from God that we may stand against his batteries and assaults Thirdly Because of the great impression which our temporal condition makes upon us We are now happy anon afflicted Now as unequal uncertain weather doth afflict the Body so do our various Conditions distemper the Soul To abound and to be abased to be up and to be down to carry an equal hand in unequal conditions is very hard and will call for the supporting strength of Gods spirit So the Apostle Phil. 12. 13. I know how to be abased and how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me From that place let me observe something 1. That we are subject to change of Conditions in outward things sometimes in credit sometimes in disgrace sometimes rich sometimes poor cut short by the Providence of God sometimes sick sometimes in health sometimes enjoy all things comfortably at other times reduced to great necessity Now it is very hard to go through all these Conditions not to be dejected on the one side or puffed up on the other 2. Observe again from that place Either of these conditions have their snares so that we need all the Grace that possibly we can get to avoid them Some think that snares and temptations lye but on one side namely they think it is easie to be rich and to maintain hope and comfort in God then but it is hard to be poor and to be destitute of all things when they have nothing to live upon they cannot see how they should live by faith or keep from murmurings repinings or uncomely dejections and sinkings of heart On the other side some think it easie to be poor and religious but how to keep a good Conscience in a full estate where there is so much to draw them from God to keep down pride and security and to live under a lively sense of the Comforts of the other world to do this in the midst of opulency this is hard There are indeed temptations on both hands 3. Observe again some that have held well in one condition have failed in another One sort of temptations have a greater force upon some spirits than others have When God hath kept men low they have been modest and humble but when they have been exalted then they have shewed themselves their pride their disdain their forgetfulness of God their mindlesness of the interest of Christ. On the other hand others have carried it well in prosperity yet when the bleak winds of adversity are let loose upon them they are withered and dryed up Some cannot encounter terrours others blandishments As the Prophet saith of Ephraim He is a Cake not turned that is baked only of the one side very dough on the other so it is with many men on one side of Providence they seem to do well but when God puts them in another condition they have foully miscarried 1 Kings 13. The young Prophet that could thunder out judgment against the King when the old Prophet enticed him he is gone 4. Nay and which is more to have these conditions to succeed one another makes the temptation the greater To be cast down after that we have got on the top of the wheel and have tasted of the worlds happiness is the greater tryal And so on the other side to be lifted up after extreme misery sudden changes affect us more Now to possess things without love or lose them without grief to be temperate and sober in the enjoyment of worldly happiness or to be meek and patient in the loss of it or to exercise a Christian moderation as to all these dispensations it 's a very hard thing to keep the heart steady and right with God and therefore we need the influence of Gods special Grace as the Apostle presently addes I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Use. To press us to look after this upholding and sustaining Grace that as we come to God so we may keep with God In some Cases perseverance is more difficult than Conversion it is a harder thing to persevere than to be converted at first In the first Conversion we are mainly passive if not altogether but in perseverance active It is God that plants us into Christ but when we are in Christ we ought to walk in him As an Infant in the Mothers Womb before it is born lives by the life of the Mother and is fed and grows by the Mothers feeding without any concurrence of its own but when born indeed it is suckled by the Mother still but the Child sucks it self and applies nourishment to it self and the more it grows the more the care of its life is devolved upon it self So the first Conversion is chiefly Gods work and when converted we cannot persevere without his help but the care of the spiritual life is more devolved upon us than before God doth give perseverance as well as conversion 2 Pet. 1. 5. We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation but so that more is required to be done by us when converted than in Conversion it self Ephes. 2. 10. the Apostle tells us that we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works there 's an action required of us What is Conversion A consent to the terms of the Gospel-Covenant that 's the great act of Conversion on our part But now perseverance is the fulfilling of the duty of this Covenant now it is more easie to consent to the terms than to make them good As in the matrimonial Contract the promise of the duties proper to that relation is more easie than the performance so the consenting to Gods Covenant all the business is to make it good because of our unstable Nature manifold temptations and great discouragements in the way of holiness Certainly to keep in the life of Grace in the soul is a very hard thing The Israelites after they were brought to consent to receive Moses for their Captain to lead them to Canaan yet when they came out of Egypt and had tryal of the difficulties of the way and were exposed to so many dangers they were ever and anon desiring to return So it is with us it is hard to hold out against all assaults many things will be interposing and breaking your resolutions and taking you off from God The flesh will be interposing so that you must often say as Rom. 5. 12. We are not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof And the world will be threatning and you must say as they Dan. 3. 16. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter Dangers will grow upon us and encrease and then we must say as Esth. 4. 16. If we perish we perish Friends will be solliciting and you must say us Paul Act. 21. 13. What
One hundred and Ninety SERMONS ON THE Hundred and Nineteenth PSALM PREACHED by the Late REVEREND and LEARNED Thomas Manton D. D. With a Perfect ALPHABETICAL TABLE Directing to the PRINCIPAL MATTERS Contained therein LUK. XXIV 44. All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Hic Psalmus est tanto praestantior quanto prolixior Muis. LONDON Printed for T. P. c. and are to be Sold by Michael Hide Bookseller in Exon 1681. Thomas Manton D. D. R White sculpsit To the READER 'T IS the Honour of the Evangelical Ministry that it was principally instituted for the service of God not as he is the Governour of the Earth but the Lord of Heaven and to prepare men by holiness for his eternal Kingdom And 't is an excellent favour of God to his Ministers when their labours are eminently useful for this blessed end This singular grace and priviledge God was pleased to confer upon his faithful Servant Dr. Manton whose life was spent in the most precious work of converting souls to Christ and preparing them for the Coelestial Paradise and since his retiring from the world by death his soul now enjoying the blessed rest above yet he remains with us in what was most valuable of him his excellent Sermons the productions of his holy mind and heart and the Pen having a larger extent than the Tongue in communicating them may be more beneficial to the Church than before The following Sermons were preacht by him in his usual course of three times a week which I do not mention to lessen their worth but to shew how diligent and exact he was in the performance of his duty Indeed his ordinary Sermons considering the substantial matter clear order and vigorous full expressions may well pass for extraordinary I cannot but admire the foecundity and variety of his thoughts that the same things so often occurring in the verses of this Psalm yet by a judicious observing the different arguments and motives whereby the Psalmist enforces the same requests or some other circumstances every Sermon contains new conceptions and proper to the Text. Some few Verses were not handled by him I earnestly pray that those who shall read these Sermons may taste the sweetness of the Divine Truths open'd in them and may be transform'd into the spirit of David by an inward feeling of the affections and verifying in their own breasts the words of the Holy Prophet W. BATES Christian Reader IT is somewhat difficult not to applaud that excellency which has first approved it self to our judgment Hence is it that though this work needs it not I will so far gratifie my own affections and comply with obtaining custom as to acquaint thee that if thou hadst my eyes and taste thou must admire its beauty and confess its sweetness much more when thou shalt use thy own more discerning eye and judicious palate The Matter of these Sermons is Spiritual and speaks the Author one intimately acquainted with the secrets of wisdom He writes like one that knew the Psalmists heart and felt in his own the sanctifying power of what he wrote Their design is practice beginning with the understanding dealing with the affections but still driving on the advancement of Practical Holiness They come home and close to the Conscience first presenting us a glass wherein we may view the spots of our souls and then directing us to that fountain wherein we may wash them away They are of an Evangelical complexion abasing proud corrupt nature and advancing free and efficacious grace in the conversion of Sinners The Exhortations are powerful admirably suited to treat with Reasonable Creatures yet still supposing them to be the vehicle of the holy Spirit through which he communicates life and power to obey them The manner of handling is not inferiour to the dignity of the Matter so plain as to accommodate the most sublime Truths to the meanest spiritual capacity and yet so elevated as to approve it self to the most refined understanding He knew how to be succinct without obscurity and where the weight of the Argument required it to enlarge without nauseous prolixity He studied more to profit than please and yet an honest heart will then be best pleased when most profited He chose rather to speak appositely than elegantly and yet the judicious do account propriety the choicest elegancy He laboured more industriously to conceal his learning than some others to ostentate theirs and yet when he would most veil it the discernnig Reader cannot but discover it and rejoice to find such a mass such a treasure of useful learning couched under a well-studied and artificial plainness But let the Reader take a taste of let him concoct and digest these spiritual Discourses and he shall say with the Sabaean Queen It was a true report I heard in my own land but behold the one half was not told me Or with the men of Sychar Now we believe not because of thy saying but because we our selves have proved and experienced their delicacies As one taste of honey will more effectually commend its sweetness than the most elaborate Oratory Those Ancients that had seen the first Temple wept bitterly when they saw the foundation of the second laid And perhaps some pious souls who have sate with great delight under the Authors Ministerial shadow and have found his fruit sweet to their taste may secretly shed a tear that though they here meet with the same Divine Truths the same spiritual matter yet they want the living voice the grateful elocution the natural eloquence in which that heavenly matter dropt or rather flowed from his gracious lips but let the same consideration which quieted the spirits of those Jews of old satisfie theirs God can fill this house also with his Glory And though the second Edition of the Temple fall short of the former in the beauty and symmetry of the structure yet can the Spirit flow from the Press as well as the Pulpit with this advantage that they may here in safety read what with great danger they formerly heard I have admired and must recommend to the observation of the Reader the fruitfulness of the Authors holy invention accompanied with solid judgment in that whereas the coincidence of the matter in this Psalm might have superseded his labours in very many Verses yet without force or offering violence to the Sacred Text he has either from the connexion of one Verse with its predecessor or the harmony between the parts of the same Verse found out new matter to entertain his own meditation and his Readers expectation nor do I observe more than twelve Verses in this large Psalm wholly omitted if at least they may be said to be omitted whose subject matter is elsewhere copiously handled Had the Reverend Author design'd these Papers for publick view he could not have flattered himself in a cavilling age that he should escape
