entisements in all things Lastly as touching supplication which we make the third filial duty man is so wholly alienated from God that what necessitie soeuer do pinche him he hath not either the minde or the will and as we vse to speake neither the heart nor the face once to go to God by humble prayer for helpe He flyeth to worldly meanes as to his own wisdome strength riches and friendes and if all faile yet he will rather seeke for helpe by sorcery and witchcraft at the hands of his newe father the diuell then he will by prayer call vpon the name of God Thus are all vnregenerate men affected howsoeuer in a shew of religion or as a common prouerbe they will somtimes say God helpe me or God be mercifull to me whereas in trueth they being destitute of faith haue no confidence in God neither any hope of obtaining any thing at his hand Neither is there any cause why they shoulde thinke otherwise for God doth not heare and helpe but detest and plague vnbeleeuers Sect. 3. Of filiall subiection renewed THus we see how man is altogether spoiled by the malice of Sathan of this excellent dignitie of being the sonne of God but by the mercie of God he recouereth it in the state of regeneration in as ample manner as he had it in his first creation For as all naturall men are in Adam vngratious bastardes so they become the sonnes of God in Christ not by partaking his eternall and essentiall filiation whereof no creature is capable but by being renewed and made conformable to the holinesse of his humaine nature For as man lost this dignitie by loosing the image of God to wit his perfect holinesse by vertue whereof he onely of all earthly creatures was the sonne of God so being nowe by the spirite of God restored to the saide image of God he is together restored to the dignitie of being the sonne of God Ioh. 1. 12. As many as beleeued in him to those he gaue power to be the sonnes of God For as we read 2. Pet. 1. 4. We are made partakers of his diuine nature that is of the image or resemblaunce of the diuine nature in that we fly the corruption of lust which is in the world From this prerogatiue of being the sonnes of God the scripture speaking to men according to the manner of men whose sonnes do in time enioy their fathers possessions stirreth vp the faithfull to an vndoubted expectation of eternall glory Gal. 4. 7. We are no more seruantes but sonnes and the heires of God through Christ Rom. 8. 17. If we be sonnes then are we heires the heires truly of God and the fellow heires of Christ and 1. Iohn 3. 2. We are nowe the sonnes of God although our inheritaunce doth not appeare till Christ appeare Nowe to proceed As the faithfull are restored to this dignitie so they are indued by the spirite of God with the disposition belonging to it being so affected to God as children ought to be to their naturall fathers They reuerence him aboue al thinges in the worlde in worde and deed in minde harte and in all their behauiour The great securitie and certainty which they haue of their owne good estate doth not make them any way presumptuous neither doth the familiarity which God vouchsafeth to haue with them as with freindes Ioh. 15 15. Breed in them any contempt of God but they stand continually in awe of him and of his glorious presence yeelding to him his due honour both in word deed and affection whensoeuer they haue any occasion to deale with him This we may obserue as in the other seruants of God so especially in Abraham who although he was the friend of God as he is called Iam. 2. 23. And had familiar conuersation and talke with God as one friende vseth to haue with another yet he durst not speake the second time to God in the behalfe of the Sodomites without vsing some preface of reuerence saying Gen. 18. 27. Behold I haue taken vpon me to speake to God who am but dust and ashes And againe Vers. 30 let not my lord be angrie if I speake for them This affection of the faithfull is described Psal. 123 As the eyes of the seruant are vpon his lord and as the handmaid doth modestly waite in presence of her mistris so are we affected to God Likewise for the second duty which is Imitation the faithfull man endeuoureth by all meanes to conforme himselfe to the absolute puritie and holinesse of God Whereof the Apostle hauing wise consideration vseth the examples of Christes death and resurrection as most forcible argumentes to enforce the mortification of sinne and the viuification of all holynesse in vs Rom. 6. and Eph. 5. 1. Be ye followers of God as beloued children Lastly As a sonne being pinched with any griefe or want doth straight way run to his father for reliefe so doe the faithfull in the manifolde miseries and crosses of this present life seeke for helpe at the handes of their heauenly father For the which purpose they are indued with a notable gift of God called the spirit of prayer that is the grace ability or faculty of praying wrought in them by the holy spirite This grace of God is diligently to be declared and considered for that of all the partes of mans holinesse none is a more vnfallible signe of true regeneration then is this gift of prayer whereby a man is made able willing and ready to pray aright vnto God as the present occasion doth require For this gifte consisteth of many particular graces of Gods spirit the which are needfull for the right performance of this duety and cannot be founde in any carnall man First there is required the true knowledge of those things which belong vnto the good happy state of man which is not attained but by the worke of the holy spirite Rom. 8. 