purified and zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He called you a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light ye are as lively stones built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 9. You are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.23 and are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light God hath delivered you from the power of darkness and translated you into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom you have redemption through his bloud the remission of sins Col. 1.12 13 14. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.16 17. All things shall work together for your good He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Vers. 28.32 Nothing but the illuminated Soul can discern the riches of the glory of Gods inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the work of his mighty power Eph. 1.18 19. When we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. He hath brough us nigh that were far off so that by one spirit we have access to the Father by Christ and are now no more strangers and forreigners but fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2.5 6 7 13 17 18 19. We are members of the body of Christ we are come to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.22 23 24. Brethren shall the Lord speak all this and more than this in the Scripture of your Glory and will you not prove your selves glorious and study to make good this precious word Doth he say The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 and will you not study to shew your selves more excellent indeed Shall all these high things be spoken of you and will you live so far below them all What a hainous wrong is this to God He sticks not in boasting of you to call you his jewells Mal. 3.17 and tells the world he will make them one day discern the difference between the Righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not verse 18. He tells the World that his coming in Judgment will be to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in them that believe 2 Thess. 1.10 It 's openly Professed by the Apostle John We know that we are of God and the whole World lyeth in wickedâ—â—â—â— 1 John 5.19 He challengeth any to condemn you or lay any thing to your charge professing that it is he that justifieth you casting the Saints into admiration by his love What shall we say to these things if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 He challengeth Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine or Nakedness Peril or Sword to separate you if they can from the Love of God He challengeth Death and Life Angels Principalities and Powers things present and things to come height and depth or any other Creature to separate you if they are able from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 37 38 39. Shall the Lord of Heaven thus make his boast of you to all the World and will you not make good his boasting Yea I must tell you he will see that it be made good to a word and if you be not careful of it your selves and it be not made good in you then you are not the people that God thus boasteth of He tells the greatest Persecutors to their faces that the meek the humble little ones of his Flock have their Angels beholding the face of God in Heaven Matth. 18.10 and that at the great and dreadful day of Judgment they shall be set at his right hand as his Sheep with a Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom when others are set at his left hand as Goats with a Go ye cursed into everlasting Fire Matth. 25. He tells the world that he that receiveth a Converted man that is become as a little Child receiveth Christ himself and that whoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in him it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18.3 4 5 6. Mark 9.42 Luke 17.2 O Sirs must God be thus wonderfully tender of you and will you not now be very tender of his interest and your duty Shall he thus difference you from all the rest of the world and will you not study to declare the difference The ungodly even gnash the teeth at Ministers and Scriptures and Christ himself for making such a difference between them and you and will you not let them see that it is not without cause I intreat you I require you in the Name of God see that you answer these high commendations and shew us that God hath not boasted of you beyond your worth 9. Consider this as the highest Motive of all God doth not only magnify you and boast of you but also he hath made you the living Images of his blessed self his Son Jesus Christ his Spirit and his holy Word and so he hath exposed himself his Son his Spirit and his Word to be censured by the World according to your lives The express Image of the Fathers person is the Son Heb. 1.3 The Son is declared to the World by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost hath endited the Holy Scriptures which therefore bear the Image of Father Son and Holy Ghost This holy Word both Law and Promise is written on your hearts and put into your inner parts by the sâ—me spirit 2 Cor. 3.3 Heb. 8.13 and 10.16 So that as God hath imprinted his holy nature in the Scripture so hath he made this word the Seal to imprint again his Image on your hearts And you know that common eyes can better discern the Image in the Wax than on the Seal Though I know that the hardness of the Wax or somthing lying between or the imperfect application may cause an imperfection in the Image on the
the injury was like to go both against me and many others of my Brethren Therefore finding since among the relicts of my scattered Papers this imperfect piece which I had before written on that Text I was desirous to publish it as for the benefit of weak Christians so to right my self and to cashier that Farewel Sermon If the Reader will but peruse these Directions impartially and read them as he doth the Prescripts of his Physicians which are not written meerly to be read but must be daily practised whatever it cost him as he loveth his life then I make no doubt notwithstanding the weakness of the composure but it may further the cure of his spiritual weaknesses and distempers and of the consequent troubles and losses of others and himself I hope I shall not meet with many besides malignant hypocrites who will be so impenitent and peevish as to fly in the face of the Reprover and Directer and say that I open the nakedness of many servants of Christ to the reproach and dishonour of Religion I have told you from the Word of God that it is Gods way and must be ours to lay the just dishonour upon the sinner that it may not fall upon Religion and on God And that the defending or excusing odious sins in tenderness of the persons who committed them is the surest and worse way to bring dishonour first or last both upon Religion and on them A Noah a Lot a David a Solomon a Peter c. shall be dishonoured by God in holy Record to all ages that God may not be more dishonoured by them And the truly penitent are willing that it should be so and account their honour a very cheap Sacrifice to offer up to the honour of Religion which they have wronged And till you come to this you come short of true Repentance He that defendeth his open sin unless he could deny the fact doth as bad as say God liketh it Christ bid me do it the Scripture is for it or not against it Religion taught it me or doth not forbid it me The godly allow it and will do the like And what can be said more Blasphemously against God or more injuriously against Religion the Scriptures and the Saints But he that confesseth his sin doth as good as say Lay all the blame on me who do deserve it and not on God on Christ on Scripture on Religion or on the Servants of God For I learned it not from any of them nor was encouraged to it by them None are greater enemies to it than they If I had hearkened to them I had done otherwise It is one of the chief reasons why Repentance is so necessary because it justifieth God and godliness And alas it is too late to talk of concealing those weaknesses and crimes of Christians which are so visible before all the World which have had such publick effects upon Churches Kingdoms and States which have kept almost all the Christian Churches in a torn and bleeding woful state for so many hundred years to this present day Which have separated the Churches of the East and West and defiled both And have drawn so much blood in Christian Countreyes And keep us yet like distracted persons gazing strangely at our nearest friends and running away by peevish separation from our Brethren with whom we must live in Heaven and mistakingly using those as enemies with whom if we are Christians as we profess we are united in the same Head and by the same Spirit which is a Spirit of Love In a word when our faults are so conspicuous as to harden the Infidels Heathens and ungodly and to hinder the Conversion of the World and when they sound so loud in the mouths of our common reproaching enemies and when they have contracted so much malignity as to refuse a cure by such Wars Divisions Church-desolations Plagues and Flames as we have seen It is then too late to say to the Preachers of Repentance Be silent lest you open the nakedness of Christians and disgrace Religion and the Church We must not be silent lest we disgrace Religion and the Church to save the credit of the sinners Whoever readeth the holy Scriptures and ever understood the Christian Faith must needs know that nothing in all the World is so much against every one of our errors and mis-doings It is only for want of more Religion that any Professors of Religion do miscarry Nothing but the Doctrine of Christianity and Godliness did at first destroy the reign of their sin and nothing else can subdue the rest and finish the Cure It is no disgrace to Life that so many mens lives are burdensome with sickness which the dead are not troubled with Nor is it any disgrace to Learning that Scholars for want of more Learning have troubled the World with their contentious Disputes Nor is it any disgrace to reason that mens different Reasons for want of more Reason doth set the World together by the ears We can never magnifie you enough as you are Christians and Godly unless we should ascribe more to you than your bounteous Lord hath given you who hath made you little