into the dungeon and then it falls downe as Saul with that light which shone about him Act. 9. and saith what wilt thou have me to doe I am as thou wilt have me 1 Sam. 3. my wisdome my wit shall be thine speake Lord and thy servant heareth he that formerly should have perswaded me of this might as easily have forced me to say it is light at midnight But Lord now I am a foole in my selfe meerly empty of mine owne sense and wholly thine addicted to sweare to thine edicts and if thou sâ—â—ak the word I lay hand upon mouth and have done This is to be as a little child whom ye may winne to say what ye list Oh! this is the next way to make thee wise to salvation This is to be unto Gods wisdome as the Queene of Sheba was to Salomons even to have no spirit left in her Oh! thou must say with David My fingers shall forget to play and lose all cunning Thirdly thou must so be stript of all thine owne Word of truth must cast the seed of God into the soule when once emptied of her selfe as yet thou must Branch 3 not be a meere void and empty one of all other wisdome But the word of truth must be shed as seed into thy soule and the principles thereof must be infused into it to informe it and to create of nothing a new nature of divine light into it I say as they spake in Act. 23.7 If an Angell from heaven have revealed any thing from heaven to him we will not gainesay it These words the Pharisees used of set purpose to oppose the Sadduces who denyed Angels and souls of men So must thou That which hath beene most contrary to thy wisdome must now bee all in all Now thou must oppose thy selfe thus If God have revealed any truth of his from heaven I will sooner cast thee out then resist it Be thou as parties who put their matters to compromise They are first bound in bonds to stand to award So doe thou binde thy carnall reason as a dogge to the stake that it stirre not a foote nor once mute while God is speaking yea doe thus with gladnesse as poore men are glad to be bound to arbitrement because they desire an end So thou because thou desirest to be savingly wise be glad there is such a word of truth shining in a darke place and open all windows to let it in do not stop any crevis of light which might enter but greedily attend study meditate in this word till the Lord thereby have let it into those darke corners of the heart that was before in the shadow of death and till the truth doe incorporate with thine understanding and cause the scales of darkenesse to fall off as Pauls did that thou maiest see cleerely those things that concerne thy peace All the fogs mists and cavills of carnall reason being scattered Oh! let her interrupt the Lord as she will yet the soule knowes whither to goe for deciding the question she will not forfeit her bond by which shee is bound to stand to the last decision of the word Fourthly get the spirit of the Lord Jesus into thy soule The fourth The Spirit of the Lord Jesus must create holy wisdome in the soule Joh. 1.18 who is the active worker of true and sanctified wisdome in the renued soule According as the Apostle tells us He is made unto us of the Father wisedome c. He enlightens every one that comes into the world with true light being that light which the soule must come by to the Father whose light cannot else be approached By the flesh of the Lord Jesus the soule is made capable of this light of the word else there is no capablenesse And the Spirit of the Lord Jesus workes the soule into this light because it reveales him unto it in the mystery of reconciliation and forgivenesse For why Till the soule be made wise to salvation all her wisdome is only in the brain will not hold The Spirit of Christ therefore lets into the heart as well as the head of the beleever this light and conveies the goodnesse warmth and sweet of it into the soule and that it is which causes it to dwell in the soule and to be an immortall and unâ—â— caying light which shall abide to eternall life till the soule see light in Gods light else the light of the Hypocrite is but a violent and dim twilight caused rather by a necessity of conviction then a powerfull perswasion Therefore apply thy selfe especially to such helpes as may bring Christ into thy soule The sight of his salvation to thy soule is the quintessence of spirituall wisdome this will cause thee to grow in all light when once thou art enlightned in the mystery of acknowledging Christ to be thy Saviour Ephe. 1.18 For why This will teach thee that Christ is all godlinesse in a mystery all the whole truth of God is lapped up in him as his infants body was lapped up in cloaths and swath-bands Else all knowledge is but a guessing and conjecturall thing count it then thy chiefe wisdome to be wise in escaping the snares of death and in beleeving unto salvation Oh! who shall bring me where I shall heare a Sermon of Christ to pardon me to reconcile me to God! If faith in the Lord Jesus once turne thy stream and carry thee with a fuller sway to heaven then all thy worldly wit carried thee before to thy cavills and objections there is hope thou hast well quitted thy selfe of carnall reason Faith the true eye to behold the mysteries of salvation Fifthly looke with the eye of faith into all the mysteries of godlinesse to beare downe carnall reason No mystery can be understood without faith The Spirit of God workes faith first as that instrument whereby the soule is led into all the secrets of God Faith by a promise will make carnall reason stand by as a very foole Hence it is that the spirituall man is said to judge all things even the hidden things of God And yet to be judged of no man 1 Cor. 3. Why Because the light of faith is the highest light All other lights are of a lower kinde And hence it is that a carnally wise man comming to heare a poore soule to speake by the light of faith touching the matters of God stands as a man astonished and as a foole in the presence of a wise man For why The Spirit which revealed the promise of salvation reveales therewith all other promises and all parts of the will of God So then I say in the fifth place let faith subdue thy reason and shew thee a reall sensiblenesse savour and wisdome in all the matters of God By her eye judge of the Sacraments discerne the reall presence of Christ there though not really carnall behold a sacramentall union betweene him and the Elements for the carrying of the soule into
when it appeares to come from falshood and mixture of our owne ends with the truth we utter See it in 1 King 22. When all those flattering Baals Priests brought in their verdict to Ahab very plausibly Iehoshaphat smelling their pretence to please Ahab could not rest quiet but asked is not here a Prophet of the Lord to enquire of None but a perverted man by his blinding self-love would hearken to them because he beleeved that which he desired Therefore on the contrary sincerity must needs carry with it the powerfull perswasion of all other Now if so then ought it to take most place with men whom it concernes What did so carry the silly ignorant multitude in the darkenesse of Popery after the persons and devotions of the Regulars Fryers and Monkes from the counsel and ministery of their Secular Priests Oh the wonderfull opinion of their sincerity and sanctity of life and doctrine and the apparant basenesse and rottennesse of the Secular Clergy Not that the one was one whit holier then the other neither barrell better herring but so it was that the one lived in their Cells and Cloysters wherein all their villany was covered from the sight of men they blinded the people by their coorse fare apparell poverty and counterfeit sincerity being double iniquity the other sinnes brake out more openly in the sight of the world and made them most odious and so did the other after the light had discovered it for then all men saw them so much the more vile by how much they had lurked and lyen hid so long under their covert of shame To end the Reason Except men bee mad and besotted those Arguments shall prevaile most with them which are in themselves most effectuall not those which savor of the contrary to wit falshood and dissimulation And thirdly sutable to the nature of sincerity and falshood is the nature Reason 3 of man to whom sincerity or falshood is applyed Take it thus We doe by nature marveilously distaste all truth whether it concerne the shunning of evill or the doing of good But let it but appeare to such persons that those who perswade them to the one or from the other that they doe it for any other ends save Gods they are thereby more ready to catch at somewhat which may strengthen them in their naturall opposition to good or inclination to evill And by this they are strengthened in their course But if this their colour be washt off and that it appeare that they are sincerely counselled from God then either it secretly drawes the heart to embrace it or if not yet it stoppes the mouth from all shuffling and just cavill against it And this is a great matter So naturally doth sincerity prevaile with the spirit of such as are not soked and sapped in their sinne willing to be gulled nay to gull their owne conscience that although it doe not for the present convince yet afterward it prevailes when the seed under the dry clod is moystned by some showre of affliction or worke of conscience and put case it never should as we see Davids could not with Saul save for the present yet will it and that justly leave such an one altogether inexcusable The issue is therefore they are monsters in kinde whom sincere counsell perswades not at all nay enrages them the more both against counsell and counsellor Fourthly and especially therefore such counsell deserves to prevaile Reason 4 because it outshootes carnall reason in her owne bow they who out of the sincerity of their spirit strive to give counsell to others doe in a sort beare downe their carnall reason by the practice of selfe-deniall Now what is more strong to beat that downe which most resists gracious counsell then when he that gives counsell reads a lecture to another of that which himself hath first practised True it is if Gods matters might bear sway with men according to their worth as the perswading men to beleeve repent and be saved What should need to be laid in the ballance with them to enforce obedience But now the question is not so much touching the things themselves or the divine grounds whereupon they infallably rest no nor the assured profit which they carry to the receivers These all are undoubted but alas That which must be looked at is the disproportion and uncapablenesse of the receiver blinded with prejudice forestalled by error ill custome infidelity sensuality In these respects Gods counsells unto flesh and bloud are as the Camel or a Cable to a needles eye so that there must bee collaterall and by-waies used to draw such Hence came Iohn Baptist the Lord Jesus the Apostles of Christ with so strange spirits not only of gifts but of self-deniall of humility of sincerity and such other gifts of attraction and perswasion to beleeve those divine truths they urged All that heard them perceived that they sought not a Kingdome to themselves but made way for God Truth and Heaven the diet the apparell of Iohn the lowlinesse of Christ that he had not so much as a bird or a fox nest or hole of the earth to hide himself in the Apostles kept no money in their girdles but had their labour for their paines this countermined carnall sense in her owne element and gave unspeakeable evidence to the counsells they gave that they were to be followed because they practised what they spake and so convinced the very sense of the hearer and let in as a needle the thred the light and life of truth into the soule by beating downe that which resisted else had it been easie for men to reply Tush these men seek themselves but now your mouth is stopped And these Reasons may suffice Vse 1 To proceed to some Use The first may be of Instruction To wit what course is to be taken about the setling of cases controversial Instruction Judgement of controversall truthes must be chiefly ascribed to the most sincere counsellors either for doctrine or practise when there is endlesse contention in the Church about them and when the Scriptures yeeld not so punctuall assent or at least their verduict is depraved and mistaken by men of contrary mindes Surely in such cases let their counsell bee taken who out of question were men of most sincere and incorrupt practise such as were farre from seeking their owne ends honour repute wealth or welfare these may be thought to bee the most entire witnesses to the truth because they had the least corrupt affections to bribe and defile their judgement they were the cleanest boxes and sweetest vessels to preserve the truth of God in without weof or tang of their owne look what came from Iohn Who these are and how to be tried Christ or his Apostles is most unquestionably best counsell if there be any expresse text of Scripture extant about it we may buy and sell upon their counsell because most sincere If there be not as it is to be noted