26. We know not for what to pray as we ought but the spirit helpeth our infirmity For all men generally and naturally feele their temporall wants as pouerty sicknesse shame and whatsoeuer belongeth to the maintenance of this present life but as for spirituall graces as the knowledge and feare of God faith loue patience and the rest which concerne their eternall saluation they neuer trouble themselues in seeking them or are greeued for the want of them nay for the most part they neuer thinke of any such matter or knowe what these thinges meane Besides none can pray aright yea although he be enlightned with some knowledge of the spirituall state of man and haue a glimmering of the thinges belonging vnto it as a carnal man may haue vnlesse he haue true faith wherby he may be assured that god both loueth him and wil graunt his requests Rom. 10. 14. The Apostle maketh it impossible for him who doth not beleeue in God to call vpon him But the
beleeuer hath receiued not the spirit of bondage to feare to dread and fly from God as from a iust iudge as the carnall man doth but of adoption whereby he crieth Abba Father These and many other graces are needefull for the performance of this duety of prayer Whereof it followeth that whosoeuer hath receiued this spirite of prayer is vndoubtedly one renewed by the spirite of GOD and that where this grace is wanting there is no regeneration or sanctification And least that any man deceiue himselfe by thinking that he hath this grace of praying to GOD when he hath it not wee will heere set downe a fewe notes or markes wherein the praying of a faithfull man differeth from that kinde of praying which a carnall man may vse First therefore a faithfull man conceiueth his prayer himselfe in his owne minde hauing considered what thinges are most needfull to be prayed for at that time and in that company if he be with others and so he doth as it were poure out his prayer from the bottome of his heart Whereas the carnall man although he be in worldly matters a iolly wise man yea and can tell his tale before whome soeuer as readely as the best yet he hath neither the witte to conceiue nor the tongue to vtter two sentences of prayer before God or if he must needes haue prayers eyther by himselfe for a shew of religion or in some blinde deuotion or in his family least he shoulde seeme wanting in his duety then he is forced to get some prayer booke into his hand and so reading so many as he thinketh good therein resteth The which thing although it may be done at some times and is to be commended in respect of their atheisme who neuer pray eyther for themselues or any other yet it is not sufficient because the prayers of particular men ought to be framed according to their owne particular state and the present state of those in whose behalfe they pray The second difference is this if a carnall man pray without booke it is but in two or three wordes as Lorde haue mercy vpon vs God fende vs the light of heauen God send vs this or that thing the which are not to be called prayers but wishes whereas the prayer which commeth from a faithfull heart is vttered in a competent number of wordes as it is meete and needfull We doe not denie but that one may offende in vsing too mamy wordes the which fault Christ forewarneth vs of Math. 6. 7. 8. and it is at this day to be seene in those dotrels who thinke that they serue God in mumbling ouer so many doozen of Creeds Pater nosters and Aue Maries yea further we confesse that the force of prayer is not in the wordes of the mouth but in the faith of the heart the which alone will make the prayer to be heard although wordes be altogether wanting as we reade 1. Sam. 1. 13. of Hanna Samuels mother who prayed so effectually that her request was graunted and yet she vttered no wordes but onely moued her lippes and prayed in her heart And yet for all this faithfull prayers are and ought to be if there be no hinderance plentifull in wordes for although thou pray alone to God who vnderstandeth thy thoughtes as well as thy wordes yet God must be serued not onely inwardly in thy minde but also with the members of thy body especially with the tongue which is giuen to thee for this ende Yea the wordes of thy mouth doe stirre vp thy affections and make thee more feruent in prayer But if thou pray in the company of others it is needefull for their edification that thou vtter wordes not onely in a generall and confused manner but so as that the seuerall petitions conceiued in thy minde may be plainly declared and distinguished one from another For sinnes must be confessed graces wanting desired plagues and iudgementes remooued benefits remembred the brethren commended to God not in grosse vnlesse it cannot well otherwise be but in particular that so the hearers may be the more edified If it be heere obiected that this dexteritie and facultie of vttering prayers in the aforesaid manner is not to be looked for at the handes of ignorant and vnlearned men who cannot so much as helpe themselues by reading the holy scriptures and the writinges of godly men