work and have grown secure afterward and the want of such a thing perhaps may make thee more watchful afterward whatsoever course God did take to bring thee to Christ make the best use of it and it is the best for thee Scripture proofes that Christs converts differently But some may say will the Scripture shew that Christ brings in men to himself after different manners and measures I answer Yea It is clear by Scripture And for it Consider these things The word of God which is the ordinary means of †Rom. 10.14 mans conversion is compared to rain Deut. 32.2 My doctrine shall drop as the dew my speech shall distill as the rain as the small rain upon the tender hearbs and as the showers upon the grasse So Heb 67.8 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which beareth thorns and bryers c. Now Rain cometh sometimes by sudden dashes sometimes more mildly like dew sometimes great drops and sometimes small sometimes fals violently is quickly over and sometimes more moderately and holdeth longer And if the ground be throughly soak't its no matter it may as well be by a mist Gen. 2. as by great showers So the heart may as well be mollified and softned by the Lords blessing in gentle drops distilled upon it as by a violent storm Our Saviour in Mark 4.26.27 seems to speak of somes conversion and growth in an insensible way the words are these So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground Seed that is The word of God vers 14. Into the Ground that is into the man or heart as the parable before clears it And should sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring up he knoweth not how Mark here is effectuall workings the seed takes place yet in such an insensible mild way he that sowes it knows not how which could not be if all that are converted to God were brought over by such violent storms as some are We read of Paul strucken down by strong hand Acts 9. But where do we read of any such conversion that Timothy had 2 Tim. 3.15 saith Paul From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise to salvation c. Luke 19. Christ called in Zacheus at once come down at once for to day I must abide at thy house Luk. 15. But the prodigal was fain to be starved out by degrees Some may be in such a case as they may be mightily presst at and wounded in the heart others may have the word dropped in more gently by gentle instructions as the Eunuch Act. 8. We read not of any such heart-breaking Rock-renting tempest that he had and yet faith truly wrought To conclude I conceive all that the Lord brings in he doth it by the blowing of his spirit John 3.8 The winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it comes nor whether it goeth So is EVERY one that is born of the Spirit But whether it be a winde to break the Roks or a still winde whether a high winde or low gentle puffs that is in Gods choise whether a North winde or South-winde as Cant. 4. ult Awake thou North winde and come thou South blow upon my garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Mark it thou canst not say thy Spices flow not out because the North winde blows not The South may make them flow out as well The second ground of fear 2. Thou saist Thou hast some peculiar sin̄s that hang upon thee and have hanted thee a long time omission of duty Pride Lust Passion c. I Answer thou canst not conclude thou hast no grace therefore nor thy state naught because of this Gods servants have had corruptions hung long upon them yet true converts The Prophet Jonah had passion hung long upon him And Hebr. 12.1 There is mention made of the sin that doth so easily beset us What meaneth the weights that hang on and the sin so easily besetting us but that it continues long what means the continuance of the combat between the flesh and the Spirit but that corruption hangeth long See how Paul exhorts the Collossians Chap. 3.5.6.7.8 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the Earth Fornication Vncleaness Inordinate affection Evil concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience In the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them Mark They had walked in these and now did not live in them and yet they hung upon them still were not quite dead for he exhorts to mortifie them And ver 8. And now also ye put off all these Anger Wrath Malice Blasphemy Filthy communication out of your mouth Lye not one to another c. These Collossians were Saints Coll. 1.2 Yet these things were not wholly put off And Christ saith to his Disciples Are ye also yet without understanding Matt. 15.16 Importing ignorance hung long and Joh. 14. Have I been so long time with you and yet thou hast not thou known me Philip * Jonah was so selfish that he rebelled and fled to Tarshish And yet after God had broken him in hell how did his selfish passion hang on him again Iohn 4.1.2.3.9 But note this though thy corruptions hang long and be as pricks in thy side pierce thee and pain thee yet a sincere heart laboureth to make profit of his corruptions and infirmities What 's that 1. These occasion his godly sorrow as Paul Rom. 7.24 complaining of the evil that was present when he would do good and the law in his members rebelling and of sin dwelling in him and leading him Captive cries out ver 24. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death See how low thoughts he had of himself because of this 2. By these Christ is sweetned to a sincere heart and by them Christ is kept within the veiw of the soul to keep the heart near to Christ Rom. 7.25 I thank God through Jesus Christ So then with my minde I serve the Law of God but with my flesh the Law of sin Mark here how precious and sweet Christ is made to the soul by the consideration of these corruptions 3. Here is some comfort though they stick long if God maintain the combat within thee The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh So that ye cannot do the things that ye would ye cannot saith the Apostle Gal. 5.17 If God keep them from raigning there is some comfort Rom. 7.25 With my MIND I serve the Law of God but with my flesh the Law of sin His minde was upon the Law of God There is force in sin as
