irrational creatures but at least it much imitateth Nature as it is found in Rational creatures where the Inclination is necessary but the Operations free and subject to Reason It is a spiritual appetite in the Rational appetite even the will and a spiritual visive disposition in the understanding Not a faculty in a faculty but the right disposition of the faculties to their highest objects to which they are by corruption made unsuitable So that it is neither a proper power in the Natural sense nor a meer act but neerest to the nature of a seminal disposition or habit It is the health and rectitude of the faculties of the Soul Even as Nature hath made the understanding disposed to Truth in generall and the will disposed or inclined to Good in generall and to self-preservation and felicity in particular so the Spirit of Christ doth dispose the understanding to spiritual truth to know God and the matters of salvation and doth incline the will to God and Holiness not blindly as they are unknown but to love and serve a known God So that whether this be properly or only analogically called A Nature or rather should be called a Habit I determine not but certainly it is a fixed Disposition and Inclination which Scripture calleth the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and the seed of God abiding in us 1 Joh. 3.9 But most usually it is called the Spirit of God or of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his 1 Cor. 12.13 By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body Therefore we are said to be in the Spirit and walk after the Spirit and by the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.1.9 13. And it is called the Spirit of the Son and the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father or are inclined to God as Children to their Father and the Spirit of grace and supplication Rom. 8.15.23.26 Gal. 4.6 5.17 18. Eph. 2.18 22. 4.3 4. Phil. 1.27 2.1 Zech. 12.10 From this Spirit and the fruits of it we are called New Creatures and quickened and made alive to God 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 2.15 Rom. 6.11 13. It is a great controversie whether this Holy disposition and inclination was Natural to Adam or not and consequently whether it be a restored nature in us or not It was so natural to him as Health is natural to the body but not so natural as to be a Necessitating Principle nor so as to be inseparable and unlosable 2. This same Spirit and holy inclination is in the weakest Christian also but in a small degree and remisly operating so as that the fleshly inclination oft seemeth to be the stronger when he judgeth by its passionate struglings within him Though indeed the Spirit of life doth not only strive but conquer in the main even in the weakest Christians Rom. 8 9. Gal. 5.17 18 19 20 21. 3. The seeming Christian hath only the uneffectual motions of the Spirit to a Holy Life and effectual motions and inward dispositions to some common duties of Religion And from these with the natural principles of self-love and common honesty with the outward perswasions of company and advantages his Religion is maintained without the Regeneration of the Spirit Joh. 3.6 V. From hence it followeth 1. That a Christian indeed doth not serve God for fear only but for love even for love both of himself and of his holy work and service Yea the strong Christians Love to God and Holiness is not only greater than his Love to Creatures but greater than his fear of wrath and punishment The Love of God constraineth him to duty 2 Cor. 5.14 Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 therefore the Gospel cannot be obeyed without it He saith not O that this were no duty and O that this forbidden thing were lawfull Though his Flesh say so the Spirit which is the predominant part doth not But he saith O how I love thy Law O that my wayes were so directed that I might keep thy statutes Psal. 119.5 For the spirit is willing even when the flesh is weak He serveth not God against his will but his will is to serve him more and better than he doth He longeth to be perfect and perfectly to do the will of God and taketh the remnant of his sinfull infirmities to be a kind of bondage to him which he groaneth to be delivered from To will even perfection is present with him though not perfectly and though he do not all that he willeth And this is the true meaning of Pauls complaints Rom. 7. Because the flesh warreth against the Spirit he cannot do the good that he would that is he cannot be perfect for so he would be Gal. 5.17 His love and will excells his practice 2. The weak Christian also hath more love to God and holiness than to the world and fleshly pleasure But yet his fear of punishment is greater than his Love to God and Holiness To have no Love to God is inconsistent with a state of Grace and so it is to have less love to God than to the world and less love to holiness than to sin But to have more Fear than Love is consistent with sincerity of Grace Yea the weak Christians love to God and Holiness is joyned with so much backwardness and aversness and interrupted with weariness and with the carnall allurements and diversions of the Creature that he cannot certainly perceive whether his love and willingness be sincere or not He goeth on in a course of