferre the conclusion of his Purpose must be most eminently seene in that above all others Secondly if the effecting of the substance of their conversion whom Reason 2 he hath elected must flow from his grace and power then much more the accommodating of all such antecedents as conduce thereto must be from his direction But so it is the substance of the meanes is from him he calls home all whom he hath elected Rom. 8. The enlightning of them by the word the humbling the breaking of heart the perswading of them to beleeve is from him How much more the ordering and preparing of circumstances according of occasions accidents times persons and the like must also be ascribed to his most divine dispensation Thirdly if the Lord should leave his owne ends at randon to be ordered Reason 3 by the will and arbitrement of instruments occasions left to their owne pleasure and choice then should the infallible purpose of God hang upon the mutable and casuall actions of such instruments and the rash concourse of livelesse occasions which cannot act or bring together themselves to produce any such effect And by consequent such effects should faile Which because it is impossible therefore of necessity must both be subject to the over-ruling power of the Purposer determining some and conjoyning others wills I meane of men or accidentall occasions to the infallible effecting of the conversion of such as hee hath chosen Fourthly we know the end being once set downe in the minde ordereth Reason 4 and directeth the whole frame of those things which make toward it if a man have propounded to himselfe a purpose to marry to build to travell the Idea of these ends still enliveth the observation of all occasions and opportunities which a man meets with and draweth all to the attainment of such ends Where such ends are not proposed the minde is quiet and ordereth no occasions tending that way Thus it is with the Lord The end once being determined that stirreth and ordereth his wisedome and providence to fore-lay all meanes which tend thereto I meane the conversion of the poore soule I do not make Gods and mans intentions like in all points but illustrate the one by the other The difference between them is large for first mens ends are before their enterprises and they are successive also here one meane offers it selfe to promote their end there another Not so in the Lord who perfectly and at once though orderly doth both determine his ends and contrive his meanes Gods forefight mans differ much and beholds the effecting of the one in the other necessarily and unfallibly Gods meanes never faile him in his projects whereas man for lacke of sufficient fore-cast and provision is disappointed farre oftner then he succeeds Men may so concurre to their owne ends in their preparations as to use sinfull instruments sinfully partaking with them in their evils But the Lord although he oft use sinfull occasions and accidents and instruments to compasse his ends yet hee concurres not to their sinne but onely disposeth and over-ruleth it to good As the Lord used Ieroboam and Iehu's ambitious desires to effect the overthrow of the houses of Rehoboam and Ahab 1 Kings 13. Acts 9.1 So he used the sinne of Saul to bee an occasion of his deeper humiliation Acts 2.39 Acts 18. and the sinne of the Jewes Acts 2. who murthered the Lord of life to prick and break their hearts the more easily by Peters Sermon So the Jaylors desperatenesse cruelty and rage against the Apostles to convince him the more deeply convincing him afterwards So much for reasons Quest But here a question may be asked In what sort the Lord may bee said to act and accord all meanes which may serve to compasse his end in this kinde Answ I answer It is hard to set downe the variety of wayes by which the Lord worketh yet some few of the most usuall I may mention First and especially this Gods preventions wherein they stand and in what particulars The first branch God over-rules diverts our intents to serve his That the Lord over-rules and diverts and alters the intentions of men that whenas they intend one thing hee intends another either crossing their owne to effect his or wrapping in theirs within his owne as most prevailing and chiefe Thus did the Lord here in Naamans case He dreamt of nothing lesse then any cure of soule yet the Lord intends it as chiefe and casts him in the other as an over-plus Thus Paul discoursing of his conversion to Agrippa Acts 26. Acts 26. tells him hee was going like a Pursivant with a Bouget of Letters to Damascus to apprehend the Saints there But the Lord who had separated him to a farre other end even to be a chosen vessell of grace and an Apostle to carry his Name to the Gentiles cast him downe from his Palfrey smote
him to the ground and amazed him till hee had throughly subdued him under his owne will and government Herein shewing himselfe to bee as Paul Eph. 3. Epes 3.15 calles him the Father of all the families of the Earth For as the Master of a family over-rules his servants will and businesse and when he intends one worke in an ordinary course of service his Master hath some other businesse of greater consequence to send him about and so the servant is acted by his master to forbeare the one and dispatch the other so is it here in the great worke of salvation Many a man useth to make an ordinary worke of going to a place where the Word is preached hee aimes at businesse or company or novelties or perhaps cavilling at the Minister The Lord aimes at fetching him within his net that hee may divert his purpose and draw him to conversion Not onely as Esay saith Cap. 65.1 The Lord is found of such as sought him not that is prevents the thoughts which were roving helward worldward and sinward Job 33. Esay 65.1 to thinke of matters of greater consequence even heaven and happinesse But which is more when they perhaps purposed to crosse with God as Paul did the Lords intents overrule mans and turne him the way which himselfe intends As old Eli overrules Samuels feelinesse and saith if he call againe say speake for thy servant heareth Secondly the Lord where he meanes to convert will mightily over-power the soule from stumbling at such discouragements Overpowers the soule from stumbling at discouragements and obstacles Branch 2 that stand in the way This argues God specially present and to have a finger in the worke When another shall be a divell to himselfe to disswade himselfe from God by casting the difficulties alleadging farmes oxen and wife to hold him off and by framing to himselfe many Lions in the way so that if he goes yet it is as a Beare to the stake to heare the word if he heares once he neglects oft lo when God stirs his heart he shall feel such a strong perpetuall moover within him that these are nothing with him he beats them off as flies he feeles such a fire of purpose and bent in his heart to seeke after God as if he thought some pearle were there to be had he cannot finde in his heart to leave off hearing praying musing questioning and using all helpes which are in his power till he have felt the worke of them in himselfe Naaman heere had his dismaiments yet the Lord by a secret hand of his owne held him on asswaged his rage and set his servants on worke Gal. 1.17 Act. 9 till he had effected the cure When the Lord had Paul on the hooke once he suffered him not to slug out the worke till he had finished it Act. 9. Thirdly the Lord disposes of all outward occasions He disposes of all outward occasions both remooving them which let and framing them which helpe which lead to Branch 3 his ends and both remooves the opposites and accomodates unites and chaines together the meanes that the end be not frustrated Notable is that I noted Act. 10. of Peter who was no way like to goe with the servants to Cornelius as being an heathen what doth the Lord workes Peters heart from that objection and so from unwillingnesse nay more he doth make the one privy to the others want and as in a vision Paul saw Ananias comming toward him to open his eies so on the other side Ananias in a vision is informed of Pauls praying and waiting upon the Lord for remedy God brings both together and sutes the one with willingnesse to be holpen and the other with readinesse to helpe so they were mutually fitted to do and receive good each to and from other So in Pauls case when he was to go to Ananias how unwilling was he to be the instrument of settling satisfying him Therefore the Lord steps in and remooves that let and tells him he is a speciall man for his own use So oftimes when parents friends Minister himselfe are discouragements to a poore novice how doth the Lord foreseeing such a blur turne the eies of Crocodiles to Doves eyes alleniate and draw the hearts of fathers to the children what faire way doth he open Againe how doth the Lord dispose of such requisite circumstances as concurre to the ends without which it could not have been effected Sometime by bringing a man into such a place or Towne where a faithfull Ministry resideth sometimes into some such family where the name of God is called upon faithfully sometime preparing for a man such a dwelling as is compassed about with good neighbours whose example and helpe may be a loadstone unto him John 4. as the woman of Samaria being her selfe first drawne from her scoffing to beleeving drew all her kindred So oftentimes the Lord by shaking one maine Pillar-stone in an house causes many little stones to rattle downe after So many a young Scholler by a godly Tutor many a young youth or maid by a religious Master or Mistresse many an ignorant novice by marrying a good wife or husband and into a godly family growes to be religious All these are gracious preventions And from the same preventing mercy it is that the Chaine and Coherence of the meanes one after another is so united and so continued by the Lord that whereas the breaking off of any one might split and marre the frame the Lord holds all together for the effecting thereof As here except all the foure premises had held Naaman might have beene easily defeated of his issue But the Lord suffers no one linke of the chaine to breake Fourthly the Lord most aptly and fitly accommodates all circumstances Branch 4 by his providence to consort and combine to such ends disposing of apt condition Accommodates all circumstances fittly to the end age season person place and other opportunities If Naaman being so great had not beene made little by the condition of a leper could he have stooped so low as the Prophet All are not so fit to bee dealt with by every instrument some more are drawne by a still and softly voice others by the thundring of terror the Lord suits meet persons to meet objects that so the worke might goe forward Not alway the same person is apt to bee wrought upon by all occasions As when the minde is filled with businesse all that is spoken is as it were spoken in a mans cast Luke 10.40 Martha being cumbred with much serving was as a full vessell for the time all which had beene put into her had run over Therefore Mary whose minde was free and empty was fitter to sit at Christs feet and profit All places are not alike to all sorts While children live under their Parents wing at ease and liberty they minde nothing that good is perhaps being abroad and being put to it marked and noted
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
it were not pride and statelinesse in the Prophet what cause was there why he should send to Naaman rather then come forth himselfe Was he not expected and might he not feare some aspersion to his person God and Religion by his aloofnesse Surely by the way these things ought much to curb our base passions Bishop Hooper that famous Martyr of Christ and man of tender conscience being of somwhat a more retired private spirit and carriage then usual did cause some Christian men and women who honoured his integrity and sought advice from him to wonder and to stumble at his austerity A defect which he could not easily amend in himselfe But it cost him sorrow afterward as some of his letters witnesse that he should grieve any good heart by such an offensive carriage Those letters are also extant wherein reverend Ridley craves pardon of his deere fellow-Martyrs Bradford and Sanders for his unbrotherlike passages in some cases a time there will be in which every one that feares God will mourne for the least misdemeanor in this kinde Gods glory is pretious and his peoples souls cost deare They must not be offended for our humours or trifles better a mill-stone were hang'd about our neckes and wee cast with it into the sea then to offend one little one This by the way Ministers must be tender of Gods glory and jealous of offence by their carriage I answer there had been in this case of Elisha some feare of this I mean of offence if God had not discharged him from it by a Supersedeas to his ordinary charge but having a warrant for it hee might trust God the better for preventing of hurt As the Prophets were extraordinary persons so the most of their actions bare a speciall reference towards God not themselves And so it was here Elisha was a man familiar enough in his owne case as appeares in his homely and courteous carriage towards the woman that set him up a Table 2 Kin. 4.12.13 Stoole and Candlesticke in his Chamber This was no great state nothing neere Naamans yet thankfully accepted But there is a season for all things to bee familiar with a poore Tradesman Eccle. 2.3.2 and to be strange to a Prince both lawfull Now the Lords worke was in doing and Elisha might not procure to himselfe the note of courtesie by breaking a command as that Prophet who to avoid discourtesie went backe to eate with the old Prophet 1 King 13.19 and lost his life When God discharges us by a closer-command its folly to affect the name of unseasonable obeying And by the way it is no small error in men to interpret Scriptures according to the letter without respect had to the scope and circumstances proper to the text The Letter of the Scripture not to be wrested against the sence for mens humours As the Papists who by this meanes snatch extraordinary facts of Moses and Christs fasting Matth. 4. Ebuds killing Eglon Judg. 4. Elijah's affronting Ahab 1 King 20.21 or the like to such ends of their owne as not God but themselves are the authors of Not the fact of burning the Passeover reliques Exod 12. and of robbing the Egyptians but the warrant of God over-ruling ordinary cases for speciall ends of his owne must be regarded Now I say the Lord had another end in withdrawing Elisha from going forth For why He saw he was more carnally adicted to the Prophet then he ought More specially of the cause he came full of carnall esteem of him as a man of great power to worke miracles 1. To prevent carnâ—ll esteem of his person and the outward cure He looked also at the outward cure full he was of himself and his carnall hopes who but Elisha with him as a great Physitian with a patient for hope of cure This together with a confidence he had of his owne sufficiency to give him full content for his paines as if he had gone to an ordinary man and lookt to take and pay did wholly eclipse the honour of God who will not give his glory to another The Lord loved Elisha well and his reputation as we see Cap. 2. yet not so well as to part with his own 2 King 2.5.6 Esay 42.5.6 for his sake If God had intended only a bodily cure it had been enough to have come out and laid on hand upon the leprosie and so an end But the Lord who had a further scope even to acquaint Naaman with himselfe 2. To cast out his owne spirit his power love and mercy in healing his soule also saw that this could not be effected withour fetching a further compasse viz. by casting out the aime at bodily cure alone the confidence upon a Prophets skill 3. And to raise up his spirit to God the admiration of a mans person the fulnesse of Naamans carnall hopes all these justled aside the glory of God and the preparation of Naamans heart to entertaine the gift with a due respect to the giver And therefore the Lord thinkes it best to suspend Naaman a while longer and to traine him by degrees to a more spirituall heart in embracing such a double mercy Tne Lord strives with his spirit as Gen. 6.2 to drive out of it that same carnall savour hope content wherewith he had filled himself having heard that the Prophet could heale him As for spirituall cure he felt no disease nor knew any remedy of it But the Lord meant it and therefore meant that Naaman should in the meane season be secretly prepared for it As our saviour told Peter what I doe now John 13.7 thou knowest not but hereafter thou shalt The Lord therefore by this crossing his hopes doth desire to let in a further light into his minde then yet he had That he might consider that he was not now come to an ordinary person to heale his body but to the Lord and his Prophet to worke a divine cure here therefore he must looke up to God stand to his curtesie adore his power love goodnesse and mercy here is no marquet for money to beare mastery all must come from meer goodnesse and that not from a Prophet but from the Lord working by him Now therefore having to doe with him let his carnall savour and erroneous conceits ly by let him empty himselfe of a wordly heart and get an heavenly as having only to do with God and not man The ground affords many sweet meditations I wil briefly touch upon two or three and so proceed Thie first is this All the course which God takes in bringing home the soul to God is in a word but this one to subdue the carnality and unsavourinesse of the heart Gods way in converting any is chiefly to subdue carnall savour and the blindnesse and error of the minde to the obedience of Christ From first to last the Lord aimes at this if we marke it through all the preparations of
effectuall calling whether by Law or Gospel which may appeare by this that the issue of all the worke of calling is faith And faith we know is the cheefe obedience of the heart to the word both commanding and promising and tries most of all the subjection of the soule Such then as is the end such is the preparative all the whole course of God therefore in converting the soule is to yoke downe and subject the heart to himselfe 2 Cor. 10.4 by casting out all which is set up in it against it as Paul speakes All opposition all rebellion all enmity which is therein whether before the meanes revealed Note well as all naturall poison of heart such as Naaman here is full of carnall savour of his cure resting to the prop of flesh and the Prophets ability or under the meanes themselves revealed must stoop to God somewhat or other terrors or promises or both must rid the soule of each high thought strong hold and error which suffers not the Lord to enter So is it here with Naaman he comes full of carnall confidence upon the arme of flesh and his owne rewards hope of speeding and going home an whole man but the Lord intending to send him home a new man crosses him in his old and strives to subdue the savour of his flesh to the savour of divine power Object It may be objected that this prevaild not with Naaman for in the next verse he fell to rage against the Prophet Answ I answer Although this course of God tooke not effected presently yet it was not lost it lay as leaven in the meale the whiles and had the due effect in his season But for the point know it brethren and judge your selves thereby 2. Branches of use of Exhortation There is in the soule a kingdome of darkenesse and Satan ruling thereby If God meane good to the soule he will translate it Branch 1 from under the subjection of this kingdome before he translate it under the kingdome of his deare sonne Judge of our selves by this order Col. 1.13 Looke therefore to your selves well at this plat and first be not discouraged although you finde under the meanes and ordinances Word Law Gospel fasting and prayer wofull fightings of corruption and concupisence rebellion against the worke of the Law resistance of the Gospel These will be and oftimes it is better it be thus Rebellion in the regenerate tends to the greater humiliation Rom. 7.13.18 then not for if the Lord be in the worke this very rebellion against God shall turne to good and abase the soule so much the more after as before it swelled against God I meane when he shall overpower it by that Spirit which convinceth of sinne Then I say shall the sinfulnesse of the soule out of measure sinfull occasion to it selfe a deeper humbling then if it had never rebelled Be not therefore troubled at that but be sure that the worke which it leaves behinde it be sound be sure the soule revolt not to her former ignorance fleshly savour fulnesse of her owne wisedome and corrupt worldly proud peevish and prophane frame lest it grow worse then ever Branch 2 Secondly brethren to be short let Gods end be our end in the whole course of the Ministery Of exhor Rom. 14.17 Judge not his kingdome of grace peace and righteousnesse to be set up in us before the kingdome of sin and darkenesse bee pulled downe Christ and Belial two Kings two kingdomes cannot stand 2 Cor. 6.14 one throne must be set up upon the others ruines The text tells us 1 King 16.22 when Omri and Tibni stood in competition for the Crowne the followers of Omri prevailed against the other So Tibni died and Omri raigned Just so it is here Till Tibni die Omri cannot raigne The best judgement of Gods people is not by what they have but what they want The Kingdome of God cannot stand till Satans be pulled down for they are incompatible Judge not your selves then I beseech you by those fruits which make semblance of goodnesse in you as by encrease of knowledge gifts to pray much hearing good memory reforming and abstaining from some evills biting in some ill qualities which dare not breake out But judge your selves by the casting downe of your strong forts and high thoughts and stout hearts one dram of this will secure you more of a safe estate and hold out longer then a pound of the other Try whether in all your other proceedings seemings to grow in the house of God your selves grow daily lowlier meeker brokenner for all Gods gifts are seasoned with humilitie and negatives in this kinde are your surest markes not so much what you have got in knowledge but what you have lost of your owne If yee prove this latter the other will prosper alone otherwise this will be a canker to fret out the marrow of the other It is no hard thing for a man to judge what meat his appetite stands to or not Observe your owne frame after all your hearings God will not judge yee by the helpes meanes or gifts yee have but by what your selves are If then your secret consciences bear you witnesse that when all is done yet a proud heart a scornfull spirit uncharitable selfe-loving ranke for it owne ends resting upon carnall proppes angry revenging clasping to the creature as Naaman here did or the like still lurke in yee and beare the sway when ye are put to it in Gods feare doe not rest till the Word have wrought a further worke in you and cast downe this kingdome in you Seek for more working both by the terror and promise For surely till this old kingdome be down at least subdued and tributary as Sauls house under David Edom and Moab to Salomon all your hearings cannot profit you Tremble when yee meet with the old kingdome you shall soone try your selves when occasion of triall comes and be well assured that whom the Lord calls them he subdues and here he pulls up one prop there another pillar of the old throne here he subdues ignorance there a false heart there a carnall minde God subdues corruption in his by peece-meale the savour of the flesh the will of man the pride the stomacke the wordly ends till he have ruined the throne And although a subtile professor will cover all these with the mantle of Religion yet still the comparison abides because he wants an heart to be rid of it But as for others you may feele them with a glove for even in the midst of their devotions giving thankes for meat praying or hearing their hearts are with their covetousnesse and lusts and sometimes they will be quarrelling and praying talking of the world and saying grace with one breath But so much of this branch A second is this The second meditaion upib this I have noted before in Naamans crouching at Elisha his gate how that disease of his
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
powder and shot to the battery The Lord therefore substitutes seely instruments in stead thereof and when mighty effects follow then is his might magnified For the second though wee deny not but the Lord is chiefe The 2. yet still we look at meanes and thinke God workes by them and why should wee not therefore embrace them Our base hearts fall short of God through lazinesse and distrust as well as by Atheisme And therefore even here also God layes a block in our way to stumble at and breake our shinnes to teach us to behold God more closly in the use of meanes both in matters of the World and of the Word he puts us off from our Elisha and sends us to wash in Jorden Thirdly if we goe a little further The 3. and set God up in his place above the meanes yet we take it for granted he must not faile us wee will tye him to over-rule and work by the meanes and thinke much if God satisfie us not accordingly Whereas wee should so look at God as an absolute soveraigne Agent who can work or not work by them above them against them without them Now I come to the use And first this is instruction in sundry kindes Vses 1 First Instruct to teach us why the Lord hath so stript our land and kingdome of Branch 1 so many worthy Lights and Instruments as he hath done some by death some by banishment others in warre others by other violence why hee hath so stript and bared us of many both in civill and Ecclesiasticall state Surely because we applauded our selves too much in their policie Wee have lost many worthy instruments because wee ascribed too much unto them their wisedome their learning experience and sufficiencie We have not looked upon God in their gifts zeale and labours wee have magnified our selves in our store and provision as if we should never be desolate as Tyrus did pride her self in her store of Jewels and pretious stones as Babel sate like a Queen and said she should never see sorrow and therefore was suddenly brought downe See Ezek. cap. 26.27 and 28. verse 13. Jer. 51.53 Lam. 1.9 John 5 35. and as Jerusalem thought her selfe the holy Mountaine and Citie of God the mirror of the world having the Ark of Gods presence his Temple and Priests his Ordinances and Prophets his Word and Oracles therefore Lam. 1. shee came downe wonderfully Even so hath it been with us No sooner hath the Lord planted in any place a faithfull Minister as a shining Light and burning Candle but the people have fallen to idolize him to rejoyce in his out-side to thinke themselves safe and happy in enjoying such Instruments ascribing all the effect of his labours to him little acknowledging the finger of God or the office which hee sustaines not honouring him for the worke sake which hee serves for to reconcile them to God to beget them to a lively hope by the Gospell This basenesse of our fleshly respects hath caused the Lord to rob us of them and to set mean ones in their roomes To teach men to lay to heart their former carnall ends How many have received Prophets to farre other ends then the Lord ever sent them To make them as tearmes of comparison between person and person some to hold upon Apollo 1 Cor. 3.3.4 some Cephas some Paul some others To censure to jangle and some to bring themselves and Townes into some credit in the countrey others to get good custome for their wares and shops others to make themselves wel reputed praised for their forwardnesse and zeal in profession whereas yet alas the meanes being gone and the sive taken out of the water they have proved as meere formall time-servers and as ignorant of their grounds as they who never made shew at all Others have securely rested in their labours never looking for any change of heart thereby but thinking the Prophets shall live for ever and when they are gone fretting at their precisenesse of conscience and unthankfully leaving them to sink or swim and shift as they can Is this beloved to honour God in his ordinance to cleave close to it as under God the mean of conversion Is this to count their feet beautifull and to adore the Lord in the varietie of his gifts and instruments Rom. 10.15 No no and therefore the Lord hath been fain to take them out of the way and leave us to our selves so that our supply was never so great as our defeat is strange All to teach us to looke at the simplicitie of Gods ends to serve God first and man with his leavings let the Lord have the heart set him up there in selfe-deniall humility faith sincerity and faithfulnesse and then let the instrument have the over-plus that honour and countenance which belongs to him for his service For God counts not himselfe robbed by that esteeme wherein we have his Minister under himselfe but that which he hath above himselfe And surely it is not for nothing that the renowned King lately slaine in the heat of his warres King of Sweden oft spake a little before his death that the Lord would not long suffer him to live because the people made him such an Idoll and robbed God of his due to magnifie him Papists worship a dead blocke for want of knowledge and we a living one for lacke of faith the one for a little carving and workmanship of gold and silver the other for a little varnish of gifts or excellencie or parts the one from man the other from God but both idolatrous because against the honour of the giver Branch 2 Another branch of instruction Instruction is to teach us why the Lord doth so defeat men of their purposes and projects which they frame to themselves when they goe to worke upon their owne heads in matters of God We have seen it with our eyes verified Eccles 9.11 which Salomon speakes That victory is not alway with the strong nor race with the swift nor wealth to the provident nor esteeme to the vain-glorious nor spirituall successe to the Minister though learned and rarely qualified because men have boasted of their strength swiftnesse policie experience providence and abilities more then the Lord. I am witnesse my selfe of some sad events in this kinde that men have spent themselves in their studie to perfect some speciall discourse and Master-peece of their owne braine either to beare downe the truth and broach schismaticall points or to win the spurres and get themselves the eternall repute of learned persons or some vaine applause of fantasticke auditors as if they sought a plaudite upon the stage a base prophanenesse both in them that seek it and them that offer it But the Lord hath so resisted their pride and struck off their wheeles brought them to such a reproachfull non-plus before all their auditors that they have verified the speech God resisteth the proud
Jam. 4.6 and some of them have got more grace when they became more humble Oh! what a terror it should be to all such as dare affront God in his owne element and covet to honour themselves with that which they sacrilegiously have stollen from God! If the Lord loath it in a meere politicke Atheist and in an heathen the one affecting the glory the other defiling the vessels of God Herod I mean and Belshazzar 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.