in a Tyrant But the law of sin commanding obedience that is not in a man in whom Christ is And while the fight is maintained thou maist be said to conquer though thou beest conquered He that is born of God sinneth not 1 John 3.9 For sin hath not his will but committeth a rape upon him Thus while thy infirmities are caused by the Lord to work good in thy soul they may be counted a wholsome poyson †But take heed of sinning for this end that 's wickednes Rom. 6.1 And all these infirmities cannot be said to break Covenant with God while they do not force the heart to yeeld to them And though they be troublesome to thee yet God hath said Hebr. 10. He will remember them no more The third ground of this fear 3. Thou saist thou hast discovered new sins which thou never sawest before yea after a long time in the state of grace and thou knowest not but there may be more behind undiscovered And so thy state may be bad I Answer It may be so that thou hast discovered new sins that thou sawest not before but let me tell thee the sight and knowledge of sin is good though sin be not For it may be a sign that knowledge and light increaseth in thee and that softness of heart increaseth in thee It is not an argument that sin increaseth but that light and softeness of heart increaseth For if thou seest more sins then formerly thou sawest thou discoverest but what thou wouldst know And that doth not argue thy state is naught no more then it did Jobs Job 13.23 How many are mine iniquities and sins make me to know my transgression and my sin This proved not his state nought For its good for a man to discover one after another that he may deal with them singly as it were And it is good to see them single I though it be after a long while if it be but to keep a man out of love with his own heart and it may be occasion of new humblings Quest But was it ever so with the Saints of God Ans Yea there was passion discovered in Job after a long while in the state of grace Job 3. So Jeremiah Chap. 20.14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born c. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my Father saying a man child is born unto thee c. yea and resisting God in his work in resolution at least ver 9. I said I will not make mention of him nor speak in his name c. And ambition was discovered in the Disciples of Christ after they had been long with him in a familiar way Matt. 18.1 They strove which should be the greatest a corruption that we see not breaking out before And Peter had self shewing it self in him in disswading Christ from his sufferings and his denying his Master a new sin that he fell not into before And his dissimulation for which Paul reproves him to his face Gal. 2. yea and Barnabas that son of consolation fell into that dissimulation that I never read was charged upon him before When Jonah said I do well to be angry to death was not this new with him did you ever read he did so before So Davids Adultery and plotting Vriahs death Who would have thought such corruptions should have ever started up in Jeremiah as we read of in Chap. 20. of his prophesy It doth not follow that because new sins shew themselves therefore your standing in the state of grace is not right A mistake cleared For 1. It appears the saints are in danger of falling into new sins by all those Scriptures and examples mentioned before and also by all those Caveats laid down in Scripture wherein they are bidden Take heed beware c. 2. The Saints have a subtle Adversary that will not cease to lay baits in their way with all the willines that may be And they may be overcome before they be aware as it were Gal. 6.1 If a man be OVERTAKEN with a fault c. And if new sins discover themselves then there is new occasion to go to Christ make that use of them 1 Joh. 2.1,2 These things write I unto you little children that you sin not but if any man sin we have an Advocate Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins c. 4th ground of fear 4. He findeth his heart many times loose in spiritual duties his thoughts roving and ranging abroad when they should be kept close to God by thoughts hanting him and coming thick upon him c. Therefore sure he was never right I Answ So it hath been with many of the Saints of God that find themselves in a state of grace Keep thy heart with all diligence what need such an Exhortation if the heart were not ready to be roving Rom. 7. Saith Paul I find THEN a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me THEN when Why when I would do good then Heb. 12. Ye have forgotten the exhortation c where were their thoughts then when they for gat it And so we are oftentimes commanded to remember shewing that thoughts are very apt to be roving The Apostle saith Col. 3.1,2 If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above c. Set your affections on things above not on things below Which shews the heart and mind and thoughts and affections had need be called together they will be stragling Rev. 3.3 Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and Repent And truly God may suffer this to be to take off your trust from your duties and graces and hearts that you may plant your trust in God alone through Christ And to shew you the difference between the Spirits managing of your graces and your own managing of them that so you may plant your faith in Christ alone And therefore if you find your hearts deceitful and loose do not conclude presently that you have no work of grace in your hearts for those loose by-thoughts may rise from some other causes Causes As 1. For want of consideration what a Majesty the presence is that thou art in for if we did seriously consider that we are in the presence of the King of Kings the All-seeing God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reyns it would make us more serious A man would be afraid of playing with a Feather while he is speaking to the King 2. It may be thy affections are very cold and chill when thou comost to duty and for want of Love being inflamed thy thoughts rove for be sure if thou take Christ as thy treasure thy heart will be upon him Mat. 6. Love will make you mind the thing loved as David Oh how do I love thy law It is my meditation all the day Mat. 6. Psal 119. 3. For want of watchfulness and vigilancy we are too apt to let the
