Saints that they may be more serious in their duties 2. The other evil in a slight and formal Communion with God in Duties is unthankfulness Duties of godliness are not only a debt to God but a reward to us Therefore in slightness there is not only unfaithfulness but unthankfulness Both the Majesty and Mercy of God is despised and can God be well pleased with such things 3. There is a third evil in a slight Communion with God in Duties and that is unfruitfulness we get nothing from God in duties we pray slightly and therefore get nothing by Prayer we hear the word slightly and therefore profit not by it Now that the Lord may cure his people of this slightness of heart and make their graces grow he useth this dispensation to leave them in want of assurance 6. God increaseth his Saints graces by terrors within he not only suspends their comforts but afflicts their souls he writes bitter things against them 1. These rowse them up to seek God They that see themselves lost will find a way to God They that have Hell-fire burning in them will value Heaven and pardon and the least drop of Gods love Oh! now promises are precious and Gods love neglected is now sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Now they cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly 2. These fright them out of their dreams and carnal slumbers as the cry made at midnight that the Bridegroom cometh awoke the virgins out of their sleep Among the other diseases of the soul Divine desertions cure deadness and dulness of heart Sometimes living men are in a lifeless state their hearts are so benummed that they seem to lye among the dead They can hear the word carelesly and sleep out whole Sermons there is no vigour nor activity in their graces at home and therefore the Lord hangs their souls over the mouth of Hell and makes them drink of that red wine the dregs whereof the wicked of the earth shall Psal 75. 8. wring out and drink them that by this strong potion he may rowse them up and quicken their dull and drowsy spirits 3. These terrors work them more closely to Christ And for this cause God gives his People sad visions of sin and wrath he shakes the soul with Earth-quakes that she may stand faster upon her true Basis and Foundation These storms make their hearts gather in to Christ That I may be found in him saith Paul The soul must have some dry land to stand upon and when the flood of Gods terrors overflow the soul then she flyeth to Christ as Noah's Dove to the ark 7thly The Lord increaseth grace in his Saints by afflictions he makes them by marring them Divine Wisdom works by contraries he makes them shine brighter by their Eclipses and clears up their light by darkness Schola crucis Schola lucis And truly It is the property of true-born grace to grow the greater by the cross As the laurel tree is not smitten Plin. Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 55. nor blasted with lightning no more is heaven-born grace hurt by any afflictions but much bettered by them 1. God increaseth his Saints graces by sharp sicknesses by diseases unto death i. e. this startles mightily Oh Lord thou didst surprize me unprovided and if thy hand had cut me off with that disease my soul had been cut off from heaven for ever This enters deep upon the soul and strikes terrour upon the heart the Lord I hope shall never find me so again This stirs up thankfulness to the Lord that hath not only in this tryal saved me from the grave but also from Hell 2. Sicknesses deaden the Saints to the world They that in sicknesses are always leaving the world learn to dye unto the world They have death always in their eye They see themselves still upon the borders of the grave They are ever and anon lanching in eternity and this makes grace grow 3. Sicknesses are searchers Thou enquirest after mine iniquity Job 10. 6. saith Job and searchest after my sin When God smites our bodies he searcheth our hearts and makes enquiry in our lives and now saith the soul Let us search and try Lam. 3. 40. our ways When God is searching VS it is high time for VS to search our selves and this also makes grace to grow 4. Sicknesses dig Wells of godly sorrows in the heart They are as it were Gods Mattocks and Spades whereby he delves deep into the center of the heart and digs Wells of repentance which send forth streams of confession of sin which before would not run because they had no vent being covered and stopt with the earth of lust and hardness and worldliness upon them but now they find a passage When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the Psal 32. 3. 4. 5. day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moysture is turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin 2. By poverty and narrowness of estate Many men must Aquilone maxime gaudent densiores ab afflatucjus laetioresque materiae firmioris Plin. Nat. Hist l. 17. c. 2. Jer. 6. 22. be kept short and bare that they may thrive in grace Pliny saith That trees generally like best that stand to the North-wind It causeth them to spread thick and more flourishing and makes the Timber more strong and solid The Lord threatneth the Jews with a people from the North-Countrey the Chaldean Army which should carry them captive into Babylon The North wind winnowed them and fanned all their Idolatry They flourished gallantly in Religion after the North wind had blown upon them 1. The cold blasts of poverty correct pride and moderate high thoughts Make a man poor and you make him humble Pride is an absolute enemy to grace and prosperity is the seminary of pride The North-wind of poverty cools the courage and tames the spirits of men and now they know God and themselves Their Plumes fall and now they will digest a reproof and sit upon even ground with the lower Saints When the world frowns upon them they seek the smiles of God before they were too high for him 2. Poverty teacheth them to pray they can now fall upon their knees those that never called upon God learn now to visit the Throne of grace and cry Lord Give us this day our daily bread Nay they long for the spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nay those that have prayed in their fulness now pray feelingly They can go to God in sense of wants before they did not hear nor feel their own Prayers In their prosperity they did not care what Prayers they put off God with Now they set the highest rate upon Prayer for they are fain to live upon Prayer An hungry belly makes a Saint hungry after Ordinances and after Gods Presence When a mans debts and poverty make
when he saith Touch his bone and his flesh he aims at deep affliction Touch him so as that his very bones may shatter that the very pillars may shake Touch him so as that the pain and distemper may sink into his very bones into his marrow the bone it self is a part without feeling yet to touch the bone impotts the greatest pain that can be felt 4. Satan if he prevails at the first on-set in the beginning of a temptation he drives on furiously and takes advantage to rout the whole soul As a Troop of Horse that having once broke the rank goeth on fiercely hoping thereby to rout the whole body so doth Satan you may see it in the pitcht battel which he sought with Peter Peter you know goeth after Jesus to the high priests Palace there Peter unawares doth as it were draw out into the field Well the Devil resolves to enter into Battalia with him Simon Simon saith Christ Behold Satan hath desired to have you that Lnk. 22. 31. he may sift you as wheat And there he doth first skirmish with Peter and sends out a Damsel against him Thou also Matth. 26. 69. 70. wast with Jesus of Galilee but he denied before them all saying I know not what thou sayest Here she breaks the rank and gets in upon Peter and what doth Satan do now He drives on furiously takes the present advantage and sends another maid and she chargeth him more strongly for she saith to them that were there This Vers 71. fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth Mark ye this fellow and she saith it unto them that were there round about him A worse charge than the former And again he denieth with an oath But Satan follows on still and now draws up Vers 72. Vers 73. his whole body against Peter After a while came unto him they that stood by a stronger multitude still and said unto Peter Surely thou also art one of them for thy speech bewrayeth thee Vers 74. Then began he to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And now he routs Peter and disperseth all his forces for saith the Text He began to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And here you have a second particular Satan is armed with malice against souls Thirdly Satan is armed with pride As David saith The 3 Particular Psal 10. 2. wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor Let them be taken in the device they have imagined Fourthly and lastly Another reason that helps Satan on well 4 Particular in his devices is because he hath a large conscience Indeed he hath no conscience Satan hath conscience of sin but he makes no conscience of sin he hath conscience of sin that is smiting him with sense of guilt but he makes no conscience of sin and therefore can do any thing As a man that makes nothing of sin to swear nor lye he may carry on any design he may grow rich Now the Devil is such he will swear and dissemble and lye and therefore may carry any design on foot He did lye to Eve in paradise and he was a lying spirit in the mouth of Gen. 3. 5. 1 King 22. 