known some loose professors who have sought to exceed all other their neighbours in the love of a godly Preacher and who but they in their running riding assisting of him They have been as his right hand of trust and service But lo in a short time these fellows bewray that which lay secret to wit an uncleane covetous voluptuous heart and what then Surely all men see evidently that these clave to the Minister for their owne base ends and to conceale their vices A speciall watchword to all Ministers of God to beware how farre they engage themselves in the love of any professors A caveat to Ministers See Joh. 2.24.25 Ministers reproach themselves in ascribing too much and trusting too far such as they know not who make toward them in speciall relation Try them throughly in their obedience as well as their pretended love or else the time may come when as their basenesse shall discredit your persons and Ministery farre more then all their love could prevaile If when all is done they are so subtill that we cannot espy them the sinne shall be theirs wee have saved our owne soules and may wash our hands in innocency because we have done our duties When all is done therefore this will hold water if we obey Heb. 13. So saith the Apostle Obey them that are set over you And Paul I beare you witnesse you obeyed the forme of doctrine delivered unto you And againe you received our doctrine not as the word of man but as the word of God Every good hearer should say to his Minister as Elisha did to Gehazi 2 King 5. end Went not thy spirit with me when I ranne after the man So did not the spirit of my faithfull Pastor goe with me when I was in such a company recreation or worldly businesse Me thought it curbed me from lightnesse and vanity from deceit from sinning in my tongue or in any disguisement of intemperancy or cousenage or covetousnes to think if he now saw me how should I be ashamed to do thus Oh! he loves me tenderly my souls welfare and should I grieve him thus 2 Cor. 3.2 This is indeed to be the Epistle of the Minister written in our hearts approving our love unto him to purpose Not that there is not a stronger motive then this to awe and draw people from good to evill for there is an holy Spirit of annointing which is given to all good ones which hath shed the love of Christ into their hearts and filled them with the length and bredth of it this should hem in the soules of beleevers for so the word is 2 Cor. 5.7 and compell them to watch over themselves This must bee the chiefe Monitor in the Schoole of Christ If the voice of this great Prophet be not obeyed for it selfe the voice of the servant as he is called Esay 50. will be little worth For what wonder if they disobeyed the voice of Moses the messenger of God Heb. 2.2.3 who rebelled against that holy Spirit which set him on worke and vexed it all those forty yeares as it is Esay 63.11 No it must be the spirit of the Master which must make his Steward esteemed The love of the Lord Jesus must make the love of the Minister compulsive else it will prove nothing but slavish feare or to avoid base shame as we see in many a drunkard or swearer who for the presence sake of a sinfull man will for an houre or two bite in their qualities which yet they tremble not to commit in the presence of God all the yeare long Conclude this point then and say I pretend love to my Minister how shall I demonstrate it really As Cornelius did Act. 10. It s said he fell downe and tooke Peter by the feet in token of excessive love and respect But what was this all No surely But this that he tells him They were all ready to hearken to whatsoever the Lord said unto them by him This was a sure marke love and feare make reverence and thence comes obedience When love is solid it workes by feare and causes a loathnesse to doe any thing which might grieve the Minister it sits like Mary at the feet of the Minister ready to obey And that not onely in slight matters to remove some sinne which may be spared 1 Sam. 15. as Saul that killed the leane cattell and the baser sort of Amalek but even the belovedst lust and most pretious vice even the fat cattell and the King himselfe True love abhorres common evidence its painfull it will be singular and aske Matth. 5.47 Joh. 21. what singular thing doe I to approve my love When our Saviour would try Peters love he askes him Lovest thou me more then these As some think he meant of his nets occupation as others of his fellow Apostles Both will do well Love thy Minister by obeying more then others yea love him more then thy nets thy beloved trade thy lusts which bring thee in the greatest gaine thy sweet usury thy gaming thy deceit which others who love him not would as soone lose their lives as forgoe The forfeit of these will import strongly that thou lovest not him for any by respect but as he is a Minister of God I remember a story of Pope Pius the fifth one that was reputed as humble as a proud Pope might be who being told of a base fellow that had much abused him in a Pasquill answered I sustaine two persons one of a poore Monk another of Christs Vicar if thou hast railed upon me as a Monk I pardon thee if as Pope I must punish thee So there is no true Minister of Christ who lookes at himselfe as a man but at the honour of him whose servant he is and to whom he desires all the peoples obedience should be derived Try therefore whether thy lusts can draw thee stronglier then he if two loadstones draw both together the iron will goe to the strongest So let thy love goe to him from thy lust Fleire not in his face nor beare him faire in hand when as yet thine heart goes another way Doe nothing behinde his backe which thou wouldest not doe before him In all thy doubtfull matters consult with him let him come within thy bosome know thy secrets and hide nothing from him wherein he can informe thee for he is for God and Christ 1 Cor. 5.20 as a faithfull Embassadour for thy good Doth he tell thee O my friend I perceive your zeale quales shrewdly in this Laodicean age you heare oft but sleep much at Sermons you jangle so much of earthly businesse upon the Sabbath that I feare you meditate little Or you are zealous but you grow not in knowledge wisdome tendernesse to manage your zeal aright from rashnesse and censoriousnes Or you are noted to be full of words or a busie body Or you are given to flout and jeere when you are in company Or you are bold to
with such a hideous outside of apparrel camels haire course diet Luke 3. and also with the extraordinary spirit of Elia save that the people being taken at first by his guise and habit might be wrought upon the more easily by his Ministry preparing and levelling their rough and high spirits for their Lord Jesus And what other use had all those miracles wherewith the doctrine of Christ and all the preaching of the Apostles were accompanied save this that by and with them as by Tunnels the influence power and authority of truth might enter and prevaile with the mindes and consciences of the hearers ere they were aware That they being amazed and convinced by the greatnesse of those signes and effects which attended and followed the word might have no power nor spirit left in them to contradict him that spake thereby but yeeld and beleeve the truth for the workes sake The miracles themselves the healing of a leper the restoring of the lame the raising up of the dead the healing of the sicke the doing of the workes and benefiting of the persons was not the issue and intent of the worker but that the glory of that God the grace of that spirit which wrought such wonders might soke and sinke into the soules of men before and upon whose eies and persons those miracles were discovered That by this meane conversion from Idols and sinfull courses unto the living God might be effected through faith in the promise Witnesse that story of the woman of Samaria in the fourth of S. Iohn To whom the Lord Jesus did so expresse himselfe as to declare all the secrets of her heart to convince her of all the villanies that ever she had committed in all her seven husbands time and why Surely that she having her loade of heart within her might go into the City tell it her kindred and acquaintance draw them to Christ himselfe as being astonisht at his excellency and being once within his compasse might be easily pulled by his doctrine to a further pitch of grace and say Now we beleeve not because of the wordes which thou hast spoken but because we have heard him speake himselfe This should teach us a wide difference between Gods word and the writings and stories of Heathens Vse of instruct who to get themselves a name among men and to sute the eloquence of their stile either Greeke or Latine Poets and Historians have stuffed their writings with abundance of rarities and wonders for the procuring admiration of men and appetite of Readers Branch 1 curious of Novelties But alas their relations being justly suspitious Heathen stories unlike the Scripture and for the most part fabulous and vaine savoring of mans base spirit and lying invention doe as much dishonour their fidelity as they magnifie their language and skill in contriving they doe but Ape the Scriptures and steale away the minds of Students who although they may lawfully further themselves by the tongue and phrase yet ought to take heed how they bee taken too farre with them as some profane wits have beene who have not stuck to scorne some writers of Scripture in comparison of this or that Heathen writers No give all their due but reserve that preeminence of worth to the Scriptures which they deserve being as much beyond the most exact writer of Story for their Antiquity purity Majesty and authority as the Sunne is above the poorest starre in the firmament