duty but so heavily that he scarce knoweth whether his love or loathing of it be the greater He goeth to it as a sick man to his meat or labour All that he doth is with so much pain or undisposedness that to his feeling his aversness seemeth greater than his willingness were it not that necessity maketh him willing For the habitual love and complacency which he hath towards God and Duty is so oppressed by fear and by aversness that it is not so much felt in act as they 3. A seeming Christian hath no true Love of God and Holiness at all but some uneffectual liking and wishes which are overborn by a greater backwardness and by a greater love to earthly things so that Fear alone without any true effectual Love is the spring and principle of his Religion and obedience God hath not his heart when he draweth near him with his lips He doth more than he would do if he were not forced by Necessity and Fear and had rather be excused and lead another kind of life Mat. 15.8 Isa. 29.13 Though Necessity and fear are very helpfull to the most sincere yet Fear alone without Love or Willingness is a graceless state VI. 1. A Christian indeed doth love God in these three gradations He loveth him much for his mercy to himself and for that Goodness which consisteth in benignity to himself But he
purified and zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He called you a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light ye are as lively stones built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 9. You are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.23 and are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light God hath delivered you from the power of darkness and translated you into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom you have redemption through his bloud the remission of sins Col. 1.12 13 14. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.16 17. All things shall work together for your good He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Vers. 28.32 Nothing but the illuminated Soul can discern the riches of the glory of Gods inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the work of his mighty power Eph. 1.18 19. When we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. He hath brough us nigh that were far off so that by one spirit we have access to the Father by Christ and are now no more strangers and forreigners but fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2.5 6 7 13 17 18 19. We are members of the body of Christ we are come to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.22 23 24. Brethren shall the Lord speak all this and more than this in the Scripture of your Glory and will you not prove your selves glorious and study to make good this precious word Doth he say The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 and will you not study to shew your selves more excellent indeed Shall all these high things be spoken of you and will you live so far below them all What a hainous wrong is this to God He sticks not in boasting of you to call you his jewells Mal. 3.17 and tells the world he will make them one day discern the difference between the Righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not verse 18. He tells the World that his coming in Judgment will be to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in them that believe 2 Thess. 1.10 It 's openly Professed by the Apostle John We know that we are of God and the whole World lyeth in wickedâ—â—â—â— 1 John 5.19 He challengeth any to condemn you or lay any thing to your charge professing that it is he that justifieth you casting the Saints into admiration by his love What shall we say to these things if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 He challengeth Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine or Nakedness Peril or Sword to separate you if they can from the Love of God He challengeth Death and Life Angels Principalities and Powers things present and things to come height and depth or any other Creature to separate you if they are able from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 37 38 39. Shall the Lord of Heaven thus make his boast of you to all the World and will you not make good his boasting Yea I must tell you he will see that it be made good to a word and if you be not careful of it your selves and it be not made good in you then you are not the people that God thus boasteth of He tells the greatest Persecutors to their faces that the meek the humble little ones of his Flock have their Angels beholding the face of God in Heaven Matth. 18.10 and that at the great and dreadful day of Judgment they shall be set at his right hand as his Sheep with a Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom when others are set at his left hand as Goats with a Go ye cursed into everlasting Fire Matth. 