22. Ahabs Prophets Vse 1. The first Vse is this If Satan be so learned and exquisite an artist in the Trade of deceiving souls then let us not be ignorant of his devices as the Apostle saith but be fore-warn'd and fore-arm'd In the handling of this Vse I shall discover Satans plots and temptations Satan doth tempt men First Before conversion Secondly Satan tempts men in conversion And thirdly Satan tempts men after conversion 1. Satan tempts men before conversion that they may not be converted First To delay their repentance till they be sick When we are sick then we will repent Pain and weakness of body is no advantage to repentance and returning unto God it unfits the soul for action Hence observe what the Apostle James saith when he reckons up the several conditions of the Saints Is any among you afflicted let him pray he speaks Jam. 5. 13 14. that in general but saith he Is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he had said a sick man can hardly pray for himself Is any among you afflicted let him pray In afflictions a man can pray for himself But is any sick among you Let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he should say a sick man cannot pray for himself he hath enough to do to wrestle with his pain and conflict he hath need to call others to pray for him A diseased body unfits the mind for holy duties and therefore sick Hezekiah's praying Isa 38. 14. is called chattering like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter The pain of his body wrought such a disquietness and uncomposedness upon his spirit that he could not pray but chatter or like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter that is I Annotat. could not speak but sigh and groan or I was so full of pain that my Prayers were very quick and short not sentences but words not words but syllables not plain syllables but chatterings How pitiful then are they mistaken who put off repentance till their bodies be in pain till they are sick or weak They do it upon this ground because when the body is sick they think repentance is easie It is quite otherwise And therefore did Satan aim to make Job sick Satan was Job 2. 5. confident to trouble the mind of Job by casting Darts and Diseases into his body by making Job sick he hoped to make Job blaspheme and curse God Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face If Satan thought by pain and sickness to make Job blaspheme God Dost thou think that pain will be an advantage to thee to turn to God It is said in Revelations at the pouring out of the fourth Chap. 16. 9. vial when they were scorcht with great heat they blasphemed God and they repented not to give him glory Let wicked men be scorcht with a feaver or with a pestilence or sickness and 't is the way to make them blaspheme God and therefore 't is a woful thing to put off repentance to a pained body pain in its own nature fits us rather to blaspheme and fly upon God than fly to God Never think it is one thing what God may make use of but do you never think to have help for the cure of your souls by the diseases of your bodies Usually we find that either sick persons repent not or theirs is but a sickly repentance Indeed a long and lingering sickness may do much there is a time wherein the understanding may act deliberately and the work may be digested but a short sickness and a short repentance such as it is I
which are wonderful Thy testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul Psal 119. 129. keep them There is peace that passeth all understanding joy unspeakable and full of glory There we have the ways of his Wisdom and his dealings with the Saints which are wonderful as Job saith Things too Job 42. 3. wonderful for me which I knew not To bring us to life by death to glory by shame to perfect his work in abasement to bring it low that he may raise after But how may we know these Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven 1. You must use all means you must read and hear and discourse you must study the things of God and converse with the Saints to whom God hath revealed these Mysteries The Ministry of the Word is the golden pipe through which these Divine Mysteries flow down into your Knowledg And then meditate of these things till the heart be warmed fasten your thoughts on them every day It is your Wisdom to spend consideration on them Oh that my people were wise that they would consider their latter end I say it is your wisdom to consider the Excellency of these Mysteries of Religion the Beauty of them in themselves the fruit and sweetness of them in this world and in the world to come An ingredient in the use of means after this Knowledg is that you must search for it The promise of finding Knowledg is only to such as search for Knowledg It is such a precious treasure that it lyeth deep in the bowels of Scripture Thou Prov. 2. 4. shalt find wisdom if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures There are two places two veins especially where wisdom is to be found there is the Book of Gods Word and the Book of Gods Works the Book of Scripture and the Book of Providence In these two Books we are to search and study out the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven The Word reveals them the hand of Providence doth dispense them The Word unfolds them Providence makes all things to further them in the soul And let me tell you One great means to irradiate your Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is to know that Mystery of sinfulness that is in you and that Mystery of misery that lieth upon you It is not to be conceived as Jeremy saith How deceitful the heart is and how desperately wickea what a depth of corruption lyeth there The cursed and woful state we are in by nature is not to be conceived Man's apprehension is too little to take in all the Dimensions of it to lye under the eternal wrath of God what head can comprehend it VVhat created soul can fathom in her widest thoughts the wrath of an infinite God Who can tell what Hell is And how hot the fire is which Gods Almighty wrath hath kindled to all eternity As eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those that love him so neither hath eye seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive those depths and treasures of misery that men are in by nature Here we may cry out Oh the depths Therefore the more transparent Knowledg we have of the Mystery of Corruption and of the dreadful misery we are in by sin the more we shall wonder at the unparalell'd goodness of God in the Mystery of our salvation the one will sharpen the appetite of the other Truly Sirs if you are yet in the state of sin consider how little there is between you and eternal Death you are ready to drop into Hell immediately and irrecoverably Did these things sit sadly and seriously upon your spirits how would it advance the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven 2. That you may know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven bring Humility and self-denial Humble reason and make her give place to Faith for the humility we here speak of is a Denial of our own Parts and Wits though they be never so capacious In this case the Intellectus must be rasa tabula I say the understanding must be as a Table scraped all the Writings and Notions of humane Wit and Reason must be scraped out It must be like the Wax that hath no Character that it may receive the Impression of the Seal That which reason should do in supernatural things is to stoop to Faith to believe the things of God upon the sole Authority of God Here it is the greatest reason to yield to Faith In Divine Mysteries Faith is the reason of reason and the highest reason is to yield to God that hath revealed them And therefore Faith stands with the greatest reason that can be for is it not the greatest reason in the world to believe him that is Truth it self Reason it self saith It is the greatest reason to believe God who is the first Truth 3. Wait upon the spirit Give the spirit that Honour to reveal these Mysteries to you For your eyes are blind you have an inward darkness upon you the Gospel takes away the Vail from the things but the spirit takes away the Vail from our souls The Jews had a Vail of types and shadows thrown over the things themselves now I say Our Gospel takes away the Vail from the things but the spirit must take away the Vail from our hearts In Nature there is need of a double light that we may behold Objects 1. A light someness upon the Object it self through the Medium and therefore men cannot see in the night because the air which is the Medium is dark 2. A light besides in the Organ that is the eye and therefore blind men cannot see in the day because though the Sun shines and things may be seen in themselves yet they want a light in the eye So though the former darkness which lay upon the Mysseries of Heaven be taken away those legal shadows and curtains are removed and the Sun of the Gospel shines full upon our faces yet we are blind within there lyeth an inward darkness upon our faculty and the spirit must open our eyes and give us a vital light to joyn with the outward light 4. Send up your prayers to Heaven The holy Vapours of Prayer ascending the spirit comes down in showres upon the soul The earth must send up Vapours before the Clouds can give down rain And therefore Paul prays for the Ephesians That God would give them the spirit of Wisdom and Revelation Eph. 1. 17 18. that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints 5. He that would find the knowledg of Divine Mysteries must seek it with a sanctified mind That which enables us to know and understand aright the things of God must be a living principle of Holiness in us As Plotinus saith The eye cannot behold
