or Self-abasement and then boast of their Counterfeit self-denial They sinck themselves into voluntary Distresses and then censure and reproach All who do not by their Mad examples quit and abjure their Lawful Comforts and Possessions Yet this is but an Hypocritical device to palliate their Covetoushess It is but a topical and false Cure of their Concupiscence It is so slender a Remedy to resist and expel the Contagious Seeds of Lusting that a black patch applied to the Face may as probably recover a Consumptive person out of his Hectick when 't is commenced into a burning-Fever It is alike irrational to fancy that the lankness of their Estates is an Indication that their hearts are as humble as their Purse is empty For they remain as Covetous and Ravenous after those Accommodations which they want as the Rich are swoln with Pride in their Excesses For Covetousness is to be measured by the Inordinacy of Mens desires discontent at their present Station and Condition and envy at others Worldly Grandure rather than by a bare valuation of ones self by a perverted fancy according to the outward vastness of the Estate Such are not truly weaned from the pursuit of the Worlds gilded Vanities who though extreamly poor yet are as deeply proud of their Cynical contempt of Riches yea are secretly discontented with their low station and short allowance in sensual and terrene injoyments Thus their superstitiously-contracted Poverty allays not the burning Fever of Concupiscence while it bespots the Soul and blisters the tongue in a secret murmuring at God's Dispensations as if they were too severe unequal or unjust Is not this for the Clay to make a proud insurrection against the Universal Potter and Governour of the World Another sort of persons pretendedly weaned from the World are such who in discontent at disappointments in their affairs cast aside their Trades and then like the Hedg-hog wrap up themselves in the soft Down of a sensual voluptuous Life and please themselves that they are mortified because of their voluntary Lazy retirement from the Tumult as they call it of Worldly business These turn out the Bristles of a venomous reproachful Tongue to censure all who do not cast off their Lawful Calling and Imployment that they may more freely converse with God and their own Hearts What a Vain and Hypocritical pretence is this to nurse up Idleness and fill the World with a swarm of Beggars These seeming Zealots make the Tables of the Divine Law to Clash while they make their Heavenly and Civil Calling to be Inconsistent whereas the Heavenly supports the Earthly and this sets a whet upon the other so far is it from being any impediment if subordinated and rightly managed Serious sincere Souls are weaned In and not from their Civil Stations and Imployments be they never so mean and full of Cares or Difficulties To leave off any Civil Calling because low and mean is to rebel against the Sovereign and wise disposal of God the only Governour of the Universe It is to renounce His Charge and that Station in which He hath set a Man to his own dishonour as well as discomfort in the blasting of his new Projects and Designs Such should not disdain the lowest Sphere of Imployment in Imitation of the blessed Angels These Heavenly Courtiers are not sullen because their Creator hath Assigned them to come down upon the Earth and become Ministring Spirits for the relief of the Saints necessities They are content to be weaned for a season from an immediate beholding the Face of the King of Glory and condescend to wait upon poor frail Mortals Their Rare example should Tutor us in self-denial to resign up our Wills to the Sovereign Disposal of the Lord and not to quarrel his Providential Assignation of our Lot and Portion or Station in the World We must not grow sullen because our Creator sets Laws and boundaries to our exorbitant Desires in a wise though unequal distribution of his Favours Whosoever therefore shall out of discontent or under a pretence of Zeal in Religion cast away his Civil Calling is a Hypocrite rather than a genuine weanling unto Christ The Lord never Condemned publickness of Spirit which seeks the good of human Society but only the pragmaticalness of a private Spirit which seeks its own Advantage out of a sweat of Covetousness rather than of Lawful Industry This is to be truly weaned to the World to discharge our Earthly Calling faithfully and chearfully yet not to overcharge our selves with excessive Cares like a Gun Rammed and Loaden so full that it must needs recoil and fly in pieces The Lord will one day produce Abraham Lot and David persons very active in their Generation and full of weighty business yet these were weaned Saints who set Him a-part for their Portion and time apart for Communion with Him Christianity doth not uncloath us of Humanity it doth not eradicate natural desires but only transplant purge defecate and Sanctify them by setting them on their right Objects in a due manner and measure to a right end Grace doth not cancel but order and guide the true lawful use of the Creature and of a civil Calling This is the Character of a Saint truly weaned from the Love of the World who lawfully pursues his Trade and Commerce in it He will be no wiser than the Rule of the Word allows him to be no happier nor Richer than the Lord will make him He can cross the Corruptions and politick disguises of the places and times he lives in He is not inthralled to common Hopes and Fears to such sensual injoyments and delights which Worldly Men are carried down the Stream withal He exercises Sincerity in all the Common ordinary Actions of his Life and therefore is alike acceptable to the Lord in these as in works properly Religious in which God himself is the more immediate Object He Eyes in his Civil Calling the Institution of God the Conduct of his Word and pleads the Promises in Prayer for his incouragement in difficult Attempts yea for discretion to order his Civil Affairs as becomes a Man and a Christian Yet he is diligent not slothful in business but fervent in Spirit serving not his Worldly Interest but the Lord that is he waits on the Providence of God in the use of Lawful Means committing the success to Divine Benediction He will not lean to his own natural Sagacity or prudential management of his Affairs He quiets his Passions under all disappointments He seeks a sanctified improvement of all Losses and Crosses If he prosper he ascribes his success to Gods Fatherly Care Wisdom and Love he improves it to his Glory in the promoting of his Christian Religious Course Thus the Lord is the Alpha and Omega of a weaned Saints Being and Acting in the World 4. Another sort of persons pretendedly weaned from the World are such who stint their desires in the pursuit of an Estate who propound to themselves that they
from Above not lift up our hearts to Vanity but to the Lords Statutes by a sworn Allegiance Let us not suffer Earthly-mindedness to grow in Fashion when the most durable Comforts in the World pass away as a Fashion Be weaned and estranged from the Antick Customs Corrupt Examples and Sensual Enjoyments of the degenerate World So shall you Divinely Caress your Souls by training them up under the Severities of an Holy Discipline You shall not by any Hurry-Cane of Temptation from without or exorbitant Passions from within be shaken from the Center of true Rest by delusion in your Comforts or Impatiency in your sufferings You shall possess secure your Souls as to the Excellency of their Divine Constitution in the quick and clear Sentiment of Celestial Joys by a regular Conception of the Real Worth of whatever is suggested to their Fancy You shall become Impregnable in sincere resolutions to maintain a Heavenly Conversation and shall obtain an Heroick Fortitude under all your Tryals You shall Exercise a Rational Dominion over all Bruitish Passions which destroy all true Tranquillity of mind and Joy in the Holy Ghost Thus promoting a Weaned Frame you shall be prepared and made meet to be received with a triumphant Festivity into the Serene and Glorious Bosome of the blessed Jesus who is the perfect Archetype of Self-denial and the Universal-Diffusive-Center of true Felicity To which State that you may arrive is the unfeigned desire of Him who counts it his Duty and Priviledg to be and remain Your Christian Friend and Monitor in the Lord S. S. ERRATA Pag. 9. l. 8. f. command r. commend P. 116. l. 22. s crum r. Crumbe P. 131. l. 27. f. become Saints r. Saints become P. 132. l. 29. f. Eannot r. Cannot P. 137. l. 18. f. Chocie r. Choise P. 138. l. 11. f. Caudidates r. Candidates P. 143. l. 7. f. not so r. not so much There are some other small Errata's which the Author desires the Reader to mend with his Pen. Psal 131. V. 2 3. Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a Child that is weaned of his Mother my Soul is even as a weaned Child Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever THese words are Davids Apologetical Appeal to God the Searcher of all Hearts to confute and wipe off that malicious slander that he was an underminer of Saul's Regal Authority and an ambitious Projector to snatch the Crown from his Head Now said he what Plots can a weaned Child contrive in its Head I do not busie my self in Mysteries of State nor deal in the profound Politicks of the World Lord I Appeal to thy alsearching Eye who knowest all secrets whatsoever that my Heart is not haughty nor mine Eyes lofty These in the casting of them speak out much of the frame of the Soul They are the Heraldry of the Mind By the eyes we express and dart forth Pride Malice and Lust Sobriety a modest look without Heart-Humility is Hypocrifie and Lowliness of Heart without a modest Deportment is but a rude Profession In the Words are two General Parts 1. David's Protestation under the Form of an Oath thus some read the Words If I have or as I have behaved my self as a weaned-Child then or in so doing let the Lord vindicate my Integrity from false Aspersions So let the Lord deal by me as I have in uprightness supprest all Proud Aspiring Imaginations and Designs Obs We should be on good and sure Grounds in all those Appeals and Protestations which we make of our Hearts in the Frame and Working of them as in the sight of God who is the Heart-searcher and Avenger of all Hopocrisie Obs 2. David's Soul was first weaned by the Discipline of God's Spirit before he could behave himself as a weaned Child in the several afflictive occurrences of his Life Grace must first be implanted in the Heart to quiet and subdue its mutinous Passions and inordinate affections before the outward Conversation can be rectifyed The Lord can take no delight in the proud Heart of a froward Sinner Yet a Saint may without Presumption plead thus Lord own me for thy Child for I am one of thy Weanlings therefore come and take delight in thine own Work David appeals to God concerning his self-denying-frame as an evident Sign and Seal of his Approbation and Promotion Obs Before the Lord bestow great enjoyments of the Creature upon his Servants he prepares them by a weaned Frame of Heart so as to be indifferent about Worldly things My Soul David was a strong Man in Christ not a Babe who thus profest himself as a weaned Child Obs It requires not only Truth of Grace but much growth and proficiency in it to resign up the Heart to the severities of Mortification and constant Discipline of Self-denyal Obs David says not my Soul is only meek and humble as a Child but submissive as a weaned Child to every Divine Dispensation though never so harsh and bitter yea he rises higher Professing himself to be even as a weaned Child in all and every Respect The Rule of God's Word and Command is a stricter Pattern of self-denial than any Earthly Type of weaning No weanling from the Brest should outstrip a Saint in point of Mortification toward sinful sensual Delights or Creature-enjoyments Again David compares himself to a Child which is Passively weaned not which weans it self Weaning is not any pleasant Act of the Child 's own seeking or effecting Obs Mortification of sinful unruly Passions and inordinate affections is a Soul renewed-state bitter and declined by us at first we are meerly Patients under this Holy violence and Soul-saving severity we are unwilling and unable to effect in it our selves Again David compares himself to a Child weaned of his Mother not by some mercenary Nurse who being servile in the task proves often as froward and teasty as the Child Obs Saints should submit to the difficulty of a weaned Frame with a quiet Heart because the Lord designs it out of Wisdom and carrieth it on with great tenderness and Compassion The weaned Child is not forgotten much less forsaken or cast off Weaning is an Act and State of necessity and deep affection ratherthan of neglect or disesteem Hereby it grows up into a more solid knowledg of and more affectionate acquaintance with the Parent Should Children always lie soaking at the Breast they would not grow so strong nor spritely to perform service to their Parents they would not be apt to take down more solid Food Saints may be froward at present because they understand not the advantages of this pittiful severity yet afterwards they shall know and comply with the Lord's Design in weaning them Thus Christ informed Peter that there was a Mystery in his condescention to wash the Disciples Feet the better to induce Peter's compliance with it Thus David produces his experience and makes assurance thereof to the whole Spiritual Seed of Israel that
