on a spirit of zeal and activity How wonderfully is God pleased with Phineas zeal Numb 25. 11 12 13. What a great approbation doth he manifest of him What an attestation doth he give to him he is so greatly pleased with his zealous appearance for him that he turns away his displeasure from the whole congregation of Israel and overlooks their crimson provocations against him On the contrary there is nothing that God is more displeased with then the remisness and lifelessness and indifferency in Religion The luke-warm water is not a greater offence to the stomach then the luke-warm Professour is to God and therefore he will spue such a one out of his mouth Rev. 3. 16. Christians where is your zeal for the Lord of Hosts Christs redeemed must be zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord Acts 18. 25. Rom. 12. 11. Acts 26. 6 7. instantly night and day for the hope of the promise do not only that which is right in the sight of the Lord but do it with all your heart The Lord loveth a willing servant Bestir your selves for the Lord. Be ye followers of Christ who went up and down doing good Every Christian should be a common blessing A publike good This is to be the children of your Father which is in Heaven who is good unto all and his tender mercies are over all his works And be sure the Father doth best love that child that is most like him A private narrow spirit is a low and a base spirit unworthy of a Christian. A Catholick communicative spirit full of great desires and great designes A large heart set upon doing good whose fire though ever hottest within will be breaking forth of his breast and provoking others whose love will not be confined to a party but gladly and thankfully owneth Christ where-ever he sees him This Catholick spirit I say is the glory of Religion the Churches blessing and Gods delight IV. Live by faith Heb. 10. 38. This is a precious grace in Gods account 2 Pet. 1. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 7. It giveth glory to God and therefore God taketh no small pleasure in it By faith Enoch obtains that testimony that he pleased God Rom. 4. 20. Heb. 11. 5. 2 Cor. 4. 18. Heb. 11. 39. Matth. 8. 10. If you would so walk as to please God you must walk by faith Christians must look to the things unseen they must not live at the common rate Christ must be their life and breath their prayers and their promises their dayly bread By faith did the Elders obtain that good report 't was Faith that Christ was so greatly taken with in the Centurion which made him to commend him for a none-such This was that which won such a singular praise and approbation from our Saviour to the woman of Canaan even her victorious faith Matth. 15. 28. Thou hast taken away my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast taken away my heart with one of thine eyes Cant. 4. 9. that is with thy faith Live in the power of faith and thou wilt please him to the heart Give glory to him by believing Let the life thou now livest in the flesh be by faith of the Son of God Live by faith in prosperity though thou hast the world about thee let it not be above thee Keep it at thy feet use it as thy servant Be much in the views of glory and contemplation of Eternity Buy as though thou possest not rejoyce as though thou rejoycedst not love as though thou lovedst not use this world as not abusing it it is but a fashion not a substance and that which it is passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 30 31. Use it therefore with mortified affections and prove the sincerity of your faith by the victory over your inordinate content and delight in and desires after and cares for the things of this world 1 Iohn 5. 4. Live by faith in adversity Weep as though you wept not enduring the cross and despising the shame as looking unto Jesus Heb. 12. 2. Heb. 11. 26. accounting Christs reproaches your riches his shame your glory Acts 5. 41. Compare these light afflictions with the weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. Rom. 8. 18. Ply your hearts with the Promises Count if you can the riches that are laid up in them Roll your selves upon the Lord Psal. 37. 5. and know that your heavenly Father hath no greater delight then to see his Children trust him with confidence when all visible helps are out of sight and he seems to be their enemy Iob 13. 15. V. Put on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit this is in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3. 4. Study to be like your Father slow to anger ready to forgive Psal. 130. 1. 8. forgetting injuries loving enemies requiting ill-will with kindness ill words with courtesies neglects with benefits and if any wrong you do him a kindness the sooner so shall you bear his likeness and be his delight And know ye that are of unmortified passions and unbridled tongues God hath an especial hatred and displeasure against a froward heart and a froward tongue Prov. 3. 