the way which God propoundeth being prepossessed with carnal fancies 'T is counted a foolish thing to wait upon God in the midst of straits conflicts and temptations 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned More prejudices lye against the means than the end therefore out of despair they sit down with a carnal choice as persons disappointed in a match take the next offer since they cannot have Gods happiness they resolve to be their own carvers and to make themselves as happy as they can in the enjoyment of present things III. Our mistakes about it will cost us dear God is very jealous of what we make our happiness and therefore blasteth the carnal choice Those that will try experiments smart for it in the issue Solomon came home by weeping-cross Eccles. 1. 14. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of Spirit He hath proved it to our hands He had a large heart and a large Estate and gave himself to pleasures to extract happiness from the Creatures to hunt after worldly satisfactions in a more artificial way than brutish Sots that merely act according to lust and appetite Eccl. 2. 1. I said in mine heart Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity He gave himself to pleasures not meerly upon sensual but curious and artificial aims yet found his heart secretly withdrawn from God Whoever maketh Tryal will either run into utter mischief or must come home again by a sound remorse and so they learn it and dearly to their cost Use Let us study this Point well 1. That we may not take up with a false happiness or set up our rest in temporal enjoyments as height of honour abundance of riches favour of great men c. Things useful in their Sphere and beneficial to sweeten and comfort the life of man who hath placed his happiness in God Pleasures being enjoyed they do not satisfy being loved they defile being lost they increase our trouble and sorrow 1. They cannot satisfie because of their imperfection and uncertainty They do not answer the whole desire of man carry no proportion with the Conscience That which maketh a man happy must bear a thorow proportion with all the wants desires and capacities of the Soul so as conscience and heart and all may say it is enough But alas these things cannot give us solid peace and contentment Isa. 55. 2. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Till an hungry conscience be provided for we cannot be happy But besides their low use consider the uncertainty of injoyment Nothing can give us solid peace but what doth make us eternally happy These flowers wither in our hands while we smell at them Nothing but the favour of God is from everlasting to everlasting We have not a sure possession of these things in the world They are possessed with fear 1 Cor. 7. 30 31. 'T is the Apostles Counsel that they that buy should have such remiss affections to the world as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away A man must look for changes and lay forth for several conditions in the World Psal. 39. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth surely every man is vanity Selah Like glass brittle when most glistering 2. Being inordinately loved they defile There is not only gall but poison in them They cannot make us better but may easily make us worse as they defile and draw the heart from God and enslave us to our own Lusts. 1 Tim. 6. 10. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves thorow with many sorrows 3. Being lost they encrease our Trouble and Sorrow A man that hath not learned to be abased as well as to abound his abundance maketh his case the more miserable It is hard to go back a degree or two They are apt to bring much trouble upon the heart of him that is conversant about them All is vanity and vexation of Spirit The more we make them our happiness when lost they increase our Trouble 2. That we may not be prejudiced against the true happiness Men think it a happiness to live without the yoke of Religion to speak and think and do what they please without restraint but to be always in bonds and held under the awe of the word that they count unreasonable and grievous Psal. 2. 3. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us In studying of this Point 1. Lean not to thine own understanding Pro. 23. 4. Labour not to be rich cease from thy own wisdom but seek direction from God by his word and Spirit God can only determine who is the Blessed man in whose hand alone it is to make us Blessed 2. Take the light of faith sense and carnal reason will deceive you Blessedness is a riddle which can only be found out by faith Which is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. That a poor Godly man who is counted the filth and off-scouring of all things should be the only happy Man and that the great Men of this world who have all things at will should be poor blind miserable and naked is a paradox will never enter into the heart of a Natural man that hath only the light of sense and carnal reason to judg of things for to sight and reason it is nothing so 3. Wait for the light and power of the Spirit to incline and draw thy heart to God Many times we are doctrinally right in point of Blessedness but not practically we content our selves with the meer notion but are not brought under the power of these Truths that is the work of the Spirit It is easy to prove that it is the Beasts happiness to enjoy pleasure without remorse easy to prove the uncertainty of riches and what unstable foundations they are for the Soul to rest on but to draw off the heart from these things to God is the work of the Holy Ghost Psal. 49. 13. This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings Many a man who stands over the grave of his Ancestors will say Ah how foolish were they to waste their time and strength in pleasure and in hunting after worldly greatness and esteem and favour with men what doth it profit them now And yet
them the great things of my law but they were counted as a strange thing To be strangers to the word of God and little conversant in it is a great evil What is it to hide the word in our hearts 1. To understand it to get a competent knowledg of it we take in things into the soul by the understanding Prov. 2. 10. When wisdom entreth into thine heart and knowledg is pleasant unto thy soul. There is first an entrance by knowledg 2. When it is assented unto by faith The word is setled in the heart by faith otherwise it soon vanisheth Heb. 4. 2. The word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it 3. When it is kindly entertain'd Joh. 8. 37. Christ complains Ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men are so possessed with lust and prejudice that there is no room for Christs word though it break in upon the heart with evidence and power yet it is not entertained there but cast out again as an unwelcome guest 4. When it is deeply rooted Many men have flashes for a time their affections may be much aloft and they may have great fits and elevations of joy and delight but no sound grace Joh. 5. 35. Ye rejoyced in his light for a season But now the word must be setled into a standing-affection if we would have comfort and profit by it We read of the ingrafted word Iames 1. 21. There is a word bearing fruit and a word ingrafted Till there be the root of the matter in us in vain do we expect fruit The Reasons why this is one duty and practice of the Saints to hide the word in their hearts are two Reas. 1. First That we may have it ready for our use We lay up Principles that we may lay them out upon all occasions Man hath an ingestive and an egestive faculty when it is hid in the heart it will be ready to break out in the tongue and practice and be forth-coming to direct us in every duty and exigency When persons run to the Market for every penny-worth it doth not become good housekeepers To be to seek of comforts when we should use them or to run to a book is not so comfortable as to hide it in the heart As Christ saith A good Scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdom of heaven bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old Mat. 13. 52. He hath not only this years growth but the last years gathering for so is the allusion made he hath not only from hand to mouth but a good stock by him So should a Christian have not only knowledg from hand to mouth but a good stock and treasure in his heart which is a very great advantage in these seven things 1. It will prevent vain thoughts What 's the reason evil is so ready and present with us because our stock of knowledg is so small A man that hath a pocket fuller of brass farthings than pieces of silver will more readily draw out farthings than shillings his stock is greater so vain thoughts will be more ready with us unless the word dwell richly in our hearts Mat. 12. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things The workings of our spirits are as our treasure and stock The mind works upon what it finds in it self as a Mill grinds whatsoever is put into it chaff or corn Therefore if we would prevent wicked thoughts and musings of vanity all the day long we must hide the word in our heart 2. When you are alone and without outward helps your hearts will furnish you with matter of counsel or comfort or reproof Psal. 16. 7. My reins instruct me in the night season When we are alone and there is a veil of darkness drawn upon the world and we have not the benefit of a Bible a Minister or Christian friends our reins will instruct us we may draw out of our heart that which will be for our comfort and refreshing A Christian is to be a walking Bible to have a good stock and treasure in himself 3. It will supply us in Prayer Barrenness and leanness of soul is a very great defect which Gods children often complain of one great reason is because the Word of God doth not dwell plenteously in them so that in every Prayer we are to seek If the heart were often exercised in the Word the Promises would hold up our hearts in Prayer enlarge our affections and we should be better able to pour out our spirits before him Psal. 45. 1. My heart is inditing a good matter what then my tongue is the pen of a ready writer When the heart is full the tongue will be loosed and speak freely What 's the reason we are so dumb and tongue-tyed in Prayer because our heart is so barren When the spring is dry there will be little water in the stream Ephes. 6. 17. Take the sword of the spirit that is the word of God then presently praying with all manner of supplication When we have a good store of the Word of God it will burst out in Prayer 4. It will be a great help to us in all businesses and affairs Prov. 6. 21 22. speaking of the precepts of God Bind them upon thy heart when thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee Upon all occasions the Word will be ready to cast in seasonable thoughts when we awake our most early thoughts in the morning will begin with God to season the heart all the day and as we are about our business the Word will hold our hearts in the fear of God and when we sleep it will guard thee from vain dreams and light imaginations In a wicked man sin ingrosseth all the thoughts it imploys him all the day plays in his fancy all the night it solicites him first in the morning because he is a stranger to the Word of God But a man that is a Bible to himself the Word will be ever upon him urging him to duty restraining him from sin directing him in his ways seasoning his work and employment Therefore we should hide the Word in our hearts 5. It is a great relief against temptations to have the Word ready The Word is called The sword of the spirit Ephes. 6. 7. In spiritual conflicts there is none to that Those that ride abroad in time of danger will not be without a Sword We are in danger and had need handle the sword of the Spirit The more ready the Scripture is with us the greater advantage in our Conflicts and Temptations When the Devil came to assault Christ he had Scripture ready for him whereby he overcame the Tempter The door is barr'd upon Satan and he
