and furniture whereby wee beleeve is of God Next these spirituall acts being pure as they come of him yet they have some blemish in them because of our corruption as water from a pure fountaine doeth taste of the brasen or myrie channell through which it runneth For our very righteousnesse is as a filthy clout For woe to the life otherwise commendable if it be judged without mercie Yet he winketh at these blemishes and taketh our service as perfect He taketh a weake faith like a Graine of mustard-seed as though it were a Cedar Our will for deed Our purposes for performances Our very desires of grace for grace and for a sufficient preparation to fill us with grace yea and the desire of a desire is as welcome to him as though it were a greater degree We would not take so little of our neighbour no not of our selves as he taketh of us yea ofttimes we are most acceptable to him when wee are least content with our selves The people a part of this beautie SEcondly this beautie is in respect of the people and that either in themselves or in their worke In themselves they are the Lords choice and portion They have a spirituall and inward beautie in the image of God by regeneration and their love to God maketh them beautifull The love of no other beautifull thing can change us into it but the love of God maketh us beautifull like him For by loving him who is ever beautifull we become beautifull and how much that love groweth in us so much groweth that beautie because that love is the beautie of the soule The people in their work are beautifull when they flow to the Sanctuarie I rejoyced when they said Wee will go unto the house of the Lord They are like the chickens gathered under the hens wings in that dispensation of grace to be warmed with the heat of that same love of God that hath elected them It is like the Angels moving of the waters of that poole but with this difference that there only one was healed but here all are healed who can by faith but touch the hem of his garment Or it is rather like the spirit moving upon the waters in the creation Because the holy Spirit working mightily upon the hearts of the godly produceth such motions and affections as he thinketh good And in a word it is like innumerable empty vessels set about an over-running fountaine so godly soules compassing God in the Sanctuarie are sensible of their owne wants and desirous of God his supply And he in the riches of his grace furnisheth to every one as they have need In the Gospell sometimes a leper craved to be cleansed Sometimes a blind man to receave his sight Sometimes a deaf man to get his hearing c. But in the sanctuarie all these are spiritually for therein some are blinde in ignorance some are lepers in naturall corruption others are deaf and cannot heare God Others are lame and cannot walk in the wayes of God yea and more there is not one soule who hath not all these spirituall diseases by nature and Christ in his owne time healeth them by parts In this beautie the diversitie of peoples disposition and God his operation are to be considered For as many men and women as many severall dispositions and God answerably worketh on them all His word is the extract of his infinit wisedome so accommodat to man that it both informeth his minde with light and stampeth his heart with a divine power So it hath a varietie of that stamping according to the disposition of the hearer Some that are guilty of great sinnes and yet senselesse it will waken and pierce them and make them cry Men and brethren what shall we doe Some againe are wounded with conscience of sinne and feare of Gods wrath but they shall heare At what time ever a sinner repenteth I will pardon him and the conscience of his faith beleeving in Christ and repenting sinne shall be followed with this sweet whispering of his spirit Sonne be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee A contrite heart is a pleasant spectacle to God when it is brayed in the mortar of conscience Some againe borne downe with heavie affliction and in feare that they be rejected of God because they are daily afflicted their wearie hearts shall heare this word in due season That whom I love I chasten and the only way to follow him is to take up our crosse daily and that affliction is our best lot because it telleth us we are not bastards but children and that it is a part of our conformity with Christ here and a pledge that we shall be like him in glorie Moreover that same variety will be found in one godly soule at one time for being in the hand of God it is like soft waxe for the stamp and as the points of doctrine go along is answerably moved so that in one Sermon it will finde downe-cast and raising up griefe and comfort and be sensible of all these changes of operation This beautie is inward seene of God and felt of them that have it yet so that outwardly it will appeare For there is such harmonie betweene the heart and face as scarcely can any affection be in the heart that appeareth not some way in the countenance which as it ought to be expressed with modestie so should it be exponed of other in charitie Sometimes the heart will be so moved when Gods hand toucheth it that it