is it How slavish and unbelieving Hence is it that the people of God need so many instructions and informations Hence is it that they are often in prayers and groans unutterable ere they can truly and cordially call God Father They fear him as a Judge and flie from him rather as an enemy Even as if there be never such glorious and delightfull objects to refresh the eyes with yet if a man be in the dark he cannot take any pleasure therein Thus many of Gods dear children who walk with a tender conscience who are diligent in all the wayes of holiness yet have not this testimony of conscience to comfort them it is hid from their eyes only because the Spirit of God doth not enable them thereunto Now the Apostle telleth us 1 Cor. 2. 17. It is the Spirit of God whereby we know the things that we have freely received of God 2. The Spirit of God doth witness unto us Objectively as I may so call it and that is by some effects and fruits of his grace upon our hearts by which we gather as by so many sure signes that we are in the state of grace and not hypocrites But because this will come in more fully in the ensuing particulars I shall only touch upon those effects by which the testimony of our conscience is rightly guided in witnessing to us And First By having a full and serious purpose to avoid all sinne as it shall become manifested to us As David professed That he did hate every evil way Psal 119. 104. He that doth allow and indulge himself in any known sinne cannot have the testimony of this good conscience It is true as is to be shewed there is no man living though never so holy but his conscience convinceth him of much sinne and many infirmities and this maketh him so highly esteem Christ and a Gospel-righteousness but yet it doth not witness to him that he liveth in the customary acting of grosse sinnes if it doth the Spirit of God never witnesseth with such a mans conscience that he is the child of God No if thou livest quietly without the smitings and condemnations of conscience it is because it is stupid and the Devil hath deluded and hardened thee for Gods Spirit witnesseth with our conscience and by this effect that we have a tender respect to avoid all known sinne Secondly Another effect is A zeal for the glory of God to honour him to magnifie Christ and to set up his Kingdome as much as we are able The more zeal and fervency men have had for Gods honour the more powerfull testimony of a good conscience they alwayes enjoyed As we see in this Paul in his whole ministerial course with what burning zeal did he flame forth continually and on the contrary so much remisness so much negligence and lukewarmness so much is the abating of consciences testimony Thirdly An holy confidence and boldnesse in our approachings to God And of this the Apostle speaketh Rom. 8. The Spirit of Adoption removing our fears our unbelief and dejection raising us up also with an holy confidence and humble boldness doth hereby testifie with our consciences that we are the children of God Hence the more distrustfull fears the more tormenting doubts that we groan under the weaker and more feeble is the witness of our conscience yea if those prevail and are predominant then our conscience is set against us and witnesseth against us and then the child of God is in sad desertions when his heart witnesseth against him that he is an hypocrite that he did serve the Lord without integrity For though this be false yet till Gods Spirit remove this darknesse and fill thee with an Evangelical confidence thou art not able to hold up thy head Fourthly Another effect by which Gods Spirit witnesseth with our conscience is An unfeigned love to the brethren a delight in all those that love God Where this is that thou lovest godly men for their godliness sake this demonstrateth thou art born of God and hast the same Image in thee as they have And if thy love also extend to thy enemies if thou findest that thou canst pray for them that curse thee do good to them that revile especially thou pitiest their souls and wouldst be helpfull to them in the way to Heaven though they are enraged adversaries to thee and that without cause By this frame of heart the conscience doth give a full and precious evidence Fifthly In daily and faithfull exercises of self-denial in the wayes of God doth the Spirit of God greatly assure the conscience In sufferings for Christ in enduring the losse of name liberty and liâ—e it self for Gods cause is the clearest testimony of our conscience Hence the Martyrs had so much serenity of spirit such unspeakable consolations because they found they loved Christ better than all things As they gave a testimony to the word of God called therefore Martyrs so God also gave them a testimony within whereby they did glory in tribulations and triumph over all aduersaries We see that if men suffer in false wayes if they be Martyrs for the Devil if they die for that which is highly offending God they many times glory in the comfort they have from the testimony of their conscience Now if a deluded conscience if deluded joyes can do so much what shall not the Spirit of God do sealing and confirming his love to us by our patient sufferings for him Thus when happily the world doth witness against thee wicked men they condemn thee and lay many heavy accusations against thee as the false Apostles did here concerning Paul yet this testimony with in will answer all and God doth come in with fuller evidences of his love in such passages of self denial Lastly The Spirit of God doth witness to our spirit in this blessed effect viz. When we do with delight and joy meditate think and speak about heavenly things when the Ordinances of God are matter of pleasure to us David doth often proâ—efs what delight he had in the Ordinances of God how the word of God was more precious than gold more sweet than the honey-comb Now when the heart is thus affected to holy things that they find more joy as David professeth Psal 4. in the things of God then worldly men do in their corn and wine when these increase By this excellent heavenly temper the Spirit of God witnesseth with our conscience that we are the children of God But I shall enlarge no more on this because the Doctrine of Assurance will follow upon the next words We shall now lay down some distinctions to clear this truth to you because it is plain That many times the people of God being cast down with black thoughts that cannot say with Paul The testimony of our conscience is our rejoycing And on the other side many heretical pharisaical and self-deluded persons will at least outwardly boast
their earthly ends It is true when the faithfull Ministers of Christ do effectually move for the purity of Ordinances and the promoting of godlinesse among their people there are those who will maliciously traduce them for carnal and selfe-seeking ends as if they proceeded wholly upon subtilty and policy but the searcher of hearts witnesseth to their sincerity and so they comfortably proceed in Christs worke maugre all opposition It 's holy prudence then not carnal policy which must manage ministerial power Secondly When we require holy prudence and meeknesse we do not hereby exclude zeal as if a man should not with much fervency and ardour of spirit set himself for the truth of God as also against the kingdome of sinne and Satan No it cannot be heavenly prudence unlesse it be accompanied with this zeale As zeale must be with knowledge and discretion so must knowledge be with zeale They must be as Castor and Pollux alwayes appearing together which was represented in the Sacrifice which was to have salt as well as fire Thus Rom. 12. We are to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. And it is the Lord Christ who said The zeale of thy house hath eaten me up Joh. 12. 17. Here is a notable example for all godly Ministers The zeale for Gods glory is even to consume them as it were as the fat of the Sacrifice was burnt in the fire to the Lord to which some think our Saviour doth allude in that expression We are to come in the spirit of Elijah even to be carried in a fiery Chariot And truly without this zeale for God a man is but a lump of earth It is true we must distinguish holy zeale from our owne passions and cholerick distempers but that which is the pure fire of Gods Spirit kindled in our hearts as it doth greatly conduce to Gods glory so it doth exceedingly tend to our own comfort Let therefore those be magnified for wise and moderate men let them be admired as so many Angels that live in a lukewarm and neutral way they will reprove no sinne they will provoke no man to frowne upon them but alas the issue will discover their folly Oh the throbs and pangs of conscience some have had when going out of the world for this very particular because they did not with more zeale and forwardnesse appear for God And on the other side that Minister who hath with faithfull zeale according to the words direction behaved himself in his ministerial labours though great ones have frowned at him though malicious people have vexed him yet he dieth full of comfort For they that are filled with the Spirit of God by zeal in their life time are many times filled with heavenly consolations in their death Lastly This holy prudence is not to be confounded with that sinfull man-pleasing which is in many indulging men in their lusts and hardening them thereby in their impieties Though the Apostle said 1 Corinth 10. 33. That he pleased all men in all things not seeking his owne profit yet that is not to be understood in sinfull things for in that respect he saith Galat. 1. 10. If he pleased men he should not be the servant of Christ but in lawfull things he did condescend to those that were weak and would not alwayes use his own liberty which he might being strong in judgement but this doth nothing advantage such who have a flattering complying way with men in their wickednesse like those false prophets of old that daubed with untempered mortar and cryed Peace peace to him whom God hath promised no peace This is highly offending God Yet how many are admired because they have the love of wicked and ungodly men that they can keepe in with them Whereas this is not because they have large parts but a large conscience and that which some make to be a very wise man is indeed to be a man without any conscience But I must not enlarge in this In the second place therefore we are to shew Wherein this holy prudence doth consist And First In discovering our love to their persons to be the ground of all our proceedings If we reprove them it is love if we admonish them it is love if we do not admit them to the dreadfull mysteries of Christ it is love Dilige loquere quod vis saith Austin Love and then say what ye will This made the Apostle use a sacred oath at this time to shew it was his love to them and no sinfull end that made him forbear his coming so great a matter is it to be perswaded that what the Ministers of the Gospel doe though it distaste and displease us yet it is out of their conscience to God and love to us Secondly Holy prudence lieth in this when we observe the fit seasons and opportunities for exercising our power which God hath given us otherwise if unseasonably administred it may doe more hurt than good It is special prudence to time it well in this sense it is good to be a time-server as some read that passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. applying it to this sense Abigail would not speak to her husband in his drunken senslesse fit Isai 50. 4. The tongue of the learned is to speake a word in season though that be chiefly to be applied to a word of comfort yet a word of reproof in season doth more good than ten thousand unseasonably spoken Such a word so spoken is said to be like Apples of gold in pictures of silver Prov. 25. 11. wherein is implyed both preciousnesse and excellency as also delight and refreshment A fit word is called in the Hebrew A word upon the wheeles as some thinke because of the smoothnesse and readinesse of it to enter into the hearts of others Some render it A word with its two faces as looking on both sides which is the property of prudence and the next verse following sheweth how happy it is when a wise reproof and an obedient ear meet together such an obedient ear is more comely and glorious than any ear-jewel As then the Bee doth not every day but in fit seasons gather its honey so doth a prudent Minister of the Gospel Thus Solomon Eccles 12. 9 10. Because the preacher was wise he sought out acceptable words Some trees that blossome last are yet said to have their fruit first which sheweth that it is not the first or sudden speaking but the most opportune that doth the greatest good especially in reproof this is most necessary because it is said Genus quoddam Martyrii est c. It is a kinde of Martyrdome to take a reproof patiently Thirdly Our prudence is seene when we discerne of sinnes not judging little and great alike To excommunicate for lesser faults is saith Gerson To strike off a flie from a mans fore-head with a beetle The remedy is more dangerous than the disease They were grosse sinnes that the Apostle
merits and dispositions in Paul At this very time Paul might have had a thunderbolt from Heaven fallen upon him which might have shaken him into Hell And behold a gracious arm stretched out to save him from thence And for this cause it is that none like Paul doth so amplifie the grace of God and is so frequently naming of Jesus Christ and therefore it's Paul's whole design in his Epistles to take off all from works and any thing in our selves and to give all to the grace of God And thus Austin a second Paul in some respect he in his former times had been a great sinner involved in unclean lusts and a cursed Maâ—…e but when converted what Ancient did so clearly fully and pregnantly maintain the true Doctrine of Grace as he did He had not only read Books but his own heart and experience to confirm this truth Therefore those opinions that Paul was predestinated because God fore-saw the good works he would do or that God by a Scientia media knew Paul would consent to Grace calling of him if put into such a condition and that thereupon God did ordain him to eternal happiness all these Doctrines and the like are meer Antipodes to Paul's discourse and expressions in his Epistles Thus you have the Reasons on Gods part now on mans part God may therefore take such rather than others Because hereby they may be alwayes kept humble in themselves Thus Paul findeth these old wounds now and then bleeding afresh he remembers what he hath been to his great sorrow and humiliation yea hereby a man is preserved from any dangerous fall afterward Peter and David after they had been converted unto God we read of their fals again breaking their bones and recovering with bitterness and much difficulty But concerning Paul after his conversion we never read of any scandal he fell into yea he saith He knew nothing by himself 1 Cor. 4. viz. in any gross miscarriage for the old bitterness would never out of his mind Lastly God may do this to provoke all Formalists and civil Justiciaries to an holy jealousie What shall such as lay wallowing in their mire that were like the impure Swine become Sheep to Christ shall get Crowns of Glory upon their heads and we who were never like any of such Publicans with our glistering goodness be thrown into hell SERM. II. Learning an excellent gift of God though through the corruption of man 't is often made an Engine to promote the Kingdome of the Devil yet by the Grace of God 't is very usefull in his Church 2 COR. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle c. VVE have considered Paul as a great sinner yet made an Apostle of dung made a pearl Let us now take notice of him as a learned man and so made use of by God for the Ministry of the Gospel That Paul was endowed with much learning was so evident to Festus that he told him Much learning had made him mad And the Lycaonians called him Mercury Acts 14. He was for a while educated at Tarsus where he was born and it is recorded by Strabo as Lapide citeth him That the Tarsenses were so wholly given to literature that they did excell Athens and Alexandria And that he had perused humane Authors appeareth in that three times he alledgeth Greek Poets Now besides this he went also to Jerusalem and there was brought up at Gamaliel's feet an eminent Doctor amongst the Jews And if there were nothing else but his Epistles he wrote this would abundantly declare the rare and admirable wisdome he was endowed with Insomuch that Chrysostom 3. Hom. upon 1 Corinth speaks of a Dispute between a Christian and a Grecian Whether Paul was not to be preferred before Plato though Chrysostom condemneth the Christians argument as ridiculous and absurd Indeed the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 11. 6. That though he was rude in speech yet not in knowledge Now it 's questioned by Interpreters In what sense Paul saith He was rude in speech Austin thought he said so only by concession and in the repute of the false Apostles who accounted him so But Chrysostom and others think Paul speaketh properly and that he was really so not but that he was full of learning only he did not use those affected wayes of humane eloquence as he speaks in another place He did not write as a Demosthenes whom Plato censured as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hunter of words and a curious Artificer therein yet he hath masculine and strong eloquence such as becomes the divine and admirable matter he propounds And certainly to paint a Jewel would take off the proper lustre of it The more naked and plain divine truths appear the more lovely they are and do more immediately insinuate into the heart And if he said of Tully's eloquence because it 's not so affected and fancifull That he had made great progresse in Rhetorick who could delight in his Latine We may more truly say he hath attained to some good sufficiency in Christs school who seeth more excellency in Paul's Epistles than in all humane Writers Paul therefore had true and solid wisdome and was also indowed with acquired abilities in humane learning So that whereas Christ chose fishermen that were unlearned here we see him making use of one that was skilfull and learned So that God can make use of all and as Austin said Qui dedit Petrum piscatorem dedit Cyprianum Rhetorem So that we may observe When men of great learning and parts are chosen by God and sanctified they become eminently usefull in their place To amplifie this Doctrine consider That though Christ at first did choose Fishermen and other illiterate persons yet that makes nothing at all to that Anabaptistical position That men abiding in their Trades and destitute of learning may take upon them to be publick Preachers of the Gospel For that instance doth rather make wholly against them For First Though our Saviour called them while illiterate yet after their call he took them into his fellowship So that they were like a Colledge living together whereof Christ was the Head and Master and thus he trained them up with himself for two years before he sent them abroad to preach And Secondly When he enlarged their Commission before they did execute it they are commanded to stay at Jerusalem where they received the holy Ghost in a wonderfull manner and were inabled to speak in all strange tongues and were also inabled to work miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine Now let the Adversaries demonstrate such an extraordinary effusion of Gods Spirit on them and we shall not envy if all the Lords people can so prophesie And Lastly As soon as they were called at the very first they left their trades they gave themselves to attend upon their work they had undertaken whereas these plead for the retaining of their Calling still private Christians
then though they are allowed to improve their gifts in a mutual edifying way and may if they will find matter enough to exercise themselves therein yet they may not usurp this Authority and Office in the Church without a lawfull Call thereunto 2. Learning whether in the arts and tongues is an excellent qualification in men and the chiefest of Gods gifts in a common way For as Popery like a thick darkness did then cover the face of the whole earth when all learning was buried so when there came a Reformation in that kind the Arts and the Tongues being more generally known then also began the Reformed Religion to be so eminent So that if we consider man as he is rational learning is his proper and peculiar perfection and therefore far above wealth or beauty or strength or any natural perfection whatsoever In the times after the Apostles when extraordinary things ceased then they were learned men that God did for the most part raise up in his Church both to govern the members thereof and to profligate Heretiques such were Tertullian Origen Austin and Cyprian of whom Austin said That he came with the Aegyptian spoil one of Aegypt and enriched Israel by humane learning he did adorne the Church of God 3. It cannot be denied but where learning hath been in any high degree there through the corruption of man it hath been sometimes made a weapon against and an engine to promote the Devils kingdom Insomuch that the learned men of the world have done the Devil more service than any other men For the Devil at first did not use an Asse or any such dull creature to seduce Eve but the Serpent Because he was more subtill than any other beast upon the earth Gen. 3. 1. Thus still the Devil loveth to appear in Serpents in wise men in great learned men and plausible Scholars knowing that such are like Samson That can destroy many at one blow Thus all the Heathen Philosophers they were great enemies unto the wayes of God Who disputed for their Idolatry and against the Christian Religion but their Sophisters their learned men For that word was used in a good sense at first and the reason is because man being naturally corrupted and the wisdome thereof being enmity to God Rom. 1. 8. The more wisdome and the more abilities a man hath the greater adversary he is to God as the stronger or greater the toad is the more poisonous he is So that learned men if not godly they come out like so many Goliah's against the people of God Austin wrote to a learned Heathen Ornari à te diabolus quaerit Learned men they adorn the Devils way and make his Kingdom and Laws to be accepted and withall it 's hard to have this talent of gold and not to make an Idol o◠it It 's hard to be learned and not to be puffed up with it So that whereas the way of the Gospel and the Scripture is in a plain but solid and majestical way they are apt to deride and contemn it witness Austin's confession of himself That he loved Tully ' s works better than the Bible And Hierom tells us That he was so addicted to humane learning that in a vision he was terribly beaten and afflicted hearing this voice Ciceronianus es non Christianus So that we grant That many learned men are kept off from the humble and low way of Christ they cannot stoop to his yoke and all because of their learning But yet 4. This is not from the nature of learning it self it 's from the abuse of it As the Apostle saith Not many noble men not many rich men hath God called 1 Cor 1. 26. But this is not because nobility or wealth are in themselves sinne but because such things do many times become a snare to us Learning therefore of it self and in its own nature hath no such poisonous quality and therefore it 's a most irrational thing to say That learning can be no more sanctified than sinne For was it not in Paul who as Tertullian expresseth it did sanctifie the Poets verses he alledged And are not learned men if Orthodox and loving of the truth more able to convince the errours of the learned gain-sayers Have not the eminent Lights in the Church of God in all ages been learned men Was not the Aegyptian learning sanctified to Moses And now learning is more necessary since the Apostles times then formerly For in those dayes they were endowed with miracles which were a strong demonstration of the infallible Doctrine that was preached and they could speak in Tongues and some had the gift of interpretation and prophesying by immediate workings of Gods Spirit but none can now pretend to any such thing What private man could have been able to have read so much as one verse in the Bible had there not been men learned in the Original Tongues who translated it into our known Language Neither can those Ministerial qualifications which the Apostle requireth in every Elder That he be able to teach to divide the Word of God aright to be able by sound Doctrine to convince the gainsayers be performed without learning Yea Doth not the Apostle Peter charge the wresting of Scripture to their own destruction upon unstable and unlearned men 2 Pet. 3. 16. 5. This must also be acknowledged That all the learning in the world cannot help us to a sanctified and holy understanding of the Scripture no not so much as the true interpretation of it without the Spirit of God and if learned men cannot do it without Gods Spirit much less unlearned Therefore we must not oppose learning to grace or to Gods Spirit For how many have written Comments upon the Bible that have been very learned men yet from that sweet flower they have turned all to poison and through the corruption that was in their hearts have made it a Book to vent all their heretical and damnable opinions So that there must necessarily be the Spirit of God besides learning First to lead us into all truth And then secondly to sanctifie it to our own hearts in an experimental and powerfull manner For men may be very Orthodox and yet know nothing of the work of grace upon their own souls These things explained concerning a two-fold consideration of Paul as a sinner and as a learned man Let us make some practical Use of it And First We see our duty when God makes use of such great sinners not to upbraid and revile them with their former impieties but rather to admire the wisdome and power of God not to reproach Peter for his Apostasie or Paul for his persecutions as the Donatists did Austin for his former miscarriages but to bless God that giveth us such real testimonies of his grace When some Papists upbraided Beza with his youthfull verses he made Isti homines saith he invident mihi gratiam Dei These men envy me the grace of
attributed to those that are chief amongst the people of God Psal 105. 15. where God is said to rebuke Kings for his peoples sake saying Touch not my anointed nor do my Prophets no harm that is Abraham Isaac and others who were in eminency of esteem with God He doth not mean Kings there but his eminent servants Hence it is also that amongst the Jews their chief Officers Kings Priests and sometimes Prophets were anointed Now Christ because he did excell all these being the true Trismegist the King Priest and Prophet Therefore he was called the Messias or anointed one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a transcendent manner Hence from Daniel Chap. 9. 24. The anointing of the most holy he was called the Messiah as if none deserved the name but he Now you must know there is a two-fold anointing or a two-fold Oyl which the Scripture speaks of one material and visible which was used in the Old Testament the other material and invisible which is the Spirit of God with the graces thereof When therefore Christ is called the anointed and God is said to anoint him Act. 4. 27. Psal 45. 7. And also the people of God are said to have the anointing 1 John 2. 27. Hence Hierom said Disce Christianum nomen tuum interpretari This is wholly to be understood after a spiritual manner For as Oyl was in the Old Testament used significatively to represent the graces of Gods Spirit hence every thing dedicated to God was to be anointed to teach us That no approaches unto God without sanctification were acceptable So in the New Testament the Spirit of God and his graces still retain the name of anointing The Jews out of extream hatred to Jesus Christ will not call their Messias whom they expect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now Christ is therefore the Messias the anointed one that he may be a Jesus without this he could not have been a Saviour Observe That the Lord Jesus is anointed to be our Saviour Therefore he is called the Messias the Christ and the chief scope of the Evangelists is to prove that Jesus of Nazareth then born was the Christ the Messias For as Antichrist must be discovered by having all the peculiar characters that the Scripture attributes to him So must Jesus be proved to be the true Christ by having all the Prophecies and promises fulfilled in him This title Christ doth briefly imply First His solemne inauguration and consecration to that Office of a Saviour Secondly The full qualifying of him for that worke both in fitness of Person and fullnesse of graces Therefore as you heard God is said to anoint him And certainly if Moses were inabled to bring Israel out of Aegypt and Joshua into Canaan notwithstanding all the oppositions in the way fear not but Christ the anointed will bring all his children to Heaven notwithstanding all contrary power Use of Incouragement to every believer Christ is anointed to be thy Saviour Therefore he wants nothing for that Office and God desireth no more Though thou art wretched and sinfull yet thou hast not a weak sinfull Christ Thou mayest now alwayes live in a Jubilee Did the poor Israelite whose Land was morgaged and houses sold trouble himself about money when that time came No Jubilee was better than money that released all debts c. Thus the Lord Christ is anointed to save thee Christ is better than perfect obedience than Adam's integrity than freedome from all sinne Christ was anointed with the Oyl of gladness let it be Oyl of gladness and joy to thee 2. Is Christ thus anointed Then labour to partake of this ointment 1 Joh. 2. 27. What a glorious expression is there of all the godly They have an anointing that teacheth them all things viz. practically in necessaries to salvation A man may be a very knowing man and yet have not this anointing but the oyl that was poured on our Aaron descends on his skirts to all his people Ps 45. God is there said to anoint Christ above his fellows that is as some expound above all anointed Kings or Priests but others render the Preposition min propter for his fellows viz. all the godly which are made his brethren Let then thy life be like that Alablaster box of ointment SERM. VII Church-Officers are appointed by Christ and all Church-power radically seated in him as King What Duties follow thence to be practised by Church-Officers and People Some things are highly esteemed in the Church which are much despised by the world 2 COR. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God c. THe Author and Fountain of Paul's Apostleship hath been considered absolutely under those two names Jesus Christ We shall now take notice of them relatively For herein doth the name of the Apostle breed reverence and esteem with believers because Jesus Christ himself doth appoint them So that the Apostle doth not make himself the ultimate object into which their faith and obedience is to be resolved but the Lord Christ Insinuting hereby that if they reject him they also refuse Christ himself It is not in his own name that he cometh neither doth he intrude himself into this Office but he is sent by Christ and comes in his Name Now although when he is said to be the Apostle of Jesus Christ we may understand it finaliter because his whole work and office was to advance Christ to exalt him to study and preach nothing but him yet it is chiefly to be understood efficienter For his meaning is he had his Office and his Power from Christ Observe That the Lord Christ as Head of his Church doth appoint all Officers therein so that they act and officiate in his Name The Apostle speaks this fully 2 Cor. 5. 20. We are embassadours for Christ we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God What an efficacious Argument is this for your attention and bedience The Ministry is not an humane invention neither do we plead our own interest or act in our name but it 's Christs interest we are his Embassadours we come in his Name to you It is he that giveth us our commission to preach and baptize insomuch that all the affronts contempts and rebellions that our Ministry meets with for it's sake it redounds upon Christ himself and what is done against us coming in his name is taken by the Lord Christ as done against himself He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10. 16. See how hainous a sinne it is and how far it reacheth thus to reject those who have Christs commission to watch over a people It is not for our selves but for your good ye should know these things But let us consider the Doctrine and to explain that you must know First That the learned do from the Scripture find
