unperswaded or halfe perswaded of the truth Hebâ— 2.2.3.4 Saint Paul to the Hebrewes Cap. 2. tells us if they who despised Moses Law upon two or three witnesses were condemned what shall become of them who despise so great salvation who still distrust that truth of God which was first spoken by the Lord of heaven and earth comming in the flesh Miracles serve to convince the soule of the truth sealed thereby afterward confirmed by such as heard him by miracles and the power of the word in those who were converted So may I say here this very text of Naaman shall stand up and convince all that maintaine selfe and selfe-love carnall and corrupt reason against the truth and power of the promise yea this miracle whereby the word was strengthned with all those miracles by which any truth of Christ hath since been justified shall rise up and convince all unbeleevers I meane such as live under meanes in that day For why Though they saw none of these miracles yet hearing the word beholding the seales receiving them into all our sences I say such a word as hath beene ratified by all the wonders of the Old and New Testament serving to beare down a base heart of unbeliefe about the truth power love al-sufficiency of God if they beleeve not by all these they shall be condemned justly by that authority which they have despised yea the very frame of the Scriptures and the expressions of so many strange and admirable passages serving to raise up a base and crawling spirit to heaven if we shall be found unbeleevers in that great day of Christ shall be brought forth as a witnesse against us for our horrible insensiblenesse and stupor of minde and heart Unbeleefe of Scripture and Truth of God after so many miracles very damnable For by these the Lord hath as it were striven to engraven in our spirits as with the pen of a Diamond the truthes of God and mystery of Christ If then our soules shall be found so hard and flinty that this point hath not pierced them if wee be still unconvinced and this instrument of gold hath no more left impression upon us then if a straw or rotten sticke had beene used to write in our tables of stone oh how fearefull shall our condemnation be If any man shall step in here and demand Quest Miracles how far ceased hard to say hath God so sufficiently confirmed his truth by miracles that there shall neede no more I answer I know its the opinion of many that they are wholly ceased and that because the use of them is ceased Answ For that spirit which attends the Ministry of the word carries a conviction of the truth into the mind according to all that is in the truth Now if it be so then that spirit perswades the soule of all the truth aswell in respect of the confirmation of it by miracles as otherwise but as I stagger much about this opinion so yet I am loth to affirme that the Church hath any warrant under faith to looke for the gift of miracles to be assuredly vouchsafed her although the ends thereof may seeme very weighty Who can or dare deny but that the calling of those Americans to the knowledge of the truth may seeme a weighty occasion to expect from God the gift of miracles partly by reason of their language almost impossible to be attained except by either a miraculous or at least a marveilous gift partly because there be poore inducements to draw such imperswasible and brutish spirits to cast so much as their eyes upon any meanes to induce them to beleeve In both which respects I dare not deny but that as Satan by lying wonders prevailes much with such as perish so the Lord may vouchsafe this spirit of miracles to his Church when his time is come to effect the conversion of such Only I adde that when his time is come he will grant his Church an instinct of spirit to aske it and joyne seriously in the meanes to attaine it which else he will not incline them unto his time not being come For wee must weigh the ends of our travell into remote parts whither for our owne ends or for publique If our owne respects be chiefe we have no cause to looke for miracles But I chuse rather to leave the thing in Gods dispose Vse 4 Lastly let it exhort us both generally and specially first to sue earnestly to the Lord Jesus our Prophet Exhortation the Word of the Father and the first inditer of all Scripture Spirit of acknowledgement of God in his word is to be sought by prayer the contriver of all the passages thereof the worker of all wonders and the Author of all grace and wisedome that he would vouchsafe us the spirit of revelation and acknowledgement of him as Saint Paul speakes Ephes 1.18 That we being enlightned in our mindes may conceive aright of the true scope and intent of the Spirit in the Scriptures Branch 1. generall and that he would intimate our hearts with the purpose thereof which is that our soules might be captivated under the power and authority of the speaker That we rest not in the outside of miracles wonders parables similitudes which we heare or read but considering their aime be carried downe the streame of the thing spoken yea the power To rest in the barke of the word or of miracles Parables Similitudes is dangerous soveraignty and faithfulnesse of the speaker Not only thereby conceiving more cleerely in our mindes of the Lord his Attributes and the truths revealed but much more ravished in our affections towards him for the good things whereof we have tasted Many chuse patheticall texts histories and accidents actions and speeches of speciall note to read and please themselves in some delight to read of the building of the Temple others of the passion of Christ others other parcells of Scripture to provoke admiration and discourse even as they might read any other booke of tales and wonders some also read texts of devotion and holinesse as the Psalmes or wise sentences as the Proverbs with a morrall spirit and scope only but never muse of the severall ends of such places nor the spirit of grace therein save onely to amuse their mindes and stirre up pangs of affection But by these to come neerer to know their owne base hearts or to close with the examples of such grace to feare the judgements of God the more deepely to beleeve the promises better to subject themselves more to the commands of God and in all to see his foote-steps and to adore the speaker few attaine it Therefore let us read these texts with prayer to God for sence and savor of their meaning and scope that we may attaine the spiritualnesse of them Else we shall answer heavily to God for making the solemne and reverend truths of God an occasion to nourish and maintaine that corrupt disposition
one thing within the whole compasse of Religion more usually counterfeited then this neither is there any one point in which either the deceit of the heart is more dangerous or the soundnesse of it more comfortable to the soule then this is We read in stories that all brave Princes have beene counterfeited by sycophants Charles the fifth Edward the sixth of England and others But although their outsides favoured them yet their spirit discarded them at last a base-bred fellow cannot equall the spirit of noble bloud All Judasses and Theudasses Acts 5. came to naught Acts 5. end because they had bastard spirits There was once as a French rare History hath it a Souldier in the Campe wherein one Martin Guerra a rich Citizen of Tholouse served who being in all points like to that Guerra A rare history of a French counterfeit and getting so farre in with him as to know the secrets that had passed betweene him and his wife at last brake from the Army to Tholouse and boldly went home to Guerra his wife as his owne and after some little suspition yet so cleared all doubts that he accompanied her as his wife and lived in peace till at last the true Guerra comming home and claiming his wife a sute in Law was commenced at Tholouse betweene them and had not some privie markes at last betweene her and the true husband cleared the controversie to the Court the counterfeit had brought them to such a demurre that they knew not what to determine And so may it fare here such are the apish imitations of impudent and unsuspected Hypocrites in point of zeale devotion affections and abstinencies from sinne that the very annointed of God seemes to stand before him 2 Sam. 16.6 Nothing in this case is surer to determine the controversie then the spirit it selfe of true breed and Nativity Hardly can the spirit of birth and regeneration be long dissembled but one way or other earlier or later it will be discovered Triall of the true spirit of Grace is from it selfe Therefore let every one try himselfe by this marke even the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe Not at first perhaps for Alexander was almost crowded to death in the tumult at Ephesus and in Pauls quarrell almost puld in pieces a terrible patterne as a worthy Writer speakes But yet at length time tried him and he grew an open revolter after and was delivered to Satan Act. 19.33 compared with 2 Tim. 4.14 Acts 6.5 1 Tim. 1.20 2 Tim. 4.10 Matth. 13.27 Nicolas the Deacon cheated the twelve Apostles but his spirit betrayed him to be a wicked uncleane wretch Demas Hymenaeus and Philetus went farre but their spirit failed them The spirit of the Grape will not be counterfeited by the fruit of a Bramble the one is generous the other base Eagles breed no Crowes nor Doves any Kites nor Lions Foxes No more doth the spirit of Grace breed false Hypocrites Well said those servants The envious man hath sowne Tares for the Husbandman sowed nothing but good Wheate It will be an infallible marke of thy true birth if thine owne principle be throwne out and if the spirit of mercy become that in thee and unto thee which thine owne spirit once was even a second nature Grace will casheire and throw out thy usurping spirit As they cast out Ipta Iudg. 11.2 Note that it shall not reigne A false spirit workes from within to an outward but Gods Spirit workes from without to an inward operation That is Grace going out of her selfe and suspecting her selfe both for the metall and for the stampe for the kind and for the degree for the quality and for the continuance abhorring her own sparkes and false blaze still seekes out for a new spirit of Heaven a new frame of heart But our owne spirit seekes within her selfe what light what affections what imitations shewes and duties she can finde out never suspecting her impotency to reach truth and soundnesse Now although such may goe farre with their Lamps a long time yet at last want of Oyle will make their lamps flagge when their feelings cease when the praises of men faile when some of their actions cause them to be questioned and when some right wind blowes full upon them then they totter when the winds and floods came Mat. 7. ult the house ungrounded fell By one way or other it must at last appeare who are men of their owne stockes and who are bankrupts not to say this moreover that a wise man well marking the Spirit of Grace and comparing it with the other will by one signe or other easily discerne a Noble and true bred spirit from violent pangs even at the best But although he should not yet the spirit of Grace will bewray it selfe in time and discard the spirit of the flesh A true sonne of faithfull Jonathan is a most precious peece to David though a poore lame creeple Gen. 25.6 Particular trials of the spirit of Grace then all the posterity of Saul besides One Isaac is more worth then all Ketura's brood The breed of a thing is all in all with men even in these outward creatures horses kine and the like So one soule of the right stamp is more precious with God then a thousand Be sure that the Word of the promise that immortall seed of God in the blood of a covenant bred thee to the hope of life The Word of God is the immortall seed which bred it and the assurance of pardon and this will turne all false principles of flesh and blood out of doores Prove thy genealogie that thou art an Hebrew of the Hebrewes a true borne Jew not of the letter but of the spirit of Grace and then thou hast that marke upon thee which will not be worne out God lookes first at what thou art for thy spirit and breed and then what thou dost Phil. 3.8 Rom. 2. ult Never vie upon him with thy heapes upon heapes of worships of means of duties but first approve thy selfe See Prov. 23.26 and these will follow alone as the wombe that conceives truly is free of all other conceptions so the true breed of the Spirit abandons all false conceptions If all other seed of thine owne all principles of flesh be cast out and the wombe of the soule cleane and cleare this spirit of grace may live and come to the birth in thee And all false preconceptions cast out The wombe that beares a true bred soule must be as the wombe that bare Immanuel a Virgin wombe wherein never any other fruit lay before The meere onely and pure love of the Father purchased by the blood of Christ must onely beget thee to God if ever thou be begotten and no lesse spirit Like Iosephs Tombe never any had lyen in it before Luk. 23.53 then that which united the Godhead of Jesus to his flesh will serve to beget thee to him