cannot containe it selfe but will breake forth into teares of sorrow and joy but prudence commandeth us to convoy these things in publick as modestly as we can Our chambers or the fields are more convenient places for the full uttering of these affections for there we may use gestures of body speeches c. which we cannot before man for even the most sincere affection any wayes uttered will finde such uncharitable censure as Hannahs teares found at the hand of Eli. Therefore in publicke the expressions of our affections must be moderat our teares that would burst out must be turned into groanes and these groanes must be suppressed and turned into ejaculations and these brought to a soul-speech with God admiring our vilenesse and his goodnesse that taketh such paines on us Praising him where we finde his grace hath kept us in obedience resolving promising and vowing better obedience in time to come That is the joy of our heart when as it can poure out it selfe wholly on God in spirituall affections Affection hath the own voice whereby it is known of God Sometimes it requireth no other expression but is content with sighs and these sighs will breake out not only when we will but also when we know not What more pleasant thing than to see Gods people taught of him All hearers are not taught of God
smiteth my heart without hurt so that I both tremble and burne I tremble in so farre I am unlike him I burne in so farre I am like unto him This sight terrifieth not but comforteth It is the sight of a reconciled God by a reconciled man the matter of his presence here and of our heaven on earth There is no light clearer than this when truth shineth in the minde and the minde in truth seeth God and it selâ—e Herein appeareth the Prophets happinesse that seeking out happinesse and knowing what it is and where it is to be found he resteth not there till hee apply it to himselfe Happinesse may ever bee happinesse and wee remaine miserable if wee have no part in it God is happinesse in himselfe without us and wee are miserie in our selves without him therefore we must be in him that we may be happie And this is by application when as wee know hee is chiefe good so wee are perswaded that hee is our chiefe good and happinesse This is the proper worke of faith in her double perswasion The one direct and outgoing to the truth and things themselves The other reflecting and turning home to us by the work of our conscience in the assurance that wee beleeve and that these things are ours by faith Papists are here blame-worthie who cut the throate of the sweetest Christian consolation for what availeth it to hear that God is good that happinesse is in him if wee dare not and may not apply it to our selves And this is the end of Gods dispensation of the Gospel for he revealeth to us that we may know and the first end of knowledge is application It is also the end of the efficacie of the Spirit joyned with the word not to open our minds onely to know but also to apply to us And shall we think that the blessings of the Gospel are set before us only to looke to without application It is the food of our soule and must be eaten The cloathes of our soule and must be put on The physick of our soul and must be applied So is Christ to us The Apostle is not content to say that Christ came in the world to save sinners but subjoyneth of whom I am the chief And more clearly Henceforth I live not but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me Ancient Creeds content themselves more to expresse things to be beleeved because of the debates of hereticks in the matter of doctrine than to declare the way how to beleeve and yet this particular application may be found in them for as we beleeve the spirituall patrimonie of the Church in the remission of sinnes the glorious resurrection of the body and life eternall is it onely to know that there is such a treasure in the Church without application to our selves Or is an heire so simple as to content himself to know that his father hath an heritage and is not at all perswaded that it pertaineth to him Faith acteth a personall act and as the root of it is personall in the habit so the fruit of it must be personall in the application of consolation Gods work is particular to his own he chooseth them by name he calleth them by name as he called Come down Zacheus Hee casteth them down by the law personally why should not the application of the grace of the Gospel bee personall also The nature and work of conscience proveth the same for it is a withknowledge in our breast and all the actions of it are particular ending in our person And it contenteth not it self generally to say We are sinners but choppeth us in a particular branch of a particular Law and that in a particular kinde of sinne in a particular degree So it maketh us as particularly to apply the promise of the Gospel under conscience of repentance as it applieth wrath under conscience of sinne And Christ commendeth the wiseman not for finding of the pearle but for buying of it nor for knowing of the field where the treasure was but for the possession of the treasure Where this application is not there is nothing but doubting concerning