Wee answere That as Sathan hath in former ages defaced the true worshippe of God and aduaunced superstition by no meanes more then by bringing into the Church a generall barbarisme and decay of learning so ought Christians in this time of grace to furnish themselues with all things which may further their edification and although all cannot attaine to learning for diuers hinderances yet all may and ought to be able to reade by the which meanes being diligently vsed they may soone come to haue their senses exercised in spirituall matters and acquainted with the language and words belonging therevnto farre aboue their owne hope and expectation Yea euen those who being of ripe years cannot reade ought to be ashamed rather of this barbarous and brutish rudenesse then of learning that which will make greatly for their profite comfort and eternall saluation Againe he who is endued with inward graces needfull for prayer will finde words whereby to vtter his minde be he neuer so vnlearned for the spirite of God giueth vtterance openeth the lippes vntieth the strings of the tongue to all those whome he sanctifieth Neither neede this seeme strange for as one saith all mē are eloquent enough in that which they know and like Put case the vnlearned man who thus excuseth his Atheisme and want of religion for where there is no prayer there is no iot of true religion by his rudenesse were put in minde by some friend that such a nobleman had a rich farme in his handes the which he might easely obtaine if so be he could tell his tale well before the said noble man I warrant you he would not loose it for asking neither woulde he come bluntly to him and say Sir I pray you giue me this farme but he would and that without any teacher finde store both of reasons and of wordes fit for his purpose He would say may it please your Lordship to be my good Lord and maister I am a poore wretched man hauing sustained so many losses haning so many maimes wounds infirmities hauing a greate charge of children of whom so many are not able to put on their owne clothes and therefore I am bold to trouble your Lordship in such a matter the which if I may obtaine I shall pray for you as long as I liue and will by Gods grace be as faithful and dutifull a seruant as euer your Lordship had I haue no friendes to helpe forward my sute but doe wholly rely my selfe on your goodnesse and pittifull disposition These and many moe like and more effectuall perswasions and fit phrases prouerbes tearmes
wherein the happinesse of man doth wholly consist For this is eternall saluation to knowe God to wit the father creating vs according to his owne image in perfect puritie the sonne redeeming vs by his pretious bloud from sinne and miserie the holy spirite sanctifying and renewing vs by his grace to eternall glory In the which respect we haue thought that our time and laboure the which it hath pleased God in mercy to ty to the study of his holy word coulde not be better bestowed then in commending this sauing knowledge vnto others and that by this meanes which nowe we vse being thereunto moued by some vrgent reasons wherewith it is not needefull that either we shoulde trouble you or you your selfe Our purpose or rather our desire and endeauour is to make an anatomie of the soule of man to lay open before thy eyes the seuerall partes and faculties of it together with the naturall and supernaturall holinesse and sinfulnesse of them Wherein we haue endeuored to vse as great breuitie and plainnesse as we coulde and as the greate varietie and difficultie of the matter which often is verie intricate woulde permit auoyding both loathsome tediousnesse and vnprofitable obscuritie as thinkeing it much better not to speake then not to be vnderstoode and to lay open darke matter in rude and homelie tearmes then with enigmaticall parables to amaze and mocke the reader We haue rather applied our stile to the capacitie of the simple and the good of all by insisting most in those thinges whereby we may be edified in the knowledge and obedience of Christ then affected the curious scanning of subtile questions seruing rather for the whetting of the witt then the sauing of the soule And yet as they haue their vse which is not to be neglected so we do breifely touch them as occasion is offered Desiring the readers especially those who doe not professe learning to picke out of this treatise some matter of edification rather then of contention and with me to leaue needlesse controuersies to scholasticall exercises and men of nimble wites But what needeth all this will some man say this laboure might verie well haue bene spared and much better bestowed considering the abundance of knowledge the daily and continual preaching the superfluitie of bookes written of all argumentes both diuine and prophane in such swarmes and huge multitudes that men haue no leasure to looke on the faire inscriptions much lesse to peruse the tedious and irkesome bodyes of them Yea men are so cloyed and deceaued with vaine repetition of olde matter glosed ouer with new wordes and so amazed with straunge doctrines lately deuised that they haue in a manner giuen ouer the buying and reading of bookes esteeming it a fruitelesse and foolishe mispending of mony and time both which ought to be reserued for necessary vses and a needlesse disquieting of their mindes being already sufficiently grounded and settled in the trueth Howe iust and true this complainte is in some respect we are not nowe to discusse but for this matter whereof we speake it were to be wished if so it pleased God that it were true indeede and that we had as great plenty of the true knowledge of God and of sounde teachers of the trueth as of the stones in the streetes and in one worde that all the people of God did prophecy But is it so indeed doth knowledge religion godlinesse and all the meanes thereof or not rather palpable ignoraunce atheisme and superstition abounde in most places Yea surely the complainte of the Prophet Hos. 4. 