therefore repentance entertaines him men of unhappy aimes who cannot avoid one rocke save by rushing upon another I confesse in the place alleaged Paul cites these words out of the Prophet Depart and goe from among them and I will receive you and be a father unto you and you shall be sonnes and daughters of me saith the Lord Almighty But this text sheweth not that repentance is a step to the receiving of a man by faith and adoption but rather it discovers this That till the Lord had humbled and abased the Iewes for their idolatry and setting up of false gods against himselfe and committing spirituall filthinesse with them there was no hope of being received into favour or marriage with him Otherwise repentance and turning from idols to God and from darkenesse and the kingdome of Sathan to Christ presupposeth faith to purge the conscience and to make us beloved and accepted The summe briefely is That this point urgeth us not to repent ere we beleeve which were to overthrow the need of a Christ and then to come to Christ but to shew us that ere ever Christ be truely closed with sinne must be nipt in the necke That jollity content and hearts-ease which a sinner found in his lusts must be throwne out both litter and whelpes of his heart ere ever he come to behold Christ with his sufficiency to save One wombe cannot at once carry two conceptions and the soule cannot at once serve two masters God and Mammon Christ and lusts The sufficiency which lusts erroneously afforded to the soule making her deeme her selfe happy in them and to be as a man of a full stomacke who loathes a honey-combe must be abandoned by legall consternation and humbling ere Christ be precious Christ must be needed as meat by a sterne belly ere ever he be had But that he cannot be while the love of lusts lived in surfeits the appetite And this is the first of those branches in which grosse-selfe consists Of which this I say Oh! that it should be possible that such a nature as was first created with a soule capable of divine being The degeneratenesse of our nature discovered and bred to immortality should so debauch it selfe and lose her honour as not with Nebuchadnezzar to forgoe his throne to feed with beasts but to forfeit Gods image to become a beast Nay I wrong a beast to speake so to become worse then any swine or beast and to wallow and incorporate it selfe so into spirituall filth as to forget what it was ever borne unto and not onely so far to degenerate as to embrace the enemy of God and that which Christ came to destroy but to set up such a sufficiency to it selfe in it as to abolish that sole-sufficiency of mercy to pardon and purge it yet this I say of it that although sinne of her owne nature and in her course tends by degrees to defile harden and make the soule impenitent and desperate yet if God breake off the soule betimes from it ere it have cankerfretted the soule it is more easie for such a sinner to come to some sence conviction and humiliation for it and so to some need of pardon then many a Pharisee who under pretence of abhorring odious Publicans and offendors is riveted into a conceit of his owne righteousnesse both a Pharisee and a Publican oppose Christ yet the former more then the latter because Christ came not to call the righteous but the sinner to repentance And so much of this so farre as this Digression will permit The second selfe naturâ—ll or the civilian I proceed to the second that is to the meere Naturalist or Civilian By whom I meane such an one as lives upon dregges the very reliques and ruines of the image of God decayed To open my selfe briefely the Lord out of infinite mercy hath so dispensed and ordred the penalties due to sinne in the fallen condition of Adam that although the wrath and curse of God upon the same lye equally upon all his posterity yet for some ends The flood-gates of corruption restrained by providence his owne mercifull indulgence and the commodity of common life he hath in some persons restrained the flood-gates of this deluge so that sinne hath a limitation and bound set unto it both for sundry kindes and measures of it Some being more innocent harmelesse righteous just temperate sober curteous civill then others which vertues although they are as pearles in a swines snout planted in a cursed nature out of which nothing can proceed save that which is uncleane for the clearest water in a standing kennell or puddell though it differ from the mudde underneath yet savours of the same stinch yet comparatively seeming to be lesse ill and impure then the muddy and base lusts of the uncleane the prophane and openly wicked obtaine among men the repute and opinion of vertues And indeed so they are in order and respect to the welfare of a Commonwealth in which it s no small outward beauty and happinesse to live with such in respect of the fierce injurious Favour of nature is inlarged by many meanes in the naturall civilian noysome and hurtfull qualities of the lewd and wicked And this favour of Nature in many men is greatly enlarged by sundry meanes First by the lawes of men which tend to settle civility and innocency in their governments which having penalties annexed to them severely censuring delinquents 1. By good Lawes cause the selfe-loving spirit of flesh partly from a confessed goodnesse in the vertues themselves partly from feare of punishment and partly a love of praise and reputation among men who count such rare peeces to cloze therewith to curbe and keepe in their distempers and to accommodate themselves to the order of community 2. By education and Discipline Secondly by the institution and discipline of Moralists instilling into their disciples the seeds of vertue and outward life propounding rewards of commendation and honour to such as attaind them shame and reproach to such as ensued them in which kinde those heathen Masters of manners excelled For by your continuall fostering those sparkles of nature left upon the herth and laying together such principles of art as they preceived to make for the engendring and nourishing thereof in mens mindes especially their tender novices not being leavened before with lusts they got such a perfection both in negative absteinings from evils and positive performances of duties as may justly make even Christians to tremble that they should come so farre short of them both in subduing of passions and practice of selfe-denying vertues being under the discipline of Christ himselfe Thirdly 3. By their experience others by their experience which their industry and observation of politicke courses among men hath purchased unto them have obtained such measure of perfection in this kinde that they have beene able to rule others by the authority of their skill and carriage and
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
for that which is cursed for ever not onely through the want of Christ but through her enmity to Christ 4. See the ugly hue of this sin Fourthly They shall see the ugly shape of that creature which they have made an Idoll and committed spirituall Sodomy with it as degenerate a villany as to commit filthinesse with a beast They shall see what a dampe it brings the soule into when it places her happinesse in the earth and the hidden treasures of it how it makes the word and ordinances most fulsome and unsavory 5. All the savor of a creature rests upon mercy 5. That all sweetnesse which any creature can afford must come from Christ dropping fatnesse into it by his footprints in it what savor then can it afford when it opposes Christs sufficiency by her own vanity and so robs him of his what savor can the soul suck from a creature which is a dead carrion what is all the comfort of a creature to a dead soule not only destitute of the life of Christ but stabbing Christ to the heart rejecting his life yea 8. It will worke the soul to a revenge of it selfe chusing to cut off the creature from it self then it would not be cut off from it By these the like convincements the Lord will cast down the fort of self in the creature stripping it naked of all her false sufficiency shewing her she is but a gull not able to afford that which she crakes of that shee hath nothing but bare walles to boast of that so this strong hold being razed and made levell with the earth poverty of spirit may enter into the soul and Christ and his sufficiency which onely belongs to them who are brought to nought in themselves may come into it 2 Cor. 10.4 Therefore let all such as have felt this disease in themselves cease to marvell why their hearts have beene so empty of Christ Conclusion of the point and beene left to such a wofull staggering of heart in point of comfort For they have forsaken the fountaine and digged broken pits to themselves which will hold no water Let them renounce them for hereafter and say Ashur shall not save us wee will not ride upon horses upon these vaine creatures for with thee the fatherlesse shall finde mercy make them no prop of support either by greedy seeking Jer. 2.13 Hos 13.2 sensuall keeping or loathnesse in forgoing And Lord I finde my selfe as destitute and forlorne a wretch in point of grace notwithstanding all my deep portion in the creature as if I were the veriest begger in the Country I see all true sufficiency to be in thee and that thine exceedes mine both for kinde roote quality and degree of content as much as a carnall a fading blasted and vanishing yea a vexing one is inferior to a spirituall immortall incorruptible and satisfying sweetnesse wherefore I count my selfe the same man whether I want or have abhorring my selfe in dust and ashes I renounce mine own and rest at thy dispose for the creature to have more or lesse of it and cleave to thine And so much also shall serve for this fourth branch The last kinde of grosse selfe is Selfe-religion or Religious selfe The fifth Branch Selfe-religion And this is the invention of Satan Christs deadly foe that whereas all will not be prophane nor naturalists nor epicures but will be religious lo he hath a baite for every fish What it is and can insinuate himselfe aswell into Religion it selfe as into lusts and pleasures and so provide that in all the duties and priviledges which professors of Christ boast of yet there shall bee a cord upon their heele which shall pull them backe from all power and savor of Christ aswell as if they had never been towards any Christ at all And so the nearer Christ they seeme to goe the more dangerous shall their selfe-delusion prove and the more confident their sufficiency of devotion makes them the more wofull shall their defeat at last bee and all for want of soundnesse and sincerity And in this point I would insist in three things Priviledges Duties The branches of Religious selfe three and degrees of Religion All these strengthen Selfe-religion in hypocrites and time-servers and shroud them under a false covert and protection of that which is farre from them for the first it was alway is and will be 1. Privledges the boast of Jewes Papists and common Protestants They were the children of the free not the bond-woman Abrahams seed such as whose all the promises were to whom the Ordinances and Oracles of God belonged others were dogs and swine and accursed to them they cried the Temple the Temple they were of all other nations the chosen generation Matth. 3.9 the peculiar people all others rejected save themselves The Lord must want worshippers if he cast them off and by this meanes they were so puffed up in themselves that when Christ came in person to offer himselfe for salvation they abhorred and slew him and cast him out of the vineyard that fulnesse and sufficiency they felt in their priviledges Privledges of Religion great enmity to many in keeping them from Christ caused them to live in a practice of horrible treachery and impiety against God and desperate contempt of the Lord Jesus as it were under a banner of defiance Just the like is the practice of Papists who under colour of the Church the Church the succession of Bishops the ancientnesse of their Religion the glory of their outside of worship pompe and bravery of rites and ceremonies their prosperity and worldly happinesse their large and generall extent in government their superstitious devotions and what not which flesh can desire make themselves beleeve that they are the onely Christians and all other are upstarts and counterfeits So doe our common Protestants and hypocrites they boast of their baptisme their part in the communion of Saints their right to their word and ordinances they are no hangbyes no Gibeonites no recusants no prophane ones no morallists nor epicures but constant worshippers of God frequenters of the sacraments and partakers of all the priviledges of the Church When Constantine restored the Church to her priviledges she began to degenerate And this puffes them up the divell blinding them that they should bee bewitcht with his charme and looke no further then a bare priviledge comparing themselves with such as still walke in a loose and prophane course and in respect of such deeming themselves very religious But what is the effect hereof surely this that under pretence of their great priviledges they are full of themselves so that the pith and marrow of them for all tend unto and end in Christ or else are empty shells faith I mean and Christ in his sufficiency to forgive save and sanctifie them is a meere stranger unto them The Church was purest when her priviledges were fewest The
like may be said of duties It was the great boast of that Pharisee and of all his tribe that he fasted twice a week 2. Religious duties gave almes paid tithes of all even to mint and cummin he was not as the publican no extortioner no briber no usurer and this made him crow upon his dunghill exceedingly and swell in his law righteousnesse that Christ never came in his minde Luke 18.11.12 Those Pharisees in the Gospel upon whom so many woes are pronounced how full of their duties were they Christ himselfe was a libertine to them and their strictnesse a companion of Publicans and sinners a glutton and winebibber in comparison of their abstinence and sobriety How dangerous he could not keepe a Sabbath strictly enough for them nor walke closely enough to please them Phil. 3.7 8 9. And Paul who had beene one of them and after his conversion bewrayed their secrets confessed that as he trusted to his priviledges of a Jew of circumcision of his sect so especially that hee walked to the uttermost in the most precise strictnesse of his profession making conscience of being a Pharisee and throughout all his Epistles what doth he cry out of so much as his and their law righteousnesse that is that exact and strict walking in all the duties of the morall law and ceremonies Oh! how this conceit of their owne vertues and moralities stiffened swelled and puffed up all this bastardly brood not onely to disdaine prophane ones but also to abhorre the spiritualnesse of the Lord Jesus and to contemne the offer of his grace as base and superfluous And what was the chiefe object of our Saviours outcries Matth. 23. woes and curses save this rabble of Pharisees one whole Chapter being spent therein yea his bitter and irreconciliable antipathy and enmity of spirit against them above all other either heathens or prophane ones Surely because he saw that above all other opposition to himself this was the most deadly and damnable to set up a god against a Christ an Altar against an Altar a righteousnesse comming from a meere selfe-loving and selfe seeking principle from a carnall bottome to a carnall end against the eternall spirituall pure righteousnesse of the Lord Jesus who came to discover not onely all grosse unrighteousnesse and make it odious but also all righteousnesse of flesh and all the obedience of hypocrites and to cast it as unsavory salt dung and dogsmeate upon the dunghill And to be briefe what else is the religion of our daies and times both among Popish and carnall Protestant worshippers save their duties devotions The one boasting of his masses sacrifices almes penances empty fastings building of Hospitalls doing of good workes and all to establish their owne Corban and Kingdome through the merit of their owne congruities and condignities the other their serving of God hearing his word receiving his sacraments abstaining from the sinnes of usury drunkennesse uncleannesse and doing the duties of the Sabbath of mercy and charity of righteousnesse and equity But to be sure both of them swelling in the opinion of themselves both abhorring to feele any pinching need of the Lord Jesus and his sufficiency to pardon both their unrightousnesse and also their counterfeit righteousnesse being both equally damnable But the third branch viz. Religion in point of degrees and measures The 3. Branch Degrees of Religion is of all the most dangerous peece of Selfe and swelleth the unsound and hollow heart of man in the opinion of himselfe Some boasting of their knowledge of Gods will in generall others of some degrees of legall humiliation a third sort of a wonderfull sweetnes they have tasted in hearing the Gospel and the glad tidings of life salvation thereby a fourth shewing how they are awed by the knowledge of the word from their former courses what degrees of grace have been wrought in them how long they have been hearers What degrees of Religion a man may attaine unto and held out in their profession longer then many revolters what zeal they have shewed in setting up the Ministery in their Townes praier in their families care and conscience and good example in their lives how many sins they have laid aside what good they have done in their repeating of Sermons calling upon their kindred and neighbours what services they have done for the Church runne ridden written bestowed paines and travell to settle order and government in their places how they have honored graced and maintained the Minister invited entertained him to their houses how they have stood out and suffered for the Gospel Others go further instance in the power of the promise of Christ in their soules what ravishing passions of joy admiration and thankes that sweet doctrine hath wrought in them what pangs of deepe love and affection it hath raised in them how it hath bred in them abundant weeping and sorrow for their sinnes humiliation and feare under the hand of God how they have stood upon thornes till the Sabbath or lecture day came what ardent desires after the word what longings what frequent use of meanes it hath wrought in them and how they have denied both lust and liberties for Christ and could be content for the time to beg to goe to prison and suffer for him Besides many effects which this hath wrought in them the curbing in of their tongues their passions and their lives which were wont to be full of lying deceit rage revenge unmercifulnesse unrighteousnesse but now they are become true of their word quiet moderate curteous gentle and mercifull All these thinges laid together cause them to thinke no lesse then that their state is good and sound to God-ward for why the hearsay of Christ wrought all these things in them And yet not to condemne any particular person for these seeing God only knowes the hearts of the sonnes of men how many have we knowne by wofull experience who have attained some of these or all these degrees And to how small purpose who yet in a short time have bewraied themselves to bee time-fervers and wanzed away to nothing as fast as ever they seemed to come forward Alas they never called themselves to question never tried their estate by the rules of the word nor came to put difference betweene a conscience proceeding from supernaturall revealing and betweene divine and spirituall perswasion The Apostle hath a strange speech 1 Cor. 15.19 1 Cor. 15.19 If our hope were in this life onely in Christ wee were of all men most miserable whereby we see that many seeke their Christ onely for this life that is how they may make use of Christ here below for a while to get themselves some inward truce with an accusing conscience or to get themselves credit ease and welfare here among men with whom they see Christ and Religion are in request But as for a Christ to save to sanctifie and glorifie them for ever they
is a better comming in place when all is done say of thy selfe as Luther of those devotions I count my selfe no nearer heaven by them then if I had plaied the Publican all this while nay in some regard further off The Divell else will cut thy veines in this warme water and cause thee to perish insensibly Consider that to have this selfe of thine may seeme somewhat But to cast all this off and be naked and nothing can onely prepare thee for that fulnesse and sufficiency of Christ which can onely save thee Which grace the Lord grant thee Thus for a more cleare handling of this argument I have digressed from the streame of my doctrine it is now high time to returne to it againe So much for this time Let us pray for a blessing c. THE FIFTH LECTVRE continued upon the eleventh Verse VERSE XI But Naaman was wroth and said Behold I thought thus in my selfe surely he will come forth and call upon the Lord his God and strike his hand upon the place and recover the leper VERSE 12. Are not Abana and Pharfar rivers of Damascus better c. HAving in the former Lecture beloved made way to settle this maine Doctrine of close Selfe upon her bottome Returne to the maine scope of the point of mixt selfe by severing from it some kindes of self more grosse and palpable I must now taking it for granted that you remember what I have said of it already proceed to the handling of the point And lest any should thinke there is no finer spunne selfe then that I have spoken of First I will mention some branches of this roote mixing themselves with the soule in her strife after faith and as the Ivy about the bow twining about the best endeavours of the poore soule to hold it off from the promise This being done I will prove the doctrine by Scripture and reasons Thirdly I will lay downe an answer to a question for the opening of the dangerous nature of this enemy And lastly come to some use of the doctrine First of the first First then that you may perceive brethren what manner of thing this mixt selfe is Mixt selfe wherein it discovers it selfe I will name some of the chiefe instances wherein this disease discovers her selfe The which I mention without any curious order and leave them to the godly wise to consider of every one to single out his owne annoyance The first is selfe error 1. Error imagining that the Lord in his promise and offer of Christ doth not so offer him as therewithall conveying power and efficacy of perswading and inabling the soule to accept and beleeve it of it owne power thereby creating in the soule the fruit of lips Esay 57. Jam. 1.16 but rather upon some condition of our owne strength mixed with the Lords goodnesse to concur of our selves with the promise Secondly selfe-conceit 2. Self-conceit such as Naamans here was fancying a way of our owne speedier and quicker then we have warrant for to wit that if once the soule bee under a condition and prepared for Christ by sorrow desire and diligence the worke of beleeving is as present as the grinding of the corne when the upper milstone runnes upon the nether whereas faith is the stampe of the spirit which bloweth when it listeth 3. Self-preparins at his pleasure Thirdly selfe-preparations that is a taking up of a rest in the soule that if she can but attaine to these she need goe no further for these can be wrought in no other then in such as shall be saved whereas first the question is whether they be truly wrought or from selfe-love and although they proceed from the promise yet happinesse consists not in them but in the omnipotent power of God carrying the soule by them into the streame of the satisfaction of Christ the onely blood whereof is sufficient to save it by faith 4. Selfe-bondage Fourthly selfe-bondage which is when the soule is so extreamly oppressed with the reliques or returnes of slavish feare through corruption and guilt too deeply apprehended that it is dazeled and held under from beholding the free and cleare truth of the promise to set her at liberty yea if melancholy and frowardnesse of will be added hereto mixed with the ill custome to conceive so deepe enmity in God against the sinfull creature that she will hold her owne peevishly against all the light of the word or counsell and perswasion to the contrary viz. that God the offended judge is the first mover in this frame of conversion and hath cut off his plea willingly and intended the way of reconciliation himselfe The fifth is selfe-love 5. Selfe-love when the soule so lookes at the promise as an object of immediate good to herselfe and for her owne ends and welfare not subordaining her owne salvation to the glory of God and the declaration of the depth of his wisdome 1 Thes 1. and the riches of his grace that he may be admired in them that beleeve 6. Sloth The Sixt is selfe-sloth when the soule hath a wambling and fulsome aime at the promise not indeed seriously and sadly digesting the ground of Gods so free offering the inestimable jewell of Christ to her for pardon and peace called in Scripture the strength of God Esay 27.5 I meane the full appeasing of his justice by the paiment of a price nor yet with how faithfull an heart full and free grace he offereth but loosely forgetting that all is yea and amen in Christ and looking at the promise as at a thing naked and unfurnished hath a strong consolation and refuge Heb. 7. Heb. 6. penult The Seventh is selfe-treachery and doubtfulnesse whereby the soule having the generall offer of God to all under the condition 7. Treachery yet because she is not named in the word therefore doubts that in speciall she is not intended in the offer and so growes to thinke that she may separate the things which God hath joyned whereas she should rest in this That the Lord debarres no soule from grace which debarres not herselfe Esay 55.1 saying Ho every one that thirsteth come c. and the particular is included in the generall and if every poore soule should thus goe betweene barke and tree and cavill who should ever come to beleeve Eightly 8. Infidelity selfe-infidelity which is a deadly dart of Satan piercing the heart even when the fruit is comming to the birth tempting thus why art thou so bent to cleave to the word How knowest thou whether it be Gods word or no If it be how canst thou prove it If not whereupon dost thou build thy great confidence And this dart often so prevailes that all the former witnesse of the spirit touching the truth of God by many evidences seemes to be lost Ninthly selfe-cavilling 9. Cavilling when the heart is set upon excepting against the promise either from her
must needs vanish and leave the soule as low as ever they found it and so the longer and closer they are clave to the greater confusion they cause till the soule being weary of her owne pride and mixtures freely resigne it selfe as empty and nothing to the meere good pleasure perswasion and leasure of the spirit to act and effect all both preventings assistings and perfectings by his owne strength which is alway strongest when the soule lies lowest as the red earth of which Adam was formed till the Lord breathed the spirit of life into it And surely to conclude there is nothing more easie then to be deluded in the triall hereof for such is the inchantment of self in this kind that no experience of disappointing the soule by her false feelings will teach her to deny her selfe and humble her self before God except only she apply her selfe closely to the rule of the word in every steppe she takes examining from what bottome her affections and preparations proceed and finding self to be chiefe in the work instantly to suspect it and constantly to resist it beleeving that the most abiding and lasting worke of humâ—liation and preparation proceeds from the sweetnesse and freedome of a promise from a reconciled God when the heart is most desolate and helplesse in her selfe By these few the reader may perceive what I meane by this privy-selfe and by these heads hee may learne to judge of other like which are infinite Now then I proceed to prove the point that this mixt selfe when all is done will deprive the soule of mercy if it be not prevented Let the first text be that Heb. 4. ult We see they were disappointed of the entring into his rest why were not they faire for it Proofes of the point yes surely they had forsaken Egypt and come a great journey in the wildernesse But what letted them Unbeleefe And what caused that Selfe Not only their wishing to be in Egypt at their fleshpots nor yet their fornication and Idolatry But as Esay tells us they rebelled against his holy spirit Esay 63.10 Their spirituall rebellings cavillings distrust were the causes They erred in heart as the Psalmist calls it that is Psal 9.2 they entertained false conceits against him sometime they asked Can God spread a table in the wildernesse Sometime they pitied their children saying Alas We shall never see Canaan Sometime they said Numb 9. the Giants were able to eat them up there were chariots of iron Sometimes they said this was not the way God might as well have brought them the right way to Canaan as the wrong if he had meant them well They made the promise of entring easily and plaine in it self to be difficulter then it was some saying it is as high as heaven how shall we get thither can we climbe up others thus it is as deep as the nethermost earth how shall we descend thither is it possible for us to construe so hard a promise whereof we see neither sense or colour to make a worke of forty daies to be forty yeares and yet meane us well Therefore Moses tells them Deut. and Rom. 10. say not the word is far off for it is neare thee in thy mouth yea thine heart that thou mightest beleeve it The deceit of the erring hearts warped these crotchets to hold them out of Canaan and to scatter their carcasses in the wildernesse Another text is Heb. 12.15 Heb. 12.15 Let no man faile of the grace of God Let there be no bitter roote springing up in you to defile you and turne you off He had spoken before of Esau who was the first borne and sought the blessing with teares yet failed of it he came too late after it was conveied away from him too sure to Iacob why he had a bitter roote springing up in him a selfe-willed peevish heart against his brother he disdained that he should be preferred The Apostle applies it to the Hebrewes who were faire for the promise read Rom. 10.1 2 3 4 Rom. 10.1 2 3 4. 5 6. c. but yet failed and lost it the Gentiles were preferred And why there was this bitter roote of selfe in them they stood upon their conceit none were the Church save they none so righteous as they They scorned that dogs should goe to heaven before those whose righteousnesse was so precise as theirs and this conceit defiled hardned them and overthrew the righteousnesse of Christ They could never submit selfe to the word preached nor comply with it but bitterly rejected it and them who preacht it as being a new way to heaven and not that which they had learned and should they stoop to this new learning of Christ This bitternesse overthrew them So Ahaz Esay 8. Esay 8. was faire for the promise of victory insomuch as the Prophet bid him demand a signe he would not why Selfe-presumption letted him he thought he was sure enough of God if once he spake the word But the Lord looked at his owne honour and therefore gave his people a signe by a Virgin that should conceive and bring forth a sonne So that the confidence of his foolish heart which thought hee beleeved God whereas in truth he sought himselfe onely and not the glory of God Luke 4. deceived him So it is said Luke 4. the Pharisees and Elders comming to Iohns baptisme despised the counsell of God touching their salvation why because they were carried with strong self-prejudice against the way of Iohns Ministery and chose rather not to bee faved at all then that way The Galathians were faire for heaven also and ran well Gal. 3. what letted them a misprision thrust into their heads by false teachers that Pauls way and Gods way agreed not and that the old way by Ceremonies was best easiest and likeliest because agreeing with flesh and this makes Paul to feare lest he had bestowed his paines upon them in vaine Our Saviour Christs Disciples were faire for faith what letted them selfe-sloth dulnesse of heart Oh you dull and slow of heart to beleeve all which is written in the Law and Prophets concerning Christ Luke 24. in what a depth of darkenesse did it hold them Their eies were held so downe that they could not discerne the Lord Jesus when hee stood and talked with them I will but adde one or two more That yong man in the Gospell was not farre from the Kingdome what stopped him Surely he came full of himselfe and had kept the Law from his youth this he had a strong conceit of but when hee was turned out of that confidence and put into a new way of selfedeniall and selling all he went away sorrowfull not onely because he was covetous but because forestalled in opinion that his way was best and is now crossed To conclude that is a solemne text which our Saviour urges Ioh. 5. Joh. 5. How can ye beleeve when ye seeke or receive
nature of this wofull Selfe A second gound of this point is from comparison with others For Reason 2 how easie a conclusion is it to make especially selfe being the Logician I see thus many adulterers From comparison with others liers and swearers despise God and all goodnesse contemne the meanes and scorne the light because their workes are evill now I for my part am a diligent hearer of the word a countenancer of Ministers a worshipper of God in my family and perhaps more yea a renouncer of all open sins and therefore must not I needs be led by a spirit of more excellent nature then they are Surely if I had their spirit I should be led to the same evills which yet now I abhorre Nay more when these hypocrites shall not onely compare themselves with others Selfe upholds herselfe by false comparisons but with themselves and say such a one was I wont to bee a grosse cozener and oppressor a cheater a covetous wretch uncleane and base but since I have heard and professed the Gospel I have abhorred such stuffe and am not onely in mine owne opinion but in the judgement of others another man Oh I say what a shrewd argument is this for one that cannot or will not compare himself with the word and trie himselfe by the markes of a beleever to give sentence on his own side which to doe for one not converted to God how doth it overthrow all his former shewes affections and duties and hinder him from true conversion indeed A third reason may be from Satan whose pillers are pitched more Reason 3 deeply and dangerously upon selfe Satan imbarks himself more deepâ—y in selfe then in other lusts then upon any other more open offender I say upon this privy-selfe especially Grosse persons doe but little hurt no nor such open hypocrites as whose shews are openly confuted by their owne practice for why each one stoppes his nose at them and they themselves comming once to the touchstone of the word have no great colour for themselves but more easily fall in peeces and give up their weapons to the battery of the law and power of the word convincing them But it is not so here For when Satan can so delude an unsound heart by the sweetnesse of selfe as to resist the dint of the truth and harden himselfe in his pretended religion and duties against the Lord Jesus and the spirit of faith and grace hee sleepes securely in his den knowing that such an one is under locke and key and is not like by any probability to get out of so excusing and erroneous a conscience and condition for he is as ready to damne himselfe for his owne ends as for Satans and therefore is under a more deepe chaine then any other sinner is True it is Satan chuseth rather out of the excesse of his wickednesse to debaush mens consciences but if once he can be resolved by sure markes that selfe beares sway above grace which is no hard thing for him to doe who can convey himselfe so cunningly into the bent and frame of mens carriages he knowes himselfe as sure of such abiding so as of men of more prophane and odious conversation Lastly how just is it with God to give over such to the hardnesse of Reason 4 their owne hearts to detaine the truth of God in unrighteousnesse Selfe deludes dangerously by Gods just giving her over to her own way and to lurke still in their owne den of ease and selfeconceit who having cleerely conceived his will and knowing that all who gather without Christ doe but scatter and except the Lord make the soule an habitation for his spirit all our building is but in vaine a meere Babell of confusion and a Castle in the aire yet shall withdraw their heart from God in the maine worke of selfedeniall and selling all that they might buy the pearle I doubt not but there are many unsound ones who know it not but doubtlesse the number of such is few in comparison of others To him that hath shall be given but from him who hath not shall bee taken away that hee seemeth to have Matth. 25.29 And so much also may serve for Reason I come now according to my order to answer a question A Question answered How may a man discover this mischiefe in his heart Since this mixt selfe is so dangerous a mischiefe as to deprive the soul of all her labour and hopes how might a man come to some discovery of selfe that so he might the more easily be prepared to cast it out and prevent the danger of it betimes ere it be remedilesse Seeing the conceiving hereof may make much for the application of the doctrine following I will a little insist in answering the question Therefore I say that the nature of this disease may partly appeare in the degrees of it and partly in the footprints and passages of it of both a little and first of the first Answ These degrees may the better be conceived if we consider that privy selfe as I have noted is that chiefe fort and refuge which old Adam imbarkes himselfe in 1. By her degrâ—es for the avoiding of Christ and the promise according then to the degrees of this bulwarke of flesh and the danger thereof Selfe may bâ—â— perceived by 3. properties the degrees of this selfe may be I conceive then that we may refer all this secret mischiefe to these three degrees The first in selfe presuming 1. Presumption The secoâ—d in selfe fearing The third in selfe withdrawing Selfe presuming is that corruption which holds off Christ in the preparation of the Law Gospel such as these feeling of the soul to be in an utter strait and in an absolute need of Christ mourning after him desiring him and taking paines for him with the like These all if they be soundly wrought in the soule proceeding not onely from legall abasement but also Evangelicall tidings of peace by the good things which onely Christ hath purchased cannot proceed from any principle in our selves Howbeit selfelove is so prone to presume of that to bee wrought truly in us which she covets and wishes to be wrought out of a desire of her own welfare that she easily mixes her selfe with the offer and promise and not staying her full time to weigh duâ—y the nature thereof takes her owne pangs and hopes and selfeloving conceits to be true preparations Now whereas every abiding worke of grace must have a principle in it above selfe-ends and selfe-love therefore what marvell if such flashes of presumptuous selfe vanish and leave the soule as new to beginne as ever it was 2. Self-fearing A second degree is selfe fearing which may befall him who hath shot the former gulfe for it lies in another extremity and runnes as much on the left hand as the other did on the right thinking though ungroundedly that although some worke hath beene
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
and cost a pound Not to be skilfull in his trade in knowing the seasons of sowing tilling reaping and husbandry in their seasons What a shame it is Rom. 12. for him who should be fervent in spirit serving the Lord to be slâ—ck and lazy in his calling and by improvidence to become himself a burthen to the Church a reproach to the wicked and a tempter of God to suffer the seed of the just to beg their bread How is this prevented save by serving providence Whence come so many banquerupts as are even professors save in great part from hence that men rush unskilfully upon unknowne trades fill their hands with stocke from other mens purses wanting skill and experience to manage them And so by their unskilfulnesse either in husbandry manufactures or traffique spend their own and their wives portions and childrens meanes and so must seeke to hide it by travell into another world Are not our plantations like to take well if such be the planters Others although of a loving heart to Gods people yet wanting discretion suffer themselves to be much overlaid with burdensome persons which oft causeth strife betweene them and their wives when their states sinke Others pick quarrels with their trades and so changing them for hoped gaines in another bury their stockes Others attempt forraine voiages rashly having no ability spending that in the journey which at home might be a stock for them to live upon being utterly inexperiensed in such imployments as they must bee put upon Others hope for great matters abroad and finding poverty grow discontented and repent them We must know it is one thing for a man to deny himselfe for God when he calls us as he did Abraham another to call our selves when God calls not but rather our owne spirit deceives us And yet it is a common thing with such if they be taxed for such rashnesse to say that men speak like worldlings from carnall reason what Must not God be trusted Yes but not tempted Paul and the Pilot Act. 28. differed yet Paul would not beat out his braines nor cast him overboord but rather guide him in his government The third and maine But the worst of this folly is when it disguiseth Religion herselfe and causeth that which is wisdome it selfe to be counted foolishnesse How many men pull upon themselves unseasonable and needlesse trouble strong and cruell enemies fines censures imprisonments for their ungrounded zeale rash judgings of their betters without a calling for then I grant they serve the Lord who will beare them harmelesse mixing their owne passions invectives upbraidings and distempers with the cause of Christ who needed no weapons of such warfare And hereby bring upon themselves either uncomfortable sufferings if they stick to it or else base recanting of their follies How many private persons run themselves a ground by medling with abuses and corruptions to which they are not called going against the streame of those evills which it is bootlesse to exasperate and so are drowned in that gulfe which they cannot shoote How many neglecting their callings under pretence of zeale runne from place to place mispend their time borrow and pay not againe open the mouthes of the vile against them to say these fellowes rayle upon us for our carnall wisdome and worldlinesse But surely wee had rather follow our worke hard then hang upon each bush and runne our selves into debt and pay no man Againe how many foolish and rash women by their unseasonable crossings of their carnall husbands cause zeale in hearing sermons to be ill spoken of through their want of subjection 1 Pet. 2.12 And few there are who have learned to walke wisely toward such husbands Masters parents neighbours who are without that so their liberty be not restrained and their commodity be not ill spoken of by their abusing it to fleshly ends How many zealous Ministers lacke wisdome moderation and observing of season manner and measure of their reproofes and censures but disable themselves as much one way as they thinke to doe good another But it were endlesse to dwell upon all Let the conclusion be this By how much thou seemest to abhorre carnall reason by so much bee more carefull to be guided by right reason and true wisdome which may cause thy Religion to be honourable and prevent that offence and aspersion thereto which else cannot bee avoided This for the third branch of Admonition I conclude this use with the fourth and last caveat of Admonition direct to sundry objects somewhat more Branch 4 generally concerning Christians of all sorts First let me presse this personally to the sundry sorts and conditions of men Ministers people parents husbands tradesmen and such like Then let me also presse it really by abandoning those severall vices which beget and nourish this carnall reason in men Touching the former First let it be admonition to Object 1 Gods Ministers Go not to work with this toole in Gods matters Ministers in sundry respects Please not your selves in your invention preparation of your selves when God suggests variety of thoughts aptnesse of discourse or fine phrases good proofes uses similitudes and applications do not feel your own warmth take it not for granted that you cannot now chuse but win the spurs but know Gods matters must be done under another banner As he said not words but strength and mony must helpe in the warre So say I Esay 36.5 not your strength nor might nor wisdome but my Spirit saith the Lord must effect it As the Lord said to Iehoshua and Zerubbabel Zach. 5.7 although you be weake in your selves yet I will inable you to lay the foundation and to make the roofe of my Temple So let God be chiefe in your worke and deny your owne reason lest God confound ye and make ye ridiculous to them whom ye would sell your selves unto Againe draw not on your people to carnall admiring of your parts learning speech memories teach them not a lesson which they are too prone to teach themselves to have the faith of our Lord Jesus in the admiration of men or accepting of persons It is the way to breed partiality pride carnall savour in your people Jam. 3.1 and to destroy the spirit of selfe-deniall and simplicity in them Vent not your owne singular conceits and fantasticall private opinions to enhanse your names among the vulgar and ungrounded multitude whose honour is but base breath and ends in shame and repentance Forsake not the maine truthes of God and the streames of wholesome doctrines for those muddy creekes and slimy channels of your owne inventions for if this heate once touch your braine you shall finde it so to follow your hand that ere ye be aware you will be over head and ears in this puddle and nothing will savour with your ministery but your owne novelties What a pudder have those Eatonists and Pointers as they call them made in Norfolke of
