faithfull ones of Christ may easily fall with Ieremy Chap. 12.1 and David Psal 73.5 to distemper our selves to charge God foolishly and to call him to our owne barre as if he ordered not matters so wisely as wee would have him Alas Those are ever most confident who usurp most 2 Sam. 15.4 Eccles 7.10.15.16 Absolom thought his policie and wisedome above his fathers in ruling of subjects but it cost him sorrow and ruine Let us not cavill against our owne dayes as the worst nor our owne lot as the unhappiest Let us know its folly wrap up all our own discontents in the field of Providence and Wisedome For why should we be desolate or hasten our owne ruine rashly before the time Let it be enough for us that wee beare witnesse to Jesus to his truth and serve our time But let us not breake out of our compasse in which God hath set us Nor let us think long or tax God for seeming to stop his eare from our praiers nor give over our waiting and wax froward with him but remember our Rule Acts 1.7 That in publicke promises still the time must be left to him who is the Soveraigne orderer of all times and seasons It is enough for us that in the worst and most degenerate times of all God hath not left his Church as an Orphan or desolate each member hath her owne particular faith and patience to set on worke To keep the soule from rusting from either tedious impatience or desperate carelesnesse Matth. 25. Ocupy these till God come and these will so allay thy spirit and exercise thy meeknesse patience and humility that Gods time shall not seeme over long faith shall not make over much haste Hab. 3. I doe not counsell thee to give over faith in performances But to apply faith to such promises in the meane while as may sustaine the soule with patient hope till Gods time is accomplished See Psal 135.14 The rod of the wicked shall not alway ly upon the lot of the righteous lest they should put forth their hand to evill The Lord will not alway bee angry Psal 125.3 lest flesh should faile Rather then such extremities should come God will put an end and say The day of my redeemed ones is come Esay 63.3 But if the Lord sustaine the whilest and the burning bush consume not is it not as good as if it burnt not Enlarge thy short and hasty spirit by this that each day of Gods delay shortens the trouble And remember that a thousand years with the Lord is as one day 2 Pet. 3.8 and God is a pure act incomprehensible not ruled by time I doe not by these passages choke the zeale importunity clamors and expostulations of the Church No that were another extremity and as much as to quash the Spirit of adoption and to abridge the priviledges of the Saints in their holy boldnesse in prayer For why Read the moanes of the Church in Psal 40. and Esay 63. and 64. the variety of her holy complaints arguments wherewith she laboureth to draw God on her side against his sworne foes to perswade him to be no longer darke but to cause the mountaines to flow downe before his presence And so Psalm 12. she cryes out for help because all went to wrack All this is lawfull and to pray against implacable incorrigible enemies Plead thus Lord although to thee a thousand yeares are as one day yet it is not so with us five seaven yeares are somewhat to us Lord wee are feeble and faint Psal 110. ult Therefore tarry not long Lord. But in all these remember to ascribe to God the glory of faithfull performance in his owne time and say thus Thou hast afflicted us on every side Psal 119. yet have we not forsaken thy Covenant the whilest we have not exasperated our spirits against thy delayes but turn'd the edge of our complaints against our selves who by our treacherous unfruitfulnesse have deserved these scourges our worst enemy is within us That sin of ours hath vexed thee more then our crosses and thy delayes vexe us Purge them remove the barre and we doubt not but thy performances shall breake out as the light when once our righteousnesse shall appeare and our filthinesse shall be cleansed nothing shall let thy promises from being fulfilled This for the second Limitation the third God keeps promise with them only that live by faith The third and last limitation is this That the Lord keeps his promises faithfully but yet upon condition to such as not onely are his own servants for what have dogges to doe with the childrens bread but such of his owne as abide so and feare him live by faith and keep his Covenant The sum of the point is that which David Psal 25.10 expresseth thus All the wayes of the Lord are mercy and truth But to whom Surely to such onely as keep his Covenant Israel was the Lords peculiar above all the earth but it was not enough for them to hold their name onely but to keep close to the Lord If Israel would have walked in my wayes then it should goe well with them and with their children for ever 1 Chro. 17.13 It was the Lords speech to David of Salomon Hee shall be my sonne and I will call him Iedidijah the Lord loved him And if he transgresse against me I will chastise him with the Rods of men but my loving kindnesse will I never take from him Marke Brethren there is a promise which the Lord will performe to all that are in covenant with him that is he will not finally forsake them But yet in the mean time if they venture so much hereupon that they break their league play the harlots and forsake their husband he will make them feele to their costs 2 Chro. 16.3.4 that he can also break with them and forsake them and so will he goe on with them till he have wearied them and by some adversity or other within or without sent them home with sorrow and shame to their first husband Men must not looke to be loose with God and yet binde him to be close to them Excellent is that of Oded the Prophet to Asa speaking of the revolted ten Tribes Of a long time was Israel without God or a Law or a Priest And why Surely because they had forsaken his Temple and Worship his Arke and Mercy seat and therefore the Lord plagued them with all adversity And so will he doe to you if yee cleave to him he will cleave to you but if you warp from him so will he from you Consider I pray you brethren and God give us understanding The Lord will keep promise with his but then they must not play their parts with him For why Shall the Father spit in his Daughters face Num. 12.14 and shall she not be separate from him seven dayes It was the Lords speech to Moses touching Miriam
to himselfe and make his yoke easie oh then love maintaines the soule in grace with sweet and content Beg then of the Lord that thy pressure may not be remooved till it have left the print of mercy behinde it and brought thee so under graces command that thou maiest wholly be the Lords Princes arrest their subjects for some debts fines forfeits or services due to themselves which being paid the party is at his owne liberty But the Lord doth not so hee arrests not a man to bring him upon his knees to wring from him some tearmes of homage but to subdue the whole man and the principle of the minde will and frame to himselfe Concurre with this end of good and prosper But if it be thus the effects will shew it for then Effects of change will shew it not onely the stoutnesse of the heart and the rebellion of it are held under by strong hand for a time but the subtilty thereof is truly turned to simplicity the ease sloth of it into diligence the indifferency of it into earnestnesse the wearisomnesse of it into restlessenesse and diligence the inconstancy of it into stablenesse the acts and pangs of it into habits and principles the violence into liberty and holy delight to submit it selfe both to the way of beleeving and the fruite of subjection and deniall of it selfe both in legall and evangelicall respects And so much for this doctrine so far as the scope of it will beare I might enter into further matter both to discover the infinite tricks of a false heart to nouzle it selfe in a corrupt estate and the trialls and waies whereby the Lord sets such an heart at liberty But I foresee that the points following will better occasion these things and therefore I onely make this doctrine a preparative to them Now I proceed to the second doctrine out of these words Doct. Whom God meanes to convert them he first prevents by occasions and means That Naaman comes and stands at the doore of Elisha And that is this That whomsoever the Lord intends to bring home and convert to himselfe he will order all meanes most sweetly and agreeingly to that purpose We see Naaman and his retinue brought to the doore of Elisha But how surely by the providence of the same God who had purposed his conversion he is brought to the meanes to waite and expect the season of it And all things we see fall out and concurre aptly to it First Naaman is infected with a loathsome disease that under the hope of curing that hee might make an errand to the Prophet whom he had not else visited Secondly a maide must be taken and the Aramites must fight and take her place her with Naamans wife the maide must know Passages of Gods prevention in Naamans case and be able to report of Elisha to her mistrisse Naaman must ascribe credit to her and all these must concurre that he might hearken after Elisha Thirdly letters must be eroneously sent to Iehoram that Elisha might thereby correct an errour and turne him to himselfe which else had not bin And lastly Naaman hearing of the Prophet must forthwith repaire unto him and not expect till Elisha tend upon him else he had missed of his cure All these occurrents God most wisely orders and rules for the ends he intended so that the one could no more be defeated then the other if any one had failed the effect might have ceased The like may be said of the conversion of Onesimus Proofes of the point Epist to Philem who had plaid the thiefe to his Master Philemon God meant he should bee converted by Pauls Ministery Lo how doth the Lord order the meanes unto it He doth not instill falshood and flight into him but he orders it He over-rules him in his journey that hee might not peake aside into this corner or that but goe to Paul and lighting upon him might by some direct and seasonable speech from him be turned from his falshood to God So in the case of Cornelius Acts 10. The Lord meant to settle him being a good Proselite in the faith of the Lord Jesus The instrument by whom was Peter How should he know of him or where to come by him The Lord in a vision intimates it to Cornelius and he sends to Joppe to Simon But Peter was armed with a minde to reject their errand because he was a Jew and Cornelius a Gentile True But immediately before their comming the Lord rectifies Peter and frames him to goe by a vision of all crawling vermin in a cleane sheet which Peter was bidden to eate and refusing to doe so was commanded not to esteeme that uncleane which the Lord had made cleane No sooner is Peter rectified but they knock and he is prepared to goe with them comes findes all ready and converts Cornelius To conclude thus it is with the Eunuch of Candace He passing by that way Acts 8. where Philip preached the Spirit prompts him to joyne himselfe to that Charet When he comes he findes him reading in Esay a peece of a Prophecie cap. 53. concerning Christs generation and not knowing the sense askes Philip who takes occasion thereby to open to him the whole mystery of Christ and convinces him of the truth whereupon he is converted I heape up no more examples Reade the passages of Acts 9. Acts 9. in Saul Reasons 1 There be many reasons of the point 1. As the Lord is the first mover of the vast frame of this world and the maine changes of whole States Churches and Kingdomes their stablenesse and prosperity their decay and ruine the great affaires of warre peace and government so especially he sits at the sterne of his Church If he meane to punish it he acts and animates the wayes to bring it to passe and the instruments of his wrath Though the King of Ashur Reade Esay 10.7 meant no other but to spoile and make wreck yet God used him onely as his rod of vengeance And as he meant to scatter those ten Tribes for their horrible idolatry 1 King 12.13 so he orders the whole frame of premises tending thereto He divides the Kingdomes of Rehoboam and Ieroboam He suffers that snare of Division to cut off the tenne Tribes from Juda and her worship Temple and sacrifices To devise an idolatrous worship of Calves He plagues them with a succession of 3 or 4 cursed families and their of-spring Ieroboam Baasha Omri Iehu and after them left them to a most desperate government of Usurpers Shallum and the rest till the whole nation was carried away into perpetuall Captivity And when it pleased him to redeeme his Church he also acted the spirits of those instruments of deliverance as after the 70 yeares Captivity 2 Chr. 36.22 Ezra 1.2 Ezra 6.6 he stirred up the spirit of Darius Assuerus Cyrus and others to begin and perfect his project Nay not onely so but there is no