weapons and tremble at thy wretchednesse Branch 6 Sixtly let this doctrine not onely convince thy judgement of a truth that the case thus standeth Lay downe thy pride and rebellion between God and thy soule but let it proceed to bring thine heart and whole selfe under the authority of this advantage at which God hath thee That is let it worke exceeding humiliation and feare of spirit in thee and cause thee to pull downe thy peacocks fethers and lay downe thy pride rebellion and gainsaying heart and be as one out of himselfe As that jailor when the earthquake had broken the prison doores Act. 16.27 and loosed the prisoners thought himselfe but a dead man Act. 9. and Paul being under the arrest of Gods might and power lay for dead So the thought of this thy wofull disadvantage under the hand of God should cause the jollity of thy spirit to quaile and thy bog and bold heart to be abashed saying if this be thus whence comes my impudent resolute purpose to go on in my course I see I have not mercy at my command nor grace pind to my sleeve when I can but use three or foure good wordes at my death Alas I perceive I my selfe am infinitely under the advantage of Justice and wrath both in Adam and by my owne wicked courses Is this then Oh my soule a season of revelling of casting care away of adding drunkennesse to thirst Is this a time to contest to provoke to increase sinne by wilfulnesse What do I think to scare God by my murmurings and cavills against him Oh no! this is the way to make judgement inexcusable and hell seven times hotter then at first See Esay 28.22 Therefore lay it to heart as those in Act. 2. did when they heard Peter shew them what pickle they were in for murdering the Lord of life Oh! their hearts were gored as with a swords point So let rottennesse enter into thy bones tremble and say What if the Lord should take this advantage of his to destroy me What if his long suffering all this while hath onely spared me as a vessel of wrath that he might with the fuller swinge come upon me and all at once sweep me to hell what a taking are those men in who are at their enemies curtesie as having lost all they have or condemned in as much as they are worth and at the mercy of their adversary who hath got an execution against all their estate surely hee were an odde man for stoutnesse of stomacke who should stand it out and dare his enemy to ceaze upon him Alas Esay 27.4.5 what a poore wretch should he be made So here what rescue hath the dry stubble against the advantage of fire if once kindled in it Oh! if thou canst bring downe thy base and sturdy heart by this meditation how thou standest at the meere curtesie of him who cannot only destroy thy body Luke 12.4.5 but cast body and soule to hell if this will master thy proud heart and make thee crouch and put thy face within thy knees for confusion and sorrow thou hast attained some part of that end which this convincement serves for Seventhly yet rest not in this dejection onely Consider that the soveraignty Branch 7 of God doth not reach only to destroy the creature Soveraignty is free to save aswell as to destroy but sometimes to abase it and save it There is a soveraignty of mercy a free and bountifull grace aswell in that God who hath thee at this advantage as a power to condemne And therefore apply thy selfe to the beholding of those cords which the Gospell puts in and offers thee in this dungeon and of that ladder which is thrust in for thee to come up by as to the meer implodding and sadding thy thoughts with the likelyhood of thy confusion Consider its one step to pardon to lay to heart Gods advantage For who are they who perish who carry a blacke marke of wrath about them Surely those who either acknowledge no such thing live at hearts case and elbow-roome and come leaping forth in their chaines with Agag or else if they heare of it murmur fret and kicke against it 1 Sam. 15. If then thou hast escaped both one thing remaineth escape also an unbeleeving heart Rest not in these suburbes of hell but behold the freedome of mercy in the promise And do not reach first at Election and so fal backe and breake thy necke Election not to be first lookt at but the offer of grace But take this first worke of humiliation in thee as an hansell of hope that more shall follow and as for Gods secrets they must attend faith not goe before it Therefore nakedly and without further dispute convince thy judgement of a possibility of escaping this advantage which God hath thee at Not by thy struggling and fighting against it as Pharaoh against the waters returning but by thy meeke and humble stooping under it And know that this doctrine of Gods soveraignty serves to try the spirit of men of what mettle they are made of and to condemne none save the finally rebellious Those who cease whetting at Gods secrets as not belonging to them and only betake themselves to the softly streames of Siloam beholding with stedfast eye Deut. 29.29 the freedome bottomednesse and unchangeablenesse of the promise have a marke upon them of such as shall be saved the soveraignty of Gods advantage against the poore creature notwithstanding Come then to the Lord and say thou mayst indeed justly damne me yet thou mayst also save mee O Lord doe not destroy thy creature let it please thee to have mercy and desire not the death of a poore wretch with thee the fatherlesse shall find mercy of which I am What boot shall it be for thee to have my bloud Oh spare a little let me recover my selfe if thou must needs be just powre thy wrath upon despisers but spare the penitent and such as lye at thy feet as lost Eightly let this conviction of judgement turne thy soule to make an adventure and where thou seest a breach made there to lay the battery Branch 8 of faith to assay an entrance into the City of grace The Lord having cut off his plea by as strong a remedy Assay to beleeve and redemption yea stronger then ever the former advantage lay calls thee to lay hold of it strongly in the blood and satisfaction of thy Redeemer How dost thou find thy selfe affected in this case Whether chusest thou to curse God and dye or to breake and pull downe thy stomacke and live judge thy selfe herein acording to the rule if ever the advantage of God dranke up thy spirit how wentest thou to worke didst thou recke thy teene upon God and quarrell with him for his forsaking thee or soughtst thou after a way of hope by Gods cutting off his owne advantage in his Sonne Dost thou behold the Lord
God when the famine pinched him and to kill the Prophet and yet to goe no further then himselfe confuting himselfe when hee and Iehoshaphat and a third King went against the King of Moab Cap. 3. and was at a straight like to perish for lacke of water both he and the Armies behold what a change it wrought on the sudden For then he seekes to the Prophet and bemones the straight in which the Army was making no other account but that God might justly suffer them all to perish And when Elisha disdained to looke at him yet his fiery spirit held it selfe in by compulsion from any misdemeanor So that he must bee a monster of men whom a deepe straight will not subdue and tame unto the stooping to any conditions I grant this may sometime prove only an act of policy or of carnall feare and so cease We read of a royall spirited Emperour Henry the fourth of Germany who being wearied with the tyranny of sundry Popes and of Alexander by name was at last by his roaring Bulls and excommunications which in those daies scared the greatest brought to such an exigent that he with his Empresse and their young son were faine to stand 3. daies barefoot at the proud Popes gate And being after admitted to his presence when he was urged to lye prostrate before him the Pope treading upon his necke and spurning off his Crowne with his foot although the spirit of the Emperour could have rebelled and beganne to disdaine it yet for policy sake he was compelled to desist It s noted in Judges that when the Ammonites oppressed Israel the Elders of Gilead and brethren of Iptha who before had thrust him out for a bastard being in a straight for a Captaine Judg. 10. were compelled to goe to Iptha to crave his returne and to undertake the warre and when he cast them in the teeth with their former injurious casting him out yet the extremity they were in humbled them and kept them downe so that they were glad to take shame to themselves and to begge aide even of that bastard when they saw their welfare lay bleeding at the stake and none fit to helpe them but himselfe These are but common naturall instances yet they lay forth the point thus farre that the naturall spirit of the hautiest and most disdainefull man toward such as himselfe will abate and come downe when an exigent is upon them And the like may be said of man toward God when they are laid upon his bayard and when he hath them upon the hip by any deepe and straight sore and extremity Yea it is true even of Gods owne deare people already in Covenant with him whose slavish hearts have often been compelled by Gods Chaines upon them to forget their jollity and sensuall appetite and to stoope to Gods power under their straights That which I formerly spake of the Soveraignty of Gods Nature I may here verifie of the outward extremities which he brings us into Both serve to bring downe the heart and to make it humble and subject Iob was an holy man yet such naturall scurffe the Lord saw to lurke in his spirit that he was faine by the losse of all his substance children health of body the enmity of his friends the terrors upon his soule the admonition of Elihu and the Lords owne tawing of him by the view of all his power and the terror of Leviathan and Behemoth at last to wring this speech from him Cap. 42. I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes Hezekiah also was a godly King Job 42.3 but his treasures and wealth and elbow-roome made him so fledge and jolly that he forgat himselfe till the Lord smot him with the plague Esay 38.15 put him in feare of his life and urged him to say I will walke all the rest of my daies softly in the bitternesse of my soule in the midst of my house The Lord had him upon the hip and then he could crouch 1 King 19.12.13 Jonah 1. 2. 1 Sam. 24. Elija Iona David and Salomon all holy men yet till they were frayed with the thunder and earthquake cast into the Whales belly straighted betweene the choice of either famine warre or pestilence and the like saw not into the frowardnesse rebellion and stoutnesse of their spirit But of all others it is truest of such spirits as the Lord subdues to himselfe and drawes out of a cursed sinfull course Such as this patterne in our text resembles Naaman I meane for although as yet he was not privy to Gods purpose towards him in this abasing of his stout heart yet he was in Gods dispensation now in the way unto it and by this as a step came to the other The prodigall who is a true mirror in all points of a debaucht sinner and fugitive from God was faine to be pursued so narrowly by the hand of God Luk. 14.15.16 that till there was no possibility of subsistence for him any way he never thinkes of a father and lesse of returne and least of humbling himselfe But when hee was brought to an absolute straight and could no longer hold out his great stomacke and resolution never to see his father begins to quaile and then his father began to savor with him It is with the spirit of a sinfull Rebell against God as it is with a City besieged by a strong enemy but the City having both abundance of outworkes and strong forts raised up with plenty of provision within besides store of brave souldiers who will spend the last drop of their heart blood ere it be said they are cowards scorne to yeeld their City But when long time of assault the instance and unweariednesse of the besieging army hath battered downe all their forts Simile murdered all their Souldiers with the Canon beaten downe their Citie over their eares houses Temples walls and opened a wider breach for entrance then they can make up againe besides the exhausting of all come and victuall within and intercepting all succors from without Then perhaps when no remedy else from forraine aide appeares they will hang out the white flag and cry for conditions of surrender but before nothing but scorne and defiance will be admitted Even so is it with the unregenerate soule shee pleases her selfe with her false treasure the perswasion that she is rich and full and happy and yet perhaps remaines meerely ignorant or at least in a formall and dangerous estate insensible of wrath or danger This state she findes ease in and when the Lord would hunt her out of it she sits upon her Idolls securely and will not stirre The out-workes and forts of the soule against God She imbarkes her selfe in this error by the conceit of her wealth health youth outward contents want of crosses credit good successe how can God hate her giving her all these if the Lord drive her out of these outworkes yet she runs into stronger forts compares her selfe