and grace for grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one grace for another The latter for the former for having mentioned the fulness of Christ he saith That not one but many graces are drawn and derived from him not one but many graces the first whereof is the cause of the second the second of the third and the third of the fourth and so along always the latter is given for the former till all the gifts of grace being compleated beatitude it self is at last perfected Not as if more grace were given for the right use of grace for that were to take us off from Christ to our selves whereas 't is the Apostles scope to fix us wholly on Christ but the Condition and Nature of Saving-grace which is such Vt prima Trahat alteram that the first draws the second they are as it were so concatenated as one Ring in a chain draws another and for the former that is given the latter is given that is God because he hath given the one will give the other such is the Order and Method he observes he give grace for grace that is where he finds one grace he gives another and where he finds some he gives more Or Grace for Grace i. e. Gratiam super Gratiam grace upon grace i. e. abundance of grace having scarce received one but presently receive another and after that another which Musculus saith the Hebrews express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle shews it in Rom. 8. 30. From the fulness of Christ we have received the grace of our Calling and upon our calling the grace of Pardon and Justification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Justification the grace of Adoption and Sanctification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Adoption the grace of Glory and Salvation still grace upon grace as the Apostle expresseth it in Ephes 1. 3 4 c. We shall now give you the Reasons of the Point why it is that where there are beginnings of true grace though never so weak God makes rich additions of more grace And Reas 1. Because grace in a Saint is God's own child the infant grace is the Spirits little babe begot in the Womb of the soul by the Spirit the soul is the Mother of it and the Spirit is the Father of it Now you know a Father is very tender of his young babe he takes it up in his Arms and looks upon it he reads his own Image in it and puts it in his bosom he handles it as gently as ever he can and preserves it from the least harm So when the Infant-grace is born in the soul the Spirit is very tender of his young babe he makes wondrous much of it and is as Preservative of its life as ever he can As you may see in Paul he had been in sore pangs of Travel three days and three nights together and the child Grace was newly born and see what care the Spirit had of it said he to Annanias Arise do not stay saith he but Acts 9. 11. arise and go into the street which is called Straight and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth The child Grace as soon as it was born began to cry and the Spirit presently takes care of it 1. The Spirit when the soul is brought to bed and safely delivered of her Man-child Grace sets the little babe to nurse and provides suck for it and gives it the Breasts of the Ordinances as the Apostle saith And I brethren could not speak 1 Cor. 3. 1 1 Pet. 2. 2. unto you as unto spiritual but as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk And in 1 Pet. 2 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby A babe when 't is new-born must have milk which is the most nutritive food in the world so must the little new creature when it is born it must have milk and therefore the Spirit provides it for him The Ordinances are the Breasts and the Ministers are the Nurses which give it suck As the Apostle saith We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth 1 Thes 2. 7. her children 2. The Spirit dades his little child Grace and teacheth it to go As God saith When Israel was a child I loved him Hos 11. 1. Verse 3. and called my son out of Egypt I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms And therefore are we said to be led by the spirit and to walk Rom. 8. 14. in the spirit 3. The Spirit teacheth his little child Grace to speak as a Father you know takes up his little one upon his knee and teacheth him to Articulate words and to call Dad so doth the Holy Spirit teach the child Grace to cry Abba Gal. 4. 6 Father Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Reas 2. Where there are beginnings of true grace God makes rich Additions of more grace because such is the Lords noble Nature that he loves to be giving To give is an Act Dare honestum quid est Recipere utile Dans exercet Actum Monestum Accipere utilem Agit ille hic patitur potius for a Prince rather for a God poor men receive rich men give Subjects receive Princes give Creatures receive the Creator gives The more noble and eminent natures are the more they give and the less they receive The heavenly bodies glance their light and dart their influences upon the Earth below but receive nothing from the Earth To give is an Act of perfection to receive is a note of imperfection were we not imperfect we need not be receiving He that gives imitates God who gives and receives not again because he wants not any thing And therefore it was a saying of Christ It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. It is a part of Gods Beatitude that he is all things and hath all things to give that he can give and not be beholden to receive that he is an overflowing Sea always pouring out his gifts and golden streams upon the Creature When he hath given thee grace he hath more grace still to give And being a God and not man he gives continually to give he makes his continued Act He 'l never cease giving to his Saints not only in this life but in the life to come he will be giving out unto his Saints eternally As the Sun is always giving out its heat and virtue to the World so will God be always giving out his sweetness to his Saints throughout Eternity So that he that hath grace shall have more grace he that hath it in the bud and in the beginning shall have it in the perfection fear not poor creature if thou art always wanting God will be always giving and being a God
of life or spirit of lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 7. and man became a living soul So when thou lyest dead before the Lord without any life or breath of Prayer in thee thou canst not so much as breathe before him he 'l breathe a Soul of Prayer into thee he 'l put breath into thee as he did into Acts 9. 11. Saul Behold he prayeth saith God 2. Sometimes a man sends a gift to one that never asked him for it so doth God sometimes send his gifts of grace to them that never ask for it he gives them before they ask it Opposers and Persecutors are said to be the greatest Sinners yet saith Christ upon the Cross Father forgive them they know not what they do he spake it of those that put him to Death Some might have said Lord they are opposers of thee even to the Death be it so saith Christ I have mercy for opposers too and for persecutors too Father forgive them they know not what they do But Lord they do not beg for pardon wilt thou give such a kindness to them that ask not for it They do not acknowledg their fault if thou wilt shew mercy to them stay till they acknowledg their fault and be humbled and ask pardon nay saith Christ I will prevent poor sinners with my love Though they do not ask forgiveness yet I beg forgiveness Father forgive them But Lord these are great sinners and less mercy would serve the turn forgiveness is a great mercy no saith Christ no mercy less than forgiveness will serve the turn they 'l be never the better for any mercy without forgiveness therefore they shall have it Father forgive them but forgiveness is a great mercy be it so saith Christ I know what I do I have great mercy the greatest mercy for the greatest sinners and because they cannot ask it I will ask it for them Father forgive them Vse 6. Wo to you Professors that have not true grace from Matth 13. 12. Luk. 8. 18. them shall be taken away even that which they have Luke saith From them shall be taken that which they seem to have For if we speak of true grace they have not grace only seem to have it They seem to be holy and their seeming holiness shall be taken from them They seem to believe and their seeming Faith shall be taken from them They seem to repent and their seeming Repentance shall be taken from them They Matth. 13. 