my friend O daughters of Jerusalem See now how this takes upon their Spirits Chap. 6.1 Whether is thy beloved gone O thou fairest among women whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee Mark how his hiding himself from his spouse conduceth to the calling of other poor souls to the seeking after Christ When they see them mourning and grieving and complaining and cannot rest without him thinks the poor soul there is some excellency in him that we see not we will certainly go along to seek him with these poor souls he is worth seeking after And so it sets them a flame after him also The third thought is when the Soul complains it hath none of the Spirit Thirdly The third Thought that riseth in the heart to trouble the soul and perplex it is this I have none of the Spirit of God Now Christ commands John 4. To worship God in the spirit And Gal. 5.16 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and Jude 20. Praying in the holy ghost But how should I do this that have not the Spirit feel him not working nor quickening nor comforting me my heart is so dead and loose and weary in duty never carried up to heaven how can I but be troubled When you are carried with a fiery Chariot into heaven then you think you have the spirit But when a man moves in a lower Region he thinks he hath it not I shall speak to this 1. Generally 2. More Particularly Generall observations to this case Generally thus 1. That it is a very good thing to have the Spirit or to miss it As in hearing the word in prayer conference Meditation c. Either to feel a man hath it or to feel he wants it And the worst of these is better then to rest in a duty shaped out of your own Brain consisting in an empty sound of expressions and words For ye must take heed ye do not content your selves with shadowes and phrases without the Spirit For God doth not know the meaning of such duties Rom. 8. 2. Consider the spirit hath a manifold work in the hearts of the children of God Now a man cannot reason from the want of such a fruit of the Spirit as joy or peace c. that therefore he hath not the Spirit Ye cannot reason thus A man doth not Laugh Therefore he doth not Live Weeping is a sign of life as well as laughter So it is in this Case The sense of sin may argue the Spirit of God to be in you as well as the feeling of Joy Zach. 12 10. I will pour upon them the SPIRIT of grace and the Spirit of supplications And they shall look upon me whom they have peirced and shall MOVRN for him as one mourneth for his onely Son And be in BITTERNES c. The Spirit is a Spirit of variety 1 Cor. 12. Giving to one this gift to another that gift to one Humility Poverty of spirit Self deniall Godly sorrow to another Zeal and Courage and Joy c. And so it is oftentimes in the same man sometimes it is tuning his godly sorrow sometimes his joy sometimes his fear c. And this is one ground of the variety of conditions the Saints are in as David sometimes ye find him singing on the uppermost branch of the tree and sometimes hanging his wing in the bottome of the hedg Sometimes calling upon himself to praise the Lord seven times a day Psal 119.164 And sometimes crying out that he was cast out of Gods sight Psal 31.22 So Job sometimes professing though he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 And sometimes changing his note If I had called and he had answered me yet I would not believe that he had hearkned to my voice Job 9.16 The Church spoken of in the Lamentations Sometimes lamenting my strength and my HOPE is perished from the Lord Lam. 3.18.22 and sometimes again confessing I have HOPE Paul had the spirit as well in his buffetings as in his rejoycings And David when he prayed restore to me the joy of thy salvation as when he felt it Psal 51. The Spirit led Christ to be tempted as well as supported him and brought him back into Galilee Luke 4.1 c. A man may have the spirit in the Fight as well as in the Triumph He hath the spirit that soweth to the spirit in Tears as well as he that reaps in joy Psal 126.5.6 Therefore you may be mistaken in saying you have not the spirit seing it works so variously 3. This spirit may exercise it self in thee in duties one way though it be not felt but another way as in prayer sometimes tuning thy love sometimes thy hatred sometimes thy humility sometimes thy joy Therefore do not wrong the spirit of God and say it is from home because you feel not joy Do not say it is idle for it may be working in another room tuning another grace If a man should alwaies touch one key he should never play various tunes Now our hearts are Gods Harps Rev. 14.2 and 15.2 And therefore if God should not tune them variously there would be no melody And if the spirit be not setting up a candle in thee it may be scouring of a candle-stick I mean If it be not filling thy heart with joy it may be preparing thy heart for joy 4. There may be workings of the spirit in the heart and yet ye may not perceive it is the working of the spirit As in a peice of blunt money that ye can see no mark upon you will say by the bigness it should be such a piece six pence or a nine-pence but I can see nothing upon it So there may be workings of the spirit that are not seen for the present and yet afterward when the spirit worketh