the promise Probably they hold them as generall in the conscience of sinne as they are in the promises of grace and content themselves slenderly to thinke they are sinners without any feeling of particular sinnes Thus they delight to shuffâ—e themselves up in generall both in miserie and happinesse and not to come to particular application of either Gods children call him Abba Father for the divine nature in them the sense of their filiation and the testimonie of the Spirit of adoption maketh them to doe so but the want of these things make bastards and slaves to stand aloofe from him and not to thinke or speake warmely of him whom they know not to be their Father None hath this sight in the sanctuarie but the spirituall man For he only hath the heavenly light infused in him which is as necessary as the externall light in the eye for bodily things For the minde and not the eye is created to behold that greatest beautie of God And they live the better and more highly the more perfectly they behold him The naturall man percieveth it not but thinketh it a phantasie that is spoken of it They see not God but men and the actions they see are both base and a burthen to them The Philosophers called Paul a Babler because his doctrine was not in a Philosophick forme and Festus said that much learning made him mad so the naturall man conceiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned None conceiveth these things but he that is wise spiritually for the world cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth him not But the spirituall man discerneth all he seeth the glorie of God in his sanctuarie discerneth the spiritualitie of doctrine feeleth the power of the spirit and so wisedome contemned of fooles is justified of her owne children Hee who feeleth not the sweet smell of the spouse and runneth not is either dead or rotten Let us then strive to see God This sight shall be our happinesse in heaven and the godly are desirous of it in this life for they will see nothing more desireable and can see nothing more dilectable Moses desired to see his glory but was refused and saw only his way Esay saw him symbolically or significatively And though he datted the Patriarchs by the familiaritie of his divine presence yet they saw not himselfe but some thing of him For these Fathers saw him not as he was And that because to see him as he is is to be as he is but wee have that much sight of him in Christ as to save us for he that seeth me seeth the
a penitent sinner mourne for sinne than to looke upon all the glorious shewes in the world The good Angels frequent these meetings with joy as the pleasantest sight they see among men And the grieves they have to see the godly offend God are mitigate when they see these same saints in the worke of repentance and reconciliation with God And the evill angels who compasse the earth continually make a pause when they come to these congregations as at their most dolefull object For then they see their labours destroyed in an houre when God openeth the eyes which they have blinded softneth the heart which they have hardened and delivereth them whom they have kept long in the bands of sinne But all meetings may not claime this but such only as have Gods Word and Worship in puritie according to which this beautie is to be exponed Let Papists therefore consider how far they are from this beautie Gods word is corrupted among them in such sort that it cannot have that efficacie which naturally accompanieth it They serve God in an unknown language and know neither what God saith to them nor they to him so that they cut themselves off from the sweet intercourse of grace betwixt God and the godly soule wherein reformed Churches abound Their idolatrie in praying to Saints as helpers and intercessors and praising of them as their guardians and deliverers defile the sanctuarie Thirdly Congregations that seeme reformed may prejudge themselves of this beautie if they be not spiritually disposed so that both Pastors and people may learne their lesson to keep their part of this beautie Pastours that they strive to be Pastors whom God hath sanctified That ere they come to the publick they bee with God upon the mountaine to get their commission of him what to speake and how to speake in his name Eliseus sent his servant with his rod to the Shunamites sonne but there was neither life nor moving wrought till the Prophet came himselfe We carrie the rod of the word but there will be no quickning except God himselfe be with us That they deale expresly with God Who am I to carrie thy message to thy people for I am a childe that cannot speak Except thou goe with me I cannot goe That they bring downe from the mountaine the written tables and a shining face and the testimonies of their conversing with God That comming to the publick they cast their shoes off their feet because the place where they stand is holy ground That they come in much feare and trembling under conscience of the burden of the word of God That they have their secret ejaculations to God when they fall upon hard points Tell me Lord God what I shall say to thy servants That in all things they depend upon the divine assistance