a mercifull and skilfull Physitian Tell me now what man or woman is there living who having such a cure of such a Physitian would or could or hath the heart to turne away from him like a blocke insensible and â—naffected wâ—th such a favour There is no such man breathing I thinke But this is common if any get such a rare cure all is too little to make recompense though he should sell himselfe to his shirt he hath no power to do other he thinkes the same evill would take him then If he see that no reward will fasten upon the Physitian but he will needs bestow it freely the more his purse is discharged the closer his heart is knit his affections are up in armes his tongue is loosed Oh! what love is this what moved his heart thus to me what a man of men is he what admiration have I him in O how I love him what is there which I would not do for him run ride spend for him suffer for him expose my selfe to any hazard maintaine his quarrell by any weapon O how he commends him in all companies and blazeth his name farre and wide till he have raised up as great fame abroad as reputation at home Aske him why he doth so he will answer That I am I am under God by him I was a dead man worse I could not be he hath restored mee to health and I am better I thinke then ever I was and therefore I must alway count him my preserver I remember in the Roman story I have read of a certaine spectacle upon the Circk or Theatre of Rome where among other sports condemned persons were to fight for their lives with wild beasts it fell out so that a man before time passing through the wildernesse met with a lyon And looking for no other then death fell downe for feare An illustration of the point But the poore Lion approached to him with much moane and held out his foote to the man which foot of his by reason of a thorn or some such like thing sticking deep therein had so rankled and swell'd that it was like to hazard the lyons life The man with all his Art and skill fell to his Surgery and so wrought that he pull'd out the thorne out of the Lyons foote by the rootes The poore beast feeling her aile and danger gone fawnes upon the poore man and makes all the love that a dumbe creature could possibly to him leads him out of the forrest and there leaves him and sets him at liberty It was the lot of this lyon after to be taken and to be sent to Rome for a present and it was the worse lot of the man to commit a great Robbery and being condemned to the Theatre to fight what lyon must be brought forth to fight with this man but this lyon The man all amort and despairing of life this preserved lyon knowes his Surgeon comes to him fawnes upon him again and by no meanes could be pull'd from the mans side and embraces but to bring the man to mind of the cause he puts forth his foot heal'd of the thorne The people defeated of their expectation turn'd their sporting humour into admiration asking the caytiffe the reason of so marvellous an accident The man publiquely opens the history as it were wrought whereupon cruelty being turn'd into astonishment pity they decreed a statue to be set up in the Market place for eternall memory of the fact of a Lyon embracing a man over the Lyons head with this title Behold a Lyon the saviour of a man over the mans head Behold a man the Physitian of a Lyon I have beene too long but the workes of God are not to be neglected I would but shew you the spirit of a cure even in a dumbe creature what then is it in a reasonable But what comparison is there betweene either and the spirit of cure in the spirituall soule and conscience converted Oh! no tongue can utter it onely we may admire it Proofes of the Doctrine 1 In examples Examples in our Saviours story we have many of the spirit of bodily cures How many did our Saviour cure of whom it is said he was faine to charme them from telling it abroad yet they could not but so much the more blazed it to make him famous Others were no sooner healed but arose and ministred unto him others could not so part with him but followed him But one of all others will best serve our turne and that is the blind man Joh. 9. Ioh. 9. who though he had but poore seede sowne in him of any faith as appeares after yet from this spirit of the cure of his blindnesse did strange things magnifyed Christ call'd him a Prophet wondred that those who had their eyes should not know him when the enemies of Christ like hornets came about his eares to deface the miracle and the doer of it yet strong was the spirit of this cure in the man that he could not endure their malice though he knew their spite and rage and the danger of it as well as his parents yet he would not spare them an inch What saith hee 12 13 14 15 16. verses Will ye be his Disciples That were fitter for you then to smother such a miracle From the beginning of the world to this day was it never heard of that any opened the eies of the blind Oh! how it affected him Surely it might have become one of his strongest Apostles thus to have defended him But the spirit of a cure and the love of such is stronger then death at least then Excommunication And when the Lord Jesus met him he added the spirit of a better cure and of conversion These hints I have given you for familiar explication of the nature of that I speake of But to leave these let mee come to the Doctrine it selfe to ground it out of the Word to give you a few Reasons and so come we to Use 2. Grounds of the Scripture Ier. 2.2 3 4. For the first of these read Jerem. 2.2 I remember thee and the kindnesse of thy youth and of thine espousals when thou wentest after mee in the wildernesse c. He speakes of that first marriage love which passed betweene himselfe and his people who tooke it kindly that God had brought them out of Egypt bondage and the red Sea and made a song of his mercies and were found of him so many at least as knew him aright Noting that this first love is as precious to God as early fruits of the spring apples peares plums pease or the like are to the taste of man as being the most pure and dainty of all Zach. 12.10 And that which Zachary in Ch. 12.10 calls the spirit of grace compassions and mourning is sutable hereto by which the grace of God uttered it selfe in those who were converted as we see it fulfilled in the Church Act. 2. who
save him I hope I shall not need to prove the truth of his conversion If any doubt of it let them note but the scope of our Saviours discourse in that place of Saint Luke and it will satisfie him for except it be granted that Naaman was converted the whole scope of our Saviours speech is overthrowne And that evidentâ—y is this Luke 4.27 to convince and upbraid his owne countrymen for their contempt and infidelity and that by Naamans example As if he should say Trust not to this that you and I are Townsmen and neer of acquaintance God is no excepter of persons grace is free and mercy is neither of the willer or runner but of him who sheweth mercy look well to your selves that ye despise not the offer I make as little worth and thinking your selves Abrahams seed and children of the promise for except ye beleeve the Lord can passe by those of the kingdome and call in from the East and West strangers even such as Naaman and thrust out the children Marke then except Naaman were converted the Jewes might have had a ready evasion to escape the dint of this exprobration and have said Why Lord Elisha was no more sent to Naaman then thou art sent to us there was no more wrought in him then in us This had bin to cut the sinewes of Christs argument asunder And whereas it may be alledged Christ did no miracles at Nazareth I answer it is uncertaine But say he did not it had bin small upbraiding of them with the want of miracles if he had not much more cast them in teeth with the want of that for which miracles served I meane grace and faith This objection then thus removed I returne and say that the Lord sent Elisha to Naaman for the cure of soule and body out of an especiall freedome of Graces which he denied to others who were far fairer for it then he That the glory of this free and soveraigne mercy and compassion might only be ascribed to God The doctrine then hence is that Grace is free and soveraigne And Doct. Gods grace is free Rom. 9.10.11 unto this truth doth all the Scripture give witnesse The Apostle Rom. 9. defending the soveraignty of God against all cavillers who cannot endure that God should differently impart himselfe to such as are equally inwrapped in the same state of corruption saith thus shall the clay say to the Potter why hast thou formed me thus And whereas the caviller alledges that this should infer a contradiction between the secret will of God touching the end of the creature and the revealed touching the duty of the creature and saith why doth he then yet complaine q. d. He hath barred the creature from obeying and beleeving by a secret denying of power unto it to do either and doth he still exhort warne threaten and chide The Apostle answers Verse 20. Oh man who art thou who janglest with God Is God unrighteous in each act of his whereof thy wit cannot give reason And in the same Chapter Wherefore Verse 16. it is not of the willer or the runner but of God who sheweth mercy Why should all others save Lydia and the Jailor be left Acts 16.14 27. when Paul came among that people and all the wise Phylosophers at Athens be passed by onely Denus and Damaris a poore only man and only woman being excepted And Acts 17. ult Who called Rahab and rejected all Jerico Ruth and not Orpah Who chose David and refused Eliab Who separated the Gentile and rejected the Jew Who is he that saith not many wise learned are chosen but the meane things and foolish of this world to condemne the mighty 1 Cor. 1.26 Why was that one Eunuch attended and converted by Philip other Proselites being let alone Surely that we might tremble and say Oh the depth of the wisdome of the justice and mercy of God how are his waies past finding out why should one who came at the eleventh houre fare as well as he at the sixt Because God may doe as he list with his owne Matth. 20.12 Is thine evill because he is good No for of him in him and by him are all things to him be praise for ever Calling to grace double Unconditionall or conditionall both free What the former is How it is free Now that Gods call is free according to his owne soveraigne pleasure appeares by the difference of Calling which is two fold the one unconditionall the other conditionall The former of these is that externall call of God whereby he ministers the meanes of the Gospel by which the effectuall call may be attained Now it is evident that this is free for it requires not nor cannot require any antecedent disposition or fitnesse in the called All are equally sunke into rebellion in respect of their nature and as concerning the practice sure it is that howsoever the morals of some may possibly be worse then others yet this can be no bar unto Gods free visiting them with light if he please so to do and there is no wickednesse of man over which the grace of the Gospel may not prevaile Deut. 9.4 Say not saith Moses that the Lord hath chosen thee from among all other Nations because thou wert better then they for thou wert the worst of all Nations But it was free mercy which thus chose and called thee to the Covenant and to be a people That caused the Lord to call thee from all other Nations of the world though all the world were his Againe it is not the moralnes of any people nor their vertuous qualities which can move the Lord to shew them the light of further grace but if he leave them in their moralities it is just and righteous Sure it is this unconditionall call is as free as the raine which falls upon the earth in some places plentifully in some scantly in some not at all Even where the Lord in soveraigne wisdome shall please to send it Some places the Lord permitted his Apostles to goe to others the Spirit forbad them to visit God had no people there therefore the meanes were held from them Not because the meanes were not granted he had no people but because he had no people therefore meanes were not granted Now concerning this former call how many Nations of the world are excluded Untill Christ all the world was excommunicate for the times of that ignorance God regarded not and since Christ now full one thousand six hundred years and odde how many are uncalled if some speake truly scarce a sixth or seventh part is yet visited if it were but the one halfe it were enough to prove this freedome Cavills there are some against this former freedome the most of which are taken from the respects of more sinfullnesse in those people or their Predecessors or some former contempt but they are so idle and senslesse that the divisers of them shew