25. He tells the world that he that receiveth a Converted man that is become as a little Child receiveth Christ himself and that whoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in him it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18.3 4 5 6. Mark 9.42 Luke 17.2 O Sirs must God be thus wonderfully tender of you and will you not now be very tender of his interest and your duty Shall he thus difference you from all the rest of the world and will you not study to declare the difference The ungodly even gnash the teeth at Ministers and Scriptures and Christ himself for making such a difference between them and you and will you not let them see that it is not without cause I intreat you I require you in the Name of God see that you answer these high commendations and shew us that God hath not boasted of you beyond your worth 9. Consider this as the highest Motive of all God doth not only magnify you and boast of you but also he hath made you the living Images of his blessed self his Son Jesus Christ his Spirit and his holy Word and so he hath exposed himself his Son his Spirit and his Word to be censured by the World according to your lives The express Image of the Fathers person is the Son Heb. 1.3 The Son is declared to the World by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost hath endited the Holy Scriptures which therefore bear the Image of Father Son and Holy Ghost This holy Word both Law and Promise is written on your hearts and put into your inner parts by the sâ—me spirit 2 Cor. 3.3 Heb. 8.13 and 10.16 So that as God hath imprinted his holy nature in the Scripture so hath he made this word the Seal to imprint again his Image on your hearts And you know that common eyes can better discern the Image in the Wax than on the Seal Though I know that the hardness of the Wax or somthing lying between or the imperfect application may cause an imperfection in the Image on the
men to an heretical proud or perverse frame of spirit and then it must needs mislead their practises and cause them like deluded men to be zealous in doing mischief while they think they are doing good In common matters you can see that you must learn and do things in their due order or else you will but make fools of your selves Will you go to the top of the stairs or ladder without beginning at the lower steps Will you sow your ground before you manure or plow it or can you reap before you sow it Will you ride your colt before you break him Will your rear an house before you frame it Or will you teach your children Hebrew and Greek and Latine before they learn English or to read the hardest books before they learn the easiest or can they read before they learn to spell or know their letters No more can you learn the difficult controversies in divinity as about the exposition of obscure Prophesies or doctrinal doubts till you have taken up before you those many great and necessary truths that lye between It would make a wise man pity them and be ashamed to hear them when young raw self-conceited Professors will fall into confident expositions of Daniel the Revelations or the Canticles or such like or into disputes about free-will or predestination or about the many controversies of the times when alas they are ignorant of a hundred truths about the Covenants Justification and the like which must be known before they can reach the rest By this much that I have said already you may understand that though we should reach as far as we can in knowing all necessary revealed truths yet the principal part of your growth in knowledge when once you are converted consisteth not in knowing more than you knew before as to the number of truths but in knowing better the very same fundamental truths which you knew at first This is the principal thing that I would here teach you Abundance are deluded by not understanding this you see here you have seven several things in which you must daily grow in knowledge about the same truths which you first received 1. You must see better and sounder reasons and evidences for the fundamental truths than you saw at first or more such evidences than you did then perceive 2. You must grow to a clearer sight or apprehension of those same evidences 3. You must see truths more methodically all as it were at one view and all in their due proportion and place as the members of a well composed body and how they grow together and what strength one truth affords to another 4. You must see every truth more practically than before and know what use it is of for your hearts and lives and what you must do with it 5. You must learn more skill in the using of these truths when you know what they are good for and must be better able to manage them on your selves and others 6. You must know more experimentally than you did at first 7. You must grow into a higher esteem of truths All this you have to do besides your growing in the number of truths And I must tell you that as it was these Essentials of Christianity that were the instrumental causes of your first Conversion and were more needful and useful to you then than ten thousand others So it is the very same points that you must alwayes live upon and the Confirmation and growth of your Souls in these will be more useful to you than the adding of ten thousand more truths which yet you know not And therefore take this advice as you love your peace and growth Neglect not to know more but bestow many and many hours in labouring to know Better the great truths which you have received for one hour that you bestow in seeking to know more Truths which you know not Believe it this is the safe and thriving way You know already that God is All-sufficient and infinitely