20. seem to joy in Christ and in Mercy and the Promises but their seeming joy shall be taken from them The spirit doth but assume them he doth not inform them nor enliven them As the dead bodies which Angels assume for a time they seem to live and talk and eat and drink but when the Angel leaves them because they were not the Angels proper bodies they vanish away and lose that life they did seem to have So the Spirit of God doth assume and act the souls of many men in the Church for a time to do service for God by them and all that while they pray and preach and hear and walk up and down in Duty out of one Duty into another and the Spirit leaves them because he did but assume them and then they drop down dead as indeed they are and always were Thus the Spirit did assume Judas for a time Judas was but a dead man in soul all the time he was with Christ only the Spirit of God assumed him and acted him and he followed Christ and went about Preaching the Gospel with the other Disciples but when the Spirit left him he betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver that was his proper work and despaired and dyed Vse 7. This should put the Saints upon a serious Tryal of their graces The Point tells you that where there are beginnings of true grace God will make rich Additions of more grace Oh then try what grace yours is if it be true grace God will give more grace As the Apostle saith He that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it If it be a good work God will perfect it he will cherish his own work Sirs God will not nurse up a spurious seed Bastard grace whereof he is not the Father Oh! then all you that would taste comfort from this Point try your graces The Evangelical Hypocrite is he I aim at There is Gospel-Hypocrisie so I call it for where the Gospel comes there are two sorts of Persons that walk beside it 1. Some directly oppose the Doctrine of it and those are Justitiaries that set up their own Righteousness as the Jews Rom. 9. 31 32. did And therefore it is said That Christ came to his own and his John 1. 11. own received him not And such are the Papists at this day who are justly by our Divines said to answer to the Jewish Pharisees These are Christian Pharisees they receive Christ in Name but set up their own Righteousness and will be justified by their own Works and saved by their own Merits 2. Others there are that receive the Gospel and so decry all their own Righteousness and cry up Christ they see nothing in themselves and look for all from Christ renouncing their own Righteousness and resting upon Christ alone for salvation These are of divers sorts 1. Some receive Christ with an Historical lifeless Faith they believe in Christ but will not part with their sins they gladly embrace Christ as a Saviour but oppose Holiness and will not change their lives and because Christ came into the World to save sinners they take liberty to sin and hope to be saved as well as any These are those we call our large Protestants who are as great Enemies to Christ as Papists are The Papists persecute the true Christians in the Point of Doctrine and these Enemies within us persecute the true Christians in Point of Holiness The Papists they will be saved by works without Faith these will be saved by Faith without works These are spots in our feasts The Epistles of James and John were written as Antidotes against this kind of poyson And Jude writes against these men ungodly men turning the Vers 4. grace of God into lasciviousness Arguing from mercy to liberty which is the Divils Logick Continuing in sin that grace may abound And my Beloved in this lyeth the very form of an Evangelical Hypocrite in denying his own Righteousness to establish his sin he will advance Christ to advance his lust Dub. But how can open sinners keep their lusts live in visible prophaneness and yet believe in Christ Sol. Because the Gospel brings the sweetest and highest Consolations along with it And therefore every man under sense of sin will fly thither for Sanctuary and hide himself under the Canopy of the Gospels mercy A man that travels under the fiery Beams of the Sun in an hot day the cool shadow of a Tree is very
for himself every Principle is for Operation The eye for seeing and the ear for hearing so grace is for work Now I say Christ hath begun a good work in you be you then at his work daily and finish it As it was with Christ the Head so should it be with all his members I have finished the work which thou gavest me Joh. 17. 4. to do The Apostle speaking to the Saints that had grace begun in them saith he As you have yielded your members servants Rom. 6. 19. to uncleanness and to iniquity Even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Peter writing to them saith The time past of our life may 1 Pet. 4. 3. suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles Sirs before you had grace you served sin and having grace will you not stir up your selves to serve Jesus Christ Your so long service to sin should set a keen edg upon you to serve Jesus Christ You live in Times and Places wherein men have so much work of their own to do that Christ is neglected and few men walk with God or act for God Some take mens Examples for patterns and copies and content themselves to do as others do Others are apt to put off Christ with desires but serve Satan indeed Others are catching at comforts and promises but neglect Precepts the Commands of God are tedious and burthensom to them Surely then you in whom the work of grace is begun it stands you upon to be at work for God whilst others shut up shop and are Bankrupts you should drive on a Trade for him 1. For he hath set you up again he hath underlaid and stockt you with Principles of Action he hath put you into a way of doing and given you wheels to move upon he hath made you Wings to fly Object Many excuse their negligence by pretending inability How often do Saints put a fine dress upon their laziness Alas I am nothing of my self except God give me an heart and strength what can I do Without me saith Christ ye can John 15. 5. do nothing Answ Do not deceive your selves God will not be mocked 1. The words of Christ have this meaning without me that is separate from me ye can do nothing that is till you are planted in me Now you say you are planted in Christ and therefore your excuse is but a lye This expression of Christ speaks no more but this that till you be knit to Christ you are but dead and barren Branches as Christ explains himself As the branch cannot bring forth fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in Vers 4. me Now you say you are knit and united to Christ and therefore away with these couzening vizors and palliations If you are not yet in Christ then confess it if you say you are in Christ then say not you can do nothing 2. The regenerate have a power to Act for God and to do work for Christ First Else there is no specifical difference between a man regenerate and unregenerate if both were without strength Secondly We should not have as much benefit by the second Adam as we had by the first Adam The first would have communicated his Power to do good and being corrupted doth communicate Power to do evil Therefore much more by Christ have we a Power to act for God in our measure Thirdly If you are in Christ you are living Branches vital Members and all life is a Power to act Fourthly What is grace but a repairing of that Holiness and Image of God which we lost in Adam But that was a Power to do what God required therefore so far as that Image is renewed so far there is a Power And therefore Saints Act for Jesus Christ I say you have wings and therefore fly upon action soar up a lost in Service for Jesus Christ God hath given you feet and therefore run the way of his Commandments God hath said to you as Peter did to the man that was Act 3. lame from his mothers Womb In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk and your feet and ancle-bones received strength And therefore God expects that you should be upon employment for him If you say It is true we have habitual grace a new frame of heart but we must have assisting grace and influence else we can do nothing the work is hard and we cannot act without new breathings I say Let the duty be to nature impossible yet the Lord is at hand to help even when there is no strength He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he Isa 40. 29. increaseth strength You know how the Israelites pleaded impossibilities and then the Lords anger rose when they were ready to enter Canaan If you had no Christ no Spirit no Promise to assure you to help you might then let fall Duties and cease to action and say 't is impossible I should ever overcome such sins or attain such a measure of grace or bear the Cross or do any thing But when Promises to assure you and Christ and Spirit to breathe upon you are at hand now to plead impossibility is to reproach the Lord If you were under the Law you might plead this but under Grace 't is horrible to make this excuse Remember therefore Gideon and Sampson and David who went out in the Name and Spirit of the Lord and they were helped 3. Know this that the more difficult any work or duty is the more sweetness shall you find in it if you break through it He that overcomes shall eat of the hidden Manna Have you not found your selves dead to Prayer yet you fell to it and then would not but have took the season for a world The husbandman that hath laboured eats afterward of his 2 Tim. 2. 6. fruit You plead the difficulty of a Christian life and therefore taste not the sweetness of it If you can do no more than what is easie and pleaseth self the Lord will never let you taste the sweetness of pleasing him 4. What do you mean to be Like whom Christ teacheth you to breathe out this Prayer Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Do you look for Heaven and will you not act as they do in Heaven whom do you make your patterns If you are not like Heaven you are Bastards not Sons I am sure Angels are content to come out of Heaven to do the work of God nay the Lord Christ himself came down from Heaven and was made lower than the Angels to do the Work of God and shall your hands shrink at it or will you think your selves too good to do it You have here the noblest patterns and most unparallel'd Copies to write after Like whom then do you mean to be Will you draw back from Angels work from the work the Son of God was