32. 11 20. 1. 12. 8. 12. Oh seek meekness How can the holy Dove rest in a wrathful heart Christ is a Lamb of meekness how can he take pleasure in an unquiet contentious spirit Verily with the froward he will shew himself froward Psal. 18. 26. If you will not forgive others he will not forgive you Art thou hard to be pleased a froward wife a froward master a cross and willful servant surely God will not be pleased with thee he will mete to you as you measure to others Matth. 16. 24. VI. Get a spirit of self-denyal God is then pleased best when self is displeased most When we can be content to be emptied content to be abased that God may be honoured and with the Holy Baptist are wiling to be eclipsed by Christ willing to decrease that he may increase counting our selves no losers whilst his interest is a gainer Iohn 3. 29 30. rejoycing that we are made low for Christs advancement This is well-pleasing unto God How greatly was he pleased with Solomon's self-denying choice and gives him his asking throwing in riches and honours into the bargain 1 Kings 3. 10 11 12. Strange was Abraham's self-denyal What! to sacrifice with his own hand the whole hope of his Family the Heir of Promise the Child of his Years a Son an only Son when his life was bound up in the lads life Was ever mortal thus put to it But Abraham shall not be a loser God gives him a testimony from Heaven blesses him blesses his Seed blesses all Nations in him Gen. 22. 15 16 17 18. Wonderful was Moses his self-denyal but more wonderful was his acceptation and reward Heb. 11. 24. none like Moses Deut. 34. 10. God preferred him in another manner then Pharaoh could He
you not only how you must fast but how you must eat to wit with watchfulness and temperance not as those who have nothing to do but to fill their paunches but with an eye to his glory as those that are feeding and relieving the servants of Jesus Christ. He hath shewed you not only how you should rest on the Lords Day but how you must follow your Calling on the rest to wit with diligence and discretion minding him as your end as those that herein serve the Lord Christ. He hath told you how you must manage your dealings with equity and charity doing the very same to others that your consciences tell you you would have them in the like case to do unto you how you must sleep even as those that know he compasseth your path and your lying down and how you must wake to wit so as to be still with him Fourthly God hath given you special helps to this end You have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. 16. and you have the Spirit of Christ 1 Cor. 2. 12. Indeed they that are in the flesh cannot please God but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit Rom. 8. 8 9. You that are Believers have not the Law only in your Bibles but in your hearts Heb. 8. 10. II. It is very profitable Glorious advantages shall you have by this course First this is the most speedy and certain way to assurance for want of which many of you complain but henceforth you must complain no more For either you will follow this course and then you will have it or you will not and then cease your hypocritical complaints when it is through your own wilful disobedience that you are without it When once you are habituated to this course and do find it to be the chief of your care and that which your very hearts are set upon above all things else to glorifie and please God and approve your selves in his sight you cannot want assurance unless through your own ignorance For this is the most undoubted evidence in the world that you are the children of God whatever unallowed failings you may be guilty of Secondly Hereby you shall be certain of Gods gracious and favourable presence always with you See the Text He that sent me is with me for I do always those things that please him Thirdly By this means you shall be always laying up a Treasure in Heaven Brethren what are you for Are you men for Eternity or are you for present things Is your design for Glory Honour and Immortality Are you for riches in the other world or of dunghil spirits preferring your part in Paris before a part in Paradise If you are for true riches here is your way By this you shall be daily and hourly encreasing the stock of your own glory my vehemency is only that fruit may abound to your account that all you do might meet you in Heaven and Christ may shew your good works another day as the Widows did Dorcas her Garments Acts 9. 