that is not merely that we may have a sense of our being forgiven but it hath a farther aim viz. that we being delivered from anxious and tormenting fears about the pardon of our sins may love God and Christ more may obey more and our obedience may be more free ingenuous natural and constant as that is which flows from Love In a word Faith looks at the Divine Promises that thereby we may be partakers of the Divine Nature for to this end were the Promises given 2 Pet. i. 3. And to this end they are to be applied And when we partake of the Divine Nature our Wills become one with the Divine Will CHAP. VIII That Self-Resignation is that wherein consisteth the power of Godliness and that as it distinguisheth both from the insincere and the weak Christian. VIII THis Self-Resignation as is manifest by the last Chapter is that wherein consisteth the Power of Godliness 't is the great instance proof and expression of it By the Power of Godliness I do not mean that onely which is opposed to an empty form and slight appearnce of Godliness but also Godliness in its strength and vigour that which is powerful as well as sincere and real To suffer no Will to rule in us but what is agreeable to God's Will to regulate all our inordinate desires and unruly passions to cross their cravings and to have the love of the world and all Self-love overcome in us these are the worthy Atchievements of those Souls who are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might These are the mighty Acts of those Christians that quit themselves like men these are the Magnalia the Great things of Religion 1. This Self-Resignation is the onely expression of that power of Godliness that differeth from the false and insincere Christians These are as the Publicans and Sinners so the Pharisees and formal To die to their own will and through the Spirit to mortifie all the deeds of the body is death indeed to these and the King of Terrors The separation of their hearts from the lusts they have cleaved to is like the separation of Soul and body to them and their spirits and lives declare that as much as they may excell in some commendable things here they are sadly short And it is worth our observation that these people being inwardly conscious of their deficiency herein love to represent some outward Observances in Religion as high and hard matters some things that any carnal man may do if he please as well as they as the great instances of the power of Godliness The phrase is very common both in their Lips and Books but it is not therefore to be found in their spirits and lives They are not able to hide their being acted by and under the power of either sins of the flesh or of the spirit They cannot so artificially ape a Christian as not to bewray an inordinate affection to the world either the profits pleasures or honours of it and in too many instances a Will unresigned to his whose Disciples and Followers they pretend to be And from what hath been discoursed it therefore appears that the power of Godliness is but a word in fashion among them a meer sound named but not known and experimented by them There is a form of Godliness which may very well agree with the power of Self-will And men may discover a great zeal for this or that mode and way for these or those opinions and against some certain sins profess a great love to Christ faith in his merits and zeal for his honour they may speak in such a strain of words as is wonderfully taking with the vulgar have notable gifts in discoursing about the things of God and in praying to him and herein discover much life and affection They may strain at Gnats and be very scrupulous in some small and disputable things and yet be self-lovers seek rellish and please themselves be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God covetous envious proud high-minded unrighteous unfaithful unmerciful uncharitable and such as are any one of these for all their specious form are perfect strangers to the power of Godliness Now I would offer that Question of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what do ye more than others What excellent what difficult thing such as is worthy to be thought an instance of the power of Godliness do ye You constantly it may be frequent the publick Worship of God you hear God's Word and read the Bible and religious Books frequently you pray in your Closets and with your Families you do not run with the profane to their excess of riot these are good things and woe be to them that despise or neglect the external duties of Religion but if you do no more than this comes to what extraordinary thing do you May not any man void of the Spirit do the same Thou canst pray without the same form of words thou canst dispute and discourse about matters of Religion and in such a way as is apt to affect others thou canst deny thy self in some things which will not disadvantage thy more beloved sins thou dost reform in some things as to outward garb and deportment but in all this what dost thou more than others Shall the power of Godliness be placed in those things which meer outward notional Christians and unregenerate persons may be as ready and dextrous in as others Alas what are all these and the like to that which the Scripture calls cutting off the right hand plucking out the right eye selling all for the pearl of great price What are these to the mortifying of earthly members to the crucifying of the body of sin to the being dead to sin All which expressions are not to be look'd upon as high Metaphors or Hyperbolical Schemes of Speech but as sober realities and our necessary duty And these are the things wherein that power of Godliness shineth forth which distinguisheth between those that are indeed alive and those which have onely a name to live Thou shewest that thou hast read much and heard much hast had good Education hast kept good company and art of good natural parts but how hast thou prospered in Self-Resignation Art thou more crucified to the world Hast thou more power over thy Spirit Is the power of thy Self-will more broken Art thou more free and ingenuous in thy obedience God looks at the heart the temper and quality of the mind the difference between men and men is mainly within in the influences and impressions of Religion upon their spirits in its bettering their inward frame and by this means mending the outward conversation and course of life 2. Self-Resignation is likewise the onely proof of the power of Godliness in the second sense that as was said which differenceth strong from weak Christians those that are grown nearer to a perfect stature in Christ and others which though they be sincere are but