see the whole drift of Christs doctrine was to press men to give it is a more blessed thing This is the happiness of God that he gives to all and receives of none that he is so ready to communicate of his own fulness upon such free terms Joh. 1. 16. Of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace that is grace for graces sake Thus we have seen how God is actively blessed 2. God is passively blessed as he is blessed by us or as worthy of all praise from us for his goodness righteousness and mercy and the communications of his grace There are two words by which our thanksgiving is expressed praise and blessing you have both in Psal. 145. 10. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee Praise relateth to Gods Excellency and Blessing to his Benefits his Works declare his Excellency but his Saints which are sensible of his benefits they bless him they count him worthy of all honour and praise and are ever ascribing to him Rev. 5. 13. Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Why blessing As for other things so it was for opening the Book which was sealed with seven seals and revealing his mind to his people as you may see v. 9. So David here Blessed art thou O Lord teach me thy statutes As if he had said Lord thou art and thou shalt be blessed I bless thee that thou hast taught me and I desire thou wouldst teach me still that I may ever bless thee Thus it may be taken in a passive sense as he is the object of our blessedness Well then all that I have said upon this Compellation it may be reduced to these six Propositions I. That God is over all and above all blessed enough in himself and needeth nothing from us to add to his Happiness and Perfection That he is blessed enough in himself Rom. 9. 6. God over all blessed for ever That he needs nothing from us to add to his Happiness and Perfection Ps. 16. 2. My righteousness my goodness extendeth not to thee He is above our benefits and injuries If there could result any one happiness to God from the creature surely then he would have made the World sooner what hindered him For why should he keep himself out of his own happiness And therefore he made the world not that he might be happy but that he might be liberal Before ever there was Hill or Mountain Man or Angels God was happy enough in himself The Divine Persons took infinite delight and complacency in each other as their rejoycing is expressed Prov. 8. 30 31. I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him God had infinite complacency in Christ and Christ in God both in the Spirit all in each and each in all before ever there was hill or mountain The World is upheld as stones are in an Arch by a mutual dependance by a combination of interests we need one another but God doth not stand in need of us The head cannot say to the foot I have no need of thee the greatest stand in need of the meanest of their labours their service the meanest parts have their use in the body But now God standeth in no need of us for he giveth all and he receiveth nothing back again as the Fountain hath no need of the stream but the stream hath need of the Fountain the Sun fills the lap of the Earth with blessings and the Earth returns nothing but Vapours that obscure its beams rather than add any thing to its brightness God he filleth every living thing especially his Saints with blessing and receiveth nothing from us again II. Though God stand in no need of us yet he is willing to communicate his blessedness and to make us happy in the enjoyment of himself There 's a threefold consideration which doth advance the bounty of God That to us that himself to us and that so readily and freely 1. That to us who can neither hurt him nor help him Psal. 8. 3 4. Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him What a poor sorry creature is man wilt thou set thine eyes upon such a one What would God lose if we were all damned Or what would he gain if all were saved He would lose no more by us than a bounteous man doth by the death of a company of beggars and maimed persons which live upon his expence and charge Wherein can we be useful to God 2. Herein lyeth the bounty of God to give us such a blessing as the enjoyment of Himself When he had no greater thing to swear by saith the Apostle he sware by himself When God hath no greater thing to give us he gives us himself I am thy God He scatters and sheds abroad some common influences upon all creatures but to us he gives not only that which is his but gives us himself that when our happiness is at the highest we may immediately enjoy him For the opening of this blessedness in giving us the fruition of himself consider we enjoy God two ways mediately and immediately one proper to this world the other to the next 1. Mediately we enjoy God when he communicateth himself to us by secondary means or the interposition of the creature between him and us Thus in common mercies when he feeds us by his meat and drink and enlightneth us with his Sun Here in the world we have blessings at second or third hand I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth c. Hos. 2. 21 22. Whatever one Creature affordeth to another it hath it first from God The Creature is but an empty hollow-pipe through which the blessing runs and it passeth from pipe to pipe God poureth out his influences to the Heavens and the Heavens pour out their influences upon the Earth and the strength of the Earth runneth up into corn wine and oil and by corn wine and oil Israel hath his refreshments So still from pipe to pipe is the blessing conveyed to the Creature So for special mercies we have them by degrees life comfort grace by the word and seals But the Lord will not only supply us at second and third hand but 2. Immediately when God communicates himself to us without any other thing between us and him when we are immediately present with God and have immediate influences from God this is the happiness of Heaven In the heavenly state God shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. He shall be both the dispenser and the dispensation There we see him face to face and in his face and presence there is fulness of joy Psal. 16. 11. That 's our happiness in the next world where immediate influences and vertue doth pass out from him In Heaven there is no Temple Rev. 21. 22. But the Lamb is the Temple
sharpness of apprehension in carnal Things but dull slow and blind in spiritual and heavenly Things Thoughts are spent freely and unweariedly about the one but there is a tediousness and barrenness about the other a Will backward to what is good but a strange bent and urging to what is evil in that which is good we need a Spur in evil a Bridle these things persevere with us but how fickle and changable in any holy Resolution the Memory slippery in what is good but firm and strong in what is evil the Affections quick easily stirred like Tinder catch fire at every spark but as to that which is good they are like fire in green Wood hardly kept in with much blowing Again our delight is soon moved by things pleasing to Sense a carnal gust and savour is very natural to us and rise with us Rom. 8. 5. but averse from the chiefest good and every thing that leadeth to it Surely then we have need to goe to God and complain of Corruption sometimes under the notion of a blind and dark Mind begging the illumination of the Spirit sometimes under the notion of a dead hard Heart or an unperswadable Will begging his inclining as well as inlightning Grace Surely they are strangely hardened that do not see a need of a spiritual Understanding Nay God's Children after Grace received though sanctified betimes yet halt of the old Maim dull in Spirituals alive and active in carnal Matters Carnal and worldly Men act more uniformly and suitably to their Principles than the Children of God to theirs Luke 16. 8. The Children of this world are wiser in their generation than the Children of light that is more dexterous in the course of their Affairs Grace for the present worketh but a partial Cure we have the advantage in matter of Motive we have better and higher things to mind but they have the advantage in matter of Principle their Principles are unbroken but the Principles of the best are mixed we cannot doe what we would in heavenly things there is the back-bias of Corruption that turns us away and therefore they need to be instant with God to heal their Souls sometimes a blind Mind and sometimes a distempered Heart 5. We must be new made and born again before we can be apt or able to know or doe the Will of God as Christ inferreth the necessity of Regeneration from the corruption of Nature he had been discoursing with Nicodemus You cannot enter into the Kingdome of God For that which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3. 5 6. Our Souls naturally accommodate themselves to the Flesh and seek the good of the Flesh and all our Thoughts and Care and Life and Love runs that way now what was lost in Adam can onely be recovered in Christ 't is not enough that God's hands have once made us and fashioned us but there is a necessity of being made and fashioned anew of becoming his workmanship in Christ Iesus Eph. 2. 10. and so the words of the Text may be interpreted in this sense Thou hast made me once Lord new make me thy hands made me O Lord give me a new Heart that I may obey thee In the first Birth God gave us a natural Understanding in the second a spiritual Understanding that we may learn his Commandments First that we may be good and then doe good The first Birth gave us the natural Faculty the second the Grace or those divine Qualities which were lost by Adam's Sin better never been born unless born again better be a Beast than a Man if the Lord give us not the knowledge of himself in Christ. The Beasts when they die their Misery and Happiness dieth with them Death puts an end to their Pain and Pleasure but we that have Reason and Conscience to foresee the end and know the way enter into perfect Happiness or Misery at death unless the Lord sanctify this Reason and give us an heart to know him in Christ and choose that which is good Man is but a higher kind of Beast a wiser sort of Beast Psalm 49. 