in these Sunnes no wonder if they be in the Moons the lesser lights of the Church Yea Gal. 1. there we may read of an high contest and that was not indeed about a doctrinal matter of Religion but in practice which did relate to Religion for there Paul resisted Peter to the face and blamed him before them all Thus you see that though there were none but Pauls and Barnabasses none but Pauls and Peters and such eminent Apostles in the Church of God yet we could not look for such an absolute and perfect concord that there should not be the least difference in any thing The Church never was or will be like the upper region that is not molested with the least turbulent vapour Secondly There is a full conformity or agreement in the substantials and necessaries of Religion and also in all the accessories and circumstantials therein And this is the next perfect Unity to the former and this was in the Apostolical Church Those that were the true Officers of Christ had no difference either in Doctrine or Church-government or worship of God but they were all unanimous as farre as may be observed Indeed Act. 15. 1. we read of some Pharisees who were said to believe That they taught a necessity of circumcision and observation of Mosaical Rites to the converted Gentiles which made a very great rupture and schisme in the Churches while newly planted And although there was a Councel gathered together to stop this breach and Decrees made to regulate the Church herein yet it should seem that their Authority and Interest did not pluck up this division by the root For Paul in some of his Epistles makes this his great doctrinal scope to establish them in their Christian liberty but for the Apostles themselves and the faithfull Officers in the Church they seemed as to teach the same thing so to walk in the same order and wayes of Christ Lastly There is a consent and agreement in the essentials and fundamentals of holiness but difference and hot dissentions in those things that are praeter or circa fundamentals as also in matters of Discipline and Government Now although we maintain against Papists That by the good blessing of God all the Reformed Churches excluding Socinians c. do agree in the essentials to salvation yet it must be likewise granted That in respect of accessories there are sad divisions and wofull rents in the Church of God The name of Lutherans and Calvinists as also of several forms of Government do argue that there is a great breach amongst us And this we must expect to have alwayes in the Church as long as men are subject to ignorance mistakes and carnal affections And therefore we are not to be offended and scandalized at it much less hearken to Popish Emissaries who take this advantage amongst weak people to perswade them that the Church of Rome is therefore the only true Church These things premised let us consider what are cementing and uniting principles what do conduce to Unity amongst the Officers of God in his Church And First That which is alwayes willing to be last is Humility and a spirit of meekness and moderation You never heard of an humble man that he was a disturber of the Church or broacher of heresies Hereticks have alwayes been proud haughty and ambitious men as Marcion Nestorius and others especially the Pope of Rome who exalteth himself above all that is called God Were then men of more humble and lowly spirits having low apprehensions of their gifts and abilities this would wonderfully make to consent and agreement Secondly Earnest and servent prayer unto God for the holy Spirit For seeing it 's the Spirit of God that is promised to lead us into the truth And Officers of the Church have a more peculiar promise for it above ordinary believers as being in a more peculiar Office and receiving a proper Commission from Christ It is therefore necessary to implore this assistance of Gods Spirit For whereas the Papist doth scornfully and with derision ask How comes it about that seeing every Sect in the Protestants doth lay claim to the Spirit of God all owning it to be their guider in their several wayes How comes it about that yet these spirits are so contrary to one another Can the holy Spirit of God be opposite to it self To this calumny it is easily answered That all Officers and Teachers do not equally and in the same measure partake of Gods Spirit For besides that there is not now any such measure of it given to any Officers in the Church that makes them infallible There is an inequality and difference in the degrees of partaking of this holy Spirit of God so farre as it is communicable Some have it more in the gift of illumination some more in the gift of sanctification and withall some are more negligent and faulty than others And therefore the holy Ghost is not communicated to all alike For pride negligence want of servent and earnest prayer makes the Spirit of God to keep off from us Oh then that all who have inspection in the Church of Christ were more earnest for Gods Spirit that he would enlighten us and direct us howsoever that he would so sanctifie us that if we did erre yet we shall not be obstinate and pertinacious in it Thirdly An uniting principle is to take heed of self-will and self-conceit to make our wils and humours or apprehensions the Law and Rule of truth The Apostle amongst other qualifications in an Elder requireth Tit. 1. 7. That he be not self-willed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that pleaseth himself or is self-conceited of his own abilities For all herefies and divisions are bred in the womb of this self-conceit and commonly the more ignorant and the less knowing the more obstinate and self-conceited For the more knowledge any man hath the more he apprehends his own weakness and ignorance he also seeth the strength of such arguments which one of a shallow capacity can no more reach unto than a Pigmy can the Pyramides More principles might be offered unto you but I have spoken to this at large from John 17. where our Saviour prayeth over and over again for unity amongst believers as if it were the only pillar of all sound Doctrine and true holiness Only the usefulness of this agreement is seen in the good influence that it will have upon the body of believers a divided Ministry will also make a divided people If those bright luminaries of Heaven should oppose one another as the Moon doth sometimes the Sunne what sad Eclipses doth it produce We read 1 Cor. 3. that amongst these Corinthians there were heavy divisions though that seemed to be the peoples sin most who made such a difference one saying I am for Paul another I am for Apollo Let the Use be To us all to importune God who is the God of peace and who alone can fashion the hearts and
writeth to them as if all were Gentiles as Chap. 12. 2. Ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away to dumb Idols c. Hence the same Author saith That it was one Church collected of all the believers in that place Licet esse potuerint in eadem civitate distinctae ut it a dicam parochiae As for the notion of a learned man That the Jewish believers and Gentile believers did make two distinct Churches and had two distinct Bishops which he thinketh would salve some seeming contradictions in Ecclesiastical History that being of an heterogeneous nature to my purpose I passe it by Thus also the Church of Jerusalem is called a Church which yet by many probable Arguments seemeth to be more than one Neither may we think that Christ hath invested one single Congregation ordinarily with all Church power For that president and example of a Councel or Synod mentioned Act. 15. doth inform That there are to be Synods not only by way of advice but by power and that over particular Churches We proceed to the next thing considerable in this description of the Church and that is the efficient Cause the Church of God This distinguisheth the Church from all civil and meer political Assemblies For though the Earth be the Lords and the fulness thereof yet the Church is the Lords in a more peculiar and appropriated manner Sometimes the Church is named absolutely without any addition as when Paul is said to persecute the Church Sometimes it 's restrained to the place Thus the Church of Ephesus the Church of Laodicea but most commonly it is the Church of God or the Church of Christ Sometimes both are put together as 1 Thes 1. 1. To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in Jesus Christ So also 2 Thess 1. 1. And certainly if so be the Apostle considering us meerly as creatures maketh use of and sanctifieth that of the Poet For we are his off-spring how much more is it true of us as members of a Church Observe That a Church is Gods people in a more peculiar and special manner Though he be the God of the world yet in a more special manner he is a God of his Church The consideration of this truth may tend much to our spiritual edification For if we are of God how much should it humble us to see any thing amongst us that is of sin or the Devil Is ignorance or prophaneness of God so are humane superstitions of God But to open this let us consider what is implied in this when a Church is said to be the Church of God First therefore this sheweth That a Church is a supernatural Society it 's spiritual company of men So that a Church is not like a civil Corporation or like Kingdoms and Commonwealths which are by meer humane Institution and agreement though Magistracy it self it be of God but are supernatural and therefore it 's called the Kingdom of Heaven and Jerusalem which is from above so the Church is called Gal. 4. 26. even while it is here on Earth before it is triumphant in Heaven Now the Church is a supernatural Society many wayes in which respect it may be called the Church of God in a more eminent manner For in respect of its Efficient so God alone is the author of it called therefore Ecclesia because God by his Word calls them from their Heathenish Idolatries and practises making of them a Church Thus the people of Corinth when they were securely indulging themselves in all manner of impieties having no thoughts or desires to be a Church God by Paul calls them to be one Even as God by his breath caused the dry bones to gather together and to live or as at the day of Judgment God by the voice of an Arch-angel will raise the dead in the grave who have no life or sense in them Thus it 's the Lord that made Churches every where in the preaching of the Gospel It was the gracious work of God that found us out in Britain and made a Church to himself so that we are loca inaccessa to the grace of God and his Spirit though to humane power It is true indeed God is the God of the world he created Heaven and Earth with all therein yet though God did thus immediately create the world at first we do not say the creatures therein are Gods grace or that they have a supernatural being For it 's not enough to make a thing grace or supernatural that God doth immediately create it but that his power be in a peculiar and extraordinary manner and that for supernatural effects and ends Oh therefore how greatly should we be affected with the grace and power of God in creating to himself a Church out of the world He might have no more made a Church here or there in the Earth then he did in Hell and he that at first planted a curious Garden and put man therein is much more wonderfull in making of a Church to himself yet how bruitish and earthly are we We can bless God for the world and the comforts thereof that the Earth brings forth food for us that we have the Air to breath in the glorious Sunne to be a daily light to us yet we are not thus affected with Church-mercies and Church-ordinances David indeed upon the former consideration cried out Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him c But we may much rather from these supernatural respects Secondly It 's supernatural in respect of the purchase given for them the price paid to make them the Lords For you must know upon Adams fall all mankind was excommunicated unchurched as it were and therefore cast out from Paradise and Gods gracious presence and hence it is that we are said naturally to be without God yea the Devil is said to be the god of the world Thus untill God makes us a Church we are under the power of Satan wholly and therefore to be cast out of the Church is to be delivered to Satan Thus then being fallen off from the Lord and now become the Devils in whom he reigneth we could not be purchased from this thraldom but by the death of Christ and therefore we are called the Church of Christ as well as of God because though conquered by Gods Spirit yet we are bought by his bloud and this the Apostle urgeth That therefore we are none of our own but are to live to him We are to be his peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 15. Thus it cost more to be Gods Church then to be the world at first for he spake and it was made but here Christ died and so it was purchased What a powerfull ingagement is this for all of a Church to walk holily What did Christ die that you should wallow in the filth of your sins What will you deny the Lord that bought you If thou wilt be ignorant and prophane
against God when grace comes to convert them Therefore let the Use be of Exhortation to all such who have felt this lively power of God raising them out of the grave of sinne who have been taught of God inwardly as well as by the outward Ministry with all joy and thankfulness be astonished at the free and unsearchable riches of Gods grace to thee How many doth God passe by of better parts of greater abilities of higher conditions in the world that might have done him more service and pitch his love upon thee Oh do thou abhorre all those presumptuous and proud opinions of Free-will and power to make Gods grace effectual to thee Do not bid such as bring such Doctrines God speed What doth not thy own experience doth not the wonderfull power of God upon thee subduing and overcoming thy heart when thou wast full of carnal prejudices and sinfull reasonings abundantly convince thee of this Let thy own heart and experience confirm thee more than all their subtill distinctions can unfettle thee But I pass from this and come to a second Observation which Calvin on the place takes notice of He calls it a Church saith he though it were so greatly polluted though both for Doctrine and practice there were such great disorders yet for all that he doth not unchurch it he owneth them still for the people of God though they were greatly to be reformed as to the Church administrations neither are his exhortations to the godly to separate and leave the Church-communions though thus defiled he giveth no command to such a thing but rather exhorts them all in their places to amend and reform To purge out the old leaven that was amongst them Therefore to forsake polluted Assemblies and leave them hopeless seemeth to be a great neglect of our duty we are rather to stay that by our abode and presence we may rectifie things that are crooked The Doctrine is That a Church may be a true Church of God although it be defiled with many corruptions several wayes As a godly man may be truly godly and yet subject to many failings Thus a Church also may be truly Gods Church the Body of Christ yet many distempers and sad confusions amongst them This truth is worthy of all diligent prosecution because many men though otherwise good out of a tenderness and misguided zeal may separate from our Congregations deny them to be true Churches and all because they see many things amongst us that are matter of grief and a great stumbling block to them This I confess is and hath been a sad temptation but a particular Christian is is not to excommunicate and unchurch a Church till God hath given a Bill of Divorce to it and hath cast it quite off An impatiency to bear any evil or disorders in a Church is not presently to be commended and yielded to to the utmost A Christian must have wisdom and a sound mind as well as zeal and a tender conscience Even the Reformed Churches did not wilfully and voluntarily depart from the Church of Rome but did stay to cure and heal Babylon untill they drave them away with fire and sword So that our leaving the Roman Church was not a Schismatical separation but a forced discession or departure from them But of this it may be more afterwards Let us for the present take notice of what corruptions and disorders were here at Corinth which yet he calls the Church of God And First Whereas the Apostle comprehends all Religion in these things Tit. 2. 12. Righteously soberly and godly Righteously in respect of religious duties towards God We may see how the Corinthians were blame-worthy in all And 1. For their sinnes of unrighteousnesse The Apostle sharply reproveth them for their contentions and quarrellings even so farre that they went to Law with one another and that in the Heathen Judicatories which was a great and grievous reproach to the Christian Religion How would the Heathens deride and scoff to see those that were Christians and out of appearance from love to heavenly things forsaking the world and earthly advantages thus to implead one another about meum and tuum about money matters or other civil rights to sue one another before Heathens Judges What could this produce but to make the Heathens say They talk of leaving all and following a crucified Christ but they will not abate of their earthly rights to one another not in the least measure Which did so grieve the Apostle that he conjureth them What have ye never a wise man to be an arbitrator amongst you Why doe ye not rather suffer wrong Nay they were so farre from such meek self-denying spirits that they rather did wrong and defraud one another Now see how zealous the Apostle is in this 1 Cor. 6. 1 2 3. he saith Dare any of you having a matter against another goe to Law Dare any of you supposing the Gospel the meekness of Christ the self-denial and contempt of earthly things with the scandal redounding to Religion would sufficiently awe their consciences Again vers 4. he tells them that the things pertaining to this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for about them they quarrelled so much were so inconsiderable that they should appoint the least esteemed in the Church for to end such inferiour work Again vers 5. I speak it to your shame And vers 7. There is utterly a fault amongst you Thus you see that in matters of Justice between man and man there were great offences Only by the way let none gather from these expressions of Paul that it is unlawfull to go to Law or appeal to the Civil Magistrate to know his due right when that is detained from him For that is many times so farre from being a sinne that it 's a duty it would be a sinne not to pursue it as you see Paul pleaded his right and would not go out of prison when they had done it against Law till the Magistrates came to intreat him provided that there be those qualifications which Paul insinuateth 1. That this impleading be not before Heathens and Pagans who hate the Christian Religion 2. That we have such Meeknesse of spirit as willingly to suffer wrong did not the Gospel of Christ or the Law of the Land or the good of others require it of us And Lastly That we be willing to referre all our controversies to any just and wise arbitratours If these things be premised and yet unreasonable and absurd men will make a spoil and a scoff of men then both Religion and Justice calls them to defend themselves and it would be a sin to neglect it In the second place for Sobriety which is the expression of such graces as belong to our selves viz. Temperance and Chastity How grosly did the Corinthians offend here There were some that had repented of their fornication and uncleanness and for drunkenness some did presume to come to the Lords Table not
Father being able to say with the Church I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine And Cant. 8. 10. I was in his eyes as one that found favour or peace being conducted from one room of consolation unto another As therefore thou desirest to answer the Law of God in holiness and a godly walking so conform thy self to the Gospel by a peaceable and joyfull disposition The Apostle saith Rom. 10. 15. How welcome are the feet of those who preâ—ch the Gospel of peace And certainly there cannot be any truth in the world more precious and welcome to this indebted prisoner of sinne who groaneth under the burden of it then this year of Jubilee this year of peace and of a general releasment Matth. 10. 6. Our Saviour instructs his Disciples as they did go from house to house preaching the Kingdom of Heaven if they did meet with a Sonne of peace Peace should rest upon that house Oh that in our Gospel-Sermons we did meet with these sonnes of peace those hearers of peace that so it might rest upon them How can you be under the hot beams of this Sunne of righteousness displayed in the Gospel and yet be so chill and frozen with fear and unbelief How can ye be in the shop of this precious ointment and you not be full of the sweet savour of it Though the Antinomian abuse this precious Doctrine crying down the preaching of the Law and make all that do it to be legal Preachers Shall we therefore cry down a Gospel-disposition Neither of these is to be preached to the prejudice of the other SERM. XXVI A further Discovery of the Nature of true Gospel-Peace with the Effects of it and some Directions how to attain it 2 COR. 1. 2. And Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ WE are treating upon this admirable and unspeakable priviledge of Peace from God It is a Peace from God and it is a Peace with God You have heard several particulars going to the constitution of it there yet remain more In the next place therefore This peace here prayed for is a peace in heavenly considerations because our persons are justified our sinnes are forgiven therefore we have peace As Rom. 5. 1. there is an external worldly peace which the natural men of the world only desire let them live in peace and security let them have the good things of this world with the peaceable enjoying of them this is the utmost of their desire they think this is enough We see this notably Ezek. 13. 10 16. where the people desire such Prophets only that will prophesie of peace to them Peace is so loved that therefore wicked men do so extreamly hate the faithfull Messengers of God because they proclaim no peace to them they enform them of Gods wrath and vengeance against such now this cutteth them to the very heart They delight only in such peacemongers that though they go on in all wickedness and prophaneness yet you must tell them all is well sow pillows under their elbows that they may lie down in security Men that desire to sleep love not to hear any noise but the Peace in the Text is not bred from such base and low materials When the wicked man is deprived of his pleasure his profits then all his peace is gone but the godly doth many times partake in the most powerfull manner of this peace when they are in the most afflicted and wretched estate because this peace is within and upon spiritual grounds And therefore when the godly many times have most of outward troubles they do richly abound with this spiritual inward peace Hence it is that a gracious spiritual heart doth only prize it and pray for it The natural man not perceiving these things which must be spiritually discerned Secondly Whereas a godly mans trouble may arise several wayes this peace hath a proper antidote and cure in all these respects from what causes a godly mans disquietnesse and fears may arise from the contrary will his peace As for example a godly man is very frequently disturbed because of the sense of Gods anger for sinne because he is not reconciled such and such iniquities have provoked God to hide his face and this filleth him with all bitterness he will not be called Naomi but Marah but when this peace of God possesseth the soul then all these dark thoughts do presently flie away as when the Sunne ariseth the night is dispelled So that when thou thinkest of God and art troubled Thy meditation of him is not as Davids sweet but bitter this wholly ariseth from want of this peace for that will confirm and settle the soul in all references to God that will represent him to be a gracious reconciled Father Again A mans trouble may arise in his soul from the temptations and oppositions of Satan who when he cannot hinder Gods people in the exercise of their graces will in respect of their comforts So that as the Spirit of God is the Comforter one great work of his being to assure to enable to call God Father So the Devil he is the prince of darkness and he counter-works Gods Spirit As that is an holy Spirit sanctifying his people so he is an unclean spirit provoking to all sinne Again as Gods Spirit doth comfort and convince us of Christs righteousnesse being the Spirit of Adoption within us to deliver us from spiritual bondage and thraldome So the Devil he worketh oppositely to all this he filleth the heart with sad and unbelieving suggestions he endeavours to divide between God and us to make us afraid of him as being that severe Judge who will not in any wise be reconciled Thus he would perswade us that it is with us as it is with him and that there is no more hope for comfort and salvation for us than for him But this peace of God doth abundantly fortifie against this temptation also where this peace is the Devil doth not find the house swept and garnished but fortified and secured against him so that he cannot have any entrance This is the blessed effect of this spiritual peace that it overcometh the Devil he commonly entreth into the good tender heart by unbelief by fears by propounding doubtfull and anxious scruples and then draweth us into a wilderness farre off from God But this peace from God doth easily quench all his fiery-darts doth presently stop his assaults and maketh him not care for coming to us to graple with us while we have this spiritual armoury on In the third place Our disquietnesse doth many times arise from the reliques of original corruption within us The godly they find many sad discoveries and workings of the root of corruption within them They find that their hearts are not in such an uniform and heavenly way as they desire they often come short of what they endeavour after And seeing themselves thus foiled often by their lusts they begin to be full of
fears and of all doubts they question their own sincerity and what Rock they are built upon hereupon they are pierced thorow with many wounding apprehensions and have no rest in their bones but when this peace from God doth begin to stirre in their hearts then all these fears vanish They see peace with God and remainders of corruption may stand together so long as they do not make provision for the flesh or give themselves up to sinne willingly but are captivated therein so long Gods favour and love is not removed from them This peace they now see is not bottomed upon a pure and perfect heart free from any evil at all for then no David nor Paul could have peace but from the grace of God through Christ mercifully forgiving those failings and imperfections which we are burdened with Lastly The godly mans peace is many times greatly interrupted from without because of the hatred and malice of the world But Christs peace is an excellent antidote against that also John 14. 27. John 16. 33. Christ there bequeaths his peace to them and from this ground Because in the world they shall have trouble Let the winds and clouds be never so impetuous yet they cannot molest the upper region that is above their reach So it is here Let men and Devils set themselves against the godly with all their rage and madness Let them revile them imprison them yea kill them yet they cannot take away their peace from them So that unless they could as Black would have done get God to curse his children All the curses and violent oppositions of the world are so farre from weakning that they rather increase and strengthen their peace Thus you see what large territories this peace of God hath that it doth extend it self into large dimensions And oh how blessed and happy is that man who hath this peace compassing him about in every respect This is not only Peace peace as Isa 26. 3. but three or four times Peace peace from every side from within and without Why then is not the true believer more folicitous to possess himself of this crown of mercies Thirdly This peace of God arising from Gods favour in Christ hath admirable and sovereign effects which may move us to the attainment thereof As 1. Where this peace of God is it will wonderfully compose and settle the soul This is the genuine and immediate consequent of Gods peace in the soul it putteth the whole soul into an excellent harmony There are not those waves and tumults those divisions and distractions of soul which many times do greatly perplex the godly Do we not see an universal want of this peace generally amongst believers Whence arise those troubles those concussions of soul Why doest thou need so often to chide and rebuke thy self saying Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within thee Do not all these things arise because thy heart is not at rest and quietness within thee The Heathens speak much of their Socrates because he was noted to be alwayes Eodem vultu of the same countenance if this were true it did not arise from this Christian peace but from some Stoical or other Philosophical principles which did speak much to this tranquillity of mind but yet pleased themselves with the shadow never enjoying the substance David doth notably express the effects of this peace Psal 48. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep because thou Lord alone makest me dwell in safety Likewise Psal 23. we have a large description of a serene and pacified mind without any dividing cares of soul As also Psal 112. 3. his Heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. Thus this peace of God keeps all quiet and subdueth all troublesome insurrections and motions of soul Hence Colos 3. 15. Phil. 4. 17. this peace of God is said to rule in our hearts and to keep our hearts as an Army Garison a Strong-hold so that none dare make any opposition or resistance Thus doth the peace of God it is of such sovereign dominion in our hearts that it keeps down unbelief and all unruly passions of soul Doe not then be a Magor-missabib to thy own self when God calleth thee to peace doe not thou set all at variance and discord within thy self 2. This peace of God worketh as a consequent from the former a gracious contentation of soul under all conditions and estates So that whatsoever befall him he is the Lapis quadratus he is built on a Rock nothing can overwhelm his peace grieved he may be sadded he may be because of some passages even from God against him yet his peace he is never to let go for that alone makes the soul contented Though his conditions alter and he is tossed up and down several wayes yet because of peace with God he can follow the Apostle Paul and though with disproportion say I know how to abound and how to want I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Phil. 4. 12. Whereas if this peace of God be taken from the soul then is the heart of a man like one burning in an hot feaver tossing from one place to another hoping to find some ease but can obtain none 3. This peace of God filleth the heart with joy and boldnesse at the throne of grace For as when the Sunne ariseth the dark clouds they are scattered Thus when the peace of God doth shine into our souls then the heart is filled with joy in the holy Ghost 1 Pet. 1. 8. it is called unspeakable joy and full of glory Insomuch that such who live in this manner have Heaven and eternal life already begun in their souls It is not according to the Spirit of God that thou shouldst be heaping up sad thoughts against thy self Gods Spirit is a comforting Spirit as it doth all in us for holiness so also for consolation It is not Spiritus Calvinianus but Papisticus that may be truly called Melancholicus for the Calvinist Doctrine preacheth and presseth the assuring work of Gods Spirit to the soul the certainty of perseverance to such who have been partakers of the least true grace but Popish Doctrine and others commend doubtings deny certain perseverance of the true Saints and therefore upon this account as well as for other reasons they may be rejected because they tend to the utter overthrow of the consolation of Gods children Oh then know that a spiritual life is a life sutable to the Spirit of God is a comfortable glad walking as well as an holy and a sanctified one Lastly Where this peace from God is there is a greater incentive and quickning to all holinesse and godlinesse There the soul is carried out with more fervency and activity scruples and dejected thoughts they are like the taking off the Chariot-wheels there cannot be such improved godliness such zealous and laborious expressions of love and thankfulness to God as when this peace of