they will ground themselves upon the wisedome of flesh and the preaching of such as seeke with curious and quaint oratory and the deceitfulnesse of man to entangle the minde or else they care not whether they heare any or no. But oh ye wise worldings know ye that God doth usually the greatest things by meanest instruments know ye not that flesh loves it selfe and that there is small hope of doing any great things by fleshly meanes should then flesh glory in her selfe and take away the glory from God by an unsanctified and unsavoury boasting of it owne strength Surely looke to it they who build their faith on man must rush their soules to destruction of necessitie And the wisedome of God hath chosen the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve If ever yee looke for this be wise intime and become fools that ye may be truly wise to salvation 1 Cor. 1.1.27 Of which I shall speake more fully in the next use Vse 5 Lastly therefore let it be use of examination to all sorts to try themselves about this issue Examin what great things God hath wrought in them by the poore and silly meanes of his Ordinances Try whether the Lord hath by them translated you from the kingdome of Satan and darknesse to the kingdome of his deare Sonne rid you out of the thraldome of your lusts and Idols to serve the living God Thinke not that the kingdome of Christ stands in a few trickes of wit or entising words of a frothy Mounteebankes tongue thinke not that fine sentences or strong lines or a jangling wit priding it selfe in a vaine-glorious Preacher will goe for pay when Christ shall come to judge Trials and markes of our fleshly wisedome subdued Luke 18.8 The great worke which hee will look for will be faith unfained a broken spirit love out of a pure heart a new creature Therefore take some markes hereof and try your selves First the Lord by poore meanes will cast downe that frame of carnall Triall 1 wisedome in you be it never so strongly setled and convince yee of your folly in that you should ever so besot your owne selves as to thinke that the way to heaven should lye in such a course as you have walked in Oh! shall you say if ever I goe to heaven God must turne a new leafe with mee flesh and bloud a curious humorous conceit will never inherit the kingdome of God The Lord I say will discover to your eye such an excellencie in his Ordinances even when they seeme weakest to your fancie that you shall fall downe and say The Lord is in you of a truth The scales of your carnall eye shall fall off Acts 9. Revel 3. Psal 119. and you shall bee annointed with eye salve to behold wonders in those poore instruments and ordinances which you have so long despised The old judgement of error and this foolish world shall be taken away and a new Spirit of discerning shall be given you to looke off from the base out-side of man of preaching of Sacraments and you shall see a divine power and majestie therein The Asse shall not seeme so base as the rider seemes glorious and you shall strew your clothes and bowes of trees in the way of Christ crying Hosanna and magnifying God that by such poore pipes and channels conveyes so great things to men Ask your selves did you ever perceive such a worke wrought in you If not you still abide in the gall of bitternesse and are pur-blinde seeing nothing a far off Secondly the Lord will make you so farre from your disdaine that he Triall 2 will make you crouch and be glad of the silliest Minister of God in all the countrey as those Acts 2. Acts 2.37 who came trembling about those same Apostles whom in the former Chapter they had flouted and mocked as drunken with new wine and said Men and brethren what shall wee doe to be saved So shall you doe such as you have jeered for zealous men of the Spirit you shall now be glad to bee admitted to aske them what course you may take to escape hell and surely try your selves in this point if still your disesteeme of Gods Ministers continue in you you are none of those in whom GOD hath wrought any great worke in Thirdly the Lord shall correct that corrupt selfe-love and partialitie in Triall 3 you whereby the affectation of some odde Minister whom you humored covered and darkened the graces gifts of God in others lesse reputed of by you Oh! now shall the Lord purge out your private judgment and put a publicke spirit of communion of Saints into you Alas you shall see all the Ministers of Christ one as well as another to bee the mutuall aiders of your faith and furtherers of your joy given by God not for this or that man but for the good of the whole body And accordingly you shall prize them even for the graces of God in them and for the use which they serve even the worke of the Ministerie 1 Cor. 3. Ephes 4. and the edifying of the Church in love Partialitie and private ends of your own shall stinke unto as knowing that if God convert you to himselfe hee makes you members of the body which beares you up not you it Not the meannesse of the vessell shall now offend you but the rich treasure in it shall ravish you now if your souls may be saved all other respects shall vanish 4 Triall Fourthly God will teach us to deny our selves in that base ease and sloth of our spirits which satisfies us in having in hearing a Minister and the sound of his words which contents us in that wee enjoy Sabbaths Sermons and Sacraments by course in a rolling succession without observing the power and savour which any of them leave in us This commonnesse and taking all for granted upon a custome blindes us even as a cloath hung before our eye hinders the action thereof and puts it out by degrees This ordinarie accustoming of our selves to that which is obvious casts a veile over our hearts so that we never come within the holinesse of the ordinances neither mark any great worke done by them either in our selves or others And by this meanes wee are hardned by them rather then wrought upon either by humbling quickning or renewing How hath the Lord then wrought in us have we after a long sleepy and drowsie hearing and receiving at last been pulld by the eare and jogged by the Spirit to stand up and be awakened to see the wonders hidden under the veile of humane infirmitie and the povertie of the Ordinances Doe we wax wearie of formall remembring of a few sentences or commending the Preacher talking of what we heard and doe our hearts begin to burne within us when the Word is opened through the evidence of that Spirit which speakes in the Word Luke 24. Doe we feel the weight of truth uttered
washing in Jorden The third gerall The third and last point out of this verse I will propound by answering a question briefly Object arising out of the former doctrine For it may bee demanded seeing that not the waters themselves were the cause of effecting this cure upon Naaman but the power of God onely in and by them To what end did the Prophet so presse upon him the washing in Jorden and why had it been so heynous a contempt for him to have neglected this charge Answ Why God useth outward means to convey grace viz. To stop mans devices The answer is double First in respect of the necessary concurrence of the water to the instrumentalnes of Gods working Secondly in respect of a signe or ratification of the promise in the heart of Naaman To open both these in a word For the former it is alway the course of God to worke by meanes and instruments sensible and bodily when hee hath to doe with us men of a bodily and sensible nature As in the duty of prayer though the worke thereof is properly spirituall and holy and the Lord can tell our hearts as well as our tongues yet it is his will that we offer it up by the instrument of outward speech orderly set sensible Take unto you words say Hosea 13.2 receive us graciously So though the power of regeneration stand not in speech but in the Holy Ghost yet the Lord will not so worke immediately but by the ministery of man to man hee hath ordained to convey his spirit into the heart And the reason is plain for else what a door should be set open to the fantasticall spirit of man to vent his owne speculations and conceits without any warrant from God Who would not frame to himselfe revelations of the Spirit and devise new inventions of serving God How doe Anabaptists boast of their owne fancies How doe they despise the ordinary calling of Ministers and preaching and thrust forth themselves by the instinct of their owne spirit as if they were some great persons How do Papists devise new worships as that Masse of theirs which is nothing else save a masse of many ingredients added by sundry of their Popes or masters of ceremonies and those many Sacraments of theirs whereof not one print of Gods appointing appeares in all the Scriptures If this be done by them against the expresse will of God what would they have attempted if they had been left unto themselves How infinite would they then have been Therfore the Lord wil have all that look for any worke of his Spirit to attend the means closely and reverently and only by through them to expect for blessing If God please to unite his grace only to them ordinarily may it not well beseeme us to tye our attendance and observation of his power in and by them This is one cause why the Lord would not extraordinarily convey himselfe to the Eunuch to Cornelius Acts 8. Acts 10. Acts 9. to Saul at Damascus save by the intermediall instruments of Peter Philip and Ananias our spirit is alway in our extremities for either wee runne to our fancies conceits sloath and ease contemning the meanes or else when meanes must be used we fall to idolize them both which the holy Ghost abhorres Another reason is in respect of Naaman himselfe who was a novice Reason 2 It was the will of God to heale him by faith in a promise Why are signes sacraments used by the Lord for the effecting of spirituall things viz. to assure our weak faith Now because that was a difficult object for him to settle upon the Lord appoints him this outward and reall signe of the waters to prop up his faith by and to settle his inner spirit by the externall sense As if he should say Goe thy wayes I will heale thy leprosie beleeve me and if that be unlikely to thee loe I give thee a signe even the waters of Jorden that as verily as thou shalt drench thy selfe therein so verily will I by my spirit heale thee Occupy thy selfe in obeying of me and loe I will be present with thee to put thy weake heart out of doubt concerning thy cure This was alway the course which the Lord tooke with his old Church whensoever he promised any blessing or deliverance unto them Judg. 6. 7. 8. Thus Gedeâ—n a man inexpert in warre was faine to be strengthned by the fleece both dry and wet and by the dreame of a barley loafe by one of the Midianites yea the Lord never revealed any purpose of his to the Prophets concerning either the publique or any special person but he strengthned it by some outward signe suting the thing and affecting the sense Thus when the Lord meant to rend tenne Tribes from Rehoboam and give them to Ieroboam 2 King 12. Ahijah the Prophet is sent to teare his garment into twelve pieces and to give him tenne and keepe two A very reall resemblance And that young Prophet to strengthen his denunciation against the same Ieroboam Cap. 13. and his idoll at Bethel told him two signes one present viz. the falling out of the ashes from the broken Altar of sacrifice the other to come Iosiahs poluting those high places by burning the bones of the Priests upon them So Esay strengthens Hezekia in the newes of his recovery Esay 37. by that famous signe of the Sunnes going backe tenne degrees And so when Ahaz refused the signe Esay 8. the Prophet gave the Church one touching the deliverance from Rezin to wit the conceiving of a Virgin some two or three hundreds of yeares after even with a sonne whoâ—e name should be Emanuel Infinite it were to speake of Ezekiels bricke pourtraying the siege of Jerusalem the hole in the wall by which he convayed away his stuffe Ieremies basket of figges the best and worst that could be eaten to describe the difference betweene the Jewes in Babel and the rebels at Jerusalem The like was Agabus his taking Pauls girdle and the very false Prophets Zidkijah and Hananiah affected the like course in their hornes and yokes Even so the Lord did teach his people by many bodily ceremonies cleansing of leprosie by the Priest and washing by outward sacrifices and the like And by those many resemblances of the blood of the Paschall Lamb sprinkled and the flesh of it eaten as also by Manna the Rocke gushing forth with water Also by the cutting off the foreskin of the male he made the Lord Jesus and the power of his death and crosse to bee knowne sacramentally although but darkly in his Church And now under the New Testament although the worship be more spirituall Sacraments excell common signes yet the course is the same True it is Sacraments exceed signes in their efficacy yet agree with them in this generall kinde of outward signifying or strengthning the soule by signes For what else doth the Lord