Branch 2 And secondly this observation might leave much instruction with us if we were willing to embrace it And first it might set a glasse before our eyes to behold in our nature that wofull insensiblenesse and unperceiving of holy things Rom. 8.6.7 The carnall man saith Saint Paul conceiveth not the things of God neither yet can do they are spiritually discerned by the power of another principle I say not that this course of miracles or wonderfull effects is able to overcome this stupor of our understanding no there must be a further progresse of the spirit of grace to effect that yet this externall and remote preparative may be enough to convince us what a spirit of old Adam dwels in us and what a curse lyes upon our nature for the resisting of that light of truth which was put into us in our creation And that is the losse not only of actuall light but even of disposition to apprehend the truths which are offred us for the cure of our disease Our faculty to understand is still left in us so that we are not meere blockes and beetles But in matters of God so originally are we blunted and dulled in our spirits and sences so disabled and so disguized so deeply also implunged into a life of sence and sottish sensuality that the mysteries of God are quite above us As the nature of sensible creatures in kind exceeds the vegetable and the reasonable goes beyond them so that each of them wants a faculty to reach the others object so doth the mystery of God of Christ of grace exceed the understanding of a meere reasonable creature I shall meete with a better ground of opening this point after here only let this suffice to abase us and hold us downe before God as degenerate and miserable creatures in respect of this our incapablenesse of holy things Jewes strangely insensible of Gods miracles We can cry out of the Jewes whom the Scriptures were written unto for that they were so dull and slow of heart to conceive the matters of God his workes and wayes when as yet they were beaten into every sence as it were with hammers of extraordinary and divine Prophecies Visions miracles and waies of revealing Oh! say men doubtlesse had we seene the standing up of the sea on both sides dry in the midst the returne of the waters upon the Egyptians the gushing forth of water from a Rock and the bringing in of such a number of quailes how would we have acknowledged the power and Majesty of God Had we seene the Law given by Angels with terrors and fire had we beheld with our eyes the person of Iohn a miracle without miracles and the wonders which Christ and the Apostles added to their Sermons how would we have beene ravished with them and beleeved I answer so should they have done indeed and you if you had beene in their places But alas as they did so should you have done without more grace and that appeares by this that now being under far greater convictions and a way of God as far exceeding the power of those outward signes as heaven exceeds earth yet you are as farre from conceiving and beleeving as they Thirdly it should scare and terrifie all of us who now injoy the body Vse 2 of Scripture compleate Humiliation together with all the helpes of those divine ordinances which are bestowed upon the Church of Christ both publicke and private for that notwithstanding all these the most people still remaine
unperswaded or halfe perswaded of the truth Hebâ— 2.2.3.4 Saint Paul to the Hebrewes Cap. 2. tells us if they who despised Moses Law upon two or three witnesses were condemned what shall become of them who despise so great salvation who still distrust that truth of God which was first spoken by the Lord of heaven and earth comming in the flesh Miracles serve to convince the soule of the truth sealed thereby afterward confirmed by such as heard him by miracles and the power of the word in those who were converted So may I say here this very text of Naaman shall stand up and convince all that maintaine selfe and selfe-love carnall and corrupt reason against the truth and power of the promise yea this miracle whereby the word was strengthned with all those miracles by which any truth of Christ hath since been justified shall rise up and convince all unbeleevers I meane such as live under meanes in that day For why Though they saw none of these miracles yet hearing the word beholding the seales receiving them into all our sences I say such a word as hath beene ratified by all the wonders of the Old and New Testament serving to beare down a base heart of unbeliefe about the truth power love al-sufficiency of God if they beleeve not by all these they shall be condemned justly by that authority which they have despised yea the very frame of the Scriptures and the expressions of so many strange and admirable passages serving to raise up a base and crawling spirit to heaven if we shall be found unbeleevers in that great day of Christ shall be brought forth as a witnesse against us for our horrible insensiblenesse and stupor of minde and heart Unbeleefe of Scripture and Truth of God after so many miracles very damnable For by these the Lord hath as it were striven to engraven in our spirits as with the pen of a Diamond the truthes of God and mystery of Christ If then our soules shall be found so hard and flinty that this point hath not pierced them if wee be still unconvinced and this instrument of gold hath no more left impression upon us then if a straw or rotten sticke had beene used to write in our tables of stone oh how fearefull shall our condemnation be If any man shall step in here and demand Quest Miracles how far ceased hard to say hath God so sufficiently confirmed his truth by miracles that there shall neede no more I answer I know its the opinion of many that they are wholly ceased and that because the use of them is ceased Answ For that spirit which attends the Ministry of the word carries a conviction of the truth into the mind according to all that is in the truth Now if it be so then that spirit perswades the soule of all the truth aswell in respect of the confirmation of it by miracles as otherwise but as I stagger much about this opinion so yet I am loth to affirme that the Church hath any warrant under faith to looke for the gift of miracles to be assuredly vouchsafed her although the ends thereof may seeme very weighty Who can or dare deny but that the calling of those Americans to the knowledge of the truth may seeme a weighty occasion to expect from God the gift of miracles partly by reason of their language almost impossible to be attained except by either a miraculous or at least a marveilous gift partly because there be poore inducements to draw such imperswasible and brutish spirits to cast so much as their eyes upon any meanes to induce them to beleeve In both which respects I dare not deny but that as Satan by lying wonders prevailes much with such as perish so the Lord may vouchsafe this spirit of miracles to his Church when his time is come to effect the conversion of such Only I adde that when his time is come he will grant his Church an instinct of spirit to aske it and joyne seriously in the meanes to attaine it which else he will not incline them unto his time not being come For wee must weigh the ends of our travell into remote parts whither for our owne ends or for publique If our owne respects be chiefe we have no cause to looke for miracles But I chuse rather to leave the thing in Gods dispose Vse 4 Lastly let it exhort us both generally and specially first to sue earnestly to the Lord Jesus our Prophet Exhortation the Word of the Father and the first inditer of all Scripture Spirit of acknowledgement of God in his word is to be sought by prayer the contriver of all the passages thereof the worker of all wonders and the Author of all grace and wisedome that he would vouchsafe us the spirit of revelation and acknowledgement of him as Saint Paul speakes Ephes 1.18 That we being enlightned in our mindes may conceive aright of the true scope and intent of the Spirit in the Scriptures Branch 1. generall and that he would intimate our hearts with the purpose thereof which is that our soules might be captivated under the power and authority of the speaker That we rest not in the outside of miracles wonders parables similitudes which we heare or read but considering their aime be carried downe the streame of the thing spoken yea the power To rest in the barke of the word or of miracles Parables Similitudes is dangerous soveraignty and faithfulnesse of the speaker Not only thereby conceiving more cleerely in our mindes of the Lord his Attributes and the truths revealed but much more ravished in our affections towards him for the good things whereof we have tasted Many chuse patheticall texts histories and accidents actions and speeches of speciall note to read and please themselves in some delight to read of the building of the Temple others of the passion of Christ others other parcells of Scripture to provoke admiration and discourse even as they might read any other booke of tales and wonders some also read texts of devotion and holinesse as the Psalmes or wise sentences as the Proverbs with a morrall spirit and scope only but never muse of the severall ends of such places nor the spirit of grace therein save onely to amuse their mindes and stirre up pangs of affection But by these to come neerer to know their owne base hearts or to close with the examples of such grace to feare the judgements of God the more deepely to beleeve the promises better to subject themselves more to the commands of God and in all to see his foote-steps and to adore the speaker few attaine it Therefore let us read these texts with prayer to God for sence and savor of their meaning and scope that we may attaine the spiritualnesse of them Else we shall answer heavily to God for making the solemne and reverend truths of God an occasion to nourish and maintaine that corrupt disposition