it is that it is an art of arts and much heavenly wisdome is required to administer the proper comfort for such a grief This makes Casuistical Divinity which is applied wholly to rectifie and comfort a wounded conscience more difficult than Polemical is The afflicted soul hath its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its deeps and Satan also in their temptations hath his deeps likewise Insomuch that it is choice prudence to give the proper cordial and to find out the true way of comforting such yet though there be special comforts in special cases yet all the godly that are in like temptations may and ought to take the like comforts That which hath done any godly man good under such an exercise may do thee also good if thou art not froward and unbelieving In the next place let us consider Why those arguments which some godly men have found powerfull to comfort them should also be very conducible to others And First Because all the Godly they are as I may so say Ejusdem speciei They have all the same substantial sundamentall worke of grace in their hearts That as you see all men have the same specifical humane Nature though there be many individual properties and differences Thus all the godly do partake of the same Divine Nature They are all borne of God they are all become new creatures Although indeed for the manner of conversion and the degrees of grace as also experiences of Gods favour and love in these things there may be much variation yet in the main as they all have the image of God and so are like him So they are also like one another It 's the common faith it 's the common love it 's the common Image of God which they all doe partake of So that godly men though they may differ in their gifts in degrees of graces in their judgements and opinions yet because the Image of God is stampt on them all there is a likenesse and similitude between one another What one feeleth the other feeleth How one is affected the other is affected they understand one another they do as it were see themselves in one another We have an expression Prov. 27. 19. As face answereth face in water so the heart of man to man There is a two-fold exposition of this place and that contrary Some say it is brought to shew the falshood and deceitfulnesse of mans heart That as in water there is not a true representation of the face so one mans heart is not truly known to another Others they goe on the contrary As say they the face of a man and the reflexion of it in the water are alike so is the heart of man to man that is of one friend to another Therefore a friend is Alter Ego They have all things common one soul as it were and one heart Now if this be true of moral friendship that their hearts are fo alike how much more of the people of God who are all made one in the Lord cis not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3. 21. They are all but one Person their hearts must needs answer one another Let a godly man read David's Psalmes wherein he doth experimentally declare what the workings of his soul were will not a godly man say he speaketh his heart his doubts his complaints Seeing then there is the same fundamental work of grace in all no wonder if what is suitable to one is also to another Secondly Another ground of the Doctrine is From the samenesse and identity of that Spirit of God which enliveneth all and worketh in all For as it is with the body though it hath different parts yet all those are informed and animated by the same soul It is not one soul that informeth the arms another the feet but it 's one and the same soul that informeth all Thus it is also with all the people of God they may differ much in externals their condition their estate yea in internals also in illumination and sanctification yet it is the same Spirit of God that liveth and worketh in them all If therefore the same root give nourishment to all of them they all grow upon the same stock if the same spirit diffuse it self through all no wonder if what comforts one may also comfort another no wonder if the same promises revive one that doth another He said Homo sum nihil humani alienum c. He was a man and so nothing of a man was strange to him Thus thou art a believer a new creature and so nothing that is proper to such should be strange to thee If you say Seeing they are all animated by the same Spirit which is a Comforter then it would follow they are all comforted alike all have joy alike but experience confuteth that Two have the Spirit of God and one is comforted the other is dejected walking in darknesse so that you would say certainly the same Spirit is not in both The answer is Though the Spirit of God which is a Comforter be in all the godly yet it is a free agent he dispenceth this voluntarily as he pleaseth And again Though the Spirit of God in the godly encline to comfort yet it is in an ordered and appointed way If thou art unbelieving froward then thou resistest the Spirit of God within thee The Jewes have a Proverb Super maestum non cadit Spiritus Sanctus which in a good sense may be true As it is in matter of Doctrine so it is also in respect of Consolation All the godly have the same Spirit whose work it is to lead into truth yet what wonderfull differences in judgement may be amongst them that have the same Spirit yet they all hold the foundation because the Spirit of God doth communicate it self by degrees and in measure to one more to another lesse Thus it is also in respect of Consolation though they have the same Spirit of comfort yet the out-goings of this are in one more than the other And why should it seem a strange thing for all the godly under the Gospel to have the same Spirit seeing the holy ones under the Old Testament and those under the New are led by the same Spirit Whatsoever Marcionites of old and Socinians of late say to the contrary as appeareth notably 2 Cor. 4. 13. We having the same Spirit of faith as it is written I believe and therefore have spoken we also believe and therefore speak so we also believe and therefore rejoyce Thirdly Another ground of the Doctrine is Because the main arguments of comfort promised in the Word are not upon personal considerations neither are particular priviledges but from that common reason which belongs to every believer Paul is comforted not because Paul not because an Apostle So David findeth God putting gladnesse into his heart not because a King not because a Prophet but because godly If therefore comforts Fundamental I mean are given upon a
comparatively to the cause and glory of Christ And this makes it so difficult to suffer This hath made the Apostates that have many times been in the Church This hath filled the hearts of many with woe and wounds implacably For their childrens sake for their lives sake they deny Christ and a good conscience and how can it be otherwise while Earth is dearer than Heaven when we esteem the favour of men more than the favour of God This hath proved bitter wormwood to many at last Lastly To suffer for Christ there is required pure and holy motives To lose all for Christs sake out of meer conscience that this is the only cause why we are in any trouble We may read both in sacred and prophane Histories how men have suffered even death it self only for vain-glory All Aristotles vertuous men they were ambitious and vain-glorious men The very Heathen could make it Laudum immensa cupido as well as Amorpatriae We would think it a madnesse to lose comforts and life for an airy bubble of windy glory yet many have been thus transported not only Philosophus but Haereticus est animal gloriae vanissimum If then it 's not Scripture-grounds but ambitious vain-glorious principles that make thee to suffer Christ doth not will not provide sugar for thy bitter pils Thus have we seen what is required to suffer for Christ Oh the difficulty of this duty No wonder so much seed hath withered away when the scorching Sunne of persecution did arise No wonder Christ hath many Swallow-friends that endure with him the Summer time onely No wonder few are lovers of Christ for Christs sake As Alexander had more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the Bees that follow for the honey-pot only Now to all these we must adde this Caution A Christian that suffereth for Christ though he have not those qualifications in a perfect degree but find corruption opposing every one of them He must not therefore cast away his confidence for we can no more suffer perfectly for Christ then do perfectly for him and if our gracious works cannot justifie us no more can our gracious sufferings Martyrdom is not meritorious Though we shed our bloud for Christ yet the blood of Christ must cleanse that duty also The Martyrs died only in resting upon Christ for salvation and no wonder the godly heart finds more imperfections in his sufferings more carnal fear and impatience then in other duties because this is the hardest service Christ doth ever put his upon What else is to be said in this point will come in in the next particulars SERM. XLVIII How many wayes and by what means Christ comforteth those who suffer for him 2 COR. 1. 5. So our consolation aboundeth by Christ THe second absolute Proposition in the Text is That our comfort aboundeth by Christ. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by some Exhortation but more generally and fitly Consolation Though this be spoken in the singular number and afflictions in the plural yet this is to be understood collectively as a treasure that hath all kind of comforts in it not one or two but all Therefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here repeated again aboundeth which is to be understood partly repletively it filleth the hearts of those that do suffer for Christ and partly diffusively it extends also to the comfort of others And then you have the cause of all this By Christ Christ who is the cause of their sufferings is also the cause of their comfort As from the same root proceedeth both the Rose and its pricks Thus from Christ the same Fountain cometh both bitter and sweet Were not this added who would suffer for Christ who would lose all for him but Christ hath so ordained it that these sufferings are advantagious to us and though we lose in the retail yet we gain in the bulk and whole Observe That as our sufferings are for Christ so by the same Christ are our comforts Though he strike with one hand yet he supporteth with the other If David said to the Priest who fled to him many of them being slain at No◠by the bloudy cruelty of Saul Stay with me I am the occasion of your deaths thou shalt fare as I fare How much more will Christ own such who suffer for him saying Depend upon me for I am the cause of all the reproaches and cruel usages you meet with in the world But to explain this Let us consider In what respects comforts may be said to abound by Christ And First Efficiently He being the same with God is therefore a God of all consolation Yea Christ as a Mediator he is sensible of our temptations knoweth our need and wants and therefore the more ready to comfort Christ that wanted comfort himself and therefore had an Angel sent to comfort him is thereby the more compassionate and willing to comfort us Thus you may read Christ and God put together in this very act 2 Thess 2. 16 17. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father who hath given us everlasting consolation comfort your hearts Paul here prayeth that both Jesus Christ and God the Father would comfort them Christ therefore not only absolutely as God but relatively as Mediator is qualified with all fitnesse and fulnesse to communicate consolation he is the fountain and head as of grace so of comfort Secondly We are comforted by Christ Meritoriously he hath merited at the hands of God our comfort for without Christs death and atonement we were no more subjects prepared for comfort then the damned Angels Had all mankind with Dives begged but for a drop of comfort such was the gulph between God and us that it could not be obtained So that by Christ a way is made for our consolation Christ did not only obtain the communication of the holy Ghost in the gifts and graces thereof So that as by Christ the Spirit of God is given to the Church as a guide to teach and lead into all truth as the sanctifying Spirit and use of all holinesse So he is also as the Comforter who giveth every drop of consolation that any believer doth enjoy Though therefore joy and comfort be in Scripture attributed to the holy Ghost as the appropriated and applying cause thereof yet this is wholly because of the merits of Christ And therefore we may pray for comfort upon the same grounds as we doe for holinesse They are both the fruits of Christs death Lastly We are comforted by Christ Objectively that is in him and from him we take our comfort As Christ is called Our righteousnesse because in and through his righteousnesse we are accepted of in him we are compleat So Christ is our comfort because in him we find matter of all joy though there be troubles and vexations from the creatures though the Sunne and Moon be turned into bloud all powers
imprison and destroy those that do yet truly fear God This ignorance upon them though it may excuse in some degree and make them lesse sinners then such who do wilfully oppose and do despite maliciously against the Spirit of grace yet it doth not totally free them nay they are persecutours for all that as you see Paul acknowledged concerning himself Now such enemies as these are acted by religious principles but in a false way they commonly are more zealous and implacable than any other Paul because it was not any carnal advantage or profit he sought after but a meer zeal for the Religion he had by tradition from his fathers therefore did he pursue the Christians in such a bloody furious manner Tantum Religio potuit c. said the Poet Oppositions against the wayes of God from such who are zealous and devout in their false wayes are constantly more dreadfull and terrible than any others So that we are again and again to try what spirit we are of to examine Whether it be the true Religion indeed that we give our selves up to the profession thereof For if it be not the greater zeal the greater forwardnesse therein is but the greater condemnation and like the Traveller out of the way the more thou runnest the further thou goest from the true way But The second sort of enemies to the truths of Christ which are farre the more numerous part is of such Who are addicted to such a way and perswasion in Religion not because of any Divine worke of Gods Spirit upon them but because it suiteth with their carnal interest it agreeth with their external profit and therefore they cry out Great is Diana when indeed in their heart they say Great is their wealth great is their gain this is the Diana We may justly charge this upon Popery What was it that made Luther and the other Reformers so odious to the Popish party What made the Pope with his adherents to breath nothing but fire and sword Was it not because they touched the Popes Crowne and the Monkes belly Hence Secondly The faithfull Ministers of the Gospel meet with opposition not from the Pagans only that are without but from the sonnes of the Church which are within from those who professe the same God the same faith the same Christ with them And the reason is because many that professe Christ do so for earthly and carnal respects and such titular and counterfeit Christians as these cannot but hate those that are genuine The Apostle in the large Catalogue of his manifold sufferings reckoneth this up amongst the rest Perils from false brethren 2 Cor. 11. 26. Thus in Abrahams family there will be an Ishmael to persecute Isaac because one is of the bond-woman and the other of the free Think not then that the Pagan or Jew will become enemies to the powerfull preaching of the Gospel for every false Christian will Every one that followeth Christ onely because of loaves or with Judas becometh a Disciple because of the bagge Doth not experience confirme this that the prophane Christian doth as bitterly rage at and oppose the holy wayes of Christ as any Heathen would doe Thus the godly Ministers have trouble as it were from their own flock their Sheep sometimes becomes Wolves and Beares to them and with Ezekiel They dwell among Scorpions Ezekiel 2. 6. Thirdly The carnal interest and earthy sinfull respects are of divers sorts even as the creeping things that are produced from the earth are innumerable As 1. He knoweth Religion onely for carnal ends though it be the true one that turns the grace of God into wantonnesse That cryes up Gospel truths onely to encourage themselves in a licentious way As many of the mixed multitude went out with the Israelites from Aegypt yet kept their old and corrupt natures still So in the first Reformation many came out of Rome with the blessed Reformers many gloried in the name of Evangelici that they had shaken off the yoke of Antichristianisme but at the same time they did not cast off the yoke of sinne The first Reformers sadly complained of such that looked upon the Gospel as the casting off not onely the Popes Laws but Gods Law also as if to renounce the Images and Masse had been enough though in the mean time they did securely sleep in all wickednesse Now from such as these the Ministers of the Gospel have found as much unkindnesse and malice as from their Popish adversaries So that both ot home and abroad the Prophets of the Lord have been greatly afflicted These spots in our feasts these lovers of pleasures more than God these are they that have in all places withstood the power and life of godlinesse the holy Order and Discipline Christ hath instituted as if the liberty Paul bids us stand fast in were a liberty to sinne without controll and an indulgence in all licentiousnesse Such as these when they come into the warme Sunne when they have Summer an opportunity in their hand will discover that they are Serpents and will sting Tertullian apologized of old That the Christian Religion had her greatest enemies in Ale-houses and Brothel-houses and thus still the powerfull way of godlinesse is opposed by those monsters in Christianity that have the head of a Christian but the heart and life of beasts Mulier formosa supernè desinit in piscem Like those Locusts Revel 9. 6. that had faces like men but teeth like Lions and tailes like Scorpions Thus how many have the face of Christians but in heart in lives are beasts all over From these the Ministers of God have received much opposition 2. They know Religion onely after carnal respects who intend to enrich and to advance themselves by it take up the profession of it for no other end but to gain thereby As this Demetrius made him shrines not so much out of devotion to Diana as to increase his wealth Our Saviour knowing such a self-seeking disposition was predominant in many who proffered to be his Disciples he therefore prevents their Hypocrisie and Apostasie by telling them The Foxes have holes but the Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head and requireth it as a fundamental qualification That he who would be his Disciple must loue Christ more than father and mother and life it self Yea must not venture to winne the whole world if thereby he should lose his soul Oh take heed of this Judas this treacherous disposition in thee to be of the mind with those Paul speaketh of who supposed That gain is Godlinesse 1 Tim. 6. 5. Yea such are worse than Judas for he sold Christ but once thou doest continually and he was grieved and troubled for what he had done but thou though thou preferrest earthy things all the day long before Christ yet art not grieved in heart Well such as these are will in case of profit and advantage make all opposition against the preaching of
do attain it They take civility for godliness they take the outward performance of religious duties for godliness they take some sudden pangs and fits of devotion for godlinesse Thus they judge copper to be gold But In the next place if they do understand what it is to be regenerated how great a matter it is to be a New Creature then such is their self-love that they presently apply it to themselves and do believe they are such ones For this end is that duty so often commended To commune with our own hearts to try and search our own hearts For this end we are informed of the deceitfulnesse and desperate wickednesse of the heart that no man knoweth it that God only knoweth it Thou boastest of thy heart thou trustest in thy heart Ah poor deluded wretch thou knowest not what a sea of evil thy heart is till grace shine into that dark dungeon thou canst never perceive the loathsome lusts that crawl there Pray therefore to be delivered from this heart-trusting as from hell it self It is this that is the Beelzebub sinne This maketh thee shut thy eyes stop thy ears harden thy heart and therefore till this root be pulled up no preaching no Ministry can do thee any good For the first thing done by converting grace is to take away this trusting in our selves and in stead thereof to work an holy despair in our selves This the Spirit of God doth by convincing of sinne through the Law by this we see our selves a sinfull people and a cursed people we are also convinced of our impotency and insufficiency to help our selves By this we are convinced that it must be the righteousness of another even of Christ himself and not our own that we must appear in when we approach unto God Till therefore thou art in this heart-trusting way as long as this good perswasion and secure thoughts are in thy self thou art wholly out of the way to Heaven This is not the way to Christ if thou art not wounded the good Samaritan will pour no oil into thee if thou doest not judge all things husks and seest thy self ready to famish there will no entertainment be given to thee at thy fathers house Oh then that the Spirit of God would in a mighty and powerfull manner fall upon such sinfull considers that he would shake the very foundations of their souls For as long as this self-trusting a bideth in thee thy condition is incurable if the heart be deceitfull above all things why doest thou believe it above all things Thou believest thy own heart more than Gods word more than the Ministers of God No man doubteth of his heart none questioneth or examineth his heart and therefore cometh not to the Word preached to have that purged to have that cleansed but takes it for an undoubted principle that his heart is good already But how cometh it to be good When was it made good by nature it is full of evil and therefore it can never be sanctified but by the grace of God effectually working by the Ministry Secondly The Scripture instanceth in another object of sinfull trusting that is secret and close but also very dangerous and that is in the righteousnesse we conceit we have and this was the great pharisaical sinne This was the Camels bunch this made them stand in such immediate opposition to Christ that they rejected his Person and Offices They did not look upon themselves as sick and therefore would not admit of a Physician And oh that this sinne had been like Jonah's gourd that sprang up for a day only and presently was consumed but it is a sinne that passeth from one generation to another to put confidence in their own righteousnesse to seek to be justified by the works they do Doth not this reign in Popish spirits in all formalists in civil and moral men Do they not look to be saved to be justified by their works of righteousnesse and charity How often doth the Scripture thunder against this sinne And indeed well it may for it maketh our selves our own Christs our own Saviours It maketh Christ to die in vain Now how natural and imbred a sinne this is appeareth by the Jewes Rom. 10. 3. They went about to establish their own righteousnesse and would not submit themselves to the righteousnesse of faith Hence because this sinne did so reign in the Pharisees our Saviour spake that excellent Parable Luke 18. 9. concerning a Publican humbling himself and sensible of his unworthiness as being justified rather than a Pharisee He spake this saith the Text to certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous And why doth our saviour make those blessed that mourn that are poor in spirit that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse but to shew in what a blasted and cursed estate they are who put any trust in the good works they do to be justified by them You see then by this how dangerous and damnable a thing that common sinne is which every civil every just and righteous man is apt to lean upon if his eyes were opened and his heart made tender he would not dare to eat or sleep or stay one night in it as good and safe as now he believeth it to be Thirdly Another object of this sinfull secret trusting is in spiritual or Church-priviledges or Ordinances that we have more than others This is also like the Psalmists plague which destroyeth at Mid-day thousands fall dead into hell because of this religious trusting in priviledges and Ordinances They trust in them not regarding what holinesse and godlinesse God doth require of them How palpably did the Prophet Jeremiah reprove this in the Jewes Jer. 7. 4. Trust ye not in lying words saying The Temple the Temple of the Lord are these but amend your wayes and your doings as vers 3. When the Prophet exhorts them to repentance and reformation then they plead The Temple of the Lord and the Ordinances This is so enticing a sinne that in the Christian Church many were perswaded by false Teachers That unlesse they were circumcised and kept up the Rites of the Ceremonial Law they could not be justified Therefore the Apostle speaketh excellently Phil. 3. 3. We are the circumcision which rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh When it cometh to this that thou doest not trust in Duties or in Ordinances but in Christ in them then art thou a true worshipper of God in the Spirit In the same Chapter Paul layeth upon his own heart what trust and confidence he once had in his being a Jew in being circumcised in his legal righteousness But when it pleased God to reveal Christ to him What doth he trust in these priviledges any longer No by no means for he accounts all things but dung and losse in comparison of that righteousnesse which is by faith in Christ Is not this likewise an universal predominant sinne amongst Christians Do they not
although we are to presse after perfection in this grace as well as any other yet none can attain to such a constant setled and fixed frame of heart in trusting in God that in no temptation or at no time he should ever be moved and cast down with diffidence Who can express greater trust in God than David doth at sometimes yea would think this mountain can never be moved as Psal 112. 7. which indeed is spoken of every godly man He will not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 56. 3. at what time I was afraid I will trust in thee Yea in many Psalms did he so farre proclaim his confidence in God that by the event it seemeth that this did regenerate into self-trusting for which God did for sake him sometimes and leave him in darkness But as confident as he is in God sometimes you have him at other times as much dejected and without comfort or support Though therefore thou prayest and mournest after this blessed grace which if perfectly enjoyed would put thee into Heaven while on earth yet look to be often in conflicts sometimes trusting and sometimes distrusting till God should make thee perfect in Heaven where there is no more ground for fear sorrow or any diffidence Let the Use be to humble the children of God under all those distrustfull and despondent thoughts they labour with What are become of Gods mercies of old Where are thy former experiences Let such as never knew the name of God that have no interest in Christ or his promises let such I say like Judas and Cain go up and down with perpetual tremblings and anxiety of heart but thou dishonourest God and the promise and that holy calling by which thou art called while thou art tormenting thy self with cares about future things Matth. 6. 36. It is made the Gentiles sinne an Heathenish sinne How then cometh it about that Christianity hath taught thee no better Who may walk confidently and with quiet spirits though the Earth be removed into the Sea if thou mayest not Aristotle giving Characters of confident men Rhetor. lib. 2 do among others hath these two particulars 1. Such are confident who have great power and might or have friends that are so Now is there any greater than God Is there any mightier than he 2. Those are confident saith he that are well-affected to religious and divine things And is it not thus with thee Art not thou carefull to observe the commands of God Art not thou tender about his worship and his glory Indeed sinne and contempt of holy things that must needs emasculate and take away all courage but thy faithfulness to God may make thee assured of his faithfulness to thee SERM. LXXIX How we are to relie upon God and yet make use of requisite Means too 2 COR. 1. 11. You also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf THe Apostle having commemorated the goodness and power of God in his deliverances attributing all to his mercy he doth in this verse declare what helps and means were likewise to be used for the accomplishing thereof For he that trusteth in God alone for any deliverance doth also diligently use those appointed means which God hath commanded Neither doth the goodness and power of God to do any thing for us disoblige us from a carefull attendance to those wayes wherein the mercy is to be obtained In that therefore Paul having expressed his assurance of present and future deliverance doth also excite and exhort them to pray for him we have 1. A Demonstration of the nature of that confidence which was in him it was divine and genuine not presumption which separateth end and means from another 2. Here was an Evidence of his humility and modesty For though a Saint in the highest forme farre excelling others is gifts and graces yet he earnestly desireth the prayers of those that are inferiour to him The Text therefore is a further amplification of his deliverance 1. From the Means used to obtain it Piscator calleth this prayer Causam adjuvantem but that expression is too big The Churches prayer is a means not a cause prevailing in the behalf of others 2. From the End which is Thanksgiving by others as in time is to be shewed Let us consider the Means specified in the Text and therein we have the Means it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical You also implying that neither Gods promise or his power would procure this mercy alone without their prayer Besides the goodness of God on his part there must be prayer on their part The word in the original for helping is emphatical being twice compounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word doth denote the Service and Ministry of those who are under us and so it doth imply that the Church doth owe as a debt unto their spiritual guides earnest prayer for them Though the Ministers be their servants in some respects in respect of the end of their office as all Governours are yet they are their servants in other respects by way of obedience to their word and constant prayer for them But then there is the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added which doth denote not onely their effectual prayers but their concord and agreement therein and that in their publick and solemn Assemblies Again the word signifying to work and labour doth denote what the nature of prayer is that the soul labours therein is fervent full of agonies which sheweth that the customary formal prayers of most people are not worthy of the name there is no labour or fervency of the soul therein In the second place You have the way how they laboured by prayer The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be spoken to afterwards They did not labour by using friends to sollicite the Magistrate in Paul's behalf for there was no hope from them but they made their addresses to God Lastly Here is the Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You helping together It is an honour Paul puts upon them by this expression and thereby also commendeth their duty to them of praying for them Several Observations are contained in this particular As First Whereas we see Paul resting alone upon the goodnesse and power of God for his deliverance yet not excluding but rather desiring the prayers of the Corinthians as a necessary means to have this also obtained Observe That it is a Christians duty not to separate from or oppose the grace and power of God to the duties and means he also hath required Not to say because it 's Gods grace and Gods work therefore I will sit down and do nothing Now on the other side God commands me to pray to work therefore it is not the grace of God but my duties that do justifie and save me
Therefore the Pelagians and Semi-pelagians of old these did so set up duty and their own power therein that they did take off from Christ and his grace The former they held not grace necessary unless it were for the more easie working ad facilius operandum but if this were so then Christ was in vain in respect of any absolute necessity The latter they held our endeavours our desires and groans did go before and then grace was bestowed upon us to put them into effectual operations But all this is derogatory to the grace and power of God who of spiritually dead makes us to live a supernatural life being made new creatures and so act from that principle of life infused into us Secondly We do exercise our selves in prayer and other Ordinances without any dishonour to the grace and power of Christ when we attribute no merit or causality to them And this is a step higher than the former For in Popery besides Christ they press the necessity of holy works as merits but they acknowledge the grace of God to be the foundation thereof They say our faith our love our repentance must be the fruits of the Spirit and the effects of Gods grace but then they destructively adde That these do merit eternal life and by such duties we make compensation to the justice of God Now you must know that they plead not for merit in a rude and grosse manner as if the works flowing from us did deserve a crown of glory but as we are enabled to them by grace and thereupon they say to call the graces we are enabled unto by Christ menstruous cloaths or dung and drosse they think to be a manifest injury to God himself But certainly when Paul would not be found in the righteousnesse he had And Abraham and David were not justified by the works they did though regenerated persons This doth fully overthrow all merit under any distinction whatsoever Look then thou distinguish between the necessity of the duty and the merit thereof See thy self bound to the use of all Ordinances but attribute no condignity to them to make thee worthy of Gods favour Thirdly Then we derogate not from Christ when in the constant exercise of these we rest onely upon him for our justification Though we pray for our selves and others though we diligently attend to the whole course of godliness yet in regard of reconciliation with God and acceptance of our persons we go out of all to Christ alone It hath pleased the Father that in Christ all fullnesse should dwell Col. 1. 14. Fullness is not to dwell in thy duties or graces but in Christ Hence also Ephes 1. 6. We are accepted of in the beloved It is not then in our own performances nor in any thing that we can do that we are to look for acceptance David though living under the Old Testament dispensations yet saw so much of Gospel-light and Gospel-grace That if God entered into judgement with his servant no flesh could be justified in his sight Psalm 143. 2. Doe not then confound sanctification and justification together which is the continual errour in Popery Be diligent in active righteousness but rest in passive viz. that righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer Fourthly We performe duties and Ordinances without derogation to Christ when we put no trust or secret confidence in them but look upon them onely as the signes and evidences of Christs dwelling in us We may indeed be much comforted and rejoyce in the discovering of graces in our hearts but to put any confidence in them to rest upon them as if in them we might stand before God This is to mistake and to give to our graces what belongs to Christ and that Christian must have a discerning spirit even an Eagles eye that can difference between comfort from duties and resting in duties Then also we put no trust in them when we are by them lifted up to draw nigh to Christ when they are to us what the tree was to Zacheus to raise us up higher that we may have communion with Christ If then we look upon our graces as the restimonies of Gods love and exercise our selves in duties as those whereby we draw nigh to Christ himself then Christ is glorified not dishonoured by them Fifthly Then we use spiritual duties oppositely to the honour of God when we thinke to profit him or advantage him thereby When we have done all we are to judge our selves unprofitable servants as to God God needeth not any of our service He hath millions of Angels and thousands of the spirits of just men made perfect which offer him praise and honour without the least spot and defilement So that it is his gracious condescension to accept of our duties It is his mercy that he will regard our prayers They are liker to noisome vapours than to frankincense and yet God is pleased to receive them as such If therefore thou art after all duties exceedingly debased and humbled saying Who am I Lord And what am I that I should be received into thy presence and so going from duties not as giving to God but receiving from him not as if thou hadst honoured him but he had honoured thee then Christ and duties are well accorded together Use of Instruction What subtil and secret refined wayes of sinning the heart of man is guilty of For whereas all will conclude that not to pray not to be diligent in duties is to oppose Christ and withstand him there is a more mystical and undiscerned way of opposing Christ and God which is by religious duties and Ordinances when we make them more than means when we give merit to them and put any confidence in them How heavy an aggravation is this while we pray to God to provoke God while we call on Christ to dishonour Christ Search out therefore for thy sins not onely in the open wayes of impiety but in the paths of holiness In thy prayers in the ordinances look to find out sinnes there as well as temptations of more dissoluteness The works of the Law kept men off from Christ as well as the works of the flesh SERM. LXXX The highest in Gifts and Graces should desire the Prayers of the Meanest And People ought to Pray for their Ministers as well as Ministers for their People 2 COR. 1. 11. You also helping together by Prayer for us THis Text you heard is declarative of the meanes which were to be used by the Corinthians that the mercy Paul trusted in God for might be accomplished The meanes that is Prayer but a labouring Prayer and with accord and agreement yea such an helping in Prayer as is a debt of service and ministration to their spirituall guides The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when taken strictly and distinctly to other words that are also rendred prayers and supplications as some would expound that place 1 Tim. 2. 1. doth signifie prayer only in