late being men wholly ungrounded in the principles yet under pretence of zealous magnifying the freedome of grace and power of faith how have they puffed up themselves in a conceit of their owne perfection and maintained that they need not pray daily for pardon Oh wofull pride Moreover beware ye Ministers of Christ of preaching Christ carnally of envy rather then good will and of swerving from the plaine and effectuall demonstration of the spirit whereunto all learning and parts are too meane to serve and attend Beware I say of taxing such as although they affect not your course yet come not shorâ— of you in sufficiency and worth Farce and stuffe not your Sermons with quaint and neate words frequent quotations of Fathers and languages whenas God knowes you make it some of you but a vaile to hide your ignorance among them that are simple Alas oftimes your false Latin and Greeke bewraves you to the judicious Peter converted not three thousand at once with such preaching Be wise unto sobriety I deny not but among the learned or in controversies handled among them there is good use of tongues and arts oftimes 1 Cor. 14.21.22 But to the simple idiot ye are but signes of Gods wrath no instruments of Grace Again affect not morall subjects alone in your Ministery though there be use thereof but especially strive to goe against the carnall edge of the people and first ground them in those things which are spirituall urge the doctrine of originall sinne faith in the promise selfe-deniall the new creature mortification taking up the crosse preparation for death and the comming of Christ other things will fitly follow if once your peoples hearts be truly broken and moulded in Christ they will soone take the stampe of your morall doctrines but if ye beginne with these you shall as soone take an hare with a tabor as draw them to savour that which jarreth with their carnall reason So much for you my brethren Now for you the people and hearers I say this be not led away with Object 2 partiality and conceit in heaping up to your selves teachers of your own despising others People in divers things but in all simplicity embrace such and all such with an indifferent spirit according to the proportion of their gifts who are meet to do you good God hath made them all yours to serve your souls be not so base as to embondage your selves and cleave to such or such persons or parts neglecting the maine scope of common edifying occasion not jealousie and distaste among Gods Ministers themselves by your folly as ye must needs doe if they be not the wiser but cull out each mans speciall gift and make use thereof as given you to the supply and furniture of each part of the body with most apt and meet grace and ability for her need Discourage not Gods Ministers who are faithfull by balking theif Ministry and cleaving to strangers and perhaps inferior to them These are pangs of carnall wisdome and savour not of that spirit which is from above pure and peaceable Jam. 4. Much lesse be drawne away from sound teaching to carnall jangling that so ye may learne an easie way to heaven forsaking that one way which is truth and life Affect not pompuous words great shews such as set forth themselves with carnall complements and ostentation admire them not perhaps because you would faine come from Church with as whole a skin as yee brought loath to be galled because your conscience is crazy therefore ye seeke to such And just it is with the Lord to plague people for this carnality of yours with Ministers just like themselves lips and lettuce cup and cover agreeing that each may be a stumbling block to the other So that although you live as ignorant and blinde as blocks or bats yet you shall glory in the flesh of each other saying you have one of the Belwethers of the Country as good learned peaceable and good a fellow as any in the Kingdome Oh! how doth Satan infatuate the world with the golden cup of formall devotion through such that he might cry downe the power and sincerity of the truth Furthermore although you affect the most Religious Ministry yet rest not in the person fasten not your faith upon man his worth zeale holinesse beleeve not for mans sake but for that power and efficacy which you discover in the ordinance let Gods truth be that into which your assent resolves it selfe Joh. 5. end least otherwise Satan buffet you in the time of trouble that you never distinguished persons from thinges and the demonstration of truth from mans excellency Againe catch not at new points forsaking old grounds nor at choice similitudes allusions and discourses I observe it among some of you that if God vouchsafe us sometime more neate expressions then ordinary how are you taken with them Oh! such a Sermon such a point how it affected you take heed your braines deceive not your hearts chuse out speciall Sermons by the peculiarinesse of conviction and perswasion not by pleasing conveiance of words Besides looke not at the outside of thinges but at their spiritualnesse looke not at a Minster as a friend or one that stands up to fill the roome to serve the cure and to stoppe confusion 2 Cor. 3.1 But so let men thinke of us saith Paul as the dispensers of the mystery of Christ whatsoever their infirmities errors and wants be and of the manifold graces of God as messengers of reconciliation as helpers of your joy not to domineer and play Rex but to feede the flocke and to seale them up by the promise to beget them to travell againe of them till Christ be formed in them which thinges if they were looked at by the people alas that unsavoury and carnall eye wherewith they behold the Minister would be turned into a spiritual their feet would be beautifull they would give them their very eies Rom. 10. and count them as men of tenne thousand Job 33. Men weigh not their gold in large hoppe scales but in small ones for the nonce and so they weigh truly so let not the Minister of God be put in common carnall ballances but in the weights of the sanctuarie Then the Minister should be a Shekel indeed and have double honour and maintenance and be received as in the name of a Prophet above a common man you whose soules are ingaged to him as an instrument of your salvation Matth. 7. can tell what I meane Such say with Paul 2 Cor. 5. I know no man now according to the flesh but according to their grace and spirituall use Inure your selves to it now and at sickenesse and death it will be sweet for you to heare God in him I mean your Minister losing upon earth that which he hath formerly forgiven in heaven But I see that I have broken my bounds I must breake off abruptly and leave that which
flattery of superiors Oh! there is a slavishnesse in some mens spirits that so they may bee taken up with their betters they will forfeit their Religion they will lose God rather then the company and countenance of the great An eight is base ease and formality Ease and formality of profession it is an Idoll universally received and spit out of the mouth of carnall reason the Masse as we say bites not A ninth is pollicy Equivocation when men equivocate with their owne conscience for their safety sake as those in Queene Maries time who would come to Masse to spare their skin and now adayes what dare not men doe to save a living Here perhaps it might be expected that I should say somewhat about Jesuiticall equivocations But if men of their owne side might be heard speake against them Papists against Papist I need say nothing Josephus Bâ—rnes for sundry of them have written in the open disclaiming of such villany It is sufficient Mâ—lderus Episcopus Antwerp that in such equivocations the heart thinkes one thing by reservation and speakes another and that to deceive What is lying if this be not And whereas they say that is for lawfull evasion I answer it is indeed for evasion but that which is by a lying way cannot be lawfull A Papist is asked art thou a Priest He answers no hee reserves this not a Priest of Baal or not a Priest to utter it to thee herein is a lye both for matter and manner for matter in that he utters for manner in that he means that is to deceive They object the whole proposition made both of the expression and suppression is true I answer That only which is expressed is the proposition which is a lye not that which is concealed if that were uttered the whole were true but so there were no cosenage To thinke a truth which in word they gainsay is a lye A lye properly respects another by declaring his minde by words which serve to that end no man is said to ly to himselfe but to another If I should say the fire is not hot meaning by an heate externall or a man is no reasonable creature meaning as an Angel are not here lyes Hee that denies denies whatsoever is contained under the sense of that he denies He therefore that so answers and sweares is perjured and so all sound Divines affirm Let what tricks be used that can be God takes the oath not as he intends it who makes it but as he who takes it oaths must go according to the common use of men To sweare is to call God as witnesse in things doubtfull but who doubts whether a Priest be a Priest of Apollo Truth is an act of righteousnesse not to be esteemed by conceits but words See Jerem. 9.8 2 Cor. 4.2 It is objected they maintaine not such answers alway but for uses to shunne danger death c. I answer that which is nought must never be done He that saith I saw not such a Priest reserving in his minde at Rome or Venice doth not qualifie his lye because he doth it to himselfe onely another cannot apprehend his mixture or limitation Such therefore are of Saint Iames his double minded ones It is objected that which is concealed is but onely a desperate thing not contrary to that which is uttered I answer yet it is a lye for if I affirme that of Plato which is only true of Socrates it is a lye yea this is a double lye because it is under the colour of simplicity Againe an oath is the end of all strife Heb. 6.16 But by these oaths controversies are never ended but endlesly multiplied they object the judge is incompetent or they are asked of things under the seale and secret of confession but then we must not lye but shunne such a judge or deny to answer for what is so false but may be made good if we may reserve what we list A written lye borrowes no truth from him that reads it nor a spoken lye by him that heares it a lye it is because it is so in the writer and speaker Truth must be to us as David was to his souldiers worth tenne thousand of them so worth our life goods liberty and all The speech of a woman I will not therefore deny a truth lest I should die but I will not lye lest I be damned Tell me what lawes could bridle lyers if this course were lawfull How foolish were the Martyrs who lost their life for want of this trick Whose testimony should be currant in Court These equivocators object the lies of the midwives Abraham David Rahab c. But one sinne excuses not another When 1 Sam. 16. the Prophet said he came to sacrifice he was not asked the question he spake the truth but not all neither needed he Christ seemed willing to goe further but did not and why Because he was disswaded by others Other examples which they bring are not words which require a reservation to cleare them from a lye but have an entire truth in them being aright understood The conclusion is the trade of equivocation is divellish Ambition A tenth is affectation of honour and preferment for which it is easie to lose a good conscience hee that can lose a little pompe may purchase a great deale of peace So also to end schisme and singularity these and such like Schisme and singularity are oyle to this flame of this corruption cut these off intercept these succours and through mercy this carnall reason may be starved and vanish for lack of nourishment and fewell But I insist no longer let this serve for the fourth branch and so for the whole use of Admonition A fourth use may be confutation of Popery It is a meer dunghill raked Vse 3 together by carnall reason Confutation of Popery All the world itcheth to goe after them Those that fear God should say as Peter answered Christ Joh. 6. Will ye Instance 1 also goe after them No Lord thou hast the words of eternall life Alas men are weary of spirituall worship when they have carnall The Divell and his eldest sonne know well the complexions of carnall people and when the Gospel hath beene preached twenty yeare together yet people will long after the garlick and onions of old Religion and carnall reason with her taile sweepes downe a great part of the starres of heaven we doe but gugge and tire most men with our preaching of selfe-deniall and faith Alas one carnall Popish fellow would draw more after him then tenne Preachers As one saith The Divell never shed drop of bloud for us yet he boasteth that he can have ten to one more at his beck then Christ Popish Embassadours have puld away abundance of London professors to their Masse they stablish their throne upon these two pillars of pompe and devotion both carnall and by their Circe her cup have made drunken the Princes Peeres people of
into the dungeon and then it falls downe as Saul with that light which shone about him Act. 9. and saith what wilt thou have me to doe I am as thou wilt have me 1 Sam. 3. my wisdome my wit shall be thine speake Lord and thy servant heareth he that formerly should have perswaded me of this might as easily have forced me to say it is light at midnight But Lord now I am a foole in my selfe meerly empty of mine owne sense and wholly thine addicted to sweare to thine edicts and if thou sâ—â—ak the word I lay hand upon mouth and have done This is to be as a little child whom ye may winne to say what ye list Oh! this is the next way to make thee wise to salvation This is to be unto Gods wisdome as the Queene of Sheba was to Salomons even to have no spirit left in her Oh! thou must say with David My fingers shall forget to play and lose all cunning Thirdly thou must so be stript of all thine owne Word of truth must cast the seed of God into the soule when once emptied of her selfe as yet thou must Branch 3 not be a meere void and empty one of all other wisdome But the word of truth must be shed as seed into thy soule and the principles thereof must be infused into it to informe it and to create of nothing a new nature of divine light into it I say as they spake in Act. 23.7 If an Angell from heaven have revealed any thing from heaven to him we will not gainesay it These words the Pharisees used of set purpose to oppose the Sadduces who denyed Angels and souls of men So must thou That which hath beene most contrary to thy wisdome must now bee all in all Now thou must oppose thy selfe thus If God have revealed any truth of his from heaven I will sooner cast thee out then resist it Be thou as parties who put their matters to compromise They are first bound in bonds to stand to award So doe thou binde thy carnall reason as a dogge to the stake that it stirre not a foote nor once mute while God is speaking yea doe thus with gladnesse as poore men are glad to be bound to arbitrement because they desire an end So thou because thou desirest to be savingly wise be glad there is such a word of truth shining in a darke place and open all windows to let it in do not stop any crevis of light which might enter but greedily attend study meditate in this word till the Lord thereby have let it into those darke corners of the heart that was before in the shadow of death and till the truth doe incorporate with thine understanding and cause the scales of darkenesse to fall off as Pauls did that thou maiest see cleerely those things that concerne thy peace All the fogs mists and cavills of carnall reason being scattered Oh! let her interrupt the Lord as she will yet the soule knowes whither to goe for deciding the question she will not forfeit her bond by which shee is bound to stand to the last decision of the word Fourthly get the spirit of the Lord Jesus into thy soule The fourth The Spirit of the Lord Jesus must create holy wisdome in the soule Joh. 1.18 who is the active worker of true and sanctified wisdome in the renued soule According as the Apostle tells us He is made unto us of the Father wisedome c. He enlightens every one that comes into the world with true light being that light which the soule must come by to the Father whose light cannot else be approached By the flesh of the Lord Jesus the soule is made capable of this light of the word else there is no capablenesse And the Spirit of the Lord Jesus workes the soule into this light because it reveales him unto it in the mystery of reconciliation and forgivenesse For why Till the soule be made wise to salvation all her wisdome is only in the brain will not hold The Spirit of Christ therefore lets into the heart as well as the head of the beleever this light and conveies the goodnesse warmth and sweet of it into the soule and that it is which causes it to dwell in the soule and to be an immortall and unâ—â— caying light which shall abide to eternall life till the soule see light in Gods light else the light of the Hypocrite is but a violent and dim twilight caused rather by a necessity of conviction then a powerfull perswasion Therefore apply thy selfe especially to such helpes as may bring Christ into thy soule The sight of his salvation to thy soule is the quintessence of spirituall wisdome this will cause thee to grow in all light when once thou art enlightned in the mystery of acknowledging Christ to be thy Saviour Ephe. 1.18 For why This will teach thee that Christ is all godlinesse in a mystery all the whole truth of God is lapped up in him as his infants body was lapped up in cloaths and swath-bands Else all knowledge is but a guessing and conjecturall thing count it then thy chiefe wisdome to be wise in escaping the snares of death and in beleeving unto salvation Oh! who shall bring me where I shall heare a Sermon of Christ to pardon me to reconcile me to God! If faith in the Lord Jesus once turne thy stream and carry thee with a fuller sway to heaven then all thy worldly wit carried thee before to thy cavills and objections there is hope thou hast well quitted thy selfe of carnall reason Faith the true eye to behold the mysteries of salvation Fifthly looke with the eye of faith into all the mysteries of godlinesse to beare downe carnall reason No mystery can be understood without faith The Spirit of God workes faith first as that instrument whereby the soule is led into all the secrets of God Faith by a promise will make carnall reason stand by as a very foole Hence it is that the spirituall man is said to judge all things even the hidden things of God And yet to be judged of no man 1 Cor. 3. Why Because the light of faith is the highest light All other lights are of a lower kinde And hence it is that a carnally wise man comming to heare a poore soule to speake by the light of faith touching the matters of God stands as a man astonished and as a foole in the presence of a wise man For why The Spirit which revealed the promise of salvation reveales therewith all other promises and all parts of the will of God So then I say in the fifth place let faith subdue thy reason and shew thee a reall sensiblenesse savour and wisdome in all the matters of God By her eye judge of the Sacraments discerne the reall presence of Christ there though not really carnall behold a sacramentall union betweene him and the Elements for the carrying of the soule into
as the end of that Psalme witnesseth See againe Psal 43. wherein the absence of one principle caused David to grow into deadly dumps and that was this His troubles were so long that he beganne to thinke God might repent him of that free grace wherewith he had once imbraced him This caused exceeding distemper in his spirit so that hee thought himselfe cast off So Hezechia in his sickenesse Esay 38. So Ionah in the whales belly And so the Church in captivity Lam. 3. thought herselfe forsaken and that God had forgotten to be mercifull Hence the heart grew hardened the peace of it declined to feare and horror then the word and promises grew unwelcome then the ordinances grew unsavoury then the practice growes secure and loose and so all goes to havocke which might all have beene prevented if the soule had kept herselfe to the rule That whom the the Lord loveth Joh. 14.1 to the end he loveth them Read moreover Lam. 1.8.9 where Ieremy describes the wofull downfall sorrow that Jerusalem was fallen into and how she was come down wonderfully by steps to the lowest abasement And why Sure the sad error lay in the foundation she thought God would keep covenant with her though she brake with him she thought that to lye close to God and keepe covenant was no such great matter but that she might trie conclusions and so by a little deceitfulnesse of sinne the heart grew defiled the conscience crazy the spirit hardened by custome the soule impenitent and secure grew to care for no threats to reject commands to distrust promises and so came Jerusalem down wonderfully All which had beene prevented if either she had kept close to the covenant or repented betimes upon her revolt Besides look upon Heb. 3.12 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe to depart away from the living God and so wax hardened by the deceitfulnesse of sin How doe many who beginne zealously yet wax weary of weldoing by an evill heart Upon that how doth Satan encrease delusion and tickle with his temptations How doth the error of the wicked added thereto draw away more by example Psal 50.18 Then perhaps God is patient and smites not so that the sinner thinkes him like herselfe then loosenesse growes then a conceit that former practice hath been too precise lesse will serve Then groweth a mean esteeme of the word especially if powerfull and comming close Then perhaps sin having kindled thus far makes the life of faith unsavoury the baites of sin sweet makes us thinke it easie to repent at our pleasure and so we grow some to embrace one lewd pranke some another some to take their ease neglect prayer good company nible at the Divells baites pleasure company gaming petty oathes dalliance with women base fashions to concurre with the world and at last to waste the conscience with Sampson and David so farre that a man is snared and growne to a falling sicknesse and cannot recover himselfe All which might have beene prevented by holding the rule keep well while thou art well Be not weary of weldoing and the like It were endlesse to dwell any longer upon proofes Reasons are many First because Religion is a condition of life much Reason 1 more warily to be tended and watched unto then any other businesse whatsoever Now yet in all other affaires thus we finde it yeeld but one absurdity infinite many will follow upon it unavoidablely Take it in the businesse of war If one mistake fall out how many sad inconveniences follow Let a besieger of a City be too ventrous and what perill ensueth How was Abimelec slaine by a milstone under the wall How was Vria and other worthies destroyed by a desperate affront made by Ioab How were the Benjamites enclosed betweene the two armies of Israel the one burning their City the other before their face How easie is it to fall upon privy ambushments suspecting no danger In point of contention betweene couples in marriage or partners in trading or others in worldly businesse neglect but one rule in marriage to forbeare and give place to wrath what a fire is kindled Neglect but oft recknings betweene men how endlesse and confused grow the accounts Admit but one tetch and conceit without due pondering the matter and how endlesse contention followes blowes upon words sutes upon blowes and the ruine of each other by sutes So fares it in all other kindes Let there be but an error in the digestion and what can mend it Nothing the bloud must needs be bad the concoction cannot amend it and so all diseases attend the ill stomacke both in the head and parts of the body Is it so in all things and must it not much more bee so in the chiefe affaire of all other which is the matter of Religion Must not one radicall error there cause an infinite pudder in the consequences thereof Yes verily no remedy of it Reason 2 Secondly by law of contraries it must needs follow For if true peace in our course attend the cleaving to our rule because the whole safety of it hangs upon the grounds and directions of truth which minister life support light and defence to the particular practise how can it chuse but that those who warpe from the rule must of necessity forfeit peace and runne upon confusion See Gal. 6. He that walkes according to rule peace shall be to him For when the rule holds entire it ministers peace to the soule in all her actions even as a sound inside of health in the heart liver and braine ministers content to the body in all her operations And contrarily if the rule be broken it fares with the life as it fares with the operations of nature when the inward parts wax diseased a palsey braine causeth the members to flag and hang downe an ill liver causeth the body to swell Even so is it with a spirituall man All the acts of Religion must issue from the soundnesse of rule and grounds if either there be knowledge or no sincerity or if there both yet some maine error creep in between the joynts secretly lo all the whole life is miscarried and those errors which we see may thanke some rooted one which we see not because it affords continuall succour unto it Reason 3 Lastly Religion is an holy harmony and consent agreeing in all her parts most sweetly Religion is like an harmony Eccles 10.1 As a song sung or lesson plaid in musicke let but one disproportion bee in the tone and voice one string jarring in the instrument the whole melody is marred one dead fly marres the whole box of ointment So is it in Religion each part affects the other by consent an error in one makes a jarre in all either there must be a sutablenesse in all or else there is a disorder in the whole If then a string amisse be enough to spoile musicke what is an error in the instrument
or musitian himself if the one be nought or the other unskilfull But I cease reasons Instance 1 Some instances let me adde And lest I should goe too farre from my text Matth. 16.25 In not denying our selves the first shall be in that rule of our Saviour which I have so much beaten upon He that will be my Disciple let him take up his crosse and follow me If a man begin aright with this rule what a sweet easie trade doth he finde Religion to be But let a man goe to worke with a contrary principle as most men doe and what a wofull pudder doe they mâ—ke of it How doe they wish they had never begunne at all They bury all their labours and mony in the grave of emptinesse and vanity Esay 55.2 Their pride and selfe-love so overtakes them in whatsoever they goe about that alas they are discouraged They cry out upon God with those hypocrites Esay 58. that they have heard fasted and worshipped God day by day time out of minde but still they come to nothing they want peace and comfort And why Because they carry that within themselves which takes up the roome of Christ and mercy they will not feele themselves orphans and fatherlesse but trust to their owne bottomes and lusts or vanities or at least supposed goodnesse they will put water into Gods well and then with this bucket they will draw up some grace Hence it comes to passe if they meet with deepe conviction out of the word that tries them to the quicke they are faine to shake it off with all violence to save their skin whole hee that will not have a good conceit of them but reproves them is counted their enemy Nay those that used all meanes and cost to get in a Minister into their pulpit let him but once touch their free-hold must never after looke to have him their friend once out and ever out Oh wofull plague and yet marke it who so will Beloved there are some among us who live under our Ministry and will not keepe one day from Church and yet have the Minister of God in so deep a prejudice that he loves them not for no other cause save that he touches their tender plat when hee little thinkes of it that from seven yeare to seven they live at secret oddes with him Pritch against the Minister they are ready openly to cry out of him that he is their enemy and cannot looke too rights upon him Alas it is from a roote of Selfe which will not out in that they have not cast downe their crowne at the feet of the word as content to be smitten and to count it balme Thus they beare often laying heapes upon heapes and dye of thirst All they doe Judg. 15.16.18 they aime at themselves in it to get themselves some good opinion by their zeale bounty good deeds and why The running sore of Selfe will not be healed and that causeth all to become impure The encrease of the spleene is not more apparently the decay of the body then their error the cause of their not profiting and so by custome they wax hardned in it so that when they doe perceive it is past cure as they say of some diseases as that of the lungs that while they are curable it is hard to discerne them and when they come to be discerned they are past cure And to conclude all the life of such is but as the stopping of a water course which costs great toile and yet the streame will have her course when all is done Surely he that will thus hold a lye in his right hand shall to his cost finde that Gods rules are no idle things and an error committed in the ground is helplesse in the building Let a second instance be in the point of marriage The Apostles rule Instance 2 is marry in the Lord. A rule too hot and heavy for most beginners In point of marriage not wisely forbeare each other Judg. 14. Tush say they must we live single till wee finde a godly husband or wife Then wee may sit long enough Why Doe you thinke this rule so slight and needlesse Yes verily they are of Sampsons minde Give me her for she pleaseth me well And how doe they fare Doth it goe well with them Surely for the most part as it did with him After a short skeaming off a little of the sweet of their will the Lord so plagues them with the fruit of their error and so vexes each veine in their heart with the prophanenesse disloyall carriage contentiousnesse wastefulnesse and other distempers of their companions that some are ready to poison each other others to run away into other Countries never returning others to filch and steale to maintaine themselves in their beggery and a thousand other sorrowes attend their error Duties of Gods worship and family are neglected children for ever spoiled by lewd example callings either forsaken or used for necessity communion with the godly cast off and in a word there is no end of their misery And at last they cry out Now we see it is to some purpose to cleave to a rule and one error in the ground growes to bee remedilesse in the consequence Oh! that we had married in the Lord. Instance 3 So thirdly another rule He that keepeth his tongue keepeth his life This rule is thought to bee no weighty one for the most part Proverb till men have tried the experience of the contrary and then Oh! what a peece of wisdome it is to keepe their tongue When they see that the giving reine to a slanderous censorious and uncharitable tongue costs them repentance at leasure sets their betters against them creates sutes of law against them shrigs their purse brings them to shame to recant their rash words subjects them to the curtesie of their imbittered adversaries so that both they and theirs feele the smart of it then they cry out too late would they had beene wiser Behold how safe it is to stoppe evill in the beginning and to rule our tongues It never hurts us to have beene silent but to have spoken at randon hath undone many I know well that there is no remedy against the mischevously and maliciously minded let a man rule himselfe never so well the best use of his tongue may bring forth sorrow enough but in such a case a man may suffer with quietnesse and commit himselfe to God in his innocency in the other he brings a needlesse crosse upon himselfe I might be endlesse but the Lion may be easily guessed at by his paw Object But here an objection may arise Why then fall there out so many turn againes in the lives of the best One should thinke rather it were the easiest life to trouble our selves about no grounds at all but carry our course by guesse conjecture the customes of men our owne will For they that goe to worke most warily and desire to be
best grounded yet alas have many feares are very much unsettled and have never done in the proving of them to be sound Answ I answer They who stagger about their grounds may be to seeke and so remaine doubtfull But yet by their studious enquiry and serious deliberating at last they come to determine whereas the prophane carelesse and Atheisticall never are troubled at all and therefore remaine in their wofull condition Psal 17. And whereas some of them as Iob and the Psalmist speaks seeme to die in peace yet that peace is accursed for though they force to themselves a wilfull peace there is none to them they goe downe to the pit with such peace as a drunken prisoner goes to execution Esay 57. ult But this doth not infringe the doctrine because although some live and dye lawlesse and senslesse yet the case of the greater sort is otherwise They rush without due consideration upon their maters and accordingly meet with sorrow and repentance onely the godly who fix their eies upon Gods stable bottomes provide best for themselves hee that walketh soundly walketh safely and although through unbeleefe Esay 26.2 weaknesse or temptation they are often appalled it is to teach them to cleave better to their grounds But ordinarily they walke by rule and finde peace when trouble befalls them it comes not by their closing with but by warping from their rule and when they recover their grounds they recover their peace So much for answer to this objection Now the uses follow First Instruction to teach us the wonderfull Vse 1 wisdome of the art of Godlinesse Instruction Râ—ligion is grounded upon most solid foundations It is grounded upon most weighty and materiall bottomes No man would suppose the Lord to be so infinitely wise as he is till he set himselfe seriously to try his conclusions Few men thinke there is any great matter in living by faith in shunning appearences of evill in cleaving to the company of the good in pitching the soule upon a truth of a promise threat or command But by that time they feele the sad fruit of their errors then they grow to looke backe and behold a most hidden excellencie in Gods principles when their peace is lost and themselves cast upon hideous sorrowes then they beginne to applaude them that goe to worke by knowledge and discerning of things that differ as Scholars never grow in love with an Artists principles till they have examined them and finde out their exactnesse then they behold the misery of an inartificiall and ungrounded course of study So is it here Art hath no enemies save idiots no more hath Religion Secondly it teaches us It is a singular favour of God to any when they are bottomed soundly how great a favour of God it is to any beginner Branch 2 in Christianity when as the Lord prevents them with wisdome in grounding themselves throughly both in point of faith and conversation Who can expresse the depth and height of that mercy which hath prevented so much sorrow Let it but appeare in this one principle That a poore soule though it have but a poore measure of grace yet is taught of God to deny herselfe and to captivate herselfe to the truth of the word not daring to goe on the right hand or left to the contrary Why This is in a sort the comprehension of all other graces the Lord herein hath laid a ground of many prevented a world of misery at once Look back into thy life past and aske who hath thus led me as a Shepherd leads his sheepe through a wildernesse Oh! Esay 63.14 the helpe of some one principle is as much as a mans soule is worth What a mercy then is it to be led on by knowledge in all our course To shunne all the snares of death Oh! be thankefull and say It is not my carnall wit Lord it is thy lore and word which hath made me wise to frame my course so that I doe now esteeme welfare not to stand in wealth or favour of men but in the losse of all these yea although persecution and the crosse should betide me for thy truth and name yet so long as conscience and peace abide and I am privy to it that thou hast lost no honour by me I count my state happy Looke upon the snares which the proud ambitious covetous flatterers and servers of the time pull upon themselves and then judge whether it be not a favour to be kept by a principle of truth from such sorrow and repentance The world boasts of her many tricks and policies but thy one is worth them all and shall preserve thee when they with all their inventions shall bee intercepted Vse 2 Secondly let it be use of Admonition to all that desire to see good dayes and a quiet life Admonition Be well grounded upon the unchangeable principles of truth 1 King 13. to ground themselves carefully upon the principles of God and to eschew all false waies and inventions Be earnest with God to remove far from thee all waies of error and to turn thee out of all crosse paths of deceit Remember still one error in the ground produces infinite many dangers in the sequell Rehoboam had better have given halfe his Kingdome then to have split himselfe so irrecoverably upon the rocke of his ill counsellers What sorrow did it worke him all his dayes Stript him of three parts of his Subjects at once What a misery did one error create to Saul to wit his owne carnall wisdome 1 Sam. 13. 15. rejecting Samuels charge What one quiet day had hee thirty yeares after in all his whole life but perpetuall vexation till he was faine to consult with a witch and to fall upon his owne sword Nay consider what Gods owne deare servants have purchased to themselves by one error and tricke put upon them by Satan As Davids lust what a world of sorrow did it procure So let it warne us to abhorre the incurring of such a premunire with God by embracing any principle of error or vanity as being once bred in the bone will never out of the flesh Beware we either of instilling or of drinking in any base error into any or from any of speciall note for parts learning or authority Let such as are men of place whose example if bad would like poyson pierce into the bowells of silly ignorant ones I say let such looke to themselves lest after in hell they cry out of them and say woe bee to such examples had not their authority beene stronger with me to draw me to formality to ambition to pleasures and lusts then the word to disswade I had never come here Beware of such offences Woe be to the world because of offences Matth. 18.7 both in laying blocks and stumbling at blocks It is just with God that one should destroy the other because neither cared for the truth nor to be principled upon
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
