his Promises Exod. 7. 17. Is the Lord among us or not In the wilderness of the Children of Israels tempting of God was a doubting of Gods Care and Providence and Power and Wisdom of which they had so many arguments assurances and promises from him In Numb 14. 22. Their tempting of God ten times sprang from their not believing him in all his signs which he had shewed Vers 11. among them and what that unbelief was appears by their words at the 2d verse Would God that we had died in the Vers 13. land of Egypt or would God we had died in this wilderness And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey Thinking that God could not preserve them or else would not go along with but leave them to be devoured by the people of the land as you may see at the 9th verse Now if you ask why sinful men tempt God it is from unbelief sometimes it springs from presumption believing more than God has promised they hope to be saved although they live in sin they are too confident and have too much faith they are over-believing 4. What is it sinfully to tempt and try God You must know as you have heard already that man may tempt God Et in excessu in defectu both in the excess and in defect 1. They tempt God who neglect second causes and use Neglectu licitorum not means which God hath prescribed when thou expectest God alone to help thee or give thee a mercy which thou oughtest to come to by thy own labour and co-operation this is to tempt and try both the Power and the Will of God They that will not labour with their hands but put it upon God to provide for them these tempt the Lord they that will not manage their estates but put it upon God to help them they sin most grievously It is true Gods Providence doth all things yet thy Providence must work with his Providence as a servant under it In Prov. 10. 22. It is said The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and yet at the 14th verse it is said The hand of the diligent maketh rich How stand these two together they are not opposita but subordinata not opposites but subordinate the one to the other Gods blessing makes rich as the principal cause and the diligent hand makes rich as the instrumental cause under Gods blessing there must be a wheel in the middle of a wheel the wheel of diligence in the wheel of Gods blessing there must be a hand in a hand the hand of diligence in the hand of blessing the diligent hand cannot make rich without Gods blessing and Gods blessing will not make rich without a diligent hand So they tempt God that divide the spirit from the Ordinance that look for Revelations and discoveries without Gospel-ordinances that look for grace without the Word that look for light without the candle of the Ministry that neglect Sabbaths neglect Ordinances and sit at home and say God will give them faith Ah ye true Phanaticks for Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God the word cannot work grace without the spirit the spirit ordinarily will not work grace without the word So they tempt God that look for God to subdue their sins and they do nothing God must master their lusts and unruly desires but themselves will not strive nor fast nor pray nor deny themselves nor wound their flesh As if an Army should stand in Battalia against the Enemy and not strike one stroke were not this a mad tempting of God and horrid self-murder Up sirs then and your selves fight the good fight of faith against your lusts Victory over sin is a mercy which thou must come to by thy own labour and co-operation 't is God indeed that hews down the strong oaks of our lusts but the Ax wherewith he doth it must be in our hands If ye through the spirit mortifie Rom. 8. 13. the deeds of the body ye shall live So they tempt God that will go in the way of means but not far enough many will pray against sin but not practise against sin as if a sick man should pray for his health but will take no physick for his health or he that hath a dangerous wound should pray to be healed but will apply no plaister they that pray for their children but do not educate them instruct reprove correct them they tempt God in that they do not use all the means for as Solomon saith Foolishness is bound in the heart Prov. 22. 15. of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him They that argue if we are elected we shall be saved though we live as we list and if we are not elected we shall be damned though we live never so holy and endeavour never so carefully these tempt God egregiously for God electing to the end elects also to the means hence that saying Praedestinatio est praeparatio gratiae in praesenti gloriae in futuro Predestination is a preparation of grace for the present and of glory for the future And therefore whereas thou sayst If I am elected I shall be saved though I live as I list the inference is most false for then 1. Conversion and Grace should be commanded in vain and because predestination alone should bring men to heaven which is a foolish conceit I say predestination alone brings no man to Heaven it is but the first link of the chain 2. Election or Predestination carrieth the means to salvation in the Womb of it so that this conditional proposition though Paul continues a blasphemer yet by vertue of his Election he shall be saved is so far from being true that the contrary ought to be inferred if Paul be not converted 't is impossible he should be saved though elected because God who elected Paul to be saved elected him to be saved by conversion not by rebellion by faith not by unbelief And whereas thou sayst if I am not elected do what I can live I never so holy though I should believe and repent I shall be damned by reason of the infallible decree I answer There was never any such decree at all in the Divine Will of damning any man though he believed and changed his life and returned to God I tell thee there was never any such Decree at all in the Divine Will but the contrary which God would have establisht for ever as most sure and certain and promulged abroad to all men That whosoever believes shall not perish but have everlasting life and he that will have the son shall have life Oh comfort unspeakable comfort and therefore come in souls come in and take Christ ye sinners and fear not Reprobation ye shall be saved Sirs let me in short give ye a blessed word fear sin and fear not reprobation if
for himself every Principle is for Operation The eye for seeing and the ear for hearing so grace is for work Now I say Christ hath begun a good work in you be you then at his work daily and finish it As it was with Christ the Head so should it be with all his members I have finished the work which thou gavest me Joh. 17. 4. to do The Apostle speaking to the Saints that had grace begun in them saith he As you have yielded your members servants Rom. 6. 19. to uncleanness and to iniquity Even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Peter writing to them saith The time past of our life may 1 Pet. 4. 3. suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles Sirs before you had grace you served sin and having grace will you not stir up your selves to serve Jesus Christ Your so long service to sin should set a keen edg upon you to serve Jesus Christ You live in Times and Places wherein men have so much work of their own to do that Christ is neglected and few men walk with God or act for God Some take mens Examples for patterns and copies and content themselves to do as others do Others are apt to put off Christ with desires but serve Satan indeed Others are catching at comforts and promises but neglect Precepts the Commands of God are tedious and burthensom to them Surely then you in whom the work of grace is begun it stands you upon to be at work for God whilst others shut up shop and are Bankrupts you should drive on a Trade for him 1. For he hath set you up again he hath underlaid and stockt you with Principles of Action he hath put you into a way of doing and given you wheels to move upon he hath made you Wings to fly Object Many excuse their negligence by pretending inability How often do Saints put a fine dress upon their laziness Alas I am nothing of my self except God give me an heart and strength what can I do Without me saith Christ ye can John 15. 5. do nothing Answ Do not deceive your selves God will not be mocked 1. The words of Christ have this meaning without me that is separate from me ye can do nothing that is till you are planted in me Now you say you are planted in Christ and therefore your excuse is but a lye This expression of Christ speaks no more but this that till you be knit to Christ you are but dead and barren Branches as Christ explains himself As the branch cannot bring forth fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in Vers 4. me Now you say you are knit and united to Christ and therefore away with these couzening vizors and palliations If you are not yet in Christ then confess it if you say you are in Christ then say not you can do nothing 2. The regenerate have a power to Act for God and to do work for Christ First Else there is no specifical difference between a man regenerate and unregenerate if both were without strength Secondly We should not have as much benefit by the second Adam as we had by the first Adam The first would have communicated his Power to do good and being corrupted doth communicate Power to do evil Therefore much more by Christ have we a Power to act for God in our measure Thirdly If you are in Christ you are living Branches vital Members and all life is a Power to act Fourthly What is grace but a repairing of that Holiness and Image of God which we lost in Adam But that was a Power to do what God required therefore so far as that Image is renewed so far there is a Power And therefore Saints Act for Jesus Christ I say you have wings and therefore fly upon action soar up a lost in Service for Jesus Christ God hath given you feet and therefore run the way of his Commandments God hath said to you as Peter did to the man that was Act 3. lame from his mothers Womb In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk and your feet and ancle-bones received strength And therefore God expects that you should be upon employment for him If you say It is true we have habitual grace a new frame of heart but we must have assisting grace and influence else we can do nothing the work is hard and we cannot act without new breathings I say Let the duty be to nature impossible yet the Lord is at hand to help even when there is no strength He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he Isa 40. 29. increaseth strength You know how the Israelites pleaded impossibilities and then the Lords anger rose when they were ready to enter Canaan If you had no Christ no Spirit no Promise to assure you to help you might then let fall Duties and cease to action and say 't is impossible I should ever overcome such sins or attain such a measure of grace or bear the Cross or do any thing But when Promises to assure you and Christ and Spirit to breathe upon you are at hand now to plead impossibility is to reproach the Lord If you were under the Law you might plead this but under Grace 't is horrible to make this excuse Remember therefore Gideon and Sampson and David who went out in the Name and Spirit of the Lord and they were helped 3. Know this that the more difficult any work or duty is the more sweetness shall you find in it if you break through it He that overcomes shall eat of the hidden Manna Have you not found your selves dead to Prayer yet you fell to it and then would not but have took the season for a world The husbandman that hath laboured eats afterward of his 2 Tim. 2. 6. fruit You plead the difficulty of a Christian life and therefore taste not the sweetness of it If you can do no more than what is easie and pleaseth self the Lord will never let you taste the sweetness of pleasing him 4. What do you mean to be Like whom Christ teacheth you to breathe out this Prayer Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Do you look for Heaven and will you not act as they do in Heaven whom do you make your patterns If you are not like Heaven you are Bastards not Sons I am sure Angels are content to come out of Heaven to do the work of God nay the Lord Christ himself came down from Heaven and was made lower than the Angels to do the Work of God and shall your hands shrink at it or will you think your selves too good to do it You have here the noblest patterns and most unparallel'd Copies to write after Like whom then do you mean to be Will you draw back from Angels work from the work the Son of God was