act concerning the welfare of his but he orders it He foreseeing the family of Iacob must els perish for food long before layes to prevent it in the antecedents of it Gen. 35.5 25. Gen. 45.7 Gen. 41.14 Suffers Ioseph to dreame an odious dreame his brethren to sell him to Putiphar his wife to attempt accuse and imprison him the two prisoners to propound their dreames and receive satisfaction Pharao in the distresse of his spirit to heare of him in that respect to consult with and resolve himselfe by him to promote him to be chiefe in the Kingdome under him causes Ioseph to prepare and store up corne and so relieves Iacob and his sons All this whole frame hee himselfe confesses to be from God you saith he intended evill to me but the Lord intended greater things even to preserve the lives of his Church That great worke of Redemption by the Lord Jesus had one main passage in it Luke 2.1 That Christ must be borne at Bethlehem Mary was now big and dwelt at Nazaret But the Lord causes Augustus Caesar to taxe all the world and to command all the Jewes to repaire to the City of their nativity and family This charge being exact poore Mary must carry her bigge body thither and there travaile of Christ Nothing could hinder Saul must be the King whom in wrath God appoints over discontented Israel To this end the Asses must goe astray he must seeke them be in a strait goe to Samuel and he warned of God must meet him 1 Sam 9.2 19. there Saul receives the message and is anointed Now marke the reason If the Lord be thus in all those events which concerne his Church in the gâ—nerall and the externall onely how much more shall he appeare to bee active in the most excellent part of all other viz. his drawing home all such to himselfe as belong to his Election Surely as the act is the most eminent peece of all other Providence so God his activenesse and powerfull concurrence thereto in swaying all premises to inferre the conclusion of his Purpose must be most eminently seene in that above all others Secondly if the effecting of the substance of their conversion whom Reason 2 he hath elected must flow from his grace and power then much more the accommodating of all such antecedents as conduce thereto must be from his direction But so it is the substance of the meanes is from him he calls home all whom he hath elected Rom. 8. The enlightning of them by the word the humbling the breaking of heart the perswading of them to beleeve is from him How much more the ordering and preparing of circumstances according of occasions accidents times persons and the like must also be ascribed to his most divine dispensation Thirdly if the Lord should leave his owne ends at randon to be ordered Reason 3 by the will and arbitrement of instruments occasions left to their owne pleasure and choice then should the infallible purpose of God hang upon the mutable and casuall actions of such instruments and the rash concourse of livelesse occasions which cannot act or bring together themselves to produce any such effect And by consequent such effects should faile Which because it is impossible therefore of necessity must both be subject to the over-ruling power of the Purposer determining some and conjoyning others wills I meane of men or accidentall occasions to the infallible effecting of the conversion of such as hee hath chosen Fourthly we know the end being once set downe in the minde ordereth Reason 4 and directeth the whole frame of those things which make toward it if a man have propounded to himselfe a purpose to marry to build to travell the Idea of these ends still enliveth the observation of all occasions and opportunities which a man meets with and draweth all to the attainment of such ends Where such ends are not proposed the minde is quiet and ordereth no occasions tending that way Thus it is with the Lord The end once being determined that stirreth and ordereth his wisedome and providence to fore-lay all meanes which tend thereto I meane the conversion of the poore soule I do not make Gods and mans intentions like in all points but illustrate the one by the other The difference between them is large for first mens ends are before their enterprises and they are successive also here one meane offers it selfe to promote their end there another Not so in the Lord who perfectly and at once though orderly doth both determine his ends and contrive his meanes Gods forefight mans differ much and beholds the effecting of the one in the other necessarily and unfallibly Gods meanes never faile him in his projects whereas man for lacke of sufficient fore-cast and provision is disappointed farre oftner then he succeeds Men may so concurre to their owne ends in their preparations as to use sinfull instruments sinfully partaking with them in their evils But the Lord although he oft use sinfull occasions and accidents and instruments to compasse his ends yet hee concurres not to their sinne but onely disposeth and over-ruleth it to good As the Lord used Ieroboam and Iehu's ambitious desires to effect the overthrow of the houses of Rehoboam and Ahab 1 Kings 13. Acts 9.1 So he used the sinne of Saul to bee an occasion of his deeper humiliation Acts 2.39 Acts 18. and the sinne of the Jewes Acts 2. who murthered the Lord of life to prick and break their hearts the more easily by Peters Sermon So the Jaylors desperatenesse cruelty and rage against the Apostles to convince him the more deeply convincing him afterwards So much for reasons Quest But here a question may be asked In what sort the Lord may bee said to act and accord all meanes which may serve to compasse his end in this kinde Answ I answer It is hard to set downe the variety of wayes by which the Lord worketh yet some few of the most usuall I may mention First and especially this Gods preventions wherein they stand and in what particulars The first branch God over-rules diverts our intents to serve his That the Lord over-rules and diverts and alters the intentions of men that whenas they intend one thing hee intends another either crossing their owne to effect his or wrapping in theirs within his owne as most prevailing and chiefe Thus did the Lord here in Naamans case He dreamt of nothing lesse then any cure of soule yet the Lord intends it as chiefe and casts him in the other as an over-plus Thus Paul discoursing of his conversion to Agrippa Acts 26. Acts 26. tells him hee was going like a Pursivant with a Bouget of Letters to Damascus to apprehend the Saints there But the Lord who had separated him to a farre other end even to be a chosen vessell of grace and an Apostle to carry his Name to the Gentiles cast him downe from his Palfrey smote
in their conversation and behaviour seeing that the world is hard and living under strict government they begin to looke about them and to digest those counsells which they have long beene taught Every age is not so capable when yeares have hardened a man in his evill course he is farre worse to be wrought upon then in his younger time having lesse experience of evill So that the Lord takes men in the fittest season in youth and prevents the unfittest and so for all other circumstances Fifthly the Lord mercifully stops and prevents such accidents as if Branch 5 they tooke effect would be like to hinder the worke of his providence Prevents such evills as might hinder his ends Thus the Lord prevents an ill marriage an unapt yoke-fellow when as yet there was far more likelihood that way then any other Yet the Lord crosses and defeats it so that it shall not take effect so also he stops and cuts off some such companion by death either friend or husband or wife or the like whose example or counsell might possibly have hindred the good of the other party 1 Sam. 25. Abigail being freed from Nabal was at liberty for David and so many a well-minded childe over-ruled by a crosse and peevish father or mother when God removes that tye is at more liberty to enjoy the meanes and to profite So that the Lord when he intends any thing doth alway remove out of his way the lets which might hinder his worke Lastly and especially the Lord doth put life successe and blessing into Branch 6 all such courses and meanes from first to last Puts life and successe into all occurrences as are offered by his providence that they shall take effect and leave the impression of grace behinde them Because God meant well to the Prodigall hee so ordered the matter that even contraries seemed to worke together for the best God oft workes by contraries Luke 14. If he had kept still with his father ten to one hee had been as the other brother But even the misery which he felt which might have been the next way to have made him desperate and to have rusht himselfe upon vile courses to his ruine or caused him to have laid violent hands upon himselfe yet by Gods dispensation wrought him to an utter loathing of his bad wayes and himselfe and to an earnest desire to seeke to his father for pardon Much more then doth the Lord blesse other wayes of sinners which are lesse unlikely as wee see in Naaman here no one passage befell him but brought him one step neerer and when hee had his owne desire that wrought in him such a brokennesse of spirit that he was thereby fitted to receive a better boon from God with more thankfulnes So that poor blinde man Ioh. 9. John 9. whom Christ purposed to save although at his first cure of blindnesse he was not converted yet the Lord was so effectuall in his cure so brake his heart by that love that when hee was most bitterly reproached and excommunicated for confessing him yet he gave not in nor shranke but convinced them with shame and put them to silence and when our Saviour had him upon that advantage he meets him againe in his streight and by a few words speaking to him converted him But these may serve Now for use of the point it is manifold First it is terror and admonition Vse 1 to all brutish prophane ones and base hypocrites Terror with admonition to such as are under no prevention but alway at one point who walke securely in their way some neglecting all meanes others using the most holy and effectuall meanes in a meere formall manner Both of them justly left at large by the Lord to themselves so that nothing workes upon conscience But even as the Wind-mill turning in her round every way yet stirre not out of their place so is it with them after ten twenty yeares they are where they were the first day no step neerer God but many further off For why alas they are farre from