they will ground themselves upon the wisedome of flesh and the preaching of such as seeke with curious and quaint oratory and the deceitfulnesse of man to entangle the minde or else they care not whether they heare any or no. But oh ye wise worldings know ye that God doth usually the greatest things by meanest instruments know ye not that flesh loves it selfe and that there is small hope of doing any great things by fleshly meanes should then flesh glory in her selfe and take away the glory from God by an unsanctified and unsavoury boasting of it owne strength Surely looke to it they who build their faith on man must rush their soules to destruction of necessitie And the wisedome of God hath chosen the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve If ever yee looke for this be wise intime and become fools that ye may be truly wise to salvation 1 Cor. 1.1.27 Of which I shall speake more fully in the next use Vse 5 Lastly therefore let it be use of examination to all sorts to try themselves about this issue Examin what great things God hath wrought in them by the poore and silly meanes of his Ordinances Try whether the Lord hath by them translated you from the kingdome of Satan and darknesse to the kingdome of his deare Sonne rid you out of the thraldome of your lusts and Idols to serve the living God Thinke not that the kingdome of Christ stands in a few trickes of wit or entising words of a frothy Mounteebankes tongue thinke not that fine sentences or strong lines or a jangling wit priding it selfe in a vaine-glorious Preacher will goe for pay when Christ shall come to judge Trials and markes of our fleshly wisedome subdued Luke 18.8 The great worke which hee will look for will be faith unfained a broken spirit love out of a pure heart a new creature Therefore take some markes hereof and try your selves First the Lord by poore meanes will cast downe that frame of carnall Triall 1 wisedome in you be it never so strongly setled and convince yee of your folly in that you should ever so besot your owne selves as to thinke that the way to heaven should lye in such a course as you have walked in Oh! shall you say if ever I goe to heaven God must turne a new leafe with mee flesh and bloud a curious humorous conceit will never inherit the kingdome of God The Lord I say will discover to your eye such an excellencie in his Ordinances even when they seeme weakest to your fancie that you shall fall downe and say The Lord is in you of a truth The scales of your carnall eye shall fall off Acts 9. Revel 3. Psal 119. and you shall bee annointed with eye salve to behold wonders in those poore instruments and ordinances which you have so long despised The old judgement of error and this foolish world shall be taken away and a new Spirit of discerning shall be given you to looke off from the base out-side of man of preaching of Sacraments and you shall see a divine power and majestie therein The Asse shall not seeme so base as the rider seemes glorious and you shall strew your clothes and bowes of trees in the way of Christ crying Hosanna and magnifying God that by such poore pipes and channels conveyes so great things to men Ask your selves did you ever perceive such a worke wrought in you If not you still abide in the gall of bitternesse and are pur-blinde seeing nothing a far off Secondly the Lord will make you so farre from your disdaine that he Triall 2 will make you crouch and be glad of the silliest Minister of God in all the countrey as those Acts 2. Acts 2.37 who came trembling about those same Apostles whom in the former Chapter they had flouted and mocked as drunken with new wine and said Men and brethren what shall wee doe to be saved So shall you doe such as you have jeered for zealous men of the Spirit you shall now be glad to bee admitted to aske them what course you may take to escape hell and surely try your selves in this point if still your disesteeme of Gods Ministers continue in you you are none of those in whom GOD hath wrought any great worke in Thirdly the Lord shall correct that corrupt selfe-love and partialitie in Triall 3 you whereby the affectation of some odde Minister whom you humored covered and darkened the graces gifts of God in others lesse reputed of by you Oh! now shall the Lord purge out your private judgment and put a publicke spirit of communion of Saints into you Alas you shall see all the Ministers of Christ one as well as another to bee the mutuall aiders of your faith and furtherers of your joy given by God not for this or that man but for the good of the whole body And accordingly you shall prize them even for the graces of God in them and for the use which they serve even the worke of the Ministerie 1 Cor. 3. Ephes 4. and the edifying of the Church in love Partialitie and private ends of your own shall stinke unto as knowing that if God convert you to himselfe hee makes you members of the body which beares you up not you it Not the meannesse of the vessell shall now offend you but the rich treasure in it shall ravish you now if your souls may be saved all other respects shall vanish 4 Triall Fourthly God will teach us to deny our selves in that base ease and sloth of our spirits which satisfies us in having in hearing a Minister and the sound of his words which contents us in that wee enjoy Sabbaths Sermons and Sacraments by course in a rolling succession without observing the power and savour which any of them leave in us This commonnesse and taking all for granted upon a custome blindes us even as a cloath hung before our eye hinders the action thereof and puts it out by degrees This ordinarie accustoming of our selves to that which is obvious casts a veile over our hearts so that we never come within the holinesse of the ordinances neither mark any great worke done by them either in our selves or others And by this meanes wee are hardned by them rather then wrought upon either by humbling quickning or renewing How hath the Lord then wrought in us have we after a long sleepy and drowsie hearing and receiving at last been pulld by the eare and jogged by the Spirit to stand up and be awakened to see the wonders hidden under the veile of humane infirmitie and the povertie of the Ordinances Doe we wax wearie of formall remembring of a few sentences or commending the Preacher talking of what we heard and doe our hearts begin to burne within us when the Word is opened through the evidence of that Spirit which speakes in the Word Luke 24. Doe we feel the weight of truth uttered
of Simoniacall contraâ—ts for Benefices that such Simony creates a lapse Will any Minister having a living freely offered him by his Patron chuse to contract for money Is he not well worthy to lose his living by lapse The Lord Jesus is offered thee freely by thy Patron of Heaven the Lord Almighty wil nothing then serve thee but Simony to come to it by thy selfe Thou deservest to forfeit him and to be cast out by lapse Thy money O Selfe perish with thee Act. 8. because that thou thinkest by thy price to obtaine such a gift Lo thou hast no fellowship with this businesse I conclude therefore lay not out thy silver for no bread Esay 55.2 nor thy labour for that which profits not eate good things Esay 52. end and let thy soul delight in fatnesse enjoy the fruit of thy travell and refuse no pains to cast nest nest-egge on the dung-hill Trust God upon his bare word for a principle of strength from Gods fountaine which will hold out both Winter and Summer when the Brookes of Tema shall be dried up Cease joyning Selfe with Grace Doe not thinke it so desolate a worke to hang upon a promise except thy selfe have a finger in the worke and feel some warmth from thine owne feathers Bad digestion in the stomacke is not bettered by concoction such as thy root is such the branches will bee and an errour in the foundation will meet thee perpetually in the building so that either all must be puld downe againe which is tedious or else thou must rush forward with an uncomfortable spirit and upbraiding conscience False mixtures are odious to God and hee who forbad the field to bee sowne with two graines or a garment to be made of linnen and wollen meant another thing for what are these to him but abhorred the soile of the soule should be sowne with selfe and Christ and the backe apparelled with Christs robe upon an inward garment of thine owne 2 Cor. 5.5 Thou chusest to be cloathed upon but God will have thee naked for what use is there of covering one that is covered already The mixing of divers heapes of corne together mars both pease or tares are good in their kind if severall but if mixed tares are soile in wheate nay the wheat is marred by them Duties and affections if considered as fruits of Christ and his promise are good things but if they mixe and incorporate then they prove soile and marre all Filch not from God to bestow upon Selfe feed her not with Gods dainties rob not God to satisfie her to nourish up thy base heart against the simplicity of grace begge of the Lord that he would teach thee to discerne copper from gold and to shew thee the face of this Selfe in his glasse to take out of thine heart this slavish base unbeteaming and underbidding nature be affraid lest thou shouldest undergo thy selfe in purchasing the pearle looking more at the one bird in the hand then two in the bush and beeing so pennywise to detaine Gods due price and to keepe selfe with her brats selfe-pettishnesse worldlinesse ease sloth selfe-credit self-will wit and instinct that thou are pound foolish and deprivest thy