Favour before all the delights and Courtship of the whole Creation Thus the Lord 's Marab's his Children whom he weans in the bitterness of their Spirit shall become his Naomies his fair Ones or Spouses of Delight yet first they must be desolate in themselves that they may learn to cleave to the Lord as the Center of their trust and satisfaction This is the very Law of their Espousals unto Christ 3. There is an absolute necessity of this weaned State otherwise the Spirit of the World Satan and Lust will rule in your hearts and hold you under their Vassalage How will every petty temptation worry out your formal faint resistance Nay you will never strike stroke out of the base treachery of your sensual-hearts Your Mouths will rather water after forbidden Fruit you will tempt the Tempter to tempt you and cast your selves as a Prey into the Jaws of this devouring Lyon How should the Apostacy of such who have surfeited on their Lusts to a loathing of all Religion season our hearts with a Holy-Fear not to disdain or oppose this Self-denying Frame O do not trust to the Eminency of your present profession but make God the Guide and Guardian of your hearts Get them thorowly weaned from the Love of Lusts and the World otherwise you will be exposed to an open renouncing of the Faith of Christ Voetius in his Disputes of Atheism relates of one Vaninus who was a sad instance in this respect He wrote a Book entituled the Amphitheater of Divine Providence to prove that there is a God yet afterwards he Apostatiz'd into a meer speculative dogmatizing Atheist and was burned at Paris for it Thus the fairest formalists make the subtlest Seducers the fiercest Persecutors and most desperate Atheists This appeared in the said Vaninus who being advized at his Execution to ask God the King and his Judges Pardon thus replyed I need not ask Pardon of God for I do not believe there is any nor of the King for I have broken none of his Laws nor of my Judges for were there a Hell I would send them all thither Thus the unclean Spirit re-entred to take up a surer Station without any fear of disturbance or a future dispossession Such will be the End of all Masquarading Professors who only make a Mock-show of Religion To such the impartial Judg will one day say as Isaac not out of any dimness of sight but exactness of search Come near thou Proud Pharisee thou peevish Hypocritical Worldling who didst question or quarrel at my Providence but never distrustedst thine own heart or ways Let me feel the Pulse of thy Soul how it beats and works toward me in Love and self-denyal What sayst thou Art thou a Weanling of Christ's or a Nursling and Fondling of Satans How sad will it then be to be estranged from the Bosom of the Lord for ever because such would not be divorced from the Breasts of Lusts and the World Even Children retain in their fancy the bitter severities used for their alienation from the Brest Let soaking Worldlings look on their tractable example and be ashamed of their own greedy snatching at Worldly prosperity though it poyson the Vital briskness of the Soul in not affecting an heavenly Conversation The second General Head How Natural and Spiritual Weaning differ 1. Some Children never live to be weaned but every New-Born Babe in Christ is actually weaned so as to deny it self in the Renunciation of Worldly Lusts and its confidence in its own Righteousness A general slight Conviction of the Creatures Vanity will not prove sufficient to wean us from all Priding in our own conceited Worth and the Opinion of self-sufficiency Nothing can supply the necessity and Divine Vsefulness of Faith or Regenerating Grace in working us to a weaned Frame For a meer form of Godliness spends it self in airy speculations and in boasting of a conceited Conquest over Lusts and the World But a Holy Frame of Heart is the Life of Christ himself dwelling and acting in every New-Born Christian in whom it hath a secret Vertue to accomplish a wonderful Conquest in weaning of the heart The power of Godliness begets Divine Fear this Contracts the heart toward the Creature and unites or inlarges it to God in Christ Now a Holy Oneness of Spirit fortifies the affections as the Rays of the Sun contracted into one point of the Burning-Glass inflames the nearest Object So a longing desire after Communion with the Lord consumes the Combustible matter of all temptations which damp our Spiritual Joy and oppress the Activity of our Obedience Godliness draws In and binds fast the heart to delight in the Lord abstractly for his own Divine and infinite perfections It brings with it an ingenuous freedom of spirit to serve the Lord with chearfulness as his Redeemed and peculiar Ones Godliness sets glorious priviledges and high hopes before a Saint these animate to do and suffer much for God Evangelical Promises applyed by Faith have a purifying vertue in them whereby they estrange us from inordinacy of affection toward the Grandure of the World Yea Godliness gathers strength by Conflicting with difficulties thereby approving the Souls Integrity and Chastity unto the Lord. 2. Difference Weaning is a State Proper and Peculiar unto Infancy and Childhood But every Aged Father in Christ stands more and more in need of Spiritual weaning because being arrived to any pitch in Grace they let fall their Watch and Christian-Circumspection they grow more self-Confident and the World more incroaches on them Their Love is usually more ardent and fearful to offend at first yea they are more Cautious and Curious of what they take into their Bosome lest they should transgress the Divine Law of Gratitude in their Espousals unto Christ Even David the Man after God's Heart prays in the sense of his imperfect weanedness Incline my heart unto thy Testimonies and not to the wanderings of Concupiscence Turn away mine Eyes from beholding Vanity Ps 119.36 37. Nature it self aims at perfection in Generation and the Growth of all Creatures Why should not the New-Creature much more by a Divine Instinct pursue the highest attainments in the Mysteries of a weaned State Paul was so advanced and improved this way that he profest that he acted the Man's part in his Christian high-Calling and had put away all Childish Dispositions Opinions and Practices 1 Cor. 13.11 His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or City-Life and Trade was dayly in Heaven thither he was rapt up in his Spiritual Thoughts Aims Affections and Designs Yea he strove to attain to the very Resurrection of the Dead Consider that Eminent Saints have been often foyled at the Exercise of that very Grace wherein they have been most expert for want of a watchful and progressive weaned Frame of Heart Even Abraham the Father and Pattern of the Faithful how Childishly is he afraid of losing his Life in Abimelech's Country He advised his Wife to Guard her Beauty
is that Spouse-like Girdle whereby the Christian is kept cleaving to the Lord's Alsufficiency for him to constitute the Essence of true happiness The Lord alone is the Foundation of his weanlings future Hopes and present Comforts For being United to him by Faith they cleave to him as the Center of their Love and Delight deriving all their satisfaction from his infinite and most amiable perfections Thus Faith and Self-denial are the two main Poles on which the whole weight of Christian Religion depends and the Practical improvement of it turns it self Hereby we are demonstrated to be truly weaned or mortified when all Self-arrogance or Confidence in our own Righteousness is rejected and the Creature becomes Nullified that Christ alone may be Magnified as all in all to compleat our Eternal Happiness To which must be added an Universal Free and Chearful Resignation of our whole Man to the Government of Christ's Word and Spirit Natural Carnal Men are only pretenders unto this Frame of heart whatever specious semblances thereof they may hold forth in the moral strictness of their Conversation For is it possible that persons should Evangelically be weaned by solid Conversion to the Lord and yet despise or oppose the genuine inseparable effects of it Without the power of Godliness of which Self-denial is the Spring or Soul there can be no thorow estrangement from the Love of Lusts or the Allurements of Worldly Vanities Therefore to beget increase and maintain a weaned Frame of heart I shall lay down these following Rules Rules to become truely weaned 1. Take heed of abusing Christian Liberty in the immoderate Use of things Lawful Thus Christ advised his very Apostles though weaned to a very high Degree in forsaking all things to testifie their sincerity in imbracing the Christian Institution Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting an the Cares of this Life Commonly we fear not a Snare in those Accommodations which the Lord of the Creation allows us for our refreshment in our Pilgrimage These must not prove as the Fruit of the Lote-Tree to some Travellers to make us forget our Divine Original our Heavenly Country while we sing the Worlds Tune in a strange Land viz. What shall we Eat Drink or wherewith shall we be Cloathed never caring to return to the Bosome of God as our Rest and proper Center Remember Sisera's Fate when the World Jael-like hath made us drunk with secular Cares and secured us in its Tent by gross stupidity it discovers its Courtesie to be full of Craft and Treachery For after an officious Indulgence which will exceed our desires in Kindness it will drive home the Nail of self-perplexing Fears and Sorrows not only to our Head but very Heart it self Thus the Gnosticks sported themselves with their own deceivings while they pleaded Christian Liberty that the whole Creation was purchased by Christ to maintain them as the only Iluminated Ones in all excess of rioting Thus they crost the design of Gospel-Grace which appeared to teach us to deny all ungodly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present world Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleases it self so long in dancing about the Candle till it singes its Wings or consumes it self 2. Take a true estimate of the Creature in its Natural Worth rather than in that false Dress which your Imagination tricks it up in strip all Earthly Vanities out of their deceitful Varnish For Satan casts a strange Mist before our Eyes and perverts our Fancy to make us miserable by our own Consent Hence we expect more from the Creature than it can yield in its most quintessential injoyment or sublimated improvement How many who suppose themselves Rich in Grace have Worldly Designs as the Philosophers Stone beggared and