assemble themselves together You see even in the Apostles dayes the Devil tempted some in this kind yet they are reproved though private Christians in those dayes had greater gifts and abilities then now ordinarily men have yea they are reproved though some think the cause was not voluntary but that it was fear of danger and persecution It was criminal to meet together and therefore fear of death and other miseries might make some forbear to assemble themselves yet for all this they are censured by the Apostle Let this then be laid to heart by thee look that no reason keep thee from this publick worship of God but what God himself will allow of For in some cases God hath condescended that his own worship shall rather be omitted then mens necessities not supplied Secondly As God is more honoured so hereby The love and charity of the people of God is greatly quickened to one another This publick and holy meeting together is a special means to enflame the affections of one believer to another Hence you have it so often noted That the Disciples met together with one accord and they had one heart And therefore diversities of opinions and alienation of affections do cause commonly a publick rent and division in Church-societies David doth with affection expresse the advantage of the publick Ordinances We went to the house of the Lord and we took sweet counsel together Psal 55. 14. This is the visible communion of the Saints wherein as members of the same body they are so firmly and nearly compacted together There is nothing that the Devil doth so much design as rents schismes and differences in the Church of God knowing that these if not healed will certainly destroy all at last Now a right and orderly meeting in these publick Assemblies are a special means to preserve love How shall those mouths speak against one another that joyned together to pray to God and to praise God You that called upon one Father as Brethren How shall ye disagree as if one had not the same God and the same Father with another Therefore our Saviour directs to say Our Father not my Father hereby commanding our publick meetings together and also our union and brotherly love Thirdly Therefore are these publick duties to be the more prized Because of Gods special presence and power there Mat. 18. You have a peculiar promise for two or three meeting together in Christs name even as by way of type God had promised his peculiar presence in the Temple And for this reason you have David with such ardent and passionate affections expressing his esteem of the Ordinances of God Psal 63. 1 2. My soul thirsteth and my flesh longeth as in a dry land where no water is to see thy power And at another time How amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of hosts And As the Hart panteth after the brooks so doth his soul after God in the Ordinances Though David when he was banished and by force could not come to the publick Congregation no doubt did enjoy God in a most comfortable and full manner yet still he is not satisfied but breaths for his presence in those Ordinances And therefore for thee to think that thou mayest meet God as well at home is as if a cripple should have looked to be healed by going into some other water then that of the pool of Bethesda Lastly These publick Ordinances are therefore to be highly esteemed Because those who are quickened and enlivened may prevail for those who are indisposed and unfit for prayer So that the coldnesse and dulnesse of one man may be supplied by the zeal and fervency of another Insomuch that happily the prayer which if performed by thy own self would not be successefull being now joyned with others doth obtain its desired effect yea it may be in that publick service when thou through temptations canst or darest not pray for thy self others accompanying of thee do put up thy own thoughts and speak the desires of thy own heart So that thou art even astonished to see how God ordereth the gracious gifts of others to be helpfull unto thee As it was with Job his whole body though full of ulcers and pains yet because his mouth was free that could plead with God in behalf of the whole body Thus it may be when many are gathered together that Christian who could not speak for it self which could not pray for it self findeth the hearts and mouths of others opened in his behalf So that as when many coals are laid together some live ones may revive those that are ready to decay Thus the zeale of others may helpe thy coldnesse The life of others may quicken thee up against deadnesse and thou find that spiritual heat come upon thee from others which thou wouldst not have had alone Use of Exhortation To prize these publick Assemblies more than thou hast done Pray for such strong and earnest affections as thou findest David manifesting after them Oh let these publick meetings raise up thy heart as if thou were in Heaven The beholding of the faces of the affections and of the graces of others let it assimilate thee also into them As when Saul came among the Prophets the spirit of prophecy fell upon him likewise Oh let the Congregation of those who feare God worke upon thee also Be in these Assemblies as Peter on the Mount of transfiguration saying in an holy excesse of spirit It is good to be here What high expressions are those of David in reference to the solemne Ordinances Psal 65. 4. Blessed is the man thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts we shall be satisfied with the goodnesse of thy house even of thy holy Temple Here is sweetnesse and fullnesse that the people of God find in these publick approaches All the merry meetings all the fairs and markets are nothing to this spiritual society And Psalm 84. 10. A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand otherwhere Hence he had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God then dwell in the tents of wickednesse Oh heavenly and gracious frame A Sabbath day is better than all the dayes of the week he hath more rejoycing there then a thousand dayes can afford that are spent in worldly affaires But when these publick duties are thus advanced as you hear you must alwayes look that they be done holily spiritually fervently that they be not turned into a meer custome and external fashion as it too often falleth out in Church-assemblies their bodies are present but their souls are absent and therefore they have no more than the carkasse and out-side Such prayers and praises God will not accept The third and last particular is to be spoken to in a word and that is In whose behalf these publick prayers and praises are and that is said In our behalfe Some Copies have read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but
that is not probable It is then for that deliverance vouchsafed to Paul that they are to be thankfull and the reason is clear because mercies vouchsafed to Paul were their mercies also From whence observe That the mercies vouchsafed to the pastors and guides of the Church are to be accounted the Churches mercies What advantage comes to the shepherd it redounds to the sheep The rain that fals upon the mountains descendeth to the benefit of the valleys Your life your comfort is bound up in theirs Paul indeed said We live if you stand fast It was his comfort his life to see them preserved from Apostasie by persecution 1 Thess 3. 8. And on the contrary the Church may say of her guides We stand fast if you live As mercies to the publick Magistrates are to be accounted the peoples mercies so the mercies of Church-officers are to be reckoned the Churches If the Pilotes be in danger it can never be well with the ship When Elijah was taken away the cry was The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof So great a mercy was one Prophet accounted to be We have a notable instance of the holy care of the Philippians about their Pastor Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 26 27. when he was sick unto death how heavily did they lay it to heart Insomuch that Epaphroditus was exceedingly grieved that they had heard of his being sick he knew it would so greatly afflict them Yea Paul accounted it a mercy to him also that God did heal him For though Paul did recover many out of their diseases yet this gift was not when they pleased and it was least of all extended to those that were of their intimate acquaintance but rather to such as were brought to them that so the truth of their miracles might be more manifested Use of Instruction How happy and blessed a thing it is when people are able to do their duty herein To look upon all the favours and good providences of God to the Ministers of the Gospel as their own mercies their health encouragements preservations as their owne but how bitterly doth Satan fill the hearts of some men who out of love to their lusts and their errours look upon their godly guides as the greatest burthens and would heartily rejoyce in any evil that should befall them This is clean contrary to those gracious loving and indeared affections which ought to be in people to their spiritual shepherds SERM. LXXXIV Of our Glorying and Rejoycing in our Gifts and Graces Why and how it is lawfull and how not 2 COR. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you-wards THis verse as appeareth by the raciocinative particular or note of inference For is brought in as a reason of something which went before But Interpreters do differ about the coherence thereof Some make this to be a reason of that hope and trust he formerly spake of which he had in God Though he did trust in Gods mercies yet not in them alone but in his own endeavours also Hence Aquinas from this saith That hope doth arise from the mercy of God and mans merits But this doth not consist with Scripture Others do make it part of his Apologetical Narration defending himself as against that crime of inconstancy and levity which was cast upon him because of his promise to come to them which yet he did not and therefore they think these words look backward and not forward Calvin and others which is most probable referre it to the words immediately preceding viz. their prayers and praises to God in his behalf This is given as a reason why they should be thus tender about him because he had obtained grace to be faithfull he had not sought himself or his own glory he had not walked in hypocrisie and fraud but had been kept by the grace of God in all sincerity in his conversation in the world not only at Corinth but every where else Now it is a great motive and encouragement to pray for such The Apostle useth this argument Heb. 13. 18. Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things The connexion then being thus discovered we come to the Text absolutely considered and therein we may consider 1. The ground and reason it self 2. That which is affirmed and predicated of it And this is set down in the fore-part of the verse and therefore we shall begin with it The words are This is our rejoycing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is rendred by most our glory or our boasting The Apostle doth very often use the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seemeth to come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the neck and so is a metaphore signifying for the most part pride and loftinesse taken from horses whose pride will be discovered by their neck and therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that for the most part it is taken in an ill sense Hence Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with Budaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a proud boaster and bragger but with Paul it is used sometimes in a good sense as here For the word is used in a three-fold sense gradual to one another 1. To rest and relie upon a thing 2. From thence to rejoyce and to be glad in it 3. From thence to declare and publish this with boasting Now though Paul did not put confidence and trust in his good and sincere conscience yet from the perceiving of that he did rejoyce Whereas then we see Paul rejoycing and glorying from the testimony and evidence of that grace he had in him We may observe That an holy glorying and rejoycing in the graces of God we perceive in us is allowed and lawfull I say an holy glorying for the heart may quickly degenerate into a proud sinfull boasting Therefore this truth must be warily bounded So that the dejected and tempted soul may be quickned to its duty of comfort and not to deny the work of grace that it may feel and the proud pharisaical spirit may be debased The valley must be exalted and the mountain made low It is true indeed we have the Scripture saying Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdome 1 Cor. 1. 31 And if Abraham had not wherewith to glory who can have Yea the Apostle saith expresly Rom. 3. 27. That glorying is excluded by the law of faith But in what sense this is to be understood will appear when we come to manifest how many wayes it is not lawfull to glory or to rejoyce no not in our gifts and graces Only this Text maketh it plain that in some sense our graces may be matter
of glory and rejoycing to us So likewise Gal. 6. 4. the Apostle pressing every man to try his own works to examine his intentions therein giveth this as the consequent fruit thereof That then he shall have rejoycing in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of glorying and boasting in himself To clear this truth let us first shew what is required to this glorying and then in what respects it is lawfull and allowed us And for the former First It is necessary to this rejoycing and glorying in the first place That we have an high esteem of the excellency and worth of that grace we discover to be in us If so be we are to rejoyce in these outward mercies which yet are only for the body what matter of joy should it be to find those spiritual workings of Gods Spirit in us which are of eternal concernment What Solomon saith concerning the esteem of wisdom which is indeed nothing but grace we should all make good Prov. 2. 4. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures That soul then which can rejoyce in the discovery of grace must esteem of it more than all the treasures of the world To say O Lord I had rather find my self sanctified I had rather see the powerfull workings of grace upon me then to be made the greatest or richest man in the world we have many exhortations to examine our selves and try our hearts to see if we can find this precious jewel in our souls Now none will be cordial to examine and search herein but those who look upon it as the greatest treasure Did the woman in the Gospel make such diligent search for a lost groat only and call her neighbours to rejoyce with her when she had found it How large and boundless then should our thoughts be about the excellency of grace And indeed to the godly soul this is the great question it labours to study and to resolve Whether it be in the state of grace or no knowing that this onely is the most blessed and happy estate in the world Secondly As we must highly esteem this work of grace so we must have a Certainty and perswasion that we have obtained it Had not Paul known that his heart had been sincere that he was not acted by carnal wisdome he could never have rejoyced For Philosophers make joy to be in that good thing we do possesse and also the knowledge thereof This Text then doth abundantly declare that the people of God may have a certain knowledge of the work of grace So that although the heart be indeed deceitfull and full of hypocrisie yet when sanctified it hath some measure of truth and sincerity in it and so far doth not deceive us He then that would rejoyce in the grace of God wrought in him must presse after assurance must endeavour after a certain perswasion of the truth of grace in him And although this perswasion be not justifying faith yea it is separable from it A man may be justified may be sanctified and not know it yet it is such a priviledge yea and duty also that we should diligently take heed of all those things that may weaken our assurance that may make us to doubt and question whether Jesus Christ be in us or no. Thirdly A sure perswasion of the goodnesse and integrity of our hearts is not enough but it must be upon right grounds and in a Scripture-demonstration For if it be a false perswasion it may produce indeed a rejoycing but a false rejoycing also It is more than probable that Paul while a persecutor being zealously affected to the tradition of his fathers and thinking himself bound as he professeth to do what he did against Christ and his members could then say His rejoycing was the testimony of his conscience being perswaded that in those wayes he glorified God And therefore some do extend that profession of his before the Council That he had lived in all good conscience before God untill that day And if this be so then we see plainly That every perswasion though never so confident is not enough to make us rejoyce but we must look to Scripture-grounds Doth not experience confirm this Take any heretical person any erroneous person though it be to the destruction of the very fundamentals of Religion yet he will proclaim a rejoycing in his heart from the good testimony of his conscience So that an erroneous conscience satisfied doth bring peace and rejoycing but it is an erroneous joy It is either from meer humane principles or from diabolical delusions But this will come in more properly when we come to the ground or reason it self of Paul's rejoycing Fourthly To this rejoycing there is required The Spirit of God enabling us thereunto So that the same spirit which doth seal to us the assurance of our estate doth also cause comfort in us The Spirit of God doth enlighten and sanctifie after this it doth seal and comfort And this latter work of Gods Spirit is necessary as well as the other For we see it lieth not in the power of Gods people to have comfort when they will Hence Gal. 5. Joy is the fruit of the Spirit and it 's called Joy in the holy Ghost not only objectively because it is a joy in spiritual objects but also efficiently because it is wrought by him Hence it is that the Spirit of God mouldeth the heart for comfort removeth fears and doubts restraineth and keepeth off Satan whereby no sinne no Devil is able to deject and cast down because God comforteth â—Thus you see what goeth to rejoycing in the graces of God and thereby an holy glorying in them Now let us see in what respect it is lawfull thus to rejoyce And First It is lawfull to rejoyce in them as they are the effects and fruits of Gods favour and love as they signifie the cause from whence they come Rahab could not but rejoyce to see the thread that was a signe of such a great mercy designed for her If then the godly man have that spiritual skill as to difference between trusting in his graces as any way causes of his salvation and thankfully receiving them assignes from which he may be perswaded of it then doth he hit the mark It is usually said from Luther That we are to take heed not onely of evil deeds but of good and holy works also because the heart is apt to be carried away with pride and self-confidence insensibly yet this much not so deterre the people of God that they may not take comfort from their graces For how can they see them and not rejoyce because they are the pledge of Gods favour it self and of an interest in Christ So that though their graces be weak and full of imperfections yet they manifest that to be ours which is fully perfect and hath no fault at all in it Imperfect graces do manifest Gods perfect grace to
is an improper foundation for thy faith As thy faith is hereby a blind faith so thy comfort is but a blind comfort How greatly do the Popish Casuists perplex their people with such cases of conscience and about such superstitious things that they have only tradition for and that it may be not many yeares neither without any stamp or superscription of the Scripture Have not they comfort in their Penances in their Indulgences Will not their Friers and Monks not those slow beasts and idle bellies who from deluded principles of conscience do severely and austeerly mortifie themselves say They have the testimony of their consciences and make a bulwark from thence But where is the rule they go by Is it not tradition On the contrary side in another extream there is the Enthusiast who rejecteth the Scripture as a dead letter and doth adhere only to revelations to pretended workings of Gods Spirit to the manifest light within them Doe not these even boast in their joyes and ravishments Doe they not when unable to answer arguments flie to a light within them But what ground is there for this Is not the Apostles command That we should not believe every spirit but try them 1 John 4. 1. And how must that be but by the Scripture You see then that it is not conscience simply and alone but a Scripture-conscience that is the ground of comfort To leave that and to trust in our conscience is to make our consciences a Bible to attribute infallibility to our selves Now this Scrigture is not only a Rule for our conscience in matters of faith but also of manners of righteousnesse towards man Conscience must witness to thee not only that thou art in the true Religion but also doest walk in holy conversation It must testifie of thy righteousness towards man as well as of Religion towards God This was Paul's continual exercise Act. 24. 26. To have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man There are many voluminous Tractates of Cases of Conscience De jure justitiâ Of Righteousnesse towards man And although the Scripture doth not particularly decide Law-cases yet it layeth down such general rules that by them particulars may easily be decided if our hearts were not corrupt As for example that famous rule What you would have men do to you do ye to them Mat. 7. 12. Our Saviour after he had given religious precepts about prayer c. he addeth this to shew that Religion and righteousness must alwayes go together And Adrian the Emperour was so affected with this Rule saying He had it from the Jews or Christians that he commanded it to be written on the doors and gates of his Palace and before he would punish any offender would inform him of this Rule And our Saviour saith This is the Law and the Prophets A great expression Look then to thy conscience that it take the Scripture for a Rule in its adequate nature For faith and conversation this is no rule for conscience to go by Others do say every one is to look to himself but the word of God that must bear evidence to thee by thy conscience Secondly To the right guidance of our conscience in witnessing to us there is not only required the Word as a Rule But the Spirit of God to enlighten thy mind to receive the true meaning thereof Such are the powerfull delusions of Satan that when he can no longer dethrone the Scripture from its authority but men will appeal to that then he looketh about to advance his Kingdom by the Scriptures ill handled and wrested to corrupt opinions and by this means men are brought into a worse condition and more incurable then those who walk by no Scripture at all For if a man be delivered up to this perswasion that his opinions and wayes are allowed by Scripture warranted by Scripture what way shall we take to reduce him The Apostle Peter telleth us of some unstable and unlearned men 2 Pet. 3. 16. which did wrest the Scriptures to their own perdition And nothing is more ordinary which made Luther say That the Bible was the Hereticks book not in the sense the Papists do accusing it thereby of insufficiency and imperfection But for the dignity of it having such authority that every Heretick would gladly runne to this Sanctuary The Scripture then though a perfect Rule yet is not enough to guide our conscience unless the Spirit of God as is promised lead us into truth As the Sunne though never so full of light yet cannot guide a blind man We grant indeed that the Scripture is but a dead letter and of it self without Gods Spirit doth not enlighten the mind and convert the heart Only we say The Spirit doth this in and by the Scripture and that all mens consciences impulses light revelations and joyes must be examined and stand or fall according to this Rule Let this be granted and then we plead as fervently as any can for the work of Gods Spirit This must enlighten the conscience to be able to understand and believe the things revealed there Hence the Disciples could not attempt their office of publishing the Gospel without this assistance from the holy Ghost John 16. 13. he is said To guid them into all truth To guide them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this signifieth that they did not know the way or if they were in they would quickly divert into by-paths if this Spirit did not guide them When David said The Word was a lamp and light to his feet If we understand it effectually so that it did not only propound the light objectively but that also he was subjectively thereby illuminated this doth necessarily presuppose the work of Gods Spirit No wonder then if so many may be exceedingly acquainted with Scripture be ready with some Texts upon every occasion yet for all that be deluded with errours because they want Gods Spirit to enlighten them and instruct them thereby Let us look upon the Jews the sad dest object in the world at this day they have been so skilfull in the Old Testament that some could remember how many words and syllables were therein and that is read to them daily yet who more maliciously opposite unto the Lord Christ promised in the Old Testament than they are But the Scripture giveth a full reason thereof The veil is upon their eyes And long before there was such a prediction of this spiritual judgement upon them That seeing they should not see hearing not hear lest they understand and be converted Therefore to have a pure and true conscience we must be sure to pray and exercise our selves herein that the Spirit of God would direct us into the true sense and meaning of the Word which is to be expected in the holy use of those means which are necessary to find out the sense thereof For you must not expect that Gods Spirit will immediately reveal the sense of the Scripture without
other helps no more than he will make you understand Greek and Hebrew Know then it is a very sad and almost incurable condition when the holy Scriptures do become a snare to us when we suck poison out of these sweet herbs Although indeed we cannot from the Scripture get any hurt but our own corruptions procure it to us because we bring the Scripture to our ends and affections not them to the Scripture Thirdly To the having of a well-ordered conscience There is greatly required pure aims and intentions For although a good intention cannot sanctifile an unlawfull action yet corrupt intentions will blast and defile the best actions Insomuch that if we had the gifts and parts of the ablest men yea of Angels themselves yet sinfull aims would be like Locusts and Caterpillars to devour this hopefull fruit But oh the unsearchable hypocrisie and deceitfulness of mans heart even in this very respect How ready is every Pharisee every Heretick and Papist to appropriate this to themselves How often do we find them professing to the whole world that it is not any outward advantage any temporal emolument that they look at or regard but the glory of God and that therefore they have much rejoycing because of this But if the counterfeit will bring such peace what will the real and sincere intentions of a man do And certainly though a man be cloathed with never so much glory in the Church of God so that we are ready to say not only a greater than Austin or Chrysostome but even than Paul or Peter For some have cried up the heads of their parties as having greater gifts than the Apostles themselves Yet without sincere intentions they are but as a tinkling cymbal This therefore is the life soul and the all in a good conscience But that will come in more seasonably afterwards Fourthly To a right ordered conscience whose witness may be received and comfort taken thereby That there is required the inward sanctification and effectual renovation thereof So that till this be every mans conscience is like a man himself a meer liar There is no believing of it no trusting of it When it is said Jer. 17. That the heart of a man is deceitfully wicked or crafty and supplanting a man This comprehends conscience as well as any part else For you have heard that original sinne is in this as well as in other powers of the soul So that in these two respects the natural conscience doth alwayes fail For either it doth not witness that which is right or not to a right end Insomuch that though a natural man is not to gainsay or contradict his conscience yet nothing lieth upon him more than to have his conscience rightly informed or regulated by Gods word What is the reason you see every civil man every formal man so applauding himself in his good condition It is because his conscience is not a spiritual conscience a Scripture-conscience for that would make him abhor himself and flie out of the Sodome he was in For in most things the conscience doth not witness the truth at all but it doth flâ—tter and deceive thee How seldom doth it tell thee thou art the drunkard the hypocrite the neglecter of private duties c Or if it doth then it is to a false end either to drive to despair and to flie from Christ whose blood only can cleanse the conscience or else to quiet it again by some superstitious usages and non-instituted remedies And this is the reason why so few are brought out of the troubles of their conscience into an Evangelical and Gospel way Know then here is the root of all thy misery thy conscience being unsanctified lulleth thee asleep whereby thou rejoycest in thy condition when thou hast cause to fear and tremble SERM. LXXXVI Further Discoveries of what is required to a well-regulated Conscience with Distinctions concerning it 2 COR. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience THere remain more particulars to be insisted upon which are requisite to make a well-regulated conscience whose testimony you heard is the cause of such unspeakable comfort And First There is in a peculiar manner necessary the witnessing and sealing power of the holy Ghost to and with our consciences The illumination and sanctification of Gods Spirit is not enough to make our consciences speak fully and clearly so as to have rejoycing thereby unlesse the Spirit of God doth also bear witnesse with it Hence we have them both put together Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God And therefore you heard that Bernard understood this testimony of conscience in the Text of a Testimonium percipientis not Perhibentis but they are both included For our conscience cannot give any evidenâ—e and sure testimony of the grace inus unlesse inabled thereunto by the Spirit of God and this is called The work of Gods Spirit sealing and witnessing with our spirits The Text is very famous and greatly agitated in the controversie about the assurance of our sanctification and salvation Grotius and some others neglect the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would have it no more than simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the word is not any where so used the instances of Grotius are against him Rom. 2. 15. For Conscience there is said to bear witnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of God and so doth relate to his testimony We therefore conclude That the Spirit of God is here said to bear witnesse with our spirit only the difficulty is How this is done And 1. It is not done by any external voice and sound made in the air as Christ had when it was said This is my beloved Sonne Neither may we apprehend any immediate testimony by an extraordinary revelation as some have pleaded for but in a mediate way partly by exciting and inabling of our spirits to call God Father against that slavishness and servility which is apt to bear us down and partly by working in us those heavenly and holy qualifications by which we do certainly gather that we are the children of God Indeed the Papists make the testimony of Gods Spirit to be no more as applied to particular subjects though in it self they say it is infallible then a moral certainty by probable conjectures and signs But this is derogatory to the Spirit of God and taketh away all that Evangelical joy and holy boldness which we are allowed to have at the throue of grace This witnessing then of Gods Spirit is two wayes 1. Effectivè When it doth enable the conscience of man to cast off all legal terrors and tormenting fears and so in serenity of spirit to believe God is our Father And for this end it is called The Spirit of Adoption For alas take the conscience of the most holy man without this Spirit of Adoption How legal and timorated