1. is more true There is no knowledge or feare of God in the land But what of this is this to be attributed to the want of bookes and other meanes of knowledge Surely there is no cause why either some places shoulde complaine of want or any loath their plenty in this behalfe We haue moe bookes learnedly and godlely written then we doe vse well and yet we might vse moe well then we haue There is and will be as long as the church remaineth here on earth a needfull vse of newe tracttates comments sermons catechismes and determinations as newe reasons illustrations and methodes are inuented as newe doubtes controuersies errours and hereses doe arise as this or that vice doth raigne and as men giue themselues diuersly to the studying of particular heades of doctrine and partes of the worde of God All is not to be expected at any one hand where one sleepeth another waketh one is concise and darke another large and plaine one drie and barren an other full and pithy Yea in diuers writers thou shalt see the admirable variety of spirituall giftes and so be stirred vp to praise the greate bounty of God towardes his church The doctrine accordinge to godlinesse as th' apostle defineth diuinitie is a large feilde wherein ten thousand may laboure continually and all haue elbow roome yea each one differ from the rest not onely in manner but also in matter and argument howsoeuer all doe handle the same doctrine in generall As for diuersitie of opinions in some cases it ought not any way to trouble or offend any man seing that it is the will of God that while we remaine here on earth we shoulde both knowe and prophecie whether by speaking or by writing not perfectly but onely in part A fewe contradictions doe not as it may seeme either impaire the credit of the teachers or shake the faith of the hearers of Gods worde but rather strengthen and vpholde both For hereby it appeareth that men doe not as the prophete compalineth Iere. 23. 30. steale the worde of God one from an other deliuering for sounde doctrine whatsoeuer the most doe holde and teach rather then what they themselues doe thinke and so conspiring together in a compact forme of doctrine are not many but onely one witnesse but are in their consciences before God perswaded of the trueth of the gospell of Christ which they professe and teach It is but folly to looke for in mortall and earthly men a heauenly and angelicall harmonie void of all iarring It is rather our partes to labour in repressing that pride and selfel-oue of our corrupt natures whereby men carnally minded and affected are made to swell in anger and hatred against those who doe not in euerie respect daunce after their pipe being more alienated from their brethren for some fewe contradictions then ioyned together in Christian loue by their consente in all the points of religion beside Milde and modest dissenting worketh out the trueth as the striking of flintes together doth sparkes of fier and that often commeth to passe errando via reperta Try all and keepe the best But we trust that no man will make these obiections which we imagine or thinke much lesse speake euil of that which is intended for his good That which one misliketh another perhaps will approue and if studentes waste their inke and we are their pens and printers venture their paines and
giuen and hee shall haue abundaunce And it is said of diuers in the booke of the Acts that they were full of faith and of the holy ghost This abundance in the minde is called Plerophoria a certaine and vndoubted perswasion said to be in Abraham Rom. 4. 21. Hereof cometh abundaunce of faith of loue Rom. 5. 3. and 15. 13. and of all graces as 1. Thess. 1. 3. the Apostle mentioneth the worke of their faith their laborious loue and their patient hope And 2 Thess. 1. 3. that their faith superaugescit that is encreaseth aboue the common and ordinarie measure and that their loue did abounde accordingly This aboundaunce of grace is to be seene in the prophets Apostles martyrs and many other of the seruantes of God who therefore are made types and patterns for vs to imitate and set before our eyes as lanternes full of light and as shining and blazing starres that we might both admire and labour to ouertake them in their excellent graces and especially in their particular vertues For thus the scripture mentioneth the vprightnesse of Enoch who walked with God in all his waies the patience of Iob. Iam. 5. 11 the faith of Abraham the meeknesse of Moses the courage of Iosua the faithfulnesse of Samuel the absolute perfection of Dauid being a man according to Gods owne hearte the wisdome of Salomon the zeale of Phinies Iosias and many others Thus Paule mentioneth his owne painefulnesse in preaching the gospel to be farre aboue the labours of the rest of the Apostles Thus he sayeth Rom 16. 