much more when nature is itsin ful power and force where there is no thing else Put meate into a dead mans mouth and there is no absolute resistance The childe of God is like a sick man troubled with ill humors diseases he hath true desire of grace yet weake and low not raysed to that height and power which they shall be when they are perfectly recovered Therefore the Apostle exhorts the people of God 1 Thes. 5. 19. Quench not the Spirit because even in them there are some lusts and corruptions springing out of the heart which will be ready to put out the fire of grace Vse 1 This is for comfort for all poore broken hearts in whom God hath ingendred the true desire of grace let such know that the first step to grace to see they have no grace and the first degree of grace is the desire of grace it is not with the body as with the soule if you will be healed you shall be healed a man may desire to be healed corporally and yet his disease continue upon him but it is not so with the soule if thou wilt say Christ heale me thou shalt be made whole If a man have but the true desire of grace it shall be given him Psal. 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble when the poore soule is humbled before God in the sense of the want of grace and breathes and desires after it the Lord will grant such desires So Psal. 145. 14. He will fulfill the desires of them that feare him hee also will heare their cry and will helpe them One said the greatest part of Christianity is to desire to be a Christian And another sayd the totall summe of a mans Religion in this life consists in the true desires of saving grace This was the perfection that Saint Paul attained unto Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with me but I finde no meanes how to performe that which is good Saint Paul wee know was the childe of God and one dearely beloved of God yet there was the pitch of his godlinesse it consisted more in desire than in accomplishment Canst thou approve by evident and sound arguments that thou hast the true desires of grace then know for thy comfort that the Lords spirit of grace hath beene moving and stirring in thee Philip 2. 13. It is God that worketh in you both the will and the deed and that of his good pleasure not onely of his bounty from whence hee hath bestowed many graces even upon such as hee will damne afterwards for their accursed abuse of them with the neglect of the power thereof But if God have set thy will and the streame of thy affections and desires to himselfe and to grace if but thy will yet it is Gods good pleasure from which he did at first elect thee and gave his sonne to redeeme thee As it is with sinne so it is with grace in this The desire of murther is murther the desire of adultery is adultery the desire to steale is theft So it is with grace the desire of faith is faith the desire of repentance is repentance but thou wilt say What good is it to desire to beleeve and not to beleeve to desire to repent and not to repent the desire to have an humble heart and a broken heart and yet not to have the heart humble and broken I answer he that hath the true desire of grace hath the greatest part of grace Suppose a man should be scraping and raking and grinding the face of the poore to hoard up a great deale of treasure and riches to himselfe which I pray you is the greatest part of his covetousnesse the laying up of the money or his greedy desires and oppressions surely I judge his covetous desires and oppressions For any even a childe of God may lay up and gather Riches when it pleaseth God to cast them upon him so that it is not the having of Riches but the coveting of them that proves a man to bee a covetous man For not onely great Usurers and oppressing Landlords are covetous worldlings for I tell thee covetousnesse may be in a begger and under thy leather coate if thy minde be running after the world thou that art never at quiet but thy heart thy head thy hand and all is taken up after it whether thou accomplish thy covetous lusts or no yet thou art one of those covetous persons spoken of in 1 Cor. 6. 10. Suppose a man should attaine to a great measure of grace that hee is marvellously humble marvelously zealous marvellously holy and strict in all the wayes of God I would know which is the greatest part of his grace I suppose his strong and vehement desire Secondly set it forth by a similitude suppose a man should bee in a great straite that all his goods were to bee confiscated unto the King now an execution is ready to seise upon them unlesse speedily he make them over to some friend who will keepe them for him it may be his friend is an hundred miles from him so that by no meanes hee can come to him now hee thinkes Oh that I had such a friend whom if I could but come at I would cast my whole estate upon him and repose much trust in him So the soule that apprehendeth the wrath of God and the curse of the Law ready to seise on it for damnation it would faine goe to Christ but hee cannot tell how the sense of his vilenesse keepes him off oh he would bee glad to leave and cast away all his lusts and dearest sinnes and take up the crosse of Christ and if hee could but reach Christ oh then he would thinke himselfe safe he would lay all upon him his very soule and Salvation Certainely this man hath true faith in Christ for a man would trust him well before hee would cast his whole estate upon him There is an excellent place for this in Hag. 2. 6 7 8. I will shake all Nations and the desires of all Nations shall come where are three things First it s a marveilous instinct of the Spirit of God whereby hee shakes all the children he hath in the world humbling their soules and terrifying their consciences upon the sight of their sinnes and they stand in the casts off cast-awayes Secondly their desire of Christ Thirdly The desire of all Nations shall come that is Christ shall come where observe that Christ is not called the assurance but the desire of all Nations because that there is no child of God but doth truely desire Christ though many bee his who have not the assurance of it never did any man desire to eate which had not eaten before so I desire to beleeve comes from I doe beleeve Let then none be troubled and feare and complaine for the want of faith for true desire springs from faith as the roote of it Vse 2 Hence wee may see that grace which wicked men
