their infernal Father in the world this shews sin is mighty in them indeed Many a man though so cruel to his own soul as to be drunk or sweare yet will not like this in a childe or servant what are they then but devils incarnate who teach their children the devils Catechisme to sweare and lie drink and drab If you meet such be not afraid to call them as Paul did Elymas when he would have perverted the Deputy children of the devil full of all subtilty and mischief and enemies of all righteousnesse O do you not know what you do when you tempt I 'le tell you you do that which you cannot undo by your own repentance thou poisonest one with errour initiatest another in the devils School Alehouse I mean but afterwards may be thou seest thy mistake and recantest thy errour thy folly and givest over thy drunken trade art thou sure now to rectifie and convert them with thy selfe alas poor creatures this is out of thy power they may be will say as he though he did it upon a better account that was solicited to turne back to popery by him who had before perswaded him to renounce the same You have given me one turn but shall not give me another And what a grief to thy spirit will it be to see these going to hell on thy errand and thou not able to call them back thou mayest cry out as Lamâ—ch I have slaine a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt Nay when thou art asleep in thy grave he whom thou seducedst may have drawn in others and thy name may be quoted to commend the opinion and practice to others by which as it is said though in another sense Abel being dead yet speaks thou mayest though dead sinne in those that are alive generation after generation A little spark kindled by the errour of one hath cost the pains of many ages to quench it and when thought to be out hath broke forth again Thirdly They are not barely wicked but maliciously wicked The Devill hath his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote his spightfull nature his desire to vex and mischief others When he drawes souls to sinne it is not because he tastes any sweetnesse or findes any profit therein he hath too much light to have any joy or peace in sin he knows his doome and trembles at the thought of it and yet his spightful nature makes him vehemently desire and uncessantly endeavour the damnation of souls As you shall see a mad dogge run after a flock of sheep kill one then another and when dead not able to eate of their flesh but kills to kill so Satan is carried out with a boundlesse rage against man especially the Saints he would not if he could leave one of Christs flock alive such is the height of his malice against God whom he hates with a perfect hatred and because he cannot reach him with a direct blow therefore he strikes him at second hand through his Saints that wicked arme which reacheth not to God is extended against these excellent on the earth well knowing the life of God is in a manner bound up in theirs God cannot outlive his honour and his honour speeds as his mercy is exalted or depressed this being the attribute God meanes to honour in their salvation so highly and therefore maligned above the rest by Satan And this is the worst that can be said of these wicked spirits that they maliciously spite God and in God the glory of his mercy Vse 1 First this may help us to conceive more fully what the desperate wickednesse of mans nature is which is so hard to be known because it can never be seen at once it being a fountain whose immensity consists not in the streame of actual sinne that is visible and may seem little but in the spring that uncessantly feeds this but here is a glasse that will give us the shape of our hearts truly like themselves Seest thou the monstrous pitch and height of wickednesse that is in the devil all this there is in the heart of every man there is no lesse wickednesse potentially in the tamest sinner on earth then in the devils themselves and that one day thou whoever thou art wilt shew to purpose if God prevent thee not by his renewing grace thou art not yet fledg'd thy wings are not grown to make thee a flying Dragon but thou art of the same brood the seed of this serpent is in thee and the devil begets a child like himselfe thou yet standest in a soile not so proper for the ripening of sinne which will not come to its fulnesse till transplanted unto hell Thou who art here so maidenly and modest as to blush at some sinnes out of shame and forbear the acting of others out of fear when there thou shalt see thy case as desperate as the devil doth his then thou wilt spit out thy blasphemies with which thy nature is stuft with the same malice that he doth The Indians have a conceit that when they die they shall be transform'd into the deformed likenesse of the devil therefore in their language they have the same word for a dead man and the devil sinne makes the wicked like him before they come there but indeed they will come to their countenance more fully there when those flames shall wash off that paint which here hides their complexion The Saints in heaven shall be like the Angels in their alacrity love and constancy to serve God and the damned like the devils in sinne as well as punishment This one consideration might be of excellent use to unbottome a sinner and abase him so as never to have high thought of himself It is easie to runne down a person whose life is wicked and convince him of the evil of his actions and make him confesse what he doth is evil but here is the thicket we lose him in he will say 't is true I am overseen I do what I should not God forgive me but my heart is good Thy heart good sinner and so is the devils his nature is wicked and thine as bad as his These pimples in thy face shew the heat of thy corrupt nature within and without Gospel-physick the blood of Christ applied to thee thou wilt die a Leper none but Christ can give thee a new heart till which thou wilt every day grow worse and worse Sin is an hereditary disease that encreaseth with age A young sinner will be an old devil Vse 2 Again it would be of use to the Saints especially those in whom God by his timely call forestall'd the devils market as sometimes the Spirit of God takes sin in its quarters before it comes into the field in the sinnes of youth now such a one finding not those daring sinnes committed by him that others have been left unto may possibly not be so affected with his own sinne or Gods mercy O let such a one behold here
up in a dead stock and none to be the better or can you say that he is wanting to you in his love and mercy are they not ever in exercise for your good Is the eye of providence ever shut No he slumbers not that keeps thee or is it one moment off thee No The eye of the Lord is upon the righteous He hath fixed it for ever and with infinite delight pleaseth himself in the object When was his eare shut or his hand either from receiving thy cries or supplying thy wants nay doth not thy condition take up the thoughts of God and are they any other then thoughts of peace which he entertains A few drops of this oyle will keep the wheel in motion That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil THese words present us with the reason why the Christian souldier is to be thus compleatly arm'd That he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil The strength of which argument lies in these two particulars First the danger if unarm'd the enemy is no mean contemptible one no lesse then the devil set out as a cunâ—ing Engineer by his wiles and stratagems Secondly the certainty of standing against all his wits and wiles if we be thus arm'd That ye may be able to stand As no standing without armour so no feare of falling into the fiends hands if arm'd To begin with the first the Saints enemy the devil described by his wiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly the methods of Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies that Art and order one observes in handling a point we say such a one is methodical Now because it shews ingenuity and acutenesse of wit so to compose a discourse therefore it is transferr'd to expresse the subtilty of Satan in laying of his plots and stratagems in his warlike preparations against the Christian Indeed the expert souldier hath his order as well as the scholar there is method in forming of an army as well as framing an argument The Note which lies before us is The devil is a very subtile enemy The Christian is endangered most by his policy and craft he is call'd the old Serpent The serpent subtil above other creatures an old Serpent above other serpents Satan was too crafty for man in his perfection much more now in his maimed estate having never recovered that first crack he got in his understanding by the fall of Adam And as man hath lost so Satan hath gained more and more experience he lost his wisdome indeed assoon as he became a devil but ever since he hath increast his craft though he hath not wisdom enough to do himself good yet subtilty enough to do others hurt God shewes us where his strength lies when he promiseth he will bruise the head of the Serpent his head crush't and he dies presently Now in handling this Point of Satans subtilty we shall consider him in his two main designes and therein shew you his wiles and policies His first main design is to draw into sin The second is to accuse vex and trouble the Saint for sinne First let us consider the devil as a tempter to sin and there he shews his wily subtilty in three things First in choosing the most advantagious season for tempting Secondly in managing his temptations laying them in such a method and forme as shews his craft Thirdly in pitching on fit instruments for his turne to carry on his design CHAP. I. Of Satans subtilty to choose the most advantagious seasons for tempting FIrst he shews his subtilty in choosing the most proper and advantagious seasons for tempting To every thing there is a season Solomon saith Eccl. 3.1 that is a nick of time which taken gives facility and speedy dispatch to a businesse And therefore the same Wise man gives this reason why man miscarries so frequently and is disappointed in his enterprizes because he knowes not his time Eccl. 9.11 He comes when the bird is flowen A hundred souldiers at one time may turn a battel save an army when thousands will not do at another Satan knowes when to make his approaches when if at any time he is most likely to be entertained As Christ hath the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season of counsel and comfort to a doubting drooping soule so Satan shews his black Art and hellish skill in speaking words of seduction and temptation in season and a word in season is a word on its wheels I shall give you a view of his subtilty in special seasons which he chooseth to tempt in The first season he takes to tempt in is when newly converted No sooner is this childe of grace the new creature borne but this Dragon poures a flood of temptation after it He learnt the Egyptians but some of his own craft when he taught them that bloody and cruel baptisme which they exercised upon the Israelitish babes in throwing them into the river assoon as they were borne The first cry of the new creature gives all the legions of hell an alarm they are as much troubled at it as Herod and Jerusalem were when Christ was borne and now they sit in Councel to take away the life of this new born King The Apostles met with more opposition and persecution in their latter dayes when endued with larger portions of the Spirit but with temptations from Satan in their former when young Converts as you may observe in the several passages recorded of them Satan knew grace within was but weak and their supplies promised at the Spirits coming not landed and when is an enemy more like to carry the town then in such a low condition and therefore he tries them all Indeed the advantages are so many that we may wonder how the young Convert escapes with his life knowledge weak and so soon led into an errour especially in divided times when many wayes are held forth one saying Here is Christ another There is Christ and the Christian ready to think every one means honestly that comes with good words as a little childe who hath lost his way to his fathers house is prone to follow any that offer him their conduct Experience of what he knows little and if Adam whose knowledge so perfect yet was soon cheated being assaulted before he was well warme in his new possessions how much more advantage hath Satan of the new Convert in whom he findes every grace in so great an indisposition to make resistance both from its own weaknesse and the strength of the contrary corruption which commonly in such is much unmortified which makes it act with more difficulty and mixture as in a fire newly kindled where the smoke is more then the flame or like beer newly tunn'd which runs thick so that though there appear more strength of affection in such that it works over into a greater abundance of duty then in others yet with more