wise and good and powerful And you know not perhaps the nature of free Will or of Gods Decrees of Election and Reprobation or a hundred the like points True knowledg of any of the revealed things of God is very desirable But yet I must tell you that you are fourty times more defective here in your knowledg of that of God which you do know than of the other which you know not that is the want of more Degrees of this necessary knowledg is more dangerous to your Souls than the total want of the less necessary knowledg And the addition of more Degrees to the more needful parts of knowledg will strengthen and enrich you more than the knowing of less necessary things which you knew not before at all You know Christ Crucified already but perhaps you know not certain Controversies about Church-Government or the definitions and distinctions of many matters in Divinity It will be a greater growth now to your knowledg to know a little more of Christ Crucified whom you know already than to know these lesser matters which you know not yet at all If you had already a hundred pound in Gold and not a penny of Silver it will more enrich you to have another purse full of Gold than a purse full of Silver Trading in the richest Commodities is liker to raise men to great estates than trading for matters of a smaller rate They that go to the Indies for Gold and Pearl may be rich if they get but little in quantity When he may be poor that brings home Ships laded with the greatest store of poor Commodity That man that hath a double measure of the knowledg of God in Christ and the clearest and deepest and most effectual apprehensions of the Riches of Grace and the Glory to come and yet never heard of most of the Questions in Scotus or Ockam or Aquinas's sums is far richer in knowledg and a much wiser man than he that hath those Controversies at his fingers ends and yet hath but half his clearness and solidity of the knowledg of God and Christ of Grace and Glory There is enough in some One of the Articles of your Faith in One of Gods Attributes in One of Christs benefits in One of the Spirits Graces to hold you study all your lives and afford you still an increase of knowledg To know God the Father Son and Spirit and their relations to you and operations for you and your Duties to them and the way of Communion with them is that knowledg in which you must still be growing till it be perfected by the celestial beatifical Vision Those be not the wisest men that can answer most questions but those that have the fullest intellectual reception of the infinite Wisdom You will confess that he is a wiser man that hath Wisdom to get and Rule a Kingdom than he that hath wit enough to talk of a hundred trivial matters which the other is ignorant of That 's
grounds of comfort and when they cannot raise their souls to any high and passionate joys they yet walk in a settled peace of soul and in such competent comforts as make their lives to be easie and delightful being well pleased and contented with the happy condition that Christ hath brought them to and thankful that he left them not in those foolish vain pernicious pleasures which were the way to endless sorrows 3. But the seeming Christian seeketh and taketh up his chief contentment in some carnal thing If he be so poor and miserable as to have nothing in possession that can much delight him he will hope for better dayes hereafter and that hope shall be his chief delight or if he have no such hope he will be without delight and shew his love to the world and flesh by mourning for that which he cannot have as others do in rejoycing in what they do possess and he will in such a desperate case of misery be such to the world as the weak Christian is to God who hath a mourning and desiring love when he cannot reach to an enjoying and delighting Love His carnal mind most savoureth the things of the flesh and therefore in them he findeth or seeketh his chief delights Though yet he may have also a delight in his superficiall kind of Religion his hearing and reading praying in his ill-grounded hopes of life eternal But all this is but subordinate to his chiefest earthly pleasure Isai. 58.2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my waies as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God they ask of me the ordinances of justice they take delight in approaching unto God And yet all this was subjected to a covetous oppressing mind Mat. 13.20 He that received the seed into stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended Whereby it appeareth that his love to the word was subjected to his love to the world Obj. But there are two sorts of people that seem to have no fleshly delights at all and yet are not in the way to salvation viz. the Quakers and Behmenists that live in great austerity and some of the Religious orders of the Papists who afflict their flesh Answ. Some of them undergo their fastings and pennance for a day that they may sin the more quietly all the week after And some of them proudly comfort themselves with the fancies and conceit of being and appearing more excellent in austerity than others And all these take up with a carnal sort of pleasure As proud persons are pleased with their own or others conceits of their beauty or witt or worldly greatness so