of that which they call themselves their generally valuing themselves by their Body and their reference to this present world by which means they are chiefly carried out in their affections towards the things thereof to the pleasing the Body and satisfying its appetites though never so unreasonable and prejudicial to their Souls wellfare The vulgar opinion is that the Body is the Man and consequently to love the Body is for a man to love himself and to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof is to make provision for himself But the Ancient and wisest Philosophers as also the Primitive Greek Fathers especially and great Lights of the Church would not so much as allow the Body to be one half or part of the Man But this was their sense Animus cujusque is est quisque Every mans Soul is he and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The man is not that part which is seen and the Holy Scripture puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul for the person very frequently Man is a Creature that can think reason and understand and that which doth this is the Soul onely and therefore this is the true Man To do acts proper to a Man is above the power of Body or matter and therefore the Body is called by those low names of an house and tabernacle wherein the Soul dwelleth both in the holy Scripture and the Writings of Philosophers Upon this account God though he allows us to provide for the necessities and due conveniences of the Body forbids us to love our Bodies better than our Souls or equally with them and permits us not to satisfie the cravings of our bodily appetites to the hurt and dammage of our Souls And all the declarations of his will concerning us are for the great end of restoring to the Soul its dominion over the Body and sensual part and maintaining its dignity and superiority And when it is able so to do by cleaving to God and willing as he wills its slavery ceaseth and it hath recovered true amplitude largeness and liberty I will walk at liberty saith the Psalmist for I seek thy precepts Psal. cxix 95. Adam affecting to be loose from the will of God thought to have gained more liberty but he was sadly mistaken for he hereby became a poor contracted and straitned thing David would once be free to gratifie the unwarrantable desires of his heart but by this licentious and false freedom he lost the true he miserably sunk himself into a poor narrow and slavish spirit And therefore he prays that God would renew a right spirit within him and that he would establish him with a free spirit Psal. lj 10 12. CHAP. VII That Self-Resignation is the Sum of the Gospel-Commands that all the Ordinances of the Gospel and even Faith it self are in order to this VII SElf-Resignation is the Sum of the Gospel-Commands the totum hominis the whole Concernment of a Christian If there be any other Commandment as the Apostle saith of Love it is briefly comprehended in this Thou shalt resign thy self thou shalt deny thine own will and surrender it up to the Divine Will This is the great Lesson in the School of Christ He saith our Saviour that will be my Disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me As Plato would have it written upon his School-door Let none enter that is unskilled in Geometry so this is the most proper Motto for the School of Christ Let none enter in here that is not resolved on Resignation Lord what wouldest thou have me to do as it was St. Paul's first saying to Christ is the first Lesson to be minded by all his Disciples And as it is the Alpha so is it the Omega also 't is both the first and the last lesson of Christianity All is done when this is done and till this lesson be learnt all that we have done or learnt signifies but very little When we have well gotten this we are Disciples indeed 'T is not the saying Lord Lord but the doing the will of God that will give us that title 'T is observable that in Rom. xii a Chapter as full and thick set with practical Rules as richly fraught with divine Morality and matters of Christian Practice as any one Chapter in the Epistles I say 't is observable that in this Chapter the Apostle describing and inculcating the most excellent and becoming instances of Practical Christianity sets this first as comprehensive of all the particular duties mentioned afterwards viz. the giving up our selves as a sacrifice and entire oblation to God v. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies that is your selves bodies being here put for the whole man because of the decorous allusion to the bodies of Beasts offered in Sacrifice under the Law a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service In this general Exhortation together with the words following which are an illustration of it is summed up whatsoever is particularly mentioned in the following verses relating to the practice of the several graces required of a Christian in this world From hence flow the particular duties hereafter exprest and they are all contained herein as in the seed and root Plainly thus If ye give up your selves as an entire Oblation to God and so your will is resigned to his and not conformed to this world Ye will shew mercy with chearfulness love without dissimulation be fervent in spirit you will rejoyce in hope be patient in tribulation and continue instant in prayer you will distribute to the necessity of Saints and be given to hospitality ye will not recompence evil with evil but overcome evil with good ye will as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men And so for all other duties which concern a Christians life in this world So that the Root the Basis and Foundation of Christian Practice is Self-Resignation and from it may be expected every duty and act of a religious life There is nothing difficult in Christianity but this one thing when our Wills are once resigned all other duties will flow as naturally from us as streams from a Fountain Let me adde that Prayer and all the Ordinances of the Gospel are in order to this the business of them all is to fasten and unite our Wills more and more firmly and inseparably to the Divine Will And even that great and high grace of Faith it is wholly subservient to the attainment of this Self-Resignation The design of Faith in the power of God is to encourage us to go forth against those Anakims those lusts that war against our Souls that at last all may be destroyed in the mind and will of man which is contrary to the Will of God and that we may be perfectly free to obedience And as for Faith in the Goodness and Mercy of God in Christ as to the pardon of Sin the end of