never hoped or beleeved in him for that Wherein they come short And why First they never came to see themselves wholly lost and forlorne in themselves but still held some prop of their owne to support them though Christ should faile them and so never feeling need of him could never savingly and cordially make to him and apply him Secondly they never looked at a promise for it selfe but from some pangs and flashes of selfe liking the newes of Christ for the good it presented taking the word to themselves rather in a dreame and a fancy after a thing they would have then for the naked truth of the promiser Thirdly or else they were led by outward sense the credit gifts and plausiblenesse of the Preacher in whose light they rejoiced while it lasted but if the minister were once removed then as a sive out of the water so they lost all their zeale againe It bred with him and died with him Fourthly they heard without discerning of truthes taking all alike not cleaving to the doctrine as such able to ground and to settle them in peace through Christ but as good thinges in generall at randome without putting difference observing order or coherence For if another Minister came who preached his owne vagrant and ungrounded fancies they were as ready to heare him and be led away as by the former Matth. 11.19 Fiftly they looked upon the zeale of others who snatch the Kingdome with violence and thought it a disgrace for them to bee more backward and so hanging upon the common haunt and multitude never examined what inward principle led them and so when zeale grew cold and profession more dead they grew as cold and dead as others Sixtly or else having no roote in them they clave to the word in peace and prosperity of the Church but when they saw the times to frowne and trouble to come then they saw they thrust themselves further in then they had strength to winde out and so withered and brought shame upon their profession Seventhly or if they were grounded in knowledge yet not in soundnesse of heart for so soone as the divell came to recover his possession Luke 11.25 hee found them empty swept and garnished that is still tainted with old lusts world and pleasures though for a while they seemed to have forsaken them Eightly though they received the truth of Jesus yet not as the truth is in Jesus not to purge them Ephes 4.21.22 to change their base qualities to transforme them from glory to glory Ninthly if they have proceeded to some shewes of holinesse yet they have not come under the authority of the commander from the faithfulnesse of the promiser who hath made his yoke easie and his burthen light Their obedience is rather in the letter and in the easier points of the Law then the hard and craggy Matth. 11.29 1 Sam. 13. they goe not up the hill with Ionathan upon all foure but downe hill They are like dead fishes which swimme downe the streame not living ones which swimme against it in some few thinges not all with an equall exact carriage in some acts not in the bent of their spirit and the stream of their life As the springs are so is their running to themselves if they be taxed for any evills 10. Then they excuse them by infirmities and lick themselves whole by the sores of the godly not remembring that the godly have sundry defects in grace but not one as themselves maine want of grace and these they pretend not as excuses but grone under as burthens also they colour themselves by this that their sinnes are few and but small or else necessary or but secret and not breaking out whereas a sound heart knowes one sinne may be as full if it runne into one channell and may be as much delighted in and fed on as many dishes also that Gods people never fall into such a necessity as to sinne are free from such straits as to stretch conscience for ease credit wealth and outward respects and lastly Lots wife paid as deare for her contemplative sinne as for her actuall And to end they abide in their evills and recover not whereas Gods people are as a blade of good mettall which beeing bent will returne and are never well till with the needle of the diall they stand just toward the North of repentance Twelfly and lastly if they goe forward to suffer for Christ it is with much adoe and struggling against it and in such sufferings as they can licke themselves whole another way or if they be driven by necessity of shame or light to it yet rather out of compulsion then purity and goodnesse of their cause and conscience And so much bee spoken for the clearing of these three branches of Selfe-religion I conclude this last branch with admonition also that we abhorre this sufficiency of selfe-religion and righteousnesse It s the stillest streame of all yet the deepest gulfe and under pretence of drawing nearest to Christ his privy chamber becomes the greatest traitor to him I condemne not morality civility religious duties and degrees As the Towne-clarke Acts 20. said to them of Ephesus Diana is a great goddesse who denies it But we must make no uproare for her So these are good but they must make no mutiny against Christ and by a sufficiency of their owne destroy his If they come under his banner to fight for him they doe well But to erect one of their owne against his is deadly treason Therefore as marriners in danger of life by shipwracke looke not at the value of their wares nor the use of them silkes velvets corne wine tacklings of ships but how they endanger their lives so in Gods feare let us doe with selfe-religion a commodity in shew farre above morality or carnall welfare but if it equally or more endanger the ship and life of the soule cast it also with the rest overboord remember not many of these five sorts of grosse self politiques carnall wizards moralists worldlings or Pharisees get into heaven Alas they stick at the porch This sufficiency of selfe must be abhorred not in the narrow gate how then should they enter If ever God make such capable of Christ he will pare off their Camels bunch and make them of Sauls Pauls who saith of this aswell as of all the rest I counted them all as losse and as dogsmeat that I might bee found in Christ not cloathed with mine owne Phil. 3. but his righteousnesse Be wise in time lay not out their mony for no bread nor your paines for that which satisfies not empty their soules of it that Christ and his good things refined wiâ—es and fatnesse may satisfie you Let others pray to God to pardon their vices Esay 55.2 doe you beg mercy and pardon for their vertues for their religion duties and performances If the heart be brought to renounce this sufficiency it s a signe there
pretious from the vile as if a man should distinguish his love to a servant both for kinde and measure from the love of a wife or childe The oddes is as the hony which Ionathan tasted upon the top of his rod in comparison of eating it to fulnesse and strength for the pursute of the enemy When the Lord doth not reach out by pieces and parcels of Christ but throwes him into the soule with his whole heart and treasure as one would cast his deare wife purse and all that she might know his bounty and gives the soule more then she can aske or thinke as Salomon to the Queen of Sheba more then all she desired then the soule hath an heart-sight and view of him Then she is satisfied fully with his image as receiving from his fulnesse that is his heart fully reconciled and satisfied by his Sonne that can deny them nothing And she beholds in this offer as much above all goodnesse which Adam enjoyed as heaven is above an earthly Paradise Briefly Selfe fosters two contents at once one from a Principle of her owne being carnall the other from an accidentall violent so that in time the carnall prevails against the violent and the violent vanishes Some hold out and make a shift to deceive themselves longer then others but except they grow to see their errour and to set up the object of their joy above the carnall they vanish into misery And this for the ground of Selfe The second generall The carriage of Selfe is sureable to the root or ground The second generall poynt is the carriage of Selfe And marke selfe in her grounds must needs bee like her selfe in her carriage I meane in those performances which come from her Nothing can worke beyond her owne Spheare of Selfe and Flesh no act save fleshly can proceed She will not suffer her own chanell to lye dry So that what ever means she useth fasting prayer meditating hearing conferring whatsoever paines she takes for a broken desirous heart whatsoever duties or graces she doth or makes shew of she can rise no higher then her Spring and Fountaine lies Selfe keeps center within and acts all as supposing there is a congruity and directive or procuring cause of grace in her Shee lookes to win the Spirit of grace by the spirit of Selfe not to lose her owne spirit by the Spirit of Grace She is not sensible of any thing save what comes from her selfe and thinkes very well of any thing which she feeles to proceed thence And so will any soule confesse which the Lord hath freed from this bondage That all his performances were nothing save a willing and running of their owne though while he was in his element all seemed pleasant There is a way which seemes pleasant to a man while he is in it though when he is once out hee sees it tended to death And as hee in Iob saith There is a spirit in man such as it is which will be doing and will have one finger in every busines but it is the inspiration of the Almighty which must give understanding I deny not but Selfe according to her light admits of many degrees yet all in one kinde but as one spake of Usurers and Theeves one was lesse oppressing then the other yet the best would bite So I say here bad is the best of Selfe she will be chiefe in all matters nothing must passe but through her fingers all the Corne must be fetcht home in her Cart and some peece at least there must be of her and all to keep her from selfe-deniall and from a promise which are her two terrible objects within her owne precinct Which may appeare in these few passages First in her instinct How that appeares vâ—z In foure particulars Secondly her endeavour Thirdly her busie eagernesse Fourthly in her disappointment A word or two of each For the first her instinct and savour which she is carried by is not godly or holy but earthly and base As we say Nothing in Popery is carried beyond the savour of ambition ease and the belly so in selfe-religion nothing smells of any other save her owne wisedome and ends as here we see in Naaman nothing savour'd or relisht with his