is coy of what he knows lawful You will say this is pure niceness nee lless preciseness I tell you you know not the Scriptures All things are lawful but all things are not expedient All things are lawful for 1 Cor. 6. 12. 1 Cor. 10. 23. me but all things edifie not The judicious tender conscience asks Bernards three Questions An Liceat An Deceat An Expediat Is it lawful May I do it and not sin But suppose it be lawful Is it comely Is it becoming me a Christian May I do it and not reflect upon my Profession Is it expedient May I do it and not offend my weak Brother There are some things we must deny our selves for others sakes Things that are evil we must deny them for our own sakes and many lawful things we must deny for others sakes If meat make my brother to offend I will eat no 1 Cor. 8 13. flesh while the world stands lest I make my brother to offend 7. The tender conscience observes as well what he hoth not as what he doth regards omissions as well as commissions Our Lord Christ was as much displeased with Peters disswasion of him from suffering as with Satans perswasion to fall down and worship him his answer was the same to both Get thee behind me Satan Thou must as well observe what thou doest not as what thou doest The tender conscience takes notice of every opportunity he hath to do good trembleth to neglect duty as much as to act sin Thirdly God advanceth grace in his People by preserving their appetite to Ordinances They that are not hungry cannot feed It is uncomfortable to come with a full stomack to a full Table They look upon the dishes while others eat of them These may talk of Christ and Religion but the others feed on them A mans graces cannot grow strong unless he feed and he cannot feed unless he is hungry And therefore God adds strength to his Saints graces by preserving appetite in them to his Ordinances When Peter was hungry he heard a voice saying Rise and Act. 10. 13. eat It is Gods delight to fill the hungry with good things Luk. 1. 53. Matth. 5. 6. And this it is that Christ stiles them Blessed Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Hunger though it speaks want yet there 's a blessedness attends it They shall be filled 'T is a strange promise that a man should be filled for no other reason but because he is hungry Among men it is not so In the Gospel the poor mans hunger is his Blessing In the World the poor mans hunger is his misery because men are not willing to feed him as oft as he is hungry and therefore the poor man of the world could wish he might be never a hungry But in the Gospel through Gods free-grace and bounty Blessed are the hungry for they shall be filled Their appetite makes them eat Christ and eat promises and eat pardon of sin and eating makes them strong Their hunger makes them prize Ordinances and the Gospel provisions when they are called they come to the marriage they do not make excuses but come to the supper and these guests God himself bids them welcom and carves unto them and therefore their graces must needs thrive God accepts our appetite as much as if we paid ready money for his graces Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the Isa 55. 1. waters buy and eat Their hunger is instead of a price their thirst pleaseth him as much as payment and therefore Blessed are the hungry for they shall be filled What made Davids graces thrive so well but his appetite to the Ordinances One thing have I desired of the Lord that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and to enquire in his Psal 27. 4. temple O God thou art my God My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee To see thy power and thy Psal 63. 1 2. glory so as I have seen thee in thy sanctuary David had a keen-appetite after the Ordinances and his appetite made his graces strong I say his appetite made him relish the word How sweet are thy words unto my taste Psal 119. 103. yea sweeter than honey to my mouth And this made him feed so heartily when he came My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal 63. 5. And now grace must needs grow because their palate is qualified for such delicates they taste them with a transporting delight and feed upon them with extream pleasure Thus God animates and strengthens his Saints graces by preserving a fresh appetite in them to Ordinances And how doth he preserve their appetite to Ordinances Because this is so necessary to keep grace alive and vigorous in the soul therefore you shall find God runs various Methods to accomplish it 1. He keeps their sins in their eye or some special sin upon their Conscience My sin saith David is ever before Psal 51. 3. me Quietness within no trouble upon the Conscience will in time dull the appetite Men surfeit upon their peace within As a long peace corrupts a State and breeds sins and vices in it a still and standing pool is full of mud so a continued peace in the soul begets much vanity and many diseases in her Quietness takes away her stomach And therefore God represents some sin that we have done to the soul and stings the conscience with it and then the soul runs and looks up to the brazen Serpent God will not suffer your consciences to be quiet his design is to maintain an appetite in you to Ordinances 2. He hides their graces from them they think they have no grace at all or not true grace they have it there it is but God sends it to hide it self behind the curtain they cannot find it and then they cry and their spirits are stirred up now their appetite is rowsed they find an appetite to Prayer an appetite to Self-examination an appetite to Christ and to Ordinances God is fain to deal thus with them to hide their graces from them and then when they think they are lost they go from place to place to find them and at last they come as Joseph and Mary did to the Temple and there they find Christ This God doth to preserve and keep up your appetite 3. The growth of grace is hidden and concealed from them and here they make heavy complaints and conclude sadly against themselves Surely my graces are not of the true blood of the royal descent because they do not grow in me were they vital they would grow or else God hath forsaken me and I am under his sore and sad dissertion Thus they lye under the black Cloud their graces being true without question do grow and yet their growth of grace is hid from them And why doth the Lord carry things thus with them but to
quicken and stir up their appetite that they may have an edg upon their spirits to the Ordinances And thus though under many fears and much doubting yet grace increaseth in them for as a lively and quick appetite to the Ordinances is a sign of growth so it is a means of the growth of grace 4. The Lord increaseth grace in his people by the communion of Saints It is not good saith God for man to be alone As man is a sociable creature so grace loves company nay grace needs company and society Exhort one another daily saith the Apostle while it is called to day Travellers are sensible how dangerous it is to ride alone Who knows what or whom they may meet with in the way Communion of Saints is a Divine Ordinance Grace cannot thrive well without it and we must not think to grow in grace when we will live without an Ordinance In Communion there is Communication in the Communion of Saints there is a Communication of Graces and Experiences and Influences There cannot be a building unless there be a meeting of stones Saints together In the Communion of Saints there is a bearing up of one another As in a Fabrick one stone holds and bears up another Bear you one anothers burdens and so fulfil the law of Gal. 6. 2. Christ In the Communion of Saints there is a praying for one another Pray one for another And what an help is this to the Jam. 5. 16. growth of grace In the Communion of Saints there is a telling of one another their faults an opening of the wound that it may let out Matth. 18. 15. the corrupt matter a friendly conviction to nip the sin in its bud that it may go on no further and doth not this contribute much to the growth of grace In the Communion of Saints there is a mutual mourning over 2 Cor. 12. 21. one another a shedding of tears for one another which falling like dew cannot but moisten and mollisie the withering herb and repair decaying grace Tell me Doth not this advance the work In the Communion of Saints there is a restoring of one another a setting of bones that are out into joynt again like curious and tender Chyrurgeons with gentle handling of the diseased party not roughly but by putting him to as little pain as may be for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies If any be overtaken Gal. 6. 1. in a fault Restore him with the spirit of meekness And doth not this help to perfect grace wonderfully In the Communion of Saints there is a consolation of repenting sinners a providing of Cordials for lapsed souls that faint under the sense of their sins an Application of comforts to them under their grief and shame Forgive him saith the 2 Cor. 2. 