made miscrable But weaned Saints are wary and advertised of this Delusion They will make use of the World but not trust to it to make them happy Therefore although they attain not that prosperity which Worldlings seek yet in their way to true happiness they meet with in their experience of the Worlds Vanity many rare and choice discoveries of divine Mysteries which they value before all enjoyments of the whole Creation 3. Study the Dignity of your precious immortal Heaven-born Souls Esteem of Worldâ—y injoyments at present as you will view and value them at Death as you will find them to bear a Rate in the dismal conflagration of the Universe Then the World shall undergo the punishment of a Witch for inchanting and deluding poor Mortals who have loved Vanity and trusted in the lying shadow of a tearing Bramble to despise the true Vine and Olive viz. the Sweetness of Christ who can only yield us perfect satisfaction 4. Maintain a mortifying Frame of Self-denial while you lie sucking at the Breasts of prosperity Put suppositions to your selves as Habakkuk of the Creatures failing you That the fulness of its injoyment may possibly be imbittered with a mixture of Vexation So shall it not overlay your Hopes by disappointment nor will your selves overcloy and surfeit your affections with forbidden Fruit in perverting of the true Use of Creature-Comforts and Enjoyments 5. Do not count your Happiness and Peace of mind to lie in the Change of your outward condition but get your dropsical Distemper Cured The sick Child may shift the Breast and yet not be reduced to a quiet Frame or vigorous State till it acquiesce in a Manly kind of Diet. Christians would you recover any Consistency in your Spiritual State and Souls-health Then resolve not only to weep out your sinful surfeits but be content that the Lord should bleed you in the Master-Vein A Revulsion of your Feverish and Voracious desires toward Creature-enjoyments will purifie the Vital Affections of your Souls by setling them on the Lord himself in a due measure and Order Yet afterward your selves must endeavour to maintain a more strict Discipline or Regiment over the Corrupt humors and fond foolish extravagancies of your desires 6. Esteem not of that to be real Mortification or a genuine weaning which only deads Corruption yet flows not from a thorow Renovation of the heart Sinners may abstain from their sinful Surfeits yet never abandon nor abominate them A thorow-weaned Frame is not the approving of Godliness in the General where the power is despised or hated Nor is it the condemning of Sin in general or the grosser Lusts of the Flesh though Men live in the allowance of secret sins and under the Dominion of speculative more retired refined Acts of sin What is this but to graft a new sin on the stock of an old Lust All sin grows deeper rooted and ingratiated by such a cleaverly conveying out of sight the chief favourite faln into some disgrace at present rather than any true Disgust which seeks the utter destruction of it A slight dislike of sin trusted to gives Satan a more quiet and deep possession The sinner may be weary of his Life
the Lord means no harm but much Spiritual advantage to his Children though he express much severity in weaning them Obs Saints ought to quicken one anothers Graces and Comforts by holding forth their mutual examples and experiences As if David had said upon the whole matter thus Lord hereby I gathered or inferred an Evidence that thou wouldest advance me to the Throne and undertake the Protection Care and Conduct of me because I have behaved my self as a Weaned Child I kept my Spirit low and humble I did not affect nor hunt after great things for my self I was very indifferent as to the outward enjoyments of the World Thou hast heapt them on me without my seeking Thou didst prepare me to injoy with an humble thankful Heart those accommodations which I could have been content to have been cut short of Lord thou knowest how I have carried towards thee as a weaned Child Thou also hast acted towards me as a tender indulgent Parent giving me what I could have born the denial of Therefore by my Example let Israel hope in the Lord even when he is suatcht from the Breasts of worldly enjoyments O! let Saints learn to live more dependently upon the Lords immediate Providence who thus rewards the self-denial of his weaned Children This is the scope and intended meaning of the Words The main Doctrine which I shall prosecute is this Doct. Every Christian should labour to get and maintain the Frame and Carriage of a weaned Child In prosperity to sit loose from Worldly comforts and enjoyments In Adversity to quiet and compose their pirit under all the saddest severest Dispensations which the Lord inflicts Or 't is the Duty Character and Disposition of every real Saint by Faith and Self-denial to quiet their spirits under the nearest and deepest Tryals By Faith we must live on Christ's Alsufficiency in greatest straits By Self-denial we must live to Christ by maintaining an equal indifferency of Spirit either to retain or resign our Comfortable enjoyments as the supream Lord shall dispose of them It becomes not that Masculine Heroical Grace of Faith to produce every petty service as a Demonstration of its Ingenuity Abrahams Tryal was no cheap Act of Religion when he was called to the foot of God to leave his native Country and become a Pilgrim in the Land of Promise Yet in weaning him from his Beloved Isaac so as to require him to offer him up for a Sacrifice This toucht severely upon the very Bowels of Natural Affection yea it seemed to offer violence to his Faith and the very veracity of that Divine Promise that in Isaac should all Nations be called and blessed O the height length depth and breadth of this Tryal None could lawfully impose such a Command but God nor could any so quickly and fully have Answered it but an Abraham whence he deserved the Title of the Father of the Faithful He stood not demurring much less murmured at the Command but thus he exprest the Innocency and weaned self-denyal of his Heart What is it O Lord that thou callest for is it my only begotten Son Isaac the Staff of my old Age I love him dearly but thee transcendently therefore he shall be no Corrival I obtained him by believing and I shall not lose him by obeying Though I be a Father thou art God and what I owe to my Child must alway be checkt and limited by what I owe to thee My Natural affection must and shall give place to my Spiritual special Duty Though I kill him thou canst quicken him Though I may part with my Son yet I can never lose my Isaac For thy Promise is sure for evermore that in Isaac shall my Seed be called Thus Abraham reconcil'd by a weaned Frame the seeming contradiction of the Command to the immutability of the Promise and chose rather to be held Guilty of Murther by the verdict of sense and carnal reason than to be taxt of mental Idolatry in an over-fond Affection to his Isaac He let God alone to perform his Word while himself kept an eye upon his Duty Do you go and imitate the Father of the Faithful I mean not in the same specifical attempt for it was only a Command by way of Tryal imposed by the lawful stamp of Divine Authority No such Revelation is now to be expected yet the general and implicite equity of it binds all and every Christian that we should alway retain a fixt weaned Frame to mortifie all inordinate Creature-Love and readily to resign up our nearest and dearest injoyments when the Supream Lord shall impose the Tryal So shall you justifie the Truth and command the strength of your Faith as Abraham did his by Self-denial and obtain the Title of a real Friend of God Such are content that the Will of the Lord should be served upon them as well as done by them or the promises fulfilled for them Now for fuller explication of the Nature of this weaned Frame I shall shew 1. Wherein it doth consist 2. How Natural and Spiritual weaning agree and differ 3. The Reasons why we should thus quiet our Spirits as weaned Children 4. I shall produce some discoveries of a counterfeit weaning which passes for real and genuine 5. I shall lay down the true Character or description of a weaned Saint 6. Some Motives or Arguments to perswade to a weaned Frame 7. and Lastly I shall lay in some Principles or Rules whereby we may get and maintain such an Evangelical Self-denying disposition For the First 1. It is the Judicious Elective Frame of every Regenerate person whereby he doth with a supernatural Patience silence the mutinous murmuring Passions of his Soul under the saddest methods which Divine Wisdom makes use of to estrange and mortifie his fond inordinate Love to every Lawful much more sinful enjoyment Or it is such a State in Grace not in Nature whereby the Heart is wrought not only to a patient submission but a chearful complacential rejoycing in whatever the Lord requires or dispenses for the Tryal of its Love and sincere Obedience both Active and Passive Or it is a choice Christian Frame received from our Union and Communion with Christ and the anointing of his Spirit whereby we renounce our Carnal Wisdom our froward perverse Will and all inordinacy of fond overvaluing and affecting of Creature-enjoyments Thus we resign all we are and have to the Sovereign Wise and Holy disposal of the Lord. Hereby we testifie the sincerity strength and perseverance of our Love as preferring the Lord alone to our delight before any Competitor whatsoever Natural and Spiritual weaning agree in these Respects 1. A weaned Child is very humble It hath no proud Heart attested by any scornful look or peevish Carriage They express no boasting Language to the disdain of others So a Saint is weaned from an overfond conceit of his own Worth and Excellency Vain Man would be wise he would pass for such in the Opinion of himself and others
But the power of Renewing Grace lays him level with the Dust Before he walkt in a vain show strutting and applauding himself in the tinkling of his own imaginary excellencies yet by Converting Grace the Top-Gallant of his self-deifying Pride is laid prostrate at the foot of Christ in admiring only the Riches of free Grace and the imputed Righteousness of a Saviour 2. Weanlings express more of Contentation than of Contention or discontent All frowardness of Spirit flows from Pride But you may deal with a weaned Child as you please Turn it upside down strip it of its Ornaments it submits it doth not revile nor spurn So a weaned Saint complies with yea reverences welcomes and imbraces every change and turn of Providence He expostulates not with the Supream Lord and absolute Potter who hath an uncontrouled Dominion over his Person State and Condition in the World Thus Aaron repined not to strip himself of his Priestly Robes and invest Eleazar with them though it were solemnized with his own immediate dissolution His ambition was subdued and his affections mortified to the Pride of Life Thus Moses dyed at the Mouth of the Lord at the Word of his Command being satisfyed only with a Prospect of Canaan as the reward of his Faithful tedious conduct of that mutinous People even to the Borders of the pleasant Land Therefore the Lord kist his soul out of his Body as the Rabbins speak He put more signal honour on him in translating him to the superlative effusions of his choicest Love because he so readily went up to the Mount and dyed How was David weaned to a wonderment as if he were at a point whether he died in persuit of his Rebellious Absolom or returned in Triumph as a Conquerer 2 Sam. 15.25 26. If I shall find favour c. Thus Hezekiah said Good is the Word and Work of the Lord though Isaiah threatned that his Kingly dignity should be ecclipst in the future Captivity of his Nation and that the Babylonians should possess all his Treasures which had been the occasion of his Pride 3. A weaned Child may bemoan its loss of its wonted delight in applying to the Brest those pleasant Conduits of Nature yet at last it yields to the Mothers Act with silence and a quiet Frame So Saints do not expect to be alway indulged