nostrils or appetite save to be his owne carver and to appoint the Prophet a way of his owne 1. Her instinct Assistance and aid comes not fast enough from any other fountaine save her owne As the Egyptian Midwives spake of the women of Israel they were not as other women but quicke of travell ere the Midwife came at them Exod. 1. so is it here it is a wearisome waiting for Selfe to wait in paine till the Midwife of a promise come to them they can dispatch more easily then so When Paul and the Pilot were with the Centurion the Centurion savored not the words of Paul but the Pilots One crotchet of her owne Act. 27. how her edge stands to such a Text Doctrine Sermon Promise and what her thoughts are of it is more to her then what the instinct scope and savour of the Spirit aimes at shee weighes out to her selfe Gods treasures not according to the Ballances of the Sanctuary and the weights thereof but her owne not halfe so bigge and so shee is found but light The reason is she is not altered in subject that is in her selfe but in object onely Now the object cannot alter the subject of it selfe without the grace thereof concurre therewith And therefore in all her acts shee consults with her owne likings savour and feelings as the Musitians eare with the tune or jarring of his strings Secondly her endeavour is suteable 2 Her endeavour she loves for the most part such performances as are more easie pleasing and welcome to the flesh balking those which are more spirituall and selfe-destroying preferres a devotion in generall before a speciall manner of it and hearing or reading before meditation single prayer before secret or continuall or occasionall or fasting c. And in this endevour of hers she hath no scruples but thinkes they shall prevaile If saith she I doe so and so read pray deny my selfe in such a liberty or doe such a duty I shall prevaile not adding this if I doe it in or by the warrant of such a word or promise carrying the strength of God therewith and look at my own endeavour as the servant of grace onely without any strength of mine owne I shall prosper And hereunto adde this That she rests in her endeavour never harkening what God will answer and whether he speake peace or no but reckoning her worke for a price This delusion is an inseparable evill from selfe As the Preachers zeale gifts perswasions are as her own performances and as her morall weighings of matters have beene so must grace needs follow God must be tied to a necessity of blessing all which comes from selfe whether she set God as chiefe
discovery of Grace in the effects of that discovery and the end of it For the first of these The Spirit of Grace is all for Grace in the discovery of the mystery of it the amplenesse largenesse height depth and length of it to the poore soule that it may appeare in all the excellency and fulnesse freedome bounty unchangeablenesse and wel be teamingnesse thereof that no corner of it may lie hidden from the heart of a sinner so farre as may further him in the bottoming of the soule in mercy This is a singular and peculiar act of the Spirit tending to this end that the soule may not stagger about the sufficiency of Grace which God offers unto her but may behold the power of the Priesthood of Christ once offering up himselfe as a compleat and spotlesse sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the elect needing no more to be offered able to procure from the Father endlesse wel pleasednesse and acceptance also a free offer of reconciliation and to create in the soule alone and of it selfe without any antecedent free will liking and cooperating of Selfe a most sufficient clearing of conscience from guilt and feare yesterday Heb. 10.3 Heb. 13.8 to day and for ever This cannot sinke into the heart of an hypocrite he cannot bee perswaded that there is enough in the Lord Jesus alone to discharge him in the Court of heaven the offer and promise are empty notions with him to sway all his strength upon neither dare hee rest thereupon with peace without a further addition of his owne feelings But the Spirit of Grace grounds the poore soule in this as the maine worke of all that so all the building may subsist thereon and makes sure retreat and refuge for her in the midst of her distresse that her foundation may not be shaken I wish that the method of that Epistle to the Hebrewes especially in the 7.8.9.10 Chap. might well be observed to the understanding of this act of the Spirit Secondly the Spirit of Grace doth not onely offer such a light to the soule but lets it in by her owne working into her setting the soule on worke to concurre with his revealing light and shewing it both that the Lord will conferre no lesse then all this Sufficiency upon a needing soule and therefore shee may without presumption take and partake them from his hand It sheweth her that it is the endlesse matchlesse Grace of God that he can find in his heart to pardon her yea to cast love upon her not only when she seems zealous and affectionate for Self can make her beleeve that but even when she is basest in her owne eies and under the conscience of her guilt when she is in her bloud when her originall loathsomenesse her actuall wickednes of thoughts of words of wrath hypocrisie and the like doe lye as a burthen upon her yet then even then marke what I say he hath love in a corner of his heart for such an one such as he will have herselfe confesse to be causlesse on her part yea such as if he had no more aime at being knowne to be loving then to love for any amiable thing in the object he would never shew to any Nay more lest the Spirit of Grace should leave any thing behinde him he doth offer to create the gift of faith in the soule Esay 5â— 19 to claspe upon this gift of mercy and includes this gift in the offer as knowing that it were in vaine to offer the one without working the other And hereby he causeth the soule to lay hold upon his strength and ablity to save as having received a ransome sufficient which is no other saving the writing of his covenant in the fleshy tables of her heart Esay 27 4.5 prepared by himselfe for the nonce And moreover that all this hee hath done of his owne free will and motion without any former principle acting him to intend it or concurring with him to create it I say he hath done it of himselfe as judging it meet for himselfe to doe whatsoever we bee and for the glory of his Name No entreaty of men or Angels no difficult tearmes of perswasion caused it but it flowed naturally from him as most honourable to his Majestie to doe Fifthly the Spirit of Grace stayes not here but proceedes to accommodate the soule to embrace this power of God for to what end should the Lord be willing to do it in her for her except she also felt sutable inclinations wrought in her soul towards it And therefore he moves her sadly to digest this grace offered to count it no light nor strange thing no nor yet beyond the soules apprehension but as on the one side hee causeth it to be most weighty pretious and to be highly valued so on the other side he makes it familiar sweet clear and evident not a thing above the clouds nor under the earth farre fetcht but neere the soule put into her bosome Rom. 10. belonging to her not to bee rejected or thrust away from her except she will perish These together with the infinite benefite of receiving it and the endlesse losse in forgoing it as being the onely remedy doe marvellously stablish the thoughts upon it and ravish the affections with it so that layes a most sad charge upon the poore soule upon paine of forfeiting her peace for ever not to passe it by slightly deadly and formally but to view and meditate of it savourly deep y unwâ—ariedly with admiration till by this mirrour of beholding the Lord with open face she be transformed to the gloriousnes of this gracâ— and carried 2 Cor. 3. end yea left in the streame thereof by the Spirit of the Lord. This for the first of the three particulars The second is the effect of this presenting worke of the Spirit And that is union The second worke the effect hereof viz. Union Whereby the Spirit of Grace shewes the soule into what a condition she is translated by faith in the promise That is she is made one with the Lord Jesus thereby and really partaker of all his good things true peace contentment in blessings crosses all conditions freedome from all former garboiles feares enemies joy in God and his salvation never to be divorced from him any more This causes the soule to shake off that wearisomenesse of Selfe never settled that bottomelessenesse never grounded that inconstancy and vanity never at rest and why Because it had no reall good to fasten upon and to determine those restlesse desires of hearts But now the Lord Jesus himselfe both in his present grace and hope of glory to come runues in her streame or rather turnes hers into his so that looke what Selfe was to her before emptily and barrenly now Christ is in her stead Christ is the Selfe of the soule he is all in all to her acts her comforts her staies her quickens her guides upholds
Christ and a lightnesse in his burthen Others a marveilous difficulty and such a thing as must be striven for and yet may be mist The answer is Heaven and Grace are both the most easie and the most difficult that can be Answ Grace is the hardest and the easiest thing of all Math. 19.26 both may well stand They are most easie to the soule which will bee taught of God and will not resist his method by attending their owne wisdome But to others they are matters of greatest difficulty To God all things are possible to flesh and bloud to the wit and will of man to the freedome of our owne choice nothing is so impossible I remember the answer of a Philosopher to a great Prince who had beene his scholar and was discontented at him for publishing his bookes be content saith hee and know my bookes of Philosophy are publisht and not published for none are ere the wiser for them save those to whom they were read and made evident So here The mystery of Christ is the most easie and the most hard easie only to such as in whom the Lord hath opened an eare Job 33.15 and revealed it to others hard So much for Instruction Vse 2 Secondly this is Terror to all such libertines and carnall Gospellers who make Religion Faith great works light and slight matters Terror to many running away with them as horses with empty waggons not through any Branch 1 ease they have by the Spirit but from the excesse and superfluity of their own blindenesse and presumption Slighters of the worke of grace abuse the doctrine of ease Others are blinde idiots tell them of Regeneration and Conversion and they run to their own strength they doe hope well that if they put their good will to Gods God will so far enable them as to get somewhat They hope men make more ado about matters then God himselfe God hath told them that faith in the promise is easie and none of these sowre Preachers shall pull this liberty from them what needs all this adoe If God be on our side we feare nothing as long as men walke even and faire harmelesse and devout bearing a good minde toward God keepe their Church and pay all men their dues and give to the poore for ought they see God is mercifull will not the death of a sinner is found of them that sought him not Esay 65.1 Matth. 