Mal. 3.17 The world is the shrine or Cabinet where God locks up these jewels for a time The world is yours it was made for you The creation is but a theatre to act the great work of Redemption upon The world is the field the Saints are the corn the ordinances are the showers the mercies of God are the Sunshine that ripens this corn death is the sickle that cuts it down the Angels are the harvesters that carry it into the barn The world is yours God would never have made this field were it not for the corn growing in it What use then is there of the wicked They are as an hedge to keep the corn from forrain invasions though oft-times they are a thorn-hedge Quest. But alas a childe of God hath oft the least share in the world how then is the world his Answ. If thou art a believer that little thou hast though it be but an handfull of the world it is blest to thee If there be any consecrated ground in the world that is a believers The world is yours Esau had the venison but Iacob got the blessing a little blest is sweet A little of the world with a great deal of peace is better then the revenues of unrighteousnesse Every mercy a childe of God hath swims to him in Christs blood and this sauce makes it relish the sweeter Whatever he tastes is seasoned with Gods love he hath not only the mercy but the blessing So that the World is a Believers An Unbeliever that hath the World at will yet the World is not his he doth not taste the quintessence of it Thornes and thistles doth the ground bring forth to him He feeds upon the fruit of the curse I will curse your blessings he eats with bitter herbs So that properly the World is a Believers He only hath a Scripture-tenure and that little he hath turnes to creame Every mercy is a present sent him from heaven 2. All things that fall out in the World are for your good 1. The want of the World all is for your good 2. The hatred of the World all is for your good 1. The want of the World is for your good By wanting the honours and revenues of the World you want the temptations that others have Physicians observe that men die sooner by the abundance of blood then the scarcity 't is hard to say which kills most the sword or surfet A glutton with his teeth digs his own grave The world is a silken net the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Him whom I shall kisse saith Judas take him so whom the world kisseth it often betrayes The want of the world is a mercy 2. The Hatred of the world is for your good Wicked men are instruments in Gods hand for good albeit they mean not so they are flails to thresh off our husks files to brighten our graces leeches to suck out the noxious blood Out of the most poisonful drug God distils his glory and our salvation A childe of God is beholding even to his enemies The ploughers ploughed upon my back if they did not plough and harrow us we should bear but a very thin crop After a man hath planted a tree he prunes and dresseth it Persecutors are Gods pruning-hook to cut off the excrescencies of sin and evermore the bleeding vine is most fruitful the envy and malice of the wicked shall do us good God stirred up the people of Egypt to hate the Israelites and that was a meanes to usher in their deliverance The frownes of the wicked make us the more ambitious of Gods smile their incensed rage as it shall carry on Gods decree for while they sit backward to his command they shall row forward to his decree so it shall have a subserviency to our good Every crosse winde of providence shal blow a believer neerer to the port of glory What a blessed condition is a child of God in kill him or save him alive it is all one The opposition of the world is for his good The world is yours §. 3. Shewing That life is a believers 3. The next thing is Life is yours Hierome understands it of the life of Christ. It is true Christs life is ours the life which he lived on earth and the life which he now lives in heaven his satisfaction and his intercession both are ours and they are of unspeakable comfort to us But I conceive by life in the text is meant Natural life that which is contradistinguished to death So Ambrose But how is life a Beleevers Two wayes 1. The priviledge of life is his 2 The comfort of life is his 1. The priviledge of life is a believers that is life to a childe of God is an advantage for heaven this life is given him to make provision for a better life Life is the porch of Eternity here the Believer dresseth himself that he may be fit to enter in with the Bridegroome We cannot say of a wicked man unlesse catachrestically that life is his Though he lives yet life is not his he is dead while he lives He doth not improve the life of nature to get the life of grace he is like a man that takes the lease of a farm and makes no benefit of it Diu fuit in mundo non vixit he hath been so long in the world as Seneca speaks but he hath not lived He was borne in the Reigne of such a King his father left him such an estate he was of such an age and then he died there 's an end of him his life was not worth a prayer nor his death worth a tear But life is yours 't is a priviledge to a Believer while he hath natural life he layes hold upon eternal life how doth he work out his salvation what a do is there to get his evidences sealed what weeping what wrastling how doth he even take heaven by storme So that life is yours It is to a childe of God a season of grace the seed-time for eternity the longer he lives the riper he grows for heaven The life of a believer spends as a lamp he doth good to himselfe and others the life of a sinner runs out as the sand it doth little good The life of the one is as a figure ingraven in marble the life of the other as letters written in dust 2. The â—â—â—fort of life is a beleevers rejoycingâ—ake â—ake a childe of God at the 〈◊〉 disadvantage let his life be â—ver-cast with clouds yet if there be any comfort in life the believer hath it Our life is oft imbecill and weake but the spiritual life doth administer comfort to the natural Homo componitur ex mortali rationali Man saith Augustine is compounded of the mortal part and the rational part the rational serves to comfort the mortal So I may say a Christian consists of a natural life and a
Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY The Christian's CHARTER Shewing the PRIVILEDGES OF A BELIEVER BY THOMAS WATSON Master of Arts of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge and now Pastor of Stephens Walbrook LOND He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall hee not with him freely give us all things Rom 8.32 Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1. Tim. 4.8 Quà m divites illi qui omnia possident Aretius The third impression Enlarged London Printed by T. R EM for Ralph Smith at the signe of the Bible in Cornhil neer The Royal Exchange 1654. TO THE Right Honourable and Religious The Lady MARY VERE Baronesse of Tilbury And My much Honoured LADY MADAM I Have presumed upon your Ladyship humbly to present you with these few Meditations As it is a rich mercy to have a spiritual Ioynture so it cannot but be a comfort to know what it is 'T is a joy to the young heir to have a view of his estate that is the work of this Treatise to set before you the Land of promise While we are here in the combate we had need look to the Crown to make us fight the more valiantly Moses had an eye at the recompence of reward and that did animate him against sufferings yea our blessed Saviour himself looked at the joy set before him Madam Could we live in the thoughts of these great things to come what sublime what sweet lives should we lead Surely if there be any sadâ—nesse gathers in our spirits if any despondency it comes in at this leak of unbelief Vnbelif is a bad neighbour it is alwayes raising either Jealousies of God as if he would not be as good as his Word Vnbelief with Sarah laughs at the promise Or scruples in the heart whether all these promises belong to us The Devil shot three fiery darts into the virgin-castle of Eves heart whereof the first was the most deadly Yea hath God said He would induce this beliefe in her that God had not spoken Truth and when he had once wrought her to distrust then she took of the tree c. All â—he train of tentation that Satan â—ayes is to blow up the fort of our Faith We had need maintain this grace it is Faith must maintaine us While the Pilot keeps his ship his ship keeps him Right Honourable Blessed be the riches of Gods grace who hath set this heavenly plant in your heart and hath kept you in the faith insomuch that all the shakings of the times have but settled you the more and I doubt not but he that hath begun a good work in you will performe it untill the day of Jesus Christ. What an unparalell'd mercy is it to be kept free in the time of infection God hath given your Ladyship a sound judgement and a tender conscience both which are jewels of great price I may say of you as it is said of Jehoshaphat his heart was lift up in the wayes of the Lord 2 Chron. 17.12 Yet I have observed the more you have been lifted up in God the more you have been cast down in your self It is excellent when the higher we grow in knowledge the lower we grow in humility I speak it to the praise of free-grace God hath crowned your silver haires with golden vertues every one of which doth shine as thosâ— precious stones the Sardius the Topaz and the Diamond Ezek. 28.13 Holiness is a beautiful thing it carries a majesty in the face of it even those that oppose it cannot but admire it Grace differs little from glory the one is the seed the other the flower Grace is glory militant and glory is grace triumphant Theodosius thought it a greater honour that he was a Christian then the head of an Empire Your piety is a greater glory to you then your Parentage it is more to be the daughter of faith then to descend from Nobles or to have the blood royal running in your veins Madam There is a time shortly coming when neither birth estate or any worldly embellishments will do us good you have laid in provision against that time and gotten the new birth when all other birth and Nobility must lie in the dust This is that which makes your name smell in Gods Church as the wine of Lebanon Go on Right Honourable in those paths which have an immediate tendency to life and blessednesse We are like to meet with many rubs in the way before we get to Heaven It is said of Israel their soul was much discouraged because of the way Had we more grace we should have need enough to use it expect we must fiery serpents but the righteous will hold on his way Job 17.9 Is not every Christian an Ensign-bearer to carry Christs Colours We must resolve to be good in good earnest The almost Christian shall be almost saved It is wise counsel our Saviour gives that we should count what religion will cost us Luk. 14.28 It will cost us reproach this is a part of Christs livery which we must weare Think not that our innocency will priviledge us from the reproaches and slanders of the world Christ was the most innocent person upon earth never did any unholy thought come into his minde yet his innocency would not shield him from slander he was called a friend of sinners Let us not be discouraged shall we cease from being Saints because others will not cease from being Devils Is it a wonder when an army is in fight to see the bullets fly abroad and the fire-balls when the seed of the serpent is fighting with the seed of the woman is it strange to see the bullets of tentation flie the fire-balls of slander But if our innocency will not keep us from being shot at it will keep us from being hurt for as no flattery can heal a bad conscience so no slander can hurt a good Again Religion wil cost us persecution this is a part of Christs legacy which he hath left us In the world ye shall have tribulation Our ship would soon overturn if it were not ballasted with some afflictions A Christian is a compounded creature he hath some evil in him therefore God afflicts and he hath some good in him therefore the Devil afflicts Hence that of Cyprian When a man begins to be religious he must think of going into the wine-presse and perhaps the blood of the grapes may be pressed out but the meditation of things to come should sweeten the tryals present and make us that though we cannot live without them yet to live above them What if the times are worse if they make us better and if our burdens be heavy seeing the way we are to go is but short Madam I will not hold you longer I make bold to devote this Manual to your Honour I acknowledge how weak and unfeathered it is therefore unfit to flie
spiritual the spiritual revives the natural Observe how the spiritual life distils sweetnesse into the natural in three cases 1. In case of Poverty This oft eclipses the comfort of life But what though poverty hath clipped the wings Poore in the world yet rich in faith Jam. 2.5 The one humbles the other revives 2. In case of Reproach This is an heart-breaking Psal. 69.20 Reproach hath broken my heart Yet a Christianhath his Cordial by him 2 Cor. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience Who would desire a better Jury to acquit him then God and his own conscience 3. In case of losses 'T is in it selfe sad to have an interposition between us and our dear relations A limb as it were pull'd from our body and sometimes our estates strangely melted away yet a believer hath some gleanings of comfort left and such gleanings as are better then the worlds vintage Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing in your selves that you have in heaven a better and an induring substance Heb. 10.34 They had lost their estate but not their God Here is you see the drie rod blossoming The spiritual life distils comfort into the natural Take the sourest part of a Christians life and there is comfort in it When you heare him sighing bitterly it is for sin and such a sigh though it may break the heart yet it revives it The tears of the godly are sweeter then the triumph of the wicked The comfort that a wicked man hath is only imaginary it is but a pleasant fancy as rejoycing yet alwayes sorrowing He hath that within spoiles his musick But life is yours When a believers life is at the lowest ebbe yet he hath aspringtide of comfort CHAP. IV. The Augmentation of the Charter AMong these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things present There are yet three other priviledges which are in the beleevers Charter 1. Remission of his sin 2. Regeneration of his nature 3. Adoption of his person §. 1. Shewing That remission of sin is a jewel of the Believers Crown 1. The Remission of his sin This is 1. A costly mercy 2. A choice mercy 1. It is a costly mercy That which inhanceth the price of it is 't is the great fruit of Christs blood Without shedding of blood is no remission Christ did bleed out our pardon he was not onely a Lamb without spot but a Lamb slaine Every pardon a sinner hath is written in Christs blood 2. It is a choice mercy This jewel God hangs upon none but his Elect. 'T is put into the Charter I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more This is an enriching mercy it entitles us to blessednesse Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not his sinne Of all the debts we owe our sinnes are the worst now to have the booke cancelled and God appeased to heare God whisper by his Spirit Sonne be of good chear thy sinnes are forgiven I will not blot thy name out of my book but I will blot thy sinnes out of my book This is a mercy of the first magnitude Biessed is that man in the Originall it is in the plurall Blessednesses Hast thou but one blessing my father saith Esau lo here a plurality a whole chain of blessings Pardon of sin is a voluminous mercy there are many mercies bound up with it You may name it Gad for behold a troop comes When God pardons a sinner◠now he puts on if I may so speak his brightest robe Therefore when he would proclaim himselfe in his glory to Moses it was after this manner The Lord the Lord mercifull His mercy is his glory and if you read a little further you shall see it was no other then pardoning mercy Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin c. 'T is an high act of indulgence God seals the sinners pardon with a kisse This made David put on his best cloathes and anoint himselfe It was strange his childe newly dead and God had told him that the sword should not depart from his house yet now he falls anointing himselfe the reason was David had heard good news God sent him his pardon by Nathan the Prophet The Lord hath put away thy sin This oile of gladnesse which God had now poured into his heart made way for the anointing oile Quest. How shall I know that this priviledge is mine Answ. He whose sins are pardoned hath something to shew for it There are two Scripture-evidences 1. The pardoned sinner is a weeping sinner Never did any man read his pardon with drie eyes Look upon that weeping penitent She stood behinde Christ weeping Her heart was a sacred limbeck out of which those teares were distilled Quest. But to what purpose is all this cost what needs weeping after pardon Answ. Because now sinne and mercy are drawne forth in more lively colours then ever The Spirit comes thus to a sinner Thou hast sinned against God who never intended thee evill thou hast abused that mercy that saves thee all this thou hast done yet behold here is thy pardon I will set up my mercy above thy sin nay in spight of it The sinner being sensible of this falls a weeping and wisheth himselfe even dissolved into teares He looks upon a bleeding Christ with a bleeding heart Nothing can so melt the heart of a sinner as the love of God and the blood of Christ. 2. He whose sins are pardoned his heart burnes in love to God thus we reade of Mary Magdalene as her eyes were broached with tears so her heart was fired with love to Christ For she loved much Gods love in pardoning a sinner is attractive The Law hath a driving power but love hath a drawing power §. 2. Shewing That Regeneration goes along with Remission and is a branch of the Charter 2d. Priviledge The Regeneration of his nature which is nothing else but the transforming the heart and casting it into a new mould you have a pregnant place for this Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minde In the Incarnation Christ did assume our humane nature and in Regeneration we partake of his divine nature This blessed work of Regeneration is in Scripture called sometimes the new birth because it is begotten of a new seed the Word Iam. 1.18 And sometimes the new creature new not in substance but in quality This is the great promise Ezek. 36.26 A new heart also will I give you Observe Remission and Regeneration are two twins When God pardons he takes away the Rebels heart Where this work of Regeneration is wrought the heart hath a new Byas and the life a new Edition How great a priviledge this is will appear two wayes Till this blessed work of Regeneration we are in a spiritual sense 1.