of heart whereby we are enabled to know our condition is alwayes accompanied with a godly filial and holy fear That fear which is so often commanded in Scripture and with which we are to worke out our salvation Phil. 2. 12. It is true there is a slavish and servile feare tormenting us with daily doubts and this is properly expelled by this knowledge of our sincerity and there is no greater enemy to an Evangelical and Gospel life which is in faith peace and joy in the holy Ghost then these tormenting doubts about our selves And therefore the Papists who teach and encourage these doubtings under the colour of humility do thereby drive us from Christ Yea Luther said If there were no other cause then this we had ground enough to depart from the Church of Rome But though this Ishmael must be cast out yet not Isaac too There is a lawfull fear whereby as children we reverence God are afraid of any frowne from him and doe thereby diligently attend to all those duties he hath commanded and this is necessary to beget a true knowledge of our upright hearts and by this that rash presumption of Epicures of impenitent and secure sinnes is wholly excluded for they doe in a presumptuous manner indulge themselves in all sinnes having no holy fear in the godly use of all those means God hath commanded Fourthly To enable the soul of a believer thus to know and be assured of its sincerity there is above all required The helpe of Gods Spirit For the Texts above-mentioned doe attribute it to the Spirit of God dwelling in us whereby we come to know what God hath wrought in us It 's the Spirit of God which helpeth our infirmities in prayer and doth seale and witnesse unto us that we are the children of God Therefore though a godly mans soul be as fully bespangled with graces as the firmament with starres yet if the Spirit of God enable not to discerne of these we are in daily fluctuations of spirit As Hagar had a fountain of water by her but she was ready to perish with thirst till God opened her eyes to see it And as the Prophets man could not behold that great company which was on his side till his eyes were inabled thereunto so neither do we know what are the gracious workings of Gods Spirit in us without this sealing witnesse of Gods Spirit But of this more largely when we come to the 22th verse in this Chapter Now when all these are concurrent together Doth the godly soul with a certaine knowledge conclude that it is in a state of grace and so justified with God Whether this be a knowledge of faith or of sense or mixed of both is disputed But it seemeth to be the later For as faith in the assenting act is carried out to principles clearly revealed in the Word And then secondarily to conclusions by good and sure consequence deduced from them So is faith in the fiducial actings of it to the promises as laid downe in the general and then to the same as particularly applied So that faith and experience concurre to make up this certaine knowledge a glorious and rare priviledge For because men doe live so dissolutely and carelesly because they doe so little exercise themselves in holinesse and close walking with God therefore they thinke such a thing is impossible Yea because the people of God are so sensible of their infirmities and constant weaknesses they think it is no duty but sinfull presumption to believe any such thing concerning themselves But in the next place we are to shew you that it it is a duty which we ought to presse after SERM. LXXXVIII Of the Impediments which keep us from Assurance Commands for it and Cautions about it 2 COR. 1. 12. The testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity c. THe next thing to be pursued concerning the Doctrin already observed viz. That a believer may certainly know that he doth not onely do the duties God requireth but also that he doth them with a sincere and single heart The manner as well as the matter is manifested to him is to shew our duty herein that we are bound by Gods command not to rest till we come to some assured knowledge herein Therefore of all the Questions in Divinity thou art to study to exercise thy self most in this Whether doest thou know that thou art in a state of grace that thou art no hypocrite no self-deluded wretch in the wayes of Religion but that thou hast sincerity and truth in the inward parts How much more advantagious would it be to Christians if they studied the resolution of this case more It is strange that many can spend their time in disputes about either unnecessary things or too sublime for their capacities or such Questions that they are not concerned in And as for this which is the main fundamental one as to their particulars be wholly negligent about it Certainly a good resolution herein is of so great importance that we may wonder that we do not lay all other studies aside yea bid all other businesses stand alooff off till the Spirit of God upon sure grounds hath perswaded us herein If your temporal estate were questioned if all your livelihood were called into question and it began to be doubtfull whether the estate you enjoy were your own by the right of the Laws or no especially if others did sollicite and indeavour to take it from you Would not this make you runne and ride night and day till you had obtained such firm evidences that all your adversaries could not invalidate How then cometh it about that we will thus desperately put the state of our souls to a venture if I be regenerated I am regenerated if but a temporary believer I am no more I will put it to the event let it fall out how it will Oh the sad blindnesse and heavy judgements of men in this particular and yet thou that livest thus doubtfully and wilt die thus doubtfully How uncertain is thy life What a bubble and vapour art thou Oh remember that the time is coming that a godly ability to answer thy self in this doubt and temptation will be more worth then all the world when thou art to be snatched from this world to enjoy the comforts thereof no more when thou apprehendest thy self summoned by death to stand at Gods Tribunal where grace and only grace through the blood of Christ will be a sure plea. What agonies what perplexities what confusions will be upon thy soul If thou criest out then Oh I know not what I am what will become of me whether I am going Live I must not die I dare not Oh that I could hear a voice from Heaven immediately witnessing unto me that my spiritual estate is safe and good Be sure that of all the Questions in the world you will one day be put most to answer this Not so much what knowledge
not only apprehensiva but quietativa not only apprehensive but quietative it brings the soul to its center to its non ultra whereas reason doth but satisfie till a man come with a stronger and one argument like the circles in the water begets another So that whereas it was Iulian's objection against the Christian Religion as low and contemptible because it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only believe yet this indeed is the glory of it this setleth and composeth when philosophical ratiocinations did carry them into endless contentions Therefore that is good counsel of Austins Noveris te esse fidelem non rationalem It is faith not syllogisms that brings an established mind in Religion It is true indeed Christianity hath her use of Reason and Arguments and there is an Habitus Theologiae whereby we do demonstrate the points of Divinity but this is when faith hath laid the foundation Fides facit argumentum non argumentum fidem as it doth in the liberal Arts Reason buildeth upon Faith not Faith upon Reason If therefore thou complainest of the diversity of Sects of the multitude of opinions that swarm every where there is no such way to escape splitting thy soul at such rocks as to pray for this godly simplicity of mind I say holy simplicity not a foolish popish blind obedience that is not faith The fool believeth every thing Faith hath alwayes an evidence and knowledge of the testimony though the thing believed may be above the comprehension But when truths out of the Scripture are with sufficient evidence held out to thee then simplicity is required to yeeld firm assent thereunto and not to dispute by humane arguments whether it can be so or no. Therefore the wisdome which is from above Jam. 3. 17. is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easily to be perswaded As in respect of the objects to be believed and the instruments who propound it there is necessary Piscatoria simplicitas which is more than Aristotle's subtilty or his Minutiloquium as Tertullian calleth it So there is such an humble simplicity required on the subjects part who are to receive these divine truths I am the larger on this as being assured the best antidote against all heresies and the surest remedy to preserve from doctrinal Apostasie is this simplicity of mind But Secondly This simplicity is no lesse signally seen in the Will which is to cast away its contumacy stubbornness and propriety resigning it self wholly up to Gods command The Lord hath commanded it therefore I obey not disputing with flesh and blood whether this will be for my advantage honour or profit but the will of God boweth him into all ready compliance It is the Apostles advice Phil. 2. 14. Do all things without mumurings and disputings that ye may be sincere Here it is plain that sincerity is manifested when we willingly do our duty not murmuring and quarrelling at it Even as we read of Abraham though commanded by God to sacrifice his own sonne with his own hands when he might have had so many fair arguments against it yet he readily applieth himself to his duty and so when commanded to come out of his own countrey and to go he did not know whether yet he willingly obeyeth this is simplicity And so it was with Paul Galat. 1. who immediately obeyed the call of God Not consulting with flesh and blood whereas Saul because he did not obey in simplicity but waved the commands of God upon religious pretences his rebellion was accounted aâ— witchcraft not believing that Obedience was better than Sacrifice 1 Sam. 15. 22. Thirdly This simplicity is seen in an holy boldnesse to do our duty to be zealous for God to reprove sinne though there be never so many Lions in the way It is true the wisemen of the world call this simplicity indeed making it the same with folly Thus most of our Christian duties if fervently and zealously performed are nothing but folly and silliness to carnal policy But to appear for God and to own his wayes among a crooked and malicious people is an excellent mark of simplicity whereas hypocrisie measuring all things by its safety honour and profit becometh like the shadow to the body suâ—eth it self to every corrupt humour of others But this plainness of heart maketh us with David Psal 119. to speak of the Law even before Kings and alwayes to obey God rather than men So much shrinking from thy duty because of the fear or favours of men is so much want of simplicity Hence Varinus makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldnesse and freedome Oh then pray exceedingly for this simplicity of spirit that will make thee constant bold and zealous for God! How often may thy conscience convince thee that sinfull fear or foolish shame or carnal affections have made thee not do thâ—se duties with singleness of heart as thou shouldst have done How many times hast thou betrayed the truth by sinfull silence How many times hast thou wounded thy spirit by holding thy tongue whereas this holy simplicity would have imboâ—dened thee It is true there is Christian prudence required also there must be the wisdome of a Serpent as well as the innocency of the Dove Discretion is the salt to season our Sacrifices and there must be this salt as well as the fire of zeal but we must look the Serpent doth not eat up this Dove that discretion doth not devour this simplicity Thus much of simplicity as it relateth immediately to God Now because the Apostle useth the word largely relating to his ministerial conversation as it did reach to men we shall take in briefly the consideration of that also And First Godly simplicity maketh a man inoffensive to men This simplicity maketh a man harmlesse and unblameable as to others Christs Disciples are compared to Sheep not to Bears for cruelty or Foxes for craft in doing mischief therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle saith I would have you simple in malice Rom. 16. 19. The leven that was forbidden in the Sacrifices did signifie malice and sourness So that where this simplicity is a man is wonderfull harmless is not injurious doth no wrong The word used in that place of Rom. 16. 19. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though it properly come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet some make it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if to say without horns The people of God are meek and lowly as it 's said of Jacob He was a plain man but Esau rough and hairy which may relate to their manners as well as bodily constitutions not but that they can be as bold as Lions in the cause of God Simplicity is consistent with zeal and courage for God Moses was the meekest man upon earth yet in the case of Idolatry and the peoples uncleanness how forward was he to have severe punishment
putting on the new man Austin wrote much against this way of lying And certainly seeing that words are appointed to signifie our mind to another if we pervert them to the contrary end to deceive them we doe overthrow the foundation of spiritual and civil societies It is one thing indeed not to reveale all the truth when not required or commanded this may sometimes be done but to deny the truth or equivocate this doth no wayes become those who with sincerity and not with fleshly wisdome are to propagate the Gospel If you say for all the Church of Rome hath used such carnal policy yet she continueth in her externall prosperity she is not blasted and crossed in her designes and therefore Bellarmine would take advantages of the Protestants by this If saith he the Church of Rome be so vile and impure as you say she is if she use all those unlawfull and ungodly wayes to keep up her glory then it 's the greater argument that her constitution is of God that all her craft and wickednesse hath not yet ruined her But to this doubt it is easily answered That by the Scripture we know it is foretold that he must prevaile for a long time in the Church and therefore their successe notwithstanding all their cruelty and craft is not to be any stumbling block to such who believe the Scriptures The third instance of fleshly wisdome to propagate Religion by is To indulge men in their lusts and sinnes that so the party which followeth them may be the more numerous This is fleshly wisdome in an high degree of impiety and yet in this also the Church of Rome hath beene notorious when other Churches have by their good Discipline cast out some offenders for scandalous impieties They have appealed to the Church of Rome in that case and she craftily laying hold on the opportunity hoping thereby to establish her Supremacy would like Absolom say to every one that came that his cause was good and by this policy in indulging and encouraging such licentious offenders whom other Churches would not endure as members At last with other politick devises she arrived to that amplitude of power she now glorieth in We might instance in other subtil forgeries as the corrupting or denying some Canons made in the Council of Nice thereby to translate the chief Patriarchship to her self a famous cheat and discovered most palpably to the shame of the Romane party of which there is much in Ecclesiastical Authours as also the pretence of Constantines donation a forged he like the rest This I shall insist upon as greatly considerable The indulging of people in prophanenesse as also in horrible ignorance that so they may rule without controll And how well were it if this fleshly wisdome were inclosed in the Romane Conclave Are there not too many in the Protestant Churches that out of a desire either to please men or increase their earthly advantages promote a promiscuous admission of all to the Lords Table making no difference betweene the clean and unclean This I confesse is the way to be applauded by the most This is that which will give best content to all This is accounted wisdome and moderation but Wisdome is justified of her children and the holy institution of Christs will be owned by those who worship God in Spirit and truth But this fleshly wisoome whereby we please all and indulge men in their lusts is seldome successefull but fire will come out of the Bramble when it doth not out of the Fig-tree to consume I meane even prophane and wicked spirits are many times stirred up by God to oppose such corrupt Teachers when the godly meddle not at all For God doth many times make use of the wickednesse of one ungodly man to torment another Yea Luther's first stirrings against the abuses of Popery were not so pure and sincere as afterwards when the light and grace of God came more upon him It is therefore a great duty incumbent upon the Ministers of the Gospel to walk sincerely by Christs rule in their pastoral exercises avoiding this fleshly wisdome which though it may seeme sometimes to prevent a mischiefe yet as it did to David doth afterwards plunge in a greater calamity And indeed going to carnal policy in Church-administrations is but like going to witches and wizards forsaking Gods way which never bringeth a perfect cure Fourthly Then is carnal wisdome used to propagate Religion When by it we propound carnal and selfish ends to our selves not the glory of God and advancing the power and purity of his Ordinances This is that which Paul doth principally disclaim I seek not you but yours saith he in this Epistle 2 Cor. 12. 14. And that they might be perswaded hereof he would take no maintenance of them but made use of other Churches that he might spare them yea sometimes working with his own hands How farre this is imitable by the Ministers of the Gospel now as many do upbraid them with this example of Paul will be clearly and fully evidenced God assisting in its time for we shall meet with this part of Paul expresly mentioned and insisted on by him in this Epistle But it is worth the observation that Paul by no way he took could escape the slander of a self-seeker For if in that case he had burdened the Church of Corinth the false Apostles would have calumniated him as using a cloak of covetousness and seeking himself But now because he will not do so see how this is interpreted as a carnal designe also for so he bringeth in their objection vers 16 Be it so I did not burden you but being crafty I tooke you with guile This was suggested against Paul they made this construction of Paul's not burdening them that he did this out of craft that they should think themselves the more ingaged unto him and so by this means he get the more dominion over them Thus what shall Paul do if he doth not take maintenance it is his craft and if he doth it is his craft By this instance we see how much we are to avoid all fleshly wisdome for do what we will it shall be charged upon us Only when we have this sincerity of conscience within to comfort and support us this will be a means to make us bear the slanders of enemies with greater alacrity Now as we said then we may certainly conclude we are guided by fleshly wisdome when our aimes in our ministerial way is either glory and applause which was the poison of the Pharisees duties or earthly wealth and external pomp which motives do easily creep in unlesse grace be the porter to keep the door of the soul We see even the Disciples themselves and that twice contending about superiority and once this was done when our Saviour was fore-telling them of his sad sufferings and how they should be scattered And truly this should much prevail with us to walk by sincere rules because nothing doth
the grace of God given unto me unto me who am lesse than the least of all Saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ Doe not these words proclaime how greatly his heart is affected with the grace of God in setting him apart to be an Officer in his Church and to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles Thus the grace of Conversion and the grace of Apostleship are a two-fold obligation upon Paul for ever to keep him humble and lowly in his own eyes Thirdly The grace of God exalted by Paul is seen In the inabling of him in his ministerial worke and going along with him in an effectual manner That whereas he had so many adversaries the false Apostles who gloried in humane wisdome and all external enticements of the flesh of man yet for all that that his seeming folly should conquer their towering wisdome that his contemptiblenesse should surmount their eminency This argued that it was not Paul but the grace of God with him that was thus effectuall Even as it was not little David in his own power but in the name of the Lord that did destroy that vaunting Goliah Now as there were many choice ingredients that did make up that precious ointment which was to be poured on the head of the Highpriest So there are also many choice and gracious qualifications with the Concomitants thereof required in those who are Pastours over people especially in the Apostles who were Pastours over Pastours as well as people As First It was the gracious worke of God To make Paul to be sincere and to walke in all plainnesse and integrity of heart whereas we see many in the broaching of their false wayes are filled with great deceit and subtilty The Apostle chargeth upon such who deliver false Doctrines Ephes 4. 14. By cunning craftinesse and sleight of men they lie in wait to deceive Those that are false Prophets in the Church of God they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A strange slighty jugling and even bewitching of men but it is from the grace of God that those who are his true Ministers are sincere and upright They have an agreement betweene their heart and tongue It was the speech of one reading Lectures in the Popish Schooles Sic dico quando sum in Scholis sed penes nos sit aliter sentio I speake thus when I am in the Schooles but to tell you a secret I thinke otherwise It was also a boast of another Fredericus Staphylus That he had so many yeares beene a professour of Divinity in the Schooles and yet no hearer was able to tell what judgement he was of Gerhardi Cathol Confessio lib. 1. par 2. cap. 19. Now this craft and dissimulation in the old Dragon and his seed is no wonder but the Ministers of Christ as they believe with their heart so they make confession with their mouths and dare not but reveale the whole counsel of God It was horrible impudence in Melanthus the Grecian who having got a Kingdome by fraud and deceit did in honour thereof as if it were pleasing to their gods appoint Festivals calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as coustning and deceiving inculcating that of the Poet Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat Capel Histor An. Mund. 2872. Certainly the Church of Rome and many other Hereticks have gone by no better Rule counting gaine godlinesse counting lying and dissembling godlinesse when they conceived that it made for their end As if they were of that Kings mind Darius Hystaspes that to lie and speake truth were all one For he that spake truth did so to obtain his desires and so he that lied did no more and therefore both truth and a lie were all one Vide Laurent Vul. Jisuit cap. 1. pag. 30. But oh how abominable is this and contrary to the Spirit of Christ The grace of God in such who are his faithfull Ministers maketh them not to turn into such false and crooked wayes though the preaching of the truths of Christ bringeth much hatred and opposition though they know they are unwelcome and despised and that for their very message sake yet they consult not with fleshly wisdome but doe the work of God zealously and with much faithfulnesse And truly the Ministers of God are much to pray for this grace of God upon them that they may be above all humane feats all sinfull compliances and be afraid of nothing but that they should sinne and not preach the Gospel with that boldnesse as they ought to do That great commendation which the spies gave Christ upon a wicked designe is to be endeavoured after by every faithfull Minister of Christ Luke 20. 20. Master we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly neither acceptest thou the person of any but teachest the way of God truly So that you see this sincerity in the Ministers of God is the special effect of Gods grace towards them And therefore let us make an Use of Admonition to all such as desire to serve God in the way of the Ministry that above all things they would pray to God for this grace To have thy ministerial conversation with much wisdome and learning with great applause and glory in the world is nothing so advantagious as this integrity of spirit This is above parts above gifts above books and all learning It is said of Barnabas Act. 11. 24. He was a good man full of the holy Ghost and of faith and much people was added to the Lord This followed as a blessed effect upon the former If we Ministers had more mighty workings of Gods Spirit in us we should find more mighty workings of his Spirit with us SERM. XCVI Wherein the Grace of God appeared towards Paul in his Ministerial Labours 2 COR. 1. 12. But by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world WE are enumerating the particulars of that grace which the Apostle doth especially acknowledge in his ministerial course We proceed therefore and First The faithfulnesse of Paul to his Apostolical trust fixing his heart upon that and using no other meanes then what are proportionable and commensurate to such a noble end was wholly of the grace of God towards him It is required of Stewards that they be found faithfull saith this Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 2. and with this grace God had honoured him Insomuch that we do not find in Paul any halting any carnal compliance which might contradict the holy end of his Apostolical Office Those are two noble expressions 2 Corinth 10. 8. Our authority the Lord hath given us for edification and not for destruction The other is 2 Cor. 13. 8. For we can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth In these Texts we have expressed the end of all ministerial power it is for edification And therefore if any
men Ama tanquam aliquando osurus yet it may have its use considering how wicked and uncertain men are But true Religion inclineth a man to a setled and fixed way of love to those that are fit subjects thereof The Scripture speaketh of a love to all men and of a brotherly love which is upon more peculiar and holy respects Now truly if we speak in a moral sense onely we may take up Solomon's complaint Prov. 20. 6. Most men will proclaim their own goodnesse but a faithfull man who can find Men will talk and boast and professe much love and kindnesse but as it was in David's time so it will be in all ages Psal 5. 9. For there is no faithfulnesse in their mouth their inward part is very wickednesse they flatter with their tongue Hence is that Rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But why is there such hypocrisie dissimulation and falshood in mens hearts and tongues It is because there is so little true godliness for that maketh a man sincere and of a single heart both towards God and towards man If then Paul was so afraid of being thought a light and inconstant man any was this sheweth what gravity constancy and faithfulness of spirit we ought to walk even to men in the world godliness and Religion teacheth us these things whereas to be double-hearted double-tongued cannot consist with a man that is made a new creature Labour then to inform thy self of the extent of Religion how farre godliness will put forth its self not onely in religious duties towards God but righteous just and faithfull actions towards man Now that we may have such plain and faithfull spirits consider the aggravation of this sinne in our civil actions to be yea and nay to be inconstant and changeable And First This is directly contrary to the glorious nature of God whose image ought to be stampt upon us we are to be like God in our holinesse Now how often doth the Scripture proclaim this glorious property of God that he is unchangeable that he is faithfull in his Word and promises And truly this is the comfortable support of our selves for it 's not any worth in us but Gods faithfulness in his promises that preserveth us to eternal glory Thus he is called a faithfull Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19. so faithfull is he that hath called us 1 Thess 5. 24. If God were not faithfull in his promises even when we have unfaithfull hearts how miserable would our end be It 's Gods faithfulness not our own we are to depend upon Now the children of God they are to have this Image of God established upon them to be faithfull as he is faithfull There is no yea or nay with God See this notably affirmed Numb 23. 19. God is not a man that he should lie neither the sonne of man that he should repent hath he said and shall not he do it So 1 Sam. 15. 29. The strength of Israel will not lie or repent for he is not a man that he should repent The Scripture maketh it a necessary property to a man to lie and to repent unlesse he be assisted by grace For such is the weaknesse and ignorance of his understanding that he cannot fore-see things and therefore must necessarily alter his resolutions and then so corrupt is his heart that as there are several objects to entice him so accordingly he transformeth himself but God is infinitely wise and infinitely holy and therefore there is no shadow of change in him Oh then be in love with this glorious Attribute of God and according to a creatures capacity do thou imitate it Shew forth the Image of God in this thing that thou art even a man and wilt not lie wilt not sinfully change thy words and promises I say sinfully because we are so apt to be ignorant to mis-judge of things to be deceived in what we resolve of that many times it is our wisdom and duty to be of another mind and to take up contrary resolutions to what once we pitched upon of which more in its time Secondly Endeavour after such constancy in words and life because as it is a great sinne against God so it 's an heavy reproach and scandal to Religion It thou shouldest study to do the Devil service and to promote his Kingdom so as to have Religion stink in the nostrils of all men thou canst not take a more compendious way then to lie to deceive to be unjust to make no conscience of words and promises This is to betray godliness to the scorn of all wicked men You see that even the most holy men that are that walk in a most tender conscientious regard to all their words and works yet cannot scape the censure of men in the world that they are hypocrites that they are lyars that they have no truth in them Oh then what a woe will be pronounced to thee who should give just occasion for such men to blaspheme the holy calling wherewith we are called When one by his apostasie and inconstancy had betrayed the true Religion of Christ he was afterwards troubled in heart for it he could have no rest in his spirit thought himself unworthy of any Church-communion and therefore cried out Calcate me insipidum salem Trample upon me as unsavoury salt If then thou wouldst have Religion honoured the Gospel well spoken of look to thy self in these things let no lie no falshood no deceit be found in thy words and dealings For if there be presently Religion is wounded then the carnal ones rejoyce this is their godliness this is their Religion Certainly a godly heart cannot but bleed exceedingly if at any time he hath in this way been so overtaken as to make men think the worse of godliness wherers on the other side to be true righteous and faithfull in all thy wayes as it is an ornament to Religion so it maketh thee have an awe and a reverence in the consciences of the most profligate persons Thus because John was a just man therefore even Herod the King did reverence him Mark 6. 20. John was both just and holy and this wrought reverence Thirdly It is a great sinne to be thus rash and inconstant because hereby a man maketh himself unfit for Gods service either in Church or Commonwealth such an unfaithfull man can never do any good but be scorned and reproached as one Bishop was called Euripus in antiquity for his inconstancy and mutability and this was the great reason why Paul doth with so much earnestnesse and affection take this calumny off from himself for this would be a special means to bring his person and Doctrine into contempt if there had been just cause to judge him such a mutable man Paul's preaching would never have done good more as we hear him saying at another time Gal. 2. 18. If I build again the things which I destroyed I make my self a transgressour Thus it always falleth out that a man of