hath care of Mankind as of sick persons this World being a great Hospital or Pest-house a place for diseased and infected Souls and afflictions are his Physick which he prescribes and applies according to the several cases of his Patients The sick Soul is not for this kind of Physick but would rather be pleased and gratified but God's thoughts are not as our thoughts nor his will as ours He will have his Patients to submit to his method and way of Cure and not quarrel his appointments herein he is wise and good also 't is an act of great mercy in him to do thus It would be an act of cruelty in the Physician to comply with his Patients humour and to suffer his will to prevail and rule And there is no true Christian however chastening is not joyous but grievous to him for a time but he finds afterwards that it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness and that it was good for him to have been afflicted I added that it is the Will of God most Powerful as well as most holy and wise that we are to submit to and this teacheth us how vain and fruitless an attempt it is to struggle with and resist his Will Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker let the potsheard strive with the potsheards of the earth Isaiah xlv 9. So that if we will not be perswaded to a compliance with the Will of God either from the consideration of his Holiness Wisdom or Goodness let us dread the terrible effects of his Power How many instances of Irresignation and stubborn Self-willedness are to be found in Scripture whom God made to know before he had done with them that 't is impossible to oppose his Will and Power 3. The Will we are to be resigned to commands such things for the most part as are in their own nature good and carry their own reason in them and whatsoever things else are commanded they are in order to such things The goodness and reasonableness of all God's primary Commands and our Obligation to them doth not meerly depend upon his Soveraign Authority Though they are to be observed because God commands them yet he doth not command them onely pro imperio to shew his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion over us but because they are intrinsecally and essentially good most agreeable to his holy nature and greatly for our good and advantage infinitely better for us as we are Reasonable Creatures to observe than to be disobliged from This is the will of God even our sanctification 1 Thes. iv 3. This is the sum of all he wills concerning us and judge in your selves is not a life of Chastity better than that of Vncleanness Is not Temperance and Sobriety better than Surfeiting and Drunkenness Is not Humility and Meekness more lovely and commendable than Pride and Insolence Is not Iustice Vprightness and Truth better than Injustice Falshood and Oppression Is not Charity and Pity better than Hatred Cruelty and Hard-heartedness Is it not more worthy and reasonable to love God above all than to prefer any thing before him he being the highest Good our infinitely best Friend and Father from whom our selves and all we enjoy are Nay whose reason doth not tell him that as the former are most amiable and most becoming humane nature so the latter are as hateful and unworthy of us Is it not better beyond all comparison to love the Soul which is Spiritual and Immortal more than the Body which is corruptible and but for a short time and whose wellfare depends wholly upon the Well-being of the Soul And when we have sined against the Law written in our hearts or more clearly and largely revealed in the Scriptures is it not reasonable and most becoming us to repent to be sensible of our unkind and unworthy behaviour towards God to be grieved that we have offended the Father of mercies and amend our ways and do so no more as ever we would expect his favour and the light of his well-pleased Countenance and those mercies which we most need and which none but he can bestow upon us And is not this better than to continue in disobedience impenitence and to harden our necks against God and not to be affected with any ingenuous sense of our carriage towards him So that we see Repentance is most agreeable to the quality and condition of our state here and so is also patient Submission to the Will of God in his disposals of us both in respect of his Wise Goodness and Soveraign Power nor can any thing more become us And nothing is more manifestly unreasonable than to fret and repine at any of the Divine Providences And as for the other things God commands those which are our duty onely by positive institution as they are but very few under the Gospel so are they onely commanded for this end that they may better secure the weightier matters of the Law the primary commands and to fit us for a mindful regard and observance of them And he who is infinitely wise and good knowing best what is fittest to be required of us in order to so great an end it cannot but be highly unreasonable and unworthy not to comply chearfully with his Will declared in these also as well as in the other Commands 4. The Resignation of our Wills to the Will of God hath the promise of a Reward infinitely above the labour of any services he requires of us and the pain of any sufferings he inflicts upon us Our services are due to God as we are his Creatures and therefore it would be our duty to yield our selves to his Will without the consideration of any future Reward And besides we have more than our services are worth and our labours and sufferings amount unto We are less than the least of the multitude of mercies we daily receive And the very comforts and pleasures which arise from the sense of doing our duty and from the being busied in that work and employment which is most agreeable to the primitive and proper constitution of our Souls are a great Reward But that God should confer a Reward upon us upon the account of poor mean services than which nothing can be better a Reward so rich and glorious beyond expression and apprehension what a consideration is this What we do or suffer in compliance with the Will of God is far from being above what the heart can conceive or the tongue express But the Reward which God will bestow for this doing and suffering is such as is unspeakable and full of Glory and passeth all understanding It is such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. Again our Services and Sufferings are but for a short time they are but for this life which is but as a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away