partly remote and consequent upon it in his returne from Jordan to the Prophets house and making his respective acknowledgement in his zealous and loving offer of recompence in his earnest though weak devotion in his firm full resolution of future closing with God in his tender and most sensible touch of heart for the sin which mainly pinched him with request for advice about it for time to come whereto the loving answer of the Prophet is annexed Go in peace These are the parts First of the first in this tenth verse The first of the five generalls Branches of the tenth verse three There is no great difficultie in the words That which is may be resolved in the opening of the heads of doctrine arising out of them And they are three in order First that Elisha sends a messenger but comes not out in person to Naaman that concernes the manner and way of Elisha his answering The second concernes the matter of his answer Goe and wash seven times in Jordan A message still harping upon the former string tending to vindicate all the glory to God by substituting of such a creature as could steale no honour from God The third issues from a question That seeing God aimed at his owne glory to which end hee would use still the creature in the cure The answer to which is the Lord having bound sure enough for himselfe and his owne glory in so poore a creature and unlikely healer as waters doth yet in a sort provide for Naaman afterwards viz. That whereas there was implied in this charge a gracious promise that he should be healed the Prophet would confirme his weake faith in the promise and unseen power of God by the reall signe of a thing to be seen and felt even the waters of Jordan This being shortly premised for distinctnesse of the point let us open the first of them and the ground of that which floweth thence Elisha we see comes not himselfe but sends his messenger Why I pray you The first point in this It was not pride or statelinesse in Elisha to deny treaty with Naaman Was it for state and surlinesse No surely That had been a very indirect meane to have cured pride or selfe-love in Naaman or to have drawne him out of himselfe to one above himselfe Popish arrogancie and Pharisaicall pride of Ministers thinking to hold men at a certaine distance toward their greatnesse recompenceth not nor attaines Gods righteousnesse That proud Prelate and man of finne who setteth up himself above all that is called God and under a title of the Vicarship of Christ playes the Antichrist who hath magnified himselfe hitherto and enlarged his territoties by an outward setting up himselfe with pomp in the eyes of a deluded multitude of superstitious fooles hath yet never wonne any honour in the soules and consciences of men but rather made himself to stink in mens nostrils through his intolerable insolencie His treading upon Emperours neckes kicking off their Crownes Popish insolency of Clergie over Gods people intolerable dethroning them by excommunication forcing them to lackey him on horseback and holding his stirrop His making a reall essentiall difference of himselfe from other Bishops and Ministers holding then at staves end dancing attendance upon his haughtinesse Holinesse I should say moneths weekes dayes and yeares ere audience can be given scorning the Laity as accursed This pride though it have kept up his Satanicall tyranny through feare and terrour in the hearts of Idolaters yet hath made him and his doctrine life and manners execrably odious For why it is as contrary to Christs humblenesse as the state of one mounted upon a Spanish Jennet is contrary to the meannesse of one riding on an Asse and that by the confession even of some of his owne straine So that when his Messenger Augustine came here first into England in his name and pride to subdue our Britany to Popish yoke the poore Monkes of Bangor summoned to appeare to his presence beholding the base pride of his seat raised throne-wise above the ordinary seats of others even by his Masters ear-marke he was smelt and discarded as a proud usurper and no commer with an Apostles spirit Which I speake not as if I would from hence raise any doctrine from a negative ground No doctrines from negatives but lest the question should bee resolved without some observation this I would say to our selves of the Clergie By the way yet some clearing of the doubt and an hint of instruction that humblenes towards our people is the truest surest preservative of our honor intire in their souls State and distance may set us up in the sense of some ignorant ones who rather slavishly feare us then love us and yet even these when they utter their thoughts will give us their livery But as for those who know how to value a Minister of God in the name and for the worke of a Prophet nothing more honours a Preacher in their hearts then his humility I deny not but there ought to be due respect of people to their Minister but I deny that it is purchased by austerity and statelines And yet I do not allow a Minister to be haile fellow well met with each companion nor to avoyd the extreame of statelinesse with another extreame of commonnesse complying with them in the Ale-house bowlings or boon-fellowships to hang about their shop-windowes mixe himselfe with them in his paper-service at all turns buyings bargaines wills purchases except in a pious and necessary way of Christian love But by the authority of his labours and the integrity of his life to uphold that esteeme which is meet for a dispenser or Christ and in this sense we ought to see that no man despise us But yet on the other side Tit. 2.15 we must not over-Lord it among them to bring them under our girdles 1 Pet. 5.3 and to boast our selves as the best men in the towne for so shall wee but out-shoot the Divell in his owne bow and shew our selves distrustfull of Gods providence as if he were not able to bring forth our light Psa 37.5.6 except we our selves doe it by reflecting our owne shine and beames upon our selves No doubtlesse we shall lose more in the Hundred then we gain in the Shire and left our worth to be valued by others A base proverb There is a base Proverbs Thou shalt bee so much esteemed by others as thou esteemest thy selfe But it holds onely in the Divels dominion As for God who resists the proud but gives grace to the humble the weapons of his warfare are not carnall 1 Pet. 5.5 but spirituall casting downe strong holds and all high thoughts to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 and most of all in our selves who are his Standard-bearers But I must recall my selfe from this negative digression Why Elisha comes not forth to Naaman Well then if
they will ground themselves upon the wisedome of flesh and the preaching of such as seeke with curious and quaint oratory and the deceitfulnesse of man to entangle the minde or else they care not whether they heare any or no. But oh ye wise worldings know ye that God doth usually the greatest things by meanest instruments know ye not that flesh loves it selfe and that there is small hope of doing any great things by fleshly meanes should then flesh glory in her selfe and take away the glory from God by an unsanctified and unsavoury boasting of it owne strength Surely looke to it they who build their faith on man must rush their soules to destruction of necessitie And the wisedome of God hath chosen the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve If ever yee looke for this be wise intime and become fools that ye may be truly wise to salvation 1 Cor. 1.1.27 Of which I shall speake more fully in the next use Vse 5 Lastly therefore let it be use of examination to all sorts to try themselves about this issue Examin what great things God hath wrought in them by the poore and silly meanes of his Ordinances Try whether the Lord hath by them translated you from the kingdome of Satan and darknesse to the kingdome of his deare Sonne rid you out of the thraldome of your lusts and Idols to serve the living God Thinke not that the kingdome of Christ stands in a few trickes of wit or entising words of a frothy Mounteebankes tongue thinke not that fine sentences or strong lines or a jangling wit priding it selfe in a vaine-glorious Preacher will goe for pay when Christ shall come to judge Trials and markes of our fleshly wisedome subdued Luke 18.8 The great worke which hee will look for will be faith unfained a broken spirit love out of a pure heart a new creature Therefore take some markes hereof and try your selves First the Lord by poore meanes will cast downe that frame of carnall Triall 1 wisedome in you be it never so strongly setled and convince yee of your folly in that you should ever so besot your owne selves as to thinke that the way to heaven should lye in such a course as you have walked in Oh! shall you say if ever I goe to heaven God must turne a new leafe with mee flesh and bloud a curious humorous conceit will never inherit the kingdome of God The Lord I say will discover to your eye such an excellencie in his Ordinances even when they seeme weakest to your fancie that you shall fall downe and say The Lord is in you of a truth The scales of your carnall eye shall fall off Acts 9. Revel 3. Psal 119. and you shall bee annointed with eye salve to behold wonders in those poore instruments and ordinances which you have so long despised The old judgement of error and this foolish world shall be taken away and a new Spirit of discerning shall be given you to looke off from the base out-side of man of preaching of Sacraments and you shall see a divine power and majestie therein The Asse shall not seeme so base as the rider seemes glorious and you shall strew your clothes and bowes of trees in the way of Christ crying Hosanna and magnifying God that by such poore pipes and channels conveyes so great things to men Ask your selves did you ever perceive such a worke wrought in you If not you still abide in the gall of bitternesse and are pur-blinde seeing nothing a far off Secondly the Lord will make you so farre from your disdaine that he Triall 2 will make you crouch and be glad of the silliest Minister of God in all the countrey as those Acts 2. Acts 2.37 who came trembling about those same Apostles whom in the former Chapter they had flouted and mocked as drunken with new wine and said Men and brethren what shall wee doe to be saved So shall you doe such as you have jeered for zealous men of the Spirit you shall now be glad to bee admitted to aske them what course you may take to escape hell and surely try your selves in this point if still your disesteeme of Gods Ministers continue in you you are none of those in whom GOD hath wrought any great worke in Thirdly the Lord shall correct that corrupt selfe-love and partialitie in Triall 3 you whereby the affectation of some odde