the light 214 Love Saints the object of Gods love in a threefold respect 30 31 The best way to quench our love to the creature is to set it on Christ 79 Satan ambitious to tempt after manifestations of Gods love and why 96 Why God communicates his love to Saints after their falls 149 Saints love to Christ advanced by their temptations 150 How this comes to passe 151 Gods love to the soul sometimes an occasion of pride 302 Saints should watch against this 303 How to prevent it ib. M. Man Man is flesh 174 Why seeing his better part is a spirit is he called flesh 175 Man not to be trusted in 176 Memory How to remember what we hear 248 Ministers Ministers duty towards the ignorant 235 Four wayes they may be guilty of their peoples ignorance 236 Ministery Ministery of the Word the means to get knowledge 246 Motions Satan annoyes Saints with sinful motions 260 Saints should resist thsee motions for three reasons 262 Helps against them 26â— O. Obedience Obedience strong or weak as our faith is on the power of God 34 Weak endeavours with sincerity accepted by God as full obedience 373 Old-age The misery of old-age yoked with ignorance 241 P. Parents Parents duty to instruct their children and why 229 230 Parts What fooles men of the greatest parts are without grace 55 Perfection Perfection of grace to be prest after and why 77 78 How God confutes those that dream of perfection here c. 80 Persecute When wicked men persecute us we should pity them and save our wrath for the devil 181 Perseverance See falling away Perseverance necessary 9 How to persevere in our Christian course against all opposition 12 Without true grace no perseverance 377 Where true grace is that soul shall persevere 381 The doctrine of perseverance not to be abused 388 Pity God's pity to the fraile nature of his children in three particulars 178 Pleasure The sinners pleasures but short 209 Policy Sinful policy thrives not with Saints 105 It makes men like the devil 110 Poverty Not poverty but ignorance makes miserable 241 Power Satans power discovered in five particulars 196 Saints not to be dismayed at his power and that for three reasons 204 205 Prayer Prayer sometimes answered when it is not perceiv'd and in what cases this is 43 44 Preach What truthes are to be preached often 331 Against lazy Preachers 333 Preferment To stand before God in Heaven the highest preferment 394 Prevent God to be admired for preventing mercy 258 Pride Pride makes use of good and evil to draw her chariot 273 Pride double carnal and spiritual The Saint commonly in most danger of the latter and why 274 Pride of gifts See Gifts Pride of grace See Grace A mannerly pride how it hinders from Christ 290 291 It hinders from peace 292 A self-applauding pride what it is and the evil of it 294 Pride of priviledges what 299 Prince Satan a great Prince 183 How he obtained it 185 Trialls whether Christ or Satan be our Prince 187 188 The blessednesse of those that have Christ to be their Prince 193 See Christ Prison How Paul spent his time in prison Profession Heaven not won by good words and a faire Profession 371 Profit How to profit by the Word 247 248 Promise The end of the Promises to give security to the Saints faith 34 Not to endeavour an establish't faith on them is to undervalue them ib. In claiming the benefit of the Promise we must keep close to the condition 41 When absolute Promises stand the soul in great stead 136 Protection An unregenerate soule cannot claim Gods protection 55 Providence Dark Providences used by Satan to trouble Saints 133 Q. Question Satan pusles the Christian with nice questions 130 R. Reserve Satan hath his reserves to fall on when former temptations are beaten back 101 Retreat Satans politick retreats 102 Rich. Rich men poore with knowledge 242 Rule The time when Satan rules 209 The place where 211 The subjects whom he rules 212 Now to get from under Satans rule 221 His policy to keep sinners under his rule 222 S. Satan The reason why Satans conquests are so great 97 Of Satans rule 209 Of Satans wiles See Wiles Scripture Obscure Scriptures most mused on by tempted soules 102 Satans policie therein and what is to be done 133 Security The danger of security 363 Sense Affliction grievous to sense 353 Sincerity Sincerity a comfort in the evil day 370 Sinne. In troubles of conscience for the greatnesse of sinne what to do 39 Satan hath a strange Art in aggravating the Saints sins 116 How he fathers his own sin upon the Christian 115 Satans method to tempt to sin before he troubles for sinne 128 Why sin is call'd flesh 129 The state of sin a state of misery 217 The devils design in tempting to sin an argument to hate it 258 Sin hardens the heart 305 Sins against rebukes of conscience very grievous 365 We must not take liberty to sin because if true Christians we shall not fall away 389 Sinner The sinner and Satan friends when they seem to fight 57 Every sinner under Satans rule 213 The sinner an unserviceable creature 215 Singularity How it is necessary in the Saints 7 Sloth The difficulty of recovering a soule out of spiritual sloth 83 Solicitour Christ in heaven the Saints Solicitour and his faithfulnesse therein 32 33 Spiritual Of spiritual sins and how Satan annoyes the Saints with them 259 How to know our spiritual state 251 Stability The stability of the Saints not from their grace but from God reinforcing their grace 20 Strength A Christians strength in God not in himself 13 God takes it kindly we will make use of his strength 42 Lesse assisting strength given to advance accepting grace 46 The sweetnesse of being at Gods finding for assisting and comforting strength 19 A Christian when foiled stronger then another when a seeming Conquerour over the same temptation in two respects 71 72 Subtilty Satans subtilty in drawing to sin 98 Suffering No reason to be proud of our suffering for God 300 T. Tempt Temptation Satan chooseth the best season to tempt 93 How the presence of the object gives force to the temptation 96 Satans subtilty in tempting 98 His approaches in tempting are gradual 100 The same sin Satan tempts to purged by the temptation 143 Satan in tempting one Saint hath a designe against others 144 How God disappoints him 144 145 Why God suffers his Saints to be tempted 152 Temptation to one sin God orders to prevent another 143 Thoughts How thoughts good for the matter may be sinful 266 Trouble Satan the troubler of the Saints for sin 114 Troublers of the Saints thereby prove themselves Satans children 125 Foure wayes wicked men may trouble the Saints spirits 126 The mercy of being kept out of Satans hands as a troubler 127 It s dangerous in temptation to keep our troubles secret 137 The Saints troubles but short 211 The Christians life in this world full of trouble 349 Trust To trust God when he withdraws yea frowns very hard 8 The evil of trusting to the strength of grace 286 287 U. Unregenerate Unregeneracy a state of ignorance 50 Unthankfulnesse Unthankfulnesse for what we have hinders our receiving what we would have 48 Uprightnesse See Sincerity W. Waiting Waiting on God under discoucouragements a signe of strong grace 50 Such are assured to speed well at last 50 51 War How hard to war with bosome-sins 5. Weak Encouragements to the weake in grace to presse for more 80 Weak endeavours with sincerity accepted by God through Christ as full obedience 373 A cordial to weake believers 387 Wicked Wickednesse The attempts of the wicked against the Saints are folly and why 16 Wicked men trouble the Saints 180 The devils wickednesse 253 The wickednesse of mans nature 256 Wicked men the worse for affliction 356 Wiles Christians should labour to know Satans wiles 112 How we may know them ib. Wisdome The Wisdome of God in baffling Satan 140 Great wisdome to provide for the evil day 360 Word How to profit by the Word 247 248 Wrath. The devil is in the wrath of wicked men Wrestling The Saints life is a wrestling 159 It s dangerous wrestling with God 161 How sinners wrestle against the Spirit 162 163 How against Providence in two particulars 164 165 Several sorts that wrestle against sin but not lawfully 166 167 How we are to wrestle against sin 168 Y. Youth Youth the best time to get knowledge 240 FINIS 2 Tim. 2.4 Doct. Gen. 22 1â— Judg. 17. v. 2 37. Joh. 7.13 2 Sam. 2.22 Job 13.15 Heb. 2. Doct. John 17. Rom. 8. Ps 138.2 Act 16.14 Isa 48.17 Rom. 9.16 Doct. Mat. 8.2 Doct. Zech. 3. Psal 91.1 Observ Observ Jer. 23.32 Gen. 3.21 Jude 20. 1 Pet. 1.3 Tit. 1.1 Eph. 4.24 Vse Heb. 12.1 Acts 1.4 Ioh. 15.2 Rom. 5.3 Vse Doct. 1 Thes 5.16 17. 1 Pet. 1.13 Luke 4.13 Ps 119.99 2 Pet. 1.11 Doct. Ezek. 1.2 6 8. 1 Sam 24 1. 1 Sam. 13.3 Mat. 4 4 5 Pro. 30.19 Deut. 18.17 Numb 16 2 19. Numb 16 3 19 2. Cor. 10.10 Answ 1. Pro. 19.22 2 Cor. 2.11 2 Chro. 33 12. Acts 5.31 Zech. 12.10 Acts 2.37 2 Co. 5.11 1 Joh. 3.21 1 Sam. 16.7 Deut. 25.19 Psal 77. Answ 1. Joh. 14.30 Ps 19.13 1 Kings 22.35 Rom. 3.24 Rom. 4.5 Rom. 14.1 Heb. 13.5 Judg. 5.25 Doct. 2 Cor. 12.9 Jam. 5.11 Peâ—s 1. Isa 10.5 Ps 17.13 Isa 10.15 Joh. 21.15 2 Sam. 21. Doct. Acts 7.51 Ezek. 2.5 Isa 44.25 * Mic. 6.9 Heb 12 1â— Vse Doct. Mal. 3.1 2 Sam. 3.26 Isa 10.7 Tit. 2.12 1 Cor. 15.24.25 Doct. 1. Vse Mat. 11.28 Iâ—… 11.10 Heb. 2.14 15. Heb. 4.15 Phil. 1.29 Heb. 11.3 Luke 15. Doct. 2. Job 36. Prov. 1.21 22 23. Doct. 2. Heb. 3.10 Vse Job 33.17.19 1 Sam. 17.28 Vse Job 9.21 Luke 10.12 * See Dr. Gouge oâ— the place Doct. Gen. 33.9 11. Doct. Ezek. 18. Doct. Heb. 12.11 Jud. 2.15 Dan. 4.31 33. Doct. 2. Doct. 1. Rom. 13.10 Vse Doct. 2. Vse Doct. 3. Heb. 13.5 2 Cor. 2.17 Jer. 37.10 Lev. 26. Dan. 11.25 Cant. 1.12
immediately from heaven which would be lost if the Christian had any strength to help himselfe though this stock of strength came at first from God Which think you speaks more love and condescent for a Prince to give a pension to a Favourite on which he may live by his owne care or for this Prince to take the chief care upon himself and come from day to day to this mans house and look into his Cupboard and see what provision he hath what expence he is at and so constantly to provide for the man from time to time Possibly some proud spirit that likes to be his own man or loves his meanes better then his Prince would prefer the former but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his Prince would be ravish't with the latter Thus God doth with his Saints the great God comes and looks into their Cupboard and sees how they are laid in and sends in accordingly as he findes them Your heavenly Father knowes you have need of these things and you shall have them He knows you need strength to pray hear suffer for him and in ipsâ horâ dabitur Secondly this way of Gods dealing with his Saints addes to the fulnesse and stability of their strength Were the stock in our own hands we should soon prove broken Merchants God knows we are but leaking vessels when fullest we could not hold it long and therefore to make all sure he sets us under the streamings forth of his strength and a leaking vessel under a cock gets what it loseth Thus we have our leakage supplied continually This was the provision God made for Israel in the wildernesse He clave the rock and the rock followed them They had not only a draught at present but it ran in a streame after them so that you hear no more of their complaints for water This rock was Christ Every believer hath Christ at his back following him with strength as he goes for every condition and trial One flower with the root is worth many in a posie which though sweet yet do not grow but wither as we wear them in our bosomes Gods strength as the root keeps our grace lively without which though as orient as Adams was it would die The second design God hath in his Saints happinesse is that he may so expresse his mercy and love to them as may rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory therein Eph. 1.4 12. which is fully attained in this way of empowering Saints by a strength not of their own but of their God his sending as they are put to expence Had God given his Saints a stock of grace to