But God will reward them with an eternal Reward with an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory So that well might the Apostle reckon the sufferings of this present time and consequently the services also not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. viii 18. Thou art not far from thy journeys end thou hast but a short life a little time to testifie thy love to God here on earth and he hath an Eternity to reward thee in which therefore should encourage our patience to persevere and hold out to the end Especially when we consider that though this Reward be future yet it is near at least part of it and a considerable part too Though there will be a further completion of our felicities at the Resurrection of the just and the great day of recompence yet the Souls of the faithful may expect to receive a very considerable part of the recompence of reward before that day And even in this life they have some earnests of that glorious Reward some foretastes of the pleasures of God's right hand some bunches of the Grapes that grow in the upper and heavenly Canaan And the more Christians endeavour to live the life of Heaven the more heavenly their affections and conversations are here the more shall they have here of heavenly Enjoyments And in these respects the Scripture sometimes speaks of those that are excellently religious even whilst they are in this life that they have eternal life John vi 54. 1 John v. 13. And that they sit with Christ in heavenly places Eph. ii 6. Lastly This Resignation to the Will of God is also highly conducing to our Temporal Good And that not onely because it hath the promise of the life that now is as well as of that to come but because it tends in its own nature hereunto Here I will particularly and very briefly shew that it makes for our profit and advantage as to our outward estate as to our ease and quiet and as to our health and strength 1. As to our outward estate This it doth 1. As it engages men against Pride and to Humility and Modesty By this means are avoided vast and needless expenses about Attire and Dressing Building Feastings and a great number of pompous Vanities And also the great charges which men of aspiring and ambitious spirits are at for the procuring of Dignities Honours and high Places and the supporting of their Grandeur that they may be the more esteemed reverenced and admired by the world 2. As it engageth to Temperance and Sobriety against all Sensuality and a delicious luxurious life And so expensive Divertisements Sports and Revellings Incontinence and making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof which impair and consume mens Estates and bring not a few to a morsel of bread are all avoided The desires of Temperance are cheap easie and soon satisfied 3. As it engages to Meekness in opposition to Wrath Malice and Revenge And by this means Quarrels which often cost men dear and abundance of expensive Law-suits are prevented It costs men much more usually to revenge Injuries than to bear them 4. As it engageth to Labour and Industry in lawful Callings in opposition to Carelessness and Sloth which as Solomon saith shall clothe a man with rags whereas the hand of the diligent maketh rich 2. It makes for our ease and quiet in the world And this 1. As it engageth to Meekness and peaceable spiritedness which as it is a grace most lovely in it self so it makes those that are indued with it lovely and acceptable to others and wins and attracts good will 2. As it engageth to Mercifulness both in giving and forgiving None but a Monster and one prodigiously wicked and unworthy will put affronts upon and procure trouble to those that are mercifull in these two respects 3. As it engageth to Justice Truth and Uprightness in giving to every one his due in not defrauding wronging or defaming any all which plainly tend to the procuring of Peace 3. It makes for our health and strength the good habit and constitution of our Bodies as well as of our Souls This it doth 1. As it engageth to Sobriety against Excess which both begets and feeds diseases and Distempers Incontinence and Intemperance weaken both the body and the mind shorten life and make it painful and uncomfortable while it lasts 2. As it engageth against heart-tearing Cares and such anxious Solicitudes as waste natural strength and prey upon the spirits 3. As it engages against all inordinate affections all fleshly as well as worldly lusts These make men lean and sick as Amnon's lust after Tamar made him 4. As it begets chearfulness and tranquillity of spirit which hath a proper efficacy to the preservation of health As a broken spirit drieth the bones so a chearful heart doth good like a medicine Prov. xvii 22. 5. As it engageth to honest labour in opposition to a soft and delicate life Exercise hath a natural tendency to the making men hardy strong and healthful Now then would we be fully and in all things resigned to the holy and good will of God let us observe this first Direction and labour after a great sense of the truth of the foregoing Principles and all those Considerations which have been proposed to our view which are most powerful arguments to perswade to this Duty CHAP. II. That humble and fervent prayer is a necessary and effectual means to the attaining the grace of Self-Resignation II. IN the second place Being humbled in a deep sense of thy Irresignation and Disobedience wherein thou hast hitherto walked to the hurt and danger of thy Soul beg of God this high and holy temper of Soul This one thing desire thou of God and seek after it all thy days Humble and holy Prayer is one of the greatest helps to the obtaining of any grace or good thing from God Let us then carefully apply our selves to him for this great blessing it being such a one as none but himself can give