Minister whom you humored covered and darkened the graces gifts of God in others lesse reputed of by you Oh! now shall the Lord purge out your private judgment and put a publicke spirit of communion of Saints into you Alas you shall see all the Ministers of Christ one as well as another to bee the mutuall aiders of your faith and furtherers of your joy given by God not for this or that man but for the good of the whole body And accordingly you shall prize them even for the graces of God in them and for the use which they serve even the worke of the Ministerie 1 Cor. 3. Ephes 4. and the edifying of the Church in love Partialitie and private ends of your own shall stinke unto as knowing that if God convert you to himselfe hee makes you members of the body which beares you up not you it Not the meannesse of the vessell shall now offend you but the rich treasure in it shall ravish you now if your souls may be saved all other respects shall vanish 4 Triall Fourthly God will teach us to deny our selves in that base ease and sloth of our spirits which satisfies us in having in hearing a Minister and the sound of his words which contents us in that wee enjoy Sabbaths Sermons and Sacraments by course in a rolling succession without observing the power and savour which any of them leave in us This commonnesse and taking all for granted upon a custome blindes us even as a cloath hung before our eye hinders the action thereof and puts it out by degrees This ordinarie accustoming of our selves to that which is obvious casts a veile over our hearts so that we never come within the holinesse of the ordinances neither mark any great worke done by them either in our selves or others And by this meanes wee are hardned by them rather then wrought upon either by humbling quickning or renewing How hath the Lord then wrought in us have we after a long sleepy and drowsie hearing and receiving at last been pulld by the eare and jogged by the Spirit to stand up and be awakened to see the wonders hidden under the veile of humane infirmitie and the povertie of the Ordinances Doe we wax wearie of formall remembring of a few sentences or commending the Preacher talking of what we heard and doe our hearts begin to burne within us when the Word is opened through the evidence of that Spirit which speakes in the Word Luke 24. Doe we feel the weight of truth uttered
out of Christs Schoole a true servant of Christ faithfull to him out of love for love for reconciliation for pardon for peace for grace will be faithfull for his sake to a Master be he good be he bad why Because the maine fidelity of heart to God will first bind him to the Lord Jesus in what charge soever he betrust him As if the Lord Jesus say to a Minister I have loved thee made thee faithfull and put thee into my service I now will have thee declare thy faithfulnesse to me in feeding my sheepe and lambes Joh. 21. A Minister will doe it for the love hee beares Christ So a wife for the love shee hath found from Christ will be subject a child will bee dutifull so a servant faithfull The influence which this love hath in it carrieth an instinct into the soule for every service let God appoint the worke the love of Christ shall be the compeller to faithfulnesse whether negative not to filch not to be uncleane not to answer againe not to be untrusty or affirmative viz. to be reverend chaste true painfull trusty I say out of the Schoole of Christ this must proceed Hence it was that Ioseph Gen. 39.9 sollicited to unchastenesse with his Mistresse presently had his hand upon this hilt How shall I doe this and sinne against God His Master was absent he might have abused him and he ignorant who hurt him but Ioseph had another tye he had conscience and peace to forfeit hee had another Masters worke to looke at and better wages to lose and therefore this peace ruled him and he durst not for his soule if all pleasure profit ease and rewards in the world had been offered have attempted such unfaithfulnesse Learne yee Masters in whom your greatest strength with servants lies not in your awe feares rewards or punishments all your succours must come from a deeper tye you must be beholding for all the faithfulnesse of servants to their God and their conscience Tye them there and you have them bound for bursting else a wet eele is as easily held by the tail as such servants when they see their opportunity Hence is that triumph of Paul about Onesimus Oh! faith he I have begotten him in my chaines and now I send him backe to thee Philem. 11. no filcher or fugitive but profitable to mee and thee one that now may be trusted This is the first main thing without this I would wish no Master to trust a servant further then he sees him let his shewes be never so great Secondly 2. Grace adds all qualifications to a servant this will produce sundry other qualifications in a servant tending to faithfulnesse Grace only puts wisdome into a servant and gives him a discerning eye to behold God in each ordinance he acknowledges a divinity a finger of providence in the severall relations of the family 1. Wisdome to consider the Lord as the ordainer of all relations for great and weighty ends A common servant makes wash way of his service lookes at his Master for his owne ends lookes at himselfe his abilities But he lookes not so farre as to see God the ordainer of relations For if he did this would infuse other principles as awe feare humility c. For why It is God who hath so ordered it for the good of a Kingdome Common-wealth Church that there should be superiours inferiours some meane ones to be trained for time to come to beare rule others superiours men of ability worldly employments trades dealings offices who also have need of inferiours to be their hands and instruments to act and manage for them those businesses which they cannot performe themselves And not onely so but also it is from God that the one is set over the other to conveigh infuse such skill art and knowledge of trades and services as the inferiour hath not that so by tradition these skills and gifts may be delivered from one to another and from the same God it is that the inferiour and ignorant should subject himselfe to that end with all dexterity diligence and faithfulnesse When once this is understood that it is God and not man who hath devised this course not onely in the greatest government of Princes or Magistrates for they have their servants and officers as he said to Christ Matth. 8.5.6 I my selfe though a Master of an hundred men am under the authority of the Lord President but even of meaner authority of ordinary Tradesmen whether publicke or private ingenuous or manuall civill or ecclesiasticall spirituall or bodily still the same God is the wise orderer and disposer of all Oh! this thought yokes and subdues the soule to a wise holy and subject esteeme of government and a setting it up in the spirit as an inviolable ordinance of God not to be dallied with or prophaned Rom. 1â— 1.2 Prov. 8.15 Matth. 8 As the Apostle saith All authority lesse or more is from God By him Princes rule and by the same Officers obey Masters command doe goe come servants are subject and at their beck Why Because they discerne a Soveraignty in the ordinance in the superiour awing ruling subduing the spirits of inferiours in the other fearing adoring and reverencing God in man Hence David It is the Lord which maketh the people subject to me They rebelled often but the Lord not Davids armes nor Ioabs sword brought them backe to subjection So that he who disobeyes a Prince a Magistrate Minister Master disobeyeth not man but God and ye ought not to obey for terror and punishment Rom. 13.4.5 but for conscience The very brute creature is subjected to sinfull man by this ordinance and that causes the creature to forget his strength swiftnesse and stomacke and to take bit and bridle and to be subject else who should tame Lions Beares Elephants Horses if they knew their strength Even so this sense of divinenesse in mans government causeth the inferiours will to forget it selfe and to be subject to God in man So that now although both Master and servant be Religious both free men in Christ yet that is no occasion to flesh to withdraw duty and to turne inferiority to equality but to acknowledge God in the most loving familiar and curteous governour and if the Master be lewd and a divell to the servant who is godly yet he beholds in him that sacred hand of God who hath bound his spirit to awe and reverence not to a man for vantage but to God for conscience So much for the second Thirdly this produces a marvellous gift in a servant 3. It produces subjâ—ction of spirit in an inferiour still more procuring faithfulnesse and that is subjection of spirit Divine authority creates subjection in the servants spirit and that consists of these two things First selfe-deniall Secondly serviceablenesse In two things 1. Selfe-deniall 2. Serviceablenesse For the first It is not the state of an inferiour which can
he might pitty and succour those who are tempted And surely wonderfull use there is of this grace For alas in these troubles many a poore soule though not wilfull yet is not her owne because it is overpowred with the violence hideousnesse and irkesome of temptations without feares and unsustained horrors within so that for the time it hath no power of fastning upon counsell be it never so strong nay the stronger it is the harder to enter It must be time and stanching the bloud and waiting by degrees putting in here a droppe a line a little and there a little into the soule which must winne such an one to some hope by degrees Some texts observe for this Elihu seeing Iobs state sore snarled by his prejudicate friends and by the self-love of his own heart that it was hard to reduce all to a mediocrity applies himselfe in the spirit of singular modesty and meeknesse to be a mediator between them Job 32. Behold saith he I will not deale harshly in misjudging thee but be unto thee as thine owne soule this was the next way to redresse his sorrowes So Paul to the Galathians when he had sharpely reproved them yet seeing many of their weake mindes entangled tells them My little children of whom I travell againe till Jesus Christ be formed in you They had fallen into the hands of false teachers who had made their state more dangerous Gal. 4.19 And what doth hee Meekely and lovingly he bestowes the paines to travell againe of them Simil. A woman hath enough of breeding her fruit once and bearing it once but wee should count her a very tender mother which should beare the paine twice and fellow-feele the infants strivings and wrastlings the second time rather then want her child So Paul here is content to beare the paine twice of travelling for these Galathians hee meanes not a second birth but a second travell to reduce them home to Christ from their errors and to sympathize them so far for their good till they felt Christ againe revived in themselves after a former miscarriage and false conception So in Gal. 6.1 The Apostle againe doth require those Galathians which were strong to restore in the spirit of meekenesse such as were fallen the word is set in joint Be meeke and worke in the bone with much oile that so it may returne againe into the socket with lesse paine And Ezekiel tells us Ezek. 34.16 that this is one peculiâ—r property of a true shepheard that hee seeke up the lost and suffer not the bitten or broken to perish but carry it home upon his shoulder tender it dresse it and binde it up againe These and the like places shew with what spirit the Lord wishes such to go to work even so be it with us in Gods fear limpe with the halting lispe with the stuttering sit still and be silent a while till deepe affliction can speake out helpe forth the words of the distressed which sticke in the passage be tender and pitifull till God draw the heart by these cords of a man Hosea 11.4.13.2 and be as the Master of the cattell who taketh off the yoke and layeth meat unto them yea as the Lord Jesus who would not breake the brused reed Matth. 