39. CHAP. III. A Fourth Case of Conscience WHat weariness in and unwillingness to duties may stand with grace and what not For the resolving this some Distinctions must be premised and then some Conclusions elicited Distinct. This weariness and unwillingness must be distinguished 1. According to the degrees of it and so it is either partial and gradual or else prevalent and plenary 2. According to the subject of it and so this weariness is either of the Members or else of the mind 3. According to the prevalency of it and so it is either transient and occasional or else setled and habitual 4. According to the sense we have of it and so it is either matter of Allowance to us or matter of annoyance 5. According to the cause of it and so it is either from a fixed dislike of the food or else from an Accidental distemper of the stomach 6. According to the effects of it for either it is victorious and makes us give over duties or else abhorred and repulsed by grace the Christian still holding on in the way of Duty Conclu 1. Where the weariness is only in the Members or at least chiefly but there is still a willingness of the mind this is no matter of questioning our Estates where the mind out-goes and out-does the body and the appetite to duties continues in vigour though there be a languishing of the natural strength and weariness of the bodily organs this is not our sin but affliction But too commonly the body hath so much influence upon the mind and causeth a listlesness and sluggishness there and makes it negligent in its office Yet when this doth proceed from the failing of the spirits tired with bodily labour and exercise and from the distemper of the parts our most pitiful Father considers our frame and remembers we are but dust and our merciful High Priest that is not untouched with the sense of our infirmities is ready to frame our excuse that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak 2. Where our weariness in and unwillingness to duties is only gradual and partial not plenary and prevalent it is not sufficient to conclude our selves graceless While the twins are together in the womb and two Nations within our bowels there will be contrary inclinations The flesh will never say Amen to a good motion as such but will be lusting against the spirit and will hang back when the spirit puts forwards and pull down when the spirit bends upwards So that while corruption remaineth there will be always a dissenting party and continual conflicts from whence it is no wonder there should arise some weariness yet the spirit is the prevailing interest and though oft-times fayled yet hath mostly the mastery in the combate and carries it against the flesh though not without much resistance and reluctancy from the rebel opponent 3. Where this weariness is only transient during the present temptation or defection which assoon as the tired soul can get out of it returns to its former temper and pleasure in holy duties there is only matter of humiliation But when it is the setled permanent and babitual frame of the mind it is matter of questioning our conditions The holy Psalmist under a dissertion was even almost perswaded to give over with Religion but when he is himself nothing is so sweet nothing so lovely and desirable to him as the duties of holiness But for them who have in their ordinary setled course and frame no mind to duties but are halled to them by conscience or engaged by company or custom or the like their case is fearful in that measure that duty is unpleasing and not loved 4. Where this weariness of and unwillingness to Duties is paniful and grievous as a sore in the eye as a sickness in the heart the state is good But where it is naturally allowed and meets with little or no resistance it is a black mark
Approach him not but in the garments of your elder Brother lest you carry away the curse Ioshua's filthy garments must be put off and Christs Rayment put on or else there is no standing before the bright and burning eyes of infinite holiness Put on the Lord Jesus in believing that is accept of him in all his Offices with all his inconveniencies and deliver up thy self to him and this will intitle thee to his merits and righteousness Without this nothing will avail If thy head were waters and thine eyes a fountain of tears if thou shouldst wear thy tongue to the roots with praying if thou shouldst weep an Ocean and wash thy self in thine own brine all could not get out one spot nothing can be accepted while thou art out of Christ and therefore in the first place apply thy self to him God will accept of no Gift but off his Altar Secondly The white Robe of his grace of Sanctification Rev. 5. 11. Thou that art in the flesh that is unrenewed unsanctified canst not please God Rom. 8. 8. Never think to make up the matter by a little mending and reforming particular Acts Man thy heart must be renewed thy state must be clean altered or God cannot be pleased Matth. 7. 