heare ill when we have done well which is a royall grace indeed Secondly this also may be just reproof to others though not so ranke as Vse 2 the former and these are of many sorts First Reproofe such as although they live in a bad course and know it yet are no sooner convinced thereof but they cavill against God himself and lay him in all the fault they would as faine be better as the Preacher and they cannot deny but they are farre from that they should be But these Ministers they say would goe beyond God and have them better then God will make them which cannot be for till God change and mend us all we can be no better let men teare their tongues to the stumps And and whence is this cavill Truly from base prophane Selfe which is crossed in her way imagining that because it is easie for God to worke as he please Cavillers against God as if he were in fault for all their errorâ— convinced and the worke of conversion is onely his therefore they may live the whilst as basely idely and prophanely as they list They would have grace droppe out of the clouds on the suddaine into them that their hearts might all at once be humbled comforted and turned to God before they bee aware and then they thinke they might scape a great deale of trouble that others meet with who are so restlesse painfull and unwearied in the use of the means For their own part they will use good means too on the Sunday and come to Church and heare but they will waite till God worke To whom I answer The Lord rebuke all such wretches God open their eies For tell me I pray you these waiters upon God how live they the whiles Most loosely deny themselves no liberty lust or will of their owne but lash it on upon the score till grace come and wipe off all they spare for no sinne committing to be lewd companions drinkers covetous or the like For why should they If heaven will be favourable it can pardon great as well as small offences If it will not in vaine should they strive For they have no strength of their owne they confesse to restraine from any such courses till God turne their hearts then you shall see what manner of persons they will be when they be of Gods making you shall see what new men they shall be But oh you white Divells you that turne rebellion into smoothnesse and play the still swine who eate up all the draffe how should such as you ever come into Gods mint to be new stamped I denounce unto you that all your hypocrisie tends to the vailing over of your sinne it is not grace you seeke if your brests were open hell and destruction are there and the way of peace you have not knowne Peace you would have pardon and heaven Gods love and favour but your cursed wills you would not forgoe And therefore that ye would have mercy I meane you shall never have and what ye would shunne you shall for ever inherit even woe and wrath I know some of this sort are not so prophane as others but feed themselves with duties and moralities a smooth way of Religion and so wait Matth. 3. Esay 30. But who hath taught such to escape the wrath to come by their sloth and ease What although it be our strength to sit still Must we therefore suspend our labour paines and use of meanes Will God be found in a way of ease of yawning desires and lazy hopes which abhorre to be guided Gods way and to come to his oath and covenant of humiliation aith and selfe-deniall No neither the prophane nor the lazy shall enter into his rest no more then the rebellious They maintaine a secret distemper and pritch of heart and tetch of selfe against God and either will be saved their owne way or not at all And therefore to these I also professe with sharpe reproofe The way to peace yee have not knowne neither will you rather will quarrell with God for not fulfilling you wills to make you such as you would bee without your trouble This way God never knew Nay I say more Though God would save you yet you would not if ye might and I may say truly salvation it selfe cannot save such as would not because it saves none but the willing Pull downe your cursed spirits and cease to kicke against the pricks for till you be content to abandon your lusts and ease you doe secretly cavill with him whom you shall never be able to make your cause good against you stand not right in your plea the Court is Gods the judgement is his who shall curse all weapons formed against himselfe and condemne all those most justly who cavill against him Therefore I say againe take this word of reproofe with meekenesse Esay 54. ult and sit still in the point of cavilling but abhorre to goe against Gods edge by your prophanensse or your ease for the Lord will never beleeve that either of these will ever be content to finde mercy though they might enjoy it And as Esau when time came would have had the blessing but yet would be still a sensuall Epicure and therefore it was finally denyed him So I say to you If in truth you would have grace pray to God to plucke up that roote of bitternesse which springs up in you Heb. 12. for that will defile you faster then all your idle and false wishes can clense you and no wonder if you well weigh it And secondly here come to be censured all such as go yet a steppe further Branch 2 and will close with meanes and be deepe in paines taking Selfewilled ones who binde God to their labours convinced but then when they see that God will take no paines for full price but for serving his owne grace and good pleasure onely then they fret and fume at their lot because God regards not their labours What say they Is this equity that the Lord should alike esteeme of the painfull and the lazy I answer thee yea if Selfe defeated be the caviller Thou takest paines it seemes that thou mightest be warme by thine owne sparkles and have somewhat to alledge why God should regard thee That is thou wouldest have him for thy sake to forsake his owne way and turne free grace into wages Rom. 9.13.14 And because he will not as indeed hee never will be a servant to the runner or the willer therefore thou frettest and fumest at him for not serving thy turne But oh man Who art thou that disputest with God Shall the axe quarrell with him that cutteth with it I answer thee therefore The Lord doth not simply equall thee with such as take no paines keepe thy paines still and if thou wilt adde more unto them but rather take away thy upbraiding spirit doe that thou dost with meeknesse and be content to sinke in thy
insomuch that that the people thought it had beene better if the onset had never beene made Now when they saw this the Elders come to Moses saying God be judge betweene us and you q.d. we pray God there be plaine dealing among you for you have made us stinke in the sight of Pharaoh all goes worse and worse through your mediation Exod. 5.20.21 who would have liked this contrariety Yet the Lord who could exalt himselfe above all these lets and over Pharaoh himselfe wrought to his people a deliverance even from hence and that which this tyrant would not permit willingly to be done lo the Lord by forcible breaking in upon him doth compell him to and in the way of saving Israel from him overthrowes himselfe Joh. 9.5.35.36 See Joh. 9. When the Lord Jesus had once prevented that poore blinde creature with love and the handsell of his cure presently in stead of good successe all falls out very foule for why The Pharisees to stoppe the glory of it swarme like hornets about this poore man disquieting him with questions and snaring him with their malice till at last for his loyall Apology for Christ they had cast him out by excommunication This might seeme an hard gobbet for so weake a stomacke to digest and rather a meane quite to discourage him But could all their railing upon him and Christ alienation of him from Christ estrangednesse of parents doe it No as poore as that seed was in him yet lively it was and held out forcibly against all enemies valiantly defending Christs honour and innocency till when the time came that the Lord Jesus saw good to strike up the bargaine a few words served the turne and in the meane while no discouragements could beat him off all wrought him closer and faster to Christ by that secret and hidden attendance of the Spirit upon the poore entrance which had beene begunne Rom. 8. All shall tend from the first to the last to their good whom God loveth not onely in sanctification but in vocation also both being subordinate to election though the former under a stronger promise Act. 9.1.6.7.8 c. Who also thirdly could have thought that Paul had beene neare his conversion when he breathed out threats against the Saints like a Lion at his nostrills Yet that could not keepe off Gods preventing mercy from casting him downe and taming him and being so cast downe and a breach made let the Lord slacken his worke Did he not assist it strongly When this poore prisoner instead of pursuant lay blinde and desolate yea when all were affraid to meddle with him as thinking the Lion to be couchant for a skill that he might be rampant after how doth the Lord breake through all difficulties and sends Ananas to open the eies both of his body and soule and make him a sound man And thus here this poore Naaman in shew further from cure then at first how doth the Lord strangely turne the winde out of the East of a distemper into the South of a calme Causing here poore servants to become prevalent with their Lord to yeeld to that which he had renounced Surely so it is the Lord can on the suddaine cause deliverance to appear as recovery out of a long quartaine ague even when all hope is past when doome is given of shipwracke Act. 27. God shall make Paul to stand up with a word of hope to poore wretches he can hasten salvation with wings when it seemes a farre off when misery is at the deepest then comes up the seed of light which was sowne for the righteous As when there is no strength to bring forth the Lord unlooked for enlarges birth for the fruit that is to come to the birth and as the tender nurse overcomes the poore froward child with love and mildnesse till she have brought it out of it humors so here Esay 38. the doctrine then stands firme upon her bottome If any here aske Quest how and which way the Lord goes to work in such a businesse I answer Answ Assistance of grace wherein it stands by accommodating himselfe in speciall to the condition of such a soule as doth sticke thus in the birth and staggers between Gods preventing and perfiting grace I say his assistance is alway according to the soules difficulty Here in this case of Naaman we may clearly see how he steppes in by the servants furnishing them with more understanding of his case and inabling them to ponder the same with the sad effects of it more then Naaman himselfe and hereby kindling in them a sparkle of divine counsell which enabled them to speake wisely feelingly pertinently and in due season according to his condition with speciall blessing succeeding the same and carrying it home to their Masters spirit how easily had the thing fallen out otherwise in every of these had not God assisted him By these instruments the Lord first stopped the precipitate minde of Naaman from so suddaine a departure weakened his strong conceit overthrew his carnall cavill abated his pride cooled his rage enlarged the promise the easinesse the probablenesse yea the divinenesse and certainty thereof till having beaten downe his high thoughts he is made a low valley and prepared for cure and conversion So in like manner doth the Lord worke in any soule which needs his seconding assistance towards the enjoying of salvation he will not suffer them to want any helpe which may further them For example Instances Doth the Lord see their discouragements to come from others He will arme them with strong courage of resistance and resolution as Joh. 9. Are they miscarried with strong error agâ—inst the way of the promise The Lord will send them counsell from heaven to rectifie and settle them Are they held under great infirmity and crasinesse of spirit not daring to beleeve The Lord will not breake the reed that is already brused nor quench the smoking flax Are they prejudicate against the Minister God will bring forth his light as here he did Elisha's and imbreed an holy opinion of him Doe friends oppose and become enemies God will turne them to friends and furtherers againe Are they froward and distempered in spirit so that they are as troubled waters and cannot see light of truth or make so much haste that they cannot waite The Lord will sweeten and moderate their spirits with meekenesse and forbearance Are their corruptions strong The Lord will beate them downe before them Briefly be their lack and ayle whatsoever it can be God will supply it he will enlighten sustaine perswade enlarge prepare them for his worke both by casting out that which is contrary and by encouraging that which is weakly begunne till the worke be finished If he meane that the businesse shall be depending longer then the lets shall be smaller and more tolerable if the objections and oppositions be more forcible hee will shorten the season Note and hasten his worke
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
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
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
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
but let not words blowes and sutes follow as if you were heathens Oh saith one Shall I endure such a base fellow to overcrow me No hee shall well know I am a better man then himselfe ere I have done with him Oh earth earth earth heare the word of the Lord Abate thy heart abase thine heart and doe as he did Humfrey Mummouth who meeting his enemy who had sought his life when he could have crushed him entreated him to bee friends and brake his heart doe thou so and prosper Touching the second point of inferiours attempting superiours 2. Branch Instruction Inferiours dealing with superiours must wisely observe whâ—t their persons will beare let this caution be observed from Naamans servants that we wisely observe what our persons will well beare and admit Inferiour mens sway and stroke will goe but a little way with superiours The meannesse of the one and the prejudice of the other will be barres Yet so it may fall out that necessity may put some calling upon an inferiour as when there be no superiours or equalls present when silence would embolden the offender much when the glory of God lies at the stake unavoidably and especially when the grace of the reprovers wisdome may be like to over-match both his owne meannesse and the others stoutnesse Otherwise there had need be great caution lest inferiours rather run themselves into the suspition of sawcinesse receive great affronts and discouragements if not wrongs from the reproved lest also the offender be more hardned in his sin A caution and the ordinance with the fruit of it be dishonoured and unprofitable But to returne if God doe intimate to the spirit of any wise inferiours that they ought to reprove then let them suspect their owne persons and beware that they make no open contestation but bee content with privacy where no affront may be given before witnesses especially let it be carried with great aloofenesse and rather with insinuation of an error then taxing openly exhorting rather to a contrary duty then reproving the fault downeright 1 Tim. 5.1 Rebuke not an Elder not onely a Minister but a superiour in any eminency but exhort him as a father Otherwise if God afford not discretion and opportunity better is a warranted silence and commending the cause to God with some item of a grieved heart then a rash venturing and rushing beyond our bounds But to bee sure let all lenity bee used all possible acknowledging of their places yeares worth and worship give them all their due both titles and praises to the uttermost that it may appeare the reprover is so far from presumption that were it for the meere regard of the offenders soule the glory of God and the discharge of conscience with peace the reprover would much rather have chosen silence then to attempt reproofe and so leave the issue to God So much for this second Uses of the speciall fact of 〈◊〉 servants I come now to the Uses arising in speciall from this example of the servants wise and loving carriage towards their Masters spirituall distemper And first if it be so difficult a worke to ease a distressed spirit Let Vse 1 all such as have obtained this mercy from the Lord know that they have met with no common mercy Instruction It is a peculiar favour to enable the Minister to speake a word in season to a wearied soule But how much more for the soule to find the word and to feele it to be so Instruction to the heavy hearted Proverb is not as the gift in the hand which Salomon tells us prospers whithersoever it goes and carries a commanding power with it Esay 57. The setling of a distressed heart by counsell is a mercy highly to be prised No To speake to the heart is Gods worke whosoever be the instrument and none can create the fruit of the lippes save onely hee that first created and formed the body of the earth and breathed into it the breath of life We Ministers may speake to the eare discerne and advise urge answer doubts and convince but the spirit of grace which annointed the Lord Jesus to bee the Prophet of his Church can carry those words into the soule and cast them there as seed and give them a body and being altering ignorance doubting feares deadnesse bondage insensiblenesse infidelity heavinesse into light resolution hope life liberty feeling faith and comfort He that said lift up thy voice as a trumpet and convince my people of their sinnes and againe Comfort ye my people comfort them at the heart meanes not that we should pierce into and reach the heart for we cannot get to it but that we bee the messengers of peace and glad tidings God onely must by his Spirit convince Joh. 16.9 and he onely can carry consolation through those manifold turnings and crooked windings of the soule even home and close to the heart rootes He onely can say My doctrine shall droppe as dew Deut. 32 1. and as the small raine wetting at the roote Therefore whosoever thou art here in this audience whom ever the Lord hath caused to breake through the hoast of discouragements and to consult with the Minister sincerely aiming at the true ends of counsell and hath also met with thy speciall disease spoken to thy heart so that it hath gotten a reall bottome out of the word and promise for the sole of her foote to rest upon against feare and doubting Oh! learne to prise such a favour above all treasures Elisha was sent but to one leper as many as there were in Israel and did not he esteeme that priviledge Let the 15.16 and 17. verses witnesse for him So the Minister of God goes to hundreds of sicke and afflicted ones But perhaps he is sent in the spirit of counsell and sealing up of peace through pardon to a very few It is their portion to whom it pertaines those must partake it who can receive it and only such can be thankefull What is the cause why we comfort so many through the seven yeare of whom perhaps wee heare no more againe ever after Our feete are not beautifull to the most of them they never imbraced the power of truth they despised the counsell of God for their salvation and the consolations of God seemed small things unto them They have got that they came for a kinde of stopping of their outcries of conscience their wounds are kept sweete and doe not rankle as they thinke they can now follow their businesse and goe about the world at their pleasure pleasing themselves with that the Minister hath said unto them And that no man shall pull from them for it pleases them well to heare themselves to be under the condition of grace that faith belongs to them that the least desire of faith is faith But alas They are comforted all at once their comfort growes not as their doubts grow they are not unsatisfied in
will thrust themselves upon the worke when they want all manner of meetnesse and so will goe through stitch and say somewhat though to the banning and perverting of the parties rather then the setling and comforting How hard is it often to judge of sorrow whether it bee worldly or godly Have not both as deepe pangs one as other And although it be spirituall yet how hard to discerne sorrow comming from the terrors of the conscience or arising from the hope of the Gospel How easie is it out of a present mercifulnesse of heart to one in trouble to goe rashly to worke and to apply plaisters to a freshly bleeding wound How many loaden wretches with the guilt of their daily revolts and lewdnesse come roaring to a Minister for ease meerly from an horror of heart no way desirous to bee broken off from their course in evill but onely from the hell of their conscience which if they were rid of they would returne to their vomit worse then ever Who would thinke bleeding at the arme would stanch bleeding at the nose That is that it were a medicine for such a one to bee drawne into more true horror by the word for sinne as it is sinne And yet no other remedy will ease such a one Who is able to discerne diabolicall injections which may be perceived by the unnaturalnesse hideousnesse dogging and pertinacy of them and the like from evills of our owne wilfully committed and polluting the soule For why Both may seem to cleave to the soule the one as fast as the other And so I might bee endlesse I spake of a great many of these difficulties in the third Reason Is it then an easie thing to speake a word in due season to one that is weary No doubtlesse I conclude therefore let it be a caveat to all Gods Ministers whom this worke concernes as not to put it off being one of the maine peeces of our calling so neither to rush upon it suddenly and without due preparation use those directions before named and joyne this last to seek of God a wise discerning spirit for that gift is not wholly absent from the Church to put a difference betweene things that differ Which meanes being used and love setting all on worke as the chiefe mover it shall not be difficult to doe that in time and years which perhaps at first seemed hard God will blesse experience and make this yoke for so it is to the flesh easie and this burthen light I would have come to the other branch of the caveat to the people But time cuts mee off muse the while of these and we shall proceed to the rest the next time if God will Let us pray c. The end of the Eleventh Lecture THE TWELFTH LECTVRE Still continued upon this thirteenth VERSE c. 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. Then Naaman went downe and dipped himselfe seven times in Iorden according to the word of the man of God c. I Could not brethren the last Lecture finish the point of the Religious service done by these servants to their Master wherein I observed the qualification of their persons with love and lenity to advise him for his good I have opened the doctrine already at large and made some generall Uses and some in speciall The last was Admonition to the Ministers with the which I have done The next followeth now as God shall guide us Concerning both Ministers and people and that is exhortation Therefore brethren if the worke of speaking to the weary soule bee so difficult First let me speake to you that are to be comforted and to receive instruction by the Minister of God The people must beware lest they turne away from counsell of their Ministers And the thing to which I exhort you in generall is that both you beware lest feare or sinfull shame hold you off from counsell and then that ye fitly apply your selves to the advice of the Minister of God not to hinder but to further the worke of your owne soules If a man that hath a bone out of joynt could helpe the arme of the Surgeon who wants strength to thrust it in againe how gladly would he assist him in so hard a worke rather then by his wilfulnesse abide long in his paine The misery of a soule out of joint and of a conscience wounded farre exceeds all bodily paine and all the skill of a bodily cure How then should wee frame and accomodate our selves as by praier so by all other meanes to the skill of such as God hath given us to be spirituall fathers and to be restorers of us being out of joint First therefore brethren let me advise you ere you goe to any counsellor Gal. 6.1 goe to God to plant and set your hearts aright to receive counsell It is said in Zachar. 5.4 that the lampes which were to bee replenished with the oile dropping from the olive branches by Gods providence were situated so aptly under the dropping bowes that none of the oile dropped beside but all fell upon the lamps underneath fed their lights So would the Lord have all who goe for advice to his Interpreters hee would have them carry hearts well planted wise and tractable to receive what is put into them Perhaps some may wonder at that I say considering how hard it is for a sad and distempered spirit to come with moulds ready to receive the molten mettall of Gods promises to bee fashioned and formed thereby But my meaning is that whatsoever their distemper bee they would strive by all means for such a calm equall and teachable spirit as may be subject to counsell when it is afforded them out of the word otherwise they resist the ends of the ordinance For why hath the Lord appointed the gift of counsell save to settle and stablish the weak The Minister I doubt not being wise may both supply the office of liquor and vessell also counsell I meane and an heart to receive it if God fit him for it But the worke will be the sooner at an end if all such corruption as wilfully cleaves to the distressed spirit be first removed 1. Counsell Therefore first let all such goe to God by praier and acquaint themselves with him and him with their wants beseeching him who is the eternall counsellor to order their unquiet and unsetled spirits to separate all carnall and worldly distempers passions ends and respects from them to shew them how to picke out an end out of the ravelled skeine and cleerly to discover the malady unto them To take away all such mistakes and errors from them as might cause them to misconceive their estate and to thinke it other better or worse then it is and to separate the precious from
withall And lastly shew it that there is no way for her to returne to God againe by repenting till first upon humiliation for her revolt shee come to God in Christ by a promise viz. to wit that he bids backesliding Idolaters and harlots divorced to come backe againe and he will marry himselfe to them and acknowledge them for his owne 9. Rule In deadnesse of heart c. Psal 42. If the distemper arise from the deadnes of heart strength of some prevailing corruption decay of faith ove zeal tendernes of heart the party is to be encouraged by the examples of the Saints whom the Lord hath raised up in the like eclipses wanzings of spirit and that by the recovering of the ground of comfort viz. the free promise of God who although his people doe withdraw from him by unbeleefe yet doth not change as we change but rather abides one without any shadow of change and cannot deny himselfe though we beleeve not but rather will revive us againe by his word that we may live in his sight and goe in and out with him as in time past especially if wee can prove that our ebbings and decaies doe not proceed from wilfull withdrawing our selves If trouble arise from particular feares or staggerings which touch not a Christians freehold 10. Rule Speciall feares c. but onely his welfare and welbeeing as namely from some straits whereinto he is fallen or temptations of Satan which he cannot answer or melancholy or the darkenesse of Gods administration of his Church suffering his cause and people to goe to the walles and his enemies to prosper with sundry such like which befall a man in the course of Christianity the answer must lie according as the trouble lyes As that God is not tied to one course with his Church in outward things his best servants have had greatest straits That we must not so much looke at the troubles we meetwith as the promises which we have to support us That the wicked have prolonged their malice and the righteous have perished in their innocency and yet the whiles God hath beene most righteous And so much for a draught of these instances according to which others which are innumerable may be conceived And therefore to finish the use let the Minister of God wisely apply himselfe to this worke as knowing it to be most pretious necessary and honourable unto the which not onely is annexed speciall encouragement here but also hereafter Here a savoury report and the loines of many poore soules blessing God for us herereafter blessednesse it selfe and shining in glory and that so much the more brightly by how much we have converted many as Daniel speakes And as for the difficulty of it the Lord is able to make it sweete and easie by custome and experience to such as desire to bee faithfull And so much for this second qualification of these servants to wit their milde and wise carriage to their Master in this his distempered condition Now according to my former method I proceed from the persons attempting to the attempt it selfe Wherein I considered in the servants a secret taxation of their Master which I call so because it lyes onely couched and conveied closely as became inferiours in the manner of utterance for it is an expostulatory question intimating their dislike of the distemper which he was in and that Selfe and carnall reason whereby he was carried against the Prophet As if they had in plaine tearmes said Master this thy descanting against the Prophet by thy cavills and carnall reason is not comely for a man in thy case If the Prophet had said some great thing thou seemedst forward to obey why then dost thou so cavill and contradict him in this his message The point is Selfe with carnall reason Doctrine Selfe and carnall reason are justly reproveable and such like scurfe in rejecting the word are justly reprovable evills Touching this point of carnall reason I have said much of it already here I repeat nothing If the variety of the doctrine will adde any other things worth observation I will onely insist thereupon and that very shortly to shunne tediousnesse First some proofes of Scripture and then some reasons will bee needfull to strengthen the point For texts first Proofes Num. 11.22.23 when Moses objected against the Lords power to send he murmuring Israelites meate in abundance saying this people is six hundred thousand foot men and thou hast said I will give them food a whole month shall the flocks or the heards bee slaine to suffice them Or shall all the fish of the sea bee gathered together for them What doth the Lord answer Doth he put up this carnall speech No Hee cuts him up for it Is the arme of the Lord saith he shortened Thou shalt see whether my word shall come to passe or not Another Scripture like it Numb 20.10.11 is that where the people murmured for water not at Rephidim Exod. 17. but at Kadesh whereupon the Lord commanding Moses to satisfie them by smiting the rocke But they in an indignation at their basenesse outshot them in their owne carnall reason saying come onye rebells hath God nothing to do save to give you water out of the rocke And he smote the rocke twice first doubtingly what came of this The Lord was extreame angry for this carnall opposing the word and causing those rebells to distrust God double Therefore saith hee because ye beleeved me not to sanctifie me in the eies of this congregation therefore shall you not bring the children of Israel into the land which I have given them Marke here seemed to be a lesser sinne and a greater punishment For might Moses have said Are not rebells to be children Yes in due season but not then when the Lord was working a miracle among them Therefore together with a checke hee incloses them with those rebells both in the marke of their sinne calling the place Massa and Meriba for their cavilling with the people as he called that of Rephidim by the like name for their murmuring against God And as he told the rebells that all their carcasses should fall in the wildernesse so he told them that they should dye there too A sad penalty and reall reproofe of their carnality John 6.42 Another place is that of our Saviour to those Jewes who following him for the loaves were by him perswaded to behold himselfe the true bread and manna and water of life This seemed to their grosse carnall sense senslesse and therefore they aske how shall he give us his flesh to eat Our Saviour answers Murmure not within your selves you doe not well you are but carnall in thus speaking for you can doe no other then as you are till my father teach you wisdome it is not your reason can compasse my matters you were as good hold your tongues as patter about them So when Martha who yet before had said that shee knew Christ
could doe all things yet seeing the stone to be rolled away Iohn 11.22.39 where Lazarus her brother was laid cryes out Lord by this time he stincketh hee hath beene buried foure daies but her carnality and contrariety so stancke in Christs nostrills that he is faine to checke her even before he did the miracle Said not I unto thee if thou wouldest beleeve thou shouldest see the glory of God as if he had said why dost thou so crosse me in this my attempt Were it not just to deprive thee of the miracle seeing thou preferrest thy sense before my power So Peter when hee being bidden to come to Christ on the water Matth. 14.35 attempted to come and by the way funke through carnall sense which told him that the waters were not things to goe upon but the firme earth what saith our Saviour to him Oh thou of little faith Is it not all one for my power to support thee upon the waters as upon the dry land Why didst thou stagger from my word And many more might be heapt up to this purpose all to convince that although we might thinke it veniall for weake flesh to cleave to her owne carnall conceits because Gods matters exceed her much yet God having once testified his pleasure by his word lookes that flesh lay hold upon her mouth stoope to the Lord and when it doth not he may justly rebuke her As Sarah for her laughing was checked and Zachariah for his distrust Luke 1.20 was not onely so but stricken dumbe for three quarters of a yeares space and all to teach them to preferre the word before their owne sense So that even as Paul seeing Elymas to crosse his Ministery Act. 13.10 and to harden Sergius Paulus in his infidelity sets himselfe tooth and naile against him and looked stedfastly upon him saying Oh! thou full of all subtilty and mischiefe sonne of the Divell wilt thou not cease perverting the wayes of the Lord Even so the Lord seeing this sorceresse of carnall reason standing at the elbow of the soule to disswade and hold it off from beleeving doth with indignation cut her up and say Oh thou full of all venome and poyson darest thou thus pervert the truth and faithfulnesse of the promise And our Saviour did the like to Nicodemus caviling against the mystery of Regeneration and Baptisme what saith he Art thou a great Doctor in Israel Joh. 3.5 and yet such a dunce and ideot in the matters of God What a shame and as it were a box on the eare was this for such a Rabbi And although he seemed to deale somewhat more fairely with Thomas in his refractory stoutnesse of carnall reason Except I see the print of the speare in his sides and nailes in his hands I will not beleeve yet we shall see hee gave him a shrewd touch upon that mercifull conviction Be faithfull saith he not incredulous Blessed are they that see not and yet beleeve Joh. 21. I tell thee it is small thanke to thee to beleeve having seene So much for proofes Reasons of the point are many First this It is the chiefe marke of all Reason 1 other in Gods eye and a duty of the greatest import when the soule breaking through the misty aire and foggy clouds which doe beset the clearesky even as carnall reason overwhelmes the cleere promise shall pierce and behold the word in her brightnesse and true colours Oh! how it speakes to the heart of God to be trusted upon his bare word when the soule makes a tush of carnall objections and saith the word is against it Examples we have of this also in Scripture See Numb 14.5 where the ten spies bringing a verduict of sense by the terror of Anakims and chariots of iron to their brethren and dismaying their hearts from going to Canaan Lo those two worthies Caleb and Ioshua cleaving to the word made a tush at the other objections If the Lord love us say they he will bring us into this land as for these Giants they shall be but meat for us What are they to a word of an omnipotent God What came of it Surely the Lord tooke it so kindly as he scarce knew how to expresse it twice or thrice after he tells Moses Caleb and Ioshua have honoured me before this people and borne downe their wretched partners Therefore of all the rest who shall leave their bones in the wildernesse these two shall inherit this good land So David when all the body of the people were scared and ranne from the Philistin onely cryed why Who is this uncircumcised Philistin what make yee of him I make but a dead dog of him a railer upon God and his hoast 1 Sam. 17. And what came of it God enclosed him by his faith into his hands and as Heb. 11.34 he was made strong of weake and put to flight an Army by that meanes Paul also Act. 27. when all were against him both Pilate Centurion and Souldiers they all thought that there was no way for them but to perish contrary to their feares Paul is confident that not an haire of their head should fall to the ground For why Saith he although I see as much against it in shew as you doe yet an Angel of God stood by me this night and told me so and I beleeve God Oh! how did the Lord honour him with the safety of all in the ship Now to conclude if the Lords heart be so set upon beleevers How must he needs cast a sad countenance upon them that overthrow his promise and will beleeve no more then they see Contrary objects to those which are most desireable must needs be most unwelcome And if the one provoke esteeme how can it chuse but the other must cause indignation Reason 2 Secondly it must be needs a very reproveable evill which causeth such a fulsomenesse and wearisomenesse in Gods stomacke Now wee shall note it in the Scripture how loathingly God speakes of carnality and a sensuall spirit in his matters See Psal 92. The Lord tells us that he led the Israelites in the wildernesse as shepherds lead their sheepe Esay 63. and all that they might see his workes and know him and trust him the better But saith he forty yeares long have I beene vexed with this generation They have tempted me proved me and wearied me Therefore I sware in my wrath they should not enter into my rest Why Because all his miracles and deeds before their eyes could not draw them to trust him but as if heathens they would cleave still to their fleshly reason Surely he that sweares in his wrath to destroy and is vexed with people hee doth more then reprove This for the second Reason 3 Thirdly for our selves how can it bee in us but a most damnable sinne much more reproveable For as it resists the whole method of God through the whole world so it sinnes against almost every Chapter and line of
the badge of the resurrection about them for fashion sake but else resolved to suffer no word of truth to enter into them or trouble them and make a privy contract with Satan to hold their owne lusts against all Preaching what difference is there betweene thinking there is no God and resisting him speaking in his word Betweene open maintaining that there is no judgement resurrection or torment for sinners and the practice of blasphemies swearings breaking of Sabbaths stealth adultery and all debauchednesse What shall I say unto you Shall I say as that ancient Father once did to his people of Antioch Get yee Bibles for shame and come in O ye uncircumcised hangbyes to the congregation Howster out such vermine O ye Church offcers if ye serve for oughts out of their kennells But you are readier some of you rather to pursue the best of your neigbours take heed my words stand not upon record against you without repentance rather then hunt such as pester our Townes with Atheisme and Impiety Alas the Divell is served as well by such as by them that have read Lectures of Atheisme heretofore They professe a God you will say Tit. 1. ult what is that when they are in their workes abominable and to each good thing reprobate They live by swinish principles and customes of darkenesse they see all swayed by mony favour and pollicy they see others all for backe and belly purse and pleasures pompe and preferments and therefore further they will not stir They whom carnall reason meerly rules are negative Atheists because they admit of no principles which should make them other and cause them to tremble at themselves Oh! mourne deare brethren for this that the Land swarmes with such and pray for such as are in place that they may reforme it and consider with what fruit we requite God for this seventy yeares of his Gospel past by nouzeling up among us a generation that know no more of sinne Christ judgement day then the swine at the trough but rather trample upon these pearles Tell them of their washing brewing baking startching on the Sabbath and they answer Alas we are poore and the six daies are little enough to worke in and earne meate to our bellies we must be fed and cloathed and more then we worke we must looke for nothing Others being asked about their hope in death tell us they have had their purgatory here in want and misery and therefore hope they shall have no more hereafter Others live by a Popish mixture of some shreads with their owne wisdome and such errors of the wicked as they suck up every where The issue of all is they abhorre the word and those that live by it and doe wholly breath in the element of their owne carnall savour Oh woefull ones your damnation sleepes not and the flood of Gods wrath the fire of vengeance shall sweepe you to hell Matth. 24.38 as the waters did them who ate and dranke married and gave in marriage and would know nothing till they were under water God keepe you from it You have had your reproofe but except God ring an alarme in your eares you will not awake But alas I speake to the walles these Gibeonites come not within the Temple carry them home these newes you that dwell by such So much for the first Use Secondly is carnall sense so reproveable What is then an utter despising Vse 2 of sense and of the manifest waies of God Reproofe of sundry sorts to the very eyes of men so that they cannot deny the finger of God We have many such Sort. 1 as these among us beloved such as see the apparant hand of God upon them and among them yea the Lord comming as it were to their doores Such as sinne against sensible and ocular mercies worse then such as sinne against promises into their bosomes judgements upon their bodies children wives names even such as their owne cursed mouthes have wished pox and plague c. and their cursed workes have procured justly and yet they are as Pharaoh hardened by his inchanters even when the frogges leapt up upon his bed in his privy Chamber what is this save to fight against heaven it selfe When judgements follow not the word men cavill and say these Preachers cry aloud but no thunder or lightning followes upon it But what say they when the Lord plagues you and raines snares and tempests upon you Many of you what diseases hath the Lord cast upon you noysome and stinking Note well all these following Instances Are ye one whit moved by it You use to answer as the sorcerers did all sorts are troubled with one disease or other all sorts have some poore in reproach c. But you know that yours are sent upon you for your debauched courses Doe you see God against you Had not Thomas beene grossely reproveable if when Christ thrust his hands into his sides to feele the print of his nailes he had beene unfaithfull But these mens eyes goe out with beholding the Sunne shine in their faces How many are there of you here who have cavilled at God that hee Sort. 2 puts no difference betweene bad and good in point of blessings and lo God hath served your turne brought you out of debt set you up and planted you well so that you take roote and grow upward Is not here ocular and sensible mercy I demand now of such are you any better Doe you see God in this I denounce before the Lord unto you this day that the mercies you have wished and doe enjoy shall bee the heaviest corrasives to you that ever befell and shall sting you as fire Why Because those covenants and vowes which you made are all broken and forfeit when yet God hath fully done his part Had it not beene better that he had kept you hungry and beggerly still Others of you what mones and chatterings have you made like Sort. 3 Cranes as Hezechia did upon your sicke beds unto God Oh! should the Lord take us away in our prime of youth our best yeares ere wee have spent any time in the land of the living to prepare our selves to meete him The Lord hath heard you or else earnest praier for you I am sure of it and hath brought ye from the brinke of the grave and set you upon your feet again What is come of it Are you any more penitent then you were Doth the presence of God awe you Doe you walke softly in your house as he said as having scaped a scouring and felt Gods fingers Have not your recoveries made you more fledge and sawcy with God so that now yee fare as if the winde were turned and you had the Lord at a vantage I denounce here unto you that most of you are waxen grosse fat laden with fatnesse you have despised the God of salvation Deut. 32.13 Esay 38. And instead of Hezechias words The living the living shall praise thee