acknowledging any preventing grace of God in their course They know no other means but to goe to Church and present themselves among others in the place and so home againe As for a providence to prevent them to bow and sway their hearts to any tendernesse and towardlinesse to see themselves drawn by God to know themselves to see into their nature to abhorre it and embrace all opportunities for their owne spirituall furtherance to salvation they are farre from it And as they live so they dye And if the Lord at any time do scare their conscience or move them to any better thoughts of their wayes yet alas they have no intimation from God of any mercy therein are soone weary of them they vanish as they came And when they looke backe into their course past their youth education company marriage dwelling Ministery or the like alas they cannot speake of any moving of heart stopping their lewd course still they are in their thorough-fare heare like blockes are wearie of good company shun all opportunities of good for feare of being better glad when they can wash off good duties and winde themselves out of all occasions for heaven Alas poore wretches yee shall not need put off with one hand that mercie which you cannot pull on with both It must bee singular grace which must prevent you if ever you come to good But to goe against the edge of providence thinking your selves happiest when yee are out of the element of it is fearfull Doth it not sting you that you have felt so little of Gods prevention in all your wayes So many of your yeares time acquaintance not onely stirred but converted to God since your beginning and you still as saplesse and senselesse as ever Doth it not disquiet you to see all is too little for your ease will world lusts and vanities What have yee no sighes nor sobs in your dreams and upon your beds how it shall fare with you in the day of wrath and that there will be bitternesse in the end 2 Sam. 2. What I pray you is more miserable then to live without God in the world And who live so but such as feele not one pull by the eare one knock at the doore of your hearts or if they doe forget and shake it off with as little savour or regard as pigges tread upon pearles Alas if hee who is the authour of the Scriptures of Ministery of Sacraments of long-suffering of afflictions hath never yet cast the least seed of light or sparke of heat into you which should teach you to acknowledge these ordinances and administrations of his and to tremble at them Are you worse then Divels Application of the terror by admonition Therefore I pray you consider of what I say If the Lord raise not up the North winde to blow upon your spirits to encline and perswade them it
colour is to confute the Prophets message The summe is the Prophet hath sent for me to make a gull of me pretending to heal me when he intends nothing lesse For if he did to what end should he prescribe me to wash in Jorden If washing there would serve how comes it to passe that there bee so many Lepers in Israel unhealed And if so be Jorden be such soveraigne water what are our rivers at home Abana and Pharfar which yet never were knowne to be medicinable for the leprosie What a message then is this to send me Wash in Jorden and be clean Lo I beseech you to what a man may come who is blind-folded with selfe He will stiffen himself in his error by any argument comming next hand Carnal reason then here offers it selfe to confute the message as a mockery And how I pray doth it argue Thus It s a senslesse unlikely thing nay impossible to reason What then hast thou forgot thy selfe Naaman Camest thou to be healed by reason or by a Prophet What a consequence is this Carnall reason judgeth otherwise therefore it is ridiculous that Jorden should heale Nay rather if a Prophet from God will heale by Jorden why may he not For he heales not by Jorden as Jorden but as by an instrument of Gods divine power Therefore rather to argue against God by carnall reason is more ridiculous Thus much for the opening of these two verses The first generall handled viz. Why God delayed the cure still That he might know himself I will first give a briefe touch of the triall which God put here upon Naaman in delaying his cure Why was it To try all which was in his heart and to make him see what metall he was made of God was loath to send him away with his cure and a proud wrathfull heart withall Therefore now he discovers him to himselfe and rather by this delay of the miracle chuses to make all his crouching and humblenesse breake out into rage and distemper bewray him openly then he should nuzzle up himselfe in a faire opinion of that which is not in him Question But it wil bee demanded Did Naaman feele the Lord present in this worke Did hee not as a carnal man in all this or is it any wonder he should be a wrathful raging man being a Heathen and crossed in his maine aime I answer Answer We must not so much conceive him as he is in his owne sense as in Gods shaping him to his own end by grace and conversion Naaman to be conceived of as one under Gods workmanship When once Naaman truly came to himselfe both the former rubs and this affront of delaying his healing wrought a marvellous abasement in his soule and set forward the worke exceedingly I have already handled the reason why the Lord stopt Elisha from comming out Now I would briefly adde this how God tries him in disappointing his haste and thereby occasions him to rebell and break out that he might know himselfe yet more thorowly And let it teach us this That the custome of God is Doctrine Whom God will save he will teach them to to know all in their heart when hee is working any great change in any hee will try them deeply and make them know what is in their spirits They shall finde many a stop in their course things shall not succeed as they desire God wil hide himself from them and seeme not to regard their labours prayers teares endevours but suspend their hopes and desires from such successe as they look for And why To try them of what frame they are whether their forwardnesse Reason 1 and zeale bee well planted in them or no whether they will wait or make haste attend meekly or run headlong If they fall to distemper and wearinesse God will shew it unto them that they may afterward watch and have themselves in a deep jealousie and not bee deceived with the appearance of grace in stead of substance If they stick to the triall and carry themselves meekly and quietly under Gods delayes and prolongings of his time that then they may acknowledge by what strength they stand However it is very fit they should be tried Thus the Text saith Deut. 8.2 Deut. 8.2 that the Lord dealt with the Israelites in the Wildernesse First hee would not lead them the right way by the land of the Philistims but by the Wildernesse and there hee would so hold them occupied that whereas they might have been there in fourty dayes he led them a traverse of fourty yeares Hee held them to hard-meat and when he gave them a supply yet hee gave them but from hand to mouth and why was all this Moses tells them even to try all that was in their heart to turne it up-side-downe that by all the weary journey of the Desert their hunger their wants Gods provision their unthankfulnesse Gods judgements wasting them delaying and crossing their lingring after Canaan a land flowing with milk and hony by the ruine of all the carcasses of them that came out of Egypt the Lord might cause them to know themselves the Lord thorowly deny themselves wait upon his promise and enjoy Canaan with a more humble and thankfull heart then else they had done Otherwise what boot had it been to have brought thē into Canaan with their fathers spirits The land certainly had surfeted them and vomited them out else as soone as they had come in but now Reason 2 experience of the Wildernesse taught them how to walke before God God begins with his people as he means to proceed The Lord begins with his owne as hee means to proceed Hee meanes to make them patient meek enemies to selfe privie to more corruption then the world knowes of jealous and watchfull and willing to be as God will have them and to thinke it best to be base when God sees it meet this I say the Lord is faine to deale with his betimes even in the first beginnings of his grace as a man would bow a twig as he would have it grow after And therefore in the very threshold he stops their hasty course and whereas they would thinke they might be converted and beleeve quickly asoone as they feele their need and heare of a promise lo the Lord makes it a longer worke then so and delayes them till he have laid a foundation for after times till he have made them know all that is in their heart and not think much of Gods corrections afterward as having been traind up to the yoke from their youth Ephraim was as an heifer unaccustomed to the yoke Jer. 31.31 but when she was yoked and humbled she converted to God and smote upon her thigh and so was fitter for mercy then when she was wild and unbroken Reason 3 And to say the truth if the Lord did not thus delay us in our haste and put a stop upon us in our proceedings
into the dungeon and then it falls downe as Saul with that light which shone about him Act. 9. and saith what wilt thou have me to doe I am as thou wilt have me 1 Sam. 3. my wisdome my wit shall be thine speake Lord and thy servant heareth he that formerly should have perswaded me of this might as easily have forced me to say it is light at midnight But Lord now I am a foole in my selfe meerly empty of mine owne sense and wholly thine addicted to sweare to thine edicts and if thou sâ—â—ak the word I lay hand upon mouth and have done This is to be as a little child whom ye may winne to say what ye list Oh! this is the next way to make thee wise to salvation This is to be unto Gods wisdome as the Queene of Sheba was to Salomons even to have no spirit left in her Oh! thou must say with David My fingers shall forget to play and lose all cunning Thirdly thou must so be stript of all thine owne Word of truth must cast the seed of God into the soule when once emptied of her selfe as yet thou must Branch 3 not be a meere void and empty one of all other wisdome But the word of truth must be shed as seed into thy soule and the principles thereof must be infused into it to informe it and to create of nothing a new nature of divine light into it I say as they spake in Act. 23.7 If an Angell from heaven have revealed any thing from heaven to him we will not gainesay it These words the Pharisees used of set purpose to oppose the Sadduces who denyed Angels and souls of men So must thou That which hath beene most contrary to thy wisdome must now bee all in all Now thou must oppose thy selfe thus If God have revealed any truth of his from heaven I will sooner cast thee out then resist it Be thou as parties who put their matters to compromise They are first bound in bonds to stand to award So doe thou binde thy carnall reason as a dogge to the stake that it stirre not a foote nor once mute while God is speaking yea doe thus with gladnesse as poore men are glad to be bound to arbitrement because they desire an end So thou because thou desirest to be savingly wise be glad there is such a word of truth shining in a darke place and open all windows to let it in do not stop any crevis of light which might enter but greedily attend study meditate in this word till the Lord thereby have let it into those darke corners of the heart that was before in the shadow of death and till the truth doe incorporate with thine understanding and cause the scales of darkenesse to fall off as Pauls did that thou maiest see cleerely those things that concerne thy peace All the fogs mists and cavills of carnall reason being scattered Oh! let her interrupt the Lord as she will yet the soule knowes whither to goe for deciding the question she will not forfeit her bond by which shee is bound to stand to the last decision of the word Fourthly get the spirit of the Lord Jesus into thy soule The fourth The Spirit of the Lord Jesus must create holy wisdome in the soule Joh. 1.18 who is the active worker of true and sanctified wisdome in the renued soule According as the Apostle