another way then thou maist perceive that this was of the spirit Luk. 24. The disciples that went to Emmaus knew not Christ while he was opening the Scriptures to them which was the likeliest time yet they knew him in breaking bread And then they could call to minde the burning of their hearts by the way Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us by the way and opened to us the Scriptures ver 32. just as it is in our businesses in the world many secret providences which a man doth not see to be a providence till after by some other issue he cals it to minde and sees it a providence So God hath his glory at last As Zaccheus climbing up into the figtree what could a man pick out of it till afterward that Christ tells him he must abide at his house then it appeared to be a providence So in the Disciples being so importunate with Christ to stay when he made as if he would have gone further they saw nothing in it for the present but afterward when Christ
though he do not know it 1. I say The best state or Condition is for a man to be Gods and know it that he is so Though not to know it doth not cut up the mil-post and overthrow all though it may indeed take off the sailes I mean though it may put a man to a stand or make him go heavily yet it doth not prove his condition to be desperate A man is Gods two wayes A man is Gods two wayes By Election and Calling 1. By Election 1. By Election So a man may be a sheep not gathered John 10.16 Other sheep I have which are not of this fold them MVST I bring So that they are not yet brought and yet sheep which Christ must bring Therefore ye cannot make this conclusion that ye are none of Gods by Election 2. By Calling 1. Cor. 1.1 But Secondly A man is Gods by Calling And so he is a Saint For we are Saints by Calling Now the purpose of Gods electing is the calling of a man and the Evidencing of his Calling And therefore our Calling is effectuall and powerfull because it is a calling accotding to Gods purpose Rom. 8.28 And the purpose of God in Election is evidenced to us by Calling the first dawning and evidence of this love of God to us is this calling us to Christ 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure So that the way of Evidence is from the second to the first Now it is best for a man to know himself Gods both wayes For though this assurance doth nor make a man to be a man in Christ yet it makes him to be a lively man in Christ for he is made a man in Christ simply by beleeving or taking Christ at the hands of God A double witness Now we are evidenced to be Gods both wayes by a double witness that gives evidence The evidence of our Spirit and the evidence of Gods Spirit Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Sons of God Now this Calling is evidenced two wayes Regeneration 1. By regeneration or being born of God Secondly by Adoption whereby being strangers we are made Sons by our incorporation into Christ For both these see John 1.12.13 As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to those that beleeve on his name Sons of God who are those Those that are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Now observe that the Sons of God by faith in Christ are Sons of God by the birth of the Spirit Therefore see whether your faith reach this or no They were born not of blood nor by the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God For prove one and prove the other Adoption Yet know that Regeneration and Adoption are two distinct things The one is the act of God towards us The other is the work of the Spirit in us But the Spirit of sanctification and the Spirit of Adoption are both one but they are two distinct acts The Spirit of Sanctification worketh in us a new life The Spirit of Adoption may rather be called the evidence So that prove one and prove the other Prove that a man breathes and by that you prove he liveth yet there may be a more proper proof as if he feel or see c. So that this is it that I would say That the witness of our spirit may properly be said to attest our Sanctification And the witness of Gods Spirit our Adoption And by both our spirit and Gods Spirit we are witnessed to be the Sons of God How our Spirits witness our new birth But observe that the witness of our spirits that witnesseth our new birth and Sanctification witnesseth it by Water and Blood 1. John 5.6.8 This is he that came by water and Blood even Jesus Christ not by water onely but by water and Blood And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth And there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit and water and blood and these three agree in one And it is by vertue of these two that our spirits do attest and witness that we are the Sons of God For blood and water all the Scripture over are said to purge and cleanse as in all the Legal Types yet God giveth to them an office of witnessing Properly they purge But they Witness by their work of purging This BLOOD the blood of Christ purgeth away the guilt of Sin as it bindeth a man over to hell and damnation This Water the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ purgeth away the love of Sin as it hath Dominion †Ezek. 36.25.26.27 Of both these the conscience of a regenerate man comes to be sensible in