you may say the living are worse and stinke worse above ground then if they had beene rotting in their graves So that by experience we are now growne to trust no sicke mens promises whatsoever they bee Oh you wofull people Doe you thus requite the Lord Alas I foresee you are ripe for the harvest and groane for the sickle to reape you downe indeed at last without any remedy And although some of you make a shift to hold out 1 Thes 5.2 yet your damnation sleeps not it shall come like a whirlewinde when you cry peace most then shall it come swiftly Oh be reproved Sort. 4 And lest I should touch upon outward blessings and deliverances only let mee adde somewhat of Gods word and his patience towards others of us How have some of you here present complained of your sillinesse to conceive the things of God the hardnesse of your hearts to melt at the word How have you beene vile in your selves for your ignorance and unbeleefe How have you wondred at the gifts of others Oh! if I might obtaine mercy of God to pray as such to remember to conferre as they how should I use it The Lord hath heard some of you granted you light and discerning melted your hearts enlarged your affections ripened your gifts and hath any sweet fruit proceeded from hence Could ye also trust him for the creating of the grace of faith in you and for converting your natures have you not given him over in that worke for the granting whereof he was sealed Joh. 6.27 I meane the seeking of the meat that perisheth not No But hee hath beene content with common gifts and so rested You have therefore shewed you selves false in covenant and given over the Lord in the plaine chase when you might have felt and groped the Lord in his manifest providence Act. 14. Sort. 6 Others how hath God lengthened out their daies beyond expectation When as they never looked to have harrowed that which they had sowne not so much as to see one of their children brought up How hath God given them a restitution from paines and infirmities and made their latter daies which they never thought to see farre better then the former so that they have lived to see more of Gods truth both in word and works Rom. 2.3 then ever they imagined But what hath this long suffering of God led them to repentance Hath not their clay laid in the warme sunne hardened the more Is their any power in their soules to breake off their old lusts and to returne to God sincerely No surely but having the better end of the staffe they have prolonged life to encrease wrath and to treasure up vengeance Nay to speake a word to the better sort how many of us in our deepe heavinesse of spirit under the Sort. 7 burthen of conscience when no counsell could worke upon us have even given sentence on our selves that there is no hope Jerem. 2. how have wee counted our lives scarce worth a straw under our feete Yet hath the Lord blowne over our fears made a calme swallowed up death into victory Nay some of us in our deepest sicknesses of body when sinne and Satan are most busie have we not found God neerer to us then in our best health Hath he not answered us as Hanna in our long praiers Hath he not enlarged the promise unto us by the seale of his Spirit making as I may say the light of the Moone as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seven times greater then ever in comfort and holy confidence above all feares How hath this wrought with us Hath it knit us in so firm a covenant with God as never to be broken off Hath it caused us to walke here below as shadowes and to despise all the earth in comparison of our hopes I doubt not but some doe and shall finde the fruit of it at death But oh that such faire wether should doe harme and be an occasion to make us wax wanton earthly and thinke grace to be pind to our sleeves how reproveable is it Good brethren looke to your selves If carnall reason bee so base what is it to blindfold our eies against ocular mercies Oh! such favours as some of us have met with should make us cry out I have found I have found God hath not dealt with others as with me Therefore whether it be my lot to be in straits or whatsoever temptations I must endure yet I will call to minde the old mercies of the Lord and be comforted yea I will gladly be under infirmity 2 Cor. 12.9 that the strength of God may be perfected in me and though he kill me yet I will trust in him through mercy Oh that this fruit might appeare Who would have thought that when Hezechias request was granted to wit the going backe of the Sunne tenne degrees for the assuring of his recovery that his recovery should have beene so stained with apostacy But alas God hath made our fears and griefes goe back as many for us and yet we have revolted not as he did once but made a falling sicknesse of our course To conclude the Use In the Sacraments and Seales of Gods Covenant Sort. 8 how hath Christ come as it were in his likenesse unto us and by outward signes spoken to all our senses yea thrust our hands into his very sides that if it be not himselfe let us distrust him still see feele smell handle taste eate my flesh drinke my bloud a fancy hath no substance lo here is substance What fruit hath it had Brethren I shall speake a fearfull speech I am resolved that the carnall reason of most men is enlarged rather then diminished by the Sacraments And the judgement of most is become greater by them then if they had never had any Alas they cry not out as ashamed and convinced ones My Lord and my God! Thomas himselfe shall rise up against such So much for this Use also Thirdly let this be a caveat to Gods owne people to teach them to Vse 3 beware of this evill except they will have the Lord reprove them to Admonition their faces viz. That they will beleeve God no further then they see him when they heare the promises urged upon all broken and mourning soules what say they Yea you say well if wee could feele it thus Instances 1. Putters off the promise to be reproved First I say this may bee a pranke of an hollow heart and then it is horrible As we see in those Jewes who were alway pressing upon Christ for a signe Tell us if thou be the Christ And why Not as meaning to beleeve for so he tells them I have told you oft by preaching and miracles yet you beleeve not but as a cloake of your prophanenesse viz. That they could not so cleerly behold him as they desired But put case it be otherwise with us and that thou meanest
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
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
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
and his labour is with God if then for conscience he seekes their welfare and counts it his crowne if they obey Esay 49.4 its equall and righteous that they requite love for love duty for duty That they set his crowne upon his head by their faithfull obedience The businesse concernes themselves very sadly for the Minister preaches not comforts not exhorts not for his owne ends but for theirs If then he be for them and not himselfe shall they be able to answer it if they be not for their owne soules Alas what shall the discouragement they afford to the Minister hurt him Shall it not redound to them See Heb. 13.17 That were smally to their comfort He is from God and as in the stead of Christ doing his Embassage As Ieremy speakes to those rebells Chap. 44. Lo I am before you you may answer me as you will But know that he who sent me will not be so easily answered 2 Pet. 1.16 he will pay ye home for your rebellion If the Minister be bound to follow God and not cunning devises and fables of his own head and must give a strict account thereof to his Master Woe be to them that perceive not nor lay to heart What a solemne account will lye upon them if they dispise that message which he delivers upon such tearmes He hath saved his soule but thy bloud shall be upon thine owne head True love then is judicious see 2 Cor. 5.14 and as in all other things so in this she is loath to offer any measure to the Minister which she is loath God should offer herselfe Reason 3 Thirdly love is marveilous tender He then that loves his Minister is very sensible of that griefe and discontent which must needs smites his heart when he sees his labours slighted 1 Cor. 13. especially if he be a man wholly set to seek Gods ends in preaching A good heart will say I warrant you it stings the heart of him who teaches us soundly to behold in us slight acceptance Oh this will breed bad bloud This will load him with sorrow and he hath no whither to goe for ease but to him who set him on worke And the Lord will take his wrongs to heart and count them his owne and that will prove sad for us Oh! let us not provide so ill let us not cut downe the onely prop we stand on let us condole him in his heavinesse and remove the cause of it that so his heart being joyed may procure a good errand to heaven in our behalfe and bring downe a blessed answer from God unto us Reason 4 Fourthly love is given to esteem highly of that which it loves unites it and strengthens it selfe in the object delighted in she sets it up in her heart exceedingly and good cause why for love proceeds from some convinced amiablenesse and worth in the thing loved and that reflects backe honour and esteeme Now if it be so then love of a Minister will breed honour to him under God neither under his worth nor above it but sutable to it contrariwise if there be small or no love what will the answer be Tush what is he He is but a man as others yea and perhaps a weake one a man of passions and frailties So then marke A lovelesse heart despiseth a Minister shames him is as rottennesse to his bones thwarts the doctrine makes all that behold him in the mirror of such people to thinke they have a Minister of like disposition to themselves else for shame they would not be so base I conclude then true love will devise with her selfe what will grace and magnifie the Minister and his labours and finding that nothing will do it so much as the obeying of his voice they will force and compell themselves out of the meer nature of their love to obey him to the uttermost cost it them never so much the setting on as face answers face in water Proverb so doth the life of an hearer who loves his Minister answer his labours Love must needs destroy it selfe if it should disesteem her object therefore she honoureth that as she would support herselfe So much for Reasons This point first affords Terror to all basely minded men who live Vse 1 in the utter hatred and scorne of their Ministers thwarting Terror Two or three Branches vexing and crossing them to the uttermost in stead of obeying Such as Jer. 44.16 openly tell him The word of God which thou spakest unto us we will not heare it Such as live at open defiance with the Minister asking Shall this fellow reigne over us No Shall we be tyed to his girdle We scorne it Let us cast his cords from us Psal 2.12 What Lord shall controll us Our tongues our spirits and wayes are our owne Shall he teach us to marry to buy sell keep company use our liberties Shall he come among us to forestall our pleasures our wills and lusts They that live at open defiance with their Ministers are odious Cannot wee tell as well as he what is good for us He serves us and lives upon us and shall we maintaine our servant to be in our tops Oh base wretch He is thy servant for thy good but made so by God not a slave but a free honourable Minister of reconciliation not to serve thy humours but to controll them And as I said before then they will runne and ride and lay their purses together nay set on all the mastives of the Country against them to worry them out But oh wofull creatures Reproach of Ministers shame and spots of assemblies you need not to hunt them out Read but that in Mica 2.6.7 and there you shall finde God himself will doe it for you You say prophesie not But I say Ezek. 3.26 they shall not prophesie unto such lest they take shame I will not suffer their faces to be covered with such confusion as to be plagued with such I will rid them from among such and carry them to a people that love them As for these haters of them when as once their shepheards are gone I will come in among them and worry them that worried these And I will let in a flood upon them of woe when my Noa's are taken into mine Arke That which they sought for revenge of my Minister I will inflict as a revenge upon them and when they see themselves left to be consumed by those lusts of theirs which they scorned to be rooted out by him then they shall roare for very anguish some here under penury rags shame diseases and impenitency some in hell but then one houre of a faithfull Minister shall not be given them if they had the world to give for it Beware lest seeing the fearefull examples of vengeance in Scripture for contempt of the Minister besides daily experience of the sudden end of scorners and persecutors will not draw you from your trade God make you examples for
make shew of consulting with a Minister making him beleeve that they advise with him upon equall tearmes whereas in truth they make him but a stalking horse telling their owne tale so faire that they pull some word of allowance from him that so they may say they went to worke by advice so if any thing befall amisse he shall beare the brunt of it But if it fall out that he disswade and oppose their purpose they have made sure beforehand to follow their owne counsell And I have had experience of such that whereas they have seemed to weepe and bewaile some lusts and corruptions of theirs or to hearken to reasons disswading them from rash changing of their callings or entring upon dangerous marriages or to restore goods gotten badly or the like whereas the simple Minister thought they meant plainly as they spake when hee enquires afterwards of such perhaps hee heares some of these who so wept and bemoaned themselves are ordinary drunkards or uncleane wretches others were sure of their changes ere they consulted others continue in their extortion or usury still but none of them sought counsell directly but to make semblance of that is not in them or to get the opinion of teachable ones or to stoppe the mouth of accusing conscience for the present or to prevent some ill report of themselves which they more feare the Minister should know then themselves should commit I have knowne some who have earnestly besought the Minister to come to their house and to meete with some friends to prevent haunting of their houses with loose company who when the Minister is come are about the practice of lewd fellowship and drinking the selfe same morning and others who have pittifully bewailed how raging shrewish froward they are vowing to curbe these passions who yet are found to returne to them after with more violence then ever when they have had some word of comfort upon hope of their humiliation Salomon hath a Proverb of such as vow first and then enquire saying it is not good First to commit sacriledge and then aske whether it bee lawfull These may mocke men and their owne conscience but God is not mocked And to conclude this Use 3. Branch Very teachable men in shew yet persisters in those sins which are reproved are dissemblers Thirdly this also reproves all such as pretend to bee very faire and propense in taking counsell but when all is done still they will follow their owne course They are so tractable in shew that the Minister seemes to admire them For why Whereas some are so rough and stout that no man may speake to them against their rebellious courses lo these are so faire that you may say what you please unto them admonish convince rebuke and advise them you cannot perceive any word or passion to come from them which might offend Who would not now thinke these men to be the onely obedient ones and to be ruled But marke them still they are the same men their tongues as unruly their families as ungoverned their marriages as perverse themselves as disordered For why They are moulded by a custome into this dangerous habit to suffer you to say any thing they have Asses eares talke what you will you shall have a nod and be endured but there is no heart in them to obey no strength to bee ruled 1 King 22. Thus Iehoshaphat hearing the false Prophets would needs have Micaja sent for but to what purpose Indeed he would heare him speak and perhaps would have wished Ahab to be ruled by him But when he would not did he tremble to joine with him or desist from the enterprise No but still continued this trade with him and his sonne Iehoram and married his sonne to a daughter of that Idolatrous family which was their ruine Such a desperate slynesse or fillinesse or weakenesse there is in many that winde themselves by this smoothnesse out of all mens fingers that they may roll backe into the armes of their accustomed habits and humours whatsoever hath beene said to the contrary Simil. The thicke haile falling upon the tiles of houses doth as much pierce and breake them as counsell prevailes with these as the one rebounds backe as fast as it comes so doth every droppe of counsell passe away from these Their honour to the Minister is to give him the hearing with both eares but to obey him in nothing Far are these from him that said Esay 50.5 The Lord hath opened me an eare I was not rebellious But I have lengthened out my speech beyond the due limits of the time Here therefore I cease for the present leaving the rest till another season Let us pray c. The end of the Fourtenth Lecture THE FIFTEENTH 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. Then he went downe to Iorden and dipped himselfe c. 2 Kings WEE ended the last Lecture brethren with the latter use of Reproofe in the processe whereof we were cut off Returne to the former use of Reproofe But the point was a sharpe rebuke to all smooth people who will heare all and say as you say but hold their owne and doe as they list They seeme to want a bottome all that is said leaketh as fast out as it was powred in for lacke of a digesting and retentive spirit which their frothy vanity cannot admit It should seeme that those Jewes were such Deut. 5.29 who when Moses declared Gods covenant to them told him the word of the Lord was good they would obey all But the Lord cries out This people have said well in all they have spoken But oh that there were such an heart in them to doe it to feare and obey that it might goe well with them And this sinne seemed to runne in a bloud with them Ezek. 33. ult for the Lord tells Ezekel thus This people will sit and heare thy voice as the voice of a musitian yea thou art to them as one that singeth pleasantly to an instrument so are they catcht with thy words But they will not doe as thou saiest for their hearts goe still after their owne covetousnesse They are as slye fishes which will get out at one mash or other of the net To finish this Use therefore let all such know that as it is sinfull bashfulnesse for them to conceale themselves from their Minister whose lips are to preserve knowledge So it is double sinne and subtilty in them to advise with him for their owne ends and to use him onely as a stale when as their hearts are bent their owne way The former are their own worsâ— enemies But the latter trench upon the honour of God the esteeme of the Minister the peace of
speakes most directly to his heart As for pleasing himselfe in being in the element of any truth whereof he sees no use it is irkesome to a wise heart although he reverence all And these may serve for a taste of many more lets which differ as men differ and for answer to the first question I come to the second Since it is thus what reason may be given to Quest 2 satisfie men in this way of good for many would thinke it better if God tooke a more short and speedy way But I answer Answ for many causes God permits it To summe them up breefly One is 1. Cause because the Lord herein lookes at some grosse sins which ruled and reigned in the former part of mens life and in youth which are as iron moles and will hardly be worne out of the flesh being bred in the bone save by tozing and searching the heart throughly Secondly that he might breed some restraint in youth and curbe them from such offences as after must cost a great deale of purging plowing and harrowing ere the soule will affoard good mould for the word For sure it is the more rebellion the Lord meets with the more irons he loades the soule with Esay 28. Thirdly that he might exercise each soule in finding out her owne speciall let and not goe to worke in a fulsome generalnesse Fourthly to breed in the soule a solemne and sad thought concerning the way of God and roote out that giddinesse and vanity which puffes up the soule in a vaine presumption and ease Fifthly to occupy the minde of the Minister in right and carefull dividing the word and studying to approve himselfe as a workeman not to be ashamed striving to be faithfull both in the gift of discerning spirits that he may speake to the purpose not at randon as also to be painfull in catechizing which containes the wise and leasurely way of God to scrue and dive into the hearts of men by degrees and to soke the heart in the principles of faith which they that want may be long enough in hearing Sermons ere they conceive the order of the mystery of faith and how the soul comes to claspe with the promise Sixtly the Lord hereby corrects those most wicked evills which have carried the soule in and under the Ministry of the Gospel especially the dallying with the seasons of grace 7. That by this mean the Lord might clense the heart from Selfe in every kinde and twitch up every roote and rinde of selfe-love which would dangerously mix it selfe with the promise Lastly that the Lord as I toucht before might prepare way for himselfe in the honour of the soul when it shall finde by experience that all her salvation is of him and he could bring it out of nothing nay worse then nothing when as the soule lay strugling with herselfe without hope or remedy So much for answer to the second question The third and last question is how the soule may finde by markes Quest 3 that the Lord is following on with the work of grace That so it may be comforted in this that she is no hypocrite and so shall not wanze and moulder away as wax before the Sunne but obtaine the fruit of the promise in Gods due time For answer whereto this I say it may bee knowne by the contrary to those markes which bewray hypocrites Answ Marke 1 The first shall be this A soule truly under the condition of grace is very vigilant stirring and observant of the seasons which affoord grace not only generally to hearken after the word but specially to observe the Angels moving of the water The Lord doth not alway stir alike The Minister is not moved nor the heart of the hearer affected alike It s rare when the Lord and the soule close throughly one with the other when the word is preacht so savourly and lively and carryes the vertue of the speaker with it into the hearer and when the hearer meets it with a discerning of a season from God But when the soule meets with such Oh it abhors to dally and trifle with God to greeve him with slightnesse either for the present or after But confesses it to be a rare occasion presses hard with the Lord for blessing and followes on as Gedeon did those enemies Judg. 7. while the sent was hot lest he should be defeated Thus doth a good heart watch her time alway being upon wing for her prey and loaths carelessenesse of the watchwords of God No sin stings her more then former dallyings with the Lord nothing brings her upon her knees in secret more then this sinne and the sad fruit of it nothing puts her in more feare lest God should forsake her and suffer his Spirit to give over all saving strife with her nothing more is desired then that the Lord would forget her many provokings this way and stir her up with threefold alacrity to redeeme such seasons for time to come Whereas an hypocrite sees not such mercy from God or else vanishes in the fruit of them le ts all goe and nouzles himselfe in a blinde hope all shall be well whiles yet old sinnes and dallyings are upon the score unrepented of and unforgiven and the soule hardning more and more and waxing daily more and more crazy and unfit to be wrought upon Marke 2 Secondly a thriving soule God and promise-ward above all things nourishes life in herselfe not onely in ordinances but in the course and way of conversation Where ever she become the Spirit of life leaves her not wholy but more or lesse accompanies her spirit to preserve it from deadnesse flatnesse remissenes and suffering the worke of God to lye by in her And howsoever she feels a very body of death in this kinde fighting against the law of life in her yet knowing which is the stronger she gives not place No although the more she strives to be lively and savoury upon the promise and by faith the more the death of corruption resists her and discourages her yet even in this darke belly of the whale she casts her eie towards the Temple Jonah 2.8 and dares not yeeld when yet she is almost foiled but discernes a base body of death from the desire of her owne heart and because she feeles a dying she judges herselfe not wholly dead but to have some life under the embers which she makes much of and nourishes as one would hatch up one coale of fire upon dry straw lest it should goe quite out Such a soule abhors a daily deadish and sad heart more then death it selfe labours to revive it selfe by all hot waters from swowning and dying rejoyces when she recovers exercises her selfe with others as well as in secret to whet up that dull and weake edge of life and faith which remaines and is glad to feele that it is not alway alike with her in this kinde Whereas an hypocrite who never attaind to this sweet life
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
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
which God will have out and there the Lord and it are upon debate or there is a cursed naturall antipathy between the Lord and the way of salvation or the soule is full of teches and pritches against reproofe or it hatcheth some false conceit that it hath obeyd when it hath not which it will not see or puffes and snuffes against some other thing the Minister the Ordinance the difficulty of Religion the uncertainty of the promise Whatsoever it be it is a distastfulnesse of heart and a resistance against God which if it were not the soule would nakedly come in and obediently submit to the Gospel But this disease hath this misery that the more dangerous it is the lesse it will bee convinced of such a thing and this nourishes the heart in her wretchednesse it is not time alone which will heale it rather it causes it to rankle and wax worse and worse Men ascribe it to other matters being willing to gull themselves because they have no will to be rid of it They say they have weake memories little capacity and the Minister is too high for them But in very deeds their hearts are too high for him till the Word come neerer 2 Cor. 10.4 and worke inward to cast downe all imaginations and high things no submission will follow to the obedience of Christ The effect every one dare confesse but the cause they will not see it is not unprofitablenesse or an ill memory that hath caused your hearts to be so surly and perverse but it is a proud and gainsaying heart Acts 28.27 which hath so long made you unprofitable Doe not lin till you are convinced hereof for till the cause be seene it cannot bee removed Doe not lay the fault where it is not doe not blanch over the cause with fine words mitigate not the extremity of the sin with gentlenesse Perhaps you doe not live in wrath and rage with your wives family neighbours you make a shift to comply with men courteously so long as no body hurts you but truly if you beleeve not in all this while there is a pad in the straw your spirits are not inwardly brought to that tender softnesse and selfe-deniall to thinke equall thoughts of God and his way something stickes in your base stomackes which will not suffer the word of God to goe downe and pierce into you to perswade you If you would but bethinke you what a great let this is which hitherto you have not seene or if you could thinke how the case would bee changed with you if once a tractable comming and inclining heart were in you how the Ministers of God the Angels â—ea the Spirit of grace it selfe which you have so long grieved and resisted would rejoyce in the change Oh! you would never lin with your owne soules till you had cast it out and having shaken it off you would thinke it a greater ease then ever that Martyr of Christ did B. Hooper when he had cast off all his Popish trash and furniture from his shoulders Secondly it is reproofe Reproofe to many Professors who in hope are of Vse 2 the better sort who although by this sinne have not perhaps wholly stopped and choked the passages of the grace of conversion Christians of crabbed peevish stubborne hearts lose the grace of faith yet by the dregges thereof remaining in them and nourished dampe that obedience of heart that life of faith and selfe-deniall yea that peace joy and open heart to God and goodnesse which else they might attaine It is strange how some Christians dare give place to their corruption in this kinde yea grow to thinke it their praise Some are sowre and crabbed as it were steeped in vinegar so censorious and uncharitable that none can escape their censure some so suspitious jealous that none can live by them some so sullen that no estate can content them some so selfe-loving that none can please them save they who humour them in all their passions and pangs some so implacable that if once offended they can scarce looke a man in the face to rights some so eager in revenge that nothing else will content them some alwayes stirring up debate betweene neighbours so busie in Law and in matters of contention as if they were Salamanders alway living in the fire others so eager in spirit so lowring and sad that though they breake not out with others yet they never agree with themselves nor walke with a cheerfull countenance Why Save that the sweet oyle of gladnesse hath not suppled them nor the peace of God which passeth understanding hath possessed and stablished them Oh friends How dare you dally and venture to abide thus How sad a reflex will this bee upon your death-beds You will say It doth oft trouble you and you are grieved for your waspishnesse and anger But what then Is that an amends to God to vomit up that at an odde time which afterward you doe returne to and licke up ugaine without sense or feeling Oh! it were meet for you to be so heart-sick of it that you might for ever abhor it Christians should mark the secret creepings of such poyson how it dogges them chokes humblenesse and cheerfulnesse in them and makes them walke unfruitfully and unsetledly from time to time And say that sometimes you fast and pray and vow and covenant against them yet if the corruption and your soules are so incorporated together that when it steales in upon you with the old sweetnesse it inchants you and disables you from resistance what cause of boasting have you None surely nor shall till the Lord come between you and home with the spirit of true remorce and sorrow for it unto repentance never to be repented of and till your beloved lust become your bane See and apply that in James 4.1.2.3 till the Lord in secret chasten your spirits that you can sit and bemoane your selves with Ephraim and say O Lord what is the cause that I am so enthralled to this stout and unbroken heart Alas No word of thine no patience of thine can enter while this sin harden me I am not fit to bee wrought upon by any crosse blessing meditation or ordinance All washes away as it comes Oh! shall I never be rid of this misery this chaine When Lord will it once be Who shall breake off the slavish custome of my heart this way and set me at liberty Oh! if once it may bee I shall even account it as a second resurrection from the dead Oh! set such a guard over mee that I may never be surprized any more with it Let mee thinke the Divell not farre off when I see this messenger of his at my heeles so to dogge and buffet me Let thy Spirit from above which is pure peaceable Jam. 3 i5 long-suffering mercifull and patient humble and loving deliver me from this spirit of envie sullennesse Selfe and her fruits most earthly sensuall
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
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
or if it doe yet thou shalt alway be doubtfull The Word on the contrary saith Doe not desist nor revolt to thy former pleasure in sin for in that course there is no hope thou art then in a desperate case Proceed rather and goe to the promise for thereby its possible thou maist find some redresse What doth the soul in this strife She compares the argument of the word with the counsell of the flesh and findes it better then this because it is farre more safe to chuse a possible redresse of misery then to fall upon the assured pykes of certaine wo and despaire Here we see a fight but no victory no assurance only that rest which the soule hath is not from any thing she feeles within herselfe but without in the word Secondly here comes in a second doubt and therein Satan tells Quest 2 the soule it is true Thou chusest hope before despaire but what hast thou to doe with peace Or how knowest thou whether thou oughtest rather to chuse the one then the other or what right hast thou to ease and pardon Here againe steppes in the word and succours the soule telling her That she ought to fasten upon life and pardon and chuse it before sinne and death for God hath bred in her the condions of faith a longing mourning restlesse selfe-denying heart therefore to her and to no other this pardon and ease belongs and she may claime it God indeed hath no where said in his word I will pardon thee Iohn thee Thomas c. But he hath said such and such I will pardon so and so qualified Now she assumes this qualification to herselfe and therefore she concludes that to her it belongs This is another word of the Spirit which still drawes on a poore soule to bee willing to beleeve But now comes the nearest worke of the Spirit in the word and Quest 3 that answers a third objection which is this How shall I know in speciall its mine owne Perhaps it may belong unto such a one as I am but many things belong to men which yet they are by one meanes or other defeated of How shall I know that God will give it me in speciall and grant me the gift of faith to beleeve it In this the word grapples closely and nearly with the soule and brings it to the strict point of beleeving and tells the soule That all to whom the promise of pardon and life belongs by the allowance of God he will most undoubtedly bring it to passe for them and conferre it upon them yea and give them faith to cast themselves upon it For in saying Come unto me all you loaden ones and I will ease you he meanes not onely you may but you must come not only it belongs unto you to come but I will in my calling you enable you to come and put strength and power into you to come that is to beleeve and by beleeving ease you By this the word setles the soule upon the promise as being that which it seemes she sees God is willing she should beleeve and therefore will conferre it on her And in so doing the Spirit causeth the heart which is willing to become effectually willing that is takes away all feare of defeating and tells her she shall speed of her desire and therefore now she dares venture and cast herselfe upon the promise and if she perish so she is content for she dares jeopard her soule upon Gods Truth Now we see this casting and venturing upon the promise is the best of all these three acts of the word and yet here is no assurance for the soule in respect of herselfe is neverthelesse full of doubting all her bottome is this last word of the promiser that he will effect that in the soule which he hath promised By all these I inferre The act of faith is no assurance within but an evidence without resting upon the word which word the more evident it is made to the soule the better and stronger is the act of beleeving but the best of these is no assurance Quest It will bee demanded May not assurance be had at all I answer Answ yes it may be and is the portion of such as the Lord sees meet to enjoy it Eph. 1. Rom. 8. but that stands upon another bottome and that is the immediate evidence of the Spirit in the conscience of one who is already a beleever making her to know that she beleeves This is not by the word directly but the Spirit of the word which reflects that into the heart with knowledge and feeling which before she only had by the fidelity of the Promiser But this as I said is not faith for then none should have faith who want this which God forbid but an effect of faith in some speciall persons and not all that beleeve Thus much for the former question Now for the latter viz. how faith is wrought The sufficiency of a promise is the object of faith You see brethren it is evident that the nature and worke of saving faith stands not in any fulnesse of sailes or reflex knowledge and overpowring sweetnesse of perswasion But as I said in a grounded casting herself upon the word For by this only mean faith is wrought And I call it grounded because so weighty a matter as the resting and casting of the soule upon a thing requires that the thing bee a foundation of great warrant to beare up a soule from revolting againe Nay when the conscience is come thus farre as to fasten upon the word Oh! she hath thousand objections against the sincere meaning of God in his word Hence it is that the word is so full of places wherein this sufficiency of the promise to rest upon is urged Sometime the Lord contests with them that quarrell against it Is the Arme of the Lord shortned Hath he said it and it shall not come to passe Hezechia tells us Esay 38.15 He hath spoken himselfe unto us and he hath done it Heb. 13.5 For he hath said I will not faile nor forsake thee So againe The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Among men its called an unsure argument to prove a thing by authority because men are liars further then their truth will speake for them And yet some great persons have born such sway and authority in the hearts of their Disciples that their bare word hath carried assent with it But to be sure this is a sure argument God hath said it therefore it is true as in all the words which ever went out of his mouth so especially in his promise Phil. 4. 2 Cor. 1.20 that above all pleads certainty Faithfull is he who hath promised who also will effect it And Elizabeth Luke 1. tells Mary There shall bee a performance from the Lord to his handmaid of that which he hath promised All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus with a thousand more But
generall texts satisfie not a scrupulous soule in so weighty a matter and flesh is ready to say what signe from heaven shewest thou us of these things We would see some sight or heare some voice to confirme the word Ah poore soule I may say of thee as the Scripture speakes of Samuel 1 Sam. 2. thus did he ere he knew the Lord so these are thy crotchets ere thou knewest the promise But afterward thou sawest more in that alone then in all other waies for the Promise and Testament of Christ 1 Sam. 2. is written with the finger of God by the penne of the Spirit dipt in the bloud of God But to utter what God is willing to have spoken I must say that he who might claime this absolute power over the soule to be beleeved upon his bare word yet seeing the sensuality of man and our wofull distrust is willing to allow us all the meanes of strengthening our soules in his promise both by such seales and witnesses as confirme it yea Miracles Sacraments and oaths annexed to his Covenant and especially by those properties of a promise and of him that makes it and all to conclude and set the controversie beyond questions And by this meane faith is wrought In the which course of God appeares his great love and wisdome for herein hee hath endeavoured to answer all our doubts and carnall objections we are not so ready to cast in feares as he by this meane casts them out For why O poore soule dost thou suspect the Lord will not satisfie thy desire in giving thee Christ Either it must bee because there is no ground or cause for which he should doe it The ingredients of a promise and this is answered by his freedome graciousnesse Or he is a God just and revenging sin but this is taken away by satisfaction made taken Or because he cannot and this is false for his power is omnipotent Or because he meant it not eternally But the promise is from election Or wills not in time But that he doth for he invites and beseeches us Or he is not wise enough to compasse it But that he is for he is wisdome Or he is untrue in his performance But that he is not for he is faithfull Or he may change but that he cannot for he is immutable So that let us but set perfection of nature and grace in him against that which is in us our distrust and unbeleefe and we shall see every sore hath his plaster each distemper hath his medicine And all these are included in a promise So that whosoever hath the gift of ripping up a promise aright should behold all Gods riches in it But is a great skill and the promises of God lye in the Scriptures as gold and jewells lye deep in the earth at least in the field of the Gospell and we are not aware of them nor acquainted with that fulnesse and perfection which is in them And many confesse one of these who will not acknowledge another grace comes in drop by drop else wee should looke upon a promise with other eyes then for the most part the most of us doe A word or two of each of the branches For the first Freedome true it is 1. Freedome there is nothing in thee to procure such mercy but he is of his owne accord for his owne sake Esay 63.4 cut off his plea thought thoughts of peace he hath done it for the glory of his grace even because he will shew mercy it better pleased him so to doe then the first creating of Adam for now by his fall he addes mercy to goodnesse and magnifies himselfe in many attributes more Justice Wisdome and Truth He seekes nothing else save the winning and binding of the soule to him for ever in covenant which else so treacherous an heart as ours would never have yeelded to So that thou maist well trust him in this respect if thy faith can but get in with the Lord for if he do it not for thine ends yet for his own he will so that thou canst set thine owne under his so that thy best prop will be the preciousnesse of his glory which he will not give to another and therefore thy unbeleefe shall not rob him of it 2. Strength Secondly satisfaction is made and taken therefore he hath ground enough to settle his graciousnesse upon Justice could not cry it down by revenge rather then it should a satisfaction made by the bloud of an onely Sonne the bloud of God and man shall stoppe the cry of it upon this both made by Christ and taken by our Judge lo he turns wrath into mercy and his bosome is set open and unlocked as a fountaine 2 Cor. 5.20 21. He offers us reconciliation because hee hath made him sinne and curse who knew none that we might bee his righteousnesse And this is called the Lords strength Esay 27.4 that is the bottome whereupon mercy maintaines herselfe against all quarrell of justice and this hath taken away the dint of it so that hee truly professeth anger is not in me therefore come in not to an enemy 3. Omnipotence but to a father feare not Thirdly he is omnipotent He can doe what hee will His power ushers and attends his love as an handmaid Esay 57.14 The high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity yet lookes downe that he may be strong with the humble and contrite ones His power is no crushing power save of our enemies and all that hate us But a releeving power an outstretched arme of salvation Not to destroy but to build up Esay 63.1 He that commeth from Edom dyed red with the treading of the winepresse of wrath is glorious in his apparrell travells in the greatnesse of his strength and is mighty to save Be the thing never so difficult to us with him nothing is impossible Can the Lord say they spread a table in the wildernesse The answer is can he not What is it which he cannot doe Except it be to deny himselfe and that nothing no not thy unbeleefe can bring him unto This power of God cannot be severed from the former satisfaction 4. Eternity Prov. 22.8 Fourthly he meant it from eternity as I said in the first of these he set downe with himselfe the frame and way of his owne grace long before Adam was or sinned the disease was foreseen the remedy fore provided It s a secret which lyes deep and hidden in the bosom of eternity though not farre above us in point of participation in this life yet in comprehension we must not looke to reach it here We may cry out O depth unsearchable and past finding out But till we come to heaven Rom. 9. end and behold it in the face of God being made one with him we cannot gage it our happinesse is that it is really so great that we cannot 5. Willingnesse Fifthly he wills it most cordially in