12. for his Soul is onely employed to cater for the Body and his Reason is prostituted to Sense the Beast rides the Man We are not distinguished from the Bruits by our Senses but our Understanding and our Reason but in a carnal Man the Soul is a kind of Sense 't is wholly imployed about the animal Life There is not a more brutish Creature in the World than a worldly wicked Man Well then David had need to pray Lord thou hast given me Reason give me the knowledge of thy self and thy blessed Will 6. When we seek this Grace or any degree of it 't is a proper Argument to urge that we are God's Creatures so doth David here I am now come to my very Business and therefore I shall a little shew how far Creation is pleadable and may any way incourage us to ask spiritual Understanding and renewing Grace 1. In the general I shall lay down this 'T is a good way of reasoning with God to ask another Gift because we have received one already 'T is not a good way of reasoning with Man because he wastes by giving but a good way with God and that upon a double account Partly because in some cases Deus donando debet God by giving doth in effect bind himself to give more as by giving Life to give Food by giving a Body to give Rayment Matth. 6. 25. God by sending such a Creature into the World chargeth his Providence to maintain him as long as he will use him for his glory God loveth to crown his own Gifts Zech. 3. 2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the burnings The thing pleaded there is was not this a Brand plucked out of the fire one Mercy is pleaded to obtain another Mercy So God bindeth himself to give perseverance 2 Cor. 1. 10. but this is not the case here for by giving common Benefits he doth not bind himself to give saving Graces And partly too because he doth not waste by giving his mercy endureth for ever The same reason is given for all those Mercies Psalm 136. Why the Lord chose a Church maintaineth his Church giveth daily bread his mercy endureth for ever God is where he was at first he giveth liberally and upbraideth not James 1. 5. he doth not say I have given already Now a former common Mercy sheweth God's readiness and freeness to give the Inclination to doe good still abideth with him he is as ready and as free to give still daily Bread his mercy endureth for ever spiritual Wisdome his mercy endureth for ever indeed the giving of daily Bread doth not necessarily bind God to give spiritual Wisdome but that which is not a sure ground to expect may be a probable incouragement to ask and learn this that though nothing can satisfy Unbelief yet Faith can pick Arguments out of any thing and make use of
nothing but sorrow but in the Word of God joy and comfort 4. The way of Application my delights the word is plural and increaseth the sense in what way soever it be interpreted Now it may be interpreted passively or actively 1. Passively That the Word of God refreshed him and afforded him matter of delight and so renewed his strength David had many sorrows but here he found delights as many comforts as troubles The Word of God yieldeth comfort for every state of life if there be many sorrows there are many delights but with advantage heavenly comforts for earthly afflictions eternal comforts for temporal sorrows 2. Actively He delighted in the Word of God yea counted it his delights it increaseth the sense 1. It was his chief delight Other things might be thankfully accepted and acknowledged but this was the solace and delight of his Soul 2. His continual delight and comfort to which he retreated upon all occasions 3. His whole or onely delight When deprived of all other things this was in stead of all delights to him all which shew his high esteem of the Word DOCT. That the afflicted mans true consolation is in the Word of God I will pursue the Point in the method that I have laid forth in the parts of the Text. 1. A Man after God's own heart such as David was may be afflicted why First Because God hath chosen another way of expressing his love to his people than by outward things for he will govern the spiritual part of the world by Faith and not by Sense therefore none shall know love and hatred by things that are before him Eccles. 9. 1. that is by meer outward events or things obvious to outward sense the significations of his love are more hidden Prov. 3. 31 32. Solomon supposeth that the Oppressor may be in a flourishing condition yet all this while the Lord hates him his secret is with the righteous we know his fatherly love to us not by things without us but things within us Rom. 8. 16. 1 John 3. 4. Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Gal. 4. 6. He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts Outward things would soon be overvalued and we should take them as our whole felicity and portion if besides their sutableness to our present needs and appetites they should come to us as special evidences of God's love 2dly Afflictions are necessary to the best Certain it is God will conduct his people to glory not only by his internal but external Providence Now to humble us to wean us from the world there is need of afflictions 1 Pet. 1. 6. Te are in heaviness for a season if need be We are wanton vain neglectful of God unmindful of heavenly things if God did not put us under the Discipline of the Cross our minds and hearts would be more alienated from God and heavenly things Psal. 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray Now since the best need it God will not be wanting in any part or point of necessary government to them 3dly That they may know the worth and benefit of God's Word and the comfort of it may be seen and felt by experience how able it is to support us and to uphold a sinking heart under any trouble whatsoever Rom. 15. 4. In full prosperity when we seem to live upon the creature we know not the benefit of God's promise nor how to live by Faith as the use of Bladders in swimming is not known while we are upon firm land The Word of God provideth comforts for the obedient not only at the end of the journey but for their support at present while they are in the way These comforts would be useless if never put upon the tryal therefore none of God's children must look to be exâ—…pted 1 Pet. 5. 9. All these afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world Our condition is no harder than the rest of the Saints of God that have passed thorow the world 2. David was ready to sink under his burden and so are other the people of God ready to perish when they look to the bare afflictions This may come First From the grievousness of the affliction which staggereth and amaseth them Psal. 60. 3. Thou hast shewed thy people hard things thou hast made us to drink of the wine of astonishment Their thoughts are confounded as a man that has taken a poysonous Potion They know not to what hand to turn are wholly dispirited and put out of all comfort 2dly It comes from the weakness of the Saints There is some weakness and imbecility in the best more than they are aware of as when David was ready to faint under the Cross before troubles came We are like unto Peter we think we can walk upon the Sea but some boistrous wind or other assaults our confidence and then we cry out Help Master we perish Mat. 14. 30. We reckon only upon the Sea but do not think of the wind and so our weakness is made evident by proof whence cometh this weakness 1. Partly because we look more to the Creature than to God and to our dangers than to the power that is to carry us through them Isa. 51. 12 13. I even I am he that comforteth thee who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as grass And forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressor We that have the immortal and almighty God to be our Protector and Saviour why should we be afraid of a frail mortal man 2. If they look to God yet God doth not seem to look to them If a thin Curtain be drawn between God and us we are presently dismayed as if he were wholly gone and because of our hardships question the love of God Psal. 77. 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Isa. 49. 14. Zion hath said the Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me though our condition be every way consistent with the fatherly love of God Heb. 12. 5. Have you forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh to you as children We are children though under discipline and God is a Father though he frowneth as well as smileth 3. Impatiency of delay if we question not his love yet cannot tarry his leisure Certainly it is very good to wait God's leisure though he seemeth asleep he will awake for our help Faith makes us like people that dig the Pit and wait for the rain to come down and fill it To lay the Cloth though we know not whence the Provision will be sent But the people of God
Herod enquired after the place where Jesus was born not to adore him but to kill him Mat. 2. 8. Our great Rule is Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth When you come to study the Scriptures to be the better for them and not to cavil then you are in the way to find profit from them 4. Some come to the Word leavened with some carnal affections and so their hearts are blinded by their lusts and passion 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not There is evidence enough in the truth but their hearts are wedded to their sins and so cannot see it they are ambitious and seek after honour and worldly greatness and the whole bent and scope of the Scripture being against their design they can never have a perfect understanding of it their hearts are full of Avarice Earthly-mindedness and some other beloved sin that they cherish which doth defile all that they touch even the very Word of God Hagg. 2. 13. A man that was unclean by a dead body whatsoever he touched was also unclean even holy things And Tit. 1. 15. To the impure all things are impure And so by the just judgment of God are blinded and hardned in their own prejudices for the light they have hindreth them from discerning the truth 5. Some content themselves with some superficial apprehensions and do not dig deep in the Mines of knowledge and therefore no wonder they mistake in many things Prov. 2. 4 5. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God No excellent things are to be had without pain and industry and search certainly the knowledge of God's Word must cost us great pains 6. Where men are right in the main and give diligence to know God's mind there will be mistakes in lesser things All have not parts alike and gifts and graces alike and therefore there is some variety of opinions and interpretations of Scripture among the godly wise Every man is not so happy to be so well studied nor hath not that ability to understand nor so furnished with acquired helps of Arts and Tongues nor such a degree of the Spirit There is a difference in age growth and experience among good men some are Babes and some grown in years in Christianity Phil. 3. 15. Grace is bewrayed in knowledge as well as in holiness Object 2. If there be such a Light in the Scriptures what need is there of the Spirit Answ. I answer The Scriptures are the means of Light the Spirit is the Author of Light both together enlighten the eyes Psal. 19. 8. These two must be taken in conjunction not in exclusion To pretend to the Spirit and neglect the Scriptures makes way for Error and fond conceits Isa. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Light is not contrary to Light so to study the Scriptures and neglect the Spirit who searcheth out the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. leaveth us in darkness about God's mind The object to be known is fixt in the Scriptures but the faculty that knoweth must be enlightned by the Spirit There is a literal understanding of the Scriptures and a spiritual understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. Now as to the spiritual understanding of them there needs the Spirit for the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit so that here is a fair correspondence between the Word and the Spirit Object 3. If the Scriptures be so plain what need the Ministry I answer Answ. 1. It is God's institution and we must submit to it though we could see no reason for it That it is God's institution it is plain for he hath set some in the Church not only Apostles and Prophets but Pastors and Teachers to apply Scriptures to us And 1 Cor. 1. 21. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe If there were no reason but this because it is God's institution we should submit to it 2. The use of the Ministry is to explain and vindicate truth Men darken counsel with words and render plain things obscure by their litigations and unprofitable debates Now they are set for the defence of the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1. 7. And the Ministry must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 9. Able to convince the gainsayers good at holding and drawing it is the humane help for weak understandings The Eunuch was reading and could not tell what to make of it then God sent him an Interpreter Acts 8. Now God's help should not be despised when he will employ men to salve doubts to guide us in our way to Heaven we should thankfully accept of it rather than quarrel at the institution 3. They are of use to apply Generals to particular Cases and to teach us how to deduce genuine Inferences from those truths laid down in the Scriptures Mal. 2. 7. In this sense it is said The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts God hath appointed this office to some to solve the doubts that do arise about particular Exigences and Cases and to make out the mind of God to his People otherwise they need go no farther than the Tables and Books of Moses to seek the Law but God hath appointed some in the Church that are skill'd in consequences and deductions to raise matter therefrom so that it is a Minister's work to open and explain Scripture 4. There is a use of the Ministry to keep Doctrines still afoot in the Church and to keep us in remembrance Ministers are the Lord's remembrancers it is a great part of their office to mind People of their duty The Word is a Light but it must be set in the Candlestick of the Church they are to hold out the Light for our direction and guidance 5. There is a peculiar blessing and efficacy to a Christian from their calling Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you to the end of the world Object 4. It is said 2 Pet. 3. 16. That there are some things hard to be understood therefore how should it be a clear Rule to us Thereupon many take occasion to tax the Scriptures of obscurity and cry out that nothing is certain in Religion and so hinder and discourage men from the study of the Word Answ. 1. I answer The Apostle saith there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things hard to be understood but doth not say there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that cannot be understood not there are things impossible to be understood but there 's some difficulty in
Christianity He that would please God had need of a tender Conscience that he may wholly frame himself to do the will of God and not only take care to be right for the main of his course but that every particular action should be orderly and regular for the man of God does not beg Grace here to chuse a right path but that his steps may be ordered This is the strictness of Christianity that a man should make conscience of every step that every action should be under the power of Grace and fall within the rules of the Word It needs to be so Why Because the Word of God is not only a general rule to shew us our path but a particular direction to order our steps Psal. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path to my feet as well as my path Every action or step of ours is morally considered in its own tendency either a step to Heaven or Hell if good a step to Heaven if evil a step to Hell therefore we had need make Conscience of our steps Besides if we do not make Conscience of our steps we shall not make Conscience of our way for he that is not faithful in a little will not be faithful in much Every wry step is so far out of the way and the more we persist in it the more we wander Therefore see what is required of Christians 1 Pet. 1. 15. Be holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Creak and Turning of your lives In all manner of conversation A man that would approve himself to God must be good in all Conditions in all his businesses affairs all the Ages of his life young or old in actions civil sacred If his Condition be prosperous or adverse when in adversity or prosperity he must carry himself as a Christian he ought still to approve himself to be a hater of sin and a lover of what God loves In all his affairs not only in his religious actions but in his civil and common actions Godliness is not a Holy-day-Suit but an Apparel that is of constant wearing and therefore a Christian is to shew himself a Christian in all things though especially in those things which are solemn and most weighty a Christian in his prayers a Christian in his business in his recreation in his meals a Christian in the disposal of himself and condition a Christian in all his converses I lay this for a foundation Certainly here are steps spoken of the Holy Man would have them ordered and that by the strictness of Christianity so that no one particular action must allowedly be sinful You see what need there is of direction Careless and slight spirits that only look upon Christianity in the lump they think that truths are few and easie and that the art of holy living is soon learned and they do not see a need of this ordering our ways and to be willing to please God in all things But those that count the least sin to be a very heavy burthen a greater evil than the greatest temporal loss that make it their business to approve themselves to God in all things they put their hands unto will be earnest and importunate with him for his Grace 2. The necessity of the word of God Whoever will please God in all things and will purge his own soul and his life from sin must take the Word of God for his rule and direction Our lives are not to be framed according to our own fancies but Gods Word where the genuine holiness is recommended to us and which is the only proper means to work the heart to it I shall prove that the Word of God is the great Rule both to warn us of our dangers and to instruct us in our Duties and so it is the great means to sanctifie the heart I say it is the great Rule to warn us of our dangers Psal. 19. 11. Moreover by them is thy servant warned This discovers temptations inconveniences snares which otherwise we should never discern There are many dangers that wait for us on every side So Psal. 17. 4. Concerning the works of men by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer It is the only proper means to keep us from the paths of the destroyer Alas otherwise if we do not strictly consult with his Statute and Rule we shall cry up a Confederacy with those that cry up a Confederacy against God we shall embrace the temptation which opportunity offers if he follow the guidance of his deceived and deceiving heart And the Word of God doth only discover our Duties to us Prov. 6. 23. For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life Mark what ever condition we are in whether in the night or whether in the day whether in this or that condition here we have a lamp and light here 's that which will shew us what God requires of us in every state and condition Now as this is the only Rule so it is the only appointed means with which God will associate the operation of his Grace for the converting and curing of the souls of men For when God had stated a Rule for the Creature it is fit the knowledge of that might be a means of sanctification so the Word is commended to us Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth If the Holy Ghost will sanctifie if he will beget not an Apocryphal and Bastardly Holiness that may be by the institutions of men and rules men prescribe but a genuine true holiness which is acceptable to God put them into a capacity to serve love and enjoy God Psal. 119. 9. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way By taking heed thereto according to thy Word A young man that is in the heat of his lusts and in the ruff of his sin is impetuously carried away how shall he do to break this boysterous violence and bring his heart into some competent way of obedience to God Why the Word of God is the only means the Lord interposeth by his Word and blesseth his Word Let a man read Seneca Plato Plutarch all the Philosophers he will have but cold and faint respects to holiness and to better things until he come to be exercised in the Word of God Man is not a Vessel that comes newly out of the Potters Shop but he hath a smatch of the old infusion of sin and he cannot have this taste and tang put out but by the Word of God sanctifying his heart and breaking the power of his lusts Psal. 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. We are out of joynt unfit to please and serve God now how shall a man do to get his soul set in joynt again that he may be in a capacity to serve and enjoy God Why this restores the soul to a capacity
the Lord blesseth this institution and this means for it is not bare truth but instituted truth with which God will associate the operation of his Spirit By this Word of his that was indicted by the Spirit and penn'd by holy men that were moved by the Holy Ghost he doth joyn his virtue and power and efficacy of his Spirit to sanctifie the souls of men 3. They that make it their scope and business to please God in all things and take his Word for their Rule their souls will soon see a need for Divine direction and the establishment of his Grace This reason is taken from the temper of the persons that are to walk in this strict way according to his strict rule they are such as are naturally blind and naturally opposite to God now certainly such need to go to God for direction I gather that from these words Order my steps Every man is a poor blind Creature and hath a heart opposite to the ways of God he need beg this grace of God Lord encline my heart Every man is a blind Creature partly because our own spirits are blind crooked and unstable that we shall neither consult our Rule nor understand our Duty nor like it when it is represented to us until the Lord doth enlighten us A mans heart is naturally blind 2 Pet. 1. 9. He cannot see afar off he hath no skill in spiritual things 1 Cor. 2. 14. The heart is naturally full of darkness and then this darkness grows upon us Partly by prejudice or custome and many evil habits 2 Cor. 4. 4. The God of this world hath blinded mens eyes There are many inordinate affections that encrease upon us So 't is then that a man is blind by nature more blind by custome and inordinate affection is exceedingly blinded which have a great influence upon our judgments in all practical Cases Though we should know general Rules yet to bring them down to every particular action is very grievous and hard to bring the heart to But you will say When we have received the Spirit God hath put his Law into our minds this blindness is cured therefore why should such as David pray Lord order my steps c. Yes we are cured but in part non totaliter Grace doth heal us but in part much of the matter that clouded the mind before is yet upon us and when lusts are awakened by temptations we strangely forget our selves our own reason our senses and examples of others we are misled so that we know not what to do unless the Lord order our steps Well as we are blind so we are opposite too When we know our way what we should do yet we are apt to stumble at every Stone Naturally the wisdom of the Flesh is opposite Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God And so much as the wisdom of the Flesh still remains we are apt to be discouraged from walking with God according to his strict rule and in the way that he hath given us and we are extreamly slack that unless we be quickened by the lively and strengthning light of the Spirit alas how soon shall we miscarry Therefore this ordering is a strengthening against the reluctancies of the flesh Psal. 17. 5. Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not Alas when a man finds a good way he is either apt to lye down out of laziness or to stumble and fall and we cannot keep our footing against temptations Every man of experience seeth the need of this Therefore Lord direct me Order my steps The 4. Reason is taken from the value of the blessing here asked It is one of the chiefest blessings of his grace and favour to have his illuminating Afer he had said Lord be merciful unto me presently follows Lord order my steps To prove this must needs be a great blessing and favour It will appear out of the Words of the Text partly from the word order it makes our lives orderly and regular Alas what a confused disproportionable thing is a man that is half in and half out with the ways of God! His conversation is not all of a piece sometimes right and sometimes wrong there is not that beauty that harmony that holiness to be found in them Solomon tells us Prov. 26. 7. The legs of the lame are not equal so is a parable in the mouth of fools Baines on the place saith thus The man hath knowledge to speak well but he lives ill so his conversation is halting like the legs of the lame Sometimes his speculative light will encline him to do easie things but his practical endeavours will carry him another way there is no even and uniform strain of godliness Then is a mans Conversation ordered when all is carried on with a fair respect to his last end for it is the last end that fixeth a mans mind and cuts off impertinencies and inconsistences and makes a mans Conversation beautiful otherwise the man is tost up and down in a various uncertain motion distracted by a multiplicity of ends and objects that his will is in no composed and settled frame I remember David prays Psal. 86. 11. Unite my heart to fear thy name It 's a blessed thing when a man is united when his conversation is all of a piece And Iames 1. 8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways A divided mind will beget an uncertain life I say the last end of our lives doth unite all the parts of it and there 's a regularity and harmony between them But others their life is a mere Lottery the fancies by which they are governed they are jumbled together by Chance and they live at peradventure and hap-hazard and there is not a comely intire uniform order to a blessed end Again partly too from the reason here Order my steps according to thy word and let no iniquity have dominion over me This will prevent the dominion of sin perverse affections are apt to sway us but when the Lord supplies fresh directions the tyranny and dominion of sin is prevented and crushed in the Egg. Sin usually steals into the Throne by insensible degrees temptations and occasions reduce us to some evil practice Well and that produceth another then do multiplied acts get strength then they insnare us and when once the soul is insnared then this bondage daily encreaseth and is hard to be broken for by multiplied acts custome creeps upon us and that 's another nature and that which was but indifferent at first grows more difficult As Diseases looked to at first are easily cured otherwise they grow desperate so sins when they come to a slavish tyranny and custome they cannot help it All this is prevented by the seasonable warnings of the holy Spirit Partly too because this is only vouchsafed to Gods special people God as he loves any so he manifests himself to them this appears out of the Text for in the Verse before
nest it is all but the deceit of the heart and usually we find it to be so in the world Most men are better acquainted with other mens duties rather then their own with the Magistrates duties more than their own and so other mens sins more then their own But it is not so where zeal is unfeigned there it begins at home they will allow nothing in their own hearts that may be contraryto Gods interest and to the soveraignty of his spirit 2. Also in perfecting Holiness The whole business of the spiritual Life must be carried on in warmth and vigor Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seething hot in spirit Nothing done for God should be done negligently but affectionately To be luke-warm and key-cold that makes no work in Religion But when a man hath a great zeal for God O! then he profits and gets ground then sin decays grace is strengthned love is more rooted in his Heart every day and he doth more for God Paul profited in the Jewish Religion Gal. 1. 14. Why Because he was more zealous then others This is the man that will be the honour of Gods Ordinances that man that will shew forth the vertue and power of Religion when his heart grows warm for God and zealous for God II. Why we ought to look after a great and pure zeal if we have any Love to God and the Law of God and his Ways 1. Why a great zeal 1. Because it is not zeal else if it be not in some good degree for zeal is a great fire and a vehement flame not only Love but vehement Love it must needs be great Cant. 8. 6 7. For Love is as strong as death jealousie is cruel as the Grave Zeal is cruel as the grave read it so many waters cannot quench Love c. Mark our love to the ways of God should be of such a nature such a warm and zealous working of heart towards God that many floods cannot quench it that nothing can bribe it Surely the best things deserve the best affections therefore what ever we do in Religion and for God we should do it with all our might Eccl. 9. 10. 2. Otherwise it will not do the work Such as encreaseth with opposition as fire when you put on more fuel it grows more vehement so unless it be a zeal that grows earnest with discouragement alas it will soon be quenched We shall meet with many discouragements from within and without but when we can resolve with David the more they scoffed and opposed him he would be yet more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. So the more trouble they meet with in the ways of God the more they will cleave to him and will please God though with the displeasure of men True zeal is enflamed with difficulties As Lime the more water they pour on the more it burns as Nehemiah's Courage it sparkled the more the more it was opposed should such a man as I flee Should I betray the Cause of God This is the true zeal when it sparkles by opposition As Paul the more they perswaded him the more he seemed to be bound in spirit to go to Ierusalem Acts 21. 13. Though they did even break his heart they could not break his purpose Such a zeal as is quenched with every drop of water and goes out with every flout and scorn will never do it therefore we had need have a great zeal that we may harden our selves against all oppositions we meet with in the way 2. It needs to be pure too such a fervent affection had need be right for since it makes men so active and resolute certainly it should go upon clear grounds I shewed before nothing hath done more mischief in the world than wild zeal it is like fire out of its place that sets all the House in a flame it doth not comfort and refresh those that have it but it destroys and consumes all But why must we have pure zeal 1. Because there is a false zeal and a self-seeking zeal which men have while they pretend much Love to God and good of souls but are really hunting after their own interest Gal. 4. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them that is they sought to rend their affections from Paul and from their faithful Pastors that they might affect them so he tells us Phil. 1. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife There may be a zeal that comes meerly out of Envy and Strife Iehu could say come see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kings 10. 16. 2. This false zeal doth a great deal of mischief It 's a dishonour to God to pretend to him and to put the varnish of our Cause upon God God himself is involved in the deceit Ier. 4. 10. It 's a strange expression to be used to God Ah Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People the false Prophets did it in his name And it divides the Church as well as dishonours God Gal. 4. 17. They would exclude you that ye might affect them The meaning is they would rend you from the Body of the Christian Church and alienate the minds of Gods People so as to devote them to a Faction Phil. 1. 16. They preach Christ of Contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds And it hardens the Persons themselves as Iehu boasted of his zeal and it was only self-seeking and the Lord counts it Murder Hosea 1. 4. Use. Have we this Pure zeal such a zeal as David speaks of There are many Notes by which it may be discerned as 1. When injuries done to God and Religion affect us more then injuries done personally to our selves when we carry our selves in an indifferency in our own Cause but not in Gods compare Numb 12. 13. with Exod. 32. 19. Moses could with a Meek Spirit bear all the injuries done to himself but could not contain himself when he saw injury done to God but breaks the Tables 2. When the same Enemies are Gods Enemies and ours David was sensible not of the inhumanity of his Enemies but that which most troubled him was because they were Gods Enemies and forsook his words David was not so much troubled at Absaloms Rebellion as dying in his sins 3. When there 's a Compassion mingled with our Zeal Fleshly Anger is all for destruction holy Anger is for Conversion when they grieve and seek to redress the matter 4. True zeal is Universal it is most against their own sins and the sins of those that are nearest and runs out upon weighty things But those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and neglect weighty things they have not true zeal There are many instances of this false disproportionate zeal of a Conscience taken up for a turn when there 's a partial Conscience in some things men are mighty scrupulous and strain at a Gnat
and God is too Fatherly to deny it to his Children You may deny an Apple to a wanton Child but you will not deny Bread to a fainting Child The bowels of a Father will not permit you to do that you may deny them superfluities in wisdom but your love will not permit you to deny them necessaries Meat is not so necessary to revive and refresh the Body as Grace for the Soul and his Holy Inspirations to act and guide you And will God deny these requests 7. Know when you have received Quickning Many Christians look for rapt and extatick Motions and so do not own the work of God when it hath passed upon them they under-rate their own Experiences and so cannot take notice of Gods Faithfulness Sense Appetite and Activity are the fruits of life and quickning 1. We have the more sense of indwelling Sin as an heavy Burthen Rom. 7. 24. None groan so sorely as those that are made partakers of a new Life Elementa non gravitant in suis locis a delicate Constitution is more sensible of pain Wicked Men scarce feel deep wounds given to their Conscience nor have any remorse for gross sins Gods Children their hearts smite them for the smallest disorders and irregularities 2. Appetite after Christ his Graces and Comforts 1 Pet. 2. 2. the more life any have the more craving of Food to maintain it in being they are always hungering and thirsting after God Matth. 5. 