11. â—9 Esay 57.17 His yoke is easie he saith he will not bee alway heavy upon men he knowes we be no Angels yea he saith that he hath seene the iniquity of mens covetousnesse and hee will heale them and make no more adoe It is for his glory to bee mercifull As for these Ministers who sticke so much at the truth of heart and faith unfaigned they say onely God knowes the heart and they trouble mens heads more then they doe them good making men unquiet and finding out new crotchets What is mans life say they if hee may not bee merry and cheerfull God loves it and Christ hath dearly bought it and its best to be merry eat and drinke and cast away care God say these hath made us of bodies as well as soules we be not all spirit nor shall be in this world we must tend Sermons so as we may tend our worke too our bodies must be made of for God and what skils it though we play and be good fellowes and drinke a cup or two so it be in the feare of God although we be none of these Puritans yet wee be not against them we hope by this meanes to spend out our short time having God afore our eies and to be in heaven ere we be aware Oh yee wofull creatures Doe you thus construe Gods ease I aske you Hath the Lord ever brought you under the bondage of spirit for all your cursed nature and impious prophanenesse Did it ever cut you off from your old stocke Did it ever bring yee under hope No doubtlesse Thinke not then to make faith an easie purchase upon your owne purse it will be one day in that your last night of death and darkenesse such a toilesome journey through tempest and foule weather dirt and wearinesse that you shall be quite tired and then shall true toile succeed false ease Hearken not to that lying spirit which beares you in hand all ease ease for it shall turne to extremity of anguish and to a desperate impossibility The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it The Lord indeed moderates the labour of his poore weary travellers to Zion Psal 84. So that they shall grow from strength and feele no faintnesse But no man shall goe up in a feather bed to heaven if it were ever an easie way it was never easie foolehardy stout travellers which boast of their limbes shall faint suddenly Matth. 15. Dogs must not come with poore children for Gods dole it belongs not unto them So much for the first Branch Others also there are whom this terror reacheth unto And they are Branch 2 base hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God Hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God are rejected devising painfull and tedious waies of their owne but shunning Gods easie way They will obtrude their whole rivers of oile and wine and whole barns of corne for the sinne of their soules whereas he askes onely a third part of an Hin and an handfull of flower for a meat offering A poore thing in Gods way is better excepted then all excesse of our owne Ye load mee saith God and pester me with your offerings I groane under the burthen of your sacrifices Honour me in mine owne way and I will make it easie and sweet to you But else the sand is not more heavy to mens shoulders then you to Gods you are out of Gods element therefore every thing is weighty you may complaine that you are not regarded but the Lord pitties no toile of hypocrites against his word Elija shall sooner consume the sacrifice with fire from heaven by standing still and praying in Gods way then all Baals Priests with their lancings and leapings upon the Altar Cost without wit is waste It s said of Ionathan that he had wrought with God that day on which he overcame those Philistins So I say Gods people work with God 1 King 18.28 with 37. 1 Sam. rather he with them but hypocrites work with themselves therefore they lay out their labour for that which profits not and mony for no bread They goe against the streame a Esau in his hunting for the blessing went another way with lesse adoe Esay 55.2 1 Sam. 14.45 2 Tim 3.7 As it s said in Timothy Alway hearing never comming to knowledge Oh the endlesse bootlesse toile of hypocrites You poore asses running the Divells round and grinding in his mill with your eyes blindfold at last be scared out of your trade You doe but as Sampson
of difficulty to obey he is much more ready to obey in easier and lesser because else he should justly question his sincerity in the greater The same generall tye lying upon the soule in both great and small the soule dares not offend in the small lest it should seeme to obey the greater for some ends of it owne to avoid the shame which the neglect of the greater might rather cause then the violation of the smaller Reason 3 Thirdly faithfulnesse in the greater takes away that barre of falshood which might hinder the performance of the smaller Perhaps a false heart might possibly buckle to a greater worke of Piety or Charity then to a smaller because it sees more carnall content accruing to it selfe by the greater then by the smaller But a sincere heart that abhorres falshood is carried by another instinct and cares not so much what men thinke as what God thinkes remembring that speech Not he who men praiseth is a true Jew or Christian but whom God praiseth The argument in sundry respects prevailes with a Christian from the lesser to the greater Rom. 2. ult as well from the greater to the lesser When great duties lye upon him to be done he argues thus Shall I make conscience of smaller secreter offences and shall I not much more abhor the grosser Doe I provide for my owne peace in the smaller so that the least gnat makes me straine and doe I not make much more conscience of greater which would more waste and weaken my peace So in good things Doe I make conscience of smaller duties as to give an almes to rule my tongue or a passion wherein God is lesser honoured and doe I not much more regard the maine duties of faith and the purging of my heart and inner man from hypocrisie in which I should honour him much more Again when the question is of lesser sinnes avoiding or duties doing then it disputes another way Have I found the yoke of God light unto me in those things which I feared my base heart would never be drawne too because of their difficulty and danger and shall I draw backe in smaller wherein no such hurt or hardnesse is to be feared Surely this were to requite God evill for good and to bewray my lewdnesse that I seeke starting holes and excuses to shake off the yoke when I see the least crevis of liberty to the flesh afforded so that I will serve God no more then needs must and would shift my hands of the greatest much more if the necessity thereof and the expectation of others did not compell me So then the point is cleer He that is faithfull in a greater will be so much more in the lesser Howbeit the point must be understood aright Explanation of the point and according to the naturall meaning and intent of it we must therefore qualifie Greatnesse and Smalnesse in their due measure or else the point will not hold First we must qualifie men aright in their opinion for to some men that may seem greatest which to another is smallest and another may judge that least which another thinks greatest When that young man came to our Saviour and told him He had kept all the Commands from his youth our Saviour answered him Goe sell all The scope of Christ was to confute his presumption in keeping all by laying open his inability to keepe one and that lesser then any of the morall ones For to obey one command in the manner and due measure thereof is that which never yet flesh could do But to sell all hath beene done by many who never obeyed one command of the morall Law in his extent and fulnesse Now yet marke this young man tooke it otherwise for hee thought to sell all to be harder then all the other in which respect our Saviour searcht him to the quicke but in the thing it selfe it was not so Againe in this case circumstances prove essentialls sometimes as of time for at some time a man may be fit for a greater who at another is not fit for a smaller As to give ten pound at his death for religious uses who perhaps while hee lived could not so well spare tenne shillings Also the preparation of the heart must be considered In the generall David may be thought to be readier to pardon Mephibosheth then Shemei the one failing by error the other substantially but he was armed in the case of the one but naked in the other Besides he beheld Shemei under a true colour as set on by God to try him but the other in a false as suspecting that a favorite should be treacherous which was nothing so So a generall custome of corrupt nature may fasten greater degree upon a lesser thing and a lesser upon a greater Act. 14. Those people of Lycaonia might have thought it a greater humility for men to abase themselves to men then to God But Idolatry and corrupt custome caused even their proud hearts to proffer worship to Paul and Barnabas as agreeing with a fleshly heart rather then God himself whom when they were urged to worship they tooke up stones to kill the Apostles And endlesse it were to shew the variety of respects wherein this rule may faile But this I say if the true natures of things and the judgements of men about them be reconciled taking things in their due extent without error then the point alway holds true He that is faithfull in the greater is so much more in the smaller For why A Christian is acted by such a spirit as teaches him to doe all things with sincerity equality and proportion both great and small one and another lest if any flaw appeare it should breed a disproportion in the eye of God or of man and cause an ey-sore to both As when wee see a comely face joyned to a crooked body or a deformed and crooked back and shoulders to a good countenance presently there appeares an indignation in us at the eye-sore Vse 1 The first Use is for Instruction It informes us of the reason why many men who seem forward in some greater acts of religion especially for the bulke thereof yet faile most grossely in the smaller Iâ—struction It s a shrewd marke of unfaiâ—hfulnesse to be forward in great duties and backward in small Surely it is an argument of great unfaithfulnesse and impurity of spirit For if there were soundnesse there would bee much more forwardnesse in lesser then in greater as being joyned with lesse damage and difficulty But when the heart is impure there is no sure rule in a man to keep him in he may bee franke in greater acts and very defective in smaller What was the cause that moved our Saviour to magnifie the woman that cast in two farthings into the treasury above them that cast in handfulls of silver Mark 12.43 Not for the summe but the different spirit of both She cast in out of devotion and would have
our Crib as binde an unstedfast man to one settled course in Religion or duties Alas he is a man at his owne hand an outlaw masterlesse not redeemed with a price from the service of himselfe and his vagrant humours to serve God Conclusion of the Use To conclude labour for truth as a girdle to compasse thy soule and that will set this argument on foote for thee and keepe in thy sides as a corner stone doth the walles from flying out this will set thy course streight If thou hast beene zealous in Gods matters this will awe thee to a zealous care of a sutable walking in the second Table If thou hast obeyed the Lord in doing his will it will urge thee to bee as conscionable in suffering also for God if thou hast denyed thy selfe in the promise of salvation it will compell thee also to renounce thy selfe liberty and life for God in the matter of persecution the crosse for his names sake It will alway be reading that maxime to thee whatsoever is done according to God is done equally Disproportion in Religion argues great unsoundnesse And as it will argue from the greater to the smaller for an holy sutablenesse so it will doe also from the smaller to the greater for the procuring of the greater glory to God For alas what is our greatest and best but silly Except he accepted us who hath said Thou good and faithfull servant thou hast been faithfull in a little be ruler over much Marth 25. enter into thy Masters joy Vse 5 To finish all this should bee comfort to all faithfull ones because God will trust them Disconsolation to the unequall and unsound and men wil honour them and dismayment to all sly and subtill ones who cannot bee trusted Let men plead for themselves as they will and insinuate themselves into the mindes of some Christians as they can thinking to encredit and ingratiate themselves into their affections by their shew of zeale at some running pulls or in their good moodes yet God and such as are wise to observe their inconstancy will be so bold as to doubt of them by their leaves It s to be noted that although Barnabas for kindred sake favoured Iohn Marke Act. 15.38 to associate him to the worke which himselfe and Paul went about yet Paul and the Church who had noted his staggering before in the same worke durst not trust him then and it was a just blur unto him The Lord warrants us to