Creature which thus bewitches and insnares us 1. Do not smile upon it as being in deep friendship with it but draw a Veil over its false Artificial inticing Beauty Put the Creature into the very same Dress into which the Apostacy of the first Adam betrayed it This made it not to be valued and shall we not stand at a distance from it in its Temptations 2. Speak not kindly nor familiarly to your Lusts to renew their old Fondness and acquaintance The Nurse keeps a deep silence when she would wean off a Child from cleaving to her Chide away a Temptation when it whispers in your Ear as Satans Factor to decoy you Hanker not after your Lusts as David after Absolom but hew them in pieces as Samuel did Agag Have you betrayed the honour of Christ and the integrity of your Souls in cleaving to Vanity and will you yet countenance cocker and plead in defence of your Lusts 3. Sing to your hearts be quieting them in the Lord 's tender Faithfulness Compassion and Alsufficiency when you are under the severest Method and course of weaning Psal 101.1 David resolved that of Mercy and Judgment he would sing For all the ways of the Lord are Mercy and Truth to such who keep his Covenant The 32. of Deuteronomy which consists of Mercy and Judgment is called Moses weaning Song to reduce Israel from a pursuit of their Idols as lying Vanities and to reunite and knit them to the Lord. 4. Keep a Record of all you experiences how the Lord sustained you when your Spirits were sinking in your weaning distresses Isa 63.7 8 9 10 11 12. 5. Let your weaning Design be carryed on by degrees not with violence Judahs Reformation was not Lasting because it was set on foot by the rapid Motion and over-bearing Authority of Josiah only Jer. 3.3 4 10 11 19 21 22. 6. Use no severity which is not of Divine prescription 7. Withdraw out of sight the Fewel Baits and Provocatives of your Lusts 19. Again would you be weaned then Covet to be dissolved in Affection from Worldly Vanities before you be dissolved in Person Weaned Saints covet to dye but dissolute Epicures groan because they must dye as having not answered the end of their Being and placing their Portion and Felicity in sublunary Enjoyments They Carowse so long at the Devils Wassal-Bowl till being intoxicated with a Reprobate mind they meet their Eternal destruction with laughter in the Face Labour to be above the fond Love of Natural Life and the slavish Fear of Deaths Artificial Cruelty Life were not worth the accepting it is attended with so many miseries were it not to make Provision for Eternal Happiness Neither is Death to be dreaded by such who demonstrate the Temper and disposition of a Pilgrim Charles the fifth forbade Death to be named in his Court under the penalty of Death But Moses dyed at the mouth of God readily at his Command because he had long before put off his Shoes the servile fear of Death in casting away all defiling terrene Affections which cling about a Worldling and make Death unwelcome Saints may well bow the head in submission and covet to dye because then and not till then they are perfeclty weaned when the Lord kisses their Souls out of their Bodies as welcome Guests to Glory It was reported of Ottomans great Horse that wheresoever he set his Foot no Grass could grow in that place So soon as a Saint by Death sets his Foot within the Portal of Celestial Glory the Weeds of his Lusts dye at the very Roots the Pride of all Flesh is stain'd and vamshes Again take beed of being hardened in Sin by Antiquity of Custom or by the outward successes and prosperity of Sinners Jer. 44.15.16 17. The Prophet refutes this Plea at 20 21 22. Ps 73.1 to 15. Lastly Wisely and Faithfully Improve all the Lords weaning-strokes on your selves or others Let others who have been Thunder struck and blasted even while they have lain soaking at the Breasts of the World and have dyed lamenting their own Folly and the Worlds Treachery too late be your warning-Peals But we readily turn off the prognosticks yea the very Executive part of God's Wrath as if our selves were not concerned in the dreadfulness of either An instance of the former you have in Vespasian who when he saw a Blazing Comet and a gaping Sepulchre thought to wave his own destiny with this prophane Jest that the former portended only the Death of the King of Persia who at that time wore long Hair The latter the death of the old Empress Julia who having one Foot in the Grave must of necessity suddenly yield to the stroke of Fate Wherefore think you hath the Lord of late made such changes in overturning overturning overturning by Pestilence War and the desolating Conflagration of our City but only to awaken us out of that pleasing Dream of sensuality into which the pleasures and profits of the World had insensibly betrayed us And yet how sottishly stupid are Sinners bewitcht with the Sirene songs of Lusts and the Worlds Flatteries Though frequent Earthly disappointments sing out the Passing-Bell of our dying Comforts and write a mournful Epitaph over the withering Glory of Creature-Enjoyments Yet we mind it not but cross the Lords wise Holy and Gracious designs by our security and clinging faster to the Creature We still pursue the Vanites of the World little considering that they will prove our vexation or our Ruine Like dying persons we grasp the harder whatsoever Vanity takes us by the hand Like drowning Men we catch at straws though they sloat swiftly away upon an ebbing Stream Sinners will ye still proclaim your folly and Phrensy in cleaving to an Aguish Breast which is crackt and chapt with flaws of disappointment which can yield nothing but corrupt humors and windy crudities which will gripe and torment your Consciences which will inflame your Pride and sensuality to the certain Ruine of your Souls Wherefore hath the Lord stained the Glory of all human Pride but to bring us low upon our Knees that himself alone may be exalted in reigning over our hearts and affections in which he will indure no Corrival or Competitor Yet still we more eagerly Court lying Vanities by how much the Lord would Rend them from us as the Pillows of our Security and the Purveiors of our Lusts Let me therefore in the fear of God and Love of your Souls perswade you to sit Loose from the fancied felicity of the World It 's both our Curse and Folly that we make our Lives uncomfortable to gather only Fewel for our Lusts The World will deal as Treacherously with us as Absolom's Mule did by him when we have most need of relief it will run from under us and leave us hanging in despair 'twixt Heaven and Hell Labour therefore to be Divinely born of God then you will trample the World under your feet and become sick of Love to Christ so shall
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
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
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