himself The sense of Blood purging by pacifying of his conscience that he cannot but look upon God with a conscience full of tranquility And the water purging by Sanctifyng him to make him walk with God out of the power of sin Now the witness of a mans spirit witnesseth that he is translated out of the guilt of sin and power of sin and then he is born again Objection But some may object and say This testimony may deceive Answer I answer If you consider the power of this blood and water in a man How wonderfully it removes a man from all inthralling lusts and how it compels him to walk in holiness yea the peace that riseth from blood-purging Sin which moves morally to holy walking and is full of infinite strength for the sence of the pardon of sin And that is an excellent adjunct unto and in Sanctification as can be the graces of Sanctification do determine the Soul to the wayes of God as a strong Byas sheweth which way the Bowl will go Consider that for one how the heart is moved in Gods way And that is by Faith and Love And then if you consider the respect or aim or end the new creature moves to That is In God for God and to God that he may be glorified Rom. 11. ult For of him and through him and to him are all things All things that are of him through him tend to him Consider all these together that they be in you the power of Moving how you are moved By Faith and Love And the end you aim at to glorifie God And it makes a good Testimony and witness that ye are the Sons of God The witness of Gods Spirit Now for the Testimony of Gods Spirit the Spirit of Adoption If we shall speak distinctly of it from our spirits for the spirit and water and blood are distinct though they agree in one 1 John 5.8 Now if you consider them distinct I conceive then the Spirit of God witnesseth by an immediate impression upon the Soul representing to the soul and conscience making you understand
world and creatures take up our thoughts at other times and then when we come to duty and would keep them in we cannot For our hearts are like unruly children if they use to have Liberty they will look for it When the heart hath got a custom of loosness it is hard to keep it in 4. For want of Considering the Excellency of Christ above all things For if thou didst taste and see the Excellency of him it would gather up thy spirits to him alone Thou wouldst like Paul forgo the things that are behind and press forward to the things that are before Phil. 3.7.8 c. And then thy thoughts would not so much rove after them The fifth ground of fear Fifth Objection A man complains he doth not find that growth in the Inward marrow of Religion which should be answerable to his time and means of knowledge Though he be grown in gifts yet he cannot find that he is grown in inward acquaintance and familiarity with Christ And hence he questions the truth of his conversion Tryals of growth I answer Thou mayst herein be deceived and therefore view over thy heart and life and try thy growth a little 1. By thy rooting Hast thou taken root into Christ A tree that spreads and lives at root we say growes though it appears not to man to grow And because thou art worse in thy own sight wilt thou say thou growest not Why man Trees and corn grow downward and die or seemdead before they grow upward Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. It may be God intends thy Humility and Self-deniall that thou mayest be kept low in thy own sight And Self-deniall is the best sign of growth spiritually And when the duties you perform do not so much please the soul as the Love of God in the duty it argues growth 2. Men try their growth by their reaching to some mark set as to the top of some bed or beam or pin in a wall c. So art thou more Heavenly minded canst reach neerer God in prayer and duty is thy affection more inlarged towards him though thou find not him manifesting himself to thee as thou desirest thou art grown 3. Men try their growth by their Ability to lift a waight or bear a burden So if thou Canst not see that thou art any higher in affection yet if thou Canst suffer more hast more Patience and contentedness art able to bear more with more constancy and less fear c. thou art grown 4. By their skill Though one may not be grown in height yet he may be grown in wisdom and manliness So hast thou more skill to use the spirituall weapons able to find out Sathans designs able to confute an errour and give thy soul satisfaction in a truth then heretofore Surely it is growth But if this satisfie thee not make use of some means in which the Lord may make thee grow Means of growth They are such as these 1. Cast off all manner of sin and corruption Mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live If the body be sick or diseased it cannot grow especially if it be in a waste Why such a disease is sin Therefore get sin purged out by the Blood of Christ and faith in him otherwise it will poyson the soul and then it cannot grow as Job 20.14 Speaking of a man hiding and favouring his sins saith he His meat in his bowels is turned it is the gall of Asps within him This corrupts that which should nourish him And therefore get this out 2. Eat thy meat And eat wholsome meat Feed upon Christ and sound doctrine wholsom truths Alas