quicken and stir up their appetite that they may have an edg upon their spirits to the Ordinances And thus though under many fears and much doubting yet grace increaseth in them for as a lively and quick appetite to the Ordinances is a sign of growth so it is a means of the growth of grace 4. The Lord increaseth grace in his people by the communion of Saints It is not good saith God for man to be alone As man is a sociable creature so grace loves company nay grace needs company and society Exhort one another daily saith the Apostle while it is called to day Travellers are sensible how dangerous it is to ride alone Who knows what or whom they may meet with in the way Communion of Saints is a Divine Ordinance Grace cannot thrive well without it and we must not think to grow in grace when we will live without an Ordinance In Communion there is Communication in the Communion of Saints there is a Communication of Graces and Experiences and Influences There cannot be a building unless there be a meeting of stones Saints together In the Communion of Saints there is a bearing up of one another As in a Fabrick one stone holds and bears up another Bear you one anothers burdens and so fulfil the law of Gal. 6. 2. Christ In the Communion of Saints there is a praying for one another Pray one for another And what an help is this to the Jam. 5. 16. growth of grace In the Communion of Saints there is a telling of one another their faults an opening of the wound that it may let out Matth. 18. 15. the corrupt matter a friendly conviction to nip the sin in its bud that it may go on no further and doth not this contribute much to the growth of grace In the Communion of Saints there is a mutual mourning over 2 Cor. 12. 21. one another a shedding of tears for one another which falling like dew cannot but moisten and mollisie the withering herb and repair decaying grace Tell me Doth not this advance the work In the Communion of Saints there is a restoring of one another a setting of bones that are out into joynt again like curious and tender Chyrurgeons with gentle handling of the diseased party not roughly but by putting him to as little pain as may be for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies If any be overtaken Gal. 6. 1. in a fault Restore him with the spirit of meekness And doth not this help to perfect grace wonderfully In the Communion of Saints there is a consolation of repenting sinners a providing of Cordials for lapsed souls that faint under the sense of their sins an Application of comforts to them under their grief and shame Forgive him saith the 2 Cor. 2. 7 8. Apostle and comfort him lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow confirm your love toward him And tell me how Doth not this cheer up grace exceedingly This is another means whereby God furthers grace in his People the Communion of Saints And are ye not now ashamed of your selves that you use this Ordinance no more among you Do you not find your graces to wither in you for want of it There are strong Saints and there are weak Saints and the weak ones should receive quicknings from the Benign influence of the stronger As Pliny tells us of a Territory in Africk Nat. Histor l. 18. c. 22. in which a City called Tacape is situate I say in this Territory as he tells us in his time there stood a mighty great Date-tree having under it growing an Olive under which there is a Fig-tree and that over-spreads a Pomgranate-tree under the shade whereof there is a Vine Every one of these saith he live joy and thrive under the shade of each other Such is the Communion of Saints rightly planted a company of precious Trees where the Olive grows under the Date-tree the Fig-tree under the Olive the Pomgranate under the Fig-tree and the Vine under the Pomgranate the weak Saints under the shadow of the stronger 5. By want of assurance I say the Lord quickens his peoples graces by withdrawings of his Presence and interpositions of black darkness They lye out in a night of sad fears and wants of assurance Not that God delights in these Methods but he is fain to do so the necessities of his Saints call for it otherwise they would be stark naught They would forsake God if God did not forsake them for a while For 1. Did they always enjoy Gods smiles they would grow fearless of God Fear of God is a great preservative of grace and antidote against sin Now fearlesness of God is a distemper which the Saints are apt to grow into As children are wont to grow sawcy and irreverent when their Father dandles them too much upon the lap of familiarity and therefore he is fain sometimes by his frowns and distance to take down their spirits So though God be a Father yet he will be feared Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. 11. And therefore to correct the sinful boldness of his Children and cause them to stand in awe of him he sometimes shuts in his favour and takes state by concealing himself as the Persian Kings shunned familiarity and were seldom seen that they might be the more honoured The fear of God is one of the main pillars of his Throne and so far as he is not our fear he is not our God And therefore to advance his fear in the hearts of his people he withdraws his face and where fear grows grace grows For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom i. e. the chief or principal part of our wisdom The Saints fear of God keeps them from Apostacy I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me and to quicken their fear they shall sometimes feel his absence 2. The Lord leaves his people in wants of assurance to cure them of slightness of heart There is a trifling disposition in the hearts of Saints they are apt to be superficial in their ways and this God visits upon them They dally with duties do them as if they did them not without heart in a lazy and liveless manner you are in an evil frame of heart when you can do the weighty things of God with slightness There are three evils in a slight and formal Commnnion with God 1. Vnfaithfulness A slothful servant is an unfaithful servant He that is faithful doth his masters work with all his might And certainly a slight communion with God speaks a slight love to God Where then there is idleness and indisposedness God comes in a way of anger to whip up the slothful and unfaithful spirit and this stirs up grace Negligence and dallying with duties would kill grace and therefore it is a mighty mercy of God to shadow himself from his
not see the way they would not and now they shall not Oh that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes They did hide their eyes from their peace and now their peace is hid from their eyes Consider What are the things whose Knowledg is not given you The Mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven What Sirs Is it the matters of Heaven that are kept from you A curtain drawn between you and heaven Now God's angry indeed A cloud set up to darken salvation and eternal life from you Lord here is thy greatest severity Nay he infatuates the wise and takes the understanding from the prudent He is a severe God to those that act against the light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Odys Ψ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath made thee mad who can make the wisest man a fool and strip him of his Intellectuals Do we not see men whom we call wise damn themselves understandingly God draws an horrid Eclipse upon their minds and their See Isa 29. 10 11 12 13 14 verses Sun of Wisdom sets upon them they run madly upon their ruine and most skilfully plot their own destruction God struck Nebuchadnezzar mad and he was driven from Dan. 4. 33. men and did eat grass as Oxen his hairs were grown like eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws he was turned into a beast by the Judgment of God And therefore Sinners are called in Scripture Lyons and Bears and Wolves and Dogs God bereaves them of their understanding they bark against Religion like Dogs and bite the Saints like Dogs they run about snarling and snapping at Gods ways and his People like mad Dogs Thus God is severe in his spiritual Judgments he infatuates the wise and makes them fools they carry on most artificially their own damnation Vse 6. Sinners see your spiritual misery and my God open your eyes that you may see it 1. You have seen many things and if you see not your own misery you see nothing It may be you have seen miserable Objects but if you see not your soul-misery you have seen nothing You have seen War in the Land you have seen garments rolled in blood you have seen your own or other mens estates plundred you have heard the noise of the Trumpet and the beating of the Drum in your streets But now if in a day of peace you see not God at War with your selves if you see not the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven denied to you if you see not your selves plundred of Heaven and stript of light and life if you see not your spiritual estate wallowing in its blood if you hear not the Trumpet of the Gospel calling you to Repentance if you hear not the Drum of Conscience beating against sin in your own bosoms whatever you have heard or seen you have seen and heard nothing 2. Much communicable and nothing had is not this miserable Heaven drops and it drops fatness and yet your souls so lean is not this a Mystery So much to be had and so little enjoyed makes me wonder and grieve Light communicable and yet men have no light Grace communicable and yet men without grace Heaven communicable and yet men drop every day to Hell This is an aggravation of Misery Ah sinners in your Fathers house is bread enough feasting banquetting glorious dishes in Wisdoms house how is it that you have nothing 3. Your sins are aggravated and so will your condemnation be you seeing see not and hearing you hear not you hear and see and yet understand not Doth not this aggravate your sins and make them exceeding sinful You are called and yet you have refused God hath stretched out his hands and yet you have not regarded you shut your eyes and stop your ears lest you should be converted and doth not this greaten your sins and make them odious Glorious power works in the world and yet men lye in their sins Power works gloriously but you feel none you are under the power of sin as if there were no Power of God at all working in the World Sinners this leaves you wholly without excuse there is power enough working to subdue the strongest lust what can you plead How great is that sin which is committed under the neglect of glorious power within the reach of a glorious arm As there is a glorious power so there be glorious sins splendida peccata scarlet crimson sins and these are such as are committed against glorious means glorious light grace and aid Men sin and lay it upon their weakness and so rest and rub on Ah Lord what a life is this God will judg you and lay it upon your wickedness and wilfulness for is not glorious Power present to raise you up Weakness becomes wickedness when it is rested in and pleaded for A soul given to shifting hath no mind to leave his sin there is no damning temper like this you say you have no power to come out of sin 't is not fo there is the Power of God in the Gospel present and ready for you to lift you up And therefore there must be no pleading for sin no not for any sin though never so great and strong The remedy the power is so gloriously All-sufficient Dub. But I pray you Sir tell us How shall we know that the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is not given unto us Answ 1. You that sleep in your lost estate to you the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is not given The Mysteries of Hell and Damnation are made known to you and yet you awake not What soul is there that doth awake 2. When a man can love a sin in the very face of Divine Mysteries in the very face of Mercy and the face of Glory 3. When the more God forbids a sin the more you bid for it When the more the Commandment comes sin becomes the more sinful and the heart the more stubborn when the more the spirit strives the more sin thrives the more the spirit strives against thy lust the more thou strivest to hold fast thy lust From this man is the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven shut up let him look to himself be-times Vse 7. Sinners go not on to provoke God to deny you the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven I told you in the Explication of this Point that God in denying to some the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven observes a Method of Justice that is Sinners deserve it and procure it at the Hands of God I say Sinners deserve blindness and obduration First sensu Negativo in a Negative sense because they deserve not softness of heart that God should mollifie them they deserve not this special mercy Secondly They deserve blindness and hardness of heart in an Affirmative sense because by their Additional sins and daily resistings they deserve a further Hardness and Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a Reprobate mind Vse 8. Try your graces Gifts will not save you see that you have not the gift of Knowledg but the grace of Knowledg not the gift of Prayer but the grace of Prayer See that you have not good parts but parts in Christ as our Lord said Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken Luk. 10. 42. from her No man hath good parts till he hath part in Christ Would you try your graces know then 1. Grace acts inwardly It works upon the heart upon the vitals it works upon the subject it is in as physick works upon Nature so doth grace it works upon the very nature and constitution 2. It acts Divinely it doth all for God and for Divine ends He that hath the gift of Prayer prays for himself that he may shew himself as David said to King Achish Thou shalt 1 Sam. 28. 2. know what thy servant can do But he that hath the grace of Prayer prayeth for God he doth not only pray to God but for God that he may have more of God and less of himself more communion with God less communion with himself he that hath the grace of Prayer prays for grace He that hath the grace of patience suffers Divinely because God will have him suffer as David said concerning Shimei Let him alone saith he for God hath bid him curse David 2 Sam. 16. 