it is that in Heaven when our understandings shall be fully perfected then we shall not grow in knowledge we shall not imbrace errours and upon further illumination leave them So that whensoever God shall make such a change upon us that we are not to believe as we have done worship as we have done lived as we have done As we are to be thankfull unto God so we are to be humble in our selves because that ever any darknesse did take hold of us The Thomists among the Schoolmen give this for a reason why the good Angels proved constantly good and the evil Angels unchangeably evil Because say they Such is the perfection of the Angelical Nature that what it willeth it willeth immoveably it cannot alter again and therefore an evil Angel cannot repent I shall not justifie this reason but certainly we see it a glorious perfection in God that his understanding is infinite his will immutable so that he cannot know any new thing or will any new thing which he did not from eternity Yea the estate of the glorified Saints in Heaven is admirable in this particular that they are so confirmed by grace they are so perfectly enlightned and sanctified that they receive all truth at first and can never come to know more or better then they did at first admission into that glorious place Fourthly There is no man living though never so learned and so knowing but may still understand more In him there may be there will be Yeas and Nayes He will have cause to confesse he was in this errour once he misunderstood such and such Texts of Scripture formerly Doth not experience confirm this Hence are their retractations their recognitions and reviews of their works which they have put out with much judgement and deliberation So that we are not to wonder if the most excellent and learned men do sometimes say This I thought once and this was my judgement once but now I am better informed It is true the case of the Apostles and such as were divinely inspired of old is different from the most eminent holy and learned men that are in the Church for though after their first call by Christ they did retain some ignorance upon them yea did erre in some doctrinal points of great consequence yet after they received the holy Ghost in a full confirmation of them in their Office then they were made infallible so that in their preaching and writing they could not erre And therefore if there had been any Yea and Nay any contrariety in their Doctrine If any of them should have said Thus I thought once but it was my errour I am now of another mind this would have made us questioned their immediate call from God but all Pastors and Teachers that are to guide the Church they are not to expect such infallibility neither should people look for such assistance upon us but we are limitted to the Scripture as the Rule by which all spirits are to be tried If therefore any eminent Officer of the Church do build hay and stubble upon the foundation of precious stone and pearle wonder not at it Or if you see such afterwards more enlightned and to bewaile the hay and stubble they have built Let not this make you stagger so as to think with your selves what can we believe For they may erre in one thing as well as another and as they confesse they have taught false in one particular so it may be in all the rest and therefore we are not bound to believe them at all For In the fifth place You must distinguish between that which is fundamental in a word and that which is circa or supra fundamental The word of God containeth in it all things that are necessary to salvation but withall it hath many excellent conclusions that are deduceable from them It hath not onely the foundation stones but an excellent and glorious superstructure It hath not onely milk for the babe but strong meat for the adult person And although there be no truth revealed in the Scripture which when sufficiently proposed to us we ought to despise it being the truth of the holy Ghost and wilfully to oppose any known truth of Gods word though it be farre from the fundamentals is a very damnable sinne and rebellion against the Spirit of God yet for all that we must alwayes distinguish between the fundamentals and principles of Religion such as are named Heb. 6. and the conclusions by many mediums deduced from them between the seed and the crop between the essentials and the accessories For there is no godly man much lesse no godly Officer that is so farre left by God as to erre in fundamentals of salvation at least perpetually and therefore they have no Yea and Nay in them For they have the promise of God which is That the Spirit shall lead them into all truth John 16. 13. And they have also the anointing which will teach them all things 1 John 2. 27. where by all things is not meant Omne scibile Every thing that may be known for then they should know all the arts and all the tongues every one would be wiser than Solomon No nor all things in Religion not all things in faith and manners for that would contradict other places which say We know but in part 1 Cor. 3. and also That we are to grow in knowledge 2 Pet. 3. 18. but all things necessary to salvation They shall not want the knowledge of that thing the absence whereof will damn them It may be for a season they may be involved in some fundamental errour even as they may in regard of their lives fall into some grossimpieties that do for the present take away the present claim that they have to the Kingdom of Heaven but at last they shall be delivered because it 's not possible the elect should be deceived viz. totally and finally by the most deceiveable wayes of falshood that are Matth. 24. 24. Now the knowledge of this is necessary to obviate that Objection which you heard mentioned If the Ministers of the Gospel may be Yea and Nay in some things why not in all things If they erre in one thing why not in every thing This is not to be yeelded unto For they cannot erre in necessaries though they may in accessories They cannot lay any other foundation than what is laid yet they may build hay and stubble Therefore it 's sensless and irrational to argue from any errour or mistake the Ministers may have in some points of Religion that are problematical to those that are essential For in these later we are sure we are never deceived we may with Paul confidently say If an Angel from Heaven preach contrary to that Doctrine let him be accursed SERM. CXVIII A further Discovery of the sinfulnesse and reproach of Inconstancy especially in a Minister 2 COR. 1. 18. Our word toward you was not yea and nay WE are pursuing
such a broken-hearted sinner that feeleth himself dropping into Hell falling into those eternal flames and therefore cryeth out O Lord Christ save me else I perish We may read Mat. 11. 28. who they are that have the Scepter of Grace held out towards them and are invited to come into his presence even such as labour and are heavy laden that have no rest in their soules as yet because of sin neither their bids nor their houses neither their gardens nor their wealth can give them any rest Hence in the third place They are such as are saved already from the evil and wicked wayes of the world There is a twofold salvation the one from Hell and damnation and many look only upon this as salvation But then there is a salvation from the evil customes and wicked wayes of the world and he that hath not this salvation will never have the latter Therefore Act. 2. 37. when Peters hearers were pricked in their heart that is a preparatory way to conversion they asked Men and brethren what shall we do They would gladly be saved from the guilt of these sinnes Then observe what counsel the Apostle giveth yea he did it with much exhorting and testifying v. 40. save your selves or be ye saved from this untoward generation that is Be not in the number of those that do resist Christ that will not believe his Doctrine and miracles but escape from them they are in a dangerous estate Therefore if thou wouldest be saved hereafter see Art thou saved already art thou delivered from the number of those wicked and ungodly men who will not obey Christ How greatly would a man roaring in Hell be affected with such mercy as to be delivered from those torments But it is no less to be saved from those ungodly wayes thou didst once live in to be saved from the wicked companions and the inticements of lusts that once thou wast intangled in Fourthly They who are to be saved are Christs people and none else Such as take him for a Lord as well as a saviour Every wicked wretch loveth to hear that Christ is a saviour but then if thou enquirest to whom this will marr all thy hopes He will save his people from their sinnes Mat. 1. 21. his people that is such as do accept of him and receive him as their Lord and Master who do cordially submit to his Lawes and Ordinances So that these two words Christs people do shut out a very great part of of the world from this Salvation they have neither part or lot herein Is the praphane man one of Christs people no he is one of his enemies one of his adversaries he saith We will not have Christ raign over us Fiftly They that are saved are very few comparatively to those that are damned Christ though he be a sufficient saviour to save the whole world yet he is an actual efficacious saviour but to few only therefore they are called a little flock Hence when one put that Question to our Saviour Whether there would but few be saved Luke 13. 23. Though our Saviour did not directly answer him as proceeding from curiosity yet he did implicitely resolve it when he bid that man strive to enter in at the straight gate for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able There will be a time when a saviour will be in request though for the present we seek after other saviours But alas Will thy riches save thee will thy wealth save thee at that day If Christ then be a Saviour and salvation is the great end of thy soul to prepare for that ought to be thy greatest care and delight Better never have been born then not to be saved hereafter Oh remember now is the acceptable time of thy salvation now Christ proffereth to be a Saviour In his first coming his profession is that he came not to judg but to save the world John 12. 47. But at his last coming he will then appear not to save but to juge the world Oh then that men should be so besotted and bewitched as to neglect this salvation offered Oh what terror will it be to hear millions of persons adjudged for their sinnes to eternal destruction then in horror to cry out Oh Christ save us Lord save us but it will be too late The Second Doctrine I shall but only name which is That the Lord Jesus is Christ that is the Messias the anointed one he is a Christ that he may be a Jesus Now Christ is no more then Anointed and because in the Old Testament Kings and Priests and sometimes Prophets were anointed to that Office and thereby were made sacred and inviolable Touch not my anointed and do my Prophets no harm hence in allusion Christ is said to be anointed not indeed with material oyl but with the holy Ghost which is called the oyl of gladness Psal 45. 7. And from hence we have our names Christians as much as anointed ones A glorions title implying our participation of Gods Spirit and his Graces Hence the Apostle 1 John 2. 20. But ye have an unction from the Holy One. and at the 21th verse in this Chapter God is said to have anointed us I shall therefore put off this excellent point of our anointing by Christ till we arrive at that Text. SERM. CXXII Of Assistants required in the Ministry false Charges laid against it and the happy Agreement of it 2 COR. 1. 19. Who was preached among you by us even by me and Sylvanus and Timotheus THe next Particular considerable is The Ministerial and instrumental Cause of the preaching of Christ and there we have three named The First and principall is Paul himself The other two Colleagues and Associates are Sylvanus and Timotheus Calvin propounds the Question Why Apollo was not named as well as these and he giveth this Answer That probably these only were charged with the same Calumnies that Paul was because they were his Attendants and Companions in his spiritual peregrinations and therefore he would defend their names as well as his own Concerning Timotheus which is Timothy we have spoken already from the first verse Only concerning this Sylvanus there is some doubt but the most learned do make him to be the same with Sylas mentioned often in the Acts of the Apostles as a companion of Paul hence some would expound that Periphrastical expression 2 Cor. 8. 18. The brother whose praise is in the Gospel of Sylas as not being applicable to Luke Sylas and Sylvanus are generally thought to be the same name though some would make them two names of one person yea some would make them two distinct persons which hath no probability The word cometh from an Hebrew root which is to send and so is the same with Apostolus an Apostle one that is sent We may read often of this man as being eminent in the Gospel-Ministry Paul inscribeth both his Epistles to the Thessalonians
exhorteth all that hope in God Psal 31. 24. To be of good courage and God shall strengthen their hearts Of all temptations none are so grievous to be born as those which arise from Gods withdrawing of himself and hiding of his face from us then we apprehend no promises do belong unto us then we question very principles and so are like a ship tossed in the Sea without Pilot or Anchor Therefore spiritual fortitude to withstand these strong assaults is above all required How many have sunk irrecoverably into this pit of destruction So that unlesse Gods power settle us unlesse that compose our hearts we can as well remove mountains as this sad and sainting spirit of ours Lay then fast hold on Christ thou canst not sink in these waters if his arm doth uphold thee Thus Timothy is exhorted To be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 1. there is his duty to be strong but how must he come to have this strength It is by Jesus Christ you would think the exhortation were superfluous for why must I be strong if it be the grace of Christ that must enable me But the exhortation is usefull howsoever for hereby we are taught our duty as also to go out of our selves renouncing our own strength and laying the faster hold upon Christ himself To this purpose we have the like exhortation Ephes 6. 10. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might when he had before laid down several precepts then knowing how impotent and unable we are he saith Be strong in the Lord. Here you see what we are commanded but it is the power of his might that is his mighty power that must confirm us and where this is present then we wonder how we are carried through such temptations led through such wildernesses as we have been we stand and admire to see what red Seas we have gone thorow and how the waters have yeelded unto us Thus Paul I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Phil. 4. 13. Fourthly Divine hope doth exceedingly conduce to stablish the soul upon the promises as you heard from those admonitions of David to his soul Hope thou still in God Faith is carried out to the truth of God and hope to the mercy and power of God and therefore he that hopeth in God is got into the Ark while others float in the waters Heb. 6. 19. it is compared to the Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entereth within the vail By this we see that hope doth notably settle the soul Faith indeed and hope are two sisters and twins and look so like one another that we can hardly make the difference yet faith establisheth the soul upon the promises by apprehending them as present so that the soul is in as holy a manner secure as if it were already in Heaven But hope doth settle the soul on Gods promises as the things promised are future and to come For seeing between Gods promises and the accomplishment of them there happen so many crosse providences in appearance yea so many difficulties and seeming impossibilities are in the way we need some divine grace to overcome all these and that is hope compared excellently to an Anchor for as that doth fasten the ship which otherwise would be tossed up and down and in danger of splitting upon every Rock so the soul of the most godly man is tossed up and down with such sad temptations that did not this hope bear up the heart all would fail within us But this spiritual anchor exceedeth all material ones for this is sure and stedfast Sure so that no outward violence of storms can break it and stedfast in respect from within there is nothing without or within that can disanuâ—l this But then whereas other anchors are fastened into the earth this is in Heaven in God and invisible things A godly mans hope cannot be seen by the bodily eye Take heed then of weakning this grace of hope it 's an excellent corroborater of the soul staying it up with that glory which will be revealed hereafter Lastly Another habitual principle whereby God doth exceedingly establish the heart on the promises is Spiritual joy and heavenly consolations This is one great reason say Divines why Angels and Saints in Heaven are so confirmed in that estate that nothing can tempt them off from God they never will be weary of the presence of God even because they are filled with so much infinite delight and joy that they cannot desire any better thing than God Now the godly they have the beginnings of these consolations here upon earth for by the spirit of adoption they are so filled with joy and delight that all the world is no more than an husk unto them they look upon the world as a wildernesse and Heaven as the Canaan So that spiritual consolations when wrought in the soul are like a mighty pillar to bear up the heart Hence the Apostle prayeth 2 Thes 2. 17. That God would comfort their hearts and stablish them First Comfort and then establish How hardly is the heart dejected and full of despondent thoughts established But comfort and joy is oil to the wheels Thus Nehemiah spake Neh. 8. 10. Be not ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength So much sinfull grief as thou lettest in it is like the letting in of waters at some leak in the ship it may sink the ship at last Blesse God therefore for any gladnesse of heart for any consolations of soul through the Spirit of God these support the soul these make it rejoyce in the midst of all afflictions It is true sometimes the people of God for wise and holy ends are deprived of them but when they are vouchsafed they come like pleasant gales of winde to carry the ship to its Haven In the next place As God doth positively establish by these habitual principles so also by the actual motions of his Spirit upon us There is not only habitual grace but efficacious grace whereby the Lord worketh in us both to will and to do How many times do the principles of grace like Christ in the ship lie asleep in us insomuch that till they be awakened we are in danger of shipwrack Therefore when the Apostle exhorteth us To work out our salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 13. he giveth a wonderfull reason for it 's God that worketh in you to will and to do and that of his good pleasure So that the confirming power of God lieth chiefly in this in actuating those habitual principles within us whereby we depend upon God continually as the beams of the Sun do upon the Sun This Doctrine Pelagians and Papists cannot relish but certainly if God come not with efficacious actual help as well as habitual the instances of the fals of Gods people in all ages will palpably declare they are undone
art one of Gods sealed people Fourthly Sealing is for the differencing and discriminating of persons Thus the Shepherd setteth a proper mark to know his own sheep by The Souldier he hath his proper badge and colours to discern what Generall he belongeth unto And in this sense though not principally the Sacraments are seals hereby we are acknowledged to be the Lords people and so differenced from all that are enemies and strangers to him but this is more remarkably seen in this spirituall sealing for thereby we are not only distinguished from the heathenish world but from every hypocrite in the Church of God Though many may go sar in profession in parts in gifts so as to be admirable in the eyesof others yet none have this sealing but the truly godly man Every gifted man is not this sealed beleever None hath this but the true childe of God The spirit of God doth not seal but where it hath sanctified Therefore Fifthly This sealing doth suppose the work of grace truly wrought in a man Sealing doth not make him godly properly but supposeth him so Thus Eph. 1. 13. after ye beleeved ye were sealed there was first the work of sanctification and then of obsignation It is true Zanchy upon that place maketh sealing to be the impression of grace upon the heart even as in sealing the print of the seal is stamped upon the wax and so farre we may yeeld that the encrease of grace and confirmation therein is a sealing of the spirit but yet to speak exactly this sealing is after the work of grace in the soul Even as it is in the Sacraments The externall signe or seal doth not make the promise but supposeth it so in this inward sealing grace is not thereby wrought in us unlesse it be in the further degrees thereof but doth confirm that which is in us and thus seals are to confirm contracts not make them as is to be shewed yet though it be not the divine impression of grace yet this seal is alwaies supposed God doth not set to his seal to a blank and hereby this sealing is distinguished from all carnal presumption and the delusions of Satan for the devil hath as it were his sealing he confirmeth and establisheth men in hereticall doctrines and they are ready to take this for the obsignation of Gods own spirit when heretiques give their bodies to be burnt professing they have much peace and joy of conscience Here the Kings Seal is conterfeited as it were They make a diabolicall delusion to be the holy sealing of Gods Spirit Thus as in sanctification there is the true work of Gods grace and a counterfeit that which doth resemble and is like it so in the witnessing and sealing of Gods Spirit there also may be a resemblance of it which yet is not that glorious priviledge indeed only as a man that is awake doth certainly know he is so and not in a dream though men in a dream imagine themselves to be awake when they are deceived Thus where the sealing of Gods Spirit is there the authority and light of it doth powerfully discover it self to be of God even as the Sun by its own light doth discover it self to be the Sun though they that think they have it may be deceived yet those that have it are sure they do enjoy it Hence Sixthly This sealing doth imply secrecy and privacy That which is closely reserved as Deut. 32. 34. Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures saith God Thus also Iob saith cap. 14. 17. his transgression was sealed up in a bag God did take speciall notice of it in time to punish it Now in this sense also we may apply this sealing of Gods Spirit It is very secret hidden and unknown and that in a twofold respect 1. The nature of it is a mystery and hardly unfolded Insomuch that as the lamb in the Revelation was found only worthy to open the seals Thus onely men enlightned by the Spirit of God and experimentally taught of him can savourily explain this Come to the Learned and most eminent men devoid of spirituall discerning and whose senses are not exercised evangelically who have not the Spirit of Adoption effectually working in them and they can no more speak with understanding to this point then Nicodemus did to the doctrine of regeneration He will say with those in the Prophet Isay cap. 29. 11. I cannnot reade this book for it is sealed But then 2. The secrecy of it is discovered because none know what it is but he that hath it As none knoweth what Parents affections are but parents none knoweth what love is but he that loveth So none know what this sealing of Gods Spirit is but he that doth partake of it Therefore this sealing is compared to other things Rev. 2. 17. to the hidden manna There was the manna that did fall from heaven of which all did eat promiscuously and then there was the manna hidden in the ark The godly man is said to eat of this It is likewise called the white stone which is a note of absolution and justification when accused and that with a new name upon it which none knoweth save he that receiveth it By this expression it is clear that the nature and efficacy of of this Sealing is understood only by those who enjoy it and therefore no unregenerate man is able to conceive rightly about it no more than a blinde man can about the Sunne yea the godly man himself though he feel it yet he cannot expresse it to another Even as we cannot expresse the life we live unto another we feel it but cannot describe it Lastly Which is the chiefest of all and most principally intended in this expression Sealing was to confirm and secure all contracts and bargains made amongst men Thus Ieremiah cap. 32. 10. when he purchased some land he had the evidence sealed In which respect some understand that place 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of the Lord standeth sure having this seal by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they understand not the foundation of an house because that doth not use to be sealed but a contract or bargain to which a seal is annexed but that is not so probable only in the generall seals are chiefly to secure and confirm and for this end it is that we have the Spirit of God sealing for the sense of our unworthinesse and guilt doth make us very propense to diffidence to distrust to continuall fears about Gods love to us and therefore as we need the Spirit of God to sanctifie us so also to witnesse and seal unto us which is more largely to be treated of SERM. CXXXIV Of Gods Spirit Sealing his People 2 COR. 1. 22. Who hath also sealed us WHat is comprehended in the expression of sealing hath been already declared I shall therefore in the next place consider of and compare some equivalent Texts of Scripture with
this and then from those conjoyned we may be able to finde out the nature of this obsignation for although our principall endeavour is to be made partaker of it yet it is very necessary in its kinde to know what it is Though it cannot be denied but many of Gods people may have it and yet not give the definition of it Even as they may beleeve and be regenerated and not happily be able to give an exact description of these things As many a man hath health may sleep well and yet is not able to tell you what health or sleep is The first Text which will afford much light to this we are upon is that famous place set like a beacon upon the mount and much agitated between Papists and Protestants in the doctrine of assurance Rom. 8. 18. where the spirit it self is said to bear witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God I shall not insist upon the controversies on this place either grammaticall or reall but take the positive truth plainly delivered Here the godly who all have the spirit of God first sanctifying and leading them on in all their waies whereby they are said to be spiritually minded are in the next place declared to have the spirit of God in another manner working upon them and that is to witnesse with our spirit So that the spirits Testimony is not single and immediate as when there was a voice heard saying This is my beloved Sonne No such Enthusiastical impressions and impulses are to be dreamed of but mediately and conjunctly with our spirits By it our consciences are so enlightned that we are thereby enabled to be perswaded that we are the Children of God for that you see is the object of the Testimony that is the matter witnessed that we are the children of God You see then here is no encouragement for the Popish doctrine of doubting nay when they go the highest allowing a moral certitude such which excludeth all fear to the contrary yet it doth not rise up high enough to this glorious priviledge spoken of For as with the spirit in Sanctification of us moral vertues came far short of the graces and fruit of the spirit So doth an humane perswasion from the sincerity of our conscience within us of this witnessing and sealing of Gods Spirit A second Text reducible to this is Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba Father This is nothing but the sealing in my Text only the words are 〈◊〉 of divine worth Because ye are sinnes Therefore none but the Sonnes of God have this priviledge Children of the devil cannot pretend to this Thou who art not born of God stand alooâ— off this doth not belong to thee As thou knowest not what it meaneth yea with Esau for thy moâ—sels dost prophanely despise this priviledge so neither doth God give such childrens bread to dogs or Pearls to swine Again God hath sent the spirit of his Sonne you see our Son-ship is built upon Christs Sonship our Son-ship of Adoption is established upon that Son-ship which is by nature in him He doth not speak here of that eternal mission of the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Sonne but a temporal one bestowed on beleevers and he saith the spirit of his Son because by Christs death this spirit in its peculiar operation is as it were purchased for the godly For had not Christ made an atonement the Spirit of God could not have been given us either for sanctification or consolation Further This is sent into our hearts not into our memories or mindes only for the temporary beleever hath some superficial and vanishing perswasion of Gods favour towards him but it is sent into our hearts implying the full deep and through possession that it hath of the godly Lastly Here is the notable and glorious effect it maketh us to cry that is fervently confidently and boldly God Father Abba Father Some reade it indicatively in this sense God is my Father Some by way of wish and prayer it cometh all to one These are two words signifying the same thing teaching us that both Jew and Gentile is indulged this priviledge or else it 's germinated for assurance sake Oh then how unquiet and restlesse should the people of God be till they finde this work of the spirit of Adoption upon them Thou daily enquirest after the spirit in its sanctification of thee how it maketh thee more heavenly how it mortifieth thy lusts and dost mourn because thou dost not partake of it in a greater measure Why doth not thy soul also long after the fruit of this spirit of Adoption in thee Dost thou observe how it subdueth thy slavish fears how it inclineth thee to a filiall and Evangelicall affection towards God as a Father I tell thee thy life is never a Gospel-life till this be obtained As therefore these blinde men cryed Jesus have mercy on us though the Disciples reproved them and bid them hold their peace so also let it be with thee whatsoever temptations guilt and fears thy heart suggesteth to the contrary do thou notwithstanding boldly cry God my Father The third Text to illustrate this 1 Cor. 2 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God Here we see two principles opposed as contrary to one another the spirit of the world and the spirit of God and he who hath the spirit of God hath it for this end partly that he might know the things which God hath freely given him implying that without this spirit we could not discern of these things Even as if a man had not a rationall soul bestowed upon him he could not discern the things of reason but would be as a beast So did not God bestow his spirit upon us we were no wayes able to discern of those Gospel-mercies which are bestowed upon us He saith which are freely given us us in particular that we might not think he speaketh of the priviledges of the Gospel in the generall remission of sins and sanctification in the generall but as applyed to this and that subject So that if a man have no more than the spirit of the world if he have not as yet this spirit of God dwelling in him he is not a fit auditor for this truth If Aristotle thought not young persons fit auditors for his morall Philosophy how much more are we to judge every man though of never such abilities and parts yet if destitute of the spirit of God altogether incapable of this truth Therefore the spiritual hearers are only such who can give their testimony to these things There must be a spiritual life a spiritual foundation before there can be this spiritual superstruction A fourth Text is 1 Joh. 3. 24. and indeed that Apostle doth often