in their Childish will and Appetite only here is the difference A Saint out of a judicious consideration chearfully submits in preferring a weaned State before the highest injoyments of the Creature He chooses for his happiness to behold the Face of God in Righteousness and is satisfied with the Image of Christ upon his Soul Even in his first Conversion he hath a high estimation of Christ and the things of Eternity yet because the Scale is but a little turned by a few grains of Faith and Love he doth not so readily draw off his Affections from the inchanting Objects of this present Life But having attained to a more Masculine State in Christianity he espyes at last a Soul-satisfying fulness-even in a weaned Frame it self Thus Paul being filled with the Spirit had the comprehension of all happiness furnisht out unto him from the Treasury of Christ's alsufficiency this weaned him to contentment with any thing or nothing of the Creature so that he could glory in all Distresses and truly aver that he needed not any Gift from the World for said he I am full I abound I have all His Bonds were as Bridal Ornaments and his very nakedness and stock of sufferings were preferred before the Wardrobe and Treasuries of all the Kings of Judah 4. A weaned Child repines not though it exchange Brest-Milk which is pleasant easie of digestion for harsher and meaner Food Because it is not wise enough to provide for it self therefore of necessity it lives at the finding and disposal of the Parent So a Saint submits his Will to the Wisdom of Divine Providence to order and guide his affections and affairs to over-rule and controul his inordinate Appetite He knows that among the variety of Estates in the World he might mistake Henbane for wholsome Food a Stone for Bread-Corn c. He is afraid when his Desires grow Feaverish and voracious lest he should suck Vanity and vexation of Spirit from Worldly Peace Plenty and Prosperity Therefore he counts it safest to refer himself to Divine Wisdom who only knows what nourishment he can best digest what State of Life he can best manage and improve By self-Abasement he puts no confidence in his own Wit or Strength He wholly depends on the Lord's care and Favour He lives by Faith upon the Promise and is content with his allotted Portion in the World He counts himself unworthy of the least of mercies yea to be quickned up to his Duty by the Rod of God His Will and desires are circumscribed limited by the Wisdom and Sovereignty of the Lord. He can rejoyce when reduced to a state of emptiness and abasement He doth not prescribe to the Lord how he shall dispose of him in his Person and Relations Comforts or Tryals But is sutably moulded by a ready and chearful compliance to be cast into any form or Condition of Life Divine Providence shall see fit This doth prove our humble and weaned Frame to be sincere for the change of our Condition and the external Garb of our Profession doth not promote the real Work of Mortification The setled Disease of Pride and inordinacy of Affection to the Creature must be carried off by sound Repentance Faith in the Purgation of Christ's Blood by a Sympathetical Conformity to his Death and Resurrection in a Conquest over our selves and the irregularities of our hearts as well as by a profest contemptuous renouncing of all alluring lying Vanities 5. The weaned Child is not in so great danger to be overlaid Thus the World in its distrusting Cares and distracting Fears is a strange ponderous Incubus or Night-Hag which over-rides and presses its Paramors unto death Sensual Lusts a Load of Worldly Contrivances to be Rich and Great yea pleasing hopes and Sensual Joys those very Comforts and Delights which promise as Foster-Parents to batten us by their flatteries these even these betray us by stifling the Seed-Royal of Gracious Dispositions and Affections in the Soul But a weaned mortified Christian can vigorously cast off those pressures of Temptation the suffocating foul humors of Lusting which like an Incubus shorten and obstruct the free breathings of the Spirit of Grace and supplication He can strongly cry out Abba Father succor me by thy preventing assisting-Grace that I may not be overlaid nor prest to Death by secular Cares Comforts or Delights 6. It 's a very difficult task to wean off a Child from hankring after the Brest So 't is very tedious and painful to corrupt Flesh and Blood which remains in part unsubdued in the best of Saints to have so great a change made in their unruly Appetite that what
before they loved now they hate contra This is demonstrated 1. Because our sensual Hearts make great resistance to this Renovation in the Spirit It 's as Death to a Carnal heart because 't is no other than the dissolution of the Carnal-State of a Sinner Some are sooner weaned off with the very Nod and Beck of God But others must be fiercely dealt withal as Paul As the Voice of a Thunder-clap makes the Hinds to Calve and cast forth their young because they have very narrow passages in Nature So Sinners are averse from Spiritual weaning therefore usually the Spirit of Bondage Vshers it in by some Black Rod or Apparitor which makes the very shadow of Death to sit on our Eye-lids before our proud Spirits will be tamed and brought to hand by the shaking of an ordinary Rod over us Some the Lord weans by the soft gentle whispers of his Spirit convincing them of the vanity and emptiness of the whole Creation Thus the Lords Word stood for a Law with Levi who knew neither Father nor Mother so as to dispense the Divine Law with Carnalfondness and partiality of affection The powerful Charms of Divine Love and the Spiritual appearances of the Lord in the Lustre and Glory of his Alsufficiency and infinite Perfections prevail with some to fall off not only from the lank and Crude Breast of the Creature but from the fairest and plumpest of their Enjoyments Yet neither frowns nor smiles neither Blows nor Charms of Love can prevail with some soaking sensualists to quit the allurements of Lust and the World Jeshurun who carried the Title of Uprightness in their very Name could not be weaned from the Garlick and Flesh-pots of Egypt but keckt at Manna at Angels Food yea snarled at God himself because their Dog-like Appetite was not indulged with Quails They could not be made fond of their great Redeemer nor did they cleave to him though he broacht the Rock to satisfie them as with Streams of Honey rather they waxed Fat and kickt by how much the more they were pampered and indulged 2. The difficulty of Spiritual weaning farther appears from the frequent pains and strange methods which the Lord himself takes to imbitter the Creature using very sharp afflictions to draw off our fond affections from an Idolatrous doting on the World A strange dulness or rather perverseness possesses us that we must be lasht into our own Happiness and beaten into an ingenuous Liberty from the vassalage of our Lusts Lots Wife though she were fired out of Sodom yet left her heart behind for she lookt back she lookt and lookt again till she became sliff and stupid as a stone Thus Agrippina said of Nero Occidat modo Imperet Sinners care not if they be damned so they may not be damnified in their Worldly Interest They will adventure an Eternal Excision or cutting off from the priviledges of Eternal Life which is worse than a bare Circumcion in the sorest loss of their Temporalities before they will cleave to God himself rather than the Dinah of this inchanting World They will part with their Religion rather than not enjoy their Wealth and Honour without hazard or disturbance Thus we Adore the Creature and thereby force the Lord to put on the disguize of an Enemy to fright us into a weaned Frame The Candle of Prosperity must be put out yea the whole Heaven over us must mourn in Sackcloth the Lord must desert us and leave us to the amazement of a wounded Conscience before we will desist from nestling in the Bosome of that Creature which we Idolize Again Satan and the World when we seem to be weaned renew their acquaintance and insinuate their allurements afresh to reduce us to their imbraces Thus the Child hardly cleaves to the Parent when the Nurse studies and strives to regain the Childs fondness by presenting and tempting it with Toyes and Rattles But every Soul which would thorowly be weaned must resolve in the Lord's Strength not to listen to Satan's or the World's inticing Charms Reply Go Satan offer these petty Vanities to Children and Fools who know not what the worth of Christ or of an immortal Soul amount unto I am better disciplined in the severities of a Holy and Heavenly profession I am not so fondly in love with Vanity as to purchase it with the torment of a wounded Conscience by betraying of my Loyalty and the Chastity of my Soul to Christ It is just matter of wonder with what sinful Reverence sordid and absurd Zeal Popish Novices swear subjection to the perverting Rules of some superstitious Founder One devoted to the Commands of his Superintendent went barefoot three Miles thrice in the same day to fetch Water to pour out on a dry stick Yet let the Spirit of Jesus attempt to bring us out of Love with Worldly Vanities and the customs of phantastick sinners how do we cry out of this Compassionate Discipline as of an intolerable severity What pinching Fetters are Christ's Righteous Laws to the tender delicate Lusts of sensual Worldlings Let such consider how dangerous it is not to comply with the Lord's weaning Methods For as an angry Nuise throws the froward weanling out of her Aims to the Beds feet so the Lord will in tossing toss such is a Ball into a large and far Country where the severity of an Enemy shall insult over them to break their proud Spirits Isa 22.15 to 20. 7. Though weaning be a work of difficulty yet it must be carried thorow because 't is a State very necessary and not indifferent Those Children who suck long are not so witty nor so vigorous and active but more dull comparatively and effeminate because they have been made such fondlings The Apostle possibly alludes to the inconveniences of remaining too long in the State of Babeship in Christianity Heb. 5.12 13 14. As if he had said so great is your Spiritual sloth and dulness in not understanding the Mysteries of the Gospel that you have need be set to learn the very Principles of the Christian Institution But the weaned Christian can discover the Mystery of Iniquity the grand cheats of Satan and the World His faculties and affections have a Divine Gust or experimental apprehension of what is suitable to the State of a New Creature Such can cry out Poyson in the Cup when a temptation to sin though never so sweetly spiced is amicably presented to them 2. You cannot unless you have a weaned Spirit be in the least capacity of closing with Christ by Faith Till we be estranged from Creature-Dependencies we will not stoop to Glean after Christ in the Field of his Righteousness nor lie at his Feet as Ruth at Boaz's by an humble Self-denyal Such need not fear that their Love to Christ shall be despised for he will do all that they shall require when he observes that they have quitted all Corrivals and are heart-sick in affection toward himself by the solid preference of his