freedome that needs no word nor promise to support them That presently they are past all doubtings and need no prayer for pardon being past all gun-shot of corruption or unbeliefe Divell or temptation But I have confuted these elsewhere in a Treatise for the nonce here I will passe them over Vse 2 Secondly this is for reproofe of all such as run into another extremity of errour about this point of preparation Of Reproofe Repentance goes not before Faith And because they heare that God usually workes the condition of faith ere hee worke faith it selfe therefore they say that the grace of repenting goes before the grace of beleeving Thus confounding the preparations of the Gospell with sanctification the fruit of faith Or making sanctification the generall and repentance and faith two specialls and presupposing a needlesse faith for what needs faith to such as have repented and are converted to God without it And yet aâ—â—â—surd as this error is it is strange to thinke what abundance both oâ—â—â—nisters and people are rooted in this error Nay and dispute strongly for it too Oh! say they Doth not the Scripture say Christ will not dwell with corruption Light with darkenesse Doth not Iohn Baptist bid them repent the first thing he doth And Peter Act. 2. Repent and beleeve Oh ye blinde guides See you not how under the pretext of your devotion you overthrow Christ Saint Paul saith 1 Tim. 4. ult That Christ is the mystery of godlinesse as if he should say there is no sea but water nor grace save Christ but you will make grace to stand in a repentance before faith No no repenting cannot be conceived of without purging of the conscience first Now faith is the first and onely purifier of the heart We cannot of our selves dispose our owne hearts to grace to purenesse Therefore amend your errors arising from the mistaking of the text Iohn Baptist calls legall humiliation repenting as is evident by the words following for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand by which he meanes the Gospell was approaching therefore it was not come already Saint Peter so places repenting before beleeving not as setling any order of the graces but as making both essentiall to conversion for in other Scripture we read otherwise Beleeve and be baptised and then repent Acts 16.31 2 Cor. 6.15 Touching the place of Paul it touches not the order of graces in conversion but speakes of them who were converted already saying That they sinned fouly in mixing Christ with Idolls that is offending weake consciences in their eating things sacrificed to Idolls and so partaking with heathens So much for these only I adde let no man thinke that I maintaine any succession of graces in conversion for all Christ is given at once to a beleever yet in an orderly understanding that which hath the nature of a forme first Note this and then that which is a formall consequent thereupon Thirdly this is also reproof and that sharpe 3. Branch Dall ers with the Gospell or attenders upon it for a season reproved to all such as although they affirm the same truth in doctrine with us yet deny it in effect and apply not themselves wisely and humbly to this way of the Gospell If this point be true that none save those who are under the condition of the promise may cast themselves upon it Then those are very faulty that dally with the Gospell in the offer of salvation feele no gracious preparations wrought in them thereby no sorrowes no desires no paines no love joy care to use the meanes no restlesse heart after faith But wanze away their pretious time as if one should set up a candle in a darke house to do no work by but to prate and jangle play and be merry and tell tales Others also who at the first newes of the Gospell were a little joyed and counted the feet of the Minister beautifull but neglecting that season of grace in which the Lord offered to worke in them and contenting themselves with knowledge or the good opinion of Preachers or some sparkles of their owne never proceeded further to try whence they came or whither they tended much lesse can prove that these were wrought in them by the promise or that they were truly loaden so that nothing else could ease them but Christ And therefore such are not willing 〈◊〉 â—ring their sorrow or desire to the touchstone but after a long pâ—â—â—sion when trouble comes or their Ministers are taken from them and so the sive is taken out of the water on the suddaine all which they seemed to have Luke 11.23 Matth. 25.29 wanzeth away They gathered not with Christ and therefore scatter as fast And in these that sad speech is verified To him that hath not shall bee taken away even that they seemed to have Dally not with the pretious things of God abuse not the Gospell and your hearings to please and pride your selves Consider well the scope and end of your trafficke It shall not be asked of you in the day of accounts how many Sermons you have heard or what affections you have had but what your selves are Be wise therefore amend both these errors First behold such pretious patterns of wisdome as God hath set before you of such I mean as began but ignorantly yet by their diligence have attained to much light and hope much godly sorrow unfained desire after Christ Tread in their steps and get you under the same condition of grace also and let your vanities pleasures base hearts be renounced with ease and love of your lusts which have hitherto kept you in slightnesse and saplessenesse and dalliance with grace learne to esteem matters of weight weightily 1. Thes 5.15 But as for the second To quench that Spirit of grace which formerly hath striven with you and stirred up motions in you to take hold of God beware of it if you be guilty labour to recover that Spirit againe ere it be damped lest your hearts be given over to such a frame as will not be softned nor wrought upon And try the soundnesse of such affections as the word hath wrought in you that you may not decay and lose your labour 2 Joh. 8. but get a full reward And so much for this Vse 3 Thirdly and lastly let this exhort all such poore soules as the Lord hath brought under the condition of the promise Blesse God for bringing us under the condition of his grace both to blesse God for it and to improve it wisely for their owne encouragement to proceed on to the grace of beleeving Be heartened to trust God who hath brought you thus far that he will not forsake his work till it be finished Many stops I told you of before in the first Doctrine upon this verse which assault poore Christians under the condition I will name them no more looke there and read them let none of them come
mine eyes or bee taken lame in my hands or feet or unable to get my living or lye upon my poore husbands hand till we bee not worth a groat with a thousand such crotchets Are not these just plagues of old unbeleefe Doe not men upon their death beds cry out It is just with God thus to handle me for I never could trust him nor his word further then I saw felt and tasted him Oh God hath met with you Did he not threaten the despisers of his Law with astonishment of heart with hanging by the eye-lids an heart of heavinesse sorrow saying in the morning would God it were evening in the evening would it were morning Read Deut. 29. that roll of curses what anguish of heart fears perplexities the Lord threatens to send upon such as applauded themselves in their rotten peace and the stubbornenesse of their unbeleefe Surely we may thinke then it s juster to smite them that have abused his Gospell with spirituall penalties making a scourge of their owne cords And yet all this will not serve to drive men out of their prophanenesse and dallying with the word still they will cavill against faith and say Tush these men of the Spirit would have all men like to themselves but we cannot bee so heavenly our time is not yet come when God will it shall be and till then t is but folly for us to struggle we will doe what lies in us and put our helping hand to Gods and then hope the best Others tell the Minister they thinke it is impossible for any to know themselves happy in this life or if it be not yet it is very difficult or very unlikely Oh say they we cannot forgoe such a lust or ill custome and this faith will bereave us of all our sweet pleasures and liberties we shall never have done with it if we once beginne others come by it easilyer then we we are dull schollers poore men must doe as they may and cannot follow this learning so hard our businesse and worke hinder us and our memories are shallow we see these beleevers are as little set by among men as any a thousand of these base cavills men have But remember that these vanities will make you forsake your mercy at last Jonah 2.8 and then he that will bring you but once word to rest upon in your horrors should be as one of a thousand but then it will be too late Esay 27.11 then terrible sentences will come into your thoughts That he who made them will not save them and he who formed them will shew them no mercy And then shall that bee verefied Acts 13.40 Behold ye despisers wonder and vanish I worke a worke in your dayes which if one tell you of you will not beleeve you that wilfully stopt your eares against Gods word before shall now wish you could see the truth and beleeve it but if you would give a world for it it shall be denyed you If there bee any sparke of sense in you let this move you else you shall then catch at a word of God to comfort you but none shall be granted you So much for this first Use A second Use is Instruction to teach us the most pretious and excellent Vse 2 nature and prerogative of faith For the nature of it Instruction 1. Branch The nature of Faith is most pretious 1 Pet. 1.8 wee see this only and no other grace is allotted the soule for this end to fasten and take hold upon the Word and Promise As the Word is the only thing which beares witnesse unto us of good and his way to heaven for we see nothing as Peter speakes yet beleeve so the onely gift to cast the soule upon this word is faith And therefore it is the off-spring of God that grace which hath the birthright of all the rest and is the Reuben and strength of God such a one as if the Lord would even study how to dwell with us and in us Prov. 8.31 as wisdome saith in the Proverbs She delights to inhabit with men yea how to make us partakers of the divine nature and restore his Image in us he could not doe it by any other so excellent a grace as by this of faith Therefore Esay 57. it s called the creation of God 2 Pet. 1.2 3. I create the fruit of the lips peace if the daughter peace then much more the mother Faith its that grace which onely can say as Iob did Job 23.12 I have esteemed the words of his mouth it counts one word or promise of God as a deed done for faith is when that is done which is spoken it gives a realnesse and being to the word and promise and as you see a mould presently fashions the mettall according to it self just like it and as the seale printing upon the soft wax leaves that impression upon it which it beares it selfe even so it is with faith it fashions it selfe according to the mould of the word and beares the same stampe upon it which the seale of the word bare looke upon the one and behold the other Nay it s the instrument of the Spirit without which it workes not As Samuel said to Ishai of David send for him for wee can doe nothing till he come So till faith come into the soule to bee the organ of the Spirit to worke in us by it alas the Spirit is a stranger to our soules It s that coale from the Altar wherewith the Lord touches and inspires the soule the soule is the life of the body and faith is the soule and life of the soule causing it so much to excell it selfe as an Angel doth a man Briefly the word is a dead letter to us if faith make it not a powerfull word a word of life in us It s that which causeth out of the belly of the soule even as water from a spring to flow rivers of waters of eternall life John 7.38 even of peace through pardon and of joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1.8 2 Pet. 1.2.3 By it as Peter saith Most great and pretious promises are given to us so that if that hand that taketh rich gifts be a pretious hand then surely so is faith which only receives the gift of Christ and all he hath and hoardeth them in the soule That Christ Eph. 3.14 may dwell in your heart by faith That you may comprehend all love even the length depth and all dimensions thereof as flesh here is able to doe as all Saints doe saith the Apostle No other grace is ordained to this end save this It was the instrument of receiving Christ into the wombe of the Virgin by which all generations should call her blessed and so it is still the same spiritually Luke 1.38 ver 48. Prov. 31.29 and therefore may say as Mary did The Almighty hath magnified me above all my fellow graces Many daughters have done well but
thou hast excelled them all 2. Branch Prerogative of Faith And secondly the prerogative of faith is sutable to her nature for although many things are very pretious in nature as jewells which excell in lustre and brightnesse which yet equall not the price with any reall use Job 28.19 yet this pretious grace is as usefull also and therefore well might Salomon say and so Iob also She is more pretious then Rubies and the Topaz of Ethiopia shall not bee taken for her And that appeares by this that she is the doer of all in all in the soule both for light In sundry respects direction and strength First for light as the Sunne is first subject of naturall light in the world So is Faith in the supernaturall divine light in the soule And is to the whole man as our Saviour speakes of the eye if it be light then is the whole body light the hand Matth. 6.22 the foote the members are all light if the eye be cleare And as the Ephod or Urim were to the Priest so is faith to the soule even the oracle of it and conceives the deep things of God and reveals them to us to whom before they were hidden And if it be true as it s most true that we know no more in Gods matters then wee beleeve then surely faith is the key of all true and saving knowledge in the soule Then also she is the directresse of the soule As servants from the Master or Mistresse so doe all the graces of the Spirit receive direction from the gift of faith As in a ship each boy hath his taske some to row with oares in the boat others to climb the shreeds to pumpe to stop the leaks some to attend the steridge but all receive direction from the boatswaine he orders them and their works So Faith workes not every thing immediately in the frame of a Christian she hath abundance of workemen and as the Centurion said to his so Faith saith to hers Doe this suffer this conquer this come goe and they all obey If a crosse come goe Patience endure it If a blessing come Sobriety use it temperately as if thou didst not use it If any duty of mercy to soule or body to be done Charity and Liberality must doe them If any hard taske then Wisedome Diligence or Selfe-deniall must step forth and to these Faith gives their charge and orders their worke Thirdly she is the strength of all other graces of the Spirit As all sinewes are from the braine all Arteries from the heart all veines from the liver thence they derive their originall and all that activity which they exercise in the body So 1 Joh. 3.9 all the graces of the Spirit fetch their being and support from Faith Shee is the seed of God in the Soule and she is the strength of God also His seed because whatsoever divinenesse is in the gift of patience long-suffering thankfulnesse mercy love hope of salvation it comes from the fountaine of Faith She is the Merchant Royall all other Chapmen have their wares from her Store-house Then she is the strength also of God in all graces Whatsoever thou seest excellent in a Christians frame or graces if thou hadst an eye to see thou shouldst behold them all in one faith out of whole Forge and Anvill they are all formed For why Faith taking hold of Gods maine strength to save carries away all his strength to obey if God will save me surely hee deserves my love my patience and surely hee and his love will put mee forth and uphold me in doing for him in curbing my passions in mortifying my Giant-like corruptions the great sonnes of Anak those Emims and Zanzummims 2 Cor. 5.8 Esay 26.12 which are above all the rest in fiercenesse and strength So that now mark this Doctrine of Faith casting the Soule upon the Word and Promise for pardon and life argues the most excellent nature and prerogative of faith above all other It is evident by this whatsoever the Lord workes in man he workes by the Word and the Spirit and whatsoever these two act in the soule they act it by faith as their onely instrument so that Faith is the onely Intelligencer to the Soule from the Spirit and from Heaven and that grace which is maintained as agent for God in the soul No other gift is so As hee saith of the ship that there are in it many who do needfull works but the Pilot doth all in all he doth not so sordid works as they but he doth greater and better for he sits at the sterne and guides the course of the Ship into the Haven the other are but subordinate but shee is principall so I may say of Faith and other graces all of them conferre to the well-being of a Christian but faith to the being The Ship boyes stop leakes and row with Oares but they doe not the great worke of guiding the Ship by Card and Compasse till she come at land So all that which any grace of the Spirit doth that faith doth But faith doth somewhat which they doe not nor can doe Nay faith is faine to cover all the defects of other graces to save them harmlesse and to beare their chin above water from sinking As we see that the Shield is not onely armour to fence the body Ephes 6.16 but also to fence off blowes and affronts from all the armour it selfe so that the dint come not at the head-peece or corslet or the rest Onely faith brings the Lord Jesus into the soule to doe all her workes in her and for her and when all is done to pardon the wants and to cleanse away the spots thereof by cloathing her with that robe under which God seeth no deformity to impute or punish it To conclude I say brethren that I presse this purposely that as I have spoken much of those things in this Book which tend to faith so I would perswade you to thinke no paines too great to bestow in the getting thereof because this grace being once gotten to cast the soule upon the Word and Promise yea God himselfe in Christ By this meane she hath all because she encloseth him who is all in all in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdome who is the fulnesse of God in whom we are complete And so much may serve for this use Vse 2 Another use of instruction may be to give us some further light into the substance of this grace of faith Of Instruction Faith hath two parts 1. Self denial by shewing you of what ingredients the receit is made or of what parcels it consists And they are two The former deniall of our selves The latter resigning up of the soule to Gods Word For to cast the soule upon the promise implies both these Selfe-deniall then first is one parcell of this grace For why It is impossible that the soule should cast it selfe upon a Word
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
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
his Mediation and Merit as King Priest and Prophet I am afraid to die I doubt if hard times should come I should bee the first should stagger and deny Christ I am troubled oft about my evidences when I have any I keep them not long mine example is darke my peace small my selfe very silly to conceive remember affect goodnesse all goe before me and a thousand such Well But yet this thou hast that when all is done Joh. 19.7 yet thou art not willing to give over the Lord there is a secret thing which upholds thee thou knowest not as yet what God is doing for thee but thou shalt know Thou sayest Whither should I go Lord Joh. 6.68 if I forsake thee Thou hast the words of eternal life This againe thou hast when thou canst not swim yet thou liest upon the bladders of the promise waiting for more skill If thou sink as thou art comming yet thou hast an hand to put out and a tongue to say Lord Jesus catch me Matth. 14.30 Thou canst not answer every doubt by a word but thou plungest thyselfe upon it to answer for thee and canst send Divell World and Unbelief to Christ in thy stead Be comforted all is well When Peter Acts 12. was bidden to put on his Cloke and Sandals and follow the Angell though he saw not why or wherefore being asleep yet this he did he obeyed and did as hee was bidden and when hee was past all Barres and Gates hee saw the truth of all So dost thou obey although yet thou seest not why But in time thou shalt And therefore doe not mutter seasons of more light strength and comfort are in the Lords dispose not thine If thou be neither lazie nor rebellious it is God and not thou who holds thee at this stay Be as God will have thee Behold the salvation of God it shall bee thy strength to sit still Perhaps there is more within then appeares as yet Rather wonder that thou hast any thing that thou livest or mayst look up to heaven then thy strength is no greater And this know the Lord tries thee with little to see if that will make thee thankful that he may give thee more Still clasp upon the Promise remember Salomons speech Prov. 30.26 The Cony is a weake Nation but they make their holes in the rocke and so become strong because wise in weakenesse The Ivy is a weake plant but it hath teeth and strings to fasten hard upon a bricke wall and so growes above the Oake A weake child hath all the parts of a strong man although not the strength of any In a word apply that to thy selfe which the Lord speakes Esay 50.10 He that hath no light but is in darkenesse yet feares God and obeyes his voice let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himselfe upon his God Better a little light then thy owne sparkles As for the worlds disdaine it is common to thee and the strongest And so much for the whole Doctrine which as it was my chiefe scope in this Treatise so I pray God above all and yet withall the rest to blesse unto us both Having finished Naamans obedience it selfe The second generall of the verse vâ—z The extent of Naamans obedience now wee proceed to the rule or if you will to the extent of it For the Text precisely addeth That he did obey according to the word of the man of God Before we have heard how crossely he carried himselfe toward this message and the Holy Ghost hath at large shamed him for it But now the Lord having got the victory over his stout and rebellious spirit lo how he also rejoyceth to describe it and to present unto us what a strange change is wrought in him For why Now he submits himselfe to the rule of the word at which he had so cavilled and to the uttermost thereof he went downe and obeyed according to all the circumstances of the word of the Prophet In two things Two things there were in the Prophets saying First a solemne charge in and under the authority of God this charge he yeeldeth unto 1. Extent of the command For he goeth downe to Jorden washeth himselfe and that seven times omitting nothing at all of the charge neither for matter nor manner Secondly there was a promise 2. Extent of the promise and that was a perswasion to obey from the assured effect that would come thereof This promise he consents unto acknowledges it good reason to be in it and takes it as no humane but a meere divine cure and so concurres as I have said with it and that to the uttermost intention and meaning of it From these two branches arise two points the first whereof we will now propound open and make use of ere we come to the other The former point then is this Gods commands are sad things not to be shuffled or dispenced with but to be obeyed according to the true tenor intent and contents thereof Perhaps some may thinke The grounding of the former of these that I am more curious then I need to be in fastning a point of such weight upon words in shew not bearing it well up For why They will take this phrase of the Holy Ghost to be but a complement of speech Quest meaning and containing no more then a bare narration of a thing as it was done without further scope and besides the charge having in it no morality being onely an occasionall charge for the time present concerning Naaman onely and reaching to none else they may alledge that it instructs not us of any morall obedience which is of a perpetuall nature To whom I would make the fuller answer because I shall treat somewhat Answ 1 fully of the Doctrine and first I will grant that perhaps in the Scripture many Texts may be found in which the sadnesse and closenesse of obeying commands might be more strongly grounded but that is not the question now onely this it is whether the expresse relation of the Holy Ghost touching the punctualnesse of his obedience be not ground sufficient of the Doctrine especially the Text seeming to mention it with delight and to record how farre the Lord brought downe Naamans heart from the extremity of slighting all to such an extent of obeying to the uttermost Answer 2 Secondly I would have it well noted That meerly occasionall and temporary commands when the Lord thinkes good to give them in charge binde as sadly and fully Occasionall commands binde as much as morall and perpetuall for the present for the present and for them whom they concern as any morall and perpetuall ones doe I adde that they are as dangerous and sad in the transgression to such as they are made unto whether the parties be faithfull or unfaithfull For example It was but a meere positive and as farre as I can learne a temporary charge Exod. 12.22 to sprinkle
the Doore-posts of the Israelites houses with the blood of the Lamb which was to be the Passeover I confesse the Sacrament was for continuance but the sprinkling was but for the present Howbeit had the charge beene broken how sad the effect had been Numb 20.8 all know Moses his striking the Rocke was the obedience onely to an occasionall command in respect of the act done at that time but the neglect of the due manner of doing of it though through infirmity onely cost him the losse of that type of entring into Gods Rest that is the promised Land And lest any perhaps might except against this instance take others of meere occasionall nature That of the young Prophet charg'd to goe and denounce against Bethel 2 Kings 13.3.4 and not to eate or drinke in the place was a thing in it selfe neither good nor bad yet God having positively set it downe for a rule to curb him we see the transgression of it cost him his life whatsoever colour hee might pretend from the old Prophets reasons or person to induce him to it So might I say of all other It was but an occasionall thing that the Lord charged Saul 1 Sam. 13. to stay for Samuel and not to adventure to pray and offer sacrifice himselfe before the battell 1 Sam. 15.2.3 It was but occasionall that he was charged to destroy all Amalek branch and rush man and beast yet what his dispensing and paltring with God in both cost him wee all know Briefly I say of all such incident and occasioned commands whether for the temporarinesse of them or for the indifferency of the things urged they are as sad things for the necessity and penalties for doing or for not doing as the morall Ceremonies in their nature had nothing in them to force obedience Numb 15.32 howbeit hee that transgressed one of them as in gathering of sticks upon the Sabbath offering a beast with any blemish in it staying up the Ark contrary to the charge 2 Sam. 6.7 or the like wee see had fearfull punishments annexed as to be stoned to be stricken dead to be cut off from his people And why Because during Gods pleasure they were in as great force and bound the conscience as much as the morall whereof they were but as shels and whereto they onely served as fences and fortifications So that still the Doctrine holds firme That Gods commands are sad things Doctrine Gods Commands are sad things not to be dispensed with at our pleasure or by our distinctions But indispensable unappealable unavoidable and therefore to be obeyed according to the intent and the extent length and breadth thereof For the prosecution of which point first I will prove it by Scripture secondly I will reason it thirdly shew both what the intent of a command is Proofes of it and what the extent is and so come to Use For Proofes wee may remember what phrases the Lord uses to make good this truth Deut 12.8 He tells us he will not have us to doe that which seemes good in our owne eyes but obey his voice He bids the people to obey the Prophet which he should give them the Lord Jesus the word of the eternall Father and heare his voice for he saith he will not pardon your transgressions Deut. 18.18 Deut. 30.15 if you run after your owne devices Againe he tells us That the obeying of his commands is life or death I set before thee this day life or death Deut. 11.26 a sad point And the Epistle to the Hebrewes tells us Heb. 2.3 That the breaker of Moses Law under two or three witnesses escaped not How oft have we this phrase continued in Deutronomy Deut. ubique they did according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses in every thing done still the rule and the extent of obeying are added Num. 9. According to the command of the Lord they pitched and removed they attended the pillar of fire by night and of cloud by day And againe Do all according to the patterne shewed thee in the Mount Adde not to this Law nor detract from it but doe all that is written turning neither to the right hand nor left to this purpose is that phrase Walke narrowly Eph. 5.15.16 a word taken from them that work by line rule as if the workman cut or saw his timber or boards besides his chalke or marke we know hee spoiles his work but if he hew or saw it even narrowly carrying a steddy eye from going out or in he makes good worke of it So the word of commands must be closely clave unto without warping or swerving Thence it is that we are so oft called to a due beholding of the person commanding us Heb. 4.13 He saith the Apostle whom we have to deale withall beholds all things as open and naked noting that in commands we have not to deale with a man like our selves whose edicts we can pick holes in and picke quarrells against but a sad and solemne Majesty who will not be dallied withall Heb. 12. ult For our God is a consuming fire and so also weare oft pinched with the authority and power of the word The word of God is piercing and sharpe as a two edged sword dividing betweene the joints and the marrow Heb. 4.12 and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart Men of place dare avow any thing which they command to their inferiours by the place which they are in Smite him saith Absalon to his servanrs concerning Ammon for lo have not I commanded you 2 Sam. 13.28 how much more shall the Lord beare himselfe upon his royall Authority and soveraigne Power in the things which he commands As we read often in Scripture that hee urgeth men to obey by this argument Have not I commanded thee So we see againe that Moses having uttered the song to the children of Israel concludes thus Deut. 32.46 Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day which you shall command your children to observe and why Marke For this is not a vaine thing unto you because it is you life and hereby you shall prolong your dayes in the land which you goe to possesse When he tells them it is not a vaine thing hee meanes the greater by the lesse that is It is a sad and weighty thing as much as your soules and salvation come to make not therefore vaine matters of my commands nor strange things of the great things of my Law When Samuel encounters Saul in those two eminent Chapters the 13. and 15. vers 13. and 14. touching his fulfilling the charges which God had enjoyned him marke how he opposes still the commands of God to Sauls slightnesse sweeping downe his cobwebs with the besome of Gods commands Hath the Lord more pleasure in oxen then in hearing his voice Thou hast done foolishly thou hast
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
Try we our selves then in this Do we wish that the rule were crooked that we might crooke our owne way Doe we tremble and start at the closenesse of Gods soveraigne Commands saying These are hard things who then shall be saved It s a signe we are hollow and if we could we would bee willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 2.5.6 that we might live the sweet life of an ideot But doe wee presse after light information resolution and when we have it welcome it and obey it Doe we desire that we might live under a convincing Word and Ministery Doe we count it our happinesse that the righteous smite us Are we willing upon better information to undoe our errors to beginne againe anew rather then we would still erre Surely it s a signe of an honest heart closing with Commands Triall 2 Secondly an honest obeyer of Commands hath a speciall tendernesse of heart She is tender to obey and soundnesse of judgement to discerne and to close with commands to abhorre and to abandon the contrary I may compare a close heart in these two Simil. to a skilfull musitian and to the tender ey-lid A musitian that hath exact skill on the lute or viall will lay his eare to the strings and by his quicke discerning will presently finde out the least jarre of his distuned instrument Another man would judge that there is very good musicke but he cannot rest so content but still is putting downe or winding up his pinne and string till his eare bee pleased Oh! there be many secret jarres in the spirit of a good Soule which others see not and therefore applaud and commend but hee cannot allow himselfe in them he counts not himselfe thereby justified he discernes the jarre of his heart though others like his musicke never so and perceives which way his heart windes and doubles flagges and faulters as in keeping of a Sabbath in hearing the Word in the end and scope of his actions and is never well till his heart be in tune And so it is with him in his affection his heart smites him for that jarre as Iehosaphat having wound in himselfe into an Idolatrous company and hearing his foure hundred Prophets flatter him could not be quiet 1 King 22.7 but started at it as a man out of his place Is there not here saith he ever a Prophet of the Lord to consult with So David having cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 checked himselfe and smote his heart for it As I said it is with a good heart as with the ey-lid which being given to cover the curious eye is so tender that if the least mote touch the eye it cannot endure it but twinckles and complaines instantly Try thy selfe then by this rule If thou feele Gods Commands with a furr'd glove on thy fingers and as one would feele the least needle with a cloath about this hand if thou goe to worke grossely with commands it must be a very great and large one which thou feelest but as for the lesser and narrower ones thou hast no sense thereof as in truth an hypocrite cannot reach the spiritualnesse of any Command thou shewest thy selfe what thou art But if thou set the Commands of God in the closset of thy soule if thou hast a tender sensible feeling of all thy jars and cavills with the Commands of God if thou start at the least appearance of evill aswell as those evills which will waste and gull downe thy conscience it s a marke of an heart truly closing with Commands Thirdly it s a very good signe of a close heart if having beene prevented Triall 3 once by the sweet of a surfetting sinne It profits in obedience by experience of former disobeying the soule have enough and too much of it for ever after If a tender stomacke have overshot it selfe with excesse in some dish of meat commonly nature will doe penance all the life after and loath that dish Seldome doe we read that the Saints fell into the same sinnes which once they paid for David returned no more to his uncleannesse Hezechia to his pride of life Peter to his denying of his Master Try thy selfe then by this If thou make a falling sicknesse of thy sinnes and art alway complaining praying and disgracing of a sin but yet fallest into it againe as often thy heart is either unsound or unguarded I grant that Beelzebub will light againe often upon the place which he is beaten from but I speake of a defilednesse of heart consenting to that which it seems much to whine and complaine of For surely a good heart is alway in combat against any sinne but above all against her most knowne naturall corruptions her eye is alway upon them they make her as the fish out of her element quaking for feare No hectique disposition upon the body so sapes away the strength thereof as the feare of a sinne formerly foiling the soule makes it fearefull of it yea it nourisheth in it selfe a perpetuall antipathy and enmity with it Many may be her staggers but still she lies in watch and wait against them and all the opportunities occasions and inducements unto them Fourthly an honest heart hath a sensible joy in it selfe that there is Triall 4 a word of God to decide the question between her and her sinne In cases of question she is glad that the word may decide it Be the colours of a base lust never so strong and many yet the soule is glad to heare that neither it selfe nor yet her corruption must determine the case but that the word must and can beare sway She saith in such a case as Saul did in casting lots betweene himselfe and Ionathan 1 Sam. 14.41 The Lord give a perfect lot This is a signe that although the heart might possibly be blinded by ignorance in some case yet sincerity is stil alive because it can rejoice to hear the cause of God pleaded against her owne and can finde in her heart to abandon the most pretious lust rather then the least tittle of Gods commands should perish He who hath an ill cause loves not to heare of an equall bearing by impartiall Arbitrators But he whose cause is good or at least who loves peace is more troubled with the controversie then tickled with the gaine and therefore bindes himself to stand to award and is glad that there is any way to make an end Fifthly the honest heart cares alway more for the preservation of the integrity of Commands then for her owne safety and ends She Triall 5 is like herein to the harlot whose the child was 1 King 3. end The false mother hearing Salomon call for a sword to divide the childe She prefers the safety of the Command before her owne skin looked onely at her owne ends to be as the other woman was but in the meane time she discovered her owne unnaturalnesse and that the childe was none of her
owne But the true mother who knew the cost and price of her child could not endure the cutting of it asunder but cried Give her rather the child then it should be slaine Just so is it here A base heart never bred by the grace of the Spirit to obey Commands rejoices when it selfe and the word may have share and share like is glad to see the word mangled and that God should have one peece of his will and she another But a close soule obeying Commands is of a farre other frame for she hath been bred of the immortall seed of the word lien in the wombe felt the warmth and drawne the breasts of it and lives and growes by it Therefore shee cannot endure to see it divided wrested abused and cut in two rather she is content to abhorre herselfe her owne ends and respects and cries O Lord let not the childe be hurt rather let my will bee cast in the dirt This is a sad triall indeed let us come to the scanning of it While Gods and our streame may be suffered to runne in one chanell we easily give way to God But if it so fall out that he will not suffer our dung to swimme with his Apples but if we will goe in his stream we must goe in it meerly onely our lusts must bee renounced nay perhaps so the case stands that even our lawfull liberties must be removed our lives healths gifts contents ease elbowroom credit and sway must be shaken off to obey a Command and those who would perswade us as Peter did Christ to pitty our selves Mat. 16.25 must bee rated away and forsaken wife childe friend counsellor people Minister who come in and tel us if you suffer and obey God farewell the ease of our life farewell the jollity of our towne our shops trades takings revenewes credits contents Oh! I say if in such a case the life of the childe the honour of the world and of conscience bee more pretious then all these 2 Chr. 34.17 if then we flagge not with hopefull Ioash when his Princes came to entice him If then we stick to a Command if then we cleave to a charge this is a signe of soundnesse indeed Triall 6 Sixtly if we cleave to Gods Commands prove it by this marke if we looke at a Command nakedly and cavil not against it by the opposition of it to other commands if we set not Gods Commands together by the ears as Saul did affirming that the killing of al sorted not with piety or charity if we leave the consequences of our obedience to God without pleading against them by arguments from absurdity or inconvenience it s a signe of a close heart Our nature is when wee see the sad command to lie before us to dispute against it thus What shall become of my people if I obey this command what shall become of the glory of God But honest obedience takes no more thought for God then he takes for himselfe if he commands us ought he cals not at our hands for more then he allowes us but takes that to his owne consideration and will have us let him alone with that Wee shall not need take thought for the good which is lost by our obeying But we must not doe evill that good may come of it To forecast the disasters which our obedience may inferre Note well is to take upon us the person both of the Subject and of the King if the King call for obedience let the inconvenience upon it lye upon him wee have done our duty Try we our selves then about this if we bee negotious and curious for God in a thing wherein wee are not called its thanklesse double diligence 2 Sam. 6.6 As we see Vzza in staying the Arke was more provident for God then hee required and therefore paid dearly for it though his intent was good So when we judge of obedience not by successe but by the word It was God his will that the Arke should be brought home by Saul though he slew the men of Bethshemesh for looking into it See 1 Chron. 12. Seventhly he obeyes closely who onely trusts God and licks himselfe Triall 7 whole upon him for any losse which he sustaines It trusts God to make good all she loses either for doing his will or for suffering for it An hypocrite upbraids God as for his doings Esa 58.6 so for his sufferings Matth. 25.24 Hee thinkes God to be bound and beholden to him for them and if hee either regard him not in the one or reward him not for the other hee thinkes himselfe wronged Contrarily a close obeyer counts his reward to stand in his obedience that God will account him worthy either to doe or suffer for him Acts 4.22.23 And if he lose either his will and base lusts by the one or his credit health wealth or friends by the other he lookes at the promise of an hundred fold grounded upon Gods alsufficiency and faithfulnesse A notable text we have 2 Chron. 25.9 when the Prophet forbad Amaziah to goe fight with his enemies his objection was That he had hired Souldiers of Israel for some thousands of Talents how should he doe for those The Prophet tells him The Lord could abundantly restore those Talents Brethren we would suffer perhaps for God but then as it was with Amaziah these Talents are the sorrow of all hence comes our unwillingnesse to suffer But as the Prophet said so say I The Lord can make them good doe but trust him Affliction is a bitter herbe but it beares a sweet flower and sweeter fruit Give the Lord thy Talents and thou shalt have an hundred fold backe againe These losses which thou fearest thy wife thy children thy contents give them up to God trust him with them and he will refine them all for thee that thou shalt receive them at his hands purer and cleaner not to say greater and fuller then ever before Those vapours which the Sunne exhales from the earth lose nothing by it for they are so altered in the ayre that they come downe againe more fruitfull upon the earth then ever So if God have once tryed thee in this furnace all shall come forth purer then ever The daughters of affliction are the fairest of all other There were no such women for beauty as Iobs three daughters were after his affliction He himselfe was purer and so was all he had Job ult and as affliction is a furnace so is it a banque Iob had twice as much after he had lost all as before No trade so gainfull as this of the Crosse a man that hath had the experience of it gaines twice so much nay an hundred times more then he had before I say not temporally and yet God is alsufficient but spiritually to all that suffer meekly and patiently Cast off therefore the clog of these Talents both from thy heart and thy heeles which do so hang on and oppresse and