lower than Angels and crowned you with glory and honour Psal. 8.5 6. But your sins are so much the more odious as they are brought so near the holy presence and as they are aggravated by greater mercies and professions And God is so far from being reconciled or reconcileable to any one of them that though he see not such iniquity in Jacob as is in Heathens and the ungodly because it is not in them to be seen yet he seeth more aggravated iniquity in such sins as you do commit in many respects than in the Heathens And that which is our common trouble is that you hurt not your selves alone by your iniquities Families are hurt by them Neighbours are hurt by them Churches are distracted by them Kingdoms are afflicted by them and thousands of blind sinners are hardened and everlastingly undone by them The ignorant Husband faith I will never follow Sermons nor Scriptures nor be so Religious while I see my Wife that maketh so much ado with Religion to be as peevish and discontented and foul-tongued and unkind and contemptuous and disobedient as those that have no Religion The Master that is prophane saith I like not your Religion when that servant which most Professeth Religion in my house is as lazy and negligent and as surly and sawcy and as ready to dishonour me and answer again and as proud of his little knowledg as those that have no Religion at all The like I might say of all other Relations All the dishonour that this casteth upon Grace is that you have too little of it and it is so weak in you that its Victory over your flesh and passions is lamentably imperfect A servant hearing a high commendation of a Gentleman that he was of extraordinary wisdom and godliness and bounty and patience and
Wax when yet the Image on the Seal is perfect And therefore the World hath no just cause to censure God or Christ or the Spirit or the Word to be imperfect because that you are so But yet they will do it and their temptation is great O Sirs how would your Prince take it of you or how would your poorest friend take it of you if you should hang forth a deformed picture of them to the view of all that shall pass by and should represent them as blind or leprous or lame wanting a leg or an arm or an eye Would they not say that you unworthily exposed them to scorn So if you will take on you to be the living Images of God of Christ of the Spirit and the Word and yet will be blind and worldly and passionate and proud and untruly and obstinate or lazy and negligent and little differing from those that bear the Image of the Devil what do you but Proclaim that the Image of God and of Satan and the World do little differ and that God is thus unrighteous and unholy as you are 10. Lastly Consider That the faithful servants of Christ are few and therefore if those few dishonour him and prove not fast to him what do you but provoke him to forsake all the World and make an end of all the Sons of men It is but a little flock to whom he will give the Kingdom Luke 12.32 It is but a few from whom God expecteth any great matter And shall those few prove deceitful to him It must be you or none that must honour the Gospel You or none that must be exemplary to the World and shall it be none at all Shall all the Workmanship of God abuse him Shall he have no honour from any inferiour Creature How can you then expect that he should preserve the World For will he be at so much care to keep up a World to dishonour and abuse him If the turning of mens hearts prevent it not he would come and smite the earth with a Curse Mal. 4.6 For the Land that beareth Thorns and Bryars is rejected and is nigh unto Cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6.7 8. If therefore Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah sin Hos. 4.15 If the Vessels of wrath prepared to destruction will be blind and sensual and filthy still yet let pollution be far from the sanctified Such were some of you but ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified 1 Cor. 6.11 O let the Lord be magnified in his Saints Blot not out his Image Receive not his impressions defectively and by the halves Let the Name of the most holy one be written in your very foreheads O that you would be so tender of the honour of the Lord and shine forth so brightly in Holyness and Righteousness that he that runs might read whose servants you are and know the Image Superscription of God upon the face of your conversations that as clearly as light is seen in and from the Sun and the power and wisdom and goodness of God is seen in the frame of the Creation and of Scripture so might the same shine forth in you that you might be Holy as God is Holy 1 Pet. 1.16 and perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Matth. 5.48 that they that would know God may see him in his Saints where his Image is or should be so lively and discernable And they that cannot read and understand the Scripture or the works of Creation or disposing-Providence may read and understand the holy and heavenly representations of your lives Men are apt to look after Images of the Godhead because they are carnal and far from God O you that are appointed to bear his Image see that you so represent him to the eyes of the world as may be to his glory and not to his dishonour and take not the Name of God in vain It is so desirable for God and for the Church and for your own peace and happiness that Christians should grow up to a ripeness in Grace and be rooted built up confirmed and abound according to my Text that it hath drawn out from me all these words of exhortation thereunto Though one would think that to men of such holy Principles and experience it should be more than needs But if all will but serve to awaken the weak to a diligent progress I shall be glad and have my end The great matter that I intended when I began this discourse is yet behind and that is the giving you such Directions as may tend to your Confirmation and perseverance Which I shall now proceed to But I intreat every Reader that hath any spark of Grace in his Soul that he will resolve to put these Directions in practice and turn them not off with a bare perusal or approbation Let me reap but thus much fruit of all my foregoing Exhortations and I shall not think my labour lost XX. DIRECTIONS FOR CONFIRMATION In a state of Grace DIRECT I. Be sure that the Foundation be well laid both in your Heads and Hearts or else you can never attain to Confirmation nor be savingly built up TO this end you must know what the Foundation is and how it must be soundly laid The Foundation hath two parts or respects according to the faculties of the Soul where it must be laid The first is the Truth of the Doctrine and Matter and the second is the Goodness of it As True the Foundation is laid in our Understandings as Good it is laid in the Will Concerning both these we must therefore first consider of the matter of the Foundation and then of the Manner how that must be received or laid And the Foundation is that matter or object of our Faith and Hope and Love which is Essential to a Christian that is to the Christian saving Faith hope and love This hath been alwayes contained in our Baptism because Baptizing us is making us visible Christians or the solemn entrance into the state of Christianity As therefore we are Baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil so the doing of this unfeignedly without equivocation according to the Scripture sense of the words is the Essence of Christianity or the right laying of the Foundation So that the Foundation-Principal or Fundamental Matter is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost The Secondary Foundation or Fundamental Doctrine is those Scripture Propositions that express our Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost When we name the three persons as the object of the Christian Faith we express names of Relation which contain both the persons nature and Offices or undertaken works Without either of which God were not God and Christ were not Christ and the Holy Ghost were not in the sense of our Articles of Faith the Holy Ghost As we must therfore believe that there is One only God So we must
resignation of your selves to him Of which I warned you in the former Directions O this is it that makes our people fall so fast in a day of tryal some shrink in adversity and some are enticed away by prosperity Greatness and honour deceiveth one and riches run away with another and fleshly pleasure poison a third and his Conscience Religion Salvation and all he Sacrificeth to his belly and swalloweth it down his throat and all the Love and goodness of God the Bloud of Christ the workings of the Spirit the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Word and the joy and torments which once they seemed to believe all are forgotten or have lost their force And all because the Foundation was not laid well at the first But because this was the very business of the former Directions I will dismiss it now DIRECT II. Think not that all is done when once you are Converted but remember that the work of your Christianity then comes in and must be as long as the time of your lives OF this also I shall say but little because it is the drift of all the moving Considerations before-going I doubt it is the undoing of many to imagine that if once they are sanctified they are so sure in the hands of Christ that they have no more care to take nor no more danger to be afraid of and at last think that they have no more to do as of necessity to Salvation and thus prove that indeed they were never sanctified I confess when a man is truly Converted the principal part of his danger is over he is safe in the love and care of Christ and none can take him out of his hands But this is but part of the truth the other part must be taken with it or we deceive our selves There is still a great deal of work before us and Holiness is still the way to happiness and much care and diligence is required at our hands And it is no more certain that we shall be saved by Christ than it is that we shall be kept in Faith and love and holy obedience by him It is as true that none can separate us from the Love of God and from a care to please him and from a holy diligence in the work of our Salvation as that none can take us out of his hands and bring us into a state of condemnation He that is