6. our Appetite will be after the things that conduce to the maintaining and preserving that being which they have If a man lose his Appetite the body pineth and languisheth and strength decayeth desire prepareth the soul to take in its supplies Your Life is in good plight when that is desired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't will be a means of Spiritual growth a kindly appetite after this Milk They are under a great decay who have lost their Appetite after the Gospel 3. Activity in Duties That we may honour Christ 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. To whom coming as a living stone ye also as lively stones are built up into a spiritual House Christ liveth and we live by him as the stones in the building carry a proportion with the corner-stone So Christians as the body with the Head It must needs be so because of Gods Spirit dwelling in us Ezek. 36. 27. Ioh. 7. 37. and because of the Graces in a Christian Faith and Love Faith working by Love is the great evidence of the new Creature If Faith and Love be strong it will quicken us to do much for God the apprehension of Faith doth enliven our notions of God Christ Heaven and Hell Faith puts Life into our thoughts of him Love is a notable pleader and urger 2 Cor. 5. 14. The Love of Christ constraineth us c. Secondly The Reasons why c. 1. They that have so much to do with God do see a need of it for he is a living God and will be served in a lively manner Rom. 12. 11. Not slothful in business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. They that serve the Lord Negatively must not be slothful in business Affirmatively fervent in spirit God will not be served negligently coldly but with Life and earnestness The twelve Tribes served God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instantly Act. 26. 7. Instantly serving God with the uttermost of their strength He that hath a Right to our all must have our best surely he will not be put off with every slight thing Now the Children of God that are sensible of this are earnest for quickning that they may serve God in such a way as becometh him with Life and Power and Zeal for the manner in every Duty is to be regarded as well as the matter A man may do many things that are good but there is no Life in what he doth He prayeth but without any life in Prayer dead in Prayer Heareth but no Life in Hearing dull of Hearing All things in a Christian may be counterfeited but Life cannot be counterfeited that cannot be painted 2. They are acquainted with themselves and observe the frame and posture of their own spirits Now they that know themselves will see a need of Quickning 1 Because of the instability and changeable frame of mans Heart it hardly stayeth long in the same state now 't is up and anon 't is down as the constant experience of the Saints witness Sometimes they have a forwardness and strong propension of Heart to that which is good at other times a lothness and dulness or unfitness to perform any spiritual service when their Will is more remiss and their Affections unbent 'T is not indeed the constant frame of their Hearts yet it is a disease incident to the Saints even good men may feel a slowness of Heart to comply with the will of God and some hanging off from Duty Spontancae lassitudines sunt signa imminentis morbi so is this laziness and backwardness of spirit a sign of some great spiritual distemper Sometimes they are carried with great largeness of Heart and full sail of Affections at other times they are in bonds and streights that they cannot pour out their Hearts before God Psal. 77. 4. I am sore troubled that I cannot speak sometimes they have great Life and Vigour at other times no such lively stirrings but are flat and cold and dead when with Sampson they think to go forth and shake themselves as at other times Iudges 16. 20. by sad Experience they find that their Locks are gone that their Understandings are lean sapless and their Affections cold and their Delight and Vigour lost Man is a sinful weak inconstant Creature his heart is as unstable as water and much of this levity and instability remaineth with us after Grace as is seen in the various postures of spirit that we are under 2 Because of the constant opposition of the Flesh. There is an opposite Principle in our Hearts Gal. 5. 17. The body of Death that dwelleth in us doth always resist the life of the Spirit in us and therefore God must renew the influences of his Grace to preserve Life There are desires against desires and delights against delights this must needs abate our Vigour The Spirit draweth one way the Flesh another 'T is drawing Iam. 1. 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 'T is depressing Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a Cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Carnal Affections hang as a weight retarding us in our Heavenly flight and motions 'T is warring Rom. 7. 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin And therefore the Lord had need to cherish the new Creature and good seed which cannot but be weakned with this opposition 3 Because our outward condition doth
Reason p. 67. They are to be applied-p 288 They are to be made familiar to us p. 67 They make God a debtor p. 324. 831 They are Gods Testimonies and why p. 741 They are more than simple Declarations p. 831 They are to be prized on a double account p. 545 They are made to perseverance p. 342 They are most certain on a threefold account p. 575 They are 1. Good 2. Sure p. 1084 Three things in Promises 1. Truth 2. Faithfulness 3. Righteousness 830 There is usually some time between the Promise and the Performance p. 324. 835. Reasons of the delays in performing Promises p. 324 835. 525 Properties of God 1. To do good 2. Keep his Word p. 831 Prosperity makes us goe astray p. 462. Takes off Affections from heavenly things p. 463 Prosperity of the wicked should not dismay us p. 795 936 Proud men denotes two sorts of persons p. 559 None should be Proud because he hath more than others p. 647 Who are the Proud p. 829 336 Protection is the priviledge of the Saints God is their hiding-place and shield p. 763 765 766 767 Vid. Hiding-place Protestant Religion its Excellencies p. 199 200 Providences seem contrary to those that are most obedient p. 667 Providence the belief of it a good help to keep a good Conscience p. 418. Providence vindicated p. 936 937 It 's seen in fulfilling Promises and Threatnings p. 424 Observation of Providence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us we have more Cause to bless God than up â—…mplain p. 423 Providences must not be racked to make them speak what we would have them p. 796 797 798 Providences well observed will cause gracious Souls to love the Word of God more than ever p. 806 Reasons thereof p. 806. They are to be considered p. 511 They are reconcileable to the Word v. a Commentary on it p. 39. 465 Providence executes the sentence of the Word p. 974 975 Providential Care and Conduct the priviledge of them that walk closely with God p. 7 Providential Wisdom seen 1. in the Seasons 2. the Kind 3. the Manner of Gods afflicting his Children p. 463 Providence is either 1. Common or 2. Special p. 472 Providence takes care of all that love and please God p. 1033 Provisions for the Flesh should be cut off p. 867 Proving his people a ground of Gods forbearing Enemies p. 856 Prudence when we are tempted to sin it 's great prudence to chain our selves to the contrary duty p. 421 Prudence required in applying general Rules to particular Cases p. 449 450 Punishment in this Life for breach of Gods Law p. 39 Punish God has a time to punish Sinners tho' he bear long with them p. 856 Purity of the Word of God what it implies p. 857 Purity of Heart from the Purity of the Word p. 857 858 Purpose of the heart settled in seeking God p. 16 It must be universal to all Commandements and accompanied with Affections and Endeavours p. 34 Purpose to please God habitual and actual p. 152 Purposes of Obedience must be made with the greatest seriousness p. 915 Reasons thereof p. 915 916 Purposes of heart against Sin when defective p. 1009 Q. QUalifications of those that have God for their Hiding-place 1. they that believe 2. they that obey 3. they that seek it in the way that God has promis'd it p. 767 Qualifications are to be cleared in our pleading Promises p. 327 328 317 Qualm of Conscience may beget lean Affection to the Word of God for a season p. 122 Questioning our Interest in God an usual sin in sharp and tedious Afflictions p. 565 Some times we question Gods Love because we have no Afflictions and some times we question it because we have nothing but Afflictions p. 556 Quiet Great Quiet to the Minds of Gods people under sad dispensations to consider the Justice and Faithfulness of God in them p. 508 Quickning Grace promised in the New Covenant both in general and in particular p. 941 Quickning two fold 1. when of dead we are made Alive 2. when of dull we are made lively and active p. 596 717 718 281 Quickning by the Word obliges us to remember it for ever p. 597 Quickning is only from the Word Why 1. the word contains the most quickning Considerations 2. the Spirit delights to quicken us by the word p. 598 599 719 Quickning denotes 1. the renewing of comfort 2. the actuating of Grace p. 159 933 281 311 Great need to go often to God for quickning 1. because of our constant weakness in this World 2. because of ourfrequent indispositions of Soul to duty p. 159 160 934. and the oppositions of the flesh c. p. 935 936 937 718 719 Quickning of the Soul to duty by holy Zeal p. 853 Quickning denotes either 1. restoring to happiness or 2. renewing of grace p. 933 717 311 312. Quickning and Sharpening of prayer by the fear of God p. 811 Quickning is one blessing which Gods Children have often need to beg of God p. 933 Sense Appetite and Activity are the fruits of the Spirits quickning p. 935 314 Quickning is necessary on many accounts p. 282 Labour to get it beware of losing it p. 282 283 312 How quickning Grace may be lost p. 313 R. RAshness a great troubler of the Church p. 451 Ready God is Ready to receive returning sinners and as ready to punish them that refuse to return p. 410 God is always ready to hear prayer p. 168 Reasonable Creatures are made for eternity p. 571 Reason is supplied by Faith p. 541 Reason depraved cannot judge of spiritual things p. 3 Reasonings against Gods Soveraignty are usually in the points of the Imputation of the sin of the first Adam Election Providence c. p. 757 Reasons and Grounds of Religion are to be inquired into p. 195 Rebellion to decline Gods Government p. 585 Rebukes of Providence against impenitent sinners are of great use to the Saints p. 135 136 Reclaiming sinners p. 132 Reconciliation and Atonement only in the word discovered p. 54 624 Non opus divinae naturae sed liberi consilii p. 624 Records ought to be kept of our Comfortings Quicknings and Supports by Gods Word and why p. 597 600 379 380 Recreations are notto swallow up Religion p. 927 Redeemer is the Head of the renewed Estate p. 320 Redeemed Sinners shall have their judgment p. 321 Redeemer requires Obedience p 320 He is honoured by obedience p. 321 Reduce God reduces straying sinners by some smart Providences p. 1107 Reflection upon our selves and ways implies 1. an Examination of our past course of Life 2. a careful watch over them for the future 3. a Consideration of the event p. 397 Regeneration goes before new Obedience p. 497 Regenerate Persons may be discerned from unregenerate p. 18 19. how they differ p. 673 674 Reign of sin is either 1 general or 2 particular either more gross or more secret p. 918 919 Rejoycing in Gods Testimonies greater than in all Riches