10. He that hath the Grace of Obedience obeys Divinely he acts with Divine raptures of love to God and zeal for his Glory 3. It acts universally As the Sun being in the Heavens runs its course over all the World so the soul that is fixed in an Heaven of grace runs its course and motion through all the Commandments As the Apostles being universal pastors were not fixed to any place but went Preaching the Gospel all the world over so those that are universal Saints limit and fix themselves to no Commandment but travel over all the world of Gospel-precepts Vse 9. This speaks admirable comfort to many sorts of men who start up doubts and scruples against themselves and follow the scent of them too far so as to hinder them in the way of believing Dub. 1. Saith a doubting soul I am a poor man and despised in the world and will the Lord reveal his Mysteries of Heaven to me Will the Lord look upon me Sol. And why not upon thee Though the Lord be high yet he looks low He humbleth himself to behold the children of men 1. The Lord will not despise thee in that thou art poor because 't is the condition himself hath put thee in Now the Lord doth never despise his own work he despiseth Satans work and Mans work which is sin but he doth never despise his own work he that made thee poor will not despise thy poverty Thou canst not be worse than a beggar a blind beggar we count a beggar to be in a low condition but a blind beggar that cannot see to work for his living we count him very low and yet Christ gives grace to such Mark 10. 47 He was blind and yet he saw Christ by Faith for as soon as ever he heard it was Jesus He cryed out Jesus thou Son of David i. e. the Messiah have mercy on me Christ Jesus before he came at him sent his spirit to teach him to say Jesus thou Son of David Christ Jesus came by that way on set-purpose to reveal himself to the poor beggar 2. Thy Saviour was poor and therefore no marvel if the poor be saved He that made Christ poor will make the poor Christians 3. To chuse God will reveal his Mysteries to the poor rather than to the rich not that he doth despise riches but because the rich despise him they are proud of their riches and think that God is engaged to save them above others because they are great above others They that are rich in estate are rich in conceit Dub. 2. But I have but an ordinary Trade and will the Lord give grace to me Sol. Why not to thee The Lord had as leif Trade with thee as with any other The Apostles many of them were but Fishermen and yet the Lord Christ caught them in his Net his spirit mov'd upon their Waters and took them out of the depths of sin and revealed the glories of Heaven to them so as to none ever before or after them A Fisherman is as ordinary a Trade as any in the World and yet Christ preferred them above all the World and made them the greatest men in Heaven and Earth for himself sits next the Father and the Apostles next him Dub. 3. But I am a Servant an Apprentice I am an Handmaid whose work is the meanest drudgery in the house and will the Lord reveal to me the Mysteries of Heaven Sol. And why not to thee especially if thou art humble If thy Master trust thee with his Estate and Cash will not God trust thee with his Jewels and Graces God is an humble God and will sit with the servant at the lower end of the Table as well as with the Master at the upper end of the Table Nay with God all are round Tables there 's no upper end he respects not the Master more than the Servant in matters Eph. 6. 9. of grace Thou sayest I am but a servant I sit not down with my Master at Table I wait So doth Free-grace it waits too Thy condition is not so low but Free grace goeth lower God waits to be gracious Isa 30. 18. Dogs are lower than Servants and yet Christ gives grace to Dogs to the Woman of Canaan whom he called a Dog Oh woman great is thy Faith The Children of Israel were but Servants and Bondmen in Egypt and yet God appeared to them not to Pharaoh Thou dost the basest service in the house and they made Brick and yet God appeared to them not to Pharaoh Joseph was but a servant and yet how familiar was God with him It is worth your noting Joseph was a Servant all along A servant to his Brethren they sold him as his Masters into Egypt He was a servant in Potiphar's house and yet God reveals his Presence to him there When his Mistris tempted him saith he How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God A man may be a servant to men and yet not a servant to his lusts and then God appears to thee Joseph when he was cast in the Prison was worse than a servant and yet God was with him there God keeps company with Joseph from service to prison and gives him favour in the Jaylours eyes and he trusts him with all his Prisoners When men have command over their lusts God gives them command over men Dub. 4. But yet saith a soul I am a foolish man an unlearned man and will the Lord reveal his Mysteries to me Sol. And why not to thee The Lord loves to be
refreshing and he will sit there and rest himself under it Men that have their feet or their arms scalded will put them into cold water which gives them ease though it gives them no cure yet because it gives them ease there they keep them So men whose Consciences are scalded with wrath Oh! now the Gospel and Justification by Faith in Christ is very sweet And so they are eased by it never cured by it and therefore you shall find them disclaim all works and cry up grace only when Christ is offered and general notice given them that there is Mercy and Hope for great Sinners this fills them with joy and peace But wherein doth these mens hypocrisie appear They receive Jesus Christ only for ease I say a false heart receives Christ only to ease him to ease him of the terrour of Conscience and to ease him of the work of Obedience And here prophane Sinners find great ease The weight of their guilty Consciences would press and sink them down but that they bear up upon the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Oh! he dyed for Sinners and paid our debt and now they are cheerful and easie they can sin and be easie follow their drunkenness and be easie swim in their uncleanness and be easie for they make the Righteousness of Christ their Bladder to swim upon and say what you will to them they will not sink If you ask one of these drunkards and haters of the Saints and railers at godliness I say if you ask them Do you believe in Christ yes say they Believe yea we believe exceedingly and so they do the truth is they believe beyond measure but they believe and rest upon Jesus Christ to ease themselves of sanctification they cannot but see the want of it and they cannot ease themselves but by pleading that Christ is holy and that though they have it not yet Christ hath it This is a great ease to their thoughts at the present and thus they receive Christ Oh Sirs that you would consider the sad condition of this man whose plagues shall be made wonderful whose Conscience suits him still for sin and then looks up to Christ and rests there and hears Sermons but then salves up all with the Righteousness of Christ and considers often that his ways are evil but never suspects his faith to be evil Then he is taken with Death and then looks up to Christ at last the snuff dyes and his Sun sets and darkness approacheth and then instead of heaven embraceth flames and what is it that hath deceived these men Oh! their Faith hath deceived them they believed they might have had Christ and Sin too and then in Hell they wish Oh! that I had considered and feared this before and will you not fear now I charge you then think not your Estates good because you rest on Christ and look for salvation by him only 2. There are others who receive Jesus Christ not only into their belief but into their bosoms not only into their heads but also into their hearts They have a great work upon them the Gospel doth not only Irradiate their minds but also in a great measure Captivate their Wills they have affections to Christ and sweet motions to holy things kindled in their hearts They receive the word with joy and delight Matth. 13. they fall into raptures of love to and admiration of Jesus Christ they do not only assent to the Doctrine of Justification by Christ but are made partakers of the Holy Ghost There is a change wrought in them they seem to be washed 2 Pet. 2 20. and sanctified in the blood of Christ having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And so they shine in the surface of their outward lives The hypocrisie of the heart springs from defect of light in the mind The want of saving Illumination in the understanding is the reason of the hypocrisie of the heart These two faculties the Vnderstanding and the Will live very near one another if they be not really the same some say they are but one and the same power or faculty of the soul and so there is a real Identity of the Will and Understanding saying that the Will is Intellectus extensus others affirm that they are faculties really distinct However it is by all concluded that there must in order of nature be light before choice knowledg before election the Intellectual creature must see before it can determine or resolve upon Now I say the imperfect and unsound resolution of the soul flows from defect of light The hypocrisie of the heart springs from the want of a saving Illumination in the Understanding This appears in the Parable of the Virgins of whom the Lord Christ saith That five were wise and five were foolish The vanity of the one sprang from their folly the provision of Oyl the others made sprang from their Wisdom You know it 's frequent in Solomons Proverbs to call the upright and godly man the wise man the sinner and hypocrite the fool the power of sin lyeth in the power of darkness The strength of a State in the Wisdom of its Council 1. The Understanding is the first inlet of Sin and Grace this is that which opens and shuts to all life and sin When Satan laid his Train and Powder-plot to blow up all the World by the sin of one man he first enters into dispute with Eve and as the Apostle saith deceived her The woman was deceived and so darkned her mind with a mist 1 Tim. 2. 14. the serpent crept into her heart through the door of her Vnderstanding There could no sin get into the Will were there not an error first in the Vnderstanding 2. And as the mind is the first inlet into sin so it is the first door that lets in grace Sanctifie them through thy truth thy John 17. 17. John 12. 35. word is truth Walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you Satan knew if light came in Christ would come in Matth. 13. 15. 3. Divine light is very powerful it hath a mighty influence to change and renew the heart We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord All Divine light of glory works strongly if hypocrites had it their hearts would be sincere Not that bare light can change the will but the Lord works by it When the Lord comes with life he comes with light Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5. 14. arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light When the spirit comes all his work is expressed by conviction of sin of righteousness and of judgment convince one effectually and you convert him You shall know the truth John 8. 32. saith Christ and it shall make you free that is from your bondage
saith What will it avail thee Tho. a Kempis to dispute profoundly of the Trinity if thou be void of grace and displease the Trinity High words surely make a man neither holy nor just but grace makes him dear to God It is vanity to seek after fading riches it is vanity to gape after withering honours vanity it is to wish to live long and to be careless to live well But now many will say grace doth increase in us we do reach after more grace and this many false hearts say they do My Beloved false grace may grow and doth lengthen out in desires and dimensions many that are Hypocrites glory in this that their graces grow I must therefore shew you the difference between the increase of true grace and counterfeit grace 1. The Hypocrite grows out of Emulation The true Saint grows out of love to goodness The Hypocrite is grieved that others go beyond him and over-match him not love to grace but a spirit of envy makes him to advance The true Saint grows out of Duty to God to bring in more glory to his Name The growth of others is matter of his joy not of his repining He is glad that God is better served though it be by another his only grief is that himself can serve him no better 2. The Hypocrite another sort of them groweth in Parts but not in the Power of godliness in gifts and curiosities but not in vital and Divine quicknings In Knowledg and Speculations but not in strength against sin and temptations Judas by conversing with Christ could not but grow in Knowledg but being not incorporate into Christ never grew in grace But the true Saint grows in his spiritual life in Union to Christ in Communion with God The Hypocrite may grow in quantity but not in quality the real Saint grows as much in quality as in quantity 3. The Hypocrite may grow more and more in hearing the word but the Saint grows in tasting the word and in tasting that most deliciously which is most spiritual The Hypocrite longs more after new truths but the Saint tastes old Promises with new affections and old truths with a new appetite The Knowledg of an Hypocrite may grow bigger but the Knowledg of a Saint grows more savoury and judicious The Hypocrite may know more Objects than he did before but the Saint relishes the things more sweetly which he knew before The Hypocrite may grow in enlargements and pour out longer Prayers but the Saint prays more spiritually The Hypocrites zeal may be a great fire but the Saints zeal is more heavenly and discreet there is more incense in his golden censer his love more solid and active more to God and less to himself and the world The hypocrite is like a tree that bears great Apples but they are sower but the Saint the fruit he bears it may be are not such big Apples but they are sweet Apples the juice is better that gives them a more pleasant relish in Gods palate There is a sweeter juice of love and kindness and godly sorrow and filial delight in God in a Saints duties and here the Saints growth chiefly lyes his fruit groweth more ripe and mellow and so more pleasant and sweet His Prayers are not bigger in quantity but better in quality he grows in choiceness of spirit he comes to the Throne of grace with a more precious esteem of Christ upon his heart He comes to the word with a dearer thirst upon his palate 't is the same Christ that is set still before him but he relisheth Christ more sweetly receiveth and tasteth the same promises more ravishingly trembleth at the same threatnings more tenderly and meltingly Whereas the hypocrite is cloyed with the word if it be not dish'd up to his palate but the Saints palate is spiritualized to the word The hypocrites tast of Sermons is flatted by reading of Books but the Saints taste is quickned by the sense of his wants For this is the true use of reading and the end of Knowledg To make VS more sensible of our wants and make Christ more excellent in our eyes Therefore in taking notes the hypocrite picks out matter here and there according to his nice and licquorish palate but the hungry Saint takes all and feeds upon all that comes before him feeling his need to be stirred up to consider what he knows Vse 9. Here 's a sweet ground to assure the Saints perseverance To him that hath grace he shall not lose it but more shall be given him he shall not lose what he hath but he shall have more than he hath he shall not fall away but stand faster They that fall away are those that have not truth of grace at all Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath But the poor Saint that hath To him shall be given and he shall have more abundance He shall be so far from losing grace that he shall have more grace Dub. But my grace is but little I cannot stand Sol. God shall make thee stand Rom. 14. 