resolved to bring us to Glory is as much resolved to bring us to it by perseverance in Holiness and diligent obedience for he never decreeth one without the other and he will never save us by any other way Indeed when we are Converted we have escaped many and grievous dangers but yet there are many more before us which we must by care and diligence escape We are translâ—ted from death to life but not from earth to heaven We have the life of Grace but yet we are short of the life of Glory And why have we the life of Grace but to use it and to live by it Why came we into the Vineyard but to work And why came we into the Army of Christ but to fight Why came we into the race but to run for the prize or why turned we into the right way but to travel in it We never did God faithful service till the day of our Conversion and then it is that we begin And shall we be so sottish as to think we have done when we have but begun Now you begin to live that before were dead Now you begin to awake that were before asleep And therefore now you should begin to work that before did nothing or rather a thousand fold worse than nothing Work is the effect of life it is the dead that lye still in darkness and do nothing If you had rather be alive than dead you should rather delight in action than in idleness It 's now that you set to Sea and begin your voyage for the blessed Land many a storm and wave and tempest must you yet expect Many a combat with temptations must you undergo many a hearty prayer have you yet to pour forth Many and many a duty to perform to God and man Think not to have done your care and work till you have done your lives Whether you come in at the first hour or at the last you must work till night if you will receive your wages And think not this a grievous doctrine It is your priviledge it is your joy your earthly happiness that you may be so employed that you that till now have lived like swine or moles or earthly vermine may now take wing and fly to God and walk in heaven and talk with Saints and be guarded by Angels is this a life to be accounted grievous Now you begin to come to your selves to understand what you have to do in the world to live like men that you may live like Angels And therefore now you should begin accordingly to bestir you I would not have you retain the same measure of fear of Gods displeasure nor the same apprehensions of your misery nor the doubts and perplexities of mind which you were under at your first conversion for these were occasioned by the passage in your change and the weakness of your grace in that beginning and your former folly made them necessary for a time But I would have you retain your fear of sinning and be much more in the love of God and in his service than you were at first Temptations will haunt you to the last hour of your lives If therefore you would not fall by these temptations you must watch and pray to the last Give not over watching till Satan give over tempting and watching advantages against you The promise is still but on condition that you persevere and abide in Christ and continue rooted and stedfast in the faith and overcome and be faithful to the death as you may see in Joh. 15. throughout Joh. 8.31 Rev. 2. 3. Col. 1.22 23. Work out therefore your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 If you have begun resolvedly proceed resolvedly It 's the undoing of mens souls to think that all the danger is over and lose their apprehensions of it when they are yet but in the way when their care and holy fears abate their watch goes down the soul 's laid open as a common wilderness and made a prey to every lust And therefore still know your work 's not done till your life be done DIRECT III. Be sure that you understand wherein your establishment and growth consisteth that you may not miscarry by seeking somewhat else instead of it nor think you have it when you have it not or that you want it when you have it and so be needlessly disquieted about it FOr your assistance in this I shall further shew you wherein your confirmation and growth consisteth in its several parts both as it is subjected or exercised in your understandings
men to an heretical proud or perverse frame of spirit and then it must needs mislead their practises and cause them like deluded men to be zealous in doing mischief while they think they are doing good In common matters you can see that you must learn and do things in their due order or else you will but make fools of your selves Will you go to the top of the stairs or ladder without beginning at the lower steps Will you sow your ground before you manure or plow it or can you reap before you sow it Will you ride your colt before you break him Will your rear an house before you frame it Or will you teach your children Hebrew and Greek and Latine before they learn English or to read the hardest books before they learn the easiest or can they read before they learn to spell or know their letters No more can you learn the difficult controversies in divinity as about the exposition of obscure Prophesies or doctrinal doubts till you have taken up before you those many great and necessary truths that lye between It would make a wise man pity them and be ashamed to hear them when young raw self-conceited Professors will fall into confident expositions of Daniel the Revelations or the Canticles or such like or into disputes about free-will or predestination or about the many controversies of the times when alas they are ignorant of a hundred truths about the Covenants Justification and the like which must be known before they can reach the rest By this much that I have said already you may understand that though we should reach as far as we can in knowing all necessary revealed truths yet the principal part of your growth in knowledge when once you are converted consisteth not in knowing more than you knew before as to the number of truths but in knowing better the very same fundamental truths which you knew at first This is the principal thing that I would here teach you Abundance are deluded by not understanding this you see here you have seven several things in which you must daily grow in knowledge about the same truths which you first received 1. You must see better and sounder reasons and evidences for the fundamental truths than you saw at first or more such evidences than you did then perceive 2. You must grow to a clearer sight or apprehension of those same evidences 3. You must see truths more methodically all as it were at one view and all in their due proportion and place as the members of a well composed body and how they grow together and what strength one truth affords to another 4. You must see every truth more practically than before and know what use it is of for your hearts and lives and what you must do with it 5. You must learn more skill in the using of these truths when you know what they are good for and must be better able to manage them on your selves and others 6. You must know more experimentally than you did at first 7. You must grow into a higher esteem of truths All this you have to do besides your growing in the number of truths And I must tell you that as it was these Essentials of Christianity that were the instrumental causes of your first Conversion and were more needful and useful to you then than ten thousand others So it is the very same points that you must alwayes live upon and the Confirmation and growth of your Souls in these will be more useful to you than the adding of ten thousand more truths which yet you know not And therefore take this advice as you love your peace and growth Neglect not to know more but bestow many and many hours in labouring to know Better the great truths which you have received for one hour that you bestow in seeking to know more Truths which you know not Believe it this is the safe and thriving way You know already that God is All-sufficient and infinitely wise and good and powerful And you know not perhaps the nature of free Will or of Gods Decrees of Election and Reprobation or a hundred the like points True knowledg of any of the revealed things of God is very desirable But yet I must tell you that you are fourty times more defective here in your knowledg of that of God which you do know than of the other which you know not that is the want of more Degrees of this necessary knowledg is more dangerous to your Souls than the total want of the less necessary knowledg And the addition of more Degrees to the more needful parts of knowledg will strengthen and enrich you more than the knowing of less necessary things which you knew not before at all You know Christ Crucified already but perhaps you know not certain Controversies about Church-Government or the definitions and distinctions of many matters in Divinity It will be a greater growth now to your knowledg to know a little more of Christ Crucified whom you know already than to know these lesser matters which you know not yet at all If you had already a hundred pound in Gold and not a penny of Silver it will more enrich you to have another purse full of Gold than a purse full of Silver Trading in the richest Commodities is liker to raise men to great estates than trading for matters of a smaller rate They that go to the Indies for Gold and Pearl may be rich if they get but little in quantity When he may be poor that brings home Ships laded with the greatest store of poor Commodity That man that hath a double measure of the knowledg of God in Christ and the clearest and deepest and most effectual apprehensions of the Riches of Grace and the Glory to come and yet never heard of most of the Questions in Scotus or Ockam or Aquinas's sums is far richer in knowledg and a much wiser man than he that hath those Controversies at his fingers ends and yet hath but half his clearness and solidity of the knowledg of God and Christ of Grace and Glory There is enough in some One of the Articles of your Faith in One of Gods Attributes in One of Christs benefits in One of the Spirits Graces to hold you study all your lives and afford you still an increase of knowledg To know God the Father Son and Spirit and their relations to you and operations for you and your Duties to them and the way of Communion with them is that knowledg in which you must still be growing till it be perfected by the celestial beatifical Vision Those be not the wisest men that can answer most questions but those that have the fullest intellectual reception of the infinite Wisdom You will confess that he is a wiser man that hath Wisdom to get and Rule a Kingdom than he that hath wit enough to talk of a hundred trivial matters which the other is ignorant of That 's