teach us to do otherwise we love our selves more than our neighbour and our neighbour more than God out of self-interest we comply with the lusts of men and in complying with the lusts of men make bold with God This wisdom every one that would keep Gods law must learn That we are bound to none so much as to God from whom we have life and breath and all things that none can reward our obedience so surely so largely as God who can bear us out when men fail that none can punish our disobedience so much as God If these considerations were more in our hearts we would not sin so boldly nor serve God so fearfully and cowardly as usually we do nor comply with men to the wrong of our souls We may refuse obedience in a particular instance where we do not refuse subjection 2. That heaven is to be preferred before earth and the salvation of our souls before the interests and concernments of our bodies Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you And whosoever fail in this point of wisdom are very fools Luke 12. 10. But God said unto him Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided There should be no delays in heavenly matters We busie our selves about other things and defer our care for eternity from day to day but this should be sought before every other thing 3. That present affliction is to be chosen rather than future and temporal rather than eternal A wise man would have the best at last for to fall from happiness is the utmost degree of misery miserum est fuisse beatum And therefore better suffer now with hopes of reward in another world than take pleasure now to endure pains to come 2 Tim. 2. 3. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good souldier of Iesus Christ. It is better do so than to have all our hopes spent Son in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things Luke 16. 25. That which is present is temporal that which is to come is eternal 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal The good and evil of the present state is soon over Now we stand not upon a short evil so we may compass a great good 4. That things of profit and pleasure must give place to things that belong to godliness vertue and honesty for the bastard good must give place to the true real good Profit and pleasure are but bastard goods They are counted understanding men in the world that make pleasure give way to profit therefore Solomon saith Where there are no oxen the cribb is clean yet there is much gain by the labour of the oxe I am sure he is an understanding man before God that maketh both give way to honesty and godliness for the same reason that will sway us to make pleasure give way to profit will also teach us to make profit give way to the interest of grace as for instance That pleasure is a base thing as being the happiness of beasts so is profit as being the happiness of the children of this world in contradistinction to holiness the perfection of the next The pleasure of sense is only in this life so is worldly gain onely serviceable in our pilgrimage pleasure in the excess destroyeth profit so doth profit destroy grace As the world scorneth a man that hath wasted an estate upon his pleasures so do God and Angels that for the abundance of his wealth maketh havock of a good conscience and neglecteth things to come Godliness is the great gain 1 Tim. 6. 5. 5. That the greatest suffering is to be chosen before the least sin In sufferings the offence is done to us in sin the offence is done to God The evil of suffering is but for a moment the evil of sin for ever in suffering we lose the favour of men in sin we lose the favour of God suffering bringeth inconvenience upon the body sin upon the soul suffering is only evil in our sense sin whether we feel it yea or no It requireth spiritual wisdom and understanding to choose of evils the least as well as of goods the best Moses Heb. 11. 25. chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season 6. That a general good is to be chosen before a particular and that which yieldeth all things rather than that which will yield a limited and particular comfort Riches will avail against poverty and honours against disgrace but godliness is profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. it will yield righteousness comfort and peace eternal and food and rayment maintenance and eternal life Now these and many such principles must be ingraffed in the heart if we would keep Gods laws The reasonableness of such propositions in the Theory may easily appear but as to practice we are governed by sense and humane passion which judgeth the quite contrary of all this and causes us to make bold with God because afraid of men to follow earthly things with the greatest delight and earnestness and spiritual things in a formal and careless manner to be all for the present and nothing for things to come and to sell the birthright for a mess of pottage to make a wound in our souls to avoid a scratch in our bodies and for a little particular contentment to neglect the things of God 4. Understanding is necessary that we may judg aright of time and place and manner of doing that we may do not only things good but well where to go where to stand still as 't is said they sought of God a right way Isa. 8. 21. And David behaved himself wisely in all that he did 1 Sam. 18. 5. It is for the glory of God and the credit of Religion and the peace of our own souls that we should regard circumstances as well as actions and discern time and judgment that we do not destroy what we would build up Therefore understanding is necessary See further verse the 98th of this Psalm 5. Because our affections answer our understanding If we understand not how can we believe if we believe not how can we love if we love not how can we do Knowledg perswasion affection practice these follow one another where the faculties of the soul are rightly governed and kept in a due subordination Indeed by the fall the order is subverted Tit. 3. 3. serving divers lusts and pleasures Objects strike upon the senses sense moveth the fancy fancy moveth the bodily spirits the bodily spirits move the affections and these blind the mind and lead the will captive But a true understanding makes us more stedfast Now all these
considerations do shew us our need of understanding and that a Christian should be prudent not headstrong and precipitant like horse and mule that have no understanding Psal. 32. 9. But wise and knowing in all principles actions and circumstances that belong to his duty if he would honour his profession and not follow the bruitish motions of his own heart but Gods direction Now if we would have understanding we must 1. Attend upon the word that will make us wise to salvation wiser than our enemies than our teachers than the ancients Than enemies A man that consulteth not with flesh and blood but the word and rule of his duty will find plain honesty at length to be the best policy Than Teachers Because he contented not himself with the naked rules delivered by them but laboured with his conscience to make them profitable to himself Than Ancients or men of long study and experience That 's a costly wisdom when men have smarted often they learn by their own harms to be circumspect If there were no other way to be wise than by experience miserable were man for a long time and would be exposed to hazards and foul dangers before he could get it But now Scripture which is not the result of mens experience but God's wisdom is not such a long and expensive way 2. Use much meditation in debating matters between God and your souls Psal. 119. 99. I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation And 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things 3. Prayer as David doth here ask it of God Desire him to remove that darkness of spirit which sin hath brought upon you that you may not govern your life by sense and passion but by his direction Job 32. 8. There is a spirit in man but the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Man hath reason but to guide it to a spiritual use that is above his power The Psalmist complaineth of all natural men There is none that understandeth none that doth good to no one Psal. 14. 2. and Rom. 3. 11. There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God Therefore 't is God must give understanding at first coversion Act. 16. 14. God opened the heart of Lydia and Acts 26. 18. To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins c. by a fuller illumination Eph. 1. 17 18. That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ that father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightned c otherwise we have not an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor ears to hear Deut. 29. 4. Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor ears to hear unto this day 2. The next thing that I shall observe is this That upon the supposition of this benefit he promiseth obedience I shall keep thy law Doct. They that have understanding given by God will keep his law 1. That 't is their duty and they ought so to do there is no question for all knowledg is given us in order to practice not to satisfie curiosity or feed pride or to get a fame and reputation with men of knowledg and understanding persons but to order our walk Col. 1. 9 10. For this cause we also since the day we heard it cease not to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledg of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledg of God 2. That they will do so is also clear upon a twofold account 1. Because answerable to the discovery of good or evil in the understanding There is a prosecution and an aversation in the will for the will doth necessarily follow practicum dictamen the ultimate resolution of the judgment for 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a bruitish inclination but a rational appetite God hath appointed this course to nature therefore when the judgment cometh to such a conclusion as is set down in the 73 Psal. verse the last But it is good for me to draw near to God not only 't is good but 't is good for me the will yieldeth For conviction of the judgment is the ground of practice I know conviction and conversion differ and the one may be where the other is not But then 't is taken for a partial conviction the mind is not savingly enlightned and thorowly possessed with the truth and worth of heavenly things the most and greatest sort of men have but notions a weak and literal knowledg about spiritual things and that produceth nothing they do not live up to the truth which they know Others have besides the notion a naked approbation of things that are good Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor They see better things and approve them in the abstract but this doth not come to a practicum dictamen 't is good and good for me all circumstances considered thus to do This is the fruit of spiritual evidence and demonstration which always is accompanied with power 1 Cor. 2. 4. Carnal men think it is better for them to keep as they are being blinded with their passions and lusts though they could wish things were otherwise with them But a godly man's judgment being savingly enlightned determineth 't is good 't is better 't is best for me 't is better to please God than men to look after heaven than the world c. There is a simple approbation of good things and a comparative approbation of them Simple approbation is when in the abstract notion we apprehend Christ and pardon of sins and heaven good but when compared with other things and considered in the frame of Christian doctrine or according to the terms upon which they may be had they are rejected Many approve things simply and in the first act of judgment but disallow them in the second when they consider them as invested with some difficult and unpleasing terms or compare them with pleasure and profit which they must forsake if they would obtain them as the young man in the Gospel esteemeth salvation as a thing worthy to be enquired into but is loth to let go his earthly possessions Mat. 19. 21 22. He would have these good things at an easie rate without mortifying the flesh or renouncing the world But a godly man that sets down and counteth the charges all circumstances considered resolves 't is good for me as Boaz liking the woman as well as her inheritance took them both which his kinsman refused Ruth 4. 9 10. He would have the inheritance without the woman They like Christ and his laws as well