4. Where disputing of him that is weak in the faith Vers 1. saith he Vers 4. HE shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand The more weak thou art the more tender God will be over thee if thou canst not stand he will make thee stand thou shalt stand in his arms In Christ you have not only the graces of Christ but the spirit of Christ I pray you mark it 1. If Adam had stood how long we know not it may be had he stood the first shock of Satans temptation all his Posterity should have had that assistance of the Spirit that they should have never fallen as the Holy Angels that were contented with their first station and abode in the truth when the other Angels fell this was their Obedience that they were loyal in the day of their great Tryal when the others their Fellow angels rebelled and their reward was That they are confirmed in their happy condition and secured in it so if Adam hemself in whom we were all one man had stood I say if he therefore had stood it out to the last both he and all his Posterity should have had the continual and constant assistance of the Spirit and been confirmed so as never to have fallen And the ground is the rule of Justice for if he falling all his Posterity are forsaken of God and put under the Reign of Sin and Death and Satan then he standing all his Posterity should have had the perpetual Presence of Gods Spirit and been under the everlasting Reign of the Spirit of grace and life 2. But now Jesus Christ the second Adam who was the Head of the new seed and family he stood and therefore propagates to all his Posterity the perennious Presence and constant assistance of the Spirit whereby being once begotten of him they live for ever and abide in him As in Adams fall
Saints that they may be more serious in their duties 2. The other evil in a slight and formal Communion with God in Duties is unthankfulness Duties of godliness are not only a debt to God but a reward to us Therefore in slightness there is not only unfaithfulness but unthankfulness Both the Majesty and Mercy of God is despised and can God be well pleased with such things 3. There is a third evil in a slight Communion with God in Duties and that is unfruitfulness we get nothing from God in duties we pray slightly and therefore get nothing by Prayer we hear the word slightly and therefore profit not by it Now that the Lord may cure his people of this slightness of heart and make their graces grow he useth this dispensation to leave them in want of assurance 6. God increaseth his Saints graces by terrors within he not only suspends their comforts but afflicts their souls he writes bitter things against them 1. These rowse them up to seek God They that see themselves lost will find a way to God They that have Hell-fire burning in them will value Heaven and pardon and the least drop of Gods love Oh! now promises are precious and Gods love neglected is now sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Now they cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly 2. These fright them out of their dreams and carnal slumbers as the cry made at midnight that the Bridegroom cometh awoke the virgins out of their sleep Among the other diseases of the soul Divine desertions cure deadness and dulness of heart Sometimes living men are in a lifeless state their hearts are so benummed that they seem to lye among the dead They can hear the word carelesly and sleep out whole Sermons there is no vigour nor activity in their graces at home and therefore the Lord hangs their souls over the mouth of Hell and makes them drink of that red wine the dregs whereof the wicked of the earth shall Psal 75. 8. wring out and drink them that by this strong potion he may rowse them up and quicken their dull and drowsy spirits 3. These terrors work them more closely to Christ And for this cause God gives his People sad visions of sin and wrath he shakes the soul with Earth-quakes that she may stand faster upon her true Basis and Foundation These storms make their hearts gather in to Christ That I may be found in him saith Paul The soul must have some dry land to stand upon and when the flood of Gods terrors overflow the soul then she flyeth to Christ as Noah's Dove to the ark 7thly The Lord increaseth grace in his Saints by afflictions he makes them by marring them Divine Wisdom works by contraries he makes them shine brighter by their Eclipses and clears up their light by darkness Schola crucis Schola lucis And truly It is the property of true-born grace to grow the greater by the cross As the laurel tree is not smitten Plin. Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 55. nor blasted with lightning no more is heaven-born grace hurt by any afflictions but much bettered by them 1. God increaseth his Saints graces by sharp sicknesses by diseases unto death i. e. this startles mightily Oh Lord thou didst surprize me unprovided and if thy hand had cut me off with that disease my soul had been cut off from heaven for ever This enters deep upon the soul and strikes terrour upon the heart the Lord I hope shall never find me so again This stirs up thankfulness to the Lord that hath not only in this tryal saved me from the grave but also from Hell 2. Sicknesses deaden the Saints to the world They that in sicknesses are always leaving the world learn to dye unto the world They have death always in their eye They see themselves still upon the borders of the grave They are ever and anon lanching in eternity and this makes grace grow 3. Sicknesses are searchers Thou enquirest after mine iniquity Job 10. 6. saith Job and searchest after my sin When God smites our bodies he searcheth our hearts and makes enquiry in our lives and now saith the soul Let us search and try Lam. 3. 40. our ways When God is searching VS it is high time for VS to search our selves and this also makes grace to grow 4. Sicknesses dig Wells of godly sorrows in the heart They are as it were Gods Mattocks and Spades whereby he delves deep into the center of the heart and digs Wells of repentance which send forth streams of confession of sin which before would not run because they had no vent being covered and stopt with the earth of lust and hardness and worldliness upon them but now they find a passage When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the Psal 32. 3. 4. 5. day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moysture is turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin 2. By poverty and narrowness of estate Many men must Aquilone maxime gaudent densiores ab afflatucjus laetioresque materiae firmioris Plin. Nat. Hist l. 17. c. 2. Jer. 6. 22. be kept short and bare that they may thrive in grace Pliny saith That trees generally like best that stand to the North-wind It causeth them to spread thick and more flourishing and makes the Timber more strong and solid The Lord threatneth the Jews with a people from the North-Countrey the Chaldean Army which should carry them captive into Babylon The North wind winnowed them and fanned all their Idolatry They flourished gallantly in Religion after the North wind had blown upon them 1. The cold blasts of poverty correct pride and moderate high thoughts Make a man poor and you make him humble Pride is an absolute enemy to grace and prosperity is the seminary of pride The North-wind of poverty cools the courage and tames the spirits of men and now they know God and themselves Their Plumes fall and now they will digest a reproof and sit upon even ground with the lower Saints When the world frowns upon them they seek the smiles of God before they were too high for him 2. Poverty teacheth them to pray they can now fall upon their knees those that never called upon God learn now to visit the Throne of grace and cry Lord Give us this day our daily bread Nay they long for the spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nay those that have prayed in their fulness now pray feelingly They can go to God in sense of wants before they did not hear nor feel their own Prayers In their prosperity they did not care what Prayers they put off God with Now they set the highest rate upon Prayer for they are fain to live upon Prayer An hungry belly makes a Saint hungry after Ordinances and after Gods Presence When a mans debts and poverty make
him say I know not what to do then his soul saith Mine eyes are up unto thee O Lord. 3. When a man seeth that God blasts all his projects and endeavours and that he shall not be rich in this world then he looks after grace and so a poor estate makes a rich soul A man for a while ascribes his poverty to his great charge and family or to his carelesness and improvidence or to his superfluous expences and therefore brings himself into a narrower room and saith I will try this and that way and he riseth up early and goeth to bed late And now saith he I shall be rich But when he seeth all will not do his good husbandry and pains do not enrich him let him improve his utmost diligence yet all his care cannot add one cubit to his stature then he looks upward and saith Now I see it is God alone that gives wealth riches are only in Gods hands I perceive now that God will not have me rich in this world And therefore Lord Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me give me grace instead of greatness humbleness of heart instead of Honour God instead of gold 8. God increaseth grace in his Saints by awakening sin in the soul As long as sin lyeth a sleep the Saint thinks it is not there He conceives of himself better than he is A disease lying hid and dormant in the body is supposed to be out of doors we think we have not what we feel not and therefore God awakens sin in the soul For 1. Thereby it is discovered 2. Thereby the War is maintained against corruption till it be rooted out God increaseth grace in the Saints by their continual War and conflict with sin The enemy is destroyed by rising their rising is their ruin had they lain still they had lain safe What made Zedekiah and his people to be carried captive 2 Chron. 36. 13. but because they rebelled and rose up against Nebuchadnezzar When sin riseth the Saint riseth and gathers forces against it and therefore God awakens sin in the Saints that they may raise Armies and get new Victories over it Were there no War there would be no Conquests did not sin rise there would be no War against it and therefore Sirs God awakens pride lusts and sins in his Saints that they may hew them down such a sin assaults them and takes the field against them that in a pitcht Battel they may tread it under foot and make an end of it for ever And therefore I would advise you to two Things 1. Do not think thou art under the Power of thy sin when thou art at War with thy sin and it with thee When the soul many times hath had sweet rest in God then to break his joy again in pieces Satan hath stirred up a sin to assault him and now he cryeth out That all his sweet joys were but delusions were my state right should I be thus assaulted again And he thinks he is under the power of sin because there is a new rising of sin against him To answer thee thou must know that there is difference between time of War and time of Victory between the day of conflict and the day of conquest Now is our day of conflict and that of sin which remains in thee must rise again in thee that it may be subdued When Rebeccah had twins in her she was troubled and marvelled at it and went to the Lord who told her The elder shall serve the younger So there is flesh and spirit in the Saints and these two are contrary so that you cannot do the things that you would and sometimes cannot will yet something opposeth this well know it that the elder and stronger shall serve the younger Lord it shall be so because thou hast said it A man that is at War with another and is able to raise Forces against him hath received power against him but Victory is not gotten presently 'T is so here The bruised reed shall he not break till he bring forth judgment unto victory Though Thou art bruised in the conflict yet there 's no fear of breaking if God will not do it none shall do it Now Christ will not break thee The bruised reed shall he not break and therefore thou shalt get the Victory only know for the present