suspect the inconstant and hee will have constancy and sincerity to be honoured Read the Scripture and you shall observe a brand of infamy set upon them who have withdrawne themselves from the yoke of God Those spyes how are they blurred Numb 14. Caleb and Ioshua how honoured Phinees in the case of Zimri and Cozbi those Levites in the common defection of the Tribes to Idolatry Exod. 32. how are they graced That curse of Iaacob was by this meane turned to a blessing as appeares by the reason which Moses gives thereof Deut. 33.7 If we have observed a man not to be trusty in great matters of executorships or other trust reposed upon him though he be never so neer thee honour him not with such a trust for he hath disabled himself It is no uncharitablenesse at all but wisdome and caution He that in a smaller office of the Towne hath been slacke and backed the bad trust him in no greater let him have the repulse with shame The like I might say in other cases He that in marriage hath lived badly with one wife let him not have thy voice for another till thou see a change Put not thy child to be a servant to him or her who by their ill government of former servants is disabled in in their credit Hee that cannot rule his owne children well commit not the education of thine to him either living or dying for feare of unfaithfulnesse And so much for this Verse this Doctrine and Lecture The end of the Fifthteenth Lecture THE SIXTEENTH LECTVRE upon the Fourteenth VERSE VERSE XIIII Then he went downe to Iorden and washed himselfe seven times according to the saying of the man of God and his flesh came againe as the flesh of a young child and he was cleane WEE are now by Gods assistance come to the 14. Verse and the upshot of the foregoing Story wherein I told you brethren that the fourth and last generall head of the whole is contained Transition to the â—ourteenth Verse viz. the issue of the counsell of the Prophet and of the Servants That is the cure of Naaman both bodily and ghostly A very sweet conclusion of so sad a distemper as passed betweene and so happy as every one that would wish it a good end could not have wisht it better then it fell out In the which that wee may steere our course aright in the beginning let us doe with this as wee did with the former generalls that is analyse it into the naturall branches arising from it The Verse in generall containes the obedience of Naaman to the charge of the Prophet Explication and Analyse of this fourth generall and it hath two parts to wit the act of his obeying Or the consequents thence following In the former we have three things First the time when Then he went viz. being by the counsell of the servants and the perswasion of Gods Spirit brought downe from his former resolution and mollified to an humble spirit of obeying Then he went The Prophets message enraged him But the Servants counsel overpowres him We may say of it as Deborah in another case said to Barak Judg. 4. Thou shalt not have the honour of the victory but a woman So the Prophet must not have the credit of the conquest but the poore Servants The second is the act it selfe noting wherein the worke of faith consists even in the obedience of the soule to a word of command and promise He went and washed seven times The third is the extent of his obedience it was full as large and no more then the word of charge and promise imported for he did according to the saying of the man of God The sense of it is he went not casually or for his own ends or by compulsion because they would needs force him to it but of his owne accord by the leading of the word The second generall is the consequents hereof and they are first or remote The first and chiefe is the issue of his obedience partly expressed and partly implyed expressed at large as if the holy Ghost would be as full in laying down the issue on Gods part as he had done the obedience of the part on Naaman His flesh became as a childs cleere and contrary to the scurvy and unsightly flesh of a leper and he was cleane as if hee should say God was not wanting in his performance to the uttermost nay did more then he promised cast in
thou hast excelled them all 2. Branch Prerogative of Faith And secondly the prerogative of faith is sutable to her nature for although many things are very pretious in nature as jewells which excell in lustre and brightnesse which yet equall not the price with any reall use Job 28.19 yet this pretious grace is as usefull also and therefore well might Salomon say and so Iob also She is more pretious then Rubies and the Topaz of Ethiopia shall not bee taken for her And that appeares by this that she is the doer of all in all in the soule both for light In sundry respects direction and strength First for light as the Sunne is first subject of naturall light in the world So is Faith in the supernaturall divine light in the soule And is to the whole man as our Saviour speakes of the eye if it be light then is the whole body light the hand Matth. 6.22 the foote the members are all light if the eye be cleare And as the Ephod or Urim were to the Priest so is faith to the soule even the oracle of it and conceives the deep things of God and reveals them to us to whom before they were hidden And if it be true as it s most true that we know no more in Gods matters then wee beleeve then surely faith is the key of all true and saving knowledge in the soule Then also she is the directresse of the soule As servants from the Master or Mistresse so doe all the graces of the Spirit receive direction from the gift of faith As in a ship each boy hath his taske some to row with oares in the boat others to climb the shreeds to pumpe to stop the leaks some to attend the steridge but all receive direction from the boatswaine he orders them and their works So Faith workes not every thing immediately in the frame of a Christian she hath abundance of workemen and as the Centurion said to his so Faith saith to hers Doe this suffer this conquer this come goe and they all obey If a crosse come goe Patience endure it If a blessing come Sobriety use it temperately as if thou didst not use it If any duty of mercy to soule or body to be done Charity and Liberality must doe them If any hard taske then Wisedome Diligence or Selfe-deniall must step forth and to these Faith gives their charge and orders their worke Thirdly she is the strength of all other graces of the Spirit As all sinewes are from the braine all Arteries from the heart all veines from the liver thence they derive their originall and all that activity which they exercise in the body So 1 Joh. 3.9 all the graces of the Spirit fetch their being and support from Faith Shee is the seed of God in the Soule and she is the strength of God also His seed because whatsoever divinenesse is in the gift of patience long-suffering thankfulnesse mercy love hope of salvation it comes from the fountaine of Faith She is the Merchant Royall all other Chapmen have their wares from her Store-house Then she is the strength also of God in all graces Whatsoever thou seest excellent in a Christians frame or graces if thou hadst an eye to see thou shouldst behold them all in one faith out of whole Forge and Anvill they are all formed For why Faith taking hold of Gods maine strength to save carries away all his strength to obey if God will save me surely hee deserves my love my patience and surely hee and his love will put mee forth and uphold me in doing for him in curbing my passions in mortifying my Giant-like corruptions the great sonnes of Anak those Emims and Zanzummims 2 Cor. 5.8 Esay 26.12 which are above all the rest in fiercenesse and strength So that now mark this Doctrine of Faith casting the Soule upon the Word and Promise for pardon and life argues the most excellent nature and prerogative of faith above all other It is evident by this whatsoever the Lord workes in man he workes by the Word and the Spirit and whatsoever these two act in the soule they act it by faith as their onely instrument so that Faith is the onely Intelligencer to the Soule from the Spirit and from Heaven and that grace which is maintained as agent for God in the soul No other gift is so As hee saith of the ship that there are in it many who do needfull works but the Pilot doth all in all he doth not so sordid works as they but he doth greater and better for he sits at the sterne and guides the course of the Ship into the Haven the other are but subordinate but shee is principall so I may say of Faith and other graces all of them conferre to the well-being of a Christian but faith to the being The Ship boyes stop leakes and row with Oares but they doe not the great worke of guiding the Ship by Card and Compasse till she come at land So all that which any grace of the Spirit doth that faith doth But faith doth somewhat which they doe not nor can doe Nay faith is faine to cover all the defects of other graces to save them harmlesse and to beare their chin above water from sinking As we see that the Shield is not onely armour to fence the body Ephes 6.16 but also to fence off blowes and affronts from all the armour it selfe so that the dint come not at the head-peece or corslet or the rest Onely faith brings the Lord Jesus into the soule to doe all her workes in her and for her and when all is done to pardon the wants and to cleanse away the spots thereof by cloathing her with that robe under which God seeth no deformity to impute or punish it To conclude I say brethren that I presse this purposely that as I have spoken much of those things in this Book which tend to faith so I would perswade you to thinke no paines too great to bestow in the getting thereof because this grace being once gotten to cast the soule upon the Word and Promise yea God himselfe in Christ By this meane she hath all because she encloseth him who is all in all in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdome who is the fulnesse of God in whom we are complete And so much may serve for this use Vse 2 Another use of instruction may be to give us some further light into the substance of this grace of faith Of Instruction Faith hath two parts 1. Self denial by shewing you of what ingredients the receit is made or of what parcels it consists And they are two The former deniall of our selves The latter resigning up of the soule to Gods Word For to cast the soule upon the promise implies both these Selfe-deniall then first is one parcell of this grace For why It is impossible that the soule should cast it selfe upon a Word