selfe of a pearle worth both all that thou forgoest with an hundred fold gaine and heaven it selfe at last Hate Selfe for her selfe in point of her enmity and contrariety of Spirit to the Lord Jesus and then her branches will soone wither and lose their sap and life And this may serve for the former branch of this use of Admonition Branch 2 to the godly The second branch of this watchword may reach to the godly themselves who must know that although they have escaped this gulfe in the maine point of beleeving a mercy deserving the thanksgiving of their whole life yet she is not quite expelled from being an inmate and daily pricke and goad in their side while they live a perpetuall Peninnah Selfe a perpetuall enemy to the regenerate Let such then wonder that the Lord should ever bring them out of the endlesse maze of this selfe and give them broken humble and plaine hearts to avoid the thousand turnings and doublings of a base spirit 1 Sam. 1. and to tread the true path of wisdome leading to life Oh! should they say how loath would I be now to hazard my soule upon the successe of former labours how loath would I bee in this barren world and base heart to have the matter put to a venture Oh! I would not for a world be to beginne againe a thousand prayses to him that hath not put my soule to such a perill and not so onely but be warned also to beware lest when this divell cannot deprive us of heaven yet it should defeate us of our other hopes to grow in grace to joy in our possession to live by faith to be sound in our worshipping of God and duties to be fruitfull in graces to serve our time to bear our crosses to persevere in our course to be ready for Gods comming What is it but this wofull inmate that hinders in all these what but this selfe and presuming of our selves causes grace to be so unthrifty and to hang downe the head what but ascribing to our selves in our meanes using makes them so unfruitfull what but our utmost taking of our liberties pleasures ease and denying our selves nothing which hath but the least colour of lawfulnesse causes Christians to be so full of sorrow and repentance what is that which glues us so fast to the creature that we are loath to part with it for peace of conscience or the attaining of heaven loth to die and goe hence what caused Iob so much sorrow save the cure of this disease Job 42.2 to teach him to abhorre himselfe what save Selfe in the creature wedding our selves to our next hand props of children wealth meanes welfare causes the Lord to cut off these members altogether that as in the body which hath a leg or arme cut off the spirits might not goe to that which is dead but that which liveth even from the streame to the fountaine That we may learne by experience if the base creature be so sweet in which so small a dramme of the Lord is what is then the God of the creature worth Why should the Lord afflict the godly with so much sorrow save this that they will not be brought to improve the Lord for his strength to subdue their lusts and corruptions in speciall to make good his promises to be alsufficient in outward blessings to uphold us in our straits But we content our selves in this that we have found him good to us in pardon and reconciliation thinking the danger to be past and our selves free from taking care for the subduing of this wofull Selfe in the course of sanctification I might instance in twenty particulars take it in these two what should so much sting a poore soule
late being men wholly ungrounded in the principles yet under pretence of zealous magnifying the freedome of grace and power of faith how have they puffed up themselves in a conceit of their owne perfection and maintained that they need not pray daily for pardon Oh wofull pride Moreover beware ye Ministers of Christ of preaching Christ carnally of envy rather then good will and of swerving from the plaine and effectuall demonstration of the spirit whereunto all learning and parts are too meane to serve and attend Beware I say of taxing such as although they affect not your course yet come not shorâ— of you in sufficiency and worth Farce and stuffe not your Sermons with quaint and neate words frequent quotations of Fathers and languages whenas God knowes you make it some of you but a vaile to hide your ignorance among them that are simple Alas oftimes your false Latin and Greeke bewraves you to the judicious Peter converted not three thousand at once with such preaching Be wise unto sobriety I deny not but among the learned or in controversies handled among them there is good use of tongues and arts oftimes 1 Cor. 14.21.22 But to the simple idiot ye are but signes of Gods wrath no instruments of Grace Again affect not morall subjects alone in your Ministery though there be use thereof but especially strive to goe against the carnall edge of the people and first ground them in those things which are spirituall urge the doctrine of originall sinne faith in the promise selfe-deniall the new creature mortification taking up the crosse preparation for death and the comming of Christ other things will fitly follow if once your peoples hearts be truly broken and moulded in Christ they will soone take the stampe of your morall doctrines but if ye beginne with these you shall as soone take an hare with a tabor as draw them to savour that which jarreth with their carnall reason So much for you my brethren Now for you the people and hearers I say this be not led away with Object 2 partiality and conceit in heaping up to your selves teachers of your own despising others People in divers things but in all simplicity embrace such and all such with an indifferent spirit according to the proportion of their gifts who are meet to do you good God hath made them all yours to serve your souls be not so base as to embondage your selves and cleave to such or such persons or parts neglecting the maine scope of common edifying occasion not jealousie and distaste among Gods Ministers themselves by your folly as ye must needs doe if they be not the wiser but cull out each mans speciall gift and make use thereof as given you to the supply and furniture of each part of the body with most apt and meet grace and ability for her need Discourage not Gods Ministers who are faithfull by balking theif Ministry and cleaving to strangers and perhaps inferior to them These are pangs of carnall wisdome and savour not of that spirit which is from above pure and peaceable Jam. 4. Much lesse be drawne away from sound teaching to carnall jangling that so ye may learne an easie way to heaven forsaking that one way which is truth and life Affect not pompuous words great shews such as set forth themselves with carnall complements and ostentation admire them not perhaps because you would faine come from Church with as whole a skin as yee brought loath to be galled because your conscience is crazy therefore ye seeke to such And just it is with the Lord to plague people for this carnality of yours with Ministers just like themselves lips and lettuce cup and cover agreeing that each may be a stumbling block to the other So that although you live as ignorant and blinde as blocks or bats yet you shall glory in the flesh of each other saying you have one of the Belwethers of the Country as good learned peaceable and good a fellow as any in the Kingdome Oh! how doth Satan infatuate the world with the golden cup of formall devotion through such that he might cry downe the power and sincerity of the truth Furthermore although you affect the most Religious Ministry yet rest not in the person fasten not your faith upon man his worth zeale holinesse beleeve not for mans sake but for that power and efficacy which you discover in the ordinance let Gods truth be that into which your assent resolves it selfe Joh. 5. end least otherwise Satan buffet you in the time of trouble that you never distinguished persons from thinges and the demonstration of truth from mans excellency Againe catch not at new points forsaking old grounds nor at choice similitudes allusions and discourses I observe it among some of you that if God vouchsafe us sometime more neate expressions then ordinary how are you taken with them Oh! such a Sermon such a point how it affected you take heed your braines deceive not your hearts chuse out speciall Sermons by the peculiarinesse of conviction and perswasion not by pleasing conveiance of words Besides looke not at the outside of thinges but at their spiritualnesse looke not at a Minster as a friend or one that stands up to fill the roome to serve the cure and to stoppe confusion 2 Cor. 3.1 But so let men thinke of us saith Paul as the dispensers of the mystery of Christ whatsoever their infirmities errors and wants be and of the manifold graces of God as messengers of reconciliation as helpers of your joy not to domineer and play Rex but to feede the flocke and to seale them up by the promise to beget them to travell againe of them till Christ be formed in them which thinges if they were looked at by the people alas that unsavoury and carnall eye wherewith they behold the Minister would be turned into a spiritual their feet would be beautifull they would give them their very eies Rom. 10. and count them as men of tenne thousand Job 33. Men weigh not their gold in large hoppe scales but in small ones for the nonce and so they weigh truly so let not the Minister of God be put in common carnall ballances but in the weights of the sanctuarie Then the Minister should be a Shekel indeed and have double honour and maintenance and be received as in the name of a Prophet above a common man you whose soules are ingaged to him as an instrument of your salvation Matth. 7. can tell what I meane Such say with Paul 2 Cor. 5. I know no man now according to the flesh but according to their grace and spirituall use Inure your selves to it now and at sickenesse and death it will be sweet for you to heare God in him I mean your Minister losing upon earth that which he hath formerly forgiven in heaven But I see that I have broken my bounds I must breake off abruptly and leave that which