which is first to banish a poor soul and then devise means to bring them back again to him So that if this be Gods discipline and Christ give thee up to languish under terrors and fears and so to hold thee under holiness Then thou concludest wrong that therefore God will cast thee off 4. Consider affliction of spirit may rise from other causes and not because I am cast off of God And God hath gracious ends in hiding himself from a soul and not the deserting or utter forsaking of a soul In what respect a man may say he hath no grace 1. Thou maist say thou hast no grace in comparison of other men because thou hast the same means and hast not so much grace as thou conceivest must thou therefore say thou hast no grace What if they have more need of it It may be they may be of a more perverse spirit more proud stubborn or selfish more apt to run aside from God And so have need of more Nay it may be they have more temptations in the way of their callings or more oppositions from carnal freinds or enemies then thou hast 2. Thou mayst say thou hast no grace in regard of sutableness to the means thou hast had as Hebr. 5,12 For whereas for the time you ought to have been teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God And are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat When thou complainest I have had a great deal of means and am not grown under it sutable to the means I have had This is a good trouble for herein is thy spirit poor And spiritual poverty never casts thee off from God 3 Thou mayst complain thou hast no grace in respect of thy desires and purpose of heart Thou hast over bidden thy self man and that troubles thee I did hope to have gotten further in Gods waies by this time then I have done To have over-mastered such a lust To have had more self-denial To have glorified God better in my place I can get my heart to nothing I had hoped I should have been better content with crosses and born affliction with more patience then I do Now thus to be afflicted is acceptable to God Suppose a weak sickly child should sit weeping in the chimney corner and being asked what aild it it should answer why I had hoped by this time to have done my father better service and to have been more useful to him He is tender of me and I can do nothing in requital of his love again Now the father of this child seeing its affection takes it as kindly as if it did perform what it desires So it is with God 2. Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing minde it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not So that now for this we must not judge our selves cast off of God God would not have us lye for his glory Rom. 3.7.8 nor our salvation much less for damnation Again consider what ends the Lord hath in keeping close his countenance and hiding his face sometimes from a soul that is dear to him Gods ends in hiding his face from a soul 1. To bring such a soul to self examination to look narrowly into their own hearts and to search out some corruption which it may be they do not see for the present And it is a great benefit to have discovery made of those traitors that lie lurking within that a man seeth not And this God usually brings the soul to by hiding his countenance Psal 77. When the spirit of the Psalmist was overwhelmed and the thought of God troubled him and his soul refused to be comforted Ard he cried unto God and still his sore ran in the night and ceased not and his eies were held waking and he was so troubled tha he could not speak as ver 1.2.3.4 Now saith he in the 6. vers I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent SEARCH Now he falleth a Searching what the matter was And inquires will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever and doth his promise fail for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Selah Mark here upon serious search he durst not tax God nor his mercy nor promise But mark he finds it out now where it was ver 10. And I said This is my infirmity By this means he finds out some weakness in the soul which before he saw not So that this was beneficial to him for God would have no sin harbour and lurk in the souls of his Saints 2. By this means the Lord brings a man or woman to the confession of sin And we are all proud by nature and are loth to come to acknowledge our sins Now the Scripture saith He that hideth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness Now God in mercy to a soul when he sees they are willing to connive and wink at some beloved sin which they would favour and are ready to say as David deal gently with the yong man Absalom or as Naaman The Lord be merciful to thy servant concerning this thing withdraws his face to shew them his dislike against every sin and to bring them to a free and willing confession of it So it was with David Psal 32.3.4.5 While I kept silence that is from acknowledging my sin my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moysture was turned into the drought of summer Selah I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah So Hosea 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face Till then saith God I will hide my face 3. God sometimes hides his face that his people might see that they are nothing in and of themselves But that all their sufficiency is of God That they may see their own emptiness that they can do nothing bear nothing mannage nothing to Gods glory without a special assistance from God That they may learn to deny themselves and live upon him alone Isa 57.17 I hid me and was wroth saith the Lord and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart When God hides himself then the frowardness of the heart appears So hereby the servants of God are kept humble from self glorying or boasting 4. Sometimes the Lord by the hiding of his countenance trieth the graces of his spirit in his servants that it may appear to