tells us He is made unto us of the Father wisedome c. He enlightens every one that comes into the world with true light being that light which the soule must come by to the Father whose light cannot else be approached By the flesh of the Lord Jesus the soule is made capable of this light of the word else there is no capablenesse And the Spirit of the Lord Jesus workes the soule into this light because it reveales him unto it in the mystery of reconciliation and forgivenesse For why Till the soule be made wise to salvation all her wisdome is only in the brain will not hold The Spirit of Christ therefore lets into the heart as well as the head of the beleever this light and conveies the goodnesse warmth and sweet of it into the soule and that it is which causes it to dwell in the soule and to be an immortall and unâ—â— caying light which shall abide to eternall life till the soule see light in Gods light else the light of the Hypocrite is but a violent and dim twilight caused rather by a necessity of conviction then a powerfull perswasion Therefore apply thy selfe especially to such helpes as may bring Christ into thy soule The sight of his salvation to thy soule is the quintessence of spirituall wisdome this will cause thee to grow in all light when once thou art enlightned in the mystery of acknowledging Christ to be thy Saviour Ephe. 1.18 For why This will teach thee that Christ is all godlinesse in a mystery all the whole truth of God is lapped up in him as his infants body was lapped up in cloaths and swath-bands Else all knowledge is but a guessing and conjecturall thing count it then thy chiefe wisdome to be wise in escaping the snares of death and in beleeving unto salvation Oh! who shall bring me where I shall heare a Sermon of Christ to pardon me to reconcile me to God! If faith in the Lord Jesus once turne thy stream and carry thee with a fuller sway to heaven then all thy worldly wit carried thee before to thy cavills and objections there is hope thou hast well quitted thy selfe of carnall reason Faith the true eye to behold the mysteries of salvation Fifthly looke with the eye of faith into all the mysteries of godlinesse to beare downe carnall reason No mystery can be understood without faith The Spirit of God workes faith first as that instrument whereby the soule is led into all the secrets of God Faith by a promise will make carnall reason stand by as a very foole Hence it is that the spirituall man is said to judge all things even the hidden things of God And yet to be judged of no man 1 Cor. 3. Why Because the light of faith is the highest light All other lights are of a lower kinde And hence it is that a carnally wise man comming to heare a poore soule to speake by the light of faith touching the matters of God stands as a man astonished and as a foole in the presence of a wise man For why The Spirit which revealed the promise of salvation reveales therewith all other promises and all parts of the will of God So then I say in the fifth place let faith subdue thy reason and shew thee a reall sensiblenesse savour and wisdome in all the matters of God By her eye judge of the Sacraments discerne the reall presence of Christ there though not really carnall behold a sacramentall union betweene him and the Elements for the carrying of the soule into
shopkeepers let not your servants behold in you a spirit of covetousnesse to obtrude bad wares for good to belye their goodnesse to sell for too great prises false weights scant measures Such scurffe will soke into them as water into the bowells and fret like a canker The Divells market is so full as it is by this tradition and exchange from Master to servant This is not to be a father but a traitor for a three penny commodity to betray a soule to hell and the whiles to the like practise Such straked roddes laid before sheepe will cause them to bring forth spotted lambes How many on the gallowes and more in hell roare and cry out upon such Masters Thy life shall goe for his and he in hell groanes for thee to follow without speciall mercy and repentance so much for this Impose lawfull commands in measure Fourthly in the obeying of such commands as are lawfull and currant yet impose not tyranny in the measure thereof both in the former and in this latter servants may bee overloaden When Masters care not what excesse of toile and moile servants undergoe and that out of season beyond strength without due rest sleepe or intermission they shew themselves no fathers for fathers pitty their children but oppressors Thy servant is for thee to use not tire or teare out Thou must not take both fleece and flesh too So when that is laid upon the yong and ungrowne in either sexe which belongs to stronger armes and shoulders to lift or when a taske is imposed which exceeds the skill or experience of a servant it is an exaction an overdriving of them more fit for Egyptian taske Masters then Christian governours Take the servant in his way and element it is best both for thee and him So also let thy spirit be sweet and easie toward him in his moderate labours else thou wert better lay on more work For the spirit of a Master if insulting taunting chiding upbraiding is more heavy and contrary to the spirit of an underling then worke is to the body A servant would not care what hee did for his Master so he might have peace and quietnesse But a tyrannous spirit and wrathfull tongue with implacablenesse is a continuall wearinesse and dropping to a poore creature A loving interpretation a tender compassionate heart acknowledging with content the diligence of an inferiour is as marrow to the bones Thou couldest not abide a froward currish spirit a dogged servant answering againe crosse and disquieting of thee Take heed then thou measure out to him by the same rule whereby thou wouldest have him measure out unto thee Awe him and rule him spare not and correct errors yet with a fatherly heart and hand 1 King 13. but play not the Rehoboam to his subjects who cared not what measure he laid on nor feared what they could requite him withall His little fingers should be heavier then his fathers loynes but his fathers twelve tribes turned to become his two tribes and so the mends was in his owne hands Encourage him sometime Fifthly if thou see thy servant extend and inlarge himselfe for thy content beyond ordinary conceale not his labour of love for it is love and bounty of affection which causes him so to expresse himself Else he would shrinke in and restraine himselfe Doe not therefore Nabal like look another way and reject it but see it encourage and accept it as thou wouldest have Christ doe thine Sometime a little liberty of honest exemption refreshing his wearinesse or a little overplus a teston or a shillings requitall will do more then all violence Somewhat hath some savour and what a servant wouldest thou bee to God if thou hadst all commands and no encouragements Sixtly Yeeld him all due protection and shelter the Lord requires thy fatherly protection to shield and safeguard thy servant while he is in thy businesse that none molest wrong or discourage him The Lord promises to uphold us while we walke in his way So must we under God protect such as commit themselves to our shelter Much more then oughtest thou to shew thy self a father and friend in troubles and vexations by enemies who pursue him in his estate or otherwise Most of all if the Lord lay his hand upon him either in minde or body Most Masters if they finde that their servants grow sad and sorrowfull in spirit and loaden in conscience abandon them presently and are loath to endure the trouble or to beare the losse of some little time of hearing the word consulting with the Minister whereas rather they should be meanes to provide counsell for them So for body if a servant be hurt brused or lamed in our businesse or if otherwise the hand of God be upon them not to leave them to themselves but to fellow-feele their affliction to be afflicted with them and helpe to beare some of the burthen which they undergoe God tries thee in such a case whether thou wilt take all his service but shake off all burden Seventhly Carry an equall impartiall hand carry an equall hand betweene thy servants who deserve well It is a maine duty of the Master to regard those most that deserve best for that will provoke the honest to emulation and shake off the bad altogether But among the equally well deserving let not an unequall streame of affection be carryed and all kindnesses goe to one as a favorite and nothing to others for that will breed heart burning and ill will both against the Master and amongst themselves and much impeach thy wisdome and government Eightly as thou must doe for them while they are under thee Respect them at departure breeding in them the knowledge and skill in thy trade and the experience which thou canst afford them so at their departure after long and weary service with thee doe for them as their occasions require of thee The Jew though he were sold as a slave for his time yet at his dismission was to have a gratuity paid him to beginne the hard world withall either by lending him somewhat for a time to occupy or to helpe him in his marriage or by commending him to some better service or yeelding him any such countenance or testimony as may advantage him The worlds cry is no penny no Pater noster if once worke be done let him looke us no more in the face But the weldeserving require another carriage Thy servant hath spent his best time with thee therefore it were harsh altogether to neglect him in his decaying time Let thy counsell and aide be ready for him if he desire it in token thou lookest at his deserts as much as thine owne ends And so much for directions Which if they were duly practised how would they winne and draw the hearts of servants to their Masters What burthen would they refuse for such As the old men told Rehoboam If thou shalt speake kindely to these people they will be
with all the poison and disdaine they can professing themsâ—lves to hate the very tribe of them with a deadly irreconciliable feud That Centurian in Luke 5.7 is praised for loving the Nation of the Jewes But these abhorre both the persons and the whole Nation of the Ministers taking occasion by all possible meanes to expresse it in whatsoever companies they come yea in the most reproachfull manner what opinions and affections they beare toward them 2 King 9.11 Such were those fellow Captaines of Iehu who when the Prophets messenger came to doe his message asked him what mad fellow was this who came in unto thee Even such base triviall names doth the world give to the Ministers of God And as the villany of old Popish Idolls deserved the base tearmes of pild Priest hedge Priest knave Priest and the like So now ungodly wretches dare abuse Gods Ministers as fast for their goodnesse calling them singular fellowes proud pestilent Preachers fantasticall fellowes factious enemies to the estate Oh! of all other men they thinke such may be spared they were well ere such came and till they be rid of them they shall never be quiet As Ieremy saith Woe is me that my mother bred me a man of contention And againe Jerem. 