12. nor quench the smoking flax till judgement brake forth into victory Iron and steele come not to an edge without much oile Thirdly 3. Branch apply counsell and remedies with all wisdome and seasonablenesse speake a word in due season Now here the maine worke lieth But some may aske and say how should I performe this duty I answer The variety and difference of estates admit no rules in generall onely to satisfie the desirous I will instance in a few kindes and shew what remedies most fitly agree with them Observe wisely and discerne the estate of the afflicted Rules for this and that will be a great helpe to tell a qualified counsellor how to judge both of the malady and medicine For as it is in bodily diseases each one hath his severall symptomes which are not easily concealed So it is here A wise man will discover the sore by the behaviour of the party both for the kinde the measure the continuance of it and accordingly apply himselfe First then let it be one caveat 1. Discerne and separate mixt sorrow from â—â—â—gle that we observe whether the dolor bee single and simple or mixt and compounded If it be simple the trouble is the lesse But if mixt that is partly temporall and that first and chiefe partly spirituall The way is first to separate the one from the other and not to multiply spirituall comforts to such a one for his disease admits none because the roote is carnall And although it have ceased also in part upon conscience yet at the second hand Here then labour to lessen and diminish carnall and worldly griefe if it can by any meanes be removed as if it be a crosse upon the name body or state see if that can be effected and then you shall see if there continue any sorrow if it doe not it was meerly carnall and no spirituall in it if that cannot be removed then labour to divert the heart from the outward to the spirituall and that thus First shewing that this without the other is fruitlesse That the soule may bee as miserable without it as with it That love or hatred stands not in it That it may easily deceive a man about his sorrow That God either sends it as a needle to draw the thred of godly sorrow after it by the stirring of the spirit or else to leave the soule worse and that if it vanish as it came it will be so That the nature of it is deadly for worldly sorrow causeth death If these motives scatter the carnall sorrow and the spirituall remaine then it is from God And then the counsell is strive not to remove it at first but to ground it well upon the word that it may seaze kindely and so deale with it accordingly as in the rules following 2. Rule Discerne diabolicall temptations from inward The next is discerne diabolicall injections and temptations from the troubles arising from our selves Here the counsell is strive by all means to resolve the party that the Divell shall pay for his own sin Suggestions terrifying the spirit from Satans malice are none of ours Judge them by the disproportion to the souls disposition their unwelcomenes their irkesomenesse desperatenesse and tenaciousnesse And if a poor soul can truly say they are none of hers although she cannot be rid of the insulting of this god of flies yet by praier for riddance constant detesting to have fellowship and consent with them whether thoughts against God his word the Ministry Heaven Hell Providence Religion or lusts and vile affections the Lord will weaken them and not suffer thee to bee held under temptation And to say truth violent externall causes
Christ and a lightnesse in his burthen Others a marveilous difficulty and such a thing as must be striven for and yet may be mist The answer is Heaven and Grace are both the most easie and the most difficult that can be Answ Grace is the hardest and the easiest thing of all Math. 19.26 both may well stand They are most easie to the soule which will bee taught of God and will not resist his method by attending their owne wisdome But to others they are matters of greatest difficulty To God all things are possible to flesh and bloud to the wit and will of man to the freedome of our owne choice nothing is so impossible I remember the answer of a Philosopher to a great Prince who had beene his scholar and was discontented at him for publishing his bookes be content saith hee and know my bookes of Philosophy are publisht and not published for none are ere the wiser for them save those to whom they were read and made evident So here The mystery of Christ is the most easie and the most hard easie only to such as in whom the Lord hath opened an eare Job 33.15 and revealed it to others hard So much for Instruction Vse 2 Secondly this is Terror to all such libertines and carnall Gospellers who make Religion Faith great works light and slight matters Terror to many running away with them as horses with empty waggons not through any Branch 1 ease they have by the Spirit but from the excesse and superfluity of their own blindenesse and presumption Slighters of the worke of grace abuse the doctrine of ease Others are blinde idiots tell them of Regeneration and Conversion and they run to their own strength they doe hope well that if they put their good will to Gods God will so far enable them as to get somewhat They hope men make more ado about matters then God himselfe God hath told them that faith in the promise is easie and none of these sowre Preachers shall pull this liberty from them what needs all this adoe If God be on our side we feare nothing as long as men walke even and faire harmelesse and devout bearing a good minde toward God keepe their Church and pay all men their dues and give to the poore for ought they see God is mercifull will not the death of a sinner is found of them that sought him not Esay 65.1 Matth. 11. â—9 Esay 57.17 His yoke is easie he saith he will not bee alway heavy upon men he knowes we be no Angels yea he saith that he hath seene the iniquity of mens covetousnesse and hee will heale them and make no more adoe It is for his glory to bee mercifull As for these Ministers who sticke so much at the truth of heart and faith unfaigned they say onely God knowes the heart and they trouble mens heads more then they doe them good making men unquiet and finding out new crotchets What is mans life say they if hee may not bee merry and cheerfull God loves it and Christ hath dearly bought it and its best to be merry eat and drinke and cast away care God say these hath made us of bodies as well as soules we be not all spirit nor shall be in this world we must tend Sermons so as we may tend our worke too our bodies must be made of for God and what skils it though we play and be good fellowes and drinke a cup or two so it be in the feare of God although we be none of these Puritans yet wee be not against them we hope by this meanes to spend out our short time having God afore our eies and to be in heaven ere we be aware Oh yee wofull creatures Doe you thus construe Gods ease I aske you Hath the Lord ever brought you under the bondage of spirit for all your cursed nature and impious prophanenesse Did it ever cut you off from your old stocke Did it ever bring yee under hope No doubtlesse Thinke not then to make faith an easie purchase upon your owne purse it will be one day in that your last night of death and darkenesse such a toilesome journey through tempest and foule weather dirt and wearinesse that you shall be quite tired and then shall true toile succeed false ease Hearken not to that lying spirit which beares you in hand all ease ease for it shall turne to extremity of anguish and to a desperate impossibility The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it The Lord indeed moderates the labour of his poore weary travellers to Zion Psal 84. So that they shall grow from strength and feele no faintnesse But no man shall goe up in a feather bed to heaven if it were ever an easie way it was never easie foolehardy stout travellers which boast of their limbes shall faint suddenly Matth. 15. Dogs must not come with poore children for Gods dole it belongs not unto them So much for the first Branch Others also there are whom this terror reacheth unto And they are Branch 2 base hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God Hypocrites who come with their toile and cost to God are rejected devising painfull and tedious waies of their owne but shunning Gods easie way They will obtrude their whole rivers of oile and wine and whole barns of corne for the sinne of their soules whereas he askes onely a third part of an Hin and an handfull of flower for a meat offering A poore thing in Gods way is better excepted then all excesse of our owne Ye load mee saith God and pester me with your offerings I groane under the burthen of your sacrifices Honour me in mine owne way and I will make it easie and sweet to you But else the sand is not more heavy to mens shoulders then you to Gods you are out of Gods element therefore every thing is weighty you may complaine that you are not regarded but the Lord pitties no toile of hypocrites against his word Elija shall sooner consume the sacrifice with fire from heaven by standing still and praying in Gods way then all Baals Priests with their lancings and leapings upon the Altar Cost without wit is waste It s said of Ionathan that he had wrought with God that day on which he overcame those Philistins So I say Gods people work with God 1 King 18.28 with 37. 1 Sam. rather he with them but hypocrites work with themselves therefore they lay out their labour for that which profits not and mony for no bread They goe against the streame a Esau in his hunting for the blessing went another way with lesse adoe Esay 55.2 1 Sam. 14.45 2 Tim 3.7 As it s said in Timothy Alway hearing never comming to knowledge Oh the endlesse bootlesse toile of hypocrites You poore asses running the Divells round and grinding in his mill with your eyes blindfold at last be scared out of your trade You doe but as Sampson
cast in more if she had had it But the other cast in out of ostentation because they were seen of men and cast in of their superfluity and jollity of spirit who perhaps if they had been moved in secret to give here or there a shilling where their gift should have beene buried would have shrunke in their heads Whence is it thinke we that many jolly fellowes are very forward to give scores of hundreds of pounds to Schools Hospitalls or in a publick sort who if they see private reasons of contribution to many a decayed Christian or Minister are hardly drawne to it Oh! because not the naked simplicity of the thing as to God but the observation publickenesse memoriall and name of the one better agrees with their pharisaicall spirit then the other whereas if the true end were reliefe of the distressed Eccles 11.1 they would as well cast their bread upon the waters as into an open stocke I discourage none nor censure any particular persons for their almes these are no dayes for it I rather would speake two words to further then one to hinder yet we know such a disease there is Eccles 10.1 and who would spoile a whole box of ointment for one dead fly doe both scatter in private some handfulls as well as powre out whole bushells and then the suspition is taken away Once I remember a man who long profferd his kindenesse to a Colledge but still left his gift sealed up till death then he would give all but before nothing Why Alas after death there is no pleasure which before there is and men are willing to part with their wealth when pleasure in it and power of it are gone I tax none who give after death but desire to rectifie them for ability permitting who should not rather chuse in part at least to be his owne executor then to leave it to strangers not knowing what it may come to Take an instance out of the six later commands whereof every former exceeds his later But why I demand doe many men seem to obey in the maine command which provides for the life it selfe of man when as the lesser which concerne his chastity his wealth his name are slighted He that does no murther dares defile his neighbours wife steale his goods or traduce his name Doth not this practice directly crosse my doctrine Yes but then you must marke here is no honesty no faithfulnesse in such a person Where that failes there be many causes why the greater may tye them who in the smaller will bee loose First because a lesser vice may be more