if a child eat not at all or eat nothing but trash Coals Ashes Earth c. how should he grow So if thou feed upon vanities and not upon the wholsome food of the word how canst thou grow Psal 1.1.2.3 Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the councell of the ungodly nor stood in the way of sinners nor sate in the seat of the scorners But his delight is in the LAW of the LORD and in that Law doth he MEDITATE day and night That he takes down and disgests Now mark how he grows And he shall be like a tree planted by the Rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season whose leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he doth shall prosper So 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the WORD that ye may grow THEREBY 3. Get as much experience of Christ as thou canst learn to taste Christ in his Merits and Offices and Spirit Labour so to grow into Christ that thou mayst not trust to swellings in stead of growth I mean to outward gifts 2 Pet. 3.18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Ephes 4.15 Grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ Col. 2.18.19 And not holding the HEAD saith he but mark the former vers Let no man beguiâ— you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly pufft up with his fleshly mind And now mark And not holding the head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God So that if thou wouldst grow thou must suck of the sap of life from Christ And because thou feelst not what thou wouldst feel in Christ thou canst not conclude thou art not grown The Apostle Ephes 3. prayeth for the Saints there that they might have a greater measure of Excellency and spiritual perfections That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and bredth and depth and heighth And to know the Love of Christ that passeth knowledge that you may be filled with all the fulness of God 4. Be often praying to God to make thee grow and look up to him for help as Paul 1 Thes 3.12 The Lord make you to increase and abound in Love c. So the Disciples Luk. 17.5 Lord increase our Faith 5. Get a place in the House of God a station in the true Church Christian Society and fellowship of the Saints is a great help to growth There thou shalt hear of Christ and have the excellencies of the Spirit dispenced to thee Ps 92.13,14 Those that be planted in the HOVSE of the LORD shall FLOVRISH in the Courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in their old age they shall be fat and flourishing So Heb. 10.23,24,25 Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised And let us consider one another
and know that you are the Sons of God and heirs of God and Christ Which Spirit of testimony is gotten by faith in Christ by viewing eying and surveying Christ For because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby you cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 Whose office is to attest ye are Christs So that here the office of faith is to look upon Christ and eye Christ that so we may receive the seal For a man must be a beleever else he cannot be a son but being a beleever and so a Son then comes the Spirit and witnesseth the same Object But this witness you speak of now this immeditate testimony may deceive also It may be some false fire cast in by the Devil as well as the other Answ The witness of the Spirit of God as it is the Spirit of God will alwayes clear it self by this That in the witness it gives to a soul it alwayes advanceth God and Christ in the eye of the Soul and it alway ripens and nourisheth sanctifying graces in the soul and makes them go glib like oyl to the wheels It makes our Faith Love Patience Humility Hope Self-denyall Joy c. whereby we walk with God as green and flourishing as flowers in the spring or as corn fields after a sweet shower Note Bastard-illusions of the Devil do alwayes tend to bastardends and do alwayes bring forth bastard-effects such as lift up a man with pride or boulster them up to maintain errour either in Life or Doctrine But this knowledge of a mans self to be Gods reacheth forth to God and acteth his spirituall habits sweetly 2 Cor. 5.1 We know saith Paul that if this earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens we know it saith he And what effect had this upon their Spirits Why see vers 9. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him This is far from that opinion that a mans knowing himself to be Gods worketh security no this makes a mans heart obey God as a Son And be sure the Devill in his counterfeit workings and witnessings will never draw the soul to God to aim at him but still to center in himself or to turn aside to errour or sin And this is to fight against himself and overthrow his own Kingdom which he will never do A caveat But now take heed of thinking your selves to be Gods when you are not for there is the danger to conceit your selves to be Gods when you are not Now ye may go long in this by reason of some counterfeit workings by reason of some Convictions or joy or common receiving of Christ ye may take your selves to be Gods when you are not But here you may bewray your selves if you will but search For 1. you may perform duties meerly to maintain your signs for a man may keep a course in