ready way to blast it or to anticipate it with a Curse Even Manna over-eagerly hoorded up stank and suddenly became as much loathed as it was impatiently longed for Had Jacob as plain a Man as he was been thorowly weaned from Self-seeking and Unbelief he had never attempted to have snatcht at the Promise while the Fruit hung unripe upon it nor to have forestalled the Blessing of his Father by the disguize of an Artificial Lye A weaned Saint so far as such will not turn aside to crooked ways and unlawful shifts to accomplish his design Faith doth not set a Man upon preposterous Courses Therefore let none pretend to trust in God's Promises while they make void his Laws That is an Orthodox Regular Faith which so bears Witness to the Truth of the Promise that it will not betray the Trust of Duty There is Power and Wisdom enough in the Womb of every Divine Promise to bring it self to the Birth without the Midwifery of any sinful expedients or excentrical practices to uphold the Lords fidelity by our dissimulation Therefore a weaned Frame doth not only produce a Working Suffering and Abstaining Patience from the forbidden Fruit of Sin but also an Expecting Waiting Patience in order to reap when Ripe the Blessing of every delayed Mercy A weaned Saint had rather have the Boon which he asks denied than cross the Rule in asking He is more troubled if his desires prove Inordinate than that the Lord takes no Order to speed and gratifie them He is very full and pregnant with holy desires yet his Importunity doth not justle out his Modesty He is a self-denying Supplicant his desires are neither peremptory nor impatient He will lie at Heaven-Gate though Relief do not hasten to him He esteems an heart made willing and able to wait as a Mercy equal to that he waits for And indeed it is part of an Answer as well as a Pledg of gratifying his Request 9. The ninth sort of Sinners not truly weaned are such who are Dumb under the Lord's weaning strokes which is more sad and dangerous than any sting of Affliction whatsoever There is a false quietness or silence of Spirit under Cross disappointments and sufferrings which differs very much from the generous Divine Submission and Acquiescency of a weaned Saint 1. It arises from want of inward Conviction of sin A spurious Patience is the sullenness and stoutness of a rebellious proud impenitent hard heart Foulness of Guilt produces Felness of Spirit 2. It flows from utter despair because such who are constrainedly patient and repine though they do not Rage conceit that the stroke of their wound is unparallel'd and incurable Amos 6.10 Hold thy peace be silent even from praying for we have plaid the part of Hypocrites so long that Now we may not make mention of much less Glory in the Name of the Lord. 3. Reason or Common sense may Argue sinners into a meer Moral Patience making a Vertue of Necessity Because when the Lord of Hosts takes hold on Judgment no Created power can strike his Sword out of his hand And what is without all Remedy must by silence be endured But a truly weaned Saint doth not only submit out of Duty and Conscience rather than Constraint but can also Cleave to God he will Clear and Justifie yea Bless him with a thankfull heart and a Fruitful Life when he lays his Ax to the Root of his dearest enjoyments Faith welcoms Afflictions as good Angels sent for its Instruction because they Cure our sinful Surfeits and Bleed us in the Master-Vein A weaned Saint counts himself less than the least of Divine Mercies even below the Lords condescention to Correct him He will joyn and take part with God against his own Interest and Enjoyments Yea he rejoyceth in the Lord abstractedly for himself when he is stript naked of all Earthly Comforts A supernatural Patience can rejoyce in Bonds sing in Prison Glory in Tribulation Triumph in Sufferings and count it self exalted in the deepest abasement for Righteousness sake A Real Christian maintains a Consistency in the tranquillity of his Mind while he Ploughs the Waves of every amazing Providence with the steedy Helm of an Heroick Faith guided by the Pole-Star of the Word of God He is anointed with the Spirit of Holiness as a Son of Peace therefore he murmurs not Thus Oyle asswages the Tempestuous Raging of the Sea His Faith works by Love and this puts a good Construction on every Divine Chastisement But now the Hypocrite who seems weaned by submissiveness in suffering sets a demure Countenance on a froward Heart His Patience is most-what selfish and theatrical to gain the Reputation of a Generous and Heroick Mind Yet out of desperate presumption he courts Death as the only Refuge of his Cowardise The Hypocrite studies his Hearts-ease in his seeming Patience He well knows that a Bird by fluttering draws the snare the straiter upon it self that a Fellon who attempts to break Prison is loaded with a heavier Chain that the stubborn Child by fretting and kicking gets nothing but more stinging Lashes Thus a Malefactor lays down his neck upon the Block as eaven cleaverly as he can lest if he should startle or resist he should increase his Torture But now a weaned Saint is patient because he espies Love in the Correction and hopes to experiment spiritual Advantage from his sufferings He can espy a bright Lamp of Salvation in the midst of the smoaking Furnace Honey in the Carcase of a Lion Halcyon-days in a Storm and is assured that of Thorns he shall gather Grapes and fetch Meat the hid Manna of Divine Consolation out of the Eater of some wasting devouring providence The Hypocrite may pretend to some degree of Softness of heart while scorcht by Affliction yet he soon returns to the folly of sin and discontent at his sufferings As the Flesh of a Peacock Roasted turns Raw again after a few hours Reservation On the contrary the magnanimous patience of a weaned Saint being insuperable is not stinted nor ordinarily Ruffled or discomposed by the severest sequestration of his nearest and dearest Earthly Joys His Faith can divorce the heart from the Heart the renewed part of a Christian from the Carnal and make the Soul forget its wonted Acts of excess in the Fond sallyings out of his Affections to the Creature All the use of mourning for the want or loss of Worldly accommodations is only This to revenge himself on his Lusts which he made the Idols of his heart He knows that sighs are too Spiritual a blast to be spent on any thing but his Sins Being fixt in the admiration of the Lords infinite excellencies no Worldly loss or gain can divert his intire Communion with the Fountain of pure Joy Thus he stains not his Christian profession with any sullen Tears in a Low afflicted state nor is transported with fond delights in an High-estate For he well considers that it is from the same
the minutest Circumstances of any Action otherwise indifferent should be observed and punctually fulfilled Thus it is with weaned Saints for true Obedience is uniform and universal As Saints will impose no Laws in Divine concernments upon themselves as absolutely necessary so they are very cautious in abstaining from all the occasions appearances of evil They are weaned from the Bottle and the Spoon from all the accessory helps and incouragements of their Lusts as well as from the Breasts of more visible pleasing and grosser Temptations to Sin They are troubled for an impure Dream and will not speculate the least iniquity so much as in their fancy Also they are Curious about the least Circumstance of every Action that it be done for Manner Measure Time and Place to a right End and in a due Order and Decorum Moses and Noah in erecting the Tabernacle Ark were in every Circumstance directed and limited by Divine appointment Weaned Souls are faithful in every punctilio of their charge But Hypocrits make Laws and impose severities on themselves as pleasing Bonds whereas Christ's Laws are Yokes and pinching Fetters which they strive to dissolve and break away from This shews they are not weaned from an opinion of self-superintendency and the admiration of their Carnal Wisdom The great Contest 'twixt God and Sinners is whose Will shall stand for a Law Rule in the Ordering out of their Affections and Actions Yet our Wills are too big and head-strong for our blinded corrupt understandings to Govern Hence we are guided by no fixt strict Rule but hurried by Pride and Passion issuing from our darkned and mistaken apprehensions of the chiefest good Therefore we had need be weaned from self-Supremarcy that we may be directed safely according to the Wisdom of God revealed in the written Word and not led by Fancy or the impulses of a private Spirit For we easily are induced to believe that Lawful necessary and commendable which we have a mind to in gratifying our Lusts or advancing our Worldly Interest But in a truly weaned Frame of Submission to all God's Laws in every Circumstance consists our true Liberty Safety Wisdom and Magnanimity of Spirit Otherwise we shall soon become Captives to Satan and our Lusts Moralists and Hypocrits may proceed far in a course of Obedience and yet not be truly weaned because not thorowly brought off from the Dictates of Carnal Reason to subscribe only to the Lords good Will and Pleasure in ordering out the minutest Circumstances of their Actions The strength of Wisdom and sincerity of Obedience is seen most in a strict Observance of all due Circumstances These many times amount to more considerable weight in the Lords account than either the matter of Duty or of Sin Therefore David prays Order my steps in thy Word as cautiously and curiously as they who climb Rocks or dance upon a Rope How severely hath the Lord punisht an Error or failure in the very Circumstance of a Command When the Commission hath not been fulfilled to the least tittle and punctilio Such who are not thorowly weaned conceit they may make bold in the manner or measure or Order of managing a Duty according to the module of their Carnal apprehension and that this oversight or rash Zeal in underacting or over-acting may plead an indulgence of Course But the Lord hath given Instances to the Contrary viz. in Sauls sparing Agag and in his not staying for Samuel when he was distrest by the Philistins In Lots Wife looking back In Vzzah's touching the Ark and the Bethshemites prying into the Ark when recovered from the Philistines In the young Prophet going back with the Old to eat and to drink 1 Kings 13.18 though he were over-reacht by the pretence of an Angelical Revelation A weaned Saint is Cautious about the least Sin and very Curious about the least Circumstance of a Duty Therefore Naaman was not thorowly weaned when he excepted against washing his Leprosie seaven times in the Waters of Jordan Nor those who walkt to go down into Egypt who surrounded the Borders to espy where they might find out the most convenient passages to slip into Egypt without any suspicion of a Design in it Isa 30.1 2. Yet how did these Hypocrits profess a weaned Frame in Jer. 42. Whether the Lords Answer be good or evil Politically they mean and not morally yet we will obey though to our inconvenience and disadvantage So that person in 1 Kings 20.35 36 37. was more nicely and superstitiously Conscientious than truly respectful to the Prophet who refused to wound him by a Divine Commission therefore he was slain by a Lion not because he had a Cowards heart but for his pretended Sanctity and the scrupulosity of an Hypocrite So that weaned Saints do not Judg of the Equity or necessity of Divine Commands by outward appearance to their Carnal Reason but readily obey their Commission when they espy the stamp and warrant of Divine Authority though the matter or Circumstance of the Command seem unreasonable and ridiculous Yea lie Cross to their personal Reputation and Worldly Interest I may instance in Noahs building the Ark for which he was flouted as if he doated and would set a ship to Sail on dry Land In Joshuah's compassing Jerico seaven times with the blast of Rams Horns which seemed a foolish stratagem to any politick Engineer Yet being weaned from self-guidance he was assured of victory made ready to his hand and that he should dispossess the Canaanites as easily as he could put off his Shoos Gideon also slew the Midianites as one Man because he was weaned from his own Carnal Wisdom and did not dispute the unlikeliness of the means Some proud huffing Alexander would have laught at the blast of Trumpets at Lamps inclosed in Earthen Pitchers as a likely Stratagem by the dashing of which in pieces the destruction of so Potent an Enemy was to be obtained But Gideons Faith silenced all Carnal Reason so that by a weaned Frame he got the Conquest A rare Example for us Christians if we would defeat our Spiritual Enemies not to dispute much less despise the Institutions of Christ in the Gospel though they seem never so inconsiderable slight idle vain and foolish The Apostles as despicable as they seemed to be yet being weaned by Christ's Call from their Carnal Wisdom and the Worlds splendor proved Men of Courage because of Self-denial They endured hardship as Gideon's reduced three hundered Soldiers who did not bow down upon their knees in a sordid Compliance with sinners humors or any excess in Worldly pleasures but were wholly intent upon their March and Message By these despicable Babes and Sucklings did the Lord ordain strength to still or stop the Mouths of the Enemy the Atheist and Avenger viz. the persecutors of the Gospel By these weanlings the Lord confounded the Carnal Wisdom of the chiefest Philosophers and Politicians among the Gentile Nations They only carried forth the Light and