example remisse in our watch and bolder to trench upon those Commands of God which formerly wee durst not transgresse If with our yeares knowledge experience we grow more close carefull wary and punctuall with God rather then otherwise it is a sweet signe Age is proud of it selfe and gives large dispensations And it were to bee wished that our lamentable experience of all sorts did not too much approve it Triall 11 Eleventhly a true loyall heart rather strives to make up the breach of other mens rebellions It stops the disobedience of others then dares venture to break the least Command it selfe It hath abundance of mourning that others disobey God and that God is not generally obeyed rather then want of honesty and will to obey it selfe In 1 Chron. 12. the Text telles us that David fetcht home the Arke as in other respects of duty to God so in respect also of Sauls neglect who had not done it all his time And Iosia is said to pull downe all those Groves 2 Chro. 34.4 Images Idol-worships and Reliques of old evils which all his Predecessors had let alone Try we our selves then by this Whether our streame doe run so naturally to God that for the love and honour which we owe him we content not our selves with obeying him our selves except as farre as we can we fetch in others to doe his will at least that we have a large heart to wish that it may bee done in earth as in heaven Matth. 6.10 mourning for the narrow bounds of obedience both our owne and others and making amends for the defects of others to our uttermost This is a good signe Triall 12 Twefthly if we then obey Gods Commands when as yet wee are not like to enjoy any temporall fruit of our obeying It obeyes when there appeares no advantage for our obedience so that come of it what will we will cleave to obedience for obedience sake Thus it is said of Iosiah that he sent to Hulda for counsell what to doe when he had read the booke of the curses of the Law and stood convinced thereof When shee sent him word that God had decreed to bring misery upon the City and Nation although hee for his part should escape the sight thereof what did hee Give over the obedience of the Command No when hee fore-saw hee should not nor could prevaile for the whole land yet for meere conscience sake hee humbled himselfe more before God then ever any before him had done If then in desolate times wee can finde in our hearts to humble our soules to God whether the successe answer the expectation or not and give our service to God to requite it as he shall please it is a good signe that love to him prevailes against selfe-love in our obeying Triall 13 Againe true and close obedience is active and lively that is both living by the fruit of experience Three branches as also watching all occasions and opportunities in speciall to obey with reviving her selfe and renewing her Covenant zeale and spirit daily to obey better Branch 1 It is bettered by experience For the former of these Branches First it is experimentall that is whereas the obedience of an hypocrite is a dead thing theirs is lively An hypocrite followes meanes and duties apace but is never the better for them because he wants the life of grace to draw acceptance and blessing from God He layes heaps upon heaps yet dies of thirst As Iob speakes of the Estridge that shee layes her egges and hides them in the sand because God hath denyed her wisedome to brood them and so the feet of beasts crush them in peeces So Job 39.14 the Lord hath denied wisedome to the hypocrite hee suffers him to toyle himselfe and take paines to worship God and doe duties but he is as willing to forfeit them again comfort savour he wants he is as new to begin againe after them as before only from hand to mouth he pleases himself in his obeying But the close heart so obeyes that he feels peace thereby enjoyes his obedience feels the sweet fruit of it to encourage him the experience of it to ripen him to strenghthen him to better his resolutions and purposes in obeying for afterward Acts 11.34 that he may with closer consent of heart obey for time to come And withall being accepted in Christ having all his obedience dipped in his blood he is cheerfull lively and joyfull in his attempts growing by the experience both of his failings to make him humbler and wiser and of his vertues to make his obedience more setled rooted and fruitfull claiming in an holy manner his priviledge from God It is occasionall So Branch 2 also it is occasionall An hypocrite will heare and praise the closest and most spirituall Sermon of obedience say what you will of a close Sabbath compassion to the afflicted he yeelds to it but in particular and upon occasion he is no body When hee feares death none will make better covenants to obey closely then hee Compare Jer. 42.4 with cap. 44.16 But let him be up again and healthy he apprehends no occasions his silver then is drosse As Ecclesiastes saith The heart of the wise man is on his right hand but the fooles on the left Each hypocrite in his pangs and hot blood is very fervent in obeying 2 King 9.34 So Iehu marched fervently against Iehoram while the heat of selfe-love lasted but the motion soone quailed For when the heat was over the next we heare of him is that he departed not from all the sinnes of Ieroboam He rooted out Iezabels idols but set up Ieroboams Sure it is the obedience of hypocrites is dead ware there is no active principle in it to quicken it by each occasion offered to expresse it selfe or by each defect and decay to recover it selfe That it is it is by starts and pangs It is lively from a principle whereas the obedience of a Branch 3 close heart hath a principle alway maintaining it in life vigour cheerfulnesse integrity uprightnesse and unweariednesse Try we our selves also by this marke True and close obedience lies close to God as well in particular duties Triall 14 of our places and callings as in the generall course of Religion It obeyes as well in speciall duties of our calling as in generall of Religion You shall have many Magistrates who as private Christians walke religiously but in the acts of their Magistracie bite in their zeale so Ministers Parents Governours of Families A Christian is never searcht to the quicke till the tryall lye in his particular place It is not enough not to be a rotten and hollow Magistrate except thou also bee a faithfull one A rotten one will discover himselfe by his treachery siding with those sins sinners he should punish under one pretext or other declining the zealous pursuit of them But one that is not
for this time Let us pray c. The end of the ninteenth Lecture THE TWENTIETH LECTVRE continued upon the 14. VERSE VERSE XIV Then he went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Iorden and his flesh came againe unto him as the flesh of a little child and he was cleane WEE ended last time with some exhortation But brethren because mee thinkes I heare some say Were it a thing within my power to compasse there is nothing which I more wish then to delight in the law of God in my inner man Quest But I finde no power to it Tell me therefore how I might attaine it Answer For answere whereto I will finish the whole Doctrine with those Meanes which direct hereto Meanes dâ—â—ecting to obey 1. Faith The first and one mayne is get the Lord Jesus to be thy lawgiver Moses is a commander of rigorous impossible duties serving rather to convince the soule of that power of created righteousnes which we have lost then to enable us to obey But the Lord Iesus is a more mild and mercifull lawgiver who as he hath united God with flesh in his owne person so therein he hath broken downe that wall which stood up as a Tower impregnable Coloss 1.20 Eph. 3.15.16 between God and us he hath made all levell and easie and fastned the hand-writings of Morals and Ceremonials unto his Crosse that it might never appeare against us Nay more hee hath fulfilled all righteousnesse both of doing and suffering that wee in him might be clothed with it as a Robe from top to toe and might fulfill the Law by faith Practic Catech part 3. Art 5. I have at large opened this point elsewhere in the doctrine of it Let us here urge the necessity of faith upon our selves and close with the promise to make it our owne The truth is there is no command of God but Christ hath made it possible and sweet and by a promise he conveyes it to the soule saying Take my yoke upon you for is easie Mat. 11.29 and my burden for it is light Of our selves wee have another Law in our members leading us captives thereto a law of lust pride ambition sloth prophanenesse hypocrisie and selfe-love These naturally we take thought to fulfill as Paul saith Rom. 13. ult But the Lord Jesus hath destroyed this power in us of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Rom. 13. ult eased us of the impossiblenesse of obeying through the weaknesse of our flesh He hath quit us of being debtors to our flesh to fulfill it and redeemed us to himselfe Nothing remaines now save that wee put on the Lord Jesus by faith that wee renounce our old base bondage and slavery that we be willing to be free-men and that we close with the promise of sweet obedience by our beleeving it For this was his scope in easing us of one burden to put upon us another yet easie and sweet Let this then be the first Rule If thou wouldest fulfill the Law beleeve Faith hath united all the elect to Christ his Flesh and God-head who fulfilled all righteousnesse Rom. 10.4 and was made under the Law that he might be the end of the Law to righteousnesse for all that beleeve Fasten then upon this That the Lord Jesus never brake one Law performed all never preacht Sermon lesse then hee was bound to never did one miracle lesse then hee ought failed in nothing ground substance manner measure end of obeying but did all in perfection And none of this he did for himselfe sure I am not properly and purposely but for us wee were his scope for our sakes he did all And why Surely that we might partake it not onely in freedome from guilt and wrath but also in acceptation with God as his beloved and his righteous servants prepared for every good worke As the Lord offered us Christ to the former end so doth hee for this latter he is as faithfull in the one as the other Therefore 1 Thess 5.24 Rom. 12.2 Coloss 1.10 Philip. 4. sunder wee not those things which God hath joyned together but put wee on Christ in both to redeeme us from guilt and to make us Priests and Kings to offer up sacrifices of all well pleasing and obedience with holy delight and cheerfulnesse He is faithfull that hath promised who also will doe it He who hath him for his owne who hath done and suffered all hee whose Christ is by imputation of righteousnesse and by not imputation of sinne sinneth not fulfilleth the Law and is that which he is unto whom he is united by faith This for the first Secondly if thou wouldest obey commands closely 2. Meditation of the object then muse seriously of the sadnesse and solemnesse thereof and incorporate thy soule into it First muse of the spiritualnesse of them If Gods Candle search the bowels of the belly and pierce the soule bee convinced in thy meditations that the basenesse of thy hollow vaine worldly wandring heart upon the Sabboth vexes the Spirit of God as much as working or playing and so in other duties Secondly of the universality of them Muse therefore of this It is not my wealth or poverty my greatnesse or meannesse my learning or ignorance which can dispense with me with God there is no respect of persons No time no place no circumstances can prescribe against God he is one and the same object of feare in all places duties times occasions Thirdly muse of the indispensablenesse of Gods Commands Courts may dispense with mens offences Gods penalties cannot be bought off nor commuted Gods commands are unappealable comming from the highest Court of heaven Lower Courts cannot be appealed unto from the higher Fourthly they are his Commands who is infinite in wisdome righteousnesse and vengeance sees knowes and tries all obedience is present every where and strong enough to punish the breaches of any one no man can avoid his eye or escape his censure He backs all Commands with threats and pursues threats with revenges Fâ—fthly they are absolute no colours no distinctions will be admitted they are subject to no mans interpretation but to their owne They are both Text and Comment to themselves Other mens charges and statutes are yet subject to construction and interpretation so oft as any ambiguous questions fall out about them and by that means are often perverted quite and cleane from their sincere intentions But no Divell hereticke or prophane person could ever remove Gods limits or overthrow his meanings As they were so they still abide 1 Pet. 1. ult The word of God abideth for ever Such thoughts as these being setled by meditation upon the soule may be as powerfull to perswade closenesse in obeying as the thoughts of bad men upon the wrongs offered them provoke them to revenge If the Lord goe with the one as Satan goes with the other they must needs prosper Righteous O Lord are all thy judgemens therefore thy servant feareth
their left hand doth They acknowledge little to come from them Matth. 25. they keep all to themselves When did wee see thee naked and clothed thee Hungry and fed thee Sicke and in prison and visited thee Why are you such strangers to your owne duties Then shall others be strangers to your joy onely your selves shall enjoy the priviledge of your own close walking For be yee sure God will not conceale it close love shall never want close peace unknowne welfare and comfort of heart prosperity in grace growth and experience You that walke in the regeneration of obedience with Christ shall not only sit upon Thrones hereafter in stead of your dust and ashes here But in the meane while you shall fare as Christ fared he who made it his meat and drinke to doe his Fathers will had meat to eate which no man knew of Joh. 4. Nourish thou a mourning heart for sinne thine owne and others a close heart to obey and no man shall bee able to judge what thy joyes are Prov. 10.29 Thy worke is also thy wages and yet the Lord shall besides support thee otherwise so that neither spirituall nor earthly requitals shall bee wanting till at last that life of thine which was hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 shall breake out before all Men and Angels Then shall close obedience bee swallowed up into exceeding glory and the garments of joy shall bee added to thy secret consolations in the day wherein Christ himselfe shall appeare in glory And so much also may serve for this Use and for this Doctrine Whereto I wish from my heart a blessing from God upon the Reader The next Branch of Naamans obeying was his closing with the promise The second branch arising from hence is that Naaman washed seven times according to the word of Elisha in respect of the promise added to his washing and that was That he should recover his flesh againe and be cleane This point I told you is as materiall as the other one cannot well goe without the other they are as twins which live and dye together The point I collect from it is this Gods promises must be beleeved according to the scope of promises that is according to the intent and extent thereof I say againe and marke well promises must bee beleeved according to that which is in them and that which they import neither must they bee shortned or straitned stretched or enlarged neither made lesse nor more then is in them Doctrine Promises must be beleeved according to their extent More then they are no man shall need to make them for all the store and fulnesse of God is in them Lesse then they are none may dare to make them That which the holy Ghost speakes in the conclusion of Revel 22. Hee that shall adde any thing or dâ—minish from the words of this booke the Lord shall adde to him all the plagues in this booke and diminish his name from the booke of life That I may say of the promises Let none make them greater then they are Opening of the ground of the poâ— nor yet lesser but let every one take understand and apply them to himselfe as they lye in the word not in the letter onely but in the spirituall meaning and purpose thereof Touching the ground of this point out of the Text it needs not many words to be spent about it It is evident that the obedience of Naaman in going to wash proceeded from no heat of sudden alteration of minde no pang or humour no blinde hope or had-I-wist as who say It 's but trying I will goe hit I or misse I it is but my journey No but as he was strongly held back before by a deep selfe-conceit so now hee is drawne forward by as deep an inspiration of God and a perswasion that the promise annexed to his washing was as certaine and undeceiveable as the charge was divine and absolute and therefore in obeying God commanding hee consents to God promising also in as full and absolute a degree and in all points and respects as the promise lay that is to say not that hee should perhaps be cured perhaps not but that the cure should bee whole and entire no manner of Leprosie should hereafter cleave to him any more but as now he was nasty and scurvie all over so then he should be healed by the healing of God better then if Elisha had laid his hand upon it that is as perfectly as if hee never had been Leper and his flesh should returne to him as the flesh of a little childe so clean should he become and return home and not repent him that he had beleeved the promise in the fulnesse thereof So much for the ground of the Text. Now as I noted in the former point here some may step in and object Object Why doe you ground a doctrine upon such a passage as this of Naaman Alas his washing was but an outward act and that occasionall and personall onely reaching to himselfe and determining with him Our case is otherwise and it must be a bottome of eternall truth which must ground a doctrine of this nature because it concerns the perpetuall practice of a poore soule in respect of pardon and sanctification To whom I answer in one word That the question is not here Answ what the particular of this promise to Naaman is or is not but what the nature of every promise requires whether it bee occasionall and temporall or spirituall and generall The point is this Every promise bee it what it will be whether for once and away or for adoe being from God requires an equall obedience and extent of faith to embrace it and cast the soule upon it as well as the moralest and generallest promise in the Word can doe The reason is plaine because in the one as well as the other is enclosed that power and truth of God which bindes the soule to an equall and uniforme obedience I speake now and marke well of such promises as require our faith for the performance for some promises are absolute in themselves and rest upon the naked word whether we beleeve them or not because they be universall Gen. 8.21 As that the rainebow shall be a sure signe of no more deluges That seasons of the yeare Summer and Winter sowing time and harvest shall continue That the Gospell shall bee preached to all Nations Mâ—tth 24.13 That there shall be a restoring of the Kingdome to Israel and Christ shall in this world bee knowne to bee Lord and King of his Church These promises though they deserve credit yet shall be performed howsoever being pitcht and appointed by God in their seasons But for personall promises not so That particular promise made to Abraham touching a sonne if yet it were particular or any other concerning a present mercy or deliverance Gen. 18.10 Esay 7.4 as that which was made to Ahaz of
so mistakes and misconstrues must either deceive himselfe in looking for more or defraud himselfe in looking for lesse then the promises containe in them What a continuall vexation is it then to erre about the extent of those things wherein to erre is above all other errors most dangerous and remedilesse Many more reasons might bee added but the substance thereof will occurre otherwise Vse 1 I proceed to the Uses First this point is Terror to all in generall who doe not beleeve the whole body of truth according to it selfe Of Terror Branch 1 without the which promises cannot possibly be construed aright Now alas Truths of God must not be taken by tradition and prejudice but from the whole body of truth beleeved as Gods what a common error is this Who beleeves or deducts promises from the rocke of truth as marble pillars digged out of the whole quarry Men take the whole truth of God for the most part from the tradition of men from the interpretation of others which is no other save upon trust as their Parents Masters or teachers have instil'd it into them and I grant its meet to be so at first for so those Samaritans John 4. at first harped upon the truths preacht by Christ by the information of the woman But they did not rest there till by her they were drawne to heare him speake himselfe and then they told her plainly that they resolved their faith not into her report but Christ himself It is with many of us as with Papists who use the Church to bee the principle of their faith whereas she should onely be a guide an informer and directresse It s not to be doubted but the Church is the preserving and sustaining pillar of truth in point of guiding the soule to the truth for had not the Church nursed us taught and train'd us up where had we been But this must not be enough to stablish us except we meane to disguise our selves and bewray our sandy foundation when tempests and troubles shall try what is in us no we must put a difference betwixt our drawing to the truth and our beleeving the truth and never rest till the bright morning starre of the Word the Lord Jesus hath risen in our hearts who will cast such a through light into them as shall shine from East to West Matth. 24. and enlighten us in all truth yea lead us into all truth by his Spirit Churches judgement must guide us principle us in the truths of Scripture that Spirit I meane which assists his word in the hearts of all humble and teachable ones This will cause us not to take here a shred and there another such a command or such a promise as pleases us not knowing what to make of the rest but to set open our whole hearts unto the whole truth the whole body thereof that it may enter into us possesse and dwell in us plentifully in every part it will present to our eyes that God of truth speaking in his word and piercing thereby into the very marrow and bones dividing the thoughts and carrying the soule into the streame of that excellency of his whereby we may be convinced of his truth it will shew us the truth of the written word in the eternall word of the Father full of Grace and Truth the way the truth and the life in whom who so beleeves to salvation doth also beleeve all and every truth which ever came out of his mouth and wee shall no more doubt of that then of Christ himselfe in whom all truth is established and gathered as the whole verge of a garment into one knot so that as no man bids us to prove that its day light when the Sunne shines so wee shall need no proofe or demonstration of any particular part of the word having embraced Christ that eternall word of God into our bosomes because he brings all his truths with him and having himselfe fulfilled that one great promise of his incarnation and redemption hath also in that made good all the other promises and made them Yea and Amen to the praise of his glory Oh therefore The Spirit of Christ must be our first planter of truth in the soule how wofull is the condition of such as forsake this way of faith and goe to dig pits which will hold no water boasting that nothing shall ever pull them away from the truth no feares persecutions change of times and I know not what away with thy vain brags If thou hast not first planted thy selfe upon Jesus the body of truth thy particular knowledge of truths will vanish of it selfe for he who gathers not with Christ scatters but how much more when thy slight building shall be shaken with crosses and enemies Therefore gaster your selves from such frothy bottomes as will deceive you get truth first planted in your soules with the love of it for some reall and maine good which it hath done you Terrour to all Popish and blinde maintainers of truth upon error and opinion and when Christ shall have brought his truth with the saving comfort of it into you it will hold your hearts close to it never to goe from it it shall keepe your hearts and mindes in the knowledge of God it shall discover to you that rich hoord of promises which are hid in Christ out of whom they are but as the sound of many waters and vanish as fast as they come This will teach us a rule of conceiving truth aright This will scatter all mists of error darkenesse mistakes from the minde and purifie the heart by the obeying of the truth as Saint Peter speakes 1 Pet. 1.22 2 Pet. 1.19 yea it will be a light shining in a darke place and guiding the feet into the way of peace Abhorre then a patched confused knowledge of truth destitute of the truth in Jesus as thou wouldest abhor and loath utter blindenesse and arrant ignorance it selfe in the highest degree For indeed setting aside the shew of it it s but cousen germane to it who abhors not a misbeleeving Turke or Jew as a very infidell Who loaths not an Hereticke Papist Pelagian or a Schismaticke as we doe misbeleevers Yea in some respect worse because they are so leavened that it is easier to draw a Pagan not prejudicate to the faith then such It s true that the other have more of truth in them then the other But they doe so corrupt confound and misapply truths they maintaine not truth in the accord and the harmony of truth therefore they hold truth rather to overthrow truth then to establish it and in effect are greater enemies to the promises and to the truth in Jesus then they can seeme friends to some kindes of truth whatsoever their abettors and patrons would or can speake in their defence So much for this first Secondly and more particularly its terror to all audacious and impudent Branch 2 spirits of hypocrites Of
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
save draw the spirits of curious and distrustfull men to wofull Idolatry To put confidence in him under a Witch to expect successe from a cursed Principle to ascribe that glory which belongs to God alone to base means which all are reduced to the Divell their first mover Satan knowes he gaines more this way then he loseth by the truth he speaks or the good which followes He denies himselfe at no time save for wicked ends Beware therefore Dare not to confound those excellent wayes of God in his power providence and mercy to his creature with the Satanicall and Sorcerers courses of prophane beasts As for those miraculous operations of God in his Church throughout all ages of the Old Testament in the poole Siloam and the gift of ejecting Satan by some certaine persons there was enough to prove that they were from God John 5.4 Matth. 12.27 for the confirmation of Truth the strengthening of Faith the drawing of Proselites But as for all the other the Lord justly suffers Satan to deceive such as deceive themselves first and reject the truth as we see in Saul Esay 8.19 Should the living goe to the dead 1 Sam. 28.6.7 Jam. 3.15 and to them that whisper out oâ— the earth Geomanticks No but to the Law and to the Testimony if that favour not there is no wisdome in them save that which Saint Iames calls from beneath and divelish A most wofull thing that in a land where the Gospell hath beene preached this eighty yeares such abominations should swarme and that with impunity yea in some cases which I name not with Apology God amend it So much for this Branch Secondly Goodnesse of God in using weake and poore things to effâ—ct great is much to be admired hence acknowledge the infinite goodnesse of God in devising such aide and succour to poore creatures both their bodies and soules for the expressing of his tender mercies to us in this infirmity of our flesh That by a word speaking he should create the fruit of the lippes even peace Esay 57. by the Ministery of a sinfull man further off from power to convert a soule then Jorden to heale a leper and beget it to a lively hope and immortality and glory That thereby the word preached should carry with it the working of faith and regeneration As the Lord Jesus his own blessed words effected miracles in the speaking causing the dead to arise the lepers to be cleansed Marke ult the deafe to heare So the words of his Ministers by the same vertue from him should doe greater things then these even by instruments most weake how admirable is it To the end that our faith might not stand in man but in God! 2 Cor 4.7 That the deadly soule leprosie worse then Naamans bodily of infidelity pride hypocrisie selfe should be washt all away by the water of Baptisme through the word of the Covenant to which its annexed in all beleevers and these shall become sealing ordinances to ratifie the truth of regeneration to the soule and to confer the nourishing power of the Spirit unto life eternall how admirable is it It is the omnipotent power of God which causeth it which separates the silly creature of water bread and wine for the present from common use Sacraments how divinely appropriated to seale up to the soule strong assurance of salvation takes off the base outside of it casts an honourable mantle over it appropriates it to holy solemne and divine use and service unites the Lord Jesus himselfe with his whole merit and efficacy to it and all to effect this end to convey the Lord Jesus into the soule of the Beleever assuring it by vertue of this sealing ordinance that as verily as the body by vertue of appetite eates and drinkes the creatures so truly doth the soule take and eat the body and bloud of Christ to the souls nourishment by Gods command and promise This is a mystery and it should teach us that if God have assumed such poor creatures sacramentally into the partakership of himselfe therefore to take heed lest we vilifie the outward ordinance as pretending all the power to be from Christ but to acknowledge each part thereof to bee from him and one as true though not as effectuall a part as the other Ye parents make not Baptisme a common thing make not so solemne a thing to wait upon your leasure and complements when all your trinkets are ready then carry your childe to the Sacrament No let your bables attend it not it them Despise it not for the outside there is a blessing in it and under the basenesse of elements lies hidden a world of worth and honour Therefore not to be used as common things And you my brethren the people run not out from it so soon as the word is preached as if you discerned no Christ in and under it annexed to it for your owne speciall use and good I tell thee those silly creatures are essentiall parts of the Sacrament as well as the grace and ordinances of God to bee reverenced though I say not with our own invented yet with that esteeme with which God hath honoured them viz. to be channells and conveiors of that grace of the Lord Jesus for life and support else would he not have graced Sacraments with the like honor to Faith Except a man be borne of water and the Spirit John 3.3.4 Marke ult and He that beleeves and is baptised shall be saved God can worke without them when they cannot bee had but when they may he will have them share in point of honour with the graces sealed from which they cannot be severed nor may be rent So much for this second Use And lastly although I doe not here equall Jordens waters to a Sacrament Jordens waters a resemblance of baptisme nor dare I call it a type of Baptisme yet is there a cleere and lively resemblance thereof in it I speake not this to teach any to use their wits boldly to allegorize every thing as some have done In this its safest for us to captive our wisdome to God to bee no wiser then himselâ—e but where he pleases to expresse allusions there to follow with sobriety As in the allegory Gal. 3. end of Sina and Jerusalem to typifie the nature of bondage and of freedome So that of Noah's flood which Peter Epist 1. Cap. 3.21 tells us is semblable to Baptisme Else its best for us to forbeare types only we may make resemblances As here this healing of Naaman by Jorden and expressing of it by the flesh of a childe teaches us thus much That the Lord who occasionally used this water to such an end as to cure an incurable leprosie of an aliant and stranger from the Common-wealth of Israel doth assure us that much more by Baptisme as by an appointed and setled sealing way he is able to heale the fretting leprosie of sinne and curse in all his
beleeving ones and seale the soule of such a one through the faith of the word to a true ingrafting into Christ Affectation to allegorize the Scriptures a dangerous course and the new Birth Constantine the great and good Emperour being a leper and told that nothing else could heale him save bathing of his body in the bloud of infants ript out of their mothers wombe abhorred the speech of it as counting the remedy worse then the disease That which hee did mercifully in forbearing doe thou religiously in embracing The bloud and water flowing out of the pierced sides of the Lord Jesus and washing thy soul by faith sacramentally is only able to heal thy leprosie to make so perfect a cure as shall never need to be repeated Naaman and thou need nevere be washed the second time if once throughly cured and in truth it was this bloud which made Naamans cure so perfect Apply thy soule to it therefore to make a perfect cure in it better then all thine owne patcht and halfe cures Looke not at the outward water alone looke at the power and vertue of him whose bloud onely can heale both the water from her cursed barrennesse to make it fruitfull and seasonable seed of life and thy soule by water from guilt power and eternall curse due unto it Christ in the water is the power of it one droppe of his sides issuing out water and bloud is the efficacy of the Sacraments Mix all with faith to cleanse thy soul to purge thy leprosie it s shed to thine hand and powred out by himselfe most willingly for thee If thou refuse it thou art guilty of shedding it but not by beleeving and applying it Numb 19.4 No legall cleansings of the leper by Aaron can equall it he sprinkled the bloud and ashes of a Cow Christ sprinkles with his owne he often Christ once for ever he imperfectly so that the leprosie might returne Christ fully never to returne Hâ—â— 8.15 If then the bloud of an heifer could purge by ceremony a polluted body how much more shall this bloud of the eternall Covenant cleanse thy conscience from dead workes to serve the living God But beware thou do not goe and wash in Jorden with lesser faith then Naaman did doe as much for thy soule as he for his body else thou separatest the things which God hath united and destroyest the power of the Sacrament and the purpose of God for thy regeneration yea the very creature of water shall rise up in judgement against thee in the day of judgement for that it closed with Christ inseparably in his Ordinance but thou most prophanely didst warpe from him by thy unbeleefe So much also for this third Branch and for the second Doctrine and so for this Lecture Let us pray c. THE ONE AND TWENTIETH Lecture continued upon the 14. VERSE VERSE XIV Then Naaman went downe and washed himselfe seven times in Ioraen and behold his flesh came againe as the flesh of a little child and hee was cleane Then he returned and stood before the man of God c. The second head The cure of Naaman WEE noted Brethren two lesser Observations in the end of the last Lecture out of this last part of the verse viz. The successe of Naamans obedience Now leaving them and the expression of the cure wee come to the cure it selfe And saith the Text he was cleane No intermission of time passed between his washing and cleansing both went inseparably together The â—â—ine poinâ— flowing hence which we have reserved to this Exercise is That Gâ—ds promises are alway as good in the performing as in the making if not better for so falles it out with Naaman here The Prophet promised him cure of his Leprosie by washing himselfe And lo now he is as good as his word he washes and is cleane in body This is as much as was promised But moreover as appeares by the sequell he proves a cleane soule also and this was an over-plus to the promise It is a light thing for the Lord to heale his body except hee heale himselfe And in this respect I may well say as I said before That Gods cures are perfect indeed all perfect gifts are from above and all that are from thence are perfect to purpose Ere I come to handle the point this I would premise Brethren how fitly this point followes the other to make the heart and life of a poore beleever comfortable The former point told us that promises must bee interpreted aright and not mistaken not restrained but beleeved according to the utmost extent of the promiser But then comes in a doubt Though I enlarge them in their full reach yet God may restraine them to the shortest size True if thou stretch them upon thy carnall tentors But take them according to the word as indeed thou shalt not need to make them better then God hath made them and then this point will tell thee to thy comfort that God will performe whatsoever hath gone out of his mouth to the uttermost nay perhaps cast in such an over-plus as was neither promised nor looked for The Text is president enough for it if there were no more So that even in the entry upon the point we may set a starre in the margent and for our better encouragement both to beleeve and in beleeving to waite patiently may say these two points carry very sweet newes from heaven to a poore empty and hungry soule both that he will have it beleeve to the uttermost and when she hath so done God hath in store for her as much performance yea and much more then shee hath faith But let us come to the point The order I will observe in the point shall be this First I will prove it by Scripture Secondly by reason Thirdly I will cleare a maine doubt about the Doctrine And so lastly come to the Uses and first of the first Concerning which this I may say That the whole Booke of God Doctrine Gods performances alway as good if not better then his promises is nothing else but a very Theatre and open Stage wherein the Lord acts his part of performing of promises And not so alone But so curious the Spirit of enditing the word is in every Chapter and Verse lest the reader should spy any flaw or crack in the performance of promises that it steppes out of his tracke oft-times to reconcile and equall each performance to her owne promise And this both in the maine promise of Christs exhibition and in all secondary promises whether generall and concerning the soule of the whole Church and each member of that body or personall and temporary promises concerning this and that person And the greater distance there seemed betweene making and keeping of promises the more curious regard hath the Holy Ghost to expresse Gods keeping touch when his time was come For example Proofes and Instances God had promised to Abraham that
