secret hypocrisie whoredome prophannesse and with shame in thy face come before this God for pardon and mercy Admire and wonder at his patience that having seene thee hath not damned thee 8. Hee is a True God whereby he meanes to doe as he saith Let every Child of God therefore know to his comfort that those things which hee hath not under feelings but under a promise shall one day be all made good and let all wicked men know what ever threatning God hath denounced whatsoever Arrowes are in the bow-string will one day fly and hit and strike deepe and the longer the Lord is a drawing the deeper wound will Gods arrow that is Gods threatning make 9. Hee is an holy God Be not ashamed therefore of holinesse which if it ascend above the common straine of honesty the blind and mad world accounts it madnesse If the righteous that is those that bee most holy bee scarcely saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare 1 Peter 4. 18. Where Not before Saints and Angels for holinesse is their trade Not before the face of the man Christ Iesus for holinesse was his meate and drinke Not before the face of a blessed God for holinesse is his Nature Not in Heaven for no uncleane thing crawles there they shall never see God Christ Saints Angels or Heaven to their comfort that are not holy weare therefore that as thy crowne now which will be thy glory in Heaven and if this bee to be vile be more vile 10. He is a just and mercifull God just in himselfe and so will punish all sinne mercifull in the face of Christ and so will punish no sinne A just GOD against an hard-hearted sinner a mercifull God towards an humble sinner God is not all Mercy and no Justice nor all Justice and no Mercy Submit to him his mercy embraceth thee Resist him his justice pursues thee When a Child of God is humbled indeed commonly hee makes God a hard-hearted cruell God loth to helpe and saith can such a sinner bee pardoned a wicked man that was never humbled makes God a God of clouts one that howsoever he speaks heavie words yet he is a mercifull God and will not doe as he saith and hee findes it no difficult worke to beleeve the greatest sinne may be pardoned conceive therefore of him as you have heard Thirdly God is glorious in his Persons which are three Father begetting Sonne begotten and the Holy Ghost the third person proceeding Here the Father is called the Father of glory Eph. 1. Christ is called the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2. and the Spirit is called the Spirit of glory 1 Pet. 4. the Father is glorious in his great work of Election the Son is glorious in his worke of Redemption the Holy Ghost is glorious in his work of Application the Father is glorious in choosing the house the Son is glorious in buying the House the Spirit is glorious in dwelling in the House that is the heart of a poore lost sinner 4. He is glorious in his Works in his works of Creation and in his workes of providence and government wonder therefore that he should so vouchsafe to looke upon such wormes such dunghils such Lepers as we are to provide protect to slay his Sonne to call to strive to waite to give away himselfe and all that he is worth unto us O feare this God when you come before him People come before God in Prayer as before their fellowes or as before an Idoll People tremble not at his voyce in the Word A King or Monarch will bee served in state yet how rudely how slovenly do men goe about every holy duty Thus much of the first Principall Head that there is One most glorious God Now we are to proceede to the second viz. CHAP. II. THat this God made all mankind at first in a most glorious and happy estate like unto himselfe For the opening of which Assertion I have chosen this Text Eccles. 7. 29. God made man righteous which clearely demonstrates That GOD made all mankind at first in Adam in a most glorious happy and righteous estate Man when he came first out of Gods mint shined most glorious There 's a marvellous glory in all Creatures the servants and houshold stuffe of man therfore there was a greater glory in man himselfe the end of them God calleth a Parliament and gathers a Councell when man was to bee made and said Come let us make man in our owne Image as though all the Wisedome of the Trinity should be seene in the creation of man Wherein did the glory or blessednesse of man appeare In the impression of Gods Image upon him Gen. 1. 26. Can there be any greater glory for a Ioseph for a subject than to be like his Prince What was the Image of God The Schoolmen and Fathers have many curious yet some necessary though difficult questions about this I will omit all theirs and tell you only what is the APOSTLES judgement Colossians 3. 