have set up with and left them to the improvement of it he had been magnified indeed because it was more then God did owe the creature but he had not been omnified as now when not only the Christians first strength to close with Christ is from God but he is beholden still to God for the exercise of that strength in every action of his Christian course As a childe that travels in his fathers company all is paid for but his father carries the purse not himself so the Christians shot is discharged in every condition but he cannot say this I did or that I suffered but God wrought all in me and for me The very combe of pride is cut here no room for any self exalting thoughts The Christian cannot say that I am a Saint is mercy but being a Saint that my faith is strong this is the childe of my own care and watchfulnesse Alas poor Christian who kept thine eye waking and stirr'd up thy care was not this the off-spring of God as well as thy faith at first No Saint shall say of Heaven when he comes there This is Heaven which I have built by the power of my might No Jerusalem above is a City whose builder and maker is God Every grace yea degree of grace is a stone in that building the topstone whereof is laid in glory where Saints shall more plainly see how God was not only Founder to begin but Benefactour also to finish the same The glory of the work shall not be crumbled and piece-meal'd out some to God and some to the creature but all entirely paid in to God and he acknowledged all in all SECTION 2. Vse 1 Is the Christians strength in the Lord not in himself Surely then the Christlesse person must needs be a poor impotent creature void of all strength and ability of doing any thing of it self towards its own salvation If the ship launch't rigg'd and with her sails spread cannot stir till the winde come faire and fills them much lesse can the timber that lies in the Carpenters yard hew and frame it self into a ship If the living tree cannot grow except the root communicate its sap much lesse can a dead rotten stake in the hedge which hath no root live of its own accord In a word if a Christian that hath this spiritual life of grace cannot exercise this life without strength from above then surely one void of this new life dead in sins and trespasses can never be able to beget this in himselfe or concur to the production of it The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency When we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5.6 And as Christ found the lump of mankinde covered with the ruines of their lapsed estate no more able to raise themselves from under the weight of Gods wrath which lay upon them then one buried under the rubbish of a fallen house is to free himselfe of that weight without help so the Spirit findes sinners in as helpless a condition as unable to repent or believe on Christ for salvation as they were of themselves to purchase it Confounded therefore for ever be the language of those sons of pride who cry up the power of nature as if man with his own brick and slime of natural abilities were able to reare up such a building whose top may reach heaven it selfe It is not of him that willeth or runneth but God that sheweth mercy God himself hath scattered such Babel-builders in the imaginations of their hearts who raiseth this spiritual Temple in the soules of men not by might nor by a power of their own but by his Spirit that so grace grace might be proclaimed before it for ever And therefore if any yet in their natural estate would become wise to salvation let them first become fooles in their own eyes and renounce their carnal wisdom which perceives not the things of God and beg wisdom of God who giveth and upbraideth not If any man would have strength to believe let them become weak and die to their own for by strength shall no man prevaile 1 Sam. 2.9 Vse 2 Secondly doth the Christians strength lie in God not in himselfe this may for ever keep the Christian humble when most
us flee for the Lord fighteth for them Whereas there be many now a dayes will rather give the honour of their discomfitures to Satan himself then acknowledge God in the businesse more ready to say the devil fought against them then God O you that have not yet worne off the impressions which the Almighty power of God hath at any time made upon your spirits beware of having any thing to do with that generation of men whoever they are Come not near their Tabernacle cast not thy lot in amongst them who are enemies to the Saints of the most High for they are men devoted to destruction God so loves his Saints that he makes nothing to give whole Nations for their ransome He rip 't open the very wombe of Egypt to save the life of Israel his childe Isa 43.3 Vse 2 Secondly this shews the dismal deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christ lesse state you have seen a rich mine open'd but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share a truth laden with incomparable comfort but it is bound for another coast it belongs to the Saints into whose bosome this truth unlades all her comfort see God shutting the door upon you when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties Esay 65.13 My servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty God hath his set number which he provides for He knows how many he hath in his family these and no more shall sit down One chief dish at the Saints board is the Almighty power of God This was set before Abraham and stands before all his Saints that they may eate to fulnesse of comfort on it But thou shalt be hungry He is Almighty to pardon but he will not use it for thee an impenitent sinner thou hast not a friend on the bench not an attribute in all Gods Name will speak for thee Mercy it self will sit and vote with the rest of its fellow-attributes for thy damnation God is able to save and help in a time of need but upon what acquaintance is it that thou art so bold with God as to expect his saving arme to be stretcht forth for thee Though a man will rise at midnight to let in a childe that cryes and knocks at his doore yet he will not take so much paines for a dog that lies howling there This presents thy condition sinner sad enough yet this is to tell thy story fairest for that Almighty power of God which is engaged for the beleevers salvation is as deeply obliged to bring thee to thy execution and damnation What greater tie then an oath God himself is under an oath to be the destruction of every impenitent soul That oath which God sware in his wrath against the unbeleeving Israelites that they should not enter into his rest concernes every unbeleever to the end of the world In the Name of God consider were it but the oath of a man or a company of men that like those in the Acts should sweare to be the death of such a one and thou wert the man would it not fill thee with feare and trembling night and day and take away the quiet of thy life till they were made friends What then are their pillows stuft with who can sleep so soundly without any horrour or amazement though they be told that the Almighty God is under an oath of damning them body and soul without timely repentance O bethink your selves sinners is it wisdome or valour to refuse termes of mercy from Gods hands whose Almighty power if rejected will soone bring you into the hands of justice and how fearful a thing that is to fall into the hands of Almighty God no tongue can expresse no not they who feel the weight of it Vse 3 Thirdly this speaks to you that are Saints indeed Be strong in the faith of this truth make it an Article of your Creed with the same faith that you beleeve there is a God beleeve also this Gods Almighty power is thy sure friend and then improve it to thy best advantage As First in agonies of conscience that arise from the greatnesse of thy sinnes flie for refuge into the Almighty power of God Truly Sirs when a mans sinnes are displayed in all their bloody colours and spread forth in their kâ—lling aggravations and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multiplying or magnifying glasse of a temptation they must needs surprize the creature with horror and amazement till the soul can say with the Prophet for all this huge hoast There is yet more with me then against me One Almighty is more then many Mighties All these mighty sinnes and devils make not one Almighty sinne or an Almighty devil Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them this onely attribute As the French Ambassadour once silenced the Spaniards pride in repeating his Masters many titles with one that drowned them all God himself Hosea 11.9 when he had aggravated his peoples sinnes to the height then to shew what a God can do breaks out into a sweet promise I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger and why not I am God and not man I will shew the Almightinesse of my mercy Something like our usual phrase when a childe or a woman strikes us I am a man and not a childe or woman therefore I will not strike again The very considering God to be God supposeth him Almighty to pardon as well as to avenge and this is some relief But then to consider it is Almighty power in bond and Covenant to pardon this is more As none can binde God but himself so none can break the bond himself makes and are they not his own words that he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. he will multiply to pardon as if he had said I 'le drop mercy with your sinne and spend all I have rather then let it be said my good is overcome of your evil It fares with the gracious soul in this case as with a Captaine that yields his Castle upon gracious termes of having his life spared and he safely convey'd to his house there to be setled peaceably in his estate and possessions for all which he hath the Generals hand and Seal on which he marcheth forth but the rude souldiers assault him and put him in feare of his life he appeals to the General whose honour now is engaged for him and is presently releeved and his enemies punisht Thou mayest poore soule when accused by Satan mollested by his terrours say It is God that justifies I have his hand to it that I should have my life given me assoon as I laid down my armes and submitted to him which I desire to do behold the gates of my heart are open to let the Prince of peace in and is not the Almighty able to performe his promise I commit my selfe to him as unto a
presently indeed as the loud windes do blow away the raine so these terrours do keep off the soule from this Gospel-sorrow While the creature is making an out-cry 't is damn'd 't is damn'd it is taken up so much with the feare of hell that sin as sin which is the proper object of godly sorrow is little look't on or mourned for A Murderer condemned to die is so possest with the feare of death and thought of the gallowes that there lies the slaine body it may be before him unlamented by him but when his pardon is brought then he can bestow his teares freely on his murdered friend They shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourne Faith is the eye this eye beholding its sin piercing Christ and Christ pardoning its sin affects the heart the heart affected sighes these inward clouds melt and run from the eye of faith in tears and all this is done when there is no tempest of terrour upon the spirit but a sweet serenity of love and peace and therefore Christian see how Satan abuseth thee when he would perswade thee thou art not humbled enough because thy sorrow is not attended with these legal sorrowes CHAP. VI. A brief Application of the second Branch of the Point viz. Of Satans subtilty as a Troubler and Accuser for sin Vse 1 IS Satan so subtile to trouble the Saints peace this proves them to be the children of Satan who shew the same Art and subtilty in vexing the spirits of the Saints as doth their infernal father not to speak of bloody Persecutors who are the devils slaughter-slaves to butcher the Saints but of those who more slily trouble and molest the Saints peace First such as rake up the Saints old sins which God hath forgiven and forgotten meerly to grieve their spirits and bespatter their names these shew their divellish malice indeed who can take such pains to travel many yeares back that they may finde a handful of dirt to throw on the Saints face Thus Shimei twitted David Come out thou bloody man When you that feare God meet with such reproaches answer them as Beza did the Papists who for want of other matter charged him for some wanton Poems penn'd by him in his youth Hi