the wisest Physician that can do most to save mens lives and not he that can best read a Lecture of Anatomy or is readiest in the terms of his Art Knowledg is to be esteemed according to the use of it and the Dignity of its Object and not according to the number and subtilty of notions And therefore I beseech you all that are young and weak in the Faith take much more pains to grow in the fuller acquaintance with that same Faith which you have received than to be acquainted with smaller controversal Truths which you never knew Men use to call these Higher points because they are more difficult but certainly the Articles of your Faith are much higher in point of excellency though they are lower in the due order of learning them as the Foundation is the lowest part of the building and is first laid but is that which must bear up all the rest And here you must observe how gracelesly and unlike to Christians those men speak that say They care not for reading such a Book or hearing such or such a Minister because he tells them no more than they know already And on that account some of them stay from Church because they hear nothing but what they know already It s a certain sign that they do not know already the blessed nature of God and the riches of Christ which they say they know For if they did they could not hear or think too much of them They would long to know more and therefore to hear more of the same things It 's a sign the Minister takes the course that tends to your edification and enriching in knowledg when he is most upon the great and most necessary truths All Saints do make it their study to comprehend the heighth and breadth and length and depth and know the Love of God in Christ but when they have done they confess that it passeth knowledg Eph. 3.17 18 19. It s a graceless wicked Soul in a state of damnation that conceits he knows so much of God and Jesus Christ and the essentials of Christianity that he cares not for hearing these things any more but had rather have novelties and let these alone and feeleth not need of knowing much more and more of the same truths and of using and living upon these vital Principles which he knows You have eaten Bread and drank Beer an hundred times but perhaps you never did eat of Sturgeon or Whale of a Bear or a Leopard of Chesnuts or Pig-nuts or many strange and dangerous fruits in all your life And yet I hope you will not seek after these because they are novelties and give over eating Bread because you have eaten of it already Nor will you churlishly refuse to go to a Feast because there is no meat but what you have eaten of before We have not a new God to Preach to you nor a new Christ nor a new Spirit nor a new Gospel nor a new Church nor a new Faith nor a new Baptismal Covenant nor a new Heaven or Hope or Happiness to propound Gal. 1.9 10. Eph. 4.3 4 5. Your growth in methods and definitions and distinctions and in additional points of knowledg is principally to be valued as it cleareth your understandings in the foresaid great essential points and brings you up to God himself Some wretches think they have quickly learned past the essential Articles of the Faith and ere long they are past the higher points and shortly they are past the Scripture it self and throw it by as a Schollar that hath learnt one Book and must be entred into another They understand not that the Ministry and spirit are but to teach them the word of the Gospel but they think they must outgrow the Word and Ministry and the Spirit must teach them some other Doctrine or Gospel which the written Word doth not contain I pray mark the Apostles warning Heb. 13.9 Be not carryed about with divers and strange Doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be stablished with Grace And Eph. 4.14 That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every mind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness II. Having shewed you wherein your growth consisteth in the understanding I shall be short in the rest and next I must tell you wherein it consisteth in the Will And that is 1. When upon good understanding and deep consideration you are more fixedly habitually absolutely and practically resolved for God and Glory than before So that you are grown more beyond all shaking doubtfulness or wavering of mind and beyond all unevenness mutability and unconstancy When a man is thus satisfied that none but God hath title to him or can make him happy and that none but Christ can reconcile him to God and that it were a madness to make any other choice and thereupon is setled and firm as Mount Zion and say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee Psal. 73.25 When you are firmly resolved that let God do with you what he will and come of it what will you will never choose another Master or Saviour or Rule or Happiness or Way or Body than you are in and will never forsake the path of holiness this is the fixed stability of the Will and the more of this the more you grow 2. And when you have the lowest esteem of the Creatures and greatest and most resolved aversness to all that would draw you from God and can meet the greatest worldly or fleshly allurements with a holy contempt this shews a setled confirmed Will 3. And also when you are speedy in holy Resolutions and see nothing in a Temptation how great soever that can make you demur upon it or make a stop in a Christian course but go on to duty as if the Tempter had said nothing to you and the Flesh and the World had no interest in you and you do not so much as stand to think on it whether you should yield to sin or not as abhorring to call such a matter into question This shews a confirmed fixed Will And the more of this the more of Holiness III. The strength and growth of holy Affections consisteth principally in these particulars 1. When the Affections are Lively and not dull so that we make out after God and Heaven with vigor and alacrity 2. When they are ready at hand and not to seek and need not a great deal ado to quicken them or call them in 3. When they are most pure and unmixed having least of the Creature and most of God in them 4. But principally and the surest point to try them by when they contain in them or accompany the foresaid Confirmation and Resolvedness of the Will For it is more the Willingness that is in or with our Affections than the heat of them that we must judg them by 5. And lastly when
his hand or the Fornicator to cure his lust than to put out his eyes it were a cheap remedy A cheap and easy superficial Repentance may skin over the sore and deceive an Hypocrite but he that would be sure of pardon and free from fear must go to the bottom DIRECT XX. Live as with Death continually in your eye and spend every day in serious preparation for it that when it cometh you may find your work dispatcht and may not then cry out in vain to God to try you once again PRomise not your selves long life Think not of death as at many years distance but as hard at hand Think what will then be needful to your peace and comfort and order all your life accordingly and prepare that now which will be needful then Live now while you have time as you will resolve and promise God to live when on your death-bed you are praying for a little time of tryal more It is a great work to die in a joyful assurance and hope of everlasting life and with a longing desire to depart and be with Christ as best of all Phil. 1.21 23. O then what a burden and terror it will be to have an unbelieving or a worldly heart or a guilty Conscience Now therefore use all possible diligence to strengthen Faith to increase love to be acquit from guilt to be above the World to have the mind set free from the Captivity of the flesh to walk with God and to obtain the deepest most delectable apprehensions of his love in Christ and of the heavenly blessedness which you expect Do you feel any doubts of the state of immortality or staggering at the Promise of God through unbelief Presently do all you can to conquer them and get a clear resolution to your souls and leave it not all to do at the time of sickness Are the thoughts or God and Heaven unpleasant or terrible to you Presently search out the cause of all and labour in the cure of it as for your lives Is there any former or present sin which is a burden or terror to your Consciences Presently seek out to Christ for a Cure by Faith and true Repentance and do that to disburden your Consciences now which you would do on a sick-bed and leave not so great and necessary a 〈◊〉 to so uncertain and short and unfit a time Is there any thing in this World that is swâ—â—tâ—r tâ— your thoughts than God and Heaven 〈◊〉 which you cannot willingly let go Mâ—rtiâ—iâ— it without delay consider of its vanity compare it with Heaven Crucifie it by the Cross of Christ cease not till you account it loss and â—â—ung for the excellent knowledg of Christ and life eternal Phil. 3.7 8 9. Let not death surprize you as a thing that you never seriously expected Can you do no more in preparation for it than you do If no why do you wish a death to be tryed once again and why are you troubled that you lived no better But if you can when think you should it be done Is the time of uncertain painful sickness better than this O how doth sensuality besot the World and inconsiderateness deprive them of the benefit of their reason O Sirs if you know indeed that you must shortly die live then as dying men should live Choose your condition in the World and manage it as men that must shortly dye Use your Power and Command and Honour and use all your Neighbours and especially use the Cause and Servants of Christ as men should do that must shortly die Build and plant and buy and sell and use your Riches as those that must die remembring that the fashion of all these things is passing away 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Yea pray and read and hear and meditate as those that must die Seeing you are as sure of it as if it were this hour in the name of God delay not your preparations It is a terrible thing for an immortal Soul to pass out of the body in a carnal unregenerate unprepared state and to leave a World which they loved and were familiar with and go to a World which they neither know nor love and where they have neither heart nor treasure Matth. 