15.10 Esay 8.18 I and my children are as signes of contradiction publick spectacles to men and Angels yea the very off-scouring of men It cannot be imagined how Alehouse hunters libertines epicures sweaâ—ers worldlings dare speake and thinke of Gods Ministers Oh! the bitternesse of their spirits Proverb the venome of their tongues who can stand before envy Well let not all this daunt us Let us do as our Lord Jesus himself and his Apostles who escaped not the like handling even carry our selves as wisely as we can and heap hot coales upon their heads by our long suffering and meeknesse But as for them look for no other while they continue as they are they doe but their kinde They who despise Christ himselfe are high traitors and they cannot be guilty of lesse then of petty treason who dispise his Ministers and if the maligners or revilers of the fathers of their bodies were to be stoned without any more adoe What shall the scorners and revilers of the fathers of souls be done too Psal 105.15 Surely although they may escape the judgement of man they shall never avoid his who hath threatned them that doe but touch how much more lay so violent and execrable hands upon his Ministers From what other spirit can it come let the pretences be what they will but a spirit of desperate prophanenesse and debauchednes yea a Giant-like defiance with God which because it cannot reach God himself therefore le ts fly all their reproaches and scorns upon such as doe most neerly resemble and beare witnesse of him upon earth Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee saith the Prophet have lighted upon me If the Minister can approve it against thee that he beares no other blowes or markes then such as should have lighted upon God himselfe Woe to them that are guilty of such blasphemy for the Lord shall plague them with the same eternall plagues wherewith he plagues those who immediately have blasphemed Majesty it selfe But I dwell not upon these I hasten to Reproofe And first this sharpely censures all such as disesteem discourage and Vse 3 desert such Ministers as they are bound doubly to honour and respect Of Reprofe Deserters and discouragers of such Ministers as they are bound too to be blamed This very fact of Naaman shall rise up in judgement against them in the day of Christ Did Naaman so deerly love the Prophet one whom he never saw before Before whose gate only he had stood and heard a message from but as yet had not seene At the bare report of him For a bodily cure Nay the hope of it a far off Shall an heathen do all this Shall he even doe some yea any great thing for him What colour shall they pretend then that are farre from doing the least thing for such a Minister of God as not onely they have seene but also heard lived and conversed with not the first day but ten twenty thirty forty yeares Not as Prophets but Preachers the least whereof is not onely greater then Elisha but Iohn Baptist himselfe Matth. 11.12 not promising the cure of leprosie but of the soule not offering the effect of Jordens waters but the waters of regeneration in baptisme Not by a messenger but by their owne hand and by the power of the word farre more excellent then the urim of a Priest or the vision of a Prophet Surely one might well thinke that such people should refuse no paines cost or hazard for such Ministers But be willing if need were to thrust themselves between the swords point and their bosomes to ride and runne to doe them good to stake their purse counsell travell selves soules and all for their encouragement If for the Brethren much more for the Fathers should we lay downe our lives But is it so 2 Joh. 3.16 Surely let that prejudice which men generally have of the very handling yea naming of such a point as this is say for them what their affections are in this case yea and the thoughts even of Ministers themselves who study how to passe over this point as the Dog of Nilus passeth by the streame rather catching here and there a lap then daring to stay and drinke for feare of some Crocodile or other to snap him up I hope brethren you will pardon me if I deale plainly as having no claime either to your tithes or purses who I am sure have spent five times more charge in furnishing my selfe for the worke of the Ministery then ever my Ministery was worth unto me therefore the rather I beseech you give me favour I come not to accuse you of this congregation for your present love or countenance Onely I must tell you many who now in our welfare use of gifts liberty and elbowroome shew themselves forwardest to encourage us Note this fulfilled Prophesie if God turne the wheele and change our publicknesse into privacy and our liberty to restraint and our peace into enmity and our health into sicknesse and leave us to their curtesies will be the first that will lowre upon us and challenge us rather for our curiosity and precisenesse then regard us either for the former services we have done or for the sorrowes we suffer Experience hath proved it so throughly already in many worthy lights who have spent all their oile for the use of the Sanctuary that even those hearers of theirs who most of all seemed to rejoice in their light have no sooner saw their light to be a little darkened to the worldward but they have slipt away in a mist and beheld them as strangers afar off deserted them their wives and children so that except God had
creatures Else God his subjects might rule him not he them then might they give him law not he them What a poore and titular King were hee who must stand to the good will of his people as being more strong and subsisting in themselves then himselfe What a King would he be who either for lacke of power or because hee hath resigned up his power cannot match them who are under his command How poore was it with David 2 Sam. 3.39 when his owne sonne and his subjects yea Ioab and Abishai were too strong for him A true King must bee furnisht with power policie and influence of authority sufficient to curb over-match and subdue his subjects how much more then the Lord Doubtlesse were not his lawes full of majesty and authority they could not match and equall the corruption of their hearts whom they ought to governe For example The heart of man is very stout lofty and rebellious If then the Word and Law of God were not full of strength able to make it quake and tremble yea to cast downe and breake the rockes and hills Nahum 1.3 and to make Carmell and Lebanon to shake Dan. 5.6 how should he controll it Even Belshazzars knees smote together at his hand-writing The heart of man is base and slavish Slaves watch their season and opportunity when their Masters eyes is off his backe turned to play their parts If then this law of his were not like the soule in the body wholly in all and wholly in every part beholding the creature alway in each corner and at every turne how would hypocrites make bold with him But now his whip is before them and his sword hangs over them perpetually His Sergeant and Keeper is never from their heeles their owne conscience and his Spirit as Elisha's with Gehazi going out with them comming in whither shall they goe from his presence but hee will over-take them If they goe up to Heaven Psal 139.8 or downe to Hell or to the utmost parts of the Earth his eye followes them and they are still naked before him Therefore there is no playing their rex more in one place or one time then another Jer. 17.9 So againe The heart of man is deep and deceitfull who can know it If then the Lord were not more searching narrow and politick then all the cunning of hypocrites and if his commands were not able to hunt them out of all their nooks and corners as Samuel did Saul 1 Sam. 15. 1 King 14. and as Abija did Ieroboams wife how should he keep his state and dignity over it Must he not needs be over-reached by it But now the candle of the Lord searcheth all the bowels of the belly Prov. 20.27 all those secret windings and turnings of a close and false heart are open to him and to his word commands and terrors even as Benhadads plots to Elisha And so may I say of all the rest 2 King 6.12 The word of God is fully able to match and controll whatsoever is in the corrupt heart of man and in that respect is a law meet and fit torule and controll it And therefore how meeke calme how open plaine how loyall faithfull should that obedience be which the soule should performe unto his commands So much for this Seventhly the Lord hath power to repeal Lawes as well as to make Reason 7 them his will maketh that to be Law at one time God hath power to repeate the saddest law therefore to make it Deut. 22.6 which at another is none he can reconcile contraries by his will he that at one time forbids to kill the Damme upon the Egges at another time commands to kill the women and their sucklings at their breasts or in travell or big with childe and yet both lawfull He that forbids the spoiling of so much as the scraps that fall from our Tables or are left after meales at another commands the remainder of the Passeover next morning 1 Sam. 15.3 to be burnt with fire Exod. 12.36 He that forbids to steale a pin or a point from another commands to rob men of their best jewels gold and silver So that from his mouth we must receive Law his will is Law either forbidding or enjoyning Therefore it must needs be that it is soveraigne and not to be controlled by any or all the creatures The Lord commands policie to be used by a Captaine in warre yet if hee will have men play the fooles and fight with Lampes and Rammes-hornes Judg. 20.29 Josh 6.8 it is better then policie yea he will have Saul to wait for Samuel 1 Sam. 13.13 although his Souldiers goe from him and his enemies are ready to surprize him When the Lord commands it is a sinne to suffer an Oxe to perish or a sheep to miscarry in a ditch or the like And againe Luke 14.5 1 Sam. 15.3 when he pleaseth all the fat Oxen and Cattell of a Kingdome must bee slaine downerights and be made dung for the earth yea their owners also must be destroyed So much for reasons Now I come to the second generall viz. to answer those two questions Quest 1 What I mean by the Intension and Extension of Commands By Intension I understand the simplicity uprightnesse Answer Intension Extension of Commands what and integrity which Gods commands require of his people By extension I meane the largenesse and elbow-roome the bredth and reach of them Both these make much to set forth their authority For the former Gods object at which he aimes in commanding which hee bindes by his charges and arraignes at his Barre for breaking them is the conscience of a man hee sets up his Rules in the secretest part of man called in Scripture the Spirit or inner man of the most retired thoughts and affections To this Closet no law of man can pierce save God he is the Lord of the bodies but the soules are Gods peculiar Hee requires indeed outward kissing the Sonne and bowing the knee Jer. 31.31 Rom. 14.11 but he moreover urges the due of the heart There he will have his lawes written even in the heart and thence he will have obedience to flow So Paul Prov. 26. Rom. 7.22.25 I delight in the Law of God in my inner man And whom I serve in my spirit Heb. 4.6 The intents of the heart are pierced by this word and Law-giver he judgeth the uprightnesse tendernesse narrownesse closenesse of our obedience by the heart root If it be planted there even in the bent and streame thereof all is well not else Read Matth. 5.28 You have heard say of old Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say He that lusteth after a woman hath committed that sinne in his heart So that the Lord lookes at a pure principle manner and scope of the heart as well as the curbing of the outward man or members Princes are mounted upon Thrones