because of the bitter effects of sin yet his heart is secretly espoused to it He may repent of his dissembled severity and wish that himself may die rather than that his corrupt inclination should be pinion'd or put into little ease Rather strive to break the heart of old Adam to kill the very Root of an Hellish-Nature seek the destruction of whatsoever is disgustive to the Constitution of the new Creature that there may be no more hope of reconciliation unto sin than of the meeting of Heaven and Hell together Lay not down your sins as Weapons at the Foot of God as a Conqueror when you can no longer naintain the fight but out of Loyalty execute them with your own hand Cast them not only away in a Fright upon the Hue and Cry of your Conscience but pursue them to the Horns of the Altar drag them thence where they expect Protection and Sacrifice them with chearfulness otherwise they will mar and defeat all your Religious Services and the hope of future Glory Formalists descend to Hell more unsuspectedly under the Garb of Religious Vows and severe threats against their Lusts Thus some Parents in a short Passion Rate their Children out of their sight when they have done a shrewd turn yet they can immediately turn their Faces aside and smile at their unlucky Wit or after a short time cocker them the more Satan as a cunning Spinster leaves on the Distaff of a depraved Nature such pretended good resolutions as a Lock of Wool as a Pledg or advantage of future returning to draw out the Web of Iniquity to a greater extension than before Thus many Sinners purchase the Infamous Title of Sceptical Futurists in Repentance as they prove themselves to be Platonick Lovers of Vertue only in speculation For their Vows of Reformation must be interpreted as we read the Hebrew Dialect altogether backward Thus the more they tamper with and strain the Rusty Wards of a dissembling heart with some false Key of slight Reformation the harder it will be to open to the Motions and convictions of Christs Spirit 7. Improve weaning-Considerations such as these That persons of strong and fond affections to Creature-enjoyments are usually persons of strange and deep afflictions It 's thought that Abraham was toying and sporting with Isaac a little before the Command came to Sacrifice him Usually we follow our Idolized Comforts to the Grave with Mourning as Phaltiel did Michal to Bahurim when Ishbosheth snatcht her from him When the Lord observes that we grow fond of Strangers and familiar with the Worlds Temptations he puts out the Candle of prosperity and Seals up the Star-Light of all Creature-Comforts with which we have wantoniz'd in our fond admiration that we may depend on Him Alone as the God of our Light Comfort and Salvation When a dark Night of Affliction Steals on us then we run home to nestle in the Bosome of Divine-Alsufficiency though we had our Vagaries before in Courting every forreign Creature-Comfort to support and gratify our fleshly sensuality I will go and return unto my place that is confine and shut up my self in Heaven I will get me out of sight and Call that their weaning being apprehended more grievous they may under the depth of their distress seek me more early and earnestly Hos 5.15 David the Man after God's heart was chastened every Morning because when the Lord came to feel his Pulse how his Love and delight beat towards him he found the Frame of his heart to vary and faulter His very flesh and heart failed that he might cling the closer in distress Then Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus Israel became Jezrael the scattered Flock and her weaning by Captivity was in order to her betrothing Some there are whom neither smiles nor frowns neither Blows nor Charms of Love will wean Yet it is more ingenuous to be estranged from our Lusts by the Gracious and Spiritual appearances of the Lord than by imbittering the Breasts of the Creature or forcing the Lord to put on the disguize of an Enemy to affright us Usually we will not be weaned till we observe the Image of Death to sit upon the Eye-lids of our dearest Comforts Make therefore a wise contemperament of Love and Fear in your own Souls be won by the former and awed by the latter Fear may enter as a rivetting Wedg the first contest with our darling Lusts but Love can only compleat the Conquest A Child is weaned rather by singing to it than by blows 8. Be convinc'd of the Lords Love and Compassion in weaning you then you will more chearfully comply with the severest method of estranging you from a fond nestling in the bosom of any Lust The Lord's End is that you may arrive to a masculine State and Spirit in your Christian course that you may be fitted for more eminent service Thus Covenant-afflictions which are the Lord's Graving-Tools whereby he polishes his Saints for Glory are to be preferred before common Mercies and Right-hand weaning strokes before Left-hand Comforts and enjoyments It is for our Spiritual advantage that the Lord thus instructs us with severity by desertions persecution of Worldly Men and the frequent Alarm of temptation Therefore we should suit our selves to him we should not be humorsome and discontented at this necessary though bitter work In measure will the Lord debate it with his people in such a season How doth he bear long with their froward manners as with Israel in the Wilderness Ephraim resisted the Lord's weaning-strokes yet he did not give him over to the hardness of his heart He rather pittyed healed and led him restoring Comfort to him when himself and others lookt upon his State as desperate The Lord applyed his Ear and when Ephraim bemoaned his youthful Pranks and Excesses then the Lord's Bowels were troubled for him and he had Mercy on him as a pleasant Child when himself was ashamed in bearing the Reproach of his Youth How doth the Lord sing to his Childrens hearts while he weans them in a dark night of Affliction Isa 66.13.14 As one whom his Mother Comforts so will I Comfort you And when you shall see this What The happy Effect and Issue of your Captivity that I weaned you from the enjoyments of your own Land for your Spiritual advantage your heart shall rejoyce and your Bones shall flourish like a green Herb though you despondingly said they were dry and scattered as Chips about a saw-pit Abraham made a Feast when he weaned Isaac so God and his Angels rejoyce to see a Nursling of Satan become a Weanling unto Christ Such are now Feasted with the hidden Manna of Divine Consolation in their Wilderness-distresses they are Beautified with the white-Stone of Absolution as a peculiar remark of favour and honoured with the new Name of the Lord's adopted Darlings yea themselves can now rejoyce to tear the Body of sin Limb from Limb and can sing Triumphantly in the Funeral of the
Old Man because it is the Festival of their Spiritual Liberty in their Conformity to Christ's Death and Resurrection therefore get a good Opinion of the Work and it will succeed accordingly For the Rod as Aarons often Blossoms and brings forth the precious Fruits of Righteousness Is not this more Eligible than for tasting only a little Hony in any unlawful delight without the allowance of your Heavenly Father as Jonathan to incur the Penalty of Death it self Therefore in the next place shut fast the Cinque-port of your Senses and clear up the Eye of your Faith to take a view of the Creatures Vanity in order to admiring God in Christ Watch your hearts if you would get them weaned Keep them with all Diligence Sobriety and Watchfulness must be conjoyned in Christs Nursery as well as in the Discipline of his Camp Labour to be well read in the Anatomy of your deceitful hearts to understand your Constitution Inclination and Disposition For Satan hath Snares of all sorts and sizes to suit and please the several humours of sensual Sinners He is a cunning Angler do not you nibble at his Temptations lest as those Fish which Frisk and Play in the fresh Waters of Jordan you unawares stream down into the dead Sea of Worldly corrupt examples 10. Take heed of the occasions of sin The Rechabites would not chew the Husk of a dry Grape lest they should be inticed to drink Wine Pray as St. Augustine that when thou hast a heart to sin thou mayest want a Temptation and when a Temptation is presented thou mayest want a heart to comply with it This is the very Dialect of the Devils Sophistry you may come within the smell of sin and yet not be infected but you cannot play on the hole of the Asp or Cockatrice and yet be safe or secure If Satan like Archimedes can but have so much scope in thy heart as to place there his Engine of temptation he will soon shake and dissolve the whole Frame of thy Integrity if it be meerly Moral Besides to venture on the occasion shews that there is a secret liking of that sin it leads to though we conceit our selves to be weaned from it Nor will the Lord ordinarily keep us from the sin if we keep not our selves from the temptation and then we are sure to fall 11. Let this weaning design be your daily work upon which you are most intent It 's dissicult and not rid off with lazy wishes Augustine while he prayed to be weaned from his youthful incontinency secretly wisht he might yet be spared in his vain excesses We say of every darling Lust let Reuben Live and not dye Indulge not therefore your flesh though it cry out in a render delicacy that you would pitty and indulge it You must not desist from the severity of this work for your hearts sullenness and frowardness That Parent who spares to correct the Child for its crying hardens and confirms it in its Rebellion Thus it proves the future grief and shame of the Parent as well as the present disquietment of the Family Be not slight and remiss in weaning-attempts If so you must begin again as the Nazarite who had transgrest against the strict Law of his scparation The work will prove more difficult uncertain and hazardous as to its happy Issue Carry thorow this weaning design begin not in the Spirit to end in the Flesh If a Man omit a stroke in swimming he is soon carried down the Stream 12. Improve the Christian Sabbath especially to promote this Design As 't is the fittest season so Satan most watches to render it unsuccesful He then uses the same stratagem which the Benjamites did Judg. 21.19 20 21. to snatch them up Wives from among the Daughters of Israel to inlarge their almost extinguished Tribe When Christians come forth in Spiritual Dances to celebrate this holy Festival to the Lord then Satan lies in Ambuscado behind the Vineyards of Worldly profits and pleasures Thence he sallies out with his Temptations to commit a Rape upon the Virgin-purity of our Souls which should be espoused only to the Lord. But do not drive on this Task of weaning only during the Sabbath-space How should Lusts which have been rooting all the Week nay possibly our Life-long be pluckt up in one hours formal attendance on the Ordinances 13. Therefore begin this weaning task betimes in Youth before you and your Lusts be grown into a strict familiarity hardly to be shaken off David complained that the Sons of Zerviah were too hard for him while he was newly entred on his regal power But do you execute your Lusts as the Jews did Christ early in the Morning You will otherwise by indulgence and connivence give them greater advantage against you It 's dissicult to pull up Weeds when the Garden is overgrown and