prouder persons are pleased with their own and others conceits of their holiness And verily they have their reward Mat. 6.2 But those of them that place their chiefest happiness in the love of God and the eternal fruition of him in heaven and seek this sincerely according to their helps and power though they are mislead into some superstitious errors I hope I may number with those that are sincere for all their errors and the ill effects of them XXIV 1. A confirmed Christian doth ordinarily discern the sincerity of his own heart and consequently hath some well grounded assurance of the pardon of his sins and of the favour of God and of his everlasting happiness And therefore no wonder if he live a peaceable and joyfull life For his grace is not so small as to be undiscernable nor is it as a sleepy buried seed or principle but it is almost in continual act And they that have a great degree of grace and also keep it in lively exercise do seldom doubt of it Besides that they blot not their Evidence by so many infirmities and falls They are more in the light and have more acquaintance with themselves and more sense of the abundant love of God and of his exceeding mercies than weak Christians have and therefore must needs have more assurance They have boldness of access to the throne of grace without unreverent contempt Eph. 3.12 2.18 They have more of the spirit of Adoption and therefore more child-like confidence in God and can call him Father with greater freedom and comfort than any others can Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 Eph. 1.6 1 Joh. 5.19 20. And we know that we are of God and that the whole world lyeth in wickedness c. 2. But the weak Christian hath so small a degree of grace and so much corruption and his grace is so little in act and his sin so much that he seldom if ever attaineth to any well-grounded assurance till he attain to a greater measure of grace He differeth so little from the seeming Christian that neither himself nor others do certainly discern the difference When he searcheth after the truth of his faith and love and heavenly mindedness he findeth so much unbelief and aversness from God and earthly mindedness that he cannot be certain which of them is predominant and whether the interest of this world or that to come do bear the sway So that he is often in perplexities and fears and more often in a dull uncertainty And if he seem at any time to have assurance it is usually but an ill-grounded perswasion of the truth though it be true which he apprehendeth when he taketh himself to be the child of God yet it is upon unfound reasons that he judgeth so or else upon sound reasons weakly and uncertainly discerned so that there is commonly much of security presumption fancie or mistake in his greatest comforts He is not yet in a condition fit for full assurance till his love and obedience be more full 3. But the seeming Christian cannot possibly in that estate have either certainty or good probability that he is a child of God because it is not true His seeming certainty is meerly self-deceit and his greatest confidence is but presumption because the spirit of Christ is not within him and therefore he is certainly none of his Rom. 8.9 XXV 1. The Assurance of a confirmed Christian doth increase his alacrity and diligence in duty and is alwayes seen in his more obedient holy fruitful life The sense of the love and mercy of God is as the rain upon the tender grass He is never so fruitful so thankful so heavenly as when he hath the greatest certainty that he shall be saved The Love of God is then shed abroad upon his heart by the Holy Ghost which maketh him abound in love to God Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. He is the more stedfast unmoveable and alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord when he is most certain that his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 2. But the weak Christian is unfit
mind and in the same judgement Phil. 2 1 2 3 4. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same Love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Ephes. 1.2 3 4 5 6 7. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace There is one body and one spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Read also Ephes. 4.12 13 14 15 16. 1 Cor. 12. throughout He looketh at uncharitableness and divisions with more abhorrence than weak Christians do at drunkenness or whoredom or such other hainous sin He feareth such dreadfull warnings as Acts 20.29 30. For I know this that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them And he cannot slight such a vehement exhortation as Rom. 16.17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Therefore he is so far from being a divider himself that when he seeth any one making divisions among Christians he looketh on him as on one that is flashing and mangling the body of his dearest friend or as on one that is setting fire on his house and therefore doth all that he can to quench it As knowing the confusion and calamity to which it tendeth He is of a Christian and therefore of a truly Catholick spirit that is He maketh not himself a member of a divided Party or a Sect He regardeth the interest and welfare of the body the universal Church above the interest or