20. out of which this generall description of GOD s Image may bee thus gathered It is mans perfection of Holinesse resembling GODs admirable holinesse whereby onely man plâ—aseth God For all other inferiour Creatures did carry the workes and footsteps of GODs power wisedome goodnesse whereby all these Attributes were seene Now the most perfect Attributes of God that is his Holinesse that hee would have onely appeare in and be made manifest by man his best inferior creature as a Kings wisedome and bounty appeares in managing the affaires of all his Kingdome but his Royal Princely and most eminent perfections appeare in the face and disposition of his Sonne next under him But more particularly this Image of GOD appeared in these foure particulars 1. In mans understanding this was like unto Gods Now Gods Image here chiefly consisted in this particular viz. As God saw himselfe and beheld his owne infinite endlesse glory and excellency so man was privie to Gods excellency and saw God most gloriously as Moses though a sinfull man saw him face to face much more Adam a perfect man God loving man could doe no lesse than reveale himselfe to man 2. In his Affections the image of God chiefly appeared in two things First As God seeing himselfe loved himselfe So Adam seeing God loved this God more than the World more than himselfe as Iron put into the fire seemes to bee nothing but fire So Adam being beloved of God was turned into a lumpe of love to love GOD againe Secondly As God delighted in himselfe So did Adam delight in God tooke sweete repose in the boâ—ome of GOD. Mee thinkes I see Adam wrapt up in continuall extasies in having this God 3. In his Will the Image of God chiefely appeared in two things First As GOD onely willed Himselfe as his last end So did Adam will GOD as his last end not as man doth now Secondly As God willed nothing but
meanes of grace but few shall be saved It may be sometimes amongst ninety nine in a Parish Christ sends a Minister to call some one lost Sheepe Matth. 13. Three grounds were bad where the seede was sowne and onely one ground good It 's a strange speech of Chrysostome in his fourth Sermon to the people of Antioch where he was much beloved and did much good How many doe you thinke saith he shall be saved in this Citie It will be an hard speech to you but I will speake it though here be so many thousands of you yet there cannot be found a hundred that shall be saved and I doubt of them too for what villany is there among youth what sloth in old men and so he goes on So say I never tell me we are baptized and are Christians and trust to Christ let us but separate the Goates from the Sheepe and exclude none but such as the Scripture doth and sets a crosse upon their dores with Lord have mercy upon them and we shall see onely few in the Citie shall be saved 1. Cast out all the Prophane people among us as drunkards swearers whores lyers which the Scripture brands for blacke sheepe and condemnes them in a hundred places 2. Set by all Civill men that are but wolves chained up tame devills swine in a faire meadow that pay all they owe and doe no body any harme yet do none any great good that plead for themselves and say who can say black is mine eye These are righteous men whom Christ never came to call for he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance 3. Cast by all Hypocrites that like stage players in the sight of others act the parts of Kings and honest men when looke upon them in their â—yring house they are but base varlets 4. Formall Professors and Carnall Gospellers that have a thing like faith and like sorrow and like true repentance and like good desires but yet they be but pictures they deceive others and themselves too 2 Tim. 3. 5. Set by these foure sorts how few then are to be saved even among them that are hatcht in the bosome of the Church First Here then is an use of incouragement Be not discouraged by the name of singularitie What doe you thinke your selfe wiser than others and shall none be saved but such as are so precise as Ministers prate are you wiser then others that you thinke none shall goe to heaven but your self I tell you if you would be saved you must be singular men not out of fashion but out of conscience Act. 24. 16. Secondly here is matter of terrour to all those that be of opinion that few shall be saved and therefore when they are convinced of the danger of sinne by the Word thy fly to this shelter if I be damned it will be woe to many more besides me then as though most should not be damned Oh yes the most of them that live in the Church shall perish And this made an Hermit which Theodoret mentions to live fifteen yeares in a Cell in a desolate wilâ— dernesse with nothing but bread and water and yet doubted after all his sorrow whether he should be saved or no. Oh Gods wrath is heavie which thou shalt one day beare Thirdly this ministreth exhortation to all confident people that think they beleeve and say they doubt not but to be saved and hence doe not much feare death Oh learne hence to