16 17 18. The Tree must be made good the Fountain must be healed or else the Stream will be salt and the Fruit sowr If Christ be once formed in thee that is his image in his grace Likeness is the ground of Love Similitude and suitableness of nature is the loadstone of Affection God cannot but love his own likeness wouldst thou have his Favour wouldst thou be his Delight then conform to his pleasure study to be like him purifie thy self as he is pure The righteous Lord loveth righteousness he desireth truth in the inward parts and takes infinite complacency in the graces of his people These are the Spikenard and the Saffron the Spices the Beds of Lillies the sweet Ointments that Christ is so taken up with These are the Cinamon and the Trees of Frankincense the Calamus and the Camphire the Myrrhe and the Aloes the Chains of the neck and the precious Pearls that he is so ravished withall and doth so superlatively commend Cant. 4. 9. This is the Rayment of Needle-work and Gold of Ophir wherein the Queen is presented to her Royal Husband Psal. 45. 9 13. Therefore as the Elect of God holy and beloved Col. 5. 12 13. Put ye on bowels of mercy kindness put off all these anger wrath malice filthy communication and put on the new Man Col. 3. 9 10. Particularly let me commend to you some special graces which God doth manifest himself to be wonderfully pleased withall As ever you would please God get on these I. Be cloathed with Humility 1 Pet. 5. 5. This is a Garment which must be put on or else you cannot be accepted or saved Matth. 18. 3. Here is the dress that you must come to God in He must be served in humility of mind Acts 20. 14. You must humble your selves to walk with him Mich. 6. 8. Humility is a plain but yet a comely garment This grace doth eminently honour God and therefore God doth put a peculiar honour upon and manifest a most special delight in this Of all the men in the world this is the man that God will lock unto even he that is poor and of a contrite spirit that trembleth at his Word Isa. 66. 2. Though he be the high and lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy from whence the trembling soul is ready to conclude that surely such a fearful Majesty cannot but despise him such sin hating purity cannot but abhor him yet he will lay Isa. 47. 15. aside his Majesty and bear with mans impurity and condescend to most familiar and constant communion and cohabitation with his poor dust when contrite at his feet and prostrate in humility If thou wouldst be accepted of God come as Benhadads servants to the King of Israel with a rope about thy neck and ashes on thy head 1 King 20. 32. think meanly of thy self and God will honour thee 1 Sam. 2. 30. Put thy self in the lowest room and God will set thee higher Be little in thine own eyes and thou shalt be high in his A proud heart and a proud look is with God the first-born of abomination As ever thou wouldst have God well-pleased with thee be throughly displeased with thy self If thou dost throughly loath thy self God doth love thee If thou abhorrest thy self God delighteth in thee Be angry with thy self and the Almighty will turn away his anger from thee Condemn thy self and God will acquit thee In no wise extenuate thy sins nor justifie thy self Think the worse of thy self and be willing that others should think meanly of thee and heartily love them that slight thee This is the frame in which God is well-pleased pass sentence on thy self and God will absolve thee Set thy self at his foot-stool and he will lift thee up into the Throne Rev. 2. II. Labour for sincerity This is not a distinct grace from the rest yet for Doctrines sake I speak to it distinctly Vprightness is the great thing that God looks after and covenants for Gen. 17. 1. It renders all our persons and performances acceptable before God Prov. 15. 8. Such as are upright in the way are Gods delight Prov. 11. 20. To these are all the promises of peace Salvation Pardon preservation Blessedness Psal. 87. 10. In a word there is no good thing God will with-hold from them that walk uprightly Prov. 28. 10. This was Noah's praise that he was upright in his generation This was that set off Iob at such a rate that God doth so extol him for and as it were make his boast of him the singular sincerity and integrity of his heart Study to be upright See that the main bent of your hearts be to please God and honour him That Gods interest be uppermost with you That he hath the chief share in you and the eye of the soul be principally to him for in this sincerity doth consist as to your main state Let your great care be of your hearts Here is a Christians great work The Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh to the heart see therefore that thou look to it Let thine eye be chiefly there where Gods eye is He looketh not so much what thou dost as with what a heart Go then and do likewise yet be not satisfied in this that you are upright as to your states but labour to approve your selves in uprightness to God in your particular actions Do common as well as spiritual actions with holy ends Much of our lives are lost for want of this So much as is done for God of his strange grace he accounts himself our debtour But what is done for no higher end then self is lost from our account III. Put