and he who is our Father in Heaven the Father of mercies will give this and all good things to them that ask him If any of you lack wisdom saith S. Iames let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him Now this Resignation of our wills to the Will of God is the highest point of wisdom and this sort of wisedom is particularly meant in the Text as appears by the foregoing verses But then our Prayers must be with fervency and in faith First They must be fervent The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much James v. 16. Not cold and languid desires or faint wishes But we are not to judge of the true fervency of Prayer by the heat of the head or phansie but by the heat of the heart and the ardency of our affections My heart saith David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boils or bubbles forth a good matter We are to judge thereof by the passionateness and earnestness of our desires not by any thing that is obvious to sense not by the loudness or length of Prayer be it without or with a form of words though it were as long as that prayer of Baals Priests from morning to noon or as that prayer among the Papists of fourty hours by which they amuse the weak and injudicious in spiritual things There may be as much yea more of the Spirit of Prayer when there are no words at all There are times when the Spirit maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered affections too quick and strong for expressions and which would cool if put into words Thus Hannah spake in her heart to God her voice was not heard but she poured out her Soul before the Lord and God heard who knoweth the secrets of the heart and the mind of the Spirit These inward breathings of the Soul are ever very precious to God and find favour with him When a Soul prayeth out of a deep sense and feeling of its wants and is full of affectionate breathings after God and hath the most ardent and inflamed desires after Spiritual things this is true praying with fervency and in the Holy Ghost And the silence of the Soul is louder and much sooner reacheth the ears of the Almighty than the greatest loudness and volubility of speech If we would therefore obtain this best and most divine of all blessings let us pray for it with the greatest ardour of affection we may be assured that God will never cast away so rich a Pearl as this upon those that declare themselves insensible of its worth by asking it in a cold and formal manner And the more to excite and quicken our desires after it let us know that if God accepts our prayers and gives us this holy temper of Spirit he doth infinitely more for us than what Herod promised the daughter of Herodias If he gives thee this Empire over thine own Will he bestows that on thee which incomparably excells the greatest earthly Kingdom The Kingdom of God as hath been said is then within us here and we are thereby made meet for his Kingdom of Glory hereafter And who that duly considers this can be flat and heavy in his prayers for this Grace Secondly Our Prayers must be also in Faith Thus S. Iames tells us we must ask this Spiritual Wisdom in the following verse But let him ask in faith nothing wavering That is we must believe that as God is able so he is as willing and ready to give us what we ask if we ask according to his will as S. Iohn qualifies it 1 Ep. v. 14. And it is according to his Will and pleaseth him highly that we ask Spiritual Wisdom This Faith is the ground of all address to God Heb. xi 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And this he will assuredly be in his own time which is always the best God may sometimes make as if he did not hear that we may seek him more diligently and pray more fervently that he may prove our patience and just valuation of his blessings and that we may be the more thankful for them when we have them prize them the more and improve them the better but if we persevere in earnest and believing praying we shall undoubtedly in due time obtain And as for such spiritual good things as are necessary to Salvation we are to pray for them with such a faith as to assure our selves that God will give them if we ask aright his most gracious nature and promises assuring us that he cannot deny them to such askers CHAP. III. That in order to our being entirely resigned to the Divine Will we must be willing pati Deum to suffer God and abide the power of his Spirit working in us III. THirdly Having poured out thy Soul before God in humble and earnest Prayer thou must be willing pati Deum to suffer God and abide the power of his Spirit working in thee To this purpose there is an observable passage in St. Austin on Psalm cli 3. Magni languores sed major medicus c. Be the maladies of thy Soul never so great yet there is a Physician that is greater and who never fails to cure for to an all-powerful Physician nothing is incurable onely thou must patiently suffer thy self to be cured Do not thrust back his hand when he begins to touch thy sores and search thy Souls wounds He well knows what he is a doing do not hinder and resist when it begins to pain be not so delicate and tender to thine own hurt but with a quiet patience bear for a while the anguish when he cuts and lanceth considering that the present pain makes way for thy future health and soundness Let not Christ and his holy Spirit have cause to say of thee as it was said of Babylon we would have healed him but he would not be healed Vt corpus redimas ferrum patieris ignes For the health and safety of the body in case of a Gangreen or other dangerous disease how do men endure a tedious course of Physick and much torment Vt valeas animo quicquam tolerare negabis And for the health of thy Soul infinitely more considerable than a little longer life and ease of the body which is all that Physick or Chirurgery can at any time effect but can never secure wilt thou not endure the pain of being cured of its diseases which let alone will make thee eternally miserable Let us be therefore entreated as ever we would obtain this Divine temper of Self-Resignation to take heed of quenching the Spirit of resisting the holy Ghost as the Jews did and paid dear for it Take we heed of stifling any of his Convictions and rejecting his Motions Let us not seek to shift off and put by serious and awakening thoughts working in us as the usual practice of sinners is by diverting to the vain entertainments and false pleasures of the world and the flesh nor endeavour to drown the voice of Conscience which is the voice of God and to be heard with a reverend regard If we would have Christ sit as a Purifier and refiner in the midst of us to purge us as gold and silver that we may offer our selves unto the Lord an offering in righteousness we must abide the day of his coming But alas I must needs observe by the way there are but few of the Christian Profession who are thus patient and will endure the refining and purifying work of the Spirit Most would with Simon Magus have the Holy Ghost in his Gifts such as may make them seem some great ones and procure admiration to them but few would have the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the Sanctification of the Spirit unto