they have spread their Roots by long neglect to clear the Ground So is it to break off a setled long confirmed habit in Vice Do not accustom your selves to lie soaking at the Breasts of Lusts and the World especially being prompted to it by a Natural Instinct Our corrupt Nature is not as green Wood which needs much help of Art to make it burn but as Touch-wood the least spark of Temptation which lights on us fires all that train of Corruption yea the Magazine of Hell which is stored up in our degenerate and wicked hearts Therefore improve the soaking Showres of Divine Mercy and Goodness to soften your hard hearts that you may more easily root up your Lusts Maintain also the Love of Christ shed abroad in your Souls This as a more intense Divine flame will overpower and extinguish the Fire-Balls of Lust and Temptations which Satan darts into your Spirits 14. Again go not out in the strength of your own Resolutions and Covenantings to Reform these without renewing Grace cannot work any estrangement from your Lusts Rather look up by Faith to a pierced crucifyed Jesus Fetch Life from his Death Be so sixt to his Cross by Meditation that if a Temptation pass by before you bow the head and Court you you may not be at leisure to observe it much less to descend and imbrace it Say as Nehemiah to Sanhallat Why should this Work of the Lord slack while I parle with Satan to neglect the Building up of my Soul in Holiness More earnestly implore the confirming Aid of Christ's Mortifying Spirit to superaded his anointing Grace to thy Baptismal Vow that thou mayest beincouraged to conflict more resolutely against the Temptations of Sin Statan and the World While the Lock of your Faith is growing and spreads in Prayer your strength to resist and Conquer your Philistin-Lusts will renew and not suffer you to be defeated of your Hopes of Triumph 15. Despise those Reproaches which sensual Sinners cast upon a weaned Frame It 's no more than you were forewarned of and fore-armed against when you first entred upon the Christian state They think
it strange that you run not with them to all excess of Riot therefore speak they evil of you Ye may be counted and pointed at as Monsters of singularity but better be weaned with the best than damned with the most This is a very excellent and blessed Frame in Christ's Esteem Consider Christ will come to Judgment and single out Scoffers at Religion to punish them as the first-born of the Devil Your Enemies are your Observers and may truly inform you of the Complexion of your Souls when friends will connive at your remisness in the exercise of Grace or immoderate pursuit of Earthly Vanities If mortified Saints shall not escape the Censure of such who surfeit on the World 's Luscious delights How much more would they revile thee if thou should'st not live up to thy Profession of a weaned Frame If thou should'st alway continue a Babe in Swadling Clothes Or pretend to be a strong Man in Christ and yet not be alienated from secular cares but be distracted 'twixt Hope and Fear continually Therefore Watch that you may answer the heighth of your Profession and may not afford just matter of Defamation in being strangers to a Self-denying Frame If otherwise wear it as your Crown 16. Delight in the Company of weaned Saints and in their advice David blest God for Ahigail's moderating Counsel who prevented him from avenging his own Quarrel upon a Churlish Nabal If one Child see another lye soaking at the Breast it will emulate it and repine So if a newly weaned Saint Converse with Worldlings who suck in full delights from Creature Enjoyments till they be even quackled with a flush of prosperity It may incline him to Envie while himself is made to hancker after the same excess Rather set before you the eminent Patterns of weaned Saints especially that transcendent exemplar of Christs Self-denyal and alienated heart-Frame from the Inordinate Love of the World not only by virtue of that habitual Grace which was inseparable from his humane Nature as united to the Deity but by that Actual contempt of sublunary Enjoyments which he exprest by choice rather than any providential or imposed Necessity Christ as the Creator of the Universe and supream Lord of all things yea the infinitely wise disposer of them best knew how to rate or value the Creature not by Fancy but its real Worth Yet he chose to make himself poor and of no reputation that we might not Idolize sublunary Vanities nor make Worldly prosperity the Badg of God's Good-will and Favor 17. Hearken not to Satans Cavils against a a weaned State nor to his sophistical Pleas Allurements to continue thee in thy sensual surfeits and excesses when Convictions prompt thee to quit his inchanting pleasures Believe not his perverted Quotation of Scripture to maintain a Carnal Worldly Frame and Course He will plead hath not Solomon said that the Lord hath set the World in Mans heart Eccl. 3.9 10 11 12. But how To study the Lord in it not to satisfie us in becoming of our Portion That Text is only meant of the innocent Scene of the Visible Creation and the Works of Divine Providence transacted upon the Stage of the World We are to Eye God in the Creature but not to make a God of the Creature We must take a Prospect in our deep Contemplation of the wonderful perfections of God Beaming forth in the works of his hand Therefore he took up six days to make the World in to signify that we should not slightly and cursorily meditate upon the harmless Scenes of Natures Workmanship We ought to fetch from the Book of the Creature Rational Arguments to drive home and clinch down the supernatural Truths of the Scripture which were before entered by the Spirit of God as the Wise Teacher of his weaned Saints From the constant Tenor of the Covenant of Nature we may and ought to confirm our Faith in the Covenant of God's Grace This method himself prescribes viz. we must study the Creature to know the Creator by it to make it a scaling Ladder to improve us in Heavenly Meditations We may descant on the Lord's perfections shining in the admirable Works of Creation and Providence yet must we not pervert the study and use of the Creature to place it next our hearts as our desired Portion to seek satisfaction in it as the Center of our desires and delights Quaenam insania frui utendis uti fruendis What folly and madness is it to enjoy the Creature which we should only make use of and to seek unto God only in distress whom we ought to enjoy by an Eternal complacential satisfaction Another Plea of Sinners is this Why should we be weaned from the World seeing the Lord when he took a survey of every Creature gave this Judgment of it that it was very Good I Answer 1. But we are very Bad in perverting the Innocent Workmanship of God made for an help and incouragement to promote Vertue to become the Snare of a Vicious Life The Creature in it self is very good but thy sin O Man hath put Vanity into it and subjected it to the Bondage of Corruption in forcing it to serve the humor of thy ranting imperious Lusts 2. Thou hadst need be Watchful and shy how thou transactest with the Creature because thou hast Corruption too too much in thy heart to make the most Innocent Creature prove the most deadly Snare In this respect the Ass reproved the madness of the Prophet when it bruised his Foot against the Wall to stop him in his Design of Covetousness and Execration of the Lord's Inheritance Was I ever wont to start aside or to serve so shrewd a turn upon thee But wonder not for thou hast rebelled against thy Maker therefore thou hast prompted me thus to put thee into little Ease by the disappointment of thy Hopes Thou hast not resigned up thy self to God but hast run a-madding after the Idols of thy heart therefore no wonder if the Creature whence thou expectest service fling thee out of the Saddle of thy prosperity and prove vexation to thee Say not when thou art tempted or corrected by the Creature that the Lord laid the Snare or delights in punishing thee Hath he not writ Vanity in Capital Letters on the Forehead of the Creature and thereby sorewarned thee not to trust in it Doth he not cry out O mortal Men how long will ye love Vanity will ye still pursue your Lusts hang about and cleave to them when they expose you to the greatest shame and mischief Chrysostome said if the whole World were to be his Auditory he would chuse that awakning Text to Preach on Yet though we Arm the Creature against our selves and infuse Poyson yea Treachery into it by our Lusts perverting the right use of it we securely repose our confidence in it till it betray us to our utter Ruine 18. Have we not good Reason to use all the Arts of weaning from the
you Act suitably to the Law and Dignity of your Divine Original Then the World will not cast you into a deep sleep of Security that it may take away your Rib the strength of your Activity and Resolution to serve the Lord. Consider that if you be not Weanlings unto Christ this impartial Judg will at the last day reject you from his Bosome because you would not be estranged from the Brests of sensual pleasures Not to be weaned is the ready way at present to be dismounted from the pitch of worldly Excellency because we thought we ascended by our own wit and strength as the Carvers of our own Prosperity Now that you may not desist from the severities of this weaning Design but carry it on chearfully consider the present Advantages and the future Reward of it For present advantages This Frame will make Divine Commands prove delightful and not grievous as pleasant Bonds and Bridal-Ornaments No Tryal will sink you into a desponding fullenness or ignoble cowardize You will deport your selves as Pilgrims in a Land flowing with Milk and Hony The World may tempt you but it shall not corrupt the Virgin-purity and integrity of your Souls You will calmly bear and wisely improve reproofs from Men and Afflictions from God though they lay you prostrate in the dust You will not make a timorous retreat nor shameful Apostacy from the Truths and ways of Christ You will not wender nor wander after the Antichristian Whore to be poysoned by the inchanting Cup of her Abominations You will be able to tread Antipodes to Corrupt Customes and Examples and not be carried down the stream of Prophaneness with Atheists Worldlings and Epicures You will trade every Talent faithfully thrive under Ordinances fruitfully bear Afflictions manfully and destroy your Lusts in the minority of your Christian State You will worship the Lord with freedom and Ingenuity of Spirit not out of a sordid mercenary disposition nor with a slavish distraction You will serve your Generation with a publick Spirit not macerate your selves with Envy at the prosperity of the Wicked nor run over to them in Antick Fashions foolish Vanities and sensual Excesses You will compose the mutinous repining thoughts of a discontented Spirit By Recumbency on the Lords Alsufficiency in straits you will fetch in Serenity of mind and infinite satisfaction to your wants In the want of any thing the Lord will be to you instead of all things And in the Enjoyment of all himself abstractedly will be better than all because he is All and in All in every Creature-Excellency and Enjoyment If the Lord call you to lie prostrate in a Low condition you will come to his foot with submission and a ready chearfulness If you be sent on the forlorn hope a weaned frame of Self-denyal will make you adventure All for Christ and his Interest You will run out of your Estate Credit Safety and Life it self to give a proof of your weaned Frame and the vigour of your Love You will live on the Light of God's Countenance and not on the Smiles or Applause of Men. You will loath your own Righteousness as deformity it self and be content to shine in the Rayes of Christ's Compleatness You will be strangers to the Dunghil-profits and sensual-delights of the World but not to God nor the Frame of your hearts Your eyes will not be dazled with the Honours and Splendor of a Court your Zeal will not be muzzled by Self-Interest nor emasculated by the pleasures