was discovered to them then they saw it was of God These were works of the spirit as the event did shew But they saw them not for the present till the further work of the spirit did manifest them Then they saw all these to have been of the spirit So if a man have a work in his heart that he can make little of I would counsel that man to follow on to see what will come of it afterward for it may be after some other work of the spirit he shall perceive it though for the present he see it not Particulars how to discern the spirit in duties Now for particular discerning of the spirit in duty 1. Doest thou find thy heart fashioned or in fashioning to a personal love of Christ a personal union with Christ himself The Spirit of God is the Factor for Christ the Spokesman between Christ and the heart to treat the marriage So that herein the Spirit presents Christ as all fair the chiefest among ten thousand as Can. 5. His love and reign and Kingdome is presented to thee in a glorious shew Now with this dost thou find thy heart in fashioning to a desire of Union to consent to marry with such a Husband I say to a personal love not of his benefits but him first and then to all his benefits To take him as God gives him Rom. 8.32 If God have given us his son how shall he not also with him freely give us all things When he is such an object that thou canst leave Father Mother Wife Children Liberty Life and all for his sake At first there may be self-love but in time every spiritual man will rise to a personal love of Christ himself and not only his benefits 2. Doth thy heart and the word thy heart and thy petitions go together and comply so that thou art taken and much affected with the sweetnes of Christ And some sentence of Scripture or prayer that carries thee out of thy self when thy heart complies with it suddenly and strangely I mean art thou wonderfully ravished and carried out of thy self desires and ends to God and for God It argues the spirit 3. Are there any graces set a work evengelically in thy heart Love Humility Sincerity or the like That is If thy Faith or love be set a work by the love of God to thee Doth the fresh presentings of the love of Christ to thee in thy duties freshen thy love to him and thy graces in thy heart This is an Argument of the Spirit When our hearts give Eccho to Gods voice Psal 27.8 When thou saidest seek ye my face My heart answered Thy face Lord will I seek This was the Spirit of God that thus sets the heart a work to Answer to Gods voice 4. Are your hearts moved from the feeling of the experience of the love of Christ to give your selves to Christ again in duty This is the Spirit of God For the heart cannot be carried directly to Christ for Christ but by the Spirit of Christ 2 Cor. 12.9.10 And he said my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christs sake See here is doing or undergoing any thing for Christ And mark from what ground even from experience for when I am weak then am I strong 5. Observe the manner of the combat which the heart hath against the world or the flesh or any beloved sin There may be a Combat in wicked men between sin and shame Between conscience and fear of Hell between desire and fear Therefore mark when sin draws thee with what weapons thou fightest against sin Is it the love of God that makes thee thou wilt not sin Dost thou say I will not because I love God is thy heart drawn to God Evangelically Here is the Spirit lusting against the flesh not conscience against sin The manner of the fight shews whose the fight is For the Spirit of God causeth a man to set the love of God and the promise of God as the only Arrow against sin Here it is evidenced to be the Spirit 6. A man may know the Spirit by the discovery of sin for the Spirit may evidence it self in an humble discovery of sin as well as joy in working the heart to self loathing It discovers spiritual sins bye and base aims and ends secret and by respects when a man looks asquint from God secret and by turnings of the heart that never came into the eye of the world I say the discovery of sin is an excellent work of the Spirit Ezek. 36.31 I will pour upon them my Spirit saith the Lord And what then Then shall ye remember your waies and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations To discover sins so far as they are a detestation to the heart so far as they are a bar to the raigning of Christ The fourth troublesome thought is a mans questioning the truth of his conversion The fourth thought that riseth in the heart and troubleth it is this whether his translation into the state of grace be in truth or no whether he hath the sound work of regeneration or no For saith the heart there are many semblances and shaddowes of grace True faith and false True love and false like on another false Samuels ni Samuels mantle And if a man seriously weigh himself his good against his bad His sanctification against his corruptions His obedience against his rebellions and blemishes his faith with his distrust and his new work with the old man remaining If he weigh this he sticks and cannot tell which is the heavier in the ballance But as presumption and pride makes a man think the best of himself so many times when a Godly man is humbled especially when a grain of Melancholy is mixt with it it makes him think the worst of himself And hereupon a Godly man many-times questions himself and thinks all 's naught with him And so he questions whether his grace be grace or no And now his heart is troubled and doubts and discouragements rise in it Grounds of this thought Now the ground of these discouragements in this kind are such things as these 1. He saith He cannot say nor see That he was brought in to God at the first by any remarkable work of Humiliation or by any such conversion as will witness to it self by any hand of God as some others have been Therefore he begins to Question his graces 2. He finds some peculiar sins and corruptions that hath hung upon him long and hath haunted him a long time whither they be omissions loosness of heart c. that hath haunted him a long time And hence he is troubled and