a form of godliness to maintain his reputation with himself to maintain his signs that the heart shall not easily tax them to be rotten When a man hath not his end to enjoy walk with God so to be Gods 2. He may bewray himself by his desires after the fruits of the Spirit they may be earnest and if these desires were not in him he could not maintain his signs To desire graces as they are beneficiall to me and not for the service of them that I may come neer to God and seek them for him rather then for my self this is deceitfull I fear the reason why God gives not assurance to many a man that seeks long and earnestly is because a man seeks for himself and not for God Like the Bee that goeth into the field to seek honey to eat but brings it not into the Masters hive A man may be Gods and not discern it Secondly A man may be Gods and not discern it for these are distinct Ephes 1.13 In whom also after that ye beleeved ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise Mark after ye beleeved ye were sealed 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternall life and that ye may beleeve on the name of the Son of God Mark the speech here I have written unto you that do beleeve that ye may beleeve What 's this Why you that beleeve with a faith of Adherence that ye may come to assurance which yet ye want that ye may KNOW that ye have eternall life Gal. 4.6 Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby ye cry Abba Father First ye are Sons and afterwards cry Abba Father by the Spirit The being of a man in Christ goeth before his knowing he is so in order of nature for a thing must be before I can know it else I know a lie A Child must be the child of such a man before he knoweth he is so So it is in our spirituall relation Therefore ye cannot conclude ye are none of Gods because you want assurance for the present for ye may be Gods and know it not Object But some may say This is to preach liberty for every man may say so Answ I answer not so For this which is in such a child of God as doth not know it by clear evidence yet it is working and differeth him from all others in the world The seed of God hath a two-fold work in such a one 1. It maketh him an obedient man Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voyce of his servants that walketh in darkness and hath no light Mark A child of God though he be in the dark yet he fears the Lord and obeys That though he knows not himself to be Gods yet he would walk with God in every duty though he have chains and fetters oftentimes to hinder him yet in every duty there is a principle and tie of obedience yea and such as is mixt with Love For he seeth God lovely and that draws his affections to him and makes him willing to serve him though he be not sure of him 2. Though such a soul do not discern it self to be Gods yet it is acccompanied with earnest longings and earnest seekings of the manifestation of his face to him So that though he cannot yet make sure his Calling and Election yet he gives all diligence to make it sure as Peter speaks 2 Pet. 1. and that because he would be more usefull to God Herein a true Christian differs from all the idle and neuter professors in the world Why a man may be Gods and not know it Now a man may be Gods and not know it for these causes 1. Because he is in forming and fashioning for God for Gods Spirit that dwelleth in man makes ready the
house before he manifests his abode there So that now he may be under Gods hand in forming him and yet not know his interest in him for the present 2. This not knowing may be in a man formed regenerated by reason he may be 1. Of a cavilling spirit and see such infirmities in himself as he thinks are not accompanied with the Spirit of grace And secondly by mistaking when the poor soul looks upon sins of intrusion as sins of admission and dominion Or thirdly because he wants that perfection that he would or should have And by looking upon some places of Scripture he sees he wants that which the Scripture calls him to Now in his apprehension he is not a son of God but this cannot conclude him so Secondly The second troublesome thought Another thought or doubt that riseth in the heart which troubles the poor soul as the text speaks is That Christ hath left him cast him off will not shew him any more mercy nor come again to him indeed it hath felt Christ sweet and comfortable those were happy dayes But now alas Christ is gone and he fears he will never come again And this was in the disciples in some measure as appears by the plaister to the sore administred by the Soul-Physitian It is I saith Christ And in another place Let not your heart be troubled John 14.1 And vers 3. I will come again and take you to my self that where I am there ye may be also And vers 18. I will not leave you comfortless How will that appear Why I will come to you So John 16.4.5.6 He sheweth that the thought of his absence filled their hearts with sorrow The hiding of Gods face troubles the poor soul extreamly Job 34.29 If he give peace who then can make trouble but if he hide himself who then can behold him c. Psal 30.6 Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled So saith David Psal 13.1 How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me how