prosperity of any party whatsoever And he will do nothing for a party which is injurious to the whole or to the Christian cause The very names of Sects and Parties are displeasing to him And he could wish that there were no name but that of Christians among us save only the necessary names of the criminal such as that of the Nicolaitans Rev. 2.6.15 By which those that are to be avoided by Christians must be known Christianity is confined to so narrow a compass in the world that he is unwilling to contract it yet into a narrower The greatest party of divided Christians whether it be the Greeks or Papists is too small a body for him to take for the Catholick or Universal Church He admireth at the blindness and cruelty of faction that can make men damn all the rest of the Church for the interest of their proper sect and take all those as no Christians that are better Christians than themselves Especially the Papists who unchurch all the Church of Christ except their Sect and make it as necessary to salvation to be a subject of the Pope as to be a Christian and when by their great corruption and abuses of Christianity they have more need of charitable censures themselves than almost any sort of Christians yet are they the boldest condemners of all others The confirmed Christian can difference between the strong and weak the sound and unsound members of the Church without dismembring any and without unwarrantable separations from any He will worship God in the purest manner he can and locally joyn with those Assemblies where all things considered he may most honour God and receive most edification and will not sin for communion with any He will sufficiently difference between a holy orderly Assembly and a corrupt disordered one and between an able faithfull Pastor and an ignorant or worldly hireling And he desireth that the Pastors of the Church may make that due separation by the holy Discipline of Christ which may prevent the peoples disorderly separation But for all this he will not deny his presence upon just occasion to any Christian Congregation that worshipeth God in truth though with many modal imperfections so be it they impose no sin upon him as necessary to his communion with them Nor will he deny the spiritual communion of faith and Love to those that he holdeth not local communion with He knoweth that all our worship of God is sinfully imperfect and that it is a dividing principle to hold that we may joyn with none that worship God in a faulty manner for then we must joyn with none on earth He knoweth that his presence in the worship of God is no sign of his approbation of all the failings of Pastors or people in their personal or modal imperfections as long as he joyneth not in a worship so corrupt as to be it self unacceptable to God While men who are all imperfect and corrupt are the worshippers the manner of their worship will be such as they in some degree imperfect and corrupt The solid Christian hath his eye upon all the Churches in the world in the determining of such questions He considereth what worship is offered to God in the Churches of the several parties of Christians the Greeks Armenians Abassines Lutherans c. as well as what is done in the Country where he liveth and he considereth whether God disown and reject the worship of almost all the Churches in the world or not For he dare no further reject them than God rejecteth them nor will he voluntarily separate from those Assemblies where the presence of Christ in his Spirit and acceptance yet remaineth And his fuller acquaintance with the gracious nature office and tenderness of Christ together with greater Love to his Brethren doth cause him in this to judge more gently than young censorious Christians do And his humble acquaintance with his own infirmities maketh him the more compassionate to others If he should think that God would reject all that order not and word not their prayers aright he would be afraid of being rejected himself who is still conscious of greater faultiness in his own prayers than a meer defect in words and order even of a great defectiveness in that faith and desire and love and zeal and reverence which should be manifested in prayer Though he be more apprehensive than others of the
Vnity than the enemies of the Church themselves For he hath not judgement enough to guide him the right way and yet he hath so much zeal as will not suffer him to keep his errours to himself 3. And all these distempers that are but in a lower degree in the weak Christian are predominant in the Hypocrite The Church shall have no concord or peace if he can hinder it but what is consistent with his carnal interest his honour or wealth or dignity in the world The pride and covetousness which rule himself he would have to make the terms of concord and to rule all others It is Hypocrites in the Church that are the greatest cause of discord and divisions having selfish spirits principles and ends and having alwaies a work of their own to do which suits not well with the work of Christ and yet Christs work must be subjected to it and ordered and over-ruled by it And while they pretend to go to the Scriptures or to Councils or Fathers for their reasons indeed they go first for them to their worldly interest and then would fain hire or press