desire is not true grace Object You will say men come to Church they pray they come to the Sacraments for grace they professe they would have grace and will you say that they doe not desire it Answ I answer with Solomon The soule of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the soule of the diligent shall be made fat As it is with a sluggish man that desires his ground should be tilled but yet will take no paines to plough it who desires that his busines should goe forward that hee might have the harvest yet will not be at the cost and charges needfull for it he may wish and desire a harvest but shall have nothing So the soule of a sluggish Christian of a lukewarme professor desires faith and repentance but gets neither but the soule of a diligent Christian shall have enough to justifie him grace enough eternally to save him But the soule of a carnall Christian desires faith but gets but a lazie faith a faith that will not justifie him a leane or perhaps a lazie repentance that will not save him a dead performance and profession together Rom. 11. 7. Israel saith the Apostle hath not obtained that which he sought for but the Election hath obtained it first carnall Israel sought for the promises of Christ but they got it not but the Election hath obtained it Object 2 O but our Saviour saith Seeke and yee shall finde Answ 2 I answere true if you seeke well this word is of few letters but of great force it is the very forme of all Arts for Rhetoricke is the Art of pleading well and Logicke of disputing well so is Divinity the Art of seeking well of living well it is nothing to desire grace unlesse you seeke it well the truth is a wicked man desires not true grace but something that seemes to him to bee true grace Now suppose a man were sicke and five pills would cure him he thinketh foure will doe it and therefore neglects the fifth and dyes for want of it So a man having his conscience convinced from the Word of God that unlesse hee have such and such faith such and such graces of the spirit of God such knowledge such holinesse he shall be damned Hee thinkes if I can bee but thus and thus if I can doe but thus much I shall bee saved whereupon hee will heare the Word of God he will pray he will keepe the Sabbath give over this and that sinne leave his drunkennesse his swearing and yet when all comes to all he goes to hell Why because true grace which was commanded and which he should have had hee accounted and called Puritanisme and precisnesse and rejected as a superfluous thing hee thinkes if he can attaine to such a pitch as to live justly and quietly and to be well governed and to follow his particular calling and keepe the Church and performe some good duties though he bee not zealous for God nor in the worship of God will not endure reproach for Christ and for his strict profession Such a one shall be damned though he have all the grace he lookes for A crimson shooe cannot cure the Goute so fine comelinesse of carriage in a naturall man cannot heale the infection and poyson of corrupt nature An Asse is an Asse still though he be never so well trapped so a naturall man is a naturall man still though never so well qualified Hath he love hath hee knowledge meekenesse gentlenesse and a kind of humility and liberality comes hee to the Church heares the Word receives the Sacraments yet unlesse he be mortified and converted changed and renewed by the Spirit of God it is impossible he should bee saved Tit. 2. 11. 12. The grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men and teacheth us that we should deny ungodlines c. as if the Apostle would give us to understand that there is a grace that bringeth not Salvation but that which bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world if then that grace thou desirest and hast attained to teach not thee to cast away all sinfull corruptions and doe not make thee live holily it cannot bring thee to heaven This grace which saith the Apostle teacheth us to deny ungodly lusts as if he had sayd I know it hath appeared to all all the world hath it offered to them it hath appeared to them but they will not learne of it to deny ungodlinesse worldly lusts and therefore in stead of Salvation it bringeth damnation to them but it teacheth us and brings Salvation to us But now because men are apt to say every one boasting that they desire grace therefore for the third Use Vse 3 Come examine thy selfe or thy soule and we will lay it bare before the Lord that if thou hast grace thou mayst know of it if not thou mayest bee convinced of it and so perswaded in time to seeke truely for it Now if thou hast a true desire of grace than it purifieth the conscience from all dead workes If thy Conscience now tell thee that thou hast any sinne and corruption that thou art not willing to lay off it is an evident demonstration that thou hast no true desire of grace A man that hath his hands full of base luggage if a pearle should bee at his feete unlesse he empty his hands hee cannot take it up and therefore if he will not cast away that base stuffe we would say hee hath no minde to the Pearle Now thy hands and thy heart are full of corruptiō so that though grace lye even at thy feete yet thou canst not receive it up unlesse thou empty thy hands and thy heart Mark 1 1. Wherefore if there be any lust though never so deare any bosome sinne which thou wilt not part with it is an evident signe that thou hast not a true desire of grace Heb. 3. 18. Willingnesse and desire to live honestly and a good conscience are joyned together noting that so a man cannot have a desire to live piously according to Gods will but hee must have a good conscience in all things If then thy conscience tell thee that thou wilt sweare now and then thou wilt tell a lye upon occasion and bee scandalous to others now and then and wilt reserve some passage for thy lusts know that thou canst not thou dost not desire grace For true grace animates the soule to lay off all hinderances of the grace desired Mark 2 2. It is a vehement desire if true a lukewarme desire is not true desire As a man hath a desire to a peece of cloth and goes to the Drapers shop to buy it he judgeth it to bee worth twenty or forty shillings now if the Draper should hold it at three or foure pound he scornes the motion and slings away with detestation of it he desired it but his desire was stinted upon such