of Ivory or Gold But the Lord onely exalts himselfe in the spirit and conscience there he sits as Soveraigne and causes it to become his owne Recorder witnesse and Judge against the person himselfe so that the greatest selfe-love in the world cannot bribe the conscience to side with the sinner against him who is the Lord of conscience and can condemne both the one the other 1 John 3.20 Matth. 10.28 Feare not him who can kill the body onely but him who can cast body and soule into hell fire I say unto you feare him So then the Soveraignty of the commands of God stands much in the intents of God and that meaning of his to rule the spirits of his subjects and in all their obedience either negative or affirmative either in doing or suffering to cast a secret chaine upon the conscience to obey cheerfully equally uprightly wisely constantly For instance in the worship of a Sabbath the abhorring of oppression the suffering for the cause and truth of God the Lord lookes not at the externall act but the intent of the soule and the pure carriage of the heart towards himselfe as with what delight it keepes a Sabbath how cordially it preserves the spirit chaste and cleane for what ends it suffers the crosse whether for Gods or it owne Thus much for the former Quest 2. What is meant by the extent of a command The latter is what is meant by the extent of a command I answer The full reach of the command As for instance First the unlimitednesse of the command The Lord makes not some Lawes for great ones and some for small ones as if the great flye might get through the cobweb but the little ones must be taken but his nets as they are small enough to catch the small fish so they are strong enough to hold Whales and the mightest They reach to all sorts without limit rich and poore noble and simple high and low one and another Secondly their extent stands in their influence to all The Princes law reaches to all his Subjects as well as to his Chamber of London but yet the law-giver reacheth no further then his presence in absence and behinde his backe his Lawes are slighted But this Law-giver is omnipresent and assists his Lawes with immediate influence causing them to convince in secret as well as in publicke and is able to execute his owne Lawes to the uttermost so that for lacke of strength and reach of arme no sinner can goe unpunished Thirdly this breadth reaches in the affirmative command to the negative and in the negative to the affirmative as directly as if they had both been expressed In the narrow Lawes of men the sense and scope of the Law must bee limited to the words of the Statute which as the common speech is have no meaning in them beyond the tearmes thereof But the power of Gods commands stands in their insinuations and imply somewhat by necessity which they expresse not Fourthly their extent stands in the coherence thereof to wit that whatsoever maine good or evill the Lord commands or forbids by the same power hee forbids or commands whatsoever concernes that command the means tending thereto the occasions leading all circumstances attending whatsoever possibly the soule of man can apprehend directly or indirectly to make for that Law or to thwart or crosse that Law Fifthly it reaches to the quantity and measure of the duty urging not only sin to be shunned in the greatest degree but also in the smallest and so duty to be done not only in the main peeces but in the pettiest all proceeding from the same goodnesse and justice Sixthly it reaches to the measure of the principle of obeying urging it to obey not coldly deadly slackly formally but to put forth the uttermost affection strength wisdome will courage zeale reach and largenesse fruitfulnesse and extension of the inward and outward man to concurre with the meaning of the Commander which the Holy Ghost calls all welpleasing Col. 1.7 Seventhly it reacheth to an universality of time place occasions not to be limited straitened and circumscribed at our narrow will and pleasure but tyes us alway yesterday to day and ever to one obedience Heb. 13.8 not to vary with the time with the multitude by occasion of dangers feares losses enmity power of man not to be cast off in private in secret but to be enlarged according to it selfe generally to all circumstances This is a field of matter but I have already elsewhere walked in it in some sort as the reader hereof may perceive by that I have written in my practicall Catechisme part 3. in the article of the directive rule of our obedience the Law of God where I treat fully of the point So much for this second To these two questions a third may be added Object and answered ere we goe any further and that is that it may seem harsh to presse this point under the Gospell since that the liberty thereof takes off this strictnesse and limits commands from the old extent of them to the ease of the Gospell To the which I answer That the Gospell is so farre from that loosenesse that rather it establishes Answ extends and corroborates them then otherwise A great part of our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount is spent in confuting this conceit Matth. 5.6.7 not onely of Pharisaicall but of Antinomian abuse and dissolutenesse Paul also tells us Ro. 2. ult that faith setles the Law stronger upon her bottome then ever So that he is as well accursed now as ever who shall adde or detract Rev. 22. True it is that the terror rigor and the impossiblenesse of the Law is removed by our Lord Jesus The Law how far it s strengthened or weakned by the Gospell 1 Tim. 1.5.6 but looke what is taken off in that kinde is supplied in another for the spiritualnesse and purity of obeying is enlarged now rather then diminished only it is true that even in this enlargement the Lord Jesus hath made his yoke most sweet and easie to them who out of faith love and a good conscience seeke the end of the commandement as Paul speakes of which more shall be occasioned to speake after if God will in the use of Exhortation It s enough here to say That as the Lord Jesus hath removed that burdensomenesse tyranny and irkesome rigor of Lawes which was intollerable so he hath put another yoke upon the soule instead thereof which although love make sweet yet justice will not abate nor cut off Love made Iacobs labour welcome but still the frost was tedious and the heat wearisome Gen. 29.20 and the conditions hard enough to flesh and bloud So much for this and for the ground of the point Now in the third place I come to the use of the Doctrine And Vse 1 first let it be Instruction and Caveat to all superiours and men in dignity and authority as to acknowledge
at times or a little water in a glasse to keepe it sweet will this prove a cure Or if he go to a cunning Chirurgion and he tell him I can cure you and make you as sound a man as ever you were but then you must be at some cost endure some paine be content to be lanced or to have your sore search'd to the quick or to have the dead flesh deeply corrasived and then to be tented and to be patient till it be quite healed But then the sore man should say Alas here is cost I am loth to waite so long Can you not bind it up for me the whiles and keepe it warme and the Ague from taking it if you can I le be content a while and hereafter I will come againe But by that time the sore is gangreen'd or fistulated or hath taken the bone and marrow and the Cihrurgion tels him it is incurable his legge must be cut off or it will cost him his life Would any man praise this man Surely such are many lazars cures even such as will make them creeples or bed-rid ones But sound cures we heare of few In the feare of God take warning All cures are not of one sort God can bee slight with the slight and sound with the sound Therefore come unto him open thy wound move him to pity thou art but a dead man if he helpe not come ere thy heart be quite hardned and past hope confesse his skill submit to his cure let him search tent and handle thee as he will If a sound cure be thine aime to get an heart truly purged of thy humours broken beleeving and repentant know the Lord can cure thee wholly as good cheape as by halfes renounce thy patchery and hollownesse and come to plaine termes and he can make thy flesh come againe as a childs But know that till then no spirit of a cure will be seene in thee nothing save a shifting shuffling doubtfull darke and staggering course will be come by Onely this sound cure will create a spirit of cure in thee to be a zealous humble and close Christian to be for the honour of Him who hath delivered thee from death and hell which no Physitian under Heaven save him selfe could have done for thee Use 2 Secondly Terrour this may be terrour to all whose frame is contrary Branch 1 to this spirit of Grace and Conversion So farre from being for God his Glory his Gospel and Ordinances so farre from the spirit of thankes Terrour to all such as nourish open and notorious diseases in themselves zeale and joy for grace and pardon that they still continue in the myre of their owne filth and still wallow in their defilements of covetousnesse prophanenesse uncleannesse and the like wofull wayes So contrary to the spirit of such as God hath healed that they carry about and upon them the nasty and leprous skin of Naaman An heathenish brutish and ignorant mind void of all light of truth an uncircumcised heart a rebellious obstinate and impenitent course fraught with all sinne possesses them I may say these rather have the spirit of deepe and mortall disease upon them then the spirit of a cure they carry that in their bosomes which is farre more mortall then Naamans disease To wit the spirit of old Adam of blindnesse bad customes the spirit of the earth and their lusts nay worse the spirit of rebellion malice and untractablenesse of heart they will not be reproved nor convinced but fight against the Lord and his truth yea some of them against their owne light which is as contrary to the spirit of Grace as can be Oh! the sinnes they commit are committed with an high hand they were never slaine by the killing letter of the Law but are alive jolly and secure their sinne weares a Crowne the King is not higher when he weares his Crowne then these are when they are in their Alehouses their games their adulterous and ungodly practises Their tongues are their owne for they were never redeemed with a price their passions humours are violent Their thoughts Psal 12.5 1 Cor. 6.20 Esay 13.22 a very through-fare for the Devill as Esay saith an habitation of Dragons and Ostriches so furious so false in their dealings so intemperate that none can live by them Brethren it is one thing to have sinne another to have a spirit of sinne A spirit of wrath is a prevailing habitednesse of it a spirit of revenge is a restlesse spirit never quiet till it have wreckt it selfe upon an enemy a spirit of uncleannesse is to be given over to it a spirit of the world is when not onely the soule hath the world but the world hath it It is one thing for a man to fall into a river and to have some water got into his body A spirit of sin what and how fearfull it is Heb. 13.5 another to lie under water and to be drown'd in it The Apostle Heb. 13.5 tels us of a conversation in covetousnesse or the love of silver as the word is which is then when a man is in the power of that lust when it hath got the soule into her snare and chaines so that the flame and bent of it is for gaine all the thoughts affections and devices of the heart are that way sleeping waking alone or in company in calling or in worship of God worky dayes or Sabbaths all is fish comes to net with such a base heart as is powred out after that Idoll And Brethren how many still of our people are such as these So farre from the spirit of Grace tendernesse 2 Cor. 4.4 compassions bowels of deare affection to God to his truth and Name that rather the spirit of the Prince of this world rules in them acts and carries them as sworne slaves of hell and foes of grace according to his owne pleasure Oh brethren these are the sadde times wherein the true spirit of Grace and of a converted soule are rare dainties Since the power of the Gospel hath beene resisted God hath given men over to the spirit of all sensuall prophanenesse The spirit of roysting swearing drunkennesse long lockes and all lust yea scorning the Gospell and all wholsome Ministery is come in stead thereof That promise of powring out the spirit of prophecie upon all flesh is gone The spirit of the Stewes and Alehouse Ioel 2. ignorance and every man for himselfe is come in The faces of men and women are altred with their spirits into the faces of Lions Wolves and foxes The Gospel serves either for a stalking-horse of hypocrites or a scare-crow of the lewd Except God be a breaking off our whole frame and knocking together of our old brasse and pewter to melt us and mould us anew in the Furnace of affliction I know not what to thinke of the spirit that rules among us If Heathens should see some of us it would make them loath the Gospel and