homunciones invident mihi gratiam Dei These men said he grudge me the pardoning mercy of God Secondly such as watch for the Saints halting and catch at every infirmity to make them odious and themselves merry 'T is a dreadful curse such bring upon themselves though they little think of it no lesse then Amaleks the remembrance of whose name God threatened to blot from under heaven why what had Amalek done to deserve this they smote the hindermost those that were feeble and could not march with the rest And was it so great a cruelty to do this much more to smite with the edge of a mocking tongue the feeble in grace Thirdly such who father their sins upon the Saints thus Ahab calls the Prophet the Troubler of Israel when it was himself and his fathers house What a grief was it think you to Moses his spirit for the Israelites to lay the blood of those that died in the wildernesse at his door whereas God knows he was their constant Baile when at any time Gods hand was up to destroy them and this is the charge which the best of Gods servants in this crooked generation of ours lie under We may thank them say the profane for all our late miseries in the Nation we were well enough till they would reforme us O for shame blame not the good Physick that was administred but the corrupt body of the Nation that could not bear it Fourthly such as will themselves sin meerly to trouble the Saints spirit Thus Rabshakeh blasphemed and when desired to speak in another language he goes on the more to grieve them Sometimes you shall have a profane wretch knowing one to be consciencious and cannot brook to hear the Name of God taken in vain or the ways of God flouted will on purpose fall upon such discourse as shall grate his chaste eares and trouble his gracious spirit such a one strikes father and childe at one blow think it not enough to dishonour God except the Saint stands by to see and heare the wrong done to his heavenly Father Vse 2 Secondly This may afford matter of admiration and thankfulnesse to any of you O ye Saints who are not at this day under Satans hatches Is he so subtile to disquiet and hast thou any peace in thy conscience To whom art thou beholden for that serenity that is on thy spirit to none but thy God under whose wing thou sittest to warme and safe Is there not combustible matter enough in thy conscience for his sparks to kindle Perhaps thou hast not committed such bloody sins as others that 's not the reason of thy peace for the least is big enough to damne much more to trouble thee Thou hast not grossely fallen may be since Conversion that 's rare if thou beest of long standing yet the ghosts of thy unregenerate sins might walk in thy conscience thou hast had many testimonies of Gods favour hast thou not who more then David yet he at a losse sometimes learning to spell his evidences as if he could never have read them The sense of Gods love comes and goes with the present tast He that is in the dark while there sees not the more for former light O bless God for that light which shines in at thy window Satan is plotting to undermine thy comfort every day This Thief sees thy pleasant fruits as they hang and his teeth water at them but the wall is too high for him to climbe thy God keeps this Serpent out of thy Paradise 'T is not the grace of God in thee but the favour of God as a shield about thee defends thee from the wicked one Vse 3 Thirdly let Satans subtilty to molest your peace make thee O Christian more wise and wary thou hast not a fool to deale with but one that hath wit enough to spill thy comfort and spoil thy joy if not narrowly watch't this is the dainty bit he gapes for 't is not harder to keep the flies out of your Cup-boards in Summer from tainting your provision then Satan out of your consciences many a sweet meal hath he robbed the Saints of and sent them supperlesse to bed take heed therefore that he roams not thine away also CHAP. VII Containing some Directions tending to entrench and fortifie the Christian against the assaults and wiles of the devil as a Troubler of the soules Peace Quest HOw shall I stand in a defensive posture may the Christian say against these wiles of Satan as a Troubler SECT I. First if thou wouldest be guarded from him as a Troubler take heed of him as a seducer The hast of Satans hatchet with which he lies chopping at the root of the Christians comfort is
all its Royalty may be paved with the sculls as I may so speak of devils Vse 2 Secondly this gives a strong cordial to our fainting faith in the behalf of the Church of Christ If all the devils wits and wiles will not serve him to overcome one single souldier in Christs Camp much lesse shall he ever ruine the whole Army These are dayes of great confusions in the Christian world and the chief feare of a gracious heart is for the Ark lest that should fall into the enemies hand and when this Palladium is taken the City of God his Church be trod under the feet of pride I confesse Satan seems to get ground daily he hath strangely wrigled into the bosomes and principles of many who by the fame of their Profession and zeal had obtained in the opinion of others to be reckoned among the chief of Christs Worthies in their generation He hath sadly corrupted the truths of Christ brought a dis-esteem on Ordinances that by this and as a judgment for this the wombe of the Gospel is become in a great measure barren and her children which hang upon her breasts thrive not in love and holinesse as of old when the milk was not so much nor that so spiritfull he hath had advantage by the divisions of the godly to harden those that are wicked into a further disdain of Religion and by the bloody wars of late yeares to boile up the wrath of the Popish and profane crue to a higher pitch of rage and fury against Christs little remnant then ever so that if ever God should suffer the sword to fall into their hand they are disciplin'd and fitted to play the bloody butchers on Christs sheep above their fore-fathers neither are they so crest-fallen but that they can hope for such a day yea take up some of those joyes upon trust afore-hand to solace themselves while the rest follow And now Christian may be their confidence together with the distracted state of Christs affaires in the world may discompose thy Spirit concerning the issue of these rolling Providences that are over our heads but be still poor heart and know that the contest is not between the Church and Satan but between Christ and him These are the two Champions Stand now O ye Army of Saints still by faith to see the All-wise God wrestle with a subtil devil If you live not to see the period of these great confusions yet generations after you shall behold the Almighty smite off this Geliah's head with his own sword and take this cunning hunter in the toile of his own policies that saith which ascribes greatnesse and wisdom to God will shrink up Satans subtilty into a nigrum nihil a thing of nothing Incredulitiment diabolum quasi leonem qui fide fortes despiciunt quasi vermiculum Bern. Unbelief feares Satan as a Lion faith trends on him as a worme Behold therefore thy God at work and promise thy self that what he is about will be an excellent piece None câ—n drive him from his work The Pilot is beaten from the helme and can do little in a storme but lets the ship go a drift The Architect cannot work when night drawes the curtaine yea is driven off the Scaffold with a storme of raine such Workmen are the wisest Counsellours and mightiest Princes on earth A pinch may come when it is as vain to say Help O King as Help O beggar mans wisdom may be level'd with folly but God is never interrupted All the plots of hell and commotions on earth have not so much as shak't Gods hand to spoile one letter or line that he hath been drawing The mysteriousnesse of his Providence may hang a curtain before his work that we cannot see what he is doing but then when darknesse is about him righteousnesse is the seat of his Throne for ever O. where 's our faith Sirs let God be wise and all men and devils fools What though thou seest a Babel more likely to go up then a Babylon to be pull'd down yet believe God is making his secret approaches and will clap his ladders on a sudden to the walls thereof Suppose truth were Prisoner with Joseph and errour the Courtier to have its head lift up by the favour of the times yet doest not remember that the way to truths preferment lies through the prison yea what though the Church were like Jonah in the Whales belly swallowed up to the eye of reason by the fury of men yet doest not remember the Whale had not power to digest the Prophet O be not too quick to bury the Church before she be dead Stay while Christ tries his skill before you give it over bring Christ by your prayers to its grave to speak a Resurrection-word Admirable hath the Saints faith been in such straits as Josephs who pawn'd his bones that God would visit his brethren willing them to lay him where he believ'd they should be brought Jeremiah purchaseth a field of his Uncle and payes down the money for it and this when the Caldean army quartered about Jerusalem ready to take the Cisy and carry him with the rest into Babylon And all this by Gods appointment Jer. 22.6 7 8. that he might shew the Jewes by this how undoubtedly he in that sad juncture of time did believe the performance of the Promise for their returne out of captivity Indeed God counts himself exceedingly disparaged in the thoughts of his people though at the lowest ebbe of his Churches affairs if his naked word and the single bond of his Promise will not be taken as sufficient security to their faith for its deliverance VERSE 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the darknesse of this world against spiritual wickednesse in high places THe words are coupled to the Precedent with that causal particle For which either referres to the two foregoing verses and then they are a further reason pressing the necessity of Christian fortitude in the tenth verse and furniture in the eleventh or else to the last words of the eleventh verse where the Apostle having descried the Saints grand enemie to be Satan and described him in one of his attributes his wily subtilty he in this further displayes him in his proper colours not to weaken the Saints hands but waken their care that seeing their enemy marching up in a full body they might stand in better order to receive his charge Where by the way we may observe the Apostles simplicity and plain dealing he doth not undervalue the strength of the enemy and represent him inconsiderable as Captains use to keep their souldiers together by slighting the power of their adversary no he tells them the worst at first If Satan had been to set out his own power he could have challeng'd no more then is here granted him See here the difference between Christ dealing with his followers and Satan with his Satan dares not let