speak to this sealing of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of beleevers though in other terms This I have mentioned is pregnant for having said that he who keepeth Gods Commandements dwelleth in him and he in him Whereas it might be said how shall we know that he dwelleth in us May we not be deluded and deceived No saith he hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us and lest any man though living loosely and carnally should pretend to this spirit he saith They that have it keep his Commandements Thus doubtings and sinnefull diffidence is excluded on one hand and all carnal presumption on the other hand The last Text to bring in assistance to this truth shall be 1 John 5. 8 9 10. where the Apostle speaketh of three Witnesses on earth as he had before in heaven viz. water and the bloud and the spirit Now although there be many perplexed controversies about this passage yet I shall pitch upon that which is most probable without further disquieting of you It seemeth to be without doubt that the Apostle alludeth to the legall administrations wherein there was bloud for expiation and water for cleansing by which is represented justification and sanctification and these being wrought in us do evidently witnesse that Jesus is the Christ and Sonne of God We finding these glorious effects upon our souls cannot but acknowledge that Doctrine but because these are not enough of themselves seeing that sanctified and justified persons may be under great discouragements therefore he addeth the Spirit also It is true the same spirit is said to be a witnesse in heaven but that was because of the extraordinary and visible Testimony that it gave to Christ but here it speaketh of the witnesse it giveth on earth and that must be the sealing spoken off in other places for he saith verse 6. It is the spirit that beareth witnesse because the spirit is truth having there also mentioned water and bloud Verse 10. he seith He that beleeveth on the Sonne of God hath the witnesse in himself Thus you see that as God hath abundantly provided for the holinesse of his people by his spirit to quicken them up therein so also for the assurance and consolation of his children to establish them therein Oh how greatly are we indebted unto the Lord Jesus Christ who giveth us his Spirit not only to leade us into the truth and mortifie the deeds of the flesh but also to fill us with comfort and to assure us that we are the children of God So that it is the duty of the Ministers of the Gospel not only to improve the former truth but this also and to presse you upon the sealing work of Gods Spirit as well as the sanctifying Hath not the Spirit of God this Name given it to be called the Comforter John 14. and shall we divide the operations of Gods Spirit minding him as he is an holy spirit but not a comforting Spirit Having thus informed you what the Scripture declareth in this matter I shall give you a large and popular description of the nature of this sealing and the opening of the several parts touched therein will much conduce to the knowledge thereof The sealing of Gods Spirit may be described after this manner It is a supernaturall and gracious work of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of sanctified persons in a secret and unspeakable manner whereby they are confirmed and established in the Covenant of grace as belonging to them in particular by such means which God hath appointed thereunto that through the sence thereof they may daily walk more and more boldly joyfully and thankefully notwithstanding all discouragements to the contrary till they be made compleatly happy in heaven I have made this description the larger because I would take in every particular considerable about it as much as may be And First I give two Qualifications or Adjuncts to this work of Gods Spirit It is supernatural and gracious Supernatural and that if we respect either rectified nature or corrupted nature Rectified nature for Adam in the state of integrity though he was made perfectly holy yet he had not this Gospel-sealing no more then he was in Christ as a Mediatour for had he been thus sealed he would certainly have persevered and although Adam was partaker of the holy Ghost yet it was as he is the third person not as the spirit of Christ viz. purchased by his death for those that are his so that in this respect we may say this sealing is a priviledge above the nature of Adam while considered before his apostacy but then I call it supernaturall chiefly in respect of corrupted nature for as man naturally of himself hath no power to that which is gracious so neither to that which is comfortable and joyfull All the world all Ministers and Angels cannot powr one drop of this assurance and joy into thy soul unlesse the Spirit of God inable thee thereunto As it is supernaturall so it is gracious for this floweth from the former There is nothing in thee to deserve this establishing as Gods grace sanctifying found thee dead in thy sinnes so his sealing and comforting findeth thee in a guilty despairing way and therefore as God might leave every prophane man to wallow in his lusts and so let him perish thus also might he forsake every guilty conscience under the burthen of thy sinnes and suffer thee to be a Cain to be a Judas even to fall from an hell here into an hell hereafter So that not only by grace we are sanctified but by grace we are healed Blesse God for any establishment of soul against fears and doubts as well as for victory against any lusts It is meerly of Free-grace that we are thus sealed In the next place Secondly we have the generall nature of it with the efficient cause The work of Gods Spirit It is true in the Text it is said That God doth seal us and so whatsoever works there are ad extra from God to the creature they are all common to the three Persons yet there is a peculiar order and appropriation which the Scripture taketh notice of So that it is made the work of the Father to send his Sonne into the world It is made the work of the Sonne to offer up himself a Sacrifice for our sinnes And it is made the proper work of Gods Spirit to apply the benefits of Christs death to our souls therefore sanctification is attributed to the Spirit so also consolation and sealing thereunto Thus the Texts we mentioned formerly give all this work to the Spirit of God as in an appropriated manner doing this for us It is not then of our selves or of our own power that we can obtain this priviledge but it is wrought alone by Gods Spirit As we have no free-will to the grace of God so neither to the comforts God as he is called a God of all
grace so a God of all consolation and Gal. 5. Joy is the fruit of Gods Spirit as well as Faith Love and Repentance are in other places attributed to God But you will say It may easily be granted that a man being dead in sinne he needeth the mighty work of Gods Spirit to raise him up and to give spiritual life but doth it follow that he needeth the same spirit to establish and assure him of Gods love Yes no doubt but that the same Spirit of God which bringeth thee out of the gulf of thy lusts must also out of the gulf of thy doubts and fears It 's as impossible for thee to have comfort of thy self as grace of thy self And therefore you see the Scripture speaking of this twofold operation of Gods Spirit as being necessary to antidote against our twofold corruption and the grounds of this necessity of Gods Spirit are these First The heart of a man is naturally opposite to any thing that is spirituall Whatsoever is of God though never so desirable in it self yet meeting with our corrupt natures it findeth opposition therefore we cannot of our selves any more receive the promises though infinitely needing of them then we can obey the commands We cannot endure honey any more then gall The way of Gospel-joy is contrary to a troubled heart as well as Gospel-obedience to a secure carnal heart Secondly We need the Spirit of God to this sealing because that which doth oppose this is indeed nothing but the fruit of sinne running down another channel He that once lived in divers pleasures did continually grieve the holy Spirit of God Let this man finde the guilt of sinne Let the Law wound and sting him then he grieveth the comforting spirit of God by fears and doubts No wonder then if it must be Gods Spirit only that sealeth because that alone can remove the guilt within thee that only can take off these objections these discouragements that are upon the soul As God raised an East-winde that suddenly delivered Pharaoh from those Locusts that molested him this was miraculous none could do it but God so it is the Spirit of God that alone can take off the heavy burthen of sinne upon thee It is Gods Spirit alone that can overrule thy conscience that can pacifie it that can comfort it It is the Spirit of Adoption that maketh us cry Abba Father but more of this may come in afterwards SERM. CXXXV A further Discovery of the Spirits sealing the People of God 2 COR. 1. 22. Who hath also sealed us THe third particular in the Description of the Spirits sealing cometh to be considered and that is the subject thereof which is two-fold 1. Of Inhesion And 2. Of Predication First Of Inhesion so it is said to be the work of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of the godly For after this manner the Scripture speaketh He hath sent his Spirit into our hearts Gal. 4. 6. And in this Text He hath given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts By this expression is denoted that deep radicated and full possession which the Spirit of God hath upon the hearts of true believers So that hereby is excluded that vanishing and superficial perswasion which may be in a temporary believer of his interest in Christ As a temporary believer hath something like true faith like true joy and like true grace upon the soul so he hath also something like this sealing and like this assured perswasion upon his heart Therefore as the former is much disputed and it doth greatly exercise tender hearts viz. How they may know when they are carried on in the work of sanctification beyond those inchoate and imperfect workings which an hypocrite may have So this latter also doth cause great sollicitude and care of spirit in many gracious souls How shall they know their assurance is not a delusion is not a false perswasion arising out of an inordinate love to their own selves For the Devil doth not only transform himself into an Angel of light as light is taken for holinesse but also as it is taken for comfort Now amongst other characteristical differences this is one the perswasion of a godly man is more full plenary and powerfull Even as sanctifying grace entereth efficaciously into the heart so also doth this sealing grace whereas what hypocrites feel is in a confused general and flashy way neither is it drawn out upon permanent and enduring motives Although doctrinal characters given by the most able Ministers of the Gospel are not enough to make us find out this difference in our selves without a rectified constitution of the powers of the soul within unlesse we attain to that qualification spoken of by the Apostle Heb. 5. 14. who by reason of use or habit or perfection as the word may be rendred have their senses exercised to discerne between good and evil This Text is much to be pressed upon you For it is not every godly man at first that can separate the precious from the vile in his soul but there must be an habitual use of the senses this way Where mark also the Apostle attributeth to the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a metaphorical manner That as the taste when well constituted is able to discern between bitter and sweet the eye between white and black the ear between what is melodious and what is harsh and displeasing Thus the soul of a godly man being used to heavenly and spiritual things can know what is of God and what is of Satan or of nature in him For you must know there may be four principles of operations in us 1. Nature and that when polished with education and moral principles may appear very glorious 2. Satan insinuating himself as a subtil Serpent as an Angel of light imitating the works of God though he cannot efficaciously work the heart to any thing all that he doth is by suggestion and moving the imaginative and sensitive part of a man 3. There is the Spirit of God and that worketh in us either in a common way by gifts and assistance or by a sanctifying way Now is there not required much spiritual skill and experience to discern which is which of all these So that it is no wonder if he require these senses to be exercised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word from those who did exercise themselves in the Heathenish games and that naked thereby to fit and prepare themselves to be more agile and expedite for that service In this dispute therefore enquire not onely for doctrinal symptomes and signes of this sealing of Gods Spirit but heartily pray for these exercised senses in spiritual things The other subject is the subject of predication of whom it is affirmed that they have this sealing of Gods Spirit and that is sanctified persons We speak of adult persons for it is plain that infants though they may be sanctified yet because not having actual faith they neither have this sealing And
if you ask Have all the sanctified persons of God this sealing Have none the sanctification of the Spirit but they must also have the witnessing of the Spirit I answer this Question because of great practical importance shall God assisting be handled by it self after the description hath been explained That which I shall here take notice of is That sanctification is necessarily presupposed to this sealing A great Prince will not set his seal to dung to make an impression there neither will God to an heart unsanctified For as in matter of Doctrine God will not vouchsafe miracles to confirm that which is a lie neither in practicals will the Spirit of God witnesse to that heart which is not made holy For indeed it should witnesse a lie in such a case informing such they are the sonnes of God when indeed they are the children of the Devil This order of Gods Spirits first sanctifying and then sealing is clear Ephes 1. 13. In whom after ye believed ye were sealed Those eminent Divines who defined faith to be assurance making it the same with the sealing of Gods spirit are gravelled at this Text and therefore make this Objection If faith be assurance be the sealing how doth the Text say After we believed we were sealed To this therefore Piscator answereth not yeelding that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be rendred Having beleeved as of a thing past but beleeving as in the present but there is too much forcing in this interpretation Others they consider of faith as it hath two parts Illumination of minde and fiducial assurance Now say they the Apostle meaneth by faith the former work of faith and so the meaning is After you were enlightned to know the truth you were confirmed and assured but that opinion making faith justifying to be an assurance that Christ is mine is justly refused It is plain then that when the Spirit of God hath in order of nature for in time they may be both together sanctified a man throughout whereby he is made a new creature then the Spirit of God maketh this glorious stamp upon him then he giveth him this seal as an honourable priviledge whereby he may know himself to be the Lords Even as in antiquity none might have seals but persons of honour and dignity So that the natural and unregenerate person is to stand aloof off thou hast nothing to do in this priviledge thou art not the man whom the great King of Heaven and earth doth purpose thus to honour We proceed in the Description and there we meet with the formal Nature of it wherein it doth essentially consist with the object thereof The Nature of it is In confirming and establishing the heart of a man For this is the chief and usual end of seals to ratifie a thing and to make it no longer uncertain and doubtfull And to this property doth the Scripture chiefly attend For whereas the soul though sanctified is apt to be in daily fears and doubts about Gods favour and grace towards it it fluctuateth up and down having no subsistency the Spirit of God cometh and consolidateth the soul inabling it to rest satisfied in this that God is his God that his sinnes are pardoned that he is become a reconciled Father in Christ And if you say Why do we not need the Spirit of God to do this Cannot we by our graces by our repentance and holy life sufficiently establish our own souls in peace No by no means we need the Spirit of God to comfort as you heard as well as to sanctifie and that for these Reasons First It is very hard for a man whose guilty conscience doth presse him and condemn him daily telling him that he hath deserved at Gods hands to be eternally tormented in hell not to thinke because God may doe thus that therefore he will do so In such terrours and affrights we look more to what we have deserved we look more to what God may do then what he will we are naturally suspicious and think the worst of God even as we doe to man If we have offended a man greatly and it lieth in his power to undo us we are never quiet we cannot but think when ever the opportunity is he will be avenged and therefore we dare not trust him Yea though we have given no just cause if others have taken up an unkind spirit towards us we expect nothing else from them but our ruine when it is in their power Therefore for all Saul's tears and good works to David yet he would never trust him Now although there be no cause for us to have such suspicious thoughts about God for he hath graciously promised that he will receive us insomuch as not to believe him herein is to give more credit to a man whose words many times satisfie us than to God who is truth it self yet the heart being guilty and full of fears doth work in this doubtfull manner about God How hard is it to bring the afflicted sinner to good perswasions about God and that though by promises and other wayes God hath so abundantly provided against such distrust Here then is the reason why we need the sealing of Gods Spirit we cannot perswade our selves but God will doe what he may do and what we have deserved And A second Reason followeth upon the former We can hardly be perswaded that the great and good things which we stand in need of God will ever bestow upon us who are so unworthy of them Can a beggars daughter be perswaded that a great King will marry her But here is a farre greater disproportion What will the great God of Heaven so holy so full of majesty look graciously upon me and not only forgive me my sinnes but advance me to eternal glory These things are very improbable Shall Joseph be freed not only from the prison but promoted to the greatest honour in the Land next to the King Who would have believed it And thus it is here the soul having low and humble thoughts of it self cannot be perswaded that the great God of Heaven will look upon such despicable wretches as they are 3. The way of evangelical confidence with the comfortable effects thereof are wholly supernatural And therefore no wonder if we need the Spirit of God to help us therein Not only holinesse and grace is supernatural but assurance and joy are likewise supernatural As we cannot pray without the Spirit helping our infirmities so neither are we able to call God Father If faith in Christ by which we are justified be supernatural then also is the comfort and peace flowing from the knowledge thereof As the Doctrine of the Gospel is by divine revelation flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto us that Christ is the Sonne of God so neither can flesh and blood enable us to the perswasion of this Mediator as loving me and giving himself for me Certainly if it be the gift of
for hereby this gracious worke of God is differenced from all Enthusiastical delusions or from those prophetical extasies which the Prophets of God sometimes did partake off from that rapture Paul was in when he said Whether he was in the body or out of the body he did not know No we are not to expect such immediate operations of the Spirit upon us where the Spirit shall be both the efficient cause and the object also Neither may we hearken after some voice of Gods Spirit or immediate testimony within saying to us as sometimes a voice spake to Christ This is my beloved Sonne We may not expect that Christ should say to thee after some visible manner as he did to Mary Magdalen Be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee We are not to hearken to such Doctrines that may presse for such a witnessing but we must give care to what the Spirit of God speaketh in the Scripture and so expect to have this confirmation and sealing by those meanes which he hath appointed Even as it is in the Doctrine of the Scripture it is the Spirit of God that doth fully assure the hearts of believers that it is Gods word But how doth it thus perswade the soul Not by any immediate testimony but by these implanted arguments therein as the holinesse of the matter the majesty of the style c. by which this undoubted perswasion is wrought in us Thus it is in this worke of sealing the Spirit of God though it be the efficient cause of it yet it is in such an order and way as he hath appointed For we must not thinke that it is suitable to the workings of Gods Spirit that we should have a blinde perswasion in us whereby we are assured onely we know not why and we are not able to give any reason that we are assured but because we are assured The Spirit of God attemperateth its operations to our rational nature But what are those meanes and wayes whereby the holy Spirit doth thus assure us They are either External or Internal External are two-fold First By the Sacraments in the right use of them the Spirit of God doth assure us Hence you heard the Sacraments are called seales neither may we thinke that Christ hath appointed these Ordinances in a barren formal and empty manner No God will accompany his owne Ordinance to the right receiver and therefore as truly as he received the bread and wine so truly is he also made partaker of Christs body and blood Whereas then the promises are indefinitely propounded the Sacraments they are particular applied and by these the Spirit of God doth assure us of our interest in the promises Secondly Another External way is By those notes and markes which are given of such to whom the promises doe belong The Scripture doth not onely declare the promises but characterizeth the persons to whom they doe infallibly belong Insomuch that he who findeth he doth truely beleeve and repent He that findeth he is made a new creature such an one may as undoubtedly conclude being enabled thereunto by the Spirit of God that the promises doe in particular belong to him as if he were named as if it were said Thou Thomas and Thou John thou art received into the favour of God So that this particular doth evacuate all those boasts and confidences which many may have of Gods love towards them seeing the marks and signs are not applicable unto them which the promises do require But these I call External There are Internal Qualifications by which the Spirit of God doth thus perswade and assure us not that they are a cause or that we are to put confidence in them but by them as signes and effects of Gods gracious love we come to be assured of the love it selfe As by the Rain-bow we come to be assured that God will not drowne the world again I shall not enlarge upon these having had opportunity from some passages in this Chapter to speak thereunto The first particular signe or marke by which the Spirit of God doth interest or seale unto that I shall instance in is The sanctified and savoury improvement of afflictions Such as are chastened from the Lord and taught by him these may unquestionably conclude Gods special love towards them Hebr. 12. Revel 3. The Scripture doth in those places abundantly evidence that whosoever is a sonne of God is afflicted by him Insomuch that he who hath no chastisements is to thinke that he is a bastard and not a sonne Now this is not to be understood of afflictions themselves meerly as so but as sanctified as working to our spirituall good And when they have this blessed fruit it is as comfortable an argument to be assured of Gods grace towards us as any may be thought on The Apostle maketh this a sure effect of Predestination Romans 8. 26. He did also predestinate us to be conformed to the image of his Sonne which is partly in suffering as he did that so we might be glorified as he was Look then with a more comfortable face upon afflictions than thou hast done Doe not flie from them with fear as Moses from his Rod when turned into a Serpent For when these doe worke to thy spiritual good when they are like fire to make the gold lesse drossie when they are like winnowing to purge the wheat from its chaffe then know this is an assured testimony of Gods favour Thou needest not say Who will goe up into Heaven What messenger will come immediately from God to perswade my soule of Gods favour towards me For the testimony is on earth it is neare thee doe not cast thy eyes from it Secondly A second signe or meanes by which we come to this sealing is The observation and experience of Gods gracious presence in us and with us whereby we are preserved from some and kept either from or in such temptations that might have undone us When we finde that grace accompanying of us which David prayed for Psalm 19. to keep us back from sinning As the childe of God hath the Angels of Heaven to take care of him they have it in charge to hold him as it were in their armes as a Nurse doth her little childe so is he also inwardly fortified by inherent grace to keepe him in his wayes to Heaven he hath habitual grace and actual grace and he hath preventing grace and co-operating he hath exciting and persevering grace Now that man who observeth how richly and mercifully the grace of God putteth it selfe forth in these several effects how often when he is ready to goe astray the grace of God seeketh him out how often grace prevented and excited him else he had beene swallowed up in such deepe gulphs of sinne he I say that findeth such prevenitng concomitant and subsequent grace of God he that findeth this Rock Christ to follow him with gracious effects as some say the waters out of
the Rock followed the people of Israel in the wildernesse to refresh them this man may say verily God is here verily God is with me Lastly The Spirit of God doth give us Consolation by the antecedent workes of sanctification Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his But the godly they have received the Spirit of God And if the soul which is the spirit of a man manifest it self present in the body by its operations shall we not much rather thinke that the Spirit of Christ where it dwelleth in a man will make knowne it selfe Shall we have these coales of fire in our bosome and not perceive them Now there is an order in the works of Gods Spirit which we also must attend unto and not think to have one before the other The order is this the Spirit of God doth 1. Enlighten the minde 2. It doth sanctifie the will and affections 3. It doth witnesse and seale to us these blessed effects To looke therefore for consolation before sanctification is preposterous Oh how happy is it when the childe of God earnestly seeketh after all these effects upon his soule and that in the order God hath appointed These few qualifications may suffice by these and the like the Spirit of God doth confirme Onely you must know these doe but objectively offer themselves if the Spirit of God doth not rightly constitute our inward man and enable us all these blessed effects may be upon our soules and yet we be disconsolate as if we had them not Even as there may be pleasant flowers in a garden yet if we have not light we cannot see them So that the cause of assurance is more from the Spirit of God efficiently establishing the heart than from these qualifications which doe objectively onely declare themselves Even as in faith dogmatically assenting to divine truths the work of Gods Spirit is more upon the understanding giving firmnesse and stedfast adhesion than upon the motives of credibility in the truths themselves But what is necessary to a fuller clearing of this will upon another occasion be considered I proceed to the last thing in this Description and that is the final cause which is That under the sense of this we might live boldly c. I say under this sense For this sealing of Gods Spirit doth make such a divine impression upon the soule that we feele it and perceive it not indeed bodily as we doe the fire that burneth but rationally and spiritually in our inward man So that not onely grace is from Gods Spirit but the experimental feeling of it is likewise from the same Hence it is not to be called an humane but divine sense For a gracious constitution is required to feele what is grace and to discerne the effects thereof But I hasten This sense and apprehension of Gods sealing being thus experimentally in us we find a three-fold advantage thereby First We walke boldly confidently Insomuch that we can cry Father Ephes 3. 12. We have boldnesse and accesse with confidence There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are able to speake any thing in the presence of God whereas in fears and doubts our prayers are interrupted we question whether we may say this or that Secondly Hereby we walke comfortably Yea it is called Joy unspeakable 1 Pet. 1. 8. and Rom. 14. 17. Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The Kingdome of God is there said to consist in this Alas how contrary doe the people of God walke to this Text for want of sealing as if godlinesse lay in doubts in fears and dejections of spirit Surely the people of God are to bewail their ignorance and low principles in these things Thou makest thy self to be like an heir under age as the Apostle alludeth Gal. 4. 1. and so not differing from a servant whereas the Gospel-light and Evangelical principles set home by the Spirit of adoption should fill thee with liberty and exceeding great joy Lastly Hereby we also live thankefully never satisfying our selves with admiring and commending the unspeakable and unsearchable riches of Gods grace Two great gulphs the Spirit of God hath delivered thee out of the sinfull lusts and corruptions thou didst once wallow in and the slavish sad tormenting feares thou wast once almost overwhelmed with Oh what cause is here of thankefullnesse How sorry art thou that thou art no more enlarged That thou hast but one heart and one tongue to be exercised in this matter And the aggravation of all this is that we may be thus bold joyfull and thankfull notwithstanding all discouragements to the contrary for they are many and dreadfull How many failings within How many temptations without What fiery darts from Satan And yet a sealed Christian is able to looke upon these with as much joy as the Israelites did upon the Aegyptian carcasses that lay dead upon the Sea-shore But if God should let open these flood-gates upon the most sanctified person he would be immediately swallowed up with them as Dathan and Abiram were suddenly in the earth And then Lastly You have the terme till which this sealing shall last and that is Till we are made happy compleatly in Heaven So Ephes 4. 30. We are sealed till the day of redemption This way of faith and assurance will then cease it will be turned into the immediate vision and fruition of God Then there will be no feares no doubts any more than lusts and corruptions How mercifull then is God that giveth us such manna in the wildernesse which will cease when we come into Canaan SERM. CXXXVII Whether all the People of God are his Sealed ones 2 COR. 1. 21. Who hath also sealed us THe nature of this sealing being largely described I shall conclude with an answer to that Question Whether all sanctified ones are Gods sealed ones for it might seem to be true of all seeing the Apostle speaketh universally in the person of beleevers who hath sealed us and Eph. 1. 13. those that beleeved were sealed there is no difference made neither are any exempted And not only by Scripture but by the testimony of many learned Protestants it should also seem so especially of such who defined faith to be an assurance for then if no assurance no faith To this purpose Calvin seemeth to speak on this very Text which Stapleten looketh upon as depraving the meaning of the Apostle Whosoever saith Calvin hath not the spirit of God a witnesse within him so that he can say Amen to God calling him to the certain hope of salvation he doth falso Christianum nomen obtendere pretend only to a Christian name not being so indeed To the same sense also in his Institutions lib. 3. cap. 2. par 16. Vere fidelis non est c. he is not truly a beleever who is not perswaded with a solid perswasion that God is a propitious and reconciled Father to him whereby he doth promise to
not perfect grace yet thou hast not perfect holinesse yet but thou waitest upon the Lord till it be accomplished and so do here Oh but I am afraid I shall never have it I shall dye without it that is more than thou knowest how suddenly and graciously doth God use to rebuke these windes and waves when we little think of it yet know thy interest to heaven is not shaken Thou wilt indeed want much comfort but not thy title to heaven Thou art as sure to go to heaven as if thou wert assured of it And withall remember that the faith of dependance and recumbency upon Christ only is more noble than assurance in that thou givest God most glory In this thy own interest is satisfied And lastly know that heaven is coming to thee and thou going to it when not only sin but all fears shall be removed away Thou shalt then dispute thy condition no more thou shalt not then question thy graces or Gods grace to thee but shall put on the Crown of glory never to be molested and disquieted any more SERM. CXXXVIII Of Grace as it is the Earnest of Eternall Glory 2 COR. 1. 22. And given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts THis is the third and last similitude by which that gracious confirmation of beleevers in Gods promises is declared and if we consider them relatively to the discourse precedent we shall easily see what great reason there is that the promises should not be only yea and Amen in themselves but in bs also Seeing we have this special work of Gods spirit anointing sealing and giving us an earnest of the things that are promised Now as you heard though the same prividedge be meant under this threefold similitude yet every one hath its proper notion and therefore the earnest here spoken of may differ from sealing thus That the sealing of Gods Spirit doth assure of us that which is already wrought in us as seals confirm contracts that are already made though hereby also is implyed a certain continuance and perseverance in that state which is sealed but the earnest spoken of in the text doth principally relate to the future So that whereas the childe of God might object what if I be sealed and assured for the present of my good condition yet who knoweth what may fall out thereafter I may apostatize I may provoke God to leave me and so this seal be as it were defaced But though the word sealing doth also imply continuance for it is till the day of redemption yet the word earnest doth more properly speak to that Objection Thou hast the earnest given thee of that inheritance which shall be hereafter So that in the words we may take notice of the mercy it self the efficient cause of it and the subject receiving it The mercy it self is said to be an earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is used in two other places in the New Testament as is to be shewed It is properly an Hebrew word though from the Hebrews communicated to the Phenicians which being great Merchants brought it into Greece so that the Grecians adopted it for their ordinary wood yea some Latinists as Plautus and Terentius do use it as Grotius on the place affirmeth Varro speaketh of it lib. 4. de ling. latinà where he saith the same mony for divers respects may be called dos merces arrabo and corollarium and addeth the word arrabo is brought from the Grecians but Scaliger in his Notes upon the place correcteth him for that saying Ne graecum verbum quidem sed merum Syriacum The Hebrew root from whence it groweth is gnarub to mingle and so by a metaphor it signifieth to buy and sell to make contracts and to assure them by earnests because in this action the buyer and the seller are as it were mingled together Some have translated it pignus which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pledge pignus It is so called either à pugno say some because the pledge is delivered by the hand or else as Martinius Lexi pignus from pago or pango because in such covenants and contracts there is an agreement established But Hierom of old and others of late do no waies approve of rendring it a pledge but an earnest for there is this difference in the civil law between arra and pignus an earnest and a pledge an earnest is part of the price that is to be paid down and so goeth to make it up but a pledge is given for security by the debtor to the creditor and taken away again when the debt is paid Now this metaphor doth no waies hold in this case for God is not a debtor to us when he giveth us his grace he doth not borrow of us neither when the promise is fullfilled is this grace taken away for in heaven grace is not abolished but perfected Indeed Aquinas upon the place maketh this Observation That as a pledge must be saith he equivalently worth to the debt so it is here grace wrought in us especially the Spirit of God bestowed upon us is equivalent to glory But that is false that in our graces wrought by Gods Spirit there is an intrinsecall condignity and equality to everlasting glory It 's therefore more proper and suitable to call it an earnest which was commonly used two waies either in civill commerce or matrimoniall contracts called therefore in the latter subarrhatio The end and use of it was to secure the full payment of the debt or fullfilling of any promise made and in this sense it is true in the Text God knowing our pronenesse to doubt about his promises as also how uncertain and fearfull we are doth give us his grace here as a sure earnest of our eternal happinesse So that by this earnest we are not to understand extraordinary and miraculatous gifts of Gods Spirit for many had them who yet never could enter into glory but the special works of grace sanctifying These are fitly called an earnest though there be also some dissimilitudes as is to be shewed insomuch that he who findeth he hath grace here may certainly conclude he shall have glory hereafter for though there be some who hold that some may have true faith and yet totally fall off and that only the elected beleever shall persevere yet that is built upon a sandy foundation In the second place you have the efficient cause of this and that is the spirit of God Some indeed make this by way of apposition The earnest which is the spirit as if the spirit it self both in this and the other Text were the earnest which may be received provided that by the spirit we mean not only the person of the spirit but the gracious operations thereof for the people of God partake of both Eph. 1. 13. They are said to be sealed with that holy spirit of promise called so not because it is the spirit promised for that is too frigid though it be