suspect and feare your estates and feare it so much that thou canst not be quiet untill thou hast got some assurance thou shalt be saved When Christ told his Disciples that one of them should betray him they all said Master is it I but if he had said elevâ—e of them should betray him they all except one would they not all conclude Surely it is I If the Lord had said onely few shall be damned every man might feare it may be it is I but now he saith most shall every man may cry out and say Surely it is I. No humble heart but is driven to and fro with many stinging feares this way yet there is a generation of presumptuous brazenâ— faced bold people that confidently thinke of themselves as the Iemes of the Pharisees being so holy and strict that if God save but two in the world they shall make one The child of God indeed is bold as a Lion but he hath Gods Spirit and promise assuring him of his eternall welfare But I speake of divers that have no sound ground to prove this point which they pertinaciously defend that they shall be saved This confident humour rageth most of all in our old Professors at large who thinke that 's a jest indeed that having beene of a good beliefe so long that they now should be so farre behind hand as to begin the worke and lay the foundation a-new And not onely among these but amongst divers sorts of people whom the Devill never troubles because he is sure of them already and therefore cryes peace in their eares whose consciences never trouble them because that hath shut it's eyes and hence they sleepe and sleeping dreame that God is mercifull unto them and will be so yet never see they are deceived untill they awake with the flames of hell about their eares and the world troubles them not they have their hearts desire here because they are friends to it and so enemies to God And Ministers never trouble them for they have none such as are fit for that worke neere them or if they have they can sit and sleepe in the Church or chuse whether they will beleeve him And their friends never trouble them because they are afraide to displease them And God himselfe never troubles them because that time is to come hereafter This one truth well pondered and thought on may damp thine heart and make thy conscience fly in thy face and say thou art the man it may be there are better in hell than thy selfe that art so confident and therefore tell me what hast thou to say for thy selfe that thou shalt be saved in what thing hast thou gone beyond them that thinke they are rich and want nothing who yet are poore blinde miserable and naked Thou wilt say happily first I have left my sinnes I once lived in and am now no drunkard no swearer no lyer c. I answer thou mayest be washt from thy mire the pollution of the world and yet be a swine in Gods account 2 Pet. 2. 20. thou mayst live a blamelesse innocent honest smooth life and yet be a miserable creature still Phil. 3. 6. But I pray and that often This thou mayest doe and yet never be saved I say 1. 11. To what purpose doe your multitude of sacrifices Nay thou mayest pray with much affection with a good heart as thou thinkest yet a thousand miles off from being saved Prov. 1. 28. But I fast sometimes
quiet but shaking him up for what he doth but by giving men respite from sinning for a time Satan getteth stronger possession afterwards as Matth. 12. 43. When the uncleane spirit is gone out of a man it returnes worse Sampsons strength alwayes remained and so doth sinnes strength in a naturall man but it never appeares untill temptation come Fifthly By giving the soule faire promises of Heaven and eternall life and fastning them upon the heart Most men are confident their estate is good and though God kills them yet will they trust in him and cannot be beaten from this Why oh Satan bewitcheth them For as he told Evah by the Serpent shee should not dye so doth he infinuate his perswasions to the soule though it live in sinne he shall not dye but doe well enough as the precisest Satan gives thus good words but wofull wages the eternall flashes of Hell II. By false Teachers Who partly by their loose examples partly by their flattering doctrines in publike and their large charitie in private dawbing up every one especially that is a good friend unto them for honest and religious people and if they be but a little troubled applying comfort presently and so healing them that should be wounded and not telling them roundly of their Herodias as Iohn Baptist did Herod Hereupon they judge themselves honest because the Minister will give them the beggerly pasport and so they goe out of the world and dye like Lambes being wofully cheated Matth. 24. 