people stand gazing as those who have lost the sight of their Preacher and at the end of the Sermon cannot tell what he would have Or those who preach only truths that are for the higher forme of Professours who have their senses well exercised excellent may be for the building up three or foure eminent Saints in the Congregation but in the mean time the weak ones in the family who should indeed chiefly be thought on because least able to guide themselves or carve for themselves these are forgotten He sure is an unwise builder that makes a Scaffold as high as Pauls steeple when his work is at the bottom and he is to lay the foundation whereas the Scaffold should rise as the building goes up So Paul advanceth in his doctrine as his hearers do in knowledge Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection Let us It is well indeed when the people can keep pace with the Preacher To preach truths and notions above the hearers capacity is like a Nurse that should go to feed the childe with a spoon too big to go into its mouth We may by such preaching please our selves and some of higher attainments but what shall poor ignorant ones do in the mean time He is the faithful steward that considers both The Preacher is as Paul saith of himself a debt or both to the Greek and to the Barbarian to the wise and to the unwise Rom. 1.14 to prepare truths suitable to the degree of his hearers Let the wise have their portion but let them be patient to see the weaker in the family served also Fourthly a Minister may be accessary to the ignorance of his people when through the scandal of his life he prejudiced his doctrine as a Cook who by his nastiness makes others afraid to eat what comes out of his foule fingers Or when through his supercilious carriage his poor people dare not come to him He that will do any good in the Ministers calling must be as careful as the Fisher that he doth nothing to scare soules away from him but all to allure and invite that they may be toll'd within the compasse of his net Vse 3 Is the ignorant soul such a slave to Satan Let this stirre you up that are ignorant from your seats of sloth whereon like the blinde Egyptians you sit in darknesse speedily come out of this darknesse or resolve to go down to utter darknesse The covering of Hamans face did tell him that he should not stay in the Kings presence If thou livest in ignorance it shews thou art in Gods black bill he puts this cover before their eyes in wrath whom he means to turne off into hell 2 Cor. 4. If our Gospel be hid it is to those that perish In one place sinners are threatened they shall die without knowledge in another place they shall die in their sinnes John 8. He indeed that dies without knowledge dies in his sinnes and what more fearful doome can the great God passe upon a creature then this better die in a prison die in a ditch then die in ones sinnes It thou die in thy sinnes thou shalt rise in thy sinnes as thou fallest asleep in the dust so thou awakest in the morning of the resurrection if an ignorant Christlesse wretch as such thou shalt be araigned and judged That God whom now sinners bid depart from them will then be worth their acquaintance themselves being Judges but alas then he will throw their own words in their teeth and bid them depart from him he desires not the knowledge of them O sinners you shall see at last God can better be without your company in heaven then you could without his knowledge on earth Yet yet 't is day draw your curtains and behold Christ shining upon your face with Gospel-light hear wisdome crying in the streets and Christ piping under your window in the voice of his Spirit and Messengers How long will ye simple ones love simplicity and fools hate knowledge Turne you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you and make known my words unto you What can you say sinners for your sottish ignorance Where is your cloak for this sinne the time hath been when the Word of the Lord was precious and there was no open vision not a Bible to be found in town or Countrey when the tree of knowledge was forbidden fruit and none might taste thereof without licence from the Pope happy he that could get a leaf or two of the Testament into a corner afraid to tell the wife of his bosome O how sweet were these waters when they were forced to steal them but you have the Word or may in your houses you have those that open them every Sabbath in your Assemblies many of you at least have the offers of your Ministers to take any paines with you in private passionately beseeching you to pitie your souls and receive instruction yea 't is the lamentation they generally take up you will not come unto them that you may receive light How long may a poor Minister sit in his study before any of the ignorant sort will come upon such an errand Lawyers have their Clients and Physicians their Patients these are sought after and call'd up at midnight for counsel but alas the soule which is more worth then raiment and body too that is neglected and the Minister seldom thought on till both these be sent away Perhaps when the Physician gives them over for dead then we must come and close up those eyes with comfort which were never opened to see Christ in his truth or be counted cruel because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water and anoint them for the Kingdome of Heaven though they know not a step of the way which leads to it Ah poor wretches what comfort would you have us speak to those to whom God himself speaks terrour Is heaven ours to give to whom we please or is it in our power to alter the lawes of the most High and save those whom he condemns Do you not remember the curse that is to fall upon his head that maketh the blinde to wander out of the way Deut. 27.18 what curse then would be our portion if we should confirm such blinde soules that are quite out of the way to heaven encouraging you to go on and expect to reach heaven at last when God knows your feet stand in those paths that lead to eternal death No 't is written we cannot and God will not reverse it you may reade your very names among those damned soules which Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on who the Apostle tells us are such that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.8 And therefore in the feare of God let this provoke you of what age or sexe rank or condition soever in the world to
Christians that are not instructed in the grounds of Christianity The want of this is the cause why many are so unstedfast First of this way and then of that blown like glasses into any shape as false Teachers please to breath Alas they have no center to draw their lines from think it no disgrace you who have runne into error and lost your selves in the labyrinths of deep points which now are the great discourse of the weakest professors to be set back to learn the first principles of the Oracles of God better too many are as Tertullian saith in another case pudoris magìs memores quà m salutis more tender of their reputation then their salvation who are more ashamed to be thought ignorant then careful to have it cured Fifthly If thou wouldst attain to divine knowledge wait on the Ministery of the Word As for those who neglect this and come not where the Word is Preacht they do like one that should turn his back on the Sunne that he may see it if thou wouldst know God come where he hath appointed thee to learn Indeed where the meanes is not God hath extraordinary wayes as a Father if no School in Town will teach his childe at home but if there be a publick School thither he sends him God maketh manifest saith Paul the savour of his knowledge by us in every place 2 Cor. 2.14 Let men talk of the Spirit what they please He will at last be found a quencher of the Spirit that is a despiser of Prophecy they both stand close together 1 Thes 5.19 20. Quench not the Spirit Despise not Prophesying But it is not enough to sit under the meanes Wofull experience teacheth us this there are some no Sun will tan they keep their old complexion under the most shining and burning light of the Word preached as ignorant and prophane as those that never saw Gospel-day and therefore if thou wilt receive any spirituall advantage by the Word take heed how thou hearest First Look thou beest a wakefull hearer Is it any wonder he should go away from the Sermon no wiser then he came that sleeps the greatest part of it away or heares betwixt sleeping and waking It must be in a dreame sure if God reveales any thing of his mind to him So indeed God did to the Fathers of old but it was not as they prophanely slept under an Ordinance O take heed of such irreverence He that composeth himselfe to sleep as some do at such a time or he that is not humbled for it and that deeply both of them betray a base and low esteeme they have of the Ordinance Surely thou thinkest but meanly of what is delivered if it will not keep thee awake yea of God himselfe whose message it is See how thou art reproved by the awfull carriage of a Heathen and that a King Ehud did but say to Eglon I have a message from God unto thee And he arose out of his seate Judge 3.20 And thou clapest downe on thy seat to sleep O how darest thou put such an affront upon the great God How oft did you fall asleep at dinner or telling your money And is not the Word of God worth more then these I should wonder if such Sermon-sleepers do dreame of any thing but hell-fire 'T is dangerous you know to fall asleep with a candle burning by our side some have been so burnt in their beds but more dangerous to sleep while the candle of the Word is shining so neare us What if you should sinke downe dead like Eatychus here is no Paul to raise you as he had and that you shall not where is your security Secondly Thou must be an attentive hearer He that is awake but wanders with his eye or heart what doth he but sleep with his eyes open It were as good the servants should be asleep in his bed as when up not to minde his Masters businesse When God intends a soul good by the Word he drawes such a one to listen and hearken heedfully to what is delivered as we see in Lydia who 't is said attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul And those Luke 1948. The people were attentive to heare him They did hang on him as you shall see Bees on some sweet flower or as young birds on the bills of their dammes as they feed them that is the soul which shall get light and life by the Word Heare ye children and attend to know understanding Prov. 4.1 Labour therefore in hearing the Word to fixe thy quicksilver-minde and set thy selfe to heare as 't is said Jehosaphat did to pray and that thou maiest before thou goest get thy heart into some deep sense of thy spirituall wants especially of thy ignorance of the things of God and thy deplored condition by reason of it till the heart be toucht the minde will not be fixt Therefore you may observe 't is said God open'd the heart of Lydia that she attended Acts 16.14 The Minde goes of the Wils errand we spend our thoughts upon what our hearts propose If the heart hath no sense of its ignorance or no desires after God no wonder such a one listens not what the Preacher saith his heart sends his mind another way They sit before thee as my people saith God but their heart goeth after their covetousnesse They do not come out of such an intent or desire to heare for any good to their soules then they would apply themselves wholly to the work no it is their covetousnesse hath their hearts and therefore as some idle servant when he hath waited on his Master brought him to his pew then he goes out to his good fellowes at the Alehouse and comes no more till Sermon be almost done so do the thoughts of most when they go to the Ordinance they slip out in the street market or shop you may finde them any where but about the duty before them and all because these have their hearts more then God and his Word Thirdly Thou must be a retentive hearer without this the worke will ever be to begin againe Truths to a forgetfull hearer are as a seale set on water the impression lasts no longer then the seale is on the Sermon once done and all is undone be therefore very carefull to fasten what thou hearest on thy memory which that thou maiest do First receive the truth in the love of it An affectionate hearer will not be a forgetfull hearer Love helpes the memory Can a woman forget her childe or a maide her ornaments or a bride her attire No they love them too well Were the truths of God thus precious to thee thou wouldest with David think of them day and night Even when the Christian through weaknesse of memory cannot remember the very words he heares to repeate them yee then he keeps the power and savour of them in his spirit as when sugar is dissolved in wine you cannot see it but you may taste it