costes and be as nothing an unprofitable one when thou hast done all cast not God in teeth with them call not for them backe againe nor bring him his owne in a napking For these qualities poyson all thy labours Gods hearers will be at Gods dispose for blessing and drive the Lord further off rather then draw him nearer And when thou hast turned all thy selfe-defeated discontent into selfe-deniall and art willing that the Lord should doe with thee as he list then see how he will dispose of thee A little barley or an handfull of meale with a little oile shall make a more accepted meat offering to him with an heart willing to be at his dispose then all thy plenty of costly sacrifices without it Joel 2.13 Lastly it reproves all such as yet goe beyond these also and are content Branch 3 to submit humbly to all such waies as the Lord prescribes for the attaining of mercy but yet it mightily troubles them that God doth so delay his season and lets them goe so long without giving them their desire To whom I answer All yee have done hitherto is well Adde one thing more give all your humblenesse your labours your endeavours to God Waiting upon God necessary for such as looke to speed of grace and when you have waited upon him therein give him your waiting too for it is not too good for him perhaps there may be a Selfe in that also and sure it is the finer Selfe is spunne the more she will take pritch if she be defeated But be thou as Paul was 2 Cor. 12.9 who feeling no bottome in himselfe yet was content to be under that weaknesse and all to try what mercy could doe doubtlesse in such a case thou shalt finde that grace shall at least bee sufficient for thee if the Lord doe not also magnifie his power beyond expectation in thy infirmity And poore soule what gainest thou in the mean while by thy carking plodding and casting about with thy selfe If thou doe thy duty shall it not be well with thee And hast thou not a great recompence in this that thou art accepted and thy successe is with God Is it not much that a sinfull wretch who cannot lay claime to the aire earth water to breath in to tread upon and the like maist yet come and looke up to heaven with hope and come to the Lord as bound by his promise Alas his pay may be leasurely but it is sure the gaines may seeme small but still they are comming and will make a heavy purse at last And what Is there not some scurffe which the Lord must purge out thinke you Hath not a long course in evill hardned thee And may not a speedy course of thine owne hurt the more another way What if the Lord should leave thee to such corruption of thine owne as should cause thee to wax wanton were it not better prevented by longer delay And speake the truth to shame the Divell and thy slavish heart is it not better with thee at sometimes then at other If it be noâ— suspect thy selfe if it be suspend thy cavils cease thine enmity thine hard thoughts thine unbeteaming heart the Lord loves to be as freely thought of for his love as he deserves And for thy selfe if it be thy lot to lye longer under hope then others and to want the cheerings which some have yet sure it is if thou abide waiting in thine innocency not being tainted with shrewd dregs of thine owne stale and base heart the Lord will at length breake out so much the more in pitty to thy fainting soule by how much his delay hath made thee waite so long and it shall not then trouble thee that thou hast thus indured Mercy at last shall be sweetest to thee Esay 57.16 that thou faile not wholly Singularity of delay sometimes argueth an heart tainted with Selfe in more then a common manner And so much for the use of reproofe Vse 3 Lastly to finish this point and so draw to an end Let this be Admonition both speciall and generall Great men must submit their great spirits to God First speciall to such as are Naamans great ones in place renowne authority birth or any other worth above others viz. That their great stomacks rise not up in arms against God to quarrell with him when they are crossed in their owne hopes and expectations The truth is the streame of Selfe is ranke enough of it selfe though there be no oile added to the flame The poorest wretch could say though I am not so rich as thou yet I have as proud an heart as thou But yet when one streame meets another the flood is the greater Great men who thinke it a peece of their Noblenesse to take no affronts at any mans hand what ever it cost them had need deny themselves farre to get a subject heart even to God himselfe Their great bloud the repute of their owne eminency and parts exempts them in their owne opinion from the common lot as we read of him 2 King 6. who having first raged at Elisha as the supposed cause of the famine saying God doe so and so if his head stand on him this day after being greeted by him more discurteously then he looked for flew in Gods face too and said shall I attend on the Lord any longer Ver. ult As once a great Prince being crossed of his pastime by the weather told God swearingly he was a King too and he offered him ill measure so to defeat him Abner the pillar of Sauls house being but reproved by weake King Ishbosheth set up by himselfe for medling with his fathers concubines 2 Sam. 3.6 tooke it so hainously that he forth with revenges himselfe and betraies the Crowne to David Great men therefore swell easily if defeated and indeed these two were as bad as great but the best in this kinde take defeats heavily Let such consider that which Naaman if he had had the knowledge which they have would soone have noted viz. How desperate a thing it is to fight against God and to crosse him when he serves not our turne If God resist all proud ones especially great ones how much more proud resisters Pride being of it self a resistance Although your spirits rise up soon against men which yet I allow not beware ye be not found fighters against God Act. 5. Know that though men accept your persons yet God puts no difference especially in matter of salvation It is counted a great humility in a great one to be never so little humble But oh worme for what is the greatest flesh else if thou thinke it equall that a poore beggar should stoop to thee what shouldest thou do to God to whose eminency thine is as the drop of a bucket Take not upon thee though thou be the chiefe of the Parish the Lord of the Towne and Patron of the Minister to yoke him to any other
exempt a man from pride and disdaine None is so low but he loves to be Master of something Yee shall not see three or foure cattell together but one will be Master There is a wofull pride of spirit in man disdaining to bee under any As those base Jewes Joh. 8.33 in their greatest slavery yet vaunted they were free men and never served any And hence it is that we call the meere underling the dogge as of a Schoole of a family c. So loathsome a thing is subjection But marke let conscience of love and sense of divinenesse in an ordinance possesse the spirit of a man and this sinkes his spirit by and by As it is said 1 King 10.5 the Queen of Sheba came to Salomon with an equall and high spirit to dispute but seeing more then a man in him lo her spirit fayled her What is that She felt an infinite inequality in her selfe to Salomon thought it no disparagement to her selfe to be inferiour to so wise a man as he and therefore set her heart at rest from any more bubbling thoughts and calmed herselfe to a most meeke selfe-deniall If meere gifts will doe so what will grace doe Surely much more For as it will cause the inferiour to sinke and beat downe his spirit under the authority of a well ably qualified governour as I grant God requires all to be so yet it will discover a divine power even in the weake and unqualified by vertue whereof it will deny it selfe and say I quash my proud and base heart which would easily disdaine to submit better parts of wit skill Religion to one that wants all to God in man although I see nothing in him that should deserve it And this true selfe-deniall is the roote of all faithfulnesse in a servant For pride and stoutnesse in an inferiour will alway be slipping necke out of the collar Shall such an one as I of such breed worth abilities stoop to obey and serve especially such an unworthy one No I scorne it Oh! but this scorne marres the servant because it destroyes the ordinance God must levell thy heart and fill thy valley and cast downe thine hill that thou maiest say downe stout heart God lookes not at what thou seemest otherwise but at thy inferiority and in that respect commands thee not to looke at what thy proud heart would but at what his ordinance hath thought wisest Better thou lose thy proud heart which shall be thy gaine then God lose his honour the ordinance her due regard and so both Kingdome Church and family the good which thy subjection procures By this meane the stoutnesse of the heart stoops and is convinced that is but an equall thing it should be subject And secondly the barre being so removed the heart is let out to the fruits of humblenesse that is to serviceablenesse For what should I refuse to doe for or under such a governour as I see by the wisdome of God set over me for both mine owne and for a generall good and the ends of providence If once I see how wofull a confusion it were to pervert an ordinance how can I chuse but also deeme it a strange unrighteousnesse for one