true but because it is the spirit that doth apply the promises to the soul and make us assured of them as he is called the holy spirit because he is the authour of holinesse But then Eph. 4. 30. there we are said to be sealed by the spirit denoting the spirit of God to be the efficient cause of it So that it is a blasphemous wresting of the Scripture by a Socinian when by the holy Ghost thus sealing unto us is saith he Smal. disp de promisso spiritus sancti meant no more than a sure hope of eternal life He denieth the holy Ghost to be God and a Person it is only saith he a sure hope within us but this is to confound this effect with the cause faith and love and hope are the effects of Gods Spirit they are not the spirit it self So that from hence viz. because the spirit of God doth seal us we may gather a sure argument that he is truly God for the spirit is said to confirm us and God is said to confirm us whereby it is implyed that to confirm our hearts is a divine operation as well as to sanctifie it It is true how the spirit of God is God and how it proceedeth from the Father and Sonne cannot be comprehended by reason It is enough that by faith we are to beleeve so for no wonder the doctrine of the Trinity is inexplicable seeing the nature of God is ineffable To this purpose Austin having discoursed about the Trinity concludeth that he perceived only he had spoken something of God Si autem dixi non est hoc quod dicere volui hoc unde scio nisi quia Deus ineffabilis est Quod autem a me dictum est si ineffabile esset non esset dictum ac per hoc ne ineffabilis quidem dicendus est Deus quia hoc cum dicitur aliquid dicitur fit nescio quae pugna verborum quoniam si illud est ineffabile quod dici non potest non est ineffabile quod velut ineffabile dici potest De Doctrinâ Christianâ lib. 1. But that by the way Lastly Here is the subject wherein and that is said to be in our hearts So that as God doth write his Law in our hearts Thus he doth also infuse his comfort and assurance which doth demonstrate the soveraign power of God over our hearts he can make them holy when he pleaseth he can comfort them when he pleaseth No Potentate in the world can do thus That heart of thine which is not in thy own power which no man can tame the grace of God can tame it that heart which thou desirest may be filled with holinesse and consolation God alone can do it The Observation is That grace wrought in the heart is a sure earnest of glory hereafter He that is holy here must needs be happy hereafter If thou canst finde grace in thy soul thou hast found the Pearl thou maist rejoyce not doubting but heaven will be thine hereafter The people of God are not only to look upon grace as grace but as it is an earnest of a greater happinesse yet how often do the children of God consider it without thiis respect what courage joy and holy boldnesse would it work in thee to think thou hast within thee that which assureth of eternal glory as if thou wert already in heaven This is a reviving truth that grace is an earnest of glory thou mindest grace as it subdueth thy corruptions as it maketh thy heart to be carried out more holily and delightsomely to God but then thou dost not attend to it as an earnest There is a great deal of difference between a shilling as a single peece of money and as an earnest it may be of twenty pound more to come Thus it is very much rejoycing to finde grace at all in thy soul as it is grace but it doth much more rejoyce as it is an earnest of more fulnesse Adam had grace the angels had grace but grace was not given them as part of an inheritance for they fell from it Let us consider two Texts of Scriptures where we have this earnest spoken of The first is by our Apostle in this Epistle cap. 5. 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of his spirit What is that self same thing he speaketh of it is a groaning and an earnest desire after immortality we would gladly be out of this burden here and in heaven yea as we groan and desire so we are assured and know that when we shall dye we shall go to heaven But now because these are things far above the power of nature we naturally are afraid of death we are unwilling to be taken from our relations we have not such assurance of heaven Therefore saith the Apostle He that doth work us frame and polish us for this great thing it is God We could never do it without his supernatural assistance But then how doth God work this admirable frame of heart it is by the earnest of his spirit we have the beginnings of heaven already So that as the Israelites by the bunches of raisons had some foretast of Canaan so have beleevers some taste of heaven by what they feel already and as Moses from Mount Pisgah could behold Canaan though he did not enter into it thus thou hast a sight of heaven and an entrance into it by the grace begun in thee The other Text is Eph. 1. 14. where the Apostle having said That we were sealed by the spirit of promise he addeth which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession We are not yet brought into heaven into Canaan We are yet in the wildernesse we meet with many dangers and temptations threatning us that we shall never come there but only this earnest doth assure us and satisfie us So that as among the Israelites an inheritance was not to be alienated from the Tribe in the year of Jubilee it would return again to the true owner Thus this inheritance of heaven will never be taken from thee Thou maist be in some dangers and fears of losing of it by thy unwise carriage but shalt not be deprived of it Before we enlarge on this subject it is good to take notice of the dissimilitude as well as the similitude for though grace wrought in us be compared to an earnest in this respect as it doth assure us of future glory yet in other respects it greatly differeth from earnest among men As in the first place An earnest in bargains is to assure the buyer that giveth it as well as the seller they mutually hereby are confirmed so that the buyer cannot honestly fly off any more than the seller But now when the spirit of God worketh this earnest in us it is only for our good it is that we may be assured and
the Lord liveth therefore not by any creature 1. In truth that is be sure that the thing thou swearest be true not onely in it self but to thy conscience that thou knowest the truth of it or if thou hast not the certainty of it that thou beleevest it to be so upon good grounds and against this offend all those who swear falsly and will bring as much as lieth in them God to witnesse a lye 2. In judgement that is with prudence deliberation and caution Be well advised before thou swearest and against this offend all common swearers that swear rashly and for ordinary things as also those who swear in passions and when moved by anger 3. In righteousnesse that is be sure the matter thou swearest especially in promissory oaths be lawfull and just such which is agreeable to Gods Word To these we may adde two more 1. That we swear in faith beleeving not only that there is a God but also that he is an observer of all that we speak or do and an avenger of such who shall pollute his Name And then 2. that we do it with holy awe and reverence of God upon our spirits We are to fear an oath Oh what trembling and confusion may this work upon rash and passionate common swearers How often hath the name of God been taken into thy mouth rashly and prophanely Thou who when thou art to do with a great man in place and honour dost with all reverence approach to him how cometh the Majesty of the great God to be thus contemned by thee In the last place When may we swear and that is in the generall when necessity doth compell when the truth cannot be found out any other waies for an oath is to be used when other means are deficient and more particularly we are then only to swear when the honour of God is concerned or Religion and Christianity is falsly accused and these are publique grounds To which we may adde the good of the Common-wealth or we are to swear upon a particular occasion to clear our selves from false accusations and crimes charged upon us if otherwise our innocency cannot appear or in the behalf of others when they shall suffer either in name life or estate and we are required 〈◊〉 unto by the Magistrate that so justice may proceed SERM. CXLIII Ordinary Swearing reproved and put to Silence 2 COR. 1. 23. Moreover I call God to record upon my soul c. I Shall now conclude the Subject which the former part of this verse hath afforded unto us From what hath been delivered concerning an Oath I proceed to an Use of severe Reproof against that common Epidemicall sinne of ordinary swearing It is a Nationall sinne it is the City-sinne it is the Village-sinne it is the Family-sinne it is the rich mans sinne the poor mans sinne the old mans sin the young mans yea the childs sin who learneth to speak and swear together But if an oath be a religious calling upon God as a witnesse if it be a sacred worship of his holy Name where will such prophane contemners of the honour and glory of God appear What mountains shall cover them from the wrath of God What shall be done unto thee thou cursing swearing tongue Not coals of juniper but of hell fire shall be powred upon thee We may be amazed and wonder why such a sinne should be thus universall for other sins have either pleasure or profit but this hath none at all Certainly the custome of such a sinne cometh from the meer wickednesse and prophanenesse of a mans heart having no fear of God in our souls for there is no earthly advantage that tempteth to this common ordinary swearing yet it hath been a generall sinne in the former ages of the Church as well as now How zealous and frequent is Chrysostome against that ungodly custom of swearing Adhuc timeo quia nullus timet saith he With no lesse godly affection doth Austin also set himself against it yea it seemeth there were such prophane wretches in his daies as are in ouâ—s who did account juramentum in ore magnum suave aliquid And have not we many who judge an oath to be a grace to their language and deride at such who are so precise as to be offended at such passages Oh therefore that God would so blesse this Discourse at this time to you that the prophane swearing tongue may be converted into a praying tongue a repenting and confessing tongue that he who hath sworn may never do so more but fear an oath as much as hell-fire and for this purpose consider these motives thereunto First That there is an expresse precept and command against such ordinary rash swearing and therefore you cannot with any forehead pleade for the lawfulnesse of it neither can you say we did not know that it was a sin to do thus for Christ hath set a command like a Beacon upon an hill none can but see it And it spâ—aks almost as loud as the Trumpet at the day of judgement none can but hear it It is Mat. 5. 34. But I say unto you Swear not at all and ver 37. Let your communication be yea yea nay nay he saith Swear not at all so that if it be but once an unlawfull swearing in all thy life thou hast transgressed this command and as one tile of the house neglected may in time make the whole covering consume and one rent in the garment let alone may at last destroy the whole so even one sinfull oath not repented of or humbled for may bring on the damnation of the whole man You see this command is laid down so strictly both in the negative and affirmative part that some have judged it wholly unlawful to swear in any case but that you heard was an error on the right hand yet so farre the command extendeth as to forbid all customary idle rash and unnecessary swearing So that the common swearer may as much fear to come near this command as the Israelite did to the mount when the Law was given Shall not this command of Christ be more to thee than all custome and example But I say unto you saith Christ Swear not at all who dareth then thus contradict Christ Why dost thou not all the day-long minde thy self of this Why doth not thy conscience put thee in remembrance of this command Say when thou risest when thou walkest when thou goest to bed this commandment to thy self Swear not The Apostle James also because of the great necessity and utility of this precept doth repeat it to beleevers For as Luthers saying is principum literae sunt bis vel ter legendae Princes letters and commands are to be read twice or thrice And thus we are daily to meditate on this duty by this gemination it should appear that the heart of man is very ready to break out into this filthy prophanenesse though there be no alluring motive Therefore he
it is wholsome Therefore do not thou cry out against such men that have the Law hell and damnation so much in their mouths for this is the way to polish and prepare thee for comfort we do not forget the Gospel while we preach so neither are we to be accounted as legall Preachers and not such as preach Christ for hereby we levell the mountain for Christ to come hereby we streighten the camels back that it may go through the eye of the needle yea all those spirituall censures inflicted upon offenders are for comfort if thou art reproved and that sharply and zealously it is for thy comfort yea if thou art for thy scandalous and impenitent waies cast out from Church-communion and denied the seals of comfort yet all this is medicinall and maketh a way for comfort The incestuous person is by Paul cast into spirituall sorrow that so he may partake of spirituall joy and consolation of which blessed effect more in â—â—s time when we come God willing to the next Chapter In the next place let us consider the grounds why Ministers are to promote the comfort of such who are fit subjects for it And first Because they are Ministers of the Gospel and what is that but the glad tidings of pardon of sin of reconciliation and of everlasting happinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is noted to signifie not only glad tidings but the reward also given unto the messengers thereof What then is more suitable to the Ministers of comfort but to bring comfort that we may say as David of Ahimaaz he is a good man and bringeth good tidings If a Minister be a Boanerges a son of thunder it is that he may be a son of consolation It is not contrary to their commission to preach of sinne and of the day of judgement for so Paul did to Felix which made him tremble only we are not to stay here we must not keep you allwaies under this Schoolmaster but bring you at last to Christ Insomuch that all our duties tend to this even to advance the Gospel in the hearts of hearers yea every doctrine of Christ as it is a doctrine after godlinesse so it is also after consolation And therefore if any opinion do properly make against godlinesse we may reject it and so if any do truly make against solid comfort we may refuse that as not being of Christ It is true many hereticall and erroneous persons may pretend to great comforts and ravishments They usually say they never had so much comfort as since they engaged in such waies but then you must remember that the devil may be transformed into an angel of light and as there is a counterfeit pie y so there is also a counterfeit comfort It is not enough then to have comfort but it is to be judged and tried by Gods word Neither may we say this is a comfortable doctrine therefore I will embrace it but first see it be a true Scripture-doctrine and then receive it for such to be sure will also be comfortable 2. We are to help forward the godly mans comfort because the heart of man awakened for sinne is very much indisposed to receive it and the devil he is a vehement opposer of it That the heart of man wounded for sin doth difficultly receive consolation is plain because joy is the fruit of Gods spirit and the spirit of God is given not only to sanctifie us but to vouchsafe consolation also so that as a man hath a dead womb in respect of grace he is not able to have one good thought without Gods spirit so he hath also a dead womb in respect of comfort he is not able to have one comfortable thought unlesse God who is called the God of all consolation infuse it into him and then the devil is a daily opposer of our comforts as well as our graces as he is a tempter to sinne so to unbeleef and discouragements he loveth to keep us as he did the lunatick person about the tombs in thoughts of our hypocrisie and damnation that God doth not love us that he hath cast us off Is it not then necessary to endeavour the comfort of a godly man when it is so greatly gainsaid both within and without 3. Our duty is to perswade to comfort because hereby the heart is more enlarged and quickned unto all godlinesse The joy of the Lord is our strength as Nehemiah said Nehem. 8. 10. It is like oyl to the wheels With what delight and gladnesse doth a joyfull beleever exercise himself in all holihesse with what courage and confidence doth he discharge all the duties required of him The spirit of God did come upon the Prophet when he played upon the harp The more chearfull the more prepared to receive power from God as the drier the paper is the fitter to receive characters whereas upon wet paper none can write As it doth thus enable us to do no lesse also doth it fortifie us to suffer We see with what readinesse and undaunted courage the Martyrs endured the most exquisite torments and why so but because they were filled with unspeakable joy insomuch that their condition was sar better than the most prosperous and flourishing estate of any wicked men They were infeliciter felices and these were feliciter infelices as Austin said So that in promoting holy joy we advance grace and godlinesse also Use first of instruction to the Ministers of the Gospel to answer the main end of their office which is to be comforters not to be Marahs but Naomies Spiritual consolation is the proper fruit of the spirit of Adoption and therefore a pearl highly to be esteemed and that they may do this they must attend to their doctrine and their practise Their doctrine and thus in Popery in stead of building up they destroy comfort the doctrine of uncertainty and doubting about the state of grace the doctrine of satisfaction and merits these are uncomfortable doctrines Indeed some adversaries say the doctrine of absolute predestination and that Christ died but for some only and not all is an uncomfortable doctrine Hence their saying is spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus Melancholicus The Antinomians they also say to preach the Law and repentance thereby as in a way to obtain remission of sins is a method of preaching that destroyeth all comfort but these might easily be confuted if it were our businesse It is a Ministers duty to see the doctrine he preacheth doth not in its own genius and as a proper effect work despair or discouragement And then for their practise they must be carefull that all reproofs admonitions and spiritual censures be so managed that though for the while they may seem bitter yet at the last they will bring much comfort and that though they be in pain for a while yet they shall at last rejoyce to see a manchilde born 2. Use of Exhortation to be such a prepared people as that comfort may
for the future Considerations clearing the truth 1. Though we have oft had experience of Gods goodness yet every new trouble is ready to startle us 2. Though the promises be sufficient grounds for our trust yet experiences do much promote faith 3. 'T is a good way to keep the heart calme even to exercise trust in God for the future 4. The future good things that we are to trust in the Lord for are both spirituall and temporall Object Answer 1. There are motives to trust in God from both the personal and general priviledges of believers 2. What are the opposites to trusting in God 1. Presumption Signs of presumption 1. When we walk not by Scripture-light 2. When we are confident without a promise 3. When we separate the means from the end 4. When we use false means 5. When we think by our own strength to obtain grace and glory 2. Despair Whence despair arises 1. From low thoughts of God As 1. The power of God 2. The goodness of God 3. Of the merits of Christ 2. From wrong apprehensions about our sins 3. This grace of trusting in God cannot be expected to be perfect here 'T is our duty not to separate Gods power and goodnesse from the means required How God and the creature work together 1. All Gods spiritual mercies have many things concurrent before they be accomplished 2. The opposing of these requisites one against another hath bred much confusion and errour How we should relie wholly upon Christ and yet make use of the means and how we may know whether we do or no. 1. When we acknowledge whatsoever we have to come from Christ 2. When we attribute no merit or causality to the means 3. When we rest upon Christ onely for our justification 4. When we put no trust or confidence in the means 5. We dishonour God in the use of the means when we think we profit him thereby The most eminent in gifts and graces need the prayers of their inferiours Reasons 1. Because there is a more peculiar promise made to the prayers of many then one 2. Because the Church in Scripture is called a body whose parts stand in need one of another Use People ought to pray for their spirituall guides Considerations explaining the truth 1. 'T is an errour of the Socinians to say God commands prayer only in the New Testament 2. No merit or confidence to be put in our prayers 3. Ministers are to pray for their people and people for their Ministers 4. This supposeth the people to be both gifted and gracious 5. Many things there are which people are to desire of God for their Ministor 1. That they may be preserved 2. That their word may be suceesfull 3. That their gifts and graces may be quickned 4. That they may be saved Whensoever we have received mercies from God we are by praise and thankfullness to acknowledge then to him What is required to the praising of God 1. An acknowledgement that God alone is the Authour of all our mercies 2. Both the generall and particular acts of faith 3. Love to God 4. Heavenly mindedness 5. Chearfulnes Motives to praise God 1. 'T is an excellent duty in that we are so backward to it 2. It is called a Sacrifice 3. 'T is a debt due to God 4. The chief motive is thankfulnesse 5. A thankfull heart is the most proper disposition to Gospel dispensations 6. The neglect of this duty is an argument of a rotten heart Our ordinary temporal enjoyments are the gifts of God 1. The effects of natural causes are still the gift of God 2. The comforts that flow from moral causes are still the gifts of God 3. What we receive from men 't is still the gift of God 4. Whatsoever we have by the art and skill of others 5. Such things as come upon us without our care Reasons Why these are all Gods gifts 1. God is not necessitated to give them 2. We have oft forseited them by our sins 3. We are to pray to him for them Not only personal but publick prayers and praises are acceptable to God Reasons 1. Hereby the honour of God is more promoted 2. Hereby our love to one another is much quickened 3. God in a more especial manner present there 4. Herein the lively may prevail for the dull and indisposed Mercies vouch safed to the Ministers are to be accounted as Church mercies An holy rejoycing and glorying in the graces of God is lawfull What is required to our glorying in the gifts and graces we have received from God 1. An high esteem of our graces 2. A certain perswasion that we have them 3. Good grounds and Scripture-demonstrations thereof 4. The Spirit of God In what respect 't is lawfull thus to rejoyce and glory 1. As they are the fruits of Gods favour 2. As they bear up our hearts against all accusations either external or internal Wherein this rejoycing is unlawfull 1. When we rejoyce in our graces as if they were perfect 2. When we so rejoyce in them as so rest upon them 3. When we rejoyce in them as coming from our selves not God The witnesse of a good conscience is great ground of comfort What is required to a good conscience 1. That it witness according to the word of God 2. The help of the Spirit to instruct us in the true meaning of the Word 3. Pure aims and intentions 4. Inward sanctification What else is requisite to a well-regulated conscience 1. The witnessing and sealing power of the Spirit with our consciences How the Spirit of God doth not witness with our consciences How it doth 1. Effectively 2. Objectively What are the effects of the Spirit by which our consciences are rightly guided in witnessing to us 1. A purpose to leave all known sin 2. A zeal for the glory of God 3. An holy confidence in our approachings unto God 4. Love to the Brethren 5. Self-denial 6. Delight in heavenly things Distinctions concerning the testimony of our conscience 1. 'T is either particular or general 2. It witnesseth either perfection or sincerity 3. Conscience is either habitually enabled or actually prepared to testifie 4. The testimony of conscience is either alone or relating to Christ A believer may be assured he performeth duties with an upright heart What is required to a certain knowledg of our being in a state of grace 1. A firm assent to the truth of Gods promises and Word 2. A particular application of the promises to themselves What is required to an experimental discerning of our graces 1. An humble heart 2. A regular disposition in the soul 3. An holy fear 4. The help of Gods Spirit What are the hinderances which keep men from looking after an assurance of their sincerity 1. Self-fulness and presumptuous security 2. A prophane careless spirit 3. Carking carefulness 4. Despairing and discouraging thoughts Of Gods commands to get assurance The effects of our souls 1. A quiet heart 2. Spiritual
against Christ 2. T is the grace of God◠alone that can open this door 3. Sometimes Ministers are called to a people of small hopes 4. A Ministers hope of doing good should be guided by the Word Reasons why a Ministers hope of doing good should be matter of of joy to him 1. The End of his Ministry is accomplished A constant Ministry is necessary to every Church And that for these Ends 1. To informe against Errors 2. To reform the corruptions that are in mens lives 3. To comfort the godly 4. To edifie and strengthen them How believers may and are to grow 1. In knowledg 2. In the experimental power of their knowledge 3. In Faith 4. In Grace 'T is the duty of all Christians especially Ministers to lay out themselves for the glory of God 1. For all Christians 1. There is none but have talents to be improved 2. All lawfull actions may be improved for Gods glory 3. Christians should often meditate upon the ultimate end of all their actions 2. Especially it belongs to Ministers What is required to enable us to do all things for Gods glory 1 A converted soul 2 A publick spirit 3. Heavenlyn indedness 4. Fervency and zeal The office of the Apostle and ordinary Pastors differs in that the one had an universal the other a particular charge 1. The Apostles had commission to preach to all Nations 2. Yet the office of the Apostles did virtually contain all other 3. The Apostles had in their office something ordinary and something extraordinary 5. Though a Pastor is ordinarily to reside amongst his flock yet he is a Minister of the whole Church of God Where the Ministry hath wrought spiritually the Minister is esteemed highly Lightness and inconstancy is a great sinne and reproach to all much more to Ministers Of the sinfulness of inconstancy in civil respects As 1. When we are not consistent with our selves in our assertions 2. In our promises 3. In our affections Of the aggravations of this sinne 1. 'T is contrary to the nature of God 2. 'T is a reproach to men 3. Hereby a man makes himself unfit for Gods service 4. 'T is an abuse of our tongue 5. God threatens lying but encourageth sincerity Of the sinfulness of Inconstancy in spiritual things as in 1. Faith 2. In our Conversion and Repentance Motives against this Inconstancy 1. There is the same Reason at all times against sin 2. Sinnes after Convictions are the greater 3. This Inconstancy is a mocking of God and a dallying in soul-matters 4. It may justly cause God for ever to forsake thee 3. This Inconstancy is a great sin in Promises and Resolutions Of the Phrase according to the flesh which is taken for 1. The humane Nature 2. External Priviledges 3. Corrupt Principles Walking by carnal Principals makes men unstable and inconstant Principles of flesh 1. Covetousness 2. Ambition 3. Pleasing of men 4. Time-serving 5. Self-pleasing Of Principles 1 Herein men differ from bruit beasts because they act from inward principles beasts by instinct 2. Principles are either speculative or practical 3. All the principles of natural men are sinfull and carnal 3. Principles are oft hidden 5. There are principles of flesh even in our holy duties 6. The principles of the carnal and of the spiritual are contrary Of the principles of a godly man There are two general principles 1. There is a principle of knowledge viz. the holy Scriptures 2. The principle of his acting viz. the Spirit of God Particular principles 1. Alwayes to keep a good conscience towards God and man 2. To make sure of his ultimate end and the necessary means to it 3. Daily to expect death and judgment 4. To judg sin the greatest evil and godliness the greatest good Lying is not consistent with godliness 1. There is a material and a formal lie 2. There are assertory and promissory lies 3. There is a pernicious sporting and officious lie 4. Lying is a sinne of the tongue 5. They that would not lie must study the government of the tongue He that would govern his tongue must first cleanse his heart The causes of lies 1. Natural inclination 2. Want of dependance upon God 3. Our captivity to Satan 4. Covetousnes 5. Fear God is true God is true 1. There is a Metaphysical and a moral Truth 2. There is an increated and created truth 3. In that God is true he differeth from men and devils 4. 'T is because of Gods truth that we are commanded to believe and trust in him 5. The truth of God is the Foundation of all Religion and godliness Wicked men usually cast the Imperfections of the Minister upon the Ministry 1. A people may have an holy Zeal againg a loose scandalous Minister 2. A people are oft prone to take offence at the Ministers when yet 't is their sin 1. When they dislike that which may be of great use 2. When they are offended at his reproveing sin 3. When they cast the saults of the persons upon their Office and Doctrine 4. When they refuse the Ministry upon false Rumors and Surmises 'T is a great reproach for a Minister to be mutable and contradictory in his doctrine 1. All changes are not bad 2. But 't is a sin and reproach to change from the truth 3. Even such a change supposeth imperfection 4. No man but may know more than he doth 5. We must distinguish betwixt what is and what is not fundamental 1. We must distinguish betwixt constancy and pertinancy 2. Then is it a reproach to change when we change from truth The causes of inconstancy 1. Ignorance 2. Affectation of singularity and vain-glory 4. Examples We must distinguish betwixt essentials and circumstantials in Religion Christ only is to be the subject of our preaching When is Christ preached 1. When he is declared to be the Messiah 2. When preached as God-man 3. When preached in his person and his offices 5. When he is set up as the head of his Church The Lord Christ is the son of God 1. He is truly God 2. He is not the son of God as others are called his sonnes as 1. By Creation 2. By Regeneration 3. Because of their dignity 3. He is therefore called the Son of God because begotten from eternity of the Father 4. He was begotten of the Father 5. In these Mysteries we must adhere wholly to the testimony of the word 6. He is Antichrist that denies the Son to be God 7. The spirit of giddiness hath justly fallen upon these that deny Christ to be God Christ is a Saviour to his people What is implyed in Christs being a Saviour 1. That all mankinde was lost 2. What kinde of Saviour is Christ Even a spiritual one 3. He is an effectual Saviour Who is Christ a Saviour to 1. Some of mankinde 2. The repenting believing sinner 3. They are saved from 〈◊〉 and the world 4. Christs people 5. The saved are but few in comparison of the