of these then the other There is hardly a fleshly lust but hath some spiritual sinne analogical to it as they say there is no species of creatures on the land but may be pattern'd in the sea Thus the heart of man can produce spiritual sinnes answering carnal lusts for whoredom and uncleannesse of the flesh there is idolatry call'd in Scripture spiritual adultery from which the seat of Antichrist is call'd spiritual Sodom for sensual drunkennesse there is a drunkennesse of the minde intoxicating the judgement with errour a drunkennesse of the heart in cares and feares for carnal pride in beauty riches honour there is a spiritual pride of gifts graces c. Now Satan in an especial manner assaults the Christian with such as these it would require a larger discourse then I can allow to runne over the several kindes of them I shall of many pick out two or three As first Satan labours to corrupt the mind with erroneous principles he was at work at the very first plantation of the Gospel sowing his darnel assoon almost as Christ his wheate which sprung up in pernicious errours even in the Apostles times which made them take the weeding-hook into their hands and in all their Epistles labour to countermine Satan in this design Now Satan hath a double design in this his endeavour to corrupt the mindes of men especially Professours with errour SECT I. First he doth this in despite to God against whom he cannot vent his malice at a higher rate then by corrupting his truth which God hath so highly honoured Psal 138.2 Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Every creature bears the Name of God but in his Word and truth therein contained 't is writ at length and therefore he is more choice of this then of all his other works he cares not much what becomes of the world and all in it so he keeps his Word and saves his truth Ere long we shall see the world on a light flame the heavens and earth shall passe away but the Word of the Lord endures for ever When God will he can make more such worlds as this is but he cannot make another truth and therefore he will not lose one iota thereof Satan knowing this sets all his wits on work to deface this truth and disfigure it by unsound doctrine The Word is the glasse in which we see God and seeing him are changed into his likenesse by his Spirit If this glasse be crackt then our conceptions we have of God will mis-repesent him unto us whereas the Word in its native clearnesse sets him out in all his glory unto our eye Secondly he endeavours to draw into this spiritual sin of errour as the most subtil and effectual means to weaken if not destroy the power of godlinesse in them The Apostle joynes the Spirit of power and a sound minde together 2 Tim 1.7 Indeed the power of holinesse in practice depends much on the foundnesse of judgement Godlinesse is the childe of truth and it must be nurst if we will have it thrive with no other milk then of its own mother Therefore we are exhorted to desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow 1 Pet. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if this milk be but a little dash't with errour it is not so nutritive All errour how innocent soever any may seem like the Ivy draws away the strength of the souls love from holinesse Hosea tells us Whoredom and wine take away the heart now errour is spiritual adultery Paul speaks of his espousing them to Christ when a person receives an errour he takes a stranger into Christs bed and it is the nature of adulterous love to take away the wises heart from her true husband that she delights not in his company so much as of her adulterous lover and do we not see it at this day fulfill'd do not many shew more zeal in contending for one errour then for many truths how strangely are the hearts of many taken off from the wayes of God their love cool'd to the Ordinances and Messengers of Christ and all this occasioned by some corrupt principle got into their bosomes which controuls Christ and his truth as Hagar and her son did Sarah and her childe Indeed Christ will never enjoy true conjugal love from the soule till like Abraham he turns these out of doors Errour is not so innocent a thing as many think it it is as unwholesome food to the body that poisons the spirits and surfeits the whole body which seldom passeth away and not break out into sores As the knowledge of Christ carries a soule above the pollutions of the world so errour entangles and betrayes it to those lusts whose hands it had escaped Thirdly Satan in drawing a soule into this spiritual sin hath a designe to disturb the peace of the Church which is rent and shattered when this fire-ship comes among them I hear saith Paul there are divisions among you and I partly beleeve it for there must be heresies 1 Cor. 11.18 19. implying that divisions are the natural issue of heresie Errour cannot well agree with errour except it be against the truth then indeed like Pilate and Herod they are easily made friends but when truth seems to be overcome and the battel is over with that then they fall out among themselves and therefore it is no wonder if it be so troublesom a neighbour to truth O Sirs what a sweet silence and peace was there among Christians a dozen years ago me thinks the looking back to those blessed dayes in this respect though they had also another way their troubles yet not so uncomfortable because that storme united this scatters the Saints spirits is joyous to remember in what unity and love Christians walk't that the Persecutors of those times might have said as their Predecessours did of the Saints in primitive times See how they love one another but now alas they may jeere and say See how they that loved so dearly are ready to pluck one anothers throats out SECT II. The application of this shall be only in a word of exhortation to all especially you who bear the Name of Christ by a more eminent Profession of him O beware of this soul-infection this leprosie of the head I hope you do not think it needlesse for 't is the disease of the times This plague is begun yea spreads apace not a flock a Congregation hardly that hath not this scab among them Paul was a Preacher the best of us all may write after and he presseth this home upon the Saints yea in the constant course of his preaching it made a piece of his Sermon Acts 20.30 31. he sets us Preachers also on this work Take heed to your selves and to all the flock for I know this that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things therefore watch And then he presents his
Ezek. 36.31 ye shall remember your wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight c. And when shall this be but when God would save them from all their uncleannesses as appears v. 25. yet notwithstanding this there remain such dregs of corruption unpurged out of the best that Satan findes it not impossible to make the manifestations of Gods love an occasion of pride to the Christian and truly God lets us see our pronenesse to this sin in the short stay he makes when he comes with any greater discoveries of his love The Comforter 't is true abides for ever in the Saints bosome but his joyes they come and are gone again quickly They are as exceedings with which he feasts the believer but the cloth is soon drawn and why so but because we cannot bear them for our every day food A short interview of heaven and a vision of love now and then upon the mount of an ordinance or affliction cheeres the spirits of drooping Christians who might they have leave to build Tabernacles there and dwell under a constant shine of such manifestations would be prone to forget themselves and think they were Lords of their own comforts If holy Paul was in danger of falling into this distemper of pride from his short rapture to prevent which God saw it needful to let him blood with a thorne in the flesh would not our blood much more grow too rank and we too crank and wanton if we should feed long on such luscious food And therefore if ever Christian thou hadst need to watch then is the time when comforts abound and God dandles thee most on the knee of his love when his face shines with clearest manifestations lest this sin of pride as a thief in the candle should swaile out thy joy To prevent which thou shouldest do well First to look that thou measurest not thy grace by thy comfort lest so thou beest led into a false opinion that thy grace is strong because thy comforts are so Satan will be ready to help forward such thoughts as a fit medium to life thee up and slacken thy care in duty for the future Such discoveries do indeed bear witnesse to the truth of thy grace but not to the decree and measure of it the weak childe may be yea is oftner in the lap then the strong Secondly do not so much applaud thy self in thy present comfort as labour to improve it for the glory of God Vp and eate saith the Angel to the Prophet because the journey is too great for thee The manifestations of Gods love are to fit us for our work It is one thing to rejoyce in the light of our comfort and another to go forth in the power of the Spirit comforting us as Giants refreshed with this wine to run our race of duty and obedience with more strength and alacrity He shews his pride that spends his time in telling his money meerly to see how rich he is but he his wisdom that layes out his money and trades with it The boaster of his comforts will lose what he hath when he that improves his comforts in a fuller trade of duty shall adde more to what he hath Thirdly remember thou dependest on God for the continuance of thy comfort They are not the smiles thou hadst yesterday can make thee joyous to day any more then the bread thou didst then eate can make thee strong without more thou needest new discoveries for new comforts let God hide his face and thou wilt soon lose the sight and forget the taste of what thou even now hadst It is beyond our skill or power to preserve those impressions of joy and comfortable apprehensions of Gods favour on our spirits which sometimes we finde as Gods presence brings those so when he goes he carries them away with him as the setting-Sun doth the day We would laugh heartily at him who when the Sun shines in at his window should think by shutting that to imprison the Sun-beams in his chamber and doest thou not shew as much folly who thinkest because thou now hast comfort thou therefore shalt never be in darknesse of Spirit more The believers comfort is like Israels Manna 't is not like our ordinary bread and provision we buy at market and lock up in our Cupboards where we can go to it when we will no it is rained as that was from heaven Indeed God provided for them after this sort to humble them Deut. 8.16 Who fed thee in the wildernesse with Manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee It was not because such mean food that God is said to humble them for it was delicious food therefore call'd Angels food Psal 78.25 Such as if Angels did eate might serve them But the manner of the dispensing it from hand to mouth every day their portion and no more so that God kept the key of their Cupboard they stood to his immediate allowance and thus God communicates our spiritual comforts for the same end to humble us So much for this second sort of spiritual wickednesse I had thought to have instanced in some other as hypocrisie unbelief formality but possibly the subject being general what I have already said may be thought but a digression and that too long I shall therefore conclude this branch of spiritual wickednesse in a word to those who are yet in a natural and unsanctified state which is to stir them up from what I have said concerning Satans assaulting beleevers with such temptations to consider seriously how that Satans chief designe against them also lies in the same sins These are the wickednesses he labours to ingulph you in above all others If ever you perish it will be by the hand of these sins 'T is your feared conscience blinde minde and dedolent impenitent heart will be your undoing if you miscarry finally Other sins the devil knowes are preparatory to these and therefore he drawes thee into them to bring thee into these Two wayes they prepare a way to spiritual sins First as they naturally dispose the sinner to them 't is the nature of sin to blinde the minde stupifie the conscience harden the heart as is implied Heb. 3.13 Lest your heart be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin As the feet of Travellers beat the high way hard so does walking in carnal grosse sins the heart they benumbe the conscience so that in time the sinner loses his feeling and can carry his lusts in his heart as Bedlams their pins in their very flesh without pain and remorse Secondly as they do provoke God by a judiciary act to give them up to these sins Lam. 3.65 Give them obstinacy of heart so 't is in your margin thy curse unto them and when the devil hath got sinners at this passe then he hath them under lock and key They are the fore-runners of damnation if God leave thy heart hard and unbroken