under the ordinance to withdraw service What is selfe-deniall but a letting out and taking downe of a base heart thinking it self too good to serve to a willingnesse in undertaking what service soever the rules of honest government can impose without grudging or contradiction So that as a proud heart is bound up soule and body so an humble spirit is enlarged unto every such service as reason guided by Religion can impose Nothing can come amisse to an humble heart selfe-deniall of her owne accord falls to serviceablenesse And what wonder When once the spirit of an inferiour hath no drift will way of his owne besides his Masters but is wholly his and for him how can it chuse but utter it in doing as it is bidden Goe come doe this and he doth it This for the Third Fourthly hence comes faith to fall to her worke For as a Christian in his generall worke of Religion 4. Grace in inferiors sets faith on work 1. Purgeth the soule of speciall distempers so a servant in his speciall relation of service lives by faith And how In these three respects First faith clenses out of the soule all those distempers which usually possesse the spirit of servants It is not enough for faith to purifie the conscience in generall from all dead works But in speciall it descends deeply and searcheth the corruption which creepes into duties into the graces of the soule into the use of meanes into the particular relations wherein the soule stands to God whether directly or indirectly Else what were a generall purging of evill which comes not into act But it purgeth each privy corner of the heart and brings the heart thus purged before God in the severall occasions which are offered Nothing comes between the cup the lip in this case All particular falshood will be hunted out of a servant whose heart is clensed by faith from all dead workes all basenesse and distempers will give place There is not one base quality of the heart but if nourished will corrupt faithfulnesse if any one string bee out of tune this harmony will vanish any case or sloth of heart will make a man unsaithfull in point of diligence an angry froward heart will make a man unfaithfull in point of answering againe and cavilling any falshood and hollownesse will cause unfaithfulnesse in point of doing the service which it promises as he who said hee would goe into his Masters vineyard Matth. 21.30 yet went not In a word a corrupt heart will be unfaithfull to the marriage bed of his Master defile his children with cursed examples filch away his commodities report wickedly of him as an hard Master who reapes where he sowed not corrupt the rest of the fellow servants and what not Onely faith clenses the heart of these evills and justles them out of place for how can Christ agree with Belial or these with faithfulnesse 2. Furnishes the heart with good qualities Secondly faith frames the image of God in the soule as in generall so in the particular relations of life that furnisheth the heart with sweet qualities with promote faithfulnesse What trouble is to an heart which is diligent to take any paines To an heart that loves the Masters good and is upright to seeke the credit welfare of the Master To an heart that is well grounded what base commands of an ungodly governour will prevaile against faithfulnesse to God To an heart well seasoned with grace for the right manner due measure and the right ends of obeying what service will be difficult Now faith it is which onely can make faithfull And thirdly faith having thus qualified the heart 3. It puts it it into actuall exercise doth also put it into service causeth this habit
mocked It behooves us to hope the best of all whom we cannot convince of the contrary But except this principle be ingrafted first all other shewes will vanish and a false heart must one way or other bewray her selfe This open sincere heart is the best present for a Preacher and that which will doe great things if need be as Naaman was here ready to do It saith to the Minister there is mine heart take that in pawn and the rest will follow But an iron close hollow heart is poison to a Minister The Jesuits begged of King Henry the fourth of France that he would bequeath them his heart in token of his esteeme which they keep in a golden cup in one of their Chappell 's Let us doe so to the Minister of Christ and as I said let not Fryers and Jesuits prevaile more with their votaries for their hearts then faithfull messengers from heaven with their people That which is well for the present among us brethren I commend If the Gospel had not some friends it could not be so well as it is onely take heed that bad times eclipse it not But I speake as I doe because daies of peace are not as daies of trouble among some good hearts of sincerity many are hollow and the best may amend and learne to bee confirmed to doe that they doe upon grounds of conscience And I desire the Lord that without prejudice wee might heare this truth and receive it Aske thine heart whence is it that my affections are so blunt and dead towards Gods Minister The more I am loved the lesse I love 2 Cor. 12.15 What Did his message never pierce my soule Did it never convince me to be a ranke enemy of God by nature That the wrath or favour of the Almighty was my life or death Did it never convince me of this that the Lord Jehovah hath in the bloud of his owne sonne devised offered sealed up a reconciliation and that for me Alas what wonder if the hearth of that Altar be cold whereon Gods fire was never kindled O Lord work the sense of the message of immortality and life in me by the Spirit of grace and then I shall behold the honour and worth of thy Minister with a spirituall eye and that common base judgement of the world shall vanish Then shall his feet be beautifull his face and voice pretious and his love above the love of any earthly object Job 33. Then shall I call him with Elihu one of a thousand For where one Minister cares for reconciliation himselfe or teacheth it to others some others doe not so they have the fleece what care they whether men sinke or swim Oh! Now I see it s a rare grace for a Minister to prise a soule to tremble at the losse of it to value it at the price of the bloud of the eternall God and the losse thereof as the spilling of the heart bloud of Christ Oh Lord Didst thou meane a poore soule so well as to give him a part in this bloud And to send me tidings thereof by the messenger of peace thy Minister sealing up that unto me on earth which in heaven thou hast granted me My goodnesse my thanks cannot reach thee but it shall fall upon thy Minister whose blessed voice thou hast caused to sound in mine eares and to convey thy love into my soule I hope I shall not forget such a Levite all my dayes So much for this Use Fourthly and lastly this point is for Instruction to teach us what duty Vse 4 we owe to God himselfe Instruction If we owe the Minister great things what owe we to God himselfe If to the Minister a poore mortall worm we owe such honour and reverence what then owe wee to God himselfe If we should doe great things for the instrument of our peace who is the messenger onely of glad tidings What then owe we to him that is the fountaine of it and him that sends it from heaven to us What should seeme great unto us for such kindnesse How should wee carry our lives liberties soules and selves in our bosomes ready to lay downe for him What cost what price is so great which should part the Lord and us Gen. 23.15 As Ephron said to Abraham touching the price of Machpelah its worth so many shekels of silver but what is that betweene me and thee So should we say Oh what is my best treasure worth Lord in respect of losing thy love and communion God will have his servants do some singular thing for him Some shreds I doubt not we should beteame him what great thing would we doe for him What vertue goes out of us What streames of our love and affection goe to him from whose springs all proceed unto us What singular thing doe we for him who gave his Sonne to save enemies and his Minister to bring us newes of it Servants who attend royall Benefactors love to seale their loyall love by some undeniable exploit and marke of extraordinary service As those worthies of David would breake through an hoast of enemies to fetch him water 2 Sam. 23.15 so great an hazard that David thought it a present meet for God And all to teach us that he whom great things do become to give deserves the greatest from us even the very neglect of life it self if he aske it When I read of the strange adventures of men for the pleasing of their Lords and Commanders methinks it shames us Christians It s recorded of the souldiers of Charles the fifth who hearing that he desired a way to be made for his army over a certaine broad River then beset with the ships of the enemy They put their swords in their mouthes and drew those ships surprised to the shore and conveied over the army in them What was this but for the pleasing of a mortall man But when as one day the soule shall be summoned before God and demanded by the Judge what singular thing hast thou done to put it out of question what love thou bearest to me What a wofull regret will it be when it can bethink it selfe of nothing save shreds and parings We could beteame that God should straine himselfe to a demonstration of some great thing for us If it were to make the Sunne stand still or goe backe ten degrees to worke some miracle or shew some signe from heaven of love to us that it might appeare how great we are in his bookes And we make small account of small blessings which others share in with us who are lesser then the least But what doe we picke out to resalute him withall How doe we curtall him of his ordinary dues rather Gen. 22.2 as thinking much of that The Lord bad Abraham do a great thing for him even kill his son and he was ready to do it and the Lord said Now I know that thou lovest me indeed But if he should put us to