naturall to the constitution of the body then the greater All vices cannot roote alike in the soile of a bad heart at least providence barres and bounds our corrupt nature that it be not endlesse all vices cannot be nourished corruption hath a streame if it should scatter it selfe one sinne and lust might crosse another Thou maiest regard the life of a poore man although thou be an uncleâ—ne beast because that sinne is thy beloved and predominant sin and so matters the rest Secondly this disorder may arise from terror and feare of horrible impieties horror of the penalty unnaturalnesse of the fact and such like bits and bridles which God puts into the mouthes of men which if they were absent the rule would soone prove true the committer of the greater would make no bones of the smaller Eye for eye tooth fortooth skin for skin and all that he hath will a man give for his life but smaller things are not so perilous Thirdly this may issue from vain-glory when a man thinks he shall have a deeper esteeme among men for some greater worke which in a lesser would vanish of which before Or pride when a base heart thinks smaller duties to be under him and not equall to his great stomacke to undertake though perhaps some great ones he will stoope unto as more suting to his greatnesse We have a Proverb Eagles catch no flies So the spirits of great ones thinke that small matters are a dishonour to them they will not foule their fingers with them So much for this This serves againe for confutation of Popery They would beare us Vse 2 downe and make themselves above us in the point of mortification and God helpe Confutation of Popery the best of us come short of it in these daies of sensuality and fleshly liberty But to goe to our Doctrine They tell us that the perfection of self-deniall stands in outward workes of Penance and Satisfaction in scourgings in fastings in abstinence from marriage in course apparell in standing up to the midle in cold water in the winter time in pilgrimages and such like of which the Apostle saith Col. 3. ult They have a shew of wisdome in will-worship humility and neglect of the body denying honour to the satisfying of the flesh Popish mortifications discovered to be false But nothing to the true mortifying of the spirit the frame of that still continues the same proud conceited and imputing these to merit as if they engaged God to themselves by them But as for our mortification which they say is secret and stands in the mortifying of our wills and concupiscence lusts and affections the fruit of faith purging the conscience Oh this is but a pretence of hypocrites who come farre short of their fruits in this case And to confesse the truth it were to be desired that we Protestants discovered our mortification in greater and more outward selfe-deniall then we doe But as for them this I say if they excell us so much in the greater how comes it to passe that they faile so much in thâ—t they count the smaller I meane inward humility denying of their owne affections Is it not tenne times harder to get that grace of faith and change of heart into us which should make us abhor our selves in all our performances then to tame the flesh for a while that so the spirit may gaine thereby a deeper opinion of merit and giving full satisfaction to God for sin Did not those thus in Mica 6. offer to God whole flocks and droves and rivers of oile and wine and their first borne Did not they esteem these great matters But what saith the Lord unto them Doth he not convince them of their hypocrisie and tell them That the things which he calls for are within Outward things he cares not for but to walke humbly with him and to do justly and shew mercy Therefore it is evident they these fail in their account and set a greater marke upon their devotion then God doth and therefore are lyars If those things which they alledge were greatest surely they who are so forward in them would not be behinde hand in such as they account the smaller Esay 66.2 They would say of themselves when all is done our righteousnesse is as a menstrous clout and count themselves for ought is in them to merit as
questions Prayers confessions and the like who doth not wish himselfe in their case except it be some errant blocke who discovers his brutishnesse all are ravisht to see such early beginnings The Lord knowes the fittest way to worke upon men Sooner will a young novice by his active spirit of the cure stir up others then some solid and grave Disciples because the spirit of the one is more stirring active and drawing than the other Fourthly there is in the cure of the soule converted to God Reas 4 such an irresistible power and impotencie From that irresistible power of Grace in the soule especially in the first turning home of it that there is no choaking quenching or damping of it It resembles her originall Seed leaven mustard-seed are things of an active and encreasing nature Leaven in a little while will sowre all the lump Hence are those expressions of the Saints Thy Word was in mee as coales of fire in my bosome Can a man carry them there and not be burnt I would have kept in thy words saith David but such was the nature of them that they would not be concealed I had no rest nor peace till I had uttered them to Congregations Peter could not hold Christ in his bosome till he had uttered himselfe to Nathaniel That woman of Samaria had fire in her bosome when she went to tell her kindred citizens the news of Christs discourse The love of God workes in the breasts of his Saints as it first wrought in his owne he having conceived it once could not cease till it had discovered it selfe to poore sunken Adam and hee would rather chuse to make his onely Sonne a Masse shame then he would not expresse it Even such is the same love having once wrought in them it is as the new wine in the caske which must have vent or else it will breake It is like Josephs affection to Benjamin all must be had out from him Gen. 45.14 and he must utter himselfe to him and fall upon his neck with a kisse and teares The newer any thing is the more forcible So is it with love The Apostle hath a sweet word to expresse it The love of Christ constraines us 2 Cor. 5. The word signifies 2 Cor. 5.14 gathers us up together as a beast hemmed in a Pinfold hath an appetite after liberty so the spirit of love finds it selfe straitned till it breake out And 1 Cor. 13. love is bountifull and working 1 Cor. 5. full of affection hopeth all things endureth all things and the like The fifth God is the God of order and loves sutablenesse of Reas 5 Age and Temper youth naturally is hot and full of expressions God is the God of order it is comely for young ones to be so their lusts were so before grace therefore grace must be so also I restraine not this heat to meere youth for if God do convert elder ones as Naaman there is a spirituall youth or first age even in them also grace at the first is most operative be the yeares what they may be but especially when grace falls upon tender yeares as for the most part that is the season ere the soule be sapped in lewd customes then it quickens those hot spirits which it meets with to singular expressions Reas 6 Lastly by this spirit the Lord provides matter and argument of convincement For the due convincement of such as after may wax luke-warme and loose and inward checke for time to come if at any time his people shall revolt from this grace of first conversion The Lord knowes our mold and fashion just Psal 103. We seem at our first setting forth to the journey so trimme and so prepared that no troubles nor difficulties shall daunt our resolution But by that time wee have travelled a while what with the ill way what with ill weather bad successe and what with our owne weary and crazie spirits within we waxe unto ward and stagger whether we should goe forward or no. The Lord knowes how many waies this first spirit of the cure flagges and wanzes in us sometimes the abundance of iniquity causes the love of many to waxe cold this degenerate formall world is ready to quench our spirit the presidents of many zealous and painfull professors who are turned drunkards uncleane worldlings Epicures and sinfull wretches 2 Pet. 3. ult do shake us The errour of the wicked puls us from our stedfastnesse feare of some men flattery of others but especially a cursed heart on the one side giddie presuming venturous on the otherside slavish fearfull and distrustfull distempers us so that although we keep from grosse evils yet we are far from that frame of zeale closenesse and watching which we have found onely peace from Now when it falls out thus and that crosses debts ill marriage care of children and other disguisements come upon the necke of the other then is the Lord faine to step in and take us to taske to upbraid us and cast us in teeth with our first spirit of cure our early first love sweet affections covenants humble feare watchfull care diligent paines zealous spirit Luk. 23.31 What was this done in the greene tree and shall it not be done in the dry What shall first beginnings shame thee Didst thou begin in the spirit if yet thou didst so and wilt thou now end in the flesh Oh! is there not enough in that never dying spirit of an immortall hope of salvation to carry thee on in thy poore course with equalnesse of affection Say the edge be a little blunted what is metall gone too is the steele worne out of the backe That first spirit of sound joy in God should by this day have bred in thy belly a welspring of water flowing to eternall life Oh! for shame strengthen the weary hands Heb. 12.13 and feeble knees and correct the crooked that it turne not out of the way Thus the Lord charmes a declining spirit by an experiment of her owne and brings her backe with sorrow and shame to her former temper So much for Reasons Use 1 Now for Use first is the spirit of a true Convert thus zealous for God This then teacheth us a difference of cures and that all are not alike for there are many to be sure farre from this temper and frame of spirit Instruction with an item Not every cure hath such a stroake in the soule of a man thus to change qualifie and act his spirit to and for the Lord. And all to teach us to try our spirits and to be afraid to rest in any base counterfeit cures which afford none of this life and operation Who doth not now a dayes boast himselfe to have gotten this through cure Counterfeit cures very common in the world true cures rare If once baptized and professe the Gospell it is treason in these dayes to put a difference betweene men Alas yee poore wretches