7 8. Apostle and comfort him lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow confirm your love toward him And tell me how Doth not this cheer up grace exceedingly This is another means whereby God furthers grace in his People the Communion of Saints And are ye not now ashamed of your selves that you use this Ordinance no more among you Do you not find your graces to wither in you for want of it There are strong Saints and there are weak Saints and the weak ones should receive quicknings from the Benign influence of the stronger As Pliny tells us of a Territory in Africk Nat. Histor l. 18. c. 22. in which a City called Tacape is situate I say in this Territory as he tells us in his time there stood a mighty great Date-tree having under it growing an Olive under which there is a Fig-tree and that over-spreads a Pomgranate-tree under the shade whereof there is a Vine Every one of these saith he live joy and thrive under the shade of each other Such is the Communion of Saints rightly planted a company of precious Trees where the Olive grows under the Date-tree the Fig-tree under the Olive the Pomgranate under the Fig-tree and the Vine under the Pomgranate the weak Saints under the shadow of the stronger 5. By want of assurance I say the Lord quickens his peoples graces by withdrawings of his Presence and interpositions of black darkness They lye out in a night of sad fears and wants of assurance Not that God delights in these Methods but he is fain to do so the necessities of his Saints call for it otherwise they would be stark naught They would forsake God if God did not forsake them for a while For 1. Did they always enjoy Gods smiles they would grow fearless of God Fear of God is a great preservative of grace and antidote against sin Now fearlesness of God is a distemper which the Saints are apt to grow into As children are wont to grow sawcy and irreverent when their Father dandles them too much upon the lap of familiarity and therefore he is fain sometimes by his frowns and distance to take down their spirits So though God be a Father yet he will be feared Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. 11. And therefore to correct the sinful boldness of his Children and cause them to stand in awe of him he sometimes shuts in his favour and takes state by concealing himself as the Persian Kings shunned familiarity and were seldom seen that they might be the more honoured The fear of God is one of the main pillars of his Throne and so far as he is not our fear he is not our God And therefore to advance his fear in the hearts of his people he withdraws his face and where fear grows grace grows For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom i. e. the chief or principal part of our wisdom The Saints fear of God keeps them from Apostacy I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me and to quicken their fear they shall sometimes feel his absence 2. The Lord leaves his people in wants of assurance to cure them of slightness of heart There is a trifling disposition in the hearts of Saints they are apt to be superficial in their ways and this God visits upon them They dally with duties do them as if they did them not without heart in a lazy and liveless manner you are in an evil frame of heart when you can do the weighty things of God with slightness There are three evils in a slight and formal Commnnion with God 1. Vnfaithfulness A slothful servant is an unfaithful servant He that is faithful doth his masters work with all his might And certainly a slight communion with God speaks a slight love to God Where then there is idleness and indisposedness God comes in a way of anger to whip up the slothful and unfaithful spirit and this stirs up grace Negligence and dallying with duties would kill grace and therefore it is a mighty mercy of God to shadow himself from his
in unto you to take off your thoughts from the present duty He will let your thoughts wander in Prayer upon good things that you may be never the better for that Prayer And he will raise up good and holy motions in you whilst you are hearing a Sermon that they might divert your thoughts from the present Sermon Here our deceitful hearts will be ready to think that those come from the Spirit of grace oh cunning Devil but the truth is they come from Satan for the Spirit of God hath no such office to draw away mens minds from hearing the word nor to trouble mens minds in prayer with thoughts impertinent 6. Satan makes choice of such instruments to tempt by as are likely to be most effectual Thus you know he did Gen 3. 6. 1 Reg. 21. Job 2. 9. overcome Adam by Eve his second self Again thus he tempted Ahab by Jezzabel a prevailing instrument And thus he tempted Job by his wife and thus he tempted Christ Matth. 16. 22. 23. by Peter and therefore said Christ to Peter Get thee behind me Satan Satan can make use of our friends to do us hurt by He tempts not only by himself but by instruments and not only by such as are at a distance from us but by those who are nearest in relation and by those most He can make a friend a child a wife instrumental for our ruine As Saul married his Daughter to David that she might be a snare to him 1 Sam. 18. 21. 6. Satan tempts us by our own selves He makes use of our own reason or understanding to deceive our selves he draws reason out of our own bowels to destroy us and here you have the first particular where you find how busie Satan is and how skilful an artist Satan is to undermine us he is a very intelligent creature 2. Satan is armed with malice against souls That 's a reason 2 Particular Psal 41. 7. that sets him upon devising devices against us As David saith All that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt And in another place While Psal 31. 13. they took counsel together against me they devised to take away my life So that hatred and malice is the root of plotting and evil devices against one When we hate one and bear him ill will then we set upon devices against him Now Satan is full of malice against God and then against the Church and People of God 1. His malice against God To tempt men is a pleasure to his malice thinking himself by this means somewhat revenged of God As he that defaceth the picture of his enemy when he cannot come at his person easeth his spleen a little so the Dog gnaws the stone that cannot reach the thrower so Satan makes it his work to raze Gods Image out of man because he cannot reach God himself 2. Satan is boundless in his malice against Gods People and against the Church of God Therefore saith Paul God is 1 Cor. 10. 13. faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted namely by Satan above that you are able As if he had said Satan would with all his heart lay more upon you than you are able to bear Satan would break your backs if he were let alone but God will not suffer it Observe here these four things 1. Satans extream malice is seen in tempting us against God and in tempting God against us He doth not only tempt us to sin against God that were malice enough but when we little think of it when we are asleep or in our business he is trying and tempting God against us O extream malice Thus God himself acknowledgeth in Job Thou movedst Job 2. 3. me against him to destroy him without cause Pure malice stirreth up Satan against the People of God though he always pretends somewhat in them yet the cause is in himself and therefore Satan hath two names in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tempter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slanderer or accuser noting his two special works Temptation Accusation He solicites good men to do evil against God hence he hath his name the tempter and he solicites God to conceive evil of good men and hence he hath his name the slanderer or accuser 2. When Satan cannot obtain against us by one means he endeavours it by another He will not give off for the loss of one game he is not wont to give his cause over for lost because he cannot carry it at first he will try and try again As it was with Balaak when he sent for Balaam to curse the Numb 23. 27. people and saw the business did not prosper Balaam could not curse them he brought him to another place Come faith he I pray thee I will bring thee to another place peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence though you could not do it in one place you may in another Satan if he cannot work his will one way will try a second or third and observe that when Satan tryeth a second means after a first he tryeth a way more probable and efficacious for his ends than the former 3. When a weaker will not do it he provides stronger means As God in punishing or chastising sinners when a lesser Judgment will not humble them he sends a greater God comes not only with another but with sorer Judgments I F ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me then I will punish ye seven Lev. 26. 18. times more for your sins So Satan if you will not hearken unto him in one temptation he will tempt you seven times more and seven times stronger as he did Job Job 2. 5. Job 1. 14 15 16 19. Before he got leave to touch Jobs cattel and goods and to touch Jobs Children Sons and Daughters here was one greater than the former for a mans children are more than all that he hath in the world besides A mans children are himself in every child is the Father multiplied the child is the Fathers bowels and therefore this affliction reached to the very bowels of Job Then after all this he gets leave to smite Jobs body Put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his Chap. 2. 5. flesh and he will curse thee to thy face And this is greater still than the former Jobs children were near to him but himself was nearer and therefore said Satan Touch his bone and his flesh that is afflict his body the bone and the flesh are the two chief parts the material parts of the body of them the whole Fabrick doth consist The bone is as the stone or Timber in this house and the flesh is as the Lime and Morter filling of it up Touch this faith Satan and here he aims at sore affliction for if he had said only thus Touch his flesh that might have been made affliction great enough But