thee The third examples Psal 16.2 Psal 119.4 Thirdly its excellent for us to turn our eyes off from all slighters and paltrers with God abhorring their declinings Psal 101. But to bend the eye of the soule towards them that are singular in grace and close obeying So David tells us That he set such before his eyes till hee was ravisht with them Doubtlesse saith he they goe not astray from any commands As if he should say oh that I were such an one With the base and formall a man should soon learne that trade But the watchfull the wakefull the close the conscionable will soone teach us their practise so that it will be a shame unto us to be otherwise and it will fixe the naile of commands deep into our hearts as with an hammer Eccles ult The fourth prayer Psal 119.27 The fourth is Prayer which is the constant helpe which Gods people have alway used to ease themselves by at this pinch David prayes God to teach him his Law graciously marke graciously that is in the sweetnesse ease delight and reward of it not in the toile and difficulty thereof Psal 119. So againe Oh that mine heart were directed to keepe thy commands They that feele the true weight of them will groane under their owne weaknesse and pray for strength Hence that holy prayer of Saint Augustine Give strength to doe what thou biddest and bid what thou wilt Turne all Gods promises and covenants into prayers for there is no one command urged upon the soule but it hath a promise annexed Oh Lord thou hast said thou wilt encline me to keep thy Law Thou hast promised to write it and engrave it in my fleshly tables to cause me to walke in all thy Statutes Oh doe it Lord Open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy Lawes their perfection and excellency then take the stone out of my heart and make it tender they may pierce into it with feare and awe Helpe Lord my fruit is come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth Fifthly get humblenesse of spirit and that will equall Gods righteousnesse Murmure not fret not at the closenesse of them for that satisfies not God But be as a worme before him The fifth rule Humility and tremble at his voice as we see the poore wormes come shaking and trembling out of the earth when they feele the feet of any treading the earth Esay hath this speech in one place You have made me to serve by your rebellions A proud heart makes God serve base flesh An humble heart which knowes it selfe serves God and is glad that it may be accepted In Psal 2.12 we see how base men take upon them But whence is it Oh pride makes them cast away all the cords of God from them Pride makes them to say Our tongues are our owne what Lord shall controll us A swelling proud heart will not endure any pinch of Law more then it selfe likes But the humble wil take Law at Gods hands gladly and concurre with him Hast thou O Lord bidden me deny my selfe Abstaine from fleshly lusts Possesse my soule with patience my vessell in holinesse and honour It s just Lord thy will is a rule I desire not to see beyond it Proud servants love a faire Livery and great wages better then close commands But the humble will take any worke upon them and say it s their object Beware then of a sullen queazy coy and proud heart Sixtly marke closely the threats of God against each rebellion The sixt rule Observe Gods Judgments and the verifying thereof in experience both in Scripture and daily This will cut the combe of presumption For who have offended God and prospered It s a maxime lot upon it whether thou see it so or not be sure it will be so As that old Prophet told his sonnes 1 Kings 13. Bury me in the grave of the man of God for all which hee hath said against this place shall surely come to passe To get a weighty heart under threats giving them a being in the soule through faith is the onely way for Commands to take effect For God hath fortified the one with the other if the fence be broken down the corne lieth open to the stroyance of all beasts Observe closely how God plagues drunkards swearers adulterers Sunday breakers and the like and adde the patternes of the Scripture oft pressed by Peter and Iude that wee may not thinke their damnation sleepes else we will bee Atheists 2 Pet. 3. Epist Jude Psal 50. and frame God like our selves But this will awe us Such and such ventured so and so but they paid sweetly for it if we be content to share with them wee may side with them but not else For Gods wrath will not rot in the sky Eccles 7. Deferring of judgement sets the heart of a sinner yea hardens it to rebellion but beleeving it workes feare and prevention as in Noah Heb. 11. Heb. 11. Seventhly deny thy selfe The seventh rule Selfe-deniall Selfe and God will runne in a stream a while as filthy dung and pure apples in a river till the one be scattered from the other So our own ends and Gods make a poor shift to go together a while till trouble and losses reproach and pursuit divide them but then they sever Sure it is That man who hath no other obedience for God save that which will goe in his owne streame of ease safety content quiet and welfare will abandon God when he is tried Therefore he that meanes to walk closely with God let him shake off such weights as these The like I may say of such Heb. 12. as dare adventure to suffer in Gods cause upon hope to lick themselves whole by carnall supplies No no All such build upon the sands of their owne false hopes the Lord will scatter them I deny not but that God is all-sufficient to all his and hath promised not to faile them yea to give them an hundred fold requitall But this is to them that walke uprightly Mal. 3. Gen. 17.1 not to hirelings who obtrude their service and know no requitals but carnall Such it is just with God to leave to their owne shifts 1. Pet. 3. even to cry a confederacy to feare the feares of the wicked and to put forth their hand unto evill because of their afflictions They will buy out the aire of a prison but their owne aire shall choke them onely they who can trust God in his promise and are content to take his pay in good worth what ever it bee such God will not forsake And such onely are meet persons to obey because they are armed 8. Rewards Lastly digest truly the reward of close obeying not onely in heaven when it shall be knowne to men and Angels who they are though unknowne to the world But even here alas Gods peoples right hand knowes not what
the spirit within you shall put the difference though others hold their peace The base degenerate carnall spirit of men now a daies boasting of a cure and conversion but still the same for their temper and frame of spirit or else in a base outside of zealous performances and shewes of good without any cordiall geniall spirit of self-deniall tendernesse and love to holinesse bewrayes sufficiently whence their cures came Tell mee I pray was there such a spirit of a cure in him whom Christ cured at the Poole after 38. years disease Joh. 5. as was in that blind man Ioh. 5.7 Ioh. 9.7 8 9. Joh. 9. When the former of these was in healed what news were there he went to the Pharisees and there jangled but Christ heard no more of him so that after meeting him in the Temple he told him Thou art now healed but sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee A sad item so soon after Alas what wonder it was a cure of the left hand a bodily cure of lame feet not of a lame spirit and thereafter came of it no spirit of tendernesse thankes acknowledgement or engagement followed And what came of those cures in the wildernesse which befell the Israelites when the Lord had heald them of their bondage taken away the feare of Pharaoh his hoast Exod. 12. compared with 15. c. and with Num. 11. 15. and the danger of the red Sea when hee had removed the sad disease of famine and thirst sent them quailes in plenty dropt Manna from heaven into their bellies and fill'd them with the Rocke which gusht out and followed them with water when as there was a plague gone out among them Aaron with his censer went and stood betweene the living and the dead and staid it when scorpions were let fly among them to sting them to death the Lord set up a brazen one upon a Pole to looke upon that beholding it they might escape What came of all these cures Nothing their carcasses fell in the wildernesse after all these themselves grew as base murmurers rebels and breakers of Covenant as ever But as for any true spirit of a sound cure I meane any remembring of him that had healed them alas it was farre from them and why I pray you Surely because the cure was but by halfes not a full and sound one it came from one Physitian but not from the like purpose of heart it reacht their bodies but toucht not their soules How many are there among us whom the Lord hath wrought cures upon Some of us he hath cured of our poverties and filled our purses with money paid our debts and set us on foot others have beene cured of our ill Names healed in point of our bad yoak-fellowes others of us have beene healed of our diseases of body agues consumptions dropsies and God hath betrusted us with second lives like Hezekiah whē as we would have given the hope of them for a straw but to what end have all these boones befallen us surely to make us more ranke proud jolly in our selves we have had a spirit of our cures too but it is such as the disease had beene much better then the remedy and had beene like to have held us in more humblenesse and feare then our cures Eccles 13.5 I may say with Salomon I have seene a misery under the Sunne a cure bestowed upon a poore sicke man to the ruine of him 2 Chron. 