6.19 20 31. The measure of Faith which may help you to bear an easie cross is not sufficient to fortifie and encourage your souls to enter upon so great a change So also bear all your wants and crosses as men that must shortly die Fear the cruelties of men but as beseemeth those that are ready to die He that can die well can do any thing or suffer any thing And he that is unready to die is unfit for a fruitful and comfortable life What can rationally rejoyce that man who is sure to die and unready to dye and is yet unfurnished of dying comforts Let nothing be now sweet to you which will be bitter to your dying thoughts Let nothing be much desired now which will be unprofitable and uncomfortable then Let nothing seem very heavy or grievous now which will be light and easy then Let nothing now seem honourable which will then seem despicable and vile Consider of every thing as it will look at death that when the day shall come which endeth all the joyes of the ungodly you may look up with joy and say Welcome Heaven This is tho day which I so long expected which all my dayes were spent in preparation for which shall end my fears and begin my felicity and put me into possession of all that I desired and prayed and laboured for when my Soul shall see its glorified Lord For he hath said John 12.26 If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be If any man serve me him will my Father honour Even so Lord Jesus remember me now thou art in thy Kingdom and let me be with thee in Paradise Luke 23.42 43. O thou that spakest those words so full of unexpressible comfort to a sinful woman in the first speech after thy blessed Resurrection Joh. 20.17 GO TO MY BRETHREN AND SAY VNTO THEM I ASCEND UNTO MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER AND TO MY GOD AND YOVR GOD. Take up now this Soul that is thine own that it may see the Glory given thee with the Father Joh. 17.24 and instead of this life of temptation trouble darkness distance and sinful imperfection I may delightfully Behold and Love and Praise thy Father and my Father and thy God and my God Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Luke 2.29 Acts 7.59 And now I have given you all these Directions I shall only request you in the close that you will set your very hearts to the daily serious practise of them For there is no other way for a ripe confirmed state of Grace And as ever you regard the glory of God the honour of your Religion the welfare of the Church and those
irrational creatures but at least it much imitateth Nature as it is found in Rational creatures where the Inclination is necessary but the Operations free and subject to Reason It is a spiritual appetite in the Rational appetite even the will and a spiritual visive disposition in the understanding Not a faculty in a faculty but the right disposition of the faculties to their highest objects to which they are by corruption made unsuitable So that it is neither a proper power in the Natural sense nor a meer act but neerest to the nature of a seminal disposition or habit It is the health and rectitude of the faculties of the Soul Even as Nature hath made the understanding disposed to Truth in generall and the will disposed or inclined to Good in generall and to self-preservation and felicity in particular so the Spirit of Christ doth dispose the understanding to spiritual truth to know God and the matters of salvation and doth incline the will to God and Holiness not blindly as they are unknown but to love and serve a known God So that whether this be properly or only analogically called A Nature or rather should be called a Habit I determine not but certainly it is a fixed Disposition and Inclination which Scripture calleth the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and the seed of God abiding in us 1 Joh. 3.9 But most usually it is called the Spirit of God or of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his 1 Cor. 12.13 By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body Therefore we are said to be in the Spirit and walk after the Spirit and by the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.1.9 13. And it is called the Spirit of the Son and the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father or are inclined to God as Children to their Father and the Spirit of grace and supplication Rom. 8.15.23.26 Gal. 4.6 5.17 18. Eph. 2.18 22. 4.3 4. Phil. 1.27 2.1 Zech. 12.10 From this Spirit and the fruits of it we are called New Creatures and quickened and made alive to God 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 2.15 Rom. 6.11 13. It is a great controversie whether this Holy disposition and inclination was Natural to Adam or not and consequently whether it be a restored nature in us or not It was so natural to him as Health is natural to the body but not so natural as to be a Necessitating Principle nor so as to be inseparable and unlosable 2. This same Spirit and holy inclination is in the weakest Christian also but in a small degree and remisly operating so as that the fleshly inclination oft seemeth to be the stronger when he judgeth by its passionate struglings within him Though indeed the Spirit of life doth not only strive but conquer in the main even in the weakest Christians Rom. 8 9. Gal. 5.17 18 19 20 21. 3. The seeming Christian hath only the uneffectual motions of the Spirit to a Holy Life and effectual motions and inward dispositions to some common duties of Religion And from these with the natural principles of self-love and common honesty with the outward perswasions of company and advantages his Religion is maintained without the Regeneration of the Spirit Joh. 3.6 V. From hence it followeth 1. That a Christian indeed doth not serve God for fear only but for love even for love both of himself and of his holy work and service Yea the strong Christians Love to God and Holiness is not only greater than his Love to Creatures but greater than his fear of wrath and punishment The Love of God constraineth him to duty 2 Cor. 5.14 Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 therefore the Gospel cannot be obeyed without it He saith not O that this were no duty and O that this forbidden thing were lawfull Though his Flesh say so the Spirit which is the predominant part doth not But he saith O how I love thy Law O that my wayes were so directed that I might keep thy statutes Psal. 119.5 For the spirit is willing even when the flesh is weak He serveth not God against his will but his will is to serve him more and better than he doth He longeth to be perfect and perfectly to do the will of God and taketh the remnant of his sinfull infirmities to be a kind of bondage to him which he groaneth to be delivered from To will even perfection is present with him though not perfectly and though he do not all that he willeth And this is the true meaning of Pauls complaints Rom. 7. Because the flesh warreth against the Spirit he cannot do the good that he would that is he cannot be perfect for so he would be Gal. 5.17 His love and will excells his practice 2. The weak Christian also hath more love to God and holiness than to the world and fleshly pleasure But yet his fear of punishment is greater than his Love to God and Holiness To have no Love to God is inconsistent with a state of Grace and so it is to have less love to God than to the world and less love to holiness than to sin But to have more Fear than Love is consistent with sincerity of Grace Yea the weak Christians love to God and Holiness is joyned with so much backwardness and aversness and interrupted with weariness and with the carnall allurements and diversions of the Creature that he cannot certainly perceive whether his love and willingness be sincere or not He goeth on in a course of duty but so heavily that he scarce knoweth whether his love or loathing of it be the greater He goeth to it as a sick man to his meat or labour All that he doth is with so much pain or undisposedness that to his feeling his aversness seemeth greater than his willingness were it not that necessity maketh him willing For the habitual love and complacency which he hath towards God and Duty is so oppressed by fear and by aversness that it is not so much felt in act as they 3. A seeming Christian hath no true Love of God and Holiness at all but some uneffectual liking and wishes which are overborn by a greater backwardness and by a greater love to earthly things so that Fear alone without any true effectual Love is the spring and principle of his Religion and obedience God hath not his heart when he draweth near him with his lips He doth more than he would do if he were not forced by Necessity and Fear and had rather be excused and lead another kind of life Mat. 15.8 Isa. 29.13 Though Necessity and fear are very helpfull to the most sincere yet Fear alone without Love or Willingness is a graceless state VI. 1. A Christian indeed doth love God in these three gradations He loveth him much for his mercy to himself and for that Goodness which consisteth in benignity to himself But he
to his spiritual ends Whether he eateth or drinketh or what ever he doth he doth all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 The posie engraven on his heart is the name of GOD with OF HIM and THROUGH HIM and TO HIM ARE ALL THINGS TO HIM BE GLORY FOR EVER AMEN Rom. 11.36 He liveth as a steward that useth not his own though yet he have a sufficient reward for his fidelity and he keepeth accounts both of his receivings and layings out and reckoneth all to be worse than lost which he findeth not expended on his Lords account For himself he asketh not that which is sweetest to the flesh but that which is fittest to his end and work And therefore desireth not Riches for himself but his daily bread and food convenient for him and having food and rayment is therewith content having taken godlyness for his gain he asketh not for superfluity nor any thing to consume it on his lusts nor to become provision for his flesh to satisfie the wills thereof But as a runner in his race desireth not any provisions which may hinder him and therefore forgetting the things which are behind the world which he hath turn'd his back upon he reacheth forth to the things which are before the crown of glory and presseth toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus not turning an eye to any thing that would stop him in his course Thus while he is employed about things below his mind and conversation is heavenly and divine while all things are estimated and used purely for God and Heaven Luk. 16.1 2. 1 Pet. 4.10 Tit. 1.15 Prov. 30.8 1 Tim. 6.8 1 Tim. 6.6 Jam. 4.3 Rom. 13.14 Phil. 3.13 14 15. 2. But the weak Christian though he have all this in desire and be thus affected and resolved in the main and liveth to God in the scope and course of his life yet is too often looking aside and valuing the creature carnally for it self and oft-times useth it for the pleasing of the flesh and almost like a common man his house and land and friends and pleasures are relished too carnally as his own accommodations and though he walk not after the flesh but after the spirit yet he hath too much of the fleshly taste and is greatly out in his accounts with God and turneth many a thing from his masters use to the service of the flesh and though he be not as the slothfull wicked servant yet is it but little improvement that he maketh of his talent Mat. 25.17 26 27 28. 3. But the seeming Christian being carnal and selfish while his notions and professions are spiritual and divine and his selfish and fleshly interest being predominant it must needs follow that he estimateth all things principally as they respect his fleshly interest and useth them principally for his carnal self even when in the manner he seemeth to use them most religiously as I have said before And so to the defiled nothing is pure Rom. 8.5 6 7 8 13. Tit. 1.15 XXII 1. A Christian indeed hath a promptitude to obey and a ready compliance of his will to the will of God He hath not any great averseness and withdrawing and doth not the good which he doth with much backwardness and striving against it but as in a well ordered watch or clock the spring or poise do easily set all the wheels a going and the first wheel easily moveth the rest so is the will of a confirmed Christian presently moved as soon as he knoweth the will of God He stayeth not for other moving Reasons Gods will is his Reason This is the Habit of subjection and obedience which makes him say speak Lord for thy servant heareth and Lord what wouldst thou have me do And Teach me to do thy will O God Psal. 143.10 1 Sam. 3.10 Act. 9.6 I delight to do thy will O God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal. 40.8 The Law written in our heart is nothing else but the knowledge of Gods Laws with this Habit or promptitude to obey them the special fruit of the spirit of grace 2. But a weak Christian though he love Gods will and way and be sincerely obedient to him yet in many particulars where his corruption contradicteth hath a great deal of backwardness and striving of the flesh against the spirit and there needs many words and many considerations and vehement perswasions yea and sharp afflictions sometimes to bring him to obey and he is fain to drive on his backward heart and hath frequent use for the rod and spurr and therefore is more slow and uneven in his obedience Gal. 5.17 3. The seeming Christian is forward in those easie cheaper parts of duty which serve to delude his carnal heart and quiet him in a worldly life but he is so backward to through sincere obedience in the most flesh-displeasing parts of duty that he is never brought to it at all but either he will fit his opinions in religion to his will and will not believe them to be duties or else he will do something like them in a superficial formal way but the thing it self he will not do For he is more obedient to his carnal mind and lusts than he is to God Rom. 8.6 7. And forwarder much to sacrifice than obedience Eccl. 5.1 XXIII 1. A Christian indeed doth daily delight himself in God and findeth more solid content and pleasure in his commands and promises than in all this world His duties are sweet to him and his hopes are sweeter Religion is not a tiresome task to him The yoak of Christ is easie to him and his burthen light and his commandments are not grievous Psal. 37.4 1.2 40.8 94.19 119.16.35.47.70 Mat. 11.28 29. Joh. 5.3 That which others take as Physick for meer necessity against their wills he goeth to as a feast with appetite and delight He prayeth because he loveth to pray and he thinks and speaks of holy things because he loveth to do it And hence it is that he is so much in holy dutie and so unwearied because he loveth it and taketh pleasure in it As voluptuous persons are oft and long at their sports or merry company because they love them and take pleasure in them so are such Christians oft and long in holy exercises because their hearts are set upon them as their recreation and the way and means of their felicity If it be a delight to a studious man to read those books which most clearly open the abstrusest mysteries of the sciences or to converse with the most wise and learned men and if it be a delight to men to converse with their dearest friends or to hear from them and read their letters no marvel if it be a delight to a Christian indeed to read the Gospel mysteries of Love and to find there the promises of everlasting happiness and to see in the face of Jesus Christ the clearest Image of the
is made to shine upon the world he could not be content to live idly or to labour unprofitably or to get never so much to himself and live in never so much plenty himself unless he some way contribute to the good of others Not that he grudgeth at the smallness of his talents and lowness or obscurity of his place for he knoweth that God may dispose his creatures and talents as he please and that where much is given much is required Mat. 25. Luk. 12.48 19.23 But what his Lord hath entrusted him with he is loth to hide and willing to improve to his Masters use He is so far from thinking that God is beholden to him for his good works that he taketh it for one of his greatest mercies in the world that God will use him in doing any good And he would take it for a very great suffering to be deprived of such opportunities or turned out of service or called to less of that kind of duty If he were a Physitian and denied liberty to practice or a minister and denied liberty to preach it would far more trouble him that he is hindered from doing good than that he is deprived of any profits or honours to himself He doth not only comfort himself with the foresight of the reward but in the very doing of good he findeth so much pleasure as makeeth him think it the delightfullest life in the world And he looketh for most of his receivings from God in a way of duty Joh. 5.29 Gal. 6.10 Heb. 13.16 1 Pet. 3.11 2. But the weak Christian though he have the same disposition is far less profitable in the world He is more for himself and less able to do good to others He wanteth either parts or prudence or zeal or strength Yea he is oft like the infants and sick persons of a family that are not helpful but troublesome to the rest They find work for the stronger Christians to bear their infirmities and watch them and support and help them Indeed as an infant is a comfort to the mother through the power of her own love even when she endureth the trouble of its crying and uncleaness so weak Christians are a comfort to charitable ministers and people we are glad that they are alive but sadded often by their distempers Rom. 14.1 15.12 3. The seeming Christian liveth to himself and all his good works are done but for himself to keep up his credit or quiet his guilty conscience and deceive himself with the false hopes of a reward for that which his falseheartedness maketh to be his sin If he be a man of learning and good parts he may be very serviceable to the Church But the thanks of that is due to God and little to him who seeketh himself more than God or the good of others in all that he doth Mat. 25 24 25 26. XLII 1. A Christian indeed doth truly love his neighbour as himself He is not all for his own commodity His neighbours profit or good name is as his own He feeleth himself hurt when his neighbours is hurt And if his neighbour prosper he rejoyceth as if he prospered himself Though his neighbour be not united to him in the nearest bonds of Christianity or Piety yet he is not disregardfull of the common Vnity of Humanity Love is the very soul of life Lev. 19.18 Mat. 19.19 22.39 Rom. 13.9 Gal. 5.14 Jam. 2.8 Mark 10.21 1 Joh. 4.10 2. But the Love that is in weaker Christians though it be sincere is weak as they are and mixed with too much selfishness and with too much sowerness and wrath Little matters cause differences and fallings out When it cometh to MINE and THINE and their neighbours cross their interest or commodity or stand in their way when they are seeking any preferment or profit to themselves you shall see too easily by their sowreness and contention how weak their love is Mat. 24.12 1 Tim. 6.10 Luke 22.24 3. But in the seeming Christian selfishness is so predominant that he loveth none but for himself with any considerable love All his kindness is from self-love because men love him or highly value him or praise him or have done him some good turn or may do him good hereafter or the like If he hath any love to any for his own worth yet self-love can turn all that to hatred â—f they seem against him or cross him in his way For no man that is a Lover of the world and flesh and carnall self can ever be a true friend to any other For he loveth them but for his own ends and any cross Interest will shew the falshood of his love 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4. Mat. 5.46 XLIII 1. A Christian indeed hath a special Love to all the Godly such as endeareth his heart unto them and such as will enable him to visit them and relieve them in their wants to his own loss and hazzard according to his ability and opportunity For the image of God is beautifull and honourable in his eyes He loveth not them so much as God in them Christ in them the Holy Spirit in them He foreseeth the day when he shall meet them in Heaven and there rejoyce in God with them to Eternity He loveth their company and converse and delighteth in their gracious words and lives And the converse of ungodly empty men is a weariness to him unless in a way of duty or when he can do them good In his eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord Psal. 15.4 Other men grieve his soul with their iniquities while he is delighted with the appearances of God in his holy ones even the excellent ones on earth Psal. 16.3 2 Pet. 2.7 8. Yea the infirmities of Believers destroy not his Love for he hath learned of God himself to difference between their abhorred frailties and their predominant Grace and to love the very Infants in the Family of Christ. Yea though they wrong him or quarrel with him or censure him in their weakness he can honour their sincerity and love them still And if some of them prove scandalous and some seeming Christians fall away or fall into the most odious crimes he loveth Religion never the less but continueth as high an esteem of piety and of all that are upright as he had before 1 Joh. 4.7 8 10. Joh. 13.34 35. 1 Thess. 4.9 1 Joh. 3.11 14 23. Matth. 25.39 40 c. 2. The weak Christian sincerely loveth all that bear his Fathers image But it is with a Love so weak even when it is most passionate as will sooner be abated or interrupted by any tempting differences He is usually quarrelsome and froward with his Brethen and apter to confine his love to those that are of his own opinion or party And because God hath taught him to love all that are sincere the Devil tempteth him to censure them as not sincere that so he may justifie himself in the
man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in Love may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the Edifying of it self in love Here you see the children are apt to be carryed into dividing parties And that they are aptest to be Proud and that way to miscarry see 1 Tim. 3.6 Not a novice or raw young Christian lest being lifted up with Pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil And then followeth the effect Act. 20.30 Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them I would not have you groundlesly accuse any Christian with a charge of Pride But I must tell you that the childish Pride of apparel is a petty business in comparison of that Pride which many in sordid attire have manifested who in their ignorance do rage and foam out words of falshood and reproach against Christs Ministers and Servants as if they were all fools or impious in comparison of them speaking evil of that which they never understood The lifting up the Heart above the people of the Lord in the Pride of supposed Holiness is incomparably worse than Pride of Learning honour greatness wit or wealth Nay it hath oft been to me a matter of wonder to observe how little all those plain and urgent Texts of Scripture which cry down Division do work upon many of the younger Christians who yet are as quickly toucht as any with a Text that speaketh against prophaneness and lukewarmness In a word they are often of the temper of James and John when they would fain have had Christ have revenged himself on his opposers by fire from Heaven They know not what manner of Spirit they are of Luk. 9.55 They think verily that it is a holy zeal for God when it is the boiling of passion pride and selfishness They feel not the sense of such words as Christs Joh. 17.20 21 22 23 24. I pray also for them who shall believe on me through their word that they All may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me c. 3. And as for the seeming Christians in this they are of several sorts When their carnal interest lyeth in complyance with the Major part and stronger side then no men do more cry up Vnity and Obedience what a noise do many thousand Papist-Prelates Jesuites and Fryers make with these two words throughout the world Vnity and Obedience unto them upon their terms do signifie Principally their worldly greatness wealth and power But if the Hypocrite be engaged in point of honour or other carnal interest on the suffering side or be out of hope of any advantage in the common rode then no man is so much for separation and singularity as he For he must needs be noted for some body in the world and this is the chief way that he findeth to accomplish it And so being lifted up with pride be falleth into the Condemnation of the Devil and becomes a firebrand in the Church LIII 1. A Christian indeed is not only zealous for the Unity and Concord of Believers but he seeketh it on the right terms and in the way that is fitest to attain it Vnity Peace and Concord are like Piety and Honesty things so unquestionably good that there are scarce any men of reason and common sobriety that ever were heard to oppose them Directly and for themselves And therefore all that are enemies to them are yet pretenders to them and oppose them 1. In their causes only 2. Or covertly and under some other name Every man would have Vnity Concord and Peace in his own way and upon his own terms But if the right terms had been understood and consented to as sufficient the Christian world had not lain so many hundred years in the sin and shame and ruines as it hath done And the cause of all is that Christians indeed that have clear confirmed judgements and strength of grace are very few and for number and strength unable to perswade or overrule the weak the passionate and the falsehearted worldly hypocritical multitude who bear down all the counsels and endeavours of the wise The judicious faithful Christian knoweth that there are three degrees or sorts of Christian Communion which have their several terms 1. The universal-church Communion which all Christians as such must hold among themselves 2. Particular Church-communion which those that are conjoyned for personal Communion in Worship do hold under the same Pastors and among themselves 3. The extraordinary intimate communion that some Christians hold together who are bosome friends or are specially able and fit to be helpful and comfortable to each other The last concerneth not our present business we must hold Church-communion with many that are unfit to be our bosome friends and that have no eminency of parts or piety or any strong-perswading evidence of sincerity But the terms of Catholick Communion he knoweth are such as these 1. They must be such as were the terms of Church Communion in the dayes of the Apostles 2. They must be such as are plainly and certainly expressed in the holy Scriptures 3. And such as the Vniversal Church hath in some ages since been actually agreed in 4. And those points are likest to be such which all the differing parties of Christians are agreed in as Necessary to Communion to this day so we call not those Christians that deny the essentials of Christianity 5. Every man in the former ages of the Church was admitted to this Catholick Church-communion who in the Baptismal Vow or Covenant gave up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as his Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier his Owner Governour and Father renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil And more particularly as man hath an Vnderstanding a Will and an executive power which must all be sanctified to God so the Creed was the particular Rule for the Credenda or things to be Believed and the Lords Prayer for the Petenda or things to be Willed Loved and Desired and the Ten Commandments for the agenda or things to be done so that to Consent to these Rules particularly and to all the Holy Scriptures implicitly and generally was the thing then required to Catholick Communion The belief of the doctrine being necessary for the sanctifying of the heart and life the Belief of so much is of Necessity without which the Heart cannot be sanctified or
Vnity than the enemies of the Church themselves For he hath not judgement enough to guide him the right way and yet he hath so much zeal as will not suffer him to keep his errours to himself 3. And all these distempers that are but in a lower degree in the weak Christian are predominant in the Hypocrite The Church shall have no concord or peace if he can hinder it but what is consistent with his carnal interest his honour or wealth or dignity in the world The pride and covetousness which rule himself he would have to make the terms of concord and to rule all others It is Hypocrites in the Church that are the greatest cause of discord and divisions having selfish spirits principles and ends and having alwaies a work of their own to do which suits not well with the work of Christ and yet Christs work must be subjected to it and ordered and over-ruled by it And while they pretend to go to the Scriptures or to Councils or Fathers for their reasons indeed they go first for them to their worldly interest and then would fain hire or press the Scripture Church or Fathers to serve their turn and come in as witnesses on their side And thus the Church as well as Christ is betrayed by the covetous Judas's of his own family And the servants of the world the flesh and Devil that take up the livery of Christ and usurp the name and honour of Christians do more effectually hinder the concord and prosperity of the Church than any open enemies do And those that are indeed no Christians do cause Christianity to be reproached Even as Spies and Traitors that are hired by the enemy to take up arms in the Army which they fight against that they may betray it by their fraud and do more harm to it by raising mutinies and by false conduct than a multitude of professed enemies could have done It is proud and worldly carnal Hypocrites that hinder most the concord of Believers LIV. 1. A confirmed Christian is of a peaceable spirit He is not masterly domineering turbulent hurtfull cruell seditious factious or contentious He is like ripened fruits that are mellow and sweet when the younger greener fruits are sowre and harsh He is not wise in his own conceit Rom. 12.16 and therefore not over urgent in obtruding his conceits on others nor quarrelsome with all that cannot entertain them nor will he easily lay mens salvation or damnation no nor the Churches peace upon them He is kindly affectioned to others with brotherly love yea loveth his neighbour as himself Rom. 12.10 13 9 10. And therefore he doth to others as he would they should do to him and useth them as he would be used by them And then how far they are like to suffer by him you may easily judge For Love worketh no ill to his neighbour Rom. 13.10 He is above the portion of the worldling and a contemner of that vanity which carnal men account their felicity and therefore he preferreth love and quietness before it and can lose his right when the interest of Love and Peace requireth it He is become as a little child in his conversion Matth. 18.3 and is low and little in his own eyes and therefore contendeth not for superiority or preheminence either in place or power or reputation of his learning wisdom or piety but in honour preferreth others before himself Rom. 12.10 He mindeth not high things but condescendeth to men of low estate Rom. 12.16 and therefore will not contend for estimation or precedency nor scramble to he highest though he rise by the ruines of mens bodies and souls If it be possible as much as lyeth in him he will live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 For he is not one that by word or deed will avenge himself but when the wrath of others is up like a blustring storm he giveth place to it he boweth before it or goeth out of the way Rom. 12.19 If his enemy hunger he feedeth him if he thirst he giveth him drink when oppressors would deprive not only an enemy but the righteous of their meat and drink and thus he melteth his hardened enemies by heaping kindnesses upon them when they are wrathfull and proud and contentious and do him wrong or use provoking words against him he is not overcome of their evil to imitate them but he overcometh their evil with his good Rom. 12.20 21. If God have given him more knowledge and abilities than others he doth not presently set up himself to be admired for it nor speak disdainfully and contemptuously of those that are not of his mind But he sheweth the eminency of his wisdom with meekness by the works of a good conversation and by doing better than the unwiser do James 3. from verse 1. to 13. He is endued with the wisdom from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruit without partiality or wavering in persecution as Dr. Hammond renders it and without hypocrisie And thus the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.17 18. As he is taught of God to love his brother 1 Thes. 4.9 So that same teaching with experience of the effects assureth him that they that pretend to be wiser and better than others when they have bitter envious zeal and strife in their hearts they vainly glory and lie against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work James 3.14 15 16. Read but the story of the Jewish Zealots in Josephus and the heretical Zealots in all ages of the Church and you will perceive the truth of this when such quarrelsome spirits are filling the Church with contentions or vexations about their meats and drinks and daies c. the Christian indeed understandeth that the Kingdom of God consisteth not of such things as these but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of wise and sober men Therefore he followeth after things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another and will not for meats c. destroy the work of God Rom. 14.17 18 19 20. He stayeth not till peace be offered him or brought home to him but he followeth peace with all men as well as holiness Heb. 12.14 If it fly from him he pursueth it if it be denied him he seeketh it and will not refuse to stoop to the poorest for it and to beg it of his inferiours if it were upon his knees rather than be denied it and live an unpeaceable disquiet life Psal. 34.14 For he believeth that blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Matth. 5.9 2. And the weak Christian hath the same spirit and therefore the love of peace is most
predominant in him But alas he is too easily tempted into Religious passions discontents contentious disputations quarrelsome and opprobrious words and his judgement lamentably darkened and perverted whenever contentious zeal prevaileth and passions do perturb the quiet and orderly operations of his soul. He wanteth both the knowledge and the experience and the mellowness of spirit which riper Christians have attained He hath a less degree of Charity and is less acquainted with the mischiefs of unpeaceableness And therefore it is the common course of young professors to be easily tempted into unpeaceable waies and when they have long tryed them if they prove not Hypocrites to come off at last upon experience of the evils of them and so the young Christians conjunct with some hypocrites make up the rigorous fierce contentious and vexatious party and the aged riper Christians make up the holy moderate healing party that groan and pray for the Churches peace and mourn in secret both for the ungodliness and violence which they cannot heal Yea the difference is much apparent in the Books and Sermons which each of them is best pleased with The ripe experienced Christian loveth those Sermons that kindle Love and tend to Peace and love such healing Books as do narrow differences and tend to reconcile and heal such as Bishop Halls Peace-maker and Pax terris and all his writings and Bishop Davenants Bishop Mortons and Bishop Hall's Pacificatory Epistles to Duraeus and Mr. Burroughs's Irenicon Ludov. Crocius Amyraldus Junius Paraeus's and many other Irenicons written by forein Divines to say nothing of those that are upon single controversies But the younger sowre uncharitable Christians are better pleased with such Books and Sermons as call them aloud to be very zealous for this or that controverted point of Doctrine or for or against some circumstance of worship or Church discipline or about some fashions or customs or indifferent things as if the Kingdom of God were in them Rom. 14.1 2 15 16. 3. But the seeming Christian is either a meer temporizer that will be of that Religion whatever it be which is most in fashion or which the higher powers are of or which will cost him least Or else he will run into the other extream and lift up himself by affected singularities and by making a bustle and stir in the world about some small and controverted point and careth not to sacrifice the peace and safety of the Church to the honour of his own opinions And as small as the Christian Church is he must be of a smaller society than it that he may be sure to be amongst the best while indeed he hath no sincerity at all but placeth his hopes in being of the right Church or Party or Opinion And for his Party or Church he burneth with a feverish kind of zeal and is ready to call for fire from Heaven and to decieve him the Devil sendeth him some from Hell to consume those that are not of his mind Yet doth he bring it as an Angel of light to defend the Truth and Church of Christ And indeed when the Devil will be the Defender of Truth or of the Church or of Peace or Order or Piety he doth it with the most burning zeal You may know him by the means he useth He defendeth the Church by forbidding the people to read the Scriptures in a known tongue and by imprisoning and burning the soundest and holiest members of it and abusing the most learned faithfull Pastors and defendeth the flock by casting out the Shepherds and such like means as the murders of the Waldenses and the Massacres of France and Ireland and the Spanish Inquisition and Queen Maries Bonefires and the Powder-plot yea and the Munster and the English rage and phrensies may give you fuller notice of He that hath no Holiness nor Charity to be zealous for will be zealous for his Church or Sect or Customs or Opinions And then this zeal must be the evidence of his piety and so the Inquisitors have thought they have religiously served God by murdering his servants and it is the badge of their honour to be the Devils hang-men to execute his malice on the members of Christ and all this is done in zeal for Religion by irreligious Hypocrites There is no standing before the malicious zeal of a graceless Pharisee when it riseth up for his carnal interest or the honour and traditions and customs of his Sect Luk. 6.7 And they were filled with madness and communed with one another what they might do to Jesus Luke 4.28 Acts 5.17 13.45 John 16.2 Rom. 10 2. Phil. 3.6 Acts 36.10 11. The zeal of a true Christian consumeth himself with grief to see the madness of the wicked But the zeal of the Hypocrite consumeth others that by the light of the fire his Religiousness may be seen You may see the Christians fervent Love of God by the fervent flames which he can suffer for his sake And you may see the fervent Love of the Hypocrite by the flames which he kindleth for others By these he cryeth with Jehu Come and see my zeal for the Lord 2 King 10.16 2 Sam. 21.2 LV. 1. A Christian indeed is one that most highly esteemeth and regardeth the interest of God and mens salvation in the world and taketh all things else to be inconsiderable in comparison of these The interest of Great men and Nobles and Commanders yea and his own in corporal respects as riches honour health and life he taketh to be things unworthy to be named in competition with the interest of Christ and Souls The thing that his heart is most set upon in the world is that God be glorified and that the world acknowledge him their King and that his Laws be obeyed and that darkness and infidelity and ungodliness may be cast out and that pride and worldliness and fleshly lusts may not hurry the miserable world unto perdition It is one of the saddest and most amazing thoughts that ever entreth into his heart to consider how much of the world is overwhelmed in ignorance and wickedness and how great the Kingdom of the Devil is in comparison of the Kingdom of Christ that God should forsake so much of his Creation that Christianity should not be owned in above the sixth part of the world and Popish pride and ignorance with the corruptions of many other Sects and the worldly carnal minds of Hypocrites should rob Christ of so much of this little part and leave him so small a flock of holy ones that must possess the Kingdom His soul consenteth to the Method of the Lords Prayer as prescribing us the order of our Desires And in his prayers he seeketh first in order of estimation and intention the Hallowing of Gods name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven before his daily bread or the pardon of his sins or the deliverance of his own soul from temptations