embrace their gods Bacchus Venus and the rest more strongly then ever Enough wee have who are of the spirit of Caiphas his Hall and those that spited scorned and spit at Christ crying Crucifie him not many whose spirits are towards him tender to his glory to his mercy and grace to his poore Church and people Oh the spirit of ambition selfe-love is now all in all What should I say to such except they be accursed by Gods owne mouth that never any good should seaze upon them let this point in Gods feare scare them Me thinkes thou shouldst not heare of such a spirit of Grace and tendernesse as I speake of but thy soule shoâ—ld tremble and thy heart throb in thy bosome to consider what a contrary spirit of corruption and hell thou walkest with Oh! if God should leave thee to this spirit of thine owne to be conceited of thy selfe to feare no danger to be carelesse what may betide thee and to adde drunkennesse unto thirst what shall become of thee what is wanting save hell it selfe to make up the woe of such a soule And yet I tell thee this is not farre off from thee Read Deut. 29. Deut 29.15 If any man hearing the words of this booke and the curses thereof shall yet say in his heart I shall have peace I shall fare well I feare nothing Especially if conceited of its owne welfare the wrath of God shall smoke out against such a man and God will not be entreated of him for why he is over head and eares in the spirit of gal bitternesse a thousand to one if ever he recover Therefore looke about thee in season As the Lord said to Elijah in the cave so say I to thee Up arise and goe forth for thou hast a great journey to goe ere thou come at the Horeb of God I wish thee to goe by mount Sinai and hath thy base spirit throughly with those terrours of God 1 Kings 19.7 which may gaster thee with some feeling of thy condition Sinne is got into thy spirit and hath seated it selfe deeply in the entrals of thy soule A great gulfe is set betweene thee and the spirit of grace therefore pull downe thy rebellious heart and as Peter said to Simon Magus try by all meanes whether this thy sinne may be forgiven thee The spirit of grace is joyned with the spirit of mourning Acts 8.22 Try whether God cannot bring thee out of one spirit of bitternesse into a contrary for he promiseth that all humbled ones shall be in bitternesse as a thing steept in vineger as he that is in bitternesse for the losse of his onely sonne Zach. 12.10 Bitternesse of a prophane and presumptuous heart must be turned into the bitternesse of a broken and subdued spirit Oh! that ever I should exalt folly so highly and disdaine mercy yea kill the Lord of life as I have done Read Acts 2. Acts 2. where this prophecy was fulfilled in such as crucified Christ himselfe and yet being pierced in heart for it the Lord powred the spirit of grace into them and annointed them with oyle of gladnesse and joy so that they who murthered him had the first hansell of life and pardon from him Oh blessed art thou if the like portion might befall thee who hast ventured as farre as they did So much for this Branch 2 Secondly it is terrour to all Neuters and Sceptiques whose spirit seemes not so ranke and cursed Indifferency Neutrality of spirit worse then prophanenesse Numb 23. 25. but yet is as deepe and dangerous because they maintaine a vile spirit of indifferency and mediocrity in stead of this spirit of grace They say as Balac did to Balaam Neither blesse nor curse In this respect they are worse then the former because they utterly abandon all sense of the Gospel and become fulsome Atheists upon point neither hot nor cold fish nor flesh They would seeme to hate open villanies But then they much more abhorre the spirit of the Gospel Their spirits are flat and flash whereas the spirit of the Gospel is tender Luke 14. ult zealous and powerfull Wofull ones hanging betweene Heaven and Earth cast downe from Heaven vomited up from the earth Salt which hath lost his savour good for nothing no not for the dunghill All their skill stands in selfe-concealments forsooth their religion and conscience may not be known What can you worke wonders can you carry coales in your bosomes and not be burnt Such have their Religion to chuse Doubtlesse the not burning of your bosomes by this fire argues that there is not one coale of the Altar fallen upon them you are Quench-coale no sparkle of grace can kindle upon your cold hearth you must needs be ashamed of the Gospel because the spirit of magnifying it and of justifying wisdome is not in you but rather an aloofe dead and Gallio-like spirit is in you Whether you serve Christ or Beliall whether you be Popish or Protestant who but God can judge And surely you lie fulsome upon his stomach Acts 18.15 as luke-warme water and that which makes you happy in your own conceit will prove you accursed in Gods It were better you were hot or cold then thus wambling and next to be vomited for ever out of the mouth of him Revel 3.19 who never returnes to his vomit Under pretext that thou darest not trust men thou betrayest God and the spirit of the Gospel a remedy worse then the disease To be as wise as a Serpent I disswade thee not But shall this destroy that naked simplicity and spirit of love to God and his truth which where it cannot goe will creepe and play at small game rather then sit out What Matth. 10. 2 Cor. 10.4 because we cannot expresse our selves in such acts and services as we would or have done shall we serve God with neither might spirit or courage at all Is that command dispensable and confined to this season or to that hath God no need of thee in dangerous times or because thou darest trust no man wilt thou therefore trust no God Shall the Gospel carry thee no further then ease and the serving of thine owne fleshly turne will concurre Wilt thou dare to doe any thing against the spirit of the Gospel because thou hast not elbow-roome sufficient to act that part as thou wouldest It is just with God to take it quite from thee because thou walkest contrary to it And to give thee over to a close spirit of thine owne that thou shouldest jeere and scorne the zealous as Micoll did David dancing with his Ephod before the Arke 2 Sam. 6.20 Was not the King a goodly foole to day How many of these Neutrall spirits have growne to it Let it gaster us from it and teach us to nourish such a spirit in our bosomes as the Gospel hath wrought if ever any such were wrought and to be farre from disdaining
one thing within the whole compasse of Religion more usually counterfeited then this neither is there any one point in which either the deceit of the heart is more dangerous or the soundnesse of it more comfortable to the soule then this is We read in stories that all brave Princes have beene counterfeited by sycophants Charles the fifth Edward the sixth of England and others But although their outsides favoured them yet their spirit discarded them at last a base-bred fellow cannot equall the spirit of noble bloud All Judasses and Theudasses Acts 5. came to naught Acts 5. end because they had bastard spirits There was once as a French rare History hath it a Souldier in the Campe wherein one Martin Guerra a rich Citizen of Tholouse served who being in all points like to that Guerra A rare history of a French counterfeit and getting so farre in with him as to know the secrets that had passed betweene him and his wife at last brake from the Army to Tholouse and boldly went home to Guerra his wife as his owne and after some little suspition yet so cleared all doubts that he accompanied her as his wife and lived in peace till at last the true Guerra comming home and claiming his wife a sute in Law was commenced at Tholouse betweene them and had not some privie markes at last betweene her and the true husband cleared the controversie to the Court the counterfeit had brought them to such a demurre that they knew not what to determine And so may it fare here such are the apish imitations of impudent and unsuspected Hypocrites in point of zeale devotion affections and abstinencies from sinne that the very annointed of God seemes to stand before him 2 Sam. 16.6 Nothing in this case is surer to determine the controversie then the spirit it selfe of true breed and Nativity Hardly can the spirit of birth and regeneration be long dissembled but one way or other earlier or later it will be discovered Triall of the true spirit of Grace is from it selfe Therefore let every one try himselfe by this marke even the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe Not at first perhaps for Alexander was almost crowded to death in the tumult at Ephesus and in Pauls quarrell almost puld in pieces a terrible patterne as a worthy Writer speakes But yet at length time tried him and he grew an open revolter after and was delivered to Satan Act. 19.33 compared with 2 Tim. 4.14 Acts 6.5 1 Tim. 1.20 2 Tim. 4.10 Matth. 13.27 Nicolas the Deacon cheated the twelve Apostles but his spirit betrayed him to be a wicked uncleane wretch Demas Hymenaeus and Philetus went farre but their spirit failed them The spirit of the Grape will not be counterfeited by the fruit of a Bramble the one is generous the other base Eagles breed no Crowes nor Doves any Kites nor Lions Foxes No more doth the spirit of Grace breed false Hypocrites Well said those servants The envious man hath sowne Tares for the Husbandman sowed nothing but good Wheate It will be an infallible marke of thy true birth if thine owne principle be throwne out and if the spirit of mercy become that in thee and unto thee which thine owne spirit once was even a second nature Grace will casheire and throw out thy usurping spirit As they cast out Ipta Iudg. 11.2 Note that it shall not reigne A false spirit workes from within to an outward but Gods Spirit workes from without to an inward operation That is Grace going out of her selfe and suspecting her selfe both for the metall and for the stampe for the kind and for the degree for the quality and for the continuance abhorring her own sparkes and false blaze still seekes out for a new spirit of Heaven a new frame of heart But our owne spirit seekes within her selfe what light what affections what imitations shewes and duties she can finde out never suspecting her impotency to reach truth and soundnesse Now although such may goe farre with their Lamps a long time yet at last want of Oyle will make their lamps flagge when their feelings cease when the praises of men faile when some of their actions cause them to be questioned and when some right wind blowes full upon them then they totter when the winds and floods came Mat. 7. ult the house ungrounded fell By one way or other it must at last appeare who are men of their owne stockes and who are bankrupts not to say this moreover that a wise man well marking the Spirit of Grace and comparing it with the other will by one signe or other easily discerne a Noble and true bred spirit from violent pangs even at the best But although he should not yet the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe in time and discard the spirit of the flesh A true sonne of faithfull Jonathan is a most precious peece to David though a poore lame creeple Gen. 25.6 Particular trials of the spirit of Grace then all the posterity of Saul besides One Isaac is more worth then all Ketura's brood The breed of a thing is all in all with men even in these outward creatures horses kine and the like So one soule of the right stamp is more precious with God then a thousand Be sure that the Word of the promise that immortall seed of God in the blood of a covenant bred thee to the hope of life The Word of God is the immortall seed which bred it and the assurance of pardon and this will turne all false principles of flesh and blood out of doores Prove thy genealogie that thou art an Hebrew of the Hebrewes a true borne Jew not of the letter but of the spirit of Grace and then thou hast that marke upon thee which will not be worne out God lookes first at what thou art for thy spirit and breed and then what thou dost Phil. 3.8 Rom. 2. ult Never vie upon him with thy heapes upon heapes of worships of means of duties but first approve thy selfe See Prov. 23.26 and these will follow alone as the wombe that conceives truly is free of all other conceptions so the true breed of the Spirit abandons all false conceptions If all other seed of thine owne all principles of flesh be cast out and the wombe of the soule cleane and cleare this spirit of grace may live and come to the birth in thee And all false preconceptions cast out The wombe that beares a true bred soule must be as the wombe that bare Immanuel a Virgin wombe wherein never any other fruit lay before The meere onely and pure love of the Father purchased by the blood of Christ must onely beget thee to God if ever thou be begotten and no lesse spirit Like Iosephs Tombe never any had lyen in it before Luk. 23.53 then that which united the Godhead of Jesus to his flesh will serve to beget thee to him