one thing within the whole compasse of Religion more usually counterfeited then this neither is there any one point in which either the deceit of the heart is more dangerous or the soundnesse of it more comfortable to the soule then this is We read in stories that all brave Princes have beene counterfeited by sycophants Charles the fifth Edward the sixth of England and others But although their outsides favoured them yet their spirit discarded them at last a base-bred fellow cannot equall the spirit of noble bloud All Judasses and Theudasses Acts 5. came to naught Acts 5. end because they had bastard spirits There was once as a French rare History hath it a Souldier in the Campe wherein one Martin Guerra a rich Citizen of Tholouse served who being in all points like to that Guerra A rare history of a French counterfeit and getting so farre in with him as to know the secrets that had passed betweene him and his wife at last brake from the Army to Tholouse and boldly went home to Guerra his wife as his owne and after some little suspition yet so cleared all doubts that he accompanied her as his wife and lived in peace till at last the true Guerra comming home and claiming his wife a sute in Law was commenced at Tholouse betweene them and had not some privie markes at last betweene her and the true husband cleared the controversie to the Court the counterfeit had brought them to such a demurre that they knew not what to determine And so may it fare here such are the apish imitations of impudent and unsuspected Hypocrites in point of zeale devotion affections and abstinencies from sinne that the very annointed of God seemes to stand before him 2 Sam. 16.6 Nothing in this case is surer to determine the controversie then the spirit it selfe of true breed and Nativity Hardly can the spirit of birth and regeneration be long dissembled but one way or other earlier or later it will be discovered Triall of the true spirit of Grace is from it selfe Therefore let every one try himselfe by this marke even the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe Not at first perhaps for Alexander was almost crowded to death in the tumult at Ephesus and in Pauls quarrell almost puld in pieces a terrible patterne as a worthy Writer speakes But yet at length time tried him and he grew an open revolter after and was delivered to Satan Act. 19.33 compared with 2 Tim. 4.14 Acts 6.5 1 Tim. 1.20 2 Tim. 4.10 Matth. 13.27 Nicolas the Deacon cheated the twelve Apostles but his spirit betrayed him to be a wicked uncleane wretch Demas Hymenaeus and Philetus went farre but their spirit failed them The spirit of the Grape will not be counterfeited by the fruit of a Bramble the one is generous the other base Eagles breed no Crowes nor Doves any Kites nor Lions Foxes No more doth the spirit of Grace breed false Hypocrites Well said those servants The envious man hath sowne Tares for the Husbandman sowed nothing but good Wheate It will be an infallible marke of thy true birth if thine owne principle be throwne out and if the spirit of mercy become that in thee and unto thee which thine owne spirit once was even a second nature Grace will casheire and throw out thy usurping spirit As they cast out Ipta Iudg. 11.2 Note that it shall not reigne A false spirit workes from within to an outward but Gods Spirit workes from without to an inward operation That is Grace going out of her selfe and suspecting her selfe both for the metall and for the stampe for the kind and for the degree for the quality and for the continuance abhorring her own sparkes and false blaze still seekes out for a new spirit of Heaven a new frame of heart But our owne spirit seekes within her selfe what light what affections what imitations shewes and duties she can finde out never suspecting her impotency to reach truth and soundnesse Now although such may goe farre with their Lamps a long time yet at last want of Oyle will make their lamps flagge when their feelings cease when the praises of men faile when some of their actions cause them to be questioned and when some right wind blowes full upon them then they totter when the winds and floods came Mat. 7. ult the house ungrounded fell By one way or other it must at last appeare who are men of their owne stockes and who are bankrupts not to say this moreover that a wise man well marking the Spirit of Grace and comparing it with the other will by one signe or other easily discerne a Noble and true bred spirit from violent pangs even at the best But although he should not yet the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe in time and discard the spirit of the flesh A true sonne of faithfull Jonathan is a most precious peece to David though a poore lame creeple Gen. 25.6 Particular trials of the spirit of Grace then all the posterity of Saul besides One Isaac is more worth then all Ketura's brood The breed of a thing is all in all with men even in these outward creatures horses kine and the like So one soule of the right stamp is more precious with God then a thousand Be sure that the Word of the promise that immortall seed of God in the blood of a covenant bred thee to the hope of life The Word of God is the immortall seed which bred it and the assurance of pardon and this will turne all false principles of flesh and blood out of doores Prove thy genealogie that thou art an Hebrew of the Hebrewes a true borne Jew not of the letter but of the spirit of Grace and then thou hast that marke upon thee which will not be worne out God lookes first at what thou art for thy spirit and breed and then what thou dost Phil. 3.8 Rom. 2. ult Never vie upon him with thy heapes upon heapes of worships of means of duties but first approve thy selfe See Prov. 23.26 and these will follow alone as the wombe that conceives truly is free of all other conceptions so the true breed of the Spirit abandons all false conceptions If all other seed of thine owne all principles of flesh be cast out and the wombe of the soule cleane and cleare this spirit of grace may live and come to the birth in thee And all false preconceptions cast out The wombe that beares a true bred soule must be as the wombe that bare Immanuel a Virgin wombe wherein never any other fruit lay before The meere onely and pure love of the Father purchased by the blood of Christ must onely beget thee to God if ever thou be begotten and no lesse spirit Like Iosephs Tombe never any had lyen in it before Luk. 23.53 then that which united the Godhead of Jesus to his flesh will serve to beget thee to him
of that habit and savour of grace which makes the sound heart desire and resolve to be be good whether any other in the world be so besides himselfe or not The life of the child was so deare to the true mother that although it went against the edge yet she chose rather the false mother should have it then it should be slaine And therefore it was adjudged to her as her owne So is it here A true heart would cose any losse rather deny it selfe to the death then the life of religion should be indangered because it is bred in her bosome So then you see brethren Positives comming from life cannot be assembled by the heart which is dead and unsound An hypocrite for his humour would have the the child religion into his possession for his credit not for love of the life of it for he will starve and kill it for lacke of good keeping only the true mother that bare it and knowes the price of it will nurse and nourish it with her breasts Try thy selfe by this Any Ape will imitate somewhat in a man but he can neither laugh nor speake for lack of Reason Fourthly trie this spirit of Grace by the object Grace strikes at the root By the object the order and equality thereof falshood at the branches onely The zeale love and grace of the spirit is chiefly and mainly against the chiefe corruption of the heart then of life and it is first earnest for the maine most weighty matters of God and then for second things Not first for the latter and then for the former Againe it is orderly equall not preposterous and disproportioned Great are the cries of many Separators from our Communion against corruptions abuses in our Church But you shall scarce marke any order in their spirits They begin not at home are not zealous against the abuses of their owne soules see not the pride and desperate selfe-love of their owne hearts The glory of God in their owne Reformation they will not looke at Separatists frō our Church how blind in the discovery of their owne corruptions but suffer themselves to swarme with all base evils see no want of Charity Mercy Compassion Discretion in themselves If they would see their owne beames they might the better discover others But alas if there were no Church abuses to speake of their occupation would cease And why speake they of these abuses Not as becomes them in patience and innocencie to wait for a blessed redresse but to overthrow the Church quite and pull downe the very frame and foundations of it yea to raze it to the ground which never did any of those who are ten times more judicious then the best of them attempt or intend And so they bring an aspersion upon others to be as giddy and rash as themselves who yet as much abhorre it as they do those abuses If the Spirit of Grace of a sound humble and tender heart cleaving to the Word close to the Ordinances could be found in them If Christ and the worke of Faith and Regeneration were as great objects in their eye as outward administrations of the Church we might hope better of their persons then now we can So I might instance in other particulars Many men have zeale affections in them but how do they improve them Surely not upon the reall things of the Gospell but upon personall objects censuring such as equal not themselves in their supposed grace judging men for their ignorance infirmities errors Whereas the spirit of Grace looks inward 1 Cor. 13. it is mercifull long-suffering meeke loving hopeth all things endureth all things it judgeth her selfe in secret and leaves others to stand or fall to their owne Master So likewise the Spirit of Grace is free as the Apostle saith from all partiality and hypocrisie A false spirit cleaves to this Minister or to that for some by-respects Cephas Apollo Paul Rom. 14 4. Iam. 3.17 1 Cor. 3.22 shall goe for his money and accordingly is carried in such affection sometimes above the clouds sometimes lower then the earth in likes and dislikes But a sound spirit loves all the faithfull Ministers of Christ with sutable tendernesse of heart though the measure be as the peculiar relation stands and holds the same affection constantly to all for Christs sake The badge of their Master procures honour to them in his heart whether old young neere farre off the gifts and graces of God though lying diversly are the object of his love Not only will a faithfull Minister be for God in Pulpit but out of it also not zealous in publique and in private as another common person A good heart will not affect a strict closenesse upon the Sabbath and then upon other dayes loose or carelesse in the duties of the second Table using all sorts of companies taking all liberties breaking promises paying no debts running up and downe with neglect of calling and family this is no spirit of grace but of corruptiom guilded over with some file of zeale without substance Fifthly the carriage of the spirit of Grace discernes it from the spirit of unsoundnesse For you shall commonly find The carriage of it that although a false heart will be as earnest zealous and forward as an honest yet one fly or other of selfe reflection will bewray whence it comes even from pride and seeking it selfe It cannot beteame and afford the Lord the cleere and entire honour of the action except in the dressing it licke her owne fingers As a rat behind the painted cloth so doth falshood discover it selfe herein It is as oyle in the hand which cannot be held in If it be in a Preacher you shall find it thus Truly you must pardon mee I was put to it upon a sudden but I trust to your patience why Oh! to draw on praise and admiration Oh saith another I could not satisfie my self in what I did Another will aske How did you taste my doctrine to day even as feast-makers cannot bid their friends welcome be merry but there must be a tang of folly You must pardon us for our poore cheere when yet they know they abound so here Others cannot bring forth a point but it must be with a preface I am to speake to you of a speciall point and I doubt it will search the most of us to the quicke Sundry miscarriages of an unsound heart discovered a point that few of you have heard till now and many there are so full of themselves that if they heare any man of worth praised for his worth they are upon thornes till they can set another copie of their own by the other to blemish it I was the first man saith one that first brought the Gospell into the town I was the man who hunted out such a drunkard and brought such an Adulterer to shame I do such and such good to the Ministery to the poore and the like I have