God hath strength in his hand to doe this whatsoever Satan hell law or wrath should say to the contrary I say he hath enough to warrant that he hath done against all opposers See Esay 27.4 5. Anger is not in me why Lay hold upon my strength and make peace The satisfaction of Christ is the strength of mercy as truly as the law is the strength of sinne The arme of mercy is so strong through this that the strong arme of justice cannot pull it away from forgiving a poore sinner but mercy will still be above and will not be beaten downe but prevaile against justice yea triumph against judgement By this strength then which overcomes justice shall not the distempers of the soule much more be vanquished and overcome Branch 5 Lastly the intent and purpose of God is by his promise to doe this favour for the soule even to put it out of all doubt and question and to breed assurance in it Heb. 6. That by two things the word and oath of God wherein it was impossible for God to lie we might have full assurance and so twice more in that Epistle he speakes The meaning whereof is As surely as I from all eternity did intend it in the foundation of mine election that is my Sonne as verily as I accepted it at his hands when he offered it up by his eternall spirit as verily as I offer it to my Church under the word of truth which cannot lie and have pawned my Ministers credit upon it that except I speake truely they are errant dissemblers as verily as now my deare Sonne at my right hand in glory pleads for poore soules that they may partake it so truly and really without hooke or crooke doe I intend to shew them mercy Why should not every one then that needs it fasten upon it and drowne all his distempers in it decide all doubts and rest well satisfied Conclusion of reasons To these I might adde many mo As that the promise beleeved gives the soule a full requitall for all which shee forgoes As Peter said We have forsaken all and followed thee Lord what shall we have Our Saviour answers him An hundred fold here and after eternall life So perhaps thou hast forsaken thy old crasie props for Gods word what shalt thou have Even perfect peace that which they could never have bred thee Againe I might say That faith enlarges the hidebound and shrunk heart and makes it concurre with the Lord and equall his bowels I meane to be enlarged in her bowels toward him againe whereas before it was not so but she limited the holy one of Israel and restrained his compassions Besides this word of the promise sets up a light in the heart above all that light which was there before We know when it is dark we are glad of a candle But when the Sunne shines bright a candle is a poore needlesse thing and is drowned by a superiour light So here a blind dark deluded heart is glad of any dimme candle of its owne to make it thinke it sees but when the word comes that dimme light vanishes These and many more I might adde but these are sufficient I hasten to the question and objection and the answers of them Here then first it may be asked The Answer to a Question But may a poore soule truly loaden with her owne sinne and under a condition of a promise be subject to so many distempers I answer yea surely as in the wombe the woman that is conceived with child yet ere the fruit be perfected feeles abundance of inward griefes and pains strugglings and wrestlings ere the fruit be come to the full ripenesse But when it is once come to that the former distempers cease Even so is it here Till faith have formed the soule to a true quietnesse and setling there cannot chuse but be many feares and turne-againes although the seed be cast into the wombe really But what are these I answer In three kinds Such as these I may referre them to these three heads for order sake First erroneous conceits on the right hand proceeding from selfe-love flattering it selfe by her hopes her morall qualities her negative abstinences opinion of her religious duties her affections complaints her liking of goodnesse flashes of joy and the like Oh! how can she chuse but doe well how can she be out of the way Then must thousands perish if she be wrong She is not so sinfull that she should put Gods mercy too farre to straine it selfe Ah poore wretch thinkest thou to fare well by making God lesse work or by making thy selfe to need him above all sinners The Word goes not by thy small sinne but by the graciousnesse of the promiser So also of this sort are all mixtures of selfe and soderings against the Word hoping that such a degree of desire or sorrow or selfe-deniall will serve although it have no roote in the Word nor continue Seeking God so farre as will hold with such a lust liberty or evill custome To sticke to our old condition though we find it crasie by the Word and to be unwilling to goe any further and to strippe and bare herselfe of her owne bottome that Christ might come and take possession But desperately to venture and cast all upon hazard if I be not well let all goe I will take as I find but I will altar none of my course This for the first sort Secondly there are distempers on the left hand for the soule is hurried with extremities on both sides till she beleeve I meane with bondage as well as boldnesse Of this sort are all base feares and wicked conceits against our selves That we are the unhappiest of all men of more aversnesse to Gods will and way then any men or women living That our corruptions are baser then any our natures more crooked inconstant awk and perverse that such spirits as ours so sly subtill and lewd cannot belong to God For then some restraining grace or other would have kept us all this while Why oh poore soule is it not as much for the glory of mercy to save a crooked spirit as a streight dost thou so looke upon thine owne ends that Gods are forgotten Also a false opinion of Gods enmity toward us because we feele our selves as corrupt and hardhearted as ever little amendment in us but much what the same under long hearing many mercies patience crosses meanes of grace What should this argue but that our hearts are given over and left of God Surely if he had chosen us we should not be thus Some there must be after all costs and trials who must be left in their hardnesse of heart and none more like to be of that number then such as we feele our selves So tempted to vile thoughts to lewd lusts and affections So many backwarder and further off then we in shew yet have beene brought home to God before us Many of our time age and
if you have beleeved the Word of God indeed whence are those privie nips of your conscience which do so continually assault you Whence are those terrours of heart with which many of you are met with when you would faine be at peace When you are in the middest of your ease and jollity your liberties your sports and pleasures whence come those cold qualmes over your base spirits barring you out from peace and fastning terrours upon you stronger then you can resist Dare you pretend your selves beleevers when you feele still your old distempers to tosse and turmoile you and to hold you downe with strong hand in secret Joh. 8.30 If they whom the Sonne hath freed are free indeed whence is your slavery No no you do but set a good face on it you make faire weather outwardly but hatch inwardly such a viper as will fret your bowels and destroy you it is one thing to smother and choake your feares and beare downe your distempers another to drowne them in the sea of the promise you have other delights to fill your hearts withall the Lord would have set on the worke of the law more throughly and made you more to stinke in your owne nostrils and to prize the Word of God and the promise of ease if ever you had beene truly loaden But sithence you would have both your lusts and the promise too holding a wolfe by the eares which you are loath to forgoe and yet cannot well keep know that you deceive your selves in boasting that you hold close to the promise for they that do so may lose their distempers therein which you keepe still It is true That the Lord would have all his as Esay saith count it their strength to sit still But how not in a chaire of ease pretending a freedome which you never had and favouring your selves in any forbidden vanities of your owne envie lust pride revenge and the like But the strength of a poore soule is to sit still in respect of her cavillings and fightings against the truth of the promise Perhaps you will say you do so and feele no such matter in your selves but are quiet and secure But I answer your peace is not sound there is a crack in it as appeares by this That you walke not as Gods free-men do you are as close to God in your love in your tendernesse in your humble carriage as you would pretend to be in your beleeving No man can palpably discerne the Devils chaines upon the Lords free-men Wherefore to conclude I say to you as he to that messenger What hast thou to do with peace turne thee behind mee Oh these are the daies wherein the most vile and presumptuous hypocrites catch at a promise and beare downe their consciences But be not thou O Christian friend like to them for their disease wound is but healed deceitfully and shall breake out againe most deadly when they shall not be able to resist it except it please the Lord to send them upon better conditions to claime the promise So much shall serve for this Use Fifthly this bitter reproofe of all such who in the judgement Use 5 of Charity do beleeve and cleave to the Word yet will not be drawne from the bad custome of their former doubts conceits and distempers but suffer Beelzebub still to light upon their sore and to molest them and gall them still Oh! what a dishonour is this to the promise of God still to hold a secret correspondence with Satan and to nourish our old picking of knots and answering of feares by our owne blanching wit and devises yea spending houres and daies wearisomely in setting our owne wit and invention on worke to beat off our objections and thinking they have done themselves good service in the meane while Whence comes this surely by your weaknesse and relapsing from your former hold of the promise This self-wit and will is so naturall that we are prone and propense to revolt and roll backe unto it as fast as the Lord seems to settle us by his Word it is an inbred evill alway fighting against the law of faith as it is easie for a woman to go to a pond or pulke standing neere to her doore though the water be not so good rather then to goe to a fountaine of living water further off Ease and ill custome are inchanting enemies But remember that onely that blood of sprinkling hath in it a sure bottome of staying feares so that the soule may be quiet from the destroying Angell and the out-cries of Egypt Could they who never had the experience of such a thing before yet so confidently venture their lives upon the Word and shall such as have in likelihood approved this promise of God by experience and ventured themselves upon it and felt it a soveraigne remedy against their distempers returne to tread the maze of their old confused thoughts the second time As if the Word had suddenly lost her strength and virtue to sustaine them as formerly Shall forgetfulnesse melancholy temptation corruption ill custome be able to pull them from an assured hold of rest to assured vexation and distemper I speake it brethren upon knowledge It hath beene thus and is thus with many through a wearisomenesse of this spirituall trade of beleeving that men grow into a very falling sicknesse in this kind that is such a custome of wofull doubtfulnesse and distempers that they seem to delight in it Alas poore soule dost thou thinke that to be presumption in thee which the Lord himselfe calls confidence or because perhaps thou feelest the dregs of a bold heart still abiding in thee hast thou no other way to avoid a shallow save by running into a gulfe If the Lord be willing thou shouldst hold thy peace upon the naked termes of his offer and promise seemes it too good for thee or if it be must thou needes undervalue his grace by thy basenesse as if it were too great for him to bestow because it is too good for thee to enjoy Know it from the ground of this doctrine the Lord delights as little in this practise of thine as thou seemest to delight much in it And although I deny not but in respect of thy weaknesse there may be some place for pity yet there is more cause of sharpe reproofe For why Didst thou never beleeve the Word deceive thy selfe no longer and put away thy distrust from thee But hast thou beleeved for so thou didst pretend then trust the Lord still and say with him Why dost thou thus fret O my soule in my breast and recoyle against that which hath formerly satisfied thee Turne rather thy vexation into prayer and say Remove these unpleasing chaines Lord at last and set mee at liberty shew me this wisedome from above not onely barely to cling to it but also to improve it so as to feele the power of it to shut out my base distempers out of doores and there to hold
embrace their gods Bacchus Venus and the rest more strongly then ever Enough wee have who are of the spirit of Caiphas his Hall and those that spited scorned and spit at Christ crying Crucifie him not many whose spirits are towards him tender to his glory to his mercy and grace to his poore Church and people Oh the spirit of ambition selfe-love is now all in all What should I say to such except they be accursed by Gods owne mouth that never any good should seaze upon them let this point in Gods feare scare them Me thinkes thou shouldst not heare of such a spirit of Grace and tendernesse as I speake of but thy soule shoâ—ld tremble and thy heart throb in thy bosome to consider what a contrary spirit of corruption and hell thou walkest with Oh! if God should leave thee to this spirit of thine owne to be conceited of thy selfe to feare no danger to be carelesse what may betide thee and to adde drunkennesse unto thirst what shall become of thee what is wanting save hell it selfe to make up the woe of such a soule And yet I tell thee this is not farre off from thee Read Deut. 29. Deut 29.15 If any man hearing the words of this booke and the curses thereof shall yet say in his heart I shall have peace I shall fare well I feare nothing Especially if conceited of its owne welfare the wrath of God shall smoke out against such a man and God will not be entreated of him for why he is over head and eares in the spirit of gal bitternesse a thousand to one if ever he recover Therefore looke about thee in season As the Lord said to Elijah in the cave so say I to thee Up arise and goe forth for thou hast a great journey to goe ere thou come at the Horeb of God I wish thee to goe by mount Sinai and hath thy base spirit throughly with those terrours of God 1 Kings 19.7 which may gaster thee with some feeling of thy condition Sinne is got into thy spirit and hath seated it selfe deeply in the entrals of thy soule A great gulfe is set betweene thee and the spirit of grace therefore pull downe thy rebellious heart and as Peter said to Simon Magus try by all meanes whether this thy sinne may be forgiven thee The spirit of grace is joyned with the spirit of mourning Acts 8.22 Try whether God cannot bring thee out of one spirit of bitternesse into a contrary for he promiseth that all humbled ones shall be in bitternesse as a thing steept in vineger as he that is in bitternesse for the losse of his onely sonne Zach. 12.10 Bitternesse of a prophane and presumptuous heart must be turned into the bitternesse of a broken and subdued spirit Oh! that ever I should exalt folly so highly and disdaine mercy yea kill the Lord of life as I have done Read Acts 2. Acts 2. where this prophecy was fulfilled in such as crucified Christ himselfe and yet being pierced in heart for it the Lord powred the spirit of grace into them and annointed them with oyle of gladnesse and joy so that they who murthered him had the first hansell of life and pardon from him Oh blessed art thou if the like portion might befall thee who hast ventured as farre as they did So much for this Branch 2 Secondly it is terrour to all Neuters and Sceptiques whose spirit seemes not so ranke and cursed Indifferency Neutrality of spirit worse then prophanenesse Numb 23. 25. but yet is as deepe and dangerous because they maintaine a vile spirit of indifferency and mediocrity in stead of this spirit of grace They say as Balac did to Balaam Neither blesse nor curse In this respect they are worse then the former because they utterly abandon all sense of the Gospel and become fulsome Atheists upon point neither hot nor cold fish nor flesh They would seeme to hate open villanies But then they much more abhorre the spirit of the Gospel Their spirits are flat and flash whereas the spirit of the Gospel is tender Luke 14. ult zealous and powerfull Wofull ones hanging betweene Heaven and Earth cast downe from Heaven vomited up from the earth Salt which hath lost his savour good for nothing no not for the dunghill All their skill stands in selfe-concealments forsooth their religion and conscience may not be known What can you worke wonders can you carry coales in your bosomes and not be burnt Such have their Religion to chuse Doubtlesse the not burning of your bosomes by this fire argues that there is not one coale of the Altar fallen upon them you are Quench-coale no sparkle of grace can kindle upon your cold hearth you must needs be ashamed of the Gospel because the spirit of magnifying it and of justifying wisdome is not in you but rather an aloofe dead and Gallio-like spirit is in you Whether you serve Christ or Beliall whether you be Popish or Protestant who but God can judge And surely you lie fulsome upon his stomach Acts 18.15 as luke-warme water and that which makes you happy in your own conceit will prove you accursed in Gods It were better you were hot or cold then thus wambling and next to be vomited for ever out of the mouth of him Revel 3.19 who never returnes to his vomit Under pretext that thou darest not trust men thou betrayest God and the spirit of the Gospel a remedy worse then the disease To be as wise as a Serpent I disswade thee not But shall this destroy that naked simplicity and spirit of love to God and his truth which where it cannot goe will creepe and play at small game rather then sit out What Matth. 10. 2 Cor. 10.4 because we cannot expresse our selves in such acts and services as we would or have done shall we serve God with neither might spirit or courage at all Is that command dispensable and confined to this season or to that hath God no need of thee in dangerous times or because thou darest trust no man wilt thou therefore trust no God Shall the Gospel carry thee no further then ease and the serving of thine owne fleshly turne will concurre Wilt thou dare to doe any thing against the spirit of the Gospel because thou hast not elbow-roome sufficient to act that part as thou wouldest It is just with God to take it quite from thee because thou walkest contrary to it And to give thee over to a close spirit of thine owne that thou shouldest jeere and scorne the zealous as Micoll did David dancing with his Ephod before the Arke 2 Sam. 6.20 Was not the King a goodly foole to day How many of these Neutrall spirits have growne to it Let it gaster us from it and teach us to nourish such a spirit in our bosomes as the Gospel hath wrought if ever any such were wrought and to be farre from disdaining
resist that spirit by which you speake and walke It is not your duties hearing Sermons which will serve turne except you get into the way of God and get your spirits whetted up to a lively temper of godlinesse you shall but adde heapes to heapes and die of thirst Rake up the ashes of your first sacrifice and see if there be any one sparkle alive Iudg. 15.16.18 to kindle that old fire in your hearts God hath now farre more need of it then he had then If you cannot find old sparks goe to Heaven for new for a double portion of it else you will hardly hold out in these cold times You young Novices here among us who in your youth have begunne well and honoured the labours of Gods servants by your zeale by your answering to Catechism by drawing on many to God be not discouraged that the same Grace which made you young Sts. can make you old ones I doubt it not but blesse God for the hope I conceive of your growth and fruit Esay 8.18 1 Iohn 4.4 though we are as signes both we and the children which God hath given us and wonders to the world feare not greater is he that is in us then with them You Magistrates hereabouts you Headborowes and Officers at home doe not play the cowards in the cause of God and the government of the Towne suffer not drunkards to fill up your Alehouses here upon the day of our Lecture and to rout in all cursed behaviour all the day after going together by the eares swearing and swaggering let not your Taverns and places of resort be more frequented then Gods house I see ruine before mine eyes and the young fry will prove worse then their Predecessors your glory is gone except you hold together and prevent sinne from flowing downe your streets and overthrowing all 2 Cor. 2.14 â—â— And in a word to all sorts I speake scatter the savour of this spirit of Grace all about the places where you dwell shine especially within your owne sphere and families lay in for grace and mercy for your husbands wives children kinsfolke and neighbours who have long beene ignorant profane or formall worshippers at the best pluck them out of the fire by violence Iude ult Perhaps some seed lies under a clod they are not so deeply sunk under the slavery of those Idols but that God may fetch out somewhat of them at the last and shall it die for lacke of stirring up Be earnest with God and strive hard for the whole corner this poore Countrey in which ancient zeale and the spirit of Grace decayes exceedingly Easie serving of God for fashion and this love of the creature hath eaten up all The last yeare we were almost starven for bodily bread but God be thanked better food did helpe well both to content the poorer sort and to uphold their spirits with patience yea and to perswade the richer sort to mercy and compassion Now we feare a worse famine if not want of the Word yet that the Lord for our wretched unfruitfulnesse may fill our mouthes with Quailes Mumb. 11.20 and suffer them to come out againe at our nostrils may fat us with meanes and curse us with leannesse in our soules Psal 106.15 Lord suffer not the child to die at the breasts for lack of milke nor having it to surfet Oh thou who hast bred us by thy Word with the lively spirit of Grace preserve us by the same nourishment whereby wee are begotten And so for such among us brethren as have continued constantly Branch 5 in this zeale of the Gospel Consolation to all such as walke in the comfort of the spirit of conversion I doe here reach out comfort unto them and say to them as Elisha to Naaman Goe in peace Though you and I should never heare the voyce nor see the face of other yet we shall do well as long as the peace of God is with us Nourish your hearts still till death in this love of the Gospel Make not shipwrack in the havens Thinke not now of any new way Turne not to the world for they care not for you you stink to them therefore hold to your old Master and be his servants for ever Let the Lord beate you out of his doores before you dare start from him you have beene his so long that as Peter said Whither should we goe Lord from thee Iohn 6.68 thou hast the words of eternall life Though there be neither Calfe in the stall nor Bâ—llock in the heard though the Olive cast her fruit and the Vine decay yet God shall be your salvation Though meanes faile Habac. 3.17.18 yet this spirit of grace in you shall be a lively immortall stock in you and preserve you by faith to the day of salvation 1 Pen. 1.5 These are times wherein sinne abounds it is the very houre of darknesse Revel 3.10 Pray that as you have kept the Word of Gods patience all this while so he would keepe you though all the world should be over-shadowed And although perhaps you take thought for your first edge which is blunted by long continuance and custome Ephes 3.16 17 yet so long as your metall holds good steele to the back and you grow rooted settled and stable in all faith love and fruitfulnesse feare not he that hath begunne will perfect his worke Faithfull is he who hath promised 1 Thes 5.24 To the worke of whose Grace I commend you which is able to sanctifie you throughout and both to keep your bodies soule and spirits 1 Thes 5.25 pure and blamelesse to his comming through the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and the Spirit that immortall invisible and onely wise God 1 Tim. 1.17 be all honour and praise for ever Amen FINIS AN APPENDIX OR POSTSCRIPT TO THE READER ANd thus good Reader thou hast these Lectures penned to the uttermost wherein they were preached And as I inteÌ„ded to preach no more so neither doe I purpose to trouble thee with more then I preached The Verses following to the twentieth savour wholly of a spirit carried zealously towards God whose mercy cured both Naamans body and soule a draught whereof I gave thee in this last Lecture I grant there are some passages of obscurity attending the words next to them I have handled which some scrupulous Reader might thinke himselfe wronged if they should wholly be unsaluted Wherefore to give a very short touch of them thus conceive of the severals thereof THerefore take a blessing c. But he said Vers 15. end 16. As the Lord liveth Touching this Addition of his large gifts to his large heart I have already spoken of it in the servants arguments and shewed there the duty of the people to their Ministers And we must know it did not abhorre from the custome of those times either to offâ—r or accept gratuities by the Prophets But touching his refusall