28.22 Is not this a fearfull cure Ahaz because he was worse for crosses is thus branded This is King Ahaz what shall our brand be who are worse for our cures But this is not all the preposterousnesse of it That all the hope of these seemed to be before their cure False cures have a preposterous spirit O then if God would not destroy them of this disease but let them live what manner of ones would they prove but when they lived what deivlls have they proved That good King sung Esay 38.19 The living the living shall praise thee But these may cry The living shall do thee more dishonour then ever And to leave these others have beene healed by a better hand by the Ministry of the Spirit they have beene healed of their ignorance uncleannesse profane lives they have gotten knowledge reformation of some grosse evils but what shall we say of them Is the spirit of a cure seene upon them Can any man say that grace hath bred in them tendernesse of conscience love to the people of God a change of heart Alas no such matter Nay there are some who are not so much as rid of their grosse lusts and yet make great shew of zeale and forwardnesse Note As lately one arrested by the hand of God with sudden feare of death emptied himselfe of all and confessed that hee was habited in a custome of adultery with three or foure harlots about the same time and yet an hearer noter repeater of Sermons and a kind of Professor Cures now are all mens cases All will be religious and that shall be the cover of all their ranke lusts plaisters are now applyed to all sores let them be as festred within as rankled and corrupt as they will not to speake of secret evils of wrath frowardnesse rage unmercifulnesse rebellion of heart worldlinesse and the like Alas these men have no leasure to thinke of they seeke religion as drunkards seeke drinke to besot and disable their consciences from stirring and stinging of them Misery of such as rest in false and halfe cures What shall I say of such Alas there is no spirit of a cure to be seene in them they want the sound cure which a spirit of conversion hath in it God hath two closets of plaisters and medicines the one outward the other secret in the former hee keepes universall salves for all sores in the other Medicines for an hard heart a proud spirit unbeleefe subtilty hollownesse imponitency To the former men flock apace and if they can get them they care for no more But the heart which God onely askes for runnes full of all excesse and so long as the still stream of outward Religion possesses them with security of their estate they never lay ought to their hearts till wrath and hell-fire flash in their faces and feare surprizes Hypocrites Esay 33.13 Then all turnes to horrour and who shall endure everlasting burnings But oh yee wofull people Might you not have beene admitted into the inner closet if you had preased hard to it yes verily That paddle and adoe which you have made to soder and play the Hypocrites might have beene better spent and sped better to purchase a sound cure never to be repented of Tell me if a man that hath a dangerous sore upon his body content himselfe with going to a base Quacksalver with a budget at his backe and get of him a little salve in a clout to skinne his sore
it He that cooles and checkes his own spirit from zeale and grace It commonly growes to open prophanenesse will in a short time be a secret discourager and checker of others How many are there of yeeres and discretion enough in other matters who will baite their children and servants from their diligence in hearing and zeale in profession How many will say I my selfe was as hot as you but now time and experience they should say time the Mother of truth which hath discovered their hollow hearts have made me wiser And I warrant you say they as hot as you seeme we shall have a cooling card for you and in time when children grow on and debts encrease and an hard world besets you you also will change your zeale into wisdome and become as temperate ones as we and abate your great resolutions How many are there whose great flames are now quailed and become as cold as ashes But woe be to such Satan hath entred into them againe though he seemed to be cast out at the first let none that have any dramme of this grace of the Gospel be damped for such as these For he that hath bred in them this spirit either can keepe them from such temptations or else can make their spirit rise above them and encrease Matth. 12.45 whereas the end of such revolters as these shall bee worse then the beginning So much also of this second sort Thirdly this is terrour to all Pelagian Popish and Carnall Branch 3 spirits Pelagian spirits farre from the true spirit of a cure which are as opposite to the Spirit of Grace and conversion as light and darknesse The spirit of a true cure of Jordan differs in all points from this spirit of selfe and free-will The one is for God and his glorious grace sets him up in the soule with admiration and thankes But the other is to set up and glorifie it selfe and the will of the flesh to make God stoop to man to fetch him from Heaven to the barre of humane censure there to answer for himselfe why he should not vouchsafe grace to this man as well as that both being equally disposed and if the Lord answer Because it is of my free love to shew mercy to whom I will Rom. 9.13 14 15. they strive with him and tell him This his pretended mercy is meere injustice and cruelty above the most mercilesse Tyrants to make a man and damne him when he hath done to prescribe him a rule which he never gave him power to performe and to require that of him which himselfe hath by an eternall fore-decree disabled him from O wofull pride Shall potsherds contend with their Maker Esay 45.9 If they will needs clash let them clash with potsherds and try which pot is stronger but to quarrell with the Potter how impudent and bootlesse is it And yet thus it is Note it who will The ancient spirit of conversion tender love and zeale to God and his truth never prospered since this bastard spirit of selfe and free-will came upon our stage It blasted all sincerity and gracious affections as sensibly as the East-wind blasts the tender buddes of the Spring What was Naamans spirit I pray so long as his Abana and Pharfar lasted Surely opposite to the Prophet to Jordan and the promise So is it with this Nothing will downe with the spirit of selfe save to pick quarrels with free grace it is no wonder that they are opposite to men 1 Thes 2.15 who are so contrary to God himselfe Tell me where will yee picke out a Pelagian spirit which ever was zealous for God tender to his glory jealous of offending him or carefull to please him The like I may say of the spirit of Popish devotion Popish spirits likewise standing in the bare letter of the Law of duties of outward ceremonies and performances putting a Religion into the worke wrought and deed done What doth all the dunghill and drosse of Popery seeke to establish save a carnall Religion What doth it so much abhorre as selfe-deniall except it be in some externals for the meriting of Heaven what is so odious to it as faith to justifie Alas That pleads for salvation by justice and not by grace It uses Christ onely for a meere formall person to beare her name Esay 4.1 2. but shee will beare all her charges her owne selfe And under a colour of some glorious ceremonies and outward worship what doth she but muzzle the mouth of conscience and nuzzle the soule in a rotten peace which either will carry her to hell laughing or else breake out into utter horrour and desperation I aske but this question When as once the Lord hath truly turned the soule to God what is more odious irksom to it then that which overthrows the Word and Promise and sets up in stead of it a Religion of mans braine and inventions garnisht and disht out with the shreds and dregges of flesh without a droppe of true bloud of Christ or one sparke of the spirit of grace Who wonders that wheresoever this trash becomes there the true preaching of the Lord Jesus the power of the Gospel the honour and esteeme of the Ministery of Reconciliation is trodden in the dirt and cast out as unsavoury But I cease and leave this Use of terrour and come to an Use of reproofe And that shall be of all such as in times past have seemed to be the first head of the Professors in this kind for their spirit of zeale and love to the Gospel but have now catcht a fall and Use 3 cannot get up on their legges againe Reproofe but remaine and welter in a lukewarme and degenerate estate boâ—h in the sight of God and his Church Brethren the time hath beene Revolters from their zeale and grace of the Gospel are in a sadde case in some of our memories that men have thought no Ministery zealous enough for them but wish'd with David Let the righteous smite me and it shall be as balme But now these men are growne weary of such loath reproofe and will teach Ministers what and how farre they shall order their discourse Each thing spoken in particular is spoken against them They who would have given their very eyes to Gods Minister and with Naaman here Psal 141.5 Gal. 4.15 thought neither gold nor silver nor changes of rayment good enough for him wil scarce give two brasse farthings to keepe them in their places At first who but they to get them in and now who but the same men to hunr them out What Are we become your enemies for telling you the truth is this your great spirit of the Gospel shall I say or of selfe-love The time hath beene when you came new minted as you thought out of Jordan that such tendernesse of conscience was upon you for God that you would scarce take up a pinne or a sticke of another mans lest