hardship when he sends it Should not the memory of his many and long continued mercies more sweeten and endear our good God to us than some present crosses and adversities imbitter our thoughts of him and sowre our spirits with discontent Oh the heighth and excellency of Grace in this holy man He was Vir ante Evangelia Evangelicus A person of the true Evangelical and Christian spirit before Christ or his Gospel came into the world How had patience its perfect work in him There could not be a braver spectacle a more lovely sight on the whole earth for God and Angels to behold than such a Soul in the midst of such trials the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit being in the sight of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of great price If Seneca could say of Cato Behold a sight which that God who diligently observes the work of his own hands may fix his eye upon well may it be said of holy Iob. This honourable Elogium is given of him Chap. 2. 10. In all this Iob sinned not with his lips And the like in Chap. i. 22. where it is added nor charged God foolishly He did not speak unworthily of God or his disposals nor had he any disbecoming thoughts of him or them Nay he was so far from repining and fretting at the severest of them that as was said he took them gratefully at his hands As deformed and diseased a Creature as Iob was as to his outward man he was most sound fair and lovely within Though his Body lay among the ashes and potsherds yet was he as to the inward Constitution of his Soul as the wings of a Dove beautified with such interchangeable colours by the Sun shining upon her that they are as it were covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold In the Song of Hannah it is said that God raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill But here we have a far greater wonder God exalted Iob even when he debased him to the dust and made him in his lowest estate a glorious person more glorious to all ages than ever he would have been had there been nothing in his story but that he was for his Wealth and Honour the greatest of all the men of the East So that Iob even whilst he was of this low degree might rejoyce in that he was exalted to allude to that of St. Iames Chap. 1. 9. Great afflictions accompanied with an unconquerable patience canonize men and advance them to a peculiar degree of honour and glory above the rest of mankind Behold we count them happy that endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we call them blessed James v. 11. St. Chrysostom thus magnificently speaks of Iob's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Dunghill that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more stately than any Kingly Throne And of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sores that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 richer than any jewels and precious stones nay that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more splendid and glorious than the very Sun-beams And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no King sitting upon his Throne is so illustrious as was Job then upon the Dunghill honourable and glorious That very Ash-heap or Dunghill where the illustrious debased Iob sate was a Throne of glory no Royal Seat of Majesty or Chair of State was so glorious here his patience was inthroned here the humble Greatness and Majesty of his mind shined forth and the Spirit of Glory rested on him What a pleasure was it to Heaven to see this Champion come off so bravely and to baffle all the attempts and arts that the Devil could use to break his spirit and force him to impatience and unworthy reflections upon God and his Providence God said twice to Satan Hast thou considered my servant Iob that there is none like him in all the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hast thou set thine heart upon my servant Iob Hast thou taken special notice of him God seemeth to glory and make his boast of this excellent person as a more worthy sight than any that presented it self to the view of observation in any part of the world But he was much more worthy of esteem and admiration after he had been proved by such sore trials when the trial of his faith and patience was found unto praise and honour and glory So great was his Patience so exemplary his Resignation that the holy Scripture sets a special mark both upon it and him Upon it James 5. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Iob upon him in that he is mentioned as one of God's three most peculiar Favourites Ezech. 14. And now having given some account of his woful afflictions and his great patience under them we will speak briefly of the reward this his submission and Resignation of himself to the Will of God was at last crowned with After the Apostle had said in the forementioned place Ye have heard of the patience of Iob it follows and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy And in the 42. Chapter of Iob we find him most amply rewarded even in this life In the seventh and eighth verses we read that he found such special favour in the eyes of God that his three friends who had added to the heavy weight of his afflictions and had not spoken of God that which was right as Iob had done could not atone his anger with a Burnt-offering without Iob's intercession in their behalf And in the tenth verse it is said that the Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends also the Lord gave Iob twice as much as he had before And in the twelfth verse that the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning for he had fourteen thousand Sheep and six thousand Camels and a thousand yoke of Oxen and a thousand She-asses whereas he had before but half this number of each of these as hath been shewn Thus in his Goods and Possessions which were either destroyed by fire or carried away by his thievish Neighbors the Sabeans and Chaldeans and so were never to be enjoyed by him more God gave him in these double But as to his Children he gave him the just number he had before viz. seven sons and three daughters v. 13. These it is likely were not doubled because though they were taken away by death yet they were not utterly lost but their spirits returned to God that gave them they were still alive with God where their Father should again meet them in the other life But there is this said concerning these new daughters of Iob which was not said of the former that in all the land were no women found so fair as they ver 15. And lastly we read in ver 16. that after this lived Iob an hundred and fourty years and
nature being designed for an extraordinary end viz. The making atonement and expiation for the sins of the world He bare our sins in his own body on the tree was wounded for our iniquities bruised for our sins And he was a Person far from deserving the least of sufferings by any the least default For he was spotlesly innocent and ever lived in most perfect Obedience to the Will of God Yet notwithstanding the unspeakable greatness of his Sufferings and his non-desert of them he did not in the least complain of his Father for giving him up to them but intirely submitted to and acquiesced in his will and pleasure The Cup that my Father gives me to drink saith he shall I not drink it Not as I will but as thou willest And the Resignation of his Soul was also exprest by the most wonderful Meekness Charity he discovered towards his bloudy Enemies even in the midst of their unsufferable abuses and barbarous cruelties He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep dumb before the shearers he opened not his mouth Wherein also David was a Type of our Saviour viz. in his behaviour towards the reviling Shimei already mentioned But the Resignation of our Blessed Saviour which was of all others incomparably the greatest I shall not farther inlarge on because I have discoursed already of it and shall have yet farther occasion to speak more in another Chapter I will onely add that this is the Copy we are to eye most though we are incompassed about with a great cloud of other Witnesses and noble Examples of this Vertue CHAP. XIII Of the Example of the Apostle Saint PAUL XIII THe sixth and last Example I shall mention is Blessed Paul A follower of Christ as he stiles himself 1 Cor. xi 1. And he imitated him in nothing more than in Self-Resignation The very first words he spake at his Conversion did speak the great preparedness of his Soul for this Grace Lord said he what wilt thou have me to do Acts ix 6. There then shone round about him a light from Heaven above the brightness of the Sun but a more glorious light shined into his heart and as that light struck his Body down to the earth so did this his Soul and humbled it to the lowest degree of Self-abasement and submissive compliance with the Will of God Lord what wilt thou have me to do was as well the language of his heart as the voice of his lips And whatsoever the Will of God was that he should either do or suffer afterward he was most pliable and yielding to it He would will or act nothing but according to the Will of Christ. To him to live was Christ Phil. i. 21. His own proper will was swallowed up in his will so that he did not so much live as Christ lived in him Gal. ii 20. None of the holy Writers spake more frequently or vigorously than St. Paul of the necessity of our being crucified to the world and of having the world crucified unto us of crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts of mortifying through the Spirit the deeds of the body as being the onely way to eternal life of putting off the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts By all which expressions is meant the subduing our own will and every inordinate affection whatsoever is contrary to the Will of God and opposite to Self-Resignation These things this excellent Apostle doth inculcate and press with all seriousness and in expressions of greater significancy of a more spiritual force and fuller energy than any forms of speech that occur in the Old Testament And what he thus teacheth and exhorts to he was an eminent Example of the Practice of He himself was crucified with Christ he suffered the loss of all things and accounted all other gains and advantages but losse and dung that he might win Christ that he might know the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Phil. iii. 8 10. He professed that it is most reasonable and becoming us that if Christ died for us we should live to him and not to our selves or the pleasing our own wills and that the Love of Christ doth with a sweet force constrain hereunto and that the mercies of God do powerfully engage us to make an entire oblation of our selves to him which is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. And I say his practice and behaviour was fully agreeable to these his professions At his first Conversion God shewed him how great things he must suffer for his names sake but the hardships he was to endure did not at all startle him The Holy Ghost witnessed in every City that bonds and afflictions did await him but saith he none of these things trouble me nor count I my life dear unto my self and what is dearer than life so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Acts xx 24. And therefore he went to Ierusalem where he was to expect very great afflictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound in Spirit constrained by a holy violence ver 22. Nor could he be perswaded by those Disciples at Tyre that by revelation from the Spirit told him that he would incur much hazard by going up to Ierusalem and therefore advised him not to go Nor was he wrought upon by those other Disciples who endeavoured by their tears added to their earnest entreaties to stay him But his answer to them was What mean you to weep and to break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to die at Ierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Acts xxi 13. And by the stedfast purpose of his