thou hast power Thou goest to all Ordinances to ordinary duties thou prayest daily and strivest daily and when thou meetest no help there thou goest to extraordinary duties thou dost fast and lye in sack-cloth against thy sin and raisest the powers of heaven Oh Lord awake Awake thou arm of the Lord here 's a continual and hot War now against sin And this is the first thing I would have you consider Do not think thou art under the power of thy sin when thou art at war with thy sin and it with thee 2. The thing I would advise you to is this Be sure to improve your utmost strength and rise with all your might against the Lords Enemies I mean your sins do not the work of God negligently which is an accursed thing Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently And for this cause God casteth you into sore straits The Israelites should have done the work perfectly when they were commanded to root out the Canaanites but because they were slack and did it unfaithfully therefore God left them as Briars and Thorns to be always an affliction to them And this is the reason why God leaves such a lust or sin in you to be a perpetual scourge to you in your bosoms when you are pressed to take up Arms for Christ against the sins of your hearts if you fight not with all your strength and pursue not the Victory to the utmost till you find your Enemies dead before you God may give you into their hands to lead you into captivity and to hold you in chains that will eat into your souls and may in this distress stand afar of as one that knows you not 9thly God increaseth his Saints graces by the work of humbling Many within a while forget that they have been humbled Time wears out all those Characters of humiliation that were at first engraven upon them their wounds and bruises they had at their first Conversion are healed up again and upon this they have decayed in grace and at last become Apostates and the greatest enemies to the Saints And therefore God to preserve his Saints graces and to increase them keeps up still the life of humiliation in them As the radical moysture in the body is the pabulum caloris naturalis the nutriment of the natural heat and the Oyl is the food of the Lamb which its light lives upon so humiliation is the humidum radicale the radical moysture the fundamental sap that keeps Faith and Prayer and the other graces alive They that humble themselves will pray and seek the 2 Chr. 7.
two things Robbery and Murder We are Travellers towards Glory and therefore we must arm our selves against both these for there is one master-Thief namely Satan which hath Interest in all the rest Therefore saith the Apostle Lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices The occasion of these words is this There was a sad sin that sprang up like a weed in the garden of the Church of Corinth There was a man that had married his Fathers Wife If she were his own natural Mother the sin was most prodigious and unnatural that the child of her womb should be the Husband of her Bed the Son of the Father the Father of Sons by her an high crime a sin which the Heathens stamped Infamy upon Aristotle writes of a Camel that killed his keeper for causing Histor animal l. 9. c. 47. him to cover his Dam and of an Horse that cast himself down head long after he had done the like If she were his Mother-in-law yet 't was against the Law of Reverence if but his step-mother yet 't was a foul step beyond Nature for the Son to uncover the Fathers nakedness 't was such a sin saith the Apostle as is not so much as named 1 Cor. 5. 1◠among the Gentiles The sin therefore though it were bad enough in it self yet there was an adjunct that made it far worse in that he that had done it was a Christian a member of the Church and therefore Paul chargeth them to deliver him unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit 1 Cor. 5. 5. may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus This he writes in his first Letter to them and the Corinthians were soft-wax to his Impression he commands them and they obey him This spiritual physick applied to the offender had a good success and effect upon him for being punished he punisheth himself he mourns and grieves being cast out of the Church he casts away his sin And therefore the Apostle in this his second Letter or Epistle 2 Cor. 2. 7. to them desires them to forgive their patient and to comfort him and that for two ends The first is in vers 7 Lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow The other is in the words of my Text Lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices The first reason hath respect to the patient the poor creature that had sinned and was now humbled Lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow The second reason casts its aspect upon the Interest and common good of the Church Lest Satan get an advantage of us In the first he desires them to forgive the penitent for his sake Lest he be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow In the second he desires them to forgive him for their own sakes for saith he I forgave him for your sakes lest Satan get an advantage Vers 10. 11. of us for we are not ignorant of his devices Quest What was the advantage that Satan was like to get of them and of the Church if they did not forgive him Answ To lead them into sin Satan would have made an advantage of their zeal to lead them into sin 1. In abusing that power which God had given them for edification to the destruction of a precious soul 2. By heightning them up under a notion of zeal into a rigid austerity and uncharitableness to their offending brother 3. By making them guilty of spiritual murder In whose hands had they gone on this patient had been so roughly handled that he had died in the cure and run into despair 4. Their rigidness towards their lapsed brother Satan would have made use of it to ruine the Church and dissolve the Society It would have bred ill blood in the body begot schisms and divisions among them offended the weak and made the stubborn more obstinate if a poor penitent sinner may not be received again into the bosom of the Church who would be the Child of such a Mother Thus they would have murmured and not without some reason They that favoured the offending party would have cryed down Discipline and Government Besides if pastors and sheep be not mutually careful of one anothers souls by Counsel and Admonition to prevent the fall of some and to raise up others that are fallen to heal the broken to strengthen the weak to comfort the feeble to cure the wounded if all of them take not care of every one how should that flock subsist and continue long 5. The false Apostles those Apostles of Satan who were Pauls Adversaries and the Gospels would have made a strong advantage to accuse the Doctrine of Christ and draw a party to themselves Thus Satan under the Mask of just Discipline went about the perdition and ruine not of one sinner only but also of the whole Church And therefore saith Paul IF Vers 10 11. I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgave I it lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices Now to look a little into the words the Original words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Which Ambrose renders Ne possideamur a Satana lest we be possessed by Satan lest he get us into his possession 2. Erasmus renders it Ne occupemura Satana the Vulgar reads it Vt non circumveniamur a Satana lest we be circumvented by Satan lest he cunningly come about us and beguile us by his wiles And this to me seems the right sense and meaning of the word and so Tertullian rendred it Ne fraudemur Lib. de pudicitia a Satana lest we be over-reached or deceived by Satan for his way is to work by policy he plays his game by craft of wit rather than by strength of hand And thus the Scripture tells us of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate the wiles of the Devil Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able Eph. 6. 11. Id est adversus Insidias Technas deceptiones Diaboli to stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the cunning Methods Arts and Deceptions of the Devil Methodus Graecis est Ars Techna Method with the Grecians is Art and Skill and is taken in an ill sense for craft a method of cunning an art to deceive so the Ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glosses expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumvenire id est fallere to deceive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumventio that is a deceiving so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie the same thing only with this different respect he that deceives is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do it methodically for his handsom art and skill to do it He that deceives is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from his end and scope for therefore do men deceive Vt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
any one whoever he be that finds his own guiltiness and death and is affected with it in his heart Every burdened sinner hearing Christ propounded in the Covenant of Grace with this only condition of believing in him may come to him for life Christ and the Covenant of Grace is offered to unregeneraete Mr. Wilson Help to Faith 80 81. Ibid. men who being enabled by Gods Spirit to perform the condition which is to believe in Christ Christ is theirs A man must not stay to receive Christ till he first find in himself regeneration and repentance towards God which is wrought out of it but he must first believe that in Christ he may receive the promised Spirit unto his new creation or conversion unto God for Christ is given to give us these things he is sent to bless men in turning them from their sins And Act. 3. 26. Act. 5. 31. him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins And therefore we are not to look first to find Repentance and Conversion in our selves and then come to Christ to obtain forgiveness but we must seek both in him we must take Christ that we may have these from him as the woman that had an incurable Issue 1. Believed that she should be healed if she touch't the Hem of Christs garment 2. She ventured and resolved in her self to touch him 3. Upon the touch felt in her self that she was healed so poor sinners that feel loathsom diseases of sin in them are to go and venture to touch Christ and to expect pardon and ho liness from him And therefore see your error you who will not believe till you have first grace strengthening you to duty and subduing sin in you if you could clear up your Conversion and find these things in you then you could believe and not else and therefore thou must first believe in Christ before thou canst clear up thy Conversion to thee To answer this Branch how shall I believe till I clear up my Conversion Thirdly There is a double Act of Faith 1. There is indeed an act of Faith which cannot be had Mr. Arcker P. 30. till this be had which Divines call the reflect act where by a soul believes that it doth believe believes that it is in Christ bebelives that it is in a saved condition before this act can be there must be repentance and holiness and tryal of our graces Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own 2 Cor. 13. 5. selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates This act presupposeth Faith and is a knowing that we have Faith This is not the necessary means to salvation but to assurance and comfort 2. There is another act of Faith namely the direct act which is believing not a believing that I do believe nor a believing that Jesus Christ is mine but a believing on Christ that Christ may be mine and that I may be saved and sanctified by him and this must be before we can repent we must not stay from this act of Faith till we can clear up our Conversion to us but believe in Christ that we may love God and clear up our Conversion to our selves For mark you Faith is one part or grace of thy Conversion Thou canst not clear up thy conversion till thou dost believe surely then thou must first believe also in Christ as well as repent that thou mayst clear up thy conversion to thy soul And therefore when Satan shall tempt thee what hast thou to do to cast thy self upon Christ seeing thou knowest not that he is thine What right hast thou to put thy self on Christ and art not sure he is thine Oh saith a soul if I might trust my self on Christ I would Thou mayst cast thy soul upon Christ before thou knowest Note him to be thine Observe there is a twofold trusting and relying upon Christ 1. The one is at a venture without a perswasion Mr. Archer p. 20. of an Interest in him grounded on Gods free offer of him to all sorts of people This is the ground of our first believing on our first coming to him and entertaining of him for if this were not people would never receive him This seems to be no more than a confidence in his ability and willingness to save all that come to him Thus the man that had the leprosie came and cast himself on Christ at a venture he knew that Christ could heal him and therefore faith he Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean He is not sure that Christ would heal him only makes a venture upon the pleasure and goodness of Christ to heal him 2. The other is a more certain thing grounded on the Knowledg of an Interest in Christ Because a soul knows it hath Christ for its own therefore it rests on him confidently for salvation This trust follows the Knowledg of our believing and is a further act and degree of Faith and comes after our coming to him and receiving of him The Lord is my rock and my fortress Psalm 18. 2. and my deliverer My God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my tower O my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed let not mine Psalm 25. 2. enemies triumph over me And therefore poor sinners let me oh let me invite you to Jesus Christ I tell you Christ and Justification by Christ are free for any person whatsoever to obtain by believing See John 6. 35 I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst He that cometh he that believeth that is any one that cometh any one that believeth It is an indefinite proposition and is equivalent to an universal It is as much as to say whosoever comes as it is elsewhere expressed That whosoevrr believeth in him John 3. 16. should not perish but have everlasting life that is any person whosoever may upon believing obtain Christ and Life by him The meaning is not only that Christ is free for all sorts of people for all sorts of people shall actually have Christ because God hath his elect of all sorts both poor and rich bond and free Jews and Gentiles young and old men and women wise and foolish one nation and another but that there is no particular person in the world to whom the Gospel comes who may not by believing have Christ and Salvation by him Christ is so freely tendered to all comers to all receivers to all that believe in him that there is no person of any Countrey or Condition of any Age or Sex or Sins whatsoever but by believing he may have Christ and Grace and Holiness by him This was typified by the years of Jubilee In
yet Heb. 4. 15. without sin But in our infirmity of the flesh we are seldom tempted by afflictions without sin Although affliction doth not quite vanquish and overcome us yet always almost at the very first on-set it doth like a great blow dizzy the brain and makes us give back If we be not thrown down yet we reel and stagger and sometimes it lays us flat and our faith lyes sprawling upon the ground In affliction there are two things 1. Sensation And 2. Temptation 1. In affliction there is Sensation doloris sensus the sense of pain and grief and this Christ felt as well as we we cannot and he could not taste affliction without pain as we are affected with Dolour when evils lye upon us so was Christ he felt sharp and keen pain and thus Christ was tempted in all things and in the same manner as we are as to sense of pain and grief yet without sin But 2. In affliction there is also temptation to sin and because it is so true that great temptations arise out of afflictions therefore are afflictions Antonomastice called temptations they tempt sadly to murmuring and impatience to wrangling and expostulation with God to unbelief and doubting of his love nay to cast off God Doth God himself tempt me thus and afflict me thus and shall I serve such a Master Ah! look how ye are under your daily afflictions Vse 8. Doth God tempt Abraham Abraham his friend Then you may be the tempted and yet the beloved of the Lord God tempts and tries his dear ones all 's in love 1. He tempts his dear ones he tempts those whom he loves dearly Abraham was high in Gods Books one of his intimate and bosom-acquaintance and yet God tempts Abraham Nay to give you a greater instance than Abraham Jesus Christ was tempted I say Jesus Christ was Heb. 4. 15. in all points tempted like as we are and yet the beloved of the Lord he was the tempted and yet the beloved of the Lord he was tempted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminently superlatively more than us all and yet he was beloved of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminently and superlatively above us all So that ye may be the tempted and yet the beloved of the Lord nay Jesus Christ was tempted of God himself he was not only tempted by the tempter but by his dear Father God himself My God my God why hast thou forsaken me 2. All is in love he tempts in love he not only tempts his beloved but he tempts them in love that he may love them the more and they in the Issue love him the better How much more did God love Abraham when he saw him forget himself to be a Father and his own child to be his Son for his sake By my self have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou Gen. 22. 16 17. hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son That in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the Sea-shore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies And did not this message from heaven think you kindle a greater flame of love in Abrahams bosom toward God without doubt it did God loves Abraham more Abraham loves God more than ever he did When Abraham saw Gods design and had his Son delivered safe to him again How was his heart filled with a spiritual torrent of joy He gained the experience of Gods love to him and of his love to God and would not have unwished the temptation again upon any terms 3. God tempts and all is in wisdom God tempts his Beloved in wisdom he corrects his Children as well as his Enemies but when he corrects them it is in much prudence and wisdom Quest But how shall I know that God tempts me for my good How shall I know that God afflicts me and tempts me in love 1. Why first because he loves thee whom he loves he tempts and proves them in love you imagine he loves you but you do not feel that he loves you the sense of Gods love would put all these out of doubt 2. You may know he tempts you in love if ye be faithful unto him in temptations if you depart not from God in the day of temptation God is trying and tempting his people at this day and it may be it will be a sad day and a dark day of temptation it may be it will be a strong day of temptation and of long temptation and you would know whether he tempts you at this day in love then make choice of suffering rather than sin of affliction rather than defection The Heb. 10. 38. just shall live by faith saith the Apostle that is shall hold out by faith in the day of temptation But if any man draw back my soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him Would ye know whether God proves you at this day and tries you in love then put on the whole armour of God that ye Eph. 6. 11 14. may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth c. Watch ye 1 Cor. 16. 13. stand fast in the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quit your selves like men be strong Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ Gal. 5. 1. hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage Stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together Phil. 1. 27 28. for the faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God So stand fast in the Phil. 4. 1. Lord my dearly beloved 3. Cleanse your hearts from hypocrisie see that your souls are right before the Lord and then Gods Temptations are all in love all goeth right with upright hearts The upright Prov. 11. 20. in their way are his delight 4. You may know whether God tempts you in love by the issue and fruits of your temptations Abraham sin'd in temptation and Saints may sin in temptation In a temptation you would know whether you shall hold out I will not prophesie but I will give you a sign have you held out through former temptations thou mayst hold out through others Vse 9. You beloved of the Lord bear Gods Temptations with willingness and patience The Apostle stirs up the Hebrews to learn practically this lesson Despise not thou the chastening Heb. 12. 5 9. of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Furthermore saith he we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live Gods Temptations are your gain not your loss but your Gods Temptations are your gain
therefore bear them with willingness and patience 2 Cor. 4. 16. gain if he tempts you by losses your loss is your gain your wants will be your riches your outward poverty will be your spiritual wealth what you lose one way you 'l get another what you lose in the flesh you 'l get in the spirit Though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day saith Blessed Paul the soul grows new as the body by pressures grows old Afflictions may make thy outward face look withered and aged but thine inward man grows young and vigorous by them It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted Now then bring your heart to this and bear all the temptations of the Lord with willingness and patience Vse 10. See God on the top of every trial or temptation God saith the Text did tempt Abraham you will say God tempted Abraham by word of mouth by an express command Is God wont to tempt and try men thus in these days I answer no you heard that God doth tempt and try men two manner of ways 1. Immediately by himself thus he tempted Abraham thus was Christ led by the Spirit to be tempted in the wilderness 2. Mediately by means and instruments by Satan sometimes by wicked men other times yea by Saints also sometimes as the Lord Christ was tempted by Peter when he spake of his sufferings Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto Matth. 16. 22. Job 2. 9. thee And Job was tempted by his own dear wife Curse God and dye And this is the Order of God at this day you see the means the instruments of temptation but though God be not seen yet he stands upon the top of every temptation no wheel moves in the world but by the direction and counsel of the first mover There is a concatenation of causes and God is at the upper end of the chain and nothing can be done by any link of the chain of second causes without the first cause In the fourth to the Hebrews there it is said that Jesus Christ Vers 15. was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Mark it his Temptations were in all points like ours Temptations may be taken 1. For sufferings Or 2. For temptation to sin as having a power or causality moving us thereunto As for Christs sufferings they were exactly like unto ours To that end he took a Body and Soul and in his state of humiliation lay actually under them and felt them As for temptation to sin that is inward and outward Inwardly indeed he was not tempted but outwardly he was by men and devils more than ever man was and was tempted to the same kind of sins at least some of them which we being tempted to commit yet he never sinned Now the Apostle tells you there that he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities We have not an High priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Nay because he was tempted like as we are he cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities that is he cannot but be inwardly affected with the sense of our temptations Sirs your temptations touch him the temptations that you feel touch him his very bowels are full of the feeling of your infirmities he is acted with mercy and compassion towards you and he would have man to know it That which is the object of his compassion is our infirmities that is sins of the soul and pains of the body but chiefly sin infirmity here is sin and punishment sin and suffering which makes our case very miserable Some will think that Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sins others will think Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sorrows but ye are mistaken poor souls ye are mistaken saith the Apostle we have an High priest that is touched with the feeling of our infirmities with the sense and feeling of both of your sin and guilt of your sorrows and sufferings Whatever troubles you troubles Christ and the reason why he is so sensible of our sad conditions is because he was tempted in all points like unto us Christ as God is infinitely merciful but he became man tempted man that he might be sensible of our infirmities with our own humane affections that he might pity man with the affections of a man with such affections as we are wont to pity one another and therefore he was not only man but a tempted man because experimental knowledg and practical sense is the most effectual Hearken then you tempted souls how deeply is Christ touched with the feeling of your infirmities who was himself a tempted man as ye are he was in all points tempted like unto us This is that wonderful way which God by his profound Wisdom contrived to make his mercy greater and in some sort more than infinite he would have a kind of knowledg of mans infirmities which as God and Infinite he could never have AN ACCOUNT OF MANS TEMPTATIONS Psalm LXXIX 41. Yea they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel THIS Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhortative and Instructive 1. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suasive and Exhortative in the first verse Give ear O my people to my law encline your ears to the words of my mouth 2. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instructive and Teaching I say for their choice Instruction and gathered out of the Records of Gods Providence towards his own people the Jews at the second verse I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us We will not hide them from Vers 3. 4. their children shewing to the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done c. And that which the Psalmist would instruct them in is to obey God and adhere to him in dependance and subjection And not to be as their Fathers a stubborn and Vers 8. rebellious generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God He warns them against Rebellion because their Ancestors and Fathers sinned at that rate and were severely punished by God Where you may observe by the way Observ That to say our Fore-fathers did thus and thus therefore so will we is no good argument Shall we be wiser than our Forefathers yes that you must or else you may smart for it The Holy Ghost here tells them that they must not be as their Fathers no sirs you must be better than your Forefathers the Light of the Gospel should make you far better and time should make you better and experience should make you better the example of Fore-fathers is not to be followed except wherein they followed the Lord.