a servant not as a God to put confidence in and then all is well Some report of that good King of Swedes that he thought his life was but short because men did so deifie him but that was not all much more I thinke should we with Elihu tremble to give titles of God to men lest our Maker should destroy us for Esay 42. Job 31. Jam. 5. He will not give his glory to another In a word to use Saint Iames his stile you ought to take God with you saying If God will blesse it it shall heale Alas it s but a patcht remedy when it is at best howbeit it s in Gods hands to blesse or crosse it Enough of this The like counsell take we from hence touching all other earthly creatures or contentments therein Our life it selfe our strength our wealth wit experience friends parts bravery in fare dwelling retinue and any other blessing either for necessity or comfort What one is there of all these but hath in it one way as great a misery as another way an happinesse So that setting aside the sobriety of heart making it as it is pure to the pure what good is in it which in some other respect is not requited as much with an evill As that great man who threw his Diademe or Kingly wreath on the ground saying If a Subject knew what was wrapt up in it he would not stoop to take it up to have it What carking care goeth with riches A poore Cobler very merry in his songs while poore having a bagge of money cast into his puy ceased to sing At last he that threw it him in came and askt him why he was so sad all on the sudden He suspecting who it was threw him back his bagge and bid him take it for he could never bee merry with it Doe I inferre hereby that Gods blessings are to bee despised No But that God hath left a cracke in the best of them in all of them to teach poore man to Idolize none of them but to set his heart upon better things Race is not alway to the swift nor wealth to the wise nor battell to the strong Eccles 9.11 saith Eccles How many mens wealth by their sinne is given them as the bane of them that have it What prophanenesse pride boasting scorne mischiefe doe they by it How many poore mens bodies know the diseases of full diet I might bee endlesse but I cease In Gods feare look upon the wormes that breed in our Manna behold the defect the sting the penalty the vanity of the creature loath excesse in it getting having forgoing Set thine heart solidly upon perfection those dainties that have no surfet that portion which hath no sorrow with it Grace and favour of God which hath no lacke that excellent cure of faith and the new creature which is Gods cure which restores the leprous soule to such a smoothnesse as it was first created with nay much better Every gift of God is perfect Jam. 1.16 saith Iames 1.6 like himselfe Be in love with Gods remedies a quiet humble patient heart under thy afflictions which are not onely not worse then the diseases but better then prosperity it selfe such as restore the soule to such a cure as is not subject to any future decay or relapse So much for this Another thing here I observe How marvellous and soveraigne an Branch 2 effect the Lord of this water of Jorden workes by the silly creature God over-rules the silly creature to bee the instrument of working great effects The flesh of Naaman saith the Text being washt in Jorden becomes as the flesh of a little childe Not surely by any inherent quality therein by nature but by the concurrence or rather over-ruling power of Almighty God using them to be instrumentall in this kinde for the setling Naamans faith thereby as by a signe q. d. As surely as thou in obedience of faith shalt wash so surely shalt thou be cleansed Means of an unproportioned strength to effect a supernaturall effect may yet be relied upon as Gods when any direct word is given us to warrant them Learne then first by the law of contraries that all meanes used by man without a warranting word are justly to be suspected as not proceeding from God but from another principle justly permitted by God to worke for the deluding of unbeleevers who will not embrace the truth revealed All Unproportioned meanes used by men without the Word for effecting of great workes are evill and to be abhorred but detaine it in unrighteousnesse And let the colours of men be never so holy in pretence of Religion yet God is not with them As well those Exorcists of the Jewes taking upon them the dispossessing of Divels without ground Acts 19.13 As the Mayd or Pythonisse that gather Masters great gaine by her divinations Acts 16.16 was from Satan Good Witches and bad differ in colour but not in Divellishnesse Papists their exorcismes and Spelles or charmes working by words of Saint Iohns Gospel or any devout prayers Popish Miracles and cures what to bee thought of or other sentencss of Scripture because they have in them no such naturall operation to produce such effects as to heale Agues or other like diseases nor yet are determined by any expresse word of God to any such use or end are as bad as the Medicines or Charmes applied by good Witches for the cure of man or beast For why Naturall things they are not Divinely supernaturall they are not Diabolicall therefore they must needs bee Charmes and spells of good Witches to bee condemned Wee must have a word for it to enable bare dead sentences of Scripture so and so by such at such a time in such a manner to such diseased men or cattell applied to effect such a cure on Gods name else though the words be good yet the Charme is never the better but much worse Better were it and lesse sinfull for such to use prophane gracelesse words then holy to so cursed an end And although the material end be good to cure a malady yet the meanes are Divellish limitations of unlikely agents must bee warranted else their device is from man by Satan Indeed men looke so much at the apparant supposed good of things to restore things lost or the like that it tickles and withdrawes them from the suspicion of the forked hooke which lies covered under the baite Oh! say they I warrant you the Divell is a murtherer from the beginniâ—g and doth no man good but hurt But there is a white Divell like an Angell of light as well as a blacke one with horns hooâ—s and the former of the two is the more sly and dangerous The Divell spake good truthes when he confessed Christ and the Apostles that he might overthrow him by his lying witnesse and conveighes double poison hereby which else he could not For what else doth he by such wiles and tricks
save draw the spirits of curious and distrustfull men to wofull Idolatry To put confidence in him under a Witch to expect successe from a cursed Principle to ascribe that glory which belongs to God alone to base means which all are reduced to the Divell their first mover Satan knowes he gaines more this way then he loseth by the truth he speaks or the good which followes He denies himselfe at no time save for wicked ends Beware therefore Dare not to confound those excellent wayes of God in his power providence and mercy to his creature with the Satanicall and Sorcerers courses of prophane beasts As for those miraculous operations of God in his Church throughout all ages of the Old Testament in the poole Siloam and the gift of ejecting Satan by some certaine persons there was enough to prove that they were from God John 5.4 Matth. 12.27 for the confirmation of Truth the strengthening of Faith the drawing of Proselites But as for all the other the Lord justly suffers Satan to deceive such as deceive themselves first and reject the truth as we see in Saul Esay 8.19 Should the living goe to the dead 1 Sam. 28.6.7 Jam. 3.15 and to them that whisper out oâ— the earth Geomanticks No but to the Law and to the Testimony if that favour not there is no wisdome in them save that which Saint Iames calls from beneath and divelish A most wofull thing that in a land where the Gospell hath beene preached this eighty yeares such abominations should swarme and that with impunity yea in some cases which I name not with Apology God amend it So much for this Branch Secondly Goodnesse of God in using weake and poore things to effâ—ct great is much to be admired hence acknowledge the infinite goodnesse of God in devising such aide and succour to poore creatures both their bodies and soules for the expressing of his tender mercies to us in this infirmity of our flesh That by a word speaking he should create the fruit of the lippes even peace Esay 57. by the Ministery of a sinfull man further off from power to convert a soule then Jorden to heale a leper and beget it to a lively hope and immortality and glory That thereby the word preached should carry with it the working of faith and regeneration As the Lord Jesus his own blessed words effected miracles in the speaking causing the dead to arise the lepers to be cleansed Marke ult the deafe to heare So the words of his Ministers by the same vertue from him should doe greater things then these even by instruments most weake how admirable is it To the end that our faith might not stand in man but in God! 2 Cor 4.7 That the deadly soule leprosie worse then Naamans bodily of infidelity pride hypocrisie selfe should be washt all away by the water of Baptisme through the word of the Covenant to which its annexed in all beleevers and these shall become sealing ordinances to ratifie the truth of regeneration to the soule and to confer the nourishing power of the Spirit unto life eternall how admirable is it It is the omnipotent power of God which causeth it which separates the silly creature of water bread and wine for the present from common use Sacraments how divinely appropriated to seale up to the soule strong assurance of salvation takes off the base outside of it casts an honourable mantle over it appropriates it to holy solemne and divine use and service unites the Lord Jesus himselfe with his whole merit and efficacy to it and all to effect this end to convey the Lord Jesus into the soule of the Beleever assuring it by vertue of this sealing ordinance that as verily as the body by vertue of appetite eates and drinkes the creatures so truly doth the soule take and eat the body and bloud of Christ to the souls nourishment by Gods command and promise This is a mystery and it should teach us that if God have assumed such poor creatures sacramentally into the partakership of himselfe therefore to take heed lest we vilifie the outward ordinance as pretending all the power to be from Christ but to acknowledge each part thereof to bee from him and one as true though not as effectuall a part as the other Ye parents make not Baptisme a common thing make not so solemne a thing to wait upon your leasure and complements when all your trinkets are ready then carry your childe to the Sacrament No let your bables attend it not it them Despise it not for the outside there is a blessing in it and under the basenesse of elements lies hidden a world of worth and honour Therefore not to be used as common things And you my brethren the people run not out from it so soon as the word is preached as if you discerned no Christ in and under it annexed to it for your owne speciall use and good I tell thee those silly creatures are essentiall parts of the Sacrament as well as the grace and ordinances of God to bee reverenced though I say not with our own invented yet with that esteeme with which God hath honoured them viz. to be channells and conveiors of that grace of the Lord Jesus for life and support else would he not have graced Sacraments with the like honor to Faith Except a man be borne of water and the Spirit John 3.3.4 Marke ult and He that beleeves and is baptised shall be saved God can worke without them when they cannot bee had but when they may he will have them share in point of honour with the graces sealed from which they cannot be severed nor may be rent So much for this second Use And lastly although I doe not here equall Jordens waters to a Sacrament Jordens waters a resemblance of baptisme nor dare I call it a type of Baptisme yet is there a cleere and lively resemblance thereof in it I speake not this to teach any to use their wits boldly to allegorize every thing as some have done In this its safest for us to captive our wisdome to God to bee no wiser then himselâ—e but where he pleases to expresse allusions there to follow with sobriety As in the allegory Gal. 3. end of Sina and Jerusalem to typifie the nature of bondage and of freedome So that of Noah's flood which Peter Epist 1. Cap. 3.21 tells us is semblable to Baptisme Else its best for us to forbeare types only we may make resemblances As here this healing of Naaman by Jorden and expressing of it by the flesh of a childe teaches us thus much That the Lord who occasionally used this water to such an end as to cure an incurable leprosie of an aliant and stranger from the Common-wealth of Israel doth assure us that much more by Baptisme as by an appointed and setled sealing way he is able to heale the fretting leprosie of sinne and curse in all his