Soul to be resigned to the Will of God herein did he at last win them over to the same Resignation ver 14. And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The will of the Lord be done And what severe trials he was exercised with how many and great things he suffered we have an account in 1 Cor. iv 11 c. 2 Cor. vi 4 5. and Chap. xi 23 c. in which place are mentioned together above twenty instances of his sufferings So far was he from living a self-pleasing life that if he pleased himself in any thing it was in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake Chap. xii 10. So far was he from impatience and shrinking at those disposals of Providence that he rejoyced in his sufferings while he filled up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church Col. i. 24. But there is one passage in St. Paul's Writings which I had chiefly in mine eye when I thought him next to our blessed Saviour most worthy to be presented as a Pattern
to us viz. the Jewish Law the Mosaical Rites and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross so should a Christian do with the law in his members or the law of sin and death The nailing it to the Cross of Christ is a most effectual means to take it out of the way The Cross of Christ I say is a proper instrument for the crucifying the old man and the body of sin and the consideration of Christ crucified a powerful Engine mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds to the beating down of all those fortifications sin hath raised in the Soul all imaginations all carnal reasonings and affections every high thing that would exalt it self against the knowledge of God and the obedience of Christ. St. Paul speaks his own experience of the success he found in the serious consideration of Christ crucified Gal. vi 14. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world That is the vanities and hurtful allurements of the world whether they be those of its riches honours or pleasures are become liveless and untempting to me have no energy or force to perswade me to an eager pursuit or fond embracement of them I am so little affected towards them so mortified to them as to place no part of my happiness in such things Now then the meditation on Christ crucified is a means greatly available to the subduing our Self-will and irregular appetites in that 1. His dying on the Cross as the Scripture declares that it was to make atonement and expiation for sin so it affirms that it was also designed to root out and destroy it This is asserted in many Texts Particularly in 1 Pet. ii 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed 2 Cor. v. 14 15. For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 1 Pet. i. 18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation c. but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot Gal. i. 4. Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father Titus ii 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Rom. viii 3 4. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit 2. Christ's dying on the Cross was designed to be an exemplary pattern of our crucifying the body of sin As his Resurrection is a figure of the Spiritual Resurrection of Christians their rising up to a life holy heavenly and divine so his Death on the Cross is a figure and representation of that Spiritual Death that is to pass upon the old man And because this is a necessary important truth as well as pertinent to the point in hand I shall observe three passages of Scripture to this purpose and a little discant upon them First that in 1 Pet. iv 1. For asmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin The suffering in the flesh which the Apostle here tells us we are to imitate our Saviour in is not to be meerly understood of suffering afflictions in the body but of resembling the suffering and dying of Christ in dying unto sin This appears from what next follows he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Some Greek Copies leave out the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that hath suffered or died to the flesh the same with that phrase Rom. vi 2. dead to sin He that hath suffered or died to the flesh or he that hath suffered pain and smart in the flesh in the mortifying of his sinful life and the deeds of the body hath ceased from sin as he that is dead ceaseth from the actions that belong to the natural life This also appears from Ver. 2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God not live any longer in the gratification of those fleshly appetites that captivate and inslave the greater part of mankind but on the contrary live a life of entire obedience and conformity to the Will of God A second passage to the like purpose is that in Philippians iii. 10. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Which last words are a key to the foregoing and this conformity to the death of Christ implies that it hath in it something of Pattern and exemplary Consideration to be spiritually resembled and imitated by a Christian. There is a knowing of the power of Christ's Resurrection and Sufferings without us as they refer to God the Father in purchasing his favour procuring the Pardon of our sins and Reconciliation with him For Christ was delivered to death for our offences and rose again for our justification Rom. iv 5. And besides there is the knowing of the power of Christ's Death and Resurrection within us there is something to be done and transacted in us that is answerable and bears conformity thereunto There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a partaking of his Sufferings in a spiritual sense when we are enabled by the power of God to suffer the pain and agonies that accompany the crucifying of the flesh or body of sin and to die unto sin as he died for it And there is a partaking of Christ's Resurrection in a spiritual sense when we are enabled to rise to a new and heavenly life when we seek and savour those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God Col. iii. 1. This is that excellent knowledge of Christ for which the Apostle counted all things but loss and dung ver 8. Had he rested in a mere speculative historical knowledge of the Death and Resurrection of Christ without him and been impatient of the energy and power of both within him had he not so known Christ dying and raised again to life as to be spiritually crucified with him