yet Heb. 4. 15. without sin But in our infirmity of the flesh we are seldom tempted by afflictions without sin Although affliction doth not quite vanquish and overcome us yet always almost at the very first on-set it doth like a great blow dizzy the brain and makes us give back If we be not thrown down yet we reel and stagger and sometimes it lays us flat and our faith lyes sprawling upon the ground In affliction there are two things 1. Sensation And 2. Temptation 1. In affliction there is Sensation doloris sensus the sense of pain and grief and this Christ felt as well as we we cannot and he could not taste affliction without pain as we are affected with Dolour when evils lye upon us so was Christ he felt sharp and keen pain and thus Christ was tempted in all things and in the same manner as we are as to sense of pain and grief yet without sin But 2. In affliction there is also temptation to sin and because it is so true that great temptations arise out of afflictions therefore are afflictions Antonomastice called temptations they tempt sadly to murmuring and impatience to wrangling and expostulation with God to unbelief and doubting of his love nay to cast off God Doth God himself tempt me thus and afflict me thus and shall I serve such a Master Ah! look how ye are under your daily afflictions Vse 8. Doth God tempt Abraham Abraham his friend Then you may be the tempted and yet the beloved of the Lord God tempts and tries his dear ones all 's in love 1. He tempts his dear ones he tempts those whom he loves dearly Abraham was high in Gods Books one of his intimate and bosom-acquaintance and yet God tempts Abraham Nay to give you a greater instance than Abraham Jesus Christ was tempted I say Jesus Christ was Heb. 4. 15. in all points tempted like as we are and yet the beloved of the Lord he was the tempted and yet the beloved of the Lord he was tempted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminently superlatively more than us all and yet he was beloved of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminently and superlatively above us all So that ye may be the tempted and yet the beloved of the Lord nay Jesus Christ was tempted of God himself he was not only tempted by the tempter but by his dear Father God himself My God my God why hast thou forsaken me 2. All is in love he tempts in love he not only tempts his beloved but he tempts them in love that he may love them the more and they in the Issue love him the better How much more did God love Abraham when he saw him forget himself to be a Father and his own child to be his Son for his sake By my self have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou Gen. 22. 16 17. hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son That in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the Sea-shore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies And did not this message from heaven think you kindle a greater flame of love in Abrahams bosom toward God without doubt it did God loves Abraham more Abraham loves God more than ever he did When Abraham saw Gods design and had his Son delivered safe to him again How was his heart filled with a spiritual torrent of joy He gained the experience of Gods love to him and of his love to God and would not have unwished the temptation again upon any terms 3. God tempts and all is in wisdom God tempts his Beloved in wisdom he corrects his Children as well as his Enemies but when he corrects them it is in much prudence and wisdom Quest But how shall I know that God tempts me for my good How shall I know that God afflicts me and tempts me in love 1. Why first because he loves thee whom he loves he tempts and proves them in love you imagine he loves you but you do not feel that he loves you the sense of Gods love would put all these out of doubt 2. You may know he tempts you in love if ye be faithful unto him in temptations if you depart not from God in the day of temptation God is trying and tempting his people at this day and it may be it will be a sad day and a dark day of temptation it may be it will be a strong day of temptation and of long temptation and you would know whether he tempts you at this day in love then make choice of suffering rather than sin of affliction rather than defection The Heb. 10. 38. just shall live by faith saith the Apostle that is shall hold out by faith in the day of temptation But if any man draw back my soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him Would ye know whether God proves you at this day and tries you in love then put on the whole armour of God that ye Eph. 6. 11 14. may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth c. Watch ye 1 Cor. 16. 13. stand fast in the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quit your selves like men be strong Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ Gal. 5. 1. hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage Stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together Phil. 1. 27 28. for the faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God So stand fast in the Phil. 4. 1. Lord my dearly beloved 3. Cleanse your hearts from hypocrisie see that your souls are right before the Lord and then Gods Temptations are all in love all goeth right with upright hearts The upright Prov. 11. 20. in their way are his delight 4. You may know whether God tempts you in love by the issue and fruits of your temptations Abraham sin'd in temptation and Saints may sin in temptation In a temptation you would know whether you shall hold out I will not prophesie but I will give you a sign have you held out through former temptations thou mayst hold out through others Vse 9. You beloved of the Lord bear Gods Temptations with willingness and patience The Apostle stirs up the Hebrews to learn practically this lesson Despise not thou the chastening Heb. 12. 5 9. of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Furthermore saith he we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live Gods Temptations are your gain not your loss but your Gods Temptations are your gain
therefore bear them with willingness and patience 2 Cor. 4. 16. gain if he tempts you by losses your loss is your gain your wants will be your riches your outward poverty will be your spiritual wealth what you lose one way you 'l get another what you lose in the flesh you 'l get in the spirit Though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day saith Blessed Paul the soul grows new as the body by pressures grows old Afflictions may make thy outward face look withered and aged but thine inward man grows young and vigorous by them It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted Now then bring your heart to this and bear all the temptations of the Lord with willingness and patience Vse 10. See God on the top of every trial or temptation God saith the Text did tempt Abraham you will say God tempted Abraham by word of mouth by an express command Is God wont to tempt and try men thus in these days I answer no you heard that God doth tempt and try men two manner of ways 1. Immediately by himself thus he tempted Abraham thus was Christ led by the Spirit to be tempted in the wilderness 2. Mediately by means and instruments by Satan sometimes by wicked men other times yea by Saints also sometimes as the Lord Christ was tempted by Peter when he spake of his sufferings Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto Matth. 16. 22. Job 2. 9. thee And Job was tempted by his own dear wife Curse God and dye And this is the Order of God at this day you see the means the instruments of temptation but though God be not seen yet he stands upon the top of every temptation no wheel moves in the world but by the direction and counsel of the first mover There is a concatenation of causes and God is at the upper end of the chain and nothing can be done by any link of the chain of second causes without the first cause In the fourth to the Hebrews there it is said that Jesus Christ Vers 15. was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Mark it his Temptations were in all points like ours Temptations may be taken 1. For sufferings Or 2. For temptation to sin as having a power or causality moving us thereunto As for Christs sufferings they were exactly like unto ours To that end he took a Body and Soul and in his state of humiliation lay actually under them and felt them As for temptation to sin that is inward and outward Inwardly indeed he was not tempted but outwardly he was by men and devils more than ever man was and was tempted to the same kind of sins at least some of them which we being tempted to commit yet he never sinned Now the Apostle tells you there that he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities We have not an High priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Nay because he was tempted like as we are he cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities that is he cannot but be inwardly affected with the sense of our temptations Sirs your temptations touch him the temptations that you feel touch him his very bowels are full of the feeling of your infirmities he is acted with mercy and compassion towards you and he would have man to know it That which is the object of his compassion is our infirmities that is sins of the soul and pains