long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily The apprehension that God hath hidden his face fils the soul with consultations and distempers for those that do afflict themselves oftentimes harp upon this string they are forlorn and forsaken like the Stranger Isa 56.3 The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people And like the Eunuch I am a dry tree Why so why the spirit is so dead and so unwildy in holy duties so loose and base he can bring his heart to nothing Sure God hath left him I am a dry tree saith the Eunuch no sap of grace all comfort is gone And thus the poor soul crys out To speak to this case first I will reprove this And secondly confute it This case spoken to 1. By way of reproof 1. Let me reprove it 1. Why shouldst thou be more cruel to thy self then God is challenge thy self when God doth not Zach. 4.10 Who hath despised the day of small things God doth not Because thou art weak to conclude thou hast nothing this argues but a heady peevish spirit Psal 31.22 I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eyes Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cryed unto thee This conclusion was his headiness and haste you see 2. Consider thou hast enough to do to nourish thy heart against just sorrow and fear Thou needst not nourish unnecessary fears Christ saith Sufficient to the day is the sorrow of it thou hadst not need add more Maâ— 6. Dost thou think conscience of sin is not matter enough but thou must add want of comfort to it take heed 3. Check thy self as the Prophet Psal 42. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted in me For by entertaining these discouragements thou laist a block against thy own mercy and where wilt thou have cure God will not work peace but by the co-working and accepting of thy own conscience Therefore herein thou art cruel like the Ostrich and worse then the Sea calf 4. Take heed Thou maist sink thy spirits so low that thou maist lose thy self in sorrow Extream passion takes away sense that is certain And as a man may be drowned buried lost in pleasure so in sorrow Isa 38.15 I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul See how Hezekiah was lost in discouragement take heed that you do not unfit your selves for spiritual joy when God shall send it 2. By way of confutation Secondly Let me confute thee Thou saist I am cast off I have no grace of God no hope of mercy and here thy soul is tossed and clouds over-shadow that rise thick one after another Thou mistakest thy self 1. Consider the indissolvible nature of the love of God man thou canst not break it Hos 2.19.20 I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgement and in loving kindness and in mercies I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord. And mark the Lord saith not in THY loving kindness But MY loving kindness c. While God hath any of these he cannot break So Rom. 4.16 The promise is sure to all the seed So that we cannot shake our selves out of the state of salvation because the business is acted in God and built and stablished in him 2. Consider that as Gods grace is mutual so Gods judgements are mutual If ever he choose thee he gives thee a heart to choose him And if he loath thee he leaves thee to a heart to loath him Zach. 11.8 My soul loathed them saith God and their soul also abhorred me So that if thou have not cast God off and saiest that man shall not rule over me If thou continue with God in duty he hath not yet cast thee off For he that God casts off frets and fumes against the Commandment whereas the Soul that is humbled admires the Commandment but comes short of it as Paul Rom. 7. The Commandment is holy and just and good though he came short in walking up to it 3. Consider God taketh on by casting off why then doest thou say thou art cast off Gods death is a way to life I mean that God giveth thee over to death on this fashion Canst thou say I am cast off from God why this very complaint sheweth thou art taken on For desertion is a part of Gods discipline Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their iniquity and seek my face God casts off that they may cleave to him 1. Sam. 14.14 God respecteth not any person yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him The woman sent by Joab to David to speak to him about the bringing Absolom back she pleads it from Gods manner of dealing with his banished
was discovered to them then they saw it was of God These were works of the spirit as the event did shew But they saw them not for the present till the further work of the spirit did manifest them Then they saw all these to have been of the spirit So if a man have a work in his heart that he can make little of I would counsel that man to follow on to see what will come of it afterward for it may be after some other work of the spirit he shall perceive it though for the present he see it not Particulars how to discern the spirit in duties Now for particular discerning of the spirit in duty 1. Doest thou find thy heart fashioned or in fashioning to a personal love of Christ a personal union with Christ himself The Spirit of God is the Factor for Christ the Spokesman between Christ and the heart to treat the marriage So that herein the Spirit presents Christ as all fair the chiefest among ten thousand as Can. 5. His love and reign and Kingdome is presented to thee in a glorious shew Now with this dost thou find thy heart in fashioning to a desire of Union to consent to marry with such a Husband I say to a personal love not of his benefits but him first and then to all his benefits To take him as God gives him Rom. 8.32 If God have given us his son how shall he not also with him freely give us all things When he is such an object that thou canst leave Father Mother Wife Children Liberty Life and all for his sake At first there may be self-love but in time every spiritual man will rise to a personal love of Christ himself and not only his benefits 2. Doth thy heart and the word thy heart and thy petitions go together and comply so that thou art taken and much affected with the sweetnes of Christ And some sentence of Scripture or prayer that carries thee out of thy self when thy heart complies with it suddenly and strangely I mean art thou wonderfully ravished and carried out of thy self desires and ends to God and for God It argues the spirit 3. Are there any graces set a work evengelically in thy heart Love Humility Sincerity or the like That is If thy Faith or love be set a work by the love of God to thee Doth the fresh presentings of the love of Christ to thee in thy duties freshen thy love to him and thy graces in thy heart This is an Argument of the Spirit When our hearts give Eccho to Gods voice Psal 27.8 When thou saidest seek ye my face My heart answered Thy face Lord will I seek This was the Spirit of God that thus sets the heart a work to Answer to Gods voice 4. Are your hearts moved from the feeling of the experience of the love of Christ to give your selves to Christ again in duty This is the Spirit of God For the heart cannot be carried directly to Christ for Christ but by the Spirit of Christ 2 Cor. 12.9.10 And he said my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christs sake See here is doing or undergoing any thing for Christ And mark from what ground even from experience for when I am weak then am I strong 5. Observe the manner of the combat which the heart hath against the world or the flesh or any beloved sin There may be a Combat in wicked men between sin and shame Between conscience and fear of Hell between desire and fear Therefore mark when sin draws thee with what weapons thou fightest against sin Is it the love of God that makes thee thou wilt not sin Dost thou say I will not because I love God is thy heart drawn to God Evangelically Here is the Spirit lusting against the flesh not conscience against sin The manner of the fight shews whose the fight is For the Spirit of God causeth a man to set the love of God and the promise of God as the only Arrow against sin Here it is evidenced to be the Spirit 6. A man may know the Spirit by the discovery of sin for the Spirit may evidence it self in an humble discovery of sin as well as joy in working the heart to self loathing It discovers spiritual sins bye and base aims and ends secret and by respects when a man looks asquint from God secret and by turnings of the heart that never came into the eye of the world I say the discovery of sin is an excellent work of the Spirit Ezek. 36.31 I will pour upon them my Spirit saith the Lord And what then Then shall ye remember your waies and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations To discover sins so far as they are a detestation to the heart so far as they are a bar to the raigning of Christ The fourth troublesome thought is a mans questioning the truth of his conversion The fourth thought that riseth in the heart and troubleth it is this whether his translation into the state of grace be in truth or no whether he hath the sound work of regeneration or no For saith the heart there are many semblances and shaddowes of grace True faith and false True love and false like on another false Samuels ni Samuels mantle And if a man seriously weigh himself his good against his bad His sanctification against his corruptions His obedience against his rebellions and blemishes his faith with his distrust and his new work with the old man remaining If he weigh this he sticks and cannot tell which is the heavier in the ballance But as presumption and pride makes a man think the best of himself so many times when a Godly man is humbled especially when a grain of Melancholy is mixt with it it makes him think the worst of himself And hereupon a Godly man many-times questions himself and thinks all 's naught with him And so he questions whether his grace be grace or no And now his heart is troubled and doubts and discouragements rise in it Grounds of this thought Now the ground of these discouragements in this kind are such things as these 1. He saith He cannot say nor see That he was brought in to God at the first by any remarkable work of Humiliation or by any such conversion as will witness to it self by any hand of God as some others have been Therefore he begins to Question his graces 2. He finds some peculiar sins and corruptions that hath hung upon him long and hath haunted him a long time whither they be omissions loosness of heart c. that hath haunted him a long time And hence he is troubled and