to be more usefull for the present and therefore chuses a performance in his owne kinde which shall bee an hundred fold more gaine to the soule then the other 2 Cor. 12.3 4. Paul being sorely buffeted not for sinne but to prevent it prayes instantly to God to remove it The Lord seeing that performance not to be proper for the end of his buffeting continues it yet hee breakes not promise for he ministers grace sufficient to uphold him under it Verse 9. By this meanes he attaines his end to humble Paul and moreover teaches him to desire to live under desertion and infirmity sometimes that so he might get that experience of Gods strange upholding of him in the want of feeling which before hee had found under feeling By this meane though irksome to the flesh to want the use of graces and gifts the Lord traines him to a sober use of his revelations and to renounce himselfe so farre under buffetings as to chuse rather to bee as the Lord would have him then as himselfe chose to be The use of this qualification is this The use of this limitation Both to coole our spirit of selfe-love which is ready to appoint God his way of performance as also to teach us wisedome to apply our selves to the best good of a performance rather then to the performance it selfe Gods people looke more at the good of a performance then the bâ—re performance of a promise to ascribe this honour to God that he better knows how to make good a promise to us then wee can chuse And therefore not by and by to cry out against God for not performing it because our turnes are not served But rather by our defeat to search into the cause and to see whether God and we looke the same way or no If we doe not we may bee long enough ere we be satisfied or honour God in his faithfulnesse If we will tie God to performe one promise and the Lord meanes to performe another we shall be farre to seeke Say we therefore thus Lord teach me to looke out what the promise is which thou aimest to make good Faithfull I am resolved thou art but that stands not in serving my turne but in serving thy selfe upon me Since thou doest all things well I doe but wait to see thy way for it is best and shall curb my spirit and give me best content because it tends to make mee more experienced more humble and at last thankfull to thee for that good which thy selfe meantst me which is infinitely better then that which I fancied So much for the first Limitation the second In generall promises to the Church the time of performance must be left to God and why The second limitation may be this In promises concerning the welfare of the Church in generall except the Lord tye himselfe punctually to a time of redresse or deliverance we must conceive of Gods performances indefinitely without prefixing a time or period of our own For in such it is enough for the quitting of Gods faithfulnesse that he performes really although he leave the time when to his owne wisedome We look that Gods love in hearing us for such performances should trench upon his wise providence but that ought not to be In such cases it behoves us to distinguish upon promises In such as touch the soule and life of a beleever usually except some speciall thing hinder the soules beleeving and the promises performance goe together as for the strength against a lust for quickning up of any grace or gift for sanctifying of any ordinance But not so in the publicke promises The reason is because the Lord may have a predominant way of his owne to barre present performance He doth neglect the speciall good of them who pray for a more universall good of his owne either because the sinnes of his enemies by whom hee uses to scourge his Church See Gen. 15.16 are not come to the highest pitch and so it will not bee most for his glory to punish or suppresse them yet or because the provocations of his Church and the sins thereof are not yet purged throughly nor brought to the lowest point These respects may hinder speciall reliefe of some present miseries restraints and persecutions of his people There is wee say in the motion of every planet a straight motion comming from the Planet herself and a backward motion of the first mover So is it here the motion of a promise is retrograded and retarded by the wisedome of the first mover The grand promise of the Lord Jesus his incarnation was indefinite and in the bosome of God when to fulfill it one thousand two or three thousand might have brought it forth as well as foure yet providence reserved it to the end of the fourth thousand Gal. 4.4 And when that fulnesse was come nothing could stop the fulfilling of that which yet before that time no prayers no expectation of the Church could hasten Then and not till then Instances of the point he that would come came and tarried not So also wee that live in this age conceive our selves to be pitcht under the fourth viall under which wee are warranted to wait for the revealing of Gods wrath and the ruine of the Beast But for us hereupon to limit God to owne time and period seaven or ten or fifteene yeares whatsoever we may suppose by probabilities and to determine God to our own season is most bold and presumptuous For God hath as well a way of his revenge and scourging of particular Churches for their infidelity and unfruitfulnesse as he hath of fulfilling his maine promise Sure we are his Word will prove true within the Terme of this Viall But to bound the space and duration of it we may not That the Jew shall be called and the Gospel generally preached ere the end come and that the Lord Jesus shall even in this world expresse himselfe to be the Lord and King of his Church and set up his Throne visibly upon their reall ruines who not waning braines can or dare deny it And yet who if he have braines dare punctually determine it within so or so many yeares The use of this qualification is most pretious and weighty viz. The use of this second limit Wee must not taxe Gods administrations That in our prayers and services of the time be they ordinary or extraordinary wee lash not out through our ungrounded zeale and passions to presse the Lord to our time in redressing the miseries of his Church in punishing his enemies reforming abuses or restoring comforts to her mourners Slacken no whit of thy zeale but let it still be carried within bounds and goe eaven pace with Gods time and be limited by that condition And moreover let it curb our querulous and discontented spirits which being full of griefe for the upbraiding and insulting Peninna's 1 Sam. 1. over the perplexed Hanna's and
or the like comes from the not suffering the word to enter but holding it out at staves end Now then must not the word of promise beleeved become as contrary to her Why did Micaiah so scare Ahab Because he never spake well to him So why doth the grace of faith so scatter these distempers Because she speakes all against them overthrowes and resists them Contraries have mutually the same respect in their consequencies The distemper of an unbeleeving spirit alway beares downe the word till the word as the stronger man armed with the power of Christ doe foile her and strip her of all The weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall able to cast downe strong holds of corruption Sinnes weapons are carnall Gods are spirituall Therefore there is no proportion in the contrariety God will divide the spoyles that is cease the distempers The reason appeares from that speech of Jonah Ionah 2.8 They that embrace lying vanities forsake their owne mercy But I will looke toward thy holy Temple and promise and thereby abandon them Each destroy the other Reas 5 Fifthly the promise drownes all former distempers because it performes that really which selfe and corruption beare the soule falsly and erroneously in hand withall These afford the soule a rotten peace a deceitfull content vanishing and ending in sorrow See Esay 50.11 But the word doth it really and surely no more to be infringed No more hungring or thirsting if once satisfied with this bread and water of life The text imports it Naamans servants here tell Naaman That which all thine owne discontents and humours could never minister unto thee that the obeying of the message will really afford thee See Act. 13.38 That from which you could not be justified from by the law of Moses by this Man every beleever is justified All at once set free from outward enemies and inward distempers Reas 6 Sixthly the experience of the Saints proves this who till they have cast anchor upon the word and settled upon this center could never find rest in all the circumference as I may call it of your owne best selfe your goodnesse affections gifts or duties Bellarmine himselfe confessing that in respect of the uncertainty of our good workes or else the perill of vaine-glory issuing from thence it is most safe for us to rely upon the sole and meere mercy of God the bare word of truth and promise How much more then shall Gods people say If it had not beene for thy word I had perished in my affliction This is to a poore soule as the chaire of Saint Peter is to a deluded votary the determining voyce All eternall immutable things comprehend and devoure the fading and changeable but cannot be comprehended by them nor resisted by their opposition Lastly the maine and chiefe reason of all is because the word Reas 7 and promise of God is not the bare letter of words or syllables Many branches but furnish'd with all the power and authority of God so that who so clings and cleaves to it is out of his owne keepe and under the Lords There is as our Saviour speakes spirit and life 105. in all which he speakes This may appeare to us in these foure specials First in the wisdome thereof This way of God crosseth all Branch 1 other wayes and hedges the soule out from all sound comfort by them only fastning it upon this 1 Cor. 1. As Paul cals the Gospel in this respect the wisdome of God casting downe all those devices of mans wit wil works or wayes by which flesh would set up a peace and ease of all distempers to her selfe There is no doubt but the errantest hypocrite living would gladly if he could by his smoothing with his owne false heart come to a kind of setling that he might no more be troubled But it is as the sowing of a new peece to an old garment and the rent becomes the worse Even as a short narrow Map of a Shire makes every petty cottingers lands to vanish and causes him to account himselfe a starke begger lord of a Mole-hill not worth the owning So doth this way of God force him who thought himselfe no meane man in his Religion and hopes to seeme a starke foole in his owne eyes For why hath the Lord revealed the way to life by the reall death and resurrection of his onely Sonne glory being made shame and holinesse sinne and eternity death to satisfie justice and shall I play the Mountebank and thinke to satisfie by mine owne trickes and devices Oh foole oh beast Secondly in the righteousnesse of God As the Sunne is able Branch 2 by his heat to licke up all the dew of the earth and scatter all the mists of the aire and the Sea is able to swallow up and devoure whatsoever is cast into it never to appeare more Even so the merit of Righteousnesse and Sanctification by our Lord Jesus compared oft to both these in Scripture is able to licke up and dispell all the most desperate feares doubts and distempers of the soule So Paul speakes Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnes Rom. 3.25 What righteousnesse Surely the equalnesse of pardoning them who are of the faith of Jesus because he hath received a full ransome else saith he if he should not justifie such an one he should not be just So full a content hath Christ given his Father for sinne that if the Father should not acknowledge it sufficient he should doe Christ wrong and if he should not impute it to a poore soule that beleeves he should doe the poore soule wrong nay having freely yeelded his Sonne and received the price for that very end he should doe himselfe infinite wrong by unfaithfulnesse But there is no such feare The Judge of the world will not do unrighteously he will not condemne the righteous and the unbeleever alike For he hath accepted his Sons death as a ful discharge If we should receive a summe of money for the use of an Orphan and when the Orphan comes of age should detain it should he be righteous Mercy then is of free gift and faith is a free gift But justification of a poore soule for Christs merit is an act of righteousnesse So 2 Cor. 5.20.21 Be reconciled to God Why Because he hath made him sinne who knew none that we might be Gods righteousnesse Branch 3 Thirdly all other properties of the promiser are included in the promise as the truth faithfulnesse mercy love greater then that of the creation and all the rest scattered in the booke of God his eternity and unchangeablenesse and the like are all in the Word See 1 Tim. 1.15 Psal 25.10 1 Pet. 1.25 with sundry others So that the soules doubts and distempers may easily be cast upon such promises for so the Apostle cals them 1 Cor. 7.1 as are built upon such foundations Branch 4 Fourâ—hly
God hath strength in his hand to doe this whatsoever Satan hell law or wrath should say to the contrary I say he hath enough to warrant that he hath done against all opposers See Esay 27.4 5. Anger is not in me why Lay hold upon my strength and make peace The satisfaction of Christ is the strength of mercy as truly as the law is the strength of sinne The arme of mercy is so strong through this that the strong arme of justice cannot pull it away from forgiving a poore sinner but mercy will still be above and will not be beaten downe but prevaile against justice yea triumph against judgement By this strength then which overcomes justice shall not the distempers of the soule much more be vanquished and overcome Branch 5 Lastly the intent and purpose of God is by his promise to doe this favour for the soule even to put it out of all doubt and question and to breed assurance in it Heb. 6. That by two things the word and oath of God wherein it was impossible for God to lie we might have full assurance and so twice more in that Epistle he speakes The meaning whereof is As surely as I from all eternity did intend it in the foundation of mine election that is my Sonne as verily as I accepted it at his hands when he offered it up by his eternall spirit as verily as I offer it to my Church under the word of truth which cannot lie and have pawned my Ministers credit upon it that except I speake truely they are errant dissemblers as verily as now my deare Sonne at my right hand in glory pleads for poore soules that they may partake it so truly and really without hooke or crooke doe I intend to shew them mercy Why should not every one then that needs it fasten upon it and drowne all his distempers in it decide all doubts and rest well satisfied Conclusion of reasons To these I might adde many mo As that the promise beleeved gives the soule a full requitall for all which shee forgoes As Peter said We have forsaken all and followed thee Lord what shall we have Our Saviour answers him An hundred fold here and after eternall life So perhaps thou hast forsaken thy old crasie props for Gods word what shalt thou have Even perfect peace that which they could never have bred thee Againe I might say That faith enlarges the hidebound and shrunk heart and makes it concurre with the Lord and equall his bowels I meane to be enlarged in her bowels toward him againe whereas before it was not so but she limited the holy one of Israel and restrained his compassions Besides this word of the promise sets up a light in the heart above all that light which was there before We know when it is dark we are glad of a candle But when the Sunne shines bright a candle is a poore needlesse thing and is drowned by a superiour light So here a blind dark deluded heart is glad of any dimme candle of its owne to make it thinke it sees but when the word comes that dimme light vanishes These and many more I might adde but these are sufficient I hasten to the question and objection and the answers of them Here then first it may be asked The Answer to a Question But may a poore soule truly loaden with her owne sinne and under a condition of a promise be subject to so many distempers I answer yea surely as in the wombe the woman that is conceived with child yet ere the fruit be perfected feeles abundance of inward griefes and pains strugglings and wrestlings ere the fruit be come to the full ripenesse But when it is once come to that the former distempers cease Even so is it here Till faith have formed the soule to a true quietnesse and setling there cannot chuse but be many feares and turne-againes although the seed be cast into the wombe really But what are these I answer In three kinds Such as these I may referre them to these three heads for order sake First erroneous conceits on the right hand proceeding from selfe-love flattering it selfe by her hopes her morall qualities her negative abstinences opinion of her religious duties her affections complaints her liking of goodnesse flashes of joy and the like Oh! how can she chuse but doe well how can she be out of the way Then must thousands perish if she be wrong She is not so sinfull that she should put Gods mercy too farre to straine it selfe Ah poore wretch thinkest thou to fare well by making God lesse work or by making thy selfe to need him above all sinners The Word goes not by thy small sinne but by the graciousnesse of the promiser So also of this sort are all mixtures of selfe and soderings against the Word hoping that such a degree of desire or sorrow or selfe-deniall will serve although it have no roote in the Word nor continue Seeking God so farre as will hold with such a lust liberty or evill custome To sticke to our old condition though we find it crasie by the Word and to be unwilling to goe any further and to strippe and bare herselfe of her owne bottome that Christ might come and take possession But desperately to venture and cast all upon hazard if I be not well let all goe I will take as I find but I will altar none of my course This for the first sort Secondly there are distempers on the left hand for the soule is hurried with extremities on both sides till she beleeve I meane with bondage as well as boldnesse Of this sort are all base feares and wicked conceits against our selves That we are the unhappiest of all men of more aversnesse to Gods will and way then any men or women living That our corruptions are baser then any our natures more crooked inconstant awk and perverse that such spirits as ours so sly subtill and lewd cannot belong to God For then some restraining grace or other would have kept us all this while Why oh poore soule is it not as much for the glory of mercy to save a crooked spirit as a streight dost thou so looke upon thine owne ends that Gods are forgotten Also a false opinion of Gods enmity toward us because we feele our selves as corrupt and hardhearted as ever little amendment in us but much what the same under long hearing many mercies patience crosses meanes of grace What should this argue but that our hearts are given over and left of God Surely if he had chosen us we should not be thus Some there must be after all costs and trials who must be left in their hardnesse of heart and none more like to be of that number then such as we feele our selves So tempted to vile thoughts to lewd lusts and affections So many backwarder and further off then we in shew yet have beene brought home to God before us Many of our time age and
if you have beleeved the Word of God indeed whence are those privie nips of your conscience which do so continually assault you Whence are those terrours of heart with which many of you are met with when you would faine be at peace When you are in the middest of your ease and jollity your liberties your sports and pleasures whence come those cold qualmes over your base spirits barring you out from peace and fastning terrours upon you stronger then you can resist Dare you pretend your selves beleevers when you feele still your old distempers to tosse and turmoile you and to hold you downe with strong hand in secret Joh. 8.30 If they whom the Sonne hath freed are free indeed whence is your slavery No no you do but set a good face on it you make faire weather outwardly but hatch inwardly such a viper as will fret your bowels and destroy you it is one thing to smother and choake your feares and beare downe your distempers another to drowne them in the sea of the promise you have other delights to fill your hearts withall the Lord would have set on the worke of the law more throughly and made you more to stinke in your owne nostrils and to prize the Word of God and the promise of ease if ever you had beene truly loaden But sithence you would have both your lusts and the promise too holding a wolfe by the eares which you are loath to forgoe and yet cannot well keep know that you deceive your selves in boasting that you hold close to the promise for they that do so may lose their distempers therein which you keepe still It is true That the Lord would have all his as Esay saith count it their strength to sit still But how not in a chaire of ease pretending a freedome which you never had and favouring your selves in any forbidden vanities of your owne envie lust pride revenge and the like But the strength of a poore soule is to sit still in respect of her cavillings and fightings against the truth of the promise Perhaps you will say you do so and feele no such matter in your selves but are quiet and secure But I answer your peace is not sound there is a crack in it as appeares by this That you walke not as Gods free-men do you are as close to God in your love in your tendernesse in your humble carriage as you would pretend to be in your beleeving No man can palpably discerne the Devils chaines upon the Lords free-men Wherefore to conclude I say to you as he to that messenger What hast thou to do with peace turne thee behind mee Oh these are the daies wherein the most vile and presumptuous hypocrites catch at a promise and beare downe their consciences But be not thou O Christian friend like to them for their disease wound is but healed deceitfully and shall breake out againe most deadly when they shall not be able to resist it except it please the Lord to send them upon better conditions to claime the promise So much shall serve for this Use Fifthly this bitter reproofe of all such who in the judgement Use 5 of Charity do beleeve and cleave to the Word yet will not be drawne from the bad custome of their former doubts conceits and distempers but suffer Beelzebub still to light upon their sore and to molest them and gall them still Oh! what a dishonour is this to the promise of God still to hold a secret correspondence with Satan and to nourish our old picking of knots and answering of feares by our owne blanching wit and devises yea spending houres and daies wearisomely in setting our owne wit and invention on worke to beat off our objections and thinking they have done themselves good service in the meane while Whence comes this surely by your weaknesse and relapsing from your former hold of the promise This self-wit and will is so naturall that we are prone and propense to revolt and roll backe unto it as fast as the Lord seems to settle us by his Word it is an inbred evill alway fighting against the law of faith as it is easie for a woman to go to a pond or pulke standing neere to her doore though the water be not so good rather then to goe to a fountaine of living water further off Ease and ill custome are inchanting enemies But remember that onely that blood of sprinkling hath in it a sure bottome of staying feares so that the soule may be quiet from the destroying Angell and the out-cries of Egypt Could they who never had the experience of such a thing before yet so confidently venture their lives upon the Word and shall such as have in likelihood approved this promise of God by experience and ventured themselves upon it and felt it a soveraigne remedy against their distempers returne to tread the maze of their old confused thoughts the second time As if the Word had suddenly lost her strength and virtue to sustaine them as formerly Shall forgetfulnesse melancholy temptation corruption ill custome be able to pull them from an assured hold of rest to assured vexation and distemper I speake it brethren upon knowledge It hath beene thus and is thus with many through a wearisomenesse of this spirituall trade of beleeving that men grow into a very falling sicknesse in this kind that is such a custome of wofull doubtfulnesse and distempers that they seem to delight in it Alas poore soule dost thou thinke that to be presumption in thee which the Lord himselfe calls confidence or because perhaps thou feelest the dregs of a bold heart still abiding in thee hast thou no other way to avoid a shallow save by running into a gulfe If the Lord be willing thou shouldst hold thy peace upon the naked termes of his offer and promise seemes it too good for thee or if it be must thou needes undervalue his grace by thy basenesse as if it were too great for him to bestow because it is too good for thee to enjoy Know it from the ground of this doctrine the Lord delights as little in this practise of thine as thou seemest to delight much in it And although I deny not but in respect of thy weaknesse there may be some place for pity yet there is more cause of sharpe reproofe For why Didst thou never beleeve the Word deceive thy selfe no longer and put away thy distrust from thee But hast thou beleeved for so thou didst pretend then trust the Lord still and say with him Why dost thou thus fret O my soule in my breast and recoyle against that which hath formerly satisfied thee Turne rather thy vexation into prayer and say Remove these unpleasing chaines Lord at last and set mee at liberty shew me this wisedome from above not onely barely to cling to it but also to improve it so as to feele the power of it to shut out my base distempers out of doores and there to hold
I finished the last Lecture yet this one day of our Lecture being the last that you and I are like to teach and heare each other and the last of our yeare requiring that I should say somewhat unto you Also my studies having reached fully to another Sermon and besides this fourth part of the Chapter craving some connexion with the three other handled already I have set apart this day to this end One point may give light to al the particulars following being 7. if God permit To wit to handle some one such point out of the whole Harmony of these five Verses following as may give you some generall light into the whole context for time will not permit us to go through all These five verses then as I told you in their Title containe the remoter consequences of Naamans obedience To give you a briefe view and taste of them these they are First there is the true spirit of the cure to be evidently discerned in this new Convert feeling the truth of the Word in himselfe and virtue let out from heaven into Jordan to heale him he takes it not as a common thing and like a blocke without sense but is presently and instantly and erresistibly ravished as with a new spirit begotten by the worke of God upon his soule as well as his body The Lord darting grace of mercy and compassion into his heart as well as health into his flesh to intimate unto him by whose providence from first to last he was guided to so strange an effect Lo he comes to the Prophet with a spirit of impotencie admiration and zeale to acknowledge the Lord with all fervor of spirit and to knit his heart for ever in love unto him for this cure of body and soule Secondly feeling himselfe unable to reach the Lord himselfe he goes to his Prophet the next instrument of his good forgets his former discontent and entirely embraces him as the Prophet of God sent unto him for this purpose and to him he directs his thankfulnesse which fell short of God himselfe Thirdly hee enters solemne league with the Lord to be a close client of his for ever ejuring all former false and idolatrous service and vowing himselfe wholly to the Lord and his worship for time to come Fourthly he takes hold and possession of the Church of God acknowledging it to be the onely true Church and therefore scruing himselfe into it that although his face was Aram ward yet his heart was to Jerusalem ward and to the true and onely place where the Lord had visible residence and presence at this time And this although he testified by a weake and poore expression of taking with him the earth of the holy Land Yet the inward soundnesse of heart exceeded his weake signification Fifthly he discovers his unfained conversion by a most tender sense of that sin whereby he had formerly most offended God viz. his presence at the worship of Rimmon this darts into his converted soule even as a dash of the tooth-ach or the sting of an hornet Sixthly he is exceedingly pierced with feare and care how he might nourish that sparkle which God had begun in him and how he might shun and prevent that rocke of offence at which he had mortally stumbled before Seventhly he is very glad to aske direction while it was now to be had how he might order his whole course for time to come which being darke and doubtfull for the present hee therefore craves the Prophets advice and prayers unto which the Prophet gives him a mercifull answer These are the parcels of this fourth generall I can but goe over the first The point then is this Where God workes a true cure upon any soule Doctr. Every true cure hath the spirit of the cure attending it there he also workes the spirit of the cure By a cure I meane conversion of a soule from Idols not Rimmon but lusts and vanities to the living God By the spirit of a cure I meane that instinct and disposition that due temper and quality which such a cure deserveth at the hands of the cured And I say not the spirit of him who is cured but the spâ—rit of the cure that is such a spirit as the mercy of him that heales the soule instils into it viz to be for God who hath beene for it Onely this As Gods cure hath beene gracious so is the spirit of the cure zealous and as his worke hath beene entire whole and unfained to the good of the soule that it might no more returne to folly so is the spirit of the cure sincere intire constant God hates patchery and halfe cures and the spirit of the cure hates halfe thankes halfe love halfe affections In a word the spirit of a sound cure of a soule is a tender spirit the very first fruits of the heart enlightned with faith forgiven renued and warmed in the wombe of mercy the most naturall peculiar acceptable and well pleasing fruit of the soule to God What the spirit of a cure is It stands in a tender love truly called the first love a tender joy in God tender compassions towards him tender jealousie of that which might provoke â—im tender care to please him tendernesse of spirit both to him in affections of desire and delight and also for him in zeale and revenge defence and taking up armes for him And it rests not in him but descends to a tender love to his Truth Worship Services Sacraments Sabbaths Servants and all which hath any relation to God even for his sake This in short is that I meane by this spirit of a cure I pitch upon this point the more willingly because it hath an easie comprehension of all those seven consequences of the cure above named And although each of them be distinct yet because this is my last Lecture I am glad that one doctrine hath so good a lot as to give you though but in generall and farre off a view of the whole For in this spirit of the cure all those fruits of Naamans returne from Jordan may be coucht together as a garment into one knot Explication of the Doctrine Marke then for explication sake thus much It is with the soule in point of spirituall cure as with the body in case of a bodily Who being heal'd by some odde rare Physitian of a mortall disease and such an one as all the Physitians in the country could not turne their hands unto yea such as all others gave over as desperate and past their skill by some odde Physitian I say one of a thousand who himselfe could not have heald it neither except he had by divine hand beene peculiarly made and train'd up for the very nonce to be skilfull in such a disease and such a one as will by no meanes take money or fees but scornes it only stands upon doing good preventing sad wreck of the diseased that he might get himself a name of
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-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
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
resist that spirit by which you speake and walke It is not your duties hearing Sermons which will serve turne except you get into the way of God and get your spirits whetted up to a lively temper of godlinesse you shall but adde heapes to heapes and die of thirst Rake up the ashes of your first sacrifice and see if there be any one sparkle alive Iudg. 15.16.18 to kindle that old fire in your hearts God hath now farre more need of it then he had then If you cannot find old sparks goe to Heaven for new for a double portion of it else you will hardly hold out in these cold times You young Novices here among us who in your youth have begunne well and honoured the labours of Gods servants by your zeale by your answering to Catechism by drawing on many to God be not discouraged that the same Grace which made you young Sts. can make you old ones I doubt it not but blesse God for the hope I conceive of your growth and fruit Esay 8.18 1 Iohn 4.4 though we are as signes both we and the children which God hath given us and wonders to the world feare not greater is he that is in us then with them You Magistrates hereabouts you Headborowes and Officers at home doe not play the cowards in the cause of God and the government of the Towne suffer not drunkards to fill up your Alehouses here upon the day of our Lecture and to rout in all cursed behaviour all the day after going together by the eares swearing and swaggering let not your Taverns and places of resort be more frequented then Gods house I see ruine before mine eyes and the young fry will prove worse then their Predecessors your glory is gone except you hold together and prevent sinne from flowing downe your streets and overthrowing all 2 Cor. 2.14 â—â— And in a word to all sorts I speake scatter the savour of this spirit of Grace all about the places where you dwell shine especially within your owne sphere and families lay in for grace and mercy for your husbands wives children kinsfolke and neighbours who have long beene ignorant profane or formall worshippers at the best pluck them out of the fire by violence Iude ult Perhaps some seed lies under a clod they are not so deeply sunk under the slavery of those Idols but that God may fetch out somewhat of them at the last and shall it die for lacke of stirring up Be earnest with God and strive hard for the whole corner this poore Countrey in which ancient zeale and the spirit of Grace decayes exceedingly Easie serving of God for fashion and this love of the creature hath eaten up all The last yeare we were almost starven for bodily bread but God be thanked better food did helpe well both to content the poorer sort and to uphold their spirits with patience yea and to perswade the richer sort to mercy and compassion Now we feare a worse famine if not want of the Word yet that the Lord for our wretched unfruitfulnesse may fill our mouthes with Quailes Mumb. 11.20 and suffer them to come out againe at our nostrils may fat us with meanes and curse us with leannesse in our soules Psal 106.15 Lord suffer not the child to die at the breasts for lack of milke nor having it to surfet Oh thou who hast bred us by thy Word with the lively spirit of Grace preserve us by the same nourishment whereby wee are begotten And so for such among us brethren as have continued constantly Branch 5 in this zeale of the Gospel Consolation to all such as walke in the comfort of the spirit of conversion I doe here reach out comfort unto them and say to them as Elisha to Naaman Goe in peace Though you and I should never heare the voyce nor see the face of other yet we shall do well as long as the peace of God is with us Nourish your hearts still till death in this love of the Gospel Make not shipwrack in the havens Thinke not now of any new way Turne not to the world for they care not for you you stink to them therefore hold to your old Master and be his servants for ever Let the Lord beate you out of his doores before you dare start from him you have beene his so long that as Peter said Whither should we goe Lord from thee Iohn 6.68 thou hast the words of eternall life Though there be neither Calfe in the stall nor Bâ—llock in the heard though the Olive cast her fruit and the Vine decay yet God shall be your salvation Though meanes faile Habac. 3.17.18 yet this spirit of grace in you shall be a lively immortall stock in you and preserve you by faith to the day of salvation 1 Pen. 1.5 These are times wherein sinne abounds it is the very houre of darknesse Revel 3.10 Pray that as you have kept the Word of Gods patience all this while so he would keepe you though all the world should be over-shadowed And although perhaps you take thought for your first edge which is blunted by long continuance and custome Ephes 3.16 17 yet so long as your metall holds good steele to the back and you grow rooted settled and stable in all faith love and fruitfulnesse feare not he that hath begunne will perfect his worke Faithfull is he who hath promised 1 Thes 5.24 To the worke of whose Grace I commend you which is able to sanctifie you throughout and both to keep your bodies soule and spirits 1 Thes 5.25 pure and blamelesse to his comming through the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and the Spirit that immortall invisible and onely wise God 1 Tim. 1.17 be all honour and praise for ever Amen FINIS AN APPENDIX OR POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER ANd thus good Reader thou hast these Lectures penned to the uttermost wherein they were preached And as I inteÌ„ded to preach no more so neither doe I purpose to trouble thee with more then I preached The Verses following to the twentieth savour wholly of a spirit carried zealously towards God whose mercy cured both Naamans body and soule a draught whereof I gave thee in this last Lecture I grant there are some passages of obscurity attending the words next to them I have handled which some scrupulous Reader might thinke himselfe wronged if they should wholly be unsaluted Wherefore to give a very short touch of them thus conceive of the severals thereof THerefore take a blessing c. But he said Vers 15. end 16. As the Lord liveth Touching this Addition of his large gifts to his large heart I have already spoken of it in the servants arguments and shewed there the duty of the people to their Ministers And we must know it did not abhorre from the custome of those times either to offâ—r or accept gratuities by the Prophets But touching his refusall
he was intimated from God to reject it and that with a solemne oath by the life of God Not that rash oaths are to be admitted in every solemne or serious case of truth But partly for the settling of Naamans spirit that he might spare needlesse obtrusions and partly that he might know it came fâ—om no distast in the Prophet but it was God who barred it And why Doubtlesse the Lord would not that rewards comming from a Novice whose strength was small though his wealth great nor any bruite therof among Heathens who must have heard of the fees as well as the cure should disparage and prejudice the grace and freedome of so miraculous a worke as the conversion of a soule and the healing of a Leper And therefore he would have all such sinister constructions to be dasht Gods Prophets never stand in such deep needs that God must be dishonoured by their supply God scorned to be thought to send for Naaman to possesse his Treasure or enrich his Prophet Teaching us not to rake together boons and gifts from men or advantages to our selves counting all fish that comes to net But wisely to lay things together considering what our persons the cause of God the persons that give either unable or ungrounded or any other circumstances may admit for the warranting or disabling of the receit For some cases are too hot and too heavy to meddle with such matters tending to a snare and therefore let them perish rather then Religion should suffer thereby This latitude of giving and receiving is not easily restrained where Wisdome and Discretion holds not the reine And Naaman said Shall there not then be given two Mules load of earth to thy servant For thy servant will worship no other God c. A reply of Naaman to this refusall with his reason Jn the former he seemes to speake thus If thou onely aimest at my soules good and not thine owne hearken to my motion of two Mules load of earth that is so much as will serve me to worship upon for J heare that God will onely be worshipped in his holy Land or the bounds of his Church This argued his weaknesse for God might bee worshipped by true Proselytes any where though not in Sacrifices And it was not so farre from Aram to Ierusalem Wonder not therefore if the Prophet yeelded not For herein be shewed himselfe a Novice and no wonder Young beginners must be hatcht up and encouraged But for the thing which is to be noted it is this That in ignorant beginners there are many tolerable follies and infirmities inseparably mixed till better light and information ripen and rectifie them There must be a time alotted for every thing and the Disciples of Christ while he lived with them were extremely weake Christ being in his humility they were bare but after when he came to his Crowne he gave them gifts abundantly And we need not wonder if Popery after so long a soking in their dregges are so stale and settled in their superstitions when as even at and with the first onset upon Religion and creeping out of Paganisme this poore pilgrim here growes superstitious When are we free from evill Whiles drowned in prophanenesse we are on the left hand when brought to Religion then a right-handed enemy invades us Superstition as a Canker breeding in the fairest Apple of Devotion to defile it Religion cannot quit us from danger There is a white Devill as well as a blacke Ignorance and weaknesse being unable to avoyd many right-hand evils Yet better of the two that our milke seeth a little over then be eaten raw although both would be shunned What a world of scurffe brake into the Church of God after the first three hundred years since Christ Persecution ceasing and Christianity under Constantine beginning to prosper how did Satan hedged out one way creepe in worse another We say Out of the ashes of sinne sinne may spring up Out of those ashes of persecution arose undue honour to Martyrs Orations Sepulcres Prayers to God at their Tombes Censings and the like till Superstition without a word bred Idolatry against it and laid a nest egge for a world of Popish trash to ensue upon it The sad issue of it this day argues of what stamp it is Let us labour therefore to keepe devotion within due bounds lest else she which was at first legitimate after breed bastards for lack of knowledge And so much for this The other thing is his Reason Verse 17. fetcht from the integrity of his heart in point of the worship of his onely God who had converted him and no other It is the same which is said in vers 15. which gave occasion to the last Lecture proceeding from the spirit of his cure It is as I have said an instinct and inbred affection of all true converts to clasp and cling wholly to the God of mercy and to the truth of his worship who hath accepted them to favour And therefore the first reall consequent and formall adjunct of his conversion is wholly for ever to ejure Jdols So that all defiled Schismatickes and Heretickes Jdolaters justly question their true conversion Jnto their counsell let not our soules come Vers 18. In this the Lord be mercifull to thy servant c. As he is resolved touching the last terme and object of his worship so yet he sadly staggers about the circumstances Jt hath long possessed the spirits of most men that Naaman resolved upon the bowing before the Jdoll and craved pardon for it as a gainfull sinne and that which he was loath to forgoe But they are much deceived For the opening of his speech consider there is somewhat in it good somewhat doubtfull That which was good was this that out of a tender respect to preserve his purpose of sound worship he smites first upon his chiefest feare layes his hand upon the pained plat and is most solicitous for that sinne which had beene was like to be most difficult and offensive in his way This he takes most thought how to be rid of Fire alway consumes that matter which most opposes it so doth grace carry the soule with most jealâ—usie caâ—e and resolution against that sinne which hath beene beloved'st and thâ—eatens greatest resistance to a repentant course That which was doubtfull in his words is this That he desires to be pardoned in his bowing afterward for so J take the words to import not for time past but the opinion of most men concerning his resolution is very uncharitable He is now in his chiefe heat and zeale for God therefore to come in with a dispensation for a thing contrary to his vow in some kind were very absurd and unseasonable to imagine But wee must conceive this verse to containe the pith of all that had passed betwixt him and Elisha touching his complaint J take it thus therefore that here is a fight in Naaman viz. betwixt zeale on the one side and ignorance