the Scripture Church or Fathers to serve their turn and come in as witnesses on their side And thus the Church as well as Christ is betrayed by the covetous Judas's of his own family And the servants of the world the flesh and Devil that take up the livery of Christ and usurp the name and honour of Christians do more effectually hinder the concord and prosperity of the Church than any open enemies do And those that are indeed no Christians do cause Christianity to be reproached Even as Spies and Traitors that are hired by the enemy to take up arms in the Army which they fight against that they may betray it by their fraud and do more harm to it by raising mutinies and by false conduct than a multitude of professed enemies could have done It is proud and worldly carnal Hypocrites that hinder most the concord of Believers LIV. 1. A confirmed Christian is of a peaceable spirit He is not masterly domineering turbulent hurtfull cruell seditious factious or contentious He is like ripened fruits that are mellow and sweet when the younger greener fruits are sowre and harsh He is not wise in his own conceit Rom. 12.16 and therefore not over urgent in obtruding his conceits on others nor quarrelsome with all that cannot entertain them nor will he easily lay mens salvation or damnation no nor the Churches peace upon them He is kindly affectioned to others with brotherly love yea loveth his neighbour as himself Rom. 12.10 13 9 10. And therefore he doth to others as he would they should do to him and useth them as he would be used by them And then how far they are like to suffer by him you may easily judge For Love worketh no ill to his neighbour Rom. 13.10 He is above the portion of the worldling and a contemner of that vanity which carnal men account their felicity and therefore he preferreth love and quietness before it and can lose his right when the interest of Love and Peace requireth it He is become as a little child in his conversion Matth. 18.3 and is low and little in his own eyes and therefore contendeth not for superiority or preheminence either in place or power or reputation of his learning wisdom or piety but in honour preferreth others before himself Rom. 12.10 He mindeth not high things but condescendeth to men of low estate Rom. 12.16 and therefore will not contend for estimation or precedency nor scramble to he highest though he rise by the ruines of mens bodies and souls If it be possible as much as lyeth in him he will live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 For he is not one that by word or deed will avenge himself but when the wrath of others is up like a blustring storm he giveth place to it he boweth before it or goeth out of the way Rom. 12.19 If his enemy hunger he feedeth him if he thirst he giveth him drink when oppressors would deprive not only an enemy but the righteous of their meat and drink and thus he melteth his hardened enemies by heaping kindnesses upon them when they are wrathfull and proud and contentious and do him wrong or use provoking words against him he is not overcome of their evil to imitate them but he overcometh their evil with his good Rom. 12.20 21. If God have given him more knowledge and abilities than others he doth not presently set up himself to be admired for it nor speak disdainfully and contemptuously of those that are not of his mind But he sheweth the eminency of his wisdom with meekness by the works of a good conversation and by doing better than the unwiser do James 3. from verse 1. to 13. He is endued with the wisdom from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruit without partiality or wavering in persecution as Dr. Hammond renders it and without hypocrisie And thus the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.17 18. As he is taught of God to love his brother 1 Thes. 4.9 So that same teaching with experience of the effects assureth him that they that pretend to be wiser and better than others when they have bitter envious zeal and strife in their hearts they vainly glory and lie against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work James 3.14 15 16. Read but the story of the Jewish Zealots in Josephus and the heretical Zealots in all ages of the Church and you will perceive the truth of this when such quarrelsome spirits are filling the Church with contentions or vexations about their meats and drinks and daies c. the Christian indeed understandeth that the Kingdom of God consisteth not of such things as these but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of wise and sober men Therefore he followeth after things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another and will not for meats c. destroy the work of God Rom. 14.17 18 19 20. He stayeth not till peace be offered him or brought home to him but he followeth peace with all men as well as holiness Heb. 12.14 If it fly from him he pursueth it if it be denied him he seeketh it and will not refuse to stoop to the poorest for it and to beg it of his inferiours if it were upon his knees rather than be denied it and live an unpeaceable disquiet life Psal. 34.14 For he believeth that blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Matth. 5.9 2. And the weak Christian hath the same spirit and therefore the love of peace is most