that thou canst not as thou usest lift up thy heart from earthly to spiritual duties They were intended as helps against temptation and therefore when they prove snares to us there is a distemper on us If we waxe worse after sleep the body is not right because the nature of sleep is to refresh if exercise indisposeth for work the reason is in our bodies So here Secondly when thy diligence in thy particular calling is more selfish possibly thou hast wrought in thy shop and set close at thy study in obedience to the command chiefly thy carnal interests have swayed but little with thee but now thou tradest more for thy self and lesse for God O have a care of this Thirdly when thou canst not bear the disappointment of thy carnal ends in thy particular calling as thou hast done thou workest and gettest little of the world thou preachest and art not much esteemed and thou knowest not well how to brook these The time was thou couldest retire thy self into God and make up all thou didst want elsewhere in him but now thou art not so well satisfied with thy estate rank and condition thy heart is fingering for more of these then God allowes thee this shews declining children are harder to be pleased and old men whose decay of nature makes them more froward and in a manner children the second time then others labour therefore to recover thy decaying grace and as this lock grows so thy strength with it will to acquiesce in the disposure of Gods Providence CHAP. IV. A word of counsel for the recovery of declining grace WE come now to give a few directions to the Christian how to recover decaying grace Enquire faithfully into the cause of thy declining The Christians armour decays two wayes either by violent bartery when the Christian is overcome by temptations to sin or else by neglecting to forbish and scoure it with the use of those means which are as oile to keep it clean and bright Now enquire which of these have been the cause of thy decay It is like both concurre First if thy grace be weakened by any blow given it by any sin committed by thee there then lies a threefold duty upon thee towards the recovery of it First thou art to renew thy repentance It is Christs counsel Rev. 2.5 to Ephesus Repent and do thy first works where it is not only commanded as a duty but prescribed as a means for her recovery as if he had said Repent that thou mayest do thy first works So Hosea 14.2 The Lord sets back-sliding Israel about this work bidding her take words and turn to the Lord and v. 4. he then tells her he 'll take her in hand to recover her of her sins I will heale their back-slidings a repenting soule is under promise of healing and therefore Christian go and search thy heart as thou wouldest do thy house if some thief or murderer lay hid in it to cut thy throat in the night and when thou hast found the sin that has done thee the mischief then labour to fill thy heart with shame for it and indignation against it and so go big with sorrow and cast it forth before the Lord in a heart-breaking confession better thou do this then Satan do thy errand to God for thee Secondly when thou hast renewed thy repentance forget not delay not then to renew thy faith on the promise for pardon Repentance that is like purging physick to evacuate the peccant humour but if faith come not presently with its restorative the poor creature will never get heart or recover his strength A soule may die of a fluxe of sorrow as well as of sin faith hath an incarnating vertue as they say of some strengthening meats it feeds upon the promise and that is perfect converting or rather restoring the soule Psal 19.7 Though thou wert pined to skin and bones all thy strength wasted yet faith would soon recruit thee and enable every grace to perform its office chearfully Faith sucks peace from the promise call'd peace in beleeving from peace flowes joyes Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 and v. 2. We rejoyce in the hope of glory and joy affords strength The joy of the Lord is our strength Thirdly back both these with a daily endeavour to mortifie those lusts which most pevail over thy grace Weeds cannot thrive and the flowers also when grace doth not act vigorously and freely conclude it is opprest with some contrary lust which weighs down its spirits and makes them lumpish even as superfluous humours do load the natural spirits in our bodies that we have little joy to stir or go about any businesse till they be evacuated and therefore ply this work close it is not a dayes work or two in the yeare like Physick at spring and fall nothing more vain then to make a busle as the Papists do at their Lent or as some unsound Professours among our selves who seem to bestir themselves before a Sacrament or day of Fasting with a great noise of zeal and then let those very lusts live peaceably in them all the yeare after No this is child-play to do and undo thou must mortifie daily thy lusts by the Spirit Rom. 8.13 Follow but this work conscionably in thy Christian course making it thy endeavour as constantly as the labouring man goes out every day to work in the field where his calling lies to watch thy heart and use all means for the discovery of sin and as it breaks forth to be humbled for it and be chopping at the root of it with this axe of mortification and thou shalt see by the blessing of God what a change for the better there will be in the constitution of thy grace thou who art now so poor so pale that thou art afraid to see thy own face long in the glasse of thy own conscience shall then reflect with joy upon thy owne conscience and dare to converse with thy self without those surprizals of horrour and feare which before did appale thee thy grace though it shall not be thy rejoycing yet it will be thy evidence for Christ in whom it is and lead thee in with boldnesse to lay claim to him while the loose Christian whose grace is over-grown with lusts for want of this weeding hook shall stand trembling at the door questioning whether his grace be true or no and from that doubt of his welcome Secondly if upon enquiry thou findest that thy Armour decays rather for want of scouring then by any blow from sin presumptuously committed as that is most common and ordinary rust will soon spoil the best armour and negligence give grace its bane as well as grosse sins then apply thy self to the use of those means which God hath appointed for the strengthening grace if the fire goes out by taking off the wood what way to preserve it but by laying it on again First I shall send thee to the Word of
you may withstand in the evil day He shuts out all hope of escaping as if he had said you have no way but to withstand please not your selves with thoughts of shunning battel the evil day must come be you arm'd or notarm'd Thirdly the necessity of this armour to withstand As we cannot run from it so not bear up before it and oppose the force which will be made against us except clad with Armour These would afford several points but for brevity we shall lay them together in one Conclusion CHAP. VI. Sheweth that the day of affliction is evil and in what respects as also unavoidable and why to be prepared for IT behoves everyone to arme and prepare himself for the evil day of affliction and death which unavoidably he must conflict with The point hath three branches First the day of affliction and death is an evil day Secondly this evil day is unavoidable Thirdly it behoves every one to provide for this evil day First of the first branch the day of affliction especially death is an evil day Here we must shew how affliction is evil and how not First it is not morally or intrinsecally evil if it were evil in this sense First God could not be the author of it his nature is so pure that no such evil can come from him any more then the Sunnes light can make night But this evil of affliction he voucheth for his own act Against this family do I devise an evil Mic. 3.2 yea more he impropriates it so to himself as that he will not have us think any can do us evil beside himself 'T is the Prerogative he glories in that there is no evil in the City but it is of his doing Amos 3.6 And well it is for the Saints that their crosses are all made in heaven they would not else be so fitted to their backs as they are But for the evil of sin he disownes it with a strict charge that we lay not this brat which is begotten by Satan upon our impure hearts at his door Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man James 1.13 Secondly if affliction were thus intrinsecally evil it could in no respect be the object of our desire which sometimes it is and may be We are to choose affliction rather then sin yea the greatest affliction before the least sin Moses chose affliction with the people of God rather then the pleasures of sin for a season We are bid rejoyce when we fall into divers temptations that is afflictions But in what respects then may the day of affliction be called evil First as it is grievous to sense in Scriprure evil is oft put as contradistinct to joy and comfort We looked for peace and behold no good A merry heart is called a good heart a sad spirit an evil spirit because nature hath an abhorrency to all that opposeth its joy and this every affliction doth more or lesse No affliction while present is joyous but grievous it hath like Physick an unpleasing farewel to the sense Therefore Salomon speaking of the evil dayes of sicknesse expresseth them to be so distasteful to nature that we shall say We have no pleasure in them They take away the joy of our life Natural joy is a true flower of the Sun of prosperity it opens and shuts with it 'T is true indeed the Saints never have more joy then in their affliction but this comes in upon another score they have a good God that sends it in or else they would be as sadly on it as others 'T is no more natural for comfort to spring from afflictions then for grapes to grow on thornes or Manna in the wildernesse The Israelites might have look't long enough for such bread if heaven had not miraculously rained it down God chooseth this season to make the Omnipotency of his love the more conspicuous As Elijah to adde to the miracle first causeth water in abundance to be poured upon the wood and sacrifice so much as to fill the trench and then brings fire from heaven by his prayer to lick it up Thus God poures out the flood of affliction upon his children and then kindles that inward joy in their bosomes which licks up all their sorrow yea he makes the very waters of affliction they float on adde a further sweetnesse to the musick of their spiritual joy but still it is God that is good and affliction that is evil Secondly the day of affliction is an evil day as it is an unwelcome remembrancer of what sinful evils have passed in our lives It revives the memory of old sins which it may be were buried many years ago in the grave of forgetfulnesse The night of affliction is the time when such ghosts use to walk in mens consciences and as the darknesse of the night addes to the horrour of any scareful object so doth the state of affliction which is it self uncomfortable adde to the terrour of our sinnes then remembred Never did the Patriarchs sin look so ghastly on them as when it recoil'd upon them in their distresse Gen. 42.21 The sinner then hath more real apprehensions of wrath then at another time affliction approximates judgement yea it is interpreted by him as a Pursevant sent to call him presently before God and therefore must needs beget a woful confusion and consternation in his spirit O that men would think of this how they could bear the sight of their sins and a Rehearsal Sermon of all their wayes in that day That is the blessed man indeed who can with the Prophet then look on them and triumph over them This indeed is a dark parable as he calls it few can skill of it as Ps 94.3 4. I will open my dark saying upon the harp wherefore should I feare in the day of evil when the iniquity of my heels compasseth me about Thirdly the day of affliction makes discovery of much evil to be in the heart which was not seen before Affliction shakes and royles the creature if any sediment be at the bottome it will appear then Sometimes it discovers the heart to be quite naught that before had some seeming good these suds wash off the hypocrites paint Natura vexata prodit seipsam When corrupt nature is vext it shews it self and some afflictions do that to purpose We reade of such as are offended when persecution comes they fall quite out with their Profession because it puts them to such cost and trouble others in their distresse that curse their God Isa 8.21 It is impossible for a naughty heart to think well of an afflicting God The hireling if his Master takes up a staffe to beat him throws down his work and runs away and so doth a false heart serve God Yea even where the person is gracious corruption is oft found to be stronger and grace weaker then they were thought to be