THE RICHES OF GRACE A TREATISE Shewing the value and Excellency of a gracious Spirit by comparing it with the Nature and Spirits of wicked and ungodly men which desire not the wayes of the Lord Jesus By that Reverend and faithfull Minister of Gods Word WILLIAM FENNER B. D. sometimes fellow of Pembrook Hall in Cambridge and late of Rochford in Essex finished by himselfe LONDON Printed by R. Cotes for I. Sweeting at the Angell in Popes head Ally 1641. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER GRACE MERCY AND PEACE THere was never any age or time Christian Reader since the beginning of the world how corrupt soever that was comparable to this our thrice unhappy age in all kindes of corruption wickednesse and sinne with griefe of Conscience I speake it with weeping I behold it and with sorrowfull heart I lament it and therefore seeing wickednesse doth so abound the Lord lest his Children frozen in the dregs of their sinnes should perish with the wicked raiseth up in his mercy good men as we see the Author of this Treatise a man of Rare parts to plucke off the Visard of sinne from their faces and to lay it open to the view of the whole world to the end that every one may see the vilenesse of his wicked wayes and the filthy dregs of sinne throwne in their face may blush at the same be ashamed repent amend and turne to the Lord Jesus and so eternally be saved In this Treatise is drawne to the life the sinnes and wickednesse of Ungodly men which desire not the way of the Lord Jesus together with the Excellencies riches great value of a blessed and gracious spirit The Author of this Treatise was a man of a Pretious spirit as may appeare by this and other workes of his in Print A Reverent and worthy Divine gives this Testimony in his Commendations that he was a Minister very Conscientious one that had a great ability given him of God to Preach Unto and worke Upon the hearts and consciences of men to awaken the sleepie to informe the erronious to settle the doubtfull to confirme the wounded also that he was a worthy Divine both in regard of his unwearisome paines in Preaching consuming his owne body to save the soules of others as also of his learning and Exemplary Piety They that knew him did love and reverence him and if any did dis-esteeme him it was because they did not fully know him He is now a shining star in the firmament of heaven also that there were hundreds of people that will blesse God to all Eternity for his paines he needs not our prayses but our imitation It is true that this birth is Posthumum opus and commeth out after the death of the Author but I hope it will be the more pleasing to revive the memory of him whose life and labours were deservedly pretious in the esteeme of Gods people This Treatise is one of the Sparkes of the zealous dead yet living Author finished by himselfe which might have laine covered in the ashes of forgetfulnesse had it not beene blowne up by one well minded which received it from the Authors owne hand it hath beene viewed by a Reverend Divine to prevent Errours and to make it compleate for the Presse which is here presented to thy view Therefore Christian Reader let me obtaine this much at thy hand as to except of his labours as precious well-wishing towards the truth and the professour thereof The subject of this ensuing discourse is published for thy benefit reade it the Lord give thee understanding to conserve and practice it in thy life and Conversation Amen THE RICHES OF GRACE JOB 21. 14. Therefore say they unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes JObs Friends disputing against Job that he was a wicked man because the wrath of God in so grievous a manner lay so long upon him Job returnes answer againe If this be true Doctrine you speake that God scourgeth none but wicked men how is it then that wicked men so oft and so much prosper in the world abounding in all worldly pleasures and delights Now Job shewes that wicked men may prosper in five things First in life and health as the Raven may live five times longer than cleaner birds verse 7. Secondly In their multitude of Children verse 8. A foule Sow hath more young than an Ewe hath Lambes Thirdly In Tranquillity and safety verse 9. Fourthly In successe and increase of their substance verse 10. as the wicked men have a Proverb the worse man the better lucke Fifth In wealth security and pleasure Hearts ease say they is the best flower in the garden vers. 11. 12. 13. The Job sets down two things First the sinne in the verse read unto you They say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes The punishment in the 13. verse In a moment they goe downe into the grave and verse 〈◊〉 The wicked are reserved for the day of destruction every wicked man God hath layd up and purposed him to hell hee gives him of prosperity to fat him up that his damnation may bee greater The verse read containes in it three things First wicked mens contempt of grace in these words We desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Secondly Their contempt of the meanes of grace in these words Depart from us they could be content that the Lord should depart from them in his Ordinance if no Preaching no praying no Sabbath no signe of God amongst them they would not much care not much lay it to heart nay they also desire it they say unto God Depart from us Thirdly the prophanenesse of their lives They say unto God Depart from us though few say so with their mouthes yet by their lives so they live so they behave themselves From the first of these viz. a wicked mans contempt of grace wee observe this Doctrine That a wicked man doth not so much as desire saving grace For the clearing of the point wee will define the true desire of grace A true desire of grace is a super-naturall appetite to grace not had for the goodnesse of it There are foure things in the true desire of grace First it is an appetite of the soule to grace when the heart doth even goe out of it selfe for the attaining of grace there are words in the 107. Psalme 3. v. which sets it downe expresly by the longing soule the word signifieth a running soule a soule that not onely goes to grace and the meanes of grace but runnes to it with an eager desire and speede An hungry appetite which signifies an hunger unfained which is First Unsupportable without meate so that he that truely desires grace cannot bee without grace As one sayd Take away heaven and you take away all from me so it is with the poore soule take away grace if it be out of hope of grace it can never rest it can never beare the