doing When Ananias and Saphira sold their Acts 5. 9. possession and kept back part of the price saith Peter How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord Whether these did purposely go about to tempt the Spirit or no is questioned if so then it was an intentional and direct tempting of the Spirit However though they did not intend it yet 't was an interpretative tempting of the Spirit that is it is called a tempting of the Spirit and taken to be such because it was such a fact as they could do no more who had intended to tempt the Spirit But how was the Spirit of God tempted in this Act of theirs The act did tend though it may be they did not intend it I say the act did tend to this to make a tryal whether the Spirit knew their fraud or not and knowing of it whether he would punish it Their act spake in this language as if themselves had said Can it be that the Spirit should know or find out our deceit And so the meaning of Peters words How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord is this How is it that ye have Deodat in loc agreed together to make a prophane tryal whether he knew your fraud or no As if by this secret and fraudulent conveyance you would try or make an experience whether the spirit were privy to your deceit or no. Thus Sirs when men sin in secret they tempt Gods Knowledg it may be not of set-purpose but their actions tend to it Is Gods eye upon us can we not sin but God must know it can we be no-where out of his Presence Their actions behind the curtain put God to the tryal whether he seeth them or no. Hypoorites tempt Gods Knowledg they do as it were make a tryal whether the beams of his Knowledg reach the dark center of their hearts and his eyes read their cunning ends and self-designs to play the Hypocrites and carry on private Interests under the veil of profession what is it but to try whether they cannot hide their plots from God But oh fools for doth the influence of the Sun and Stars pierce down into the deep bosom of the earth and there beget mettals and minerals and shall not Gods Knowledg much more reach the heart of man The Lord knows the thoughts Psal 94. 11. of man that they are vanity 5. They tempt God who without a call cast themselves into danger to make tryal whether God can or will deliver them Scripture teacheth us that when danger is upon us we may hope well relying on God for help but we must not cast our selves rashly into danger that God may help we may trust God in difficulties that he will help but we must not throw our selves into difficulties expecting God to help This was Satans method of tempting Christ he would have had Mat. 4. 5 6. Christ to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple that is throw himself into danger and try whether God would not preserve him For it is written saith he he shall Psal 91. 11 12. give his angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone But saith Christ Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God that is by casting thy self without a call into danger for Satan though he alledged Scripture yet hides some words which shew the meaning of it The Psalmist says He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways and what are thy ways but actions agreeable to thy calling and thy duty And thus he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways that is in those courses that are appointed thee of God But these words To keep thee in all thy ways the Devil leaves them out and clips the sentence and therefore Christ tells him It is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God that is by going out of our way and casting our selves into danger without a call and then say the Lord will deliver us It had been contrary to Christs way and his duty to have thrown himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple he had gone out of his way had he done so Sirs when we go out of Gods precincts we go out of Gods protection a King undertakes the safety of his Subjects whilst they travel within due hours and keep the Kings high-way else not so hath God promised to preserve us and his Angels to take charge over us while we hold his way If a man should throw himself into a deep River where in an ordinary way he could not but be drowned and say God is able to preserve me and make me swim out you will say he is a mad-man his faith is frenzy and 't is a most horrid and prodigious tempting of God So they tempt God that engage themselves to afflictions to poverty loss of estate without a call and therefore they that suffer must be sure they have a good ground and a good cause and truth of their side else they sinfully tempt God to provide for them Hitherto I refer wilful and indiscreet marriages when persons neither of whom have any competent subsistence shall marry together they know not how to live and maintain themselves and yet say God will provide this is to tempt God they cast themselves into the disaster of irremediable poverty and into the deep gulph of a thousand sorrows and temptations and yet say God will provide what is this but a sottish and sinful tempting of the Lord God So they that expose themselves to the occasions and temptations of sin saying God will keep them from sin these tempt God As servants that will venture to live in Papists houses and say God will preserve us from contagion or when servants cast themselves into a prophane family and say God I hope will not suffer me to be the worse for it or when serious christians shall make choice to tye themselves in marriage to prophane and carnal persons or when a man shall engage himself to sinful company and say Though they be naught God will keep me and take care of me all these tempt God as if a man should throw himself into the fire and say I shall not burn God will keep me or as if a man should run himself into an house where the plague is and say God will keep me from infection 6. God is tempted when we are not satisfied with his revealed will sufficiently made known to us but require further arguments and so put him to the tryal And thus we may tempt God in point of Doctrine when we will not sit down content I say with the revealed will of God when we refuse to believe that which is testified to be his Will but require more arguments thereof as of a matter still
dear Father And therefore in both his Epistles the Ink in which Paul dips his pen were his warmest Bowels to write to his beloved Timothy The design of these Epistles is various instructions teaching Timothy how he should govern the Church which he calls the house of God what Doctrines also he should Preach to the Church and several Admonitions exciting him to read and study study and read the Scriptures to execute his office with an intrepid spirit to be indefatigable in Preaching the Gospel 2 Tim. 4. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in season and out of season In a word to fear nothing in the race of his Ministry but act resolution fortitude and patience in bearing the afflictions of the Gospel In this Context where our words lye Paul would settle and corroborate Timothy ab exemplo by setting himself A causâ procatarcticâ Vers 10 11 12. an example before him But thou hast fully known my Doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering charity patience persecutions afflictions yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution In which words you have 1. An Act. And 2. The Object First Here is Timothies Act Thou hast fully known all these things in me which I hope will raise up your spirit to do the like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast fully known The Object which Timothy knew so fully is expressed by Induction 1. Of Pauls Virtues 2. And of his Sufferings First His virtues Thou O Timothy hast fully known my Doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering charity patience Secondly His sufferings Thou O Timothy hast fully known my persecutions afflictions 1. And they are described a circumstantia loci or ubi from the places where his afflictions and persecutions met him Which came unto me at Antioch at Iconium at Lystra what persecutions I endured 2. From the event or consequent of them But out of them Or a Contrario all the Lord delivered me 3. From the common subject of them or from the community of them they are accidentia communia common accidents yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And therefore you must not be scared at them Timothy but resolve to have your share in them with such noble companions The words are a Proposition Categorical and Affirmative for they affirm that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Where you have 1. The Subject i. e. the persons who are spoken of and they are all that will live godly in Christ Jesus 2. The Praedicate or the thing that is spoken or said of them and that is They shall suffer persecution And the Proposition is universal also for it affirms that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution I shall not discourse of the Praedicate or latter part of the Proposition namely the Godly's suffering of persecution for this is a common Theam and it is so true even to our sense and experience that I need not speak to it I shall therefore confine my self to the Subject or first part of the Proposition All that will live godly in Christ Jesus because I think it most concerns us to know what it is to be godly in Christ Jesus for herein the Knowledg of our eternal interests lyeth and if we can discern that we are godly in Christ Jesus we shall easily deduce our Title to Christ and a Right to eternal glory in him Now in our discourse upon this subject we must inquire First What is meant by godly Secondly Why this expression in Christ Jesus is added and what it imports all that are godly in Christ Jesus 1. What it is to be godly The words are All that will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live godly or after a godly sort now godly presupposeth godliness as the Concret doth the Abstract for godly and godliness are Conjugata Conjugates and godly men are denominated or called so from godliness Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 godliness among other sounds it gives in Scripture speaks or signifies Religion or the true way of worship of God 2. Having now shewed you what the word godly means we come to the Addition in Christ Jesus All that will live godly in Christ Jesus For we might easily suppose that it had been enough for the Apostle to have said All that will live godly shall suffer persecution Why then doth he say or what need had he to add All that will live godly in Christ Jesus I Answer 1. This expression in Christ Jesus is added as specifica differentia a specifical difference to distingush the Christian Religion from all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Religious or Religion is the Genus and in Christ Jesus is the difference Constitutiva constituting the essence of true Religion putting it under such a kind and dividing it from all other Religions as from Divisiva Judaism which hates Christ and Graecism or Ethnicism which derides Christ and all salvation by him The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom 1 Cor. 1. 22 23. but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness The Jews sought salvation by their legal righteousness and the Greeks by their moral virtues the Christians by Christ crucified And so the meaning is this All that will live godly or religiously in Christ Jesus that is that profess the Religion of Christ or the Christian Religion they whose Religion is Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And so they did in those days those Primitive times when the very name of Christ was so hated by the Jews and the Doctrine of salvation by Christ in opposition to all their Gods was so impugned by the Gentiles Yet because Christian Religion requires the highest holiness and therefore carries a Divine Energy and virtue in it to supernatural actions it consists not in word only but in power No Religion sanctifies but this that is of Christ Jesus what she teacheth she infuseth into the hearts of her Children she is spirit and life because she carries Christ in her and Jesus Christ came to reform and renew the world to destroy sin and dethrone Satan and bring down Heaven upon the Earth and put God and Man into an Unity again 2. Therefore this expression in Christ Jesus speaks not only an outward profession of Christ Jesus but also an Vnion with Christ Jesus and an oneness with him So that to be godly in Christ Jesus is to be one with Christ Jesus for this is the high priviledg which Christian Religion puts upon her true Disciples that Christ dwells in them and they dwell in him This is an high Divinity they are united to Jesus Christ as the branch to the tree the graft to the stock the members to the head and if united then they must also be one with him and by reason of this unity do not only partake