11. Looke abroad in the world and see what is the reason so many feed their hearts with confidence they shall be saved yet their lives condemne them and their hearts acquit them the reason is such and such a Minister will goe to the Ale-house and he never prayes in his Family and he is none of these precise hot people and yet as honest a man as ever lives and a good Divine too Ahab was miserably cheated by foure hundred false Prophets Whilst the Minister is of a loose life himselfe he will winke at others and their faults least in reproving them he should condemne himselfe and others should say unto him Physitian heale thy selfe Theeves of the same company will not steale from one another least they trouble thereby themselves and hence they give others false Cards to saile by false Rules to live by their unconscionable large charitie is like a gulfe that swalloweth Ships soules I meane tossed with tempests and not comforted Isa. 54. 7 8. and hence all being fish that commeth to their net all men thinke so of themselves III. A false spirit This is a third cause that begets a false peace as there is a true Spirit that witnesseth to our spirits that wee are Sonnes of God Rom. 8. 16. So there is a false spirit just like the true one witnessing that they are the Sonnes of GOD 1 Iohn 4. 1. we are bid to try the spirits now if these spirits were not like Gods true Spirit what need tryall As what need one try whether dirt be gold which are so unlike to each other And this spirit I take to be set downe Matth. 24. 23. Now looke as the true Spirit witnesseth so the false spirit being like it witnesseth also First The Spirit of God humbles the soule So before men have the witnesse of the false spirit they are mightily cast downe and dejected in spirit and hereupon they pray for ease and purpose to lead new lives and cast away the weapons and submit Psal. 66. 3. Secondly the Spirit of God in the Gospel reveales Jesus Christ and his willingnesse to save so the false spirit discovereth Christs excellency and willingnesse to receive him if he will but come in It fateth with this soule as with Surveyors of Lands that take an exact compasse of other mens grounds of which they shall never enjoy a Foot So did Balaam Num. 24. 5 6. this false spirit sheweth them the glory of Heaven and Gods people Thirdly Hereupon the soule commeth to be affected and to taste the goodnesse and sweetnesse of Jesus Christ as those did Heb 6. and the soule breakes out into a passionate admiration Oh â— that ever there should be any hope for such a vile wretch as I am and have been and so joyes exceedingly like a man halfe way wrapt up into Heaven Fourthly Hereupon the soule being comforted after it was wounded now calleth God my God and Christ my sweet Saviour and now it doubts not but it shall be saved why because I have received much comfort after much sorrow and doubting Hos. 8. 2 3. and yet remaines a deluded miserable creature still But here marke the difference betweene the witnesse of each spirit The false spirit makes a man beleeve he is in the state of grace and shall be saved because he hath tasted of Christ and so hath been comforted and that abundantly But the true Spirit perswades a man his estate is good and safe because he hath not onely tasted but bought this Christ as the wise Merchant in the Gospel that rejoyced he had found the pearle but yet stayes not here but sells away all and buyes the pearle Like two Chapmen that come to buy Wine the one tasts it and goeth away in a drunken fit and so concludes it is his So a man doth that hath the false spirit but the true spirited man doth not onely taste but buyes the Wine although he doe not drinke it all downe when he coÌ„meth to taste it yet he having been incited by tasting to buy it now he calls it his owne So a child of God tasting a little of God and a little of Christ and a little of the promises at his first conversion although he tastes not all the sweetnesse that is in God yet he forsakes all for God for Christ and so takes them lawfully as his owne Againe the false spirit having given a man comfort and peace suffers a man to rest in that estate but the true spirit having made the soule taste the Love of the Lord stirreth up the soule to doe and worke mightily for the Lord. Now the soule cryeth out What shall I doe for Christ that hath done wonders for me if every haire on my head were a tongue to speake of his goodnesse it were too little Nehem 8. 10. the joy of the Lord is our strength Psal. 51. 12. Vphold me with thy free spirit or as the Chaldean paraphrase hath it thy kingly spirit the Spirit of Adoption in Gods childe is no underling suffering men to lye downe and cry my desires are good but flesh is fraile No It is a kingly spirit that raignes where it liveth IV. False applying of true promises is the last cause of false peace And when a man hath Gods Spirit within and Gods hand and promise as he thinks for his estâ—â—e now he thinkes all safe Thus did the Iewes they said Wee have Abraham to our Father and so reputed themselves safe God having made them promise