of the body but chiefly sin infirmity here is sin and punishment sin and suffering which makes our case very miserable Some will think that Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sins others will think Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sorrows but ye are mistaken poor souls ye are mistaken saith the Apostle we have an High priest that is touched with the feeling of our infirmities with the sense and feeling of both of your sin and guilt of your sorrows and sufferings Whatever troubles you troubles Christ and the reason why he is so sensible of our sad conditions is because he was tempted in all points like unto us Christ as God is infinitely merciful but he became man tempted man that he might be sensible of our infirmities with our own humane affections that he might pity man with the affections of a man with such affections as we are wont to pity one another and therefore he was not only man but a tempted man because experimental knowledg and practical sense is the most effectual Hearken then you tempted souls how deeply is Christ touched with the feeling of your infirmities who was himself a tempted man as ye are he was in all points tempted like unto us This is that wonderful way which God by his profound Wisdom contrived to make his mercy greater and in some sort more than infinite he would have a kind of knowledg of mans infirmities which as God and Infinite he could never have AN ACCOUNT OF MANS TEMPTATIONS Psalm LXXIX 41. Yea they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel THIS Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhortative and Instructive 1. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suasive and Exhortative in the first verse Give ear O my people to my law encline your ears to the words of my mouth 2. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instructive and Teaching I say for their choice Instruction and gathered out of the Records of Gods Providence towards his own people the Jews at the second verse I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us We will not hide them from Vers 3. 4. their children shewing to the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done c. And that which the Psalmist would instruct them in is to obey God and adhere to him in dependance and subjection And not to be as their Fathers a stubborn and Vers 8. rebellious generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God He warns them against Rebellion because their Ancestors and Fathers sinned at that rate and were severely punished by God Where you may observe by the way Observ That to say our Fore-fathers did thus and thus therefore so will we is no good argument Shall we be wiser than our Forefathers yes that you must or else you may smart for it The Holy Ghost here tells them that they must not be as their Fathers no sirs you must be better than your Forefathers the Light of the Gospel should make you far better and time should make you better and experience should make you better the example of Fore-fathers is not to be followed except wherein they followed the Lord.
his own word or no constant to his own sayings or no this is Facere Deum ludionem ridiculum I say this is to make God a meer stage-player ridiculous in his most grave transactions What is this but to make him light and unconstant to his most solemn pronunciations 12. They tempt God who live in known sins against the manifest word of God they make a tryal of him whether he will punish them for their sins or no whether he can be angry or will be angry with sin or no this is Interpretativa tentatio a tempting of God by Interpretation Sirs as oft as men sin against their own consciences they do presumptuously tempt God or try whether God will be just or no whether he be holy or no thou lovest such a sin and livest in it now thou temptest God whether he loves it and likes it also and at length thou thinkest that God is such a one as thy self 13. They tempt God who attempt things above their parts and power confiding in the Divine assistance which is not promised them thus many tempt God by entring into the Ministry they undertake a great work and are not underlaid with a stock of abilities but they venture upon confidence of Divine assistance but where has God promised thee his assistance he never promised his assistance to those that are unable he fits for the Ministry but never promised assistance to the unfit 14. They that put off their repentance from the present to the future-time and doubt not but God will give them grace and conversion whensoever they list tempt God exceedingly To repent and turn to God is a work above the sphere of mans ability who can change his own heart Oh! but God will meet me with his assistance hereafter poor man Who told thee so I am sure God never did 15. They tempt God who bring Gods Actions to the test and tryal who subject his dealings to unjust examinations 16. To conclude Some men tempt God to sin were he capable of such a temptation Indeed James saith of God Jam. 1. 13. that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God cannot be tempted with evil or tempted to evil yet many are so audacious as to tempt God to do evil Vse 1. The Vse is this Oh let this point humble us for who of us have not been tempters of the Lord both in our days of unregeneracy and since we gave up our names unto him both in our days of unbelief and since also in our days of faith When we loved and lived in sin how did we continually tempt God and since he manifested and revealed himself unto us how oft how oft have we tempted him most unkindly and unfriendly God may say to every one of us You Numb 14. 22. have tempted me these ten times How have we indulged known sins and favoured secret lusts and prayed free-grace to accept of us in our beloved sins and tryed his mercy to pardon us in our love to sin against his revealed will How coldly have we prayed against an endeared corruption nay have we not secretly prayed oh that God would spare me this sweet sin oh that God were of my mind that I might enjoy this pleasing sin have we not at least tacitly wooed God to a compliance with us and how indifferently have we conflicted with our pleasing sins as if we were loth to over come them How often have we tempted God with our impatience our murmurings our unbelief and discontents How often in our afflictions have we called God to an account brought his Actions to the test and subjected his dealings to our unjust examinations and tryed them by our touchstone Vse 2. The second Vse Oh then let us take heed of this great sin of tempting God Sirs you may trust him you may not tempt him God by all his promises meant to encourage your faith not your presumption 1. To tempt God is a grieving of God The Psalmist brings in God speaking thus to the Jews When your Fathers Psal 95. 9 10. tempted me and proved me and saw my works Forty years long was I grieved with this generation Tempting of God through unbelief and not submitting to his Government is a vexing of his Spirit and a provoking of him to reject the sinner Forty years long was I grieved with this Vers 11. generation unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest They tempted God and this grieved him and vexed him and then he sware they should not enter his rest 2. To tempt God is a destroying sin Neither let us tempt 1 Cor. 10. 9. Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents Vse 3. A last Vse shall be to give you some antidotes and then I have done 1. You must get the clear eye of faith by faith sometimes we understand the promises when we do not the work of faith is to commit the soul to God as unto a faithful creator Faith will tell thee when God frowns upon thee he loves thee Faith will help thee to commit thy soul unto God Jobs afflictions made way for him to heaven 2. Stay his leasure whatever your wants and conditions are stay his leasure go not before God stay his leasure if thou wilt be but content to stay Gods leisure thou wilt never go out of the way set faith and grace at work to help thee to look upon the time as short the mercy when it comes will be infinitely sweeter than if thou shouldst pull it off with thine own hand this will help thee to wait Gods leisure 3. Contentation is a rich antidote against tempting of God The defect of this Contentation leads us into many temptations and sins both against God while we murmur at his will and dealings with us And against our neighbour whose prosperous estate being better than ours we envy at And therefore sirs if we have food and rayment let us be therewith content that we may not trouble the waters nor disquiet God nor our own souls AN ACCOUNT OF Christian Piety 2 Tim. III. 12. Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution PAVL was the Author of this Epistle the person to whom he Writes it was one that had much of Paul's heart 2 Tim. 1. 2. Timothy whom he stiles his dearly beloved Son not by natural but 1. By spiritual generation Paul begot him to God by the Ministry of the Gospel 2. And Timothy was also Pauls Son by imitation he took Pauls stamp upon him and resembled him as a natural Son doth his Father and therefore Paul in his first Epistle calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his right Son his true Son one that followed him to an hair 1 Tim. 1. 2. not spurious nor degenerate 3. And therefore he was Pauls Son in affection Paul loved him as any Father ever did a Son and he Paul as any Son ever did a
stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate