Soveraignty dispose of hearts to harden them but his outgoings of soveraignty are not always to destroy 2. Our great ones are so far above the bloud the cries and sufferings of the needy let the poor die in the pit they have an higher imployment then to lend their heart to lodge thoughts of compassion toward the afflicted Amos 6. 1 2 3 4. greatness dispises the desolation of the poor but Job 36. 5. Behold God is mighty and dispiseth not any saith Elihu Psal 69. 33. The Lord despiseth not his prisoners why and is he not above their tears yea 34. let Heaven and Earth praise him then must he be great and high above the mourners yet he owns their tears Psal 102. 19 20. 3. And the Lord's Soveraignty hinders him not to give a sort of reckoning of his doings Isa 5. Judge between me and my vineyard Mich. 6. 3. O my people what have I done to thee often pride hindereth sinful soveraigns to ease the heart of the oppressed with a reason of their deeds 2. What is Soveraignty its his superexcellent Highness by which his holy Will essentially wise and just is a Law and Rule to himself to doe what he pleaseth holily wisely most freely But why doth the Lord drive Cart-wheels over the bones of his people let alone he will not doe it always and say it were so This cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isa 28. 29. a godly heart is smitten with the wisdome and authority of holy soveraignty why is Jerusalem spoiled and why are the Nations at ease holy Soveraignty should meeken and silence all men Zech. 2. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord supreme Soveraignty cannot erre and the faith of this quiets the heart under all sufferings Hezekiah Isa 38. 15. What shall I say he hath spoken to me and himself hath done it Divels and Men are to be looked on as passive rods there is no principle of life in the Rod in the Sword to lift up themselves against us they are Wheels rolled about by holy Soveraignty Ah the Physician slew my child the wicked enemy slew the father and the son the malicious rail against me but not any of these dumb Rods did move themselves the Lord bids Shimei curse David the Lord sends the Assyrians against the Nation of his fury Consider the Copy holy Jesus Matth. 26. puts three Seals three Subscriptions to one blanck and sad bill of Wrath Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done How was he the formost in the journey to Jerusalem to suffer as willing that his Bloud be Ink and his Soul and Body sheets of Paper on which might be written as it were to be read by Men and Angels for all Eternity the Glory and Justice of spotless Soveraignty and he who said Amen to the Curse teacheth us if God should say I have no delight in thee to consent 2 Sam. 15. 26. and say here am I let him doe to me as seemeth good to him The wishes of Moses and Paul who desire their parts in the Book of Life and of Christ to be laid in pawn for the shining of the glory of the Lord in saving of many and that expression of David saith that a gracious submission to Soveraignty will bring the man to this Let him doe to me what seems good in his eyes if he say he hath no delight in me well let Angels and Men Read and Sing the Glory of the Lord in the flamings of the holy Soveraignty and spotless Justice of God in my torment and it becomes me consentingly to lay my soul as a threshing floor under his eternal smitings and to judge I owe a spirit to be eternal oyl and fire-wood to eternally revenging wrath The Children of God know how hardly Faith can command Sense to come up to the obligation of receiving in the bosome with kissing and adoring the firie indignation of the Lord. Yet are we to drink with Christ the Cup of sad absence and his holy withdrawings Heman hath come near this and David and Jonah all thy waves have gone over me thy wrath lies hard upon me and yet hear savoury prayers speaking the rejoycing and kissing of soveraignty and prayers comming out of the furnace of Hell Ps 88. 1. O Lord God of my salvation I cry day and night before thee What cries of Faith out of the bowels of a Sea of wrath Jonah 2. 2. Out of the belly of Hell I cryed saith Jonah and waves of wrath all the waves all the waves of thy wrath are gone over me saith David Psal 45. 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life O how sweet are these tormenting pain and godly patience pining pain and sweet praises and psalms of Saveraignty The tormented man sings his own Hell in a Psalm sounding up to Heaven Psal 6. Psal 42. Psal 38. God smites me and I love God Psal 42. 7. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me yet this Sea and all the waves of this Hell cannot quench heavenly love and the fire of thirsting after God v. 1. As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God When fiery wrath is in its outgoing the Lord sends out wrath and Arrows that stick fast in the soul but David prays to an angry God he roars and burns in wrath I pray Psal 38. he casts on me waves of Hell I send up tears and cries to him Psal 6 1 6. he breaks me with breach upon breach and sore vexes my soul I believe and trust in his salvation Psal 18. 4 5 6. Thus its possible for a Saint to love his own fiery hell and receive the coals of flaming wrath in his arms for his holy Soveraign and glorious Name who is pleased so to deal with him and upon the Consideration that so it seem good to the only wise and soveraign Lord. But oh how unlike are we to a people in the furnace adoring the Lord in the outgoings of soveraign Justice when the Lord smites some murmure others swear lie whore oppress many mock godliness and hate it all go on to break the marriage-faith of a Land once betrothed to God and ah if the watchmen had not been guides to these who highly wronged Jesus Christ From the former follows patient silence and an use of our submission to his Soveraignty who withdraws his influences from us so as sinning follows thereupon Hence there is a great abuse of repentance which is bastard-repentance We grieve at the fair work of the Lord 's holy permissive providence and are not humbled at our foul sinning resulting by our own fault from such a providence See a Copy of a Law-sorrow repentance I call it not in Adam before any Gospel was heard of Gen. 3. 12.
Physician for sick sinners But except we seek a knot in a Rush 1. It s Adam's duty and all mankinds in him to stand obey and never sin and God wills this obligation to lie upon man as an eternally obliging duty And this is true even now and eternally Adam ought never to have sinned 2. God never willed Adam nor commanded him in Law or Gospel either absolutely or comparatively to put the Lord to seek a remedy or a Saviour to satisfie for us or to pardon sin we read of no such will 3. Nor is it fit to say that the Lord had rather David committed adultery and murther by God's permission and be pardoned for it then not to commit it for if this be meant of the commanding will of God no man can justly charge us with putting such contradictory wills upon God as also its unpossible that God can will the adultery of David to be by any other will then his will of purpose and hloy decree And then 4. The righteous Lord loves righteousnesse yet the Lord absolutely and simply willed rather the holy free submissive obedience of the second Adam to be then he wills the final obedience of the first Adam and he wills more the manifestation of the glory of his free grace pardoning mercy revenging justice in that excellent of the most excellent our Emanuel then the legislative glory of Adam and all his possible final obedience and the Lord wills no end rather then his own glory but the Lord never commands us to will but what he approveth and its needless to enquire whether a more eminent declarative glory could be then that which is the delight of the Lord's soul the pleasure of the Lord love greater then any man hath the rejoycing of the Lord loved and desired to be read looked unto with wondring and adoring by the holy Angels nor can any inherent righteousness of man please the Lord in any imaginable measure and manner as the obedience of Christ in offering himself to God through the eternal Spirit Heb. 4. 14. And if it be true that lost man gains more in the second Adam Christ Jesus then he lost in the first Adam clear it is that there is no comparison between the declarative glory of the Gospel to wit the glory of the humble willing and eminently and admirably excellent obedience of Christ God-man in dying tali modo and the declarative glory of the Law 2 Cor. 3. or between the glory of the righteousnesse of God through saith and the glory of the inherent righteousness through the grace of God for the righteousness of God through faith must be more excellent then the righteousness of man or then all the acts of man by grace believing hoping lovering repenting praying praising eternally in Heaven suffering of martyrdome and therefore it cannot be said that God would rather in an antecedent and principal intention have us to forbear sin and Adam to stand in Law-obedience then to put him to remedy sin and out of the greatest love of God to man to send his Son in the World to save sinners as if the intention and heart-purpose of God had been principally that the first Adam should stand and all in him and the Court of the Law of Works should be for ever and that the Lord in a second intention and as if it were compelled by a cross wind must sail into a next best and second harbour which yet undoubtedly is the excellentest and highest declarative glory of the Lord which the conceptions of Angels or Men can reach and was if I may so speak the eternal delight of the Lord while as yet he had not made the earth or the fields Pro. 8. 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. though I am far from thinking that any thing without God doth conclude his holy Soveraignty yet the Lord's soul delighting in the holy obedience of Christ and the eternal declarative glory thereof shall be highest to me and in the hearts I conceive of the godly the most eminent revealed end and to Scripture 4. Neither is it better pleasing to God not to sin then when the man hath sinned to seek pardon for sin in the bloud of Christ I know not what Scripture so speaks or so teacheth both the one and the other is the approving and commanding will of God and if the Gospel be more glorious and excellent then the Law 2 Cor. 3. as it must be the seeking of a pardon is a duty commanded in the Gospel and Covenant of grace and not sinning is as such an act commanded in the poor and simple Covenant of works given to Adam I shall heartily yield to sin upon hope of pardon if any intelligent pure and only Antinomians so teach is utterly unlawful but upon supposition that the person is a sinner it is a more gracious act of obedience yea more glorious if I may so speak to fly to our Sanctuary and Citie of refuge Jesus Christ upon Gospel-principles then upon Law-principles not to sin And thus must the comparison of betterness and excellency be made But the arguing seems to infer that it is our mind that God willeth us to desire and practically to will rather that Christ the Physician should appear in the declarative glory of grace mercy pardoning punishing justice then that we should practically will our own Law-odedience but this is forced on us and is not our mind but a wicked Principle of Libertines for we ought rather to obey the Law and practically to will final obedience to the Law of works and eschew sinning as Hell rather then desire and with a more intense and a stronger practical will seek the incarnation of God for that practical will can never be in us without sinning Yea 4. It is a shame to compare together the righteousness of God and we are in Christ made this righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5. 21. and the inherent mixt imperfect righteousness of a renewed man for the one needs no pardon and the other is sinful and as menstruous cloaths without a pardon Isa 64. 6. I mean not that the believing praying c. of the regenerate are formally and in the substance of the act sins but by accident they are sinful and polluted but even in the substance of the act they are nothing comparable to the acts of obedience in Christ which are every way complete and perfect according to the strictest rule of the Law of works Yea 5. It s a false ground to say that by justification or remission of sins as some say but they are not every way the same only the guilt of sin is removed or only deliverance from eternal punishment for Christ's dying and satisfying is ours he dying in our stead and place and we dying in him legally not physically and so are we not only by his satisfaction which is made ours and by faith applyed to us negatively freed from Hell but positively righteous
106. 9. He rebuked the red Sea also and it was dried up God by the interposition of the faith of his own will not have strong walls to stand Heb. 11. 30. but they must fall nor Lions to eat the prey Verse 33. nor a violent fire to burn nor the sword to devour 34. As 2. They act at his command Psal 78. 26. He caused the East wind to blow in the Heavens and by his power he brought in the South wind whether this be by a strong terminating influence which displeaseth adversaries of grace and providence or some other way we contend not for words but if the Scripture hold forth as it doth that the Lord by his strong and invincible dominion doth indeclinably and without any possible failing bring forth his decreed effect some impulsion of God immanent transient or mixed which is terminate upon all second causes there must be for as he can and doth hinder naturall causes to work as the Sunne to move towards his down-going Josh 12. 13. Isa 38. 8. the Lyon to eat the man whereas he did fear the ass 1 Kings 13. 28. so he is the father and cause of all things that fall out Job 38. 28. Hath the rain a father or who hath begotten the drops of dew 29. Out of whose womb came the yce and the hoary-frost of Heaven who hath gendered it 31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion This teacheth that Job cannot nor can any creature at his nod but the Lord can and he onely binds up or le ts out the influences of Pleiades the starres which rise in the Spring and bring forth flowers and hearbs and orders the course of Orion which bringeth Winter and order the starres that rise in the South and in the North. 34. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee See his actings 3. His influences are in things small as in the falling of a Sparrow to the earth not one hair of the head but it is numbred by him Luke 21. 18. Matth. 10. 29 30 31. Not a gourd groweth nor a worm eats it but at his command Jonah 4. 6 7. Amos 4. 7 8 9. Joel 1. 1 2 3 4. Psal 105. 29 30 31 32 33. c. he hath an hand in the bird-nests building Psal 104. 17 18. And 4. The actings of the Lord are in great things as the translation of Kingdoms Dominions and Thrones Dan. 4. 32. Jer. 27. 5 6 7. In all the rises and fallings of Princes the Starres of whatever magnitude Isa 40. 21. 1 Sam. 2. 7 8. Psalm 76. 12. 5. His actings are in matter of lots that seem to be ruled by fortune and chance Prov. 16. 33. Genes 49. Deut. 33. compared with Josh 14. 1 2 3. 6. Especially in bowing the free will and determining all the actions of evil angels 1 Kings 22. 21 22 23. Job 1. 6 7 8. Job 2. 1 2 3. Gen. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Matth. 8. 29 30 31. and good Luke 2. 9 13. Matth. 28. 1 2 3. Acts 1. 20. 2 Thes 1. 7. leading and determining the free will of all men the King Prov. 21. 1. the Prince Gen. 43. 13. Esther 4. 16 17. compared with Chap. 5. 2. c. 7. 2 3. he graciously enclines the will and hearts of men Deut. 30. 6. Jer. 32. 39 40. Ezek. 36. 27. as the Saints pray Psal 119. 33 34 36 88. Psal 86. 11. Cant. 1. 4. He hardneth the heart and blinds the mind as in his judgement he pleaseth Job 12. 16. Ezek. 14. 9. Exod. 14. 8. Deut. 2. 30. 2 Sam. 12. 11 12. Esay 6. 9 10. Matth. 13. 14 15. John 12. 37 38 39 40. Rom. 1. 24 25 26 27 28. Rom. 11. 8. And many such things are with him the more spiritually minded any is the more bent is the heart to follow and eye God in all his actings and he shall see how wise in heart the steeresman is who watcheth at the helm and it shall appeare what precious thoughts take up the believer who sees such millions and numberless numbers of influences with all the drops of rain hail dew falling between the creation and the dissolving of the world all which he binds in his garment Prov. 30. 2. and what numbers of influences he joyns to all the blasts of winds and storms which he gathers in is fists ibid. what influences of the Almighty must there be at all the actings stirrings and motions of Angels in Heaven of damned spirits of men elect and reprobate of birds beasts creeping things fishes in the wise connection of all these with the Lords intended end And if this be observed suppose the body of the Heavens which in its wide bosome contains all were broken and fell down in many thousand pieces Faith in the infinite wisdome goodnesse and power of God will bid the believer be silent and sleep and hope within his own garment God excellently rules all the best of created things next to that precious thing Christ man is the Church and the Lord will specially care for that and for me among the rest 3. No doubt we are brutish and look to all the stirrings with much Atheisme and little faith as if all stirrings in Nature Societies and Kingdoms were set on work by the sway of Nature and blind Fortune without God as a wheel rolling about with the mighty violence of a strong arm moves a long time after the arm of the mover is removed Or suppose a pair of Charet-wheels were letten loose in the top of a huge Mountain and should move down some hundred thousands of Millions of miles for hundreds of years after the man who set them first a work were dead So we fools believe that God gave a mighty strong shake or some Omnipotent impulsion to all causes natural free and contingent to Heaven and Earth Sea and Land to all Creatures in them Angels and Men and did bid them be a going for he must sleep and could not actually stir them any more Nor can we see God in all and that he contrived this that one should rise early and eat the bread of sorrow and yet be poor another should be wise admirably and want bread another fight valiantly and be foiled and a man run swiftly and lose the race Psal 127. 1 2 3. Eccles 9. 11. and that much sowing hath little reaping Hag. 1. 6. for Hab. 2. 13. Behold is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people should labour in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity Chaldaea doth sweat and pine her self for the very wind and nothing We see not that nature miscarries and parts with child when his good providence who rules all is not Mid-wife and a barren-womb brings forth many births and she that is no Mother hath a rich issue when soveraignity pleases this is my faith and comfort CHAP. III. Hence to
descend more particularly to enquire 1. What influences are 2. Whencâ— they come 3. The necessity of influences 4. How they are above us and of the Soveraignty of him who best ows them 5. What we may doe to fetch them INfluences are acts of God concurring with created causes under him and a sort of continued Creation as God of nothing makes all things so in his providence he gives a day to all borrowed beings in their being preserved by him and they are the Lords debtors in being acted by him or then they could not stir nor move 2. The same free goodnesse which is a sort of grace which moved God to create the Sun and give it being so also â—â—ts him to give influences to the motions and actings of the Sun the end that moves the Man to make the Plough and the Cart moves him to draw the Plough and drivâ— the Cart by Beasts so that in reference to the end there is debâ—tum quoddam connaturale some connatural dueness of influences all Creatures are dead Cyphers which sigâ—ifie nothing except the influence of God add a figure to them and they lie dead if he stir them not Some Cows let not down their Milk but to their own Calves and the Creatures are as Pictures and Idols who let out no Efficacy no Vertue except the Lord act upon them Sometimes the Sea ebbs not the Wind blows not the Sun shines not the Fire burns not because this influence is as it were the Charm that is a wanting and he hath a sort of a checklock upon all second causes 3. Though God move and must act in all in causes natural and free so as in some sense he must concur in willing and nilling yet he out of Soveraignty of grace stands more aloofe in bestowing influences to gracious and supernatural nilling and willing for Predestination and free Election to glory here hath place for that he prepared in his eternal decree so many outlettings and emanations of free acts of grace to carry to glory so many selected Angels and Men and denyed these outgoings of free love to others he intending they should be to Angels and Men both their grace and song of praise he hath not given out such refined influences of free love to other Creatures to the motions of Sun and Moon to the Seas ebbing and flowing 4. Q. What then is the fountain cause of gracious influences and breathings of the Spirit Ans Sure Jesus Christ must be the meritorious and fountain cause of such influences For 1. We suppose that Christ is the head of the elect Angels God having purposed to save man of grace he gave this mighty separating influence distinguishing the Standing and Elect Angels from the falling and reprobate Angels else it cannot be said they are Elect Angels as 1 Tim. 5. 21. nor can their standing be of free grace for they could not stand except the Lord had chosen them to stand as the means as he chose them to glory as to the end except the Lord had joyned his predeterminating acting to cause them to stand and reconciled them Colos 1. 20. to himself giving to them medicinal confirming grace that they never should be sick Now the Elect Angels are the special Messengers and New Covenant Officers miniâ—tring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. And the Angels Ezek. 1. are acted in all their motions by that Jehovah whose glory Isaiah saw Isa 6. 1 2 3. John 12. 37. of which Jehovah also Ezekiel 1. v. 28. as v. 12. And the four living creatures went every one straight forward whither the Spirit was to go they went and they turned not when they went And also verse 20. They are then rightly called the Angels of the Lord Jesus 2 Thes 1. 7. for they cover their faces it is noâ— blushing for sin and their feet with wings Isa 6. while they stand before and see the face of their Soveraign and high Master and so its clear that the actings of special and supernatural providence toward and about the redeemed Church come from Christ as head of Angels and as the heir of all things who makes all things new Heb. 1. 2 3. Rev. 21. 5. and who works with the father Joh. 5. 17. in a new-covenant providence to make new Heavens and new Earth and to act all for the elects sake Colos 1. 16. 17. yea and this Spirit at whose direction the living creatures move and rest come and go Zech. 1. 12 20. is the same spirit promised and sent by Christ John 16. 7 13 14. of which Christ he shall receive of mine and give it to you by the influences of this Spirit sent by Christ are the Redeemed led Rom. 8. 14. directed Acts 16. 6 9 10 14. sealed and confirmed Eph. 4. 30. having received the earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 1. 22. taught guided the Word made effectual John 16. 13. convinced of sin and throughly rebuked vers 7 8 9. comforted Joh. 14. 16. and the memory sanctified and quickned to remember necessary truths Joh. 14. 26. and the whole man made able by the anointing for all things 1 John 2. 20 27. Hence these influences of grace are from the spirit not as from the third person of the blessed Trinity simply for so the spirit is the power of God sometimes as Judge sitting and by a Judicial power making tormenting convictions dreadfully effectual upon the consciences of Divels Matth. 8. 29. Luke 4. 34 35. of which the chains of darknesse may be a part 2 Pet. 2. 4. Jude v. 6. as also neither from the spirit as the power of God Creator Job 26. 13. Job 32. 8. in making and governing all Psal 104. 30. but from the Spirit as the fruit and purchase of Christs death and merits and as saving grace is from Christ the fountain so also the saving influences of Christ as Mediator and of stirring us up to will and do Phil. 2. 13. and to stand and persevere in the state of grace must be dispensed covenant ways Jerem. 32. 3 37 38 39 40. Isa 59. 20 21. Isa 54. 10 11 12. by his bloud So Christ speaketh to the spirit Cant. 4. 16. Stir up thou North wind come forth thou South blow upon my garden that the spice thereof may flow out Where Christ commands influences of the spirit of the North and South wind though of contrary qualities of cold and heat moist and dry both in sharp rebukes and sweet consolations to fall upon his Church and garden and it is his desire as Spouse and Mediator that the Spirit breath upon and make efficacious the word otherwise there is but deadnesse Ezech. 37. 9. Come from the four winds O wind How upon these slain that they may live John 3. 8. And the flowing of the spices is the souls being quickned revived comforted and the graces increased by the breathings of the spirit Hence 1. the
make use of it as he pleaseth but the saving acting of the Spirit is not in every mans power 3. The command is a Rule and Object of our Faith and gives me not strength to obey but the heavenly disposition and saving acting are not the object but the efficient cause which addeth strength to obey the command craves the debt its true its impossible to pray in faith without the acting of the Spirit it follows only that it s so impossible that we are also guilty and unexcusable in our virtual desiring that it may be so We are wounded but we love to shed our own bloud As also in the Regenerate there is never an utter withdrawing the habit of grace keeps the heart warm and loves to be blown upon and stirred even under actual ceasing of breathings Obj. 2. When there is an utter ceasing of the spirit it would appear that the spirit forbids us to lift at his work until the Spirit the only Master of work be there himself Ans One of the three is ever a work either the Father is waiting till the Son pray John 14. or the Son is commanding the breathings of the Spirit It is some casual work that the sinner is the passive object of the Spirit there is never an utter ceasing of the Spirit There are some habitual stirrings of the Seed of God under the ceasing of actual influence as the ripe Apple enclines to fall off the Tree when there is no shaking of it the Ship is a mending in the Shore when she sails not and if it were no more but one of the three is a working about a Child of God it s not to be despised For who knows the thoughts of Christ and his pleading in Heaven for such as suffer the evil of affliction for Christ And if a believer wrestle under deadnesse Christ much more is a work to help a more spiritual sufferer to wit one that is as it were a patient under sin and flesh and the withdrawing of God Obj. 3. There is no Commandment in the New Testament for the doing of half a Duty to wit to pray and not to pray in Faith and Fervour therefore we cannot be commanded to pray when the Spirit withdraws his influence without which the Duty of necessity must be lame and broken Ans It follows not for there is less of the Gospel in the command as a command for in either Law-command or in Gospel-precept the Lord commands whole and unbroken obedience and in it God seeks somewhat which he lost in Adam which we are obliged to doe and he is under no Law to give us grace to obey And as is said we are willing to want his help where the command should put us to a humble missing and mourning for our wants and a distrusting of our own strength and a weeping over our broken condition and a high prizing of our surety and his strength 2. It s a part of command that we go about the bulk or body of the duty and gather together the dry bones and wait humbly until he command the Wind and Spirit to blow on them and we sin in omitting of half a command Obj. 4. His yoak is easie and his Commandments are not grievous but if it be not in our power to pray when he withdraws his Commandments shall be unpossible and his yoak heavy Ans His command is easie by the grace of God and love of Christ the Wheels move sweetly when Grace and Love oyls the Soul and yet it no more hinders that we cannot pray when he withdraws then the burning of the Fire and the rising of the Sun which are works of Nature most easie and sweet are possible when the Lord forbids the Fire to burn and the Sun to rise his Gospel commands actu primo of themselves are sweet but under withdrawings hard and legal Obj. 5. Praying and seeking of God at set and fixed hours were not lawful For if we cannot pray but when the Spirit moves us we cannot say we shall pray at any hour for we cannot tie the Spirit 's joyning to our hours and again if we are to pray at any hour we please we use the habit of grace and supplication when and as we will as a Musitian may sing when he will or not sing Ans 1. We have not any question now about religious set hours such as the morning and evening Sacrifice or the three hours of prayer used by David Morning Evening and at Noon Psal 55. 17. and Daniel chap. 6. 10 11. Acts 3. 1. Acts 10. 3 9 10. and the godly Jews for by no divine Precept are we tied to such hours Papists abuse the Scripture to Canonick hours But in Christian prudence we may fix a time to reading praying conferring on the Word and to other sacred duties yet do we not tie the Spirit 's joyning to our hour the man Christ set a night apart for praying and so did Jacob for wrestling by tears with the great Angel Genes 32. 24. Hos 12. 3 4. without limitting the Spirit in his influences to any time nor yet will it follow that we use the habit or spirit of grace and supplication when we will for sanctified will is to set the time and to actuate it self by the habit of grace And the same Argument shall conclude that the Husbandman who sets a time for plowing and sowing must limit the Lord to joyn his influences For except the Lord build the house they labour in vain who build it though they set days to the hired Masons Except the Lord keep the City the Watch-man watcheth but in vain though times be set to the hired Watchers It s in vain to rise up early Psal 127. 1 2. and it s as impossible to plow build watch rise early without the common influence of God the first cause as it is to pray in Faith without the special breathing of the Spirit of grace Yet Libertines and Antinomians will not say that they sin in setting a time for building plowing watching these seem considerable about hours of praying 1. Though we fix an hour it becomes Faith to await the Angels moving of the water and when the Lord adds his influences to step in and joyn our strength cheerfully and with humble praises to him who draws 2. When there is a bentness of heart such a day or such a fixed hour to pray build not too much upon the appointment and promises of our own heart to say to morrow I le do wonders by prayer remove mountains 1. It s good here as in a purpose of going to a City to continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain to say in a trembling subordination to God as James counselleth chap. 4. 13 15. If the Lord will we shall live so to say if the holy soveraignty of grace breath fairly and strongly I le do well in praying yet not I but his grace and if the wind of
and the least of Stars why made he me not the Sun nor the Earth say out of the lump of poor Nothing out of the which I came he might have made me the Globe of the Heaven of Heavens or an Angel but he would not 3. Why made not God the first Adam as perfect as the second Adam a house that can stand alone is better then an old house that needs aprop O quarrel not the Vine tree is a more noble plant then the thorn and the one must be propped else it grows not 2. The man Christ needs influences of graces as well as another man 3. The Angels and glorified Spirits need the like Man a house of clay needs a pillar of excellent matter of the gold of free-grace to hold him up in his actings 4. Why made he me not as holy as the man Christ why was this man born blind O cease he who gives not an account of any of his matters when he made you a man might have made you a snake or a stone he is debter of two eyes or of half an eye of the lowest gift or grace imaginable to no man close with all he does That is an evil wit that disputes with God Submission silent submission to the hardest dispensation makes the child of God victorious we are above all things in conquering when we are below all things in submitting for the Lord. 2. Job or any answer Job 38. 8. Who shut up the Sea with doors as if it had issued out of the womb Ver. 9. When I made the cloud the garments thereof and thick darkness a swadling band for it Job 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the Earth upon nothing give a reason of East and West 3. The Lord puts forth Soveraignty on Jeroboam's arm to dry it up on Mephibosheth's feet upon the mans eye-holes Joh. 9. that they should be empty of eyes on Judas his bowels on Job's body smitten with boyls his outgoings of Soveraignty appear on the Fig-tree which he curseth on the Gourd of Jonah for he blasts it on the Fig-tree and Vine-tree for he marrs them Joel 1. 4. As it pleaseth him he setteth one piece of clay on the Throne to glister another bit of clay behind the mill where he sweats and is hungry Zeph. 3. 12. I will leave in the midst thereof an afflicted and a poor people or sick yea dryed up as Fish-ponds and Brooks use to be when the rest are swept away Joseph is rich and all the Corn of Egypt is his and his brethren want bread and are low like Carriers driving horses with loads on them 5. Job gets no leave to swallow his spittle Job 7. 19. Precious Israel is plowed Psal 129. 1. and her back made a field of bloud like two legs and a piece of an ear of a devoured sheep plucked out of the mouth of a Lion Amos 3. 12. the man Christ a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief a worm and not a man and all the Earth sitteth still and is at rest Zech. 1. 11. the wicked shine are fat their breasts are full of milk and you stumble at this Shall any teach the Almighty knowledge Job 21. 22 23 24. Amos 6. 1 2 3. Psal 73. 1 2 3 4 5 6 c. 6. Except Soveraignty what can silence the mind of one who stumbles and doubts and weeps because so many Infants are burnt in Sodom with fire so many in the old World are drowned with waters in the mothers womb and the cradle the young sucking children of the Amalekites of Babylon who never drew a sword against the people of God could never bow their knee to the Idol God Pel nor stretch out their hands to him perish by the sword and their heads dasht against stones O they were guilty of sin original yea and so were Moses David Samuel Noah Job and Daniel when they were in the womb and weeping on the breasts 7. Soveraignty determines what is just righteous Abel dies in bloud godly Josiah in war many bloody men smile out their soul in peace I took Sodom away saith the Lord Ezech. 16. 50. as I saw good a wall falls upon twenty seven thousand and kills them 1 Kings 20. the Lord shoots an arrow of the Pestilence at the camp of the Assyrians and without a misse takes away in one night an hundred and fourscore and five thousand chosen men Isa 37. 36. 2 Chro. 13 18. there fell of Israel at once five hundered thousand how many graves must be there Pharaoh and his Princes are drowned in the Sea Herod killed with worms then simple judgements as divided from sin prove nothing but how are we to stoop and tremble at holy Soveraignty 8. As touching gifts and graces much is to be seen of Soveraignty Elihu saith Job 32. 9. Great men are not always wise neither do the aged understand judgement Beautie is a debt that God ows not to pay to Absalom nor wisedom to Achitophel more then to a stark fool or to any man who is born as a wild Ass colt This Soveraignty gives faith to Abraham to Moses meekness to David sincerity to Josiah zeal to Job patience to the man Christ the fulness of the Spirit above measure there is more grace of godly painfulness given to Paul then to the dayly eye-witnesses of Christ I laboured more abundantly then they all 1 Cor. 15. you might have had wisedom and used it as Achitophel and yet saith one God hath given me no more grace therefore let God blame God that I doe as I doe if he had given me more grace I would have done better and if I had a heart according to the heart of God I would have been as holy sincere and zealous as David but he denyed it to me out of his absolute Soveraignty which is far above my will and my strength influences of grace both for the obtaining of the habits and the acts of Soveraign grace Ans These practical Propositions are to be considered 1. Prop. 1. It is proud nature which saith God is to be blamed for whether the Lord give or withhold more grace holiness and spotlesness doth essentially convey his Soveraignty Matth. 20. 15. Is it not lawful for me to doe what I will with mine own saith he who is Almighty For he who is in an unsearchable way above all law that binds the Creature can be subject to no blame Suppose the evil servant say Matth. 25. 24. Lord I knew thee that thou art an hard man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strowed That is thou seekest much obedience and a large harvest and sowest upon my heart little grace and gave me but one talent if thou hadst given me five talents or two talents I should have done as well as the servant who received five or two but thou didst not any such thing therefore blame thy self and so it is the very
in which regard the word of God from the Author the Holy Ghost hath actu primo as touching the matter and efficient cause holiness liveliness divinity majesty of style even as contradistinguished from the spirit acting with it there is no word no book no speech of Angels or Men comparable to it There is 2. A formal power which agrees to the word actu secundo as the spirit going along with the word makes it effectual to enlighten to teach to rebuke to convince to perswade so our Divines say a modern Lutheran widely mistakes the efficacy of the word is from the spirit 2 Cor. 10. 4. the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty how mighty not of themselves but mighty through God We make not the word of it self a dead inky letter as Papists and Libertines both doe The like distinction is clear in a Sword or an Axe of steel both the one and the other from the matter and artificer that made them hath actu primo sharpness and aptness to cut Suppose the Artificer that made both be dead yet the sharpest two-edged sword that is except it be weelded by the arm of a valiant man can doe no good in war And the like may be said of the Axe both are dead things of themselves Hence 1. Since we are meer Messengers we cannot breath life in the word only like the Trumpeter that blows his warm breath through a dead trumpet of Brasse but he blows or breaths no valour or courage in the souldiers that was not in them before But if the spirit goe along and breath life in the hearers they shall live as speaking and acting are conjoyned Ezech. 2. 1. Son of man stand upon thy feet and I will speak to thee 2. Then the spirit entered into me when he spake to me and he set me on my feet So John 5. 25. Ezech. 37. 7 8. It not a little concerns Ministers and Hearers to pray that the spirit may go along with the word otherwise the shepherds singing through an â—aten reed shall never feed sheep or lambs and make them fat and people often receive in their ears a noise of words and syllables and are not fed with sounds It 's true Christ and the Prophets and Apostles preached in the spirit and in the lively power of God and yet nothing but the letter came to the ears of many of their hearers Isa 53. 1. Isa 28. 9. the hearers are but as weaned children Mat. 13. 13 14 15. the hearers are fatted hypocrites And a poor man speaks the letter of the word and happily deadly and weakly yet betwixt the speakers mouth and the hearers heart the spirit strikes in and the dead man lives 2. The letter of the word spoken by Christ lies dead until the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost come then he shall teach you all things in a lively way which the man Christ as man only did not and bring all things to your remembrance John 14. 26. 3. The light may remain only light and literal and uselesse the Disciples in the garden with Christ knew they should watch and pray yet they sleep The spirit brings not up literal light to spiritually quickning light John 16. 7. The spirit shall convince the world of sin because they believe not in me What did not all the Prophets convince the world of sinful unbelief Isa 7. If ye believe not ye shall not be established Isa 53. Who hath believed our report Did not Christ himself convince the world of sinful unbelief John 3. 18 36. John 5. 24. John 11. 26 27. and all the Ministers of the New Testament convince men that they ought to believe and receive Christ by faith But all these are but literal convictions until the spirit carry into the heart the marrow of the promises and threatnings of the Gospel with a strong hand and the natural man while he is in the mouth of Hell with Judas is convinced of the Law deserving and of unbeliefs desert but not of actual damnation The deceit of the conscience is this that all are under sin and the curse who believe not but God must give a general suspension against the Gospels decree and sentence of death for my unbelief and to most of mankind Ah this is not to be convinced of unbelief by the spirits working Nor in all this does the spirit adde any divine majesty and power to the word which was not in the word before when he effectually perswades and convinces As the hewer puts no metal in the Axe which was not in it before only he applies powerfully his strength and art to the effects which he produceth by the Axe and other tools by which he makes curious carved work Nor does the souldier adde any new sharpnesse to the Sword which it had not before only he useth the Sword for valorous exploits All that the spirit doth is in the powerful and effectual application of threatnings and promises in actual perswading to believe all the majesty and heavenly power the word hath actu primo from the immediately inspiring spirit and this is alike to all only much godly trembling is required that the spirit may in his mighty influences goe out with the word 2. Hence that is wild-fire and sparkles of hell not the spirit of Christ nor the influences of grace when a dumb spirit speaks not in the word but in signes images ceremonies devised by men as a dumb man speaks with his fingers The Spirit of God loves to work and act with his own tools in the testimonies and promises the Spirit of the Lord never bids burn the Bible Antiochus had such influences from hell and not from the Lord. Some make the Bible a horn-book for new beginners only as images are and the man must be all spirit turned into pure spirit why then do themselves speak write such fooleries why do they eat drink sleep hear such as are all spirit doe none of these But though holy men of God were far from making the spirit both Law and Gospel none had more of the secrets and mysterious visions of God revealed to him then John he saw Christ in his glory Rev. 1. 14 15 16. he saw Heaven open and the Throne and glorious company the new Jerusalem Yet Rev. 1. 3. he saith Blessed is he that readeth Can one that is all spirit speak of reading when he had seen all these visions of God Rev. 22. 18. he puts a seal of honour on Canonick Scripture he is charged to write in his divine Epistles These things I have written I write to you fathers c. When Christ is risen from the dead and entred in a most spiritual life Luk. 24. 27. he expones the Scriptures who so mock the Scriptures loath the Spirit also CHAP. VII Characters of a spiritual disposition are these 1. To be willing to be under the guidance of the spirit 2. Four expressions in the Scripture hold
a stranger on earth hide not thy Commandments from me The Commandments are the way and a hid and covered way is a misery to a stranger or pilgrim A frequent sight of ignorance and errors and a being in love with the spirits leading is good Though a man could get the work through be it praying hearing reading warring governing eating and drinking yet he is not satisfied with the bulk of the work except the spirit be the doer This gracious spirit looks not so much to praying as to praying in the Holy Ghost nor to hearing as to hearing in the spirit of faith nor to fighting though David be stronger then the enemy except the spirit of the Lord lead the army Psal 60. 1 2 9 10. Psal 140. 7 8. Psal 18. 29 30 31. Nay it 's not enough to eat and drink except the spirit act the man to eat and drink for God Men spend and waste away their actings and call not for the spirit to get them compassed about We are men abundance to build the Temple and mighty Kings favour us and work-men have strength in legs and arms to lay stones in the wall O but that will not doe it Zach. 4. 6. Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts and so only is the Temple builded 6. There is a spiritual facility in the spiritual actings of a spiritual man 1. The acting is connatural and easie when it comes from an inward principle the stream naturally without violence flows from the fountain and so doth heat from the fire nor is it any pain to the earth to fall down and descend or for the light bodies fire and air to ascend it 's neither toyl nor labour to the Sun to give light for all these come from principles internal There is violence in the motion of an Horologue and therefore the wheels shall be worn out by time but the actings of the spirit are sweet and facile grace makes the Commandments not grievous it s no pain but easie to a gracious pastor to love Christ it breaks neither leg nor arm to desire Christ and be sick for him and to feed his flock for love to the chief shepherd 2. Psal 25. 9. The meek will he guide in judgement the meek will he teach is ways It 's easie for God to guide any man to guide and lead Lions and Unicorns but in the very object there is a facility to counsel a broken and danted spirit If a man be in his flower and prime and rich and mighty healthy and prosperous readily he will doe but what he will but if the man be in chains and broken and meekned with the rod of God he is easily bowed and counselled to what is good as iron red hot will bow and yield to the smitings of the hammer i'ts hard to lead a Lion The Lord speaks like the Lord to Job cap. 39. 9. Will the Vnicorn be willing to serve thee or abide by thy cribs Canst thou bind the Vnicorn with his band in the furrows or will he harrow the valleys after thee but it is easie to bind a lamb Meeknesse is easily led and drawn when the spirit comes in the man is made pliable for counsel he is a plowed and a broken man who saith Acts 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord what wilt thou have me to doe There was no pride in him but the fulnesse of the spirit of the anointing above all his fellows and all mankind who said not my will but thy will be done And if any living man should have had his will or a piece of his will it was a man whose holy will could never crook and it was now when sinlesse holy harmlesse nature was debating the greatest question that ever Heaven or Angels knew But the fulnesse of the spirit bids him quit his will and so he did The sweet passive tractablenesse of the spirit of grace will enjoyn the man to be ranged bridled and led of God there be some whom God can neither lead nor drive any inspiration fals upon him a moral influence this I should and ought to doe but I shall not I will not doe it let God doe his best and it is as if a burning cole were cast into the sea or river will it burn the sea will it be welcomed and received no it s presently quenched An unbroken Tyrant void of the spirit when he heard that charge Let my people goe They are my servants saith the Tyrant not thy people Exod. 5. 2. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel goe Let his influences be lodged with meeknesse O wrestle not against warnings but yield to them So are all gracious influences sweet delectable and easie is it pain nay its sweet and pleasant for a field of Roses of Vine-trees to receive showers and summer influences from the Sun and Heaven It was sweet for the baptised man Christ to receive and lodge the Holy Ghost who came down in the form of a Dove on him in all his influences 7. To act much in the spirit brings more abundance of the spirit 1. The more publick the work be the more is the man under the spirit Christ must have been under mighty flowings of the spirit who for the publick Catholick duty of redeeming mankind was willing to be suspended from the influences of his personal comfort and to be under that sad cloud of being forsaken of God that God might embrace us It 's the proper work of the spirit to glorifie God John 16. 14. He shall glorifie me saith Christ of the spirit for he shall receive of mine Then the more we glorifie God and Jesus Christ his Son we testifie we partake the more of the flowings of the spirit The Church hath so much the more of the spirit that she is willing to bear the Lord's indignation because she hath sinned Mic. 7. 9. and bear publick sufferings to illustrate the glory of his justice 2 We are also with Magdalen and other godly persons so far to be dead to the private comforts of love to Christ and his presence and waiting about the grave to anoint his body that we are to wait upon the more publick duties of resting in and of sanctifying of the Sabbath though otherwise the rescuing of the life of an oxe be mercy above this sacrifice If we have much of the spirit we shall patiently submit to the Lord's dispensation of his soveraign withdrawing of influences of comfort yea and delight in other inferior duties What though he will not feast me with the apples of the tree of life and suspend his comforts what if he withdraw joyful influences of believing of glorying and rejoycing in the Lord and feed the poor sinner with absence and exercise him with sad desertions 3. It 's a spiritual condition when Christ casts in feelings and discernable motions of the spirit and not only knocks but Cant. 5. 2 4.
been strong influences of grace when they refused deliverance and believed a better resurrection Heb. 11. 35. 2. When there is a strong habit of love and of soul-love to Christ there are strong and painful acts of diligent seeking as Cant. 3. There be three acts of seeking and not finding 1. In the bed 2. About the streets and the broad way 3. At the watchmen and yet no giving over until she find him whom her soul loves Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. The habit of love even going on to love-sicknesse produces strong praying fervent adjuring of the daughters of Jerusalem to tel Christ that she is sick of love for him and a most pathetick song of praising of Christ in all his excellencies Cant. 5. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy and the chief among ten thousand v. 11. His head is as the most gold his locks are bushy and black as a raven 12. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water c. And there must be strong love within when such high expressions came out Psal 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God v. 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God Psal 84. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth shouteth aloud out for the living God Now answerable to these must be the actual breathings of God strong impressions even until the soul be like the thirsty ground like the chased hart dying swooning and fainting and in a fever of love-sickness for Christ all which argue there must be valid and mighty influences upon the soul Ah little of the love of Christ is a feast that soon fills and satisfies us Dry faint and dead acts of praying and seeking speak weak influences and coldness of indifferency whether we have Christ or want him CHAP. III. A supernatural habit is a seed of influences 2. We are to improve the habit of grace 3. The habit of grace in order to the three persons brings a necessitie of gracious influences 4. The Lord is under divers necessities to confer influences 5. Christ intercedes for the non-converted 6. Christs Office 7. The Spirits office put both under a necessity of conferring of influences 8. Divers uses result from the necessity that the Lord hath brought himself under to confer influences 9. How the habit of grace is acted upon how it ceaseth not AS to natural powers the God of nature hath prepared influences to seeds and plants apt to grow There are prepared of God also influences for their actual growing So to the Sun fire clouds he hath in readinesse such influences though he freely let them out so to supernatural powers and habits he must let out and prepare supernatural influences The habit of grace is a sort of new nature a heavenly power a kind of seed of spiritual actings and a weight that inclines the soul to acting and by a sort of a pleasantly refreshing disposition swayes and drawes habitually the man to supernatural acting In nature suitable influences are due to the powers as the habit of musick inclines the man to singing and a natural instinct draws the bird to build its nest and the Lord hath ordained suitable influences for this instinct so this habit of grace as a weight inclines the soul to act not by any necessity of exercise but by necessity of specification it inclines not by determining to the act but only habitually Therefore influences suitable to this habit must be some way due as in nature so also in grace A habit of grace in the renewed man does not determine him continually to pray believe praise God while the habit is in him Hence 1. Because corruption is in David though as a broken and subdued habit he sins in numbring the people he is violently carried to be avenged on Nabal he commits adultery and murther which doe weaken the habit of grace 2. If the habit of grace be strong and much of the fulness of God in Steven in John Baptist in Paul they act in the way of God accordingly 3. If the habit of grace be qualified with a super-added disposition heavenly and spiritual there are boylings and stirrings in the heart as in Paul to pray Acts 20. after the spirit in him hath been graciously and heavenly exhorting the Church of Ephesus he kneels down and prayes and Acts 17. 16. while he is waiting for Silas and Timothy there is upon his mind a burning fever when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry And there will be some sweet akings and gnawings of the heart pressing the man to pray praise and sing Psal 57. 7. My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise 2. What are we to doe in such a case then Answ We are to pursue these warmings and flamings of the habits of grace with new spiritual actings and exercises of grace as David verse 8. Awake up my glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early And therefore know 2. That a kindled habit of grace qualified with an heavenly disposition of grace is a fire near the flaming and the call of God to you to pray hic nunc Besides the command of God for praying continually smite the iron while it is hot throw the rod while it is green sail while the Lords wind and tide doth call stir up and blow upon the grace of God in you happily we blow upon the gift of praying when we should stir up the grace of praying Yea 3. Suppose the habit of grace were not kindled or in any near disposition to flame but there were deadness on the soul and the habit of grace lying deadned and covered with ashes yet is there warrant to blow aside the ashes to stir the fire and to smite upon the flint seven times until it cast fire David Psal 42. and Psal 43. three times Ps 42. 11. and Ps 43. 5. chides his casten down and unbelieving soul and wakens up and puts upon the habit of faith and Psal 103. and Psal 104. four times he wakens up his soul to bless the Lord and all that is within him to praise the Lord Psal 1â—6 7. he charges his soul to return to its rest It is dreadful to smother and bear down these births of God and to blast and wither such buddings of the Spirit and also to yield to carnal deadness and to lie down under it but let us await at the pool and when the Angel comes down and troubles the water step in and be healed As the Martyr condemned to die was under great deadness of spirit when he was in the prison and going to the place of execution yet coming to the place a gale of the wind of the Spirit blew fair and he cryed out to his Christian friends to whom he made known his former deadness now he is come he is come
it 's clear of the habit of grace John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall send you the Comforter Christ sends him the Father sends him in Christs name John 14. 26. he shall receive of mine and shew it to you Now the holy Spirit the Comforter dwells in the Children of God not personally though he be said to dwell in them and to speak in them 1. In the habit and divine power given to them to confess Christ before men Matth. 10. 19. Acts 4. 8. or in preaching working of miracles Acts 6. 8. or in praying Acts 6. 10 11. Acts 7. 55 56. 2. In actuating that power in giving grace actually to will and to do to confess prophesie Luke 1. 27 41 42. Luke 2. 27 28. to pray Acts 7. 55 56. as the Lord is said to thunder in the clouds to give rain not that he is personally united with the clouds but because he creats in the clouds the power of thunder and raining and doth actually determine the clouds to rain 5. Supernatural habits and supernatural dispositions are neer to other as the fire and the flaming of the fire the clouds and the rain the sea and the ebbing and flowing of the sea not that the disposition is the very operation and second act of the habit but because the diposition is a quality superadded to the habit or the neerer principle and power of spiritual acting Stephen and Peter and John were full of the holy Ghost habitu from the time that the holy Ghost was given them but when they are conveyed to answer before the rulers they are said to speak being full of the holy Ghost Acts 4. 8. Acts 7. 55 56. which is either an enlargement of the habit of grace or a new spring-tide of the same sea or a new infused disposition promised by our Saviour and given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 12. 11 12. Matth. 10. 19. Mark 13. 11. in that same hour And 3. There is much nearness of heavenly habits dispositions and heavenly influences and they are like other as life and breathing fire and the flaming of the fire get heavenly dispositions and influences of grace to pray to praise to believe almost connaturally follow When the tide of the Spirit flows Steven and the Apostles must preaâ—â— and boldly confess their precious Master Christ Jesus and this is great condescension of love that the spirit and the sinful believer are fellow-workers for the Spirit to act in the man Christ or in the elect Angels is not so much a wonder for they never â—inned influences upon us who have but a sort of obediential power as we are sinners such as is the power of swimming in iron is lowliness of love What is it for the Spirit of grace and glory to beat upon such broken and mistuned harps and to bring forth such excellent actings as praying praising confessing believing rejoycing in God in such unhandy tools What holy trembling is required in us that we offend not such an honourable and glorious help and that we neglect not to joyn his own habit to his own influences when he renders the work sweet and easie O let us lend our heart and give organs and a work-house to the Spirit who comes down to sigh in sinners He mourns like a dove and weeps like a father who hath lost his first-born in heirs of glory Q. But is not the habit of grace and spiritual dispositions all one and the same Answ They are not one For 1. The habit is the seed of God that remaines alwayes in us 1 John 3. 9. and the anointing that dwels in us 1 John 2. 20 27. but a disposition comes and goes ebbs and flowes A child of God will be under deadness and witheredness the soul cleaving to the dust dropping away for heaviness like a bottle in the smokâ— when the man with the habit of grace will pray like one sweating and rowing with oars against the tide and stream Why doth David pray so often to be quickened if he was ever in a lively disposition 2. Doth not experience teach that there be times when David saith 2 Sam. 7. 27. Thy servant hath found his heart to pray this prayer Was not this so much as to say the heart and disposition to pray is lost sometimes and is away Psal 57. 7. My heart is fixed O Ood my heart is fixed or prepared 3. To say that spiritual dispositions are as permanent and constant as habits is to deny the going and coming of the Spirit in Christs love-visits Now certain it is the Spouse is not ever sick of love for Christ as Cant. 2. nor is there such a flaming of love dispositions as when the Spouse saith Cant. 1. 5. A bundle of myrrhe is my beloved to me he shall lodge all the night between my breasts When a sleepy drowsiness is on that she suffers the welbeloved to knock and stand and knock while his head is full of dew and his locks wet with the rain of the night and refuses to open yea positively gives a reason that she cannot lodge him in the house nor between her breasts I have put off my coat how shall I put it on Such a spiritual love-sicknesse is far off 4. When a contrary disposition to adultery is on and Davids hand at the pen writing a letter to contrive the killing of innocent Vriah and the unbelieving fear of losse of life is upon Peter so that he denieth his Lord there could not be an heavenly disposition to make spiritual songs to pray to praise to confess Christ before men on either the one or the other 5. If those heavenly disposition were ever in it it should speak much against the liberty of the blessed Spirit whose breathings and out-lettings are soveraignly free Now by this the work of grace should be like the work of nature we see the fountain alwayes casts out her streames the Sun ever gives light the work grace hath a day and a dark night and Sun-light and Moon-light that we are in a state of outlawry when he withdraws to be humbled to the dust for abused love-visits and may know what is Christs and what is ours the fire is ever alike disposed to cast heat a mill-stone if not hindered is alike disposed to fall to the earth or down the mounrain Q. Are not spiritual dispositions nothing else but the hearts affections Answ Dispositions heavenly are different from the affections much more then they are different from the habit of grace 1. The spiritual dispositions goe and come the heart and affections of love joy sorrow remain 2. The heart is one thing and the heavenly preparedness of the heart is another thing As the subject iron differs from the fierceness and heat in iron and the water differs from the cold and heat that goes and comes from and to the water so dispositions are spiritual qualities and the affections the subject the heart is
to praise to submit to God to adore to walk humbly to walk circumspectly and tenderly and such like but most of them may be reduced to these NOw to speak of the burning of the heart the place Luke 24. 32. is clear The two disciples having parted with Christ now risen from the dead and not knowing him to be Christ 32. they say one to another Did not our hearts burn within us when he spake to us in the way and opened to us the Scriptures In which words the nature of heavenly heart-burning in the causes and properties thereof is laid open and the differences between the heat natural from natural influences from the lively heat spiritual In the words these particulars are to be observed 1. When the heat is gone and past 1. they perceive it they said one to another when he is gone our heart did burn in the past or preterite time 2. They accuse their own stupidity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not our heart burn were we sleeping when he burnt us 3. The Author speaking Christ while he spake to us in the way 4. The fewel that made the fire and the burning coals the Scripture opened by Christ 5. The object of the burning or the subject recipient our heart was burning as an oven or a furnace They said one to another The coal of fire which Christ cast into the heart and is now smoaking among the fire-wood and on the heart leaves two things behind it 1. Telling of their experiences one to another 2. The feeling and perceiving of the heavenly heart-burning better when it 's gone then when it was on Then the heart-working of Christ will leave histories behind it as what is much of Solomons Song but a Narration of the daughters and virgins one to another of Christs actings upon the soul or a chronicle of Christs love and the Spouses sin as 1. Of Christs dispensation in withdrawing Cant. 3. I sought him but I found him not Cant. 5. 6. I opened to my beloved and my beloved had withdrawn himself 2. She tells his saving actings upon the soule be like to the virgins Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me unto his chambers Cant. 2. 4. He brought me into his banquetting-house and love was his banner over me 3. She tells over songs of Christs loveliness and excellency Cant. 5. 10 11 12. of the savouriness of his name of the memory of his love Cant. 1. 3 4. of the seat and room that Christ hath in her heart and betwixt her breasts Cant. 1. 13. all the night 4. She tells of her carnal drowsiness of her sinful refusing to open and let in Christ to the heart So does Jeremiah tell a sad experience of his own he had quit the prophecying trade and would speak no more in the name of the Lord and he was burnt with a fire in his breast he could not get the word housed in his heart but it did come abroad This shall be the first difference betwixt spiritual heart-burnings and the influences that the Spirit leaves and the natural heat The literal burning leaves no work upon the heart nor any impression of heavenly experiences Jehu his heat against Achab and Baal left no impression of God on him to hate the golden calves or the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin He did cleave to that way 2 Kings 10. 28 30. Let fiery professors shew any influence of a gratious work in the heart the flaming of thorns under a pot and the flashes of heat from burning straw leave no fire but ashes and much cold behind them in the cold winter frost and the generality of dead professors can say nothing to one another but I have long heard the Gospel and yet am without God and without Christ 2. I am convinced of the excellence of Christ and there yet is no fire or coal of heart-love to Christ in me and it were good such a missing there were 2. Did not our hearts burn This is convinced to be a disposition spiritual rather then a habit it s a burning of heart while Christ speakes that had a cooling before though they were believing Disciples But here observe they feel not so the burning of heart in the mean time as afterward when v. 31. Christ was vanished out of their sight and gone now they take special notice in a feeling way of the warmness of heart they felt while he opened the Scriptures to them The Lord preaches in a ladder reaching from earth to heaven Jacob sleeps and can give no judgement in the mean time but Gen. 28. 16. when the sweet vision and preaching is eâ—ded Jacob awaked out of his sleep and he said Surely the Lord was in this place and I knew not A strong impression of the presence and glory of God sometimes comes on after the Lord is away David desires and thirsts Psalm 63. 2. saith he in the wilderness of Judah that I may see thy power and thy glory as I have seen thee The enjoying of Zion and Zions songs while the people is at home in their own land hath not such influence on their spirit as when the Sancturies glory is removed then Psalm 137. 1. By the rivers of Babel there we sate down yea we wept when we remembred Zion While one is in a fever they may be ignorant that they are in a fever but when the cooling of health comes then he well remembers he was sick of a fever When there is a fever of glory on Peter he speaks he knows not what Mark 9. 6. yet after 2 Pet. 1. 16 17. he makes sweet comfortable use of that glory of Christ on the mount when the Lord waters the sown seed and sends down new influences of grace then doth it appear what warming hath been in the soul this is a second difference betwixt literal heat and spiritual burning of heart literal heat hath most sense when it is a dowing there are no spiritual reflexions upon that burning when it is gone and over except the Lord give repentance and that is accidental to all sinful fairds and flaming of the flesh or of a moral gift it dies with its flaming as fired powder that endures not long whereas its useful to call to mind the gracious burnings of heart yea or any of the Lords ancient paths according to that Psalm 119. 52. I remembred thy judgement of old and have comforted my self and its good to receive and lay up influences of heart warmings of Christ Isa 42. 23. Who among you will â—ear this who will hearken and hear for the time to come Did not our hearts burn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The godly reprove their not knowing and not discerning of Christ in his heart flamings of love godly and spiritual sense â—â—lengeth self-dulness Cant. 5. 6. I opened to my beâ—â—ved but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone This is a sense of Christs withdrawing
do Psalm 51. 5. Jer. 14. 4. Isa 64. 8 9. Dan. 9. 5 6 11. Psalm 116. 6 7. 3. Cain Pharaoh Saul Magus never complain of themselves Heathens complain of sin original not as mans sin but as Socinians and Pelagians complain of it as mans misery and the Lords fault and sin with reverence to his holiness in that God and the step-mother nature have dealt worse with man in bringing him into the world naked weeping weak sick dying then with bulls that are born with thick skins and have horns to defend them It s a shameful accusing of God to deny original sin to be a transgression of the Law such as deserveth death eternal Ah our pride who dare bark against God when we should weep over our own wolfish and beastly nature Assert 3. We do not so much in the use of means as our lameness doth permit The Lord hath drawn a bill in the conscience that the blind will not so much as open their eye-lids we may be a law to our selves Rom. 1. 14 15. we know God by nature and glorifie him not as God Rom. 1. 2. 15. we may go many miles farther toward God by Natures light but we sit still 2. Yea we blow out the candle and here the criple and lame man breaks his own legs and arms the second time and complains of the Physitian Christ that he will not heal him against his will he who adds to his sickness a poyson drink cannot father his death upon the Physitian Ah we stir not broken legs and arms upon and towards the Physitian Christ 3. The criple may move and creep toward the Physitian The motion of such as stepped in the pool immediately after the Angel troubled the water John 5. was not a motion of perfect nature nor a perfect motion but yet a means of health it was Christ rejects not criple and sickly motions in using means towards himself Assert 4. The motions of the Spirit to come to the renewed mans case serve as legs to bear the criple-man but not as eyes for Psalm 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path Yea a doubt it is if the motions of the Spirit as the Spirit without the word lay an obligation on us to follow these motions except when the Spirit speaks to Paul and Barnabas to go to Macedonia not to Bythinia and then the word of the Spirit becomes formally the word of the Lord as the word of Christ from his mouth is the word of God but heed is to be taken in a special manner when the bastard spirit speaks to Becold to Hichol and such wizards for God speaks like God and his own know his voice and the children of the Divel know also their fathers voice learn to go as far as you can in the way to Christ 1. No violence but from your own heart stands in your way the birth helps it self in the womb to come out work with the tide or against it he who rowes with oars in a manner helps the wind they desire not to sail who will not stir a foot to the ship 2. Hearing in Lydia and the Gaoler reading in the Eunuch diligent taking heed to the word of the Gospel preached by Phillip in the Samaritans the woman of Samaria conferring with Christ have in them though they come not up to the nature of a perfect duty somewhat of the ordinance of Christ and Christ loves to be in his own ordinances pro tanto its true the unrenewed man cannot use the means formally as they are referred to Christ and for Christ until his will and intention be renewed yet he is in the way to Christ and materially he comes to Christ nor is walking to the ship on dry land an act of sailing nor the sick mans journeying to the Physitian or his simple receiving of medicine an act of healing its good to come to the work-house of the spirit the preached Gospel and to lie under the breathing of the Lord when the word is spoken lend the letter of the Gospel lodging in the outer house the ear and literal understanding go in to the Potters house and stand beside the furnace and behold what work the Lord hath 3. Upon the wheels towards others and how many he meets with in the way of his ordinances frames the new creature in them makes a real change in them that you wonder at them knowing thy were blind and now they see 2. As for renewed ones these cases are considerable 1. When the letter of the Law is granted there is something and a great something wanting Psal 119. 29. remove from me the way of lying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be grace over thy Law to me which is first a suit that deeper and deeper spiritual impressions of God in the Law may be engraven on him till he be filled with all the fulness of God and influences may amount to a strong habit following of hearing reading conferring meditating with much praying for spiritual teaching from him as all along through Psal 119. would make us rich in influences 2. The natural man never misses life and quickning influences in the word the spiritual doth Psalm 119. 50. This is my comfort in mine affliction for thy word hath quickned me It s not a bad property of the earth to gape and thirst for rain there is no such gaping and thirsting in the rock the stone is never parched for want of rain but this parchedness is a neerest disposition for influences of sope and moisture from the clouds and though the thirsty man pray not yet thirst it self calls for watering influences as the Lord disappoints not nature so uses he not to frustrate gracious thirst of suitable influences of grace and these are put together and both are satisfied Psalm 145. 15 16 19. So his way Matth. 5. 6. Luke 1. 53. if thirsts for life and not for the bare condemning letter 3. There is something which we call fetching of the wind and casting of a board again to wind to the right harbour and it is a sort of courting the wind and that is the case of the soul that would live upon influences its fit to pant and gape and carefully wait on for the holy breathings of the Lord could we wait in the way that the Spirit uses to come and attend him in ordinances he must come that way as Zacheus cast himself in that way of Christ providence places two blind beggars in Christs way the Lord thereby bestows the Son of Davids mercy on them and providence placed the woman of Samaria at the well of Jacob and Christ must needs go thorow Samaria and her way she looked for water from Jacobs well and looked not for the Messiah yet she meets with him and feels his influences before she goes hence but we are with ordinances to lie at the tide and wait for and seek the flowings of