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate
his voice to the great World and the Rocks rend Thunder is the voice of God to the great World and in what Majesty doth he express himself to all Creatures below in that voice As there be Thundrings without so there be Thundrings within In great Majesty doth Christ speak to the soul sometimes Ask your Consciences else ask Faelix the Jaylour and Cain else yea ask your Father Adam else what a case were all these in when Christ did but reason with them Yea I ask you Hypocrites if any here is not the way of Christ full of Majesty What means those loads that gather about your hearts and that fearfulness which surpriseth you Thou dost but touch the mountains and they smoke saith the Psalmist so God doth but touch your Consciences and they smoke he doth but whisper within and your spirits fly about every where into the fingers into the face and up into the head and the heart within beats for want of them ready to swoon away Ask wounded spirits whether Gods Word be not full of Majesty Twenty years time not enough to heal the wound of a word of Gods mouth Oh the Majesty of that word Look upon the whole Creation upon the Earth upon the Sea upon the Heavens do they not all-speak the Majesty of Christ God is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the Mighty waves of the Sea The tossings rollings and roarings of the Sea Do they not speak loudly the Majesty of Christ But ah sinner The tossings rollings and roarings of a troubled soul speak the Majesty of Christs word much more Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2. Kingdoms have Supremacy This is Basis Majestatis Christ is a great King over all as the Psalmist titles him Psal 29. God hath set Christ over all so should we as God hath set him so do you over all in all things Now self-denyal is an excellent means that Christ may Reign Thou must deny thy Kingdom that Christ may have his you must lay down your Crowns at his feet that he may wear his Crown upon his Head And this is a sweet Testimony of Grace in the heart if the heart can endure Tribulation that Christ may Reign If it can suffer all things that Christ may do all things if it can lye low that Christ may be exalted when we are most annihilated our Lord and his Mysteries are most admired Sixthly They know thankfully The beams of Knowledg that shine into them melt them into pangs of Thankfulness that they should have the Honour and Happiness to know those things that they know They would not be without Christ whom they know not for a thousand Worlds They would not be without the miracles of love and peace and pardon in Christ which they have and know for all the Worth of India They count themselves to have been no better than brutes and beasts all the time they were without the Knowledg of those Divine Rarities which now they lay up so close in their hearts They adore God that they should know and see those saving secrets which are hid from the eyes of so many round about them Seventhly The true Knowledg of spiritual things doth spiritualize True Knowledg of Religion makes a man Religious Religion in Scripture is called Godliness Without controversie great is the Mystcry of godliness that is The principles of 1 Tim. 3. 15. Christian Religion Godliness is great gain i. e. Christianity The Christian Religion is great gain Thus the Truths themselves are called Godliness Why so Because the true Knowledg of them begets an inward godliness As Religion it self is called Faith and the grace in the soul is also called Faith Why so To shew that Faith begets Faith that is the Truth revealed begets Faith and must be received by Faith Therefore one word includes both the Object the thing believed and likewise the Disposition of the soul to that Object So Religion is called Godliness because the true Knowledg of it begets Godliness Oh! See then what makes a true Christian What when a man nakedly believes Divine Truths When he knows the Principles of Faith doth that make him a true Christian No But when Religion makes him Religious when these Tit. 1. 1. Truths work Godliness for Religion is a truth according to godliness Where the Truths of Religion are embraced there is Godliness with them A man cannot embrace Religion in Truth but he must be godly because Religion is Godliness so it is called for that it tends to beget all Piety and Virtue and Godliness in the heart And therefore if the Mysteries of Heaven work not Godliness a man hath but an Humane Knowledg of Divine things When Lucius a bloody Persecutor offered to confess his Faith hoping thereby to gain an opinion that he was Orthodox Russin Hist Eccles l. 2. c. 6. Moses a Religious Monk refused to hear him saying The eye might sometimes judg of one's Faith as well as the Ear and that whosoever lived as Lucius did could not believe as a Christian ought A man knows no more of Christ than he is sanctified he knows no more of Divine things than he esteems and affects he knows no more of the Mysteries of Heaven than he brings the whole inward frame to be like the things He that saith 1 John 2. 4. I know God and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him No doubt but Hophni and Phineas being Priests had a literal Knowledg of God yet being prophane they are said expresly not to have known him They were sons of Belial they knew 1 Sam. 2. 12. not the Lord. Eighthly If we know God aright we know God in us for we come to know God savingly by Regeneration and so by little and little we come to know God in us knowing in our selves those Divine perfections which the Holy Ghost attributes to God We know the Holiness of God by the Beam of Holiness which he hath irradicated into our hearts We know the love of God by the working of love in us towards him and towards his Saints We know hatred of sin in God by knowing in our selves an hatred of sin we know the Mercy of God by finding in our selves an Image of his Mercy towards our Enemies As Christ saith Be ye merciful as your heavenly Fathers is merciful Luk 6. 36. And it is a clear case We could never know in God Truth Justice Goodness were we not in some measure true just and good it being natural for Man to judg of others according to that which he knows in himself The spirit makes me to know Omnipotency in God through the great Power which he shews in me mortifying me and making me alive The spirit makes me know Wisdom in God by the Wisdom which I get through his Holy Spirit he makes me know Justice in God because he justifieth me in Christ he makes me know Truth
in God because he keeps promise with me he makes me know goodness and mercy in God because he bears with my slothfulness and sins Ninthly This leads me to another much like it true Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is experimental A man never stands firm and solid and constant in the Faith till he hath in himself some experience of that which he knows and believes And 't is certain That he holds so much firmness as he holds of experience in himself and no more It befalls us in believing and knowing the Gospel as it doth in knowing at first some wise and godly Man As long as we know the Wisdom and Godliness of such a man only by the relation of other men we are so disposed that other men coming and making a contrary relation we change our opinion we had of him at least doubt of it till at last having strict familiarity with him our selves we know by experience that the relation of him is true which was made to us and then no man is able to perswade us to the contrary So long as we believe the Gospel and the Mysteries of Heaven only by the relation of Preachers we believe it till other Preachers come and tell us the contrary and then we believe the other way or at least doubt of the Truth we had from the first Preacher till by having experience of that which is preached in the Gospel we stand firm and constant in that which we know and believe and then all the men in the World are unable to unsettle or change our Faith and Knowledg after 't is confirmed by our own experience As for example here 's a Gospel-Mystery That God hath punished all our sins upon Christ and redeemed us from wrath if we believe in him Now thy great work and design should be to get the experience of this Mystery in thee that God hath punished thy sins in Christ and redeemed thee from wrath Quest You will say how is the experience of Faith gotten Answ Then a man hath experience of that which he believes when he hath peace in his Conscience when he hath the fruit of that which he believes in himself being assured in himself that he can appear in the Judgment of God with that self-same security wherewith he would have appeared if he had lived with that innocency wherewith Christ lived and had by Gods will fuffered that which Christ suffered Vse 5. If it be such a transcendent priviledg to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Oh then act your souls with disires and endeavours after the Knowledg of these Divine things For 1. Our souls are made for these things What are our souls made for but for excellent things And what is excellent but the Mysteries of Heaven Is the soul made to lay her mouth to the breasts of the World and suck in wealth and riches which she must spit out again I tell you these are but dunghils to a soul 2. They put Glory upon the soul They are glorious and make us glorious The Knowledg of God in Christ is a glorious Knowledg and the Gospel is called a glorious Gospel these things put a Glory upon our souls VVhat a glorious thing is it when by the Mysteries of Heaven a weak man shall have power againsta a strong Devil VVhen a poor Creature flesh and blood shall by some virtue distil'd through the Mysteries of Heaven into him have such a strong Faith in the promise of forgiveness of sins and such a mighty Faith in the promise that all shall turn to his good that all the gates of hell shall not prevail over that weak soul VVwhat a glorious thing is this And what a glorious thing is it when an impotent and unable soul shall by an Ordinance of God have strength over those corruptions and sins which others are slaves to That mean men of low and cheap education and parts should not be taken with those things that others are besotted with that are of more excellent natural parts than they VVhat a glory of grace is this 3. Did ye know the Mysteries of the heavenly Kingdom ye would wonder at nothing in the world besides VVhat is the reason that silly men are taken up with admiration of small and poor things here below but because their thoughts are not employed nor raised up to these high and great Excellencies The Poet saith Nil admirari prope res est una numici Hor. Epist 1. Epistol 6. Solaque quae possit facere servare beatum To wonder at nothing is the only thing to make us happy VVhilst men stand wondring at the glory and foolish lustre of the VVorld Oh! this honour and that greatness is a goodly thing they are undone they are taken with it and so undone This makes those whose names are not written in the book Revel 17. 8. of life to wonder at the beast as it is in the Text saying Oh! what a godly order have they among them one under another And this makes them worship him as it is in another Text All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him Revel 13. 8. whose names are not written in the book of life As the Philosophers speaking of the Knowledg of Causes say That the Knowledg of the cause takes away admiration O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that wonders seems to be ignorant Arist 1. Metaph cap. 2. As Countrey-men that wonder at the Eclipse of the Sun or at a Blazing-star or at an Earth-quake it is from their Ignorance of the Causes a Philosopher wonders not at these things And therefore Pythagoras said That the end of Philosophy is that we should wonder at nothing So They that wonder at the Glory of the World and of earthly Dignities Oh! It is a fine thing to be rich and to shine in greatness it springs from their Ignorance It is the nature of shallow men to wonder at the things of this World A wise man wonders at nothing because he knows greater things he hath seen greater matters than those the world can shew Do you think a wise Christian will stand wondring at great and rich men at great places and honours and such things Alas He hath had greater matters in the eye of his soul and what can be great in this world to him to whom the World it self is not great What is great in this world to him that hath seen Christ and conversed with God Oh! come then and know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven These will so dazle your eyes with their glory that you shall wonder at nothing in the world besides To dwell in the favour of men and to rise up into high places and have the world smile upon you are these the things ye wonder at Truly Sirs If we would wonder let us come to Religion there we have him whose name is Wonderful that is Jesus Isa 6. Christ There we have his Laws and Testimonies