7. That Andronicus and Iunia were men notable among the Apostles and of Timothie that none was like to him in faithful labour and care for the good of the church Philip. 2. 20. The notes and markes whereby this abundaunce may be knowen are these a burning zeal of gods glorie of setting forwarde his worship and gospel a vehement hatred of idolatrie and all shadowes of superstition a tender and bountifull loue toward the godly a minde vndaunted with any torment death or miserie a constant course of godlinesse in all outward chaunges whatsoeuer as the Apostle sayeth of him selfe Philip. 4. 13. That he coulde want and abounde be full and empty and that he coulde do all thinges a life free from any grosse sinne an extraordinary contempt of all worldly pleasures Lastly a manner of freedom from being either ouercome or almost tempted by any grosse sinne For although the corruption of flesh and the impudencie of Sathan who was not ashamed to tempt Christ to commit sin be so great that no man be he nener so holy may lay away his weapons and be secure in respect of temptations yet by the blessing of God and a long practise of all godlinesse the faithfull come sometimes to such a surpassing strength in grace that as the couragious horse going into the battel scorneth the feareful sounds noyse of the trumpets so this godly man wherof we speake in this chapter laugheth at the temptations of Sathan and the entisementes of the world yet not presuming on his owne strength but relying himselfe wholly on the mighty power of the spirite of God The meanes of attaining to this high degree of holinesse is to seeke it by earnest prayer at the handes of God from whom onely commeth euery good and perfect gift But the meanes which God vseth in giuing it are diuerse some good some euil in themselues and therefore not to be vsed by vs of the first sort are all holy exercises appointed by God for the begetting continuall encrease of grace to the carefull diligent long and continuall vse whereof God doth often graunt this happie successe euen as he blesseth the diligent and painfull hand with greate plenty in temporall thinges Of the second sort is the abundaunce of sinne before regeneration the which it pleaseth God some time to chaunge into this abundaunce of grace as we see that the highest floudes follow the lowest ebbes This God doth to make manifest the great power and efficacy of his spirit in renewing the elect which is able to bringe the greatest measure of holinesse out of the greatest wickednes as cleare light out of palpable darkenes This Christ teacheth vs. Luk. 7. 41. In the parable of the two debters whereof the greater had greater cause and also a greater measure of loue And in the example of the woman verse 47. Who loued much because many sinnes were forgiuen vnto her sowhere sinne doth abound there grace aboundeth much more Yea for this purpose God doth sometimes vse the hote fiercenesse of affections and the violent disposition of nature the which as of it selfe it carieth a man headlong into the most outragious sinnes so being sanctified by Gods spirite it becommeth the whetstone of holinesse Thus was the Apostle Paule both naturally and spiritually affected and therefore being an infidell he was a most superstitious pharisie more then mad in persecuting the church and becomming a faithfull man passed all others in vnquenchable zeale of Gods spirite Lastly as touching this abundance of grace no man can attaine so high a degree of it as that he may sitte downe as being at his iorneis end but as the greater riches that a man hath the greater is his gaine desire and encrease of riches so the more holinesse that any man hath the more carefully ought and the more fruitfully may he laboure in encreasing it Phil. 3. 13. Brethren saieth the Apostle I count not that I haue attained vnto any such perfection But still I doe forget that which is behinde and endeuore my selfe to that which is before That is I doe not minde that holinesse which I haue already receaued but doe continually thinke on that which I doe want as yet CHAP. IX Of celestiall holinesse ALthough we haue now gone as far in declaring the renewed holinesse of man as any man can in this worlde either in hauing or in practising it yet we are not here to rest as being come to the end of our iorney For if the aforesaid aboundaunce of spirituall graces which be it neuer so great cannot possibly be voide of sinne be absolutelie the highest degree this inconuenience which is in no wise to be admitted would of necessitie follow that man doth not in regeneration recouer as good a state and as great a measure of holinesse by the mercy of God in christ as he had in his first creation and lost by his owne sinne in Adam And therefore we are to goe on a little further in this treatise and in our desire till we come to such an absolute perfection of renewed holinesse as is free from the least spot of sinne whatsoeuer This perfection may without all question yea must necessarely be attained vnto For man can not be perfectly happie by enioying the presence of God into the which nothing being sinfull can enter as long as he is imperfectly holy Yet he