Peter who set out so valiantly at first to walk on the sea the winde doth but rise and he begins to sink now he sees there was more unbelief in his heart then he before suspected Sharp afflictions are to the soule as a driving raine to the house we know not that there are such crannies and holes in the house till we see it drop down here and there Thus we perceive not how unmortified this corruption nor how weak that grace is till we are thus search't and made more fully to know what is in our hearts by such trials This is the reason why none have such humble thoughts of themselves and such pitiful and forbearing thoughts towards others in their infirmities as those who are most acquainted with afflictions they meet with so many foiles in their conflicts as make them carry a low saile in respect of their own grace and a tender respect to their brethren more ready to pity then censure them in their weaknesses Fourthly this is the season when the evil one Satan comes to tempt What we finde call'd the time of tribulation Mat. 13.22 we finde in the same parable Luke 8.13 call'd the time of temptation Indeed they both meet seldome doth God afflict us but Satan addeth temptation to our wildernesse This is your houre saith Christ and the power of darknesse Luke 22.53 Christs sufferings from man and temptation from the devil came together Esau who hated his brother for the blessing said in his heart The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand then will I kill my brother Gen. 27.41 Times of affliction are the dayes of mourning those Satan waits for to do us amischief in Fifthly and lastly the day of affliction hath oft an evil event and issue and in this respect proves an evil day indeed All is well we say that ends well the product of afflictions on the Christian is good the rod with which they are corrected yields the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse and therefore they can call their afflictions good that is a good instrument that lets out only the bad blood It is good for me that I was afflicted saith David I have read of a holy woman who used to compare her afflictions to her children they both put her to great pain in the bearing but as she knew not which of her children to have been without for all the trouble in the bringing forth so neither which of her afflictions she could have missed notwithstanding the sorrow they put her to in the enduring But to the wicked the issue is sad first in regard of sin they leave them worse more impenitent hardened in sin and outragious in their wicked practices Every plague on Egypt added to the plague of hardnesse on Pharaohs heart he that for some while could beg prayers of Moses for himself at last comes to that passe that he threatens to kill him if he come at him any more O what a prodigious height do we see many come to in sin after some great sicknesse or other judgement Children do not more shoot up in their bodily stature after an ague then they in their lusts after afflictions O how greedy and ravenous are they after their prey when they once get off their clog and chain from their heeles when Physick works not kindly it doth not only leave the disease uncured but the poison of the Physick stays in the body also Many appear thus poisoned by their afflictions by the breaking out of their lusts afterward Secondly in regard of sorrow every affliction on a wicked person produceth another and that a greater then it self The last wedge comes the last which shall rive him fit for the fire the sinner is whip't from affliction to affliction as the vagrant from Constable to Constable till at last he comes to hell his proper place and setled abode where all sorrrows will meet in one that is endlesse The second branch of the point follows This evil day is unavoidable We may as well stop the chariot of the Sun when posting to night and chase away the shades of the evening as escape this houre of darknesse that is coming upon us all None hath power over the Spirit to retain it neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war Eccl. 8.8 Among men 't is possible to get off when prest for the wars by pleading priviledge of yeares estate weaknesse of body protection from the Prince and the like or if all these fail possibly the sending another in our room or a bribe given in the hand may serve the turn But in this war the presse is so strict that there is no dispensation David could willingly have gone for his son we hear him crying Would God I had died for thee O Absalom my son my son but he will not be taken that young Gallant must go himself We must in our own person come into the field and look death in the face Some indeed we finde so fond as to promise themselves immunity from this day as if they had an ensuring office in their breast They say they have made a Covenant with death and with hell they are at an agreement when the overflowing scourge shall passe through it shall not come unto them And now like debtors that have feed the Serjeant they walk abroad boldly and feare no arrest But God tells them as fast as they binde he will loose Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand and how should it if God will not set his seal to it There is a divine Law for this evil day which came in force upon Adams first sin that laid the fatal knife to the throat of mankinde which hath opened a sluce to let out his heart-blood ever since God to prevent all escape hath sowen the seeds of death in our very constitution and nature so that we can assoon run from our selves as run from death We need no feller to come with a hand of violence and hew us down there is in the tree a worme which grows out of its own substance that will destroy it so in us those infirmities of nature that will bring us down to the dust Our death was bred when our life was first conceived and as a breeding woman cannot hinder the houre of her travel that follows in nature upon the other so neither can man hinder the bringing forth of death with which his life is big All the pains and aches man feels in his life are but so many singultus morientis naturae groans of dying nature they tell him his dissolution is at hand Beest thou a Prince sitting in all thy state and pomp death dare enter thy Palace and come through all thy guards to deliver the fatal message it hath from God to thee yea runs its dagger to thy heart wert thou compassed with a Colledge of Doctors consulting thy health Art and Nature both
beautiful colours that were drawn on them but not laid in oyle and therefore soon wash't off again The foolish Virgins made as great a blaze with their lamps and did expect as good a day when Christ should come as the wise Virgins but alas their lamps are out before he appeared and as good never a whit as never the better The stony ground more forward then the best soile the seed comes up immediately as if a crop should soon have been reap't but a few nipping frosts turns its hue and the day of harvest proves a day of desperate sorrow All these instances and many more in Scripture do evince that nothing short of solid grace and a principle of divine life in the soul will persevere How forward soever Formalists and slighty Professours are to promise themselves hopes of reaching heaven they will finde it too long a step for their short-breathed souls to attain The reasons are First such want a principle of divine life to draw strength from Christ to persevere them in their course That by which the gracious soule it self perseveres is the continual supply it receives from Christ as the arme and foot is kept alive in the body by those vital spirits which they receive from the heart I live saith Paul yet not I but Christ in me that is I live but at Christs cost he holds as my soul so my grace in life Now the carnal person wanting this union must needs waste and consume in time He hath no root to stand on A carcase when once it begins to rot never recovers but every day grows worse till it runs all into putrefaction no salve or plaister will do it good but where there is a principle of life there when a member is wounded nature sends supplies of spirits and helps to work with the salve for a cure There is the same difference between a gracious person and an ungracious see them opposed in this respect Prov. 14.17 The righteous man falls seven times a day and riseth but the wicked falleth into mischief that is in falling he falls further and hath no power to recover himself When Cain sinned see how he falls further and further like a stone down a hill never stayes till he comes to the bottome of despair from envying his brother to malice from malice to murder from murder to impudent lying and brazen-fac't boldnesse to God himself and from that to despair so true is that 2 Tim. 3 13. Evill men shall waxe worse and worse But now when a Saint falls he riseth because when he falls he hath a principle of life to cry out to Christ and such an interest in Christ as stirs him up to help Lord save me said Peter when he began to sink and presently Christs hand is put forth he chides him for his unbelief but he helps him Secondly an unregenerate soul hath no assurance for the continuance of those common gifts of the Spirit he hath at present they come on the same termes that temporal enjoyments do to such a one A carnal person when he hath his table most sumptuously spread cannot shew any word of promise under Gods hand that he shall be provided for the next meal God gives these things to the wicked as we a crust or a nights lodging to a beggar in our barne 't is our bounty such a one could not sue us for denying the same so in the common gifts of the Spirit God was not bound to give them nor is he to continue them Thou hast some knowledge of the things of God thou mayest for all this die without knowledge at last thou art a sinner in chaines restraining grace keeps thee in this may be taken off and thou let loose to thy lusts as freely as ever And how can he persevere that in one day may from praying fall to cursing from a whining complaining conscience come to have a seared conscience Thirdly every unregenerate man when most busie with Profession hath those engagements lie upon him that will necessarily when put to it take him off one time or other One is engaged to the world and when he can come to a good market for that then he goes away he cannot have both and now he 'll make it appear which he loved best Demas hath forsaken us and embraced this present world Another is a slave to his lust and when this calls him he must go in spight of Profession conscience God and all Herod feared John and did many things but love is stronger then feare his love to Herodias overcomes his fear of John and makes him cut off at once the head of John and the hopeful buddings which appeared in the tendernesse of his conscience and begun Reformation One root of bitternesse or other will spring up in such a one If the complexion of the soul be profane it will at last come to it however for a while there may some religious colour appear in the mans face from some other external cause This shews us what is the root of all final apostasy and that is the want of a through change of the heart The Apostate doth not lose the grace he had but discovers he never had any and 't is no wonder to hear that he proves bankrupt that was worse then nought when he first set up Many take up their Saintship upon trust and trade in the duties of Religion with the credit they have gain'd from others opinion of them They believe themselves to be Christians because others hope them to be such and so their great businesse is by a zeal in those exercises of Religion that lie outmost to keep up the credit which they have abroad but do not look to get a stock of solid grace within which should maintain them in their Profession and this proves their undoing at last Let it therefore make us in the feare of God to consider upon what score we take up our Profession Is there that within which bears proportion to our outward zeal Have we laid a good bottome Is not the superstructive top heavy jetting too far beyond the weak foundation They say trees shoot as much in the root under ground as in the branches above and so doth true grace O remember what was the perishing of the seed in the stony ground it lacked root and why so but because it was stony Be willing the plough should go deep enough to humble thee for sin and rend thy heart from sinne The soul effectually brought out of the love of sin as sin will never be through friends with it again In a word be serious to finde out the great spring that sets all thy wheels on motion in thy religious trade Do as men that would know how much they are worth who set what they owe on one side and what stock they have on the other and then when they have laid out enough to discharge all debts and engagements what remaines to themselves they may call their