of this Life From the Mount of Communion with the Lord you will look down with contempt on the glory of Kingdoms and your Head not turn Giddy In the float of your Enjoyments you will be content to be empty by an Ebb of Riches In the heighth of your indowments you will descend by humility yea you will prefer one Crum of the hidden Manna before Crowns and Scepters You will ambitiously pursue no other Conquest than those of your own Lusts neither will you desire to run out an Eternity in the Enjoyment of sinful sensual pleasures You will be as content to bear the Cross of Christ as to wear his Crown You will injoy your selves most Comfortably when you most cross your own Wills to comply with Divine Commands and compleat your Obedience You will deny your Carnal Wisdom and subject it to the supposed foolishness of the Christian Institution You will come off roundly from all prejudices against the terms of closing with Christ that you may injoy him You will be willing to be abased so the Lord may have Honour by your Reproach as knowing that His Glory like the Sun is in a Declension when the Shadow of the Creatures Fame and Pride is longest You will Justify God in Condemning your selves and keep up honourable thoughts of him though he feed you with Gall and Wormwood You will cleave to the Lord when you cannot Judg of his Actings in the World and will follow him in the Race of Obedience when you cannot trace out the hidden foot-steps of his Providence You will prefer Subjection to Christ before Domination in the World and Poverty of Spirit before the Lustre of the greatest Natural indowments or acquired Excellencies You will mind high-things aspire to the Knowledge of Heavenly Mysteries and yet not be high-minded You will keep so much Stateliness as not to act below your Heavenly descent nor will you wilfully defile your selves with the least spot of Sin or Society of sinners You will come up to the pitch of Holiness as chusing it for it self though it come not attended with the outward accommodations and imbellishments of the World You will be patiently weaned from your own Peace and Comfort when the Lord hides his Face and favour for the Tryal of your sincerity yet even then you will prize Communion with God in Order to greater Degrees of Divine Conformity You will be Spiritual in all your Natural and Civil Transactions and when you have acted to the utmost in your Duty you will Judg your selves defective and unprofitable You will contemn the World by living much in Heaven your spiritual Life will be acted and carried on by the Vnction and Conduct of Christs Spirit So as to delight your selves in the Lord for his Infinite Perfections although you be stript of all Earthly Enjoyments But You will demand of me May not a Christian whose Conversation is in Heaven take delight in his external Comforts and yet not violate the Rule of Sobriety nor cast off the strict Discipline of Soul-weaning Mortification I Answer He may But with these Cautions and Limitations 1. He must distinguish betwixt the Vse and the Abuse of the Creature Then we pervert the right Use of it when we install it in the Throne of our Affections admiring and adoring it as God himself The Lord hath rankt the Creature in a Sphere subordinate unto himself Heaven must not change place with Earth nor things Temporal justle out of our hearts
wander after the Allurements of the World by a short Gratification of their Senses yet they soon check their folly repent of it lay a solemn Charge on their deluded Souls that they should return to the Lord as their Genuine Rest by compleat Satisfaction in Him alone They beg to be establisht by the Magnetick Power and the most endearing Obligations of Divine Love They exercise on themselves all the Rules of Spiritual weaning with the greatest strictness and severity Their Self-denial holds Pace with their gradual discoveries of the Lord's Excellencies The motion of their Souls Heavenward mounts up sutably to their Acquaintance with their Heavenly Father Their Spiritual Light and Life are commensurate The weakest Babe in Christ digests his Knowledg into studious sincere Obedience although he be not swift upon the Wing because a dull Earthly Body clogs his Generous Soul Yet That Divine Nature which he hath received will grow up to a stronger Constitution till it cast and work out all those Obstructions of sensual Passions which at present damp his Spiritual Zeal and Comfort There is such an implanted principle of a Divine Life displaying it self in every New-born Christian that the estimation of the Lord 's lovely Beauty and infinite Worth Preponderates the excellencies of the whole Creation If the Weakest of Christ's Weanlings were put to his Choice whether he would lose an Interest in God or the Creature he would rather reject with the greatest abhorrency the the Worlds softest and tenderest Imbraces than those purest Delights which endear his heart to the Lord in the midst of all Temporal wants and losses If the Lord should say to a truly weaned Saint thou shalt be freed from Hell twelve Princes shall proceed from thee but I will not by Covenant bestow my self upon thee this very Restriction would be an Hell For it is only Propriety in God himself which can satisfy a Gracious heart It will deny it self to enjoy an Interest in God but if the Lord deny his Loving-kindness which is better than Life all other Enjoyments will be Joyless a weaned Saint will write upon them all The Glory is departed Then will Worldly Men believe that you are in good earnest in Professing your selves to be Pilgrims on Earth that there is a Kingdom which cannot be shaken which you are Expectants of and Candidates for when you most deny and debase your selves that God may be All in All. Weaned Saints will descend by Humility when they are advanced to the pitch of Heavenly-mindedness or the greatest Communications of the Lords Grace and Favour Then they see most cause of abasing themselves by constant Dependency on the Lord. Creatures the more excellent they are in their Being and Operation the more frail and brittle they would become if left to a Self-subsistency Even the Spirits of Just Men made perfect modestly and chearfully acknowledg that they shine with a Precarious Excellency borrowed from that Fountain of Light who Enamels their Crowns with Stars of Glory therefore they cast them down at the Foot of the Lamb. These Celestial Favourites applaud not their own perfections but while they sun themselves in the Rays of Christ's Divinity they pay a grateful Homage of Adoration to the Archetype of their Blessedness The perfect Vision of the God of Glory begets perfect Transformation in a Glorions State Yet the Saints Satisfaction is only in his Union with and Enjoyment of the Lord Himself as the Essential and Infinite Object of Happiness In the mean time as Sojourners upon Earth they tread all sublunary Vanities under their Feet Weaned Christians who wait upon the Lord are compared to Eagles Isa 40.31 This King of Birds hath a strong Wing a swift Flight a quick piercing Eye and is usually secure from the stroke of Thunder Heavenly contemplative Souls while such are above the reach of Satan's Temptations It is for Batts and Owls to flie near the foggy dull Earth But the Soul of a weaned Christian is of too Noble an Original to stoop so low as to think it can be beautified by the accession of any worldly accommodation They affect Earthly Conveniencies no further than they may be Advantages in seeking Heavenly Graces By an Art of Spiritual Chymistry they can sublimate the unrighteous Mammon into true Charity Honour into Humility and Worldly Pleasure into a Recreation of Divine Joy becoming the New-Man They Spiritualize all the dross of the Creature they make a Divine improvement on that very indifferent Comfort which Satan would Convert into a Snare They account a weaned State to be the Life of Heaven upon Earth Thus they take a Survey of the Holy-Land and enter Paradise in their thoughts before they take possession in their Persons Little do Worldlings know what transporting Delights weaned Saints enjoy in their secret Retirements from the World These Doves which seek Solitude for Holy Meditation have the fullest discoveries of Heavenly Glory How are their Wings covered over with Golden Apparitions in clear Revelations from the Spirit of Truth when their Judgments are not clouded with the gross Fumes and Vapors of Terrestrial Delights nor their Affections clog'd by sinking in the Bogs of Sensuality The very Vices of Worldlings are improved by Christ's Weanlings unto a Religious Imitation Covetous Men like Nero cruelly dig into the Bowels of their Mother-Earth to search for Veins of Gold and Silver which the God of Nature hath on purpose hid lest they should prove Traitors to his Majesty by winning over our Affections unto Vanity Yet such is their folly that like Antaeus or Consumptive Persons they think to recover the strength of Contentment by smelling to and embracing of the Earth But weaned Saints dig into the Rich Mines of the Scriptures thereby to discover and possess themselves of Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of Divine Wisdom and the unseen Joys of Celestial Contemplation Yet are they not inquisitive by a bold Curiosity where God would have them Ignorant Weaned Saints being mindful of their Divine Original make every Creature-Comfort a distinct round in Jacob's Ladder whereon they climb to Heaven that they may obtain fuller Communion with the Father of their Spirits to beget sweeter and more satisfying Tastcs of Divine Love and Bounty They count it Honor enough to be New-born from Above and esteem it a Chiefer part of their Felicity that they are made meet and fit for Heaven than that their Names are engraven on their Celestial Mansions before they take the Triumphant Possession of them They are highly Ambitious even in their Pilgrimage yet 't is only to please the Lord in their Conversation which is carried on in a Mystery toward the World They constantly Lye sucking In pure Delights from the Ocean of Immense Felicity with more than Epicurean grediness When they obtain the Choicest and Richest Effusions of Divine Love they are Covetously restless and Impatiently thirsty after more of the Invigorating Influences of the Holy Spirit They Bathe their Dove-like Minds not in the Lethean Lake of Sensual Pleasures but in the Chrystal Streams of Truth and Righteousness They Prune their Wings viz. the discomposed Affections of their Souls by Heavenly Circumspection and Curiosity Their hearts are impregnated with Zeal by the Spirit of Life and Righteousness yet are they not puft up with Pride nor a conceited Self-Sufficiency under their highest attainments in Holiness or in Comfort Other Creatures may forget and forsake the Damme when weaned but every Self-denying Christian more cleaves to and waits upon the Lord as not able to subsist Alone nor lead a Separate Life from the Fountain of pure Joy when most incompast with the Enjoyments of the World or the Comfortable quickning influences of the Holy Spirit Even in Heaven they shall Most and Best admire yea Adore the Infinite Perfections of God in Christ They shall Eternally Acknowledg and Complacentially Descant on that Divine Power which subjected them to a weaned Estrangement from the World or any Confidence in a Self-Righteousness according to that Assertion of the Prophet Isa ch 45 v. 25. In the Lord shall all the Spiritual Seed of Israel be Justified and shall Glory Thus they shall rejoycingly Acquicsce not so in the State of their Personal Salvation as Triumph in the Lamb of God who Redeemed them by his Blood from Worldly Allurements and all pollutions of Flesh and Spirit To this Author and Finisher of our Faith to this Pattern of Self-Abasement who humbled Himself to the Death of the Cross that he might wean us from doting on Earthly Vanities and raise our hearts to admire and chuse the ever-Blessed Deity for our Al-satisfying Portion be ascribed as is most due All Honour Adoration and Glory both Now and to all Eternity Amen Amen FINIS