for it is God alone that entreth in the heart and he speaketh better that dwelleth within than he that cryes without That they carry Aarons garment bearing their people on the breast-plate of their heart in love and on their shoulders in the care of their salvation That they be taken up with the desire of Gods glorie and their peoples happinesse so that they care not what come of themselves if they obtaine those ends That they count their peoples teares their glorie and seek more their mourning than their applause and whatever blessing follows their labours in working grace in the people that they take no part of it to themselves but ascribe it wholly to God So the Apostle I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which is with me John the Baptist rejoyced in Christ and not in himselfe He made difference betwixt him and man-man and betwixt his master who was Man-God He knew that who will rejoyce in himselfe shall be grieved and therefore he took no more to himself lest he should lose that that he received So ought Preachers to doe lest they glory in the Lords gifts and not in the Lord. But if they neglect the rule and propone novelties beside or contrary to Scripture taking libertie to preach in publick their private new opinions if they preach themselves to shew their quicknesse their reading their memorie and that only for a popular applause they are not beautie but blots of the sanctuarie and abominations before God And though they be free of these things they may fal in a worse if seeing their labours fruitfull in people they take the glorie of it to themselves in any part then they steale the glorie of God procure his desertion to their future labors and prejudge themselves of their owne happinesse Besides passionate Pastours are worse in the sanctuarie than Hophni and Phinehas they have no end but revenge no rule but splene and neither regard GOD nor reverence man There cannot bee a greater blot in the sanctuarie thereby God is angred people are offended the sacrifice of the Lord is made to stink Next the peoples duetie is to keepe their part of this beautie That they count it Gods great mercie who speaketh to them by Pastors not for the helpe of any Creature because he is omnipotent but for accommodation to their weaknesse And it is their great good that without their owne labour they are brought to happinesse by the labour of Pastours In their preparation to be purified according to the purifications of the Sanctuarie The measures of the sanctuarie were the double of the common measure therfore the disposition for private worship must be doubled for the Church and the weeke dayes measure must bee doubled for the Sabbath Our Sabbath hath the Manna doubled and is not like the Jews Sabbath in the wildernesse theirs was a type that in heaven wee should need no preaching nor prayer but ours is of perfect glorie in heaven People then ought to be affected according to the parts of Gods worship In prayer that the minde in faith and zeale follow the thing that is spoken In praise to be sensible of the Psalme they sing for praying or praysing with a wandring heart is a mocking of God in his face In doctrine that they have their cjaculations for the worke of the spirit and their earnest intention for themselves and the Pastors That they mixe faith with their hearing and bee as content to be rebuked of their sinne as to be comforted in their crosse if they suffer not themselves first to be hewen and wounded with the word of reproofe God will not poure in the balme of Gilead And above all let them bee earnest with God that his spirit may teach them inwardly For many hear but all are not perswaded save those only to whom God speaketh inwardly Lastly that they take heede how they end that Treatie with God for it were a blockish thing for a man who is in danger of
Not fully because in their greatest fall they have both the Spirit and the seed of God in the habits of faith love c. albeit the worke of the Spirit and of these habits doe cease during the time of their impenitencie So David desireth the restoring of the joyes of salvation while in the meane time he craveth a retaining of the spirit That retaining imported that the spirit was still with him and that restoring imported his wonted joyes werâ— stayed Neither can they fall finally because thâ— Lord in his owne time raiseth them by repentance as Peter and David c. But Scripture and reason prove the same clearely I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will never turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from mee So Christ telleth It is impossible that the elect can be seduced and the Apostle Peter telleth That we are preserved by the power of God to that heavenly inheritance so that God his preserving power maketh our perseverance And no man saith Christ shall pull my sheepe out of my hand And because they except slyly It is true that none can pull his sheep out of his hand yet what if the sheep depart from him of their owne will The Apostle meeteth That neither life nor death nor any creature shall separate us from his love If no creature then not we our selves since we are a creature And the new heart and the new spirit doe promise the contrarie If God be for us who is against us For none can hurt us but he that over commeth God and who can overcome the Almightie Reasons also taken from the persons of the Godhead prove the same For the Father delivereth us to the Sonne to be kept and presented blamelesse at the last day The Sonne committeth us to the Father and prayed for us that we perish not The Father and Sonne commit us to the Spirit to be led in our wayes who dwelleth in us and in our seale which cannot be broken But in our time God gave a fearefull document in this question For when one pressed to destroy the grace of perseverance God let him fall from such grace as he had to turne Papist and of a professour of divinitie to become a lecturer of humanitie Our late Libertines mock this doctrine They professe a perfection in this life and so deny the necessitie of a graduall increase They affirme that the justified man cannot sinne and that God neither seeth nor hateth sinne in them That they need not repent nor mourne for sinne nor incite themselves to the obedience of God That they need not pray but praise continually This is a refined extract of Sathan who as by the Pelagians he oppugneth grace by nature so in them he destroyeth it in the name of grace And under a conceit of singular grace maketh them singularly gracelesse They have carved to themselves an easie way to heaven by laughing and mirth whereas Gods best children find it a valley of teares But their pretended perfection is found to be a presumptuous colour of libertie to their flesh for they are knowne to be more licentious in their wayes than they who groan under the sense of their imperfections The last degree commeth at death Not that our happinesse is suspended till then for we are here preparing happines though we cannot possesse it till death Solons speach cannot abide an exact triall for wee are called to happinesse even in this life It is called a valley of miserie and craveth some solace by a begun happinesse And the scripture pronounceth in the present some men happie Blessed is he whose sinnes are forgiven And happinesse is here begun in us faith gripeth it in the promise hope waiteth on it in the fulnesse our desire longeth for it and the beginnings of it selfe begin our profession But after death all shall be perfected This was the weaknesse of the wisest Pagans when they had pleased themselves with their discourses of happinesse they could not indure the thoughts of death but called it of fearfull things the most fearefull They trembled at that where they should finde most comfort and their thoughts of eternitie were as confused as their doctrine of happinesse was false And therefore could finde no comfort in their evanishing But the truth telleth us that at death we end the valley of miserie and enter in everlasting happinesse At death then our perfect happinesse beginneth and that in two First in removing all miserie or what ever imperfection The other in compleating happinesse in it selfe Our first miserie is sinne originall which God cutteth off by perfect sanctification In our effectuall calling that cutting off beginneth and goeth on by degrees till death when our last breath hath the last act of mortifying grace in the full abolishing of sinne Secondly the abolishing of all guiltinesse whatsoever that wee may be presented pure and blamelesse to him Thirdly wee shall be freed from all tempters and tentations Sathan shall molest us no more There shall be no need of an hedge to Job neither shall wicked men by their example pervert us or by their violence injure us neither shall a deceitfull heart deceive us any more Fourthly we shall be freed of all affliction we shall not desert God in sinne and he shall not desert us in his anger to punish us for sinne There shall be no more sorrow nor feare nor crying out because these first things shall be ended and God shall wipe away all teares from our eyes Lastly the mortalitie of this bodie shall end It is so fraile now that hardly can we fit it to serve us in actions naturall or spirituall and is a daily burthen to us to keepe it from sickenesse and inconvenients And when it is under them a greater burthen to make it free But when it shall be made a spirituall bodie these things shall cease Christs death hath killed death and his life is our life This is the consumption of the ills of our miserie Followeth the consummation of good things that perfecteth our happinesse and these are first the ceasing of the meanes of grace which are now necessary for the way then they shall end as having neither further worke nor use in us So prophesying shall cease and praying shall turne in praise On our part faith shall end in sight hope in fruition desire in delight and the beginnings themselves in their due perfection 2. All goodnes shall be perfected in us according to our measure our light perfect without ignorance or error our love perfect without slacking our will obsequious without rebellion our affections straight without perversenes and righteousnes holines in our last breath shal be accomplished and that last act of our regeneration shall bring forth the new man and send him in a